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The Dodgers were well-represented in Sporting News’ first day of awards season.
While MLB’s awards likely won’t be announced until after the World Series, different media outlets have begun their process already. Sporting News announced their Managers of the Year and Rookies of the Year, and to little surprise, the Dodgers won both of the NL Awards.
Manager of the Year
Sporting News announced their Managers of the Year winners, based on a vote of 29 major league managers. Which really makes me wonder: Who didn’t vote? American League managers vote for the AL MOY, National League managers vote for the NL MOY. 15 AL votes were recorded and only 14 NL votes, so it had to be an NL manager. My completely wild guess would be that Don Mattingly didn’t vote, but I have no reason to think that besides that being the first name that came to my head.
Anyways, of the 14 NL managers that voted, seven voted for Dodgers’ skipper Dave Roberts. Four NL managers received votes: Roberts (7), Dusty Baker (3), Joe Maddon (3) and Terry Collins (1).
Many believe the award should come down to Roberts and Maddon, managers of two teams that could not have had different seasons. The Dodgers had all the talent, and then all the talent got hurt. The Cubs also had all the talent, and never really dealt with crushing injuries (Kyle Schwarber is the exception).
Maddon is an exceptional manager that did a great job managing a stacked team with a number of star players, but things went well for the Cubs this season. Four of their five starters started 30 or more games this season (John Lackey only started 29, the slacker). Kenta Maeda was the only Dodger to start more than 30 games this season.
The Cubs used 11 different starters this season, the Dodgers used 15. However, the top five Cub starters made 152 starts (meaning only 10 games were started by not-their-real-rotation). The top five Dodger starters made 108 starts (meaning 54 games were started by everyone else). Those “top five” also included three rookies (Maeda, Julio Urias, Ross Stripling).
I think that was the difference for other managers. Roberts, in his first year, managed his team through more DL stints than any other team in baseball history and still won the division. The Cubs led baseball in wins, but never really had the same kind of adversity.
On the AL side, Roberts’ former manager Terry Francona took eight of 15 votes. Joe Girardi received four while Jeff Banister, John Gibbons and Scott Servais each received one.
Rookie of the Year
In a less-surprising result, Corey Seager ran away with Sporting News’ NL Rookie of the Year. 176 NL players voted on the award, and Seager received 143 votes.
Looking at Seager’s numbers this year is still a trip. I fully expected him to be a .300 hitter/25 home run guy with good defense at shortstop. In his prime. The fact that he did that in his age-22 season and his first full season in the majors is just ridiculous.
Corey is a virtual lock for the MLB’s Rookie of the Year. He’ll likely get some MVP votes as well. He never really had an extended slump during the regular season, but his struggles are a big reason the Dodgers aren’t currently preparing to play in the World Series.
Seager is well on his way to being one of the best players in baseball, if he’s not there already. He had a head start as a September call-up in 2015, but he was easily the Dodgers’ best offensive player this year and one of the best in baseball. There’s a lot of confusion about the good/bad Ned Colletti did, but keeping Seager and Urias was by far the best move he made (shoutout Logan White).
Washington’s Trea Turner received the second-most votes (15), and who knows how the race would have looked if he had been called up before June. Another Dodger received the third-most votes (Maeda, 6). Trevor Story and Seung-hwan Oh received five and three votes, respectively. Two votes went to other rookies.
On the AL side, Michael Fulmer took 61 of the 164 votes. It was a much tighter race, with Tyler Naquin of the Indians receiving 35 votes and Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez receiving 27.
Future Sporting News Schedule
Tomorrow, Sporting News will release their comeback players of the year. They’ll name an All-Star team for each league on Wednesday, and Thursday will be the Player of the Year announcement.
Last year, MLB announced their awards in early-mid November. Roberts and Seager will likely be frontrunners in the MLB categories as well.