San Francisco Giants: Handing Out Mid-Season Award

Most Valuable Player: Brandon Crawford

Jul 1, 2015; Miami, FL, USA; San Francisco Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford (35) celebrates with teammates after hitting a solo home run against the Miami Marlins during the sixth inning at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

While Buster Posey, the team’s usual suspect to be MVP is having another strong season, Crawford has been great for the Giants, building even further on his breakout offensive season in 2014.

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Crawford has been playing his normal strong defense at shortstop, but his bat is what has made him so important this year. He’s already hit a career-high 11 home runs, and is on pace to set career highs in hits, doubles, runs batted in, and runs scored. He also owns career-best numbers in all three triple-slash-line categories, batting average (.270), on-base percentage (.346), and slugging percentage (.474).

Early in the season, when just about the entire Giants’ offense was scuffling, Crawford was keeping the team alive, coming up with clutch hit after clutch hit, and was leading the team in runs batted in for a while before Posey had a monster June, including 27 RBI that doubled his season total to 54. Posey is coming on strong to make a case to be team MVP, but Crawford has earned his right to the honor so far.

Next: Cy Young