25-year old righty swinging shortstop Hanley Ramirez finished second in the voting for the N.L. MVP Award behind only the superhuman Albert Pujols of the Cardinals. Ramirez played in 151 games last season for the Marlins and he was 197 for 576 (.342 avg, .954 OPS) with 101 runs scored, 24 homers, 106 RBIs and 27 stolen bases. He has now played in 618 games in his five year major league career and he is 771 for 2,439 (.316 avg, .917 OPS) with 470 runs scored, 103 homers, 313 RBIs and 164 stolen bases. Ramirez is quite simply the best hitting shortstop in all of baseball without a doubt and he should be able to win a MVP Award at some point in his career. He is the future of the Florida Marlins who have locked him up with a long term contract which was really smart of them.

Freddy Gonzalez should have finished higher on this list when you consider the payroll he was working with. He led the Marlins to a 87-75 record (53.7%) during the regular season. He has now compiled a 242-243 (49.9%) record during his three seasons as manager of the Marlins. He’s a better manager than Joe Girardi is or was so it’s puzzling as to why he doesn’t garner at least the same level of respect. Maybe he will win the award in 2010 as the Marlins are likely to pare down the payroll even more once again.

24-year old lefty swinging OF/2B Chris Coghlan won the National League Rookie of the Year Award. He played in 128 games for the Marlins last season and he was 162 for 504 (.321 avg, .850 OPS) with 84 runs scored, 9 homers, 47 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. Coghlan’s future could be at 2B for the Marlins if they trade Dan Uggla this winter (which is very likely). Coghlan has a good upside but it might be hard for him to repeat the kind of batting average he put up last year for the Marlins.

UPDATE: Coghlan also finished tied with Jeremy Affeldt and Brad Hawpe for 28th in the N.L. MVP Voting.