Harper, Donaldson win MVP awards

Harper, who was just three days shy of turning 23 when the season ended, secured 420 points on the back of those 30 first-place votes. Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout got the other first-place votes finished second for the third time – he won the award past year.

Donaldson was snubbed last week when he didn’t win a Gold Glove, but he gets the laugh last in this one after taking home his first career Silver Slugger and MVP Awards. Kansas City Royals’ Lorenzo Cain took third with 225 points after a breakout season. Harper, who won the award in a unanimous vote, became the first NL player under the age of 24 to win the MVP since Johnny Bench did so in 1970. He had a. 460 on-base percentage, a. 649 slugging percentage, and a score of 118 runs. Harper also tied for the NL lead in homers (42) and had the second-best batting average in the NL (.330).

Paul Goldschmidt, Joey Votto, Anthony Rizzo, Andrew McCutcheon, Jake Arrieta, and Zack Greinke all received second-place votes.

The American League had two deserving MVP candidates this season, but Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson is the one walking away with the hardware.

“You could see throughout the season what this guy meant to this ballclub”. This allowed him to skip the last two years of high school and he was therefore eligible to begin his professional baseball career sooner.

I first watched Bryce Harper play baseball in 2010 in Las Vegas as a 17-year old catcher for the College of Southern Nevada where around 200 people were watching him take batting practice. In his first season in Toronto after joining the club in a November, 2014 trade with the Oakland A’s, Donaldson hit. Harper becomes the first player to not make the playoffs and win the award since Albert Pujols did so for the Cardinals in 2008. However, this time, Trout trailed the victor by just 0.3 WAR as above to 3 and almost 4 as the runner up to Miguel Cabrera in 2013 and 2012.

“You know going into a season that if you”™re ultimately going to win an MVP, you”™ve got to put up better numbers than Mike,” Donaldson said on a conference call.

Games played factored into my criteria (eliminating Cabrera) and so, too, did the performance of each player’s individual team (Donaldson played in higher-intensity games down the stretch than Trout) and the eye-test was heavily weighed. “The entire Lerner family extends congratulations to Bryce on his well-deserved Most Valuable Player award and his tremendous, record-setting season”, team owner Theodore N. Lerner said in a statement. 299 with 104 runs scored and 90 RBIs.