Rollins, Victorino Golden Again
By DAN STAMM
Updated 3:31 PM EST, Wed, Nov 11, 2009
Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins and center fielder Shane Victorino both repeated as Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners.
The recognition for their leather work disn't come as much of a surprise.
J-Roll rolled to his third-straight fielding honor. He was a no-brainer for voters after leading National League shortstops with a .990 fielding percentage and only six errors in 607 chances.
Rollins was the first shortstop to win three-straight Gold Gloves since Rey Ordonez (who?) achieved the feat in the late-90s. But, he still had a long way to go if he plans on ever catching Ozzie Smith’s shortstop record 13 Gold Gloves.
Suga Shane wasn’t clear cut to repeat as a Gold Glove outfielder despite tying for tops among NL center fielders with .997 fielding percentage. He was hurt by his eight assists, which trailed four other center fielders and even both guys on either side of him as Raul Ibanez nailed nine runners and Jayson Werth gunned down 10 runners in 2009.
The Flyin Hawaiian, though, seemed deserving enough and his second-straight Gold Glove helped cap off his All-Star season.
In case you were wondering the Gold Glove recipients were voted on by managers and coaches from each Major League team with the caveat that they couldn’t vote for their own players.
The other winners were 1B Adrian Gonzalez, 2B Orlando Hudson, 3B Ryan Zimmerman, OF Michael Bourn, OF Matt Kemp, C Yadier Molina and P Adam Wainwright.
The National League champs likely weren’t done with postseason accolades. Pitcher J.A. Happ was seen as a front-runner for NL Rookie of the Year honors.
First Published: Nov 11, 2009 2:52 PM EST
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