Arizona Diamondbacks: Paul Goldschmidt Finalist For N.L. MVP Award

With the offseason well underway, Awards Season is finally upon us! Tonight on MLB Network nominees for the BBWAA’s 2015 awards were announced.

With the Baseball Writers Association of America set to unveil the winners of their four major awards for the 2015 season next week, each award, AL and NL MVP, AL and NL CY Young, AL and NL Manager of the Year, and AL and NL Rookie of the Year is down to three finalists.

The finalists are based on voting from two BBWAA members per league city that were submitted prior to the start of the postseason.

Much to the surprise of nobody that is a fan of or follows the Arizona Diamondbacks, All Star first-basemen Paul Goldschmidt has been named a finalist for the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award.

This is the second time Goldy has been a finalist for this award. Back in 2013 he finished 2nd to the Pirates Andrew McCutchen

Statistically, Goldschmidt had a great year for a team that exceeded expectations winning 15 more games than they did in 2014, while staying in the hunt for a Wild Card all the way into August.

Across 567 plate appearances in 2015, Goldy hit over .320 (.321) with a .435 OBP, .570 SLG%, an OPS of over 1.000 (1.005) with a 170 OPS+. He also stole 21 bags, and walked 118 times.

Goldschmidt finished the 2015 season with the 4th highest WAR in the N.L and the 2nd highest among position players at 8.8. According to Baseball Reference, he finished third in batting average, third in on-base percentage, third in slugging percentage, second in OPS, third in runs scored, third in hits, third in total bases, and he was tied for fifth in doubles with Daniel Murphy.

Are you getting the picture yet? He finished fifth in home runs, second in RBI’s, third in base on balls, fifth in extra base hits, second in times on base, and he had the third highest Runs Created at 146.

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I could go on and on and on and on but the bottom line is this: Goldschmidt is one of the best all around players in the National League.

One could easily make the argument that when defense is taken into account, Goldschmidt is the best overall player in the N.L. Earlier tonight, he won a gold glove after leading all MLB first basemen with 18 defensive runs saved.

Goldschmidt is a legend in the making, and the best part is he is going to be a Diamondback for the foreseeable future, and possibly for life.

Their is no doubt in my mind that Goldschmidt deserves this award. Bryce Harper of the Nationals and Joey Votto of the Reds are the other two finalists. This is the first time since Ernie Banks won the award in 1959 that all three players team’s didn’t reach the postseason.

Next: Arizona Diamondbacks Interested in Mark McGwire

Watch next week and see if America’s First Basemen is named the MVP of the Senior Circuit!

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