Managers of the Year

Joe Maddon of the Rays and Kirk Gibson of the Diamondbacks won their respective Manager of the Year awards today. A while ago Neil DeGrasse Tyson suggested on Twitter that the awards should go to the managers with the most wins per dollar of payroll. Interestingly, this seems to be exactly what happened (though I’m not sure if the BBWAA knew this).

The Rays this year had the second lowest payroll in the American League, $41.9million. Their 91 wins mean thus gave them 2.17 wins/million dollars. The Royals were next best in the AL with 71 wins to show for our Major League lowest $36.1 million payroll. (A ratio of 1.97 wins/million.) The Rays and Royals were not only the best in the AL, but they were the best in the Majors. The next best, and best in the National League, were the Diamondbacks. Arizona had 94 wins with a $53.6 million payroll.

On the other side of the coin, the Yankees won 97 games in 2011, the most in the American league. They had far and away the highest payroll, however, $201.7 million. This makes for a Major League worst 0.48 wins/million. (One-fourth that of the Royals.) The next worst were the Red Sox, with only 0.56 wins/million. In the NL, the Cubs fared the worst with 71 wins for their $125.5 million, but the Phillies were next; their 102 wins cost $173 million.

The full lists (wins/million):
AL: Tampa Bay Rays (2.17), Kansas City Royals (1.97), Cleveland Indians (1.63), Toronto Blue Jays (1.30), Oakland A’s (1.11), Texas Rangers (1.04), Detroit Tigers (0.90), Baltimore Orioles (0.81), Seattle Mariners (0.78), Los Angeles Angels (0.62), Chicago White Sox (0.61), Minnesota Twins (0.56), Boston Red Sox (0.56), New York Yankees (0.48).

NL: Arizona Diamondbacks (1.75), Pittsburgh Pirates (1.57), San Diego Padres (1.55), Florida Marlins (1.27), Washington Nationals (1.26), Milwaukee Brewers (1.12), Cincinnati Reds (1.04), Atlanta Braves (1.02), St Louis Cardinals (0.85), Colorado Rockies (0.83), Houston Astros (0.79), Los Angeles Dodgers (0.79), San Francisco Giants (0.73), New York Mets (0.64), Philadelphia Phillies (0.59), Chicago Cubs (0.57).