Nationals cross-checker Jeff Zona got an e-mail from a friend with the Red Sox wanting to know what it’s like in the Nationals war room, with all those high-profile, experienced, baseball people all used to making final decisions, it can’t work can it? I wasn’t sure myself, but the result has been an astounding:

YES!

Mike Rizzo, the former Scouting Director of the Arizona Diamondbacks, is now Vice President of Baseball Operations and second in command for the Nationals Baseball Operations Department. With Arizona he was responsible for drafting Brandon Webb, Stephen Drew, Justin Upton and Conor Jackson. He took the Diamondbacks’ farm department from 30th to first.

Dana Brown, the Nationals Scouting Director has drafted Ryan Zimmerman, Chad Cordero and Chris Marrero.

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Chuck LaMar, National Cross checker and Special Assistant to the General Manager oversaw successful drafts with the Braves as Scouting Director as well as drafting Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford, Delmon Young and B.J. Upton with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as their general manager.

Bob Boone, who had nine gold gloves and caught for Cy Young Award winners Steve Carlton and Bret Saberhagen, has been instrumental in the drafting of Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns, Ryan Zimmerman and Chris Marrero.

The rest of the draft room includes: Spin Williams has been a major league pitching coach for over a decade, Paul Tinnell is a former scouting and farm director. Jimmy Gonzales, Kris Kline and Jeff Zona are considered the best cross-checkers in the game.

Assistant Scouting Director Brian Parker leads the administrative staff that organizes the computers, paper work, brain imaging, caliper results, vision testing, medical reports, scouting reports and magnetic board.

Harolyn Cardozo, my executive assistant keeps us all in line and makes great macaroni and cheese. Oh, and chicken pot pie, too.

There are a wide range of philosophies in the room as well as opinions on players. My goal, as leader, is to find consensus with our upper-management on who take with each pick. We have 594 players on our board and we have consensus on the first 110 picks, including seven reports from seven different people on each of those players.

If there’s no consensus, we use chain of command: myself, Rizzo, Brown, Boone and then LaMar.

We have a blend of philosophies, with none being the right answer every time. Rizzo and Kline are college oriented while Brown and LaMar are high school oriented.

Some are more talented with pitchers; others with hitters. Some of our people are tool-oriented, others aren’t. Some put more emphasis on statistics, caliper tests, depth perception ability, brain imaging and others only care about scouting reports.

The real answer is in the middle, using all the information, all the philosophies, to get the right player.

Besides, in the first round it doesn’t matter what level they played, you take the best player. But when you’re in rounds two through 10, the high school player has the highest ceiling because they could develop into a first-round talent. The college player has a higher probability of getting to the big leagues.

How can all these egos coexist? Because selecting the best player is what everyone in the room wants to do.

As told to The Examiner’s John Keim.

Nationals General Manager Jim Bowden provides an exclusive column to The Examiner each week, ranging on topics from the Nats to the state of Major League Baseball.