Posted by Brian Joseph on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 1:25 am

This week, Baseball Daily Digest announces the award winners for the 2009 regular season. Last week, 15 members of the BDD writing crew participated in the voting and placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd place votes for Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP.

First up is the American League Manager of the Year which most of our writers agreed was Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels who managed his club to their third consecutive American League West division crown and fifth in six years. Despite their past success, injuries and the perception the Oakland Athletics improved in the off-season had some early season predictors feeling this was the year the Angels would give way in the West.

As the season opened, the Angels were without most of their rotation as injuries pounded the club. Then tragedy struck when pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed in a car crash after his first start of the season on April 9th. Los Angeles struggled early but hovered around .500 through the first month of the year then turned it on and took over sole possession of first place on June 27th and stayed there for the rest of the season with an impressive 97-65 record.

For Scioscia, it was his seventh season of 89 wins or more in his 10 seasons as the Angels manager. The successful campaign pushed his career record to 900-720. Scioscia’s 900th career win on October 4th made him the 62nd manager in Major League history to win 900 games or more.

As for the voting, nine of 15 BDD writers felt Scioscia was the choice for AL Manager of the Year. The Angels manager also received a second place and third place vote and was left off of four ballots. Following Scioscia, Ron Gardenhire of the Minnesota Twins on the heels of his fifth American League Central title in eight years appeared on 13 of 15 ballots including two first place votes. In his second year in New York, Joe Girardi’s Yankees won 103 games and won the American League East. His club’s effort caught the attention of seven of our writers including one who casted a ballot for Girardi being first.

Beyond the top three, Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington finished fourth. He led his team to 87 wins in the AL West and that was good enough for one of our writers to recognize him as their top choice for Manager of the Year. Fifth place finisher Don Wakamatsu earned two first place votes but only appeared on four ballots overall thanks to his part in helping turn around the Mariners who bounced back to win 87 after losing 101 the previous year. It was Wakamatsu’s rookie season as a manager. Tigers manager Jim Leyland finished seventh appearing on three ballots.

Here’s what our team had to say:

Bill Baer
For Bill’s comments check out his earlier post on BDD regarding his Manager of the Year ballot for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

Brian Joseph
“Last year, it was hard for me to decide between Scioscia and Gardenhire and I chose Gardy but this year with more adversity faced and an improved West division, Scioscia was the choice.

Jeff Lubbers
“Given that baseball managers have less of an impact on the game than perhaps any other professional sport, one of their most important functions is handling team adversity. Mike Scoscia handled adversity with the death of Nick Adenhart.”

Rob McQuown
It wouldn’t be shocking to see this award called the “Mike Scioscia Award” in a few decades.  He figures out what his players can do and aligns them for max impact quicker and more efficiently than anyone.  The Yankees have tons of resources, but making the bullpen highly functional by playoff time makes them prohibitive favorites, not to mention the relative lack of “drama” coming out of New York this year.  Girardi deserves props for these things.

Eric Polsky
“Not only did he lead the Angels to the second best record in basebll, Scioscia did so while dealing with the adversity of early season injuries and helping the team cope with the loss of Nick Adenhart.”

Zach Sanders
“Gardy’s leadership seemed like a key part of the comeback to make the playoffs.”

Michael Street
“Wak rescued a team from the doldrums, wringing wins out of a less talented lineup and producing a +24 improvement in wins. Leyland resurrected the Tigers while Gardy once again did more with less than anyone in the league.”

Doug Thorburn
“Scioscia overcame free agent losses and adapted to an unconventional Halo lineup style to lead the Angels to the AL West crown.”

Isaac Thorn
“I know Seattle didn’t make the playoffs, but the production Wakamatsu got out of his players was incredible.”

David Wade
“Gardenhire’s really all that matters, so I put two other guys down because I had to.”

Bo Wulf
“Scioscia helped steady the ship after the tragic passing of Nick Adenhart and the Angels cruised to their third straight division title after a lot of people jumped off the bandwagon before the season.”