No Silver Slugger for Waino?

A day after the Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs was named the National League Silver Slugger winner, many St. Louis Cardinals fans are still scratching their heads in wonder as to why Adam Wainwright did not receive the trophy.

The Silver Slugger Award honors the best offensive player at each position. Managers and coaches in each league vote for award, but may not choose a player on their on team.

And simply put, the numbers don’t add up.

Arrieta had a fine season at the plate for Chicago–hitting .262 compared to the .226 Wainwright hit for St. Louis.

But that isn’t as big a difference as one might think due to the relatively small number of trips to the batter’s box for both.

Arrieta had 17 hits in 65 at-bats, just three more than Wainwright’s 14 in 62.

Both pitchers had one triple and two home runs.

Wainwright had 8 doubles compared to two for Arrieta.

The strikeouts and walks were also in Wainwright’s favor as Adam drew a pair of free passes and struck out 17 times. Arrieta had four walks but fanned 28 times.

But the most glaring difference between not just Wainwright and Arrieta, but Wainwright and the rest of every pitcher in Major League Baseball was the RBI total.

Adam Wainwright drove in 18 runs.

Washington’s Max Scherzer (12) was the only other pitcher in the game to drive in more than 10 runs and Arrieta finished with 7.

Fielding and post-season appearances do not count towards the Silver Slugger balloting, which again makes even more baffling as to how the difference in offensive numbers resulted in Arrieta being chosen over Wainwright.

photo credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI