Wednesday, May 3, 2006

A Future Nationals Dynasty in the Making?

MLB finally made the announcement today on the new ownership group. Stan Kasten, an investor in the Lerner group and former president of the Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Thrashers, will be responsible for the day to day operations.

Kasten, who received his law degree from Columbia Law School, knows the formula for creating a successful franchise. Bill Shanks authored an interesting book entitled, Scout’s Honor: The Bravest Way To Build A Winning Team, which explains how Kasten created the Braves dynasty that it is today. I predict Kasten will do the same over time with the Nationals.

Scout's Honor was sort of marketed as the response to Moneyball, written by Michael Lewis. Moneyball revealed the Oakland Athletics' philosophy of using objective measures and statistics to evaluate talent and project future player performance. The Braves, on the other hand, tend to emphasize the subjective assessment of players by putting full faith and confidence in their scouts' evaluations.

Over the past 15 years or so, the Braves have been very successful in the draft because they are good at selecting players who have more than just tools and talent; they have good "makeup". Makeup is a term that drives statisticians (and others insistent upon objective measures) crazy! Even the term itself is difficult to objectively define, but I think of it as a whole combination of individual characteristics such as drive, determination, personality, how one carries himself on and off the field, how one reacts in certain situations, whether he's a winner, whether he thrives on competition such that he wants to be the guy up at the plate with the score tied in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and a runner on second.

Another reason I believe the Braves have been so successful is because they have a very low turnover rate in the front office and coaching staff. Many of the front office personnel and scouts, as well as major and minor league coaches, have been with the Braves for over 15 years -- very rare in society today for any organization in any industry. The staff is successful at molding young minor league players into successful major league players who are proud to wear the Braves uniform and who (with a few exceptions) tend to stick around for a while. The organization likes to refer to it as "the Braves' way".

These are not just philosophies that apply to a sports organization; these are "business" philosophies that any organization in any industry can learn from. In other words, don't just go out and throw top dollar at the people with the best "statistics" on their resumes who are going to leave you at the drop of a hat for the next organization that does the same. Find people with good "makeup" that are going to stick around for a while. Kasten will implement these same philosophies with the Nationals and in a few years we will be talking about "the Nationals' way".

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