National Health Crisis: Book II

[Guest Edgy DC]

Who:	Mets at Washington Nationals
When:	Tonight at 7:05 Tomorrow at 7:05 Sunday at 1:35
Matchups:	Tonight: Oliver Perez (2-1, 3.31 ERA) vs. Matt Chico (1-2, 6.48 ERA) Tomorrow: Tom Glavine (3-1, 3.07), Jerome Williams (0-4, 7.77) Sunday: John Maine (3-0, 1.71), Jason Bergmann (0-1, 3.27)

OK, look. What you didn't get from my first installment, I'll try and catch you up on. But seriously, what do you want to know. The Nats are only our enemy in that they gave aid and comfort to our real enemy, the Phils. The Phils had theyselves one of those two-hour air-clearing meetings, and turned around and won five straight. OK, it was written, they've gotten the lack of phocus out of their system. OK, they're phinally on board with Charlie Manuel's approach.

Bullshit, they just ran into some teams playing assball, including the Nats, who specialize in the game. Nonetheless, the Nats took their third game against Philadelphia, ending the Rollinses five-game win streak.

We should punish them.

So let's quicky review some of those pitchers:

Chico, who misses his chance ot lock up with the Maine as the poet would have him do, is pitching to retain his major-league status tonight. He's gone 4.0, 4.2, 5.0, and 4.2 innings, respectively, in his four starts so far, and the vultures are circling. His last start in Florida, his 4.2 included a Nuke LaLooshish six strikeouts and five walks, so maybe Annie will have him wear woman's underwear tonight. Else, it's back to Durham or Harrisburg, or Hamilton or wherever.

Fun Faxx: He's the number 42 prospect in baseball according to I Know More Minor League Shit Than You Magazine. He was signed by Arizona after audtioning on a makeshift mound behind a warehouse. He came over in the trade for Livan Hernandez.

The heat then falls on Jerome Williams, fighting to remain one of handful of African-American starting pitchers in the majors, even if he is throwing minor league ball. Williams went six the last time out against Florida, which might seem like a good goal these days for a young pitcher, but he gave up 10 runs (nine earned) and fanned two.

Fun Faxx: Williams lost his temper on the mound against Florida, where he was hung out there by Manny Acta during his battering in order to rest a tired bullpen. Acta took him aside during the game and lectured him about showing his emotions on the field. After the game, he told the media that he "lost his confidence," an interestingly frank admission that had Acta and others quickly in spin mode repeating that this wasn't actually the case and Williams had merely chosen his words wrong. Williams has been saying the right things ever since, as if the words are written on his hand.

Bergmann has been the Nats' top starter this year, and held the Phils to one earnie in six innings in his last start. Over his last three games, he's given up four earned in 18 and a third, but still has no wins to show for it. He's nonetheless the biggest obstacle standing between New York and Sweepsville.

Fun Faxx: Bergmann is a native of Neptune, NJ ("I think I'm on another planet with you, with you...") and was at Yankee Stadium the afternoon Tom Seaver won his 300th game on August 4, 1985. He was not quite four.

More National News: Jesus Flores finally got a few hits --- two doubes in one game, one driving in two runs.

He belongs to us

Let's get him back

Starter Brian Schneider, meanwhile, contines to be an awful hitter. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.

Acta is trying to work goofy-looking shortstop Josh Wilson in against lefties, but Homes is batting .077. Not only that, but the guy he's displacing in such situations is Felipe Lopez, one their only players worth depicting as a pose-able action figure.

You might see these lineups:

Vs. Lefties: Josh Wilson, ss Ronie Belliard, 2b Ryan Zimmerman, 3b Dmitri Young, 1b Austin Kearns, rf Ryan Church, cf Michael Restovich, lf Brian Schneider, c

Vs. Righties: Felipe Lopez, ss Ronie Belliard, 2b Ryan Zimmerman, 3b Dmitri Young, 1b Austin Kearns, rf Ryan Church, cf Robert Ficking Fick, lf Brian Schneider, c

The following guys are on the DL and this disaster is TECHNICALLY NOT THEIR FAULT: pitchers Luis Ayala, Ray Kingsize, and Michael O'Connor; infielders Christian Guzman and Nick Johnson; and outfielders Alex Escobar and Nook Logan.

