MLB's Sign of the Apocalypse: Derek Jeter Now Has Five Gold Gloves

“I dunno what’s worse, that he won this year or that it’s his FIFTH.” That was a tweet sent to me from a pal on Twitter (@skywaker9) referring to Gold Gloves and Derek Jeter. That’s right: the New York Yankees captain was named the best shortstop in the American League for the fifth time. There’s a reason skywaker9 had his caps lock on for ‘fifth.’ It’s an amazing total for a player who has never been regarded as an above-average defender–for a player New York once contemplated moving to the outfield. As it is, there are now only four shortstops in major league history who have more Gold Gloves than him–Ozzie Smith, Omar Vizquel, Luis Aparicio, and Mark Bellanger. He shouldn’t be associated with any of those four. That he’s nearing the quartet is difficult to comprehend.

Jeter, 36, made only six errors in 2010. That total is deceptive, however. His range to his right in particular is, in polite terms, lacking. He was bailed out time after time by first baseman Mark Teixeira, a vacuum who earned his 2010 Gold Glove by picking short-hop after short-hop. He has been known for the jump-throw through the years, but his ability to succeed at that has even waned. And though failing to secure balls bounding through the infield that other American League infielders would have snagged doesn’t constitute as a statistical error, it certainly should have been taken into account by the voters–in this case, the managers.

As Keith Law, an MLB insider for ESPN, wrote on Twitter, “The only conclusion I can draw from Jeter winning another Gold Glove is that it is too hard to watch a game when you’re also coaching in it.” That was the consensus on the social networking site. Even the Yankees writers were a bit skeptical of the decision. Then, while the New York Daily News wrote a condensed, relatively unbiased article about Jeter’s victory, NBC Sports’ Aaron Gleeman ripped his selection:

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“…the notion that Jeter, at age 36, was the best defensive shortstop in the American League this season is simply absurd.

Derek Jeter is a lot of things, including one of the best players of this era and a deserving future Hall of Famer, but he’s not the best defensive shortstop in the American League. He just isn’t. This is as close to a fact as something relatively subjective can get.

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As for who was the AL’s best defensive shortstop, Ultimate Zone Rating says Alexei Ramirez of the White Sox and The Fielding Bible electorate agreed. There’s also Cliff Pennington, J.J. Hardy, Cesar Izturis, Elvis Andrus, and … well, the list of shortstops who’re better than Jeter defensively is a long one.”

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New York Times’ Tyler Kepner was far less opinionated in labeling Jeter’s Gold Glove a mistake, but, leaning upon obscure statistics, his point rang true:

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“Within an hour of Tuesday’s announcement of the American League Gold Glove awards, editors at Baseball-Reference.com summed up the general reaction to Derek Jeter’s latest victory at shortstop: “We can’t believe it either,” a notation briefly on the site said.

The words linked to a listing that placed Jeter 59th among shortstops — last in the majors — in a metric called Total Zone Total Fielding Runs Above Average, which tries to calculate each player’s overall contribution on defense. It is safe to say the managers and coaches who voted on Gold Glove awards did not study those numbers.”

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Though not the usual fielding percentage statistics, coaches and managers should be looking at these types of statistics in making their decision. This decision shouldn’t be made solely by looking at the amount of errors he committed. Those can be misleading. After all, as hinted at previously, errors were continuously made by Jeter that didn’t hit the stat-sheet–at least not the run of the mill stat sheet. Grounders to his right and left were missed more than just on an occasional basis. High throws took Teixeira off the bag. Low throws gave runners a greater chance of reaching. Just as on-base percentage may be a better way to measure a player’s impact, studying film of performance in the field is a terrific way of measuring a player’s fielding rather than going to their page on ESPN and looking at their basic statistics–which was clearly the approach of the managers and coaches.

It seems, as MLB.com’s Matthew Leach perfectly put it, “One joke goes that Gold Gloves are like Supreme Court appointments: They’re hard to get, but once you have them, they’re for life.”

(Photo: Zimbio)