Both the American League and National League Managers of the Year were announced on Wednesday. Kansas City Royals Manager Tony Pena earned the title in the American League, while Florida Marlins Manager Jack McKeon claimed the honor in the National League.

The Royals finished the season with an 83-79 record for a .512 winning percentage, which ranked eighth in the league. Pena is the first manager of a team finishing in third place in their division to win the award, and the first Kansas City manager ever to receive the honor. His accomplishment lay in his part in taking the club from a 62-100 record in 2002 to over .500 in 2003. In his first full season as manager of the Royals, Pena held together a pitching staff troubled by injuries and inexperience. Meanwhile, he dealt with a lineup that due to injury usually only had the benefit either of 1B-R Mike Sweeney or OF-S Carlos Beltran rather than both. His positive attitude was credited with keeping the players in a mental position to continue wading through the difficulties they encountered.

The baseball writers vote on the awards prior to the playoffs, so McKeon received no additional credit for leading the Marlins to victory in the World Series. Florida took the NL Wild Card with a 91-71 record for a .562 winning percentage on the year, but during their time under McKeon the team went 75-49 for a .605 winning percentage. McKeon is the first person to win the award after assuming the managerial duties mid-season, and the first Florida manager to receive the honor. He also was honored as National League Manager of the Year as the manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1999.

McKeon worked his lineup effectively, keeping the top of the order in place while adjusting the lower end to suit game situations. His handling of 3B/OF-R Miguel Cabrera really impressed me, as he remained committed to playing the young rookie even when he ran into slumps. Cabrera was bound to need some time to adjust after jumping from AA Carolina in the Southern League to the majors. Had McKeon reacted to Cabrera's slumps by benching him the experience could have been quite detrimental to Cabrera's development. However, McKeon instead displayed confidence in his young player and granted Cabrera the time he needed to acclimate himself to his new surroundings. I wasn't as fond of McKeon's management of the pitching staff, where he worked his pitchers hard and unnecessarily jumbled the roles in his bullpen.

I'm pleased to say that Pena and McKeon would have been our selections had we possessed votes. As discussed last year, we look at Pythagorean Standings and a manager's winning percentage/win-loss record in one-run games to assemble a preliminary ranking of managers before taking into account the less tangible aspects of the job.

Boston (.619), New York (.600), and Oakland (.555) finished with the best records among AL teams in one-run games. The only other AL teams over .500 in one-run games were the Twins at 22-20, the Mariners at 16-15, and the Tigers at 19-18. Kansas City had a .450 record in one-run games.

Among AL teams, Kansas City and Minnesota's final records showed the largest positive difference from their Pythagorean records at 5 games over. New York (+4), Texas (+3), and Oakland (+1) also bettered their Pythagorean records.

Had we filled out a ballot we would have given our first place vote to Pena, second to Ron Gardenhire of the Twins, and third to Joe Torre of the Yankees. While Pena and Gardenhire were in a statistical dead heat, we felt Pena's inspirational skills gave him the edge. Gardenhire placed second in the actual voting, and Ken Macha received the third most votes from the writers.

In the National League, San Francisco (.700), Chicago (.614), and Cincinnati (.588) finished with the best records in one-run games. The only other NL teams over .500 in one-run games were the Diamondbacks at 30-25, the Brewers at 24-21, the Dodgers at 26-23, the Phillies at 20-18, and the Padres at 21-20. McKeon went 24-17 for a .585 winning percentage in the one-run games he managed.

At 7 games over, Cincinnati's final record showed the largest positive difference from their Pythagorean record of any NL team. San Francisco (+6), Atlanta (+4), Florida (+3), Montreal (+3), Milwaukee (+3), Chicago (+2), and Los Angeles (+1) also bettered their Pythagorean records. In the games managed by McKeon, the Marlins were five games over their Pythagorean.

Felipe Alou had a slight edge on McKeon in the numbers, but we penalized him for the inanity of batting Barry Bonds fourth most of the year. We also gave special consideration to the added difficulties McKeon faced in motivating a Florida team mired in a dismal slump. Had we filled out a ballot we would have placed McKeon first, Alou second, and Dusty Baker third. Baker placed second in actual voting, and Bobby Cox received the third most votes from the writers.

Given Cincinnati's prominent placement on both lists I thought I'd take a look at the break down between Bob Boone and Dave Miley. The Reds played 4 games over their Pythagorean with Boone and 3 games over with Miley. In one-run games, Cincinnati had a .575 winning percentage under Boone and a .588 winning percentage under Miley.