2005 Managers of the Year

 

By Keith Glab, 11/15/05

 

          The Manager of the Year award is usually based on intangibles like “creating team chemistry” or “getting the most out of your team.”  Let’s try and add some objectivity into the equation.

 

AL Winner – Ozzie Guillen, Chicago White Sox

 

AL Candidates:

Manager

2005 Wins

2004 Wins(team)

2005 Pythagorean

Ozzie Guillen(Chi)

96

83

+7

Eric Wedge (Cle)

93

80

-4

John Gibbons(Tor)

80

67

-9

Ken Macha(Oak)

88

91

-6

 

          There’s actually no contest here.  Guillen had improved his teams’ win total from last season by as much as any other AL manager, plus he guided his team to a whopping +7 Pythagorean Differential, wher the White Sox traditionally struggle.  Ken Macha was only in consideration due to the Athletics’ 71-42 record since the end of May, and the their free agent losses of Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.

 

NL Winner – Bobby Cox, Atlanta Braves

 

NL Candidates:

Manager

2005 Wins

2004 Wins(team)

2005 Pythagorean

Bobby Cox(Atl)

90

96

-2

Tony LaRussa(Stl)

100

105

0

FrankRobinson(Was)

81

67

+4

Phil Garner(Hou)

89

92

-2

Ned Yost(Mil)

81

67

-3

 

          Like Macha with Oakland, Cox succeed despite losing key players to free agency (JD Drew).  But he lost even more players due to injury, including Tim Hudson, Mike Hampton, John Thompson, Chipper Jones, and Marcus Giles.  This makes him a good selection despite the fact that he couldn’t squeeze extra wins out of his team’s run differential and dropped six wins from last year.

          The real upset here is that Frank Robinson did not Garner (pun intended) any votes for NL Manager of the Year.  Not only did he tie Ned Yost for the second highest Team Win Improvement in the majors with 14, but also he did it in one of the toughest divisions of all-time, where every team finished at .500 or better.  His team even paced the NL East for the summer before injuries and lack of acquisitions from a gestalt-owned team forced pitchers like Matt White, Hector Carrasco, John Halama, Jason Bergmann, Darrell Rasner, and Jon Rauch, none of whom were qualified to start for the 2nd-worst in the PCL pitching-wise affiliate New Orleans Zephyrs, to make key starts down the stretch.  It is absolutely a conspiracy that the Nationals didn’t move to acquire even a Joe Mays-level pitcher to give them a better than 15% chance of winning those games, just as it’s a conspiracy that F-Rob didn’t finish at least 2nd in MOTY voting.

          Neither Phil Garner nor Tony LaRussa improved their team from their 2004 form, and neither impressed with their Pythagorean ration.  Garner got credit for his 73-42 record since May 28 as well as succeeding despite the loss of Beltran and Kent, much like Macha did.  But Houston only had Beltran for 2 months last year, so that can’t be considered much of a loss.  Before LaRussa gets any more MOTY awards, let’s give the St. Louis Trainer a Trainer of the Year Award for his ability to keep the Cardinals staff healthy.  People are amazed at how the Redbirds totaled 100 wins despite injuries to Isringhausen, Rolen, Walker and Sanders.  But the real amazement should come from the Cardinals’ five regular starters accounting for all but two of the staff’s starts.  Besides, if you thought that Isringhausen, Walker and Sanders would be healthy all year, then you’re probably one of the fools who predicted that the Giants would run away with the NL West.

          Ned Yost would certainly seem at least as deserving, as he led the Brewers to their first non-losing season since 1992, but did it without Ben Sheets for much of the year.  Another worthy candidate might be Bob Melvin of Arizona, who improved the team by 26 games and beat his Pythagorean expectations by 11 games.  However, I feel that any 51-win team is going to improve some and that when most of your games played are against the 2005 NL West, you need to have totaled more than 77 wins to be considered for Manager of the Year.

          But it is clear that an excellent choice was made in the AL, while a quality choice was made in the NL.  The controversy arises with the fact that only three managers were considered in the senior circuit, and that they were not necessarily the best three choices out there.