Detroit Tigers: 5 Managerial Candidates for 2016

Sep 17, 2014; Anaheim, CA, USA; ESPN broadcaster Manny Acta attends the game between the Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Manny Acta

This one is my personal favorite–Manny Acta. If you look at his career managerial record, you’d think I was crazy. With stops in Washington (2007-2009) and Cleveland (2010-2012) he posted a 372-518 record.

But looking a little further into the numbers, Acta was in a terrible situation with the Nationals. That franchise has become a big-time player in MLB, signing big named free agents like Max Scherzer and grooming notable young stars such as Bryce Harper. So it is perhaps hard to remember how bad the team was while Acta was there.

Baseball pulled a fast one with the Montreal Expos. When their owner Jeffrey Loria tried to con the city of Montreal into building his team a new stadium and it failed, baseball let him basically abandon his franchise and take over the then-Florida Marlins to try his hand at ruining them and conning their city into financing a stadium for a team no one likes.

This meant the Expos fell into control of MLB and they groomed them to move to Washington. Acta’s regime started just two years later and that franchise was just in the beginning stages of their massive rebuild.

His next stop was the Indians, where he stayed neck-and-neck with the Tigers within the 2011 AL Central until a long August-September winning streak for Detroit and a cold couple of months in the second half sunk the Tribe.

That Indians team was a horrible combination of declining veterans such as Travis Hafner, promising young players that ended up sucking like Shin-Soo Choo and guys still ways off such as catcher Carlos Santana. Acta was able to masterfully keep that team motoring for much of the season.

Acta seems to get his teams to overacheive. We have seen that Brad Ausmus often gets his teams to underacheive. Acta, a Dominican, would be very good and able to relate with the Tigers many Hispanic players, likely getting the most of them in most cases.

So who do you think or hope will be the next manager of the Detroit Tigers? Or will Ausmus be here next year? Sound off in the comments below.

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