Thursday, September 11, 2008

The State of the Nats

Jim Bowden on the State of the Nats in general and on Manny Acta in particular:
He also offered support for Manny Acta, saying that his second-year manager will
become a winner "once he gets the horses."

And if Bowden can ever find that sonofabith who gave Acta such lame horses, he'll really give him a piece of his mind, I'm sure. Also curious:

Asked specifically if Acta will return in 2009 -- he is under contract to do so
-- Bowden said: "He's the manager. Stan [Kasten] is the president, I'm the GM,
he's the manager -- and that's what it is until they announce something
different for any of us."
Call me crazy, but that sounds like a man who knows he's about to get fired himself. By most accounts, Manny Acta is one of the few bright spots on that team, and Bowden admits as much elsewhere in the interview. If he can't say for certain "yes, Manny will be back next year," it means that Bowden himself either has no spine, no power, or no job security. I'll withhold judgment on the first of those three because I really don't know, but it sure as hell sounds like the latter two are open for debate.

Totally and completely unrelated private message to Chris Antonetti: Hey Chris -- We've never met, but I'm a big fan of yours. Anyway, I used to live in D.C. I'm pretty familiar with the real estate market and restaurant scene too, so if for some reason you ever, you know, find yourself living there, feel free to drop me a line.

UPDATE: Chris -- apologies! I just read that you went to Georgetown, so you clearly don't need my advice when it comes to navigating D.C. and you would certainly be comfortable in Washington without any input from me. Yep. Very comfortable. Like, a perfect fit, even.

2 comments:

Mark S said...

If the Nats do get rid of Bowden, as they should if that actually want to win some year, what does he do for work then. Maybe BBT can hire a former GM to provide great insight and well informed commentary as having such an informed perspective would be great ... wait a minute they already have Steve Philips doing such a stellar job in that department. Of course if ESPN replaced him with Bowden they'd save a small fortune in wardrobe and makeup expenses.

X Mark said...

The Nationals have a faction of UMass grads working there. Antonetti went through the same program. Maybe that could be some incentive to finally leave Cleveland.