As the offseason continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:
1. Silver Slugger Awards announced:
The finalists for this year’s Silver Slugger Awards were announced just over a week ago, and the winners are set to be announced at 5pm CT this evening. As noted by Manny Randhawa and Brian Murphy of MLB.com, the award for second base in the AL has perhaps the most intrigue involved. With a win, Astros star Jose Altuve would tie Ryne Sandberg for the most Silver Sluggers at the keystone all-time (seven). Altuve he hit .295/.350/.439 with 20 homers and 22 steals in 153 games this year. Meanwhile, the NL outfield nominees are full of fresh talent; of the five nominees, only Teoscar Hernandez has won the award before. Jackson Chourio and Jackson Merrill are both finalists for the NL Rookie of the Year award in additional to the Silver Slugger, while Seiya Suzuki and Jurickson Profar are both established big leaguers coming off career seasons.
2. Will the Braves stay active?
Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos has a tendency to work more quickly than other executives around the sport during the offseason. This year, he kicked off the winter by trading Jorge Soler to the Angels in the first major transaction of hot stove season, and just yesterday he swung a second trade with an AL West club, bringing in infielder Nick Allen from the Athletics. While Atlanta has primarily been focused on the trade market to this point, last November the club signed right-hander Joe Jimenez to a three-year deal in free agency while also standing among the top suitors for early-signing starters Sonny Gray and Aaron Nola. With just over two weeks before the calendar flips to December, does the league’s most active early offseason club have more moves on the way?
3. MLBTR Chat today:
While the offseason is still young, the rumor mill has begun to churn and some deals have already been made. Next up on the winter’s calendar is a pair of key deadlines for clubs next week: the Rule 5 protection deadline and the non-tender deadline. Whether you have questions about those looming deadlines, who your favorite team will be targeting this winter, or a trade proposal in the back of your mind, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will be here to answer your questions during a live chat scheduled for 1pm CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
Chourio had a sub 800 OPS. Sure for a 20 year old he had a heck of a season and there is a lot to be excited about for the future. But you aren’t supposed to get extra credit for being young.
i concur
He’s a distant but solid 3rd
Probably doesnt belong in the top 10 without looking it up. Milwaukee is a great place to hit.
3.9 fWAR ranked 3rd among all rookie hitters. What 10 NL rookies are you putting ahead of him? By the way, he was better on the road than at home.
Silver slugger is an award given out for offense WAR has nothing to do with anything. I am not talking about the ROY voting I am talking about the silver slugger voting.
my bad. Totally misread that.
Looks like his 117 wRC+ ranks him #11 among NL outfielders. Maybe they just chose to ignore his performance in April and May. Plus, putting Bryan Reynolds in the utility category was strange.
Yeah it was a bit confusing. I am sure he’s on his way to some silver slugger awards in the future but he didn’t earn this year’s nomination.
my bad also, I was assuming ROY
Altuve silver sluggers:
-2014
-2015
-2016
-2017 ***
-2018 ***
-2022
Should be 4.
Friendly reminder that Altuve refused to take part in the sign stealing operation.
Have you never seen the video where he hit the home run and then was worried someone would rip his jersey off and expose what was underneath?
There were no buzzers lmao
troy – Just a “coincidence” his .957 OPS in 2017 was the highest of his career?
You’ll need to hit the buzzer before answering.
Should be 6
Is this news?
Jeff Passan reports that the Blue Jays will meet with Juan Soto, adding that the Blue Jays will be the first team Soto meets with.
Considering last years Ohtani news perhaps the Jays would prefer to stay in stealth mode this time around
My first thought was “under-card” …before the championship fight!
Just more evidence how much weaker the AL was this year compared to the NL.
Altuve is the only AL 2B with an OPS over .711
There are 5 NL 2B with an OPS over .711
The rookie of the year races aren’t even close either. Merrill and Skenes would have ran away with it, and a few others like Chourio and Imanaga probably would have won it.
@Fever Pitch Guy
While he didn’t have the same amount of PAs, Jordan Westburg sat around .792 OPS. Brandon Lowe had .783.
Just depends on how you’re evaluating. Is it on PAs? Looks like the AL used a bunch of different 2B players while the NL had a fairly stable group of 2B men.
York – I used minimum 400 PA’s, which is generous.
