The A.L. and N.L. Managers of the Year are...

[Bored 0]

Tony Pena and Jack McKeon.

 

A.L. Voting Points (1st place votes)

 

1. Tony Pena 130 (24)

2. Ron Gardenhire 44 (4)

3. Ken Macha 26

4. Grady Little 19

5. Joe Torre 14

6. Lou Pinella 13

7. Carlos Tosca 3

8. Eric Wedge 2

9. Alan Trammell 1 (yes someone gave Alan Trammell a sympathy vote)

 

N.L. Voting Points (1st place votes)

 

1. Jack McKeon 116 (19)

2. Dusty Baker 62 (2)

3. Bobby Cox 56 (6)

4. Felipe Alou 51 (5)

5. Frank Robinson 3

[sfaJack 0]

Hurrah. No drama, and no controversy here. Both guys certainly deserve it.

 

I suppose the bitter Red Sox Nation will raise hell over Grady getting 19 points, though.

[NYU 0]

And I suppose George Steinbrenner will be making a speech tonight.

 

"This is hypocrisy to the fullest. Joe Torre earned manager of the year, and he wasn't granted it. These newspaper writers had their own agenda.....blah, blah, blah......need more all stars next season.....blah, blah, blah....luxury tax is biased against Yankees.....blah, blah, blah....have small dick, need to compensate for it with championships....." and so on.

 

Anyway, can't argue with either Manager of the Year winners. Both pretty much deserved it.

[CanadianChris 0]

"This is hypocrisy to the fullest. Joe Torre earned manager of the year, and he wasn't granted it. These newspaper writers had their own agenda.....blah, blah, blah......need more all stars next season.....blah, blah, blah....luxury tax is biased against Yankees.....blah, blah, blah....have small dick, need to compensate for it with championships....." and so on.

If he doesn't, expect Torre to be fired before year's end.

[NYU 0]

Eh, shouldn't be too much of a problem. Torre looks like he'd rather die than coach another season for Steinbrenner past this final one. I see him leaving the Yankees with a tearful retirement party and everyone singing his praises....then he'll wind up coaching another American League team in a season or two.

[Bored 0]

I suppose the bitter Red Sox Nation will raise hell over Grady getting 19 points, though.

Ha! My fellow A's fans are pissed Ken Macha finished 3rd...because they didn't think he should get any votes at all.

[Guest Anglesault]

If I didn't give it to the guy, who, you know, lead the best team in the league, I certainly would have given it to Gardenhoser. While a division championship is ultimately meaningless, it probably ranks better than the big fat nothing Pena bought the Royals.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

If nothing else, Pena's season allowed the Royals to keep Mike Sweeney. He had an out clause if the Royals failed to clear .500 this year and next.

 

It's debateable how much credit should be given to managers for winning seasons. After all, the players are responsible for most of the success. No manager could've saved the Detroit Tigers this year. Brilliant managers one year (ex. Larry Bowa, 2001) look downright foolish the next. For the voters, what matters is exceeding expectations. I think the awards have little to do with actual managing.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

If I didn't give it to the guy, who, you know, lead the best team in the league, I certainly would have given it to Gardenhoser. While a division championship is ultimately meaningless, it probably ranks better than the big fat nothing Pena bought the Royals.

yeah.. Pena only managed a team that won 21 more games than last year.

 

A team that was in the race for their division as late as September (after 10 years of nothing)

 

It's just nothing.. 62-100 to 83-79.. NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING

 

It's pretty freaking hard to determine who's the manager of the best AL team when you file votes before the playoffs.

 

You vote for the best manager, not the most successful.

 

Man Anglesault, you've been unusually bitter towards the Kansas City Royals. Pena was an obvious selection for Manager of the Year. Berroa was the rookie of the year.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

It's pretty freaking hard to determine who's the manager of the best AL team when you file votes before the playoffs.

 

Not really. After 162 games you get a pretty good idea of who the best team is.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Not really. After 162 games you get a pretty good idea of who the best team is.

 

Even then, they're not guaranteed to even go to the league championship, much less the world series.

 

83 wins after just 62 in 2002 is a damned good year. But, you hear the idiots out there claiming there was a 'choke'. Like the team that was 62-100 in 2002 was the one we all expected to win it all in 2003, but they let us down! (actually, the White Sox choked alot more than the Royals)

 

Anyways, what makes Joe Torre more worthy of 'Manager of the Year' than Tony Pena?

 

(this is for AS, since he is obviously pissy that Torre didn't win and Pena [who did nothing but lead KC to their first winning season since 1994] won)

 

I bet the reason that Torre was the best was 'job pressure', 'New York prestige' or some crap like that. No idea if Torre could have managed the 2003 Royals to a better year than Pena, or if Pena would be a worse Yankee manager than Torre.

