Lake Superior Sea Dogs

08/13/2015 - 2015 Team Awards: Silver Slugger

The Silver Slugger Award is the only objective stats-derived award the team issues. The award is for the player with the highest gross production average (GPA), a metric for measuring a batter's ability to generate runs. The formula for GPA is [(1.8 x OBP + SLG) / 4], where OBP is on-base percentage and SLG is slugging percentage. It is similar to On Base + Slugging (OPS), but it gives 1.8 times more weight to reaching base safely compared to hitting for extra bases. Besides putting greater importance on getting on base, GPA is an easier concept to understand compared to OPS because it can be read just like a batting average. GPA was invented by Minnesotan Aaron Gleeman in 2003.

For the second year in a row the team's Silver Slugger Award recipient is Jimmy Merling. His GPA was .340 in 2015. He led the team in OBP (.451) and SLG (.548). Merling also led the team in total bases (46) and bases on balls (18), among other categories.

A minimum of 58 plate appearances (2.4 PA x 24 team games) was required to qualify for the Silver Slugger Award. Five players qualified: Merling (.340), Travis Bartlett (.332), Trenton Moe (.243), Kevin Hendrickx (.230), and Jon Soto (.194).

Silver Slugger Award Winners
Year Player GPA
2015 Jimmy Merling .340
2014 Jimmy Merling .379
2013 Nick Moran .235
2012 Matt Chruscielski .275
2011 Bob Eastman .262
2010 Mike Gerard .268
2009 Dan Solarz .262
2008 Nick Koubsky .248
2007 Steve Halvorson .277