Behind the Gold Glove Fielding Awards
PLUS: 'HERE'S THE PITCH 2005' PAPERBACK TO BE PUBLISHED NOV. 15
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Congrats to new White Sox pilot Will Venable, a Princeton grad whose Ivy League degree is a rarity in the majors — even though Dartmouth grad Brad Ausmus, current Yankees bench coach, managed both the Angels and the Tigers in recent years . . .
World Series MVP Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers homered in six consecutive World Series games dating back to 2021 with the Braves, topping the by one the mark held by George Springer, the only player who did it in five straight . . .
Glad to see the two Yankee Stadium ruffians who interfered with Dodgers right-fielder Mookie Betts not only ejected from Game 4 of the World Series but also banned for Game 5 . . .
Only nine relievers have won a Cy Young Award, with Eric Gagne of the Dodgers being the last to do it in 2003, but Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase has a chance to upset favorite Tarik Skubal, who won the AL’s Triple Crown of pitching for Detroit . . .
Atlanta’s trade of Jorge Soler for Angels pitcher Griffin Canning was strictly a salary dump — especially since Soler is an awful outfielder best-suited to be a DH.
Leading Off
The history and controversy of Gold Glove Awards
By Benjamin Chase
In 1957, sports manufacturer Rawlings, the best-known baseball glove manufacturer in the world at the time, began an award to reward the elite defenders in the game. The first year of the award, they had just one award for each position in all of Major League Baseball. The next year, they had one award for each position in the American League and in the National League.
Those first awards in 1957 included five future Hall of Famers. In the years since, 17 players have won 10 or more Gold Glove awards.
Positional Leaders
Interestingly, two of the most-awarded players in history both played a position often overlooked for defense — pitcher. Greg Maddux has won the most Gold Gloves in MLB history with 18, and Jim Kaat finished his career with 16. Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson also ended his career with 16 Gold Gloves, the most among position players.
Ivan Rodriguez and Ozzie Smith lead catcher and shortstop, respectively, with 13 awards apiece. Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays each had 12 awards to lead all outfielders, though a good argument could be made that the award began a half-dozen years into his career, and when you figure in his service in Korea, Mays likely would have three or four more awards had it been around his entire career.
Keith Hernandez has the most at first base with 11, and the now-disgraced Roberto Alomar has the most at second base with 10.
Controversy
While the previously-mentioned names certainly draw no argument, as they are among the greatest defenders the game has ever seen at their position, whether by reputation or by the “eye test,” the Gold Glove Awards have not always had such a great reputation for highlighting the best with the leather.
Over time, the awards began to develop a reputation as a popularity contest, and no winner embodied that more than Derek Jeter, who has five Gold Glove Awards despite finishing with a career dWAR, according to Baseball-Reference, of -9.4. That’s right, in his career, Jeter COST his team an estimated nine-and-a-half wins because of his defense, but he was given the award five times.
Heck, he even made a YouTube video talking about the WORST defenders in the game’s history:
However, even Jeter’s consistent awarding didn’t top the 1999 award given to Rafael Palmeiro. He was a two-time defending Gold Glove recipient and had a good reputation at first base. Why was the award so egregious, then? Flatly, Palmeiro was a designated hitter in 1999 for Texas. He played just 28 games and only 246⅓ innings in the field all season.
This Year’s Nominees
After the embarrassment of the awards in the late-1990s and early-2000s, the way the awards were selected has been changed to a more analytical approach. While defensive statistics are a work in progress, using those numbers makes for a much more objective method.
Except when it doesn’t.
The 2024 Gold Glove finalists were announced and holding true to rewarding the best defenders in the game by statistical measure certainly didn’t hold true.
Typically, the top performer in defensive runs saved is a shoo-in to at least be a finalist. That was not the case for multiple positions.
Let’s start at pitcher, where two pitchers led MLB with six defensive runs saved, yet neither received a nod in his league’s finalists. Jake Irvin’s overall stat line may have kept him from being nominated, but to ignore Tanner Bibee seems almost intentional. I’d personally toss in a vote for by far the best pitching defender I’ve seen since Maddux retired in Braves rookie Spencer Schwellenbach, a college shortstop, but he finished with 5 DRS (defensive runs saved) in roughly 20 starts.
Moving to first base, while leader Matt Olson was nominated in the National League, only one other first baseman in baseball reached double digits in DRS, and that was Michael Toglia of Colorado, who was not a National League finalist. Taylor Walls led all American League shortstops with 12 DRS and no nomination. In fact, two of the top three shortstops in DRS in the American League were left off the finalist list as Zach Neto of the Angels (11 DRS) was also excluded.
Arguably the most egregious omission, however, happened in left field in the American League. Riley Greene of Detroit took a big step toward “star” level for the upstart Tigers this season, and his defense was a big driver of that, with 14 DRS. That led ALL of MLB among left fielders…and he was left off. Texas’ Wyatt Langford, tied for second at the position with 12 DRS, was also left off the finalist list.
If reputation was something that needed to be built, and that potentially cost Greene, then what excuse is there for leaving off Michael A. Taylor of the Pirates in center field in the National League? He was the NL leader in DRS with 12 and has an absolutely sterling reputation in center, earning a Gold Glove in 2021.
This year’s finalists show that while MLB is doing better at awarding the top glove men in the game, there is still plenty of work to do to truly recognize defensive excellence.
Benjamin Chase is the co-director of the IBWAA and a co-editor of Here’s the Pitch. He works as a newspaper reporter in South Dakota and has written for multiple outlets over the years. Ben’s baseball writing can currently be found on his Medium page, Chasing Baseball Greatness. He’s also the co-host of the Pallazzo Podcast prospect show. You can find Benjamin on most social media sites under @biggentleben.
Cleaning Up
First ‘Here’s the Pitch’ Annual Features Work Of 15 IBWAA Writers
By Dan Schlossberg
With an eye toward the 2025 baseball season, Here’s the Pitch 2025 features 35 essays on a wide variety of subjects — from Justin Verlander’s quest for 300 wins to the Aaron Judge approach to the 500 Home Run Club.
All of the articles, though edited with a view toward next season, originally appeared in this newsletter, which was launched in 2020.
Included in the book are stories about the purple heart Yogi Berra earned but never received, Shohei Ohtani’s record contract, deserving players left out of Cooperstown, ballparks that hosted Negro Leagues games, perfect games, spring training, and the controversy of fans picking All-Star lineups. George Steinbrenner and Rob Manfred are there too, along with Jackie Robinson Hall of Fame plaque that had to be changed and the Bristol Speedway game that seems certain to smash attendance records.
The $24.95 paperback, which features a foreword by Class of 2022 Hall of Famer Jim Kaat, will be available on Nov. 15, making it the earliest of the 2025 pre-season periodicals.
It was ACTA Publications chief Greg Pierce, like Kaat a regular reader of this newsletter, who called out of the blue one summer afternoon and asked me to select and edit the contents of the book.
Despite numerous other demands on my time — both personal and professional — I took on the project, with the support of Dan Epstein, then co-director of the IBWAA, and fellow newsletter editors Elizabeth Muratore and Ben Chase, who have since moved into the role Dan recently vacated.
All three newsletter editors see every article submitted, even those ticketed for editions they don’t edit. I handle Friday and Saturday issues but have access to all, allowing me to choose not only writers published on the weekend but others as well.
Jeff Kallman, who has just joined the team of editors, is the author of three essays that made the final cut. Paul Banks, Mark Kolier, and W.H. (Bill) Johnson have two apiece. And the Big Three of Epstein, Muratore, and Chase also have their bylined work in this initial effort.
Because the book was deliberately designed to include a wide range of topics, a handful of my own articles are also included. But for me, Here’s the Pitch 2025 required a lot more editing than writing.
The best part was designing the cover, which includes a green-and-white background different from the typical baseball annual, plus the IBWAA logo and a photograph of Marcell Ozuna, the rehabilitated Atlanta DH who not only kept his injury-ravaged team afloat but made a spirited run for a rare Triple Crown for most of the 2024 season.
According to the publisher, those whose work was chosen will have their choice of $100 per essay or 10 free copies of the book.
ACTA previously published The Bill James Baseball Handbook for 34 years. Its “Walk-Off Edition” was released last fall.
To obtain copies or further information about Here’s the Pitch 2025, contact Greg Pierce [800-397-2282 or gfapierce@actapublications.com], of ACTA Publications.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 42 baseball books, including Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron, The New Baseball Bible, and collaborations with Ron Blomberg, Al Clark, and Milo Hamilton. He’s also a national baseball writer for forbes.com. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Seemingly cruising with a 5-0 lead at home with their best pitcher working, the Yankees fell apart defensively, losing the decisive Game 5 of the World Series to the Dodgers . . .
An error by usually-reliable center-fielder Aaron Judge opened the floodgates but Cole’s failure to cover first on an infield grounder was even more critical . . .
The game might have been the swan song for Juan Soto in pinstripes since the slugging outfielder is the top available free agent and already has many suitors . . .
Whether the Yankees retain manager Aaron Boone is also an issue, since there’s precedent for a pennant-winner in the Bronx axing a pilot after losing a World Series (Casey Stengel in 1960) . . .
Should Boone depart, bench coach Brad Ausmus — previous manager of the Angels, Tigers, and Team Israel — is the heir apparent. He’s a Dartmouth grad.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
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