MLB awards season continued on Thursday afternoon as the league announced the winners of the 2009 Silver Sluggers, which go to the players voted the best hitters at their position in each league. The award is voted on by managers and coaches from throughout the league who are allowed to vote for anybody that's not on their team.
While there are some familiar faces on the list in each league, there are also some that aren't so familiar. Find out who's adding some hardware to their trophy case after the jump.
Long considered one of the worst defensive shortstops in baseball by those in sabermetric circles, Derek Jeter won the fourth Gold Glove of his career on Tuesday, proving that no matter what statistically-oriented folks think of Jeter's glovework, he enjoys a good defensive reputation among those within the game.
John Lackey was angry enough at his own manager to say some things that even an amateur lip-reader could tell were not family safe.
Torii Hunter was mad enough to chuck his glove into the Angels dugout and create a scene after a four-run lead had turned into a two-run deficit in one forgettable inning.
"I was pretty upset about them scoring those runs," Hunter said. "Everyone was."
NEW YORK -- They could have tossed aside their mittens and shunned their wool coats, that's how blistering hot the cozy confines of the new Yankee Stadium felt now that CC Sabathia had everything under control. It's been quite awhile since this corner of the Bronx has rocked with so much confidence and rolled with such delightful expectations, but that's what happens when the ace doesn't sweat.
Up on their feet, banging whatever or whoever stood near, tens of thousands of Yankee fans rose as one and emptied their lungs in rapturous unison: CC! CC! CC! It wasn't just that Sabathia was blowing through Angel hitters with shocking ease; no, it was so much more. It was the eighth inning and he was still throwing ridiculous heat, his fastball kissing the inside corner of the plate, his slider hypnotizing the batters from Southern California until it looked as if they were swinging at the big lefty's stuff with greased-up surfboards.
ANAHEIM -- Torii Hunter said he inferred no ill intent from the Red Sox for hitting him in the left arm Thursday night, one at-bat after he pounded a three-run home run and flipped his bat. So, unless Hunter is a great fibber, don't expect the Angels to retaliate Friday in Game 2 of the best-of-five series.
"I don't think [Ramon] Ramirez hit me intentionally," Hunter said. "That's why I didn't react."
After he was hit, Hunter bent over to remove his shin guard and Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez rushed to him. "Victor said [Ramirez] didn't do it on purpose," Hunter said. "I said, 'I know.' I'm pretty sure it wasn't intentional. If he hit me on purpose, that is stupid, because you don't want to put men on base."
The plunking contributed to a seventh-inning surge that added two runs, raising Boston's deficit to 5-0.
But besides his fine season -- 89 runs scored, 96 RBI, .823 OPS -- Abreu seems to have passed on his patience at the plate to the rest of his Angels teammates.
"He's got the younger players understanding patience isn't a bad thing," Chone Figgins told FanHouse. "It's not about not being aggressive, but being patient, getting a pitch to hit. There's nothing wrong with being 1-1 and hitting, or 1-2, or 2-2.
"It's not something simple to do, but I think we did a good job of it in spring training and have tried to bring it into the season and have so far done a good job."
BOSTON -- The Angels left Fenway Park late Thursday night, after avoiding a sweep with a 4-3 victory.
They will be back in three weeks.
With 17 games to play, the Rangers are 6 1/2 games behind the Angels and six behind the Red Sox.
Which means unless Texas figures out a way to score 10 runs a game more than it has recently, or the Yankees blow a six-game lead for the first time in their history, or Detroit runs the table, the Angels and Red Sox will meet in the American League Division Series for the third straight season.
And that means flashbacks for the boys from Orange County.
BOSTON -- Mike Scioscia was perfectly happy to rip the men in blue for the Angels' loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday (and he had good reason to do so).
Torii Hunter preferred to question the men in red. Angels red.
"You don't change nothing because it's the Red Sox, or the Yankees, or whoever it may be," Hunter said after a 9-8 loss on two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning at Fenway Park. "You play nervous, you're going to make mistakes.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
While the main drama happened on Heinz Field last night, there was plenty of drama to be found in Washington D.C. No, President Obama didn't sign a health plan into law. But the Phillies entered the ninth inning down six and ended up losing by one after having the tying run on third base with only one out. Let's see how we got there.
Joe Blanton has been fantastic this year, and he entered the game with a 3.80 ERA and a 136/43 K/BB ratio in 166 innings. That's why it was surprising to see him perform so terribly in Thursday's game, where he gave up eight runs in less than five innings of work. The big blow came in the fifth inning, when Blanton gave up two homers to hitters at very different points in their careers.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
By now we all know of the greatness of San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum. He's the best pitcher in baseball this season, with a 2.34 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 233 strikeouts in 200 1/3 innings. But there's another hard-throwing young kid in the Giants organization that, like Lincecum, has a shot to be one of the league's best very quickly. He's a guy you want to burn that No. 1 waiver priority on, in case he sticks in the rotation for the rest of the season. He is Madison Bumgarner.
MLB awards season continued on Thursday afternoon as the league announced the winners of the 2009 Silver Sluggers, which go to the players voted the best hitters at their position in each league. The award is voted on by managers and coaches from throughout the league who are allowed to vote for anybody that's not on their team.
Long considered one of the worst defensive shortstops in baseball by those in sabermetric circles, 
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- These are the Angry 
NEW YORK -- They could have tossed aside their mittens and shunned their wool coats, that's how blistering hot the cozy confines of the new Yankee Stadium felt now that 
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Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
