General Joe = 3rd In 2009 A.L. Manger Of The Year Voting
Posted by Steve L. on November 18th, 2009 · Comments (11)
The final voting announced today:
Manager 1st 2nd 3rd Points Scioscia 15 10 1 106 Gardenhire 6 12 6 72 Girardi 4 3 5 34 Wakamatsu 2 2 3 19 Washington 1 1 11 19 Leyland 2 2
I could see Gardenhire getting more votes than Girardi. But, Scioscia?
I like Scioscia – don’t get me wrong – but, was he really that much better than Girardi?
The problem with most of these post-season awards is that they’re voted on by dummies in the mainstream media. As such, people actually think that Scioscia “led” his team after Adenhart’s death.
With all due respect to the Adenhart family — his death was surely an unnecessary loss of life and a tragedy — the notion that Scioscia had to somehow “rally the troops” to a first place finish in an otherwise lousy division is just pure fantasy.
I don’t begrudge Scioscia the honor of 2009 AL Manager of the Year since it’ll only boost his already inflated sense of self. Pride comes before the fall and that fat fuck has his coming to him soon enough.
I think Scioscia is a fine manager, maybe the best in the bigs over most of the last few years. But this year, this season, Joe guided his squad to a better record in a tougher division. He managed around a long injuriy to his clean-up hitter, and also had to work around rehab issues with his catcher and his closer. He effectively used guys called up from the minors and incorporated three new free agents. Moreover, he got the team playing like a team for the first time in a number of years. The socialist slant of most media guys (including sports writers – just read any article by Lefty Lupica, for example) won’t allow them to look past the Yankees’ payroll, and it’s their way of justifying selecting anyone but the Yankee manager.
And heres another problem, before even getting to spring training, the AL West teams have a 25% shot to win the division compared to anyother division.. and its a fair bet that almost always 1 or 2 al west teams are crappy… i am yet to see a 2 horse race in that division leave alone 3 team race… the Angels are in their comfort zone but like it proved in the 08 and 09 playoffs they get outclassed easily in the playoffs and when the serious business starts…
the Adenhart tragedy is gut-wrenching, one of my colleagues had watched him pitch that night and when the news broke the next morning the feeling was awful… for keeping tha team together Scioscia gets a tip of the hat.. but he is not a genius manager who wins against all odds or outfoxes teams… far from it, heis someone who exploits the percentages of that division fairly well…
Given the simultaneous serious injuries to Escobar, Lackey and Santana, coupled with the death of Adenhart, and the in seasons simultaneous injuries of Guerrero, Hunter and Rivera, not to mention the handicap of Fuentes as the closer, I think the selection of Scioscia is more than justified.
Girardi showed improvement this year, but a lot of the difference between this team and the previous one was due to Cashman and Steinbrenner rounding up the right additions to the roster. Next year’s team won’t be as starkly different. Hopefully one difference we’ll see will be Girardi again learning from one season’s mistakes to become better the following year.
cr1 wrote:
A big difference as well was bounceback seasons from Jeter, Cano and Cabrera. And having Posada around for an entire year.
Evan3457 wrote:
And Girardi has suffered no obstacles this year as the manager? Remember in April when most of the team was injured? Remember A-Rod’s hip? Remember when Ransom, who was our starting 3b at the time, got hurt? What about Wang? What about Nady? And Marte, what about him? What about when your catcher AND back up catcher go down at the same time with the same injury? What about going into the year with a player (Cano) who’s main criticism is lack of motivation (when getting the players motivated and prepared to play is one of your chief responsibilities)? Don’t forget that this season was so bad at one point that Nick Swisher had to pitch in a game.
To say that Scocia deserves the award due to helping his team overcome injury, I don’t buy it.
I wouldn’t get bent out of shape by the awards voting anyway. It’s obvious a good portion of the voters are anti-Yankee. We got the ring – ’nuff said.
77yankees wrote:
It’s not about the award, it’s that everyone downplays the Girardi so much to a point where it makes it seem like other managers have an incredible impact on the game that he doesn’t. In reality, it’s the players dictate most of the managerial moves.
@ Raf:
That too.
Evan3457 wrote:
Spare me. As if Scioscia’s the only manager that had injuries and other obstacles to contend with. Not to mention, if it’s fair to point out that the Yanks had the most resources in baseball, the Angels certainly had the most resources in their division. Scioscia wins that division every year because it’s a crap division.
For my money, Ron Washington was the AL’s top manager. The team improved by 8 wins from the previous year and Josh Hamilton played in less than half his team’s games and hit only 10 HR all year. The Angels were predicted to win the division, the Rangers were picked to finish third, behind Anaheim and the A’s.