Yankees: Brett Gardner robbed of AL Gold Glove Award

On Tuesday, Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner was unceremoniously upset for a Rawlings American League Gold Glove Award by a lesser deserving Alex Gordon.

I haven’t always been the biggest defender of all things Brett Gardner. His hot and cold offensive game tends to drive me a bit batty at times. Yet the one constant in Gardy’s arsenal over the past 10 seasons for the Yankees has been his stoic defense.

This, I have always appreciated.

After years of being criminally underrated everywhere but in New York, Gardner won his first Gold Glove Award in 2016. And having put up equal if not better defensive stats this season, I thought for sure the hardware was coming back to the Bronx.

But no! The voting committee must have gotten lazy and gone back to the thinking of years past. You know, when a player wins an award just because he’s won a bunch of them before.

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Now don’t get me wrong, Alex Gordon is still a fine defensive outfielder. But the five-time Gold Glove winner only topped Gardner in three defensive categories. And two of them are a stretch.

The one that Royals’ websites are touting as all-important is Total Zone Runs as a LF. Not something you find without a bit of research, Gordon finished atop the list with a total of 19 saved runs, as compared to Gardy’s 13, ranking him second.

Gordon did have 35 more putouts in 2017, but that’s because he had 33 more chances due to Gardner’s 154 lesser played innings in left field.

Remember, Gardy slid over to centerfield following Jacoby Ellsbury’s mid-season concussion which knocked him out for a month —  or 164.2 innings.

And yes, Gordon did best Gardner in Range Factor per 9 innings (2.05 to 1.92) and Range Factor per Game (1.93 to 1.83), but these two stats take into account both games and innings played.

As for the categories that Gardner topped Gordon, beginning with the most important, in my opinion:

• Errors – Zero / 1.000 fielding percentage (best in AL)
• OF Assists – 12, compared to Gordon’s eight
• BIS Defensive Runs Saved Above Average – 20, compared to Gordon’s 12

Next: Justus Sheffield looks like the real deal

Any argument that begins and ends with, “Well, my guy made (x) number of great plays,” is ridiculous.  Much like beauty, a fantastic defensive effort is in the eye of the beholder.