Gator's Blog: The Purpose Of Off-Season Awards
I'm not sure what the purpose of having post-season awards is if you're not going to apply simple logic behind the selection. Miguel Cabrera, Jhonny Peralta, and Austin Jackson all have a reasonable gripe...though it would be in poor taste if they griped, so I will!
A-Jax should have a gold glove residing on his mantle at this point, instead, the award went to a Red Sox player because he had a great season at the plate. Good for him, driving in runs, hitting for average, stealing bases, that all sounds awesome! There's just one problem, the award is for FIELDING you idiots! If not A-Jax, then that dude in SoCal deserves it, but not Ellsbury.
I'll stick up for Peralta because he had significantly better stats than his Cleveland counterpart. After all, the Silver Slugger should go to the guy who had the best season at the plate at his position. Way to go Jhonny! But wait, they gave the Silver Slugger to the guy who was the better fielder...still not making much sense.
Even if you think my logic behind those two selections is flawed, I'll accept that. What I won't accept is the travesty that took place awarding Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez this year's Silver Slugger over Miguel Cabrera. The listed online criteria even stated that the merits are for Slugging Percentage, Batting Average, and On Base Percentage. If only we knew who led the American League in all three of those categories? Oh wait, that's right, it WAS Cabrera! Plus he had more Homers and Runs scored, but don't worry about that, it doesn't concern you.
Post Season awards really shouldn't rile up the players so much, but as fans, we have every right to be miffed. Call me crazy, but it really looks like there was a concerted effort to console the egos of the Red Sox after their epic fail in the last month of the season that prevented them from playing in October. Whatevs!
