NL Gold Glove winners announced: Pardon me while I hold my sides

The annual traveshamockery that are the Gold Glove awards has crawled out from under a rock for the season just finished. While there's nothing quite as pitiful as last year's award to Nate McLouth - or the American League giving Derek Jeter another Gold Glove - these do tend to fly in te face of just about every established advanced fielding metric. The following table lists who "should" have won the awards, based on UZR per 150 games. The number after each actual winner, shows where they ranked by that metric at their position.

Shallow, if deeply disappointed, analysis can be found after the jump.

Well, I guess at least they got Zimmerman right. And you could argue a decent case for Gonzalez. The rest of the awards range from the questionable to the laughable - the awards given to Orlando Hudson and Shane Victorino were particularly jaw-dropping. One site has provided what it claims is a breakdown of the voting at second-base and in the outfield. O-Dawg didn't just win, he got more votes than every other second-baseman combined, and almost three times as many as Chase Utley. I would love to see an explanation from anyone who chose Hudson, detailing on what they based their selection.

There's no UZR numbers available for pitchers and catchers: I can't complain too much about the one for Molina - he won the Fielding Bible award, as the best in the majors at his position. However, you can probably name a good few pitchers who come to mind quicker than Wainwright: I think his nomination is based solely on the fact that he was the pitcher with zero errors who had the most chances (56). Joel Pinero - one error in 59 chances - must be kicking himself for his error on May 8. However, I'm somewhat surprised voters didn't pick Greg Maddux, out of sheer habit, since he had won eighteen of the past nineteen GG. I guess I should be happy they noticed he pitched only forty innings.