Rawlings announced the finalists for the 2013 Gold Glove awards today, and most of the player you'd expect to see were named. Rawlings named three players for each position in each league on their Twitter feed, and the winners will be announced at 8 PM on Tuesday on the Gold Glove awards show on ESPN2.
Without further ado, the American League finalists are…
P: Mark Buehrle, RA Dickey, Doug Fister
C: Joe Mauer, Salvador Perez, Matt Wieters
1B: Chris Davis, Eric Hosmer, James Loney
2B: Robinson Cano, Dustin Pedroia, Ben Zobrist
SS: Alcides Escobar, Yunel Escobar, JJ Hardy
3B: Adrian Beltre, Evan Longoria, Manny Machado
LF: Yoenis Cespedes, Andy Dirks, Alex Gordon
CF: Lorenzo Cain, Jacoby Ellsbury, Adam Jones
RF: Nick Markakis, Josh Reddick, Shane Victorino
As usual, there are some questionable decisions, but this is generally a solid list. I have no idea why Mauer was a finalist after his 75 games behind the plate this season. Davis got the nod based on his offensive prowess, because his defensive statistics are nothing to write home about. Beltre seemed to get nominated based on reputation rather than actual performance. Cespedes and Cain missed large chunks of the year, while Jones and Markakis seemingly got nominated based on reputation, just like Beltre. But all in all, not bad – no Rafael Palmeiro on this list.
Now, the National League.
P: Pat Corbin, Zack Greinke, Adam Wainwright
C: AJ Ellis, Russell Martin, Yadier Molina
1B: Paul Goldschmidt, Adrian Gonzalez, Anthony Rizzo
2B; Darwin Barney, Mark Ellis, Brandon Phillips
3B: Nolan Arenado, Juan Uribe, David Wright
SS: Ian Desmond, Andrelton Simmons, Troy Tulowitzki
LF: Carlos Gonzalez, Starling Marte, Eric Young Jr
CF: Carlos Gomez, Andrew McCutchen, Denard Span
RF: Jay Bruce, Jason Heyward, Gerardo Parra
They did a really good job with hte NL finalists. You can quibbe with the selections of Gonzalez, Young, and Heyward thanks to a lack of playing time, but all were really good defenders when on the field. There's no egregiously bad selection in the National League, which is actually a bit shocking.
Good job, Rawlings…good job.
