Managers of the Year: Twins' Gardenhire, Padres' Black Take Home Hardware

Ron Gardenhire and Bud Black have been named the AL and NL Managers of the Year (respectively) for 2010. Gardenhire and Black each garnered 16 first-place votes; Gardenhire beat out Ron Washington, Joe Maddon, and Cito Gaston, while Black edged out Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Bobby Cox, and Charlie Manuel.

Gardenhire's Twins reached the postseason yet again, winning 94 games despite significant injury issues, namely Justin Morneau, who suffered a concussion in early-July and didn't play for the rest of the season. He has consistently led the small-market Twins to the upper-echelon of the American League over the past decade, combining a hyper and competitive temperament on the field with a calm, player-friendly attitude away from it. This is surprisingly the first time Gardenhire has taken home MotY honors, as he has finished second the past two years.

Meanwhile, Black led the Padres out of nowhere to compete for the division title up until the last day of the season, and finished with a 90-72 record despite many "experts" predicting them to lose in excess of 100 games (myself included). The Padres, who are known for being a scrappy bunch (read: collection of no-names), did a tremendous job of building upon what was already a fairly surprising end to the 2009 season and continued their tremendous momentum all the way until mid-September, when they suffered a ten-game losing streak that ultimately was the reason why they missed the postseason. Still, they heavily outperformed their expectations and gave their apparently small-but-loyal fanbase something to really cheer about during the summer of 2010. Black deserves an exceptional amount of credit for their accomplishments.

Click here to see the elected winners from the apparent geniuses of the Purple Row staff.

Full voting results after the jump...

AL results

1. Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota, 108

2. Ron Washington, Texas, 81

3. Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay, 44

4. Terry Francona, Boston;13

5. Cito Gaston, Toronto, 5

6 Joe Girardi, New York, 1

NL results

1. Bud Black, San Diego, 104

2. Dusty Baker, Cincinnati, 103

3. Bruce Bochy, San Francisco, 30

4. Bobby Cox, Atlanta, 28

5. Charlie Manuel, Philadelphia, 20

6. Brad Mills, Houston, 3