SB Nation Manager of the Year: Jim Tracy?

by Charlie on Nov 9, 2009 3:44 PM EST Comment 22 comments

Colorado Rockies new manager Jim Tracy watches the action in the first inning against the San Diego Padres in a baseball game in Denver, Colo., Friday, May 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Will Powers)

5 months ago: Colorado Rockies new manager Jim Tracy watches the action in the first inning against the San Diego Padres in a baseball game in Denver, Colo., Friday, May 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Will Powers)

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Here are SB Nation's Manager of the Year results for the NL:

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Jim Tracy	Colorado Rockies	24	1	2	125
2	Tony LaRussa	St. Louis Cardinals	3	7	10	46
3	Fredi Gonzalez	Florida Marlins	2	6	5	33
4	Joe Torre	Los Angeles Dodgers	-	9	2	29
5	Charlie Manuel	Philadelphia Phillies	-	3	5	14
6	Bruce Bochy	San Francisco Giants	1	1	1	9
7	Bobby Cox	Atlanta Braves	-	1	4	7
8	Bud Black	San Diego Padres	-	1	1	4
9	John Russell	Pittsburgh Pirates	-	1	-	3

There were, it appears, 30 total ballots cast; 27 of those ranked Jim Tracy in the top three. I was one of the three holdouts (and I believe that Vlad, who I put in charge of Bucs Dugout's other ballot, was one of the others). I find Manager of the Year balloting to be a pretty silly exercise, and the choice of Tracy illustrates why. Tracy is not an intelligent man; he exhibits no great tactical expertise; his players in Pittsburgh didn't seem to like him much; he's weirdly obsessed with the 2004 Dodgers; he blames his players for everything; he all but declared war on his boss, GM Paul DePodesta, when he was with Los Angeles. I see no evidence that he's a good manager--except that he took the helm just as the Rockies got hot this year. You can chalk that up to brilliant managing if you want, but brilliant managing seems well beyond a small, stupid man like Jim Tracy. I didn't vote for him this year, and I probably never will. Fredi Gonzalez was at the top of my ballot.

I have no idea who put John Russell second. It wasn't me.

Here are the American League results (for which NL bloggers didn't vote):

Rk	Manager	Team	1st	2nd	3rd	Pts
1	Mike Scioscia	Los Angeles Angels	9	8	3	72
2	Ron Gardenhire	Minnesota Twins	9	5	1	61
3	Don Wakamatsu	Seattle Mariners	6	3	8	47
4	Joe Girardi	New York Yankees	2	4	2	24
5	Ron Washington	Texas Rangers	1	4	4	21
6	Terry Francona	Boston Red Sox	1	1	3	11
7	Jim Leyland	Detroit Tigers	-	2	4	10
8	Joe Maddon	Tampa Bay Rays	-	1	1	4
9	Ozzie Guillen	Chicago White Sox	-	-	1	1
10	Trey Hillman	Kansas City Royals	-	-	1	1

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Rest assured...

…that I wasn’t one of the Tracy voters, either. I didn’t write my votes down anywhere other than the submission form, so I can’t remember for sure, but I think my ballot went Gonzalez – Black – LaRussa, in that order.

Surprised Riggleman didn’t see any votes. I don’t know that he deserved any, mind, but I thought he’d get at least a few thirds for his Tracy-esque turnaround of the Nats.

by Vlad on Nov 9, 2009 4:08 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I think mine was Gonzalez/LaRussa/Cox, but I can’t remember exactly.

by Charlie on Nov 9, 2009 4:20 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Cox would’ve been my #4, if it’d gone that deep. It’s funny that we agreed so closely, given that we didn’t talk about choices beforehand or anything like that.

Be interesting to know who the Russell voter was. As much undeserved crap as he took this year, I’m kind of glad to see him get some support.

by Vlad on Nov 9, 2009 4:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Eh...

I think he earned a lot of the crap he got. He was real frustrating to watch early in the season for me but I will say that my dislike for him decreased as the season progressed. That probably had more to do with the my coming to terms that he was given a crappy team in the beginning of the season and given a crappier one after the deadline. I don’t the best manager in history would have squeezed more than a couple more wins out of this time.

My biggest beefs were starting Monroe over Moss early in the season and the way he handled the pitching staff/bullpen. I will say that I think his laid back demeanor is probably a good thing on a team that is expected to lose as much as they have. Hopefully the players respect it and don’t see his passive style as a weakness.

by Slick1 on Nov 9, 2009 5:25 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

One of the guys from Lookout Landing (Mariners blog) voted for Trey Hillman as sort of a reward for not sticking a fork in his own eye. So it may have been something like that.

by Charlie on Nov 9, 2009 6:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Isn't the AL vote a little harsh on Girardi?

Over a hundred regular season wins and a comfortable World Series victory despite A-Rod’s early season issues, should have seen more daylight between him and Terry Francona.

Scioscia gets the votes and Girardi gets a ring.

by RDV across the sea on Nov 9, 2009 5:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Not for guiding 130-win talent to 103 wins, no. Even with the injuries, a giraffe could have won 100 with that team.

by WTM on Nov 9, 2009 5:11 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Hehe.

