After an abysmal 26-61 start, the Nationals fired manager Manny Acta in the middle of 2009. Bench coach Jim Riggleman was promoted to interim manager for the club and served in that post for the remainder of the season. It appears the much-improved 33-42 record under his watch was enough to impress team officials, because reports are surfacing that Riggleman will officially have the word "interim" dropped from his job title.
After Don Mattingly pulled himself from the job hunt, it appeared Riggleman's main competition was former Mets skipper and current ESPN analyst Bobby Valentine. What set Riggleman apart was what he had already shown general manager Mike Rizzo on the job.
Editor's Note: FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher contributed to this report
CHICAGO -- The Reds' need to slash payroll, according to a major league source, could lead them to explore trading second baseman Brandon Phillips as well as right-handers Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang.
Cincinnati's 2009 payroll was about $71 million. General manager Walt Jocketty said during a break Tuesday at the GM Meetings that he "might" have to move some high-salaried players to meet the 2010 goal.
"We're going to probably have less to spend this year than we have in the past," Jocketty told FanHouse. "It just depends on how [ticket] sales go this offseason."
If I were an interim manager, I would think that my goal would be to try and make the best impression I could in my short period of time at the helm of the team to try and convince the front office that I deserved the job full-time. One of the requirements for that would seem to be making a good impression on the players. Jim Riggleman, who has much more extensive experience as an interim manager than I do, apparently thinks that's hogwash.
When asked about resting players down the stretch, Riggleman gave a long, rambling answer that's aptly summed up by this sentence: "It's a baseball game; it's not a physically taxing sport." Now, I'm not going to get into the debate that I repeatedly do with my non-baseball fan friends here. Baseball is certainly not as physically demanding as hockey or basketball or football. But it's weird to hear a manager say that it's not "physically taxing" in what seems like a derogatory manner.
WASHINGTON -- In the middle of a dismal year, it's been a banner week for the Nationals.
Actually, a banner couple of weeks.
Washington has won five straight and 11 of its last 16 games. That new-manager bump the club expected when Jim Riggleman replaced Manny Acta over the All-Star break seems to have taken hold after Riggleman lost his first five games out of the gate.
WASHINGTON -- No matter what you think of Manny Acta as a manager – and the thinking here is that like most other managers in baseball, he can be very successful with the right talent – it's clear that the Washington Nationals desperately need a fresh start.
Certainly it can't be his resumé. Riggleman was Acta's bench coach, so he doesn't represent fresh blood, in fact he was directly complicit in getting the Nationals to this point, to this 26-61 record. Before that, he was an interim manager in Seattle in 2008 and had two managerial stints in the '90s, first with the Padres, second with Cubs. Even counting partial seasons, he's only been a winner once (with Chicago in 1998).
So why? Roughly the same reason any other team fires its manager in the middle of the season – to shake things up.
Washington lost 5-0 to the Astros on Sunday to drop to 26-61 on the season, a mark that leaves it with an appalling .299 winning percentage, puts it on pace to finish the season 48-114 and all but assures that the club will wind up in last place in the NL East for the second straight season.
Acta -- in the middle of his third season at the helm of the Nationals and 157-252 as manager of the team -- has been the subject of speculation all season long, with FOXSports.com reporting that he had been fired back on June 13, a report that turned out to be premature.
It's June 13, and apparently we have our third major league manager firing. The latest victim -- according to scoop-master Ken Rosenthal -- of the ax is Manny Acta of the Washington Nationals. Considering that the Nationals are the worst team in baseball -- and at 16-43, it ain't close -- this can't come as a huge surprise to many.
Acta will be replaced by Jim Riggleman, who took over after a firing last season in Seattle. He's also had stints managing the Cubs and Padres. In fact, he was the Cubs' skipper during the 1998 season that saw Sammy Sosa's 66 bombs and Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game. He shouldn't expect to see fireworks of that variety in Washington, though.
Don Wakamatsu saw the Seattle Mariners from across the diamond 19 times in 2008 as the bench coach of the Oakland Athletics. Reports are now surfacing that he'll get them for all 162 games next season as their new manager. The team will make the announcement Wednesday in a press conference.
