Atlanta Braves Gold Glove Candidates stacked up against the rest
By Fred Owens
Atlanta Braves Julio Teheran is nominated, but will he win
There aren’t many metrics for pitchers. Mostly it’s holding runners – something the Atlanta Braves nominee does well – fielding bunts and covering the base as required.
- FBFV – Fielding Bible Favorite
- FBGG – Fielding Bible Gold Glove pick
- FBC – Fielding Bible contender
| Pitcher | FB FV | FBGG | FBC | SDI | DRS | Inside |
| Clayton Richard |
X |
4.1 | 5 | 52nd | ||
| Julio Teheran | X | 3.2 | 7 | 13th | ||
| Zack Greinke | X | X | 3.0 | 7 | 1st | |
| Patrick Corbin | X | 2.7 | 6 | 20th | ||
| Zack Godley | 1.8 | 3 | 54th | |||
| Tanner Roark | 1.7 | 3 | 19th | |||
| Miles Mikolas | 1.3 | 1 | 65th | |||
| Gio Gonzalez | 1.2 | 2 | 15th | |||
| Zack Wheeler | 1.2 | 1 | 23rd | |||
| Sean Newcomb | 0.8 | 0 | 47th |
The general feeling leans towards Greinke winning. With pitchers – and some other players – reputation is huge.
Catchers
Complicating the catching situation is the number of statistics used.
- 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
First the Fielding Bible preferences.
These are the numbers for catchers.
| Catcher | SDI | DEF | DRS | FRAA_Adj | Rtot | Framing | SC RAA |
| Buster Posey | 5.1 | 6.5 | 10 | 2 | 8.0 | 0.9 | -4.2 |
| Willson Contreras | 3.7 | 14.5 | 2 | -15 | 10.0 | -17.8 | -12.8 |
| Manny Pina | 3.1 | 8.4 | 6 | 6.3 | 8.0 | 4.8 | -4.2 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 0.9 | 8.9 | 9 | 16.3 | 1.0 | 15.7 | 13.8 |
| Tucker Barnhart | 0.8 | 7.5 | -5 | -8.4 | 4.0 | 0.9 | -18.6 |
| Yadier Molina | 0.6 | 7.7 | -1 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 2.3 | -11.5 |
| J.T. Realmuto | 0.1 | 8.2 | -7 | 0.4 | 5.0 | -0.4 | -15.2 |
| Francisco Cervelli | 0.0 | 10.8 | -6 | -6.5 | -3.0 | -5.8 | -13.4 |
| Jorge Alfaro | -1.6 | 9.5 | 0 | 10.2 | -4.0 | 12.3 | -0.3 |
| Kurt Suzuki | -3.8 | 4.4 | -7 | -6.6 | -2.0 | -5.8 | -17.3 |
| Jeff Mathis | 5.5 | 17 | 14.1 | 6.0 | 11.8 | 14.1 | |
| Austin Hedges | 5.2 | 12 | 12.6 | 0.0 | 13.0 | 5.4 | |
| Tony Wolters | 12.0 | 5.2 | 9.6 | -2.0 | 10.2 | 1.2 |
Molina is clearly there due to reputation. Mathis, Hedges and Wolters didn’t qualify.
I highlighted Grandal’s DRS in green because were it not for the Fielding Bible catchers inclusion, he’d be second in that and third in Fangraphs DEF stat.
This vote could go either way Posey’s name probably gives him the edge but Grandal’s numbers are better, particularly in framing runs.