"There aren't that many former Reds..."

Bill Ladson has written some crazy stupid things over the years, but this may take the cake in terms of head-slapping cluelessness, from the most recent Nationals' mailbag:

General manager Jim Bowden has relied heavily on former Reds players. Do you think he will acquire more Cincinnati talent this offseason?
-- Steve I., Bethesda, Md.

There are a lot of people in baseball and the media who believe Bowden wants nothing but Reds, but if you look at his record with the Nationals, there aren't that many former Reds who played regularly on the field. As far as the position players go, you have Jose Guillen, Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez and Dmitri Young. Pitching-wise, you have Hector Carrasco and Ryan Wagner. That's not the entire Reds roster during Bowden's time in Cincinnati.

As he has done in the past, Bowden will go after the best players available this offseason.

Nevermind that Guillen, Kearns, Lopez, Young, Carrasco, and Wagner is a damn long list. Ladson, who might be the only person associated with this team who's worse at his job than Jim is at his (ok, Clint is worse), forgets these other former Bowden properties from Cincinnati who have suited up for the Nationals:
Wily Mo Pena
Aaron Boone
Ray King
Joey Eischen
Charlie Manning
D'Angelo Jimenez
Damian Jackson
Carlos Baerga
Felix Rodriguez
Jeffrey Hammonds
C.J. Nitkowski
Chris Booker
Tony Blanco

And don't forget these Bowden Reds whom Jim acquired for our minor league squads:
Pokey Reese
Bret Boone

And then there are a few former Reds who weren't Bowden acquisitions in Cincy but are former Reds nonetheless:
Kenny Kelly
Brandon Watson

And then there's Rob Mackowiak, whom Bowden drafted while in Cincinnati but was unable to sign. And there's scout Jose Rijo. And Assistant GM Bob Boone. And Barry Larkin, who has filled some kind of undefined, nebulous position that no one can quite define. And dollars to donuts I'm forgetting one or five.

Geez, I wonder why people think JimBo is only interested in former Reds?

• Update: Sean from DC Sports Plus dug up a whole long list of additional (admittedly obscure) former Reds that JimBo has cycled through: Brandon Larson, Brandon Claussen, Phil Hiatt, Luis Pineda, Ed Yarnall, Michael Tucker, Jim Crowell, Josh Hall, Chris Michalak, Michael Coleman.