Every year, MLB gives out this Hank Aaron Award to the best overall offensive performer in both the American League and National League. I don’t know exactly how they come up with nominations, but I think this year’s nominees from the Brewers are mostly a joke. Our three nominees:

While I am in love with Geoff Jenkins, he has really blown ass this year. This is the guy that the Brewers ponied up for before the season and signed him to a multi-year contract because he was going to be the “leader” on this team. Leader my ass. milwaukeebrewers.com touts Jenkins as being our “biggest power threat.” What? Are we on the moon? Late season pickup Russell Branyon, or reserves Chris Magruder and Trent Durrington have more power than him. Hell, the wimpy, crappy pitcher Wes Obermueller has a higher slugging percentage than Jenkins. If strike outs were considered a positive for the offense, then sure, Jenkins is in with his team-leading 119. But it’s not… what a joke. Nice nomination.

Scott Podsednik is perhaps the biggest disappointment for me on the Brewers this year. milwaukeebrewers.com starts off this nomination with “although his average is down from his historic rookie season…” I don’t know if “down” is the right term to use there. It’s not down, it just flat out dropped off. Scottie Po finished last season with a .314 average. He’s down to a .245 this year, and it’s only going to drop off more. I will give him respect where respect is due, as he already has 47 stolen bases this year (which is more than his total from last year with just over a month of baseball left to play)… but your stolen bases don’t count for crap unless the guys behind you can hit you in. And the Brewers can’t. When you are the leadoff guy, your job is to get on base. And when your OBP is 11th on the team, you’re not doing your job.

Lyle Overbay is the only one out of these three, actually, out of the entire team, that I think is deserved of this nomination. While Lyle’s numbers have dropped since his all-star break snub, he’s still easily the best offensive player on the Brewers. In a time when the best offensive player on the Crew could probably be hitting .230, Overbay still is managing to hit a solid .316 with a .499 slugging percentage. Not to mention those 41 doubles. Anywho, if I had to pick one out of these three, it would be him.

What do you kids think about this? I know the Brewers won’t have any of these guys even make it to the finals, but they are interesting nominations, nonetheless.