I Am Second (Base)

Dozier rocked last year at the same time everyone else tanked.  He deserves a lot of credit for tuning out what was going on around him and mashing the heck out of the ball.  

I seem to recall a blogger or two - not Seth - being highly skeptical of Dozier and of members of the media who hyped him as a rookie. And then Dozier only went on to become an all-star and one of the best second basemen in the game. 

Good for Brian Dozier, who is by all accounts a great guy. One of the very few bright spots to last season.

That said, he is at peak value right now. So I cannot imagine Brian Dozier would not attract some good, positive attention on the trade market. This doesn't mean you HAVE to trade him. But the Twins would be bone stupid if they didn't explore the idea. They need too many pieces to ignore that kind of a trade chip.

I seem to recall a blogger or two - not Seth - being highly skeptical of Dozier and of members of the media who hyped him as a rookie. And then Dozier only went on to become an all-star and one of the best second basemen in the game. 

Yeah, that was the narrative.  Dozier had a promising half-season and "regression" was predicted.  I never saw anything that suggested that he would not continue playing well and got a bit blue in the face about it.

To the skeptics credit, however, it only took a few months into the next season before they too saw that Dozier wasn't going to fall off a cliff.

As you say, Dozier has probably peaked.  And the Twins have a nice prospect ready to take his place.  This is the perfect storm for a trade that every GM dreams about.  

The Silver Slugger and Gold Glove are popularity contests.  I'm sure Dozier isn't losing any sleep right now.

How many Twins have "won" the award?  

Dozier didn't deserve silver slugger over Altuve.

I ripped the hell out of Dozier in April and May. I'm real happy he made me eat my words!!! \m/

The Silver Slugger and Gold Glove are popularity contests.

Gold Glove, yes, quite often. The Silver Slugger not so much, the winners are typically ranked right at the top of their positions.

Gold Glove has gotten better since they started using SABR info as part of the voting.  Hosmer being a top 3 finalist at 1B in the AL shows the award still has a ways to go.

Gold Glove has gotten better since they started using SABR info as part of the voting.  Hosmer being a top 3 finalist at 1B in the AL shows the award still has a ways to go.

SABR's methodology is terrible, however.  Laughingstock-level terrible.

SABR adds every advanced defensive stat together to make an index.  Sounds OK, right?  Lots of systems use indexes (like every major stock index).  But what happens when more than one defensive stat measures a particular event?  That event gets magnified when you add them all together.  Events that are not counted by multiple defensive systems then get silenced.  When an indexing system works, things only get counted once. 

Each defensive system starts by counting the same things, it's only by the margins where things are different.  The margins are important as can be illustrated by the fact that each system produces different results.  By adding each system together, you essentially end up with a metric that exaggerates some tendencies to grotesque extremes while the uniqueness of every system is tossed out the window. 

Remember 2015 when Dozier was considered by the media (with a straight face) to be a Gold Glove candidate, and SABR had his score near dead last in the league for defense?  I know Dozier's defense has been overrated, but he's not the worst player in the league.