There were a couple of surprises during tonight's presentation of the 2015 Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners. However, the Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks proved why they're among the best defensive teams in the MLB.
Here are your 2015 Gold Glove winners, which were announced on ESPN2 on Tuesday night:
American League
C Salvador Perez, KC
1B Eric Hosmer, KC
2B Jose Altuve, HOU
3B Manny Machado, BAL
SS Alcides Escobar, KC
LF Yoenis Cespedes, DET/NYM
CF Kevin Kiermaier, TBR
RF Kole Calhoun, LAA
P Dallas Keuchel, HOU
National League
C Yadier Molina, STL
1B Paul Goldschmidt, ARZ
2B Dee Gordon, MIA
3B Nolan Arenado, COL
SS Brandon Crawford, SFG
LF Starling Marte, PIT
CF A.J. Pollock, ARZ
RF Jason Heyward, STL
P Zack Greinke, LAD
Perez, Hosmer, Keuchel, Molina, Arenado, Heyward and Greinke took home their second consecutive Gold Gloves. Altuve, Escobar, Cespedes, Kiermaier, Calhoun, Gordon, Crawford, Marte and Pollock claimed their first awards tonight.
Each year MLB managers and coaches vote to decide who fielded their position best (they cannot vote for their own players). They account for 75% of the voting process while the other 25% is determined by a statistical component, SABR Defensive Index, which was introduced in 2013.
"The SABR Defensive Index draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball, location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts," according to SABR.org.
Some notable star defensive players that fell short include SS Andrelton Simmons (ATL), OF Alex Gordon (KC), OF Kevin Pillar (TOR) and OF Mike Trout (LAA), although every 2015 winner is certainly well deserved.
