This year's Gold Glove ripoff (and it has nothing to do with Derek Jeter)

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Derek Jeter enjoyed quite possibly his best defensive season at the age of 35. Damian Strohmeyer/SI

There is little doubt that you are expecting me to follow up that headline by writing about Derek Jeter. But ... no.*

*As you might imagine, I have received about two billion jillion shmillion emails the last few days about the Yankees payroll screed I wrote a few days ago -- even though I specifically suggested that Yankees fans skip it. I have not wanted to respond because I think that sort of defeats the purpose. The idea was just to spark a conversation about the Yankees, and it has done that much more than I ever expected.

Also I don't quite know how to respond because 90 percent of the angry emails I've seen demand that I defend something I never said and don't believe. Still, I tried my best to respond to a few or the more popular complaints in my blog.

Anyway, back to Jeter. I have to tell you: I'm really not at all perturbed about Derek Jeter winning the Gold Glove this year. Do I think Jeter was the best defensive shortstop in the American League? No, not really. But unlike Gold Gloves past, I think that Jeter had a good defensive year. I don't know if it was better positioning or, as reported by good friend Ian O'Connor, that Jeter really increased his flexibility by working out with a new trainer. But whatever the case, I picked up from the statistics*, from scouts and from my own meager scouting skills that Jeter was significantly better defensively in 2009.

*Jeter, for the first time, had a positive Dewan plus/minus. It's actually quite stark:

2004: -16
2005: -34
2006: -22
2007: -34
2008: -11
2009: +5

Jeter also, for the first time, had a positive UZR -- though three times he was for all practical purposes an average shortstop:

2002: -0.2 runs
2003: -2.2
2004: -0.4
2005: -14.3
2006: -6.8
2007: -15.3
2008: -0.5
2009: +6.6

And, to be honest about it, there wasn't a real obvious choice for Gold Glove shortstop in the American League -- there has not been for years, which is why Jeter has won four Gold Gloves now. There is no widely accepted American League defensive genius the way there was when Omar Vizquel played short or Tony Fernandez or Mark Belanger.

The best defensive shortstop in the American League in my view was Texas' Elvis Andrus. He had great defensive numbers and scouts gushed about him and he had that "he seems awesome" factor. If you watched him play a couple of times, chances are you saw him make a dazzling defensive play.*

*The "He seems awesome" factor can trick you -- the first couple of years I thought Yuniesky Betancourt had it. He made enough great plays that people in other towns who only caught a fleeting glance would think, "This guy is a great defensive player." He was not great even then, and of course he is not even average now. But it was easy to fall into that trap.

Andrus could have won the Gold Glove -- I would have voted him the Gold Glove -- but to be fair he was just a rookie, and he did make 22 errors, and you can understand why the managers and coaches went with Jeter.

Baltimore's Cesar Izturis could have won the Gold Glove -- he probably had the best overall defensive numbers, and he had won a Gold Glove in the past, and he does have a reputation through the league as a defensive star. But he only played 114 games -- Jeter played 153. That's a huge difference. I think you could make a viable case for Jeter here.

Same is true for Detroit's Adam Everett. It seems pretty clear to me and others that Everett is a better defensive shortstop than Jeter every day of the year and twice on Sundays (if there's a doubleheader). In fact, in 2006, Bill James wrote a scathing and fascinating essay on Jeter's defense using Everett's awesome defense (Everett was a preposterous +41 on the Dewan plus/minus) as a counterpoint. But, Everett's not quite that good now, and anyway he only played 116 games.

Angels' shortstop Erick Aybar could have won the Gold Glove -- I think you could make a compelling case that he's a better defensive shortstop than Jeter. But, I also think you could make a compelling case that Jeter was better this year. Their UZR difference is negligible, Jeter's plus/minus is better, Jeter started 12 more games at short. And my own impression of Aybar's defense is that he's good but not necessarily great, and I would say that picking Aybar would not have been any more fulfilling than picking Jeter.

So... yes, I'm saying that I think Jeter is actually a fair Gold Glove pick. I would not have picked him -- as mentioned, I would have picked Andrus -- but I think this was a pretty good year to give Jeter the Gold Glove. Now, I feel just as strongly that his previous three Gold Glove wins were all pure lunacy. And I also think this is where the Jeter Gold Glove run ends -- Jack Wilson, who won the Fielding Bible Award at short, should play the full year in the American League, and Andrus will be established and I think he could win quite a few before he's done. Assuming they play 140 or so games, either one of them is likely to be a much better defender than Jeter next year.