As we continue to dish out our 2016 Major League Baseball awards here at Rum Bunter next on the docket in the 2016 National League Manager of the Year.
Now that the 2016 Major League Baseball regular season has ended eyes can be pointed toward the offseason. The offseason includes, first and foremost, postseason play, free agency, trades, and award. Due to this here at Rum Bunter we are dishing out our 2016 awards for Major League Baseball.
Thus far we have named our MVP and Cy Young Award winner in each league. Today, we return to the National League. This is in order to name Rum Bunter’s 2016 National League Manager of the Year: Dave Roberts.
2016 was Dave Roberts’ first season as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. During the 2016 season Roberts faced a lot of adversity. However, he still guided the Dodgers to their fourth consecutive National League West Championship.
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Under the guidance of Roberts the Dodgers finished the 2016 with a record of 91-71. Due to this record they finished four games ahead of the San Francisco Giants in the NL West. You know, the same San Francisco Giants were six and a half games ahead of the Dodgers at the All-Star Break.
On top of a big early hole, very few teams dealt with as many injuries as the Los Angeles Dodgers did in 2016. Especially with their pitching staff. At one point, it looked like the Dodgers would run out of starting pitchers.
In 2016 the Dodgers used 15 different starting pitchers. Yes, 15! Of the 15 starting pitchers they used only Kenta Maeda was in the rotation for the entirety of the season.
Maybe the most impressive part of the Dodgers second half surge is that they did most of it without Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw made just 21 starts in the regular season, but missed all of July and August. He was able to return and make three starts in September, but at that point the Dodgers were already in first place.
Dave Roberts deserves a lot of credit for holding the Dodgers together through all of their injuries. Not only did he hold the team together, but he led them on a second have surge that saw them make up ten games on the Giants to win their division. And to do that as a rookie skipper makes it even more impressive. That is why Dave Roberts is Rum Bunter’s 2016 National League Manager of the Year.
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