Dewan: 2016 Fielding Bible Award winners announced
From SABR member John Dewan at ACTA Sports on October 28, 2016:
THE 2016 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS have been officially announced. Of the ten winners this season, four players are first-time Fielding Bible Award winners, while the other six have been honored for their defensive prowess before.
Dustin Pedroia and Andrelton Simmons both won their fourth Fielding Bible Awards. Pedroia reclaimed his title from Ian Kinsler for his fourth win in six seasons. Simmons won his fourth consecutive award despite missing playing time this season. This was the first time that he didn’t win unanimously, however, as he only narrowly beat out Brandon Crawford – 106 to 105 points in the voting.
The only unanimous vote this season was for catcher Buster Posey, who excelled in every defensive aspect of catching and finished with 10 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) more than second-place DRS finisher Yasmani Grandal. Nolan Arenado and Starling Marte were close to winning unanimously with only one voter ranking each player in second place. These are the second Fielding Bible Awards for Posey, Arenado, and Marte, all repeating their titles from last season.
Like Simmons, Dallas Keuchel barely came out on top in the voting for his position this season, winning his third consecutive pitcher Fielding Bible Award. He finished three points ahead of Zack Greinke, despite having only three of the 12 panelists rank him as the number one pitcher. He finished with the fewest points of any of the 2016 Fielding Bible Award winners.
There were four first-time winners in 2016: Center fielder Kevin Pillar, who narrowly beat the 2015 Fielding Bible Award winner Kevin Kiermaier; right fielder Mookie Betts, who led all of baseball in DRS with 32; and Cubs teammates first baseman Anthony Rizzo and multi-position player Javier Baez. The two Cubs helped lead their team to an outstanding 107 DRS, the most by any team since DRS tracking began in 2003.
Read the full article here: http://www.statoftheweek.com
Originally published: October 28, 2016. Last Updated: October 28, 2016.