Will any Orioles strike gold?
The Rawlings Gold Glove Awards will be announced on a special ESPN2 telecast Tuesday night at 10 p.m. (EDT), so you should probably switch over from Parenthood or Body of Proof long enough to see if any Orioles are in the mix.
If I were a betting man – and somebody actually took bets on who would win the 18 Gold Gloves – I would put my entire Orioles bankroll on Matt Wieters to take home the hardware at his position. He had a terrific year behind the plate and (though it shouldn’t matter but does) had very solid offensive numbers for a catcher. He's a finalist alongside White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski and Detroit's Alex Avila.
Orioles fans can easily make a case for several more O’s, including terrific all-around shortstop J.J. Hardy, the too-long-ignored Nick Markakis and 2009 Gold Glove winner Adam Jones. It’ll be interesting to see how the rule change that now awards a Gold Glove to each outfield position (instead of honoring the top three outfielders in each league regardless of where exactly they play) will impact the voting, which is done by the managers and coaches.
I’m guessing that hurt Jones, who already is on the outside looking in. He was not listed among the finalists in a release that went out from ESPN about tomorrow night's broadcast. The old format tended to favor center fielders, so the change could possibly help Markakis for the same reason. He annually is among the leaders in assists and this year did not make an error in 157 games in right field. He's a finalist in right field along with Angels veteran Torii Hunter and Kansas City's Jeff Francoeur.
Right or wrong, big offensive numbers tend to impact the Gold Gloves, so Hunter may actually be the better bet to win the award in right field since he had the best all-around statistics and won nine Gold Gloves as a center fielder before moving to right.
It’s hard to imagine anybody being more deserving than Hardy at shortstop after a comeback season in which he hit 30 home runs and led American League shortstops in fielding percentage, but he's up against a couple of guys -- Erick Aybar and Asdrubal Cabrera -- who had big years for contending teams. Cabrera also had a terrific offensive season (25 homers, 92 RBI), but made 15 errors and had fewer total chances and assists than Hardy even though he played a full season and Hardy missed a several weeks with an injury.
The Gold Glove voting system is still open to question, since a lot of players over the years have gotten trophies based on factors that probably shouldn’t outweight their pure defensive performance, but they got it right with Brooks 16 straight times, so all is forgiven in advance.
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A Baltimore native, 
Comments
Yes Wieters. Hardy will finish behind Cabrera. Jones... way back. Markakis even farther back. though he deserves to be no farther back than Jones.
Posted by: DonM | October 31, 2011 6:22 PM
Don, there are 3 finalists at each position, Jones is not one - the other three are, so the furthest Nick and JJ can be is 3rd.
Posted by: Jeff | October 31, 2011 11:36 PM
This is a popularity contest, too.
Brooks won in some years when he didn't make the least errors or have the highest fielding percentage.
Brooks was simply the best defensive 3rd baseman ever to put on a Rawlings.
Posted by: Dennis in WV | November 1, 2011 7:55 AM
Wieters has a good shot. He allowed only 56 stolen bases, which is insane. How many times did he throw out Carl Crawford. Overall, his defense is well documented
JJ Hardy would be a great choice, but then he's also against Alexi Ramirez (Chi) and Alcides Escobar (KC). Cabrera would be a tragedy. With that said, I predict Elvis Andrus.
I'm gonna go out on a limb - Markakis and Jones are EXTREMELY OVERRATED for their defense. Or at least in Bmore. I like Markakis' fielding better then Jones' I guess. Nick has one of the better arms in the league and Jones has arguably the best arm among Centerfielders. I'll give that much. After that, Markakis shows mediocre range while Jones has the worst range among all Outfielders in the league. If I had a handle on anything, I would put Jones in LF and find a better Centerfielder. So, niether come close for my vote. A few flashy plays and Web Gems don't cut it for me.
With that said, my Outfield pick would go to:
LF - Brett Gardner or Alex Gordon
CF - Jacoby Ellsbury or Franklin Gutierrez
RF - David DeJesus or Nick Swisher
But, being that the voters like continuity in these awards with no real set standards, it will probably be a totally random (and questionable) set of names.
Posted by: dave in glen burnie | November 1, 2011 9:43 AM
agree with dave. Jones and Markakis are laughably overrated as defenders, jones for his occasional flash and Markakis because, well, apparently O's fans still think it's 2008.
Posted by: shf9 | November 1, 2011 11:16 AM
I see Wieters has won the Fielding Bible best defensive catcher award.
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One down ...
Posted by: DonM | November 1, 2011 11:58 AM
Markakis is at best an average corner outfielder. One of the reasons Markakis does not make errors is because he has such limited range that he only attempts to make plays on flyballs that are hit very close to him, and therefore the ball rarely glances off his glove. Jones is very overrated for his defense as well.
Posted by: Marlon | November 1, 2011 2:30 PM
Dave from Glen Burnie........ Really??? I just read your post and I am just shaking my head confused. You were naming guys for the gold glove who are not even in the running for the gold glove. On top of that you said Adam Jones has no range?? The dude won a gold glove already and has great range and a great arm, no idea where that comment came from. I might sort of agree with Markakis having mediocre range, but still the dude made no errors and had 14 OF assists thats getting it done right there, he flat out deserves to finally win a gold glove, even though I have a feeling he won't because the voters always hold him down.
Wieters has the Gold Glove wrapped up and if he does not win, then the award has no credibility. JJ Hardy had the top fielding percentage of any SS, that alone should win him the gold glove, but out of the 3 he is least likely to win it and because the Orioles are terrible team I have a feeling only one of the 3 will win a gold glove, which is not right, but most likely will be true.
Posted by: Andy | November 1, 2011 3:15 PM