Congrats to our roomates here at I70 Baseball, the St Louis Cardinals on their 11th World Series Championship. The past sixty days has been an enjoyable finish to the baseball season. However, this means we have entered The Baseball Offseason. The Baseball Offseason is rough country. It’s dark and cold. Your GPS does not show the roads and trails in The Baseball Offseason, if it works at all. Your smart phone gets spotty reception in Baseball Off-Season. You can’t get AM/FM or satellite radio reception. Your MP3 Player can only play Justin Bieber. But worst of all…there is no baseball! At least none that’s readily available. The Baseball Offseason is not a good place to be.

The first thing you should do is not panic. Last year I curled up in the fetal position in the basement and sucked my thumb and mumbled something about pitchers and catchers reporting. I do not recommend that you do this; it didn’t work out very well. The key to surviving rough country is mentally preparing, and having the proper tools at your disposal. But do not fear I am here to help. This article will serve as your Swiss Army Knife for this baseball offseason. I’ll highlight dates that you should know about. I’ll show you ways to mine what little baseball there is. And most importantly show you signs that you’re nearing the end of our no- baseball-ordeal.

It is must that when entering Baseball's Offseason Wilderness that you are prepared

November:

November spends a good amount of time wrapping up the 2011 baseball season. Postseason Awards will be announced by Major League Baseball and any other outlet that tenders an award. Here are those dates:

Nov 14th ) Jackie Robsinson Rookie of The Year Awards are announced for both leagues. As much as I want Eric Hosmer to win the AL ROY, don’t look for that to happen.

Nov 15th ) AL Cy Young Award is announced

Nov 16th ) AL & NL Manager Of The Year Awards are announced

Nov 17th ) NL Cy Young Award is announced

Nov 21st ) AL MVP Award announced

Nov 22nd ) NL MVP Award announced

Awards are nice for the individual players. As a fan, I don’t care too much about them. I root for the Royals. I’m more interested in which players are signed, and which players walk this off-season. That fun gets started in November too.

Nov 2nd ) Free Agency Begins. Between today and November 2nd players who are free agents can only negotiate with the team they were with for the 2011 season. After the 2nd it’s a free for all. This is where the fun will begin.

Nov 23rd ) Lifted from MLB’s website: Last date for former club to offer salary arbitration to ranked XX(B) free agents in order to be eligible for compensation. Deadline is midnight.
Bruce Chen falls into this category. If Chen signs, the Royals have him. If not the Royals will get a draft pick in the supplemental round of the draft in June…at least under the current CBA. Many other teams will be in the same boat. By letting free agents walk is how the Rays compiled their plethora of draft picks in last June’s draft.

Major League Baseball’s CBA will expire Dec 11th. I expect a new agreement will be announced in November. This should give us a few days of deliberating and discussing what the new agreement means for the Royals and MLB in general.

December:

December isn’t a tough month for me in regards to baseball. It’s the Holiday Season. There is usually some social or family gathering to take up the spare time. Despite that two things baseball fans need to keep an eye on.

Winter Meetings ) This is the annual get together for anyone who has a stake in baseball. Owners, General Managers’s, league officials, players, agents, reporters, bloggers (I won’t be there, unless someone wants to pay my way), entertainers and other hangars-on will descend upon Dallas December 5th-8th. With all these characters in one place you can expect major trades, major free agent signings, and random announcements, all of which will have a major impact on the 2012 Season. You know what else happens here?

The Rule 5 Draft: Dec 8th ) I’m not sure what “Rule 5” is. However, I do know that the Royals have found some decent players like, Joakim Soria in the Rule 5 Draft. It’s essentially a draft where other teams get to pick a minor leaguer from another teams system. Don’t worry. Teams can protect a certain number of players. The catch is that a selected player has to stay on the 25-Man Roster for the entire season or he goes back to his original team. If you’re a Royals fan you might want to take some notice to what happens here. I have no idea if changes to this draft are being discussed in the new CBA.

You should fatten up during the Holiday Season, because we’re about enter the toughest stretch of The Baseball Offseason.

January:

Jan 1st ) This day is important. This is the day the 2011 Season becomes “last” season, and the 2012 season becomes “this” season. You should also reflect on this day how awesome baseball is for having a playoff and a World Series instead of a bunch of random exhibition games between teams that are over .500 in neutral cities to determine a Champion.

