Both the NL and AL Manager of the Year awards were announced this afternoon. In a surprise, Brad Mills was on the ballot and finished sixth. San Diego's Bud Black won the award, followed by Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Bobby Cox and Charlie Manuel.
SB Nation didn't vote on MOY, in part because it's so hard to quantify why we should be voting for these guys. Like Craig Calcaterra says in this post, are you voting for the team who overcame low expectations? What about when those expectations were set by the voters and not by the talent on a roster? Are you voting for how a manager did with the intangibles, with distractions or are you voting for the guy who's players performed the best down the stretch?
It's a tough call. I'm sure many of those Bobby Cox votes were from writers giving him a pat on the back as he walks out the door. I'm also surprised that TLR didn't get any votes, since his team did finish above .500. I guess since they disappointed expectations, he wasn't quite the genius he normally is this season.
Zachary Levine does a great job breaking down his vote here. More and more, voters are doing this, even when they are not submitting controversial ballots. I like it quite a bit. We shouldn't have to guess how guys voted, and I was a little surprised to see Z didn't put Mills in his top 3. He makes the point that his vote was decisive, since there was only a point between Baker and Black for first place. Z put Baker third and Bobby Cox second, which dropped Baker down enough to give Black the award. Of course, Baker was left off five other ballots completely, which could have made a difference.
If I had a vote? I'd have gone Black, Baker, Mills, but I haven't though that hard about it. Timmy did and was spot on with his predictions last month:
I think Bud Black will win the award, but I think Charlie Manuel should win the award. Even though he's had the better team he's also had to deal with the most injuries, and still managed the Phillies to the best league in the Majors. Still I wouldn't be distraught if Black were to win the award he's certainly been one of the reasons for the Padres success.