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Jul 12, 2006 5:00 AM


WASHINGTON - Working on one-to-six month contracts, living out of hotels,
spending half of the year in Melbourne, Fla., missing my family, having no
job security and not knowing who the owner would be took a toll personally.


That’s what I’ve been doing as the Nationals interim general manager since
Nov. 2, 2004. Unless you live it, it is hard to understand how unsettling it
was. That’s why I’m honored the Lerner family named me the permanent Vice
President and General Manager of the Nationals.

Permanent GM means being based out of D.C. full-time; that’s a good thing.

It also means major changes for the better.

In Dana Brown, we have one of the best young scouting directors in Major
League Baseball. However, he has had to work with an inexperienced and
under-staffed department. That will change dramatically and immediately.

Our first mission is to build the best scouting and player development
departments. Stan Kasten allows the baseball people to make the baseball
decisions, but more importantly, he’ll give us the proper tools and
resources.

He has given us approval to hire the best scouts. This leads to improved
drafts, better international signings and better evaluations, allowing the GM
to make better trades.

Our present infrastructure leads to about 3,000 professional scouting reports
annually. By comparison, the small-market Minnesota Twins scouting department
produces approximately 18,000 reports.

When I arrived, the Expos-Nationals had little to no budget for international
signings. We now have two full teams in the Dominican Republic and, with the
new ownership, we signed one of the top two young amateur players in the
Dominican. Who else were big players? The Yankees and Red Sox. That fact
speaks volumes.

However, even with that progress, our international department is almost
non-existent. Outside of the Dominican Republic we have little presence,
including none in the ever-growing Asian markets, a future gold mine. In Asia
there is little player development; thus, if you’re not a star at 17, it is
tough to make it. Yet, in Japan alone there are more Little League teams than
in the United States and Canada combined. Over the next decade, we hope to
become a leader in Asia in both scouting and player development. However, it
takes time and we have to establish relationships and begin the scouting
process.

In the United States, teams have a minimum of six minor league clubs. In
Asian countries, they have one, at the most. Players with the potential of an
Albert Pujols don’t get the opportunity because they are not good enough at
age 17. Over the next decade, we hope to have complexes around the world,
giving us the same opportunity we now have in the Dominican.

We have a lot of work ahead, but the most important and significant
ramification of being named permanent GM is that we can start the process of
building the Nationals into a first-class organization and start by hiring
the best scouts in baseball.

To get the best scouts, you have to not only compete economically, but more
importantly, let them know they are the most underrated and under-appreciated
aspect in our industry. We will not stop until our scouting department is the
game’s best.

The Lerners have the vision of a championship organization. Stan Kasten is an
experienced winner with the knowledge of how to do it right and I am honored
with being able to begin the process of carrying it out.