WHY GARDNER GOT ROBBED OF THE GOLD GLOVE

I had to chime in on the Gold Glove award because I know in my heart Brett Gardner deserved that award this season. The Rawlings Gold Gloves were handed out on Tuesday night in both the American League and National League. The Yankees had candidates up for the award, Brett Gardner, Robinson Cano, and Mark Teixeira. Out of those three, Gardner should be the slam dunk winner, since he's clearly the best defensive left fielder in the American League, and all of baseball. But guess what? He didn't win the award. Alex Gordon of the Kansas City Royals won it instead. What a joke.When I voice my opinion on who the best defensive players are across the game, I like to use the defensive Sabermetrics. I know, I know, not all of you are into it, but it's clearly the way to go in my opinion. People can use the "eye test" all they want, but that clearly doesn't tell the entire story. Casey loves it, he's old school. But it's my belief that people can be biased by doing that because as fans, we tend to remember the great defensive plays more than the bad defensive plays most of the time. I mean, we watch Brett Gardner everyday during the season, but the managers and coaches who vote on these awards should use these metrics because they don't watch Gardner and other players everyday.

With that being said, here are some important defensive metrics that tell the story on who the best defenders are:

UZR: Ultimate Zone Rating- To make a long story short, UZR is basically the amount of runs saved, or allowed, through their fielding ability. A positive UZR is above average, while a negative UZR is below average. A UZR of 0 is average. Read more about UZR HERE.

Dewan Plus/Minus system: This is also know as defensive runs saved. It is similar to UZR, as it uses computer calculations and film study to see how many successful plays a defensive player makes than league average. Read more about defensive runs saved HERE.

dWAR: Defensive wins above replacement: I'm sure most of you know what WAR is. It's wins above replacement. Basically it's how many wins an individual player contributes to his team over the replacement player--say a fringe major league player--using a wide variety of offensive and defensive statistics. But dWAR focuses on just the defensive aspect. Read more about dWAR HERE.

So, with those three main defensive statistics covered, let's compare Brett Gardner and Alex Gordon:

UZR:

• Gardner: 25.2- 1st among all left fielders.
• Gordon: 10.5- 2nd among all left fielders.
  

Defensive Runs Saved:

• Gardner: 22- 1st among all left fielders
• Gordon: 4- 15th among all left fielders
  

dWAR:

• Gardner: 3.2- 1st among all left fielders
  
• Gordon: 0.5

Brett Gardner doesn't just lead all left fielders in these three categories, he leads all fielders--including infielders--in all of baseball. In fact, his UZR is sixth highest all time in a single season at any position. His defensive runs saved is 27th most of all time at any position in a singe season, and his dWAR is 13th highest of all time at any position in a single season.Folks, it's safe to say that Brett Gardner is not only the best defensive left fielder in all of baseball, but the best defensive player in all of baseball, period. And it's a shame Gardner didn't win the Gold Glove. But, he did win the Fielding award, in which in my opinion is more credible than the Gold Glove. The Fielding Bible uses defensive stats like UZR, defensive runs saved, and dWAR, among others, and one player at each position earns the Fielding Bible Award, unlike the Gold Glove where they're both handed out at each position in the American and National League. It's Gardner's second straight Fielding Bible Award, and it's certainly well deserved. Find out who won the Fielding Bible Award HERE.

Also, be sure to read Casey's take on the whole Gold Glove thing when you read WHY YANKEE FIELDERS ARE GOLD GLOVE-LESS.




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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