All-Silver Slugger Team for LA Angels

In 1980, Louisville Slugger crafted the Silver Slugger award to commemorate the best hitter in the league at each position. In that time, some of the best players in Angels franchise history have been honored many times for their production at the plate.

The Angels have 14 players in team history to take home at least one Silver Slugger award. Let's say that teams could take their players, and form a lineup in order to play other team Silver Slugger winners...what would the Angels lineup look like?

All-Silver Slugger Team for LA Angels

1. Shohei Ohtani—DH
2. Mike Trout—CF
3. Vladimir Guerrero—RF
4. Troy Glaus—3B
5. Garret Anderson—LF
6. Bobby Grich—2B
7. Doug DeCinces—3B
8. Lance Parrish—C
9. Rick Burleson—SS
Bench: Torii Hunter, Darin Erstad, Reggie Jackson, Tim Salmon, Justin Upton

At first glance you might notice these Angels greats never won a Silver Slugger while with the Halos: Jim Edmonds, Dave Winfield, Mike Napoli, Chili Davis, Kendrys Morales, Fred Lynn, Mo Vaughn, Brian Downing, Bobby Abreu and Rod Carew among others. OK, let's get into the lineup construction where luckily for this exercise, the Angels had one player from every position win a Silver Slugger.

Ohtani did not lead off much while with the Angels, but he clearly excels in that role. With this team of right-handed dominant sluggers, slotting the best player of all-time in the 1-spot felt right. Naturally, Trout would follow his former teammate in his iconic 2-hole. Trout's the best player in the history of the franchise, so naturally batting him second feels accurate. Trout has the most Silver Slugger award in Angels history (9), and following him in the lineup is the Angels player with the second-most in Vladimir Guerrero Sr. (4). Glaus has the third-most Silver Sluggers in franchise history, and is one of four Angels players to have two or more awards (Ohtani only won one while with LAA).

The 5-spot is where things get interesting. Silver Sluggers are awarded to outfielders, not specifically a left fielder, center fielder and right fielder. If we were going by just outfield, Tim Salmon would be in over Garret Anderson given his body of work in his career. For the purposes of positional accuracy and even balancing out the lineup, the left-handed hitting Anderson gets the nod here over the right-handed hitting right fielder in Salmon. Anderson is the fourth Angels player to have two or more Silver Sluggers, so that played a part in the tiebreaker as well.

Modern Angels fans might not be too familiar with Bobby Grich, Doug DeCinces, Lance Parrish or Rick Burleson. Let's start with Grich, who won a Silver Slugger as an AL second baseman in 1981. For reference, Grich had a better career OPS with the Angels (.816) than Garret Anderson, Torii Hunter, Reggie Jackson and Darin Erstad. Burleson won the Silver Slugger in 1981 as a shortstop, slashing .293/.357/.372/.729. DeCinces carried the Angels in 1982, slashing .301/.369/.548/.916 and out-performed Reggie Jackson that season. Parrish posted a solid .268/.338/.451/.789 slashline as a catcher in 1990 to win one of his six Silver Slugger awards in his career.

The Angels bench in this lineup is stacked with Hunter, Erstad, Jackson and Salmon. The Angels have rostered some incredible outfielders in their history, and this is the perfect exercise to embody that. Yes, Justin Upton actually won a Silver Slugger as a member of the Angels.