FanSided MLB 2012 Awards: AL Manager of the Year: Buck Showalter

For many fans, the end-of-season player awards are one of the biggest highlights of the long MLB offseason. There’s just one problem: the most deserving players don’t always win. Though the BBWAA generally does a better job with the MVP and the Cy Young than with, say, the Hall of Fame, their picks for the coveted hardware are often questionable, if not dumbfounding.

So at FanSided, we decided to put our money where our collective mouth is. At the end of the 2012 MLB season, 52 FanSided writers representing 28 different sites from around the MLB network cast their ballots for Most Valuable Player, Cy Young, Manager of the Year, and Rookie of the Year.

Earlier this week, we unveiled the results of our first awards: the Rookies of the Year in both the American League and the National League. Today, we turn our attention to the Manager of the Year Award, starting with the AL.

A couple notes on the voting: Balloting opened on October 1 (when each team had three games left to play) and closed on October 5 before the first playoff game stared. Each voter named three players on his or her ballot, with votes scored on a 5-3-1 basis.

Without further ado, here are the results:

Buck Showalter takes home the honors with 218 of a possible 245 points. Bob Melvin has a commanding mandate for second place, while Robin Ventura barely beats out Joe Maddon for the bronze and Jim Leyland rounds out the top five. Joe Girardi, Bobby Valentine, and Ron Washington all tie for sixth place, and Manny Acta, Ron Gardenhire, and Eric Wedge all got support.

Showalter received 37 first-place votes and was named on 48 out of 49 ballots. Melvin earned 10 first-place votes, while Maddon and Valentine each got one.

What do you think? Did we make the right choice?