TYIB Awards - Manager - Acta NOT on list

[CALSGR8]

Does anyone else besides me think its HORRIBLE that Manny Acta isn't nominated under Managers for this award. 

For gosh sakes, he took a team that everyone thought would lose over 120 games and made them spoilers for the Mets and Phillies in their climb to the top of the NL EAST.

Can I send a nasty email to to State FARM regarding this hideous error.  What's the email address?

[kimnat]

You have GOT to be KIDDING!!!!!  Everyone's been talking about him being in the running for that!!!!!  Ok, I'm officially ticked!!!!

[kimnat]

My Letter to MLB.com.  (State Farm only is sponsoring.  They're not the decision makers!  Yell at MLB for once again treating us like the ugly step children again!!)

I cannot believe that Manny Acta has been denied a nomination as Manager of the Year.  Nearly all the sports pundits have been crediting him for what he has done w/ the Nationals this year.  And you all deny him this opportunity????  We finished better than about half a dozen other clubs and out of last place for the first time in about 5 years!  How do you explain this decision to snub him!  You owe the Nationals' organization, the Nationals' fans and Manny Acta an explanation for this gross oversight!!

Signed,
One Ticked Off Fan!

(They have my real information too.  I just wanted them to know how mad I am at them!)

[kimnat]

So far not a single National has been nominated for anything.  I'm not a happy camper!

[natsfan1a]

calsgr8, can you provide a link to the awards announcement? I couldn't find it on the MLB site. Thanks.

[kimnat]

go to mlb.com and it's about halfway down the page in the middle, third column.

[natsfan1a]

Thanks, kimnat. After I posted the question, I went back to the MLB site and saw it. Not sure how I missed it the first time!

[natsfan1a]

I see that at least one article about the nominees was written by a fantasy reporter. Maybe that explains it.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071008&content_id=2256855&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

But we know that Manny rocks!! 

[CALSGR8]

I put this post on the MLB message board too!   

[2k6nats]

Uggh...whatever.  These awards don't mean jack anyway...I just like the compilation of top plays and bloopers.

[2k6nats]

Well, Ronnie Belliard's flip better be on there for top play of the year.

[kimnat]

'it's not.

[natsfan1a]

Top play isn't up yet. It's still to come if you look at the TYIB schedule. Single-game performance is up, but that's different than top play.

Well, Ronnie Belliard's flip better be on there for top play of the year.

[kimnat]

Oh yeah, I got it confused w/ single game performance.  Thanks 1a!

[natsfan1a]

Welcome!

[MrMadison]

unbelievable. TYIB can suck it.

[Kenz aFan]

Just because there was a ten mile long list of prognosticating journalists, who before the season started that declared that the Nats would be "historically bad" and just because the Nats surprised with 73 wins, and didn't finish in last place, the Washington Nationals, except for TWO WINS, did nothing better than they did the year before. They were still at or near dead last in offense, and not even the most die hard Nats fan can honestly say that Manny Acta deserves to be manager of the year, or even somewhere in the top group.

The National League managers (except Lou) that were nominated, all helped improve or did an outstanding job with their respective teams. With all due respect to Manny, he was given a last place team, and only very slightly improved the team over what we had last year. Manny did a good job, not a great job, and I'm not gonna go around kissing the ground he walks on, until he shows me something with more umph.

[KnorrForYourMoney]

You're making the error of comparing this year's team to last year's.  By and large, it was agreed upon that this year's team is far less talented.  The '07 Nats did not have Nick Johnson and Alfonso Soriano.

[Kenz aFan]

Last year's team was less talented?  You mean that same team that had three pitchers who won more games than any on this year's staff. The only good thing about the 2007 Nats pitching staff was its bullpen. Their offense barely improved over last year's team and all I can say is, thank God for Young and Belliard, because without them the Nats would have been a cinch to get the first pick in next June's draft.

Except not becoming the historically bad team they were predicted to be, the Nats were still lousy. Maybe less lousy than they were last year, but still lousy, and for that you do not get nominated for manager of the year honors.

[natsfan1a]

I understood AE's point to be that this year's team, not last year's, was agreed to be less talented.

[tomterp]

Except not becoming the historically bad team they were predicted to be, the Nats were still lousy. Maybe less lousy than they were last year, but still lousy, and for that you do not get nominated for manager of the year honors.

MOY should go to the manager who helped his team to perform better than the expectations, moreso than any other manager.  A manager who takes a 90 win team and turns in a 90 win performance doesn't warrant MOY if his team simply performed to expectations. 

I have been preparing a ranking of manager performance vs. expectations, this argument has rekindled my desire to finish my little project.  Be back later.

[natsfan1a]

Will look forward to seeing it.

I have been preparing a ranking of manager performance vs. expectations, this argument has rekindled my desire to finish my little project.  Be back later.

[tomterp]

Okay, here is one way to look at manager performance.  The 30 teams are ranked in descending order of how they finished vs. the pre-season Baseball Prospectus projection.  Obviously, nobody, not even BP, can predict the impact of injuries on teams, though they do include the likelihood of injuries to players in their forecast.

The BP forecast is based on a simulation model that plays out the season, using the expected VORP of players on the roster or expected to be available to teams.  You will note that their forecast for the Nationals was not so nearly dire as almost every other forecast out there (except tomterp's, of course), so by comparison the team did not exceed expectations as much as the typical prognostication would indicate.

Nonetheless, this analysis would have Manny 2nd in the NL, behind only Clint Hurdle of the Rockies - and I find this to be a very reasonable ranking.



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[spidernat]

MOY should go to the manager who helped his team to perform better than the expectations, moreso than any other manager.

Whose expectations? According to posters here, the prognosticators don't know what they were talking about anyway so why is Acta being credited for exceeding expectations from people that don't know what they were talking about anyway?

[tomterp]

Whose expectations? According to posters here, the prognosticators don't know what they were talking about anyway so why is Acta being credited for exceeding expectations from people that don't know what they were talking about anyway?

Well of course you are correct, and that's why MOY is such a subjective thing.  It's impossible to know how a team is supposed to perform with an average manager vs. actually perform with an actual manager.  Each of us sort of weighs that equation in our own minds to come up with an answer.

I predicted the Nats would win 75 games - but they only won 73.  Am I disappointed?  Should I blame Manny for underachieving?  Hardly.  We had a number of positions that underperformed in 2007, a few that outperformed, but not enough to get to my guess.  Should Manny be blamed for failing to inspire Lopez, for failing to get Nook with the program?  Be credited with Dmitri's focus, and FLores' development?  None of us can really judge that too well, can we.

But in the end we sort of come up with a consensus expectation in our minds, and it seems to most of us that Manny was a key factor in helping the team exceed those expectations.