Friday, March 30, 2007

Nationals Love Triangle

The WaPo has a good story on the threeway relationship that really matters most: Jim Bowden, Stan Kasten, and Mark Lerner.

There are some good quotes in there that an armchair psychologist could have a field day with.

The CW is that Jim Bowden, who's a love him or hate him kinda guy, ingratiated himself with Mark Lerner when the tea leaves started blowing the Lerners way, and that Bowden isn't really Stan Kasten's ideal man. It's just that the friendship between Bodes and Lerner prevents Kasten from taking out the trash.

Svrluga doesn't draw any conclusions, but most of the quotes in the piece don't really dispel it either.
Take this graf:
"There's more than one way to skin a cat," said Kasten, pointing out that he is also markedly different than his buttoned-down GM in Atlanta, John Schuerholz. "I believe that. There's no formula, no one solution. Each situation requires an analysis of what's required. I tried to do that here, and it changes on a frequent basis."

That's hardly a ringing endorsement. That could easily be interpreted as "Well, I'm stuck with him, so I might as well take advantage of his limited skill set."

Says Lerner of Jim:
"After about two minutes, we just had a great relationship," Lerner said. "I think he was a little different than what I expected. I just like Jim a lot. I respect his work ethic. He's a good man. He and his fiancée, Joy, are good friends of ours."

Now that's a ringing endorsement.

Bowden certainly knows where his bread is buttered:
"They're great human beings, all of them, the entire family," Bowden said. "The family includes the wives and the children and the cousins and the grandchildren. They're all special people."


Another non-ringing endorsement:
"I felt good enough about what was here to give Jim the first shot."

Translation: "I settled."
Past performance is good for whatever lessons you might learn from it, but every situation requires a person tailored to that situation -- and that's what we try to do here."

Translation: "We're working around his limitations."

Kasten was asked if he thought that Bowden had the right skills to rebuild:
"I do. I have no reason not to think that. You know, you make adjustments always. Always, always, always."

That second sentence is pretty damning. Do you suppose that he intended the third and fourth to apply to himself?

More from Bowden:
"I think that the decision that was made from ownership to Stan all the way down was something that none of us will ever second-guess."

Translation: "We don't agree on a lot of things, but we march ahead for our jobs' sake."

There's a lot more love tossed back and forth in the piece, but there's an awful lot of subtext there, too. It's an interesting relationship, and watching how it develops over the next year or two is going to be fascinating.

6 Comments:

  • The other aspect that needs to be addressed is how Bowden has surrounded himself with "his guys." Squire Galbreath. Bob Boone. Jose Rijo. Barry Larkin. Bobby Williams.

    If the Nationals were to consider a change of GM, it would have a pretty significant ripple effect in all aspects of their rebuilding effort.

    By Blogger Brian, at 3/30/2007 10:25 AM  

  • "The family includes the wives and the children and the cousins and the grandchildren. They're all special people."

    I wanted to puke upon reading this line in the paper this morning. Bodes is kissing so much arse here he's gauranteed employment from the entire Lerner clan on down to their family dog.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/30/2007 11:55 AM  

  • As far as I can tell, Bowden isn't a factor anyway. You can tell that because the trading of players has ceased. Kasten may be stuck with him but it looks like he has him on a very short leash.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/30/2007 6:31 PM  

  • I could see the Post interviewing Kasten on his relationship with Bowden 50 years from now and it would sound like Godfather II.

    "There was this kid that I grew up with. He was younger than me...We were in the same field, we put baseball teams together. Things were good. We made the most of it... As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him.

    Later on, he had an idea to build a baseball team in D.C. That kid's name was Bowden and the team he invented was the Nats.

    This was a great man, a man of vision and guts--he stole Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez! And there isn't even a plaque or a signpost or a statue of him in that town!

    When he was fired, I wasn't angry. I knew Bowden, I knew he was headstrong, talking loud, saying stupid things-like Nook Logan can play centerfield.

    So when he was fired, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen. I didn't ask why they gave order because it had nothing to do with business!"

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/30/2007 8:19 PM  

  • Tobias - Classic!

    By Blogger Scott M. Collins, at 3/30/2007 10:25 PM  

  • As long at Bowden will work for 25 grand a year, the Lerners will keep him around. Additionally, he gives good piggy back rides to the Lerner great grand children

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/31/2007 2:10 AM  

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