Every year, during baseball’s stretch of honors and awards, the Silver Slugger Award is presented to the best offensive player at each position in each league. Started in 1980, the voting is done by MLB’s managers and coaches.
2010 AL Silver Slugger Award Winners Include Joe Mauer, Josh Hamilton
As with the Gold Glove Awards, managers and coaches vote only for players in their own leagues, and they cannot vote for players on their own teams. Additionally, there are three outfield awards, rather than left, center, and right field awards. The National League has an award go to a pitcher, while the American League has an award go to a designated hitter.
2010’s AL results are out, and the winners are listed below. In parentheses is the number of Silver Slugger Awards each player has won during his career.
DH: Vladimir Guerrero (8)
C: Joe Mauer (4)
1B: Miguel Cabrera (3)
2B: Robinson Cano (2)
SS: Alexei Ramirez (1)
3B: Adrian Beltre (2)
OF: Jose Bautista (1)
OF: Josh Hamilton (2)
OF: Carl Crawford (1)
Ramirez, Bautista, and Crawford are all first-timers, while Guerrero wins the eighth Silver Slugger of his career, and first since 2007. Eight ties Guerrero with Wade Boggs and Manny Ramirez for the fourth-most all time.
There's not much to question. While, say, Shin-soo Choo would've been a better choice than Crawford, and Luke Scott and David Ortiz probably would've been better choices than Guerrero, all in all the results are pretty fair.
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