Latest / Foul Territory / Jim Bowden’s expansion realignment ideas, Mookie’s secret meeting, Bubba Chandler time

Transcript

Jim Bowden’s expansion realignment ideas, Mookie’s secret meeting, Bubba Chandler time · Foul Territory

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Part two of the movie bats meeting with Dave Roberts,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and Andrew Friedman was in there too, because he was around,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and apparently he was just telling him like his swing
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: feels good, and Roberts was like, yeah, he pops into
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: my office all the time. I hope too much wasn't
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: made of that. It was because it's the most talked
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: about team in baseball on the planet. We talked about it.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Do we believe them? I appreciate them doing this, what
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: being transparent?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate it because people had already seen it,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: so it wasn't like it was a hidden thing.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: I appreciate them doing. Look.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: I played for the Red Sox once and we had
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: lost the game to the Yankees, and I went in
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I wented toil. All the media was gone, and I
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: went into John Farrell's office and Ben Cherrington I think, no,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I don't think Cherrington was in there, but John Farrell
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: was in there and some other coaches, and we had
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: we just talked about what we're thinking of what I
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: was seeing. And Astros scored, by the way, hey, but
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and we were just talking about it and the next
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: day the media comes up to was on one media
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: person around in the clubhouse and the media comes up
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: to me the next day and goes, so, what was
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: your meeting about with Farrell? He said, he called you
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: into a meeting and I was like what, And then
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: he walked by me. What did you say? He was
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: sorry I had to tell him and I was like, no,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: you didn't have to tell him. And it wasn't anything
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: other than just talking about the team and giving you know,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: they wanted to know my opinion on stuff, but there
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: was no media there. So I appreciate the Dodgers being
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: upfront and kind of open about this, Like and by
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: the way, if you have closed our meetings and players,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: you don't have to tell the media.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I had to.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: You don't have to. Okay, you don't have to tell
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: the media.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Was he was he held at gunpoint?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know, well he was at the time, but
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I was like, what do you have to tell him?
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: That was a personal mute situation.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: I'm not gonna say it, but.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: How was that kid at the National Championship game where
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: he said to me, because I'm good?
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: So what'd you say?
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: I'm good?
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: That was?
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: That was good and aj But.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: No, I'm serious, though I appreciate this is it is.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Mookie said it, Dave Roberts said it, and uh Jeez
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Friedman said it. Yeah, they're on the same page at least.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: But they they did it in front of everybody. Fine,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: this wasn't a closed door thing. This wasn't where nobody
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: was around. So they answered the questions and how we
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: move on, like, you gotta trust them, you gotta take them,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: you gotta take them with their word.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, coming up next, Yes, Kratz, I think we got
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: twenty seconds.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: What do you got?
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: The word right field was definitely mentioned in that meeting.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: Come on, stop two.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Balls that weren't caught.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: The word was the word was mentioned.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: It was said, I don't know what context.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Come on.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Front Office unfiltered with our resident GM, Jim Bowden, who's
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: wearing sweatshirt.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Sweatshirt that looks good on him?
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: What is that?
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: FG at Great shot dot com? T baby, that's fantastically
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you look great, JB. Wow, you just made my day.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I am pumped, and I'm also pumped because I nerd
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: out about these topics and I remember your article that
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: went super viral for articles a couple of years ago
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: about realignment, and then of course the commissioner basically just
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: reminded everyone that it's still going to be a thing,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and it blew up again. I'm nerding out about this, JB.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: And then your colleague Stephen Nesbit at The Athletic put
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: out his version of realignment last night, So let's dive
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: into this for a few minutes. What do you think
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of what Nesbit put out there to try and preserve
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: most of what the American League and National League looks
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: like right now? And as you're talking through it will
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: show full screen graphics so people can comprehend it.
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think what he did is exactly what most
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: of the clubs would like to see with geographic realignment,
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: which is not radical realignment, right, It's kind of let's
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: try to preserve the American League in the National League
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: and do it in such a way that will ruffle
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: less feathers with the owners. That's kind of what it was.
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: And you look at it. Look, it makes sense what
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: I wrote two years ago in The Athletic, and I
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: stand by it is a more radical approach. And here's
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: my feeling on this. If you're going to realign, then
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: blow it up and start over, right, Because if you
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: really want to do geographic realignment, then put the teams
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: as close together as you possibly can. Right, So in
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: my view, that's eight divisions, four teams each. That's thirty two.
