Nationals Fire Manny Acta

I don't understand why, outside of a major incident, why teams this far out of contention like the Nats or the Pirates or even the D'Backs fire their magagers. They are on the hook to pay them the rest of the year and it isn't like promoting someone to interim manager is going to make enough of a difference. Why not just let the guy finish the season and then fire him.

I just want to know from Nats fans:

1. Was Acta really making bad decisions?

2. Would someone else have been able to do a better job with this team?

My second question should be

Would someone else have been able to do a good enough job to make a real difference?

I will say this...

sometime in the future, Manny Acta will be a great Manager.

Just not now, and not in Washington.

@BucSox

No,
No

The owners don't care about anything but profits so they don't spend any money on the team. Acta didn't do anything wrong but they'll blame him for their failures.

Manny will be the Mets Bench Coach within a week. Book it.

Then he'll be next in line to overmanage the Bullpen, assign someone to a slot in the batting order and rigidly refuse to remove them from that slot no matter how it might positively affect the lineup, stick with personal favorites who can't hit as his primary pinch hitters, pull a starter after 5 2/3 innings even if the pitcher is doing well and then use the entire bullpen to finish the last 3 1/3 innings, leave Loogys in against 4 straight right handers, and then bringin a Right hander to face the lefties, and stubbornly stick with the absolute worst players in the absolute most important situations when it clearly never works.

those are all things that Manny has actually done as Nationals Manager, all of which he did actually have options to do things differently for. and for these things, the Personnel he had at his disposal was not a factor, as he continually did these things regardless of how many times we've switched the players out and replaced them.

and he'll be set to do them in New York, in a Mets uniform very, very soon. count on it.

and hooray for the standard generic Nats criticisms whenever the Nats get rid of someone who wasn't doing their job well.

They weren't doing their jobs well because, well, they play for the Nationals. We get it. When it comes to the Nationals, it's never the Manager or Player's fault, it's always the Organization's fault. got it.

What young players did he get to develop? I guess Zimmerman, Flores, Dukes, Milledge,Chico, Zimmermann and Lannan? Well Zimmerman seems to be reaching his potential, when Flores has been healthy he's been solid, and Zimmermann is a stud. Lannan is pitching well also. So I guess the only players he didn't "develop" are Milledge and Dukes. Both guys have loads of potential,but serious attitude problems. Both brought in by the inept Bowden. Draft picks like Crowe go unsigned. Bowden gave contracts to Kearns, Guzman, and Young. What the hell is Acta supposed to do?!!! With this circus Acta remained calm, collected and made the best decisions with the crap he was given. Manny you are better off. You'll get another chance just choose carefully.

Say what you want about Manny having nothing to work with, but he absolutely did not help himself out with his in-game decisions.

Great guy, lousy manager.

"Great guy, lousy manager" says it pretty well. He over-managed the pitching and about everything else. He blew through a pretty fair bullpen that he inherited from Frank Robinson with wretched overuse--more trips to the mound than any other manager during his tenure. He seems almost embarrassed to argue with the umpires. The team has no life and plays flat and uninspired--exactly the demeanor of their manager. The Nationals are not a good team, but they are better than they show on the field currently. Now if we can just get rid of that stuffed shirt Kasten. Another nice guy, but over his head.

As a loyal Nats fan, I'm sad to see Manny go. He was a class act and I was very much on his bandwagon when he was hired.

That said, the student of the game in me knew he wasn't a good fit, especially this season. Granted, he's been saddled with more than a few of Jim Bowden's bad player decisions but the sloppy play followed by the shoulder-shrugging attitude are clearly linked. Perhaps Manny isn't the type to turn over desks, but sometimes you have to get dramatic to get people's attention.

Am I the only one that thinks that Manny Acta gets a free pass for being on a lousy team?

Yeah, he couldn't have done too much with what he had... but he certainly could have done better.

Look at the way the Expos were playing when Frank Robinson was the manager, who at one point were actually on the hunt, and don't tell me that was a much more talented team.

@MrMadison: You're right, you can't keep firing waiters to improve the meal quality. Of course, if the restuarant wasn't serving rat and pigeon to the customers, the chef wouldn't have to try and be Jesus and turn it into something edible.

"However, with a middle-of-the-lineup that includes Ryan Zimmerman, ---ADAM DUNN---, Nick Johnson, and Josh Willingham, there's absolutely no reason why we aren't hitting better."

Just wanted to fix that omission.

But I agree with the others, how can he be held accountable when having 10+ OFers to try and work into the lineup without a pitcher to be found? And sorry, but when your bullpen consists of any arm you can find that is still in its socket, without a single starter over the age of 25 (outside of one of the worst pitchers in the game, Daniel Cabrera, for a short while), you are going to have a horrendous club!

He should be created for even getting the ballplayers to show up to the games! It has to be so deflating to play on this club… The team might have some future, but it will be hard to reach it with the team set up as it is now. I dont really blame him for having a "whatever" attitude towards losing games, this team is set up to do just that almost exclusively.

i agree totally with this guy

"Natsnut1 wrote:
I wonder how long it took them (The Washington Nationals Baseball Club) to compose that lame excuse for a explanation of the Manny firing. I guess it was because no one person could get themselves to write it. So it was written with all the flair and honesty that this ownership group has displayed since they have owned the club. Talk about an anonymous ownership with zero personality and fronted by that talking marionette Stan Kasten. Whose views is he representing anyway? At least with Peter Angelos and the Orioles we knew who to hate, especially when he blocked our Nats coming into existence all those long years supported by his stooge 'Bud' Selig and now makes me watch most Nats games on God-awful MASN1...(sorry, I digress). I will tell you who stinks here...it's the Nats ownership. Cheap, flinty, behind-the-scenes, clueless, manipulated by slimeball Bowden, stupid marketing campaigns, slow-payers to their landlords, incapable of attracting development around the stadium, lousy to their employees (ask Frank Robinson) and incapable of Leadership. They didn't fire Manny, he escaped Alcatraz. Good luck to him and have mercy on the rest of us."

Mannny Acta to the Pirates would help.