In early November, Major League Baseball announced the results of the Manager of the Year voting. Texas Manager Buck Showalter took the honors in the American League while Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox won the award in the National League.

In his second season in command of the Rangers, Showalter led the team to an 89-73 record, an eighteen game improvement over their 2003 record. Texas finished two games over their Pythagorean record with a 24-19 record in one-run games.

As previously mentioned, we feel that the difference between a team's Pythagorean record and actual record as well as a team's record in one-run games offers some statistical insight into the generally subjective arena of analyzing a manager's effects on his team. More recently, we've begun including in our analysis third-order record, which as a refinement of Pythagorean record is another useful tool. While Showalter placed second on our theoretical ballot, we favored New York Manager Joe Torre for AL Manager of the Year. With a record of 101-61, the Yankees finished 12 games above their Pythagorean record while going 24-16 in one-run games. Behind Showalter, Oakland Manager Ken Macha ranked third our ballot. The Athletics' 91-71 record stood five games above their Pythagorean, and Oakland went 33-19 in one-run games.

Other managers to receive votes from the writers included Minnesota's Ron Gardenhire, Anaheim's Mike Scioscia, Torre, Boston's Terry Francona, and Cleveland's Eric Wedge.

In the National League, Cox led the Braves to a 99-66 record, dropping only five games below their 2003 record and retaining their place atop the division despite losing big name free agents over the intervening off-season. The Braves matched their Pythagorean record and went 27-17 in one-run games.

L.A. Manager Jim Tracy topped our NL ballot with Cincinnati's Dave Miley also ranking above Cox in our opinion. The Dodgers finished with a record of 93-69, landing three games over their Pythagorean record with a 32-16 showing in one-run games. Los Angeles's performance topped their third-order record by seven games. The Red finished ten games over their Pythagorean record and nine above their third-order record, going 25-20 in one-run games. However, Cincinnati still only finished 76-86 as the forth place team in the NL Central, so we gave the edge to Tracy.

Other managers receiving votes in the National League included St. Louis's Tony LaRussa, Tracy, Houston's Phil Garner, San Francisco's Felipe Alou, and San Diego's Bruce Bochy.