Haudricourt: Why I had Brewers' Craig Counsell on my 2017 NL manager of the year ballot

Arizona's Torey Lovullo was named 2017 National League manager of the year Tuesday when balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America was announced on the MLB Network.

Lovullo, a first-year manager, was the easy winner with 18 first-place votes, five second-place votes and six third-place votes for 111 points. Los Angeles' Dave Roberts was second with five firsts and 55 points, with Colorado's Bud Black third with three first-place votes and 43 points.

The Brewers' Craig Counsell was fourth with three first-place votes, four seconds and six thirds, for 33 points.

There were two voters in each of the 15 NL cities, with each ballot containing three names. The ballots were cast at the end of the regular season. That means there were 30 ballots, so Counsell was left off the ballot by 17 voters. 

Now that the results of BBWAA balloting has been released, I can reveal my NL manager of the year ballot. And it certainly wasn't my fault that Counsell didn't make the top three:

1. Lovullo

2. Counsell

3. Black

I was close to voting Counsell first -- yes, I figured I'd hear some "homer" stuff -- but after taking a really good look at it, I decided Lovullo was even more deserving.

The Diamondbacks, under former manager Chip Hale, were a disaster last year, going 69-93. Yes, injuries were a factor, but every team deals with that challenge each season. With pretty much the same roster, Lovullo came in and flipped that record to 93-69, an increase of 24 victories, by far the biggest turnaround in the majors.

The Brewers went 73-89 in 2016, so they increased their victories total by 13. Under the first year with Black at the helm, the Rockies went from a 75-87 record in '16 to 87-75, edging the Brewers by one game to win the second NL wild-card berth.

I gave Counsell the edge over Black because the Brewers did not have the firepower the Rockies had, including MVP candidates Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon (how neither of those was in the final three is a subject of much debate). The Brewers also were playing with the lowest player payroll in the majors, around $60 million, and Ryan Braun and Matt Garza accounted for more than half of that. Such a low payroll reflected how many minimum-salary types the Brewers had on their roster, an indication of the overall lack of major-league experience.

I also knew first-hand what Counsell had to do to hold his pitching staff together down the stretch, especially after Jimmy Nelson was lost with three weeks to go with a shoulder injury. Garza was contributing nothing and eventually was shelved, and relievers were filling one of the rotation spots.

The other voter from the Milwaukee BBWAA chapter was Drew Olson, my former beat partner at the JS who now works for the Big 920 WOKY sports talk radio station. His ballot had Lovullo first, Black second and Counsell third. 

I knew by voting for Lovullo, Counsell and Black that I wasn't including even one of the division-winning managers. But the Dodgers, Nationals and Cubs were all favored to win their divisions, and are among the highest spenders in MLB. So, the way I saw it, Roberts, Dusty Baker and Joe Maddon merely did what was expected of them. That is not to say they didn't do a good job because they all obviously did.

I just think Counsell had a far bigger task in keeping the Brewers in the playoff hunt until the penultimate day of the season. Not that it did him any good in the overall voting.