The Manager of the Year awards were announced today, with Bud Black of the Padres winning in the NL, and Ron Gardenhire won the award in the AL for the first time. Gardenhire was the runner-up for the award in five of his first eight years as the Twins manager, so this is much-deserved. Let’s see how BSB ranked the top managers in the game for 2010:
NL Manager of the Year:
BRY:
- Charlie Manuel
- Bud Black
- Bobby Cox
- Dusty Baker
- Bruce Bochy
DOOGAN:
- Bud Black
- Charlie Manuel
- Dusty Baker
- Bruce Bochy
- Bobby Cox
It’s hard to argue with Charlie for this award. He took a team ravaged by injuries all season and led them to the best record in baseball. He’d get my vote in a lot of years. But, even though the Padres didn’t even make the playoffs, I have to go with Black. All year I was looking at that roster and wondering how they were in 1st place. Even though they couldn’t hold on, they still won 90 games. A pretty amazing feat for a team that most people expected to be one of the very worst teams in baseball.
AL Manager of the Year:
BRY:
- Ron Gardenhire
- Ron Washington
- Terry Francona
- Cito Gaston
- Joe Maddon
DOOGAN:
- Ron Gardenhire
- Ron Washington
- Cito Gaston
- Joe Maddon
- Joe Girardi
BSB agrees unanimously with the choice of Gardenhire. His Twins cruised to the AL Central title and finished just two games back of the best record in the AL despite not having Justin Morneau for half the season and a pretty mediocre pitching staff. Ron Washington was the clear #2 choice for getting the Rangers over the hump. Bry and Doogan both recognized the solid job by Gaston in his last year as the Blue Jays manager, getting them to 85 wins in the tougest division in the game. Bry gave a lot of credit to Francona for managing 89 wins in Boston despite a ton of injuries.
