The Yankees announced yesterday that three of their players won gold gloves. For Derek Jeter it was his fifth, Teixeira's fourth and Cano's first. Jeter and Teixeira have won the last two seasons in a row.
As a team, the Yankees led the major leagues in fielding percentage (.988) and had the fewest errors of any team in the major leagues. Both marks were franchise records.
Jeter's awards keep piling up as his career moves on into what most people view a player's inevitable decline. Though he hit a career low .270 with 10 home runs and 67 RBI, he commited only 6 errors for best among AL shortstops according to Elias Sports bureau. The announcement of Jeter winning caused an uproar all over the internet, especially on Twitter.
One person remarked on Twitter "Here's a non-advanced stats argument: There were 6 AL SS with 1250 IP+. Of the six, Jeter was dead last in assists." Sports Illustrated's Peter King was quoted as having said "If Jeter can win a Gold Glove, think Wade Phillips can win Coach of the Year?" Other columnists also took the voters to task in their printed columns both online and in traditional print newspapers. While Jeter had plenty of defense for his award, let's take a look at the raw stats based on the argument started by one of my fellow Twitterers.
In 1,303 innings played, Jeter had 182 putouts, 365 assists and a .989 fielding percentage. according to Fangraphs.com. Of his peers, only 8 shortstops played 1,250 innings or more. Jeter's UZR, was -4.7, second worst only to Kansas City Royals shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt's -9.5. The shortstop with the highest UZR, Chicago's Alexei Ramirez, had a 10.8. The higher the number, the higher the range.
Ramirez's downfall must have been his 20 errors, which led to him having a .974 fielding percentage. he did have 249 put outs and 499 assists; good for second in the league to Betancourt in both categories. Which means he reached far more balls and had far more opportunities for mistake.
Further according to ESPN, Jeter had 33 misplays of balls in the field in 2010. The only shortstop with more was Tampa Bay's Jason Bartlett, hardly a player considered worthy of a gold glove. Finally, Jeter's plus/minus according to Baseball Info Solutions was -13, again second worst only to KC's Betancourt and more than double Boston's Marco Scutaro's -5. Still, he had the highest fielding percentage in the AL. When he reaches balls he handles them well, but he doesn't reach them as often as his contemporaries.
Teixeira was by far the best defensive first baseman in baseball, very few debate the merits of him winning. Cano was also by far the best at second in the AL. Both are slick fielding with strong, accurate arms and above average range.
One player arguably left out of the discussion was Brett Gardner. The AL Gold Glove for left field was awarded to Carl Crawford. Looking at some metrics provided by Fangraphs.com, it could very easily have been given to Gardner. He led all Major Leaguers with a 22.3 UZR, Crawford was third behind the Red's Jay Bruce with 18.5. Gardner's UZR/150 was 39.7, almost double Crawford's 21.2.
Comparing errors, Gardner had one and Crawford had two. Gardner had less put outs (287) than Crawford (306), but had almost double the outfield assists. Gardner was tied with three others for second in the Major Leagues with 12 assists, Craford had 7. Gardner might not be a big name, but he plays like one.
Jeter is a big name, but he plays less like one with every opening day that passes.
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