The Robbing of Troy

In another indefensible example of east coast bias, Troy Tulowitzki, phenom rookie shortstop of the Colorado Rockies, lost the 2007 Gold Glove to Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins. This award is not based solely on fielding percentage (if it were, Troy would have won, as he had the highest fielding percentage in the league at .987). Instead, the Gold Glove is awarded to the player who exhibits "superior individual fielding performance" as voted on by coaches and managers in each league. Every casual fan of baseball knows Jimmy Rollins, and he's a stud at short. But Troy Tulowitzki is one of the greatest shortstops I have ever seen - and if you don't live in the Denver metro area or you're not a huge fan of baseball, you've probably never heard of him. He routinely throws people out from the grass, he has snatched up grounders that were on the first-base side of second, and he helped the 2007 Rockies achieve the highest fielding percentage of any team in the history of Major League Baseball (no Rockies earned a Gold Glove this year). As a bonus, he turned an unassisted triple play this season, the first in the MLB since 2003 (and the 13th in MLB history).

But forget my personal opinion of the guy, let's take a look at the stats:

• Both Rollins and Tulo had 11 errors on the season


• Tulo had 561 assists to Rollins' 479


• Tulo had a .987 fielding percentage to Rollins' .985


• Tulo was involved in 114 double plays to Rollins' 110


• Tulo's Range Factor per Nine Innings is an unbelievable 5.39 to Rollins' paltry 4.41

For those of you who aren't familiar with Range Factor, it was developed by Bill James (of Moneyball fame) as a better statistical indicator of defensive ability than fielding percentage alone. Read about Range Factor here.

Troy Tulowitzki was robbed, pure and simple. Rollins fans will point to the fact that he started 7 more games than Tulo this year. Awesome. Rollins is an excellent shortstop and a scrappy guy to play all 162 games of the season. But Tulo started 155 games - is that difference what cost him a Gold Glove? He deserved the '07 Gold Glove award, and if not for Milwaukee's Ryan Braun, he would have had the Rookie of the Year award to go along with it (that award isn't awarded until November 12th, this is just a prediction). Tulo also serves as a refreshing departure from the whiny, spoiled, Carl Everett-type complainers who play in the Majors - Troy always has a smile on his face in the field and in the dugout, he's always willing to talk to a reporter or sign autographs for kids in the stands, and he always acts grateful to have the chance to play baseball for a living. He's a stand-up guy and a class act, not to mention one hell of a ballplayer. You may hear more from me about the Rockies getting screwed by east coast bias if Holliday doesn't win the MVP after coming in first in two of the three categories of the Triple Crown.