NL Manager of the Year

As a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, one of my duties is to vote on a plethora of awards as the season comes to a close.

We start with the Manager of the Year in the National League.  Still to come:  NL Rookie of the Year, NL Cy Young, NL MVP.

NL Manager of the Year

3)  Charlie Manuel, Philadelphia

2)  Tony La Russa, St. Louis

1)  Jim Tracy, Colorado

Aside from having the World Series Champion bulls-eye on his squad’s back throughout the season, Charlie Manuel battled a ninth-inning catastrophe between Brad Lidge and Ryan Madson and still managed to make the postseason.  Tony La Russa took an offensively-challenged team and put them in a position to acquire Matt Holliday at the trade deadline and propel them to an easy NL Central pennant.

Jim Tracy, however, inherited a 18-28 team and spun a losing season into gold.  The Rockies finished 92-70 and won the NL Wild Card, bringing Rocktober once again to the forefront of the baseball scene.  Jim Tracy not only had his players buy into his system, but he also helped them buy into themselves as a ballclub.  He brought a continuity to the lineup, stuck with his players, and folks like Ubaldo Jimenez and Carlos Gonzalez began to live up to their enormous potential.

I am one who believes that the manager is highly overrated on most teams.  They are figureheads that are largely utilized as scapegoats when a team begins to decline in production, but Jim Tracy transformed the culture in a clubhouse in Colorado.  Hats off to Mr. Tracy this season.