TOWER GROVE — Fresh from an offseason that included a new contract, a slimmer frame and a healthier knee, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina sat in front of his locker at the Jupiter facility and talked instead about what was missing. It was his first day of spring training and he had no need to hide his personal goal for the 2008 season.

He wants to win a Gold Glove.

“I won’t stop, I’ll keep working hard, because I want to get my first Gold Glove,” Molina told me this past February. “It means you’re one of the best at your position. That is important to me.”

Today he finds out if he did.

The Rawlings Gold Glove winners for the National League will be announced this afternoon at 3 p.m. St. Louis time on ESPN News. The Cardinals have two favorites to win the award — catcher Molina and first baseman Albert Pujols. There are also a couple Cardinals fielders deserving of consideration who could upset the incumbents, third baseman Troy Glaus and center fielder Rick Ankiel. Glaus has favorable statistics for the Gold Glove, what with Glaus leading third basemen in fielding percentage and setting a franchise record for fewest errors. Ankiel has some highlight-reel catches to stick in voters’ minds. But the Cardinals with the best chances of going Gold are Pujols and Molina.

Both recently won the Fielding Bible award for their position. Pujols has his overall reputation to boost him, and the fact that he won a Gold Glove back in 2006. Molina has time served.

He’s widely viewed as the best defensive catcher in the game yet to win a Rawlings Gold Glove.

There is this little bit of history to defend.

A couple Rawlings Gold Glove (from 1981)

While doing research for a project I’ll write more about later this offseason, I started counting up the Rawlings Gold Gloves won by each franchise. The working theory was this: That the Cardinals have won more Gold Gloves than any franchise in baseball. I counted up the Cardinals. I took a guess that the Baltimore Orioles would be the chief competition — Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, et. al. — and … well, became overwhelmed by other projects.

To the rescue swooped Dan Kimack, of Fleishman-Hilliard.

In an exhaustive search of the Rawlings Gold Glove history and records of the 911 previous winners of the award since 1957, Kimack discovered that not only have the Cardinals been the most consistently decorated team for its defensive play but also that, yes, the Cardinals have won more than any other team. For the first time, here are the results of Kimack’s audit of the all-time Rawlings Gold Glove winners:

1. St. Louis Cardinals … 72
2. Baltimore Orioles … 63
3. Atlanta/Milwaukee Braves … 54
4. New York Yankees … 48
5. LA/Brooklyn Dodgers … 44
6. NY/San Francisco Giants … 44
7. Pittsburgh Pirates … 43

The Cardinals claim to the Gold Glove title stretches as far back as Ken Boyer winning the award at third base from 1958 to 1961, and it stretches all the way through some of the most decorated defensive units in the history of baseball — the 2000 to 2006 St. Louis Cardinals. During that span, the Cardinals won 18 Gold Gloves. In 2002, three members of the Cardinals infield won Gold Gloves — Fernando Vina at second, Scott Rolen at third and Edgar Renteria at shortstop. Kimack also points out that the Cardinals have had a knack for acquiring Gold Glove winners and sending player off to win additional Gold Gloves.

Mark Grudzielanek, for example, “received” his a year after his Gold Glove-worthy turn in 2005.

That’s part of the argument that the time is right for Molina to win his first Gold Glove. He’s been deserving the past two seasons, edged by the Dodgers’ Russell Martin last year. The Cardinals, especially manager Tony La Russa, stumped aggressively for Molina this past season, even though his defensive statistics and overall defensive play was not as sharp in 2008 as it was in, say, 2006. He remains the most difficult catcher to steal against and the only one ruthlessly proficient at picking off runners at first base.

Oh, and yes sometimes this matters: He hit .300 this year.

The Cardinals history with the Gold Glove, however, hit a speed bump in 2007. They did not win one. It was the first time since 1999 that a Cardinal was not awarded a Gold Glove.

Expect, at least, No. 73 in franchise history to be announced this afternoon.

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Defensive statistics remain the Holy Grail of baseball metrics, but one of the best going right now is the plus/minus developed by John Dewan and Bill James and calculated over at Bill James Online. The statistic measures plays a defensive player makes outside of his assigned zone (a plus) and plays flubbed within a designated position zone (a minus). For example, the Cardinals’ second baseman Adam Kennedy ranked well in plus/minus with a total of +19. That ranked second in the National League behind Chase Utley’s +47.

While Glaus’ does not crack the top five at his position despite his sturdy fielding percentage and strong play at third base, Pujols is near the top of his position. The top five plus/minus at first base, according to Bill James Online:

1. Mark Teixeira, ATL/LAA … +24
2. Albert Pujols, STL … +20
3. Joey Votto, CIN … +19
4. Lance Berkman, HOU … +18
5. Carlos Pena, TB … +14

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The American League winners will be announced Thursday afternoon.

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Since incumbency does matter, he are the Rawlings Gold Glove winners in the National League from last year: Greg Maddux, P; Russell Martin, C; Derrek Lee, 1B; Orlando Hudson, 2B; Jimmy Rollins, SS; David Wright, 3B; Aaron Rowand, OF; Carlos Beltran, OF; Andruw Jones, OF; Jeff Francoeur, OF. (There was a tie in voting for the outfield.) … Here is Baseball-Reference’s complete list of NL winners.

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