Wade Boggs

[RICHARDMILTER]

Wade Boggs won two gold gloves. Was he ever a 1 at 3B on any of his SOM cards?I do not ever remember him being so. Does anyone have any opinions on whether he deserved the gold gloves he won? I am just curios. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[216 Stitches]

In the SOM 1986 set, the only 1s at 3B are in the NL (Schmidt and Pendleton), suggesting that in the AL, 2 was good enough for the gold glove.

I think Boggs could react fast if it was hit right at him, but his range was limited. But my memory on that could be all wrong.

I used to see Boggs play in Fenway, and you know, slick fielders just didn't stick around the Red Sox back then. It was all about the bats, if they had 2 guys who should be DH, give one a glove and find him a position. I think they even experimented with some slow footed wonders at 2nd base at the time. They had Easler, Buckner in his twilight, Don Baylor, Mike Scott did a stint. Oh well, I am rambling.

[Palanion]

Fielding in Fenway for the Red Sox has always been a mixed bag. But winning the Gold Glove is not common in Boston.

And they had Dwight Evans in RF, who is still one of the best defensive RF I have ever seen - 8 gold gloves.
In the '80s they went through a plethora of CF looking for that one guy who could hit and field. Rick Miller, Reid Nichols, Garry Hancock, Tony Armas, Dave Henderson, Kevin Romine, etc. until they finally got Ellis Burks (1 gold glove). Of course, I think Crisp could have gotten one last year, and maybe Ellsbury will in the future.
In LF, they've always settled for the offense, though some have played better defensively than others: Teddy Ballgame, Yaz, Jim Ed, Greenie, Troy O'Leary, and Manny. Yaz (7 gold gloves) was easily the best of that bunch defensively.
First base was often where older or slower guys played, a la Yaz, Buckner, Baylor, Vaughn, Ortiz. Though Youkilis is a Gold Glover now, and with Lowell out, Sean Casey is not shabby there.
Catcher was always pretty good, though more about knowing how to call a game and manage pitchers than be a Gold Glover: Gedman, MacFarlane, Tony Pena (1 gold glove), Cerone, Mike Stanley, and Varitek (one gold glove).
Middle infield was weird. For a long time, they seemed to shuffle through guys trying to find the right blend. Marty Barrett, Jackie Gutierrez, Glenn Hoffman, Spike Owen, Luis Rivera, Jody Reed, and so on. Then they had some good ones for a while with John Valentin, Nomah!, Scott Fletcher, Scott Cooper, and Tim Naehring. In fact, I bet they're best infield defense of the 1980-2000 era was when they had Valentin at 2B, Nomar at SS, and Naehring at 3B.
Wade Boggs was the only Red Sox infielder in this period to win any gold gloves, except he wasn't a Red Sox by then. Statistically, if you go by the research done by www.baseball-reference.com, Boggs had his best defensive seasons in 1995 and 1996 in New York, but he got the GG in 1994 and 1995.

An aside: When Boggs first came up in 1982, they tried him at 1B because third was occupied by Carney Lansford. In the offseason, they let Lansford go via FA, and Boggs got the 3B job. Dave Stapleton was the full-time 1B, though Boggs played 44 games there in 1982.

Also, as for 1s at 3B in Strat, I recall Gary Gaetti and Robin Ventura being among the few to get them in the '80s and early '90s (with Pendleton and Schmidt, so a 2 was deemed great when I played tabletop. In fact I think guys like Kelly Gruber and Tim Wallach were never 1s in Strat, though they won gold gloves.

Lastly, Keith Hernandez and Jody Davis are 2s in 1986 Strat - but won the Gold Glove. For Hernandez, it was his 9th of 11 honors.

[Free Radicals]

Hernandez is a 1e6 and Davis is a 1(-3)e3 in the '86 game . Only draw back to Boggs is that he's a slug on the basepaths . He will hit , especially in '86 and his glove is solid along with his no injury rating in '86 and ATG . In ATG Boggs is way overpriced with the player pool over there .