Now that the World Series is over and the Chicago Cubs have partied like it’s 1908, Pirates Breakdown turns its attention to the NL Manager of the Year award.
This year, two managers stood out from the rest – Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs and Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This is not to diminish the accomplishments of talented managers like Terry Collins of the New York Mets, Dusty Baker of the Washington Nationals and Mike Matheny of the St. Louis Cardinals. Although all went above and beyond the call of duty this year, they won’t get a lot of Manager of the Year votes. The Mets and Nationals both overcame serious injury issues to make the post season, but they combined to go 2-4 in the playoffs. Even Bruce Bochy, who was looking like the odds-on favorite at the All-Star break, fell out of contention after his team cratered in the second half of the season.
The case for Joe Maddon
After the Cub’s historic season, it’s hard to ignore Joe Maddon’s case for the award. He led the Cubs to 103 wins, the most in the National League since 2004. Although he didn’t have to navigate many injury issues throughout the year, he expertly meshed a group of young stars together into a team. He famously introduced amusing themes for travel days, keeping the tension down and the mood light. He is highly regarded by his players and opposing managers alike. On top of all that, Maddon won the award last year.
[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]After the Cub’s historic season, it’s hard to ignore Joe Maddon’s case for the award.[/perfectpullquote]Maddon deserves a lot of credit for rolling with the few serious punches he was dealt. Right off the bat, Kyle Schwarber was out for the season, forcing Maddon to juggle his lineup early. However, besides Dexter Fowler missing a brief stretch, this was the only major extended injury with which he had to deal. It probably wasn’t too difficult to pencil in a healthy Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist in the number 2, 3 and 4 spots every day. That is about as close to a no-brainer as it gets.
Similarly, Maddon had an embarrassment of riches when it came to starting pitching. Not only did he have Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta – he had them for the entire year as all three pitchers did not miss a start. Although Jason Hammel and John Lackey spent time on the DL, both were available for the majority of the year. This led the Cubs to post a team ERA of 3.15, a full 36 points better than the next best club, the Washington Nationals.
That’s not to say Maddon did not face adversity. The radical manager had to endure tough stretches during the year when his offense seemed to dry up. After a blistering 25-6 start, the Cubs went through several losing streaks causing pundits to speculate that they may be mortal after all. The longest of these streaks was five games in early July where the Pirates managed to beat them twice in a row. Maddon never wavered in his confidence during these stretches, often stating that even the best teams lose lots of games. His press conferences were a must-watch affair as fans and detractors alike waited to hear the latest “Maddon-ism”. Although his “Try not to suck” quote is the most well known, his statement “you have to be a little bit crazy to be successful” sums up Maddon’s approach to just about every challenge.
The case for Dave Roberts
In contrast, Dave Roberts, the Dodger’s first-year skipper was thrust into his first manager job atop a club with the highest payroll and lofty expectations. Almost immediately, Roberts had to deal with player injuries en masse. During Spring training, no less than ten players from the projected 40 man roster were lost to the DL. The most prominent of these was Andre Ethier who was lost for the season with a broken leg. Josh Reddick, Joc Pederson, Yasmani Grandal, Howie Kendrick and Yasiel Puig all missed significant time due to injuries. Roberts supplanted these players with up-and-comers like Andrew Toles and Corey Seager. Roberts deserves some of the credit for developing these young players into regular contributors, and in the case of Seager, into the likely NL Rookie of the Year.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Almost immediately, Roberts had to deal with player injuries en masse. [/perfectpullquote]Those injuries turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. Roberts also had to deal with a slew of injuries in their starting rotation. As any Pittsburgh Pirates fan will tell you, when your top two starters are injured, things tend to go downhill in a hurry. Scott Kazmir, Rich Hill and Clayton Kershaw all missed a significant number of starts. Instead of throwing in the towel, Roberts turned to youngsters Ross Stripling and Julio Urias and kept the team in the win column often enough to stay ahead of the Giants in the NL West.
Roberts also had to navigate a tricky situation when Puig went into an extended slump and copped a poor attitude. Roberts made the gutsy call to send the young star down to the minors. In the end, Roberts held the team together with what seemed like bailing wire at times, but they kept winning. Their final record was 91-71, good enough to win the division by 4 games.
Roberts gets the nod
Even though Joe Maddon guided his team to a World Series title, Dave Roberts had to overcome more adversity and did more to affect the success of his club on a day-to-day basis. His depleted roster still somehow won the NL West division and took out the Washington Nationals in the NLDS. While Maddon had the better team, Roberts was the better manager. Dave Roberts deserves to be named National League Manager of the Year.
If Roberts wins, it will be the second year in a row that a first time manager has won a Manager of the Year award. Last year, Jeff Bannister, manager of the Texas Rangers and formerly the Pirate’s bench coach under Clint Hurdle, won the award in the American League. Roberts would be the third Dodgers skipper to win the award, joining Leo Durocher and three-time winner Walt Alston.
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