No Tigers won a gold glove this year despite the fact that one was very deserving and another you could have made a major argument for.  Matt Wieters won at catcher and while I can live with that I do think Alex Avila has a great season behind the plate. WAR doesn’t really spell it out (Avila has a -0.1 Defensive WAR in 2011 versus Wieters 1.0) but it just seemed at times that Avila was rock solid both blocking balls and throwing runners out.  Maybe next year Alex.

Austin Jackson is an entirely different story.  Yes, Jacoby Ellsbury had a great season and he probably got a bump because of his offense and because he plays in Boston but Jackson’s Defensive WAR 0.7 was better then Ellsbury 0.4  I know WAR isn’t the be all end of defensive stats and there’s usually not a year that goes that someone (or two or three) gets a gold glove they don’t deserve but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

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