Greg Maddux has won the National League Gold Glove Award for pitchers in 17 of the last 18 years. The American League Award has gone to Kenny Rogers in five of the last eight years. But are they truly the best fielding pitchers in baseball? Were they really the best in each and every year that they won? Aren’t these two guys getting pretty old? Aren’t there some younger studs out there to take their places?
Surely there must be other pitchers who are good fielders that should have won a few of those awards. No other award has a string of winners like this. Think of the MVP Award, the Cy Young Award, the Silver Slugger Award, Relief Man of the Year Award, etc. The key difference between these awards and the Gold Glove awards is that statistics are much more strongly considered. Gold Glove voters historically have not relied much on fielding statistics. With good reason: There haven’t been many new reliable statistics in fielding for 100 years.
Until now (I hope). There are several new systems out there, and the Plus/Minus System from my book, The Fielding Bible, seems to be working pretty well. Video Scouts at Baseball Info Solutions chart each and every batted ball, including batted ball speed, type and direction. Using that information, the Plus/Minus System determines how well each fielder handles batted balls within each category compared to other fielders. A plus five (+5) in the system, for example, says this particular fielder successfully handled five more balls than the average fielder at his position.
When we published the first edition of The Fielding Bible three years ago, we hadn’t yet developed a Plus/Minus System for pitchers. But we have since then. Complete plus/minus results for pitchers will be available in The Fielding Bible: Volume II, available in February of 2009. So let’s see how Maddux and Rogers come out when measured by that system.
Here’s the surprise: Greg Maddux and Kenny Rogers are far and away the two best fielding pitchers in the Plus/Minus System since we started it in 2003. Here are the Plus/Minus leaders for pitchers since 2003:
| Greg Maddux | +56 |
| Kenny Rogers | +53 |
| Livan Hernandez | +30 |
It is incredible that Maddux and Rogers are number one and number two while the number three guy, Livan Hernandez, is a very distant third. This says two things to me: 1) The Gold Glove voters know what they’re doing when it comes to pitchers. Relying primarily on visual evidence, they’ve seen the excellent glove work by Maddux and Rogers. 2) The Plus/Minus System works. It comes up with the same answers as the Gold Glove voters.
Of course, there are some huge exceptions to this correlation. For example, Derek Jeter has won three Gold Gloves but never fares well in the Plus/Minus System, and Adam Everett has worn four “Plus/Minus Crowns” as the highest-rated shortstop in baseball but has never won a Gold Glove.
Lest you think that despite having the highest 6-year plus/minus numbers doesn’t necessarily mean that Maddux and Rogers should win nearly every year, here are their yearly numbers, along with their rank in all of Major League Baseball and their Gold Gloves (GG) and Fielding Bible Awards (FBA).
| | | Maddux | | | Rogers | |
| | +/- | Rank | Award | +/- | Rank | Award |
| 2003 | + 7 | 3 | | + 6 | 6 | |
| 2004 | +10 | 2 | GG | +10 | 4 | GG |
| 2005 | + 6 | 6 | GG | +12 | 1 | GG |
| 2006 | +10 | 1 | GG, FBA | + 8 | 3 | GG |
| 2007 | +10 | 1 | GG | + 1 | --- | (Rogers was injured most of the year) |
| 2008 | +13 | 2 | tba | +16 | 1 | tba |
* Data through 9/15/08, courtesy Baseball Info Solutions.
Rogers or Maddux has had the highest plus/minus figure among pitchers in each of the last four years. They’re not just getting older, they’re getting better. Despite his injuries, age, and less-effective pitching, Kenny Rogers has the highest figure again this year, with Maddux right behind him.
Giving the Gold Gloves to Maddux in the National League and Rogers in the American is a no-brainer once again. But who should win The Fielding Bible Award, which only recognizes one winner in all of Major League Baseball? That’s easy too. It’s Kenny Rogers, but not simply because his plus/minus figure is slightly better. It’s because of his control of the running game. Rogers is exceptionally good at it, while Maddux is notoriously bad. Here are the figures:
Rogers—only three attempted stolen bases all season, two of them caught, plus three runners picked off.
Maddux—26 attempted steals, only three caught, no runners picked off
In early November, we’ll see what both the Gold Glove and Fielding Bible Award voters have to say.