2014 Managers of the Year

The 2014 Managers of the Year Awards were handed out today. Who won the trophies? Read on and find out.

- 2014 American League Manager of the Year

Baltimore Orioles skipper Buck Showalter wins the 2014 AL Manager of the Year award for 3rd time while leading the Baltimore Orioles to a 96-66 record. This is Showalter's 3rd Manager of the Year Award with his 3rd different franchise. His previous two awards came with the New York Yankees in 1994 and the Texas Rangers in 2004. Since the award was first given out in 1983, Showalter is the sixth manager with three or more Manager of the Year awards. Bobby Cox, and Tony LaRussa have four awards while Dusty Baker, Jim Leyland, and Lou Piniella have three apiece.

Showalter received 25 first-place votes. Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia and Kansas City Royals skipper Ned Yost finished second and third, respectively. The voting was conducted by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Showalter is the first Orioles manager to win the award since Davey Johnson in 1997.

- 2014 National League Manager of the Year

Washington Nationals first year manager Matt Williams wins NL Manager of the Year award. Like his contemporary up the Beltway in Baltimore, Williams led the Nationals to a National League best 96-66 record and NL East title. In doing so, Williams was the fourth manager to win the award in his first year joining Hal Lanier of the Houston Astros in 1986, Dusty Baker of the San Francisco Giants in 1993 and Joe Girardi of the Florida Marlins in 2006.

Williams received 18 of 30 first-place votes. Last year's National League Manager of the Year Clint Hurdle of the Pittsburgh Pirates came in second with eight first-place votes while Bruce Bochy on the World Champion San Francisco Giants came in third, earning three first-place votes. The voting was conducted by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Williams is the second Nationals' manager to win the award after Davey Johnson who won the award in 2012. Williams is the fourth Manager of the Year when taking into account the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals history. Buck Rogers in 1987 and Felipe Alou in 1994 won the awards while the team was in Montreal.

The future looks bright for both teams that play in the Beltway Metropolitan area of Baltimore/Washington DC. Congrats to both managers on their awards.

Tomorrow the Cy Young Awards will be announced at 6 p.m.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

Connie Mack (Manager of the Year) and Willie Mays (Rookie of the Year) Predictions

With the MLB playoffs in full swing, I've decided to come back to the present. As you've undoubtedly noted, my blog has taken quite the historical path as of late. But since I think I am going to devote the in-season time to historical events that happened in Baseball on a daily basis, during the postseason and offseason, I think I am going to reside in the present and give Doc Brown and the Delorean a break ;)

For today I wanted to shed some light on the year end award voting for the 2014 MLB season. One of the requirements for membership in the Baseball Bloggers Alliance is for members to vote in the form of a blogpost and all the votes are collected and tabulated by the Alliance. Today's post is devoted to the Connie Mack (Manager of the Year) and Willie Mays (Rookie of the Year) awards. Now I will only place my choices here for today and when the awards are announced after the World Series will I give thoughts into the award winners.

Connie Mack Award (Manager of the Year)
American League

1. Ned Yost (Kansas City Royals) 
2. Lloyd McClendon (Seattle Mariners)
3. Mike Scioscia (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim)

National League

1. Matt Williams (Washington Nationals)
2. Clint Hurdle (Pittsburgh Pirates)
3. Don Mattingly (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Willie Mays Award (Rookie of the Year)
American League

1. Jose Abreu (Chicago White Sox)
2. Yordano Ventura (Kansas City Royals)
3. Dellin Betances (New York Yankees)

National League

1. Jason deGrom (New York Mets)
2. Joe Panik (San Francisco Giants)
3. Billy Hamilton (Cincinnati Reds)

Will my predictions match the actual results of the votes for the Manager and Rookie of the Year Awards? We'll have to wait for the official announcements to see.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,

Baseball Sisco

#baseballsisco

#baseballsiscokidstyle

Francona and Hurdle Win Their First Manager of the Year Awards

The Manager of the Year awards for the American and National leagues were announced yesterday with Terry Francona of the Cleveland Indians and Clint Hurdle of the Pittsburgh Pirates winning the awards. Francona had 16 of 30 first place votes for 112 points in a tightly packed ballot. Hurdle had 25 of 20 first place votes for 140 points.

Francona in his first season at the helm of the Cleveland Indians led the team to a 92-70 record and a Wild Card berth. The Indians would eventually end up losing to the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card playoff game. Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell received 12 first place votes for a total of 96 points in leading the Boston Red Sox to a World Series title after finishing in last place of the American League East last season. Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics came in third with 36 points.

Hurdle led the Pirates to a 94-68 record in the National League Central which was not only good enough for a National League Wild Card berth but also the 20-year losing season streak in Pittsburgh was broken. The Pirates defeated their division rival Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card playoff game and lost in five games to the eventual National League champion St. Louis Cardinals.

What I find interesting about the vote is that Hurdle didn't win the award unanimously. Don Mattingly of the Los Angeles Dodgers came in second with 68 points (2-first place votes) and Fredi Gonzalez of the Atlanta Braves third with 43 votes (3-first place votes). I know people have different points of view, but leading a team to an impressive record, a second round playoff spot AND breaking a 20-year losing record streak translates to an unanimous Manager of the Year showing. But that's just me.

I'm not disappointed in the least with the winners of the Manager of the Year awards. If Farrell or Melvin would have won, I still wouldn't be disappointed. The three top managers in the American League Manager of the Year award ballot did an amazing job with leading their respective teams to winning records during the 2013 season.

Tomorrow is when the Cy Young Awards are announced. The finalists for the American League Cy Young are Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers, Hisashi Iwakuma of the Seattle Mariners and Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers. In the National League, Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins, Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals are the NL Cy Young finalists. It should be interesting to see who wins.

Sisco Kid

For Further Reading:
- Click Here to access the breakdown of the American League Manager of the Year vote from the BBWAA website
- Click Here to access the breakdown of the National League Manager of the Year vote from the BBWAA website