Kole Calhoun wins Gold Glove Award

Kole Calhoun was awarded the AL Gold Glove for right field Tuesday afternoon, besting J.D. Martinez and Josh Reddick. Calhoun is the first Halo to win the defensive award since Erick Aybar took one home in 2011, and the first Angels outfielder to snag one since Torii Hunter in 2009. Amazingly, Mike Trout still doesn’t have one—he was a finalist for just the second time this year, finishing behind Kevin Kiermaier.

There’s really not much else to say here, so let’s just marvel at some of Calhoun’s best plays:

April 6, 2015 – @ Seattle
[mlbvideo id=”63119683″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] Cannon? Check.

May 12, 2015 – vs. Colorado
[mlbvideo id=”112876983″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] This is probably Calhoun’s signature catch, a la Trout leaping ridiculous heights to rob home runs and Salmon doing his butt slide thing. Most outfielders choose not to dive on balls in front of them for fear of causing an inside-the-park home run. Calhoun does it with abandon and excels at it.

May 21, 2015 – @ Toronto
[mlbvideo id=”125389583″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] Like I said, signature catch. He made like four of these catches in May alone. This is probably my favorite from this genre because essentially catches it across his body. Not sure my hand can bend that way.

July 9, 2015 – @ Seattle
[mlbvideo id=”245460483″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] Calhoun doesn’t have the pinpoint accuracy of J.B. Shuck—I’m serious, Shuck’s arm is ridiculously accurate—but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him sail a throw. Everything is low to the ground on a line.

July 25, 2015 – vs. Texas
[mlbvideo id=”296829283″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] This could have been a season-making catch had the offense been able to do a little more. Alas, they lost this game and missed the postseason by a hair.

September 30, 2015 – vs. Oakland
[mlbvideo id=”511548383″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] His best catch of the year, hands down. The frustrating part about this one is that Stephen Vogt hit another ball in almost the exact same place a few innings earlier that Calhoun couldn’t quite track down. The bases were loaded that time. If only we could swap the two, maybe the Angels would’ve won the infamous Barry Zito game.