SB Nation NL Manager of the Year

by Eric Stephen on Nov 10, 2009 8:32 AM PST in News Comment 22 comments

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"So Clint, it is May 27. The Dodgers are about to sweep us to make our record 18-28. You are the manager. What are the odds that one of us will win manager of the year this season? Clint? Clint? Are you awake?"

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The fine blogs of SB Nation got together and voted on all the major awards as the season closed. The awards are being announced this week, one week before the Baseball Writers Association of America announce the awards that actually have hardware attached.

It should come as no surprise that Jim Tracy of the Rockies won National League Manager of the year. He received 24 of 30 first place votes, easily outpacing Tony LaRussa of the Cardinals. Joe Torre finished fourth. Here are the results:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Jim Tracy	Colorado Rockies	24	1	2	125
2	Tony LaRussa	St. Louis Cardinals	3	7	10	46
3	Fredi Gonzalez	Florida Marlins	2	6	5	33
4	Joe Torre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	9	2	29
5	Charlie Manuel	Philadelphia Phillies	-	3	5	14
6	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	1	1	1	9
7	Bobby Cox	Atlanta Braves	-	1	4	7
8	Bud Black	San Diego Padres	-	1	1	4
9	John Russell	Pittsburgh Pirates	-	1	-	3

Here are the ballots that Phil and I submitted:

Phil: Jim Tracy, Tony LaRussa, Bud Black

Eric: Tracy, Bobby Cox, LaRussa

Tracy's Rockies finished the year 74-42, although the Dodgers beat them six out of nine games, winning all three series.

Phil and I only voted on the NL awards. Mike Scioscia of the Angels won the SB Nation AL Manager of the Year.

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Comments

First!

April first that is.
vr, Xei

by Xeifrank on Nov 10, 2009 8:43 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

I guess I can't blame you since this was voted on before post-season

But Charlie Manuel was the best manager this year in the NL. Period

I think its pretty funny and telling that neither of you had Torre based upon regular season performance.

It almost seems silly to vote unless your going to have definitions and categories.

by Cool Dudes on Nov 10, 2009 8:55 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

I don’t know how you can definitively say anyone, let alone Manuel, was the best manager, “period.”

by Eric Stephen on Nov 10, 2009 9:08 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

NL Pennant Winner and Most Total Wins

Everything else is conjecture.

by Cool Dudes on Nov 10, 2009 9:57 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

So was Scott Brosius the best 3B in the AL from 1998-2000?

by Eric Stephen on Nov 10, 2009 10:00 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

If wins was the only stat you had for 3B.

Yes.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of different ways to objectively explain that he sucked.

I am now eagerly awaiting manager performance factors (double plays/double play opportunties, runs/OPS?).

by Cool Dudes on Nov 10, 2009 10:06 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

You give full credit to the manager for every win and loss?

Would Charlie Manuel have won the pennant if he was managing the other Pennsylvania team in 2009 instead?

by Eric Stephen on Nov 10, 2009 10:08 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Hell No

Agreeing to Manage Pittsburgh would be enough to disqualify him on the spot! :)

Seriously, you could pick any Manager and make a case. In reality, if your team sucked you aren’t going to win.

by Cool Dudes on Nov 10, 2009 10:17 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

But Charlie Manuel was the best manager this year in the NL. Period

Great. That’s your opinion. Care to defend that opinion at all? Its easy to say that your opinion is different from the authors but if you aren’t going to explain why you feel that way, then why bother posting it?

by Michael White on Nov 10, 2009 9:15 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Not really.

by Cool Dudes on Nov 10, 2009 9:58 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think a lot of the voting comes down to how did the team perform versus expectations.

The Rockies were 18-28, and then elevated Tracy and got within a game of the NL West lead on the final weekend. Not hard to see why Tracy won the award.

Torre deserves credit for managing through the Manny suspension, of course, but to me after Tracy the next few guys were very close. Torre was probably fourth on my ballot, if it would have extended that far.

by Eric Stephen on Nov 10, 2009 9:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

“Manager of the Year” voting is always a tough thing to pin down. More often than not, people will tend to be harder on their own manager than others because we sit here and nitpick every lineup, double switch, etc. So the “manager of the year” winners go to guys like Joe Girardi a few years ago who nearly took a Marlin team that everybody thought was going to be very poor to contending for a wild card spot. I mean, how else can you vote? It’s not like we can sit here and notice how great Coach X did utilizing his bullpen.

That being said, do I find it humorous that Jim Tracy is the consensus manager of the year? Yes, absolutely.

by Michael White on Nov 10, 2009 9:24 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed on the surreality of Tracy winning it :)

by Eric Stephen on Nov 10, 2009 9:32 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I wonder who gave Bochy a 1st place vote......

What Would Jack Bauer Do?

by Sordid on Nov 10, 2009 9:13 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

MCC

by Xeifrank on Nov 10, 2009 9:21 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Ha!

Probably someone banned from MCC. P A Y B A C K

by Cool Dudes on Nov 10, 2009 9:59 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

My MOY

voting is always based on expectation going into the season compared to performance. I thought what Bud Black did with the lack of talent on the Padres was more impressive then what Manuel did with the best collection of players in the NL. Hard to fathom the Padres being able to win 39 games in the 2nd half but they did.

Patience is for those who die waiting for something to happen

by Phil Gurnee on Nov 10, 2009 10:00 AM PST reply actions 0 recs