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That isn't to say he was not a good pitcher - my own attempts to account for the impact a pitcher does have on batted balls in play suggested that Palmer was a really solid inning=eater...ran a career defense neutral run average (+) of something like 118...which makes him a bubble candidate for the HOF in the same vein as, say, Tom Glavine.
But the dude pitched in front of some of the greatest team defense anyone has ever witnessed. At the same time, they had FOUR players on their roster who were in the top 15 all time at their respective positions for defense.
Mark Belanger (SS) regularly won 3-5 games a year WITH THE GLOVE
Paul Blair (CF) regularly won 2-3 games a year with the glove.
Brooks Robinson (3B) is the greatest defensive third baseman of all time (!)
Bobby Grich (2B) was not only a pretty good hitter, but also a top-10 all time firleder at the keystone.
On top of that, you had a series of role players who generally fielded their positions well - everyone from Don Buford to their collection of veteran catchers to some of the pitchers...and then you had Boog Powell - not generally recognized as a good fielder, but was fantastic around the bag at first (just not very rangy - kinda like Justin Smoak).
They also played in old Memorial Stadium - which went through periods of being pitcher-favoring relative to other parks.
And - to be fair to Palmer - the game was different then...league average K rates in the early 70s were around 5.5/9 IP...today it's like 7.3 or 7.5.