Here we go again: MLB Monday returns for more Gold Glove miniseries action. We have been having a fun time looking at GG vote winners who had no business taking home hardware for their glove work. We know voters in the past made many mistakes; we understand that maybe they didn’t have the best data to make their decisions, but they should have believed their eyes instead of their hearts. Alas, the eternal dilemma!

Here are the “worst” AL GG winners of the first decade this century, in reverse order, and the good news is that better data informed voters to make improved decisions in this decade—to the point we only have a “Bottom Nine” here. Enjoy!

9. Bernie Williams, CF, 2000 (0.0 dWAR): The last of four straight GG vote wins, this was the only where he didn’t post a negative dWAR mark. We discussed this in our AL 1990s piece; perhaps it was the team winning so much which elicited such balloting, but for the final 11 years of his career, he never posted positive dWAR—yet still won four Gold Gloves. Pretty laughable, of course, but the worst is yet to come.

8. Torii Hunter, CF, 2002/2008 (-0.2/0.0 dWAR): Generally, he was an above-average outfielder, but playing on turf in the Metrodome gave him a reputation he probably did not deserve. His career dWAR mark (4.0) trends positive in his early career and negative in later career; the year before 2002 and the year after, though, he also won GG votes with 2.0-plus dWAR efforts. He won nine GGs, overall, so there’s that.

7. Jermaine Dye, RF, 2000 (-0.6 dWAR): This was the only GG vote win of his career, and after that 2001 injury, he was never the same in the outfield. His -10.8 career dWAR mark demonstrates that. However, in this season, he probably was rewarded for the 0.9 dWAR he posted in 1999 without winning the award. His arm was always big time; this is the tail end of that era where voters saw that and not the immobility afield.

6. John Olerud, 1B, 2002 (-0.6 dWAR): He won two other Gold Gloves with positive dWAR marks (2000, 2003), so maybe voters can be forgiven, slightly, for messing this one up. We gave him the 1993 AL MVP despite a negative dWAR effort that season, but that was a rarity. His career dWAR (-1.3) shows him to be mostly average at a position where teams used to hide bad gloves that partnered with live bats. Ho hum.

5. Bret Boone, 2B, 2004 (-0.6 dWAR): This is his second appearance on our lists, and it was the last GG vote he won. This was a third consecutive trophy he won, with a combined 0.1 dWAR in those three seasons. The other two were positive dWAR efforts, but this one was not in his age-35 season. His career dWAR mark (-0.9) reflects his inconsistency, as he did post 1.7 dWAR in 2001 without winning the vote. See the pattern?

4. Mark Teixeira, 1B, 2006/2009 (0.0/-0.6 dWAR): Another inconsistent defender with a -0.9 career dWAR mark, he won these two GG votes with different teams (Los Angeles, New York). Overall, he won five Gold Gloves in his career, but three were undeserved as he will show up again in a future piece in this miniseries. The two years he did deserve it? Were 2005 and 2012 when he combined for 1.5 dWAR. So weird.

3. Ichiro Suzuki, RF, 2002/2009 (-0.7/-0.2 dWAR): Even good fielders have off seasons, and this is the case here for a legend with 5.4 dWAR overall in his career. He won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves from 2001-2010, but these two were not warranted; he also will show up in our next AL entry for these analyses. Overall, he was a good fielder in most seasons during his prime, but again, even good glove men lay occasional bad eggs.

2. Doug Mientkiewicz, 1B, 2001 (-0.8 dWAR): We find this one funny since the Boston Red Sox traded for him once to solidify their infield defense. But it was not until his sixth year in the majors (2003) that he finally posted positive dWAR. This season was obviously before that, and his career number (-0.7 dWAR) doesn’t scream much in terms of a great glove. But it was a breakout offensive season for him, so … yeah.

1. Derek Jeter, SS, 2004-2006 (-0.3/-1.8/-0.7 dWAR): For anyone paying attention, this has been obvious for a long time. Of the five GG votes he won, only one of them was in a year when he posted positive dWAR. These were the first three Gold Gloves he won, and he didn’t deserve any of them. His reputation on defense was built on New York media hyperbole and lies, really. He never won an MVP, so was this overcompensation?