The woes for the bumbling management of the Washington Nationals continue as GM Jim Bowden is under investigation by the FBI,Jose Rijo looks more and more of a Dominican con man instead of a baseball management person and the most touted signing of the past few years turned out to be multiple years older than he was supposed to be.
I am not going to waste too much time on Jim Bowden.
Why in the hell Washington kept him on in the first place after the demolition job that he did in Cincinnati is questionable at best and idiotic at worst.
The sooner Jim Bowden is gone,the sooner that the National organization can begin the cleanup.
There will never be any straighting out with Jim Bowden in charge.
Esmailyn Gonzalez was expected to be the Hagerstown Suns starting shortstop this season at the age of 19.
Judging from the reports of Gonzalez,he would have likely been the most popular player on the team and just as likely the top prospect as well.
That was until the news broke that Gonzalez was,well neither Gonzalez,nor 19.
He was actually 23 year old Carlos Lugo and he had been misrepresented by himself,his advisors and possibly Jose Rijo as Gonzalez.
Lugo was signed in July 2006 for a 1.4 million bonus and was used as the Washington advertisement for going after Dominican players.
"Gonzalez" was just 16 at the time and began to go through the system through the usual paces that young Latino players go through,Dominican league,Gulf Coast League and was scheduled to start at Hagerstown this year.
One red flag that stands out on the criminal front.
The player received a bonus of 1.4 million dollars and the second place bidder (Texas) only offered 700,000.
SO Washington needed to DOUBLE their offer in order to land a young player that was far from being in a good negotiating position?
That tells me that payoffs were going on and people needed to get a piece of the pie before anything was signed.
It is still possible that Gonzalez/Lugo could play for the Suns.
After all he was still the Gulf Coast League MVP in 2008 and was the league batting champ.
However,a 23 year old player should dominate those leagues,much like they should the Sally League,so lets not get too excited.
At the same time,I would like to see him play to scout him myself.
Many of the top college draftees are around the age of G/L and they start at the Low/High A level,but even those players have been far more tested than the Dominican player.
I would not give up on G/L as a prospect yet,but his chances of success have dropped through the floor.
Another question is whether the shortstop will even be able to get a visa in order to enter the country to play.
When the last identity scandal broke,many of those players had difficulties entering the country and missed a chunk of time at minimum and those players were paid a pittance compared to the Gonzalez bonus.
This is shaping up to be quite a scandal and I would bet by the time that it is all over that at least a few people in the Washington front office is going to be touched by the incident.
In closing,do I blame Carlos Lugo?
Not really,you live in an impoverished country,you have a chance to make it in pro baseball and not matter what sliver of the contract that you actually see,it has to be better than what the average Dominican makes.
At the same time,fraud is fraud and the Washington Nationals have been tainted by this.
Either Washington was duped, making them fools or someone employed by the team was in on this scam and that makes them corrupt.
You make the call-are you stupid or are you corrupt?
Not a pretty picture in Washington either way.
Photo Credit-Topps
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