Recalling SF Giants legend Barry Bonds' dominance of Silver Slugger Award

The Silver Slugger Award finalists will be announced this Wednesday, October 22nd, for the National League and on Thursday, October 23rd for the American League. FanSided has announced an exclusive partnership with Louisville Slugger to announce all of the finalists and the winners.

The finalists and winners are decided on by MLB coaches and managers, not Louisville Slugger. The award was created in 1980 and the goal is to choose the “best” hitter at each position on the field in each league. Some years, managers and coaches have probably had tough choices on who to nominate or who should win the award, but one SF Giants player made it pretty easy for a number of years: Barry Bonds. 

We recently took a look at every single winner of the Silver Slugger in Giants history as well as three forgotten winners of the award in Giants history. Bonds definitely does not fall into the “forgotten” category as the things he did in his career will be long remembered.

Recalling SF Giants legend Barry Bonds' dominance of Silver Slugger Award

Bonds won the Silver Slugger Award a record-setting 12 times. This does not come as a huge surprise given Bonds was easily the best hitter of his generation and there is a case to be made that he is the greatest hitter the game of baseball has ever seen. The next closest to him for career Silver Slugger wins is Alex Rodriguez and Mike Piazza who each won the award 10 times.

Bonds won the award every season from 1990 to 1994. From 1990 to 1992 he was still with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but after that he won all of his Silver Sluggers in a Giants uniform. As a Giant, he took home the award in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, and then five straight seasons from 2000 to 2004. The Giant with the second-most Silver Sluggers is Buster Posey who took home five in his career. Had his career lasted longer, it would have been interesting to see if Posey could have given Bonds a run for his money.

This does not come as a huge shock especially since Bonds won the National League MVP seven times in his career including five times with the Giants. But it speaks to his greatness as a hitter that he was so consistently voted as the best hitter for his position time and time again. 

Recently, Bonds broke down some of the greatest moments in his career with Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper. Getting a peek into his mind and the way that he looked at the art of hitting really gives one an appreciation of how gifted he was as a hitter and how he was also the smartest hitter in the game.

His peers who played at the same time have almost unanimously said that he was the greatest player they ever saw which is high praise given some of the other stars who were of that same era.

We will see if any Giants are nominated for the award this season. No matter what, Bonds truly owned the Silver Slugger Award and it is just one of the many impressive accolades from his incredible career.