Hold on. Counsell is well deserving of the honor & I tip my cap to him. That said, there are other well deserving candidates in the NL & I suspect 1 of them will get the Baseball Writer award for NL Manager of the year. Was anyone expecting Bud Black (in Colorado, 75-87 in '16) & Torey Lovullo (in Arizona, 69-93 in '16) to lead their respective clubs to the post-season in their first season? I know many publications were not expecting that. I checked the mags I still have here (Athlon Sports, Lindy' Sports, Sporting News) & all 3 predicted Colorado for 3rd place & Arizona for 4th place in the NL West. Although Francona got the Sporting News award for the AL, I think the Baseball Writers will go with Molitor. My guess is the Baseball Writers will go with Lovullo in the NL & the main reason for him getting it is guiding his team to the post-season. Remeber: all the ballots had to be in BEFORE any wild card games were played. This is not a knock on Counsell. Please look again at what I underlined earlier in this post if you think I am knocking Counsell.