The Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano won the Silver slugger award.
I wrote earlier this year comparing pitchers’ hitting and it wasn’t close. The rbis tightened up but Big Z is the clear leader.
Cnt Player BA PA Year Age
+----+-----------------+-----+---+----+---+
1 Carlos Zambrano .337 85 2008 27
2 Micah Owings .304 62 2008 25
3 Brandon Backe .277 56 2008 30
4 Adam Wainwright .267 65 2008 26
5 Jake Peavy .265 58 2008 27
6 Mark Hendrickson .257 37 2008 34
7 Braden Looper .254 80 2008 33
8 C.C. Sabathia .235 53 2008 27
9 Aaron Cook .233 78 2008 29
10 Manny Parra .226 58 2008 25
Cnt Player RBI Year Age
+----+-----------------+---+----+---+
1 Carlos Zambrano 14 2008 27
2 Brandon Webb 11 2008 29
3 Jason Marquis 10 2008 29
4 C.C. Sabathia 7 2008 27
5 Manny Parra 6 2008 25
6 Danny Haren 6 2008 27
7 Jorge de la Rosa 6 2008 27
8 Bronson Arroyo 6 2008 31
9 Micah Owings 6 2008 25
10 Adam Wainwright 6 2008 26
Followup: Some trivia… Only two teams had more than one pitcher hit a homerun for them in 2008. The San Diego Padres’ Cha Seung Baek and Chris Young both hit one each. For the Chicago Cubs, Zambrano contributed four dingers while teammate Jason Marquis hit out two. Here’s the complete list for 2008:
Cnt Player HR PA Year Age
+----+-----------------+--+---+----+---+
1 Carlos Zambrano 4 85 2008 27
2 Brandon Backe 2 56 2008 30
3 C.C. Sabathia 2 53 2008 27
4 Jason Marquis 2 66 2008 29
5 Matt Cain 2 72 2008 23
6 Micah Owings 1 62 2008 25
7 Bronson Arroyo 1 74 2008 31
8 Cha Seung Baek 1 38 2008 28
9 Chris Young 1 36 2008 29
10 Adam Wainwright 1 65 2008 26