On July 16 in New York, Buster Posey will learn whether he is the 2008 Golden Spikes Award winner, considered amateur baseball’s most prestigious individual honor.

The other four finalists on this year’s ballot include Georgia’s Gordon Beckham, Missouri’s Aaron Crow, San Diego’s Brian Matusz and Arizona State’s Brett Wallace.

That said, Posey should become Florida State’s fourth winner of the Golden Spikes Award, joining J.D. Drew (1997), Mike Loynd (1986) and Mike Fuentes (1984). Well, that’s if the voters have any sense of history and appreciation of offensive numbers.

If you need more proof of how impressive a junior season the FSU catcher had, he became on the fourth player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to win the ACC Triple Crown. Posey led the league in hitting (an ACC and FSU record .463 average), home runs (26) and RBIs (92).

The other three players to do that are FSU’s Marshall McDougall (.419, 28, 106 in 1999), Maryland’s Derek Hacopian (.421, 23, 84 in 1992) and Clemson’s Denny Walling (.421, 13, 60 in 1975).

Do you think there is a chance Posey gets edged out for the award? If so, who do you like?