Yanks Add More Hardware

November 14th, 2009 | by Craig Williams |

Most players, in most sports will tell you they are only interested in one piece of hardware – a championship ring. With that said, nobody is ever going to complain about taking home a little bit of icing with the cake.

The Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards recognize the top fielder and hitter, respectively, at each position. These awards (with the emphasis on the Gold Glove) catch some flack and are often dismissed by “objective” fans. Critics label the awards as a glorified popularity contest among coaches and managers. Regardless of all that, hardware is hardware and two Yankees are going to have to clear some extra space in their houses (I hope that won’t pose too much of a problem). Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira each are taking home a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove this season. The haters will just look at the flaws of the awards. I will just say congrats. Whether or not there was someone different who may have been chosen under a different set of evaluations, the award is not given out to players who have bad seasons. So, clearly, Jeter and Teixeira did something right in 2009.

The big awards – Cy Young, MVP – are still up for grabs. Jeter and Teixeira are both in the mix for MVP and CC Sabathia is in the top 2-3 names in the Cy Young discussion. While each of the Yankees is more than deserving of taking home another trophy, I expect Joe Mauer and Zack Greinke to take home the MVP and Cy Young, respectively. The Yanks may be done taking home hardware this season but they’ve already earned the best prize of all – the ring.