Atlanta Braves Gold Glove candidates stacked up against the rest – part 2
By Fred Owens
We’re a week away from the 2018 Gold Glove announcements with several Atlanta Braves in the running.
Yesterday I compared the candidates for the pitcher, catcher, and first baseman awards, and compared statistics of other nominees with Atlanta Braves players.
I also explained player qualification for the awards, voting procedures, and pointed out why some players might not be eligible.
If you didn’t get a chance to look that over, I suggest you do that now. That way you’ll better understand this post.
Today I’m looking at the nominees for second base, third base, and shortstop to see if selectors snubbed Atlanta Braves players.
Before I dive into the numbers, a quick review of housekeeping in case you’ve forgotten.
Housekeeping
This is the second of three covering; each post covers three positions.
- Pitchers, catchers, first basemen published 10/28/18
- Second base, third and shortstop
- Left field, center field, and right field
The players are in SDI top ten order, not alphabetical. If a player doesn’t have a number in the SDI column, he wasn’t in the top 10 on their list.
I’ve color coded the tables so you won’t go number blind.
| First |
| Second |
| Third |
Players highlighted in gold are the GG nominees.
Today the Fielding Bible formally announced their winners. Their award is independent of leagues so I’ll list the highest NL player and note any AL player ahead of them.
- Pitcher – Zack Greinke
- Catcher – Jeff Mathis
- First Base – Brandon Belt in the NL Matt Olson (Athletics) first overall
Here are some abbreviations you’ll encounter include
- FB Winner – Highest vote-getter for their award
- FBGG – Fielding Bible Gold Glove pick
- FBC – Fielding Bible contender
- SDI – SABR Defensive Index
- Baseball Prospectus – adjusted fielding runs above average (FRAA_Ad ), framing runs (framing)
- Catcher runs above average from framing from StatCorner (SCRAA)
- Total Zone runs above average (Rtot) from each Baseball-Reference player page linked
- DRS and Fangraphs composite defense stat DEF
Now, on to the numbers!