For a brief moment, I have some internet access, so here goes.
It’s been reported that Crow and the Nats were between 700,000 and 900,000 apart in the final minutes and that the Nats offered Crow a major league contract. To not sign your number one draft pick over less than a million seems pretty ridiculous.
It gets even crazier when you wasted 5 million on Lo Duca and another couple million on Estrada, Mackowiak and King. Bowden was allowed to waste a lot of money this year but when it came down to the critical deadline, he couldn’t get the organization to offer up 4 million for a top pitcher.
I can see some of the blame being placed on Crow and his agents, but if they made those demands pretty clear from the beginning, you have to ask yourself why Jim Bowden drafted him to begin with. We had other choices. We picked Crow, a reflection of the GM’s arrogance that he is invincible. He can sign a McGeary at the last minute. He can give a second chance to an overweight Comeback Player of the Year and even turn a troubled outfielder’s life around. He can make the impossible happen, or so he thinks. But not this time.
So we get the two picks in the top ten next year. I’m sure Steven Strasburg will come cheap and all since he’s part of the Boras team. I just see no guarantee that we’ll lock up one or both of the guys we get next year if money held us back right now. Surely money will hold us back again. A year of development wasted. Twenty eight other teams got their top guy. We didn’t.
For a team that talks only about investing in a farm system and ignoring top dollar free agents, this screams of hypocrisy. It’s a frustrating blow to Nats fans who want so badly to think about a brighter future.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but knowing how close the two sides came within an agreement really upsets me. With all the time and effort spent in researching and preparing for the draft, one would hope and expect that Bowden knew what kind of demands Crow would make. How could we get this so wrong?
Entries (RSS)
August 16th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I agree 100 %. With money down the drain on LoDuca, Estrada, Lopez .etc; millions of dollars. It was foolhardy,egotistical and arrogant not to go the distance to sign Crow.
August 17th, 2008 at 7:12 am
I can see almost all of the blame being placed on Crow and his agents. According to Bowden’s account—which has not been refuted by the Crow camp—that ridiculous $9 million offer did not come in until August 12. When on deadline day the Nationals offered Crow more money than any other pitcher in the draft, including a player drafted higher, he turned it down.
There has to be a limit somewhere. The Nats went well beyond what they thought their limit was, and it still wasn’t good enough for Crow. Let him walk. He didn’t want to be here in the first place.
August 17th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Good article by Chico Harlan in the Washington Post today that clearly shows that almost all the blame is on Crow and his agents.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081601984.html
I know the front office has been idiotic in some of their moves (Lo Duca especially) but I don’t think this was their fault. They selected the best player available in the draft and although he wanted a lot, they tried to get negotiations going but as Rizzo put it all negotiations before Aug. 12 was “a lot of radio silence.”
August 17th, 2008 at 7:32 am
By “good” you mean an article you agree with. I never take Bowden at his word.
Here’s Keith Law’s take:
http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3538511&name=law_keith&univLogin02=stateChanged&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fespn%2fblog%2findex%3fentryID%3d3538511%26name%3dlaw_keith%26univLogin02%3dstateChanged
“If the Nationals genuinely didn’t know what Crow wanted, it was either willful ignorance or the worst case of a signability analysis I’ve ever seen.”
Dave at Bottom Feeder Baseball discusses Law’s analysis:
http://bottomfeederbaseball.blogspot.com/
August 17th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Well until I hear differently from the Crow camp, we will all have to take Bowden and Rizzo at their word….
It would not make sense that they would not try their hardest to sign the kid especially knowing that he could make an immediate impact.
August 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Even our “franchise player” Zimmerman doesn’t have a contract for $9M. Why give it to this guy. We signed 9 out 10 of our picks. And the other 28 teams that got their top guy, how many came even close to such an outrageous contract. I’m upset with Bowden over many things, but I don’t think you can blame him for this one.
August 17th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
It’s the first time all year I’ve been to less than half of a homestand. It just seems like a downward spiral that won’t stop.
August 17th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Let me see if I have this right: The excuse for this sad-sack Class AA team masquerading as a big league team (at major league prices) is that the Nats are committed to some vague long-term “plan” that revolves around signing as much top, young talent as it can. Yet it wastes its first-round draft pick for what amounts, these days, to chump change. I know the Lerners are known around town for their tough business dealings in building suburban shopping malls. Evidence of their architectural acumenl can be seen in those two god-awful parking garages that partially block views of the U.S. Capitol from their, as of now, rent-free $611 million stadium.
OK, Lerners, I can see clearly now. Black is white, up is down, pigs will fly and you clowns know how to run a baseball team.
Count me out for 2009. Stan was right when he called them “cheap ba——-s” before throwing his lot in with them. They can all go to hell.