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Skokie, IL, October 30—THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS have been officially announced after one of the closest races in the history of the award centered around the keystone sack. Second basemen Aaron Hill, Dustin Pedroia and Chase Utley finished with 76, 76 and 73 points respectively, forcing a tie-breaking procedure that awarded Hill his second Fielding Bible Award. One important distinction that differentiates THE FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS from most other baseball awards, such as the Gold Gloves, is that there is only one winner at each position, instead of separate winners for each league. This distinction came into play this year as Jack Wilson, who split his time between Pittsburgh in the National League and Seattle in the American League, won the Fielding Bible Award at shortstop. "It is almost impossible for a player who is traded between leagues to win a Gold Glove," said John Dewan, author of the new Fielding Bible—Volume II. "I predict that Wilson will not win a Gold Glove in either the National or the American League this year, even though our 10 voters thought he was the best-fielding shorstop in Major League Baseball." Joining Hill as repeat winners are Albert Pujols (four wins in the four years of the award), Carl Crawford (his third), Yadier Molina (his third), Ichiro Suzuki (two) and Franklin Gutierrez (his second, this one for center field after claiming last year's right field award). First-time winners are Mark Buehrle, Jack Wilson and Ryan Zimmerman. A panel of ten analysts, listed below—including John Dewan, Peter Gammons, Bill James and Joe Posnanski—examined the 2009 seasons of every defensive player in Major League Baseball and then used the same voting technique as the Major League Baseball MVP voting. First place votes received 10 points, second place 9 points, third place 8 points, etc. A perfect score was 100. Here are the results of THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS. A complete record of the voting can be found in The Bill James Handbook 2010. |
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