Gold Glove

Here is the deal with the Gold Glove; I'm not going to run the list of who one them, but cause you can look that up at any number of credible sources. 

I'm neither credible nor a source, so I'm just going to provide my little spin on my most favourite award.

Lets start with the history of the award.  The correct name is the "Rawlings Gold Glove Award for Fielding Excellence".  Since being established in 1957, the trophy (seen above) is given to the best defensive player at each position.  The award is voted on by managers and coaches in major league baseball.  The only restriction is that managers can't vote for their own players.  This seems pretty cut and dry, right?

Yeah, well not so much. 

Every year there seems to be a debate about someone who was overlooked.  And about every 10 years there is a debate about someone who should not have won.  These are two very different arguments. 

Take this year.  Jose Bautista did not win a Gold Glove.  He was second in the league in outfield assists and had an excellent fielding percentage and did that while playing only 2/3 of the season in right field.  You weigh that against a guy like Ichiro Suzuki and you can build a good argument.  Supporters of Ichiro will say that his assists are down because people don't run on him.  Supporters of Bautista would say that he was penalized because he played too many games at 3rd base.  Regardless, the argument is more about Bautista being overlooked that about Ichiro being 'unworthy'. 

Then you have Derek Jeter.  There is no argument about a particular short stop being overlooked in Jeter's win.  There is talk about EVERY short stop being overlooked.  This discussion has been all about a wrong decision.  I'm not going to go into gory details here, but just about every possible measuring stick shows Jeter in the bottom 1/3 of short stops.  Trust me when I say I'm being kind.  Its actually much, much worse!

So how can something this bad happen?  Before we speculate on this, lets remember that:

• Rafael Palmeiro won a Gold Glove at 1st base in 1999 while playing only 28 games at first and the rest of the season at DH.   

• Maury Wills of the Dodgers once won a Gold Glove at short stop while making a whooping 36 errors in a season (one every 4.5 games)!!!   

• Dwight Evans won a Gold Glove in the outfield with 10 errors!  How does even a below average outfielder hit double digits in errors?

• Kenny Lofton speed demon center fielder for Cleveland won with 10 errors in 1996.  (his worst year ever, career average for errors was 3)

• Only one catcher has ever won a Gold Glove while making 20 errors.  That was Thruman Munson.  he did it TWICE! 22 errors in 1973 and 23 errors in 1974.

 

• Pitchers are generally a joke in this award, but Jim Kaat won a Gold Glove in 1969, a year in which he had 8 errors on the mound and a ridiculous .825 fielding percentatage in what was his worst defensive year. 

• Only once ever has an infielder won the award while making "0" errors (Kevin Youkilis)!

So the common thread in this is pretty simple actually.  Much like the gun that Charlton Heston's gun, a Gold Glove award needs to be pried from the incumbents "cold, dead hands".  Let's look at the above in reverse order.  Youkilis, who I can't stand, has long been recognized as an elite infielder.  However he rarely plays enough a single position to get a sniff at a Gold Glove.  In 2006 he "could" have won a Gold Glove but Mark Teixeira won the year before and retained the title.  To win it away from him, Youkilis had to post an unbelievable 1.000 fielding percentage.  Teixeira was a questionable winner again this year, but again he was the defending champ and no one had a definitive "Youkilis" type year.

Jim Kaat won 16 Gold Gloves in a row.  Right in the middle of that run was an absolutely disaster season with 8 errors.  A fielding percentage in the low .800's?  Yikes.  You would think that there would have been about 250 pitchers in the majors with better defensive records, but again - the defending champ needs to be dethroned.  Its tough for pitcher to stand out defensively.  It wasn't until Jim Palmer finally won and then won four in a row that Kaat was kicked to the curb.  In the 54 years of Gold Glove awards online two American League pitchers have ever won the award withough winning again.  Every other winner has been a multiple winner. 

Thruman Munson won the Gold Glove in 1972.   Hitting the 20 error mark in 1973 had no bearing because no one WON it from him.  The reputation was still there with 23 errors in 1974.  Again, no one took it.  As you likely know a plane crash felled Munson and Jim Sunberg would win the next SIX Gold Gloves. 

Kenny freakin' Lofton (not Powers).  He was the bomb defensively and he won a ton of Gold Gloves in the outfield. So of course when he had the one down year of his career defensively he was rewarded with a Gold Glove!!!!  Wow, its like being on Oprah! (the show). 

Dwight Evans is the exact same story as Kenny Lofton.  He had one year where he turned into George Bell but it had no impact on his ability to collect post season hardware. 

And you have Maury Wills.  36 errors.  The most ever for a GG winner (duh).  But you know what Maury had going or him?  He had won the year before. 

If you need more evidence on the power of reputation...look no further than Rafael Palmeiro.  This is my favourite by far.  Palmeiro (he of the finger waving) won a GG in 1997 and 1998 while with Baltimore.  Those years he had 10 & 9 errors at 1st base.  That's exceptionally high to winning a Gold Glove with, but so be it.  The next year (now with Texas), he plays 28 games at 1st base, 135 at DH and wins the Gold Glove!  So not only is it hard to take away from a player that has it, but people (players and managers) are quite obviously voting by 'gut' or 'feel' and not with any statistical data at all. 

So if you want to know how Jeter got another trophy, my guess would be that the managers and players used no relevant statistical rankings, relied primarily on perception and gave far more than due credit to incumbents. 

But that's me.