Wakamatsu beat out six others for the job, none of whom were named Jim Riggleman. Riggleman had quite a run after taking over for John McLaren midway through the season, going 36-54. Of course, McLaren fared much worse, going 25-47 before he was shown the door.
Wakamatsu is a fine hire for this team, who is going to be starting from scratch this season. He's going to be a young manager at age 46 -- when the season starts -- but he's also seasoned, having spent five years as a bench coach in the AL West (four of those years were with the Texas Rangers). He'll be able to grow into an experienced manager while his team grows up with him.
Overall, the hire is a nice fit for both parties. The new general manager, Jeff Zduriencik, can now focus on building the foundation for a long rebuilding process.
Seeing as how the Mariners really suck this season, I've kind of stopped paying attention to them. Of course, because of that, I forgot just how bad the team really is. Thankfully the three games I just saw them play against the White Sox in Chicago this week reaffirmed everything I previously knew.
One of the reasons the Mariners are so horrible this season can be attributed to the Erik Bedard trade. The Mariners sent Adam Jones, George Sherrill, the Space Needle, and majority ownership in Starbucks to Baltimore for the southpaw. While a lot of people thought the addition of Bedard would help the Mariners win the AL West (I only had them as the wild card, so I guess that makes me slightly less stupid), thanks to his injuries and ineffectiveness, they're fighting just to avoid 100 losses this season.
Bedard cost the Mariners their season, and the jobs of John McLaren and Bill Bavasi. Fortunately for all involved, the odds of Erik returning this season to claim the livelihoods of others are slim at best.
Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre and [Jim] Riggleman both say that Bedard did not come out of his last throwing session feeling well, as he had in previous outings.
John McLaren finally has a real reason to throw a temper tantrum. Expected by some to play for the AL West title, the Mariners have been the worst team in baseball and McLaren paid for that failing with his job today. His firing comes on the heels of GM Bill Bavasi's ouster on Monday and a little more than a week after hitting coach Jeff Pentland was sent packing. The bloodletting is now complete and the Mariners can fully turn their focus to 2009 and beyond.
McLaren is certainly taking the fall for the sins of Bavasi but he didn't do much to help himself stay in the job. The easiest case to cite is that of Jose Vidro. With no power and little else of offensive use, Vidro found himself batting fifth or better in 44 of his 54 starts this season. Note to Omar Minaya: At least the team had the decency to do it on an off-day before a road trip.
He'll be replaced by his bench coach Jim Riggleman. Riggleman had a 486-598 record as the manager of the Padres and Cubs in the 90's. He's almost certainly an interim choice who will keep the spot warm until the team's new general manager, whoever that may end up being, hires the man he wants in charge. Whoever that man turns out to be, they'll have to hope that they are handed a better roster than McLaren. The cupboard is bare in Seattle.
After an abysmal 26-61 start, the Nationals fired manager Manny Acta in the middle of 2009. Bench coach Jim Riggleman was promoted to interim manager for the club and served in that post for the remainder of the season. It appears the much-improved 33-42 record under his watch was enough to impress team officials, because reports are surfacing that Riggleman will officially have the word "interim" dropped from his job title. 
Editor's Note: FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher contributed to this report
If I were an interim manager, I would think that my goal would be to try and make the best impression I could in my short period of time at the helm of the team to try and convince the front office that I deserved the job full-time. One of the requirements for that would seem to be making a good impression on the players. Jim Riggleman, who has much more extensive experience as an interim manager than I do, apparently thinks that's hogwash. 
WASHINGTON -- In the middle of a dismal year, it's been a banner week for the Nationals.
WASHINGTON -- No matter what you think of 
It's June 13, and apparently we have our third major league manager firing. The latest victim -- 
Seeing as how the Mariners really suck this season, I've kind of stopped paying attention to them. Of course, because of that, I forgot just how bad the team really is. Thankfully the three games I just saw them play against the White Sox in Chicago this week reaffirmed everything I previously knew.
John McLaren
