Washington Nationals' President Stan Kasten Draws Line In Sand?
by Patrick Reddington on Sep 23, 2010 8:09 AM EDT
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PrintIn hindsight, it appears that when Washington Nationals' team President Stan Kasten told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark earlier this month, in a section of an article entitled, "Is it time to push back trading deadline?" which was subtitled, "National reset", that the Nats would be, "more aggressive than we've ever been" in their attempts to upgrade the club this winter, it was more wishful thinking or a challenge than a statement of fact. In Washington Post writer Thomas Boswell's somewhat shocking article yesterday entitled, "As Nats embark on next journey, will Stan Kasten be on board?", Mr. Kasten once again states his case for the fact that now is the time for the Nats' owners in control of the team's payroll to act:
"This is the time to act," he said this week. "We are close. This is how it felt in Atlanta just before we turned it around. Once you've laid the groundwork and improved the farm system, you need to add some pieces. That's where we are now."
According to Mr. Boswell, however, with "friends, family and baseball associates" cited as sources, there's a possibility that Mr. Kasten won't be around to closely monitor the results of any such spending should the Nats follow his advice, with those who know him claiming, "frustration at his lack of effective influence on the Lerners, as well as a desire to get back to his family in Atlanta, will probably end his D.C. days." This isn't the first time the WaPost's Mr. Boswell's commented on Mr. Kasten's influence on the team's direction, or lack of it. In a late August chat with the Post's readers, entitled, "Redskins, Stephen Strasburg, Nats and more -- Ask Boswell", Mr. Boswell was quoted stating that, "I've never seen a greater waste of a major talent than the way the Nats have used Kasten."
Mr. Boswell argued then in that chat, as he does now, that the composition of the current front office from DC GM Mike Rizzo on down through the ranks of, "old buddies" Rizzo "raided...from a half-dozen teams," was essentially Kasten's doing, since it was Mr. Kasten who originally brought the then-Arizona D-Backs' Scouting Director to the nation's capital with the intention of having him eventually replace the MLB-appointed and Lerner-approved former Nats' General Manager Jim Bowden. Now, however, Mr. Boswell writes, in contrast to the time Mr. Kasten worked for Ted Turner in Atlanta with the Braves, Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers, where, "what Kasten recommended generally became law," :
"In Washington, his views, especially in the Lerners' first three years of ownership, were greeted as if he were just another hired hand with an opinion."
The Nats' owners, Mr. Boswell argues, have listened to Mr. Rizzo and Kasten's recommendations when they signed Ryan Zimmerman to an extension, made the bold offer to Aroldis Chapman, and inked the precedent-setting deals they gave no.1 overall picks Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper in back-to-back drafts, as well as the decision, "...to hire for 11 additional front office slots and to sign free agents, including Jason Marquis, Matt Capps and Ivan Rodriguez, to market-priced contracts," but when the Nationals opened their new ballpark and Mr. Kasten recommended that the team follow the model the Minnesota Twins did this season and, "[raise] payroll [from $65 million in '09 to $98 million] to make sure they put a good team on the field their first season," in spite of Mr. Kasten's recommendation, "It didn't happen,":
"Instead, the Nats moved to Nationals Park with a payroll $9 million less than what it was in 2006, when MLB ran the team."
Will the Washington Nationals listen to Mr. Kasten this time? Will the fact that he's publically calling for the Nats to "more aggressive than we've ever been" as he does in ESPN.com's Mr. Stark's article and drawing a proverbial line in the sand as Mr. Boswell portrays it in yesterday's piece finally force the team to take the jump in payroll that Mr. Kasten recommended before the inaugural campaign in Nationals Park? Will it be Mr. Kasten's last act as the team's President, the gift to the DC Faithful he leaves behind? Or will their decision to ignore his recommendation be the reason he finally moves on?
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I’m not unhappy with the bullpen setup for 2011. Need reliable starters and way better defense. Do you guys think Espinosa is ready to be a starting 2B?
Look how cheap a lot of the players are…Ramos, Desmond, Spinner, Bernie, Morse and many of the pitchers are still moderately cheap.
I hope they spend some money on a right fielder with 25+ HR power.
I don’t even know what to think about the Hammer.
Think there's as good a chance Espinosa starts in Syr as in DC...
But the Nats need another infielder if they don’t let Espinosa start in the nation’s capital.
If they don’t move Hammer to right like some are suggesting, having him in left and Bernie and Morgan on the roster to play center, it would make the most sense to me to add a power bat in right. That is if you think Morgan/Bernadina are good enough for CF. If not then they need two OFers.