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: And it's okay to take Dodgers, Angels, Padres, Diamondbacks and
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: put them all in one spot, right It's okay if
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: you want to take San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Colorado,
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: put them in one spot. I just feel like, and look,
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: I know people don't want to see the Yankees, Mets,
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: Philly's Red Sox in one division, But if you're going
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: to do it geographically, and you really want to legitimately
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: cut down on travel for the wear and tear of
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: the players and the traveling parties, then why not just
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: do it like the NBA does. You have an Eastern Conference,
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: you have a Western Conference, and then you break them
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: up and the schedule will be a lot easier. I
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: think the TV ratings would be a lot better. And
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: I think if you're going to do it, that's how
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: you should do it. But I understand, you know what
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: Nesbit tried to do here, and I think he's representing
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: most of the teams and most of the people in
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: the Commissioner's office on kind of how they envision it
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: without completely blowing it up. But I say, if you're
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: going to do it, blow it.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Up, well, and I'm with you, okay on the radical
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: part of the realignment plan. Here's where I want to
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: get your perspective and push back. Would owners actually like
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: this more traditional plan that doesn't ruffle feathers of where
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: they're at right now, or would they like the plan
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: that's more radical that, like you mentioned, saves significant money
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: on travel. And it's not just an opinion, it's a fact.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It will lead two better ratings, not only because of
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: some of the matchups, but because of the time zones,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: which Commissioner Rob Manford actually mentioned in that conversation the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: other day. They are paying attention to how often someone
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: on the East Coast has to watch a game that
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: starts at ten pm East Coast time, and they would
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: like to limit that. So again I'm going back to
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the radical plan and saying, do honors even want the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: traditional thing or do they want the most money possible?
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean, look, I had also put a proposal
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: into the athletic because I wanted to as soon as
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: Commissioner Manford made that comment on Sunday Night Baseball on
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: the ESPN, I said, let me go back to my
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: article that I wrote in twenty three and let me
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: update it. Now that we know the Athletics are going
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: to Las Vegas, then it looks like Salt Lake City
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: and Nashville probably going to be the two expansion teams,
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: and let me take another take at it. And they
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: chose not to have me do that. They had Nesbit
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: do it instead. And so when I look at it,
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: you know, I think he's representing a more conservative way
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: that you could do it. I don't know what each
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: owner thinks, but I'm with you on this and that's
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: where I wrote it two years ago. I think, if
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: you're going to do it, let's do it the right way,
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: and that would be put the teams as close together
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: as you can in the same time zone them. If
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: you do it Eastern Conference, Western Conference. It's not just
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: the divisions, it's the fact that you have the entire
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: West Coast in both leagues now in one conference. And
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: it makes all the sense in the world to me.
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: And so nothing has changed in my view in two
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: years outside of the fact that we have a better
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: idea of who's going to get expansion and a better idea,
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: of course, where the athletics.
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: Are going FTFAM. When you're playing games, you kind of
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: have some stress anxiety. Teammates need somebody something to help.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: Now it's at your fingertips with RULA.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Telehealth has been a huge help for millions of people,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: but it can be time consuming and expensive to find
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the right therapist. Rula is on a mission to make
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: this process smoother, and make sure you go to ruler
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: dot com slash valve from more d details. They take
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: most major insurance plans, and the average copay is only
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: about fifteen dollars per session. Every provider on Rula is
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: carefully vetted and chosen for their expertise. Thousands have already
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: trusted Rula to support them on their journey toward improved
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: mental health and overall well being. Head on over to
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: rula dot com slash file to get started today. After
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: you sign up, they ask you where you heard about them.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Please say that ft sent you there to support the show,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: but also worry about yourself here at ruler dot com,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: r u la dot com slash fo u L and
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: take the first step towards better mental health today. You
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: deserve quality care from someone who cares.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: All right, I'm with you on this one, Jim.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I'm with you as far as like, if you're going
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: to do it, just make it crazy, because that way,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: if you have twenty owners bitching, that's better than just
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: having two as far as I'm concern because then all
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: the other twenty of them could look at you and say, well,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: you can't complain, and you can't complain because I had.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: To switch this and all that.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: So I agree with you, you're going to do it,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: make it crazy, and Okay, here's my thing that a
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: question that I had and when we talk talked about
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: this kind of yesterday was so if you go Eastern
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: West you get rid of AL and N. I'll fine, Fine,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: that's what you want to do, I'm fine with it.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: So would the East Eastern Conference teams only play one
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: series a year against the Western Conference teams or Western
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: League or Eastern League or whatever there it is an
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Eastern League, so you can't call it the Eastern League.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: So you know, like what East and West Conference, East
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: and West, whatever the hell you want to call it.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: But with the East teams only play once against the
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: West and when they only travel West every other year
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: to play each team. How would they break that down
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: so it would be more East heavy against CE See
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: where I'm getting out, Like, would be more East heavy?
