SABR's Dial Discusses Gold Gloves

Here’s more perspective on the Rawlings Gold Glove chances for Jason Heyward and Yadier Molina from Chris Dial, who serves on the Board of Directors for the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR).

The case for Heyward is compelling as the SABR Defensive Index, Ultimate Zone Rating, and other defensive metrics show the Cardinals right fielder significantly better than the other two finalists in Curtis Granderson and Bryce Harper.

As detailed previously, the SABR Defensive Index accounts for approximately 25% of the vote for the Rawlings Gold Glove. Dial helped develop the SDI.

“I agree, I think that a slam dunk is Jason Heyward,” stated Dial. “He has the great defensive reputation, he demonstrates it year in and year out and we know from historical coaches voting, that if you win one Gold Glove you have a really good chance of winning a second one. So if the naked eye–the coaches eye matches the SDI, it is pretty close to a slam dunk that he’ll win a Gold Glove for right field.”

Catcher Yadier Molina has obviously earned such a reputation over his career and is line to win eighth consecutive Gold Glove, but by comparison does not lead Buster Posey and Wilson Ramos in as many of the defensive metrics as Heyward does to the other right fielders.

Dial believes the decision will be a toss-up between Molina and Posey with pitch framing being a critical determination in deciding the ballot behind the plate.

“A couple of years ago, Molina had an extremely high framing rate in terms of number of runs prevented and this year, he’s way close to the middle of the pack,” said Dial. “We’ll see if that balances versus the dialogue that he’s a great framer. I’m somewhat skeptical about the number of runs people attribute to framing because of something like you can’t have someone like Yadi Molina save 30 runs from framing and the next year save zero. He didn’t forget how to do that.”

photo credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports