Heyman: Indians Hire Acta

[Beanpot]

Castro confirms the presser:

The Indians will hold a press conference with Acta at 4 p.m. ET Monday at Progressive Field.

http://castrovince.mlblogs.com/archives/20...acta_their.html

Beanpot

[Browns]

@beanpot said:

Castro confirms the presser:

The Indians will hold a press conference with Acta at 4 p.m. ET Monday at Progressive Field.

http://castrovince.mlblogs.com/archives/20...acta_their.html

Beanpot

I won't be home...

[Beanpot]

Good stuff from Diatribe, CIMO. Here's how the Houston Chronicle reported that he turned down the Stros for the Tribe:

Less than two weeks since declaring a potential return to the Astros as too good to be true, Manny Acta ended talks with the club after intense flirtations Saturday. Instead, he chose the Cleveland Indians.

According to a person with knowledge of the negotiations, the length of the Astros’ offer to Acta became a major hang up on Saturday night.

The Indians hired Acta on Sunday, giving him a three-year deal with a club option for 2013.

Acta, who began his playing and coaching career in the Astros' farm system, was one of three confirmed finalists to replace Cecil Cooper, along with Boston Red Sox bench coach Brad Mills and former Astros manager Phil Garner, who led the franchise to the 2005 World Series.

Asked if they regretted losing Acta, Astros general manager Ed Wade wouldn’t say.

“I’m not getting into this,” he said. “We’re conducting our business in private.”

It was no secret that Acta was a finalist for the Indians’ job.

“It’s like playing the lotto; the more tickets you play, the more chances you have to win,” Acta said after he interviewed with the Astros. “I think it speaks volumes for the respect we have among our peers and we feel blessed that at least we’re able to be – if you want to call it in demand – with two clubs.”

Astros owner Drayton McLane didn’t want to comment on Acta either Sunday.

“We got some more to go,” he said. “Until we get that down. We’re just not going to make any comment. It would not be appropriate.”

Acta, 40, went 158-252 with the Washington Nationals, who let him go after he began his third season this year 26-61 with a club that was considered throughout baseball to have some of the worst talent in the majors.

Acta spent the first 17 years of his professional career with the Astros’ organization until current New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya, who was the Expos’ GM at the time, hired him to become a coach with the Montreal Expos just weeks before the 2002 season.

Dealing with some players who were older, Acta served as the third-base coach of the Expos from 2002 through 2004 before he was hired to become third-base coach of the Mets for the 2005 season.

Arizona Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch, 34, is the only manager in the majors younger than Acta, who had been the majors’ youngest active manager since he was 37 in his first season with the Nationals in 2007 until Hinch was hired this May.

The Dominican Republic’s manager for the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, Acta is a dual citizen of the Dominican Republic and the U.S. since 1999. Moreover, he has made his home in Kissimmee, Fla., for more than a decade with his wife Cindy and their two daughters, Jennifer and Leslie.

Kissimmee, the spring home of the Astros since 1985, has been home for Acta since he played for the club’s Class A Florida State League affiliate Osceola in 1988 and parts of the 1989 and 1990 seasons. After hitting .257 with two home runs and 35 RBIs with Burlington in 1991, Acta transitioned into player development at 22 years of age.

“As I mentioned, it would be too good to be true,” Acta said two weeks ago about managing the Astros. “It will give everybody who shows up over here to watch the ballgames a chance or a hope to manage this club. I grew up being an Astro and ended up being signed by them and working for 17 years in the minor leagues.

“And I guess everybody who’s a fan of the Astros will have a shot. It’s amazing because, as I mentioned, I owe them everything, including my wife. I met her while playing in the minor leagues for them.”

The former minor league infielder has specialized in working with young infielders, helping young All-Stars David Wright and Jose Reyes during his tenure as coach with the Mets while also helping veteran shortstop Orlando Cabrera in 2003. Those skills could have been crucial with the Astros in 2010, considering rookies Chris Johnson and Tommy Manzella might man the left side of the infield next season.

Since becoming a minor-league manager with the Astros in 1993 with Auburn of the New York-Penn League through 2000 with Kissimmee of the Florida State League, Acta managed Roy Oswalt in the Florida State League in 2000, Lance Berkman in instructional league and Wandy Rodriguez in the Dominican Winter League.

He also managed Miguel Tejada, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz and Alfonso Soriano to the semifinals of the WBC in 2006. He also has kept close tabs on the Astros’ organization throughout the year, taking time out of a discussion with the Chronicle on a late night in December 2008 at the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas to praise the progress of catcher Jason Castro, the club’s first-round pick in the June 2008 draft.

At that time, he predicted that Castro might be ready by the 2010 season or maybe even late in 2009. Wade also has said that Castro might be ready this year, but Acta wasn't fooling himself about the task with the Astros.

