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October 23, 2014How much do advanced analytics or team-wide defensive struggles factor in to Gold Glove nominations? Not as much as one would think as Cleveland Indians left fielder Michael Brantley and catcher Yan Gomes have been named as finalists for the 2014 award at their respective positions.
The team’s press release touts Gomes has having only committed three errors in his final 55 games, leaving out the fact that he had 14 over the course of the entire season—the second-highest mark in all of baseball. His fielding percentage was 17th out of the 18 catchers with the required amount of innings. That said, Yanimal did play a large factor in the MLB record 1450 strikeouts thrown by Indians pitchers. He also threw out 27 of 93 (29%) of the runners attempting to steal off him, the second-highest percentage among American League catchers behind the Yankees’ Brian McCann (31%).
The book on Brantley has been written may a’times around these parts. Brantley had one error this season, snapping his much-discussed errorless streak. His 12 assists were tied for fourth among all American League outfielders. But that’s where the good in Brantley’s defense largely ends. His zone coverage (as measured by UZR/150) placed him 42nd out of 59 qualified outfielders.
In a piece written by WFNY’s Jacob, Brantley is compared to Derek Jeter (a Gold Glove winner) in the way that his range is the biggest downfall. He catches balls he can get to—he just doesn’t get to many. Taking a list of defensive runs saved above average, and Brantley falls in 120th with a -3. (This compares to Kansas City’s Alex Gordon, presently playing in the World Series, who prevented 27 more runs than the average player—worth almost three wins with this alone.)
For all intents and purposes, both Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes are great human beings and were huge reasons why the Cleveland Indians were within spitting distance of the postseason this year, but it was not due to their defense. The award will be announced this Tuesday.
[Related: Lookin’ for glove in all the wrong places]
5 Comments
sometimes it’s an honor just to be nominated. this is one of those times.
Gomes was horrible the first couple of months that should have been an omen for the team the rest of the season. Neither wins a gold glove if I’m a voter.
Depends on the number of nominations!
Advanced stats rated Gomes pretty well this year. Brantely not so much.
You can’t have an argument about defensive value of catchers without talking about pitch framing. Gomes ranked 15th out of 113 catchers in that respect, well above average although not *elite*. He had 8 RAA just from pitch framing, or 4/5 of a win. Combine that with his second-in-the-league caught stealing percentage, and you see that he’s an above average defender at catcher and it shouldn’t be surprising he’s at least nominated.
Fangraphs has him as the 8th-best catcher in the majors out of 18 qualified catchers. They don’t include pitch framing. They say:
He’s above average at blocking pitches with 2 runs above replacement in blocked pitches. Only 5 players are above that.
He’s above average at controlling the run game, with 2 runs above replacement, good for a tie for 5th in that category.
They also have him a +5 runs for “good fielding plays” (a measure taken from the people at Fielding Bible, who study *every play* on video to determine such things). Tied for third in the majors at that stat.
If you combine Fangraphs’ DRS (range, baserunning, good fielding plays) and CPP (blocking) stats with Stat Corner’s pitch framing, you get the following leaderboard for defensive runs above average in the AL.
1. Mike Zunino, SEA, 13.7 RAA (league’s best pitch framer)
2. Yan Gomes, CLE, 12 RAA
3. Jason Castro, HOU, 11.1 RAA
4. Alex Avila, DET, 2.5 RAA
5. Salvador Perez, KC, -.3 RAA
6. Tyler Flowers, CHW, -7.8 RAA
7. Dionner Navarro, TOR, -17.5 RAA
8. Kurt Suzuki, MIN, -23.8 RAA
And that’s the only 8 catchers who qualify in the AL. Gomes certainly deserves to be in the conversation.