Goldy no stranger to NL MVP Award talk

Goldy no stranger to NL MVP Award talk

Despite down year, Greinke among game's best pitchers

March 29th, 2017

PHOENIX -- The D-backs aren't talking about individual awards in Spring Training, preferring instead to focus on how they can improve upon last year's disappointing 69-93 record, but they do have several candidates for the premier awards.
Look no further than when it comes to the Esurance Player of the Year Award and the National League Most Valuable Player Award, which is handed out by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Goldschmidt is no stranger to the MVP talk, having finished second in the voting in 2013 and '15, and 11th last season.

Last year was considered down by Goldschmidt's standards, but his slash line of .297/.411/.489 are numbers that a lot of other players would love to have.
"He's consistent," D-backs outfielder A.J. Pollock said. "He's really good at when something is going wrong, he locks it in pretty quickly. Last year was probably the longest stretch that I've seen him not get back on track. And if you actually look at the numbers, he wasn't doing bad, it just wasn't up to anyone's standards when they look at Paul. When you look at his season as a whole, it was pretty impressive."
The D-backs signed Zack Greinke to a six-year, $206.5 million contract prior to last season believing they were getting themselves a NL Cy Young Award candidate for 2016.

A pair of injuries and uncharacteristic struggles derailed Greinke's Arizona debut, but he's still a candidate for the NL Cy Young Award and the Esurance Pitcher of the Year Award. He won the American League Cy Young Award with the Royals in 2009 and finished second for the NL Cy Young Award with the Dodgers in '15.
The D-backs also have several candidates for the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award.
Right-hander , who struggled last season, has looked impressive this spring, and it would not be a surprise to see him recapture his previous form.
In addition, Pollock, who missed all but 12 games last year after fracturing his elbow a couple of days before the start of the season, will be a candidate if he produces anything close to the numbers he put up in 2015, when he finished 14th in the NL MVP Award voting.