Posted by Bill Baer on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 6:39 am

One of the current projects of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance is award balloting, done in a style similar to that of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Every “area” will have votes cast by its blogger representatives. From the Philadelphia region, myself and the crew at Fire Eric Bruntlett will be voting on all of the awards. Regions with more representatives will have the votes split up, with some voting for MVP, others for Cy Young, and so on. It’s a great and intriguing project, so make sure to stop by the BBA website for the final tallies.

This is my first round of voting for AL and NL Managers of the Year. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts whether you agree or disagree.

American League

Mike Scioscia, of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, is my nominee for Manager of the Year. His team wasn’t as good as the New York Yankees, but they did win 97 games. That, however, is not the main reason why I think Scioscia deserves the award.

Truth be told, by the end of the season, I was tired of hearing all of the stories about the Angels and how they had to overcome so much after the death of Nick Adenhart. That’s mostly because I’m a callous individual, but now that I am putting some serious thought in, I can’t imagine how tough it must have been to keep that team focused after the death of one of its members — one who was supposed to be a key contributor.

After Adenhart’s death, the Angels lost 9 of their next 14 games, and finished out the month of April with a 9-12 record. From that point forward, the Angels did not finish any month with a losing record. In June and July, the Angels went 36-16. On July 11, the Angels won the second game of what eventually was a three-game series sweep. They had moved back into first place and they would never relinquish that position.

Scioscia’s Angels had plenty of adversity aside from Adenhart’s death. At the end of the regular season, they had used 14 different starting pitchers. Their replacement of Francisco Rodriguez — Brian Fuentes — blew seven saves and posted an ERA close to 4. Vladimir Guerrero had the worst season of his career, posting a 104 OPS+ compared to his previous career low of 117.

That the Halos were able to win 97 games is an impressive feat in and of itself. Considering the turmoil that has surrounded the team all season, it makes the case for Scioscia for AL Manager of the Year a slam dunk decision.

• Second Place: Joe Girardi, New York Yankees

• Third Place: Ron Washington, Texas Rangers

National League

The odyssey of Jim Tracy is familiar by now. The Rockies hit the skids to open the first two months: 18-28 under Clint Hurdle. On May 27, they had been swept by the division rival Los Angeles Dodgers and found themselves in fifth place in the NL West. Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd made the decision to relieve Hurdle of his duties so that Tracy could try his hand at improving the Rockies.

The Rockies started 2-4 under Tracy and the skeptics were heard loud and clear. Then, as the Rockies usually do, they caught fire. From June 4 to 14, they won 11 consecutive games against some good teams: the Cardinals, Brewers, and Mariners. They lost the series opener to the L.A. Angels, and then won six more in a row. That’s right, from June 4 to 22, the Rockies won 17 of 18 games. At the end of the streak, they were in third place and optimistic about their playoff chances heading into July.

Between June 23 and the end of the season, the Rockies rattled off winning streaks of three games twice, four games three times, five games twice, and eight games once.

This was a team that, in the off-season, traded its most potent bat in Matt Holliday, and lost Jeff Francis to injury. O’Dowd had assembled a rag-tag starting rotation that included Jason Marquis and cast-offs Jorge De La Rosa and Jason Hammel. Little did we know that, along with Ubaldo Jimenez and Aaron Cook, that would form one of the most consistent rotations in all of baseball. Compared to the Angels above, the Rockies’ main five starters took all but 7 of the 162 starts (96%).

Like Scioscia above, this seems to be an easy decision to make for NL Manager of the Year. It’s Jim Tracy. He took an underachieving rag-tag team and led them to win the Wild Card and a post-season berth.

• Second Place: Bruce Bochy, San Francisco Giants

• Third Place: Charlie Manuel, Philadelphia Phillies