Terry Francona wins the American League Manager of the Year Award by a hair over John Farrell. Both did outstanding jobs, but the Indians looked a bit worse going into the season than the Red Sox, and that probably put Terry over the top. Both of the top two candidates pulled 10 second place votes, but Terry beat John 16-12 in first place votes, with Bob Melvin getting the other two. Six other managers received votes, which strikes me as correct. There were many good stories in the AL this year, and the managers who led those teams deserved the recognition.
Congratulations to Terry Francona on adding a MOY award to his resume.
Christina Kahrl doesn’t have Farrell on her ballot because the Sox were supposed to win, and did? Amazingly embarrassing.
Val » Many times the award goes to a manager whose team beat expectations. In my opinion, the Red Sox winning was not a foregone conclusion given the even distribution of talent in the division. Farrell took the talent and coalesced them into a juggernaut of a team by August.
Farrell and Francona were easily the two best candidates for the award, and probably should have been on every ballot.
My comment was sarcastic, David. No one thought the Red Sox would win, and Christina picked the Rays to win the East and the Jays to win the wildcard! So not even she thought so, but writes otherwise:
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/42166/my-al-manager-of-the-year-ballot-explained
Of course, both should have been on the ballot and I am happy for Francona. Just think Farrell did more.
I’ve got no problem with her ballot. I didn’t watch enough of Oakland to be able to state confidently that Farrell was better than Melvin, and I think highly of both Francona and Maddon. It’s very possible that all three managed better than Farrell this year.
But it’s better not to write an explanation at all than to write one which essentially denigrates Farrell with post facto fiction, i.e., “with the Red Sox committing a franchise-record $175 million or so to payroll, they were supposed to win, and they did.” There were very few predictions that I saw which had the Red Sox making the playoffs, and I don’t remember any that had them winning the division, never mind the pennant and the World Series. Chris actually had them no better than third, picking the Rays to win the division and the Blue Jays to win the Wild Card.
And, though I tend to be someone who largely scoffs at the nebulous “chemistry” claims, it is inarguable that the 2011-2012 Red Sox had a work environment in which many underperformed and there was a media circus surrounding the 2013 team. All of the on-field evidence, and numerous reports, suggest that the Red Sox were extremely well prepared every night, and the manager gets credit for that.