The day has come. Stan "The Plan" Kasten has left the building and the Nats fans are left to wonder why. You'd be a fool to just take Kasten at his word, master of the half-truth that he is. I feel fairly certain it wasn't animosity, or even a clash of personalities. We never got a hint of anger. A clash of philosophies though? That's what Boswell suggests and I don't see any reason to not believe him. He paints it as a fight between CHEEEEEEEEEEP and a fiscally responsible game plan. If this is the case then leaving now makes sense, as the Nats are going to start entering a period where an increased payroll will be necessary to make the next step. Of course if this is the case, how does one reconcile it with the run at Teixeira?
Right now, it doesn't really matter why he left. What matters is what happens next, because that will define Stan's legacy and clear up the picture for Nats fans on why, 4 years after the Lerners and Kasten came on board, the team is has no more combined talent on its major league roster than it did when they came in, and why the minor league system has risen only to middle of the road. How much blame for that can be laid at Kasten's feet?
Is Kasten a failure? I don't know. I want to see the team run by someone else under the Lerners. Maybe he was working with one hand tied behind his back. Does his leaving hurt the team? I don't know. Maybe the next guy in will have better methods of making this team resonate with the local fanbase. For all Stan did in Atlanta - cultivating long-term fan interest was not one of them. I think they are both right and that's scary. The Nats are bad despite Stan being competant at what he does and seemingly putting alot of effort into it. In on the field terms, it's a bad team losing a good player.
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4 comments:
Maybe the next guy in will have better methods of making this team resonate with the local fanbase = winning. Plain and simple.
It's a rare market that supports a losing team or doesn't support a winning one. Washington, D.C., isn't the former. If the Nats didn't tip this, the city's nature as a political center should have. It might be the later, it certainly has the calling card of this type of city, but we just don't know.
Regardless, winning is key. You can gather a lot of fans, even if you don't win over the local fan base. Look at the Braves. Even during their dominate years they regularly had a fan base outside of Atlanta that was multiple times their local one.
But the question is - was Kasten the reason they weren't winning? I guess we'll find out (maybe)
Harper - When you've been as bad as the Nats, for as long as the Nats, don't you think everyone shares a portion of the liability.
Sure - it was a mix of Lerner/Kasten/GM that made this team so they all share in the blame. But if Lerner/?/Rizzo is as bad (or worse) then you have to question if Lerner/anyone/anyone could work.
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