Was Max Kepler Robbed of a Gold Glove Nomination?

Yes.  Renfroe had a great season throwing people out, but otherwise is at best, an average defender.  Playing outfield defense is more than having a strong arm.  Reggie Jackson and Willie Stargell had strong arms.  But nobody ever considered either a Gold Glove caliber defender.  Max should have been in the mix over Renfroe.

I don't know.  Defensive choices are always questionable.  No one has come up with a truly excellent defensive metric and I do not know if we overrate him here in Twins land.  

11 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I don't know.  Defensive choices are always questionable.  No one has come up with a truly excellent defensive metric and I do not know if we overrate him here in Twins land.  

All the metrics love Kepler's defense. Even over at fangraphs he's the best fielding RF in the AL. Yes he got snubbed. The major component of selection is managers and coaches. Being mostly cynical of all things these days, I'm not sure how robust their effort is in making their selections or if there is back room shenanigans going on. Sometimes effortless excellence gets overlooked. Snubbed I say, snubbed.

The ones that were nominated I'm sure are excellent RFs but yes he got snubbed. If you look at everything Kepler would debatably be the top choice. I don't trust the formulas in which a player is evaluated but I agree with Ace that Kepler dominated. Judging players by errors is archaic,  IMO Statcast should be the standard even for the INF. If a player can't make the makeable out, I don't care how few errors he make.

Definately a gold glove article.  Well written, great examples, nicest videos.  My question is would he win the gold glove? If not no worries. If so he was robbed like DJ LaMehieu fly ball to right field.

Yes, we waz robbed.

6 hours ago, AceWrigley said:

All the metrics love Kepler's defense. Even over at fangraphs he's the best fielding RF in the AL. Yes he got snubbed. The major component of selection is managers and coaches. Being mostly cynical of all things these days, I'm not sure how robust their effort is in making their selections or if there is back room shenanigans going on. Sometimes effortless excellence gets overlooked. Snubbed I say, snubbed.

It's something how some players make difficult plays look easy and get overlooked and others make easy plays look hard and people are in awe.

The Gold Glove Award lost luster for me when Rafael Palmeiro won it 1999 and played a total of 28 games a 1B. Also, Jeter winning all those years when he clearly wasn't the best SS in the AL.

I suspect the fact that Kepler only played 97 games in RF and 121 overall may have hurt him? 

If I recall correctly the majority of the award is a vote. Subjective awards may get players raises but is other wise just as meaningless as the top dog at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show