2016 Mitchell Award winner: Giancarlo Stanton

Home run champion Giancarlo Stanton was the runaway winner for the 2016 Kevin Mitchell Most Valuable Player Award. It's his first Mitchell Award and also the first for the Allentown franchise.

Stanton powered a Mules offense to a 91-71 record and a No. 5 wild card seed. It was another runaway winner this awards season as the 6' 6"/240-pound slugger was a near-unanimous choice, garnering six of the seven 1st-place votes cast:

	KEVIN MITCHELL AWARD	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	PTS
1	Giancarlo Stanton, ALN	6	1					67
2	Stephen Vogt, VAN		3		3			30
-	Bryce Harper, HPG		2	3			1	30
4	Josh Donaldson, POO		1	3			1	23
5	Buster Posey, ARK	1					1	11
6	Mike Trout, ALN			1				5
7	Joey Votto, HPG					1	2	4
8	Yoenis Cespedes, HPG					1	1	3
9	Chris Davis, PHI					1		2

Vancouver's Stephen Vogt collected the most 2nd-place ballots (3) to go with three 4th-place votes, finishing with 30 points. Tied with Hopatcong's Bryce Harper, he finished a distant second in balloting. Harper got two 2nd-place ballots, a three 3rd-place ballots and a 5th-place vote.

Finishing 4th overall with 23 points was Josh Donaldson who had a big year in a down season for Poovey Farms. He nabbed a 2nd-place vote, three 3rd-place tallies, and a 5th-place vote.

Arkansas catcher and 2016 batting champion Buster Posey kept the vote from being unanimous, garnering the other 1st-place vote along with a 5th-place ballot to finish 5th in voting with 11 points.

Tying for 6th place with 5 points were former Mitchell Award winners Mike Trout of Allentown (who won with Philly in 2013) and Joey Votto of Hopatcong (2011). Trout had one 3rd-place vote while Votto appeared on three ballots, getting a 4th-place vote to go along with two 5th-places.

Yoenis Cespedes, who finished second to Stanton in RBI, was among three Floating Fish to receive votes, finishing in 8th with 4 points, thanks to a 4th- and 5th-place vote. Chris Davis, second to Stanton with 42 home runs for a weak Philly team, got some recognition with a 4th-place vote, finishing 9th with 3 points overall.

After a few wild-swinging years, Stanton put it together in 2016, achieving career highs in most every significant batting category, including 60 home runs and 138 RBI. He still had 222 strikeouts, second in the league, but hit a much more respectable .271 last year. Stanton celebrated with an energizing, deep scrotal scrub:

He was drafted as Mike Stanton in the 5th round of the 2010 draft (61st overall) by Hoboken, as an ineligible prospect. He swatted 29 home runs in his rookie season of 2011. In a 2012 deadline deal, the slugger was traded to Philly for Roy Halladay and a 6th round pick. So distraught was he by being dealt from the franchise that drafted him, Stanton decided to go by his first name, Giancarlo.

In his first few years in the league, Stanton seemed like an all-or-nothing slugger, notching 30-plus home runs but batting in the .220s. In 2013, he hit a respectable .251 with 41 home runs and 114 RBI before Philly gave up the franchise and it was taken over by Allentown.