Alex Avila Named American League's 2011 Silver Slugger Catcher
11/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Nov. 3, 2011
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Former University of Alabama baseball player Alex Avila was named the Louisville Silver Slugger catcher for Major League Baseball’s America League, on Wednesday. Avila is the first player from Alabama to win a Major League Baseball Silver Slugger award.
Following his first season as the full-time catcher for the Detroit Tigers, Avila was named the American League’s best offensive catcher, as the All-Star beat out Mike Napoli, Matt Wieters and others to become the Tigers’ only representative on the 2011 Silver Slugger list. The Silver Sluggers are voted on by the league’s managers and coaches.
“It’s definitely a tremendous honor to be considered the best offensive catcher,” Avila said in a telephone interview with the Detroit Free Press. “It’s great. It’s something I’m very proud of.”
Among AL catchers who had enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title, Avila led the group in batting average (.295), runs batted in (82), slugging percentage (.506) and on-base percentage (.389). In 141 games as the Tigers’ starting catcher in 2011, he was fourth on the team in batting average, had 464 at-bats, 19 home runs and scored 63 runs.
Avila is the first Tigers catcher to win the Silver Slugger since 2004, when Ivan Rodriguez earned the prize in his first season with Detroit. Additionally, he's the first catcher other than Joe Mauer to win the honor since 2007, when Jorge Posada won it.
Tiger catchers have won 10 of the 32 Silver Sluggers since the award began in 1980, with half going to Lance Parrish. Rodriguez, Mickey Tettleton and Matt Nokes also won at least one Silver Slugger in a Detroit uniform.
