The VORG’s 2017 “Nate Silver Slugger Awards”

Since 1980, Louisville Slugger has given out the “Silver Slugger Award“, described as follows:

The Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards are the top offensive honor in Major League Baseball ®. Coaches and managers of Major League teams vote for the players they feel are the best offensive producers at each position in the field in both the American and National Leagues. They base their selections 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.

Thursday afternoon will be the 2017 version of this.

In 2013, the VORG gave out the first annual “Nate Silver Slugger Award,” bestowed to those batters at each position who came closest to slugging .538 (after Mr. Silver’s data-driven analytics site).

Here are this year’s players who slugged closest to .538 (on either side of it). Ties for the award are given to whichever player has the higher number of plate appearances. As an aside, no players slugged EXACTLY .538 in 2017.

The envelope please . . .