Ask a stupid question – get a wonderfully stupid answer. (-:

by RDV across the sea on Nov 9, 2009 5:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

We (at least theoretically) voted on all the awards before the playoffs.

by Charlie on Nov 9, 2009 6:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah...

kind of funny comments. Charlie, were you voting for manager of the year for 2009 or 2007? Holding something against Tracy simply because of what he did as a Pirate is as silly as the award itself. By all accounts, when Bill Bellichek (I know I slaugthered that name) coached the Browns he was far from a fan favorite and you would have heard no one refer to him as a genius. Then he goes to the Patriots and the rest is history. I know this isn’t an apples to apples comparison (because Bellichek cheated!), but Tracy deserves some credit. I hated the guy when he coached the Bucs but he did take over and THEN the Rockies got hot. Not the other way around. I have no idea how much credit he really deserves but you need to give credit where credit is due. I know you did not have the opportunity to watch all of the Rockie’s games under a microscope like we do with the Bucs so can you really say that he hasn’t learned from his time in Pittsburgh? Can you really say how much impact a manager from another team really has outside of early season projections and end of year performance? Given that the W-L record vs expectations is a major reason manager’s win the award, Tracy should rightfully be at the top of the list given the situation the team was in when he took over.

by Slick1 on Nov 9, 2009 5:14 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I can't speak for Charlie...

…but I left him off my 2009 ballot purely on the merit (or lack thereof) of his 2009 performances. I think he left Garrett Atkins in too prominent a role off the bench, I think he kept using Juan Rincon in moderately high-leverage situations far beyond the point of reasonable use, and in particular I think he handled Colorado’s outfield logjam poorly. By September, Seth Smith and Carlos Gonzalez were clearly the team’s best two outfielders, and yet they kept losing starts to Hawpe (who needs to be platooned, and is a menace with the glove) and Spilborghs. It was maddening.

Tracy took over an underperforming team that was loaded with talent, which is nice for him, but doesn’t make him some kind of miracle worker.

by Vlad on Nov 9, 2009 5:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

It’s nothing personal. I just don’t believe people transform from abject morons to brilliant baseball minds in the space of two years. Giving the award to whoever managed the team that played the best is a mockery, in my view. Teams play well for all kinds of reasons that may have nothing to do with who the manager is.

by Charlie on Nov 9, 2009 7:06 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree with you...

but my point is that unless you are a close follower of all of the teams how do you quantify managerial effect? Vlad cites some reasons above and I have no idea how many Rockies games he watched but all you cited were mistakes he made with Pittsburgh. I do agree that I probably would feel pretty hypocritical voting for the guy given how much I hated him in Pittsburgh. Last, I didn’t suggest that Tracy should get the award because his team was playing the best. I felt that when he took over, no one would have projected them making the playoffs but they did. You could say that at the point he took over the Rockies overachieved from that point in the season on. Just curious, why does Gonzales get your vote?

by Slick1 on Nov 10, 2009 9:53 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Again, not to speak for Charlie...

…but the Marlins didn’t have any business hanging around the Wild Card race for as long as they did, and I think a lot of that was a function of Gonzalez’s work. He held together a rotation that was never more than five or ten minutes away from total collapse, and he made several brave moves that were key to the team’s success: Converting Coghlan into an OF on the fly and making him into a starter, supporting and sticking with Uggla through his early struggles, correctly assessing that Nunez was a better closer than Lindstrom and allowing him to keep the job after Lindstrom was healthy again, etc.

Plus, he kept Paulino motivated all year, which is pretty remarkable in and of itself..

by Vlad on Nov 10, 2009 10:14 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, those are pretty much my reasons. I saw a Marlins/Padres game in San Diego this summer and couldn’t believe how depressing it was, how many C-prospects were playing for both teams. That the Marlins were able to win 87 games with that raggedy pitching staff and messy lineup… well, it’s something.

Honestly, I think that voting for the Manager of the Year is kind of a silly exercise. I didn’t want to do it. The fact is that nobody can pay enough attention to all 16 teams to vote in an informed way. It’s possible that Gonzalez is a terrible manager. It’s amazing that he let Emilio Bonifacio get as many at bats at third as he did. The thing is, though, that stuff like seeing something in Chris Coghlan where I would have seen very little indicates that I should give Gonzalez the benefit of the doubt. I know Tracy is a terrible manager.

by Charlie on Nov 10, 2009 3:03 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Bonifacio was a black mark...

…but when I thought about it, I really couldn’t come up with a better alternative on their roster, so I couldn’t in fairness clip Fredi all that much for it. They needed Cantu at 1B, Wes Helms hasn’t been any good since 2006, and Amezaga is just a pedestrian utility player. When those are your choices, you may as well play the young guy on the off-chance that he learns something.

The only other real options I see would’ve involved using Gload at 1B and Cantu at 3B (which costs you a fair # of glove runs and doesn’t offer much offensive upside), or using Coghlan at 2B, Uggla at 3B, and then someone like Gload or De Aza or Maybin or maybe Mike Ryan in LF.

by Vlad on Nov 10, 2009 5:23 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

What a curious roster. It always amazes me that they win as many games as they do.

by Charlie on Nov 10, 2009 6:23 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

WAIT

Is this the same Jim Tracy who changed the way Chris Duffy ran, and made him into a slap-hitter… after batting .350 in his rookie year! The same guy who tweaked multiple pitcher’s mechanics, making most of the pitchers even worse than before?

Let’s see what he does with Tulowitzki and Fowler this spring training, shall we?

by H2O on Nov 9, 2009 6:20 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I agree with the above comments. The Rockies are loaded with talent, and much of it started this past season with a 6 week slump. Does that make Jim Tracy one of the top managers in the league? No way.

I’d probably rank Russell ahead of Tracy given what each of them had to work with. Tracy played too much Monroe because of his 2 HR GAME~! in the 1st or 2nd week, and too much Bixler later on. But on the other hand, he did give Nyjer and Jones the opportunity where maybe others wouldn’t have. I don’t know how much the playing time is dictated by Russell’s superiors, but he still fills out the line-up cards.

by Adam Reynolds on Nov 9, 2009 10:00 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

^I meant “Russell played too much Monroe”.

Also, I can barely fault him at all for bullpen management in general, because by the end of the year basically the only solid performer he had was Hanrahan.

by Adam Reynolds on Nov 9, 2009 10:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs