And Manny Acta gets the chop

Rumors have been spreading for weeks that Manny Acta was on the chopping block as the manager of the Washington Nationals. This morning I saw on the news that the axe has finally fallen, and that base coach Jim Riggleman is being tapped to replace him.

I have mixed feelings about the whole deal, really. I think that while a good deal of responsibility does fall onto the manager's shoulders for coaching and motivating his players to become the best they can be, when the chips are down, accountability does extend beyond merely the manager. With an abysmal mid-season record of 26-61, the dismissal of Acta really strikes me as more symbolic than practical, because Acta can only work with what he's given—i.e., the manager can only coach so much when the talent recruited by the team isn't up to par. That falls squarely on the shoulders of the general manager. And going further up the chain of command, the team owners themselves have to demonstrate that they're going to spend the money on quality talent, and so far the Lerners have done little in that regard.

So while I agree that change is (desperately) needed for the Nationals, I do think that Manny Acta is shouldering a good bit more than his fair share of the blame.