The second day of the Major League Baseball award week featured the Atlanta Braves for a second straight day, as manager Brian Snitker was named the National League Manager of the Year on Tuesday night. Snitker, in his second full season with the team, led the Braves to their first winning season, postseason berth, and division title in five seasons. He is the first Braves manager to win the award since Bobby Cox did it in 2005.
The Braves were 90-72 this season after getting predicted to finish in the middle of the NL East at best before the season. Snitker has been with the Braves organization for 42 years, and quickened the rebuilding process after taking over midway through the 2016 season. His run this season did end in the NLDS, when his team fell to the eventual National League Champions, Los Angeles Dodgers.
Snitker beat out Craig Counsell from the Milwaukee Brewers and Bud Black from the Colorado Rockies, earning 17 first-place votes, while Counsell got 11 and Black just one. The Braves beat out another young team in the Philadelphia Phillies and the struggling Washington Nationals for the division crown, their first since 2013. They have been a mainstay at the bottom of the division since then, that was until a hot start to this season that lasted all summer long.
The American League award went to a manager that is use to bringing teams that have no business in the Postseason there and more, and that's Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics. Melvin led the team with the lowest payroll in baseball to another Postseason berth with a 97-65 record, before they fell to the New York Yankees in the American League Wild Card Game, which was in the Bronx. It was the team's first playoff berth in four seasons, leading to their 57-year-old manager getting 18 first-place votes and beating out Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox and Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Melvin becomes the eighth manager to win the award three times or more, and is just one shy of the record held by Cox and Tony La Russa. The A's manager won the award with Oakland in 2012 and with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007. He won it this year by helping the A's increase their win total by 22 games from a season ago, as their 97 victories was the most in franchise history since 2002.
The Athletics had this success after a slow start to the season, going 63-29 after June 16th, which was the fourth-best record in baseball during that time span. They also went 31-14 in one-run games and earned 10 walk-off victories to add to the spark of their season. These stats all helped the A's rally from an 11-game deficit against the Seattle Mariners in the AL Wild Card race to take home the second Wild Card spot. Hopefully Melvin will not follow suit from recent AL Manager of the Year winners, as three of the past four were fired this season.
The Braves were 90-72 this season after getting predicted to finish in the middle of the NL East at best before the season. Snitker has been with the Braves organization for 42 years, and quickened the rebuilding process after taking over midway through the 2016 season. His run this season did end in the NLDS, when his team fell to the eventual National League Champions, Los Angeles Dodgers.
Snitker beat out Craig Counsell from the Milwaukee Brewers and Bud Black from the Colorado Rockies, earning 17 first-place votes, while Counsell got 11 and Black just one. The Braves beat out another young team in the Philadelphia Phillies and the struggling Washington Nationals for the division crown, their first since 2013. They have been a mainstay at the bottom of the division since then, that was until a hot start to this season that lasted all summer long.
The American League award went to a manager that is use to bringing teams that have no business in the Postseason there and more, and that's Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics. Melvin led the team with the lowest payroll in baseball to another Postseason berth with a 97-65 record, before they fell to the New York Yankees in the American League Wild Card Game, which was in the Bronx. It was the team's first playoff berth in four seasons, leading to their 57-year-old manager getting 18 first-place votes and beating out Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox and Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Melvin becomes the eighth manager to win the award three times or more, and is just one shy of the record held by Cox and Tony La Russa. The A's manager won the award with Oakland in 2012 and with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007. He won it this year by helping the A's increase their win total by 22 games from a season ago, as their 97 victories was the most in franchise history since 2002.
The Athletics had this success after a slow start to the season, going 63-29 after June 16th, which was the fourth-best record in baseball during that time span. They also went 31-14 in one-run games and earned 10 walk-off victories to add to the spark of their season. These stats all helped the A's rally from an 11-game deficit against the Seattle Mariners in the AL Wild Card race to take home the second Wild Card spot. Hopefully Melvin will not follow suit from recent AL Manager of the Year winners, as three of the past four were fired this season.
