Highway Robbery

When your married daughter calls at 9 PM on a Sunday night, your heart skips a beat, or at least mine did.  But there was no news good or bad of a personal nature to report.  Adam Engel of the White Sox missing out on a Gold Glove was another matter.  The South Side’s intrepid centerfielder lost out to Jackie Bradley Jr. of the Red Sox.  Now will somebody please explain to me why?

Managers and coaches do the voting (though not for their own players).  Sabermetrics count, but aren’t the sole criteria.  OK, then let’s match up Engel and Bradley.  Engel had 355 putouts on 367 chances, with five assists and seven errors, good for a .981 fielding average.  The numbers for Bradley were 299 putouts on 313 chances with nine assists and five errors, all of which comes out to a .984 fielding average.  For anyone out there who can’t do the math, Engel had 54 more chances and 56 more putouts.  To this layman’s eyes, those numbers mean our centerfielder possesses considerably more range than theirs.

But wait.  Only one centerfielder hails from the East Coast, where everyone, whether coach and manager or reporter, thinks all talent resides.  So, Jackie Bradley Jr. it is.  All I can hope is that Engel has absorbed enough of the South Side to appreciate the Chicago adage—Don’t get mad, get even.  I’d start in spring training, Adam.