After January 1st it gets tough. There will be the random announcement of a trade, or free agent signing, but nothing you can circle on a calendar and look forward to. Here are some things you can do to pass the winter.

1. Circle dates on calendars. It’s roughly six weeks until pitchers & catchers report

2. Whine about it being dark and cold

3. If you find a random nice day, get out the baseball equipment and play catch with someone. Or find a local batting cage and take some hacks.

4. Watch the MLB Network

5. If you have a subscription to MLB.tv, AtBat11 (or 12? I guess), or Gameday Audio you can go back into the 2011 archives. Pick a random game and watch or listen

6. Play your favorite MLB video game

7. Read I70 Baseball

8. Read sportsdrenched.com

9. Plan a baseball road trip with your friends.

10. Watch basketball and hockey

11. Whine about there being no baseball to your Twitter followers. If you have a live-in companion I would suggest this over whining to them.

12. Wonder who will replace Ryan Lefebvre?

13. I would say attend Royals FanFest or Caravan. But I’ve heard rumors of their demise. Look for those if you’re interested

February:

To me, turning the corner into February is the beginning of the end of The Baseball Offseason. There is a little more daylight, there are some warmer days. Pitchers & Catchers will report during the middle of the month. We even see the emergence of live baseball. February 17th, 2012 is Division I College Baseball common start day. It’s not the majors, but it’s decent entertaining baseball. That’s kind of a big deal here in Wichita. And then….

Spring Training ) All camps open for all players the last week of February. The Exhibition schedule starts March 2nd in the Cactus League with Oakland vs Seattle. Grapefruit League opens up with four games on March 3rd. Once the exhibition season starts the offseason is over. There will be some sort of baseball to watch, listen, or check up on from here until next November. Congratulations! We’ve made it through The Baseball Offseason.

But that’s still a long, long way off. When you feel Baseball Offseason Affective Disorder (Maybe that should be a twitter hash tag: #boad?) creeping in, bookmark this page and refer to it as much as you need to get through The Baseball Offseason. Together we’ll get through this.

Every year, the group known as the Baseball Bloggers Alliance places their ballots for various awards to be announced at the end of the season. This year, Bob Netherton and I will be placing the votes for the St. Louis Chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance in the category of Manager Of The Year. The award is officially titled The Connie Mack Award, so named because of the winningest manager in baseball history.

For me, this year’s group of skippers came down to a few criteria. Who did more with less? Who found ways to win games that were not meant to be won? It was not about taking a team that was supposed to win and winning (Sorry Charlie Manuel). It was about taking a team that had been written off (even on a game-to-game basis – everyone should be beating the Astros right now) and doing something unexpected. So without further ado, here are my top three choices for the Manager of the Year.

3. Tony LaRussa (St. Louis Cardinals) – Believe it or not, this is not a hometown pick. I am not a LaRussa fan, and I make no qualms about saying so. The man overmanages at times, yet finds ways to win. He is the third most winningest manager of all time, and will probably pass up John McGraw in the next season, should he return. But this award is not about longevity. It is about this year.

LaRussa’s Cardinals did more than anyone would have predicted they could this year. Their march to the postseason really did not begin in earnest until September, as they found themselves 10.5 games out of the race (wild card and divisional) during the week of August 24. They lost an ace in Adam Wainwright before the season began. Superstars Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday both suffered injuries that landed them on the shelf throughout the season. Guys that few out of the Midwest had heard of named Jon Jay and Daniel Descalso led the team in games played. Yet this team prevailed, made a historic comeback, and found their way into the playoffs. Tony might make me nuts, but he must be doing something right.

2. Clint Hurdle (Pittsburgh Pirates) – The Pirates had been complacent in the cellar of the National League for 18 years entering the 2011 campaign. Most people probably could not name 3 players off of the Pirate’s roster. The definition of a young team – Hurdle had only two players on his roster over the age of 30 this year. Yes, you read that correctly. Thirty. This team was doomed from the start.

