BOWDEN CALLS 'EM OUT

When not racking up DUI charges, Nationals GM Jim Bowden apparently has time to write a newspaper column in the Washington Examiner. And the latest installment is an example of why ball clubs should never, ever let their general managers do this. To his credit, Bowden minces no words and cuts to the chase:

WASHINGTON - Our dismal start can be directly blamed on pitching, one of the most difficult areas of a baseball team to predict.

Well, Jim, way to rally the troops there!

But apparently not being one deal in generalities, Bowden quickly moves to specifics:

Our Opening Day starter, Livan Hernandez, is 1-4 with a 6.52 ERA despite being healthy. This is the same pitcher who won 11 straight games at one point last season and would have won 20 if not for his knee injury.
Our No. 2 starter, John Patterson, is 1-0 and on the disabled list. We hope to have him back in early June.

Bowden is also not content to limit his criticism to his own team. No, there are old scores to settle:

This offseason, despite criticism, we decided not to match Oakland’s $22 million offer to Esteban Loaiza, our No. 3 starter last season. Does that decision haunt us? No. He is 0-3 with an 8.35 ERA and on the disabled list.
Our No. 4 starter this season was supposed to be Hector Carrasco. But we decided not to match the nearly $8 million deal he received from the Angels. By the way, Carrasco has yet to win a single game for them.

So there.

We took a low-risk gamble on two other free agents: Tony Armas, Jr., who is now 4-2 with a 3.02 ERA and has been our best starter; and Ramon Ortiz, who is 0-4 and has been our worst starter.

Make sure you do well on your next start, Ramon.

Now for the bullpen:

Mike O’Connor was called up from Class AAA New Orleans and is 2-1. He would have won a third game if the bullpen didn’t blow a ninth-inning lead.

Oops. Forget to mention another pitcher who's not on the Nationals...

Oh, and what if A.J. Burnett had accepted our four-year offer? Like Loaiza, Burnett hasn’t won a game for his new team, the Blue Jays, and is on the disabled list ... again. Remember, he got close to $55 million for five years.

Back to the bullpen. (It appears that, as the column went on, Jim was hitting the bottle and had trouble focusing.)

Let’s now look at the bullpen. Our closer, Chad Cordero, has given up six home runs in 17 innings and his ERA is 4.58. Gary Majewski has allowed 12 walks in 22 innings. Luis Ayala is out for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery. That trio was primarily responsible for all our one-run wins last year and first place status last July. Mike Stanton has been solid, as has Rauch. Felix Rodriguez’s ERA is 6.33. Joey Eischen’s is 10.45.

What does all of this mean, Jim?

For us to turn this season around and become competitive again, our proven pitchers must step up and be accounted for. If not, major changes will begin to happen, sooner rather than later.

Feel good to get that off your chest? To let everybody know that you, the general manager, can hardly be held responsible for the state of the team? To make it clear that it's all somebody else's fault?

That's a relief. After all, we would want the man who makes personnel decisions to be, you know, accountable for how those players perform, would we?

Looks like Jim learned the lessons of Washington quick: The buck stops anywhere but here.