Rocco Baldelli, Mike Shildt win Manager of the Year awards

Mike Shildt

Some things never change: The Manager of the Year awards always go to guys who made the playoffs with a team the media didn't expect to be in the postseason.

Here in 2019, Rocco Baldelli of the Minnesota Twins and Mike Shildt of the St. Louis Cardinals won the awards in their respective leagues.

Everyone, including me, thought the Cleveland Indians would win the AL Central this season. They did not. Baldelli, who was in his first year with the Twins, led the team to 101 wins and a 23-game improvement. When the playoffs rolled around, it was the same old Minnesota -- the Twins got swept in the first round by the New York Yankees.

But that regular-season performance was enough for Baldelli to edge New York's Aaron Boone in the AL Manager of the Year balloting. Both men received 13 first-place votes, but Baldelli was second on 13 ballots, while Boone was second on only nine.

Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash got three first-place votes and finish third. Oakland's Bob Melvin finished fourth, and Houston's A.J. Hinch got one first-place vote and finished fifth.

In the National League, Shildt got the nod for leading the Cardinals to 91 wins and an NL Central title. I actually was not surprised by St. Louis' success -- I picked them to win that division.

I just kept that opinion mostly quiet, because I live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and any White Sox fan who dares to question the greatness of the Cubs is subject to tar and feathering around here.

Most of the media had the Cubs winning the NL Central, too, even though the Brewers were the defending champions.

The Cubs, of course, were the mid-80s-win-total team I expected them to be. They finished third behind the Cardinals and Brewers, who won a wild card spot in the NL.

The respective managers of those two teams, Shildt and Milwaukee's Craig Counsell, finished 1-2 in the Manager of the Year balloting for "surprisingly" doing better than the Cubs.

Shildt got 10 first-place votes and 14 second-place votes to win the honor, while Counsell got 13 first-place votes, but only six second-place votes. Brian Snitker of the Atlanta Braves earned three first-place votes and finished third. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers got four first-place votes and finished fourth.