 

MVP prediction: In the tradition of KC players topping Yankees, Beltran gets more votes than most, if not, all Yankees listed. ("Beltran didn't really do nothing, now Jorge Posada is clutch!")

 

I preferred the "Ichiro got it, so why not Matsui?" talk.. considering that Ichiro only had an average over 60 points higher than Matsui's and all. But, I guess if Matsui had 240 hits and a .350 BA, he'd lose since EVERYBODY HATES THE YANKEES, THEY ALL WANT TO KILL THE YANKEES~~~~~!!!!!!1

[Vern Gagne 0]

Gardenhoser? WTF...He's one of the games good guys.

[Bored 0]

Edit: wrong topic.

[Guest Anglesault]

If I didn't give it to the guy, who, you know, lead the best team in the league, I certainly would have given it to Gardenhoser. While a division championship is ultimately meaningless, it probably ranks better than the big fat nothing Pena bought the Royals.

yeah.. Pena only managed a team that won 21 more games than last year.

 

A team that was in the race for their division as late as September (after 10 years of nothing)

 

It's just nothing.. 62-100 to 83-79.. NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING

 

And yet, they were golfing come October.

 

Funny how a second (third?) place finish in what was essentially a three team division all year does that.

 

And I never said Torre should have gotten the award. I was all said to give it to Gardenwhiner.

 

Because in the end, no matter how much better the Royals were than the year before, they just simply weren't good enough.

 

If he's gonna get the credit for their huge turn around, he should take the blame for the team failing in the end.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Stop mocking Gardenhire.

[Guest Anglesault]

Stop mocking Gardenhire.

I'm not mocking Gardencryer.

 

He's my vote for Manager of the Year.

 

Even if he did make a fool of himself after Game Two against the Yankees.

[Vern Gagne 0]

He had a point. It is a long 7th inning stretch.

[Guest Anglesault]

He had a point. It is a long 7th inning stretch.

It would be no loner than if the Twins had an especially big inning. Would he bitch about that?

 

And Radke called him an idiot (not in those words, of course)

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

And yet, they were golfing come October.

Since every good manager takes their team to the playoffs. Jumping 21 games is NOTHING. Winning 83 in your first full year is nothing.

 

And I never said Torre should have gotten the award. I was all said to give it to Gardenwhiner.

 

"If I didn't give it to the guy, who, you know, lead the best team in the league" - reeeally..

 

well, you did say you'd give it to that Serial Killer Gardenhire, but you suggested the idea of giving it to Torre.

 

Because in the end, no matter how much better the Royals were than the year before, they just simply weren't good enough.

 

Yeah.. they should have went all the way in the first full season for Pena. Damn them! Only winning 83 games. Winning 83 games in one year gets you fired from the job of Yankee manager.

 

If he's gonna get the credit for their huge turn around, he should take the blame for the team failing in the end.

 

yeah.. we're really pissed at Tony for failing this year. We wish he'd stop failing and get us back to the Tony Muser days where the team won 65 games a year. Fucking Pena.

 

Why not just give the 'Best Manager' award to the pennant winning manager, because all the other managers failed. Grady failed. Gardenhire failed (1 win? WTF? Loser!).

[Guest Anglesault]

And yet, they were golfing come October.

Since every good manager takes their team to the playoffs.

A manager of the year does.

 

This isn't the "well, by golly gee, he did a good job" award.

 

Yeah.. they should have went all the way in the first full season for Pena

 

Well, the Marlins managed it with Trader Jack.

 

And not coincidetially, he's the obvious pick for Manager of the year.

 

The Cubs won their division (again, meaningless, but at the time the votes were registered it wasn't) in the first year of the "Dustiny"

 

yeah.. we're really pissed at Tony for failing this year. We wish he'd stop failing and get us back to the Tony Muser days where the team won 65 games a year. Fucking Pena.

 

End result is no different.

 

Why not just give the 'Best Manager' award to the pennant winning manager, because all the other managers failed. Grady failed.

 

Uhm, he kind of blew the Red Sox hope of a World Series all to hell, and all that.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I've made many speeches about how the MVP shouldn't have to come from a winning team, and I don't see why the manager of the year can't make the playoffs. If we disqualify all but 4 managers right off the bat, then the award really loses its luster, because all you do is reward the manager who got the best players to manage.

[Guest Anglesault]

I can understand that, al, but one of the things that I like to consider in this is for lack of better words, has gone the furthest with the least.

 

Gardenhire had various things going against him (not the least of which being an itty bitty payroll) and he was still able to guide his team through a tough division championship race and into the play offs, knocking Pena's Royals out along the way.

 

I think he did more with what he had than Pena did.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Perhaps, but I can make an argument that the only reason the Twins were in a division race in the first place was their abysmal first half, particularly by their pitching. Its ultimately an argument no one can win really. I mean, how DO you judge managerial performance?