Washington Nats

[DBAHO]

This is one of the better articles I've read for a while, from Ken Rosenthal. Talks about the happenings at a ballclub behind the scenes (long read though);

 

It was more than a minor news item.

 

little-known farm director and three low-level front-office employees left the Washington Nationals in mid-February. Four-fifths of the team's player-development department, gone.

 

The episode not only was notable for its timing — most front-office changes occur at the end of the season, not the start of spring training — but also for what it represented:

 

Frustration among some employees with the business practices of the team's new ownership.

 

Exasperation with the volatile leadership of general manager Jim Bowden.

 

The extensive turnover that continues 2½ years after Bowden's arrival and the team's departure from Montreal, and nearly a year after Ted Lerner and his ownership group took over the club from Major League Baseball.

 

When the Nationals move into their new $611 million ballpark in downtown Washington D.C. next season, they will immediately shift from a low-revenue to high-revenue franchise — and a potentially dominant one, if they exploit the advantages of playing in one of the world's leading international cities.

 

The stakes are higher than they would be for say, a new team in Portland, Ore. The national pastime twice has failed in the nation's capital; the first version of the Senators bolted for Minnesota in 1961, the second for Texas in 1972. The D.C./Northern Virginia area is more of an economic dynamo now; it is the eighth-largest television market in the country. If the Nationals fail, they will have no excuses.

 

Yet, the questions surrounding this team — questions raised in interviews with nearly a dozen former employees and several current employees, as well as officials from rival clubs — go beyond the Nats' 9-18 start and dim prospects for the 2007 season. The questions raise concerns about flawed management impeding progress at the major-league level.

 

The Nationals have finished last in the NL East in both of their full seasons under Bowden, declining from 81 wins in 2005 to 71 in '06. Their minor-league affiliates had the second-worst combined winning percentage in 2005, the third-worst in '06.

 

While the Nationals have taken a deliberate step back as they rebuild from within, they might be years away from developing the type of top-shelf young talent routinely generated by teams such as the Marlins.

 

Below the surface, cracks are showing.

 

Approximately 50 major and minor-league staffers, front-office personnel, player-development officials and scouts have resigned or been fired since Bowden took over — including a number whom Bowden promoted or hired.

 

Meanwhile, slow reimbursements of scouts' travel expenses, a tedious approval process for expenditures and nitpicking over minor purchases contribute to poor morale, former employees say.

 

The two officials who resigned in February — Andy Dunn, farm director, and Michele Copes, coordinator of scouting and player development — left, in part, because of the Nationals' stressful working environment, according to former employees.

 

The other two officials — Tyler Holmes, assistant to the farm director, and Matt Blaney, assistant in player development-Florida operations — became involved in a financial dispute with upper management, and were fired before they could submit their resignations.

 

Turnover is expected under a new owner. So is a learning curve. The challenges the Nationals face are even more acute considering that the organization was "flat on its back" after four years of MLB control, according to team president Stan Kasten.

 

Nationals officials say their latest personnel changes are attributable to the Lerners' desire to hire better people. They acknowledge growing pains during the Lerners' transition, but say that most of the issues have been or will be resolved.

 

"From our perspective, it's almost completely behind us," Bowden says. "When anyone gets a new business, they need to learn the business. It takes time to make sure that everyone is educated on how we operate. If there's a better way to do things, we're all open-minded."

 

Yet, even if the operation stabilizes, the relationships between the team's top executives — principal owner Mark Lerner, Bowden, Kasten and assistant general managers Mike Rizzo and Bob Boone — will continue to draw scrutiny.

 

Kasten, to the surprise of even his friends, has retained Bowden. His choice, however, might be influenced by Lerner, whom Bowden cultivated while the team was still for sale. Many in baseball, citing differences in personalities and leadership styles, believe a power struggle is inevitable and doubt whether the group will stay together long-term.

 

Nationals officials offer a different view.