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: And I liked your divisions better because I want Red Sox, Yankees, Mets,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: who was it, Blue Jays? I think we're the four
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: you had in the East. Yeah, give me the four heavyweights.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Give me the four heavyweights in the same like in
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: this one, he's got Mets, Phillies, Pirates, Nationals, Like the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Pirates are like, no, thank you. We can't compete with
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: those teams.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: That just doesn't sound funny there, I know that.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: I mean Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays. I can
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: get on board with that. That's basically the Al East.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Now you know Ale North is the same pretty much.
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: But I don't know, like, let's make make you know what,
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: why don't we do this instead, Jim high high big
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: market small market conference and let the big market play
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: against each other, the small market play against other in
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: the world series.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: Big market wins.
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean, look, I actually gave that some thought
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: when I was GM in the Cincinnati Reds. I was
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: trying to argue, you know, let me put me in
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: a market with teams that are paying the same amount
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: of payroll that I am. So you know, we can
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: laugh at it, but obviously I think geographically is how
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: we should do it. And to your point, I think
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: you play most of your games in the Eastern Conference
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: and you stay there, and yes, you play one series
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: perhaps one year on the road and the next year
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: on the road against those other teams, but maximize the
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: amount of games that you have in your time zone.
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: I think that's the way to do it.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, JB.
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: One push back.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what you're gonna say, but you
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: mentioned time zones. But if you look, can we pull
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: up that Western Conference graphic again? Okay, so the Midwest
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Division is on Central time zone. You said, playing your
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: conference in your time zone. The West Division is two
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: time zones behind the only honestly, JB, this only affects
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: two teams, and I said this yesterday. The Astros and
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: the Rangers are the only team that plays two in
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: the division with two time zone difference. The rest of these,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: like the AL Central, the NL East, all of them
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: are pretty much in the same time zone. So we
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: need to go time zone argument that's where it loses
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: me because if the White Sox got to travel four
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: three times a year to the West Coast, they're losing
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: two time zones back.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Cobs, White Sox, those central teams there are
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: going to play a lot of West Coast teams. But
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: there's no perfect solution here.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: That's why I'm that's what we can ask the questions
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: about these things.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: So I'm going to be answer well, and the answer
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: I have the same answer. I mean, we can't make
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: it perfect. It just doesn't work out perfectly. But you
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: do the best you can with the the thirty two
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: teams that you have, and you try to limit the
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: amount of games you have outside of your particular time zones,
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: and you try to hope that you can put the
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: time zones and only one hour difference, you know, closer
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: together rather than having the three hour difference, which is
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: really with a big problem is.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: JB. Some pushback I've seen is about preserving rivalries, and
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I think there's a good point on one or two
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: of them. Most of them I think would create new
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: rivalries that would be awesome, Okay, and we've seen that
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: already anyway, Like the Astras weren't in the Al West
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: for a billion years, and now we love Astros Rangers
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and what that brings to the table in the Al West.
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: That's my pushback.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: But I will bring up an example that's hot on
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the West Coast, and your colleague Grant Brisbee actually wrote
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: about this in The Athletic as well. I read last night.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: He's like, we gotta keep Giants Dodgers together again? Is
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: that just going to be a victim of the system
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: where it's northern California and you need to bunch some
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: of those teams together up there and separate them from
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers.
