National crisis: Personnel issues
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6761864
Nationals general manager Jim Bowden rattles off some of the improvements
made by the team's new ownership. New computer equipment. New video
equipment. Lunch for the team's employees at RFK Stadium. First class all the
way.
Many of the team's current and former employees, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, tell a different story — a story of an organization that is not
always first-class in its treatment of personnel.
Perhaps the most vivid example was the dismissal of longtime baseball
executive Tony Siegle without severance pay last Oct. 24 — the same day that
Siegle, as assistant GM, participated in the interview of Manny Acta, who
later was named Nationals manager.
Turnover often prompts hard feelings among former employees. But the
departures of four Nationals officials in February provide insight into the
various tensions within the organization.
The four grew so unhappy, former employees say, they were willing to leave
their jobs:
Andy Dunn resigned as farm director in part because he was unwilling to move
his family from Florida to Washington without a contract extension.
Bowden had promoted Dunn on Oct. 17, 2005, when the club, under Major League
Baseball ownership, was not permitted to make outside hires. Dunn asked for
security due to his uncertainty over Bowden's future — and the club declined
his request.
Michele Copes resigned as coordinator of scouting and player development over
her frustration with the team's business practices and her belief that Bowden
was unsupportive.
She reached her boiling point when she learned the club would not allow her
to use Federal Express to send eight boxes of minor-league files and other
necessary materials from Washington to the team's spring training-site in
Melbourne, Fla.
Washington baseball history
Senators/Nationals Senators Nationals
Years 1901-60 1961-71 2005-present
League American American National
WS titles 1 0 0
Pennants 3 0 0
Relocation Minnesota Twins Texas Rangers Montreal
before 2004
Note: Prior to the modern era, two versions of the Nationals played in the NL
from 1886-89 and 1892-99.
Tyler Holmes and Matt Blaney, player-development officials based in Florida,
were fired after challenging the team's refusal to honor an understanding
that they would receive $125.50 per day in major-league housing and meal
money during spring training. Blaney also would have received the per diem
during fall Instructional League.
The Nationals' position is that employees who live in Florida should not
receive a spring-training housing and meal allowance. However, the team gave
Holmes the allowance from 2004-06, and did not inform Holmes and Blaney of
the change in policy until Feb. 15, at the start of spring training.
Blaney, 27, an assistant in the Nationals' player-development department and
Florida operations, earned $20,000 per year. He returned to the Nationals
with the expectation that he would continue receiving the allowance, which
amounted to nearly $10,000, or about one-third of his total earnings.
After his dismissal, Blaney briefly joined the Astros as a spring-training
intern, but he, Dunn, Copes and Holmes currently are out of baseball. Siegle,
67, became a senior advisor with the Giants, continuing his 42nd year in
baseball.
Nationals executives declined to criticize any of their former employees,
many of whom worked diligently under trying conditions when the team was
owned by MLB.
But the organization, the executives say, required an upheaval.
"There have been a lot of changes because, to be honest, our standards are
much higher," Bowden says. "We want to be best in the game. And when you want
to be the best in the game, unfortunately there has to be turnover."
Adds club president Stan Kasten: "We want to make drastic changes right now
at 100 mph, not 50 mph, so that we only have to do this once."
The Nationals, however, have lost some highly regarded baseball people,
including several who either received promotions or joined more established
organizations.
Adam Wogan, the farm director whom Bowden fired before elevating Dunn, is now
with the Mets in a similar capacity. Wogan's former assistant, Nick Manno, is
coordinator of minor-league player records for MLB. Mike Toomey, a former pro
scout with the Nationals, is a special assistant to Royals GM Dayton Moore.
Two scouts who worked the amateur side with the Nationals, Ray Jackson and
Guy Mader, are doing pro coverage for other clubs.
Meanwhile, an administrative snag helped cost the Nationals a chance to
retain Triple-A hitting coach Rick Eckstein, the older brother of Cardinals
shortstop David Eckstein, who served as bullpen coach for Team USA during the
inaugural World Baseball Classic.
The Nationals, major-league sources say, offered Eckstein the chance to
return before last season ended, but were late sending his contract. Eckstein
left to become the Cardinals' Triple-A hitting coach, and the Nationals
contacted the commissioner's office about possible tampering. MLB told the
team that it had no case because Eckstein had not been under contract.
Bowden envisioned Eckstein eventually becoming a major-league coach, but the
Nationals barely take time to reflect upon who is gone.
If anything, they seem energized by their influx of front-office
"brainpower," to use Bowden's term.
"I have never seen anything like this in my career," says Bowden, who was the
Reds' GM from 1992-2003 before joining the Nationals in Nov. 2004. "I've
never had a staff even close to this staff."
The staff includes not only Kasten and assistant general managers Mike Rizzo
and Bob Boone, but also special assistants Chuck LaMar, the former Devil Rays
GM, and Moose Stubing, who spent 40 years with the Angels as a player, coach,
manager and scout.
The new farm director, Bobby Williams, 29, is relatively inexperienced, a
former minor-league manager and coach. Bowden, however, predicts he will
become a general manager.
"He's one of those great young minds, like Brian Cashman was, Theo Epstein,
Josh Byrnes," Bowden says, referring to the general managers of the Yankees,
Red Sox and Diamondbacks, respectively. "He's going to be just like that."
As Kasten says, "the proof will be in the pudding." If the Nationals become
more stable and develop into a powerhouse, the initial turmoil will be
recalled as a necessary step in the franchise's evolution.
For now, the turnover continues. The most recent departure, statistical
analyst T.J. Barra, resigned in mid-March.
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