The Indians announced that they exercised their 2013 option for manager Manny Acta. Acta's three-year contract had been set to expire after the 2012 season.
Acta led the Indians to an 80-82 mark this year, an 11-game improvement over the 69-93 record the Indians had in 2010, Acta's first season in Cleveland. The Indians finished the '11 season with the third- youngest roster in MLB, one that included 11 players who made their Major League debuts in 2011.
The Indians contended for much of the season and remained in the race long enough to trade for summer reinforcements such as Ubaldo Jimenez and Kosuke Fukudome. Their attendance increased by about 450,000 fans this year.
Nothing like a late season fade to inspire confidence in a manager.
like they didnt have a barrage of injuries….moron
umad bro?
Clearly no other teams deal with injuries. Sorry for the confusion.
how many teams have just 3 position players getting more than 400 PA in a season?
(i’m not an indians fan by the way)
Wow, that’s interesting. Santana, Bradley, and Cabrera?
Yes Paul, The Indians were 100% all year. Did you read the damn article? “11 players who made their Major League debuts in 2011.” We had two starting players who never got injured all year and that was Asdrubal (was day to day for a foot injury) and Santana.
It doesn’t take much to get you Cleveland fans worked all up in a tizzy. Having watched Manny in DC for 2.5 long years it is hard for me to imagine him as anything other than over hyped. But his watchful eye did help us net Strasburg and Harper, so I can’t complain…
You won me over, Kyle, if he is good enough for Cleveland that is good enough for me.
Seeing 50/50 from tribe fans about Acta. Some hate him, some love him. Personally, I think he’s a good addition…
Solid move by Cleveland. Acta brought that team together and next year may even be better for them.
This is good for Cleveland as well as Baseball in general.The team saw just under half million increase in attendance in a town that has been hit hard by the economy recently, which proves if you put out a good product the fans with come. Regardless of payroll and no real superstars.
The organization has a plan and stuck to it ,even with injuries and showed that they’re willing to spend if it makes sense. Acta is good with young players that are willing to learn and try to get better, so the Indians are on the right track. In a Division that’s not overwhelmingly strong, they could be a team to be reckoned with in 2012. Go Tribe!
Paul, like the nationals really had anything to fully back Manny? Let’s be real, they were awful and he was the scape goat. So the Indians had a young roster and won 69 games, had an even younger roster with serious injuries that depleted their young players, and won 81 games. I’ll be here to throw it in your face when we win 90 games next year with an “over hyped” manager. So any manager that fades down the stretch doesn’t deserve a job? So you’d fire Terry Francona? Fredi Gonzalez? Time to grow up Paul and make real sports observations
Funny you should mention both Terry and Fredi – Fredi was fired from the Marlins and Terry was just pushed out from the Red Sox. The fact of the matter is, Manny was supposed to be the second coming for the Nats and he was anything but. Notice how after he left, the Nats really started to improve under Riggleman and now Johnson.
and Paul did end with “But his watchful eye did help us net Strasburg and Harper, so I can’t complain… You won me over, Kyle, if he is good enough for Cleveland that is good enough for me. ”
so, I really don’t understand the nasty tone of your post….
But Fredi was just hired by the braves as their first choice to replace Cox, and i think they know what they’re doing. And the rumor this morning is that Francona wants out of Boston, not the other way around so we’ll have to see how that situation works out.
Jim Riggleman had a winning percentage .141 points higher than Acta had with the exact same players in 2009 over roughly the same amount of games (and Riggo is no Casey Stangel). I am not saying that the Nats fielding a lineup of all stars or even anything closely resembling an above .500 baseball club, but Acta was clearly in over his head and didn’t know how to respond when things started going wrong. He didn’t know whose buttons to push and allowed the clubhouse culture to turn individualistic and downright caustic at time.
Acta’s reputation is stellar within the game and I had very high hopes for him in DC, but the guy has never lived up to it. His teams have a combined .417 winning percentage, and has never overseen a team that has finished above .500. Even this year, the Tribe was out scored by 56 runs, meaning that their record of 80-82 is probably a little generous.
Sure, there are always excuses with injuries, poorly built teams (DAMN YOU JIM BOWDEN!!!), and things of the like that are all very legitimate. But until I see the man actually turn a team around your optimism seems a bit generous.
For the record, I love Acta. He is a classy guy and the type of person you want associated with your baseball team. But I would rather have him as a 3rd base coach than manager.
I am looking forward to hearing from you at the end of next season… and growing up. I am told that the whole process is very rewarding.
I understand your points more in that argument. Not to discredit you at all but curious what the winning percentages are for teams that change managers in season?
I do agree that he is a classy guy and I’m hoping for the best, but there are numerous successful managers in history that struggled in their first managerial positions.
Best of luck to the Nats in the future!
No clue on the winning % of teams that change managers mid season. I can think of a Jack McKeown example where it worked out really well… and I can think of another McKeown example where it didn’t… Oh, and Showalter made us all think that the O’s were a legit powerhouse for a couple months before reality hit in 2011. I figure over a long enough sample size I bet it is about even, but I have nothing other than speculation to back that one up (and I don’t feel like googling it right now…)
You are right, most managers stink it up in their first gig. I remember thinking that Terry Francona would be a bum in Boston after his tenure in Philly… so I have been wrong before… but then again, he did inherit a good team from Grady Little…