 

The team's top executives, they say, possess complementary talents. Bowden, a bold, aggressive trader, is considered one of the game's most creative general managers. Rizzo helped build one of the game's top farm systems as the Diamondbacks' scouting director. Boone has been a major-league player, manager and scout. Kasten directed a run of 14 consecutive NL East titles as the Braves' club president.

 

Each of those executives says he is energized by the challenge of working in Washington, citing the commitment of the Lerner group as proof that the franchise is headed in the right direction.

 

The Nationals' budget for scouting and player development, Bowden says, ranks in the top five in the majors. The major-league payroll could double from its present $37 million next season. The team replenished its scouting department by hiring 10 scouts last November. It also instituted an accelerated development program for top prospects before spring training, and plans to field an fall Instructional League team for the first time since 2000.

 

While the length of Bowden's contract is not known, the Nationals awarded a four-year deal to Rizzo and a three-year deal to at least one of its new hires, special-assignment scout and Pacific Rim coordinator Bill Singer, according to major-league sources.

 

The Nationals also intend to make a splash in the June amateur draft, in which they hold five of the top 71 picks. They spent $5.3 million in last year's draft, 10th highest in the majors, according to Baseball America, and also signed a 16-year-old Dominican shortstop, Esmailyn Gonzalez, for $1.4 million.

 

The money could go to waste if the Nationals prove dysfunctional. But Kasten, pointing to the opening of the new ballpark and the potential for the franchise to become a force in both Latin America and the Pacific Rim, can barely contain his excitement over the franchise's future.

 

"It's going to be big — capital letters big," he says. "Great big bold neon big, no question about it."

 

 

Part 2: Personnel issues

 

Nationals general manager Jim Bowden rattles off some of the improvements made by the team's new ownership. New computer equipment. New video equipment. Lunch for the team's employees at RFK Stadium. First class all the way.

 

Many of the team's current and former employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tell a different story — a story of an organization that is not always first-class in its treatment of personnel.

 

Perhaps the most vivid example was the dismissal of longtime baseball executive Tony Siegle without severance pay last Oct. 24 — the same day that Siegle, as assistant GM, participated in the interview of Manny Acta, who later was named Nationals manager.

 

Turnover often prompts hard feelings among former employees. But the departures of four Nationals officials in February provide insight into the various tensions within the organization.

 

The four grew so unhappy, former employees say, they were willing to leave their jobs:

 

 

Andy Dunn resigned as farm director in part because he was unwilling to move his family from Florida to Washington without a contract extension.

Bowden had promoted Dunn on Oct. 17, 2005, when the club, under Major League Baseball ownership, was not permitted to make outside hires. Dunn asked for security due to his uncertainty over Bowden's future — and the club declined his request.

 

 

Michele Copes resigned as coordinator of scouting and player development over her frustration with the team's business practices and her belief that Bowden was unsupportive.

She reached her boiling point when she learned the club would not allow her to use Federal Express to send eight boxes of minor-league files and other necessary materials from Washington to the team's spring training-site in Melbourne, Fla.

 

 

Washington baseball history

Senators/Nationals Senators Nationals

 

Years 1901-60 1961-71 2005-present

 

League American American National

 

World Series titles 1 0 0

 

Pennants 3 0 0

 

Relocation issues Moved to Minnesota, became Twins Moved to Texas, became Rangers Moved from Montreal after 2004 season

 

 

Note: Prior to the modern era, two versions of the Nationals played in the NL from 1886-89 and 1892-99.

 

Tyler Holmes and Matt Blaney, player-development officials based in Florida, were fired after challenging the team's refusal to honor an understanding that they would receive $125.50 per day in major-league housing and meal money during spring training. Blaney also would have received the per diem during fall Instructional League.

The Nationals' position is that employees who live in Florida should not receive a spring-training housing and meal allowance. However, the team gave Holmes the allowance from 2004-06, and did not inform Holmes and Blaney of the change in policy until Feb. 15, at the start of spring training.

