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Front Page: Rocco Baldelli Wins Manager of the Year

Seth Stohs

By Seth Stohs
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Seth Stohs GOAT

Seth Stohs

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Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was named the 2019 American League Manager of the Year.

 

He received 13 of 30 first-place votes, and 13 of 30 second-place votes. He appeared on 28 of the 30 ballots for the award.A 23-win increase from 2018 to 2019 helped the Twins manager edge out Yankees Aaron Boone for the AL Manager of the Year.

Baldelli and Boone each received 13 first-place votes, but Baldelli received 13 second-place votes to gain the advantage. Kevin Cash, whom Baldelli coached for as recently as the 2018 season, finished third place.

 

 

Baldelli is the fourth Twins manager to win this award. The others are Tom Kelly (1991), Ron Gardenhire (2010) and Paul Molitor (2017).

  • Baldelli became the winningest first-year manager in Twins/Senators franchise history.
  • He was also the seventh first-year manager in baseball history to reach 100-plus wins.
  • The Twins’ 101 wins marked the second-most in Minnesota history, behind only the 1965 American League Champions, who went 102-60.
  • Baldelli joined Billy Martin (1969), Bill Rigney (1970) and Ron Gardenhire (2002) as the fourth Minnesota skipper to lead the team to the postseason in his first season at the helm.
Minnesota's writers who voted for this award were Patrick Reusse and Dave Campbell. Both gave Baldelli their first-place vote.

 

 

According to the Star-Tribune's Phil Miller, Baldelli, 38, becomes the youngest person to win the Manager of the Year award.

 

More response to the Baldelli award:

 

 

 

Mike Schilt of the St. Louis Cardinals was named the 2019 National League Manager of the Year, edging out Brewers manager Craig Counsell.

 

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Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

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I won't argue with Rocco getting the nod but it's always a disappointment to see the managers of teams like the A's and Rays get so little love for what they've done while spending so little.

 

While ownership and the front office dictate spending and roster spaces respectively, the manager is the guy on the field who has to make it work and Cash and Melvin did a phenomenal job with not a lot of resources.

 

While it would have irritated the **** out of me to see Boone get the award, I would have tipped my cap to Cash or Melvin had they won.

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Twodogs First Round Pick

Twodogs

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I won't argue with Rocco getting the nod but it's always a disappointment to see the managers of teams like the A's and Rays get so little love for what they've done while spending so little.

 

While ownership and the front office dictate spending and roster spaces respectively, the manager is the guy on the field who has to make it work and Cash and Melvin did a phenomenal job with not a lot of resources.

 

While it would have irritated the **** out of me to see Boone get the award, I would have tipped my cap to Cash or Melvin had they won.

It may have irritated me also had Boone won the award just because I absolutely hate the Yankees so much. But on the flip side, he did a magnificent job holding that team together with all those injuries all season, not to mention they didn't even make a big deadline splash like they usually do. Boone to me actually did a great job, whereas many of the Yankee managers of the past didn't impress me that much just because they had everything, but I really thought Boone did a great job holding that ship together with all those injuries all year.

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Number3 Draft Eligible

Number3

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Hate to throw water on this but ....

Ron Gardenhire MOY 2010

2011 63-99

 

Paul Molitor MOY 2017

2018 78-84 fired

 

Evidently Twins MOYs develop amnesia during the off season.

 

Congratulations on the award but I don't think Baldelli managed the Twins into 307 home runs. 

I think Rawlings in Costa Rica had more to do with it.

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Otto von Ballpark All-Star

Otto von Ballpark

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A rookie manager who walked into a clubhouse that didn't know him, beset by injuries to players, a patch-work pitching staff yet 101 wins.

 

Yeah, he done good.

I don't know if the Twins were really "beset by injuries", at least not relative to other clubs -- and not before many of those 101 wins had already been tallied. And the pitching staff wasn't that patchwork -- after all, we got 146 starts out of our original starting 5 (and most of the remaining 16 starts were again late in the season). By comparison, Cleveland only got 97 starts from their original starting 5 in 2019.

 

He did seem to do well with the pen, which is a big consideration for a modern manager, although some of the pen's "patchwork" nature was by design (i.e. Littell on the Rochester shuttle) and something that most modern managers deal with. But to his credit, he definitely got good, and sometimes unexpected, performance levels out of the group.

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Otto von Ballpark All-Star

Otto von Ballpark

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How on god's green earth did Francona make it on the ballot? I like Tito, but his season didn't exactly scream "Manager of the Year"

Well, Francona finished a clear 6th in this balloting, and his team finished 6th in the AL. Seems appropriate? And Cleveland probably faced greater injury/patchwork challenges than the Twins.

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Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

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It may have irritated me also had Boone won the award just because I absolutely hate the Yankees so much. But on the flip side, he did a magnificent job holding that team together with all those injuries all season, not to mention they didn't even make a big deadline splash like they usually do. Boone to me actually did a great job, whereas many of the Yankee managers of the past didn't impress me that much just because they had everything, but I really thought Boone did a great job holding that ship together with all those injuries all year.

Boone did a fine job but it's a hell of a lot easier to "patch together" a season when your front office goes out and picks up a player like Encarnacion because of said injuries.

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Otto von Ballpark All-Star

Otto von Ballpark

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Boone did a fine job but it's a hell of a lot easier to "patch together" a season when your front office goes out and picks up a player like Encarnacion because of said injuries.

Did they pick up anyone of note besides Encarnacion? And Encarnacion isn't versatile at all, so it's going to take some skill to deploy him properly.

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Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

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Did they pick up anyone of note besides Encarnacion? And Encarnacion isn't versatile at all, so it's going to take some skill to deploy him properly.

My point is that an excess of riches allows the Yankees to have the best of all worlds. A team like the Rays or A's would have been unrecoverable with that number of injuries in play.

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VivaBomboRivera! Draft Eligible

VivaBomboRivera!

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A (NY!) friend answered my expression of ambivalence, "He got to playoffs w/team not rated to contend. Nobody in April expected Twins to play that well all season."

The counter is that October is part of that season, and when we got to the Division series we saw that Baldelli and his on-field brain trust (as well as the FO) was outclassed. Maybe time and a better 2020 performance will soften my opinion...

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Riverbrian Cooperstown

Riverbrian

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My point is that an excess of riches allows the Yankees to have the best of all worlds. A team like the Rays or A's would have been unrecoverable with that number of injuries in play.

 

OPS+

Ford 137

Urshela 133

Tauchman 128

Maybin 127

 

Sometimes injuries make you better. 

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