Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 06, 2007
Sorry Charlie

The Good Phight explains why Charlie Manuel is not the manager of the year. That was the first thought that crossed my mind when the Phillies blew the win yesterday.

Bob Melvin likely will get the nod for getting a team that doesn't outscore their opponents into the playoffs. Winning with a bad team, or winning when the voters didn't expect you to win is the usual criteria for the award. I suspect if the Cardinals make the playoffs, La Russa will garner some votes, as will Lou Piniella. Bud Black, however, has the Padres with the best run differential in the NL, and there's a lot to be said for developing both offense and defense.


Posted by David Pinto at 12:33 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Excuse me? Two words: Manny Acta.

Posted by: Mark at September 6, 2007 01:26 PM

I second Mark's post...in fact I was about to make the same point myself before I saw he had.

In truth I don't think Acta will win it, merely because of the weight given to making a playoff (or near-playoff) appearance. But by objective standards, he CLEARLY deserves it. The Nats have wildly outperformed their preseason projections (it's almost hard to believe now, but this team was pegged by EVERYONE to lose 100 games at minimum, and many were saying that they would threaten the '62 Mets' record of futility), and unlike the Marlins of last year, you can't even say it was because they had a core of remarkable young talent.

What do the Nats have? A pitching rotation of castoffs (Redding, Bacsik) and non-prospect minor leaguers (Hanrahan, Lannan, Chico, Bergmann) that has neverthless put up a remarkably respectable ERA since the AS break. A lineup of over-the-hill veterans and table scraps. Plus Zimmerman, Cordero, and Hill, three genuine talents, but not Cabrera-level ones.

As someone who has watched nearly every game the Nats have played, I actually believe a lot of the team's overperformance can be attributed to Acta. He manages the lineup extremely well. He uses his bullpen intelligently, given the resources he has. Numerous testaments to his motivational skill are extant.

I know I come off as a shill here, fair enough, but this team's actual talent level is rather meager (check their run differential). And yet they're securely in 4th place above a much more talented Marlins team, and have played almost every game with grit (prior to the recent 5-game winning streak they lost a bunch of late-inning one-run games).

Acta was set up to fail ignominously this year, and the fact that he's managed to make something semi-respectable out of the Nats ought to be enough to put him over Melvin as the NL MOY.

Posted by: Jeff B. at September 6, 2007 05:39 PM
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