Derek Jeter now has five Gold Glove awards, winning his fifth gold glove at SS in 2010. Jeter has never ranked highly in advanced defensive statistics, typically ranking somewhere between below average and awful. Nevertheless, a legion of New York Yankees fans will swear he’s a great defender.
However, Jeter winning the 2010 AL Gold Glove has raised a lot of eyebrows. Many saw him winning as a clear sign that there are obvious flaws with the Rawlings Gold Glove selection system. This was not the first time that the system’s “flaws” have been brought to light.
“It has long been accepted—and for good reason—that the worst choice ever for Gold Glove was Rafael Palmeiro in 1999.” — Joe Posnanski
Raffy played only 28 games at first base that year and 135 games as a designated hitter. This is a pure case of laziness on the part of the coaches/managers. Selecting a player who had such limited showings at the position he won a gold glove at is insulting to the other players who work so hard throughout the year to attain that very award; it is irresponsible. Proper time and effort needs to be put into the decision making process of who wins a gold glove, but as you can see from this example, that is not always the case.
My question to you is, what system isn’t flawed? If we do change from the current Rawlings Gold Glove system that started in 1957, then what would we change to? Regardless of the system, the coaches and managers should collectively vote to determine the victors.
No matter what that system is there will be lazy selections and there will always be debate over whether one player deserved the award more than another player in that given year. I open up this article to you the fan for suggestions on how this system can be corrected or improved.