The AL Gold Glove awards were announced today and Derek Jeter was awarded his 4th Gold Glove. 4, Derek Jeter has 4!!!! fucking Gold Gloves. The man who is a TERRIBLE fielder has won an award for excellence in defense 4 times. You have GOT to be fucking kidding me.
Now, I’ll grant that this year Jeter’s defense increased significantly but there is simply no way you can tell me that Jeter is a better fielder than Detroit’s Adam Everett, the Angels’ Erick Aybar, Baltimore’s Cesar Izturis or even Tampa’s Jason Bartlett. The guy who probably most deserved this was either Aybar or Texas’ Elvis Andrus (but he’s a rookie and probably hasn’t received enough publicity yet.) I absolutely give Jeter credit for working over the winter at his lateral movement and improving as a fielder even in his mid-30s, but going from the worst fielding shortstop to the middle ground still doesn’t make you good. Jeter still can’t go to his right, anything a few steps to the left is definitely out of his reach too, basically, you hit it right at him and he’ll get it, otherwise, all bets are off.
The Gold Glove clearly means NOTHING these days — that’s been true for several years now, since at least Rafael Palmeiro won one for playing 16 games in the field — it’s almost not even worth getting upset about.
However, the only reason I do get mad is that other morons then cite the Gold Gloves as PROOF that someone is good, it’s even worse than the people who think Wins are a realistic barometer of a pitcher’s ability, or RBI show how good a hitter is; they don’t! Gold Gloves are voted by the players and coaches and at this point I think things like the Cable Ace Awards are a legitimately more respectable award.
[ESPN]
The Slanch Report 
in all fairness, this should hardly be surprising to anybody. he is and will always be a media darling, and his “intangibles” i’m sure tipped the gold glove in his favor. now, if we could only take his mediocre to below average fielding, and couple it with his modestly above average obp, we could FINALLY give him one of the 5 mvp awards that he should have already won.
I’m not quite sure why him being a “media-darling” matters, the GGs are voted on by the players and coaches. Only 5 MVPs? He should have one for every season he plays, after all, he’s a true Yankee
Fall back Slanch. the man just won a world series. Give us a little credit.
Credit? Sure, you won the World Series. Congrats, you were the best team in baseball and deserved to win.
However, in no way does that mean that Jeter deserved the Gold Glove. The Yankees won the World Series, does that mean that they all now get to be Silver Sluggers? Or are those individual rewards supposed to reward INDIVIDUAL excellence and not team-performance?
Jeter should win the silver slugger this year but thats it. Voters need to stop feeling sorry for his lack of MVPs or whatever, the guy got Minka Kelly and a 5th ring, what more could he ask for?
as much as i am inclined to agree with the sentiment of this post, jeter was statistically the best fielder at the SS position this year, sporting the least errors (8 – T w/ Izturis) and the highest fielding percentage (.986) out of anyone who started a 100 games. now, whether or not jeter is graded more generously on errors because of who he is is another question entirely.
it is worth mentioning that baseball references ranks him 3rd in 2009, behind o cabrera and alexi ramirez. jeter did face significantly less chances and had far fewer DP than those two, as well as the 4 or 5 guys below him rank wise.
my point, i guess, is that if baseball is a game of quatifiable stats that indicate performance (which it is), jeter’s 2009 gold glove isn’t entirely unwarranted.
True, those statistics don’t tell the whole story, but they’re certainly more telling than Slanch’s claims that he can only field balls hit directly at him – a nice bit of hyperbole that’s unsupportable given the limited number of actual innings you personally watched, along with your obvious personal bias.
I’m not sold on UZR or whatever the other one is; until we can track the speed and trajectory of every batted ball in a given year, proving that someone is definitively the best fielder at their position is pretty much impossible.
My gut reaction is that this is probably the most deserved of Jeter’s 4 Gold Gloves, but that there were certainly a few guys who deserved it more. The real winner here is Slanch, because it gives him something Yankee related to bitch about.
And if that’s not what this is, then where’s the love for F-Gut? THAT guy got robbed.
fielding percentage and # of errors are outdated metrics son. just think of all the balls he should’ve gotten to, that other shortstops get to and either make a play or an error, that he doesn’t get to at all.
