Joe Maddon Falls Short in 2016 BBWAA National League Manager of the Year Award
It’s official, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Dave Roberts has been awarded the National League Manager of the Year. He beat out Joe Maddon and Dusty Baker to win the award in his first year as manager in MLB. The voting tally went as follows:
| Manager, Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Roberts, Dodgers | 16 | 7 | 7 | 108 |
| Joe Maddon, Cubs | 8 | 8 | 6 | 70 |
| Dusty Baker, Nationals | 4 | 12 | 10 | 66 |
| Terry Collins, Mets | 2 | 3 | 5 | 24 |
| Don Mattingly, Marlins | 2 | 2 |
For Joe Maddon, he has won the award twice with the Tampa Rays (’08, ’11) in the American League and once in 2015 with the Chicago Cubs in the National League. In 2016, he led the Cubs to a 103-58 record in 2017 and a World Series Championship.
Joe is well known as a calming influence in the clubhouse and the dugout. He coined some pretty cool phrases – better known as Maddonisms – this year such as ‘Try Not to Suck,’ ‘Embrace the Target,’ ‘Don’t Let the Pressure Exceed the Pleasure,’ and ‘Do Simple Better.’ As a Cubs fan, it was amazing to watch Joe manage the pressure and the expectations starting from the first day of spring training to the last game of the World Series.
When the Cubs hired Maddon in October 2014 it was largely seen as the final piece that Theo and team needed to make a serious run at a World Championship. Of course, that decision worked out pretty well when the Cubs won the World Series this year and then held one heck of a celebration in Chicago.
While Joe fell short in the Manager of the Year Award, it’s been a dream year for the entire Chicago Cubs organization, the players, coaches, management and fans. So far, the Cubs have won a number of postseason awards, including two Gold Glove Awards (Anthony Rizzo and Jason Heyward), two Silver Slugger Awards (Anthony Rizzo and Jake Arrieta), a Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award (Anthony Rizzo) and a Player’s Choice Award for Outstanding Pitcher National League (Kyle Hendricks). Theo Epstein was also awarded the Sporting News MLB Executive of the Year Award.
Even though Joe didn’t win the MOY Award I’m pretty sure he’s quite content with the World Series Championship. Congrats to Joe Maddon on a spectacular year!
