Live on ESPN Tuesday night, Atlanta Braves outfielder Jason Heyward was announced as the winner of the 2012 Gold Glove Award in the National League for right field.
The other Braves outfielders did not fare so well, as Michael Bourn lost out to the Pirates' Andrew McCutchen, despite a 22.4 UZR for Bourn and a -6.9 UZR for McCutchen. Martin Prado also lost out on a Gold Glove in left field to the Rockies Carlos Gonzalez.
This is Heyward's first Gold Glove award, and the Braves' first Gold Glove since Jeff Francoeur and Andruw Jones each won one in 2007.
According to FanGraphs fielding metrics, the Braves had three of the top five defensive outfielders in the NL in UZR, with Bourn leading the way at number one, followed closely by Heyward, and Prado fifth. The stark contrast and spread in UZR between Bourn (highest in the league) and McCutchen (worse than Matt Diaz) makes one wonder what voters for this award were considering.
Carlos Gonzalez was also considerably worse than Prado in UZR, rating a -8.5 to Prado's 10.7. UZR is not the only fielding metric to consider, but most basic and advance fielding metrics had the three Braves outfielders as the best of the bunch.
Freddie Freeman was also nominated for a Gold Glove at first base, but was deservedly beaten out by former Braves first baseman Adam LaRoche.