We previewed the Gold Gloves in August, but now it’s time to do the real thing, one per position per league. We’ll go through them first, then list the award recipients at the end.
I do believe in defense mattering over time, as such, we’re using an 800 IP minimum for the GG awards. For each position, we’re listing the top 3 in each league, AL followed by NL.
We have our standard defensive stats here, with the leaders in bold and the worst performers in italics. Range Factor (RF) measures the number of plays made per game–the higher the better. Zone Rating (ZR) attempts to credit players for plays other fielders missed and ding them for plays other fielders made–the higher the better, and it has the benefit of being comparative across the position. Defensive Efficiency (dEff) measures the rate at which an individual fielder contributes to outs being made on balls put into play, with any score over 1.000 being a net positive impact. Finally, Fielding Percentage (fPct) reflects the percentage of times a chance was handled without a mistake–if someone made no errors, their fPct would be 1.000.
Of these, Range Factor is the most susceptible to the impact of the pitching staff and the ballpark, although none of these defensive ratings are perfect.
Outfielders also have Assists (A), more romantically referred to as Outfield Kills are runners eliminated on the bases and Arm Runs (AR), which measures the net runs gained on an outfielder’s throws, including runner advancements.
Finally, catchers, who are really their own thing, also have RTO% (the percentage of runners thrown out trying to steal, abbreviated as RT), PB (passed balls), Framing Runs (the number of runs gained by the catcher’s positioning), and cERx, which reflects the ERA while the catcher was behind the plate compared to the overall staff ERA. A cERx below 1 means the catcher was better than the rest of the staff, above 1, worse.
#C
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | fPct | RF | ZR | dEff | RT | PB | cERx | FR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | IND | Johnny Bench | 1144 | .995 | 9.3 | 1.3 | 1.19 | 36 | 11 | 1.03 | 7 |
| HOD | Elrod Hendricks | 923 | .994 | 8.3 | 3.8 | 1.14 | 40 | 9 | 1.01 | 5 | |
| NYG | Buster Posey | 1095 | .996 | 8.9 | 0.4 | 1.00 | 35 | 8 | 0.96 | 10 | |
| AL | POR | Joe Mauer | 1103 | .996 | 9.5 | 3.5 | 1.04 | 39 | 6 | 1.01 | 5 |
| NYY | Thurman Munson | 1122 | .995 | 9.8 | 2.3 | 1.00 | 35 | 5 | 0.96 | 4 | |
| MCG | Iván Rodríguez | 1104 | .998 | 9.8 | 5.7 | 1.05 | 46 | 17 | 0.98 | 2 |
So, what is a catcher’s primary duty? Helping their staff, controlling the running game, and then, a somewhat distant third, making their own defensive plays.
The choice in the AL is pretty obvious, in the NL, I think it comes down to how much do you weigh Posey’s ability to frame pitches, and his ~150 more innings played than Hendricks.
#1B
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | fPct | RF | ZR | dEff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | KCM | Boog Powell | 1105 | .996 | 9.1 | 3.4 | 1.02 |
| HOD | Anthony Rizzo | 828 | .995 | 8.7 | 0.8 | 1.02 | |
| IND | Joey Votto | 1072 | 1.000 | 8.4 | 5.1 | 1.04 | |
| AL | DET | Hank Greenberg | 1159 | .996 | 8.3 | 2.5 | 1.02 |
| POR | Kent Hrbek | 1007 | .995 | 8.6 | 1.3 | 1.03 | |
| MEM | Bill White | 886 | .993 | 9.1 | 0.5 | 1.01 |
Again, one choice is pretty clear–the NL this time.
In the AL, it’s much closer, but Greenberg makes some plays that Hrbek just doesn’t.
#2B
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | fPct | RF | ZR | dEff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | KCM | Robinson Canó | 1134 | .990 | 4.6 | 11.0 | 1.06 |
| BBB | Cupid Childs | 1022 | .983 | 4.5 | 7.3 | 1.09 | |
| PHI | Chase Utley | 1173 | .994 | 4.9 | 13.7 | 1.07 | |
| AL | DET | Charlie Gehringer | 971 | .989 | 4.9 | -10.7 | 0.94 |
| BAL | Miller Huggins | 923 | .987 | 4.3 | 10.8 | 1.10 | |
| MCG | Cookie Rojas | 877 | .993 | 4.4 | -3.3 | 0.97 |
These are two relatively easy choices. And, there is a question of what’s going on in the AL, where almost everyone has a negative ZR.