Then something remarkable happened. Hurdle’s club put together a 47-43 first half. On July 19, game number 95 on the season, the Pirates were up a half game on the Milwaukee Brewers, a season high seven games over .500, and shocking the baseball scene. It was not going to last, according to pretty much everyone, but the Pirates held out longer than anyone thought they would. Hurdle had a young team, but he brought out the best in them, and if the team can stick together for a few years instead of trading them away for aging veterans, they could surprise again next year.

1. Kirk Gibson (Arizona Diamondbacks) – Last year, the Diamondbacks lost 97 games, finishing 27 games back of the eventual World Champion San Francisco Giants. Gibson, that of postseason fame himself, took over the reins of the team at roughly the halfway mark of that largely forgettable season. This season, Gibson brought in the A-Team for his coaching staff. Don Baylor, Alan Trammell, Matt Williams and Charles Nagy, among others, are all roaming the halls and dugout steps of Chase Field. Former coaches and managers in their own right, All-Stars whose playing days are not all that distant, now all together in one dugout. Every time you looked into that dugout, you wondered how Gibson got all those guys in one place.

This year, on the backs of a strong pitching staff led by starter Ian Kennedy and reliever J.J. Putz, the Diamondbacks shocked the National League West, running away from the division and finishing 8 games ahead of the Giants and the rest of the pack. Gibson made moves that other coaches would not make, used a regular lineup of players aged 23-30, and earned the respect of the rest of the National League in the process. Gibson might just be starting out his managerial career, but he is off to a good start.

Angela Weinhold covers the Cardinals as well as edits for i70baseball.com and writes at Cardinal Diamond Diaries. You may follow her on Twitter here or follow Cardinal Diamond Diaries here.

Every year, the group known as the Baseball Bloggers Alliance places their ballots for various awards to be announced at the end of the season. This year, it is my pleasure to place the votes for the St. Louis Chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance in the category of Manager Of The Year. The award is officially titled The Connie Mack Award.

The National League this year has shown some diversity amongst the teams. Highly competitive races came down to the last few weeks of the season, highlighted by three teams and the men that guided them. In my mind, the top three managers to be considered for the award are listed here….

3 – Dusty Baker, Cincinnati Reds
I know, as a Cardinal person I should not even utter his name. However, all things considered, I think you have to acknowledge the job that Baker did in Cincinnati this season with a team that most did not expect to even finish above .500. I am personally not a fan of his management style, and honestly should probably put Walt Jocketty’s name in parenthesis behind Baker’s, but all things considered he took a team that should not have been in playoff contention and turned them into division champions.

The only thing keeping Baker from climbing higher into this list is the team’s collapse down the stretch. A team that had every opportunity to bury the Cardinals and seal the division very early on, the Reds resembled the World Series Champion Cardinals from 2006 that were known for “backing into” the playoffs. The Reds capitalized more in the month of September from the Cardinals inability to win then they did from their ability to do so.

2 – Brad Mills, Houston Astros
Speaking of teams that everyone picked to lose, the Houston Astros were picked by many to challenge the Pirates for the opposite end of the division race. A very young team that had some financial problems with veteran stars, the Astros were viewed as a franchise that was in turmoil. Locked into rebuilding with very talented youngsters, the team was mired in the back end of contracts to star players that needed to be replaced.

Brad Mills took a young group of players, watched talent like Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman be traded away, and somehow put together a season that suggests that the Astros could be competing sooner rather than later for the division title. A team that most picked to finish dead last was capable of posting a record that ended a mere 10 games below .500. Mills was rewarded with an extension to his contract, showing faith in his ability to lead the players through the remainder of the rebuilding process. With Mills at the helm, the rest of the National League Central should take notice of the Houston Astros.

1 – Bruce Bochy, San Francisco Giants
There are teams that overachieved and there are teams that went above and beyond. Bochy took a Giants team that many picked to be contenders, but not playoff ready, and has led them into the playoffs and past future Hall Of Fame manager Bobby Cox’s Atlanta Braves and into the National League Championship Series to take on baseball’s latest dynasty, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Most pundits did not think the Giants were quite “there” at the begining of this season. But behind Bochy’s leadership, the team leveraged great play from rookie cornerstones and solid play from veteran leaders to put themselves in a postion to steal the Postseason away from everyone involved.

There you have it, my picks for the Connie Mack Award for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.