The Fielding Bible Awards 2017

John Dewan

We have two new panelists on our panel this year, Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik. Welcome, Ben and Travis!

They are now part of our 12-person expert voting panel which selects the winners of the annual Fielding Bible Awards, now in its 12th year. They are the ones who stand up and say "This is the best fielder at this position in the major leagues last season." The panel awards ten winners each year, one at each position plus an additional award that goes to the best defensive multi-position player.

The name Andrelton Simmons is synonymous with the word Defense. With his 2017 Fielding Bible Award as a shortstop, that makes five years in a row. A first in Fielding Bible Award history.

There are six other repeat award winners this year. Dallas Keuchel (P) wins his fourth award, all in a row. Nolan Arenado (3B) has now won three in a row. Paul Goldschmidt (1B) also has three, but he does it every other year. Brett Gardner (LF) gets his third, but the last one was six years ago. Mookie Betts (RF) and Javy Baez (Multi-Pos) repeat from last year. The three first-time winners are DJ LeMahieu (2B), Byron Buxton (CF) and Martin Maldonado (C).

Here's a short refresher course on how the awards are determined: we ask our panel of twelve experts to rank 10 players at each position on a scale from one to ten. We then use the same scoring technique as the Major League Baseball MVP voting. A first place vote gets 10 points, second place 9 points, third place 8 points, etc. Total up the points for each player and the player with the most points wins the award. A perfect score is 120.

Here are the Fielding Bible Awards for the 2017 season:

The 2017 Fielding Bible Award winners are:

First Base – Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks

Second Base – DJ LeMahieu, Colorado Rockies

Third Base – Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies

Shortstop – Andrelton Simmons, Los Angeles Angels

Left Field – Brett Gardner, New York Yankees

Center Field - Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins

Right Field – Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox

Catcher – Martin Maldonado, Los Angeles Angels

Pitcher – Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros

Multi-Position – Javier Baez, Chicago Cubs

A complete record of the voting can be found in The Bill James Handbook 2018.