I don't follow you SSB.
Here is the thinking. Rizzo has always aspired to be a GM. He got the job with the Nats, and like any GM knows that his ability to remain employed in baseball at that level or higher within any team and maximize his income is based on him being deemed successful. So we can assume Rizzo wants to be viewed as successful as possible. As a rookie GM under Kasten with no long-term GM contract, Rizzo had no job security and would clearly be motivated to demonstrate his worth sooner than later. He is already on the record as telling the scouts he recruited that he believes they are all judged by the success of the big league club. All of that boded well for Rizzo being a guy who was interested in seeing the team make incremental moves as to get better as quickly as possible - i.e. make the Nats a winner before he gets dumped to the curb with no other team interested in giving him the same kind of job and needing to go back to the type of role he had in AZ and under Bowden.
Enter the Lerners - who may or may not be so motivated to win sooner than later if patience leads to lower risk and dependable profits. They see no need for such aggressive moves and are content to continue on a slow path, especially since the Strasburg TJ surgery is viewed as a year-long set back in plans. Forget 2011 they say, and even 2012. Carry on the path started by Stan and simply keep watering the cheap seeds in the farm until the greatness sprouts from within. Under that scenario, the only way to keep an undercompensated GM content to stretch out the plan and slow roll the investment is to give him job security for a few years.
It's the reason why Presidential candidates come up with four-year plans. If the terms were two years, they'd have two year plans. Given them six, they'll take it.
On the surface, it is difficult to see the extension and promotion of Rizzo as anything but inherently positive. Rizzo has done so many things well and so many things right, that extending the rare bright spot shouldn't have anything inherently negative about it. But he is not the one to worry about. The only concern is whether this deal with the devils (in this case Mark and Ted's excrement adventure) turned Rizzo's plan from a one to two year plan to a three to five year plan overnight.
