Every year, one player from each position in each league wins a Silver Slugger Award. The award is given by Louisville Slugger, announced on Nov. 8.
Per, Louisville, "clubs get four votes each and are asked to select the players they feel are the best offensive producers at each position in their league." Clubs are not allowed to vote for their own players and nominations are due by the end of September.
The folks at Louisville Slugger told NBCBayArea.com's The Cove that two Giants are already nominated: Buster Posey and Matt Cain.
Yes, pitchers can hit too. They're people after all.
It's quite possible the Giants will see additional nominations ... or at least an additional nomination. But it would be a surprising one, I'd bet.
After all, Melky Cabrera's not going to get a nod from anyone in baseball, Pablo Sandoval is struggling to bad to get a vote we'd think, and there's no one else who's really stepped up for San Francisco.
But what about Madison Bumgarner? No, really, Madison Bumgarner.
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Of the 18 pitchers who have hit a home run in 2012, only two have hit multiple home runs. Mike Leake and Bumgarner. (Matt Cain has also hit one.) Bumgarner's only hitting .156, but that's not all that terrible for a pitcher, and he's got five RBI and five sacrifice bunts.
Cain's hitting .152 with five RBI, so it's not a stretch to give MadBum a nod. It might be worthless though, considering Leake's hitting a sweltering .286 with a pair of doubles, three RBI and the homers. And Stephen Strasburg, who the Nats are considering using as a pinch hitter (!), has a .277 average and seven RBI.
Barring a collapse, Posey's almost a lock to win this award, considering he's already a front-runner for, you know, the MVP award.
Just for fun, here's the award itself:
