Congratulations to Evan Longoria for winning the AL 2009 Gold Glove at third base. This annual vote is typically a popularity contests because it uses no kind of statistical analysis whatsoever outside of error total and possibly fielding percentage from the voters but the only other American League third baseman who even belongs in the same conversation is Adrian Beltre. Meanwhile, Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton were left empty-handed because the voters chose Torii Hunter and Adam Jones along with Ichiro Suzuki. I don’t have much beef with Ichiro but if you told me that Hunter and Jones were better defensive players than Crawford and Upton in 2009, I might call you Joe Morgan because the metrics beg to differ. If you want to understand the voting process, check this out. I could stomach the Rays outfielders losing to the likes of Nelson Cruz or Franklin Gutierrez, but definitely not Hunter and Jones.