Westburg had just a .693 OPS in 183 PA’s
Lowe had just a .691 OPS in 222 PA’s
Yeah of course you’ve got to have a reasonable minimum amount of PA’s at the position to qualify, otherwise you’d have someone like Pat Wisdom with a 5.000 OPS.
@Fever Pitch Guy
FG says that Westburg had 447 PA and Lowe had 425. What data are you looking at?
York – I’m looking at Fangraphs.
fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?lg=all&sea…
I know you hate Fangraphs because of their analytics, but they do have a lot of reliable data by position.
@Fever Pitch Guy
So, based on the NL, and your assumption of anything above .711, there are 8 players in the NL and out of them, only 5 of them had over 400 PA. The AL had 3 guys that meet the same metrics, based on the fact that they specifically played 2B for those games. I was looking at FG, based on the primary position they played. Honestly, the difference between 3 and 5 guys isn’t really that relevant to the data. I already presented data above that show you a better picture of the two leagues. NL was generally better at OPS but inefficient when it came to actually creating runs, compared to the AL. I’d rather have players creating runs than guys just slugging the ball far but not creating runs.
York – Only 9 NL 2B had at least 400 PA’s this year, and 5 of them are above .711 OPS.
As far as which league is stronger, I guess that would depend on what you consider stronger …. more teams that are at least decent, or more teams that are dominant.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Well, you started this by claiming Altuve is the only 2B with an OPS above .711, which is false, per FG’s data and I pointed all of this out to you with the data below.
Then I showed you that NL & AL 2B were essentially the same in product and OPS, so all your points are really not of any value.
Oh how the tides have changed !
It was very evident in the WS too as the dodgers were clearly better than yanks
@Big whiffa
AL 2B League OPS: .665, wRC+: 90
NL 2B League OPS: .685; wRC+: 91
Not much of a difference. Both leagues had below league average 2B players. MLB needs to step up their game and get better 2B players.
American League Data:
OPS wRC+
Catcher 0.669 90
1B 0.717 105
2B 0.665 90
3B 0.685 95
SS 0.695 98
LF 0.717 104
CF 0.717 104
RF 0.718 105
DH 0.751 114
National League:
OPS wRC+
Catcher 0.690 92
1B 0.735 104
2B 0.685 91
3B 0.700 94
SS 0.727 101
LF 0.727 102
CF 0.687 90
RF 0.724 101
DH 0.767 113
National League has better catchers, 2B and SS for OPS & creating runs.
American League had better CF for OPS and creating runs.
Overall, the NL dominated OPS for all positions except for CF, so they were good at getting on base and hitting for power, but when it came to creating runs, the AL lead in 6 of 9 positions, so the AL generally had better position players (and DH) for creating runs for their teams. So, this suggests to me that the NL wasn’t very efficient with their offensive opportunities. Maybe the NL needs to rethink the strategy.
Great post. Thx York
York how do you get anyone dominated anything most stats were within 2 points. CF could be the only pos you could say was dominate but that is a bit of a stretch.
Yes the NL had 1 team that was better than the AL. There were probably more. Is the WS a way to judge that or the AS game? I don’t think 1 game can prove that nor 1 series. I do agree that the NL was overall better than the AL. I will say that my team the Mariners would be a tough team in the playoffs. We would have a tough time scoring but our pitching staff would be one of the better 3 on the playoffs. I agree with a lot of what you say but dominate is not one of them.
@proton
Some of them are not off by 1 point. Overall, the AL had better position players when it came to wRC+. or run production and producing runs is what counts to win games.
I submitted my FA predictions last night. Easy Free Square with Juan Soto going to the White Sox.
I have him going to the As where he’ll join Roki to bring the first WS to Sacramento, but otherwise, lockstep
Brew – You’re both wrong, I have him retiring since he’s close to being Social Security eligible.
@Fever Pitch Guy
True, 35 year old OFs don’t usually age well. Whoever signs him should make him a full time DH.
/s
York – Agreed! Just like his high school classmate, David Ortiz.
@Brew88
Like “…first WS to Sacramento, …”.
You know that Braves management is laughing their a off about Freddie’s championship with the Dodgers and you know that the World Series was completely ruined for Freddie by the fact that he won it with the Dodgers and not with the Braves.
So Matt, Ronald, the Braves still wn.