O'Neill wins Fielding Bible Award
Langley Blaze and Junior National Team graduate Tyler O’Neill has won the Fielding Bible Award for major league left fielders.
October 30, 2020
By Kevin Glew
Canadian Baseball Network
Langley Blaze and Junior National Team graduate Tyler O’Neill has won the Fielding Bible Award for major league left fielders.
The Maple Ridge, B.C., native was among the annual Fielding Bible Award winners that Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) announced yesterday. This is their 15th year of handing out these honours which rely heavily on advanced statistics to determine the recipients and are considered an alternative to the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards.
The winners were determined by a panel of 12 baseball experts, who ranked the top five players at each defensive position on a scale from one to five. A first-place vote gets five points, second place gets four points, third place gets three points, etc. The points are then totalled up for each player, and the player with the most points wins the award.
“Tyler O’Neill is the fifth different left fielder to win a Fielding Bible Award in the last five years,” read the BIS release. “He earned it on the strength of an MLB-leading nine Runs Saved at the position. O'Neill won with his play on balls hit to the deepest part of the ballpark. He caught 46-of-54 chances on those balls, eight more than an average left fielder.”
After playing parts of two seasons with the Cardinals in 2018 and 2019, O’Neill took over as the club’s starting left fielder this season. The 25-year-old Canuck fielded all 89 defensive chances he had at his position flawlessly, finishing with a 1.000 fielding percentage, and his range factor per nine innings improved to 2.33 from 1.26 in 2019.
David Peralta, of the Arizona Diamondbacks, was the reigning Fielding Bible Award winner for left fielders.
“It is important to us that we continue to present the Fielding Bible Awards, even after this pandemic-shortened season," said Baseball Info Solutions owner, John Dewan in a new release. "I’m very pleased with the work that our panel put in covering games and evaluating the metrics, and I’m confident that the winners of our 15th annual awards are the best of 2020.”
Baseball Info Solutions (also known as Sports Info Solutions) is a company that has been dedicated to providing accurate and in-depth data. They strive to educate professional teams and the general public about sports analytics.
For a complete list of the 2020 Fielding Bible Award winners, click on this link.