Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau each won a Silver Slugger Award today, as the top hitters at their positions. Both won Silver Sluggers in 2006, as well.

(*) Spoke to Twins manager Ron Gardenhire about his two-year extension: “My only goal that I have now is to win a World Series with the Twins,” he said. “I was there as a coach [in 1991] and almost there as a player in ‘87, but I really want to win a world championship as a manager.

“I think getting to that new ballpark [in 2010] and maybe getting to where we can keep our players a little bit longer – I think that’s going to be huge. This ballclub is very young over here, and we did a lot this year. Anything can happen once you get going. A couple of the right pieces, and we could be on our way.”

(*) One name I’ve been forgetting when listing possible offseason targets for the Twins is Mariners 3B Adrian Beltre. The Twins tried trading for him during the season, and their interest certainly hasn’t waned.

Beltre, a two-time Gold Glove winner, is under contract for one more season at $12 million, and there’s some thought that new Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik would be open to trading him for a young outfielder. But the Mariners are in the process of hiring a manager, and they probably want to resolve that situation first.

Anyway, Beltre ranks ahead of Garrett Atkins on the Twins’ wish list.

(*) Finally, as promised, here’s my Cy Young ballot, now that Cliff Lee has officially been crowned the winner:

1. Roy Halladay; 2. Cliff Lee; 3. Francisco Rodriguez

Lee went 22-3 and led the AL with a 2.54 ERA, but here are my reasons for putting Halladay (20-11, 2.78) ahead of him:

1. There’s more to this than won-loss record. Halladay’s run support average was 4.72. Lee’s was 6.13. The Blue Jays scored 23 runs combined in Halladay’s 11 losses. They lost 13 times when Halladay took the mound, but in those games, they scored 15 runs while he was in the game, over 91 innings.

2. Halladay faced tougher competition, mostly because of all the starts against Tampa Bay, Boston and New York. He was 10-6 with a 2.96 ERA in 16 starts against that AL East trio, averaging 7 1/3 innings per start. Lee went 5-0 with a 2.63 ERA against the Royals.

According to Baseball Prospectus, the batters Halladay faced averaged a .766 OPS. That ranked second among all pitchers with at least 150 innings pitched to Matt Garza (.767). Lee ranked 60th on that list, at .735.

3. Lee led all qualifying pitchers with a 5.28 strikeout-to-walk ratio — 206 strikeouts, 39 walks. Lee had 170 strikeouts and 33 walks.

4. Lee had a very impressive WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) at 1.11. Halladay’s was better, at 1.05. That led all pitchers who qualified for the ERA title.

5. Halladay was the bigger workhorse. He led the AL in innings pitched 246 innings (Lee had 223 1/3) and in complete games with nine (Lee had four). Halladay made every start and even took the ball in relief May 18 at Philadelphia, pitching 2 1/3 scoreless innings for the hold.

Lee missed his final start (Sept. 28 vs. Chicago) because of neck stiffness, and Cleveland sent Bryan Bullington to the mound in its final game of the season. The White Sox won 5-1, remaining tied with the Twins atop the AL Central.

When it came time to make a tough decision between Halladay and Lee, this weighed into my thoughts, but as the above points show, a good case could have been made for Halladay anyway.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Around MLB, Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.