If we want to use the “eye test”, anyone who watches the Colorado Rockies knows DJ LeMahieu is a good fielder. We’ve seen him dive for balls up the middle and get an out to the point they seem routine. We’ve watched him turn double plays with Nolan Arenado, Troy Tulowitzki and Justin Morneau so often that two outs is more often an inevitability than a mere hope. Besides the double plays, often so beautifully smooth that one might forget how difficult they actually are, he’s made a bit of a name for himself by frequently getting to balls hit into the no-man’s land between the first baseman and right field.

But not much of that was known outside of Colorado. Reigning Gold Glove winnertended to generate more headlines with each RBI than LeMahieu did last year. Yet assaid last year to Drew Creasman of Purple Row , “Brandon Phillips is a great player and makes a lot of highlight plays,” says Weiss, “but give me DJ every day of the week.” The campaigning for a Gold Glove did not stop there. Local sources and national columnists also thought highly of him.

That he won was a pretty impressive payoff for a guy who didn’t even play the position full-time until last year, his Gold Glove award-winning year.

I recently got the chance to talk with LeMahieu about his defense. I wanted to know what it was like to win a Gold Glove and what kind of advice he could to young Rockies fans out there. I’ve also added some tidbits and thoughts in response to our conversation which are below in italics.

Richard Bergstrom: When did you first start playing second base? (Middle School, High School, etc.)

DJ LeMahieu: I played shortstop my whole life until I played a little bit of second in college. Then I got to pro ball and I played short, second and third. And then really second base exclusively with the Rockies.

RB: What was one of your favorite fielding drills growing up?

DM: I had an assistant coach in high school who played shortstop at Michigan and he was very big into short hops. We did a lot of short hops and we did a lot of drills where he would challenge our range. And I think that was, for me, being a bigger guy, challenging my range and making sure I could still stay low, that was huge for me at shortstop and the same applies at second base and third base.

RB: Who were some of the players that you liked to watch?

DM: I always liked watching shortstops. I didn’t really have one guy that I watched. There are guys who have range, a lot of range, but there aren’t a lot of tall second basemen. I also liked watching tall hitters.

DJ LeMahieu, listed at 6’4” on Baseball Reference is the tallest second baseman in all of baseball, an inch taller than Neil Walker and Ben Zobrist while the rest hover around 6’1” or less. Among those who played at least 100 games in 2014, he’s also among the 28 tallest full-time players in all of baseball.

RB: Who were some of the hitters?

DM: I liked A-Rod [Alex Rodriguez], I liked Corey Hart, Michael Morse, tall guys.

If Baseball Reference is correct, DJ is taller than A-Rod but just shy of Morse. To catch up to Corey Hart’s 6’6” though, he’d need to wear platform cleats.

RB: What is one thing that was hard for you to learn to do as a fielder?

DM: Turning two, turning double plays. Both fielding at second base and turning. Took me a little while. At shortstop the play is in front of you, second base the play is away.

RB: What aspect of turning double plays was hard?

DM: You just can’t see the runner really. You’re taking the throw from short or third and not really knowing where the runner is, sliding into you. At shortstop, it’s right in front of you. So it’s just knowing the runner, knowing guys who are going to slide hard, guys who probably aren’t. But Nolan [Arenado] and Troy [Tulowitzki] make it easy. They make good throws all the time.

RB: What do you like about playing defense at Coors Field compared to other ballparks?

DM: First of all, our infield is really good, our groundskeepers have done really good. I like to take groundballs on our field more here than anywhere. The only thing different for me is flyballs. Not giving up on anything. With the altitude and you never know with the wind and the outfield, it’s a big outfield, so not giving up on flyballs.

What is one defensive mistake that you think a lot of young players make?

DM: I think it’s two things. The first thing is probably not staying relaxed. I know a lot of times when a groundball gets hit and the younger player freezes up rather than loosens up. It’s kind of the same with hitting. If you’re tight, you’re not going to hit the ball hard, if you’re loose, you’re going to hit the ball hard. I’d say the other thing is working on different arm angles. It’s something that a lot of younger players only throw from one arm slot. Learning other arm slots is huge whether it’s from third, second or short. If you watch Tulo, he doesn’t throw over the top all the time. There are a lot of arm angles. So it’s just working on all of them.

If you do a Google Search for “LeMahieu double play videos“, you’ll see… well, quite a few videos. I actually got confused because of how many good plays were listed. Nonetheless, if you observe the sampling below, you can see a wide range of types of throws and arm slots.

Sometimes they are soft underhand feeds for the double play:

Sometimes they are sidearm slings (though not always from the knees):

And sometimes they are more over-the-top:

Since game situations can be unpredictable, practicing a variety of throws helps get the muscle memory down for each kind of throw you might end up using.

RB: Walt Weiss, not to mention quite a few writers and analysts, campaigned for you to win the Gold Glove. What do you know of the discussion or the metrics talked about?

DM: Not really. I know a lot of people towards the end of the year were saying ‘according to the metrics, you’ve done really well.’ It’s something I don’t really pay attention to. I don’t even know what they stand for. But it was fun getting the award. However I got it, it was very cool.

By the more traditional statistics, in 2014 LeMahieu was second in the National League in Putouts and Assists, trailing only Chase Utley in both categories but LeMahieu was first in the National League in double plays. However, Utley committed 11 errors to LeMahieu’s 6.

Advanced fielding metrics such as Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) or Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) don’t always agree with each other, but when they do agree, it’s further proof that someone did something right. Both metrics measure how many “runs” a fielder was worth above or below an average major league fielder for that position. In those terms, LeMahieu rated as the best second baseman in the National League in 2014 according to both DRS and UZR.

LeMahieu accumulated 16 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) to Utley’s 3 while reigning Gold Glove winner Brandon Phillips netted a 6 DRS. To put that into context, DJ’s defense for the Rockies was worth ten runs more than Phillips was to the Phillies, or the equivalent of one win in the standings according to DRS.

In terms of UZR, the gap is narrower, with LeMahieu earning a UZR of 10.7, above Utley’s 8.2 and Phillips’ 8.1. UZR, like DRS, is a “counting stat”, so part of the difference in both metrics has to do with LeMahieu playing more innings than Utley or Phillips. Even if UZR or DRS is prorated to 150 games for all three players, LeMahieu still comes out on top.

As a fun little tidbit, through games played as of 4/19/2015, 94% of the balls that DJ LeMahieu has fielded (includes groundballs and flyballs but doesn’t include force plays or double plays) resulted in outs. The league average for second basemen is 92%.

RB: How did you find out that you won the Gold Glove?

DM: My agent actually called me at 7 o’clock in the morning a week before it got announced. He wanted me to know. It was very cool. Called my dad, called my wife, so it was cool.

RB: When did you actually receive it?

DM: I got it on Opening Day. They had an award ceremony with me and Nolan Arenado.

Had you seen one before?

DM: I’d seen it in a glass case.

RB: Was there anything about the award that surprised you?

DM: I didn’t know it was actually gold until I held it.

RB: What does getting a Gold Glove mean to you?

DM: Coming up in the minors, it was always like “he could hit but we don’t where’s he going to play?” It’s like, “He’s solid everywhere but he might not have enough range to play second.” I heard all that stuff. So for me, just to win it, it’s to prove to myself and to everyone else that I was one of the best. So it’s more special than anything.

RB: Mantle, mancave or garage? Where is the Gold Glove at?

DM: It’s not displayed yet but it’ll go in the mancave.

According to Tony Paul of the Detroit News, DJ LeMahieu has been pleasantly overwhelmed from winning the award, but perhaps not as overwhelmed as we have been from witnessing such amazing plays as this.

Though we can pardon the broadcasters of that play for not seeing this double play, which happened later in the year and is the best double play I’ve ever seen.

So beautifully smooth that you don’t realize just how difficult that is. But for further enjoyment, feel free to watch the highlight reel below that Major League Baseball put together for his Gold Glove away.