Not Jeter Again, the Gold Glove Debate

Let's start right off here and put some things to rest. No, we don't think that Derek Jeter should be given a gold glove, but, as much as we think that's a mistake, we don't think he's the worst fielding shortstop in MLB as some others have stated and some statistics, i.e. UZR, seem to suggest. But, come on, folks who vote for the Gold Glove awards and witness game after game from the manager's bench, you had to have seen others in your league you think we better, even if you've never seen a UZR or even the more traditional, and one we favor, Range Factor stats.

Our Fielding Metric, Field Value, values Jeter as the 11th best shortstop in Major League Baseball in 2010. (For more discussion on this, you can visit the Bleacher Report article, which we thank them for mentioning us.) He's durable, he's reliable, he's sure-handed and accurate with his throws, but he just doesn't get to enough balls to justify the highest mark. We think #11 is a pretty good rank for this Yankee. There is a lot of value in having a shortstop that makes the plays he gets to; would you rather have Rafael Furcal and that cannon arm, plus all those errors. We wouldn't. But the fact that Jeter is amongst the worst in Range Factor, which calculates, with no interpretation, the amount of balls a player gets to that turn into outs (and you can interpret beyond that to ones he gets to, but don't). His Range Factor of 3.78 is amongst the lowest of those with enough innings to be ranked, #50 of 54. We agree, that's not good, and when you compare it to the Gold Glove winner in the National League, Troy Tulowitski, at 5.06, it really means that Jeter gets to 25.3% less balls that Tulowitski does. When compared to Alexie Ramirez of the White Sox, who we would have given the AL Gold Glove to, he gets to 22.7% less balls. That's too many for us to overlook, and while the numbers speak to not denigrating Jeter to the lowest of the low levels of shortstop fielding, it does yell out "Not Jeter Again."

Our Silver Mitt Awards pointed out a few other curious selections, although at least from the National League standpoint, there were very few that we have issue with. Six of the eight winners of our awards (we don't rank the pitchers) and the Gold Gloves are the same; Pujols, Phillips, Tulowitski, Victorino, Bourn, and Molina. We would have chosen Placido Polanco over Scott Rolen at third, but it's perfectly understandable why the voters didn't choose a first year thirdbaseman without a cannon arm for the Gold Glove. Still think his numbers say he deserved it. Polanco is more sure-handed and with better range at this point in Rolen's career. The main discrenpency on the NL side is with Carlos Gonzalez winning the third outfield spot. Look, Gonzalez is not bad, for a left fielder, but there's few major league managers, if they had the choice of selecting another outfielder for defense, who would choose Gonzalez over folks like Andres Torres, Drew Stubbs, or Marlon Byrd. For a left fielder, his 1.96 Range Factor is good, not Brett Gardner good, but good.

In the American League, it wasn't just the Jeter selection that had us perplexed, as our awards only agreed 37.5% of the time with Teixeira, Cano, and Franklin Gutierrez those three of eight. And we can live with selections such as Longoria and Mauer at their positions, even though we believe there were better candidates and think that those two profit from great offensive numbers when voters think of fielding. At #7 in our rankings, both are good defensive players, we just think A.J. Pierzynski and Matt Weiters were better in the AL catching ranks, and that Jose Lopez was the best third baseman in both leagues. Yes, he had a slightly worse fielding percentage, but was 12.8% better with range. But it's in the outfield where our biggest disagreement would come.

Brett Gardner is one of the best fielders in baseball, and that's even with the fact that he's relegated to playing left field, because Granderson is patrolling center. With a Range Factor of 2.22, a strong arm, and good hands, he's just a bit better fielder than his counterpart in left who won the award, Carl Crawford. But it's close. With Ichiro, we think the numbers show that he might have won his award this year on past performance. He's still good, maybe still great, and makes highlight plays, but Vernon Wells does this as well. Now, we have to admit, that with Ichiro playing predominantly in right field, this adds to his luster, and we have no Jeter problem with his selection, we just would have gone a different way. And maybe in that selection, would have been wrong. There's no way we would suggest No Ichiro Again as the title. That's reserved for Mr. Yankee, ... again.

