David Huzzard: If Matt Williams is fired, who should replace him?

Matt Williams is going to be fired and it isn't because he won't use his closer in the ninth inning of a tied road game or that he uses cue cards from the sports guy cliché machine in his postgame press conferences. No, it's because he has no feel for the game. There is a bit of luck involved in every decision a manager makes and when making moves in recent weeks, Matt Williams has had no luck, but he can't recognize when his pitcher is tiring or still going strong or when the opposing pitcher just doesn't have it and he shouldn't give away outs. This lack of feel for the game is what leads to most of Matt Williams' worst decisions and it's why the Nationals are going to be looking for a replacement come October.

This isn't a decision to be made likely, and if the Nationals are going to replace Matt Williams, they have to make sure they do so with someone better than Matt Williams. It's a question of whether it's a lack of experience or a lack of awareness that leads to Matt Williams' flaws, but when hiring a new manager another inexperienced one obviously won't have the former and there is no way to know if they have the latter. The Nationals are partly firing Matt Williams for his lack of experience, and turning around and replacing him with another inexperienced manager could be a mistake.

Clint Hurdle, Bruce Bochy, Ned Yost, Buck Showalter and Joe Girardi all managed somewhere else before their current positions and they were all let go for one reason or another. Managers are hired to be fired and teams fire good managers all the time, but of the recent managerial firings, there isn't one that sticks out as particularly better than Matt Williams. Ron Roenicke loves defensive shifts and not in a good way. He'll shift on every play against every batter even if it means putting the Ted Williams shift on for a left handed hitter that likes to go the other way. Mike Redmond was stuck with Jeffrey Loira and the Miami Marlins, and that's kind of like judging a coach that gets handed a Dan Snyder team in football. Bud Black is a much better game manager than any of the above and Matt Williams, but the Padres had a problem with their good prospects continuing to develop once they reached the major leagues. For a team that could have Michael A. Taylor and Trea Turner starting in 2016, the risk might not be worth it.

With the recently fired managers not being that much better or different than Matt Williams, that brings us to the managers that were let go some time ago. Matt Williams had a mentor when it came to managing and that mentor was Dusty Baker. Baker has rarely suffered a losing season, but his in-game managing leaves much to be desired, and if you're getting rid of Matt Williams, then bringing in his mentor would be a mistake. Ron Gardenhire had several good seasons with the Twins and even managed a few teams that faced plights similar to the 2015 Nats to division titles. This is the first name I've mentioned that I think would be a good hire, but it isn't the best or even the second best. In Ruben Amaro's on-going quest to be the eternal GM of the Phillies, he needed a scapegoat and that sword fell on Charlie Manuel. Manuel was one of the best managers in the game and a hitting savant. In other words, Charlie Manuel is just what the Nats need. All of this could be very simple though if Terry Francona exercises his opt out. He'd hands down be the best manager available and the one the Lerners should throw all the money at.

One of the reasons Mike Rizzo hired Matt Williams is that he wanted a young manager that would be with the Nationals for a long time and be the manager of the Washington Nationals. At least that was his public spin, but as soon as he hired Matt Williams, he cut his legs out from underneath him by not only not letting him choose his own coaches, but by leaving the runner-up for his job as the bench coach. It is very clear that this is Mike Rizzo's team and he wanted a puppet more than a manger. Davey Johnson viewed the Nationals as his team and at times clashed with Mike Rizzo. If the next manager of the Washington Nationals is going to be successful, they need to be handed the reigns and allowed to use them. That would be a lot easier if that is a guy like Ron Gardenhire, Charlie Manuel or Terry Francona instead of another new and unproven manager.

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.