Awards Talk

There’s gonna be more in the coming days, but JV was named the Players Choice Player of the Year for 2011.  Besides having the most confusing name, this award is the top award bestowed by an all player vote, and produced for the MLB Network during a slow content period.

It’s not the Cy Young or MVP, but it is setting a nice precedent.

In case you missed it, Alex Avila won his first ever Silver Slugger award, while Cabby got edged out by Adrian Gonzalez, despite the fact that Cabby had a higher slugging percentage, more runs, more doubles, more HR, higher BA, higher OPS, more walks, less strikeouts, etc.  Basically, Cabrera had an edge in every category that defines “slugger.”  Gonzalez did have 12 more RBIs, but it helps when you have Jacob Ellsbury and his 119 runs ahead of you.  Some guy posited that maybe the players and coaches (who vote on Silver Slugger awards) didn’t like Cabrera’s offseason activities.  This guy was so outraged that he used a curse word (a no-no on DTW) and some fancy sabermetric stats to show how ridiculous choosing Gonzales over Cabrera really was.

The Tigers came up empty in the gold glove department.

AL Cy Young will be announced Nov 18th, MVP on Nov 22nd.

 

 

7 thoughts on “Awards Talk”

  1. The other excuse I have seen mentioned for Cabrera not winning at first base is that people voted before the season was over. That’s foolish, but possibly true.

    Of course it could just be that Boston gets so much media attention and Gonzales was discussed all season as an MVP contender. Detroit gets a bit of attention, but that was all focused on JV.

  2. Hi All…while a bit off topic I thought I’d share with you something that happened to me the other day. When driving to work at the lab, a security guard stopped me and asked me if I was a Detroit Tiger fan. Saying of course and for 45 seasons, he said that he saw my Tiger license plate frame and Tiger D on the back windshield. Then he said he was the uncle to Delmon and Dimitri Young. We had a short chat and agreed to talk more later as some other cars came up to the gate. Hopefully he can make the run with me over to Texas the next time the Tigers play the Rangers. I also want to ask him what he knows of Delmon’s injury during game five of the ALDS.

    1. Dmitri was born in Vicksburg, but they moved to Alabama later. Delmon was born in Montgomery.

      One of my co-workers (from Auburn, AL) played against Dimitri in jr high ball, but I think the family moved to California before Dmitri was in high school. there is a pretty big age gap between the two.

      1. Yes, Dimitri’s and Delmon’s folks moved around a bit. As for Vicksburg and the Tigers connection, you of course have Dimitri and Delmon. However there is also Justin Henry who is in the Tigers 2A system and was up at Toledo this year for a short stint. Justin and his brother Jordan also played ball at Ole Miss before going pro. Jordan plays 2A for the Cleveland farm system while Justin is a solid 2nd baseman that peppers hits for a good average instead of hitting for power. I hope he gets a chance to appear on the Tiger’s spring training roster during their debate for 2nd base.

  3. Well Justin did, in fact, win the Cy Young, which sort of goes without saying…but he did win it unanimously, which is very Justinian…

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