Texas Rangers: Will Jeff Banister win Manager of the year again?

The Manager of the year awards will be announced tomorrow on the MLB network.  Texas Rangers’ manager Jeff Banister is one of the finalist for the award along with Cleveland Indians Terry Francona, and Baltimore’s Buck Showalter.  All three managers took their teams to the postseason.  The Indians, in case you forgot, won the American League Championship, but blew a 3-1 lead in the World Series to the Chicago Cubs.

Jeff Banister won the American League Manager of the year award last year during his first season as a manager.  In my opinion he easily deserved the award last season.  He took over a team that was that was in shock when Ron Washington suddenly resigned.

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Also, it was a shock to many that the team passed on the interim manager Tim Bogar, who many thought was for sure the next manager of the Texas Rangers.  That 2014 team was a disaster.   It wasn’t due to a lack of talent, but a ton of injuries.  They almost as the worst team in baseball and almost beat a franchise record number of losses.

No one knew how the team would do in 2015.  But, when spring training started and people starting learning just what kind of manager he was going to be.  He has a very motivational way of speaking to the team and putting the necessary drive in them.  Not only does he inspire his team but also the fan base.  His ‘Never Ever Quit’ saying kept fans chanting, and cheering in every game until the last pitch.  In that season he took a team from worst to first.  He did that by leading the charge and making everyone believe they could do it.

Will Banister be back-to-back winner of the American League Manager of the year?  That’s the big question on everyone’s mind heading into tomorrow when it will be announced.  Everyone has their opinion about it.

Yahoo Sports writes the following – Mark Townsend

"Case for: Despite an improved division and some potential distractions (Rougned Odor’s punch and Prince Fielder’s retirement) the Rangers remained a steady force all season. The Rangers finished with an AL best 95-67 record, which tied the second most victories in club history.Case against: Been there, done that. Banister’s rookie and sophomore seasons have been impressive, but to win this award back-to-back requires elevating the team to an unexpected or unprecedented level. Most would agree the Rangers finished where they were expected to finish."

Mark makes good points for and against.  I don’t think that just because he won it last year is a good reason to pass on the a team that had the best record in the Major League.  Also, the Rangers were a team that won 36 of 47 one run games.  They owned their divisional rivals winning all 4 of those season series and embarrassed the Houston Astros and sent them destroyed their postseason hopes.

That kind of baseball doesn’t happen on accident.  In my opinion the Texas Rangers have the right man for the job these days with Jeff Banister.  I couldn’t imagine them doing these things with Tim Bogar or Ron Washington.   The manager is just one part of a huge organization, but Banister does an amazing job leading the team, motivating them, and managing them to win ball games.  Some might argue he didn’t win in October.

Which is a pretty good argument, but I think at that point the Texas Rangers were on the wrong side of the momentum that was happening with them and the Toronto Blue Jays.  If one or two things could have happened different in that series they would have won the American League Championship.

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In my opinion I think Jeff Banister will probably not win the Manager of the year award.  Not because he doesn’t deserve it.  He clearly does belong on the list of finalist and to win the award again.  I think Cleveland’s Terry Francona will take home the award this year.  He turned the franchise around and got them to the edge of a World Series championship.  Not that’s the only thing that matters, but his team also had a great regular season.  I’m hoping though that Banister still might pull off a back-to-back win.   Who knows…Never Ever Quit hoping.  He just might win it again.