Yadi, Waino are Golden
November 11th, 2009 | by Ryan Boyer |On Wednesday, MLB announced that Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright were winners of 2009 Gold Glove awards.
It was not a surprise at all that Molina took home the honor. It is his second straight, and he allowed half, that’s right, HALF as many steals (32) as second best NL catcher on that list, Jason Kendall (64). He also picked off eight guys, twice as many as the next highest guy on the list.
Wainwright winning the award came a bit out of nowhere. You can bet that if he won 14 games instead of 19, he would have had no chance at winning a Gold Glove, which doesn’t make sense, but is true. Waino is a good athlete, but Joel Pineiro is clearly a superior defender, and Chris Carpenter might be, as well. Both Pineiro and Carpenter ranked higher, according to the Fielding Bible balloting.
Two Cardinals that didn’t win Gold Gloves that had a shot to were Albert Pujols and Brendan Ryan.
Pujols did have 13 errors in ‘09, which is a very high number for a first baseman, but his range is unrivaled and was the best at his position according to a host of defensive metrics.
According to the Fielding Bible, Ryan ranked first in the NL among shortstops with 19 Runs Saved. He was hurt by the fact that he played just 105 games at shortstop, but he was hurt more by the fact that Jimmy Rollins won the award the previous two years, pretty much making him a shoo-in for this year’s award. Sad, but true.
Tags: Adam Wainwright, Albert Pujols, Brendan Ryan, Yadier Molina
