Tonight, Reds’ right fielder Jay Bruce was one of three NL outfielders awarded the 2012 Silver Slugger award.

Though Bruce can go through some frustratingly long stretches where it seems like he can’t do anything but strike out (he had 155 Ks this year), those are more than overbalanced by the earth-rending tears he also goes on.

His 34 homers and 99 RBI are all the more impressive when you consider that they were compressed into about two weeks of play.

Well, that’s hyperbole, of course, but those two weeks he go the Player of the Week were nigh on unholy.

Congratulations to Bruce. Let’s make it a gold bat next year!

Brandon Phillips lost out on the Rawlings Gold Glove at second base this year, but he was the recipient of the first ever Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award, which was given in an awards ceremony on Sunday. It apparently was televised on MLB TV.

On a completely unrelated topic, remember when Phillips had Wilson make him a glove with gold webbing earlier this year? And then Rawlings took legal action against Wilson for infringing on their “gold glove” intellectual property.

Huh.

Surely there isn’t any correlation there. Rawlings Gold Glove winners are selected by a secret ballot, while the Wilson winner is chosen by statistical analysis. With that kind of transparency, there’s no way either company could manipulate the results. And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Wilson chose this year to start giving out defensive awards. They’ve probably been planning it for months, which would explain why I never heard a thing about it until 2 days after it was given.

Not that I’m complaining. Congratulations to Brandon Phillips! He really deserved both awards.

It sounds like something we’d host here at RHM, but actually, it’s the Louisville Slugger Museum who is putting together a class of 10 of the hottest baseball players throughout history.

They’ve already selected 7 inductees, and 3 more positions will be filled based on fan votes. Guys already on the list include:

• Lou Gehrig
• Jim Palmer
• Ted Williams
• Red King Kelly
• Jackie Robinson
• Roberto Clemente
• Derek Jeter

Reds or former Reds you can vote for to fill in the remaining 3 spots:
Johnny Bench

Ken Griffey, Jr.

Barry Larkin

Brandon Phillips

Joey Votto

There’s a lot of hot right there, and I don’t know hot pick just 3. Or I could write someone in. There’s no real point thought; there’s no way Jason Romano would win.

Since you’re voting today anyway, why not put a plug in for your favorite Red? They don’t take your name, so even if you’re a dude, voting won’t reveal your man-crush. (Everyone knows already anyway.)

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association are helping with the Hurricane Sandy relief effort by donating money to the Red Cross, Feeding America, and the Salvation Army. Between the two organizations, they’re donating $1 million.

You don’t have to come up with that much, but if just 10 of you baseball fans donate $100,000 apiece, you’ll match that amount!

They’re not turning away smaller donations either. You can see MLB’s website about hurricane relief and get links to the organization they’re supporting.

For two seasons now, Major League Baseball has been running this Fan Cave concept where a few big fans have to move in to their facility in New York where they are required to watch every major league baseball game. They’re also required to share their thoughts and feelings about the games through blog posts and social media. Occasionally, Bronson Arroyo shows up to sing about outerwear.

It sounds like some progressive type of therapy or possibly a persuasion technique dreamed up by Dick Cheney, but it’s actually a job that you have to apply for. You can apply now on MLB.com. Even if you’re shy, you probably don’t really need to worry. Speaking for myself, at least, I’ve seen a couple good things come out of the Fan Cave but none of them involved any actual Fan Cave residents.

The application requires your general demographic information, a short essay, a few writing samples, and a resume. Oh, and a photo. They don’t want people who look like they actually live in a cave.