Three Orioles Win 2014 Gold Glove Awards

They say pitching and defense wins ballgames, and the Orioles again showed that their defense is superior in the American League tonight when three of their players took home some hardware.  Nick Markakis (above) won his second Rawlings Gold Glove award when he was named the AL winner for Right field.  Markakis beat out Kole Calhoun of the Angels and Kevin Kiermeier of the Rays.

Adam Jones won his 4th Gold Glove when he beat out Jackie Bradley, Jr of the Red Sox and Adam Eaton of the White Sox.  I'm surprised that Mike Trout wasn't birthed with this award, since all of the baseball pundits feel that he is the greatest player alive.  Jones is now tied for third All-Time on the Orioles (with Mike Mussina, Jim Palmer and Bobby Grich) with 4 wins.  Brooks Robinson has the Orioles All-Time lead with 16, followed by a tie between Paul Blair and Mark Belanger with 8 each.

Finally, shortstop J. J. Hardy won his third straight Gold Glove tonight when he beat Alcides Escobar of the Royals and Alexei Ramirez of the White Sox.  Hardy and Jones have won three straight gold gloves as teammates.

Ebay Pickup - 2013 Topps Manny Machado Factory Set SP

Last night, Manny Machado won his first (of hopefully many) Rawlings Gold Glove Award.  He was the first Orioles third baseman to take home the award since 1975, the last of Brooks Robinson's 16 awards.  That's some pretty good company.  Manny was one of three Orioles to win the award last night, along with J. J. Hardy and Adam Jones.  Chris Davis, Matt Wieters and Nick Markakis were denied.  The Orioles tied the Royals with the most Gold Gloves this year with 3.

I saw this Factory Set variation/SP on Ebay and decided to grab it.  I got it for less than $10 as an auction, so my timing was pretty good.  I figure it couldn't hurt to add another Manny RC to my PC, since his stuff is jumping in price right now.  It definitely is a cool card.

The Orioles Are Beginning to Bring Home Some Hardware

The 2012 Rawlings Gold Glove Awards have just been announced and the three nominated Orioles won for their respective categories.

Adam Jones won his second Gold Glove (last winning in 2009) in Center Field.

Matt Wieters won his second Gold Glove (he won it last year) for Catcher.  Is it not ridiculous that Wieters has yet to have a Topps card?

Finally, J. J. Hardy took home his first Gold Glove at Shortstop.  He is the first Orioles shortstop to win the award since Cal Ripken did it in 1992.  It has been that long?  Jeez.

Anyway, there you have it, the three nominated Orioles took home some awards.  I anticipate one more award being handed out to an Oriole, a Manager of the Year Award to Buck Showalter.  I believe that award will be announced next week.