Feds investigating Nationals GM Bowden : Bonus Skimming

[jamesenoch]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/02/22/segura.feds.investigate.nationals/index.html

[Scrat1]

What problems don't the Nats have?

[byrdz]

This should get interesting, sounds like the tip of the iceberg.

[twoBshorty]

I don't understand why Bowden hasn't been fired already. Or done the honorable thing and resigned. Are the Nats afraid he will sue for wrongful termination because there's no indictment or conviction yet?

[TakebackOPACY]

I don't understand why Bowden hasn't been fired already. Or done the honorable thing and resigned. Are the Nats afraid he will sue for wrongful termination because there's no indictment or conviction yet?

I'll give you two answers. First, there's nothing of substance in any of these articles about Bowden yet. Starting in July, the articles just say sources say Bowden is being investigated. As for Bowden not commenting in this article, Kasten has already said he'll be the only one fielding questions on this.

Second, if it comes to light that this whole thing is going on all over the place, Bowden may feel like there's no more reason for him to step down than there is for A-Rod (for example) to resign... except that I think people will go to jail in this scandal and I don't think any users will go to jail (unless it's for lying under oath) in the steroids scandal.

Here's an 'Outside the Lines' article from September. The beginning of the article gives a detail of reasons the Yankees fired Carlos Rios that I hadn't previously read.

"It's like where every time you pick up a rock and all the bugs come out," says an MLB official with knowledge of the investigation. "Every time we're down there, we find something."

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=3609833

[twoBshorty]

WaPo: Nats Ownership Encouraging Investigation of Bowden

Sounds like they're just looking for a reason to fire him for cause so they don't have to pay the rest of his contract. The writing's on the wall here. If/when Bowden is canned, who becomes the new GM? I'm betting on current assistant GM Mike Rizzo. I've heard there's some question as to whether he has what it takes to be the head honcho, but I think you go internal until you have a reason not to. And the blue-chip young guys like Chris Antonetti and Jed Hoyer aren't nearly stupid enough to jump into that mess.

Someone on a Nats forum was also reporting that they heard from a WTEM reporter that Esmailyn Gonzalez saw $300,000 of that $1.4 million bonus. I don't know what exactly that is, but "skimming" is definitely the wrong word for it.