This past season the Astros finished 74-88 for fifth place in the National League Central, 17 games behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals.

“There’s some work to do, let’s be honest,” he said after his initial interview with the Astros. “The left side of the infield obviously needs some work and the catching situation has given this team some problems up until Castro’s ready to come in and step up. Yeah, I’m not saying anything here that you guys don’t know. I believe that Roy and Wandy need a little bit of a supporting cast, but there’s some bright spots there.

“(Bud) Norris threw the ball very well at the end and (Felipe) Paulino showed flashes and the bullpen was lot better than the numbers show. Guys like (Jeff) Fulchino really stepped up and (Sammy) Gervacio and (LaTroy) Hawkins did a tremendous job. The (free agent Jose) Valverde thing, it’s another situation that needs to be resolved. This team, the main thing is they have some good core players in place and with a couple of supporting cast can be right back in it again.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/6685437.html

Beanpot

[Beanpot]

Assuming the link remains active, here's Kurkjian with a video take on the hiring. I think he explains exactly why Acta deserved the job and why it's nothing short of silly to use his previous W/L record as an indicator of future performance:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4593663

Beanpot

[CIMO.]

There aren't very many individual people who would transform our W-L record anyway. I'm thinking along the lines of Greinke, Mauer, and Pujols. We could have Sciosia or Torre or Girardi or whoever managing and we still wouldn't be anyone's favorites. It all still comes down to the players.

One thing that's hard to dispute is what this means for Fausto. Once again one of our most important players, and there's obviously a confidence/comfort issue with him. Hopefully Acta gives him someone to relate to and actually communicate with, and hopefully bring him back to his old self.

[JohnG71097]

@cimo. said:

There aren't very many individual people who would transform our W-L record anyway. I'm thinking along the lines of Greinke, Mauer, and Pujols. We could have Sciosia or Torre or Girardi or whoever managing and we still wouldn't be anyone's favorites. It all still comes down to the players.

One thing that's hard to dispute is what this means for Fausto. Once again one of our most important players, and there's obviously a confidence/comfort issue with him. Hopefully Acta gives him someone to relate to and actually communicate with, and hopefully bring him back to his old self.

I think it is a good hire

Now will they let him be his own man and bring aboard his own staff

or will they try and force Nunally and Radinsky onto his staff

[Kosar_For_President]

@beanpot said:

Again, it's going to come down to talent on the field.

That is really what I was getting at here Bean. It doesn't matter who is there, we just don't have the talent to win.

[Beanpot]

@kosar_for_president said:

That is really what I was getting at here Bean. It doesn't matter who is there, we just don't have the talent to win.

Can't argue with that.

Still, I think this hire was actually kind of inspiring. Shows that the organization remains firmly in the camp of advanced metrics.

And also that they're firmly in the camp of budget constraints.

So it's kinda win/win/lose.

Like you said, nothing is going to change until we get more talent on the field.

Beanpot

[Kosar_For_President]

@beanpot said:

Like you said, nothing is going to change until we get more talent on the field.

And I don't see that happening ANYTIME soon. I for one have already announced not buying my tickets for next year (group season tickets). The group is not going to buy them. They are fed up and I just won't do it. I think fan support is going to be very low, and that means unless Laporta jacks 50 HR's and some of the other players step up, it's going to be 100 loss season.

[ClevelandFanForLife]

the reason i don't like him is because he is a wedge clone. if you look at how he managed, he mimicked wesge in a lot of ways. this choice sucks.

[CIMO.]

I don't think we sniff 100 losses, really. And if we do, it won't be because of the offense.

We could definitely use a reliable, true cleanup hitter (and maybe that's LaPorta), but regardless, this offense will score a lot of runs. A fresh Sizemore, more Brantley leading off, a full season of LaPorta barring any surgery setbacks. Choo is becoming one of the best all-around offensive players in the AL. Santana will be up at some point, maybe Chisenhall, and I don't see Acta having Wedge's problems with getting the young guys regular ABs.

The pitching staff has too many questions for me to even guess how they finish....but that's what the season (and foreseeable future) comes down to. We need to get solid-at-worst seasons from Westbrook and Fausto... Sipp and Chris Perez to keep up their pace, and some semblance of stability from Wood.

[Kosar_For_President]

@cimo. said:

I don't think we sniff 100 losses, really. And if we do, it won't be because of the offense.

We could definitely use a reliable, true cleanup hitter (and maybe that's LaPorta), but regardless, this offense will score a lot of runs. A fresh Sizemore, more Brantley leading off, a full season of LaPorta barring any surgery setbacks. Choo is becoming one of the best all-around offensive players in the AL. Santana will be up at some point, maybe Chisenhall, and I don't see Acta having Wedge's problems with getting the young guys regular ABs.

The pitching staff has too many questions for me to even guess how they finish....but that's what the season (and foreseeable future) comes down to. We need to get solid-at-worst seasons from Westbrook and Fausto... Sipp and Chris Perez to keep up their pace, and some semblance of stability from Wood.

I do appreciate your optimism CIMO. But their A LOT of if's in there. Too many for me to count on this team not losing 90-100 games. 3 proven players (and Wood is still leaving the ball up).

[Browns]

@cimo. said:

I don't think we sniff 100 losses, really. And if we do, it won't be because of the offense.

We could definitely use a reliable, true cleanup hitter (and maybe that's LaPorta), but regardless, this offense will score a lot of runs. A fresh Sizemore, more Brantley leading off, a full season of LaPorta barring any surgery setbacks. Choo is becoming one of the best all-around offensive players in the AL. Santana will be up at some point, maybe Chisenhall, and I don't see Acta having Wedge's problems with getting the young guys regular ABs.

The pitching staff has too many questions for me to even guess how they finish....but that's what the season (and foreseeable future) comes down to. We need to get solid-at-worst seasons from Westbrook and Fausto... Sipp and Chris Perez to keep up their pace, and some semblance of stability from Wood.

I think sizemore will lead off.

[ClevelandFanForLife]

acta is the stop-gap for the next manager that comes in. he has one job: develop the careers of cabrera, masterson, laporta, brantly and santana. he also was only hired because he was cheap. i honestly don't think shapiro hired him as a long term solution.

[Browns]

Who's going to be on his staff?

[CIMO.]

@kosar_for_president said:

I do appreciate your optimism CIMO. But their A LOT of if's in there. Too many for me to count on this team not losing 90-100 games. 3 proven players (and Wood is still leaving the ball up).

I'm not sure I'm optimistic. I just don't think there's anywhere to go but up. There are a lot of if's, but it doesn't seem too unrealistic to expect better years from Fausto and Westbrook, or a better year from the bullpen considering we'll have a full year of Perez, Sipp, and Smith with good depth behind them. There are a lot of questions on offense too...but whatever happens there, we'll still score runs. Sizemore, Choo, Cabrera, Valbuena, LaPorta, Brantley...there's enough talent there.

I mentioned earlier that Fausto's probably the most important player this season, and I can even throw in Carrasco (and eventually Rondon). Both have massive upside but can't seem to put it together. Once again, if Acta can bring the best out of these Latin players (including Rafael Perez), it could be a surprising season.

[Kosar_For_President]

@cimo. said:

I'm not sure I'm optimistic. I just don't think there's anywhere to go but up. There are a lot of if's, but it doesn't seem too unrealistic to expect better years from Fausto and Westbrook, or a better year from the bullpen considering we'll have a full year of Perez, Sipp, and Smith with good depth behind them. There are a lot of questions on offense too...but whatever happens there, we'll still score runs. Sizemore, Choo, Cabrera, Valbuena, LaPorta, Brantley...there's enough talent there.

I mentioned earlier that Fausto's probably the most important player this season, and I can even throw in Carrasco (and eventually Rondon). Both have massive upside but can't seem to put it together. Once again, if Acta can bring the best out of these Latin players (including Rafael Perez), it could be a surprising season.

Fausto can't get the ball down. Hopefully some new pitching coach is brought in to help (man would I love to see Greg Maddux as a pitching coach). Sorry to break it to you Westbrook is done. He didn't have heat when his arm was 100%. Even then he had one year with in era under 4. Sizemore should be moved to the 3 spot. Well CIMO, I am hoping Acta can do something to help these young players out. They are going to need it.

[CIMO.]

Fair enough, and I don't really think our opinions are that different. A lot hinges on Westbrook and I'm not really holding my breath that he's a reliable starter this year...but a guy who can consistently give you 6-7 innings per start with a low-4 ERA, on THIS team, is a major improvement. Look at the numbers for last year....Fausto ERA over 6, Huff 5.61, Sowers 5.25. Even Pavano was at 5.37.

I'm not confident enough to predict anything, but it seems pretty likely to me that Fausto is due for a better season than his 6.32 ERA last year. Sizemore is pretty likely to hit better than his .231 pre-all star break average. If healthy, it's pretty likely Westbrook will be better than any of our starters besides Cliff last year. But we'll see, I guess.

And anyway. Here's Casto's piece on Acta's press conference. With video.

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/arti...sp&c_id=cle

[Kosar_For_President]

@cimo. said:

Fair enough, and I don't really think our opinions are that different. A lot hinges on Westbrook and I'm not really holding my breath that he's a reliable starter this year.

From what I hear (a friend works for the Indians) Westbrook can barley pick up a phone book. Fausto needs to get another pitch. Although he does have good stuff, hitters figured him out after the one good year. He only has 3 pitches. I could guess 3/10 times what it's going to be (not that I could hit it). Sorry man I really hope I am wrong, but I see us 65-97.

