Knoxville (WATE) - It's been just over a week since Chase Headley earned his first
career Gold Glove Award for his work at the hot corner. Well now the former Vol and current Padres
third baseman is being honored for his career year at the plate.
After finishing with a .286 batting average, 31 home runs, and 115 RBIs, Headley has won the 2012 Louisville Slugger Award for National League third basemen. Headley is the second former
Vol to be named a Silver Slugger, joining Todd Helton who won four as
the Colorado Rockies first baseman from 2000-03.
The Fountain, Colo., native established himself as one of the top
all-around players in the National League this season, finishing with a
.286 batting average, 31 home runs and 115 RBIs, which led the Senior
Circuit. Headley also reached safely in 146 games this season, which
tied for the sixth-most for any NL player since 1962, and was tabbed the
NL Player of the Month in both August and September.
The 28-year-old led all Major League third basemen with 159
starts at the corner in 2012, the third-most starts at any position
among National Leaguers. His 1,397.0 innings at third base led all of
Major League Baseball. He committed just 10 errors in 424 total chances,
the most total chances among all NL third basemen, for a .976 fielding
percentage, second-best in the Majors among qualifying third basemen.
The former Vol is also a finalist for the NL MVP Award alongside Ryan Braun, Buster
Posey, Andrew McCutchen and Yadier Molina. The MVP Award will be announced on November 15th.
The postseason honors doesn't stop there, Headley has also been nominated for the 2012 GIBBY Award for "Breakout
Hitter of the Year," which will presented at the MLB.com Greatness in
Baseball Yearly Awards extravaganza during the Winter Meetings in
Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