Without Strasburg for next season, I think they have to add another starter (or two) and hope whoever it is doesn’t pull a Marquis (that’s mean) but actually produces instead of just eating innings…
A starter and a legit RF/OF, plus some more bench help and that’s probably the payroll increase that’s being recommended…
Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."
by Patrick Reddington on Sep 23, 2010 8:28 AM EDT up reply actions
+1
the OF we do get needs to be a power hitter I believe…..and at least one of the pitchers needs to be the real deal 2 or 3 spot type…..
by NewJerseyAveSE on Sep 23, 2010 9:31 AM EDT up reply actions
1. Sign Dunn..........
2. Major trade involving Willingham Mock/Stammen types for NUMBER 2-3 starter or .295 25 95 RF……..
3. Buy the other
I would call Tampa Bay about their starters.
There’s an edict to cut payroll, and they’ve got Garza, Shields, Price, Hellickson, Davis, and Niemann under control with other SP prospects in the minors.
Garza or Shields is almost definitely on their way out.
Needs moar dingerz.
The Nats reportedly asked aboot Garza in the leadup to the trade deadline...
Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."
by Patrick Reddington on Sep 23, 2010 3:39 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Shields is starting to turn into a pumpkin.
Who knows what Garzas price will be? Seems to me he’ll be looking for a huge payday for a long term deal that could involve risk for us. I don’t really want Lilly, but somebody in that price bracket seems to be what we need.
The wait for 10/7 begins. This man is focused. Are you?
I don't get the Twins argument
I think their payroll increased mostly due to Joe Mauer, and I also think Cudyer had an option that they picked up. The only guy they really added from outside was Orlando Hudson. They are at the end of the process while the Nationals are at the beginning. I don’t really see a comparision since most of their payroll increase came from signing their own players to extensions. I guess the Nationals should have paid Felipe Lopez and Lastings Milledge more money, because it would make them better ballplayers.
I don't think Mr. Boswell's parsing the individual deals that led to the increase as much as he's noting...
a $33M dollar bump in salary that coincides with the influx of cash a new stadium is bound to provide and did in the Nats’ case.
Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."
by Patrick Reddington on Sep 23, 2010 9:02 AM EDT up reply actions
Talk about the Rodney Dangerfield of Nats players...
With few exceptions posts seem to ignore the fact that the Nats may have the offensive RF or 1B (if Dunn leaves) on their roster right now: Mike Morse. He seems to get ‘no respect’. I note that he has over 200 ABs at this point and his stats are very similar to Zimmerman’s in terms of ABs per HR, slugging pct., and BA. While we can all speculate on whether or not he can do this well over a full season the fact is he has done well over the period he has had a chance to play. Some of the posts act like he does not exist and/or there is no hope he can fill the RF spot next year. My opinion: he will continue to surprise as he gets hitting instruction and more experience at the major league level. I view him as teachable and adjustable (in terms of adjusting to what the pitchers are throwing him). Time will tell, but please guys at least put him in the mix.
Don't think anyone's ignoring Morse...
Just not convinced he wouldn’t be exposed as an everyday player, both offensively and especially as a defensive player in right. Nats seem to think the same… (and he is 28 going on 29, not a 22-23 year old prospect):
WaPost’s Kilgore:
“He’s got to get over that hurdle,” Riggleman said. “There’s a method of pitching him that some pitchers have attacked. The more you play, the more information that other club has on you. I think when he gets over that last hurdle, he certainly could be a big-time run producer. He’s going to have to do that, and he’s going to have to do it here in the last couple weeks, and he’s going to have to do it in the spring.”
Ladson:
“OF/1B Mike Morse - He has been great coming off the bench and put up nice numbers. However, the Nationals still don’t think he is an everyday player — yet. To some members of the think tank, Morse’s swing is too long and he has problems with the opposing team’s best pitchers.”
So it’s not that he’s being overlooked it’s that he hasn’t completely convinced everyone…
Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."
by Patrick Reddington on Sep 23, 2010 11:49 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Nats think tank comments laughable
Thanks for the quotes Patrick. But I cannot resist commenting on them.
Riggleman’s quoted comments imply that if Morse cannot improve over his current offensive numbers, then he is toast. If that is applied to the rest of the guys then most of them are toast. I like his numbers, weaknesses and all. Isn’t the production what really counts? Yes, the Morse productivity went from very good, when mainly not starting, to poor for awhile when starting regularly. But like Desmond he has come back. And let’s keep in mind that Rigs seems to love playing a much weaker hitter in Willie Harris, even putting him in the two hole while he was hitting .135 back in early July. That is but one example. His evaluation of talent is very questionable to me.
As to the comment about Morse needing to shorten his swing—yiiks!! The number of different styles of hitting among successful hitters is immense. The first name that came to mind as I read that quote was a player who is in the Hall of Fame and was the last to win the Triple Crown—Carl Yaz. I never saw him ever shorten his swing. In fact he took the longest swing I have ever seen. Fiddling with a hitters style is a dangerous thing, if he is producing. But the most laughable quote was the one about Morse having trouble with the other teams best pitchers. Is that a surprise? They are the best pitchers for a reason. And the whole Nats offense has trouble with the best pitchers.
