Aaron Hill and Adam Lind Win Silver Slugger Awards

by Tom Dakers on Nov 12, 2009 7:47 PM EST in News Comment 10 comments

The Silver Slugger awards were given out today and we had two winners. Aaron Hill won for best offensive second baseman and Adam Lind won for best DH. Both are very deserving. Congratulations both of you. The whole list of winners:

POS	PLAYER	HR	RBI	AVG
1B	M. Teixeira, Yankees	39	122	.292
2B	Aaron Hill, Blue Jays	36	108	.286
3B	Evan Longoria, Rays	33	113	.281
SS	Derek Jeter, Yankees	18	66	.334
OF	Jason Bay, Red Sox	36	119	.267
OF	Torii Hunter, Angels	22	90	.299
OF	Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners	11	46	.352
C	Joe Mauer, Twins	28	96	.365
DH	Adam Lind, Blue Jays	35	114	.305

In the NL

POS	PLAYER	HR	RBI	AVG
1B	A. Pujols, Cardinals	47	135	.327
2B	Chase Utley, Phillies	31	93	.282
3B	R. Zimmerman, Nats	33	106	.292
SS	H. Ramirez, Marlins	24	106	.342
OF	Ryan Braun, Brewers	32	114	.320
OF	Andre Ethier, Dodgers	31	106	.272
OF	Matt Kemp, Dodgers	26	101	.297
C	Brian McCann, Braves	21	94	.281
P	C. Zambrano, Cubs	4	11	.217

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looking into my crystal ball, i see more such awards for Lind

by aagoodfella on Nov 12, 2009 7:56 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Awesome, Very well deserving.

Life as a Toronto Sports Fan?... *sigh*... It is what it is...

by JohnnyG on Nov 12, 2009 9:26 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

...

I hate to be the one saying this, because I love Hill, but Zobrist, Cano, Pedroia and Kinsler (in that order) put up better wOBAs than Hill. Pedroia and Kinsler only marginally, but Zobrist should’ve won, and it’s not even close (.408 vs .357). Shows you how much walks are underrated.

Lind however, was most definitely and uncontroversially deserving.

by Woodman663 on Nov 13, 2009 9:46 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

well it is a slugging award

by ayjackson on Nov 13, 2009 11:34 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

To be fair to Hill

all those players are helped immensely by their home ballparks.

Cano: .338 / .370 / .541 home .303 / .333 / .498 away
Pedroia: .318 / .388 / .514 home .273 / .355 / .381 away
Kinsler: .286 / .364 / .585 home .219 / .285 / .387 away
Zobrist: .312 / .426 / .601 home .282 / .383 / .484 away

Hill: .271 / .317 / .536 home .299 / .342 / .465 away

Hill was the only player who was not dramatically helped by his home park. If he played at Fenway, there’s a good chance he may have hit 40 homers. In Zobrist’s case, even though he had dramatic splits, he was still so good on the road that the voters must have penalized him for not playing 2nd all season (only started 81 games there).

So there’s actually a very legit argument for Hill in this case, though I can certainly see voting for Zobrist. I think Hill is as good a choice as Cano, though, and is better than Pedroia or Kinsler. Kinsler was replacement level on the road and Pedroia had no power.

"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"

by jessef on Nov 14, 2009 11:31 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Do you think the managers that vote for this award considered that?

by Tom Dakers on Nov 14, 2009 12:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

no sir

by aagoodfella on Nov 14, 2009 12:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Depends which argument you mean

I imagine that they considered the Zobrist one. And as far as the other, my point wasn’t that the managers would use this argument so much as it was that they didn’t necessarily make the wrong choice.

"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"

by jessef on Nov 14, 2009 3:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

good point … especially given the fact that Hill hits almost all his taters to left

http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2009_4471&type=hitter

by aagoodfella on Nov 14, 2009 12:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Hunter

pretty shocking to see Torii Hunter win a silver slugger with rather unimpressive numbers for a silver slugger award. but that just shows how much of an effect the steroid era had on baseball. Hunter got this award based on name recognition but also because there was truly no one else comparable [aside from someone like Shin-Soo Choo]

by deg on Nov 13, 2009 12:20 PM EST reply actions 0 recs