Andrelton Simmons and Jason Heyward Win Gold Glove Awards for The Atlanta Braves

The 2014 Gold Glove Awards were announced on Tuesday night on ESPN2 and the Atlanta Braves had three players up for these awards.  Andrelton Simmons, Jason Heyward and Justin Upton.

The National League shortstop nominees were Zack Cozart (CIN), Adeiny Hechavarria (MIA) and Andrelton Simmons (ATL).  The National League right field nominees were Gerardo Parra (MIL), Giancarlo Stanton (MIA) and Jason Heyward (ATL).  The National League left field nominees were Starling Marte (PIT), Christian Yelich (MIA) and Justin Upton (ATL).

Simmons and Heyward were almost guaranteed to win at their respected position but Upton was a long shot.

A few stats to consider while looking at each position and three nominees…UZR is Ultimate Zone Rating used by sabermetric statistics to measure fielding to determine how better or worse fielder “x” is compared to the “average” player.  dWAR is defensive Wins Above Replacement.

LEFT FIELD

Marte – .969 fielding percentage, -4.5 dWAR, 1.5 UZR

Yelich – .996 fielding percentage, 4.0 dWAR, 12.8 UZR

Upton – .972 fielding percentage, -7.7 dWAR, -0.9 UZR

RIGHT FIELD

Parra – .980 fielding percentage, -5.4 dWAR, 1.2 UZR

Stanton – .982 fielding percentage, -5.1 dWAR, 1.6 UZR

Heyward – .997 fielding percentage, 17.3 dWAR, 21.1 UZR

SHORTSTOP

Cozart – .984 fielding percentage, 18.7 dWAR, 12.1 UZR

Hechavarria – .979 fielding percentage, -2.2 dWAR, -8.8 UZR

Simmons – .978 fielding percentage, 22.1 dWAR, 15.5 UZR

Looking at these numbers, Cozart had a decent shot at beating Andrelton for the shortstop Gold Glove Award but at the end, Simmons was the man.  Simmons has now won back-to-back Gold Glove Awards and is looking for another piece of hardware…his second Platinum Glove Award in which he won his first last year.

Heyward took home the right fielder Gold Glove Award after a terrific season in the outfield.  This was JHey’s second Gold Glove Award as he won this in 2012.

Yelich went away from Tuesday night with the left fielder Gold Glove Award.  Upton was actually a very huge eye-opening moment for me when I first saw he was one of the last three nominees.  After the season we remember in left field, I think I speak for most Braves fans.

The Platinum Glove Award will be announced on Friday night.  Heyward and Simmons are nominees…Simmons is my pick to win this award.