Thursday, November 9, 2017

Lindor & Ramirez Win Louisville Slugger's 2017 Silver Slugger Awards!

baseball awards season is well underway and this evening, on November 9, it was revealed that two members of the Cleveland Indians won Silver Slugger Awards for the first time in their careers! Francisco Lindor won Louisville Slugger's 2017 American League Shortstop Silver Slugger Award & Jose Ramirez won Louisville Slugger's 2017 American League 3rd Baseman Silver Slugger Award! congratulations, boys!👏

photos courtesy of @Indians on twitter

Louisville Slugger's Silver Slugger Award is Major
League Baseball's top offensive honor. four representatives from each major league team's coaching staff get to take part in the selection process. these managers and coaches vote for the players they feel are the best offensively at each fielding position in both leagues, as well as the DH in the AL and pitcher in the NL. the only stipulation is the voters cannot pick any players from their own team. a player's batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage are heavily taken into consideration by those who vote, along with a player's overall offensive value to his ballclub.

originating in 1980, the Silver Slugger Award was created by Louisville Slugger bats manufacturer Hillerich & Bradsby. it was meant to be an extension of the Silver Bat Award, a silver-plated bat given to the AL and NL batting champions by Louisville Slugger. the Silver Slugger Award measures three feet long and includes not only the winner's name engraved on it, but all the other Silver Slugger winners from each position in their respective league.

when looking at Lindor's numbers, i think he was a pretty obvious winner at short. as for Ramirez, he spent time as both a 2nd baseman and 3rd baseman in 2017. evidently, the award does not factor in position splits; otherwise, he may not have won. now let's check out some of Frankie and Josey's rankings.

among all qualifying AL shortstops, Lindor ranked:
1st in extra base hits (81)
1st in HR (33)
1st in RBI (89)
1st in total bases (329)
1st in SLG (.505)
1st in OPS (.842)
tied for 1st in doubles (44)
2nd in hits (178)
4th in OBP (.337)
6th in batting average (.273)

among all qualifying AL 3rd basemen, Ramirez ranked:
1st in hits (186)
1st in extra base hits (91)
1st in doubles (56)
1st in total bases (341)
1st in batting average (.318)
1st in OBP (.374)
1st in SLG (.583)
1st in OPS (.957)
5th in HR (29)
5th in RBI (83)

Lindor and Ramirez are the first pair of Indians to win this award since Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes both won it in 2014. prior to that duo, Roberto Alomar and Manny Ramirez won Silver Sluggers together back in 2000.

according to Joe Noga's cleveland.com article, Lindor is the first Indians shortstop to win a Silver Slugger since Asdrubal Cabrera in 2011, and Ramirez is the first Indians 3rd baseman to win since Matt Williams in 1997.

other Tribesmen who have won Silver Slugger Awards in the 21st century include Juan Gonzalez in 2001 and Victor Martinez in 2004.

the entire list of the American League Silver Sluggers for 2017 looks like this:
OF Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
OF Justin Upton, Los Angeles Angels & Detroit Tigers
OF George Springer, Houston Astros
1B Eric Hosmer, Kansas City Royals
2B Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
SS Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians
3B Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Indians
C Gary Sanchez, New York Yankees
DH Nelson Cruz, Seattle Mariners

the Silver Slugger Award also comes with a $50,000 bonus. so congrats again, Frankie & Josey!💰


don't forget to follow me on twitter @clevelandgirl23 all offseason for news about Brantley's recovery from right ankle surgery. and if you'd like to join my subscription list, you can enter your email address in the box underneath the Blog Archive sidebar over on the upper right side of the page.📧

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