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, look, I'm sorry, but yeah, we have to break
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: it up. You know what, I'd rather see Dodger Padres
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: right now. Anyway. I think it's a better rivalry. And
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: I know, growing up and for years it's always been
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: Dodgers Giants, I get it. But we're in twenty twenty five.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: I actually like, I can't wait till this weekend, right,
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: Dodgers are going to play the Padres at Petco. I
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: think that's a better rivalry than if the Dodgers were
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: playing the Giants. So I mean, yeah, I mean again,
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: we can't make it perfect, But I think geographically I
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: want to see Angels, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks. It just works
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: better with them there where San Francisco works better taking
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: care of Salt Lake City, Colorado, Seattle, et cetera. I
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: think when you break it.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: Down, ultimately this is going to be the commissioner's decision.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: But the commissioner's the boss of or he works for
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: the owners. Are there owners that have more or less sway?
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: Kind of like the NFL in these types of decisions,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: because I know they always put out the front Oh,
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: we voted thirty to zero, so we all agree, which
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: we know that's not the case.
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Look, there's always been owners that are more influential
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: than others. I mean, that's always been a fact of
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: baseball forever and ever. I mean, as you probably know
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: aj from your Chicago days, Jerry Reinsdorf had as much
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: power and pull with commissioner stealing as anybody did back then.
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: So you know, I think Commissioner Manford understands he works
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: for all thirty owners. There are some, obviously that are
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: more powerful than others and that have more clout, But
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: at the end of the day, you know, he's got
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: to make sure he satisfies three fourths, right, because that's
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: what it takes to make most of these changes or
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: most of these votings. And once they get the three fourths, then,
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: as you know, is everything is unanimous.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I've got a good one for you. JB. Genuinely curious
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: about this, and I've seen many comments about this. Does
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: a team, ownership wise want to be in a crappy
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: division or do they want to be in a division
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: where they think TV ratings and fans visiting from out
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: of town will pop. I'll give you an example. Baltimore
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: in your situation, moves out of playing against the Yankees,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox, the Blue Jays, right, and they're playing
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: against teams like DC. Okay, I get that, and I
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: think that can be you know, a rivalry that sparks
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: up with the Nats, Charlotte, Pittsburgh. So I'll give you
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: one more in stephen nesbit scenario, He's got the Braves
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: moving to the National League South with the Marlins, whatever
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: expansion team comes out of the Southeast with with say
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Nashville or Riley Durham, and then the Race and Braves
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: fans were battling online. Some of them are like, this
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: is the best thing ever. We're gonna have crappier teams.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Yes, the Braves are like yes.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: And but others were like, does ownership want this publicly
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: traded company? They want to get rid of games against
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the Mets and the Phillies.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: What do you think? So I'm going to go back
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: in history, and if you remember, we used to have
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: the East and West right, and then we added the Central.
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: And if you remember, back in the day, John Hart
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: was the GM of the Cleveland then called the Indians,
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: and he did a phenomenal job with those Indians teams,
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: getting them to the postseason, signing long term deals, building
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: you know, incredible lineups that had Albert Bell and Kenny
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: Lofton and vis Kel and Bierga and just great, great
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: offensive teams during that time span. The best decision John
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: Hard ever made, and he told me this at the time,
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: the best decision he made in his career as an
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: executive was the decision to push for the Indians to
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: be in the Central and not the East. They wanted
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: to be in these there was a big debate of
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: who was going to go to the East, Toronto or Cleveland.
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: Cleveland fought hard to go to the Central because they
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: knew they had a better chance of winning. They knew
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: if they win the division with the Yankees and the
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: Red Sox and the big markets, it was going to
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: be tough. It was a huge de decision for the organization.
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: How many times have we seen them in the postseason
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: since in which they wouldn't have gotten there had they
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: been in the same division in the East. And I
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: think baseball people would prefer to be in a division
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: where they have the best chance of winning. Sorry, Now,
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: as an owner, I care about the bottom line, so
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: you have to measure if I'm on the East and
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: I'm getting the draw of the Yankee fans and the
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: Red Sox fans, what's the bottom line? But at the
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: end of the day, if you're running a franchise, fans
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: want to win, period. They don't care who you're winning against.
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: They want to win. They want to be in the postseason.