I couldn’t agree more. Jeter is fine on a ball hit to him, anything that makes him move, that a reasonable other fielder would get to, he doesn’t.
you can’t give an award in baseball for abstract ideas. my cited metrics may be out of date, but at least they are metrics, not subjectivities.
the guy stopped all balls hit to him. he has a GOLD glove.
whoa, abstract ideas? are you kidding me? i don’t have a reliable or even medium-fast internet connection currently at my disposal, but are you actually saying that any fielding metrics besides errors and fielding percentage are abstract?
al shortstop, innings vs. chances:
jeter- 1260.2 innings, 554 chances
andrus- 1248 innings, 690 chances
aybar- 1189.1 innings, 629 chances
how does that happen? the ball isn’t hit to the shortstop in yankees games anywhere near the amount it is for all other american league teams?
al shortstops, rf/9 (range factor per 9 innings
jeter is dead last among american league regular shortstops. hell, he’s even behind non-regulars ronny cedeno and nick green. the league average in 2009 was 4.37.
jeter- 3.90
bartlett- 3.97
everett- 4.23
betancourt- 4.29
ramirez- 4.38
scutaro- 4.39
cabrera- 4.45
aybar- 4.68
andrus- 4.86
c. izturis- 4.89
so basically, andrus and izturis averaged 1 full putout/assist PER GAME more than jeter for THE ENTIRE YEAR. range factor per 9? pretty much the same thing, jeter sat 23rd among al ss’s, at 3.64. league average was 3.85. jeter finished just ahead of josh wilson and just behind nick green.
how about double plays? i would think most baseball enthusiasts recognize these as important in games, and a key element of any major league middle infielder.
erick aybar turned 102 double plays this year, leading the al.
scutaro- 99
cabrera- 98
andrus- 98
ramirez- 94
jeter? 75. that’s at least 27 extra outs (a full game’s worth) that erick aybar contributed to his team this season.
and, lastly, jeter had 340 assists this season. cesar izturis had 337. oh, one thing though- jeter played in 326 more innings at ss than did izturis. THREE HUNDRED TWENTY SIX. that’s more than 36 nine inning games’ worth.
i don’t know how many more metrics i can give you, i’m sure i could find more, but to suggest that because of errors and fielding percentage jeter deserves any sort of award, well, you’re living in the ’80s. at the latest.
Well, regarding your first point, here’s part of why it might happen:
Rangers – 1434.2 IP, 1016 K
Angels – 1445.0 IP, 1062 K
Yankees – 1450 IP, 1260 K
You’d probably also need to look at each team’s FB/GB ratios, which I don’t have handy.
yes, apparently you missed this concession in my original post because you are too busy proving yourself “right”
“it is worth mentioning that baseball references ranks him 3rd in 2009, behind o cabrera and alexi ramirez. jeter did face significantly less chances and had far fewer DP than those two, as well as the 4 or 5 guys below him rank wise.”
i don’t think that belies my point. you do. again, i’m not arguing that he was the best defensive player of the year. i am only insisting that the award is not so heinous as it has been portrayed. and regardless of what we think, jeter won it. and no matter how much i’d like to pretend baseball ended after the pennant series, the world series did happen. shitty umpiring, douchey teams and all.
write a letter to peter gammons if it will make you feel better.
whoa, abstract ideas? are you kidding me? i don’t have a reliable or even medium-fast internet connection currently at my disposal, but are you actually saying that any fielding metrics besides errors and fielding percentage are abstract?
al shortstop, innings vs. chances:
jeter- 1260.2 innings, 554 chances
andrus- 1248 innings, 690 chances
aybar- 1189.1 innings, 629 chances
how does that happen? the ball isn’t hit to the shortstop in yankees games anywhere near the amount it is for all other american league teams?
al shortstops, rf/9 (range factor per 9 innings
jeter is dead last among american league regular shortstops. hell, he’s even behind non-regulars ronny cedeno and nick green. the league average in 2009 was 4.37.
jeter- 3.90
bartlett- 3.97
everett- 4.23
betancourt- 4.29
ramirez- 4.38
scutaro- 4.39
cabrera- 4.45
aybar- 4.68
andrus- 4.86
c. izturis- 4.89
so basically, andrus and izturis averaged 1 full putout/assist PER GAME more than jeter for THE ENTIRE YEAR. range factor per 9? pretty much the same thing, jeter sat 23rd among al ss’s, at 3.64. league average was 3.85. jeter finished just ahead of josh wilson and just behind nick green.
how about double plays? i would think most baseball enthusiasts recognize these as important in games, and a key element of any major league middle infielder.
erick aybar turned 102 double plays this year, leading the al.
scutaro- 99
cabrera- 98
andrus- 98
ramirez- 94
jeter? 75. that’s at least 27 extra outs (a full game’s worth) that erick aybar contributed to his team this season.
and, lastly, jeter had 340 assists this season. cesar izturis had 337. oh, one thing though- jeter played in 326 more innings at ss than did izturis. THREE HUNDRED TWENTY SIX. that’s more than 36 nine inning games’ worth.
i don’t know how many more metrics i can give you, i’m sure i could find more, but to suggest that because of errors and fielding percentage jeter deserves any sort of award, well, you’re living in the ’80s. at the latest.
what does jeter winning the world series have to do with the gold glove? and are you really blaming the fact that he had significantly less chances than virtually every other al ss on just general bad luck? shall i dig out some bill james metrics too?