LA Angels: 3 reasons Jared Walsh undoubtedly deserves the Gold Glove

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Jared Walsh, LA Angels. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /

Earlier this week, Jared Walsh was named a 2021 AL Gold Glove finalist along with his LA Angels teammate David Fletcher.

Walsh was exceptional this season in the field, and was one of the top reasons that he made the AL All-Star team. He and Fletcher were exceptional in holding it down defensively in the right side of the infield. Things got so much better when Albert Pujols left to go across town to the Dodgers and Walsh received the chance to be the full-time first baseman.

Competing with Walsh is Yuli Gurriel and Matt Olson, which will obviously be tough. That being said, Walsh was the better defensive player than both of them this season.

No. 3 reason Jared Walsh undoubtedly deserves the Gold Glove: He has the least amount of errors

Jared Walsh is 12th in the American League among first basemen in most errors (5). That’s a pretty good ranking, and it’s better than the other two he’s competing with.

Olson has six errors, and Gurriel even has seven.

The most important part of being a good defensive player is about making the routine plays. They had more routine blunders than Walsh, which is one of the top reasons they don’t deserve the Gold Glove over Walsh.

Walsh may not have received the credit and notoriety as the other two, but much of that is due to for instance Olson having a reputation for many years as a great defender. This is just Walsh’s second year in the Big Leagues, and his first as a full-time player. He was the better defensive player this year.

Jared Walsh, LA Angels. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 2 reason Jared Walsh undoubtedly deserves the Gold Glove: His range

Jared Walsh has the most range out of any first basemen in baseball. Fangraphs did a study on this and found out.

He’s so quick that he plays off of the bag more than anybody in baseball. He really put that second-best 40 ft split time among first basemen to use.

Fangraphs found that Walsh positioned himself 42.9 feet off of the base, which was much more than Gurriel’s 39.3 feet and Olson’s 37.7 feet. His 40 ft split time (2.18 seconds) was so much faster than Gurriel’s 2.26 and Olson’s 2.30.

Walsh covers that 3-4 gap, and can get down to the foul line so much faster than these other two candidates. Having more range to make more difficult plays while also not making as many errors on the routine plays really tells a lot about Walsh’s defense.

Many look at Walsh and wonder why he’s also such a good defensive player in the outfield. Well, I’d say it’s even the other way around. The fact that he has enough speed to play the outfield goes to show the athleticism he has, and it’s clearly helped out in his play at first base.

Jared Walsh, LA Angels. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 1 reason Jared Walsh undoubtedly deserves the Gold Glove: His league-leading fielding percentage

To really get a grasp of the type of defensive first baseman Jared Walsh is, take a look at his fielding percentage.

He’s tied for the American League lead at .995 with Olson and Jose Abreu.

Of course, Olson is in the running with him. So if he has the same fielding percentage as him, and has less range than him, how is he the better defensive player? He’s obviously not, and Gurriel isn’t even invited to this conversation as far as fielding percentage goes.

His is lower than the two of theirs. Besides, Gurriel took home the batting title but couldn’t even make the All-Star team. If he was truly a Gold Glover, he would have been there as his offense this season was truly terrific.

Clearly Walsh was picked over him due to his strong defense, and should be picked over him again for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. Walsh is the best defensive first baseman in the American League.

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He deserved the nomination, but he deserves the award as well. Nothing less will be accepted.

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No. 3 reason Jared Walsh undoubtedly deserves the Gold Glove: He has the least amount of errors

No. 2 reason Jared Walsh undoubtedly deserves the Gold Glove: His range

No. 1 reason Jared Walsh undoubtedly deserves the Gold Glove: His league-leading fielding percentage

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