The AL and NL managers of the year will be announced in the next hour. The AL race should come down to Terry Francona and Jeff Banister, and the NL race I believe will be between Joe Maddon and Dave Roberts. Often manager of the year comes down to a team exceeding expectations, and that certainly would be the case with Francona and Banister. Both lost major players to injuries, the Indians playing without Michael Brantley, and the Rangers getting extremely poor production from Prince Fielder before they realized he suffered a career ending injury. If the post season mattered, Francona would win easily, but Texas finished with the better record. Flip a coin.
The NL race appears to be more about managerial moves leading to success. Dave Roberts lost Clayton Kershaw mid-season, yet the team was able to overcome a large Giants lead to win the division. The Cubs went into the season looking like a super team, and played like a super team. Maddon, however, moves players around, manages personnel well, which makes it look like he does a lot to help them win. I’m not sure another manager would not have done as well. Dusty Baker was very laid back with the Nationals, and they finished with the second best record in the league despite a poor season from Bryce Harper and an injury to Stephen Strasburg. I suspect most managers would have done very well with that Cubs team.
My guess is Maddon will win the award, but it might be close with Roberts.
The man shutout will be Buck Showalter. I still think in game Showalter is the best manager in the business, but that doesn’t always matter.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2eY6tXO
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