When Major League Baseball hands out the 2012 Gold Glove awards Tuesday night, there won’t be any Toronto Blue Jays taking home any hardware.
On Monday, MLB released the list of nominees and the Blue Jays were one of just two American League teams (Minnesota Twins being the other) to not have a player listed amongst the 28 finalists.
Toronto third baseman Brett Lawrie, shortstop Yunel Escobar, centre fielder Colby Rasmus and right fielder Jose Bautista were all praised at times for their defensive play in 2012 so we thought we’d break down the numbers and compare the Blue Jays’ top individual defenders against those the voters (MLB managers and coaches) have deemed as the top three candidates at their respective positions.
We looked at four statistics, two classic defensive metrics such as errors and fielding percentage and two modern indicators such as ultimate zone rating and range runs.
According to Fangraphs.com, UZR attempts to put a run value to defense, and quantify how many runs a player saved or gave up through their fielding.
As Fangraphs explains, there are different components to UZR:
-Outfield Arm Runs (ARM) – The amount of runs above average an outfielder saves with their arm by preventing runners to advance. -Double-Play Runs (DPR) – The amount of runs above average an infielder is in turning double-plays. -Range Runs (RngR) – Is the player an Ozzie Smith or an Adam Dunn? Do they get to more balls than average or not? -Error Runs (ErrR) – Does the player commit more or fewer errors compared with a league-average player at their position?
Who do you think should win the 2012 Gold Glove at shortstop?
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Who do you think should win the Gold Glove at third base in 2012?
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Who do you think should win the 2012 Gold Glove at centre field?
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Who do you think should win the 2012 Gold Glove at right field?
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