{"id":1645,"date":"2009-09-29T07:17:18","date_gmt":"2009-09-29T14:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/29\/kastens-plan-for-what-exactly\/"},"modified":"2009-09-29T07:17:18","modified_gmt":"2009-09-29T14:17:18","slug":"kastens-plan-for-what-exactly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/29\/kastens-plan-for-what-exactly\/","title":{"rendered":"Kasten’s Plan, for What Exactly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stan Kasten is a gentleman and an Ivy-league scholar.\u00c2\u00a0 When the Lerner family outbid their competitors for the rights to the relocated Montreal Expos, MLB, Inc. insisted the Lerners take on Kasten as a partner.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans were delighted\u00c2\u00a0to see someone affiliated with the Braves dynasty coming aboard.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But\u00c2\u00a0Kasten’s endless insistence that the laughing stock of baseball is heading in the right <\/a>direction has begun to sound more than just flat.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It begs the question whether\u00c2\u00a0Kasten has\u00c2\u00a0been little more than\u00c2\u00a0a trojan horse thrust into Washington baseball by the Commissioner’s Office?<\/em><\/p>\n

In the first two years after the purchase of the team, the Lerners became quickly perceived as\u00c2\u00a0“cheap.”\u00c2\u00a0 They refused to pay the rent on the stadium, yet priced stadium accountrements at the high end.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0That concept was exploded when Ted Lerner outbid everyone else for Mark Teixeira.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly they were the ownership group that scared Bud Selig when they bid on the Nationals in the first place.\u00c2\u00a0 They had a\u00c2\u00a0net wealth at the time that far exceeded\u00c2\u00a0most other owners.<\/p>\n

The Washington Nationals 2009 season ends as one of the worst in baseball history.\u00c2\u00a0 It is safe to pronounce the original vision that Stan Kasten articulated for the Nationals\u00c2\u00a0a failure.\u00c2\u00a0 According to Kasten, the team was to be competitive by 2010.\u00c2\u00a0 Few teams have gone from being the worst in baseball two years running to competing the next year.\u00c2\u00a0 \"null\"So it is fair to say that\u00c2\u00a0Kasten’s claims were at best good intentions gone awry.<\/p>\n

Stan Kasten has been the voice of the franchise since the middle of the 2006 season when MLB, Inc. reluctantly finalized the sale of the team and made Washington’s claim on the\u00c2\u00a0franchise secure.\u00c2\u00a0 Kasten grants frequent interviews,\u00c2\u00a0never says anything of substance, and always asserts a rosy future.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the Expos were relocated to\u00c2\u00a0Washington\u00c2\u00a0in 2005, Jim Bowden and Frank Robinson\u00c2\u00a0were\u00c2\u00a0the crew.\u00c2\u00a0 But the\u00c2\u00a0wiley old engineer at the head of the train was Bud Selig.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Selig had the final say over who bought the team and\u00c2\u00a0when the Lerner’s bid outstripped all others, Stan Kasten was made part of Selig’s deal.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Was he there to help the novice owners with his vast experience of the league, or to provide drag on any impulse the Lerners might have to throw their money around?<\/p>\n

Kasten and Bowden\u00c2\u00a0launched a public relations campaign\u00c2\u00a0at the end of 2006 in which they asserted Washington would field\u00c2\u00a0a competitive team by 2010.\u00c2\u00a0 It was all about the young talent,\u00c2\u00a0all about growing the team from the “bottom up.”\u00c2\u00a0 It sounded good and made sense.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans, however, began to question why a team valued at the high end–$450 million, and one capable of drawing nearly 3 million fans to RFK Stadium, had one of the lowest payrolls in the game.<\/p>\n

The\u00c2\u00a0highlights of the Kasten-Bowden era have been two significant failures.\u00c2\u00a0 One was the signing of Dominican Smiley Gonzalez by Bowden–uncovered as a fraud that led to Bowden’s departure.\u00c2\u00a0 Then\u00c2\u00a0there was the 2008 draft in which\u00c2\u00a0top pick Aaron Crow\u00c2\u00a0failed to sign.\u00c2\u00a0 The Nationals let\u00c2\u00a0Crow walk\u00c2\u00a0over the difference of\u00c2\u00a0a few hundred thousand dollars.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kasten put\u00c2\u00a0Bowden in charge of the negotiations\u00c2\u00a0and no one could understand\u00c2\u00a0the inability to bridge such a small gap.\u00c2\u00a0 Pundits\u00c2\u00a0hinted that\u00c2\u00a0the pugnacious approach Bowden took in attempting to drive down the price offended Crow, his agents, and most importantly, the young man’s parents.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Kasten manned up the morning after and told the press the final decision had been his.<\/p>\n

No one in the aftermath talked\u00c2\u00a0much about about the slotting system and Kasten and Bowden’s strong ties to the Commissioner’s office.\u00c2\u00a0 But it is certainly within the realm of reason to argue that the hard line taken by Bowden was\u00c2\u00a0an effort\u00c2\u00a0to drive\u00c2\u00a0Crow’s price down to something more in line with “slot.”\u00c2\u00a0 So the issue came down to whether Bowden\u00c2\u00a0and Kasten’s first loyalty was to the\u00c2\u00a0Commissioner’s Office or the\u00c2\u00a0Nationals.\u00c2\u00a0 The outcome lends credence to the latter.<\/p>\n