Gold Glove Prospects

Okay, we're at the midpoint of the season and everybody is talking about who has made the All-Star team, or who was dissed, or who will be traded at the trading deadline. But we're going to talk about fielders. Yes, fielders! And even Prince Fielder, too. We're going to discuss who is fielding their position well at the half way point of the year and should be in the discussion for winning a Gold Glove (or Silver Mitt to us) if they continue their prowess til October.

We're using our Field Value rating system to do this and not discounting those who haven't played a ton of innings at their position, which we'd do if this was an end of the year yammer, but we're going to give some love to the under innings guys, too. Field Value takes into account a number of factors, and like much in the baseballevaluation universe compares those factors to the maximum value and the average value to determine where the player sits amongst his peers. There are different maximums, as far as Field Value goes, for each position. The categories include Innings Played, Fielding Percentage, Range Factor, and Catching Caught Stealing Percentage plus Assists per 9 Innings Played for Outfielders.

So, here goes!

There's a changing of the guard at some positions, most notably at shortstop due to the injury to Rollins in Philadelphia, but for the most part you'll recognize the names involved. So let's start out at catcher. Those Molina's do a great job, and at the midpoint of 2010, it is not Yadier who lands at the top of the list (he's #3), but Jose. No, Jose, has not played a ton, only 211.7 innings thus far, but his perfect fielding percentage plus 0.647 Caught stealing percentage is just fantastic! Now, if this were the end of the year, Yadier would have to take the cake (yes, he should be Gold Glove, just not the All-Star starter), but we're giving the nod right now to Jose.

There's nothing much to say about the position at first, but when you're talking about first sackers, not only at the plate, but in the field, the conversation really does start with Albert. He has range, 10.628 per 9 IP, picks it clean, an is durable. Notable right behind him is his counterpart in the American League, Justin Morneau. Kinda shocking to us, because we don't think of him in this fielding light, is #3. But Prince Fielder is having a good season in the fields of Milwaukee, picking it at a 0.999 clip, although his range does not measure up to the other two.

You could be looking at an MVP candidate and Gold Glove winner in Robinson Cano. Yes, he's really that good, although grand fielder Brandon Phillips will make the case for himself and steady Eddie, David Eckstein, does lack range, but gets the job done.

There are fielders at third base many think of as the head of the class. For the young, they think of David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman, and Evan Longoria. For the veterans, it might be Scott Rolen. And all four are very good. However, this year, two unlikely fielders, relatively new to their position, are making claims for Gold. Jhonny Peralta is fielding at a 0.995 percentage and just below 3.000 Range Factor. (I know, that seems to small, but there are only 27 outs in a game and nine positions to claim those Assists, Putouts, and Errors). Placido Polanco, Gold Glove worthy at 2nd base for years, may not have the strongest arm of the bunch, but he gets to a lot of balls and handles them clean.

Troy Tulowitski has been one of the best fielders in the game since he came on the scene several years ago, but for some reason, is thought of as a good fielder, not great. We disagree. Perhaps it's his size, lack of spectacular quickness, or fielding humidor balls, but with a Range Factor of 5.420 and steady glove, he's Gold Glove worthy. This might be the year with Rollins on the Disabled List for part of it. And although many disagree, including players, about Rollin's range. We think it's okay; most think it's great. There's no denying that a Colorado masher might just gain a little bling sometime soon.

Outfielders who roam the tarmac of grass and win Gold Gloves usually do so from centerfield, and that's the case this year for the top three. Franklin Gutierrez, Michael Bourn, and Torii Hunter all posess the speed and glove to win Gold this year as Hunter has done for many in the past. We think Torii might even be doing this better than he has in the past. Bourn adds a solid arm dimension to the position. Gutierrez might just have the best range of the bunch.

So there you have it. One small discussion in July about Gold while others talk about Cliff Lee moving to New York.