Silver Slugger Awards Announced

The Silver Slugger award is given annually to the best offensive player in each league. Baseball's coaches and managers determine who receives the award. Batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage are some of the categories used to determine a winner of the award.

Coaches and managers are prohibited from voting for a member of their team. The National League gives an award to the best hitting pitcher while the American League rewards the best DH in the league.

Barry Bonds has won the Silver Slugger award 12 times. Mike Piazza and Alex Rodrigues have won the award 10 times each. Rodriguez won 7 awards at SS and 3 times as a 3rd baseman. Barry Larkin won the award 9 times as a shortstop.

Here are the league award winners for 2014:

AMERICAN LEAGUE
1B: Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox, (.317, 36 HR, 107 RBI)
2B: Jose Altuve, Houston Astros (.341, 7 HR, 59 RBI, 56 SB)
3B: Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers (.324, 19 HR, 77 RBI)
SS: Alexei Ramirez, Chicago White Sox (.273, 15 HR, 74 RBI, 21 SB)
OF: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays (.286, 35 HR, 103 RBI, 104 BB)
OF: Michael Brantley, Cleveland Indians (.327, 20 HR, 97 RBI, 23 SB)
OF: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (.287, 36 HR, 111 RBI, 83 BB)
C: Yan Gomes, Indians (.278, 21 HR, 74 RBI)
DH: Victor Martinez, Detroit Tigers (.335, 32, HR, 103 RBI, 70 BB)

NATIONAL LEAGUE
1B: Adrian Gonzalez, Los Angeles Dodgers (.276, 27 HR, 116 RBI)
2B: Neil Walker, Pittsburgh Pirates (.271, 23 HR, 76 RBI)
3B: Anthony Rendon, Washington Nationals (.287, 21 HR, 83 RBI)
SS: Ian Desmond, Nationals (.255, 24 HR, 91 RBI, 24 SB)
OF: Andrew McCutchen, Pirates (.314, 25 HR, 83 RBI, 84 BB)
OF: Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins (.288, 37 HR, 105 RBI, 94 BB)
OF: Justin Upton, Atlanta Braves (.270, 29 HR, 102 RBI)
C: Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants (.311, 22 HR, 89 RBI)
P: Madison Bumgarner, Giants (.258, 4 HR, 15 RBI, .286 OBP)

Giants Take 3-2 Series Lead On Bumgarner's Shutout

The San Francisco Giants head to Kansas City with a 3-2 lead in the World Series. Madison Bumgarner threw a beauty of a game, a complete game 4 hit shutout.

This was the first World Series complete game shutout since Josh Beckett, pitching for the Florida Marlins in 2003, shutout the NY Yankees in the series clinching 6th game.

Hunter Pence got things going for the Giants in the bottom of the 2nd with a lead off single. Brandon Belt's sacrifice bunt got past James Shields for an infield single that put runners at first and second with no outs. Travis Ishakawa flew out to center to move the runners up a base. Brandon Crawford grounded out to second as Pence scored. The Giants had all the runs they would need with Bumgarner on the mound, a 1-0 lead.

With Shields still pitching for the Royals in the 4th, Pablo Sandoval singled to lead off the inning. Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt both struck out, but Travis Ishakawa singled to get Sandoval to second and Brandon Crawford singled to drive in Sandoval for the 2-0 Giants lead.

The Giants broke the game open in the bottom of the 8th. Kelvin Herrera, on in relief, gave up consecutive singles to Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence. Wade Davis relieved Herrera. Juan Perez greeted Davis with a full count double that scored Sandoval and Pence. Perez went to third on a throwing error by Alcides Escobar. Brandon Crawford's single plated Perez and the Giants' lead grew to 5-0.

Bumgarner set the Royals down in order in the top of the 9th to pick up his second win of this World Series. In his last 4 World Series starts, Bumgarner is 4-0 with a 0.29 ERA.

The number 7 and 8 hitters in the San Francisco lineup went 5 for 8 with 5 RBIs and a run scored last night.

Game 6 of the 2014 will be in Kansas City on Tuesday night.

Giants Take Game 1 of World Series 7-1

Madison Bumgarner held the Kansas City Royals to 3 hits and 1 run over 7 innings as the Giants overpowered the Royals 7-1 to take game one of the 2014 World Series.

Hunter Pence was 2 for 3 with a home run, 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored while Pablo Sandoval went 2 for 5 with 2 RBIs for the Giants.

Read the ESPN recap here.

Nationals Avoid Sweep Take 3rd game 4-1 over Giants

Madison Bumgarner made one mistake in last night's game. It wasn't a pitching mistake, it was a throwing error. With runners on 1st and 2nd, Wilson Ramos laid down a sacrifice bunt between the mound and first base. Bumgarner fielded the ball and threw wide to third trying to get the lead runner. Two runs scored on the error and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with an RBI single that scored Ramos to make the score 3-0 Nationals.

Bryce Harper added a solo home run in the top of the ninth for a 4-0 Nationals lead.

Brandon Crawford hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Pablo Sandoval with the lone Giant run in the bottom of the 9th.

Read the ESPN story here.

Giants/Washington game 3 Preview

Jayson Stark has a good article explaining why the Nationals will lose the crucial third game of the NLDS series.

My prediction is that Washington wins game 3 but loses the series.

