Should Derek Jeter Win His Fourth Consecutive Gold Glove Award This Season?

Derek Jeter is one of the most popular players in baseball. Fans love him and players respect him. Jeter should have won the MVP Award last season and has a case he deserved it in 1999, as well. He was a member of the trinity of shortstops, along with Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra, who helped redefine what we expect out of a shortstop offensively. Jeter is the only one of the three that is still playing shortstop.

Now, before you accuse me of being a Jeter fanboy, let me state for the record that while Jeter is a great offensive player, he's one of the worst defensive shortstops in the game. Wait, you might say, Jeter won the past three Gold Glove Awards - how can he be one of the worst fielders at his position?

Unfortunately, Gold Glove Awards are frequently influenced by both a player's reputation and his offensive statistics. There's no better example of this than in 1999, when Rafael Palmeiro won the Gold Glove Award despite playing just 28 games in the field. His reputation got him the award, not what he actually did in the field.

Jeter has a strong arm, he's one of the best in the game at fielding popups in left field, he has a decent glove and is pretty good turning the double play. Now that sounds like a pretty good fielder but Jeter has a fatal flaw. His range on ground balls is, at best, limited. Actually, statuesque is probably a better description of his range, especially on balls hit to his left.

Yankees announcers have gotten quite good at saying, "past a diving Jeter!" as he tries to make up for his lack of range by diving to balls that other shortstops field on the run.

People dismiss defensive stats because there is no metric that combines all of a fielder's duties into one ideal stat. While no one would judge a hitter just by home runs, we still pay attention to that statistic because we know how to interpret it properly. Let's take a look at three of the most basic fielding stats, what they measure, and how Jeter ranks among AL shortstops with at least 90 games played so far this season.

Fielding Percentage
The most basic fielding stat, this stat shows how reliable a fielder is, both with the glove and the arm. To determine fielding percentage, divide the total number of putouts and assists by the total number of putouts, assists and errors. Here are the AL leaders:

1. John McDonald, Toronto, .985
2. Orlando Cabrera, Anaheim, .982
3. Juan Uribe, Chicago, .977
4, Michael Young, Texas, .976
5. Jhonny Peralta, Cleveland, .974
6. Derek Jeter, New York, .970

While fielding percentage tells us how reliable a fielder is, it has a few problems. It relies heavily on errors, which are a subjective call at the discretion of the official scorer. Also, it does not take into account how many plays a fielder makes. Finally, it does nothing to distinguish if the error came on a routine play or on a ball that another player would not have even come close to making.

Range Factor
This stat addresses how many plays a fielder makes per game. You determine range factor by adding putouts and assists and dividing by games played. Here are the AL leaders:

1. John McDonald, Toronto, 5.00
2. Juan Uribe, Chicago, 4.85
3. Jhonny Peralta, Cleveland, 4.72
4. Yuniesky Betancourt, Seattle, 4.65
5. Jason Bartlett, Minnesota, 4.62
6. Michael Young, Texas, 4.59
7. Bobby Crosby, Oakland, 4.57
8. Tony Pena Jr., Kansas City, 4.51
9. Orlando Cabrera, Anaheim, 4.37
10. Carlos Guillen, Detroit, 4.25
11. Julio Lugo, Boston, 4.22
12. Miguel Tejada, Baltimore, 4.18
13. Derek Jeter, New York, 4.08

While fielding percentage tells us who is reliable, range factor tells us who is making the most plays. But it's not without its problems, because it ignores plays not made and it makes no distinction between groundball and flyball staffs. Some pitchers record many more outs by groundball than they do flyball. An infielder playing behind a staff with two or three of these pitchers will do much better in this stat than one who plays behind two or three flyball pitchers.

Zone Rating
This stat divides the field into areas of responsibility, or zones, that a fielder is responsible for. Statisticians at the games count how many balls are hit into each fielder's zone(s) and how many of those balls the fielder converts into outs. Here are the AL leaders:

1. John McDonald, Toronto, .874
2. Bobby Crosby, Oakland, .870
3. Miguel Tejada, Baltimore, .841
4. Jason Bartlett, Minnesota, .837
5. Orlando Cabrera, Anaheim, .833
6. Juan Uribe, Chicago, .831
7. Tony Pena Jr., Kansas City, .827
8. Julio Lugo, Boston, .810
9. Carlos Guillen, Detroit, .805
10. Yuniesky Betancourt, Seattle, .805
11. Jhonny Peralta, Cleveland, /798
12. Michael Young, Texas, .798
13. Derek Jeter, New York, .760

While this is the best stat of the three used here because it includes both errors and total opportunities, it is not without its shortfalls. The zones are rigidly applied, regardless of where the fielder actually sets up. And a player gets no credit for balls fielded outside of his zone.

Still, we can take the information from each stat and apply weights to each metric and come up with our own rankings. While we can disagree over the relative importance of each of these three stats, I believe we can agree that they are all important and that the fielders who rank high in each of the categories are the best fielders in the league.

And there's no way to view these stats and come to the conclusion that Derek Jeter is one of the best fielders in the American League.

However, Baseball America polled American League managers (these are the people who vote on Gold Glove Awards) for its "Best Tools" issue. Guess who was ranked first in the category of best defensive shortstop?

Yep, Derek Jeter finished first. Start preparing now for Jeter to win his fourth straight Gold Glove Award.