Ian Kinsler, Adrian Beltre 2011 Gold Glove Finalists

The finalists for the 2011 Gold Glove Awards have been announced, and Ian Kinsler and Adrian Beltre are among the three finalists at second base and third base, respectively.

Kinsler, Robinson Cano, and Dustin Pedroia are the finalists at second base.  Pedroia has a UZR of 17.9 and his Defensive Runs Saved per +/- is 13, which place him first and fourth in the A.L., respectively.  Kinsler is second in the A.L. in DRS with 16, and second in the A.L. in UZR at 15.0.  Cano is at -3.0 in UZR and +6 in DRS.

The third base finalists in the A.L. are Beltre, Kevin Youkilis and Evan Longoria.  Beltre is first in the A.L. in both UZR at 11.2 and DRS at 17.  Longoria is third in both UZR at 10.7 and DRS with 12.  Youkilis was a little below average in both UZR and DRS and only played 112 games at third base this year, so I'm not sure how he made the final list.

Elvis Andrus is the one glaring omission among Ranger candidates, but he was likely killed among voters by his extremely high error total.  If you believe in UZR, he didn't deserve to be a finalist, as his 7.0 UZR was fifth in the A.L.,with Alexei Ramirez, Alcides Escobar, and J.J. Hardy in the top three.  Dewan's +/-, though, has Elvis at 13 runs saved, trailing only Brendan Ryan, who is at 18 runs saved.

The shortstop finalists are Asdrubal Cabrera, the worst shortstop in the A.L. according to UZR and just bad per +/-; Hardy, and Erick Aybar, who both UZR and +/- have as average.  Given the track record of voters, I'm assuming Cabrera will win.