We haven't heard much from Stan Kasten since he resigned as the Nationals' president just before the end of the regular season. Given his belief that the Nationals need to spend now to compete, he would certainly be a useful guy to have around as baseball's Winter Meetings get going.
↵Well, that's one reason you might want to have Kasten around. The other is simple: Kasten has figured out the "secret" to picking up information from his peers. He shared that secret in his debut on MLB Network's Hot Stove show yesterday. Via Nationals Enquirer:
↵↵↵↵↵"Go hang in the bars until 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, picking up whatever you can."
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See, this strategy is easy to mock, and indeed, Nationals Enquirer does just that. But Kasten is simply practicing an age-old routine that humans have practiced for centuries. Go out with fellow humans on "social" expeditions, give them alcohol, loosen their inhibitions and share secrets about all walks of life. Normally, these are secrets about relationships and the like, but it applies to baseball too.
↵So then the real problem is that Kasten and the Nationals have to get better at actually securing drunk intel. Hopefully Mike Rizzo is better at holding his liquor than Kasten.