P: Mike Mussina, NYY
C: Joe Mauer, MIN
1B: Carlos Pena, TB
2B: Dustin Pedroia, BOS
3B: Adrian Beltre, SEA
SS: Michael Young, TEX
OF: Torii Hunter, LAA
OF: Grady Sizemore, CLE
OF: Ichiro Suzuki, SEA

These won’t be officially announced until later today, and if there are any discrepancies between the leak and the official announcement I’ll update this accordingly.

Congratulations, Adrian, on your second Gold Glove award.  You were by far the most deserving candidate at third base this season and I’m glad you didn’t get snubbed like many others did.

Like the NL Gold Glove winners, here are my head shakers:

Dustin Pedroia is a great defender, but the second base Gold Glove award should have gone to Oakland’s Mark Ellis.  Ellis was 26 plays better than the average second baseman according to the Fielding Bible’s +/- system, good for second place behind NL snub Chase Utley.  Beyond the Boxscorecalculated that Ellis saved 18 more runs than the average second baseman, which was also tops in the AL.  Pedroia is good (+15/+9), but he should have come behind Ellis and perhaps Placido Palanco (+14/+12).

Everyone knows that Michael Young is an awful defender, and it’s a shame that he has won a Gold Glove, taking the torch from the even worse Derek Jeter.  Based on the system we’ve been using so far, Young (-7/-4) beat out a ton of more deserving candidates, including KC’s Mike Aviles (+15/+6) or even Boston’s Jed Lowrie (+8/+6).

While Torii Hunter and our very own Ichiro Suzuki used to be two of the premier outfield defenders in the game, their 2008 Gold Gloves were won on reputation.  Hunter (-5/+1) and Ichiro (-9 in CF, +12 in RF/+2) beat out the amazing Carlos Gomez (+32/+14), Alex Rios (+11 in CF, +15 in RF/+4), and even former Mariner Adam Jones (+3/+6).