For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, Bowden let Crow slip away. You might think Crow's demands were what kept the deal from happening...but no, it was Jim Bowden (whose intelligence ranks up there with elephant turds) who kept the deal from happening.
From BaseballAmerica:
One source indicated the Crow camp, led by his agents the Hendricks Brothers, dropped their demands to $4 million from the $8-$10 million range, and that the Nationals came up from slot to $3.3 million, but that the two sides ran out of time and wiggle room and couldn’t work out a compromise.Jim Bowden lost out on Aaron Crow over $700k. Are you freakin' kidding me? Running out of time is absolutely not an excuse, as they've had more than 2 months to figure this stuff out. $700k, really? That's just embarrassing. Bowden, you're an embarrassment and continue to prove it time and time again.
If the Lerner family ever wants to field a winning team (something I consistently doubt), they need to pay off Bowden for whatever he's got that blackmails the family and get him a plane ticket to Guyana.
In other news, Bowden's ineptitude for building a team showed again tonight, as the Nats lost their 8th straight game. Bleck. At least the Cubs are rolling (5 wins in a row). Otherwise, I might pronounce the 2008 MLB season officially dead.
Tonight's your chance to vandalize Bowden's Wikipedia page.
And tonight's the Nats' night to fire Bowden. DO IT!!!!!!!!!! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did some work on the wiki page. Good idea. Will be interesting to see if what I wrote will last.
ReplyDelete@steven -- So far it seems to have stuck.
ReplyDeleteKicker is, the page didn't even need to be "vandalized"; the man's record, as enhanced by Steven, speaks for itself.
I checked the stats in the paper today, and the Gnats are at .358. How low can they go? BTW, The Scribe is back online, and we're hosting the Silly Summer Sunday Sweepstakes again tomorrow. Please come by and Share the Caption Love!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to draw a lot of criticism here, but I think the Nats need to keep Jim Bowden. Let's see what the man can do. Besides, whom would you replace Bowden with?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, 4 years has been more than enough for us to see what he can do. He hasn't done it.
ReplyDeleteOff the top of my head:
Mike Rizzo
Paul Depodesta
Chris Antonetti
Kim Ng
Brian Cashman (contract runs out at the end of the season, local guy)
ive seen some really bright spots out of the team lately... ok i know theyve lost 9 games in a row, but im impressed with milledge... flores... lannan to name a few. how about emilio bonifacio... do we really miss rauch that much right now? do we need a closer as bad as we are? hanrahan is the future, saul rivera has been pitching well, jesus colome has a 1.98 ERA in the past 10 games! im giving him two more years.
ReplyDeleteplus, did anyone else seriously expect other than a last place finish this year? especially given all the injuries?
Even with the injuries, this is a last-place team. There's just not enough hitting and not enough pitching.
ReplyDeleteI'm especially disgusted with Bowden's treatment of people, especially Cordero. Just go to his Wikipedia page to see what he's done. If we want a classy organization, he's got to go.
JimBo's treatment of Cordero was horrible, I'm not arguing that. Yes, certainly he's done some very very sketchy things, but I'm giving him two more years... then I'll call for his head if things haven't changed.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, I'd rather have a classy last-place organization than a last-place organization who will not be able to attract players until the GM is fired.
ReplyDeleteIf he's here for 2 more years, it will be a serious setback for the organization.
hypothetically, if you got rid of bowden, would you get rid of lenny harris too?
ReplyDeleteFiring Lenny Harris and Firing Jim Bowden to me would be two completely different subjects. Generally it's up to the manager to choose his staff. If Acta likes Lenny, I guess he can stay. I'd prefer someone better, but I don't know of any names who would be better to be honest.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree wholeheartedly Bowden must go, this isn't his fault. I haven't thought that at all since I found out about not signing Crow, and I especially don't think that now after reading Bowden's comments in the NJ interview. He's 100% right they offered Crow a more than fair bonus (highest paid pitcher at the end) and it was not Bowden who waited till the last minute but Crow, who had crazy $9 million demands. And if he wanted an ML deal he should have been in Washington like Matusz was for Baltimore, otherwise stop complaining. Bowden is right, maybe he is an idiot but he's right they started at slot (which seems like a pretty fair starting point) and continued to adjust according to the market. The Nats shouldn't be ransomed by some 21 year old who has never thrown a ML pitch.
ReplyDeleteWhile he did offer Crow a "more than fair bonus," he didn't get the job done. We're going to need more than fair bonuses to lure FA guys into Washington as long as Bowden is the GM. I can see why draft picks are taking that route too.
ReplyDeleteIt's entirely possible Hendricks felt he could stick it to the Nats, given Bowden's reputation.
ReplyDeleteWhether that was his strategy hardly matters, of course, to Crow, who took the immediate damage, but the blowback on Hendricks is bound to be considerable. That does not mitigate the damage that Bowden has done to his own reputation or to this franchise.
There are several distinct issues here, which deserve to be separately evaluated. And, sadly, there's no law that says anyone has to come out of the current episode unscathed.