The Gold Glove Winners Have Been Announced

With no baseball to speak of, it’s now time for the annual award season. And what better award to really kick everything off than the one that doesn’t really do what it sets out to do: The Gold Glove.

While we all appreciate the beauty and grace of a sliding catch or diving snag, the ability of the voters to appropriately catalogue not only the great moments but all the little things like “range” and “not actively being a bad defender” means that we’ve had some pretty terrible selections in the past.

Here is this year’s list courtesy of MLB.com:

American League
C: Matt Wieters, BAL (2nd award)
1B: Mark Teixeira, NYY (5)
2B: Robinson Cano, NYY (2)
3B: Adrian Beltre, TEX (4)
SS: J.J. Hardy, BAL (1)
LF: Alex Gordon, KC (2)
CF: Adam Jones, BAL (2)
RF: Josh Reddick, OAK (1)
P: Tie: Jeremy Hellickson, TB (1); Jake Peavy, CWS (1)

National League
C: Yadier Molina, STL (5)
1B: Adam LaRoche, WAS (1)
2B: Darwin Barney, CHC (1)
3B: Chase Headley, SD (1)
SS: Jimmy Rollins, PHI (4)
LF: Carlos Gonzalez, COL (2)
CF: Andrew McCutchen, PIT (1)
RF: Jason Heyward, ATL (1)
P: Mark Buehrle, MIA (4)

While this year lacks the truly horrendous selections like Derek Jeter or Rafael Palmeiro, there are still a few like Andrew McCutchen who, while he’s fast and fun and really good at hitting the ball, is a serviceable centerfielder at best. Especially when compared to someone like Michael Bourn who is both loved by scouts and spreadsheet fanatics.

At the end of the day, the Gold Glove is really nothing to get too worked up over, but as there is no actual baseball to complain about, let loose the Kraken!