Trout, Darvish Take A's Organizational Awards

Post date: Aug 29, 2013 7:31:21 PM

Yu Darvish named the Grove Award winner, Mike Trout gets his 2nd straight Foxx Award

The Philadelphia Athletics announced the winners of their 2013 organizational awards at the Majors level today. Pitcher Yu Darvish, who came to the club from Portland in the biggest of their Winter Meetings deals back in January, was named the winner of the Lefty Grove Award as the team's top pitcher. And outfielder Mike Trout, in his 2nd season, won his 2nd straight Jimmy Foxx Award as the team's offensive player of the year. Trout becomes just the 2nd player to ever win one of the team's major awards in two consecutive years. Chase Utley previously won the Foxx Award in both 2006 & 2007. Utley is the only 3-time winner of an award, also taking the Foxx in 2009.

In taking home the Lefty Grove Award, Darvish led the A's in Innings Pitched, Strikeouts, and both starting pitcher ERA & WHIP. With one start remaining, he has recorded 217 strikeouts over 162 innings, with a 2.611 ERA and 1.0494 WHIP. His strikeout total is the 2nd most in club history, trailing Tim Lincecum's club mark of 233 by 16. He has one start left on the season, so has an outside chance at making a run. He also trails Jordan Zimmermann by one victory for the team Wins lead, with both pitchers having that one remaining start.

Winning his 2nd straight Jimmy Foxx Award was something that Mike Trout absolutely earned by his performance, though no doubt aided somewhat by the fact that he will finish as one of just four players on the team with over 400 plate appearances. Through Tuesday, Trout was far and away the club leader with 579 plate appearances, exactly 100 more than the next highest player. He was hitting .3306 with a .4266 on-base percentage, 23 homeruns, 81 rbi, 90 runs scored, and 28 stolen bases. His 2-season steals total of 70 is enough to already put him 5th on the all-time franchise list in that category.

There was really no other contender this year for the Foxx, with Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper having strong seasons. But Freeman didn't play for the club for the first month, and Harper missed a total of more than a month with injuries. Evan Longoria also was having a strong season, but was traded away at the end of July. On the mound, Jordan Zimmermann got off to a tremendous start, but then slowed some, while both Stephen Strasburg and Mike Minor were strong all year, with numbers just not quite up to Darvish's pace. Closers Mariano Rivera and Edward Mujica were outstanding before being dealt away, and Kenley Jansen has been strong as well, but none had such a dominant year that they could bump a starter from the honor.

Previous winners of the Lefty Grove Award have been: Stephen Strasburg (12), Cole Hamels (11), Joakim Soria (10), Tim Lincecum (09), Francisco Rodriguez (08), Brad Penny (07),

Roy Halladay (06), Roy Oswalt (05), Armando Benitez (04), Mark Prior (03), Bartolo Colon (02), Freddie Garcia (01), Mike Hampton (00), Billy Wagner (99), John Smoltz (98).

Previous winners of the Jimmy Foxxx award have been: Mike Trout (12), Giancarlo Stanton (11), Evan Longoria (10), Chase Utley (09), Mark Teixeira (08), Chase Utley (07),

Chase Utley (06), Ken Griffey Jr (05), J.D. Drew (04), Edgar Renteria (03), Jeff Kent/Alfonso Soriano-shared (02), Bobby Abreu (01), Carlos Delgado (00), Derek Jeter (99),

Albert Belle (98)