Manny Acta Fired

[mvb34]

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.

Two years 20 millions is not a lot of money in the baseball world. Its dumb to say Adam Dunn is the Nats problem. The should have add money in the bullpen but Bowen thought what they had was okay.

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

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.

Actually, I think Yamauchi, the M's majority owner, is the richest (Pohland was up there with Lerner until he croked). Yamauchi's worth is $7.8 billion (more than twice that of Lerner's). Guess it depends on the rest of the Lerner group vs the M's minority owners.

Either way, both of them run their teams as a business and don't open up their pocketbooks unless the team earns it fiscally. Which is why signings like Richie Sexson, Carlos Silva, and Adam Dunn have to be efficient signings because they take up a large chunk of payroll. When those signings don't end up being worth their value, the team is handcuffed and they lose the opportunity to make up Win values else where.

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.

I know UZR says Wells is worse, but combining RZR and OOZ its not even close as to who is worse. Either way, they're both terrible and should be banned from wearing cowhide.

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Two years 20 millions is not a lot of money in the baseball world. Its dumb to say Adam Dunn is the Nats problem. The should have add money in the bullpen but Bowen thought what they had was okay.

Where have I said that he is the problem?

[mvb34]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

IMO, the Dunn signing is one of the problems with the Nats. He takes up 1/6 of their payroll and he's become a 1.5-ish Win Above Replacement player in the National League.

Take the job. You're young...many FO guys made their starts pushing papers.

Where have I said that he is the problem?

See bold

[snepp]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

See bold

Your reading comprehension is atrocious.

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Your reading comprehension is atrocious.

Beat me to it.

[pfunk880]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

See bold

You may want to do the same yourself.

[mvb34]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

He still say he's the problem. Of all the issue with the Nats Dunn is no one of them..

[Coug00]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

He still say he's the problem. All the issue with the Nats is no one of them..

Uncle.

[wwharton]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

I understand the Nats are in a difficult predicament of win now versus build for the future, but winning brings fans to the stadium better than Adam Dunn ever will. I can't disagree more with "such and such team needs a big name to fill the seats". The attendance spikes from such players is short term wearing off within a couple of months if the team is losing. Winning brings the fans.

$8 million sunk into a player that will get you approximately 1.5 wins above a replacement level player is not a good strategy. They just traded away a useful player in Langerhans for nothing and at the end of a full season, he would have a higher Win Value than Dunn. Instead, the M's have Langerhans on the cheap and have him under team control for two more years.

I don't have much faith in the FO, even after Bowden was canned. And that is a problem...its just not their biggest problem, right now.

I think you're lumping me in with the other discussions when I'm not disagreeing with your assessment of the Nats as a whole at all. THIS year it would've taken a miracle for the Nats to not finish in last place. Considering all the other things previously mentioned, signing a name who also swings a big bat was a good move for the franchise. It's not a move made to continue the build toward the future... it was one made independent of that. When the Nats have pieces in place, and look to be on the verge of being even remotely competitive (assuming the front office has half a clue bc I do agree that it's lacking) then Dunn will likely be one of the first put on the trading blocks.

Signing Dunn was a business move that didn't help or hurt the on the field franchise move forward... but it did help a team desperate for reasons to give people to come out to the park.

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.

Guzman's contract is new too. Signing Guzman to that much money is probably the worse move in their short history.

[pfunk880]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

He still say he's the problem. All the issue with the Nats is no one of them..

Wha...?

[Ewing]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

He still say he's the problem. All the issue with the Nats is no one of them..

[snepp]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

This bump brought to you by Fangraphs.

[J0nnD0ugh]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Record w/Acta: 26-61 .299
w/o Acta: 14-11 .560

I'm not saying the Nats could have hit .500 this year. But how can anyone still feel Acta wasn't a main problem in the Nats being so putrid? Yes, Bowden left him w/a sorry team. But Acta took a horrible team & still managed them to underachievement.

[tyler289]

Re: Manny Acta Fired

Record w/Acta: 26-61 .299
w/o Acta: 14-11 .560

I'm not saying the Nats could have hit .500 this year. But how can anyone still feel Acta wasn't a main problem in the Nats being so putrid? Yes, Bowden left him w/a sorry team. But Acta took a horrible team & still managed them to underachievement.

After a 4-error game against the Padres Riggleman screamed at the team and since then the team has been playing great. What would Acta have done? Pat his amigos on the back and tell them "Oh well, you'll get em next time."

The team is really responding to whatever Riggleman is doing, and I'm loving it. I'm hoping they catch the Royals before the season ends.