The Math
My formula isn't really very scientific at all. The team's wins are added to wins added over last season. Losses are subtracted. Twenty points are awarded for a division crown and ten for a wild card. Because a team's payroll can have a major affect on a manager's available weapons, I factored that in as well. I took a team's total payroll and divided by its wins to determine how much each team spent on a victory. The average amount spent on a victory was $1,250,735. I divided the average by the actual amount spent on a victory to get a normalized number. These numbers were all added to create a total.
American League
Manager | Team | 2012W | 2012L | 2011W | DivW | WCWin | Payroll | Cost/Win | WinNorm | Total |
Bob Melvin | Oakland | 94 | 68 | 74 | 1 | 52873000 | 562479 | 2.224 | 88.24 | |
Buck Showalter | Baltimore | 93 | 69 | 69 | 1 | 84102333 | 904326 | 1.383 | 71.83 | |
Joe Girardi | New York | 95 | 67 | 97 | 1 | 209792900 | 2208346 | 0.566 | 51.66 | |
Ron Washington | Texas | 93 | 69 | 96 | 1 | 120836000 | 1299312 | 0.963 | 40.63 | |
Jim Leyland | Detroit | 88 | 74 | 95 | 1 | 133475000 | 1516761 | 0.825 | 35.25 | |
Joe Maddon | Tampa | 90 | 72 | 91 | 63627200 | 706969 | 1.769 | 34.69 | ||
Mike Scioscia | Los Angeles | 89 | 73 | 86 | 151381000 | 1700910 | 0.735 | 26.35 | ||
Robin Ventura | Chicago | 85 | 77 | 79 | 97669500 | 1149053 | 1.088 | 24.88 | ||
Eric Wedge | Seattle | 75 | 87 | 67 | 84928100 | 1132375 | 1.105 | 7.05 | ||
Ned Yost | Kansas City | 72 | 90 | 71 | 64001725 | 888913 | 1.407 | -2.93 | ||
John Farrell | Toronto | 73 | 89 | 81 | 83739200 | 1147112 | 1.090 | -13.10 | ||
Ron Gardenhire | Minnesota | 66 | 96 | 63 | 100435000 | 1521742 | 0.822 | -18.78 | ||
Manny Acta | Cleveland | 68 | 94 | 80 | 65430300 | 962210 | 1.300 | -25.00 | ||
Bobby Valentine | Boston | 69 | 93 | 90 | 175249119 | 2539842 | 0.492 | -40.08 |
It's hard to argue with a formula that determines that Bobby Valentine was the league's worst manager.
Melvin and Showalter are the clear front-runners in the American League. Showalter took a last place team and completely flipped their record from 69-93 to 93-69 this season. They came very close to upsetting the Yankees for the division title and almost knocked them out of the playoffs. In a division where the Blue Jays and Rays have seen recent surges, it will be interesting if the Orioles can have a repeat season or if this was a fluke.
The winner of Manager of the Year, though, has to be Bob Melvin. Melvin's Athletics were in the same division as the two-time defending American League Champion Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Both team spent a lot of money in the offseason and had much better rosters than Oakland on paper. Melvin got a lot of results from his young team that is very sustainable due to the bulk of the production coming from a young and talented pitching staff.
Prediction: Bob Melvin
National League
Manager | Team | 2012W | 2012L | 2011W | DivW | WCWin | Payroll | Cost/Win | WinNorm | Total |
Davey Johnson | Washington | 98 | 64 | 80 | 1 | 92534929 | 944234 | 1.325 | 85.25 | |
Dusty Baker | Cincinnati | 97 | 65 | 79 | 1 | 87826167 | 905424 | 1.381 | 83.81 | |
Bruce Bochy | San Francisco | 94 | 68 | 86 | 1 | 131355298 | 1397397 | 0.895 | 62.95 | |
Fredi Gonzalez | Atlanta | 94 | 68 | 89 | 1 | 93529667 | 994996 | 1.257 | 53.57 | |
Mike Matheny | St Louis | 88 | 74 | 90 | 1 | 111858500 | 1271119 | 0.984 | 31.84 | |
Don Mattingly | Los Angeles | 86 | 76 | 82 | 105419833 | 1225812 | 1.020 | 24.20 | ||
Clint Hurdle | Pittsburgh | 79 | 83 | 72 | 51932333 | 657371 | 1.903 | 22.03 | ||
Bud Black | San Diego | 76 | 86 | 71 | 55621900 | 731867 | 1.709 | 12.09 | ||
Ron Roenicke | Milwaukee | 83 | 79 | 96 | 98150833 | 1182540 | 1.058 | 1.58 | ||
Kirk Gibson | Arizona | 81 | 81 | 94 | 75417833 | 931084 | 1.343 | 0.43 | ||
Terry Collins | New York | 74 | 88 | 77 | 94508822 | 1277146 | 0.979 | -7.21 | ||
Charlie Manuel | Philadelphia | 81 | 81 | 102 | 172093902 | 2124616 | 0.589 | -15.11 | ||
Ozzie Guillen | Miami | 69 | 93 | 72 | 101628000 | 1472870 | 0.849 | -18.51 | ||
Jim Tracy | Colorado | 64 | 98 | 73 | 81135571 | 1267743 | 0.987 | -33.13 | ||
Brad Mills | Houston | 55 | 107 | 56 | 60799000 | 1105436 | 1.131 | -41.69 | ||
Dale Sveum | Chicago | 61 | 101 | 71 | 109316000 | 1792066 | 0.698 | -43.02 |
The National League had a clear winner in Davey Johnson. The Nationals have been a sleeper pick for a few seasons now, but their prospects are all finally at peak age. They are fueled by a fantastic young pitching staff and have one of the deepest offenses in the league. Not only did Johnson add eighteen wins over last season and lead his team to the playoffs, but these results should be sustainable thanks to the core of Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, and Michael Morse all being locked up for a few more years.
Prediction: Davey Johnson
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