Comments on: AL Gold Gloves look more like Silver Sluggers

By: Olddtimer

Olddtimer — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:30:20 +0000

Everyone mentioned has, at least some, claim to the GG. I would like to add my disappointment in the GG for American League pitcher. Buerle is a great competitor and gifted pitcher, from both a pitching and defensive standpoint. However, Greinke is one of the most outstanding defensive pitchers to play in the AL for many years. Watching him play, year in and year out, even in those really bad years with the Royals, he fielded his position with great skill and a distinctive field sense. He should have won. I have watched both Buerle and Greinke for many years and there is no comparison, Greinke is better. I fear he was ignored over the many discussions about his Cy Young credentials.

By: austin

austin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:51:56 +0000

i dont see how some people in the comments think torii doesnt deserve it. as someone who watched almost every angel game this year, its amazing to watch him in center field. he seems to know exactly where a ball is going every single time its hit. his lone error in the last 2 years was a throwing error that figgins should have caught (i believe).
as far as SS is concerned, i think this will be jeters last. the next few years will be between elvis andrus and erik aybar.

By: DiamondDuq

DiamondDuq — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:20:12 +0000

“overrated defensively”? The guy had the highest fielding percentage among AL Shortstops and second highest to Jimmy Rollins in all of MLB who played in at least 1/2 their team’s games!!! How else do you measure how good a player is defensively?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:17:20 +0000

All the arguments against Jeter are correct…he has NO range and is below average
Teixeira is excellent, but consciously tries to make himself look better by throwing his glove over his head like a hockey goalie so that you know what a great play he just made. Hot dog
Adam Jones is very good, Gutierrez better, Carlos Gomez is the best but not enough playing time to justify a Gold Glove. Torii Hunter’s time has passed, Ichiro’s also

By: KingVegeta

KingVegeta — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:06:36 +0000

A lot of you are over looking the fact that Errors are a subjective call. It varies from field to field , with who the official scorer is. We have all seen seen a player have a ball tip his glove out at the farthest extent of his range be given an error. Some scorers have the mindset that if you can get glove on it you should catch it. Which is not always the case. We have even seen players be given errors because a 1st baseman couldn’t field a 1 hopper properly. Because it’s up to the scorers personal beliefs(on range and glovework) and biases, errors are one of those things that is hard to clearly say who is or isn’t the best based off errors made during the season

By: Church of the Perpetually Outraged

Church of the Perpetually Outraged — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:21:39 +0000

“Jeter’s eye-popping defensive work wasn’t accidental. He committed eight errors in 554 chances — the league’s eight other shortstops with 500-plus chances averaged 17 errors” (from mlb.com)
Obviously he was the best in the AL this year so deal with it. Facts are facts. He may be getting older but he is still on his game and performing very well and I think he deserves this compared to any other AL shortstop.

Fielding % is a horrible statistic to use when determining who’s a better fielder than another. Who’s the better SS, Player A who decides he isn’t going to move at all to try and field a ball, but fields every ball hit directly at him (fielding percent of 100), or Player B, has a 20′ range to his right and left but occassionally makes bad throws so he has a few errors?
Jeter was far better than he usually was defensively this year, but he still didn’t deserve the GG.

By: jeremy griffin

jeremy griffin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:09:13 +0000

Inge sucks, Longo deserves it

By: JeffH

JeffH — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:39:36 +0000

With the way offense is important in the gold glove awards, maybe the silver slugger awards should be based on defense.
3B gold glove should have gone to Brandon Inge.

By: jakc

jakc — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:51:26 +0000

range (the balls you get to) is a lot more important than fielding percentage. the truth is with the lax scoring on errors, fp doesn’t really mean much

By: Cru11

Cru11 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:38:57 +0000

Tex doesnt have as much range as Pujols or Lee?? BAHAHA! Tex is an absolute surpreme defender. I (and the rest of America) saw him smother about 40 hard ground balls to his right this postseason.
On a a different note: How did Franklin Gutierrez get snubbed? Another supreme defender in a premier defensive position.

By: VoiceOReason

VoiceOReason — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:19:11 +0000

When you’ve got the range of a concrete pylon you don’t get to many balls and thus you don’t record many errors either. Jeter was DEAD LAST in range factor amoung AL SS’s. If you don’t believe in such high brow stats as range factor, he was FOURTH FROM THE BOTTOM in assists, which means he didn’t get to many balls to either make the play or make an error. Even Yuniesky Betancourt had better wheels than Jeter.

By: boydman

boydman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:02:48 +0000

Jeter isn’t even the best shortshop on his own team (that would be Alex Cheater), much less the AL. I will not deny that he is clutch, and comes through at the plate when needed, but clutch hitting does not a Gold Glove make.

By: Carter

Carter — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:56:10 +0000

“Jeter’s eye-popping defensive work wasn’t accidental. He committed eight errors in 554 chances — the league’s eight other shortstops with 500-plus chances averaged 17 errors” (from mlb.com)
Obviously he was the best in the AL this year so deal with it. Facts are facts. He may be getting older but he is still on his game and performing very well and I think he deserves this compared to any other AL shortstop.

