SBN Baseball Postseason Awards -- National League Manager of the Year

by WholeCamels on Nov 9, 2009 12:43 PM EST

Once again, the SBNation baseball blogging team got together to vote for the traditional postseason award winners. Each blog got two ballots for the editorial staff to complete (in our case, jonk and myself). First up, National League Manager of the Year. See the results below...

Later this week: Rookie Of the Year, Cy Young Award, and Most Valuable ~~Pujols~~ Player.

Jim Tracy is a worthy winner. He took a team from the dregs of the division in the spring and made a spirited run at the NL West title, falling just short and settling for the Wild Card. His Rockies took the eventual NL Champion Phillies to four games in the NLDS, nearly forcing a fifth game in Philadelphia, but for a two out rally in the bottom of the ninth of Game Four in frigid Denver.

Phillies' skipper Charlie Manuel finished fifth.

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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What? No votes for Dusty Baker? What a sham!

by FuquaManuel on Nov 9, 2009 12:51 PM EST reply actions

That seems about right. Tracy should get credit for installing younger, better players in the Rockies lineup… but he did abandon that strategy entirely in the NLDS, making some puzzlingly bad decisions including starting Atkins and Torrealba every game. And if Dave Duncan came in a package with LaRussa, I might have voted for them at #1.

Any chance we get some transparency with the TGP contingent’s ballots? ;)

by PhillyFriar on Nov 9, 2009 1:24 PM EST reply actions

Didn’t Joe torre do exactly what was expected with the dodgers?

Don't frack with me or you'll get a punch in the kidneys...you've been warned

by jemagee on Nov 9, 2009 1:29 PM EST up reply actions

Torre was a mixed bag this year, but I don’t think anyone figured them for 95 wins and home field advantage through the NLCS, especially coming off an 84 win season. His low points included batting Matt Kemp so low in the order for much of the year and replacing Orlando Hudson with Ronnie Belliard down the stretch, but he did a lot of good things: kept the team cruising during Manny’s 50-game suspension, cobbled together the best bullpen in baseball despite losing Cory Wade, and successfully juggled a starting rotation that featured only one steady, healthy performer (Randy Wolf).

by PhillyFriar on Nov 9, 2009 1:52 PM EST up reply actions

Reinventing Vicente Padilla as useful also counts for something.

by Wet Luzinski on Nov 10, 2009 9:24 PM EST up reply actions

How much of that is Torre how much of that is dumb luck and how much of that is a guy ‘pitching for a new contract’?

by jemagee on Nov 11, 2009 2:18 PM EST up reply actions

however much it was worth (probably very little—though he didn’t get in his way or shunt him aside even as he was getting good results), it was certainly completely negated by gift-wrapping outs and sloppy defense from Belliard to us in the NLCS.

by Wet Luzinski on Nov 11, 2009 6:08 PM EST up reply actions