Ardent fans wondered how letting a first round draft choice get away squared with Kasten’s “plan” to build a competitive organization with young talent.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It makes more sense if\u00c2\u00a0Kasten’s motivation is not to build a team but to\u00c2\u00a0hold firm on Selig’s slotting system.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kasten’s conflict arises\u00c2\u00a0not just from a desire to please\u00c2\u00a0Commissioner Bud Selig, but one day to\u00c2\u00a0step into his shoes, to succeed him as CEO of MLB, Inc.\u00c2\u00a0 Knowledgeable sources early in 2007 put Kasten’s name at the top of the list to replace Selig when he retires.\u00c2\u00a0 Kasten\u00c2\u00a0would be a good fit for\u00c2\u00a0Bud Selig’s job.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0He is smart and has long tenure in the game and\u00c2\u00a0sources put him in the mix when Selig finally steps down in 2012.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Can someone win\u00c2\u00a0the votes of the other MLB owners\u00c2\u00a0while aggressively trying to build a winner in Washington?\u00c2\u00a0 Probably not.<\/p>\n

The\u00c2\u00a0Crow negotiations are the\u00c2\u00a0most obvious display of\u00c2\u00a0Kasten’s loyalties to the Commissioner’s Office trumping his efforts to build\u00c2\u00a0a competitive organization.\u00c2\u00a0 But Kasten’s strategy for\u00c2\u00a0“building from the bottom up,” one that eschews expensive free agents and emphasizes young\u00c2\u00a0and less expensive talent works well for Kasten–perhaps better than it does for the Nationals.<\/p>\n

There is no knowing\u00c2\u00a0just the cicumstantial evidence.\u00c2\u00a0 The Nationals\u00c2\u00a0have the worst record in baseball for the second season in a row, a minor league organization full of holes and a team President who keeps saying everything is going according to “plan.”\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0One can only judge Kasten by the performance of the organization and even there it is difficult to determine his exact role.\u00c2\u00a0 The stance of the team in the upcoming off-season\u00c2\u00a0will provide important\u00c2\u00a0clues.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those few Washington fans still paying attention are wondering how aggressive the Nationals will be in the upcoming free agent market.\u00c2\u00a0 The kind of team that Washington puts on the field in 2010–the year Kasten originally\u00c2\u00a0promised a\u00c2\u00a0competitor–will depend on key decisions made between now and January.<\/p>\n

The first issue will be a new manager and the second will be to fill\u00c2\u00a0glaring weaknesses in the team.\u00c2\u00a0 The Lerners have two ways to go.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They can continue to\u00c2\u00a0bottom feed, picking up only the cheapest free agents and\u00c2\u00a0emphasizeing an always distant future.\u00c2\u00a0 That path can be named\u00c2\u00a0Kasten Avenue.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

If taken, this road will see another new and inexperienced manager brought in to help with a “young” team.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The holes in the pitching staff will be filled with cheap talent like Livan Hernandez–a favorite, but no longer a top of the rotation option.\u00c2\u00a0 Toolsy young players like Elijah Dukes and Justin Maxwell who have played enough to demonstrate their status as role players and backups, will continue to be trotted out as the future, when really there isn’t one.<\/p>\n

The second option will be to\u00c2\u00a0listen to\u00c2\u00a0newly appointed\u00c2\u00a0GM Mike Rizzo.\u00c2\u00a0 That road leads to a more aggressive pursuit of\u00c2\u00a0the talent it\u00c2\u00a0will take to transform the old Expos into something similar to the Diamonbacks–Rizzo’s former team that went from expansion franchise to World Series Champions in four years.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such a change\u00c2\u00a0will require a front-line starter and none of those will come to DC without a premium for taking such a long-shot bet.\u00c2\u00a0 It will require a first-tier closer to bridge to Drew Storen who may yet qualify for the job, but who\u00c2\u00a0will benefit from an under-study role.\u00c2\u00a0 It will require expensive additions to the infield and outfield where only Ryan Zimmerman and Nyjer Morgan can field their position consistently.<\/p>\n

But if the\u00c2\u00a0Lerners aggressively pursue free agents for 2010, they will be driving prices up in a tough market–exactly what\u00c2\u00a0Kasten is in Washington\u00c2\u00a0to diminish.\u00c2\u00a0 Stan Kasten is\u00c2\u00a0a nice man, but\u00c2\u00a0his counsel has left the Nationals a laughing stock.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

They are such an embarrassment that the new President refused to attend a single game or throw out the first pitch–a long standing tradition that George Bush was willing to re-instate.\u00c2\u00a0 It is hard to fault President Obama for failing to\u00c2\u00a0pay attention for a single minute to the travesty on South Capitol, but it would be nice if there was change we could belive in at Nationals Park.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Will the 2009 off-season see the\u00c2\u00a0link between Kasten and the Lerners fray further?\u00c2\u00a0 Aggressive pursuit of top tier pitching talent will mean that Rizzo is seriously in charge of the team.\u00c2\u00a0 Bargain shopping will mean that Kasten has talked his way back in and that Washington baseball is in serious jeopardy.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The only question\u00c2\u00a0is whether that has been the\u00c2\u00a0“plan” all along.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stan Kasten is a gentleman and an Ivy-league scholar.\u00c2\u00a0 When the Lerner family outbid their competitors for the rights to the relocated Montreal Expos, MLB, Inc. insisted the Lerners take on Kasten as a partner.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans were delighted\u00c2\u00a0to see someone affiliated with the Braves dynasty coming aboard.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But\u00c2\u00a0Kasten’s endless insistence that the laughing stock of baseball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-view-from-the-capital"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t