 

Blaney, 27, an assistant in the Nationals' player-development department and Florida operations, earned $20,000 per year. He returned to the Nationals with the expectation that he would continue receiving the allowance, which amounted to nearly $10,000, or about one-third of his total earnings.

 

After his dismissal, Blaney briefly joined the Astros as a spring-training intern, but he, Dunn, Copes and Holmes currently are out of baseball. Siegle, 67, became a senior advisor with the Giants, continuing his 42nd year in baseball.

 

Nationals executives declined to criticize any of their former employees, many of whom worked diligently under trying conditions when the team was owned by MLB.

 

But the organization, the executives say, required an upheaval.

 

"There have been a lot of changes because, to be honest, our standards are much higher," Bowden says. "We want to be best in the game. And when you want to be the best in the game, unfortunately there has to be turnover."

 

Adds club president Stan Kasten: "We want to make drastic changes right now at 100 mph, not 50 mph, so that we only have to do this once."

 

The Nationals, however, have lost some highly regarded baseball people, including several who either received promotions or joined more established organizations.

 

Adam Wogan, the farm director whom Bowden fired before elevating Dunn, is now with the Mets in a similar capacity. Wogan's former assistant, Nick Manno, is coordinator of minor-league player records for MLB. Mike Toomey, a former pro scout with the Nationals, is a special assistant to Royals GM Dayton Moore. Two scouts who worked the amateur side with the Nationals, Ray Jackson and Guy Mader, are doing pro coverage for other clubs.

 

Meanwhile, an administrative snag helped cost the Nationals a chance to retain Triple-A hitting coach Rick Eckstein, the older brother of Cardinals shortstop David Eckstein, who served as bullpen coach for Team USA during the inaugural World Baseball Classic.

 

The Nationals, major-league sources say, offered Eckstein the chance to return before last season ended, but were late sending his contract. Eckstein left to become the Cardinals' Triple-A hitting coach, and the Nationals contacted the commissioner's office about possible tampering. MLB told the team that it had no case because Eckstein had not been under contract.

 

Bowden envisioned Eckstein eventually becoming a major-league coach, but the Nationals barely take time to reflect upon who is gone.

 

If anything, they seem energized by their influx of front-office "brainpower," to use Bowden's term.

 

"I have never seen anything like this in my career," says Bowden, who was the Reds' GM from 1992-2003 before joining the Nationals in Nov. 2004. "I've never had a staff even close to this staff."

 

The staff includes not only Kasten and assistant general managers Mike Rizzo and Bob Boone, but also special assistants Chuck LaMar, the former Devil Rays GM, and Moose Stubing, who spent 40 years with the Angels as a player, coach, manager and scout.

 

The new farm director, Bobby Williams, 29, is relatively inexperienced, a former minor-league manager and coach. Bowden, however, predicts he will become a general manager.

 

"He's one of those great young minds, like Brian Cashman was, Theo Epstein, Josh Byrnes," Bowden says, referring to the general managers of the Yankees, Red Sox and Diamondbacks, respectively. "He's going to be just like that."

 

As Kasten says, "the proof will be in the pudding." If the Nationals become more stable and develop into a powerhouse, the initial turmoil will be recalled as a necessary step in the franchise's evolution.

 

For now, the turnover continues. The most recent departure, statistical analyst T.J. Barra, resigned in mid-March.

 

The horror stories circulated among baseball people all spring. The Nationals, they said, were months behind in reimbursing their scouts for travel expenses. One scout told a friend that the team owed him approximately $8,000.

 

"If I don't get my money," said another Nationals scout who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I'll just stay home."

 

Nationals general manager Jim Bowden says that will not be necessary.

 

"We're going to fix it. We're going to be efficient. And they're going to get paid," Bowden says.

 

"Yes, there have been problems. There's enough blame to go around. But the most important thing is, we're solving them internally. The last sets of expenses were turned around within eight days. It won't be an issue going forward."

 

There are other business-related issues, however — issues that have arisen since Ted Lerner and his ownership group officially took control from Major League Baseball last July 21.

