Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Time to give 'em hell

According to Gordon Edes of Yahoo Sports, the Nats are close to replacing interim GM Mike Rizzo with Diamondbacks assistant VP Jerry Dipoto. Let me repeat that. The guy who has started to rebuild a organization in shambles with good players who understand how to play the game is going to be replaced.

This is ridiculous, if true (which isn't a safe assumption). No wonder the Nats have no respect in the industry...there is absolutely no consistency in the organization. Bowden does everything wrong for 4 years and never gets fired. Rizzo does nothing wrong for 6 months and is going to be replaced.

For the sake of discussion, here's what Rizzo has done:
Signed #1 pick Stephen Strasburg to a deal at or below his percieved market value.
Signed 30/51 draftees, including 14 of the top 15 picks.
Resigned the face of the franchise, Ryan Zimmerman, to a deal at or below his market value.
Signed higher-ceiling "scrap heap" players such as LHP Joe Beimel, RHP Mike Macdougal and C Josh Bard to one-year contracts.
Cut ties with ineffective players who showed no signs of improvement (Steven Shell, Julian Tavarez, Kip Wells, Gustavo Chacin, Josh Towers, Alex Cintron, Corey Patterson, Daniel Cabrera).
Traded the two best players with expiring contracts, 1B Nick Johnson and LHP Joe Beimel, for mid level prospects with decent upside.
Traded two players with upside but poor ML performance (RHP Joel Hanrahan and OF Lastings Milledge) for two players with decent ML performance but less upside (LHP Sean Burnett and OF Nyjer Morgan).
Traded a low-level prospect with good minor league performance (RHP Kyle Gunderson) for a ML reliever with poor ML performance but upside (RHP Logan Kensing)-pretty much the only bad move he's made, unless you count signing guys like Kip Wells to minor league deals bad.

It's a nice change from Bowden, eh? Consistency and stability are two things Rizzo obviously values with his team-building. Too bad the organization doesn't understand the value of either.

Let's give 'em hell, Natmosphere. It's time to stand up for Mike. He has his own plan-let him implement it.

4 comments:

  1. Must have been that Logan Kensing trade. You know, Rizzo's one mistake thus far and the kind of mistake Bowden made about once a month.

    It's all part of the "new accountability," you see.

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  2. Whoops, I was going to put in a mention of that so it wouldn't be so lopsided of an argument. I'll do that now!

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  3. Going to see the Gnats tonite, probably in a downpour. Glad Mr. Fairway has Club Level seats!

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  4. It's Yahoo! Sports and Gordon Edes (and maybe SI for good measure) who deserve to catch hell for pumping this rumor up. And maybe all of us who nibbled at the bait, for assuming the worst.

    Per Stan, the franchise had been performing due diligence for the past several months. Even if that were just spin, it would need to be said to distinguish the current front office from its slap-happy incarnation under bowden.

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