Pittsburgh Pirates: Best Individual Seasons That Didn't Win Awards
By Noah Wright
2002 Brian Giles
Brian Giles in the early 2000s is one of the most underrated stretches in baseball. From 1999 through 2003, Giles batted .306/.426/.604 with a .403 wOBA, and 158 wRC+. However, in 2002, Giles had the best season of his career but didn’t even finish top 10 in MVP voting.
During the 2002 season, Giles was a .298/.450/.662 batter. The outfielder slugged 38 home runs with an isolated slugging percentage of .324. Giles struck out at a rate of just 11.5% while drawing walks in 21% of his plate appearances. He even provided some base running value, coming in with +1.5 baserunning runs above average and swiping 15 bases. Overall, he had a 1.072 OPS, .444 wOBA, and 174 wRC+.
Defensively, well Giles certainly wasn’t good. He was worth -14 total zone runs while having a below-average range factor. But he still came out with an fWAR of +6.9. Sure, it might not have been the greatest season ever, but to not win a Silver Slugger, finish in the top 10 in MVP voting, or even make the aAll-Star Game is insane.
Next. Pirates Trade Bryse Wilson. dark
Giles was by far the second-best hitter in the National League. Among qualified batters, Giles was surpassed by just Barry Bonds in OPS, wOBA, and wRC+. Granted, Bonds was playing in another plane of existence in the early-2000s, but Giles had a large lead in these three stats. Sammy Sosa’s wRC+ clocked in at third at just 157. He also had a 49-point lead in OPS and an 11-point lead in wOBA over Larry Walker.