SBN Awards: NL Manager of the Year

by Stephen Higdon on Nov 10, 2009 5:43 AM CST in News

David took a look at the GM's yesterday, so I guess it's fitting that we move to manager's today (ROY to be released at noon).

One of the truly beneficial things about SBN (besides the platform and tech support) is that it's a collection of fans writing for other fans. There's no one who runs a blog that was assigned a team to follow or landed at a blog because they were the one hiring (a la the main stream media). So when it comes time for something like awards' season, we get to tap into the collective passion (and I like to think wisdom, as well). For all of the NL awards this year, each blog was given two votes per category and the general baseball blogs were also given two votes for the NL as well.

For the MOY the year, I imagine we'll come to discover that our results will differ from the main-stream-media's take on the NL skippers. Hopefully, it'll be in a good way.

My take aways:

There are no votes for Cecil Cooper—thank God.
I believe that HLP and I comprise 2/3 of TLR's 1st place votes.
Was I wrong to place TLR ahead of Tracy?
Bud Black and John Russel....?

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

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I'd go with Tracy

I think he did more with what was available to him, but I can’t fault you for selecting TLR either.

by Timothy De Block on Nov 10, 2009 7:32 AM CST reply actions

I did vote for TLR

What held me back from voting for Tracy was that I remembered him being the manager in Pittsburgh and he didn’t do all that much there, and the same can be said for the time he spent in LA. Colorado made a similar run to the playoffs in 2007 under Clint Hurdle with a lot of these same players, so I didn’t think that Tracy was the driving force behind their success in the last 2/3 of the season. Can’t fault anyone for voting for him though.

The Crawfish Boxes, Astros blogging at its finest.

by Evan Hochschild on Nov 10, 2009 7:41 AM CST reply actions

I could have tied those thoughts together more clearly

Basically I don’t think Tracy is that great of a manager based his past performances with PITT and LA. The success he found in COL this season most likely wasn’t due to his abilities since COL made a similar run with a differ manager just two seasons ago.

The Crawfish Boxes, Astros blogging at its finest.

by Evan Hochschild on Nov 10, 2009 7:45 AM CST up reply actions

Remember

We are talking about the Pirates, and If I’m recalling correctly LA wasn’t the team it is now when Tracy was manager.

by Timothy De Block on Nov 10, 2009 8:14 AM CST up reply actions

After reviewing

LA he had some decent teams, but they were teams with some serious flaws. Typically he’d have a pitching staff, but no lineup, then he’d get a lineup but no pitching staff.

by Timothy De Block on Nov 10, 2009 8:19 AM CST up reply actions

Like HLP, I am biased against Tracy, mostly based on the high level of dislike that Pirates’ fans whom I know had for Tracy. They felt about him much like most of us felt about Cooper this year. Tracy was the king of small ball in Pittsburgh, and he upset the players by blaming them for every mistake and taking the credit himself for anything that went well. That’s not to say that managers can’t learn from their mistakes when they get a new job.

I probably would have voted Joe Torre and LaRussa 1 and 2, and I don’t feel strongly about which is No. 1 and which is No. 2. I also think the voting here undersells Manuel. It’s tought to repeat at league champion, and while he had a good team, he had to overcome problems like Lidge’s implosion and a decline in Hamel’s performance.

by clack on Nov 10, 2009 8:56 AM CST up reply actions

I went (I think)

TLR
Tracy
Manuel

Manuel wasn’t higher because I feel like there the Lidge situation could have been handled in some other fashion than sitting on your hands and hoping he straightens himself out.

The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.

by Stephen Higdon on Nov 10, 2009 2:21 PM CST up reply actions

well taking into consideration

that the Rockies were simply not responding anymore to Hurdle and he was able to get the team to respond to him and play significantly better speaks to the job Tracy did this year. Their big playoff push acquisition was who? Jason Giambi? Their pitching staff has retread Jason Marquis, Cook, who has ben an unsung but steady performer his whole career and a bunch of no names. Outside of Tulo and Helton, can anyone else name the usual Rockies staring lineup?

TLR had two twenty game winners on his staff and Albert and for their playoff push they added Holiday…doesn’t seem like such a challenge to me when they already have a guy like Pujols in the lineup everyday. TLR does a great job about getting good everyday performances from players your average fan doesn’t know about, guys like Schumacher, Ryan, and Ludwig.

I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused....

by piratedan7 on Nov 10, 2009 11:57 AM CST reply actions

you said it yourself

TLR does a great job about getting good everyday performances from players your average fan doesn’t know about, guys like Schumacher, Ryan, and Ludwig.

Exactly. Credit goes out to Dave Duncan as well on reforming “retreads” like Pineiro, Lohse, Wellemeyer (to an extent) and the rest of their staff. Franklin had a successful season as a closer despite not being an actual closer.

The Rockies had an infusion of young talent that produced dividends immediately: CGonzalez, DFowler, etc.

TLR’s young stud Rasmus wasn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball. Mark DeRosa struggled while with STL as well. So it’s not like the Cards were this talent laden bunch in 2009.

Subjectively, TLR seems to think outside the box when it comes to baseball much more than most managers. He isn’t beholden to tradition or managing by the book. I’ve seen the Astros lose too many one run games to STL over the years to not have some amount of respect for Tony and the job he does putting his team in the best position to win.

Jim Tracy may have offered a different voice than Hurdle, but the fact remains that the team had it in them to go on a run like they did.

As far as the implication the Rox had a “bunch of no names” in their rotation- check their numbers out. They had one of the best staffs in the NL last season. That was the main reason they made the playoffs. Ubaldo Jiminez, Jorge De La Rosa, et al were extremely impressive. Jimenez put together one of the best seasons of any starting pitcher in either league.

Offensively, the young guys I already mentioned plus Hawpe, Barmes, Ian Stewart and a pretty good relief corps made the Rox a full of talent, and much deeper IMO than STL.

I hate defending TLR, but he was my choice, and I’ll stick by it.

The Crawfish Boxes, Astros blogging at its finest.

by Evan Hochschild on Nov 10, 2009 12:09 PM CST up reply actions

Where's Cecil Cooper?

lol

by Astrosws20 on Nov 10, 2009 8:03 PM CST reply actions

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