MLB Awards: Why voting for Manager of the Year should include post-season results

MLB Awards Week will begin with Manager of the Year results on Tuesday night. I want to mention the National League Manager of the Year Award because that’s what I voted for this season. We already know that the World Series champion brave manager Brian Snitker wasn’t even among the three finalists (Gabe Kapler, Craig Counsell and Mike Shildt were fired. form that group). Kapler won. Snitker finished fourth.

On that note, it’s important to point out that any awards given out this week are regular season awards. Not only that, we didn’t even have a chance to make it to the knockout stages because the ballots would be due before the post-season starts.

Here is my ballot, submitted on Sunday, October 3 at 9:48 p.m. ET:

1. Gabe Kapler
2. Craig Counselor
3. Brian Snitker

With Snitker in fourth, it shows that I really appreciate him more than most of the rest of the voting body. Still I don’t like it and wish I had voted him first.

Obviously, my vote at the time was completely justified. Kapler had just led the Giants – a group that almost no one believed would be able to compete – to 107 absurd victories. I will continue to drum up Counsell as an outstanding tactician both in individual games and in the set-up with his pitchers and squad decisions. that. He was excellent.

However, Snitker helped sort things out along with his main office after losing his best player in July and going down 36-18. His club has just received an internal change. He integrated his new players wonderfully. He got his bullock cart ready for the post-season run. He didn’t abuse his younger pitchers like Ian Anderson or Max Fried as they drew closer to career high workloads.

As for the player awards – Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP – I absolutely don’t think we should be voting with post-season included. It was a series of small sample games, and I continue to maintain baseball as a team sport as a series of individual matches. That is to say, the best player is not necessarily on the winning team. There’s only so much that a player can do. As such, I will not be affected by the player’s performance after the season.

However, managers are different. Post-season decision-making is the most important part of the job. Yes, there is an often grueling season, but to navigate that and then put it all together when it matters most is the job of an elite manager.

To reiterate, the Braves have lost Ronald Acuña, Jr. in July and did not exceed 500,000 in the whole year through August. They have won 2/3 of the matches in the last two months to split the points. They won 95 Brewer in four games in the NLDS. They have 106 wins Dodgers in six games at the NLCS and then a 95 . win Astros in six games in the World Series. They never faced rejection.

We saw a Joc Pederson pinch-hit three times run to take control in NLDS. We saw a Jorge Soler pin-hit home to rise to the top in Game 4 of the World Series.

There are quick starting points for starting pitchers and a heavy reliance on a signature bull herd AJ Minter, Tyler Matzek and Will Smith throw like goalkeeper Billy Wagner.

Given their position at the end of July, to see the last Braves win the World Series is absurd. Snitker has pressed so many right buttons both in the long run and in the knockouts that he deserves more than an finish beyond the top three in the Manager of the Year vote.

If I could vote, I would put Snitker number one. I just don’t know how October is going. For all I know, the Brewers would sweep the Braves and then I’ve felt better about my vote. And neither Kapler, Counsell nor Shildt was the reason their team made it to the knockout stages. It makes sense that in a regular season vote they would have topped Snitker.

I’m also pretty sure that Snitker will be delighted to claim the World Series trophy thanks to personal hardware. It seems that this prize should be different from the one for the player. Managers have more power to turn the game around in the knockouts than they did in 162. Their most important work comes in October and I believe the Manager of the Year election should reflect that. that.