Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Jeter and Tex Bring Home Gold

The trophies just keep coming for the Yankees. This time it is in the shape of a glove, as Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter each won the Gold Glove at their respective positions. For Jeter it is his fourth and Teixeira his third. Jeter should honestly give his to Teixeira too. I mean anyone who watched the Yankees this year noticed Jeter's improved range, but it is a lot easier for him to win the Gold Glove when you consider the fact he is throwing to a Gold Glove first baseman.

And honestly why do pitchers have a Gold Glove category too. Yea some of them are much better at fielding their position than others, but still, They have some many fewer opportunities to be judged on it that bias slips in deeper there than anywhere else. That's part of the reason that of the 104 Gold Gloves in both leagues there have only been 26 different winners among pitchers... the fewest of any position.

Think about that.

4 comments:

Dennis said...

The gold glove voting is just terrible. The whole thing should be revamped.

As for Jeter, he was certainly better this season, but I think even the most rabid of Yankee fans would admit he is not the best fielding SS in the AL.

Dan said...

Despite zone rating and other statistical analysis, I don't believe there's any kind of objective way to determine the winners. I don't even really understand how zone rating works, but I am skeptical.

Peter said...

Oh I don't believe for a second that he was the best defensive short stop out there. I honestly think he should be penalized for Teixeira winning a gold glove too, considering he wouldn't have been nearly as good without him.

Really they should abolish gold gloves and silver sluggers. They're both bullshit.

Dennis said...

Zone rating is based on the idea that each player occupies a zone in which he should be expected to field all balls hit.

In baseball parlance, "he makes the routine plays."

It penalizes a player for every play he misses in his zone. It also rewards the player for plays he makes outside of the zone. Then it converts the information into runs saved or given up versus the league average at each position.

For example, this past season Andrus on Texas and Izturis on Baltimore saved their teams about 11 runs compared to the league average. Jeter saved his team 6.6 runs, not bad.

Miguel Tejada, on the other hand, cost his team 14 runs more than average.

It's not perfect, but it is pretty good.