 

The Lerner group, current and former employees say, require a multi-layered approval process for most expenditures and detailed explanations for outlays as minor as a Class A affiliate's $8 purchase of sunflower seeds.

 

Nationals officials say that the Lerner group, seeking to make the organization more efficient, is entitled to answers after spending $450 million to purchase the club.

 

But in their quest for efficiency, former employees say, ownership occasionally produces inefficient results.

 

In December, for example, Nationals minor-league officials requested approval to purchase 600 of the team's 2005 caps from New Era for $4 each, former employees say. The caps were to be used for minor-league players in spring training as well as players in the Gulf Coast League, Dominican Summer League and extended spring training.

 

It took six weeks for the purchase to be approved, according to the former employees. At that point the caps no longer were available, leaving the Nationals to purchase 2007 caps for $11 each — a net loss of $4,200.

 

The lengthy approval process also led to the cutting off of DirecTV for a time at RFK Stadium last season and created difficulties with the reimbursement of expenses to the team's Triple-A affiliate, which then was located in New Orleans.

The new ownership is discovering that a major-league club operates much differently than Ted Lerner's principal holding, Lerner Enterprises, the largest private real-estate developer in the Washington, D.C. area.

 

"As I remind people all the time, every owner of a last-place team in every sport is someone who was rich and fabulously successful somewhere at some point," says Nationals president Stan Kasten, who spoke on behalf of the Lerner group for this story.

 

"It takes learning. It takes studying. My owners are 100 percent dedicated to studying and learning everything they can."

 

In the meantime, friction is inevitable.

 

Employees, unaccustomed to new practices, sometimes are resentful of the additional work. Bills get paid, but not always promptly.

 

"Some of those things are incorporating the accounting system of a large, established company (Lerner Enterprises) into this company's accounting system," Kasten says.

 

"And remember, this company's accounting system as it existed until this past July was in Montreal, New York, Washington and Florida."

 

Montreal was the Nationals' old home, Washington the new home, Melbourne, Fla., the spring-training home. New York was the location of the team's owner, Major League Baseball.

 

The implication is that under MLB, the franchise was disjointed, if not an outright mess.

 

"I have to defend the Lerners," assistant GM Bob Boone says. "It was so inefficient. It was like, 'Stop this! This is madness! Now let's walk through it to get efficient, find the snags.'

 

"If I were the owner, I'd be saying, 'Come explain it to me. Come explain why I need this many baseballs.' If you owned this thing and just whipped out the kind of money they whipped out and came into the inefficiency that was here, I've got to tell you, I would have said, 'Stop! I'm not paying another stinking bill until I figure this sucker out. My people are going to get in there. My people, who aren't baseball people. We're going to learn about baseball as fast as we can.' "

 

The process takes time.

 

The Lerner group requires three bids for every significant purchase and reproductions of MLB's exclusive contracts with bat and ball companies before ordering such items.

 

Nationals officials, however, say that ownership is responsive when given its requested information.

 

Second baseman Ron Belliard, for example, wanted to order a dozen new bats even though he already had received a shipment of 36. Ownership representatives asked why the additional purchase was necessary.

 

Nationals officials explained that Belliard wanted a different bat after trying the lighter model used by Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla. The explanation was accepted. The bats were ordered.

 

Another lesson learned.

 

There's no getting around it: A lot of people in baseball don't like Nationals general manager Jim Bowden. A lot of people wonder how the heck he keeps his job.

 

The problem is not Bowden's ability to be a GM — he pulls off one-sided trades, drafts top amateurs such as third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and charms reporters and owners alike.

 

The problem, according to his critics, is Bowden's unpredictable nature. He can be kind and loyal one moment, impulsive and threatening the next.

 

To those critics, the Nationals will remain unstable as long as Bowden is GM — a notion disputed by club president Stan Kasten, who remains supportive of Bowden both publicly and privately.

 

Though Bowden's contract status is not known, the relationship between Kasten and Bowden already has lasted longer than many predicted when Kasten assumed his position last May 3.

