Dick Heller: Nats' casualties of woe could be Acta, Bowden

There's no question Jim Bowden has to go. I think he makes most of the decisions and Manny reacts. Why have we had 6 first basemans? Some have never played the position. We have a AAA first baseman (Larry Broadway) who never get an opportunity. Maybe he's not the answer but gave him the same chance as other guys. (Willie Mo, Dukes, Kerns, Bontifico, and now Hernandez) Even Ryan Langerhaus deserves an everyday chance at first. WE CAN'T BE ANY WORSE OFF! It's who you are with Bowden. Why at this stage would you be playing Aaron Boone and Belliard at first? When is Management going to develope their pitchers by letting them work out of jams. When you're stuck in last make the season profitable some way. The 100 pitch count for Major Leaguers is ridiculous. My high school and Legion pitchers throw 100 without any trouble. Never had a pitcher with arm problems either. These men are older and should be able to throw 120 without any trouble. They need to throw and build up their arms. When Bowden is gone maybe we can stop trying to be Cincinnati and get rid of those RED uniforms, also. Remember who put us in red before Bowden (Bob Short)

There's no question Jim Bowden has to go. I think he makes most of the decisions and Manny reacts. Why have we had 6 first basemans? Some have never played the position. We have a AAA first baseman (Larry Broadway) who never get an opportunity. Maybe he's not the answer but gave him the same chance as other guys. (Willie Mo, Dukes, Kerns, Bontifico, and now Hernandez) Even Ryan Langerhaus deserves an everyday chance at first. WE CAN'T BE ANY WORSE OFF! It's who you are with Bowden. Why at this stage would you be playing Aaron Boone and Belliard at first? When is Management going to develope their pitchers by letting them work out of jams. When you're stuck in last make the season profitable some way. The 100 pitch count for Major Leaguers is ridiculous. My high school and Legion pitchers throw 100 without any trouble. Never had a pitcher with arm problems either. These men are older and should be able to throw 120 without any trouble. They need to throw and build up their arms. When Bowden is gone maybe we can stop trying to be Cincinnati and get rid of those RED uniforms, also. Remember who put us in red before Bowden (Bob Short)

The back breaking straw was the terrible mishandling of the draftee signings. It wasn't just the failure to sign Crow but also Bowden's blaming his budget for doing no more. In addition to not signing #1 he missed on 14, 20, 26, 29, 31, 32 and 33 of the top 36. They supposedly had a plan of building from the ground up and filling the minors with talent, but after a good start last year they have stumbled. It is one thing to ask us to endure bad baseball in order to get better and stay better. It is quite another to ask us to endure bad baseball for the privilege of enduring more bad baseball. They are spending less money on salaries and acquisitions than any team in MLB. Do you think they understand that that is why they are the worse team in MLB, without much hope of improving if they follow the same course. Let's play two! SlowPitch63

It is not possible for me to be as pessimistic about the Nationals as Mr. Heller. Remember, the Devil Rays were in such a state not very long ago. I expect Mr. Kasten to right this ship. Meanwhile, for D.C. baseball people, the book to read is, "The Road to the Big's." (Google: roadtothebigs) GB

Yup The Rays were in a bad place....THEN they cleaned house, new GM, New Manager, New FA's, Cut bad apples from team......BIG CHANGES....now that is a model for what this team needs to do....Starting today...no need to wait to end of the year to fire Harris and Tolman. Jimbo should have been fired weeks ago but today is fine too. Acta.....he will have to go before the team wins......sooner is better in my book.

So Jay the key to the Nat's resurgence is Troy Percival and Akinori Iwamura? Those are the two big FA signings the Rays did. OK Carlos Pena but wasn't he a scrap heap find? We'll ignore oh #4 overall pick Evan Longoria or B.J. Upton (wasn't he #2 overall?) Or #1 overall Delmon Young turned into Matt Garza. I think they drafted James Shields and Carl Crawford too. Cleaning house has almost nothing to do with the Rays success. Smart drafting (easy to do when you pick in the top 5 year after year) and some shrewd trades (I wish I could blame Omar for Kazmir/Zambrano but its Steve Phillips' signature move)

Don't forget Cliff Floyd who is taking the lead with Upton.....Biggest move this team could make and the one the Rays did as well is fire the GM. Next is Fire the Coaching Staff save Randy. Next is sign your draft picks like Rays did. Out top pick just walked if you missed that news. Then Fire Acta if he still does not get the sense of urgency needed to teach players how to bunt, move runners over, not run into outs....."these guys are young and these guys are learning on the job is just crap. Next it is time to sing

Don't forget Cliff Floyd who is taking the lead with Upton.....Biggest move this team could make and the one the Rays did as well is fire the GM. Next is Fire the Coaching Staff save Randy. Next is sign your draft picks like Rays did. Out top pick just walked if you missed that news. Then Fire Acta if he still does not get the sense of urgency needed to teach players how to bunt, move runners over, not run into outs....."these guys are young and these guys are learning on the job is just crap.

I agree, both Acta and Bowden should go. Acta poorly manages players and appears unprepared to manage a MLB team at this time. Players playing well are routinely switched from one position to another or played in one part of the batting order or another. If Willie Harris is playing well in the lead off position, leave him there. If Belliard is playing well at 2nd base, leave him there. And above all if a player is playing well do not sit him for more than one game unless that player is injured or as a strategy because the pitcher is a righty or lefty, as the case may be. But with Acta, none of those reasons matter, he seems to make changes for other unknown reasons. Bench the players who are playing poorly or move them around in the batting order but not the ones who are playing well. Recently acquired players should only replace those who are playing poorly, such as Kearns. Also, Acta shows no fight like a Bobby Cox, Lou Pinella, Earl Weaver, or the White Sox manager, etc. Players need to see a manager getting upset with game officials SOMETIME because it shows that he is fighting for them. Acta rarely shows any emotion even when the worst calls are made by game official. Unless players are self starters, and in my opinon most are not, you need that type of baseball manager who shows a little emotion. Acta often appears to be watching a bad opera rather than a baseball game. Jim Bowden has made too many outright terrible trades for players such as Kearns, LaDuca, Lopez and others. His only saving grace is his ability to get good young talent and good "2nd chance" players. But because of the former, I am not sure that is enough to keep him around.