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Building a Successful Franchise Takes Time...and Patience

By Rick Karcher, Michael McCann, Geoffrey Rapp, Greg Skidmore, and Howard Wasserman

In yesterday's edition of the Washington Times, Thom Loverro rips the management of the Washington Nationals for its poor performance, including Nationals president Stan Kasten for not achieving in two years the level of success he had as president of the Atlanta Braves (Kasten's Impact Not Visible):

If Kasten is not steering this ship - and it's difficult to believe that he is - then he needs to find a life preserver and jump because, as the great Micheal Ray Richardson once said, "The ship be sinking."

The franchise has become a source of bewilderment and amusement throughout the industry, the butt of jokes and the subject of embarrassing national media reports of mismanagement within the organization that are all too evident to those who have watched this debacle unfold here. The team has been abysmal, on its way to a 100-plus losses - the worst record of any team opening a new ballpark since the Camden Yards era began. Sure, the Nationals have been hit hard by injuries, but it doesn't explain the poor play and the wasted money on those players who have underperformed when they were on the field....

If the Lerners are not spending the money on payroll, not spending the money on high-priced draft picks and not spending the money on international signings, then where is the money going?....

And as a rule, I have found that if things seem really bad from the outside looking in - they're actually much worse. Kasten has maintained a positive party line. He would chew broken glass rather than reveal any internal turmoil. But it is clear this is not the work of a seasoned sports executive, especially one as highly regarded as Kasten. In a 2006 article in The Washington Post, NBA commissioner David Stern declared, "They've gotten themselves a first-class sports executive. It's fair to say it would be hard to replicate somebody with Stan's wide range of experience and his successes." The decisions and operations of this franchise do not mesh with the track record of a sports executive who ran what was considered the model organization in baseball for years, the Atlanta Braves. Between the Braves and the NBA's Hawks, he helped them to 30 postseason appearances.

I'm not sure how this reporter professes to know (1) what management decisions the Nationals are or should be making or (2) that the decisions and operations of the Nationals do not mesh with Kasten's track record with the Braves. However, he conveniently omits the fact that, before the Braves became a "model organization," they struggled through 4 consecutive losing seasons (including a season in which they lost 106 games) under Kasten's watch during the mid to late 80's. He omits the fact that, when Kasten took over the Nationals as president two years ago, Kasten warned that it was going to take years to make the Nationals a contender and that it would actually get worse before it got better. He omits the fact that any plan to build a franchise through player development takes much longer than two years. If he had interviewed Kasten, I'm sure Kasten would have pointed all of this out for him. But rather than interview anybody from the Nationals, Loverro chose to base his assertions upon a "rule" he "found" somewhere that says "if things seem really bad on the outside looking in -- they're actually much worse." I hope that's not the ethical standard for sports journalism these days.

Building a successful team on the field is not dependent upon how much money is spent on payroll in the short term. It takes time and patience. It also takes good scouting and player development personnel who share the same vision and philosophy, who can effectively instill that vision and philosophy into the players at both the major and minor league levels. Kasten knows this all too well from his experience in Atlanta. Give him a couple more years, and he'll get it straightened out.

Full post as published by Sports Law Blog on August 30, 2008 (boomark / email).