2010 Gold Glove Winners

The 2010 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners were announced yesterday (November 10th). I think that the voters did a very good job this year, with the obvious exception of Jeter - but the gap between his defensive reputation and actual production have been a heated topic for years, and I'm not going to re-hash that debate here. 

Fat Baltimore Note - I think that awarding pitchers GG's is actually a little silly, since they flee the mound like cockroaches exposed to sunlight every time there's a pop-up to the infield...but my opinion counts for very little, and that's as it should be. 

Here are the lists, with the number of gold gloves that each player has won in parenthesis:

American League

P - Mark Buehrle, CHW (2)

C - Joe Mauer, MIN (3)

1B - Mark Teixeira, NYY (4)

2B - Robinson Cano, NYY (1)

3B - Evan Longoria, TBR (2)

SS - Derek Jeter, NYY (5)

OF - Ichiro Suzuki, SEA (10)

OF - Franklyn Gutierrez, SEA (1)

OF - Carl Crawford, TBR (1)

 Buerhle deserves to win every year, in my opinion, as does Ichiro and Gutierrez. If you haven't seen Franklyn Gutierrez go after a ball in the gap, you're missing something - he looks like an Antelope with a glove on. Amazing range. Carl Crawford has always been an excellent OF, but a relatively weak arm has kept him in LF, and has probably cost him the award in years past. Robinson Canoe only made 3 (3!) errors all year, and has good range - that was also a nice choice.

National League
P - Bronson Arroyo, CIN (1)
C - Yadier Molina, STL (3)
1B - Albert Pujols, STL (2)
2B - Brandon Phillips, CIN (2)
3B - Scott Rolen, CIN (8)
SS - Troy Tulowitzki, COL (1)
OF - Michael Bourn, HOU (2)
OF - Carlos Gonzalez, COL (1)
OF - Shane Victorino, PHI (3)

I have no idea whether Bronson can field, but he plays the guitar and chicks dig him, so he's cool with me. Yadier is the skinniest of the Molina brothers, but it's a good thing he's a catcher, because he's just as slow as the others (think old wrinkly turtle, in the hot sun)... but he's got a great defensive rep; catchers are hard to judge unless you see them every day and talk to the pitchers, so I'll leave that one to the voters. One other thing I should mention - Scott Rolen is practically a SS playing 3B, and despite injuries, age, etc... is also one of those guys that should win every year. Great hands, arm, instincts, range, etc... you name it. One of my favorite players.