By DavidKaye
The Nationals are set to hire Manny Acta as their new manager. Acta previously served as the Mets third base coach for the last two seasons and he will be taking over a team that has finished in last place for the last two years. Hall of famer Frank Robinson was dismissed of his managerial duties six weeks ago and this permitted the Nats to go after Acta. He separated himself from the other managerial candidates because of his hard work ethic and knowledge of the game.
The newly appointed manager will be taking over a team that showed very limited signs of improvement last year. The only bright spot was rookie third basemen Ryan Zimmerman who batted .287 with 20 home runs and 110 runs batted in. Unfortunately, Washington will most likely be losing their best player and one of the best sluggers in baseball in Alfonso Soriano to free agency. Last season the Nats pitching staff posted the highest ERA, pitched the fewest shut outs and hit the most batters in the National League. It will definitely be an up hill battle for first year manager Manny Acta.
It's nice to see a man who started as a coach back in 1992 with Class A Asheville finally get an opportunity to manage a big league club. With the hiring of Manny Acta, hopefully the Nationals will be able to return the sense of winning to the nations capital.
