Comments on: Manny Acta will be back in 2013

By: Kevin Gillman

Kevin Gillman — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:27:33 +0000

Believe it or not, the Indians DO have talent with their core. Michael Brantley is finally settling in as a hitter, Jason Kipnis is only going to get better, Asdrubal Cabrera is one of the best offensive SS’s in the game, Carlos Santana WILL develop into a hitter, like Matt Weiters did a few years ago, Lonnie Chisenall had a rough break when he was hurt and missed the rest of the season, but he has potential. Justin Masterson can be an effective starter, his problem though is being too inconsistent. Vinnie Pestano is the best setup man in baseball, the problem is many people have never heard of him. He could easily be our closer though in 2013, because Chris Perez can easily be traded for an offensive bat.

And here lies the problem, the Indians are relying on all younger talent, and not one valuable veteran is on this team. Too cheap? Yeah, they are, because the entire offseason was centered around signing Josh Willingham to play LF, but he wanted that extra year, 3rd year, and the Indians balked. And all he has been doing is hitting 29 HRs. That’s unacceptable, and there lies the problem. If they are indeed trying to win, then don’t have Asdrubal Cabrera and Jason Kipnis put the offense on their back, it’s rolling the dice, and it failed last year, and is failing this year. Imagine Josh hitting cleanup for the Indians this season, everyone else would have fot down further in the lineup, and do much better, and we would never have had Michael Brantley hit cleanup.

By: 1948fan4life

1948fan4life — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:50:13 +0000

Manny Acta is not a good manager. There is more to the game than filling out a lineup card. When things go bad you motivate your team in many small ways, such as argue bad calls and stick up for your players when they believe they have been on the wrong end of a bad call (during the present 10 game losing streak there have been many terrible calls that Manny sits in the dugout and watches his players argue). This is not inspiring to the team to play under a blah manager who has no fire. Get rid of Manny and give us Sandy before we lose him. Let’s not make the same mistake we did when we let Eric Wedge stay too long and destroy what could have been a good team!

By: baseballisboring

baseballisboring — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:28:26 +0000

“Native” talent level…heh heh…I see what you did there.

By: natslady

natslady — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 23:02:56 +0000

Can’t tell from this post if you were for Manny or agin’ him. I felt he was the scapegoat and was glad to hear he got another job (in fact, his choice of jobs) very quickly. Unfortunately, he hasn’t had a chance to manage anything close to a good team, but I assume he’s learned a lot and some team will benefit from a smart guy when he gets there in, say, 2014 or 2015.

By: kkolchak

kkolchak — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:25:07 +0000

Argh…you are falling into that same trap the Nats did when Acta took an atrocious 2007 team that was predicted to lose as many as 120 games and somehow coaxed it to respectability (73 wins). Don’t fall for it. The Nats imploded the following two years, losing 100 both times before Manny mercifully got the boot.

By: coldyron

coldyron — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:58:50 +0000

Failure in ownership/management is the reason the team is so bad so often. The Indians don’t have to be the best team in baseball every year, they only need to be better than the White Sox, Tigers, Royals, and Twins. In the weakest division in baseball the team has been relevant past August twice: in 2005 and 2007.

Before the 2008 season, Larry Dolan said that if the team could compete for a playoff spot every 4 years they are doing their job. Compete, not make the playoffs. This is not what I want to hear as a fan. They claim a small market team like the Indians can’t compete against the Tigers and White Sox. If that’s the case than the Twins shouldn’t have competed in the division 7 of the past 10 years. Only teams with horrific management like the Royals and Astros have competed less often than the Tribe, what conclusions can you reach from that?

By: tashkalucy

tashkalucy — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:54:09 +0000

It’s fine that Manny will be back.

But it’s unfortunate that the source was GM Antonetti, because he is simply one of the worst, if not THE worst, GM’s in MLB.

By: willclarkgameface

willclarkgameface — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:49:46 +0000

Like it was his fault that his team wasn’t equipped to compete in 2012.

I get the feeling they are more worried about Indians branding than putting a good team on the field. Why so many lame uniforms? When they switched uniforms in 1994/5 they looked good. Now it’s a plain C on a blue hat with a shit jersey that just says INDIANS in really boring script. What gives?

Own the name or change it guys. Indians baseball will continue to be in the toilet for years to come.

By: kmgannon

kmgannon — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:19:24 +0000

The fact that they’ve been relevant at all this season with a lineup that’s contained the likes of Shelley Duncan, Jack Hannahan, and Casey Kotchman is testament to Acta’s managerial skills. I’m a huge Tribe fan, and have been since the 80s, so I know crappy teams when I see ‘em. And this team way outkicked its coverage (to use another sport’s metaphor) for most of the year. Acta’s one of the few bright spots this club has.

By: forthand26

forthand26 — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:02:37 +0000

The problem is lack of talent. Honestly, I don’t even know what happened to Sizemore and Hafner, but they can’t be playing because I haven’t heard their names in years. Ditto on Albert Belle.