The 2011 Silver Slugger Awards

The Silver Slugger award winners were announced last night and, unlike the Gold Glove Awards, there are few choices that are really debatable. This award was designed to reward the best offensive player at each position. The managers and coaches vote on this award, but they can’t vote for a player on their team. At least, unlike the gold glove awards that can have people scratching their heads, every silver slugger has had a great offensive season and is a reasonable selection. Historically, the type of player who usually gets the short end of the votes for this award are the speedsters. But hey, the word “slugger” is in the title of the award so what are you going to do?


The gold glove awards got it right this year and went with the three separate outfield positions (LF, CF and RF) unlike the silver slugger that just has three general outfielders. I would much rather see each outfield position treated individually. It’s only by random coincidence that this year’s NL awards had a leftfielder, centerfielder and rightfielder.


Here is the Silver Slugger Award list along with my opinion on who should have won:


                    AL/NL Choice                                My Opinion
C       Alex Avila/Brian McCann                           Both Fine
1B     Adrian Gonzalez/Prince Fielder                  Miguel Cabrera/Fine
2B     Robinson Cano/Brandon Phillips               Both Fine
SS     Asdrubal Cabrera/Troy Tulowitzki             Jhonny Peralta/Jose Reyes
3B     Adrian Beltre/Aramis Ramirez                    Both Fine
OF     Curtis Granderson/Ryan Braun                Both Fine
OF     Jacoby Ellsbury/Matt Kemp                      Both Fine
OF     Jose Bautista/Justin Upton                       Fine/Lance Berkman
DH    David Ortiz                                                Barf…. Er…. Fine
P       Daniel Hudson                                          Really?? A pitcher gets one??


Some people (especially from Texas) might question Alex Avila’s AL pick at catcher over Mike Napoli. But the reality is Napoli did not catch enough this year to qualify. He played 61 games at Catcher, 35 games at first and the rest at DH. I my opinion, I believe that for a player to be considered for either the gold glove or silver slugger awards they should play (at the very minimum) half the games in a season at the position to be qualified. Some might even argue a higher minimum like 100 games and I wouldn’t have an issue with that.


Miguel Cabrera versus Adrian Gonzalez is a great debate for the American League first base position. Both just had monster offensive years:


Miguel Cabrera    .344 AVG 111 R 30 HR 105 RBI 1.033 OPS
Adrian Gonzalez  .338 AVG 108 R 27 HR 117 RBI  .957 OPS


But other than RBI’s, Cabrera holds the edge in every other offensive category, especially OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage). And let’s be honest, how many more RBI’s would Cabrera have had with both Jacoby Ellsbury (.376 OBP) and Dustin Pedroia (.387 OBP) batting in front of him instead of Austin Jackson (.314 OBP) and Magglio Ordonez (.303 OBP)? It’s really hard to NOT vote for the batting champ when he also has all the other categories filled so nicely! And while A. Gonzalez limped home the last six weeks of the season, where would the Detroit Tigers have gone without Miguel Cabrera in the middle of that lineup?


In the National League Prince Fielder basically received the award because of his large edge in RBI’s and OPS over Joey Votto and Albert Pujols:


Prince Fielder  .299 AVG  95 R 38 HR 120 RBI .981 OPS 1 SB
Joey Votto       .309 AVG 101 R 29 HR 103 RBI .947 OPS 8 SB
Albert Pujols    .299 AVG 105 R 37 HR  99 RBI .906 OPS 9 SB


Where I feel Asdrubal Cabrera was robbed of the gold glove award, I think he was compensated with the silver slugger that he possibly didn’t deserve (though I admit this one is very close). Asdrubal dominated Jhonny in stolen bases and runs scored, but Asdrubal tailed off the last 2 months of the season while Jhonny Peralta was consistent all year:


Asdrubal Cabrera  .273 AVG 87 R 25 HR 92 RBI .792 OPS 17 SB
Jhonny Peralta       .299 AVG 68 R 21 HR 86 RBI .824 OPS 0 SB


I give more credence to the batting average and OPS over the difference in their stolen base and run totals. The runs differential is basically Asdrubal batting second or third in the Cleveland lineup while Jhonny batted sixth or seventh in the Detroit lineup.


Not many people envisioned Aramis Ramirez putting together another solid season, especially coming off of and playing though the injuries he has had this and the past year. But as the season went on he got stronger and his power numbers came back in the second half. He has always been a solid RBI man and helped me in many fantasy leagues over the years!


Quite a few baseball people would definitely fight me on my Jose Reyes over Troy Tulowitzki pick. There is no denying that Tulo’s slugging numbers are just terrific again. But this is one of those cases where the speedster gets the short straw over slugger (not to say that Tulo is a sloth!):


Troy Tulowitzki    .302 AVG  81R 30 HR 105 RBI .916 OPS 9 SB
Jose Reyes         .337 AVG 101R  7 HR  44 RBI .877 OPS 39 SB


This is the classical argument of who is more valuable to a lineup, the middle of the order slugger versus the lead off run producer. Of course the slugger will always have more homers and RBI’s. But Reyes’ numbers also include a league leading 16 triples, league batting champion, and an incredibly improved strikeout rate. He struck out only 41 times in 537 at bats, which in today’s game is amazing.


Reyes produced this while yet again struggling with leg injuries that seem to nag him nearly every season. One can only hope he can stay healthy for a couple of years so we can see what unique numbers he might truly produce!