Chicago Cubs Award Finalists and When MLB Will Announce Individual Awards
National League Manager of the Year Award
Not only has it been fun to watch the Chicago Cubs players, equally enjoyable has been watching Cubs manager Joe Maddon take the reins of this team. While most fans thought Maddon was going to add a certain level of confidence to the Cubs roster, we didn’t know exactly how much adding a legitimate major league caliber manager would improve the team’s overall play.
Competition
Joe has some stiff competition in the Manager of the Year race this year. From the skippet of another young up-and-coming team, to a team that’s there every single year but was riddled with injury, there were some great managerial jobs in the 2015 MLB baseball season.
Mike Matheny – The St Louis Cardinals are sort of like the chicken or the egg franchise in baseball, are players good because the entire organization is good, or are they good because of the managers in place to coach them. Regardless, the Cardinals were the best team in the NL Central throughout 162 games, finishing with 100 wins. Most impressive was their ability to continue to play exceptionally well despite the mass amount of injuries they dealt with. Mike Matheny deserves credit for that.
Terry Collins – Face it, the New York Mets not only are very similar to the Chicago Cubs, they made the best turnaround of any team within the season. While some of that turnaround was due to the acquisition of players like Yoenis Cespedes, Collins’ ability to manage a young pitching staff that had many inning limitations due to past injuries, was magnificent. Collins proved how much of an in-game strategist he really was during the NLCS against the Cubs. His ability to manufacture runs, and put his players in the position to succeed was extremely impressive. While this isn’t a postseason award, Collins managed the team to a great run, manipulating his pieces to get the most out of them, especially since the All Star break.
Joe Maddon – Joe changed the attitude of the Chicago Cubs from the first day he stepped in as the team’s new manager. He made it okay for the Cubs to talk about winning the World Series without the need to snicker underneath their breath. He came in with a reputation of being able to lead young baseball players, and allowing them to succeed on the biggest of stage. Whether it was his in-game management, his wacky road trip dress ups, or just the ability to command the room and demand excellence from his players, Maddon created a sense of winning around the Chicago Cubs organization. Expect him to be named the best manager in the NL for the 2015 season.
The award will be announced November 17th at 6 p.m. Eastern on MLB Network.
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