Baseball Daily Digest August Player of the Month — Kendry Morales

Posted by Brian Joseph on Friday, September 4, 2009 at 3:25 am

Cuban masher Kendry Morales headlined BDD’s Player of the Month voting as the Angels’ first baseman grabbed 6 first-place votes and easily earned the title as our Player of the Month for August.

Morales hit 10 homers and knocked in 33 in 28 games with a .385/.409/.735 batting line. The first baseman added 8 doubles and 22 runs in 26 starts. Kendry posted 13 multi-hit games and 4 consecutive multi-hit games twice during the month. On August 28th, Morales went 5-for-5 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs and 6 RBI in their 11-7 win over the Athletics. He also had a two-home run game on August 10th against the Rays.

Behind Morales was May’s Player of the Month Joe Mauer. Mauer was the only other player to grab multiple first-place votes as he hit .391/.449/.652 in 28 games with 8 homers and 23 RBI. He also scored 21 times and added 3 steals.

Atlanta’s Matt Diaz and Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard each earned a first-place vote and Diaz added a second- and third-place vote while Howard finished right behind them with 2 third-place votes. Diaz hit .404/.467/.681 in 28 games and had 7 consecutive multi-hit games including a stretch of 6 straight at-bats with a hit. Diaz added 6 homers to his impressive month.

Howard finished fourth despite leading the majors in home runs with 11 in August. The Phillies slugger added 33 RBI and a batting line of .299/.356/.682 for August.

Previous Player of the Month Winners

April: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
Pujols hit .337 and eight homers in April including two grand slams

May: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
Mauer returned from injury to hit .414 with 11 homers, 32 RBI and 27 runs scored

June: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
Pujols hit .341 with 14 homers and 35 RBI

July: Matt Holliday, Oakland Athletics/St. Louis Cardinals
Holliday hit .408 with 3 four-hit games