Gold Glove Finalists Include Four Giants, Two A's
The World Series is well underway, which means yearly awards are handed out to keep the other 28 teams interested in baseball this time of year. Thursday, the MLB released the three NL and AL Rawlings Gold Glove finalists per position. Among them, four San Francisco Giants and two Oakland A's are in the hunt for some hardware.
For the NL catcher position, Buster Posey will once again be running against Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals and Wilson Ramos of the Washington Nationals. Molina has won the award the last seven seasons, but Posey has the edge statistically. He committed just two errors with a .998 fielding percentage in the catcher position, well ahead of Molina's seven errors and .995 fielding percentage (Ramos also close with six errors and .996 percentage).
Brandon Belt will also be a finalist for first base up against the 2013 winner (Paul Goldschmidt) and last year's winner (Adrian Gonzalez). Belt has the advantage in fielding percentage and errors, but both Goldschmidt and Gonzalez have more double-plays and assists. If you take defensive WAR under consideration, then Goldschmidt should win with his 0.9. The other two weren't even close.
Moving on the the next position, Brandon Crawford should be the favorite to finally win his first Gold Glove award. After a few seasons of outstanding defense, his offense was so mediocre, he never stood out from the other candidates. This year, he was one of the best hitting shortstops in the league in a breakthrough season. His defensive numbers are slightly below the other two (Andeltron Simmons and Adeiny Hechavarria), but he may have finally earned some respect around the league.
The last Giant up for the award, is the surprising Matt Duffy at third base. He is a rookie who is also in the Rookie of the Year discussion, but he holds a strong case for a Gold Glove. His opponents are Todd Frazier and Nolan Arenado. The former has won the award his rookie year in 2013 with the Colorado Rockies, as well as his sophomore year in 2014. With Arenado the clear favorite, Duffy will have a shot stat-wise, committing five fewer errors this season.
It'll be interesting to see how the voters chose the winner this year - there seems to be some tight races in the NL. Despise the Giants winning zero Gold Glove awards since Omar Visquel won one in 2006, they have four legitimate chances to take one home this year. The A's are going to have a tougher time, as Sonny Gray and Josh Reddick are the only finalists.
With Gray going up against three-time winner Marke Buerhle of the Chicago White Sox and last year's winner Dallas Keuchel of the Houston Astros, he will really have to stand out to have a chance. All three pitchers had remarkable seasons this year, but Gray was the only one without an error. That statistic alone could earn him the award.
Reddick, on the other hand, is competing against J.D. Martinez of the Detroit Tigers and Kole Calhoun of the Anaheim Angels. Reddick, 2012 Gold Glove winner, was outstanding a few years ago, butdoesnt have the best shot at the award this year. Martinez played 148 games in right field, only committing two errors for a .993 fielding percentage. Reddick and Kalhoun had six and five errors respectively.
To view the other finalists, click here.