Billy Goats' Andrew Doran And Wiffle Dees' Kadin Abegg Take Home Manager of The Year Honors

Throughout the week, we are announcing the winners of each regular season award voted on by all eighteen Managers. A player/manager received 3 points for a 1st place vote, 2 points for a 2nd place vote, and 1 point for a 3rd place vote. Today we announce the National and American League Manager of the Year Award winners.

Starting off in the National League, it was Twin Branch Billy Goats skipper Andrew Doran who received the most votes to take home the award. Doran ended up winning by a pretty wide margin as he finished with 43 votes which was 17 votes more than Griffin Smith who finished in second. This is the first time that Andrew Doran has taken home the award.

Twin Branch made back to back League Championship appearances in 2018 and 2019 before suffering back to back losing seasons in 2020 and 2021. The Billy Goats made the move back to the National League ahead of the 2022 season which is where they first started as a member of ORWBL.

Doran’s Billy Goats had immediate success in their move back to the NL as they had an all around great year from start to finish. They were the only ORWBL team to win their respective series’ against both the Granger Panthers and Maple City Magic. He did a great job utilizing a two man pitching rotation between himself and All Star Jake Lawrence.

A big reason for their success was Andrew Doran making a big splash over the off-season by signing Tony Koch to an ORWBL deal. The addition of Koch helped get this team back on track and his presence certainly helped some of the other players regain their confidence. All in all, while Twin Branch’s season came to a close in the NLDS, they have to feeling good about how they bounced back in 2022 as they looked like the Twin Branch team that entered the league back in 2018.

Moving over to the American League side, we saw a first year Manager in Kadin Abegg take home the award. Abegg finished 10 votes ahead of Ryan Galiher who finished in second place. After spending the last few years as a member of the County Line Kings, Abegg was ready to find a new role.

The team moved forward without their former manager Michael Forrester and decided to bring their already championship proven tournament team to ORWBL. The majority of the Kings roster ended up together as members of the Cityless Wiffle Dees as they all put their trust in Kadin Abegg to lead the charge.

Abegg assumed his new role and thrived not only as a manager but as a player as well. He blossomed into one of the Dees’ top hitters while also evolving into one of the league’s best pitchers. All in all, he did a great job managing this squad which was loaded with talent.

He brought in a pair of Rookies in Mason Ryans and Brayden Ruiz over the off-season as Ruiz ended up winning Rookie of the Year honors. Lastly, it’s important to shout out his commitment to the Dees this year as he ended up playing in 27 regular season games all while making the trip to and from Cincinnati for every series.

Awards week continues tomorrow as we will announce the National and American League Cy Young Award winners. Below are the full results for the Manager of the Year vote as we will post all of the Manager's ballots in full next week.

National League Manager of the Year Full Results:

Andrew Doran: 43 (Billy Goats)

Griffin Smith: 26 (Panthers)

Peyton Doran: 16 (Skeeters)

Ryan Warmoth: 13 (Meatspins)

Cam Bashaw: 8 (Knights)

Koby Keck: 1 (Newts)

Adam Cseh: 1 (Sluggers)

American League Manager of the Year Full Results:

Kadin Abegg: 38 (Wiffle Dees)

Ryan Galiher: 28 (Truffle Butter)

Andrew Karsten: 26 (Pink Pandas)