I’ll start in the American League, where Matt Wieters claimed his second gold glove as the Orioles backstop.  Rays pitcher Jeremy Hellickson and White Sox pitcher Jake Peavy will share the award this year.  At 3rd base Adrian Beltre won his 4th gold glove, while at shortstop J.J. Hardy grabbed his first one.  Everybody’s favorite in KC, Robinson Cano, was awarded his 2nd gold glove tonight.  Eric Hosmer was beat out by Yankees first baseman, Mark Texeira, who collected his 5th award.

Aug 27, 2012; Cleveland, OH, USA; Oakland Athletics right fielder Josh Reddick (16) makes a diving catch in front of center fielder Coco Crisp (4) in the fourth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-US PRESSWIRE

In the outfield, we have Royals left fielder, Alex Gordon, who received his second gold glove award.  I definitely see Gordon winning a few more of these in the future.  Gordon has really come along in his development and transition from the hot corner to being a mainstay in left field.  He is being rewarded again for his efforts this year.  Oriole’s center fielder, Adam Jones, snatched his second career gold glove award.  Finally, wrapping up the American League in right field, Josh Reddick for the A’s grabbed his first gold glove.

In the National League, Yadier Molina, collected his 5th award for the Cardinals.  Slick-fielding pitcher, Mark Buerhle, received his 4th career award, and his first in the National League.  Padres 3rd baseman Chase Headley received his very first award tonight.  Darwin Barney of the Chicago Cubs and Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies grabbed the awards up the middle for the National League.  Nationals first baseman and Fort Scott, Kansas native, Adam LaRoche, earned his first piece of hardware.Jason Heyward claimed his first gold glove as the Atlanta Braves right fielder.  In center field, Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates, also collected his first gold glove.  Finally, winning his 2nd award is Colorado Rockies left-fielder, Carlos Gonzalez.

While the Royals only accounted for one of these awards tonight, there should be several players in the future claiming rights to a gold glove or two.  In my opinion, Salvador Perez should have at least finished as finalist this year.  Even in his injury-shortened season, he was still able to show everyone how advanced he is as a signal caller.  Mike Moustakas will have a tough time winning one as it will be hard to surpass Adrian Beltre as the league’s best defender at the hot corner.  Eric Hosmer is only a year or two away from claiming his first gold glove, and Alcides Escobar should have no trouble winning one after he receives more and more national exposure.

C’mon, you just knew I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to write about Alex Gordon.

The Kansas City Royals best player is a finalist again this season for the honor of being named best defensive player at his position*, and if you’re basing the vote off of all objective measures, it really isn’t close.

*presumably the best defensively player at his position, except for the people that vote for the award don’t watch all the games, and base their tally on offensive numbers too. See: Palmeiro, Rafael.

A couple days ago The Fielding Bible released their award winners and featured this little nugget about the Royals leftfielder:

“(Gordon) lapped the field with his 24 runs saved defensively, his nearest competitors being Martin Prado of Atlanta with 12 and Tampa Bay’s Desmond Jennings with 9 runs saved. Gordon was a unanimous choice for the 2012 Fielding Bible Award, finishing first on every single ballot cast by the panelists.”

No surprise really, to Royals fans, that Gordon gets the love he does with the advanced fielded metrics and to the highlight reel junkies. What is a surprise though is that Gordon actually improved defensively in 2012 over a season ago, which is almost remarkable when you consider the 2011 defensive campaign for Gordon could have been chalked up to a combination of luck and a perfect storm of events.

After posting a 10.5 UZR in 2011 – which was heavily weighted with his arm and ability to throw out runners – Gordon increased his overall numbers to a 14.1 UZR in 2012 thanks to a vast improvement in the one area that received the most criticism, his range (-2.1 RngR in 2011; 4.4 RngR in 2012).

And he would only figure to get better.  Gordon is entering his age 29 season and, after showing the type of durability that is more expected from a player of his level of athleticism and conditioning, we should only figure that he’ll continue to perform at the high level he’s been at the last two seasons. Plus, having yet another year under his belt at a new position could (hopefully) only lead to more good things to come.

Gordon should receive his second Gold Glove award when the announcements are made tomorrow. Now if we could only figure out how Alcides Escobar was left off the list of finalist for shortstops.

Back in May of 2010, Alex Gordon was jettisoned to Omaha to learn left field. After coming up through the minors as a College Baseball Player of the Year and 2006′s Minor League Player of the Year as a third baseman, the demotion and position shift seemed like a last ditch effort before giving up on the second overall pick in 2005.

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Now, Alex Gordon has a Gold Glove for his mantle, but not at third.

I guess the shift to the outfield was a good idea.

We covered the numbers behind the Gold Glove finalists earlier today so we don’t have to rehash those now. Gordon won the Gold Glove in left field after leading the majors in assists and putting up a .991 fielding percentage. Jeff Francoeur, a finalist in right field, did not win his second Gold Glove award, as Nick Markakis of Baltimore earned it over him.

Gordon’s award is the first of his career and the first Royals Gold Glove since Mark Grudzielanek in 2006.

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