http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/082006/08032006/210983 Mike Rizzo helped turn Arizona's minor league system into one of baseball's best as the Diamondbacks' scouting director. It'll be his job to do the same thing with the Washington Nationals as the team's new vice president of baseball operations. The 45-year-old responsible for drafting and signing Brandon Webb, Chad Tracy, Conor Jackson, Carlos Quentin and others is just getting settled and still hasn't fully evaluated Washington's system. But he recently took time to talk about the Nats' rebuilding process. Q: How is your job with the Nationals different than in Arizona? A: With the Nationals I am going to be much more involved with player development and the baseball operations part of it. I'll be one of Jim's right-hand men as far as major league decisions and major league operations and that kind of stuff. We are also really going to reach into the international market and be a player in the Pacific Rim, Asia, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Curacao, all those Latin countries. We are really going to put an emphasis on finding players in any way or shape possible. Q: How long will it take to really turn things around in this system? A: It's not a short process. It's a process that you are going to have to work on day in and day out. It's a daily process. It's something you have to work on every day, be out there beating the bushes in Latin America, the Far East, Asia and domestically for every draft. The track record in Arizona [shows] in five years we went from the bottom to the top in terms of player development, so it's not a short-term process, but we are going to accelerate it as quickly as we can. Q: How important to the Nationals' success is expanding into the international market? A: It's another way of getting talent into the system and another way of being aggressive and trying to out-work and out-think other organizations to the point that you get the best players internationally and domestically and build the system that way. Q: Is there a certain type of player you look for as a philosophy? A: I don't want to make that public if you know what I mean. We are trying to implement our philosophy that's been successful with the Diamondbacks and the Atlanta Braves--the two model organizations--and we'll be kind of a hybrid with the Nationals. There are definitely certain parameters and kinds of players and philosophies I have adhered to, but as far as how we do it and what we do--with the Xs and Os--I don't want to spell that out. Q: Where do you fall in the argument between statistical analysis and traditional scouting? A: To me, the most important part of the evaluating process is the scout in the field seeing the player with his own two eyes. We will definitely use the sabermetrics as a tool, but we look at it as a tool. To me, you get qualified, quality baseball men with experience and track records and loyalty to the organization and motivate them and good things usually come about. --

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