New York Yankee Notes: Reaction To Jeter's Gold Glove Predictable

Lots of predictable, and justifiable, outrage since it was announced Tuesday that Derek Jeter won a fifth American League Gold Glove. Here are a few examples.

From ESPN's Wallace Matthews:

You really don't need to consult any statistics or advanced fielding metrics to know what your own eyes told you if you watched enough Yankees games this season, which is that there can really be no argument that both Teixeira and Cano are among the best, if not the best, at their respective positions.

And neither did you need any numbers to tell that Jeter is not.

This is not to say he is a bad shortstop. Far from it. At 36, Jeter remains sure-handed and rifle-armed. His instincts, as always, are perfect -- his fundamentals rock-solid. Along with Cano -- and some would say, because of Cano -- he still turns a terrific double play.

Any ball hit right at him is a guaranteed out.

And that is both a compliment and an indictment. Because if it isn't hit right at him, and I mean right at him, then it's a base hit.

From Hardball Talk:

The notion that Jeter, at age 36, was the best defensive shortstop in the American League this season is simply absurd, whether you love defensive statistics, hate defensive statistics, or merely prefer the Ultimate Warrior to Ultimate Zone Rating.

Derek Jeter is a lot of things, including one of the best players of this era and a deserving future Hall of Famer, but he’s not the best defensive shortstop in the American League. He just isn’t. This is as close to a fact as something relatively subjective can get.

From ESPN's 'Stats & Info' Blog:

The yearly debate continues. The New York Yankees Derek Jeter received his fifth career Gold Glove award this season, and, according to Baseball Info Solutions, it’s nearly indefensible. According BIS, Jeter’s plus-minus was -13 in 2010, the second worst among all shortstops. In the same vein, Jeter had 33 defensive misplays, second most among AL shortstops to the Los Angeles Angels Erick Aybar. By another metric, UZR/150 (Ultimate Zone Rating per 150 defensive games), Jeter also failed to hold up, coming in as the third-worst at the position, ahead of only Kansas City Royals Yuniesky Betancourt and the Tampa Bay Rays Jason Bartlett.

What’s equally interesting is that Jeter ranked first among shortstops in fielding percentage at .989 (among those with at least 500 innings), thanks to only six errors. This suggests that the voters are looking at only one aspect of fielding (errors), while ignoring equally important aspects such as range. As the advanced metrics suggest, it’s not Jeter’s ability to field balls he gets to that’s the issue, but rather his ability to get to balls in general.

New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada will have knee surgery today to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

About the same time as the examination, Posada met with General Manager Brian Cashman, who told Posada he should be prepared to compete for the starting catching position with the rookie Jesus Montero during spring training.

"Cashman told Posada that he should come in preparing to catch, but they are going to give Montero a real shot," the person said. "And Cashman said that Posada should prepare to D.H. a lot."

The Red Sox blog 'Extra Bases' is trying to make the case that a signing of Cliff Lee by the Yankees would be a good thing for Boston's chances in the American League East. Sorry, I'm not buying that argument. No way.

Former Yankee player and coach Willie Randolph, and current Yankee third base coach Rob Thomson, are among the candidates to be Buck Showalter's bench coach in Baltimore.