--Kemp wins his first while Hudson takes home his fourth Rawlings Gold Glove Award--
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers and Rawlings today announced that center fielder Matt Kemp and second baseman Orlando Hudson were awarded the National League Rawlings Gold Glove for their respective positions. Kemp becomes a Rawlings Gold Glove winner for the first time in his career while Hudson captures his fourth award. Hudson has now won the Rawlings Gold Glove Award in four of the last five seasons, after winning one in three consecutive seasons from 2005-07.
Kemp led all Major League center fielders and ranked third among all big league outfielders with 14 outfield assists. His .995 fielding percentage was third among NL center fielders, behind Gold Glove winner Shane Victorino and Nate McLouth. The Oklahoma native made just two errors on the season.
Prior to Kemp, the last Dodger outfielder to win the Rawlings Gold Glove was center fielder Steve Finley in 2004, which was also the last time more than one Dodger won the award in the same season. The only other everyday Dodger centerfielder to win the Rawlings Gold Glove award was Willie Davis, who took home the honor three straight years from 1971-73.
Kemp logged 1,355.1 innings in center field, which is more frames than any other Dodger center fielder in a Gold Glove season. Over the last two years, his 30 outfield assists are tied for second in the Major Leagues with Baltimore’s Nick Markakis, trailing only Houston’s Hunter Pence (32).
In 145 games at second base, Hudson made just eight errors and posted a .988 fielding percentage (T-4th, NL), which ranked fifth on the franchise’s single-season list by a second baseman, behind Jody Reed (.993, in 1993), Jackie Robinson (.992 in 1951), Charlie Neal (.989 in 1959), and Mark Grudzielanek (.989 in 2002). In September, the 2009 All-Star was named by Baseball America as the best defensive second baseman in the publication’s annual tools issue.
Hudson becomes the third Dodger second baseman to win a Gold Glove and the first since Davey Lopes in 1978. Neal was the franchise’s first second baseman to win a Rawlings Gold Glove, taking home the honor in 1959, the club’s first championship season in Los Angeles.
In 2008, pitcher Greg Maddux was the lone Dodger to take home the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and 2009 marks just the eighth time since the inception of the award in 1957 that two Dodgers have won Gold Gloves in the same season. The Dodgers have never had more than two Gold Glove winners in a season and have now won 38 Gold Glove Awards in their history, led by Wes Parker’s six consecutive awards at first base from 1967-72.
Rawlings established the Rawlings Gold Glove Award in 1957 as the greatest measure of fielding excellence. The award is presented annually to 18 players – one for each position – in both the American and National Leagues. Winners are selected by Major League coaches and managers prior to the conclusion of the regular season. Managers and coaches may not vote for players from their own club and only vote for players in their own league.
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