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SB Nation's off-season simulation is underway and award season has come! It's the little things that get us through the long winter.
This year's award categories are as follows:
- MLB Hitter of the Year
- MLB Pitcher of the Year
- Rays Defensive Play of the Year
- Rays Celebration of the Year
- MLB's Best Unwritten Rules Breakage
We will create a space for our site to vote on each of these every day this week, and the first up is MLB Hitter of the Year. Here's how this will work:
1. I will kick off the nominations in the comments with a handful of obvious names.
2. To vote for a nominee, add a "+1" comment to the player's name you feel is most deserving.
3. If you want to nominate a player who has not yet been nominated, then make a new comment with "Nomination: (Player Name)" in the subject line. Please double-check to make sure that the player actually hasn't been nominated yet.
Keep in mind, this is a very straight forward ask: who was the best hitter in all of baseball? To get things started, let's try narrowing down a bit more than just "MVP finalist":
| Name | Team | PA | HR | R | SB | BB% | K% | WAR |
| Bryce Harper | Nationals | 654 | 42 | 118 | 6 | 19.0% | 20.0% | 9.5 |
| Mike Trout | Angels | 682 | 41 | 104 | 11 | 13.5% | 23.2% | 9.0 |
| Joey Votto | Reds | 695 | 29 | 95 | 11 | 20.6% | 19.4% | 7.4 |
| Miguel Cabrera | Tigers | 511 | 18 | 64 | 1 | 15.1% | 16.0% | 4.3 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | Diamondbacks | 695 | 33 | 103 | 21 | 17.0% | 21.7% | 7.4 |
| Nelson Cruz | Mariners | 655 | 44 | 90 | 3 | 9.0% | 25.0% | 4.8 |
| Josh Donaldson | Blue Jays | 711 | 41 | 122 | 6 | 10.3% | 18.7% | 8.7 |
| Edwin Encarnacion | Blue Jays | 624 | 39 | 94 | 3 | 12.3% | 15.7% | 4.5 |
| Jose Bautista | Blue Jays | 666 | 40 | 108 | 8 | 16.5% | 15.9% | 4.5 |
| Chris Davis | Orioles | 670 | 47 | 100 | 2 | 12.5% | 31.0% | 5.6 |
| Andrew McCutchen | Pirates | 685 | 23 | 91 | 11 | 14.3% | 19.4% | 5.8 |
| Anthony Rizzo | Cubs | 701 | 31 | 94 | 17 | 11.1% | 15.0% | 5.5 |
It's worth noting thathe bWAR and fWAR scales are quite similar this year, although we are only concerned with OFFENSE because the category is best HITTER.
So let's zoom in:
| Name | Team | PA | AVG | OBP | wOBA | wRC+ | ISO | BABIP |
| Bryce Harper | Nationals | 654 | .330 | .460 | .461 | 197 | .319 | .369 |
| Mike Trout | Angels | 682 | .299 | .402 | .415 | 172 | .290 | .344 |
| Joey Votto | Reds | 695 | .314 | .459 | .427 | 172 | .228 | .371 |
| Miguel Cabrera | Tigers | 511 | .338 | .440 | .413 | 165 | .196 | .384 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | Diamondbacks | 695 | .321 | .435 | .418 | 164 | .249 | .382 |
| Nelson Cruz | Mariners | 655 | .302 | .369 | .396 | 158 | .264 | .350 |
| Josh Donaldson | Blue Jays | 711 | .297 | .371 | .398 | 154 | .271 | .314 |
| Edwin Encarnacion | Blue Jays | 624 | .277 | .372 | .392 | 150 | .280 | .267 |
| Jose Bautista | Blue Jays | 666 | .250 | .377 | .389 | 147 | .285 | .237 |
| Chris Davis | Orioles | 670 | .262 | .361 | .390 | 147 | .300 | .319 |
| Andrew McCutchen | Pirates | 685 | .292 | .401 | .380 | 146 | .196 | .339 |
| Anthony Rizzo | Cubs | 701 | .278 | .387 | .384 | 145 | .234 | .289 |
A couple thoughts here:
- How is the answer not Bryce Harper is we're just looking at hitters? Hot damn.
- The Blue Jays are stacked, and I'm legitimately beginning to wonder if the Donaldson trade was the death knell that pushed Billy Beane into a President's role. If Grantland still lived, I would beg for an oral history.
- In my mind's eye, Votto and Cruz and Davis were all much lower on this list.
- Logan Forsythe is the highest ranked Rays player when you filter on wRC+ for the season. He is 34th, ahead of Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Prince Fielder, Ben Zobrist, and Jayson Heyward.
Go vote, have fun.