After one year as Nationals manager, Jim Riggleman is 72-92

Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post notes that today is the one-year anniversary of Jim Riggleman taking over as the Nationals’ manager. Washington is 72-92 (.440) under Riggleman, which doesn’t look very good until you compare it to their 158-252 (.386) record under the man he replaced, Manny Acta. Acta is now the manager in Cleveland and the Indians are 34-54 (.386), so it’d be pretty tough to argue that replacing him with Riggleman was the wrong move. Riggleman was definitely the right man to restore some order in Washington and get the Nationals heading in the right direction, but it remains to be seen if he’s the right man to actually lead Stephen Strasburg, Ryan Zimmerman, and company into contention. Riggleman has a .444 winning percentage in 11 seasons and 1,339 games as a big-league manager and his only two winning seasons came with the Cubs way back in 1995 and 1998. I tend to think the Nationals are a lot closer to being contenders than their current record suggests, but when the young talent starts gelling and “respectability” is no longer the goal will Riggleman be the right guy to lead them?