By: billybill

billybill — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:24:20 +0000

Jeter wins some of his awards just because of his stardom.Check this year’s Hank Aaron.He deserves the GG though.There just isn’t a better choice.Where are the great defensive shortstops who play a full season?There aren’t any!!

By: Baseballer

Baseballer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:40:36 +0000

Gold gloves are known as a joke to baseball players. Remember when Rafael Palmiero won it a few years back as a 1st Baseman for Texas – but he DH’d the majority of the games?? Jeter is far from the best defensive shortstop. His range has substantially diminished. He’s often out of position on relays. Teixeira saved his butt big time with tons of poor throws. And errors are often subjective with the home field scorer. Would Jeter have any gold gloves had he played his career in KC or San Diego (legit fences) and hit 8 HR a year? No.

By: Doc Rick

Doc Rick — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:36:38 +0000

Forgive my ignorance, but who, by position, had the best fielding percentage. Give them each the Golden Glove and be done with it.

By: Coyle

Coyle — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:30:19 +0000

I love when the media second guesses the managers and coaches, what the heck do they know? Jeter led the league in fielding pct for SS – also, how many times is he in the right place at the right time for his team. That stat doesnt show up – but the players and coaches remember that sort of thing.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:19:08 +0000

Really Char? “Teixeira, on his worst day, was better than Pujols on Pujols’ best day.” I understand that living in Miami you don’t watch the Cardinals play very often, but Pujols has more range than any first baseman I’ve ever seen. He just set the Major League record for Assists by a first baseman. He makes throws that no other first baseman in baseball would even think about making, and he gets to balls that no one else would even try to get. Pujols made 136 more Assists than Teixeira this year. And Teixeira is better on his worst day?

By: Bobby Townsend

Bobby Townsend — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:17:20 +0000

I like Bartlett too but 20 errors is just too many.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:53:37 +0000

Jeter isn’t even average defensively… and I don’t blame the jump throw, I blame ESPN. I would think a guy like Bartlett should get the award.

By: Char_in_Miami

Char_in_Miami — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:35:46 +0000

how could anyone not see that teixeira, on his worst day, was better than pujols on pulols’ best day.
the plays he made ranging to his right as well as covering the line were awesome.

By: JG789

JG789 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:33:41 +0000

Your vote sir(or is it ma’am), for the Gold Glove Award, must be the statistician.

By: JG789

JG789 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:29:39 +0000

Including 5 WS rings…….

By: Bobby Townsend

Bobby Townsend — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:26:03 +0000

Jeters’ errors were down this season (8 in 150 games) but I think Teixeira at first may have saved him a few. Tex I feel was the obvious choice at first.
Can make a case for Erick Aybar at short (11 errors in 136 games) and I feel was the Angels MVP for his all-around play.
Hard to overlook Polanco at 2nd (only 2 errors in 151 games). Under any other circumstance, Pedroia would have been the choice.
While I think Adam Jones was outstanding in center for the O’s, Gutierrez was great as well for the M’s but I guess they try not to pick two outfielders from the same team. Perhaps the 7 errors was too many and probably would have played in every game had he not run into the wall in Detroit. Jason Bay, who did not committ an error in 150 games, probably got some consideration as well.
Joe Mauer, besides winning his 3rd batting title in 4 years, was solid behind the plate but Laird should have won the award based on his overall play but what stood the most was his high percentage of throwing out potential base stealers. Kurt Suzuki was a good young catcher whom I saw alot of good qualities from behind the dish.

By: sbg

sbg — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:25:22 +0000

Jeter’s rising to the occasion in interleague play was enough to lead both leagues, duh.

By: wh

wh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:24:34 +0000

jeter had the best fielding pct. in the AL this year.

By: bb

bb — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:14:35 +0000

gold glove is one of those really tough subjective choices. it is the voters perception of impact and not based on a battery of stats.
really is ahrd to argue against any of these as outlandish. others equally or even a little more deserving? sure.
Cano is better than Pedroia. Pedroia makes the routine look spectacular. Cano makes the spectacular look routine. his problem is the “dumb” error.

By: ralf

ralf — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:10:43 +0000

Wow. Even when it’s just to pose for a video game cover?
I’ve never heard of that stat before. Who led the NL in “rising to the occasion” this year? Who’s the all-time career leader?

By: SBG

SBG — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:10:08 +0000

"Hunter is still clearly above average." Uh, no. As a Twins fan, I can tell you that he started declining about 4 years ago. You remember that Kotsay debacle in the 2006 ALDS? That was not an aberration, that was Hunter then. He was hurt and failed to adjust to his limited range, misplaying several balls into extra base hits. The naked eye said that he was no longer even average then, and UZR agrees with me. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=731&position=OF#fielding

By: JG789

JG789 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:03:16 +0000

Jeter is one of the most oustanding SS’s, as well as ball players, of all time. Why? Because he rises to the occasion every time he puts on a uniform.