For those of you not riveted to your TVs or laptop following the Indians’ search for their next manager, the word from Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer is that Shapiro and his assistant Chris Antonetti have narrowed the list down to somewhere between 2 and 5 finalists. The two known finalists are former Nationals manager Manny Acta and former Mets manager Bobby Valentine. Other speculated finalists include Dodgers’ bench coach and Yankee Hall of Famer Don Mattingly, former Tribe infielder and current Class A Mahoning Valley manager Travis Fryman, and current AAA Buffalo manager Torey Lovullo. The final round of interviews is set to begin today.
Here’s my quick take on the two known finalists:
Manny Acta
Acta’s record was an underwhelming 158-252 with the Nationals, who, as everyone knows, have widely been considered the worst team in baseball for the past few years. It’s difficult to tell how much of that was Acta’s fault — like my bro, I tend to believe that a manager has very little effect on the performance of an MLB team unless he’s doing something truly bizarre, like, say, trying to develop all of his young players to play as many different positions as possible rather than just define a role and have them work to improve their play at that one spot.
It’s encouraging that Acta is drawing interest from Houston for their open managerial spot. However, this could be read in one of two ways. The first is that there are multiple people in the baseball community who feel Acta is a capable guy who just got a raw deal in terms of the abysmal quality of the Nationals’ roster.
The second way to interpret it is that Houston’s front office is just as gullible and uncreative as Shapiro and Antonetti.
Considering that Joe Torre had a losing record in all 5 years of his first managing job with the Mets (1977-81), I’m willing to give Acta the benefit of the doubt for the time being. But it’s hard to say that news of his hiring will send the fan base dancing in the streets.
Bobby Valentine
Unlike Acta, Valentine is a recognizable name that will get people excited. But is it for the right reasons?
Valentine’s career major league record as a manager is 1,117-1,072. He managed in the Majors for 15 years: 8 with the Rangers and 7 with the Mets. His high water mark as a manager was taking the Mets to the World Series in 2000, where they were waxed by the Yankees in 5 games.
However, it’s worth noting that in those 15 years of managerial experience, Valentine’s teams never once won their division and only made it to the postseason twice. His teams finished, on average 3.7th (if that makes any sense) in their division overall. His Rangers teams averaged a 4.4 place finish, and his Mets teams averaged a third place finish.
In comparison, Eric Wedge’s career record with the Tribe was 561-573. He took the Indians to the playoffs once, with that run culminating in the 7 game loss to Boston in the ALCS. On average, his teams finished 3rd in their division.
In short, there’s an argument to be made that Valentine is just Eric Wedge, doubled.
Except for two things: one, Valentine is going to expect a serious paycheck. He was released at the end of his contract by the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japanese major league baseball because he was too expensive. Dude made $4M last year. By comparison, Wedge was set to make rougly $1.5M in 2010, the final year of his extension.
The second is that Valentine is a bit of a headcase. I’ve read before that players love him. Chiba Lotte’s fans staged a protest over his dismissal by the team’s ownership. And he’s known around the league for being a colorful personality. Let’s not forget that this is the guy who was once ejected from a game as manager of the Mets, only to attempt to return to the bench IN DISGUISE later in the same game (if your memory wasn’t immediately jogged, the photo at the top of the post is from that fateful night.) Is this really the guy we want acting as a mentor to a young team looking for direction?
I would love to have him back in the league - particularly if he could end up in a feud with Ozzie Guillen. The verbal grenades that would get thrown back and forth in that rivalry would be truly epic. However, I’d prefer it if this happened by Valentine getting a job managing the Royals.
If you put a gun to my head today, I’d hire Acta over Valentine. But to be honest, I might also just consider pulling the trigger.
That said, we’ll see what happens.
-T.
