Scioscia, Tracy Selected as Baseball’s Top Managers (Update1)

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels was voted American League Manager of the Year for the second time, while Colorado’s Jim Tracy earned National League honors for turning around a team with a losing record.

Scioscia beat out Ron Gardenhire of the Minnesota Twins and Joe Girardi of the New York Yankees in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He was listed first on 15 of the 28 ballots cast by two writers from each of the AL cities.

Tracy received 29 of the 32 first-place votes in the NL to finish ahead of Tony La Russa of the St. Louis Cardinals and Joe Torre of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Scioscia, 50, captured the AL award after the Angels overcame a series of injuries and the death of pitcher Nick Adenhart in an April 9 car accident to win the AL West Division title for the third straight year.

“We got hit by some things that we hadn’t prepared for and something you couldn’t prepare for,” Scioscia said on a conference call. “But we really felt in spring training we had a terrific team. We just got going as the season moved on.”

The Angels finished Major League Baseball’s regular season with a 97-65 record, the second-best in the majors, to make the postseason for the sixth time in Scioscia’s 10-year tenure.

Los Angeles used 14 starting pitchers because of injuries to John Lackey, Joe Saunders, Ervin Santana and Kelvim Escobar, while Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero also spent time on the disabled list.

Angels in Playoffs

The Angels swept the Boston Red Sox in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to the eventual World Series champion Yankees in the AL Championship Series. Voting for the awards was conducted before the playoffs.

Scioscia, who also was honored as the AL’s top manager in 2002, had 106 points.

Gardenhire finished second in the voting for a record fifth time, receiving six first-place votes and 72 points. Gardenhire’s Twins won 17 of their final 21 games to win the AL Central title.

Girardi, who won the NL award with the Florida Marlins in 2006, received four first-place votes and 34 points after leading the Yankees to a major league-best 103-59 record and their record 27th World Series title.

Tracy, 53, helped the Rockies turn around a losing season and set a franchise record with 92 wins after replacing Clint Hurdle on May 29.

The Rockies were in last place in the NL West Division with an 18-28 record when Hurdle was fired and Tracy was promoted from bench coach. Colorado went 74-42 the rest of the way to earn the NL’s wild-card playoff berth.

In-Season Hire

Tracy is just the second manager to win the award after being hired during the season, following Jack McKeon of the Marlins in 2003.

“It’s probably as flattering an experience as I’ve come to realize in my career,” Tracy said on a conference call today. “What’s more intriguing to me is what’s still out there for our ballclub.”

Tracy receives the award two years after he was fired by the Pittsburgh Pirates following 94 losses in 2007 and 95 the previous season. He also spent five years as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2001 through 2005 and compiled a 427-383 record.

Don Baylor was the only previous Rockies manager to win the NL award, in 1995.

La Russa, a four-time winner, received two first-place votes. Torre, a two-time manager of the year in the AL with the Yankees, got one first-place vote.

Selected members of the writers’ association vote for their top three choices and managers get five points for first-place votes, three points for second and one point for third.

The BBWAA is scheduled to announce the winner of the NL Cy Young Award tomorrow. Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals won the AL award as his league’s top pitcher yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net