With the St. Louis Cardinals looking to make another strong run into October, fans must look at Jon Jay’s defense as a main reason for the team’s success.
The Gold Glove award winner for NL center fielders in 2011 was Matt Kemp, the centerfielder of the Los Angeles Dodgers. During the 2011 season, Kemp made five errors, sporting a fielding percentage of .986. This earned him the annual award, and rightfully so.
By comparrison, Kemp’s numbers last year show a person just how good Jon Jay has been defensively this year.
Jon Jay has not made an error all season (the only regular center fielder in the NL to do so) and has a fielding percentage of 1.000. He has also made many amazing plays that would not be expected of an outfielder, robbing many hitters of extra base hits. Kemp is having another nice year in the outfield, but even he has made an error and has not played as many games as Jay.
With exceptional numbers and amazing outfield performance all year, Jay deserves to win the NL Gold Glove Award this year for center fielders.
