Manny Acta next Tribe manager. Who?

Well Tribe fans, this one is a head scratcher. The Cleveland Indians introduced Manny Acta as manager yesterday afternoon, and, while very little is known about him by the fans, you have to wonder what Mark Shapiro and Larry Dolan are thinking. Less than six months ago Acta was let go by the anemic Washington Nationals – a team that lost 103 games and actually improved once Acta left. Under Acta the Nats were 22-61. And now he is manager of the Cleveland Indians – a 97-loss team that fell on its face under Eric Wedge.

Shapiro cited Acta’s communication skills, energetic leadership, and positive mindset as reasons for the hire. Hmm…didn’t see winning in there. And I guess you’ll need a positive mindset when you look at a roster that no longer has an All-Star catcher and two consecutive Cy Young winners that will be each starting Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday for someone else. It’s getting hard to take the Indians front office seriously anymore. They couldn’t wait for Don Mattingly and decided a guy with some experience, even if some of it is a circus act, didn’t fit their master plan, er, budget in Bobby Valentine.

But with all that said, it would be unfair and unreasonable not to give Acta a chance. If anything, we’ll no longer have to listen to monotone monologues about how the guys need to grind it out during another season of unmet expectations. But in truth, Acta didn’t have a lot to work with in Washington. He’s starting with a team that’s starting over in Cleveland and maybe the fans can hit the reset button themselves. Perhaps its somewhere on the top of our heads.

For more, check out Cleveland.com’s rundown of what others are saying about Acta and the hire.