6 players who should have been Gold Glove finalists

The Gold Glove finalists were announced Thursday, providing another example of MLB managers' and coaches' aversion to the growing popularity of advanced metrics.

To be fair, teams have their own proprietary metrics that even the most die-hard baseball fans and sabermetricians are not privy to. These metrics presumably better inform teams on who should - and shouldn't - get multi-million dollar deals.

Meanwhile, however, public metrics are not only growing in popularity, but also in sophistication, illuminating the game from previously undiscovered angles while being accessible to even fairweather fans.

Here are six players that publicly available metrics love who were snubbed from the list of Gold Glove finalists.

Tyler Flowers, C

Let's start with someone who should likely be considered the best defensive catcher in the National League this year, but wasn't even a finalist. Though he never seemed to pan out as a member of the Chicago White Sox, Tyler Flowers has remade his career with the team that drafted him, the Atlanta Braves.

Flowers saved his team 25.1 runs on framing alone, according to Baseball Prospectus. The only catcher who was worth more defensively was fellow snub Austin Hedges - but Hedges played 188 more innings behind the dish. On a per-inning basis, Flowers was almost unfathomably valuable.

Joe Mauer, 1B

Joe Mauer's absence from the Gold Glove nominations is truly perplexing. The converted catcher had a pretty good year by saving 7.1 runs, according to UZR.

Advanced metrics aren't especially kind to first basemen regardless, but finalist Eric Hosmer finished with a negative defensive rating according to FanGraphs, costing the Kansas City Royals more than 11 runs.

Javier Baez, 2B

The numbers don't actually suggest Javier Baez is Gold Glove-worthy this year, but his electrifying defense is at least more deserving of a nod than the work of his teammate Ben Zobrist, who played 541 2/3 innings at second base.

While Baez played even fewer innings at second, he saved four times the runs that Zobrist did, according to FanGraphs' Def metric. Those web gems have to be worth something.

Eugenio Suarez, 3B

There's little question that actual nominee Anthony Rendon deserves the Gold Glove this year among NL third basemen, at least judging by UZR. However, Eugenio Suarez's breakout 2017 campaign involved a substantial increase in defensive acumen as well.

Only Nolan Arenado (also a deserving finalist) played more innings as a third baseman in the NL, and Suarez finished higher than less convincing nominee David Freese in UZR/150 - the rate version of UZR - by over a full run.

Jose Iglesias, SS

Over Jose Iglesias' turbulent career, he's frequently been heralded as a defensive wizard at shortstop, but the metrics didn't really agree until last year.

Only the god-like Andrelton Simmons finished higher by UZR at shortstop. How Elvis Andrus and his minus-2.4 UZR made it into contention for the award will remain a mystery.

Juan Lagares, OF

Rawlings separates each outfield position and rewards Gold Gloves to three outfielders per league. Honestly, managers and coaches chose well this year, with very few notable omissions.

Juan Lagares probably shouldn't win over Billy Hamilton, Ender Inciarte, or Michael A. Taylor, but his remarkable defense shone in very limited work. Lagares saved the New York Mets over 10 runs in 566 2/3 innings - that's more than Hamilton and Inciarte in less than half the innings of either.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)