Manny Acta Fired

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

You keep saying there were plenty cheap defense players but hadn't say any names. You can't blame the defense when the bullpen has blown 20 games. I've set and watching the pen can't or wont throw strikes.

I named one that was in your own system that they traded away for a low level pitching prospect. This was posted days before the trade on USS Mariner describing how valuable Langerhans is...

http://ussmariner.com/2009/06/22/ryan-langerhans/

Guys like Ryan Sweeney, Langerhans, Scutaro, Ellis, Chavez, etc. are cheap and invaluable. These types of players are scattered all over baseball.

And I can blame the defense because the Nationals aren't last in Fielding Independent pitching, but they are last when you take defense into account. The Nats defense sucks and that's the easiest area to address.

[rsox]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

The original plan when signing Adam Dunn was that he was going to play 1B. The team tried to trade Nick Johnson throughout the off season but had no luck since there was a glut of 1B/DH types on the free agent market. The Nats were well aware of Dunn's defensive shortcomings before they signed him but they desperately needed the bat, especially since Lastings Milledge was their best offensive player in 2008.

Dunn is also not the worst thing to happen to the Nats payroll despite popular opinion. At $8 million he makes the same as Austin Kearns, who has been terribly unproductive (.196, 3 HR's, 16 RBI's) and Cristian Guzman. Dmitri Young is getting $5 million and he has only played 1 game this year.
That is $29 million invested in 4 players and only Adam Dunn has lived up to the money so far (Guzman has been decent but he is not worth $8 million). Once again Adam Dunn is not the worst thing to happen to the Nationals, their problems go far beyond anything Adam Dunn could ever do.

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

The original plan when signing Adam Dunn was that he was going to play 1B. The team tried to trade Nick Johnson throughout the off season but had no luck since there was a glut of 1B/DH types on the free agent market. The Nats were well aware of Dunn's defensive shortcomings before they signed him but they desperately needed the bat, especially since Lastings Milledge was their best offensive player in 2008.

Dunn is also not the worst thing to happen to the Nats payroll despite popular opinion. At $8 million he makes the same as Austin Kearns, who has been terribly unproductive (.196, 3 HR's, 16 RBI's) and Cristian Guzman. Dmitri Young is getting $5 million and he has only played 1 game this year.
That is $29 million invested in 4 players and only Adam Dunn has lived up to the money so far (Guzman has been decent but he is not worth $8 million). Once again Adam Dunn is not the worst thing to happen to the Nationals, their problems go far beyond anything Adam Dunn could ever do.

Johnson was tradeable, I heard the Nats were asking way too much. And based on the metrics, playing Dunn at 1B might be worse than him roaming the outfield. He's just a guy that needs to DH in the AL and refuses to do so. Luckily for him, Washington was the only team desperate and foolish enough to sign him in the NL for $8 million/year. And 1.5 WAR does not equate to $8m/year, so he's not worth the contract at this point.

I don't know why this thread went down the path with the repeated posts stating that Dunn isn't the biggest problem with Washington...no one ever said it was. But, his signing is indicative of one of the major issues with Washington. They do not know how to construct a team and their talent evaluation is terrible.

[Ewing]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Guys like Ryan Sweeney, Langerhans, Scutaro, Ellis, Chavez, etc. are cheap and invaluable. These types of players are scattered all over baseball.

And I can blame the defense because the Nationals aren't last in Fielding Independent pitching, but they are last when you take defense into account. The Nats defense sucks and that's the easiest area to address.

The Nats just picked up a player like that a couple weeks ago by the name of Nyjer Morgan. In fact, he's not just any player, he's leading the entire sport in UZR right now.

[mvb34]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Johnson was tradeable, I heard the Nats were asking way too much. And based on the metrics, playing Dunn at 1B might be worse than him roaming the outfield. He's just a guy that needs to DH in the AL and refuses to do so. Luckily for him, Washington was the only team desperate and foolish enough to sign him in the NL for $8 million/year. And 1.5 WAR does not equate to $8m/year, so he's not worth the contract at this point.

I don't know why this thread went down the path with the repeated posts stating that Dunn isn't the biggest problem with Washington...no one ever said it was. But, his signing is indicative of one of the major issues with Washington. They do not know how to construct a team and their talent evaluation is terrible.

But its not..not even close

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

But its not..not even close

Its not a problem to pay $8 million/year (1/6th of your payroll) to a guy that equates to 1.5 wins better than a scrap heap player over the span of a season?

Which leads to what Ewing stated about Morgan (that I completely forgot about and will eat some crow cause that was a good move).
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/morgan-dunn

If paying Adam Dunn $10 million per season to be a +2.5 win player is a good idea, then paying Nyjer Morgan $400,000 to be a +2 win player is a great idea. There is no world in which Dunn’s production and salary is more valuable than Morgan’s production and salary. You could acquire 100 Lastings Milledge’s for the amount of money that Dunn is getting to be the big, power hitting equal of Morgan.