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: They want a chance for the World Series. So I
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: think if I'm sitting there as an owner a GM
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: and you asked me where I want to go, let
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: me be in the same division as the Pittsburgh Pirates,
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: the Rockies, and the Athletics. Thank you very much.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: We'll call that.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: By the way, I wanted to jump that.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: I said.
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: I wanted to jump in your earlier conversation before I
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: came on, because you guys were talking about Mookie Bets
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: ninety nine percent. I can guarantee you that meeting took
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: place was about Mooki Betts moving back to right field.
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: I can promise you that Andrew Friedman didn't go down
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: there to check on Mookie Betts's swing. I can promise
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: you that that front office has been watching the defense
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: of Tiu and right field, and they're watching Conford to
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: hit nothing in left field, and they're sitting Andrew's sitting
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: there with only a two game lead, with a team
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: that he's put together going to go. I can't watch
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: his defense anymore. But you certainly can't just move Mooki
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: to right without putting him in there so they can
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: say whatever they want to say, and believe me, I
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: was at GM for sixteen and a half years I
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: did the same thing. I'm going to come out and
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: publicly and protect everybody right because I don't want to
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: put the player on the spot and make it that
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: he didn't want to play right. I get all that,
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: but come on. We all know what that meeting was.
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: You can spin in any way you want it.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: I know we were trying to.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: I was trying to be positive, Okay, j just to
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: give him the benefit of the doubt. Okay, we all know.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: We just didn't want to sit crest his credit said it.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: We just didn't want to. Now I want to go
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: to some You said you were a GM for a
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: long time. Did you ever manipulate service time? Because I
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: feel like with Maasaio, with Taba Chandler coming up recently
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: after the forty five day things, they can still be
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: a rookie year, right, Oh and Casey's another one. Does
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: this really happen? And then my next question is they said,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Puba Chaydler's going to be the long guy. Why don't
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: you just let him get seven or eight starts in
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: the big league if he's going to be a starter.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah. So, I mean, I can tell you in my career,
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: and anyone that was with me knows this is that
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: I would never manipulate service time. I love players. I
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: always felt that if a young player is ready to
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: come to the big leagues, he goes to the big leagues.
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: When I drafted Ryan Zimmerman with Washington. I drafted him
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: in JUNI was in the big leagues in September, and
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: I even had my HO manager, Frank Robinson, asked me
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: not to bring him up because he said he couldn't
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: be ready and we shouldn't start the service time. I said, well,
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: we're going to start it because this kid can hit
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: and he can play defense right now in the big league.
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: So I'm one the other way around. Same thing with incentives.
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: If I put incentives at a player contract, I want
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: the player to get all of them because if that happens,
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: then we all win. So that was me, But I
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: will tell you many many small market gms, many owners
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: will absolutely one hundred percent use the system to their advantage.
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: You can call it manipulating, or you can call it
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: running a business, which a lot of them do, which is, yeah,
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: we're not we're going to make sure you're not a
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: super two. We're gonna make sure we get the extra
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: year free agency. Uh, we are going to do everything
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: we can to protect ourselves with service time. And you
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: know there is a lot of times and we saw
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: theo Epstein do it with the Cubs with Bryant, Chris
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: Bryant if you remember, you know, kept him out. Now
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: that went to arbitration, and the arbitrator ruled in favor
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: of the team. It's really hard to prove, but you
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: know what, at theo wan he wanted that extra year
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: of protection and free agency, and he did it. And
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: a lot of teams do that. That's why all of
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: a sudden in June, ooh, why are all these prospects
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: being promoted at the same time. It's because we don't
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: want you to be a Super two. Some guys don't
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: get promoted till April twenty fifth, so we make sure
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: we get that extra year of control. Happens all the time.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: I wasn't a believer in it because I kind of
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: believe that the CBA was negotiating good faith, which and
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: I think every GM owes it to the players and
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: the fan base to have the best twenty six players
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: on the roster that you can. And you shouldn't hold
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: that against a player if he's good enough and ready
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: to play in the big leagues. And I've always respect
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: the other presidents and gms that handle it the same
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: way because many do.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: JB.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: Victa.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: Roblace threw his bat at the pitcher got a ten
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: game suspension in the heat of the moment. Everybody does
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: things that you know you shouldn't do. That's behind us.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: How do you deal with the fact that his roster
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: spot is going to take up a team's roster spot
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: and you're in the playoff hunt. You are a team
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: that needs every single guy healthy on the roster.
