Commentary on the Manager of the Year awards

-
 I have already written on the Rookie of the Year award, so now I can tell you if the experts were right or not on the Manager of the Year awards.

The AL Manager of the Year was Brandon Hyde, who was the manager of Baltimore's Orioles. The team won 101 games this season, best in the American League. They were rotten in 2021, losing 110 games before turning around in 2022 to win 83 games, and the manager hit his apogee this year. This is a fair vote and I can respect it. I personally may have chosen Bruce Bochy, who turned the Rangers around from losing 102 games in 2021 and 94 in '22, but the experts were fine on this one. 

Unfortunately, I can't say they did a good job on the NL Manager of the Year.

Somehow, the voters went with 43 year old Skip Schumaker of the Miami Marlins. Granted, this was his first year as a major league manager and he was over .500, but for goodness sake, he was only 84-78. Even though they lost 93 games last year and 95 the year before, nobody who wins 84 games should be the Manager of the Year unless they did something absolutely insane. Of the finalists for the award, the decision should have been Craig Counsell, who managed the Brewers' questionable hitting to 92 wins. I may have said Brian Snitker, but how hard can it be to manage a team with an all-around .500 slugging percentage to 104 wins? Only 104? I could have managed a team that talented to at least 116 wins.

Well, there you have it. The pros got one right and the other way wrong. Well, everybody makes mistakes (except for me).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The LOOGY

-
      I didn't know what a LOOGY was until a few months ago. It was then that I figured out that it was not phlegm, but an acronym.  Left-handed One  Out GuY      LOOGY. Pretty simple, right? Alas, the LOOGY has gone extinct due to overhunting and habitat loss from Rob Manfred. The semi-new rules state that when a pitcher comes into the game, he must face three batters or finish an inning. So unless your LOOGY comes in with two outs and  gets the batter out, then he no longer exists.      Anyway, LOOGYs were pretty cool and also quite useful for platoon advantage if you have a left-handed batter sandwiched amidst a bunch of righties, which I can imagine happened quite often. If you were in a big spot when said lefty came up to bat, the LOOGY was your man. But you wasted a reliever, especially if you were throwing Billy Wagner to get one out. Then you're out one of the greatest closers to ever live, and you put yourself in that ...
Read more

THE TOP PLAYERS FOR 2024

-
      As we get even nearer to the start of the 2024 MLB season, we wonder who will be the best players. I am going to answer that question to the best of my ability.      There are some players who have been solid for many seasons, some who have had the recent rise to stardom, and some who have just come out of nowhere. Let's get started, shall we? CATCHERS AL: Adley Rutschman, BAL NL: JT Realmuto, PHI     Adley Rutschman is a young man of about 26, and has already emerged as one of the best catchers in the game today. He has plate discipline, pop, and defense, as well as age. He is a very solid young player, and seems able to stick around for a long time.     JT Realmuto is entering his age 33 season and has been in the Majors for ten years. In that time, he has made an impressive name for himself as quite possibly the best catcher in his time. He holds a career 34% caught stealing rate, a massive 9% above the average! He has three all...
Read more

Commentary on the Cy Young Awards

-
  The last award to come out that I am writing about is the Cy Young Award. I notice that this one is wrong a LOT of the time. Let's see if they were right on at least one of them, and, if there is a miracle, both of them. NL: Winner: Blake Snell Runner up: Logan Webb Third: Zac Gallen  Fourth: Spencer Strider Fifth: Justin Steele     Is this even a contest? The player in the top five with an ERA closest to Blake Snell's is off by a massive 81 points! This happens to be number five, Justin Steele, who had a 3.06 ERA in his breakout 2023 campaign. While there were a key things that the 2-5 choices had (Logan Webb leading the league in innings pitched and shutouts, Zac Gallen tied in shutouts, Spencer Strider leading in wins, and Justin Steele with the second lowest ERA in the top five and a .762 win percentage), it's not even close. Snell had a 2.25 ERA, 234 Ks, and a league leading 182 ERA+.  AL: Winner: Gerrit Cole Runner-up: Sonny Gray Third: Kevin Gausman Fou...
Read more