Read Jaysons ESPN article here

Giants Advance to NLDS With 8-0 Win Over Pirates

Madison Bumgarner pitched the Giants into the NLDS last night with an extraordinary performance over the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Bumgarner tossed a 4 hit complete game shutout, striking out 10 and walking one. He threw 109 pitches over those 9 innings for an average of 12.1 pitches per inning. Only once did he face 5 batters in an inning. Only once did a Pirate runner reach third base. The Pirates got two runners on base in an inning just once and the Giants committed two errors to make that happen.

The Giant starter faced 33 batters and threw an average of 3.3 pitches to each of them. The Pirates popped up to the infield 5 times and flew out to the outfield 8 times. Only two of those fly balls reached the warning track.

The left handed Bumgarner struck out at least one batter in every inning but the 7th. A majority of those strikeouts came on his sweeping curveballs. He had good command of that curve and wasn't afraid to throw it ahead or behind in the count.

The pitching for the Giants was magnificant but the offense was very productive as they took advantage of every opportunity to score runs. Edinson Volquez of the Pirates came into the game with a 13-7 record and a 3.04 ERA. Volquez held the Giant bats in check for 3 innings on 2 hits and one walk.

Hitters are known to make adjustments after seeing a pitcher for the first time. The Giants adjusted to Volquez in the fourth. Pablo Sandoval led off the inning with a hard single against the shift used against him by the Pirates. Hunter Pence followed with a single to left. Brandon Belt waited out a walk, his second of the night, which loaded the bases for Brandon Crawford. There wasn't a person at the stadium, listening on the radio or watching on TV who predicted what would happen next. 

The left handed hitting Crawford lifted a high fly ball to right that kept going and landed in the first row of seats just beyond the short right field fence for a grand slam.

Crawford hit the 1 ball 2 strike curveball out of the park and into history, becoming the 1st shortstop to hit a grand slam, in any playoff game, in MLB history.

Those four runs were plenty enough for Bumgarner, but the Giants were not through with the Pirates pitching staff. They scored again in the 6th when Hunter Pence led off with a single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Brandon Belt for a 5-0 Giants lead.

Pittsburgh led the NL in come from behind victories in 2014. 41 times this season they rallied to win games. The largest margin they overcame was 5 runs, so the Pirates weren't out of this game yet.

In the seventh, the Giants loaded the bases again with no outs. Pirate reliever, Jared Hughes got Hunter Pence to hit into a 4-2 fielder's choice that cut down Joe Panik at the plate but Brandon Belt singled to drive in 2 and the Giant lead was now 7-0.

The Giants added another run in the eighth when Gregor Blanco walked, Joe Panik singled and Buster Posey drove in Blanco with a single, giving the Giants an 8-0 lead.

The only Pirate threat of the night came in the bottom of the eighth. After Bumgarner got Brent Morel to foul out to right, Jose Tabata hit a ground ball to short that Crawford misplayed. Josh Harrison then hit a grounder to third. Joaquin Arias, in for Pablo Sandoval, threw too late and too wide to first. The ball got by the first baseman and the Pirates had runners at 1st and 3rd with one out. 

Bumgarner struck out Jordy Mercer and got Andrew McCutchen to ground into a 6-4 fielder's choice to end the threat.

It's on to Washington, DC for the Giants for a best-of-five NLDS series with the Nationals, beginning tomorrow, the 3rd of October.

Giants in Pittsburgh for National League Wild Card Game

The San Francisco Giants travel to Pittsburgh tonight to take on the Pirates in the National League Wild Card matchup. The winner of this game will advance and take on the National Leagues best team, the Washington Nationals on Friday the 3rd of October.

The Giants have a recent history of winning the World Series in even numbered years. In case we have forgotten, this is 2014, an even numbered year. Since moving to San Francisco from New York in 1959, the Giants have been to 10 post season series and won the World Series in 2010 and 2012.

The Pirates, on the other hand, are making just their second appearance in the playoffs since losing to the Braves in the NLCS in 1992. The Pirates lost to the Cardinals in the 2013 NLDS three games to two. Before 2013 the Pirates had not had a winning season in 20 years, dating back to 1992.

San Francisco finished the 2014 season 12th in the major leagues in Runs Per Game with 4.1, 10th in Batting Average at .255 and 17th in Home Runs with 132. They will start Madison Bumgarner against the Pirates. Bumgarner finished the year with an 18-10 record and a 2.98 ERA. He struck out 219 batters in 217 innings. Madison issued 43 walks and his K:W ratio was a very good 5.09. He had a 1.09 WHIP and gave up 21 home runs on the year.

Pittsburgh who ended the season 10th in the MLB with a 4.21 RPG, 5th in hitting at .259 and 6th in HRs with 156 counter with Edinson Volquez. Volquez was 13-7 in 2014 with an ERA of 3.04. He struck out 140 in 192 innings. He issued 43 free passes for a K:W ratio of 1.97. Edinson finished the season with a 1.23 WHIP and surrendered 17 home runs.

Both the Giants and the Pirates can hit. Their pitching is adequate. This is a one game, winner take all contest in which both managers should pull out all the stops. The Giants get the nod for the better relievers. In the final analysis the Giants should win this game and advance.

 I pick the Giants to win. That being said, throughout baseball history teams who should not have won did win. Case in point, the Pirates were playing the Orioles in the 1979 World Series, when down three games to one, against arguably the best pitching staff in the majors that year, they won three games in a row to win the Series.