Fielding Bible Announces 2013 Winners

Six first-timers among the winning nine.

Andrelton Simmons (Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports)

In the days where we grow weary of some of the Gold Glove winners and now, finalists, at least we have the Fielding Bible Awards to lean on for recognizing defensive excellence. Yesterday the awards were announced. Here’s your winners with other that received votes in parentheses.

Catcher – Yadier Molina, STL (Russell Martin, PIT; Salvador Perez, KC)
First Base – Paul Goldschmidt, ARI (Anthony Rizzo, CHC)
Second Base – Dustin Pedroia, BOS (Darwin Barney, CHC)
Third Base – Manny Machado, BAL (Nolan Arenado, COL)
Shortstop – Andrelton Simmons, ATL (only unanimous selection)
Left Field – Alex Gordon, KC (Starling Marte, PIT)
Center Field – Carlos Gomez, MIL (Juan Lagares, NYM)
Right Field – Gerardo Parra, ARI (Shane Victorino, BOS)
Pitcher – R.A. Dickey, TOR (Zack Greinke, LAD; Mark Buehrle, TOR)

Simmons set the record with a DRS of 41. Yes, forty-freakin’-one. But he had company in Parra…as far as total. Parra’s DRS was “split” between left (1), center (4) and right field (36).

Unlike Gold Gloves, only one player per position regardless of league is awarded the Fielding Bible’s top honor. A panel of 12 individuals, including the likes of Peter Gammons, Bill James, Brain Kenney vote on the awards.

It is worth noting that among all the players listed above (winners and non-winners), only Lagares was not nominated for a Gold Glove. Of course, that has been a debate since the finalists were announced. As well as some of the finalists.

For the 2012 season, only two Fielding Bible winners, Mike Trout and Brendan Ryan, did not win the Gold Glove.

To read all the details on the voting, head over to the Fielding Bible’s site.