"Smiley" Gonzalez is a Fraud

Posted by Dave Nichols | Wednesday, February 18, 2009 | , , | 3 comments »

Last night's article on SI.com revealing "Nationals Prospect Falsified Identity" is yet another black eye to the Washington Nationals franchise that just can't get out of their own way.

Not even a full week has gone by since the signing of Adam Dunn that the team gets this bombshell. It's not A-Rod big, but in the grand scheme of things it's plenty disappointing, on so many levels.

SI.com writer Melissa Segura figured it out. Why couldn't Jim Bowden, Jose Rijo and Jose Baez (the Nats Director of Ops in the D.R.)? The cynic will point toward the ridiculously high signing bonus the Nats extended to the player and his buscon, Basilio Vizcaino.

Remember, the Nats signed the shortstop in 2006 with a $1.4 million signing bonus, twice what the next highest bidder offered. Also remember, all the negotiations for the other teams in the bidding process were handled by an agent, except the Nats offer, which was coordinated by Vizcaino, a childhood friend of Rijo and protege of Baez.

The deal originally sparked the federal investigation of the Nats organization for bonus money skimming, and with these latest allegations, expect even more scrutiny from the FBI and MLB's own investigation department.

And just when you started feeling good about NatsTown (TM), yet another shoe drops. Doesn't someone need to be held accountable for this?

3 comments

  1. An Briosca Mor // February 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM  
    This comment has been removed by the author.
  2. Dave Nichols // February 18, 2009 at 3:25 PM  

    ABM, i think i left my question as open ended as possible when i concluded my post with "Doesn't someone need to be held accountable for this?"

    if Kasten and Bowden knew about this BEFORE the article came out, as you opine, that's worse in my opinion.

  3. An Briosca Mor // February 18, 2009 at 5:22 PM  
    This comment has been removed by the author.