2007 SBN Baseball Awards: Manager of the Year

This week, we're posting the results for each of Major League Baseball's regular season awards, as voted upon by the SB Nation baseball bloggers.  Yesterday, the Rookie of the Year winners were Dustin Pedroia and Ryan Braun.

Today, we present the 2007 SBN Baseball Award winners for AL and NL Manager of the Year:

As was the case yesterday, the American League award winner finished with a decisive victory.  For me, this was the toughest choice on my ballot.  I really thought Joe Torre deserved credit for turning his Yankees team around after such a surprisingly poor start, and finishing as the AL Wild Card winner.  But then there was the consideration that the Yankees fell into that hole to begin with.  Thus, Torre received my second-place vote, followed by Boston's Terry Francona in third.

Meanwhile, Wedge kept his Cleveland team at or near the top of the AL Central throughout the season, juggling platoons at several positions in the early part of the year, and dealing with the struggles of one of his best players, Travis Hafner.  But he eventually worked younger players into the lineup later, and consistently made the right moves with his bullpen, and that ultimately made the difference in the Tribe winning the division.

Had I voted for the National League awards, the three managers on my ballot would have been - in order - Bob Melvin, Clint Hurdle, and Manny Acta.

You can see how each of the SB Nation baseball bloggers voted at their respective sites, as we'll all be sharing our ballots.  The remaining SBN Baseball Awards will be announced in succession over the next two days.  Our picks for the Cy Young Award will be posted tomorrow, followed by the Most Valuable Player winners on Thursday.

UPDATE:  I asked The Detroit Tigers Weblog to fill out BYB's second ballot, and Billfer graciously obliged.  You can view his voting results here.