Michael Bourn's Radiohead-esque 2009 season continues as Brian McTaggart is telling us that he has won a Gold Glove award. Congratulations to Bourn.
He's the first Astro to win a Gold Glove since Ausmus in 2006, and is the second Astro outfielder to win in franchise history (Cesar Cedeno).
Ed Wade:
"It comes as no surprise. It's a tremendous honor for Michael and well-deserved. He makes center field seem awfully small when he's out there, and I don't think you really appreciate what he does defensively until you see somebody else out there and realize how big our ballpark and other ballparks are. He covers a tremendous amount of ground, is a great athlete and has great instincts and never takes anything for granted. We're fortunate to have him, and I'm happy that his peers have recognized him for what I assume will be many Gold Gloves...
..."Those guys that worked with him on the developmental side deserve a lot of credit, and the work he's done in our organization with [coaches Jose Cruz] and [Dave] Clark and anyone else that did work with him, deserves a lot of credit. It's about the guy, and this guy happens to be an exceptional defensive center fielder.""
And Rob Neyer chimes in:
Everyone doesn't love Michael Bourn, but I rated him as the best center fielder in the National League. He's never won a Gold Glove and it would have been easy for the voters to ignore a weak-hitting kid playing for the Astros. But they didn't. Bravo, again.
Weak hitting?!
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
