Nationals' Big Three Don't Run, Hit or Field

Kasten didn't become part of the Lerner group until April 2006. Commissioner Bud Selig liked the Lerners' family-oriented approach, but baseball officials believed the club needed an experienced executive to run the day-to-day operations. Kasten, who left the Braves in 2003, was that man.

When the Lerners were named the owners last May, Kasten became the president in waiting. Bowden's job, in theory, was in limbo. Mark Lerner said from the beginning that the decision on the general manager's future belonged to Kasten. "That's proper protocol," he said this week. "We trust Stan."

Kasten had already begun, as he said, "doing my due diligence" on Bowden, asking associates around the game for their thoughts.

Kasten said this spring that it was immediately his belief that the Nationals' situation was unlike any in baseball. He considered the skills necessary to pull off a massive rebuilding project -- particularly resourcefulness and creativity. Bowden believes those qualities were born in him out of necessity when he worked for notoriously stingy owner Marge Schott in Cincinnati.

"Given those qualities," Kasten said, "I felt good enough about what was here to give Jim the first shot."

Kasten said, though, that he knew the choice would be a surprise to some. Last April, Bowden was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in Miami Beach. The case is not closed, and is scheduled for another hearing April 11. Then, according to an official of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, the two sides could decide whether they're ready to go to trial.

Long before that incident, Bowden had garnered a reputation among player agents and other executives as an aggressive deal-maker with an occasionally volatile personality, a man fiercely loyal and supportive of those close to him, but not trusted by others.

"Jim, he's so warm," said Jose Rijo, once a pitcher for Bowden's Reds and now one of his advisers. "And he's so, so smart. Anybody who knows him has to admit that."

When Kasten announced last June that he would retain Bowden, he said he had a conversation with another baseball executive, "someone who is a friend of mine who isn't a fan of Jim," he said.

"We know Jim has been something of a controversial figure for some time, and after I made this decision, this person called me and told me how surprised he was," Kasten said. "Then I told him what I had here, and what I thought was needed to get out of it, what was required. And the guy said to me: 'You know, you're right about that. That's one thing he can do. Now I see what you're saying.' "

Yet because Kasten has a policy of not announcing the length of the contracts of executives, even some people within the organization believe Bowden was essentially an at-will employee. Such speculation makes Kasten bristle.

"I don't know how much more explicit I could be," Kasten said. "People look for a change, expect a change, because they refer to their own generalities or ideas of what performance should be. Past performance is good for whatever lessons you might learn from it, but every situation requires a person tailored to that situation -- and that's what we try to do here."