Brandon Moss: Oakland A's 1B Slugs His Way to AL Best of the Night Award

Brandon Moss is a perfect example of what baseball people call a "Quadruple-A" player. He's had several tours of duty in the major leagues over the last several seasons, but he's spent the bulk of his professional career in the minors.

You have to give Moss this much credit, though: The dude's got some major league pop in his bat.

Moss showed just how much pop he has on Tuesday when he and the Oakland A's took on the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. He blasted two home runs, driving in three to help the A's dispatch the Rockies by the final of 8-5.

And when I say "blasted," I mean blasted. Coors Field is a notorious hitters' park, but Moss made it look like a miniature model of a little league park.

You can watch the video of Moss' first home run over at MLB.com. It came in the top of the third with a man on first and one out, with the A's down 4-3. Moss turned on an inside breaking ball from Rockies starter Jeremy Guthrie and hit it a mile to right field.

It clanked off the facade of the third deck in right-center. ESPN measured it at 450 feet, which strikes me as a rather conservative estimate. 

Moss nearly outdid himself in the fifth inning. Facing Guthrie with two outs and nobody on, Moss launched another ball to right field, and it ultimately landed in the second deck in right in about the same area his first home run was hit.

John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle sympathized with poor Mr. Guthrie:

"

Bye Bye Brandon -- Brandon Moss crushes another. First career 2-HR game. On 0-2 pitch. Jeremy Guthrie's neck is hurting. #Athletics

— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) June 13, 2012"

Actually, Guthrie's neck is probably just fine. After all, we're talking about a guy who's given up 148 home runs since the start of the 2007 season, third-most among all pitchers over that span behind Bronson Arroyo and James Shields.

At any rate, ESPN measured Moss' second home run at 431 feet. Once again, MLB.com has the video highlight.

So all told, Moss' two dingers traveled nearly 900 feet. That's almost a fifth of a mile and roughly 1/2.899564688e-14 of a light-year.

I'm pretty sure my math is correct on that second one, but I'll admit I'm no rocket scientist. 

Regardless, Moss' mammoth clouts on Tuesday are worthy of some kind of award, and I think I have just the thing. He is today's American League "Best of the Night" award winner.

This is the first time an A's hitter has won the award this season. 

...And it will probably be the last time an A's hitter wins the award this season.

If you ever want to nominate somebody for American League "Best of the Night" honors, hit me up on Twitter.