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The SB Nation 2015 MLB Awards: MLB Hitter of the Year

SB Nation post-season week is upon us.

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

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.