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Matt Dominguez is the Astros Wilson's Defensive Player of the Year

Matt Dominguez takes home an award for the Astros.

By Timothy De Block
Bob Levey

It's award season.

A time of year in which the best of the best are recognized for their accomplishments on and off the field this past season. I don't expect to see many Astros players on these award lists, but hey we've got at least one.

Dustin Pedroia took home Defensive Player of the Year honors for the American League, while Gerardo Parra took home Defensive Player of the Year honors for the National League.

The Orioles and Rays tied for Best Defensive Team in the American League and the Diamondbacks were named the Best Defensive Team in the National League.

Then the award was broken down by team and the Astros Wilson recipient was Matt Dominguez.

Matt Dominguez led the team in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and was sixth in Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) among defenders with at least 400 innings. The 400 criteria is noteworthy because Dominguez had 1312 innings and the only other player with over a 1000 innings played was Jose Altuve. If we take out the criteria Brandon Barnes led the team with 4.8 UZR in 913 innings. I bring this up because Dominguez had -2.4 UZR and Barnes had 7 DRS. So overall, from an advanced statistics stand point Barnes had the better defensive year, but played less innings. I wonder if the amount of innings played was a factor in who got selected. Either way Dominguez is not a bad choice as the Astros defensive representative for the Wilson award.

One other player of note in the awards is former Astro, current Angel, J.B. Shuck. In 765 innings Shuck had a 0 DRS and a -4.4 UZR. Good for eighth among Angels with at least 700 innings. The only reason I can think of why Shuck was chosen was because of this catch. Let me remind that Wilson had to make a decision between Mike Trout and J.B. Shuck and chose Shuck.

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