Old Time Family Baseball

As I complete my first full year as a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, I have the honor of casting a ballot for a number of post season awards. First up is the Connie Mack Award, given to the best American and National League Managers in 2011.

Naturally, the first vote is the most difficult to judge as how does one accurately measure manager’s impact on their team. Their intensity? Their lack of it? Do I award managers for steering poor teams towards .500 years? Do I penalize managers like Charlie Manuel for being given an excellent roster? One day we’ll hopefully have mWAR to give us some kind of baseline. Until then, I’m left to my own devices.

Here are my first, second, and third place votes. 

National League: 

(Photo by Paul Martinez)

1. Kirk Gibson
2. Ron Roenicke
3. Clint Hurdle

This will be perhaps the easiest vote among any to come. The Diamondbacks were thought to be lucky to compete for third place in a crowded NL West and somehow found themselves at the front of it by the end of the year. Plenty of credit must go to Kevin Towers who completely revamped the bullpen, and Justin Upton who took major strides, but Gibson cobbled together a lineup of misfit toys and somehow made them work. Ryan Roberts will fall just shy of a 20/20 year, Miguel Montero may be the most underrated catcher in the game, and Willie Bloomquist even had his uses during the season. Sure, he had some help from a staff of four pitchers posting sub 4.00 ERAs, three of them breaking the 200 inning mark, but that was probably because of Gibson’s anti-cell phone stance. 

Roenicke deserves credit for guiding the Brewers through the NL Central, with the Brewers finally having the necessary pitching to bypass the Cardinals. While the Pirates second half collapse is among that of legends, the Pirates were competitive until the end of July and plenty of sources seem to think that Hurdle’s management of the team has instilled a new drive. We’ll find out if that’s true or not next season. 

American League: 

(Photo by Keith Allison) 

1. Joe Maddon
2. Manny Acta
3. Joe Girardi

The Rays traded away Matt Garza, lost Carl Crawford to free agency, refused to call-up Desmond Jennings until the summer and still find themselves currently tied for the AL Wild Card. All the while, Joe Maddon stayed true to himself and his players, leading the league in themed road trips and tweets about Boardwalk Empire. If that doesn’t scream Manager of the Year, nothing does. 

As for the rest, Acta helped steer the Indians to a .500 record while Joe Girardi, despite having the largest payroll in baseball, had to run a team that featured Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia recreating their best seasons from a half decade ago.