Questions For Rosenthal?

Ken Rosenthal is chatting about yesterday's article on the Nats at 1 today.

Got any questions for him? Got any complaints? You may want to put the spit guard on your monitor before you read some of the questions he's asked.

I'd urge you to read Federal Baseball's take on the Rosenthal article. It's a fair (and dare I say) balanced take on the article, and makes the argument that 90% of what's in it, can probably be casually disregarded.

Particularly interesting to me is this aspect:

An alternative theory -- though concededly not necessarily one of my own -- is that Kasten wields less power than it seems; instead, it is the Lerners who are penny-pinching either out of inexperience in organized baseball or because they are born penny-pinchers. Certainly, the thought is not without support. Rosenthal's article is not the first to reference a Lerner family member's personal knowledge of even de minimis expenditures by the team. Moreover, while the Lerner/Kasten marriage has the public veneer of a lockstep bond, the reality might be something different. Remember, Kasten was a late addition to the Lerner bid; up until then, Kasten had been most rumored as Fred Malek's white knight. Now, I'm not saying I know something about this (because I don't), but dozens of "insider" accounts insist Bowden still has a job in Washington because he ingratiated himself with Mark Lerner. Kasten appears to have compromised in some manner on the issue because even he acknowledges he has come around to like Bowden; as has been reported, Kasten's first impression of Bowden wasn't necessarily positive, since he has friends in the game who like Bodes and friends in the game who don't. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make (or at least proffer) is the possibility that Kasten and the Lerners have not yet settled into a comfortable working arrangement. While Kasten is clearly the club president and has much authority in player personnel matters, it seems conceivable there is some overlap on business matters.

Definitely an interesting thought!