Rob, I have not seen Morse looking bad, as a whole, playing in right field. Maybe a I missed a play or two involving Morse that would change my opinion, but he seems to be adequate and gloves whatever he reaches. Because he is on the slow side he certainly does not reach as many balls as a faster guy will. I would like others to comment on the Morse defense.
Darryl Strawberry had the longest swing I've ever seen
Although Ken Griffey Jr.’s was close.
Maybe it’s different for lefties. Wierdly, I’ve always heard that knuckleballs are most effective against guys with long swings because the pitch is so unpredictable. But Strawberry just murdered knuckleballs. Go fig.
My biggest problem with Morse is his defense
He is a butcher in the outfield — he’s probably as bad as Dunn was out there, without the offensive strength to make it up. As a first baseman, he would be rather ordinary in production, not a whole lot different from, say, James Loney. He might be worthy of a job at first base, but only if there are guys in secondary positions who hit above their expectation for their position. Aside from Zim and perhaps Desmond though, the Nats are likely to hit well below expectation for their position. That would mean a pretty crappy offense.
Rob
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." -- Rogers Hornsby
Salt to taste, as the sample sizes are small...
…but he’s 24 UZR/150 this year (440 inn). That’s Dunn-esque if it’s his true talent level. TZR is a bit better, at -11 runs/yr-still about a win below average, though.
"And everybody lived happily ever after. Except the Phillies and the Mets. The End." --Sasskuash
Friend of Dukes and Desmond #3
please enlighten me on the statistics
I do not know what the abbreviations represent and what these statistics are. Please enlighten—thanks.
TZR and UZR are estimates of defensive "production" in terms of runs
He’s below average, costing an estimated 1 or two games a year with his defense… that’s about as bad as it could ever get in the OF. Still, as mentioned, these stats are based on a small sample size (too small to be significant). My claims about defense come from watching him play. He’s very slow to react to balls hit in his area, and as such will almost never chase down a ball at the wall; he also allows more than his share of flares drop in front of him.
Rob
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." -- Rogers Hornsby
Amen.
You really have to see him in person at the stadium. RobBobs did you see that foul ball along the lines that he was slow to reach and dropped? He wasn’t close to it but a combination of the two tools he lacks, (reading the ball and sheer speed) might have made it interesting. I plug in Morse giving back almost a base a game in the field in general at this point.
@wreckhouse
Morse is a good player who has exceeded expectations this year. At the beginning of this year, he was in danger of being branded AAAA. He’s earned enough to be a right handed platoon player, right handed power pinch hitter, and injury/trade insurance. If Dunn exceeds a reasonable price point (3 year/45M for me as a maximum), then I’m fine seeing Morse at first provided the 45M over the next 3 years that you were going to spend on Dunn gets spent somewhere else.
The fear is that the Lerners have not committed to spending the money elsewhere and that’s one of the reasons why StanK doesn’t want to stick around for another cheap year. You certainly get the sense that StanK is frustrated that he feels his legacy has been compromised by lack of financial authority during the first 2-3 years of the Lerner regime.
The wait for 10/7 begins. This man is focused. Are you?
Stan Kasten has resigned from the Washington Nationals acc to SI.com's Jon Heyman.
Vivian Jaffe: "Have you ever transcended space and time?"
Albert Markovski: "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space... No, I don't know what you're talking about."
by Patrick Reddington on Sep 23, 2010 1:36 PM EDT reply actions
This is bad news
Kasten had a plan, and the plan was just beginning to really get going. Now they are pushing him out? (As was accurately observed in “Burn After Reading”, in this town most of the people who resign have actually been fired).
Anyway, regardless of why he’s leaving, the plan will be incomplete, and the next guy in will undoubtedly have his own five-year plan. That means we fans will have to wait, wait, wait some more ’till the team starts winning.
Rob
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." -- Rogers Hornsby
Rizzo is the GM, Kasten is the Team President
I’ve been much happier with the talent curve of the team (majors + minors) since Rizzo took over. I don’t assume that Kasten was the essential element of the process. If Kasten’s job was to build the business side then he has been a disaster for this team, with his tone deaf commentary and lack of fan friendliness being capped with the lovely stink bomb that was opening day.
Here’s hoping that the Lerners are so pissed at Kasten taking credit for the few things that have gone right while pointing figures for everything that has gone wrong that they ante up in a serious way.
See, I don't think of the Nats as having a lack of fan friendliness
I can’t even think of a good reason why anyone would call them that. They have giveaways all the time, the park is clean, the ushers are friendly, the ticket people bend over backwards to help when they can, the food is not terribly overpriced, etc. Perhaps some people just expect different things from a baseball team I guess.