The Nats recently became the first team to deliver tickets to patron's cellphones, which can then be scanned at the gate from the cellphone display. That's some serious Buck Rogers shit there. When contacted for a comment Gil Gerard expressed no interest in ever attending a game at RFK.

Zimmerman is worth keeping an eye on. He seemed to have found his stroke in Florida.

The weather just broke and sun is out. Enjoy the weekend.

[Willets Point]

That one guy seems to be breaking the draconian "NO SITTING" rule. Freakin' hippies!

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Thanks. I had let my subscription to I Know More Minor League Shit Than You Magazine expire, but mostly because I've become so fond of Draft and Follow Weekly.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

It looks like you're missing a tag Edgy.

[metirish]

Williams Nats career will be worth watching,sounds like he has no biz being in the big leagues.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, fix't it. I had an extra apostrophe in there, if you believe that.

[Frayed Knot]

="Johnny Dickshot"]I had let my subscription to I Know More Minor League Shit Than You Magazine expire, but mostly because I've become so fond of Draft and Follow Weekly.

Which reminds me that I think ESPN needs to do more NFL draft previews. I'm not sure the 100 or so hours/week they're doing now - or the all-day coverage planned for the next two days is enough.
Shirley there's some overlooked aspect that they can take more time to explore:
- pinky toe size as a predictive factor of NFL success?
-the effect of Jr High shop classes as linebacker preparation?

[metirish]

Has Chris Berman coined nick names for the top picks yet?,I just can't imagine tuning in to watch the draft.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Baseball, gentelmen!

Focus on the enemy!

[metirish]

[Guest Edgy DC]

A good four-part on what's going on behind the scenes with the Nats:

National crisis: Capital franchise in turmoil

Ken Rosenthal / FOXSports.com

It was more than a minor news item.

A 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.

http://msn.foxsports.com/id/6761936_36_2.jpg Mercurial GM Jim Bowden is at the center of most of the Nationals' controversies. ( / Associated Press)

The extensive turnover that continues 2� 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.

Lost opportunity Teams rebuilding through scouting and player development often seek to maximize their assets by trading their best veterans for multiple prospects. The Nationals failed to do that last season with left fielder Alfonso Soriano, and might already have waited too long to move closer Chad Cordero. General manager Jim Bowden has negotiated several impressive deals in his 2� years with the Nationals, including his initial acquisition of Soriano from the Rangers. But he declined to trade Soriano last summer, saying the offers he received were of lesser quality than the draft picks he could collect if Soriano left as a free agent. That still might prove to be the case. However, the Nationals received only the 31st and 68th picks in the upcoming amateur draft as compensation for losing Soriano. They did not receive a higher selection because the Cubs finished in the bottom half of the overall standings last season, and major-league rules state that such clubs can not lose their first-round pick. The 68th pick is the Cubs' second-rounder. The 31st is a supplemental choice between the first and second rounds. Cordero is in a different position than Soriano was a year ago � the Nationals control him through 2009. Closers, however, are less valuable to rebuilding clubs than they are to contenders. Numerous clubs targeted Cordero in trade talks last off-season. Rival executives, however, said that Bowden set an unrealistic asking price, echoing the complaint they had with his handling of Soriano. The Nationals still could move Cordero and another quality reliever, left-hander Jon Rauch, before the July 31 non-waiver deadline. But Cordero is off to a rocky start, and some teams question whether he can achieve long-term success as a closer.

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."

[Guest Edgy DC]

Part II:

National crisis: Personnel issues

Ken Rosenthal / FOXSports.com

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.
  
  
  


• 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.

Washington baseball history
	Senators/Nationals	Senators	Nationals
Years	1901-60	1961-71	2005-present