Anybody have Davey Johnson in their 3-day old "Who's going to manage the Washington Nationals" poll? Nobody here did.
The Nationals have made it official, announcing Sunday morning their newest manager would be baseball veteran Dave Johnson. Johnson will make his Nationals debut Monday against the Dodgers.
Believe it or not, Johnson, a baseball lifer, has been a "Special Advisor" to team G.M Mike Rizzo since 2009. Johnson has a long history in baseball, having managed the Mets, Reds, Orioles and Dodgers over the course of 14 seasons.
He'll replace the departed Jim Riggleman, who walked away from the time at the beginning of the past week over a contract dispute.
Johnson will run the club through the end of the season which is when he and Rizzo will decide on how long the job will be. There are whispers he signed a personal services deal that will keep him with the team through 2014 as either manager or adviser.
Either way, we like the choice here, Johnson is a good, veteran baseball guy who's had success just about everywhere he's been. The Nationals have been one of the better stories this season as their young talent is starting to take hold in the majors and the pipeline holds a lot more of it. Look for the Nats to have some success in the coming years.
The HQ has dealt with Jim Riggleman in the past...
He's a baseball guy that doesn't take any crap, and we like that when it comes to getting sound bites...
Riggleman wanted to talk about his contract option as a part of the future of a team that has won 11 of its last 12...
Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo and Riggleman had a difference of opinion on what the plan of action was going to be... and since Rizzo didn't want to hear it, Riggleman resigned...
Kelli Johnson was just as stunned as the rest of us...
And here's Riggleman- a real stand-up guy for doing this...
"Sheriff...??? Do the letters FO mean anything to you...???" "Oooof... smart aleck..."
The Washington Nationals reached a deal with 2010 Number 1 overall draft pick Bryce Harper.
Clubs faced a deadline of midnight EDT Monday to come to terms with players picked in June's amateur draft. In an e-mail to ESPN's Buster Olney, Nats GM Mike Rizzo thinks it was "26 seconds to midnight" when the deal was reached at 5-years and $9.9-million.
Last year, the Nationals signed a $15.1-million, four-year contract with top pick Stephen Strasburg a little more than a minute before the deadline. So, apparently, the deal with Strasburg was a little easier to get done...
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Harper is only 17, remember. The JUCO, College of Southern Nevada catcher is going to be converted to an outfielder and will be placed on the 40-man roster with his contract. He's the first JUCO player taken with the first overall pick.
ESPN's Robert Flores catches up with analyst Keith Law
And the Nats celebrate only as teams do with emotional victories... Watch Stan Kasten come in from the left... ((HT: CSNWashington))
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.
Acta was fired Sunday night after the team reached the unofficial halfway mark of the season with a 26-61 record, on pace to clear the 100-loss mark for the second consecutive year. Acting general manager Mike Rizzo -- himself an interim placeholder -- confirmed Acta's dismissal Monday morning in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
"I thank the Nationals for giving me this opportunity and I'm sorry that things didn't work out as expected," Acta told ESPNdeportes.com. "It's normal for the manager to pay the price when the team is not doing well."
The Nationals were expected to announce Acta's replacement later Monday. Bench coach Jim Riggleman, who has managed the Padres, Cubs and Mariners, was considered the likely choice.
Acta joins Colorado's Clint Hurdle and Arizona's Bob Melvin as major league managers who have been fired this season.
Acta was 158-252 over 2 1/2 seasons in his first managerial job, and the team's winning percentage dropped progressively from Year 1 until now, although his record had much to do with the talent -- or lack thereof -- assembled for him by the front office. The Nationals opened this season without anything close to a reliable bullpen and fielded a lineup with numerous defensive liabilities. For a while, the starting pitching rotation consisted of four rookies and one second-year player.
Not surprisingly, the Nationals' 5.21 ERA is by far the worst in the National League, and their 82 errors are the most in baseball. The team's only All-Star, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, already has 12 errors, and the strain of endless losing began to show among many in the players in the form of fundamental mistakes in the field and at the plate.
Acta, however, remained upbeat, always 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.
Acta's firing is only the latest example of the constant upheaval surrounding the Nationals since president Stan Kasten and local developer Ted Lerner took over the club during the 2006 season -- a sale that was supposed to finally bring a semblance of normalcy to the franchise.
Acta's staff had undergone a complete overhaul already, with every coach except pitching coach Randy St. Claire fired at the end of last season. St. Claire was dismissed at the beginning of June.
Now there is uncertainty on the bench to go along with Rizzo, who took over day-to-day duties shortly after Jim Bowden resigned during spring training.
In 2007, Acta's first season as Frank Robinson's replacement, Washington finished 73-89, fourth in the NL East but a two-win improvement over 2006 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 for a .366 winning percentage, the worst in the major leagues. And there was even more regression this season -- the Nationals' .299 winning percentage is far lower than any other team.
From the outset of spring training in February, Acta called the current team the most talented he's had, the Nationals started 0-7 and never came close to approaching .500. When the team was hitting well, the pitching was a mess. Once the pitching became serviceable, the hitters suddenly became less productive.
A 5-0 loss at Houston on Sunday was Washington's seventh in 10 games.
When Acta was hired in November 2006, he was 37, and no manager in the majors was younger. He was coming off two seasons as the New York Mets' third-base coach, and before that, Acta held the same job under Robinson from 2002-04, when the Nationals were still the Montreal Expos.
Acta had managed eight seasons in the minors and five in the Dominican Winter League, and he led the Dominican Republic to the semifinals at the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
When the Nationals introduced Acta as their new manager, Kasten gushed, "I knew within 30 minutes that this could be the next manager, that he had the right stuff," and then-general manager Bowden brought up Jim Leyland's name, saying Acta was "going to be very special."
Now, less than three full seasons later, Acta is gone.
Here's morning coverage from Fox 5 DC, Dave Ross is at Nationals Park...
