Well, it’s official: The Washington Nationals finally fired manager Manny Acta. Boasting the worst record in baseball (and recent memory), 26-61—a sub .300 winning percentage, the Nats have been the laughing stock of baseball. To put their complete inability to win in perspective, there are actually two teams with winning percentages more than twice as high: the Boston Red Sox (.614) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (.636).
But how much of the Nats’ failures is truly Acta’s fault? Let’s be honest: The only major free agent signing Washington made was Adam Dunn. They did not bring in any pitching whatsoever, nor any hitting aside from Dunn. No knock on Dunn, but when you sign up him, you are expecting 40 home runs, a .240 average and close to 200 K’s. Not the best franchise building block. Acta had no control over the front office.
As well, as a manager, you can only prepare your guys to play the game. Sure, you can make some in-game changes and season-long changes to players’ attitudes and styles, but, aside form that, there’s not much else.
Acta’s firing is more of a wake-up call to the Nationals. To the players? The coaches? People in the front office? Whomever. But oftentimes the manager is simply the scapegoat, and I believe this to be one of those times.
If I were to have one knock on Acta, it would be his in-game demeanor. Any time the camera was on him, he seemed unfazed. He’s not Joe Torre, here. He doesn’t have a prolific winning record, nor does he currently manage the best team in baseball.
I never saw any fire out of Acta. But that may not be his style. And if it’s not, you can’t condemn him for it. It just simply did work out in Washington.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Adam Dunn, Boston, Dodgers, Joe Torre, Los Angeles, Manager, Manny Acta, Nationals, Red Sox, Washington
The problem with the Nationals wasn’t Manny. It was pitching. The team has a rotation that includes 4 rookies (the most in baseball)! But surprisingly, the starting rotation has done a decent job. The bullpen is a different story. Who is to blame for the Nats’ failures? Try Ex-GM Jim Bowden and the owners, the Lerners, who don’t spend money.
This is an interesting article by Wash Post Columnist Tom Boswell on why Manny reminds him of Joe Torre and why he will be a great coach one day… just not with the Nats:
Has any manager ever begun his career as badly as Manny Acta of the Nationals (145-224) and gone on to be any good? I doubted there could be many, but I checked. I was wrong.
The list is substantial and includes some of the most famous managers in history: Casey Stengel (10 pennants), Miller Huggins (six), Joe Torre (six) and Bobby Cox (five) as well as Terry Francona, Chuck Dressen, Fred Haney and Burt Shotton, who also started just about as miserably as Acta but eventually won a pair of pennants apiece.
So, I showed the list to Acta. Before he even looked, he said, “I know Joe Torre, Bobby Cox and Terry Francona are on it.”
“Every manager on the list, for 100 years, has one thing in common,” I said.
“Let me guess,” he said, smiling amiably. “They all got fired from their first job.”
Haha, I didn’t know about that list; that’s really interesting. And it’s funny that Acta knew about it.
You just simply cannot blame the Nats’ failures on Acta. Just as, for example, you cannot attribute the Yankees’ past success simply to Joe Torre.