#SS
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | fPct | RF | ZR | dEff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | NYG | Brandon Crawford | 1046 | .966 | 4.2 | 11.4 | 1.07 |
| IND | Barry Larkin | 911 | .975 | 4.7 | 9.0 | 1.07 | |
| KCM | Ozzie Smith | 1188 | .992 | 4.7 | 12.2 | 1.06 | |
| AL | SFS | Dick Lundy | 934 | .987 | 4.5 | 10.8 | 1.06 |
| CAG | Freddy Parent | 952 | .978 | 5.0 | 13.6 | 1.06 | |
| CLE | Arky Vaughan | 1143 | .982 | 4.2 | 13.4 | 1.09 |
In the NL, it’s another clear choice: while Smith and Crawford both make the sensational plays, Smith makes all the plays.
The AL is much, much closer and there’s really not much to choose from between Parent and Vaughan. As such, we’ll go with the player who stayed on the field more.
#3B
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | fPct | RF | ZR | dEff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | OTT | Adrián Beltré | 1055 | .974 | 2.6 | -0.8 | 1.00 |
| BRK | Ron Cey | 1138 | .975 | 2.5 | 6.0 | 1.03 | |
| PHI | Scott Rolen | 1155 | .970 | 2.3 | 5.0 | 1.06 | |
| AL | POR | Buddy Bell | 1169 | .968 | 2.5 | 8.0 | 1.05 |
| CLE | Evan Longoria | 1148 | .963 | 2.2 | 4.8 | 1.04 | |
| NYY | Mike Schmidt | 1140 | .958 | 2.4 | 5.3 | 1.03 |
The hot corner is a challenge: everyone makes 2, 2 1/2 plays a game, so RF is less useful, although Beltré’s 2.6 does stand out, as does Longoria’s more limited mobility. But it means fPct–as a proxy for errors–and dEff rise in importance. In the AL, while it’s not by a mile, I think Bell is the clear choice while in the AL, it ends up being between Cey and Rolen, with the final edge going to The Penguin.
#LF
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | fPct | RF | ZR | dEff | A | AR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | IND | Bob Bescher | 839 | .989 | 1.9 | -4.8 | 0.96 | 2 | -2.8 |
| PHI | Sherry Magee | 839 | .994 | 1.7 | 4.8 | 1.04 | 1 | -2.3 | |
| BRK | Roy White | 1152 | .992 | 1.9 | 10.3 | 1.07 | 6 | -1.0 | |
| AL | CLE | Johnny Bates | 1018 | .978 | 2.0 | 8.8 | 1.06 | 4 | -1.3 |
| SFS | Rickey Henderson | 1202 | .982 | 1.6 | 12.2 | 1.18 | 3 | -3.6 | |
| BAL | Frank Robinson | 996 | .990 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 1.00 | 5 | -2.2 |
The AR numbers reflect just how hard it is to prevent runners from advancing on flyballs, and makes Jim Wynn‘s 3.7 mark there all the more remarkable. Unfortunately, the rest of Wynn’s numbers leave him out of the finalists entirely.
The NL is an easy choice, and one that gives us a repeat winner in Roy White. Over in the Al, it’s harder, but Bates makes more plays and has a far better arm than Henderson, despite how much ground the Sea Lions’ speedster covers.
#CF
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | fPct | RF | ZR | dEff | A | AR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | OTT | Carlos Beltrán | 1045 | .982 | 2.9 | 9.5 | 1.06 | 10 | -1.0 |
| PHI | Willie Davis | 1035 | .988 | 2.9 | 16.3 | 1.10 | 4 | -2.8 | |
| NYG | Willie Mays | 1214 | .989 | 2.8 | 14.5 | 1.05 | 4 | -4.7 | |
| AL | BAL | Paul Blair | 935 | .986 | 2.7 | 11.8 | 1.09 | 3 | -2.6 |
| CLE | Tris Speaker | 1047 | .982 | 2.8 | 10.0 | 1.06 | 9 | -2.4 | |
| SFS | Turkey Stearnes | 1027 | .979 | 2.8 | 7.4 | 1.05 | 5 | -4.7 |
Assists can be misleading: Detroit’s Chili Davis gunned down 14 runners and Kansas City’s Willie McGee 11, but they, overall, just weren’t effective enough out there to warrant their inclusion. Remember, the weaker the arm, the more often it gets run on, the more chances for assists you may get.
