Golden Glove for O's Outfielder

Only second O's outfielder to win award

The Orioles might have had a stinky record, but it's not all Adam Jones' fault.

The Orioles outfielder won his first career Gold Glove Tuesday, becoming only the second O's outfielder ever to pick up the once-prestigious award.

Jones plays a decent center field, though most Orioles watchers would probably say that Nick Markakis is a better overall fielder.  Jones typically plays really shallow, which allows him to take away quite a few singles, sometimes at the cost of a flyball over his head.  Those flyballs over his head show up a lot more in fans' memories than those stolen singles do.

The number-crunchers at fangraphs.com actually say that Jones had a poor defensive year.  They have him at about four runs below a typical center fielder this year, about 15 runs worse than his performance last year.  Either way, those numbers aren't typically Gold Glove worthy, but then the award rarely goes to the right person, as O's fans saw when designated hitter Rafael Palmeiro won the award for their team a few years back.

The award for Jones isn't a huge surprise.  His brother leaked it a few days back on his myspace page, congratulating Adam for his award.

With the way the Gold Glove is voted on, once a player gets a rep as a good defender, it's hard to dislodge him from the position.  If Jones stays healthy and productive, he could win a long string of these -- though he'll have some work to do before he catches up with former O Paul Blair's eight awards.

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