American League Silver Slugger Award Winners

Award season has begun in baseball.  While Major League Baseball has its system for picking and choosing its award winners (coaches, managers, and the BBWAA to be precise), LeRoy uses a mathematical formula and just a splash of common sense to determine our award winners.  We will begin with the American League Silver Slugger Award Winners.

1.  Catcher:  The Silver Slugger Award at catcher goes to Cleveland Indians C Carlos Santana.  Santana flew under the radar for most of the season for a number of reasons.  There was a lot of noise about Yankees C Russell Martin early on, Tigers C Alex Avila had a breakout year, and - the biggest reason for anyone not getting much attention - he plays in Cleveland.  But if you look at the numbers at the end of the year Santana comes out as the clear favorite for the award.  Santana hit 27 home runs, and that alone should be good enough for him to win the award in the AL this year.

2.  First Base:  The Silver Slugger Award at first base goes to Boston Red Sox 1B Adrian Gonzalez.  Unlike Santana, Gonzalez had been the favorite to win this award since he was acquired in a trade by Boston in the off-season.  And he didn't do anything to lose that award.  Gonzalez had 213 hits and batted .338, in addition to hitting 27 home runs, driving in 117 runs and scoring 108 runs.

3.  Second Base:  The Silver Slugger Award at second base goes to Yankees 2B Robinson Cano.  Like Gonzalez, Cano had been the favorite to win this award for a along time.  Mainly because he's been the best hitting second baseman in the American League for several years now.  Cano batted .302 with 28 home runs, 118 runs batted in and 104 runs scored.

4.  Third Base:  The Silver Slugger Award at third base goes to Texas Rangers 3B Adrian Beltre.  Unlike the races at first and second, this one didn't really have a favorite at the start of the season.  That was mainly because Rays 3B Evan Longoria started the year on the DL.  But Beltre got off to a fast start and never really relented his position as the best-hitting third baseman in the AL this year.  He finished with 33 home runs and 105 runs batted in.

5.  Shortstop:  The Silver Slugger Award at shortstop goes to Texas Rangers SS Elvis Andrus.  Andrus has been known as a good shortstop and a critical piece in the Rangers' potent offense for a long time now, but he's never been considered one of the elites in the AL, despite his appearances in multiple All-Star Games.  And this year he took a back seat to Yankees SS Derek Jeter (I don't know why either) and Indians SS Asdrubal Cabrera, who had a breakout season.  But at the end of the year it was Andrus who had the most balanced and productive offensive year among shortstops in the AL.  Andrus stole 37 bases.

6.  Outfield:  The Silver Slugger Awards account for three outfielders regardless of their positions.  I'm listing them here alphabetically and this is not necessarily the order in which they should be ranked.  But we'll start with RF Jose Bautista, who plays for the Toronto Blue Jays.  Bautista followed up his breakout season of last year with another terrific season this year.  He batted .302 with 43 home runs, 103 runs batted in, 105 runs scored and 132 walks.

7.  Outfield:  Next we'll move onto CF Melky Cabrera, who spent last season with the Kansas City Royals but has since been traded to the Giants.  Cabrera definitely wasn't a favorite to win very many awards this year and his big season probably came as a surprise to many.  But he ended up having a terrific year.  Cabrera batted .305 with 201 hits, 102 runs scored and 20 stolen bases.

8.  Outfield:  And finally our outfield pool ends with New York Yankees CF Curtis Granderson.  Big things were expected of Granderson upon his trade from Detroit to the Bronx, and he had a good season in 2010 despite missing significant time with an injury.  He finally had the season people expected him to last year after moving from spacious Comerica Park to minuscule Yankee Stadium and, in fact, had the breakout that never came in Detroit.  He even learned how to hit left-handers.  A little bit.  Granderson hit 41 home runs and drove in 119 runs, in addition to scoring 136 runs and stealing 25 bases.

9.  Designated Hitter:  The Silver Slugger Award at Designated Hitter goes to Texas Rangers DH Michael Young.  Young was moved to DH from third base this season after the Rangers acquired Beltre.  He wasn't happy about the move (the third time he's been forced to switch positions) and demanded a trade.  But he eventually knuckled under and settled in as the team's DH.  He finished the year with a .338 batting average and 213 hits, as well as 106 runs batted in.