Washington Nationals Fire Manny Acta
WASHINGTON (AP) –
So much for the plan to have Manny Acta’s patient optimism lead the Washington Nationals out of the doldrums. The abysmal won-loss record became too much to stomach, costing him his job at the All-Star break and adding another layer of instability to the worst team in baseball...................................
“The only problem with our team is that there’s not that sense of urgency to win,” Zimmerman said. “I think we’re better than what we’ve shown. Maybe this will wake some people up.
“Some people there are so used to losing they don’t have that fire to win. I think there needs to be accountability and some responsibility taken. We have the built-in excuse of being young, but we’re not that young anymore.”
Yet Acta always remained upbeat, preaching patience and emphasizing the importance of keeping an even keel — so much so that some wondered whether he needed to show more fire and perhaps be more critical publicly when his players made mistakes. Rizzo said Acta’s style made it more difficult for the team to recover from an 0-7 start.
“The response was from a slow start out of the gates, and then getting into a hole that they felt they couldn’t get out of, I think that was a big part of it,” Rizzo said. “
And sometimes the even-keel-ness plays into that by not being a little more vocal, a little bit more hard-edged.”...........................
When Acta was hired in November 2006, he was 37, and no manager in the majors was younger. In his first season, Washington finished 73-89, fourth in the NL East and better than was expected.
Acta even received votes for NL Manager of the Year.
But the team took a step backward in 2008, going 59-102, the worst record in the majors. Every coach except pitching coach Randy St. Claire was fired at the end of the season, and St. Claire was dismissed at the beginning of June.......................................
http://www.atssportsblog.com/washington ... manny-acta
[Everyone in baseball knew about Manny Acta's style of managing. Did Mark Shapiro and Co. have a major brain fart when they hired Acta? If Rizzo thought his team was unstable and in the doldrums, how would one catagorize Mark Shapiro and the Cleveland Indians organization after its ten year run at mediocrity? It just blows my mind that the bed partners continually fail to judge talent on ALL levels.]
