Some statistical awards are difficult to determine. Some just require players to do one thing and do it well. Three Atlanta Braves did that in 2019.
The fine offensive year that the Atlanta Braves enjoyed was rewarded last evening as three of their ranks were named winners of the Silver Slugger award for the 2019 season.
All three are first-time winners of the trophy, given to the league’s best hitters for average at each position as determined by opposing managers and coaches – the people whose job descriptions include figuring out how to stop them.
They were:
- 1B – Freddie Freeman (how has he not had one of these before??)
- 2B – Ozzie Albies
- CF – Ronald Acuna
This is a banner year for the Braves – one that goes into the record books for multiple reasons.
It’s the first time any club has had multiple winners under the age of 23.
It’s the first time the Braves have had 3 winners since 2003 (matching a franchise high).
It’s also the most trophies handed out to any club this season – National or American League.
The Big Hitters
Freddie Freeman gets the nod while actually hitting “just” .295 – fourteen points below his 2018 total. This came as a result of a fall-off in September when his elbow starting impacting his swing.
Still, that was just enough to beat out the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo (.293), who had the second highest batting average among qualifying first basemen.
After that was a fairly significant drop off: Josh Bell at .277 and Eric Hosmer at .265 were next.
The second base award might be the one that generates a bit more controversy… at least out of Arizona.
Ozzie Albies led the entire NL in hits with 189 and did have an outstanding year, but Ketel Marte of the Diamondbacks actually bested Albies in most offensive categories.
Marte was better in…
- Average (.329 to .295)
- HR (32 to 24)
- RBI (92 to 86)
- Walk rate (8.4% to 7.7%)
- Strikeout rate (13.7% to 16.0%)
- ISO power, OBP, Slugging, runs created (by a big margin), and overall fWAR
But sometimes it comes down to perception and timing, and Albies finished the season well and finished it as a member of a division-winning playoff team, so he got the votes.
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There isn’t a specific award for center field, the position that Ronald Acuña manned for most of the season, but he shares the outfield awards with Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich – good company.
Acuña is developing rapidly into the role of a feared hitter – the one that teams have to reckon with right away in the Atlanta Braves lineup.
The combination of speed (37 steals), power (41 homers), skills (.280 average) and patience (76 walks) is very difficult for pitchers to navigate past… never mind that his fellow Silver Slugger recipients typically batted 1-2-3 in the order!
The even better news for Braves fans is that all three of them seem quite content to remain in that order for the foreseeable future.
We call that “Instant Offense”… and it’s now an award-winning combination, too.