There is no such thing as a Gold Glove finalist, but Rawlings, the givers of Gold Gloves, have nonetheless tried in recent years to turn that into a real thing. On Thursday, two weeks ahead of when the Gold Gloves themselves will be awarded, Rawlings announced the top three vote getters at each position. There are three Orioles who could potentially win Gold Gloves: J.J. Hardy, Adam Jones, and Nick Markakis.
That's down from last year when they had six finalists, but then again, Manny Machado and Matt Wieters, two of last year's winners, were injured for most of the season, and Chris Davis, who was a finalist last year... well, we know about what happened to him.
The O's ended up with four Gold Glove winners last year. They can't possibly get that many this year.
Here's the competition at each position:
Shortstop: Hardy, Orioles; Alcides Escobar, Royals; Alexei Ramirez, White Sox
Center field: Jones, Orioles; Jackie Bradley Jr., Red Sox; Adam Eaton, White Sox
Right field: Markakis, Orioles; Kevin Kiermaier, Rays; Kole Calhoun, Angels
Do you like the Orioles to emerge triumphant against each of these competitors? After watching Lorenzo Cain against the O's in the ALCS, I figured he was on the path to a Gold Glove, but it seems he's not even in the top three.
Note that the voting is already done. There are no real finalists in the sense that, there will be no additional voting now that the finalists are identified. What this really just means is that these are the top three in already-completed voting.
The voting consists of up to seven votes per team - by managers and coaches who must vote in their own league and can't vote for their own team. That's 75% of the result. The remaining 25% is determined by some sabermetric calculations.
I like Hardy and Jones to repeat. Neither of those other guys is on Hardy's level. Jones has the benefit of having a good season defensively on top of winning previously. Gold Gloves have a tendency to be hereditary, which is true if not fair.
What kind of a chance does Markakis have? Who knows? He seems to be respected within the game, which could be the kind of thing that gets him votes beyond what his performance would dictate.
A win for Jones would give him his fourth career Gold Glove, including each of the last three seasons. Hardy could be in line for his third Gold Glove, also a winner in each of the last three seasons. If Markakis wins, it'll be his second career Gold Glove, with his last win coming in the 2011 season.
The Gold Glove winners will be announced on November 4 at 7pm on ESPN2.