Rob
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." -- Rogers Hornsby
Agree on some of these points
I do like the game day experience at the park, although sometimes I’d like to give Clint a good shot to the teeth. I won’t try it, though – the man’s got an arm. Have you seen how far he throws a t-shirt? I do disagree on the “not terribly overpriced” comment though – the food is ridiculously expensive. Just because it’s comparable to what Danny charges at FedEx doesn’t make it justifiable.
No, my problem is more directly with StanK’s lack of consideration of the fans, in terms of the way that he rubs the city the wrong way in dealing with disputes to his “let them eat cake” dismissal of fan grievances to his kow-towing and marketing in other cities more so than in DC. The Nationals have been much less visible in DC than they should be, and that’s squarely in Kasten’s court.
Ultimately, though, most of this stuff doesn’t matter if you are able to build a team that wins. What’s starting to come out is that StanK feels somewhat frustrated that he didn’t have all the authority he wanted to spend closer to the Twins salary level when the team first came to DC to build a winner.
Wonder how Bud feels about all of these goings down. Seemed like he did a lot to kind of merge StanK and the Lerners together (though StanK was part of a rival ownership bid at one point?) probably with the hope that the Lerners local presence and fiscal responsibility combined with StanK’s baseball sense would translate into a solid franchise.
Definitely mixed reviews so far.
The wait for 10/7 begins. This man is focused. Are you?
Bowden leaves, calls Lerners cheap. Kasten leaves, calls Lerners cheap
It’s the easy meme to grab hold of if you’re disgruntled. And yet the Lerners did ante up for the Zimmerman extension, signing Strasburg and Harper, paying overslot for the draft choices (especially this year), signing Dunn, Marquis and Pudge as free agents (leaving aside the value received on the $$ there), and putting serious bids on the table for Texeira and Chapman even though they were ultimately outbid in those cases. This is not a Jeffrey Loria situation. The Lerners came out of the gate slow on money (perhaps a natural tendency combined with Bowden telling them what they wanted to hear) but at this point I’m willing to cut them some slack. I’m not fan of spending money just to spend money, and I imagine the Lerners aren’t either. But they have spent money on this team.
We're not the Marlins.
But will we spend winning money on the Nats? That’s the question. If this is StanK trying to make a play to be commish when Bud leaves, than that’s all good. If this is StanK leaving because he’s frustrated that the Lerners won’t give him enough flexibility over the budget, than that’s a very, very bad sign.
What is extremely concerning about this is that StanK is ultimately about StanK. If he thought they were going to make an all in move to be a playoff contender next year, I doubt he would be leaving.
The wait for 10/7 begins. This man is focused. Are you?
With Strasburg down
I can’t see them making an “all in” move to be a playoff contender next year. My goal for next year would be a DC franchise record for wins – it would only take 82. They’re not going to re-sign Dunn AND go hell-for-leather after Cliff Lee and Carlos Crawford, trade their farm talent for #2 and #3 starters and sign a proven closer. When I see “all-in” that’s the kind of scenario I see, although I doubt that’s what you meant.
To me all in...
…says that you are expecting 75 wins while leaving open the possibility for 84-90 wins if several things break right. Basically three necessary acquisitions would qualify as all in for me:
1) Re-sign Dunn
2) Sign a credible 2-3 starter that’s significantly better than Marquis to start on Opening Day
3) An additional position upgrade elsewhere on the diamond, preferably in centerfield.
The wait for 10/7 begins. This man is focused. Are you?
I seem to recall a study saying the food prices were only slightly above ML averages
But I could have dreamt that.
In any case, something like comparing the price of a Five Guys "on the street’ versus in the park is useful: same burger, about a buck markup (quite reasonable). Overall, they don’t have the dirt-cheap Potomac Nationals prices, but I would be dumbfounded if they did: that would mean they were selling way below cost.
Rob
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." -- Rogers Hornsby
The Nats are better than the 'Skins and much, much worse than the Caps.
Ted is pretty much universally beloved. The Lerners are respected but not beloved.
The wait for 10/7 begins. This man is focused. Are you?
The 'Skins are learning, slowly
They’ve made some nice upgrades to FedEx this year (finally!) and in my three games so far this season I think the gameday experience has improved noticeably.
They're doing that...
..because they are losing club season ticket holders by the bucketful.
The wait for 10/7 begins. This man is focused. Are you?
If they want to prove a point to their fans that they are willing to spend money, then they should go out and sign Crawford.
Morgan will be gone, and we need a leadoff hitter and a better Defense. Crawford is the guy.
The Shanahan era is going to bring the Redskins back to Glory! Great QB and an actual O-line.
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