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The story
The 55th Mitsui Golden Glove Awards were announced on the 11th, with Central League champions Hanshin landing five winners — Seishiro Sakamoto, Yusuke Oyama, Takumu Nakano, Teruaki Sato, and Shota Morishita — the most of any of the 12 teams. In the Pacific League, Yukyo Shuto, the only SoftBank player picked despite the team’s Japan Series title, pulled in a league-topping 212 votes for his third award in three straight years, while Rakuten’s Ryosuke Tatsumi picked up his sixth award in six consecutive years, the longest and most prolific streak among this year’s winners. On 5ch, posters pointed out the poor defensive stats of the Hanshin honorees and questioned the criteria and fairness of the reporters’ vote.
The “55th Mitsui Golden Glove Awards” were announced on the 11th, with 18 players named across both leagues.
In the Central League, pennant-winning Hanshin had five players selected — catcher Seishiro Sakamoto (33), first baseman Yusuke Oyama (31), second baseman Takumu Nakano (30), third baseman Teruaki Sato (27), and outfielder Shota Morishita (26) — the most of any team in either league.
In the Pacific League, outfielder Yukyo Shuto (30), the only player chosen from Japan Series champions SoftBank, gathered a league-high 212 votes (out of 216 valid Pacific League ballots and 254 valid Central League ballots) for his third award in as many years. Rakuten outfielder Ryosuke Tatsumi (29) won for the sixth straight year, the longest streak and most wins of any player honored this time.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
I don't think anyone's better defensively than Takizawa.
He hit pretty well this year too — feels bad if he still can't get it.
Who's "Matsumoto"? Oh, it's Matsu-Go.
Same with Dokai — whoever voted clearly isn't watching the games.
But Dokai basically went the whole season error-free this year.
Kurihara 🌰 was just too bad defensively.
Though he'll probably still make the Best Nine (just kidding, lol)
I'd also like to give a special award to Yokohama's Mitsumori. That go-ahead RBI single in Climax Series Game 4 had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt — haven't laughed like that in ages.
Winning it with the worst defensive stats around? Come on…
Re: #25
Takizawa's stats aren't even that good, though.
He's gotten better than he used to be.
He went the whole season without an error this year.
The Japan Series is just a short exhibition series, same as the All-Star Game.
Now I'm actually getting hyped for him in the majors.
As long as reporters who barely watch baseball keep voting carelessly, we're going to get baffling winners every single year.
Let players decline the award if they want to.
18 errors and still winning a Golden Glove? That's just dumb.
An outfielder racking up a lot of assists also means runners aren't scared to test his arm, so it's debatable as a measure of actual skill.
Strip voting rights from whoever the idiot was that voted for Kozono.
Also, 79 ballots marked "no qualified candidate" at third base — just get rid of that option already.
Honestly, Japanese pro baseball right now really is just full of small-fry players.
It's less about plate appearances and more that you need to appear in a certain number of games.
Also, if you keep bouncing between different positions, it's harder to win.
Of course players with fewer defensive chances are at a disadvantage.
No matter how skilled you are, not playing means not playing defense, period.
If you cheapen that spot, the award loses its whole meaning.
Whoever the idiot was that picked Kinami for a Golden Glove, please never touch this award again.
That's true, but isn't Nakano the obvious pick at second base regardless?
No matter how many Hanshin players you push for this, the team never produces anyone who actually goes down in history — Satoteru's maybe the one with a sliver of a chance, so just stop already.
Though nobody outside the fanbase even knows who Satoteru is.
Before him, the last Hanshin players the general public actually knew were Kakefu and Bass.
And Toriya, who got pushed that hard for years? Nobody remembers him either.
Well, I think it's fair to factor in that Hanshin plays on a dirt infield, but… even so, Satoteru, really…
Honestly the real problem is that no team has a clear, locked-in starter there.
I only remember Miyazaki rotating in and out with Tsutsugo, and both Ishikawa and Takeoka split time across positions too.
Re: #67
In the first place, the eligibility rules are:
Pitchers need to meet the qualifying innings or appear in at least 1/3 of the team's games.
Catchers need to start at catcher in at least 1/2 of the team's games.
Position players need to start at their position in at least 1/2 of the team's games.
So it's basically an award for players who are out there as regular starters — utility players and defensive specialists aren't even in the running unless they play an unusually large share of the season.
Background and talking points
The Golden Glove Award is decided by a vote of sports reporters from newspapers and wire services, and is said to reflect impressions — whether a player “looks good” on defense, plus batting results and team performance — more than actual fielding metrics. The selection rules require a minimum share of a team’s games started at each position, which tends to shut out defensive specialists with fewer playing opportunities regardless of their actual skill. The poor defensive stats of the five Hanshin players singled out in the thread aren’t unrelated to this quirk of the voting system. On the other hand, Yukyo Shuto’s league-leading vote total and Ryosuke Tatsumi’s sixth consecutive award appear to reflect credit for baserunning and clutch performance layered on top of defense. The tendency for winners to skew toward the pennant-winning team is a recurring complaint every year, and this time too, the thread showed both “Hanshin favoritism” takes and comments pointing to the structural limits of a reporter-vote system.
*This article is composed of excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (Geisokuho+) thread “Golden Glove Award: Hanshin leads all 12 teams with 5 winners, SoftBank’s Yukyo Shuto gets the most votes, 5 players win for the first time.”
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