I'd post a reaction to this, but the nanny would erase 90% of my words anyway.

"Here's a really stupid way of looking at our pitching situation, and here's why it's stupid, but by placing the stupid way (which is, not incidentally, my way) first, I'll give greater weight to it so it sounds like the better way...

"Oh, and here's rundown of all the possible ways you could pick up a pitcher, complete with bad examples of those choices. Mulder for Haren and Barton... a great trade for the Cards! Delgado for Petit... a great value trade by the Marlins! Let's cherry pick the best successes among injury reclamation projects to demonstrate what a great risk injured pitchers are!

"I'm such a great GM. Bow down before me to receive my wisdom."

If Kasten doesn't fire him within the first week, my estimation of Stan's abilities as a baseball professional is going to take a big nosedive.

Exactly. He's such a self-promoting sack of crap. He's like a crappy street magician who keeps dropping coins out of one hand because he's sweating too much, so he tries to distract you by waving a scarf with his other hand and telling you that you're pretty.

Funny how he didn't give the records of Tomo Ohka or Claudio Vargas.

The bottom line? Get pitching anyway you can; pitching is how you win.

Well, that and hitting.
And defense.

If Kasten doesn't fire him within the first week, my estimation of Stan's abilities as a baseball professional is going to take a big nosedive.

Sometimes it's not that easy. There are laws in place protecting the employment rights of the mentally handicapped.

Also no mention of Darrell Rasner or Brian Lawrence. Although, in the one bright spot of the article, he doesn't go waving the bloody shirt by championing Loiaza or Carrasco, either... his head isn't so big that he's ready to cite himself.

I’ve had plenty of e-mails from fans suggesting if we had an owner we could have kept Esteban Loaiza and signed A.J. Burnett, Kevin Millwood and/or Jarrod Washburn. So, for a mere $35 million for this year alone, you could have had a starting pitching rotation that is a combined 2-9.

In fact, two of our signings, Billy Traber and Tony Armas, have as many wins as those pitchers combined.

So... two?

Ah... Darrell Rasner. I've tried to black him out of my mind!

I'll give him a pass on Lawrence though. It didn't work out, and there were legit non-cost reasons for not MRIing him. That's the one case where he's actually traded a strength for a weakness. "Sure! We need more secondbaseman!"

Jim Bowden gives away more pitching before eight a.m. than . . . eh, someone else finish that up for me.

Maybe Claudio Vargas or Sunny Kim or Darrell Rasner can. Or Tomo Ohka, though that one was sorta/kinda defensible. Or Zach Day, though he thoroughly sucks now.

My GOD. Is someone ghostwriting this stuff? This paragraph:

Further, I have additional e-mails suggesting that if the organization had drafted better over the last seven years, our rotation would have been championship caliber by now. Certainly, this is possible and improvement is needed. However, here is an alarming reality: the Braves, Cardinals, Mets, Red Sox and Yankees have 25 pitchers combined in their starting rotations; of those 25, only two were drafted and developed by their organization -- Brian Bannister, a seventh-round pick of the Mets and Kyle Davies, a fourth-round pick of the Braves.

is contradicted by the next paragraph:

Trades are the best way to improve pitching. The best is the “Proven Pitcher Trade.” For example, a year ago, the Cardinals traded for Mark Mulder and the Braves traded for Tim Hudson. Oakland had to reduce payroll and the Braves and Cardinals had enough talent in the minors to make the trades. Without the best farm systems, you can’t make these deals. That’s why scouting and player development is so important.

The Red Sox have Beckett BECAUSE they HAVE a good farm system with which to make trades. Does he seriously think Florida would have done the deal without getting Anibal Sanchez? Does he discount how Oakland has created their pitching staff?

Good luck trying to trade your crappy system pitchers for good ones.

It's not even fun to trash Jim Bowden anymore. The man is an utter, laughable disgrace. A buffoon who acts like he has a third-grade education.

It's not even fun to trash Jim Bowden anymore

Oh, I don't know about that. I still manage to get a small sense of perverse satisfaction out of it. However, if the new ownership renews his contract... then it will be absolutely impossible to generate humor from the situation. We would be placed in the position of Pirates fans, who truly have nothing to look forward to until ownership/management is drastically changed.

You're a Nats fan, Grunthos? I am genuinely sorry. The team has been getting the #### end of the stick seemingly forever. With competent management and ownership, the Nats should at least be competitive in the tough NL East.

Not to mention the absurd kickback deal MLB struck with Peter Angelos....

Jim Bowden should just learn to shut the hell up during the regular season so that we can go back to ripping Frank's incompetence as manager.

It's not even fun to trash Jim Bowden anymore.

Along with the Morgan thread...I'm running out of targets!

We could always start a "Frank VS. Willie" contest to see who can prove which is the worse manager.

It seems like Willie does conventionally stupid things. Frank does unconventionally stupid things, and cheeses off all his players in the process.

When the Mets have to switch to a four-man rotation because their manager runs off a bunch of starters (with an assist from their incompetent, enabling GM), then we'll talk!

After last night's debacle, Jim Bowden shouldn't be extolling the virtues of Billy Traber.

When the Mets have to switch to a four-man rotation because their manager runs off a bunch of starters (with an assist from their incompetent, enabling GM), then we'll talk!

I dunno, the Mets traded away their starting pitching depth, and Heilman's still in the bullpen. They may not be that far away from a four-man.

Somebody please collect these Bowden articles and send the package to Frank Wren (a.k.a. the Nats' next GM), labeled "What not to do."

You're a Nats fan, Grunthos?

I'm a Nats-fan-in-waiting. I have not embraced the team as yet, and will not until Bowden is gone. But since I haven't really had a team to root for since I abandoned the Orioles circa 1993 (what with moves and grad school and poverty and all that), I've gotten somewhat impatient for him to be fired so that I can start up the new tradition.

The genuine Nats fans who jumped on board when the team first arrived do deserve sympathy, however. The entire situation has been farcically stupid for far too long.

Not to mention the absurd kickback deal MLB struck with Peter Angelos....

Oh, yeah, then there's that, too. Just think, 20 years from now we'll be able to kick back and laugh about it...

We could always start a "Frank VS. Willie" contest

At least in Willie's case you could hope he will learn from his mistakes. At age 70, Frank isn't going to be learning any new tricks.

Has Bowden had his kids taken away yet?

Wow... just to back up his words with actions, Bowden has now re-acquired Zach Day off waivers from Colorado. Day is currently injured. Frank never liked him. Apparently Wiki Gonzalez was DFA'd to make room. WTF?

Get pitching any way you can, boys...

Somewhere from the pits of hell ADOLPH HITLER is looking up at Jim Bowden with the proud smile of a father, gleaming at his protege and ideological succesor.

Slight hijack - Rotoworld sez "According to WUSA-TV Washington, MLB has chosen Washington real estate magnate Theodore Lerner as the new owner of the Nationals." (cross-post)

I want to see Bowden write a column describing how to assemble an effective left side of the infield.
"Overpay crappy injury-prone rejects from other teams. Sign them to multi-year deals."

Svrluga's WaPo chat indicated that WUSA's report has been skoshed by DuPuy, and they are retracting it.

Get pitching anyway you can; pitching is how you win.

Worked for the Reds, as they one-hit the Nats today.

Gonna be a looooooooong season...

Did he work the '99 Reds into things like he did in practically every public utterance in the first half last year? A$$clown.

Like the BO in Seinfeld's car, the stench on Bowden from Ohka, Vargas, Day, and Kim given away in two months during a potential playoff season will never go away.