Nightengale, the national baseball writer for USA Today, went on to remind his followers that the voting is conducted prior to the postseason when Cora obviously made an even stronger case for himself.
The Melvin supporters will point to his Oakland A's winning 97 games and earning a Wild Card berth despite possessing the third-lowest payroll in baseball. Cora's case is built on managing a franchise-record 108 wins while doing so in the pressure-packed Boston market. The Red Sox did, of course, own the highest payroll in MLB.
The third candidate is Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash, who guided the Rays to 90 wins with the lowest payroll in baseball while implementing such unconventional maneuvers as utilizing a bullpen game once every time through the rotation.
