Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 09, 2006
Six More Months of Bowden

Jim Bowden's received a contract extension today, making him the GM of the Nationals through the end of the season. It's likely bad news for two reasons:

  1. He's still the GM of the Nationals. This is the guy who thought trading for Soriano was a good deal.
  2. It may mean that a new owner won't be in place by the end of April, when Bowden's contract was set to expire

I suppose it's just MLB rewarding Jim for doing a thankless job. This way, even if the new owner fires Bowden, he still gets paid.

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Posted by David Pinto at 04:14 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The Soriano deal is getting a lot of heat (and it deserves it), but what's even worse was the long-term deal with Guzman that presented him as some sort of franchise player. Makes me shiver.

Your guest on the radio show yesterday also made a great point on how Wilkerson was in many ways the face of the franchise.

Posted by: Baseball Mike at March 9, 2006 04:33 PM

Obviously MLB didn't get my resume for the spot ;)

Posted by: Marc Normandin at March 9, 2006 04:33 PM

I'm not sure I can be a Nats fan anymore. Wake me up when Bowden's gone.

Posted by: Pat D. at March 9, 2006 05:03 PM

Bowden hasn't does anything spectacularly great. The Guzman deal was laughable from the beginning.

Posted by: stat man at March 9, 2006 05:07 PM

Hey, at least he got somebody to accept Vinnie. Even if it was just for a bucket of balls that's something, right?

Posted by: Nate at March 9, 2006 05:11 PM

This doesn't make sense at all. The Soriano deal was bad because Soriano can't really play (well, he can't hit or field, but I guess he can run) and has no position, and gets 10 million bucks. Guzman is worse than Soriano and makes a lot of money, too. Bowden really doesn't seem to have a clue, but being rewarded with an extension just proves that a)the good-ol' boy network in baseball is alive and well (for further examples of this see:Buddy Bell and Jim Leyland) and B) The Nationals desperately, truly need a real owner. This has gone on too long.

Posted by: david at March 9, 2006 05:45 PM

Even if the Castilla trade was good (which it was), how much credit can Bowden get for correcting his own mistake.

Posted by: Pat D. at March 9, 2006 06:00 PM

I don't think it's fair to Soriano to say he can't hit. He can hit. He just has no plate discipline. He has great raw power and is fast. If he could jack his OBP 40 points, he would be a really good hitter instead of a hitter with a lot of potential. His fielding, on the other hand, is awful.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at March 9, 2006 06:43 PM

Ben,
His road obp last year was 265. If he jacked it 40 points (which would be a lot for a player in his 30s moving to a pitcher's park, in a more-pitching friendly league) it would still only be 305. Even with the extreme home-field advantage last year Soriano's obp overall was only 309. That's just unacceptable, and when he hits 18 homers this year and drives in 60 runs people will see how unacceptable it is. I mean, his numbers this year will probably look a lot like Castilla's did last year, and that's not production you want from your left fielder, and his defense is not what you want from your second baseman. Can it really be said about a 30 year old entering his 7th major league season that he has a lot of "potential"?

Posted by: david at March 9, 2006 08:56 PM

haha he follows up the worst deal ever (guzman) with the 2nd worst deal ever (soriano) and gets an extension and probably a raise! This reminds me of a certain person who also lives in DC...

Posted by: tony flynn at March 9, 2006 11:03 PM
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