After Grady won his first Gold Glove and Carsten Charles won his first Cy Young, it is now time to tip our caps to Eric Wedge and his first Manager of the Year award.
It is a pleasant sight to see the Indians receiving some well-deserved recognition for a very successful 2007 season. Although it certainly did not finish the way Tribe fans would have hoped, there were an abundant of positives throughout the season and the future is extremely bright.
Wedge's journey to this award was hardly a smooth ride. After a very strong start, which led to Mark Shapiro's decision to offer him an extension, the Tribe seemingly hit rock bottom. They followed a mediocre .500 middle of the season with a few losing streaks and a terrible stretch immediately following the All-Star break. By mid-August, many naysayers were questioning the decision to extend Wedge and the overall heart of the team in general.
And then something clicked. Exactly what it was that caused the Tribe to finish the season stronger than any team in baseball (outside Colorado) is debatable. However, Wedge's impact and hand in those events cannot be overlooked. Overall, he seems to have a very passive, one-day-at-a-time approach and he rarely calls out his team or individuals publicly. There are exceptions of course, but he seems to be the polar opposite of Ozzie Guillen. While Ozzie was praised a couple years ago for his hands-on and aggressive approach to coaching, his antics wore thin and this year they may have been the most underachieving team in baseball. This is not to say that Wedge is perfect and detractors would certainly point to his poor in-game management at times. But in baseball, when teams play nearly 200 games including spring training and the playoffs, a Rah-Rah manager can often do more harm than good. In-game managing is over-rated as most ML managers will tell you and it is the ability to build a cohesive unit for the long haul that is willing to buy into your system that leads to success.
Congratulations Eric! Keep up the good work.
In case you are interested, here is how the voting turned out:
Manager.......................1st..........2nd.........3rd..........Total
Eric Wedge, Cle...............19.............6.............3............116
Mike Scioscia, LA...............4.............11............9.............62
Joe Torre, NY...................5...............8...........12.............61
Terry Francona, Bos............0............3.............4.............13
Goooooooooooooooooooooooo Tribe!
Cheers!
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