Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is amazingly graceful in the middle of the diamond. In fact, he’s more graceful than you might think.

He does, after all, play with a chip on his shoulder.

Tulowitzki tonight won his second straight Rawlings Gold Glove Award, providing him with some pocket change (a $25,000 bonus) and a vast fortune in personal validation.

At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, Tulowitzki was viewed by some major league clubs as a third baseman in the weeks preceding the 2005 draft. His response? I’m a shortstop. And now he’s a two-time Gold Glove winner at the position.

Tulowitzki beat out the other finalists, Pittsburgh’s Ronny Cedeno and Atlanta’s Alex Gonzalez, after a 2011 season in which he established career highs in fielding percentage (.991) and fewest errors (6). He also went 59 consecutive games, a span of 509 1/3 innings from late June to early September, without an error, another career best.

So what does he have planned for an encore? He wants to strike gold again next season, and the next season, and the next season. Where it all stops, Tulo doesn’t want to know.

“I remember thinking a few years ago that I want to run a streak of those things,” Tulowitzki said. “You get one or two, you don’t want to stop. You want to run it into as many years as you possibly can.”

How many years?

“As long as I’m healthy and young.”

At 27, Tulowitzki could own the award for years to come. He had a better statistical season than Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins in 2007, but he was a rookie and Rollins was the MVP of the league. Rollins won the Gold Glove that season and the two following seasons before Tulowitzki snapped the streak in 2010.

“In my rookie year, I learned you really have to beat someone to take it away from them,” Tulowitzki said late in the Rockies’ season. “That’s the way I kind of look at it now. Statistically, I don’t know if there’s someone out there who’s done that.”

Tulowitzki is the fifth Rockies player to win at least one Gold Glove. He joins Larry Walker (1997-99, 2001-02) and Todd Helton (2001-02, 2004) as the only multiple winners in franchise history.

A contract incentive netted him the $25,000 bonus, but it’s not about the money, not when you’re signed through the 2020 season for $157.5 million, as Tulowitzki is.

“I take great pride in my defense,” he said.

How important is fielding in Tulo’s world? His dog, a boxer, is named Rawlings.

Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.