The third annual SBN Baseball Awards began this week with the announcement of the Manager of the Year. Lou Pinella won it over Charlie Manuel and Joe Torre. I was the yahoo who gave the first place vote to Fredi Gonzalez.

My opinion of what makes a good Manager of the Year is the guy who does the most with the least. Fredi certainly took a low-payroll team further than many people thought they would go. I guess my familiarity with the Marlins, because the Braves play them so much, led to my belief that Gonzalez was deserving of the award because he kept an underrated team in the playoff race up until the last couple weeks of the season. I voted for Manuel second and Pinella third.