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San Francisco Giants: Bumgarner, Posey, and Crawford Win Silver Slugger Awards

By Sean Bialaszek

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On Thursday, two days after Rawlings announced their Gold Glove Award winners for the 2015 season, Louisville Slugger announced their own Silver Slugger winners, honoring the “top offensive producers by position“. While the San Francisco Giants took home one Gold Glove, the team cleaned up a little better in the Silver Slugger voting.

Brandon Crawford can add another bullet point to his resume. This season, he was named an All-Star for the first time, earned his first Gold Glove Award, and now, he’s the National League’s Silver Slugger at shortstop. Even with the career year more than a month behind him, his breakout continues.

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Crawford used his career season in 2015 to unseat the three-time incumbent NL Silver Slugger at shortstop, Ian Desmond of the Washington Nationals. He led all big league shortstops with 21 home runs, 84 runs batted in, and a .462 slugging percentage. His 33 doubles also led National League shortstops.

Crawford is the first shortstop in orange and black to win the Silver Slugger since Rich Aurilia‘s career-year in 2001, when he hit 37 home runs. The last Giants’ player to take home both the Silver Slugger and the Gold Glove in the same season was Barry Bonds in 1997.

Crawford is the seventh different shortstop to win both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in the same season, joining Ozzie Smith in 1987, Jay Bell in 1993, Barry Larkin in 1995 and 1996, Edgar Renteria in 2002 and 2003, Jimmy Rollins in 2007, and Troy Tulowitzki in 2010 and 2011. No other Giants’ shortstop has claimed both awards in the same season.

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Buster Posey joins Crawford as a Giants’ Silver Slugger representatives, as the National Legaue’s catcher. Posey earns his third award for his hitting, adding to the award he received in his MVP season in 2012, and in 2014 as well.

Posey, once again, was the Giants’ best hitter, as he led the team in batting average (.318), on-base percentage (.379), hits (177), and runs batted in (95). He led all catchers in baseball in hits, RBI, and WAR (5.7), was tied for first in walks (56), and was second in runs scored (74) and doubles (28).

The Giants’ superstar was also one of five qualified players in baseball to walk more than he struck out. His 56 walks, compared to 52 strikeouts gave him a 1.08 walks-to-strikeout ratio ranked him third in baseball, behind only Michael Brantley and Ben Zobrist. Joey Votto and Posey were the only two NL players with ratios of better than one.

Joining these two everyday players is a pitcher who hits well enough to be considered an everyday player, Madison Bumgarner. The Giants’ ace pitcher wins the Silver Slugger as the National League’s best hitting pitcher for the second straight year, and he seems like the most obvious choice.

Bumgarner racked up 19 hits, five home runs, and nine RBI, all of which led all hitting pitchers. He was even considered a good enough hitter to get four pinch-hit appearances, during which he collected two hits, and ended an epic standoff with Aroldis Chapman with a walk. Luckily (or probably more fitting, unluckily), the Giants’ bench was bad enough to give us to opportunities to watch MadBum hit on days he didn’t pitch.

His .468 slugging percentage this year was actually ever-so-slightly lower than his .470 last year, but still led all pitchers, and was higher than some notable everyday players as well. Prince Fielder, Evan Gattis, Jung Ho Kang, Jose Altuve, and Curtis Granderson all posted slugging percentages lower than Bumgarner.

As a hitter, Bumgarner posted a .247/.275/.468 slash-line. Opposing hitters slashed .222/.263/.349 against Bumgarner.

Here are the rest of the winners in the National League:

1B – Paul Goldschmidt (Arizona Diamondbacks, second SS)

2B – Dee Gordon (Miami Marlins, first SS)

3B – Nolan Arenado (Colorado Rockies, first SS)

OF – Bryce Harper (Washington Nationals, first SS)

OF – Andrew McCutchen (Pittsburgh Pirates, fourth straight SS)

OF – Carlos Gonzalez (Colorado Rockies, second SS)

And here are the American League winners:

C –Brian McCann (New York Yankees, sixth SS)

1B – Miguel Cabrera (Detroit Tigers, sixth SS)

2B – Jose Altuve (Houston Astros, second straight SS)

3B – Josh Donaldson (Toronto Blue Jays, first SS)

SS – Xander Boegarts (Boston Red Sox, first SS)

OF –Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels, fourth straight SS)

OF – J.D. Martinez (Detroit Tigers, first SS)

OF – Nelson Cruz (Seattle Mariners, first SS)

DH – Kendrys Morales (Kansas City Royals, first SS)

Next: Crawford Wins First Gold Glove

The Giants won three Silver Sluggers, the most of any team this season. The Tigers and Rockies were the only other teams to win multiple hitter awards. There were nine first-time winners, and nine repeat winners, the exact same split as the Gold Glove. Five players won both the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards, and the entire National League infield was monopolized. Crawford (shortstop), Goldschmidt (first base), Gordon (second base), and Arenado (third base) all took home both awards. They were joined by Jose Altuve on the American League side.

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