Second base FWS FWAA Pedroia 7.6 0.4 Iwamura 5.9 0.3 Cano 5.8 1.2 A.Cabrera 5.6 0.7 J. Lopez 5.4 1.2 A.Ramirez 5.3 -1.7 Kendrick 5.3 0.9 Ellis 4.9 0.2
Win Shares is an interesting list. I watched Iwamura all year long and would have described him as average, and his FWAA bears that out. Cano had a generally disappointing year at the plate, but excelled in the field. He was my gold glvoe last year.
And there's Alexei Ramirez again, who Win Shares liked in the ROY battle, but WARP did not. Here's part of the reason. Win Shares has him 6th best in fielding, and WARP thinks he was the second worst fielding second baseman in the league.
Conspicuous in his absence is Placido Polanco. Neither WS nor WARP was impressed with his defense. In fact, he's the only second baseman I could find ranked lower in fielding by FWAA than Ramirez.
Using the composite score method (see the NL Catcher's gold glove post), based on an average second baseman achieving 4.3 fielding win shares, Cano gets the gold glove again, with Pedroia second and Lopez third.
Last year the Iron Glove went to Danny Richar, who lost his job to Alexei Ramirez. Because of the Win Shares love, Ramirez won't replace him in the Iron Glove standings too. This year, it goes to the formerly talented Placido Polanco, who showed quite a decline in last year's standings. He's losing it, and at age 33, he's quickly going to run himself out of the league.
