Brian Jordan: The Gold Gloves' biggest snub?

Since 1961, here are the outfield leaders in WAR Runs-Fielding:

Rk	Player	Rfield	From	To	Age	G	Pos	Tm
1	Andruw Jones	243	1996	2011	19-34	2102	*89/D73	ATL-LAD-TEX-CHW-NYY
2	Barry Bonds	191	1986	2007	21-42	2986	*78/D9	PIT-SFG
3	Carl Yastrzemski	183	1961	1983	21-43	3308	*73D8/59	BOS
4	Paul Blair	174	1964	1980	20-36	1947	*8/974D56	BAL-NYY-TOT
5	Brian Jordan	162	1992	2006	25-39	1456	*978/D35	STL-ATL-LAD-TEX
6	Jesse Barfield	161	1981	1992	21-32	1428	*9/8D7	TOR-TOT-NYY
7	Darin Erstad	143	1996	2009	22-35	1654	387/D9	CAL-ANA-LAA-CHW-HOU
8	Devon White	135	1985	2001	22-38	1941	*89/7D	CAL-TOR-FLA-ARI-LAD-MIL
9	Roberto Clemente	132	1961	1972	26-37	1662	*9/8	PIT
10	Ichiro Suzuki	122	2001	2011	27-37	1749	*98/D	SEA
11	Kenny Lofton	108	1991	2007	24-40	2103	*8/7D9	HOU-CLE-ATL-TOT-NYY-PHI-LAD
12	Willie Wilson	108	1976	1994	20-38	2154	*87/9D	KCR-OAK-CHC
13	Sammy Sosa	104	1989	2007	20-38	2354	*98D/7	TOT-CHW-CHC-BAL-TEX
14	Garry Maddox	101	1972	1986	22-36	1749	*8/79	SFG-TOT-PHI
15	Willie Davis	101	1961	1979	21-39	2407	*8/97D	LAD-MON-TOT-SDP-CAL

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/15/2011.

(If we credited full career stats for those above who also played before 1961, Clemente would move up to #2 with 204 runs. Willie Davis would improve only slightly, to 104 runs.)

All but two of these players won at least one Gold Glove Award, and all but three were multiple winners. The two who never won a Gold Glove were:

-- Sammy Sosa, who had outstanding defensive stats in his 20s. For the 5 years 1993-97, Sosa led all MLB outfielders in dWAR, and by a hefty margin, 99 runs for Sosa, 80 for #2 man Griffey; and

-- Brian Jordan, one of the most under-recognized fielding wizards of our time. For the 7 years 1995-2001, Jordan ranked just below Andruw Jones in defensive value, and miles above all other OFs:

Rk	Player	Rfield	From	To	Age	G	Pos	Tm
1	Andruw Jones	151	1996	2001	19-24	827	*89/7	ATL
2	Brian Jordan	138	1995	2001	28-34	902	*9/8D35	STL-ATL
3	Darin Erstad	78	1996	2001	22-27	785	378/D9	CAL-ANA
4	Mike Cameron	72	1995	2001	22-28	747	*8/9D7	CHW-CIN-SEA
5	Sammy Sosa	69	1995	2001	26-32	1067	*9/8	CHC
6	Kenny Lofton	65	1995	2001	28-34	938	*8/D	CLE-ATL
7	Mark Kotsay	59	1997	2001	21-25	587	*98/37	FLA-SDP
8	Luis Gonzalez	58	1995	2001	27-33	1062	*7/D83	TOT-CHC-HOU-DET-ARI
9	Darren Lewis	56	1995	2001	27-33	849	*89/7D	TOT-CHW-BOS
10	Bobby Abreu	54	1996	2001	22-27	693	*9/7D8	HOU-PHI
11	B.J. Surhoff	54	1995	2001	30-36	1019	*75/3D298	MIL-BAL-TOT-ATL
12	Doug Glanville	50	1996	2001	25-30	810	*87/9	CHC-PHI

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/15/2011.

BTW, Jones and Jordan also ranked #1-2 in overall fielding runs in this period, regardless of position.

Since 1954, Jones and Jordan are the only OFs with at least 138 fielding runs in a 7-year span. Jones has the highest 7-year total with 189 runs from 1997-2003.

If there were such a thing as dWAR Awards, Jordan would have won 5 of them in that period, ranking among the NL's top 3 OFs in dWAR in 1995-96, '98, and 2000-01. In that 7-year period, Jordan never tallied less than 12 fielding runs (or 1.2 dWAR), despite missing most of the '97 season. In 5 of those 7 years, he ranked in the NL's top 3 for dWAR at any position.

Finally, here are the 34 players since 1961 with at least 110 fielding runs. All but 4 won a Gold Glove, and all but 5 were multiple winners. Jordan has the most fielding runs of any non-GG winner:

Player	Rfield*	Gold Gloves*
Brooks Robinson	256	16
Andruw Jones	243	10
Mark Belanger	240	8
Ozzie Smith	239	13
Barry Bonds	191	8
Carl Yastrzemski	183	7
Cal Ripken	179	2
Buddy Bell	174	6
Paul Blair	174	8
Ivan Rodriguez	166	13
Robin Ventura	163	6
Brian Jordan	162	--
Jesse Barfield	161	2
Scott Rolen	147	8
Darin Erstad	143	3
Graig Nettles	141	2
Clete Boyer	141	1
Rey Sanchez	139	--
Devon White	135	7
Roberto Clemente	132	12
Omar Vizquel	131	11
Craig Counsell	130	--
Mike Schmidt	128	10
Gary Gaetti	127	4
Ichiro Suzuki	122	10
Frank White	121	8
Placido Polanco	119	3
Keith Hernandez	117	11
Adrian Beltre	115	3
Albert Pujols	115	2
Willie Randolph	114	--
Jim Sundberg	114	6
Gary Carter	112	3
Bill Mazeroski	110	8

*Runs are from 1961 onward; Gold Gloves are career total.

So how did Jordan miss out on the hardware? I won't dwell on the matter, since Gold Glove voting has always been rather capricious. It's true that Jordan never had the kind of eye-popping defensive counting stats that often draw Gold Glove notice; he never had an errorless season (though he had just 20 errors combined in that 7-year span), and his high in assists was 11. But his range factors were always outstanding; he led NL right fielders in RF/9 three times from 1995-2001.