Managers of the Year

The Baseball Writers of America today named Jim Leyland and Joe Girardi the American and National League Managers of the Year. Well done! They are both deserving. Leyland returned just as the pathetic wreckage of one of the great franchises in the history of the game was set up to reclaim their position. The Detroit Tigers had spent way too many years as a laughingstock. Now, it's a "they who laugh last" situation. Their post-postseason addition of Gary Sheffield means that they should now have the opportunity to finish the job that ended one step short of completion last year. And getting Shef without having to give up any of their Major League pitching just underlines why Dave Dombrowski should be American League Executive of the Year. And Detroiters should feel tremendously encouraged that Shef's coming in confirms that Mike Ilitch has no intention of playing Wayne Huizenga in a 2007 version of the 1998 Marlins, with Dombrowski and Leyland having to relive that nightmare.
Joe Girardi won the National League vote. And he's out of a job. What's wrong with this picture? Jeffrey Loria. Loria spent a summer afternoon at the park playing Mark Cuban with the umpires. Girardi, to his eternal credit, told Loria to shut up. He was making life harder for Joe G's players. And from there, the relationship between manager and owner soured. And, predictably, the GM, Larry Beinfest, adopted a CYA position alongside the owner. So the brilliant-on the order of those cartoon idiots in the Guinness ads-billionaire Loria, who presided over the destruction of the Montreal Expos and was rewarded with the Marlins franchise, exercised his deep pockets prerogative and axed his manager.
This action was perfectly understandable. After all, Girardi had been handed a great team. The Marlins would have a record six players who received votes in the 2006 Rookie of the Year balloting. But back in the spring, they were just a bunch of children. And they played like it. The Marlins started 11-31. Twenty games under .500 in only 42 games played. Horrible! And they ended the season winning only 5 of their final 18 games. Wretched!
The rest of the story, however, is that in between the bad beginning and ending the Marlins became the only team in Major League history to reach .500 after having been 20 games under. Their season record: 78-84. Take out the start, and they went 67-53. Take out the bad finish, and it's 62-40. And before anybody starts telling me that if you take out the three losing streaks that the Cardinals had then their record improves, too, please remember a couple of things. Girardi had 22 rookies on his roster at one time or another last season. He had to teach them to play. And the finish came after Loria had made it clear that Joe wouldn't be back for 2007. Tell the kids that the guy who taught them to be Major Leaguers isn't going to be with them for their sophomore campaigns, and expect them to play as well as before? I just don't see that as a legitimate possibility.
Girardi will be fine. He'll spend this season back in the YES broadcast booth. And when the right job comes open, he'll continue his managerial career. And if he's fortunate enough to get his next job with a good owner, the rest of MLB better watch out!
The Marlins? Well, they hired Fredi Gonzalez to manage next year, and off of Fredi's tenure as the Braves' third base coach, I can't wish him ill. But he's working for Jeffrey Loria. I don't think Fredi's problems will come from my bad wishes on his organization.