SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Former Slippery Rock University baseball standout and current Springfield Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams was named last Friday as the Texas League Player of the Year in voting by the league's managers, team broadcasters and newspaper beat writers.

Winning the honor was "vintage Adams," the Springfield News-Leader wrote in its Saturday edition, "as he pulled a stunner over at least two other strong candidates that included Arkansas Travelers' 19-year-old center fielder Mike Trout, a 2009 first-round draft choice who was twice promoted to the Los Angeles Angels.

Adams, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Division II national Player of the Year in 2009, was a 23rd-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals that same season.

"There are a ton of good players in this league, so it's a great honor," Adams said in the News-Leader story. "But I was kind of shocked when (manager Pop Warner) told me."

According to the News-Leader story, Texas League President Tom Kayser said Adams won the Player of the Year honor by a 2-to-1 margin among those receiving POY votes.

The 22-year-old Philipsburg-Osceola High School graduate earned the Texas League MVP honor by collecting a league-leading 94 RBIs, hitting .312 with a .586 slugging percentage, both of which rank second in the league, and smacking 31 home runs.

Adams' home run total eclipsed the Springfield Cardinals' single-season mark previously held by Colby Rasmus, who hit 29 in 2007, while his RBI total bettered the previous team record of

The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Adams, who holds SRU records in career batting average (.453) and slugging percentage (.754), has admittedly played with a chip on his shoulder throughout his professional career.

"Slippery Rock is not a big D-1 school where we play (against) a ton of other guys that are going to be drafted," Adams told Kevin Zeni for a story that appeared August 23 on the Texas League web site. "It's kind of made me play with a chip on my shoulder to prove all the scouts wrong that said I can't play with the best prospects in professional baseball."

Zeni's story went on to say: "In his first full-season in 2010, Adams began to prove scouts wrong when in 121 games he hit .310 with 41 doubles, 22 home runs, 88 RBIs and 71 runs scored with the Class-A Quad Cities River Bandits. Among all Cardinals minor leaguers, his average was the third-best, he had the highest slugging percentage (.541), the most doubles, the second-most hits (144) and was tied for second in home runs and RBIs. However, Baseball America still did not rank Adams in the list of St. Louis' top-30 prospects entering the 2011 season."

Adams is currently listed on the Cardinals' web site as the organization's No. 10 prospect.

"He started out as an interesting left-handed bat from a small college, who was clearly too advanced for his short-season assignments in 2009," a profile on the Cardinals' web site stated. "When he was among the Midwest League leaders in a host of offensive categories, there were too many people who needed to be convinced he could hit at higher levels. Then the Cardinals double-jumped him to Double-A, and it's impossible to ignore him any longer as he's been one of the best hitters there as well. He can hit for average and power and runs well for a guy his size. He's also pretty adept at first base defensively. If the Cardinals re-sign Albert Pujols, they will likely let Adams give left field a try, with some thinking he's athletic enough to handle it."

One of the highlights this season for Adams came when he clobbered a home run in the Texas League mid-season all-star game.

"It was definitely a special moment for me because I had my dad in the stands," Adams told Danny Wild of MiLB.com (Minor League Baseball) last Friday.. "To hit that ball and cross the plate and look up to him in the stands and see him smiling and cheering is something that I'll never forget."

Adams also told Wild the key to his success:

"I use a gap-to-gap approach that allows me to keep on the ball even when the pitchers throw off-speed pitches," Adams said. "I also have a quiet swing with not a lot of movement to it that helps eliminate holes in my swing."

And that approach has shot holes in doubters' theories that a player from an NCAA Division II school can't hang with the big boys.