Gold Glove Award finalists: Andrew McCutchen represents Pirates

Rawlings has released its list of Gold Glove Award finalists, generally three per position per league. Winners will be announced Tuesday. The only Pirate on these lists is Andrew McCutchen, who joins Michael Bourn and Drew Stubbs as finalists in center field.

This makes no sense, of course. Even most Pirates fans don't think particularly highly of McCutchen's defense, and statistically, he was well below average this year. In fact, in a perfect world, he would probably be bumped to left field to make room for Starling Marte in center. But McCutchen wouldn't be the first player to win a Gold Glove more for his hitting ability than for his actual fielding.

The Pirate who should have been on this list is shortstop Clint Barmes, who was the key to the Bucs' dramatically-improved defense this year. Barmes made occasional fielding mistakes and hit poorly, which led many Pirates fans to attack him for much of the year, but he made plays on more balls than most shortstops did, and he was often brilliant at the position. Barmes was arguably a better fielder than any of the four finalists for the National League shortstop award: Zack Cozart, Ian Desmond, Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins.