These Guys Have Seen Enough
Nationals fans have been fed up for a while.
Finally, the fans got someone with a voice and a platform on which to broadcast their frustrations. Last night after dropping a very winnable game in Houston, Nationals color analyst Rob Dibble expressed anger and frustration at the level of play he sees on a nightly basis. In the NatsTown blogosphere, it was what we were waiting for since Dibble was hired.
"This isn't a Major League baseball team I'm watching out here....It's pathetic. I've never seen a team that is ok with losing....Some guys are mailing it in, and it's hard to watch,” said Dibble. He went on, but those are the essentials of his argument.
After Dibble finished his diatribe, Ray Knight actually asked to bring Dibble back on the air to discuss his observations and some thought that Knight was going to argue with Dibble. But to our surprise, he agreed with Dibble and added fuel to the fire.
"You know what I would do? I'd clean house. When guys don't make plays defensively I'd sit ‘em on the bench. I'd give a guy a chance to play,” added Knight. “And I'm talking about for a week, I don't care if you're hitting .320, I don't care what you're doing, I'm tired of seeing it too. We're just two former players that busted our butts, and we're here working for a company that you expect a fine product. I don't know who exactly you're feeling it about. I'm feeling it about certain people. But Manny has to make that decisions, or [Mike] Rizzo. If you think that there's a player out there not defining the position....Take shortstop. Balls are going up the middle, knocked down, erratic type play. It looks like, to me, Goozie's mind is somewhere else. He's the guy I'm most disappointed in."
So while Dibble was careful about not singling out a given player, Knight was more than willing to throw All-Star shortstop Cristian Guzman under the bus.
Some in the blogosphere are hailing Dibble and Knight for finally showing the balls it takes to rip this franchise when it needs it the most – a characteristic that many wish field manager Manny Acta would show. In fact, there is a craving to fire Acta and replace him with either Knight or Dibble immediately.
Problem is, a manager just can’t call out a player in the media like that. It’s ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst. Baseball’s economic climate has bred a society of primadonnas with fragile egos and huge salaries. If Acta were to say the same stuff about Guzman as Knight did, he might as well send him to AAA until he can be traded, because Guzman isn’t likely to play hard for Acta ever again. Further, if I was a player in the clubhouse watching my manager rip into my All-Star like that, I’d be less likely to want to play for him as well.
What would be nice, however, is to see Acta do something like Charlie Manuel did with Jimmy Rollins in Philadelphia. He didn’t go in front of cameras and call him out. Manuel pulled Rollins into his office, sat him down and explained to him that he was going to bench him for a few days as a means of discipline for what he felt was poor play in the field and a lack of effort. Rollins was the one who went to the media and explained his situation – NOT Manuel.
Dibble and Knight are PERFECT in their roles as analysts. Analysts can say and do things that managers really can’t. They can act as the voice of the manager or the voice of the fans and they have a forum in which to do so.
Finally, the fans got someone with a voice and a platform on which to broadcast their frustrations. Last night after dropping a very winnable game in Houston, Nationals color analyst Rob Dibble expressed anger and frustration at the level of play he sees on a nightly basis. In the NatsTown blogosphere, it was what we were waiting for since Dibble was hired.
"This isn't a Major League baseball team I'm watching out here....It's pathetic. I've never seen a team that is ok with losing....Some guys are mailing it in, and it's hard to watch,” said Dibble. He went on, but those are the essentials of his argument.
After Dibble finished his diatribe, Ray Knight actually asked to bring Dibble back on the air to discuss his observations and some thought that Knight was going to argue with Dibble. But to our surprise, he agreed with Dibble and added fuel to the fire.
"You know what I would do? I'd clean house. When guys don't make plays defensively I'd sit ‘em on the bench. I'd give a guy a chance to play,” added Knight. “And I'm talking about for a week, I don't care if you're hitting .320, I don't care what you're doing, I'm tired of seeing it too. We're just two former players that busted our butts, and we're here working for a company that you expect a fine product. I don't know who exactly you're feeling it about. I'm feeling it about certain people. But Manny has to make that decisions, or [Mike] Rizzo. If you think that there's a player out there not defining the position....Take shortstop. Balls are going up the middle, knocked down, erratic type play. It looks like, to me, Goozie's mind is somewhere else. He's the guy I'm most disappointed in."
So while Dibble was careful about not singling out a given player, Knight was more than willing to throw All-Star shortstop Cristian Guzman under the bus.
Some in the blogosphere are hailing Dibble and Knight for finally showing the balls it takes to rip this franchise when it needs it the most – a characteristic that many wish field manager Manny Acta would show. In fact, there is a craving to fire Acta and replace him with either Knight or Dibble immediately.
Problem is, a manager just can’t call out a player in the media like that. It’s ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst. Baseball’s economic climate has bred a society of primadonnas with fragile egos and huge salaries. If Acta were to say the same stuff about Guzman as Knight did, he might as well send him to AAA until he can be traded, because Guzman isn’t likely to play hard for Acta ever again. Further, if I was a player in the clubhouse watching my manager rip into my All-Star like that, I’d be less likely to want to play for him as well.
What would be nice, however, is to see Acta do something like Charlie Manuel did with Jimmy Rollins in Philadelphia. He didn’t go in front of cameras and call him out. Manuel pulled Rollins into his office, sat him down and explained to him that he was going to bench him for a few days as a means of discipline for what he felt was poor play in the field and a lack of effort. Rollins was the one who went to the media and explained his situation – NOT Manuel.
Dibble and Knight are PERFECT in their roles as analysts. Analysts can say and do things that managers really can’t. They can act as the voice of the manager or the voice of the fans and they have a forum in which to do so.
So for those who would clamor for Knight to be the manager, just remember that he was a disaster in Cincinnati and hasn’t been asked to manage again anywhere else and Dibble hasn’t even been a pitching coach in the minors, let alone a manager.
There’s more to being a manager than having a fiery attitude; in fact, there are those who would say that the fiery attitude doesn’t translate to the modern player anymore. So be careful what you wish for.
I agree that Manny Acta either needs to change his methodology immediately or he should be fired for incompetence. But I’m not in favor of hiring Dibble or Knight to replace him.
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