It’s time to start thinking about year-end baseball awards, and first up is the BBA’s Connie Mack Award (Manager of the Year).  I am not the only BBA blogger following the A’s this year.  Jason Leary of Junkball/Swinging A’s joined last year but filed his own 2010 ballot, and we welcome David Wishinsky to the fold this year.

We decided to file a composite ballot this year, and Jason, David and I submitted ballots for all the awards this year.  1st place votes received 5 points each, 2nd place received 3 points, and 3rd place got 1 point each.  Having combined their scores with mine, our ballot is as follows:

1st Place:  Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays, a unanimous decision (15 points).  He lost a ton of talent during the off-season, but he made the best of what he had, like unsung heroes Matt Joyce, Sam Fuld, and the perennial energizer bunny Johnny Damon on offense, and James Shields, David Price and rookie Jeremy Hellickson excelling on the hill.  And who can forget the last day of the season when the Red Sox led 3-2 and the Orioles were down to their last strike?  Unfortunately for the Bosox , their vaunted closer Jonathon Papelbon blew the save, and the Red Sox lost the game.  3 minutes later, the Rays came from behind and beat the Yankees, pounding the nail on the coffin of the Red Sox massive collapse by knocking them out of the postseason. Especially amazing since Maddon  sent Dan Johnson (former A’s 1st baseman) to the plate (batting an unimpressive .109) when they were down to their last stike in the bottom of the ninth.  DJ hit a homer to tie the game!  Evan Longoria homered in the bottom of the 12th to win it.  Now that is inspired managing.

2nd Place:  Jim Leyland of the Detroit Tigers (6 Points).  Jim didn’t have much of a turnover from last season and added Victor Martinez to the mix.  He bettered last year’s 81-81 record by finishing at 95-67, earning the team the Central Division title and a trip to the postseason.  He gets kudos for accomplishing all this despite having to keep a lid on the fallout from Miguel Cabrera’s DUI arrest during spring training.  He has won the MLB’s MOY award 3 times already, 2 in the NL in the 1990’s, and in 2006 in the AL with the Tigers.

3rd Place:  Manny Acta of the Cleveland Indians (4 Points).  This one surprised me as not many other writers have even mentioned him in the conversation around MOY.  But my two cohorts both voted for him and he gets the nod.  In his second season as the Tribe’s manager, he lead the team to a second-place finish in the AL Central with an 80-83 record.  He lead the team to an 11-game improvement over their 69-93 record in 2010, and accomplished this with the 3rd youngest roster in MLB, including 11 players who made their Major League debuts.  I guess he is pretty impressive.  BTW, I picked Joe Girardi for this spot.

That’s it for the Connie Mack Award for 2011.  The Willie Mays Award (Rookie of the Year) is up next.