National League Gold Gloves: Where The Winners Keep Winning

MLB announced the winners of the Gold Gloves for the National League Wednesday, a day after they picked the American League list. You can read our breakdown by the numbers for the AL here.

Again, we'll take a look at the NL squad by looking at the numbers. Based on simple defensive statistical metrics, who should have won the award compared to who actually won the award. For full disclosure, different numbers tell different stories, and some numbers flat out lie, so we do our best to give an empirical argument for each position.

First Base
Adrian Gonzalez won the award for the second time and, based on the numbers, deserved to do so. His 3.8 UZR is tops in the NL for first basemen with only Derek Lee coming close with 3.7. He had seven errors, which is one more than Lee and five more than Adam LaRoche, but he did have 136 assists, which was second-best in the league.

Albert Pujols could make a case for the award -- especially when we know voters habitually attribute offensive stats to the defensive award – after leading the league in assists (184) and putouts (1437) while recording by far the highest Range Factor of 10.4. But A-Pu (do people call him A-Pu?) only had a UZR of 1.3, thanks in part to his 13 errors. This one is close, so maybe voters thought Pujols wins enough awards and gave it to someone else.

Second Base
Get ready for some yelling and screaming on this one – just not from me. People have already started ranting online about how Chase Utley got snubbed for this award, and if you go by the numbers, he certainly did. Utley's 10.8 UZR is far higher than the next best at the position, Felipe Lopez, with 7.8. And Utley's Range Factor is second best in the league to Kaz Matsui. But he had 12 errors (Lopez had 17) and his fielding percentage was below Freddy Sanchez, Brandon Phillips, Matsui, David Eckstein and Orlando Hudson.

For this argument, it's clear Utley deserved the award, but I watched almost every Phillies game this season and while Utley made some spectacular plays in the field, he also missed some relatively routine plays and didn't get to some ground balls you'd expect your second baseman to get to. I guess what I'm saying is, sometimes the eye test confuses the issue, as Utley never looked like he was playing Gold Glove second base this year. But that still doesn't excuse the voters for picking Hudson of all players, who had a UZR of -3.3 and was eventually replaced in his own lineup. I understand that a manager's decision to pull a player has no bearing on his defensive ability, but if Joe Torre thought Hudson was the best defender in the league this season, would he have so readily taken him out of the lineup?

Hudson won this award because Hudson won three times before. There's no other way to look at this.

Shortstop
Jack Wilson might have a heart attack. Clearly, Wilson was the best shortstop in the National League this year, but he was traded in the great Pittsburgh exodus and ended the season in Seattle. Wilson only played 74 games in the NL this season so he's lost in the interleague ether.

The award did go to Jimmy Rollins who pulls in the award for the third-time in his career. Much like the American League with Jeter, this year may be a lifetime achievement award for Rollins. He's a great defender to watch, and far more important to the Phillies success up the middle defensively than Utley who had better numbers at his position. So if Utley wasn't going to win, maybe that's why Rollins, in fact, did. His numbers are good with a 2.7 UZR and only six errors with a .990 fielding percentage which was best in the league for eligible players.

Rafael Furcal led the league with a UZR of 8.0 but had 20 errors and a .968 fielding percentage. There is no way voters would pick a shortstop with 20 errors to win this award. What's interesting is that ESPN's Rob Neyer leads his column ripping voters for picking who they picked last year – in part I agree – but threw this line in there:

If you're a voter and you really don't care who wins the Gold Gloves, your job is easy: You simply vote for who you voted for last year, or you vote for the player with the highest fielding percentage. Jimmy Rollins scored on both points, and one wonders if the voters have any idea that Troy Tulowitzki was again the best shortstop in the National League, just as he was in 2007 (when Rollins won his first Gold Glove).

Oh, I forgot the other Lazy Voter's Rule: Vote for the player with the most impressive non-fielding stats.

Clearly the second shot was not a shot at Rollins, and it doesn't explain the decisions at first or second base, where Pujols and Utley would have won the award in the NL. Tulo's numbers were good – he had 433 assists and helped turn 81 double plays, with a Range Factor of 4.3 – but Miguel Tejada had better numbers in all three of those stats. Of course, Tejada also had 21 errors to Tulo's nine and had a UZR that was worst in the league at -13.9, but Tulo himself was below average with a -1.2 UZR. So it seems only some numbers matter to some people and others to others. Tell that, then, to Ryan Theriot or J.J. Hardy who easily could make a claim they deserved this award over Rollins.

Third Base
The voters got this one right, as Ryan Zimmerman won the award, likely in a landslide – at least if the numbers tell us anything. His 18.1 UZR was more than double the next highest third-baseman. Kevin Kouzmanoff could have some grounds to complain with a UZR of 7.0 but a fielding percentage that was nearly 20 points higher than anyone else at the position. That said, his Range Factor was far lower than Zimmerman's. I guess it's easy to only have three errors when you're fielding balls hit right to you.

Catcher
There is no UZR for catchers, but Yadier Molina took home the award and rightfully so, especially if you consider calling the game behind the plate part of the defense. Molina also had 82 assists, which was second best in the league, while allowing just 32 stolen bases and throwing out 22 runners.

Pitchers
There is no UZR for pitchers as well, but the award went to Adam Wainwright who had no errors this season and was tops in the league in putouts. I guess hustling over to first to cover the bag gets you votes. His teammate Joel Pinerio also had 27 putouts and more assists, and a higher range factor. Could that one error, which lowered his fielding percentage to .983, have decided who got the Gold Glove?

Outfield
Shane Victorino, Michael Bourn and Matt Kemp all won the award, and none of the three were in the top four in UZR for outfielders. Nyjer Morgan had a 27.8 and 13 outfield assists in 119 games, but there was no way the voters would pick a rookie, who was traded, to win a Gold Glove. Randy Winn had a UZR of 16.5 and played 180 games with no errors, but his Range Factor was terrible. Mike Cameron had a 10.0 UZR and Colby Rasmus likely fell into the same situation as Morgan, with a 9.8 UZR for the first-year player.

Bourn was next with a UZR of 8.6 and a Range Factor of 2.5. Kemp had a UZR of 2.6 with 14 outfield assists while Victorino had an inexplicable UZR of -4.1, clearly just getting the award based on the fact that he won it last year and makes the occasional spectacular play.

But yet again, here's where numbers lie. Raul Ibanez had a UZR of 8.0, sixth-best for those eligible, but was absolutely the third best outfielder on his team. In fact, if anyone of the Phillies All-Star outfielders should have won the award, it probably should have been Jayson Werth. But centerfielders usually rule the Gold Gloves, and this year is no exception.

In conclusion, it's pretty obvious that with 15 games on nearly every night, there's no way voters are actually watching all these players. They're voting by watching the highlights (he leads the league in Web Gems!) and by the numbers. Voters might just want to think about, in some cases, using different numbers.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.