Bob Melvin & Davey Johnson win AL and NL Manager of the Year Awards

[pwaldo]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/86...-managers-year

Davey Johnson of the Washington Nationals, and Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics were chosen as managers of the year on Tuesday after guiding their teams to huge turnaround seasons.

Melvin beat out Baltimore's Buck Showalter for the AL honor in a close vote by a Baseball Writers' Association of America panel. Under Melvin, the A's made a 20-game improvement, finished 94-68 and won the AL West.

Johnson was an easy choice for the NL prize after the Nationals -- who had never enjoyed a winning year -- posted the best record in the majors and made their first playoff appearance.

Johnson, who turns 70 in January, was honored for the second time. He was tabbed as the AL's top manager in 1997, hours after he resigned from the Orioles in a feud with owner Peter Angelos.

This time, Johnson will get a while to enjoy the accolade.

Melvin also became a two-time winner, having been chosen in 2007 with Arizona.

Melvin got 16 first-place votes. Showalter got the other 12 firsts, and Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox finished third.

[gps29070]

A great comeback by Davey Johnson, and if managers were eligible for comeback player of the year, Davey Johnson would win that one also.

I would have given the AL award to Buck Showater, just for squeezing 93 wins out of a team that if you put into a computer would win no more then 80 games.

[Devlin]

i liked buck more also. melvin did a great job

[duwal]

I would have given the AL award to Buck Showater, just for squeezing 93 wins out of a team that if you put into a computer would win no more then 80 games.

yeah but the A's were predicted even by some bay area critics to lose 100 games especially after they traded away their only 3 former allstar pitchers. One of the busier polls was which total would be higher: the Giants win total or the A's lose total. And instead the A's had the second best record in the AL, one game behind the Yankees