Atlanta Braves Awarded Two Gold Glove Finalists
The Trophy’s Title Misleads
The good news is that this award is voted on by the players – not the fans. But while the trophy declares the recipient to be “The Finest in the Field”, that has often not been the case.
There are some problems:
- The First voting rule reads as follows: “The Rawlings Gold Glove Award® represents overall fielding excellence, and it is not an award based solely on fielding metrics and statistics, nor does it factor offensive production.”
- While the first part can make some sense due to the nature of the fielding metrics, the notion that offense doesn’t play a role is almost laughable, given some of the past recipients.
One of the more egregious failings in recent memory was Rafael Palmeiro, who won the trophy for play at first base in 1997, 1998, and 1999.
However, in 1999 Palmeiro was used primarily as a DH – loggin only 28 games and 246 innings at first base.
At least the outcry of this outcome was enough to force a rules change: players must now be qualified for their positions.
But there’s more:
Derek Jeter received five GG trophies during his career – the latest in 2009 and 2010. By the metrics on fangraphs, Jeter was the sixth-ranked shortstop in his league that season… with the worse range rating and a negative Defensive Runs Saved score.
One wag some time ago was heard suggesting that Jeter’s first name must have been changed to “Past the Diving” since that’s how he often heard the Yankee shortstop referred to on broadcasts.
These are just a couple of examples and unfortunately, even managers and coaching staffs often don’t get the answers right. Sometimes they do give their votes to better offensive performers or sentimental favorites.
Such failures have given rise to alternative award givers, and the Fielding Bible site is now a direct competitor to Rawlings. They employ a panel of voters and rely more heavily on the fielding metrics. They also allow themselves to think outside the boxes: Ender Inciarte was recognized by them in 2015 for a multi-positional fielding award.
Given the fanfare of today’s announcements, I doubt that the Rawlings award is going out of style any time soon, but perhaps it is exactly because of this competition that the splashy press releases and social media blasts occurred.