Post Season Award Predictions - Part I

As the regular season ends and the playoffs is set to begin, lets take a look at the top candidates for the major awards.

Major League Manager of the Year:

This award generally goes to the manager of truly great teams, managers of the top contending teams, and managers who were generally perceived to outperform the talent level.  

The Candidates:

George Kird, New York Cobra, 108-54

Wally Calhoun, Florida Penguins, 91-71

Todd Reynolds, Alaska Snowsox, 94-68

Paul Hudson, St. Louis Robins, 91-71

Keith Grace, Hollywood B’s, 103-59

Skip Yoder, Bay Area Bandits, 88-74

Sonic Russell, Portland Decepticons, 88-74

As great and historic as George Kird’s 4-year run with New York has been, some think that instead of being the great tactitioner that he is, he is merely in the right place at the right time.  The real difference maker is the New York payroll and their ability to field a monstrous team.  These people also theorize that Kird’s job (whose contract expires after the season) could be in jeopardy if they don’t win the World Series again. Don’t count me in that group though.  Kird is a very strong contender for this award.

The Penguins came on strong to take the 2nd wild card at the end of the year.  This is another historically strong franchise, but they probably underperformed their ability.  I’ll pass on Calhoun.

Todd Reynolds did a great job in Alaska again this season.  Alaska was the team that outperformed their ability the most this season (at least according to their expected Pythagorean record).  I think there might have been other factors that led to this performance than the manager.  I’ll pass here too.

Paul Hudson had one of the most talented teams this year and they only won the wild card.   Hudson also has had some interesting game management calls this year (and last) related to pinch hitting for his star lefties, Burgos and Parkman.  I think that unless Hudson gets his team to the LCS, his job is in jeopardy.  I’ll pass on Hudson.

Keith Grace led the Hollywood B’s to a stunning record of 103-59.  Although they were not considered a juggernaut at the beginning of the year, their true talent won out over the season.  This is a really good team fueled by great pitching, and helped by some career years from certain hitters.  Grace is a very strong contender for this award.

Skip Yoder led Bay Area to 88 wins, but to some extent, this team really faded when it mattered most.  I think they have too much talent to have fallen short of the playoffs.  This is not the resume for the Manager of the Year.

Portland won the division last year and advanced to the LCS where they contended in each game against New York.  Despite that performance, Portland proceeded to completely overhaul their team this year.  Portland was a contender all year long and even outperformed their Pythagorean record.  However, their true undoing was the poor performance from their bullpen (especially in clutch situations).  It’s not like Portland didn’t spend money on this part of the team either.  It’s hard to tell whether the manager should take some blame for the performance of the bullpen or not.  Either way, this is not Manager of the year material.

My Choice:

I think George Kird doesn’t get nearly as much credit as he deserves for being an all time great manager.  He should be a slam dunk winner of this award.