Written by Joe Lucia at Bloguin
We close out the 2015 MLB awards season with two more first-time winners, as Bryce Harper and Josh Donaldson claimed the NL and AL MVP awards on Thursday night.
The 22-year old Harper won the NL award unanimously, collecting all 30 first place votes and the maximum 420 points. He hit a wild .330/.460/.649 with a league-leading 42 homers. His .330 average ranked second in the NL, while he paced the league in runs with 118 along with both OBP and slugging percentage. Harper also finished second in the NL in walks with 124, fifth in the NL in doubles with 38, and fifth in the NL with 99 RBI.
Paul Goldschmidt finished as the runner-up to Harper, receiving 18 second place votes and 234 total points. Goldschmidt was the only player other than Harper to appear on every ballot. Joey Votto came in third with one second place vote and 175 points. Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs finished fourth, receiving three second place votes and 162 points. Andrew McCutchen came in fifth with one second place vote and 139 points. NL Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta finished sixth, picking up five second place votes and 134 points. The remaining two second place votes went to Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke, who finished seventh with 130 points.
The rest of the voting was filled out by Nolan Arenado (eighth place, 102 points), Buster Posey (ninth place, 84 points), Clayton Kershaw (tenth place, 49 points), Kris Bryant (11th place, 34 points), Matt Carpenter (12th place, 26 points), Yoenis Cespedes (13th place, 24 points), AJ Pollock (14th place, 21 points), Jason Heyward (15th place, 15 points), Dee Gordon (16th place, six points), Trevor Rosenthal (17th place, five points), Curtis Granderson (18th place, four points), Gerrit Cole (19th place, three points), and Adrian Gonzalez (20th place, three points).
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