If you were to look at the list of Fielding Bible Award winners from the last 20 years, one of the least recognizable names on it is former Athletics first baseman Daric Barton, who won the Award in 2010.

Albert Pujols was the choice of our voters in each year from 2006 to 2009 and then again in 2011. After that it was the Adrián González’s and Mark Teixeira’s, who eventually transitioned to the Paul Goldschmidt’s, Christian Walker’s and Matt Olson’s that we know today.

So what to make of Barton winning in 2010?

“I take a lot of pride in it, considering that I wasn’t really known as a defensive guy until I made the change from catcher and worked with Ron Washington and Juan Navarette,” said the now 41-year-old Barton from his home in Queen Creek, Arizona, not far from Scottsdale. He owns a luxury car service business, does some work in real estate, and will be going to the Arizona Fall League with aspirations of getting back in pro baseball as a hitting coach. He’ll be participating in an MLB-run program that helps train future coaches.

Washington offered Barton a teaching style that was best described as “encouraging helpfulness”. But at the same time, holding you accountable. It was ‘Hey, you’re doing it wrong,’ but in an encouraging way. “Wash kicked my butt. It was an honor and privilege to work with them. They know their stuff.”

Barton’s receptiveness to coaching started when his mom Elizabeth was his tee-ball coach and, at least for a little while, his bullpen catcher when he pitched in Little League.

“She’ll tell you that I was just naturally gifted, which may be true,” Barton said. “But at the same time, that natural gift doesn’t really get to come out unless she was there playing with me, and throwing me rolled up socks in the house.”

Barton was a first-round pick so the talent was there, as was the willingness to acclimate to a new position. He had to work on his first-step quickness, having good hands, making picks of short-hop throws, and having good footwork around the base.

“Footwork is the key to playing first base. I think your first-step quickness, your knowledge of where the bag is, and using the bag for leverage are keys,” Barton said.

Barton was good enough to be an everyday player in 2008 and had a respectable 4 Defensive Runs Saved. but he was one of the weaker-hitting regular first basemen in MLB. In 2009 he played more than half of his games for Triple-A Sacramento coming off hip surgery. But in 2010 he was fully healthy and had just had LASIK surgery.

“Everything was just clicking,” he said. Barton had by far his best season as a major leaguer. He hit .273 with 110 walks and a .393 on-base percentage. If Moneyball had been written about the 2010 team, Barton would have been in the role of Scott Hatteberg. The difference was that he could field too. He led all first basemen with 19 Runs Saved.

Barton didn’t just lead the position. He led by a lot. Here’s that year’s first base leaderboard.

Barton came in first place in our voting panel. His lowest ranking on a ballot was sixth which was from Tom Tango’s fan poll. His defense was excellent but his name recognition was not. He didn’t win a Gold Glove Award either.

“A lot of it’s a popularity contest,” Barton said. “I wasn’t a household name and I played for Oakland.”

And if you were to look now, you’d see that YouTube is lacking in clips of Barton from 2010 but it did have some examples of defensive excellence from other years that shows off his skills. He offered comments on three plays.

Catching a foul pop in Oakland

“Oakland, as we all know, has huge foul ground. No ball is out of reach.

I learned that you just pick a spot and run to a spot. A lot of it’s reading the ball, reading the path, the height, the spin. Good luck if you can’t read the spin. You’re reading the trajectory. I would just turn around and run. More times than not I would catch ’em. That was my favorite play on defense at the Coliseum.”

Throwing a runner out at third

“I have gone through that play in my mind so many times as far as wanting to make that play. We practiced it in spring training, more often on a bunt than a full swing. I knew exactly what I was gonna do with it.

If you watch the play, Donaldson wasn’t expecting me to throw it over there. He was off the bag, but I had already made up my mind. It was a high-leverage situation and everything happened as I had pictured it. I was playing off the line and it was a two-hopper and everything just worked out perfectly. It was a good transfer and Donaldson was running to the bag. If you watch the throw it’s kind of a lower throw and I think that’s because I was in between of ‘do I throw it to the bag’ or ‘do I try to lead him to the bag?’ It all happened so fast but I’d gone over that 100 times.”

2013 off Gray

“A hard ground ball off Sonny Gray’s foot. I was gonna go cover first. Luckily I didn’t put my head down to turn around to look at the bag and I saw it deflect off his foot, so I scrambled to get the ball. I bobbled the ball because I go to grab it with my glove and it hits the heel of my glove.

Sonny is one of the best athletes as a pitcher that I’ve played with. He and Dallas Braden were both very good athletes. I knew if there was a chance, if I could throw it anywhere near the bag they had the adjustability and body control to be able to get it. So I had confidence in picking it up and just throwing it over there. Luckily it was a good throw.”

Barton had shoulder surgery not long after the 2010 season and was never the same player after that. He played parts of four more seasons with the A’s, spent a year in the Blue Jays minor league system, then played three years in the Mexican League before retiring. He won a Gold Glove in Mexico in 2016 but never received his trophy.

He still has and still values his Fielding Bible Award.

“Knowing what it is and knowing what it means just goes to show that it’s better than the Gold Glove,” Barton said. “It means more because it statistically shows that I was the best first baseman, and it also goes to show that I probably should have won the Gold Glove as well.”