 

Kasten might have little choice in the matter: Bowden, according to major-league sources, endeared himself to principal owner Mark Lerner, son of managing principal owner Ted Lerner, before Kasten entered the equation.

 

Still, the Nationals seem dedicated to making their delicate but potentially dynamic management team work.

 

"It's fair to say, within the sport that Jim is something of a controversial figure," says Kasten, the Braves' former president. "I have many friends in this business who are close to me who are not fans of Jim. Who were surprised that I kept Jim.

 

"Some of that was just knee-jerk thinking: 'Jim is different from (Braves GM) John Schuerholz. He must not be Stan's kind of guy.' That, in and of itself, was kind of a silly conclusion for people to jump to. The truth is, John is one of my closest friends. But John and I are very different.

 

"Many of Jim's critics when they choose to criticize him will go to stylistic criticisms rather than substantive. Jim and I have talked long about things like that, about how he wants to be perceived, what he would like to accomplish in the game.

 

"I think even on stylistic matters, one could say that Jim has had some good progress, at least since I've been working with him. Since last May, I think he gets high marks."

 

Kasten's time reference is significant — Bowden was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol last April in Miami Beach. He pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 21.

 

Since his arrest, Bowden mostly has steered free of controversy. The exception came after his former team, the Reds, accused him of trading them an injured pitcher, right-hander Gary Majewski.

 

The Reds have until July 13, the one-year anniversary of the deal, to file a grievance. They have yet to do so, according to major-league sources.

 

"I think I've matured a lot," Bowden says. "Stan's been a really good influence since he's been here, especially in terms of patience and analysis and doing things a different way."

 

Still, Bowden remains a polarizing figure, particularly to those who have left the Nationals, either by the club's choice or their own.

 

"Jim tries to lead through intimidation," says Brent Strom, the Nationals' former minor-league pitching coordinator. "Different viewpoints aren't really considered."

Strom has been out of baseball since getting fired by the Nationals at the start of the 2006 season. His opinion, however, is shared by other former Nationals employees who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

Kasten bristles at the suggestion that the uncertainty over Bowden's contract status is an issue. Some former employees, however, say that Bowden could not properly support them when he was fighting for his own job.

 

Both Kasten and Bowden deny that charge, Kasten labeling it "a joke."

 

"I back all the people below me," Bowden says.

 

Potential cliques, however, exist within the Nationals' power structure. Bowden is close to assistant GM Bob Boone and special assistant Jose Rijo. The team's other assistant GM, Mike Rizzo, was the new ownership's group first significant hire — and, in the opinion of some, Kasten's choice to eventually succeed Bowden as GM.

 

But such divisions, if they exist, are not readily apparent.

 

The structure, as Bowden sees it, is almost ideal. Kasten, 55, helps guide Bowden, 45. Rizzo, 46, does the same for scouting director Dana Brown, 40. Boone, 59, is a mentor for farm director Bobby Williams, 29.

 

"There's no agendas here," Rizzo says. "You leave your ego at the door when you come in this room. We talk about the best player for the Washington Nationals. Not about Dana Brown, Bob Boone, Jim Bowden, Mike Rizzo. It's all about the Washington Nationals. We've got one thing in mind: Win. Win as fast as we can. And sustain it as long as we can."

 

Only time will tell if the arrangement will work to everyone's satisfaction, but the Nationals will have few excuses if they fail to emerge as a powerhouse in the NL East.

 

Several things must change for that evolution to occur:

 

 

The Lerner group must get rapidly up to speed on the business of baseball.

 

Kasten must clarify Bowden's contract status, eliminating it as a source of distraction.

 

Bowden must develop into a strong, effective leader, unifying his organization rather than dividing it.

 

The front office must stay the player-development course, trading marketable veterans for talented youngsters and proceeding slowly in free agency.

The Nationals' new ballpark opens next season. Their major-league payroll could double. Their home city, a leading international center, will provide numerous advantages.

 

They have every reason to succeed.

 

Now they must do it.