American League Gold Glove Winners Announced (Derek Jeter? Really?)

Joe Posnanski, one of the country’s best columnists and a forward-thinking baseball type, has a somewhat unique opinion on the American League Gold Glove awards: he really isn’t all that upset about Jeter winning.

Jeter also, for the first time, had a positive UZR [+6.6]

OK, so, he was better than his normal below-average self, but certainly there were other, better choices, right?

The Orioles center fielder won his first Gold Glove after a 2009 season that saw him record 349 putouts and commit five errors in 363 chances (with a fielding percentage of .986) -- all pretty average numbers (it wasn’t even his best season). Sure, he had a lot of great plays (you can watch them right here, and really, there’s some awesome catches in there), but does that warrant a Gold Glove? ESPN’s Rob Neyer doesn’t think so.

While people still seem undecided on which statistic is best when measuring defensive skills, UZR (ultimate zone rating) is pretty good one: “The number of runs above or below average a fielder is in both range runs and error runs combined.” So, a higher number is good, zero is average, and a negative number is bad. In 2009, Gutierrez’s UZR was 29.1; Jones’ was -4.7.

Early winner for best analysis of the awards goes to Ken Tremendous, formerly of FireJoeMorgan.com: