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On Monday, Colorado Rockies Manager Bud Black was named a National League Manager of the Year finalist by the Baseball Writers’ of America Association.
Black is a finalist alongside Dodgers’ Dave Roberts and D-Backs’ Torey Lovullo. In his first season as the Rockies manager Black led Colorado to an 87-75 record and the club’s first playoff appearance since 2009.
The finalist revealed on Monday were for the MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manger of the Year for both leagues. The award recipients will be announced from Nov. 13-16 on MLB Network at 4 p.m. MT each night.
Notably Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon were not named MVP finalist, which was shocking.
Arenado is a shoe-in for the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Award at third base for 2017. It would be his third straight year of winning both awards and fifth straight of winning the Gold Glove. Last season Arenado finished fifth in MVP voting and once again he steadily improved. Upping most of his numbers and finishing with a slick .309/.373/.586/ slash line, 37 homers and 130 RBI. Arenado led the league in doubles and was its top fielder at the hot corner according to many metrics.
Blackmon had an unbelievably historic season. The Rockies centerfielder walked away with the batting title already, hitting .331 for 2017. Crazier the left-handed batter slugged .601 out of the leadoff spot while still on basing .399. He set a MLB record with 103 RBI out of the leadoff spot.
We’ll have more reaction to this in a bit. Arenado and Blackmon had just as good if not better years than Paul Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Votto.