Cabrera, Masterson, Tomlin take home awards

The Indians' run at the American League Central came as a surprise. The major award winner they had at the end of it shouldn't have.

Though the Indians used strong pitching and a deep bullpen to thrive in the division for better than half the season, their offense relied heavily on shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera as part table-setter, part run producer. He either scored or drove in nearly 22 percent of Cleveland's runs for the season.

Add in elite defense, and Cabrera was a logical choice for the starting shortstop on The Sporting News American League All-Star team, as voted on by Major League players near season's end. He was a somewhat surprising omission from the AL Gold Glove awards, but captured the first Silver Slugger award ever by an Indians shortstop.

It was a major haul for a 25-year-old shortstop who enjoyed a breakout season in his first year with more than 131 games played. Cabrera had hit just three home runs in 2010, and 18 homers over the first four seasons of his Major League career combined. His 22-homer jump was the second-largest from one year to the next in franchise history, trailing only Ed Morgan's 23-homer leap from 1929 to 1930. It was also a record for Venezuelan shortstops.

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For all those reasons, he was an obvious choice for Player of the Year as part of the Indians' MLB.com awards. As selected by MLB.com, awards have been designated in three categories -- Pitcher, Perfomer and Breakout Player -- for each of the 30 teams.

Just as Cabrera was an easy choice, All-Star hurler Justin Masterson was similarly an easy pick for Indians Pitcher of the Year. With a 12-10 record and 3.21 ERA, he tied for the team lead in wins, topped all other starters in ERA by more than a full run, innings by nearly 30, and strikeouts by nearly 50. It was the best season by an Indians starter since Cliff Lee's Cy Young campaign in 2008.

Josh Tomlin's 12-win campaign not only put him alongside Masterson for the team lead, it earned him Indians Breakout Player of the Year honors. With his combination of control and efficiency, the 27-year-old posted the lowest ratio of walks per nine innings among AL starters, and the fourth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the league. All but three of his 26 starts featured one walk or less before right elbow inflammation ended his season in late August.

Rounding out the awards season, Cabrera finished 20th in AL MVP balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Indians manager Manny Acta finished fourth in voting for the AL's Manager of the Year.