LaRoche, Span named Gold Glove finalists

For the third straight year, the Nationals have two players named finalists for Rawlings Gold Gloves.

This time, it's Adam LaRoche and Denard Span.

LaRoche was selected as one of three finalists among National League first basemen, along with the Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez and the Rockies' Justin Morneau.

The 34-year-old LaRoche won his first Gold Glove in 2012. This season, he posted a .994 fielding percentage, making seven errors in 1,200 chances.

LaRoche doesn't have tremendous range at this point in his career, but he's incredibly sure-handed and made countless nifty plays around the bag this season, picking short hops and saving would-be errors for his fellow infielders.

LaRoche actually had a minus-5.0 UZR this season, per FanGraphs, which was lowest among qualified NL first basemen.

Span has never won a Gold Glove before, but was nominated as one of three NL center fielders last season. He's going up against the Reds' Billy Hamilton and the Mets' Juan Lagares this time around.

The 30-year-old Span made four errors this season and posted a .990 fielding percentage, after going the entire 2013 campaign without committing an error.

Advanced defensive metrics don't rate Span very favorably. He had a minus-4.7 UZR this season, according to FanGraphs, while Hamilton had a 20.1 UZR and Lagares had an 18.6 UZR.

But many who who watch Span on a daily basis are incredibly impressed with his range, the efficiency of his routes and how many would-be hits he takes away.

Span mentioned a couple of times this season how much it would mean to him to win a Gold Glove. Oddly enough, the fact that his offensive numbers jumped up this season could help him win the award this time. Players who hit more tend to get more consideration for Gold Gloves, even though the award is strictly defensive-based.

Gold Glove results are based on two components. Slightly more than 75 percent of the overall selection total is made up of votes submitted by managers and up to six coaches on their staff. Coaches are not allowed to vote for players on their own team.

Nearly 25 percent of the vote comes from the SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) Defensive Index.

This index is determined based on two types of defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts.