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Bobby Williams Fired


Geoff Morrow of the Patriot News confirmed news I heard yesterday afternoon,

The Washington Nationals’ director of player development, Bobby Williams, was fired Friday after three years on the job.

This seems to be the first step as Mike Rizzo begins to reshape the organization.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 5th, 2009, 9:17 AM and is filed under Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  1. #1 by Positively Half St. - September 5th, 2009 at 09:37

    He certainly had nothing to write home about. Next person to go needs to be Jim Riggleman.

  2. #2 by JayB - September 5th, 2009 at 10:04

    YES!

    Finally someone is being held accountable for the under performance of our farm system and the lack of development of top prospects.

  3. #3 by JayB - September 5th, 2009 at 10:16

    Brian did a 2007 interview with Williams……countless examples of failure can be found but I like this one the best…….

    NFA: In general, please describe the Nationals pitching philosophy?

    BW: We want our pitchers to be able to command the FB. If a pitcher cannot command his FB, he probably will not pitch in the big leagues. We want our pitchers to pitch aggressively, throw strikes, force contact early in the count, command the FB, change speeds, get quick outs and have quick innings. We want our pitchers to pitch with a good tempo (fast pace between pitches). There is also an emphasis on fundamentals (holding runners, pickoffs, fielding the position). A pitcher must be good at the other details of the position besides the actually pitching part. We want our pitchers to be consistent with their mechanics as well as the mental part of pitching.

    ….Well for the most past our younger pitches do work fast…..but other than than if Rizzo took these goals and asked Williams for the proof of his efforts….no wonder he is gone. Bob Boone next?

  4. #4 by JayB - September 5th, 2009 at 10:24

    Brian,

    I do not know how many jobs the Nats have in Player Development specifically and the Farm System in general, can you provide some rough numbers.

    I would expect that Rizzo will need to fire about 30% of them to get a new culture in place. How many jobs is that?

  5. #5 by JayB - September 5th, 2009 at 10:31

    On the MLB Coaching staff who would you keep. I am sure that RIggs while a huge improvement over Acta is gone as he should be in my view.

    Hitting Coach and 3B Coach have been very effective at their jobs in my view. New Manager should be allowed to make the call but I would expect these two to stay. Bull Pen Catchers……must go…..last of the Acta mafia.

  6. #6 by Beisbol - September 5th, 2009 at 10:34

    About time Bobby Williams is taken out of the Nationals organization!

  7. #7 by Bill Wagner - September 5th, 2009 at 10:48

    Go Rizzo GO!!!!!!

  8. #8 by Andrew Z. Stebbins - September 5th, 2009 at 11:39

    I expected this in a few weeks…any idea why today?

  9. #9 by Robin - September 5th, 2009 at 11:48

    Andrew, I agree. Why not wait until the minor league teams end the season on Monday? Thanks to Bobby for the kindness and friendliness to us at numerous ballparks. Best Wishes and much success in your new job. We will miss you.

  10. #10 by estuartj - September 5th, 2009 at 12:20

    Who hired Riggleman? If it was Acta he is gone, but did Rizzo hire Riggleman to be bench coach with this future in mind?

    An even better question is what kind of Manager does Rizzo want? JimBow wanted Acta to “Preach and Teach” but I think Rizzo wants his manager to be a “task master”, is that Riggleman?

  11. #11 by Bill Wanner - September 5th, 2009 at 12:48

    Lets bring Dibble down from the broadcast booth to manage next year. He for sure has the passion and no nonsense attitude. (lol)

  12. #12 by Marcus - September 5th, 2009 at 12:58

    Prediction: Dipoto is part of Rizzo’s new staff next year in some capacity

  13. #13 by John - September 5th, 2009 at 18:41

    Derek Norris left last night’s game and isn’t in the lineup tonight. Has anyone heard of an injury?

  14. #14 by VladiHondo - September 5th, 2009 at 23:35

    Hope Spin Williams is next to go, never been a fan. Then Boone!

    Bobby W was a nice guy, but think he was over promoted going from low minors manager to Director of player development. Doubt there was much he could do without micormanaging from Boone.

  15. #15 by Bill - September 6th, 2009 at 09:40

    Hitting coordinator Ralph Dickenson was also let go.

  16. #16 by Andrew Z. Stebbins - September 6th, 2009 at 11:12

    Bill :

    Hitting coordinator Ralph Dickenson was also let go.

    source? and probably means Spin Williams is next.

  17. #17 by Andrew Z. Stebbins - September 6th, 2009 at 11:14

    Andrew Z. Stebbins :
    Bill :

    Hitting coordinator Ralph Dickenson was also let go.

    source? and probably means Spin Williams is next.

    Here’s that source: http://therocket.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/09/williams_dickenson_relieved_of.html

  18. #18 by Rich - September 6th, 2009 at 13:01

    This is probably a bit early to worry about this. But who would we potentially lose in the Rule 5 draft? I assume that we will want to reduce our 40 man roster to 39 or 38 so we could potentially grab 1or 2 guys. Could we lose Everts? Wilkie? Meyers? Montz (I’m assuming we take him off the 40 man to make room)?

  19. #19 by Brian Oliver - September 6th, 2009 at 13:05

    Rich – In order (& assuming not placed on 40-man) … Everts-yes, Wilkie-yes, Meyers-no, Montz-yes.

    There are quite a few guys coming off of the 40-man as major league free agents so I would not worry about losing guys yet.

  20. #20 by JayB - September 7th, 2009 at 07:57

    Brian,

    Seems we are seeing a lot of position players pitching blow outs (or like last night became blow outs) in AAA. Why is this level so short of pitchers. I know it does not matter but those are innings that should be used for player development not BP. Where are the arms that Stan tells us about all the time?

  21. #21 by Brian Oliver - September 7th, 2009 at 08:21

    The reason is pitch schedules. The Nationals have relievers available to pitch on specific days and they are hesitant to change those schedules. When games get out of hand, they will finish off games with position players to keep relievers on schedule

  22. #22 by Positively Half St. - September 7th, 2009 at 08:22

    All the arms are on the Nats at this point, or injured.

  23. #23 by rukidding - September 7th, 2009 at 08:56

    Saw Tom Milone pitch on Saturday. He has the makings to be a solid starter. He went 8 innings of shutout baseball. He seems to be getting stronger as the season comes to an end. I am curious if the PD people look at these kind of things. I know this is his 1st full season of pro ball but he did not seem to tire towards the end of the season he improved. Some pitchers tend to struggle towards the end. I recall someone suggesting Tom Milone =Cliff Lee. Maybe we can look back in 10 years and say _______=Tom Milone. I like what I have seen from some of our young pitchers (Milone, Myers, Mandel).

  24. #24 by Ronny/Daggerrrrrr - September 7th, 2009 at 09:21

    I’m one of Tom Milone biggest fans. And I made the Tom Milone=Cliff Lee comparison because I think he’s Cliff Lee, but he just dosen’t have the strike-out numbers Lee had in the minors. Other than K’s, they’re pretty much the same type of pitcher.

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