Former Dodgers Skipper Don Mattingly Earns Manager of the Year Award, Roberts on the Outside
Dave Roberts lead the Dodgers to their first World Series title since 1988 and all he gets to show for it is that lousy piece of metal. Doc piloted Los Angeles to the best record in baseball and the most wins in the postseason in 2020. Still, BBWAA voters chose a former Dodger skipper for this year’s NL Manager of the Year award.
Don Mattingly picked up his first such honor after leading the Miami Marlins to their first postseason berth since 2003. What’s more, he kept the team afloat amid the turmoil surrounding nearly two dozen players and organizational members contracting coronavirus early in the 60 game season.
On the list of finalists for the award, Mattingly was joined by first year managers Jayce Tingler of the Padres and David Ross of the Cubs. Yes, Dave Roberts didn’t even podium! However, he did place in the top 5.
#Marlins mgr Don Mattingly named NL Manager of the Year. #Dodgers Dave Roberts finished fifth. Was named on five ballots — 1 first-place vote, 2 seconds, 2 thirds
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) November 10, 2020
Now, Mattingly is a fine choice for MOY, but he’s definitely not a perfect one. Arguments have been raised about the fact that the Marlins COVID scare — one that nearly pulled the plug on the MLB season — could have been avoided under better leadership. However, Donnie Ballgame’s ability to get his players on board with protocols and through the season with no further issues was impressive enough for a young team lacking in veteran leadership.
While Roberts is more worthy of perhaps a third place finish in the voting, the fact that he got any love is still nice for the fifth year manager. And, of course, he ultimately got the more coveted award with a World Series win.
So… congratulations to Don Mattingly!
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Roberts has had great teams every year and his disastrous in-game pitching decisions in the playoffs has lost the team a pivotal game. Roberts did it again in game 5 of the WS and the only reason the Rays didn’t win is Cash made a Roberts-like move to lose the series.
Roberts should have been fired for the last couple of years because of his terrible in-game pitching decisions.
He probably never wins the Manager award as they usually want the manager to win games by superior strategy which Roberts does not do.
Roberts would win the nice guy award every year but that does not make him a good manager. It just makes him popular as a person. Doc Roberts has the make up to be a great bench coach but is a terrible manager.
I couldn’t have said it better Tmaxster, Roberts, nice guy, terrible manager… Let’s just enjoy the great looking, deserving piece of metal, .
Roberts gets a reprieve from being fired by winning a world series. That’s his award. He gets to keep his job. I’m OK with that. But expectations are higher than ever now, and for the foreseeable future. The objective is not one and done. This team should win multiple championships. If that sounds ungrateful so soon after a world championship, so be it. The Giants won three in a five year span with far less talent than the Dodgers. There’s your next goal. It’s good to have goals. And even better to achieve them.
Just wondering what people would say if Boston and Houston hadn’t cheated and the Dodgers won 3 out of 4 last world series. He would be the best manager ever!
Good point. But we can’t change history, so we’ll just have to win 2 out of the next 3 to get to that 3 out of 4 figure.