[Beanpot]

@kosar_for_president said:

From what I hear (a friend works for the Indians) Westbrook can barley pick up a phone book.

That would....suck. Not that I'm counting on him too much, but it's a shame to hear that and know he hasn't even thrown a pitch yet.

Anyway, here's Buster writing about our former pitchers:

A new chapter for Lee and Sabathia

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

The old friends pitched against each other in the first game ever at new Yankee Stadium back in April, and then afterward, CC Sabathia took Cliff Lee to his place to catch up, to hang out, to see a friend who had stopped by -- Michael Jordan. They all had dinner together.

That was just one day among many in the shared history of Lee and Sabathia, teammates for years in the Indians' organization. There are more memorable days to come. Lee and Sabathia will start against each other in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night, and depending on the decisions made by their respective managers, they could face each other in Games 4 and 7, as well.

Their lockers were side by side in the Cleveland clubhouse, and they played catch together, along with Jake Westbrook; Sabathia teased Lee good-naturedly for being a backwoods product of Arkansas. But they also helped each other get to this moment in time. Former Indians pitching coach Carl Willis recalled Monday that when Sabathia went winless for weeks in parts of 2005 and 2006, Lee was there with encouragement, assuring Sabathia that he would work through his problems on the mound. When Lee, who had won 32 games in 2005 and 2006, slumped so precipitously in 2007 that he was sent to the minors, it was Sabathia who provided some tough love and then lots of phone calls of support to Lee in Buffalo, N.Y.

Sabathia won the 2007 Cy Young Award and was traded in 2008, and when Lee won the Cy Young Award in 2008 and prepared for an uncertain future in 2009, Sabathia counseled him along the way on what to expect, on the pitfalls of putting too much pressure on yourself -- and Lee has handled this season flawlessly.

Now they will pitch from the same divot in front of the pitching rubber in Game 1 of the World Series. "Many of the lessons that Cliff has learned over the last two or three years, CC learned before him," Willis says. "They helped each other in a lot of ways. ... They went through a lot of the same struggles and learned the nuances of the game together."

They both are left-handed and, as Willis says, "incredibly competitive." Earlier in Sabathia's career, he tended to let that internal pressure get to him, overwhelm what he was trying to do on the mound, and there was concern in 2005 that he was tipping his pitches. Lee was his muse, Willis thought, someone with whom Sabathia could share and compare.

In 2007, Lee stopped doing the thing he had done so well for years -- commanding his fastball on both edges of the plate. Sabathia -- who knew firsthand about making adjustments -- was among those who talked with Lee about necessary changes, about how to work through trouble. The following January, in 2008, Lee went to Willis' home in North Carolina and began to reconstruct his ability to command his fastball, particularly on the inner half to right-handed hitters, and did what he needed to do to fix himself.

"Cliff stepped back and saw how CC handled himself," Willis says. "You learn from experience, and mostly you learn from your own experience. But sometimes you learn from other people's experience."

They both were traded, both went on to lead National League teams to the playoffs, dominating from the mound and even hitting well, and it's possible that today the two old friends are the best left-handers in Major League Baseball. "I've watched these games, and I'm so proud of the fact that these two guys -- and this is not meant to be a knock on the Pettittes and Burnetts and Hamels and Riveras -- have dominated for their teams," Willis says. "They controlled the pace of the games, the type of games they were going to be.

"I'm going to be anxious to watch Game 1; I'll probably be nervous. I'd be happy if it was 0-0 after nine innings, with each getting a hit off each other and each striking out the other. Then they could go to the bullpens; that would be enough for me."

But that probably won't be enough for Sabathia and Lee. The old friends will be out to beat each other, on baseball's greatest stage.

---

Asking Willis to choose between the two pitchers is like asking a parent to choose between children. But I rudely forged ahead in the conversation with Willis on Monday:

Q: Who is more competitive, Sabathia or Lee?

A: They're equal in different ways. That's a tough question. Let me answer it this way -- I've always said that if I had two guys ready to fight me, and I could take one guy from the entire clubhouse along with me, it would be Cliff Lee.

Q: Who has better pure stuff, Sabathia or Lee?

A: CC does.

Q: Who has better command, Sabathia or Lee?

A: I'd have to go with Cliff.

Q: Who is the better athlete, Sabathia or Lee?

A: CC is an unbelievable athlete. Things come a little easier for him athletically.

Q: Who is the better hitter, Sabathia or Lee?

A: CC hits for more power; Cliff will hit for the higher average.

Q: Who is the better pitcher ...

No, just kidding. I wouldn't ask Willis that question. It was clear he didn't want to be put on the spot.

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=olney_buster

Beanpot