Look, Willie Mays is a great defensive CF. But Willie Davis, simply, had a better year out there. In the AL, you can only unseat Paul Blair if you give massive weight to Speaker’s additional 3 assists. But given how close they are in AR, it’s hard to rationalize that. So Blair it is once again, our 2nd repeat winner.
#RF
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | fPct | RF | ZR | dEff | A | AR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | BBB | Hank Aaron | 945 | .979 | 1.7 | 4.4 | 1.06 | 6 | 0.6 |
| HOM | Roberto Clemente | 1134 | .979 | 2.2 | 7.1 | 1.06 | 11 | -2.6 | |
| KCM | Stan Musial | 972 | .981 | 2.0 | 8.4 | 1.07 | 2 | -0.4 | |
| AL | MEM | Mookie Betts | 880 | 1.000 | 1.9 | 7.6 | 1.07 | 2 | -3.8 |
| DET | Al Kaline | 971 | .991 | 2.1 | 3.8 | 1.03 | 6 | -1.8 | |
| LAA | Ichiro Suzuki | 1195 | 1.000 | 2.0 | 5.7 | 1.04 | 7 | -3.0 |
The NL is insanely close. Musial makes more spectacular plays than Clemente, Clemente makes marginally more plays overall and has that cannon for an arm, although Musial limits baserunners more effectively. It’s a coin flip, but today we’ll go with Clemente’s additional 150 innings as the difference maker.
In the AL, it’s clearly one of the players who didn’t make a single miscue, and although Betts has the edge in a few metrics, Suzuki has over 300 more innings–1200 innings without an error, but with great range, is incredible.
#P
We’re using 140 innings as the cutoff for the pitchers. Additionally, we have access to number of Framing Runs the pitcher benefitted from, as well as the SB numbers against them. Errors tend to be so low from pitchers, that fPct is no longer a really useful metric.
| Lg | Tm | Name | IP | RF | ZR | dEff | RT | FR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL | HOD | Bob Rush | 186 | 1.2 | 3.7 | 1.00 | 60 | 0 |
| HOD | Jack Taylor | 192 | 0.9 | 5.2 | 1.00 | 57 | 0 | |
| PHI | JM Ward | 196 | 1.0 | 3.4 | 1.16 | 51 | 0.4 | |
| AL | POR | Bert Blyleven | 204 | 0.9 | 5.6 | 1.00 | 59 | 0.3 |
| BAL | Bob Feller | 153 | 1.0 | 3.3 | 0.91 | 68 | -0.3 | |
| POR | Walter Johnson | 214 | 0.8 | 5.0 | 1.20 | 59 | 0 |
Sample size, of course, wrecks havoc with pitcher’s defensive stats. Still, we have what we have.
Not only does Bob Rush make a lot of plays, he keeps runners from stealing, and while Jack Taylor makes more spectacular plays, Rush’s ZR is more than good enough to take the award home. In the AL, Johnson and Blyleven are neck-and-neck, but we’ll go with Blyleven, who has a slight edge in most categories.
#The Gold Gloves
| Pos | American League | National League |
|---|---|---|
| C | Iván Rodríguez (MCG) | Elrod Hendricks (HOD) |
| 1B | Hank Greenberg (DET) | Joey Votto (IND) |
| 2B | Miller Huggins (BAL) | Chase Utley (PHI) |
| SS | Arky Vaughan (CLE) | Ozzie Smith (KCM) |
| 3B | Buddy Bell (POR) | Ron Cey (BRK) |
| LF | Johnny Bates (CLE) | Roy White (BRK) |
| CF | Paul Blair (BAL) | Willie Davis (PHI) |
| RF | Ichiro Suzuki (LAA) | Roberto Clemente (HOM) |
| P | Bert Blyleven (POR) | Bob Rush (HOD) |
There are a surprising number of teams with 2 Gold Glove winners–Baltimore, Portland, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and the House of David.
But the overall number of finalists may be more interesting, as it should give some indications as to the higher tier defensive units in the league. Here’s how that stacks up:
6. Cleveland
5. Philadelphia
4. House of David, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Portland
3. Baltimore, Detroit, New York Gothams, San Francisco
2. Birmingham, Brooklyn, Memphis, Miami, New York Black Yankees, Ottawa
1. Chicago, Homestead, Los Angeles