24-year old righty swinging RF Justin Upton finished 4th in the voting for the 2011 N.L. MVP Award. Upton played in 159 games for the Diamondbacks last year and he was 171 of 592 (.289 avg, .898 OPS) with 105 runs scored, 31 homers, 88 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. He has now played in 581 games in his first five years with the Diamondbacks and he is 584 of 2,109 (.277 avg, .845 OPS) with 331 runs scored, 91 homers, 296 RBIs and 62 stolen bases. The Diamondbacks have to feel fortunate that they didn’t trade Upton last winter.

28-year old lefty swinging catcher Miguel Montero of the D-Backs finished tied for 21st in the 2011 N.L. MVP voting with fellow catcher Yadier Molina of the Cardinals. Montero played in 140 games for the Diamondbacks last year and he was 139 of 493 (.282 avg, .820 OPS) with 65 runs scored, 18 homers, 86 RBIs and 1 stolen base. He has now played in 513 games in his first six years in the majors and he is 442 of 1,629 (.271 avg., .789 OPS) with 216 runs scored, 58 homers, 246 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Montero has a very bright future with the Diamondbacks.

26-year old righty starting pitcher Ian Kennedy finished in 4th place in the voting for the 2011 N.L. Cy Young Award. Kennedy pitched in 33 games (all starts) for the Diamondbacks last year and he was 21-4 with a 2.88 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. He has now pitched in 79 games (77 starts) in his first five years in the majors and he is 31-18 with a 3.65 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Kennedy’s 2011 season came out of nowhere, but he was always highly thought of with the Yankees, so maybe he’s finally pitching to his potential. I watched a lot of his starts and there was nothing fluky about the numbers he put up in 2011.

UPDATE: (11/23/2011) - Ian Kennedy finished 14th in the voting for the 2011 N.L. MVP Award yesterday.

54-year old Kirk Gibson of the Arizona D-Backs has won the 2011 Manager of the Year Award in the N.L. He led the Diamondbacks to the playoffs by winning the N.L. West with a 94-68 (58%) record. Gibson now has a 128-117 (52.2%) record in his first two years with the D-Backs. Gibson has instilled his toughness into his team as he got them to play better than their potential. The Diamondbacks shocked the baseball world in 2011, it will be interesting to see what he has up his sleeves for 2012.

25-year old righty starting pitcher Josh Collmenter finished 5th in the voting for the N.L. Rookie of the Year Award. He pitched in 31 games (24 starts) for the Diamondbacks last year and he was 10-10 with a 3.38 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. He only gave up 137 hits and 28 walks in 154 1/3 innings pitched while whiffing 100 batters and those are impressive numbers. He also started a game in the playoffs in which he won by pitching 7 innings and giving up 1 earned run. Collmenter has a bright future for the D-Backs as he was outstanding as a rookie in 2011.