Baseball is not just about who can hit the ball further. It’s time we stopped evaluating players on their offensive worth alone.

Now if only Dunn's production equated to 2.5 wins this season.

[mvb34]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Its not a problem to pay $8 million/year (1/6th of your payroll) to a guy that equates to 1.5 wins better than a scrap heap player over the span of a season?

Which leads to what Ewing stated about Morgan (that I completely forgot about and will eat some crow cause that was a good move).
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/morgan-dunn
Now if only Dunn's production equated to 2.5 wins this season.

Do you know the Washington Nationals are paying Dmitri Young five million dollars who's in triple a?? Again I say Adam Dunn is not the problem..

[tyler289]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

If Adam Dunn wasn't a National, we would have less than 20 wins right now.

I watch this team every freakin night, and the presence he has in the lineup is huge. If we didn't have him in LF every night, we'd be playing Austin Kearns every night, probably batting 4th, and our offense would be even worse. Luckily Willingham has played great, but regardless, you have to understand that if we didn't sign Dunn, we wouldn't have signed or acquired anybody else to play left field and would trot out Kearns, Milledge, and Dukes every night.

I know all the sabermetric guys will say "He's just a 1-win player!"

But I watch this team. It is so much more talented than last year's team it's not even funny, especially on offense. Adam Dunn is a big part of that. As for the team trying to move Nick Johnson, no would would give up anything decent for a guy who just missed 90% of the season and the whole season before that. No one. The Nats held on to him, like they should have, and now his value is very high. They must deal him. Absolutely. They can get value for him. Same with Guzman, though his is much less. I'd keep Willingham, but would definitely listen to offers; we can't have two terrible defensive outfieleders out there.

The problem extends all the way throughout the organization, all the way to the Lerners, who have failed to prove to me that they care about winning.

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Do you know the Washington Nationals are paying Dmitri Young five million dollars who's in triple a?? Again I say Adam Dunn is not the problem..

So you can't have more than one player personnel problem? And you help prove my point. The Nats had no idea how to construct a quality roster. Which is a problem, correct?

[tyler289]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

So you can't have more than one player personnel problem? And you help prove my point. The Nats had no idea how to construct a quality roster. Which is a problem, correct?

Of course it's a problem, but Adam Dunn is not part of the problem. He's one player, currently leading the team in home runs and rbis. He's arguably the MVP and has been the most consistent offensive performer for the team. His defense sucks but as long as you have other players (like Morgan) who can make up for that, it can even out.

The Nationals just have too many players like Dunn (only worse).

[Ewing]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

I personally love Adam Dunn as a player and I think the rest of you guys are missing Coug's point. It's not that Adam Dunn is on the team, it's the amount of money the Nats are paying for him. Personally, I'm okay with it because the Nats have deeper pockets than most people realize. They just haven't used it that much yet.

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Of course it's a problem, but Adam Dunn is not part of the problem. He's one player, currently leading the team in home runs and rbis. He's arguably the MVP and has been the most consistent offensive performer for the team.

Last I checked Dunn isn't a DH, so he has to play defense too. I have never once argued Dunn isn't a great hitter. In fact, I've defended Dunn's bat against other posters here who were saying he is overrated as a hitter. What I've said in this thread is that his defense is so poor (he is the worst fielder in baseball) that it cancels out some of his offensive value to the point he's not worth $8m/year and, unless he really turns it on offensively he's certainly not going to be worth $12m/year in 2010.

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

I personally love Adam Dunn as a player and I think the rest of you guys are missing Coug's point. It's not that Adam Dunn is on the team, it's the amount of money the Nats are paying for him. Personally, I'm okay with it because the Nats have deeper pockets than most people realize. They just haven't used it that much yet.

Exactly, thank you.

[tyler289]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Last I checked Dunn isn't a DH, so he has to play defense too. I have never once argued Dunn isn't a great hitter. In fact, I've defended Dunn's bat against other posters here who were saying he is overrated as a hitter. What I've said in this thread is that his defense is so poor (he is the worst fielder in baseball) that it cancels out some of his offensive value to the point he's not worth $8m/year and, unless he really turns it on offensively he's certainly not going to be worth $12m/year in 2010.

Ok, I understand. But when it comes to salary, who cares, really? The Lerners are the richest owners in baseball and there is no salary cap. They're just dumb, cheap, and incompetent owners. If it were a different team it'd be a different situation, but Dunn's salary shouldn't be an issue when the team spends no money and has plenty of room to spend.

[Ewing]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

his defense is so poor (he is the worst fielder in baseball)

Actually Vernon Wells is worse this year and his unproductive *** got signed to over 100 million. Like I said, I get the point you're making. His fielding negates his offensive value. I'm okay with that, if the Nats had some great fielders elsewhere. Which they now do with Morgan and Zimmerman. However, they're still stuck with Nick Johnson at first and Guzman at short among other things.