2 Tigers Win Silver Sluggers!

11/09/2007 4:00 PM ET
Polanco, Ordonez earn Silver Sluggers
Tandem is first Detroit pair to win hitting award since '92

DETROIT -- Add another first-time honor to the list for Tigers second baseman Placido Polanco, and another honor to a growing list for outfielder Magglio Ordonez.

After earning his first All-Star selection and start in July and his first Gold Glove earlier this week, Polanco is now a Silver Slugger Award winner for the first time. Ordonez, meanwhile, won his first Silver Slugger since 2002. Together, they're the first pair of Tigers to win the award in the same year since Travis Fryman and Mickey Tettleton in 1992.

Louisville Slugger's Silver Slugger Award winners are determined annually by a vote of Major League Baseball coaches and managers who choose the players they feel are the best offensive producers at each position in both the American and National Leagues. Selections are based on a combination of offensive statistics, including batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, as well as the coaches' and managers' general impressions of a player's overall offensive value. Managers and coaches are not allowed to vote for players on their own team.

Ordonez put up offensive numbers that ranked among the best for anybody at any position this year. His .363 batting average on the season earned him the first AL batting crown for a Tiger since Norm Cash in 1961. His 54 doubles also led the Majors, while his 354 total bases and 139 RBIs ranked second only to Alex Rodriguez in the AL. His 1.029 OPS also ranked in baseball's top five.

If not for the feats accomplished by Rodriguez with the Yankees, Ordonez likely would have won the Hank Aaron Award for the best hitter in the American League, and would probably be the favorite for AL Most Valuable Player, which will be announced next week. While his MVP campaign will most likely fall short, he became the first Tigers outfielder ever to win the Silver Slugger, an award that dates back 1980.

By winning the batting crown, Ordonez also will receive Louisville's Silver Bat Award, a silver-plated bat which the company presents annually to each league's batting champion. That award, and the three-foot tall Silver Slugger trophy, will be presented to him during an on-field ceremony at home early next season.

Lost in Detroit amidst Ordonez's hitting tear to hold off Ichiro Suzuki for the batting crown, however, was the fact that Polanco had the Majors' next-highest average behind those two.

Polanco's .341 average was the best of his 10-year Major League career, topping the .331 average he posted in a 2005 season split between Detroit and Philadelphia. Philadelphia's Chase Utley was the only other regular second baseman in the Majors to hit over .320.

Polanco's .388 on-base percentage ranked second at his position behind Utley, while his .846 OPS and 105 runs scored placed third.

The Winners:

AL:
C Jorge Posada, NYY
1B Carlos Pena, TB
2B Placido Polanco, DET
3B Alex Rodriguez, NYY
SS Derek Jeter, NYY
OF Vladimir Guerrero, LAA
OF Ichiro Suzuki, SEA
OF Magglio Ordonez, DET
DH David Ortiz, BOS

NL:
C Russell Martin, LAD
1B Prince Fielder, MIL
2B Chase Utley, PHI
3B David Wright, NYM
SS Jimmy Rollins, PHI
OF Carlos Beltran, NYM
OF Matt Holliday, COL
OF Carlos Lee, HOU
P Micah Owings, ARI

Why'd Ichiro win? Sure, he's the most overrated player in baseball, but is that what the award is for? Why'd Rollins win? Sure, he's the best hitting shortstop in the NL but I thought that's why he won a gold glove. He certainly isn't the best fielder...or even close!

s !!!

Ichiro won because everyone wanted him to win the batting title and he didn't so they gave it to him because they felt sorry for him!

Oh and woo hooo Vlad !!!

How the hell does Ichiro win the award? I'm kinda shocked that Polanco won too, though.

Way to go Polanco :placido: and Maggs

bobrob2004 wrote:

How the hell does Ichiro win the award? I'm kinda shocked that Polanco won too, though.

.340.....who had a better season than Polanco at 2nd?

Maggs is getting some "well-deserved" recognition for his AWESOME season.

One MORE award (MVP) would top it off right!!

tigersaint wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

How the hell does Ichiro win the award? I'm kinda shocked that Polanco won too, though.

.340.....who had a better season than Polanco at 2nd?

I'd vote for Polanco. The .340 is nice but his other stats aren't bad either. While he's a singles machine, he plays second base and even a .340 singles machine is pretty good. He gets a few XBH. If he was in the OF no way would he get a Silver Slugger nor would he deserve one. Being a 2Bmen makes him a much, much more valuable player than he'd be if he played say LF.

Ichiro would be a hell of a SS, 2Bmen, or C but he's not worthy of a silver slugger in the OF. Granderson had a better year and I'm not sure even he's the most deserving. Sure, the .350 average Ichiro had was nice, but they're all singles!

