Mark Ellis dives for a ground ball in a June game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Associated Press photo)
The finalists were announced Friday morning. Winners will be announced on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday.
The Dodgers’ five finalists are second only to the Baltimore Orioles, who have six. The Kansas City Royals also have five Gold Glove Award finalists.
This is the third straight year that the finalists have been revealed prior to announcing the winner of each award. Gonzalez is one of just eight players who have been a finalist all three years. While his 11 errors this season were tied for second among NL first basemen, Gonzalez also the second-highest UZR in the league and took part in a league-leading 122 double plays.
Greinke didn’t commit an error in 47 chances this season (he hasn’t been given an error since 2010) and his 31 assists ranked eighth among NL pitchers. Only two NL pitchers started more double plays than Greinke (four).
Mark Ellis ranked fourth in the NL in fielding percentage and range factor per nine innings as a second baseman.
A.J. Ellis’ .997 fielding percentage ranked second among NL catchers (to former Dodger Russell Martin), as did his 44.4 percent caught-stealing rate (to the Reds’ Ryan Hanigan).
Uribe’s .983 fielding percentage led all qualified NL third basemen, as did his 24.0 UZR.
Of the five, only Gonzalez has won the award before — twice with the San Diego Padres and once with the Boston Red Sox. Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, a finalist for the Gold Glove Award each of the last two years, was not nominated this year.
One new component to the Gold Glove selection process this year is the introduction of the SDI (SABR Defensive Index), a statistic used to measure fielding prowess that will account for one-quarter of the award voting. According to the Society for American Baseball Research,
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. The three metrics representing batted ball data include Defensive Runs Saved from Baseball Info Solutions, Ultimate Zone Rating developed by noted sabermetrician Mitchel Lichtman, and Runs Effectively Defended built by SABR Defensive Committee member Chris Dial. The two metrics included in the SDI originating from play-by-play data are Defensive Regression Analysis, created by committee member Michael Humphreys, and Total Zone Rating.
