12/18/24
November 18, 2009
Scioscia, Tracy Win Manager of the Year Awards: Scioscia wins the AL award after leading the Angels to the ALCS after the tragic death of Nick Adenhart. Jim Tracy wins the NL award after taking over the Rockies midseason and leading them to the playoffs.
posted by TheQatarian to baseball at 03:49 PM - 7 comments
The Jim Tracy award was a good one; who would've thought the Rockies would be such a stud team for half the season?
posted by dfleming at 04:14 PM on November 18, 2009
What exactly does Ron Gardenhire have to do to win this thing?
The media has in in their heads that Scioscia is a genius. And with an award that is mostly subjective, that's tough to overcome.
posted by justgary at 04:56 PM on November 18, 2009
I agree with TheQatarian about Scioscia and the Angels. While Adenhart's death was terrible, he had a great team regardless. Losing a teammate is awfully hard to get over, but on the field, Adenhart wasn't exactly a pitcher they were counting on for 20 wins. He was a talented you player. He'd only pitched 12 major league innings prior to this past season. His death occurred on April 9, roughly one week into the season, so the team had the rest of the (long) season to regroup and move on. Scioscia's teams have won the AL West 5 out of the past 6 seasons. Gardenhire got the Twins into the playoffs without one of baseball's best players down the stretch (Morneau), and with a questionable pitching staff. Good manager, but I don't see him as the ALs best this past year. It's almost like they're giving the Angels a consolation prize because they didn't win the World Series and complete the storybook ending it would have been had they won after Adenhart's death.
posted by dyams at 05:02 PM on November 18, 2009
With his 5 second place finishes, and a 3rd place finish, Gardenhire has won the equivalent of 2.98 Manager of the Year awards in 8 seasons.
(Max points each year in voting 140 (it's a 5-3-1 point system). He's accumulated 417 points in the 6 seasons he received votes.)
posted by grum@work at 07:51 PM on November 18, 2009
Way to go Ron!
posted by dyams at 09:46 PM on November 18, 2009
But were they 'deserving'?
I kid, I kid...congrats to both managers for one hell of a season.
posted by BornIcon at 09:09 AM on November 19, 2009
While Mike Scioscia is a great manager, I feel the need to ask: What exactly does Ron Gardenhire have to do to win this thing?
The Angels did get off to a slow start, in large part due to the Adenhart tragedy, but with or without him, they were still easily the most talented team in the AL West and accomplished exactly what they should have. The Twins, meanwhile, were without Joe Mauer for the first month of the season and without Justin Morneau for the last month of the season; their biggest offseason move was re-signing Nick Punto; their pitching staff was held together with chewing gum and duct tape, and they trailed a more talented Tigers team by 7 games on Labor Day...and they WON the division despite all of this. In eight years managing the Twins, Gardenhire has routinely done more with less than any manager in baseball, and somehow he's never won this award. (This is his fifth 2nd-place finish.)
At least we Twins fans can celebrate Mauer getting the MVP later this week. (If that doesn't happen, something is *seriously* messed up.)