Roger Arrieta
LOS ANGELES – Louisville Slugger announced today that pitcher Zack Greinke won his first-career Silver Slugger Award during a special hour-long telecast on MLB Network.
Greinke, 30, led qualifying Major League pitchers with a .328 batting average, 19 hits, a .409 on-base percentage and two stolen bases (T-1st), while ranking among the leaders in runs scored (5, T-7th) and doubles (3, T-3rd). He batted .368 with runners on base (7-for-19) and hit .357 with runners in scoring position (5-for-14), while posting a .500 batting average (6-for-12 with a double) against left-handed pitchers.
Since 1974, Greinke’s batting average was the second-highest by a Dodger pitcher, behind only Orel Hershiser’s .356 mark in 1993, while his on-base percentage was the highest during that period.
With 19 hits in 2013, Greinke, who has spent only two and a half seasons of his 10-year big league career in the National League, more than doubled his career hit total (18 entering the season) to raise his career batting average to .226 along with eight doubles, three homers and eight RBI in 300 games.
Greinke also had a stellar season on the mound, going 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA in 28 starts in his first season with the Dodgers.
Greinke is the first Dodger to be honored with a Silver Slugger since outfielder Matt Kemp won in 2011 and the first Los Angeles pitcher to take home the award since Orel Hershiser in 1993. It’s the fifth time a Dodger pitcher has been awarded a Silver Slugger since the creation of the award in 1980 and 23rd time overall that a Los Angeles player has won the award, led by Mike Piazza’s five trophies.
The Silver Slugger Award winners were determined by a vote of Major League Baseball coaches and managers who named the players they felt were the best offensive producers at each position in both the American and National leagues in 2013. Selections were based on a combination of offensive statistics, including batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, as well as the coaches’ and managers’ general impressions of a player’s overall offensive value. Managers and coaches were not allowed to vote for players on their own teams.
The specially designed Silver Slugger Award will be presented to Greinke by a representative of the Hillerich & Bradsby Co., makers of Louisville Slugger, the Official Bat of Major League Baseball, in a ceremony early in the 2014 season. The trophy is three feet tall and bears the engraved name of the winner and his Silver Slugger teammates in his respective league.
