"Reputation arguably played a key role in Mariners outfielders achieving a record-tying feat and a first-time honor with their gloves.

Ichiro equaled an American League record for outfielders Tuesday by winning his 10th Gold Glove, while teammate Franklin Gutierrez took home the award for the first time. It marked the 11th time the Mariners have achieved multiple wins and the fourth time two Seattle outfielders have captured the honor.

Controversy has dogged the awards for years, with critics arguing that the coaches and managers who vote are going largely off reputation and offense and not actual defensive play. An argument can certainly be made that Ichiro was not among the top three American League outfielders defensively during some prior seasons in his streak while the 2010 campaign by Gutierrez might not have been as stellar defensively as the two others that preceded it.

But it works that way across the board, with top fielders often having to earn a reputation through several years of great glove play, while others coast by on often underserved reputations borne more of their feats at the plate than in the field. Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees quickly comes to mind and his fifth Gold Glove award on Tuesday — beating out top defensive shortstops like Alexei Ramirez of the White Sox and Cliff Pennington of the A's — was greeted with much derision.

Among the worst gaffes in Gold Glove voting came in 1999, when Rafael Palmeiro of the Rangers received the award at first base despite having appeared in only 28 games at the position.

In Seattle's case, some of the reputation factor that enabled Ichiro to continue his streak during lesser years defensively wasn't nearly as blatant. Advanced metrics like Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) and Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) generally show Ichiro as a top-10 outfielder year after year.

This past season, he had the third-highest UZR in the American League and the sixth-best DRS and recently was named a Fielding Bible Award winner as the top right fielder in baseball. The Fielding Bible Awards are relatively new and chosen by a panel of sabermetric and statistics experts as well as top media columnists and tend to rely heavily on advanced defensive metrics.

Ichiro's rankings this year won't get his Gold Glove inclusion much of an argument, unlike, say, in 2005, when he had only the 16th-highest UZR and 14th-best DRS among outfielders in the league. But his reputation helped him get by that season and in some others, like 2007 and 2008, when it was a closer call than this year."