2006 NPB Golden Gloves

The lists are out, and I'm sure nobody's surprised that they're dominated by Fighters and Dragons players.

Announced here (in Japanese):

    Central League                       Pacific League
(2) Kenshin Kawakami   (CD)    P     (7) Daisuke Matsuzaka   (SL)
(2) Motonobu Tanishige (CD)    C     (1) Tomoya Satozaki     (CLM)
(2) Andy Sheets        (HT)    1B    (6) Michihiro Ogasawara (NHF)
(3) Masahiro Araki     (CD)    2B    (1) Kensuke Tanaka      (NHF)
(6) Akinori Iwamura    (YS)    3B    (2) Toshiaki Imae       (CLM)
(3) Hirokazu Ibata     (CD)    SS    (2) Munenori Kawasaki   (FSH)
(4) Kosuke Fukudome    (CD)    OF    (1) Hichori Morimoto    (NHF)
(1) Norichika Aoki     (YS)    OF    (10) Tsuyoshi Shinjo    (NHF)  
(5) Norihiro Akahoshi  (HT)    OF    (1) Atsunori Inaba      (NHF)

The number in parentheses is how many golden gloves they've won.

(As it is, this is Shinjo's third GG in the Pacific League but he got 7 in the Central League when he played for the Tigers; this is Ogasawara's 5th GG at first base, he has one at third base as well. I haven't detailed the players' consecutive GG streaks.)

I know that I might have been a little bit biased about the Fighters' defense when evaluating it last month, but I don't think any of these picks are particularly bad. Funny part is that the player I think is strongest defensively of the Fighters -- today's birthday boy, Makoto Kaneko -- is the one who didn't get a golden glove. Go figure. I wonder if the Fighters Golden Glove Outfield has anything to do with them spending all that time wearing their gloves on their heads.