Who are the Fielding Bible Award winners for 2007?

This is our second year of The Fielding Bible Awards. There are quite a few new award winners and we think that’s great. Through our extensive fielding research over the past few years, we’re finding that, just like hitters and pitchers, fielders have good seasons and bad seasons. We were somewhat worried the awards might turn into a mirror of the Gold Glove Awards, in which it seems that once a player wins, he keeps winning until retirement, injury, trade or a position switch. With a second year now in the books, that is definitely not the case with the Fielding Bible Awards.

We only have one repeat winner on our list from last year, Albert Pujols. Plus, this year we have a true rookie, Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies, winning a Fielding Bible Award. That rarely happens in the Gold Glove voting.

Here are the Fielding Bible Awards for the 2007 season:

FIRST BASE—ALBERT PUJOLS, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (91 POINTS)

SECOND BASE—AARON HILL, TORONTO BLUE JAYS (82)

THIRD BASE—PEDRO FELIZ, SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (89)

SHORTSTOP—TROY TULOWITZKI, COLORADO ROCKIES (87)

LEFT FIELD—ERIC BYRNES, ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS (85)

CENTER FIELD—ANDRUW JONES, ATLANTA BRAVES (86)

RIGHT FIELD—ALEX RIOS, TORONTO BLUE JAYS (73)

CATCHER—YADIER MOLINA, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (83)

PITCHER—JOHAN SANTANA, MINNESOTA TWINS (62)

The numbers in the parentheses show the final point tally each player accumulated to win their position. A first place vote received 10 points, second place 9 points, third place 8 points, etc. A perfect score is 100 because we used a panel of ten experts. They examined the 2007 seasons of every defensive player in Major League Baseball.

There are several important distinctions that differentiate the Fielding Bible Awards from most other baseball awards, such as the Gold Gloves:

1. We have only one winner at each position, instead of separate winners for each league.
2. We vote for nine distinct defensive positions—in other words we vote for the three different outfield positions. Now we can see who is the best in left field, center field, and right field.
3. This system recognizes the runners-up for each position, instead of just focusing on the winners. We show every player who received a vote.

Complete details of the voting, results, and the panel of experts are in The Bill James Handbook 2008, available now.