If an average hitter (average in the sense that their 1Bs, 2Bs, 3Bs, and HRs are distributed averagely) were to get 200 hits they'd have as many total bases as the average Ichiro would have in around 264 base hits. While 200 hits looks nice, I'll take 175 from almost anyone else over 200 Ichiro base hits.

More Granderson vs. Ichiro

If I can only look at one stat, I'll generally look at OPS+ (adjusted on base + slugging %....100 is average, higher is above average).
2007 Ichiro: 122
2007 Granderson: 136

Before you say that's even reasonably close, wait - there's more. People say Ichiro is extra impressive because OPS underrates singles. That's total bull OPS highly overrates singles. If you get a walk your OBP goes up, but your slugging % does not. A single is only about 35% more valuable than a walk (even less than that if it's an infield single...something Ichiro has plenty of) yet it's counted in OBP AND SLG%. OPS says singles are twice as valuable as walks which isn't even close to being true. Ichiro never walks (49 this year) and hits singles like crazy. Granderson doesn't walk a ton either (52) but almost half his hits are for extra bases. Don't let that 14 point gap fool you, a Granderson PA is more valuable than an Ichiro one.

Maybe SBs are taken into account...
Granderson was 26-27
Ichiro was 37-45

While Ichiro's total seems better it is WORSE. A CS is very detrimental to a team. 1 SB won't make up for it. In fact, Granderson's base stealing was 27.42% better than Ichiro's this year using linear weights.

2007 Granderson > 2007 Ichiro and it's not even close.

Hell, even if the 2007 Silver Slugger counted defense (it doesn't) that'd only make the gap bigger. Granderson's defense was better, too.

It's a real shame Ichiro has 2 trophies while Granderson gets none despite the fact he was more deserving of both of them.

It's about time managers lose their vote and either the BBWAA gets it or, better yet, let SABR vote on that and all awards...and the HOF, too!

I agree with you on Ichinose. Granderson's SB % was FAR SUPERIOR to Ichinose!!

Torii Hunter was probably more deserving of the Silver Slugger than the Gold Glove!!

tigersaint wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

How the hell does Ichiro win the award? I'm kinda shocked that Polanco won too, though.

.340.....who had a better season than Polanco at 2nd?

Polanco had a better overall season.

I would've given the silver slugger to Robinson Cano before Polanco. 10 more HR, 4 more 3B, 4 more 2B, 30 more RBI, .030 higher SLG. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Polanco bats second and is not suppose to hit HR or have a lot of RBI, but isn't that what the award is about?

Don't get me wrong, I would rather have Polanco than Cano on my team. But when I think of silver slugger, I look at offensive production, and Cano had better offensive production.

I think with the Silver Slugger, Batting Average is way up there in criteria.

tigersaint wrote:

I think with the Silver Slugger, Batting Average is way up there in criteria.

I think with these awards the managers don't really know how to vote or deserve a vote. The Silver Sluggers team isn't bad this year but the Gold Glove team...don't get me started!

Managers don't deserve to vote on these awards! Let the BBWAA (or better yet SABR) do it!

Let on it......

how about Copper something? Platinum something?

Aluminum....?

Tungston??

tigersaint wrote:

Let on it......

Yeah! I want a vote! Here's my votes for this year (gold glove and silver slugger are the same):

P: Justin Verlander (no errors!)
C: Rodriguez
1B: Sean Casey
2B: Polanco
3B: Inge (LOL!!!)
SS: Guillen
LF: Ryan Raburn...why not!
CF: Granderson
RF: Magglio
DH: Sheffield


Actually, that GG team isn't much worse than the actual one! Silver slugger team is lacking a bit but who cares!

Biased much?? LOL

tigersaint wrote:

Biased much?? LOL

Oh, you wanted an ubiased vote! That's no fun. I could see giving the following Tigers Gold Gloves:

• Granderson
  
• Polanco
  
• Inge
  
• Rodriguez (I don't see it, but the voters did so why not)
  
• Ordonez (okay, now I'm really pushing it! Good fielding % though!)
  
• Verlander (no errors. Sure, he never gets the ball but no errors is no errors...this is pushing it quite a bit, too)
  
• Casey - not much range but only 1 error. Why not!
  

As for Silver Sluggers, I could make a case for the following players:

• Polanco
  
• Guillen
  
• Granderson
  
• Ordonez
  
• Sheffield (if you consider what he did prior to his injury)
  

tungSTEN

just givin' ya a hard time, saint!

Palladium? Rhodium?


Those are 2 expensive metals with rhodium being very expensive - the most expensive precious metal!

I wanna !!

SoulRat wrote:

I wanna !!

Okay, let's see a ballot!

gogetemtigers wrote:

Way to go Polanco :placido: and Maggs

Detroit's Dynamic Duo!
(and I wouldn't mind making it a trio!)

laprimamirala wrote:

tungSTEN

Smartass.....

just givin' ya a hard time!