Nationals fire Manny Acta

[Mark DeCotis]

Midway through his third season as manager of the woeful Washington Nationals, manager Manny Acta has been fired.



The team plans an 11:30 a.m. press conference today to discuss the managerial situation.


The Nationals, who hold spring training in Viera, have Major League Baseball’s worst record at the All-Star break, 26-61. Acta’s record at the Nationals’ helm was 158-252.

 

[Matt1735]

So a team with an acta-ing GM will have an acta-ing manager, but neither one will be Acta.

 

[Bob Cook]

Rearranging deck chairs, Titanic, etc.

 

[Starman]

And Montreal chuckles.

 

[spnited]

He'll end up in Flushing next year after Manuel gets canned

 

[Moderator1]

Enjoy that.

 

[Pancamo]

Always looks bored. Pathetic franchise.

 

[RickStain]

There's enough talent on that team to be better than 26-61, whether it's Acta's fault or not.

 

[Moderator1]

Agreed. Team should be 36-51.

 

[expendable]

I wonder how long it will be before Acta gets another shot. The Nats are 26-61 because of the front office, not because of Manny.

 

[Moderator1]

Offered without comment, a copy of the letter the Nationals sent to saps like me who keep pouring money (for now) into this franchise:

To Fans of the Washington Nationals,

No one is more dissatisfied in the first half of the 2009 Washington Nationals season than we are. Like you, we had hoped that some of our younger players would have matured faster and that the addition of some of our new veterans would have significantly improved our record from a season ago. Our hope was that solid club leadership would emerge on and off the field and that some intangible combinations would begin to click resulting in many winning streaks.

We definitely do see significant pieces materializing for the future, and there have been many close, exciting games and optimistic bright spots: Strong outings by John Lannan, the home run and RBI production of Adam Dunn, the All-Star selection and 30-game hitting streak of Ryan Zimmerman and the recent addition of speedster Nyjer Morgan. Much of the season, however, has been defined by weak relief pitching, poor defense, and youthful inconsistency. We have tried to work through this period with patience and focus but now we are faced with mounting losses which are beginning to take a toll on our entire roster. Clearly, some changes are required as we prepare for the second half of the 2009 season and, more importantly, build for a competitive future.

Today, we announced that manager Manny Acta is being replaced on an interim basis by Jim Riggleman, veteran manager, and currently the Nats bench coach. Both the Ownership and the entire Washington Nationals organization have the highest respect for Manny Acta and the role he has played in the short history of the Nationals. However, it is our belief that a fresh attitude and approach is necessary as we set out to improve our performance for the remainder of the year. We want to send a strong message to our clubhouse and our fans that the status quo is unacceptable. We believe that more is expected of everyone in the organization.

Baseball operations will be reevaluating all our players and our options for improvement over the next several months. We hope to sign our 2009 draft choices by the August deadline. We hope these new additions will join an already exciting Nationals youth movement headed by the likes of Lannan, Jesus Flores, Alberto Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann and Craig Stammen on our current roster, and the likes of promising Minor League stars like Chris Marrero, Michael Burgess, Danny Espinosa, Derek Norris and Drew Storen, among many others. But, we also will be determining the viability of trades or roster upgrades that can be made without doing damage to the farm system or the developing talent we expect to blossom within the next two years.

When we bought the Washington Nationals in the middle of the 2006 season - just under three years ago - we committed to a patient, long term approach, building a strong farm system and core foundation that would deliver a perennial and consistent contender; to provide a second-to-none family entertainment value at Nationals Park; and to investment and involvement in the metropolitan Washington, DC community. Today we remain steadfastly committed to each component of that mission. We are proud to represent the National Pastime in the Nation's Capital, and we are proud to call the Capital area home.

We know we have a way to go, but the end result will be all the richer for the early days we've spent together at Nationals Park. We are getting better. We want you to be with us as the pieces of the puzzle come together. Your support is powerful to the Nationals and baseball in Washington. Thank you for your continuing patience and your commitment to a shared dream.

Sincerely,
Washington Nationals Baseball Club


My response:

To The Washington Nationals:

Thanks for the note. Now STFU and produce, eh? You've changed almost everything from the day you arrived. Almost all the players. The manager, twice now. Coaches. The GM (thank you for that). The improvement seen? None. Zero. Zip. We keep hearing how things are on the right track blah blah blah blah blah. How about showing us that? You act like you're the only organization in the world with good, young talent. You are not. So save the energy it takes to tell us how sorry you are things are working out this way. Put all of it toward fixing this mess and fixing it quickly.

Nice touch, leaving your new (interim) manager out of the press conference, by the way. Not that we'd want to hear from the man charged with trying to clean up some of this mess.

Sincerely,

NFBLooser
Owner of four (partial) season-tickets, a big gas bill and more "Curly W" clothes than any human should claim to own.

 

[Trey Beamon]

Acta deserves blame, but only to a certain point. He wasn't the one who put together The Bullpen From Hell.

Then again, it's not all bad for the Nats. They have some nice rotation pieces in Zimmermann, Lannan, Martis and Stammen. And I'd certainly take the potential of Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper over consecutive 68-94 win seasons.

 

[Moderator1]

They haven't signed Strasburg.
They have no rights to Bryce Harper.

Are the Nats young pitchers better than, say, the Giants? They have a couple of 10-2 guys and one of them has already won a Cy.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

There's a lot of exaggeration going on in terms of how talented some of the young guys are. In terms of overall rankings, they had ONE player in the top 50, and he's a 20-year-old catcher in low-A ball right now.

Otherwise, Justin Maxwell is hitting .232 in AAA. And while he's drawing lots of walks he's also striking out more than once a game. At AA their best players are already too old to be considered stud prospects. Even Ian Desmond is already 24, though his numbers suggest he should be at Syracuse now. Down a level from there you have Chris Marrero hitting the crap out of the ball at the age of 21 in the Carolina League. And while it's his second year there, he's still young enough where it's ok. They also have another catcher putting up good numbers there.

I didn't bother looking at the pitching, which is where all the depth supposedly is, but there isn't anyone position-wise screaming future star. Unless the Lerners go Wayne Huizenga circa 1997 this team isn't going to be successful for a real long time.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Jim Riggleman? Seriously?

 

[tapintoamerica]

The Washington Nationals shouldn't even exist. Baseball should have purged them and the Marlins years ago.

 

[Starman]

Unfortunately, the strategy of MLB to tank baseball in Montreal by strangling the franchise from the neck down a decade ago continues to have ripple effects. The farm system has been stripped bare for a couple of generations of players now. The stupidity of signing up washed-up has-been veterans like Dmitri Young only exacerbates the problem.

 

[old_tony]

Jim Riggleman? Seriously?

Leo Durocher turned them down from the grave.

 

[RickStain]

Jim Riggleman? Seriously?

I always thought he was very underrated with the Cubs.

 

[crimsonace]

Yay ... we can see Riggleman overmanage them to 100 losses ...

This team is a victim of MLB trying to contract them and gutting what was once the best farm system in baseball and some really hideous management decisions.

Frank Robinson did a helluva job managing what was a pretty bad team in Montreal when MLB was barely giving them enough resources to put a team on the field and the first couple of years in Washington, when the Nats were somewhat competitive despite the hurdles. He got shown the door for his efforts ... but he deserves better than the train wreck that Acta had to put up with.