Josh Donaldson Wins Fielding Bible Award
By Tony Frye
Oakland Athletics third baseman Josh Donaldson is the recipient of the 2014 Fielding Bible Award for third base.
What is the Fielding Bible Award? What a fascinating and relevant question for this article. The Fielding Bible Award has been awarded since 2006 and is awarded to 10 fielders (all positions and a multi-position) free from any offensive play bias.
“But wait, Tony, the gold glove already does that.”
That’s a fair point you make, reader who keeps interrupting this article. While it is true that the Gold Glove Award is supposed to be independent of offensive stats, if you believe that that is true in practice I’ve got a stadium property in Jack London Square to sell you. Further, the Gold Glove is separated into two categories, American League and National League, as if there were a difference in playing first base in any one league.
The ballot for the award featured 10 players and each player is given a 1-10 ranking, first place receiving 10 points and each successive place being one point fewer than the place preceding it. Not only does this allow for a clear numeric winner, it also allows the Fielding Bible Award voters the chance to recognize outstanding position players who have not received the award. A look at this year’s ballot will give you an idea for how regarded a player is at their position for the season, the Gold Glove Award does not offer such a perspective.
“Josh Donaldson led all MLB third basemen with 20 Defensive Runs Saved. Here’s another way to measure Donaldson’s excellence. Baseball Info Solutions tracks a stat invented by Bill James called Good Fielding Plays (GFP). It’s not as easy as it sounds to define a Good Fielding Play—there are 28 different categories of GFPs. Donaldson’s total of 77 GFPs is 13 more than the 64 good plays handled by Colorado’s Nolan Arenado. Donaldson is especially good making plays to his right where his excellent reaction time and strong arm really stand out.” – Fielding Bible website
This year, there are 12 voting members on the committee for a possible score of 120 points (a unanimous first place). Josh Donaldson received 114 points, earning a first place vote from 8 of the 12 voters. Nolan Arenado, second place for the third base position, earned 104 points and all other ballot members earned below 100. In 2013, Josh Donaldson ranked fourth on the list with 74 points.
While the Fielding Bible Awards lack the recognition and honor of the Gold Glove Award, they do offer a unique analytic into the quality of a defensive player. The panel of voters is made up of experts in sabermetric analysis and include Bill James (the forefather of sabermetrics), Dave Cameron (editor for Fan Graphs), Hal Richman (inventor of Strat-o-matic baseball), and a handful of analysts, former players and statisticians from ESPN, NBC Sports and elsewhere. This is a small but elite group of voters who have a keen eye on defensive stats. Nobody should consider this any more or less an honor than the Gold Glove, just a different honor with a distinct point of view and philosophy.
The only other Oakland Athletic to win this award was Daric Barton who won in 2010 breaking a three year win streak by Albert Pujols.