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This kinda folds into, and slightly overlaps, the SnakePit Awards, but most of them apply across the entirety of baseball, rather than being particularly Diamondback oriented. Here's the schedule:
- Today - MLB Hitter of the Year
- Tuesday - MLB Pitcher of the Year
- Wednesday - Diamondbacks Defensive Play of the Year
- Thursday - Diamondbacks Celebration of the Year
- Friday - MLB's Best Unwritten Rules Breakage
Wednesday will see us break out the five nominees from the groups, for which you all voted the weekend before last. [Voting still open! Scroll down the home page for those posts!] Today and tomorrow, I'll be listing the three nominees from each league for Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards, since they would seem to cover about all the credible nominees. Thursday looks likely to be a smorgasbord of the five walk-off wins the Diamondbacks had this year, and Friday will be... Yeah, I dunno. Bautista's bat-flip and four others, I guess.
And without further ado, on to the six candidates for best MLB hitter. Here are their stats from last year.
| Player | Age | Tm | G | PA | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorenzo Cain | 29 | KCR | 140 | 604 | 551 | 101 | 169 | 16 | 72 | 37 | 4 | 98 | .307 | .361 | .477 | .838 |
| Josh Donaldson | 29 | TOR | 158 | 711 | 620 | 122 | 184 | 41 | 123 | 73 | 0 | 133 | .297 | .371 | .568 | .939 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | 27 | ARI | 159 | 695 | 567 | 103 | 182 | 33 | 110 | 118 | 29 | 151 | .321 | .435 | .570 | 1.005 |
| Bryce Harper | 22 | WSN | 153 | 654 | 521 | 118 | 172 | 42 | 99 | 124 | 15 | 131 | .330 | .460 | .649 | 1.109 |
| Mike Trout | 23 | LAA | 159 | 682 | 575 | 104 | 172 | 41 | 90 | 92 | 14 | 158 | .299 | .402 | .590 | .991 |
| Joey Votto | 31 | CIN | 158 | 695 | 545 | 95 | 171 | 29 | 80 | 143 | 15 | 135 | .314 | .459 | .541 | 1.000 |
This one actually promises to be kinda interesting: not least because none of the three top National League contenders played on teams which made it to the post-season. Can't be often that has happened in MVP voting history. And kinda amusing to see that Donaldson hit 41 home-runs without a single intentional walk! I'll leave the rest of the discussion up to you, along with the decision on how much of a homer you want to be. :)