Sorry for the crappy title but when I heard whispers that Manny Acta was on the chopping block I thought of a great headline, "The Last Acta", that is until Yahoo stole the idea from my brain. The one you see now is the next best. I was more interested on a dumb headline like that than actually writing about the Nationals, so although I don't have much to say I'll try:
The Nationals suck. Like they really suck. John Lannan is their best starter. Christian Guzman is one of their bright spots. Julian Tavarez has been their best reliever. Who's to blame for this? Jim Bowden. Who's not to blame for this? Manny Acta. I understand teams wanting to change things up, but with the product that the Nationals put on the field what can they realistically expect with a change of manager? Acta wasn't Stan Kasten's choice so maybe he wants his own guy in the dugout running things, but too often GMs replace managres to cover up their own mistakes.
The Rockies fired Clint Hurdle this season and they have done very well since Jim Tracy took over. But Jim Tracy also did terrible on the Pirates (as most people do), and as recently as 2007 Clint Hurdle did well on the Rockies. Dan O'Dowd has been the GM of the Rockies since 1999, and in that time they've had two winning seasons, the previously mentioned World Series run in 2007 and 82 wins in 2000. Three different coaches and really only one good season, all under the same GMs watch. When Jim Leyland loses in Colorado, Buddy Bell loses in Colorado, and Clint Hurdle loses in Colorado, I think it's O'Dowd who is the problem, not the manager.
So the Nats can fire Acta if they want, but I don't see how he's the problem. The Mets loved him as an assistant and he even earned some votes for manager of the year in his first season with the Nationals. If Bobby V isn't already managing the Mets next year (after Manual gets fired), if the Nationals let Acta go, you can count on him being their top choice.
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