Tonight, the Chicago Cubs landed two Gold Glove award winners, with Anthony Rizzo taking home his first award at first base, and Jason Heyward landing his fourth nod in right field (and third in a row). For a historically good defense, you were definitely expecting at least a couple individual awards.
Rizzo also won The Fielding Bible Award at first base (and Javy Baez took it for the multi-position spot). Heyward lost out to Mookie Betts on that one, as it is an MLB-wide award at each position. Both Rizzo and Heyward were at the top of SABR’s defensive index rankings at their respective positions.
Among your favorite defensive memories this year, I suspect you remember Anthony Rizzo’s ridiculous wall catch and Jason Heyward’s injury-inducing diving catch in San Francisco. Even more impressive, though, perhaps, were Rizzo’s constant crashes down on bunts, and Heyward’s precise rocket throws from the outfield.
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Addison Russell lost out tonight to Brandon Crawford for the Gold Glove at shortstop, which is no shame, given how good Crawford is. But Russell did edge out Crawford on the sabermetric component of the voting, which means it was the coaches and managers that gave the nod to Crawford:
NL SS was ultra-competitive. @RawlingsSports #GoldGlove winner: Brandon Crawford of @SFGiants. 2nd in #SABR Defensive Index at 15.6. pic.twitter.com/72lf44GNGD
— SABR (@sabr) November 9, 2016
Well, we’ll always have Crawford’s NLDS errors and Russell’s utterly unbelievable catch.
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Jake Arrieta was also a finalist, but Zack Greinke won the award for pitchers in the NL. Interestingly, Greinke was third in the SABR defensive index, behind Arrieta … and Bartolo Colon:
Zack Greinke of @dbacks wins his 3rd @RawlingsSports #GoldGlove Award. Third among NL pitchers in #SABR Defensive Index at 3.6. pic.twitter.com/fT72hA2MxQ
— SABR (@sabr) November 9, 2016
In a criminal twist, Bartolo Colon was not even a finalist. Rigged.
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