Fielding statistics have made progress over the past decade, but there is still a good deal of work to be done. Newer statistics such Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Fielding Runs Above Average tell us more than errors and fielding percentage, but they don’t work as well as hitting stats such as On Base Percentage and Slugging Average. Questions arise because different fielding systems, which are supposed to measure the same thing (how efficiently players turn balls in play into outs), sometimes disagree substantially on individual players.
It’s clear that a fair amount of subjective input and interpretation of available data is needed to accurately evaluate fielding performance. With this in mind, John Dewan, owner of Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) and long time leader in the sabermetric community, developed an interesting approach to the evaluation of fielding performance a few years ago. Rather than relying solely on statistics, he put together a “panel of experts” to select the best fielders at each position. He calls it the Fielding Bible Awards and he includes them in the Bill James Handbook.
The way the Fielding Bible Awards work is each of 12 voters ranks 10 players at each position. A player gets 10 points for a first place vote, 9 points for a second place vote, etc. Among the voters were several prominent sabermetricians including Dewan, Bill James and Rob Neyer, BIS video scouts who studied every single game of the 2012 season in great detail, former major league outfielder Doug Glanville and knowledgable fans who participated in the Tom Tango Fan Scouting Report.
The only Tigers finishing in the top ten among all players in both leagues at their positions were shortstop Jose Iglesias finishing ninth (Bill James and the fans both had him second) and left fielder Andy Dirks with the fifth highest vote total. The only other Tigers getting any votes were second baseman Omar Infante (13th) and center fielder Austin Jackson (12th).
In contrast to the Fielding Bible awards, the Gold Gloves have historically been selected by managers and coaches. This year, managers and coaches still voted, but a statistical component was also added. So, I thought it would be interesting to see how the two awards compared.
Of the 18 positions, nine in each league, the Fielding Bible matched the Gold Glove in 8 cases. The matches are shown in blue and the mismatches in red in Table 1 below. The biggest disagreement in the American League was in center field were Orioles fly catcher Adam Jones won a Gold Glove, but finished 10th in the AL in the Fielding Bible vote. He finished below average on both Total Zone (-15) and Defensive Runs Saved (-2) which explains why he did not do well on the more statistically oriented Fielding Bible Award. First place finisher in the AL on the Fielding Bible vote was Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox finished +21 and +13 on the metrics.
In the National League, the biggest discrepancy was at shortstop where Gold Glove winner Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies failed to get any votes in the Fielding Bible vote. Rollins rated poorly on both Total Zone (-8) and Defensive Runs Saved (-15). Fielding Bible winner Andrelton Simmons of the Braves was an astounding +30 and +41 on the metrics. The 34-year-old Rollins used to do very well on the fielding metrics and may have received his fourth Gold Glove based on reputation or past performance.
So, are the Fielding Bible Awards better than the Gold Glove? I like them because I believe they are less biased by reputation. However, I do value the input of managers and coaches in the Gold Glove voting and they are trying to work some statistics into the process. At the very least, the Fielding Bible is a nice complement to the available quantitative data and an interesting alternative to the Gold Glove Awards. I believe they are a significant contribution to the ongoing quest to more accurately assess fielding performance.
Table 1: Fielding Bibles Versus Gold Glove Awards, 2013
| | Fielding Bible | Gold Glove | ||
| Position | AL | NL | AL | NL |
| Catcher | Salvador Perez | Yadier Molina | Salvador Perez | Yadier Molina |
| First base | Mike Napoli | Paul Goldschmidt | Eric Hosmer | Paul Goldschmidt |
| Second base | Dustin Pedroia | Darwin Barney | Dustin Pedroia | Brandon Phillips |
| Shortstop | Elvis Andrus | Andrelton Simmons | J.J. Hardy | Andrelton Simmons |
| Third base | Manny Machado | Nolan Arenado | Manny Machado | Nolan Arenado |
| Left field | Alex Gordon | Starling Marte | Alex Gordon | Carlos Gonzalez |
| Center field | Jacoby Ellsbury | Carlos Gomez | Adam Jones | Carlos Gomez |
| Right field | Shane Victorino | Gerardo Parra | Shane Victorino | Gerado Parra |
| Pitcher | R.A. Dickey | Zack Greinke | R.A. Dickey | Adam Wainwright |
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