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Friday, October 25, 2013

Fister, Dirks are Tigers' two Gold Glove finalists


The Tigers again have two finalists for Rawlings Gold Glove Awards in the American League this season, in pitcher Doug Fister and outfielder Andy Dirks.

The 18 awards will be announced in a televised presentation on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29.

Fister is a finalist for the AL pitcher Gold Glove, along with Toronto’s RA Dickey and Mark Buehrle.

Dirks is a finalist for the left field Gold Glove, along with Kansas City’s Alex Gordon and Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes.

Neither has won a Gold Glove before. [UPDATE: Neither won the Gold Glove at their respective positions. Dickey won the AL pitcher Gold Glove, and Gordon won it for left field.]

There is a new component in this year’s selection process, adding SABR’s Defensive Index to the criteria.

“As we looked to marry ‘The Art of Fielding with the Science of Baseball,’ the composition of the SABR Defensive Index is exactly what we were hoping to achieve,” Mike Thompson, senior vice president of marketing for St. Louis-based Rawlings, said of the change in March. “Since its inception in 1957, the Rawlings Gold Glove Award has relied on the major-league managers and coaches’ invaluable insights and keen understanding of the art of fielding to reward the best defensive players in the game. The new sabermetric component in the selection process is just another example of how the iconic award has evolved throughout history as the industry standard honoring defensive excellence at the highest level of baseball.”

Because he only played 42 games at the position, Jose Iglesias did not make the cut at shortstop, behind the Royals’ Alcides Escobar, Baltimore’s J.J. Hardy and the Rays’ Yunel Escobar.

Tigers catcher Alex Avila and center fielder Austin Jackson were finalists last year, but neither took home the award.

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