Bowden to talk to Red Sox again

11/18/2005
The Red Sox announced on Thursday that Nationals general manager Jim Bowden will soon interview for Boston's open GM position. The news comes a day after Bowden and members of his staff had dinner with free agent A.J. Burnett.
It will be Bowden's second interview with the Red Sox. He met with club officials last week during the general managers meeting in Indian Wells, Calif.
Bowden, who spent over a decade as the Reds' GM, is a native of Weston, Mass., and had already stated that being the general manager of the Red Sox would be his "dream job."
Bowden, who is competing against Jim Beattie, a person with experience as a GM, and other unnamed candidates, was not available for comment.
"Naturally, people with experience are usually ahead of the game," said Boston special advisor Bill Lajoie. "By that, I mean they know how to handle a lot of situations. Things come up in your everyday job; you have to weigh each one and put them in order of importance, and they know how to do that."
According to a baseball source familiar with the Nationals' thinking, if they lose Bowden, Nationals team president Tony Tavares, executive vice president Kevin Uhlich and assistant general managers Tony Siegle and Bob Boone most likely would handle the player decisions until ownership is in place.
"[The Nationals] would hate to lose Jim, but how can you tell him not to pursue a multiyear deal with another club? There are no guarantees in Washington," the source said.
In other news, even if ownership is not in place, the Nationals will make decisions about members of the coaching staff shortly after the Thanksgiving holidays, according to the same source.
The contracts for bench coach Eddie Rodriguez, pitching coach Randy St. Claire, third base coach Dave Huppert, hitting coach Tom McCraw, first base coach Don Buford, bullpen coach Bob Natal and roving coach Jack Voight expired on Oct. 31. Huppert has already said that he is close to managing in the Phillies' Minor League system.
Some in the organization would like to see changes made to the coaching staff. Huppert, McCraw and Buford were often criticized for their work on the field. Huppert and Buford have been accused of not being aggressive enough on the coaching lines, while the Nationals ranked 30th offensively under McCraw.

Source: http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/