Silver Slugger Award: It's Like the Gold Glove For Hitters!

The Silver Slugger awards were announced Thursday evening, so we thought it would be interesting, like with the Gold Glove awards, to look at the award from an empirical standpoint.

Per MLB, "The Silver Slugger Awards are given to the players deemed to be the best offensive performers at their positions, voted on by Major League managers and coaches." They claim this award has been given out since 1980 but for the life of me I cannot remember anyone making a big deal about it before 2006. I cannot wait until next year when they start presenting the Platinum Position Player award, of course 'as voted by managers and coaches since 1995.'

Alas, despite the fact that there seems to be as many awards in baseball as there are at a pee-wee soccer awards banquet (participation medals for everyone!) we'll break down the Silver Slugger…by the numbers.

First Base
American League:
Mark Teixeira won the award with a .292 batting average, 39 home runs and 122 RBIs. His average was sixth in the AL for first basemen with a minimum of 100 plate appearances and was 32 points below Miguel Cabrera who had 34 home runs and 103 RBIs in his own right.

And before we continue, let's point out that the RBI stat is extremely arbitrary, because in most cases a player needs men on base in order to drive in runs. If the team can't get in scoring position in front of a player, it's not really fair to hold that against him. That said, driving in runs is key to the success of any slugger, so undoubtedly voters took RBIs heavily into account when casting their ballots.

Teixeira (.948) did have a higher OPS than Cabrera (.942), and while he trailed Kevin Youkilis (.961) in that stat, he exceeded Youk's numbers home runs, RBIs and slugging. Teixeira was the right choice, based on the numbers.

National League:
Albert Pujols likely received every vote but his own coaches, who aren't allowed to vote for him. He led the league in batting average at the position (.327) and was third in RBI behind Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard who each hit below .300. He also led the league in home runs (47), OPS (1.101)...the list can go on.

Second Base
American League:
Aaron Hill won the award with a league-best 108 RBIs and 36 home runs at the position. That said, he hit just .286, had a lower slugging percentage (.499) than Ben Zobrist (.543) and Robinson Cano (.520) and had an OPS (.829) that was 119 points below Zobrist (.948). Add in Zobrist's .297 average, 27 home runs and 91 RBIs and a good case can be made that he should have won the award. That said, Zobrist only played 91 of his 152 games at second base, making just 81 starts, so his versatility likely hurt him for these position awards.

National League:
The National League has its second-straight no-brainer with Chase Utley getting the award (.282/31 HR/93 RBIs/.905 OPS). Utley also scored over 100 runs, another arbitrary marker for offensive production that's based on those who hit behind you. Yet despite Utley's solid numbers, he won the award in part because there was really no other option at the position. Dan Uggla had as much run production but hit just .243. Brandon Phillips had more RBIs (98) but had a lower average (.272) and his OPS was 129 points lower (.776). Nobody else was really close.

Shortstop
American League:
Derek Jeter (.334/18/66/.871OPS) won the award and rightfully so. Jeter may win every award possible this year, including MVP. Jason Bartlett (.320/14/66/.879) could make a case for this award, but it'd be a weak one.

National League:
Hanley Ramirez is the best hitter in the National League not named Pujols. His numbers this season (.342/24/106/.954OPS) are incredible, not just for the position, but for any player in the league. No other NL shortstop hit within 25 points of him and he was the only player to have over 100 RBIs.

Third Base
American League:
Evan Longoria (.281/33/113/.889) is one of eight players to win both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award. Based on the numbers, he deserved the fielding award more than the slugging this season. That's not to say he doesn’t deserve the award, but Alex Rodriguez (.286/30/100/.933) had better numbers if you consider the fact that he played in 33 fewer games, many lost due to surgery that kept him out early in the year. But being out of the game is part of the game, so Longoria gets the nod over A-Rod.

Michael Young (.322/22/68/.892) led the league in batting at the position and had a higher OPS, but the fact that he knocked in far fewer base runners kept him from winning.

National League:
Ryan Zimmerman (.292/33/106/.888) was another who won both awards this season. How this award didn't go to Pablo Sandoval is criminal. First the guy gets snubbed off the All-Star team and then this. Maybe the coaches and managers hate pandas or something. Sandoval led all third basemen in OPS (.943) and batting (.330). He had 25 home runs and 90 RBIs to go along with those numbers. I just can't understand how a guy who hit 38 points higher and had an OPS 55 points better doesn't win this award.

Catcher
American League:
Joe Mauer (.365/28/96/1.031) had one of the greatest offensive seasons in the history of the sport. That's really all that needs to be said here.

National League:
Brian McCann (.281/21/94/.834) had the best overall numbers of the National League catchers. Miguel Montero (.294/16/59/.832) could make a case. This is one of those decisions where it depends what numbers you think are most important. For the voters, undoubtedly they went with the guy who has been around longer.

Outfield
American League:
Torii Hunter (.299/22/90/.873), Ichiro Suzuki (.352/11/46/.851) and Jason Bay (.267/36/119/.921) won the award this year, each for very different things. Hunter was solid all-around, while Ichiro clearly got the award for his average and Bay was selected for his production numbers. With the criteria so spread out, it's difficult to find another player to supplant any of those three.

National League:
Ryan Braun (.320/32/114/.937), Andre Ethier (.272/31/106/.869) and Matt Kemp (.297/26/101/.842) won the award this year in the NL. What's interesting is that the only outfielder for the Dodgers to not win the award is Manny Ramirez who had an OPS (.949) more than 100 points higher than Kemp.

Carlos Lee (.300/26/102/.831) had the next best case and it's likely that Jayson Werth (.268/36/99/.879) grabbed some votes as well. But the voters probably got this one right.

DH:
Adam Lind (.305/35/114/.932) basically ran away with the award. Jason Kubel (.300/28/103/.907) would have been a worthy choice, but clearly not better than Lind's season.

Pitcher:
Why do they give this award out to pitchers? This would be like giving a special Cy Young award to the best position player who happened to find himself on the mound for an inning or two in a blowout. There were two pitchers – Adam Wainwright and Javier Vasquez – with more than 90 plate appearances in 2009. Carlos Zambrano (.217/4/11/.689/72 plate appearances) won the award, in what could be deemed a huge upset, based on the numbers. Micah Owings (.259/3/10/.818/58 plate appearances) had a much more efficient season at the plate.

In summary, the voters got most of them right, if you go by the numbers. It makes you wonder why there's even a vote.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.