Matt Wieters wins 2011 Fielding Bible Award

In the story just below this, I mentioned that Matt Wieters has been named a finalist for a 2011 Gold Glove Award. But he's already won a much more impressive thing: the Fielding Bible Award. 

From the write up:

After Yadier Molina won the previous four Fielding Bible Awards, Matt Wieters wins his first. And it wasn’t even close in the voting, Wieters 97 to Molina 74. When you look at the numbers, it wasn’t close there either. Prior to 2011, Molina has thrown out 42% of baserunners. On top of that, he has picked off an average of six baserunners per year. In 2011, Yadier dropped to 25% caught stealing and only picked two runners off. Wieters threw out 36% of basestealers in 2011. But it was the pitcher handling department where Wieters really excelled. Nine of his 14 runs saved are estimated for his pitcher handling, while Molina also had a down year in this area, costing the Cardinals six runs.

In the breakdown of the votes you'll see that of the ten people who voted for the award, only two didn't name Matt Wieters as the best defensive catcher in baseball. Hal Richman, (creator of Strat-O-Matic) placed him third behind Yadier Molina and Carlos Ruiz, and SB Nation's Rob Neyer voted him second behind Jeff Mathis. The other eight voters (Bill James, BIS Video Scouts, Doug Glanville, Joe Posnanski, John Dewan, Peter Gammons, Todd Radcliffe, and the Tango Fan Poll) all gave him their first place vote. 

Wieters' overall score of 97 was topped by just two players (Brett Gardner scored 99 and Adrian Beltre 98). The Fielding Bible Award may not be as well known as the Gold Glove, but I'm confident in saying that it's a lot more accurate. 

Congratulations, Matt! You deserve it.