A pair of SF Giants players lead their respective positions in a key defensive stat

The SABR Defensive Index (SDI) updated its metric through August 10 of this season. The update shows that a pair of SF Giants players in Patrick Bailey and Logan Webb are the best defenders in the NL at catcher and pitcher, respectively.

A pair of SF Giants players lead their respective positions in a key defensive stat

Why is this important? Gold Glove voting has improved in recent years. Do you remember what it was like back in the day? Rafael Palmeiro of the Texas Rangers took home the Gold Glove Award at first base in 1999 after making just 28 appearances at the position. Perhaps, that was a sign that change was needed.

Changes to the voting process have taken place in recent years. While voting around the league still carries a lot of weight in this process, there is now an objective component. That is the SDI, which accounts for about 25 percent of the voting.

The SDI is updated only a couple of times each year. This may be the final update before the awards are announced in the offseason.

While nothing is determined yet, Patrick Bailey and Logan Webb would seemingly have an early edge on the Gold Glove Awards. Bailey has been worth 12.1 SDI, which is the third-highest mark in baseball, and would be the top number in the AL.

Only Fernando Tatis Jr. (15.3 SDI) and Ke’Bryan Hayes (14.2 SDI) of the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds, respectively, have put up a higher mark than Bailey this year. Not surprisingly, Bailey leads all NL catchers by a comfortable margin. Luis Torrens of the New York Mets is second among NL catchers in that category with 7.6 SDI.

No other catcher is all that close after that. Bailey gets a lot of recognition for his pitch framing, but he is an above-average blocker and has one of the best pop times in baseball. He does all three facets of catching better than just about any backstop in baseball.

Seeing Logan Webb's name on the list was a bit more surprising. It is tough to evaluate a pitcher's defense, but evidently, Webb has been the best in the NL based on this metric. He leads all NL pitchers with 2.9 SDI.

There is still time for these numbers to change in the final six weeks of the season. At least, Bailey and Webb should be in the conversation for the Gold Glove Awards in the offseason.

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