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Look, I hadn't seen anybody do that since Bert
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: Camp and Eiras did it right back in the day.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: I mean, this is just ugly unacceptable, and you know,
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: I'm surprised it was just ten games. To be honest,
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: I don't think the team should be penalized for what
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: Victor Roebliz did on rehab. I kind of had an
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: issue with that, but it is what it is, and
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: you've got to sit there as an executive and you
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: got to abide by what the rules are. But when
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: Roblaze did you you just can't do that. I'm sorry.
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: Not with the bat.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: He's also part of a team, So this is the
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: way for them to show make him feel sorry, because
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: if he's just suspended for ten days on rehab, he
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: just starts his rehab over in ten days and moves on.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: So it's I get why they did what they did.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: I think it maybe should have been longer.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: But but you don't lose the spot if you had
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: popped for p D So why for this?
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: That's just cb a thing. I can't answer that.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Right, JB that why is there a difference in punishments.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: Because it's collectively bargained in the p D s. That's
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: the difference.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Okay, Jim, before you go, I got it out.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Would you have Bubba Chandler as a bulk guy or
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: would you have him as a starter if he's gonna
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: be a starter of the future.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I wanted to start.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how are they doing that?
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: I just don't get that.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: What's the point in the.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, this, this kid's going to be a star. That's
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: that fastball is nasty, the sliders well improved. You know,
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: he should have been in the big leagues months ago
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: for me. But you know, I'm a big believer with
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: those starters. Let's start them, and let's pitch him deep
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: into games and let's take care of them, build them
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: up the two hundred things as soon as you can,
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: and go forward. I can't wait to watch him. It's
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: it's gonna be it's gonna be special. He's really talented.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited. You have pirates, fans need something to
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: cheer for. You've got some special starters, right right, But
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: like at least you've got some young starters that you
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: can get excited about. Can they fix the offense?
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: And you're gonna get Jared Jones back next year too, right,
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: So Jones Chaman Deans, that's a pretty good trio. Now
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: go get some offense. Bob Letting go spend some money,
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: but Ben Jerrington spend some money.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Not that hard, not that one time, one time, one time,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and they cleared the key Brian Hayes money. Maybe they'll
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: trade Reynolds in the off season, but one time, if they.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Trade those guys, then they got to start over.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Well Hayes wasn't hitting for them, I know, but Brian.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Reynolds and you gotta start over. That's why I mean,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: if you're like, oh, they'll trade in the off season,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: they're not gonna use that money if they get rid
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: of Reynolds contract, They're not gonna take whatever's left seventy
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: million and throw it into another player.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: We know that.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: So I'd rather haven't keep them. At least I know
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: they got a good big league player.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: One part here, JB before you reply, because I have
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: read they did some good articles on like how bub
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Bob Nutting operates, and it's like it's all about like
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: how how much did the team make this year and
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: doing it to a t Okay, this is how much
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: we'll spend, which is usually nothing. They have not made
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: as much money as they thought this year. So I
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: do agree with aj on that even if they trade Reynolds,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: are they really going to sign a major free agent?
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: No? No, but they don't need to sign a major
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: free agent. But they need to do a better job
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: of at least getting average major league players at every position.
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: You know, you don't have to go out there and
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: get the thirty million dollar year players you can't afford,
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: but you could certainly add more ten million dollars twelve
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: million dollar players and try to get some offense. You've
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: got to at least make an attempt, and they just don't,
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: and they need to. It's embarrassing. And when you have
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: pitching like this, you know, at some point winning matters.
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: You know you're only drawing when schemes pitches. So now
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: you're going to have a good young rotation. Again, you
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: don't have to go spend one hundred million dollars, but
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: for Pete's sake, you got to be a little bit
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: more competitive. And there's a time when you're an owner
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: that it's okay to lose money. Like every team that
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: I was with at certain years would lose money, make
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: it up another year. But during these schemes years, you're
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: not gonna have schemes more than two more years before
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: you have to trade them. You're not because you're not
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: going to give them the four and a million that's
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: going to take to sign them. So that being the case,
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: you have a little bit of a window here, lose
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: a little bit extra money the next couple of years,
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: and then go back to your old ways if that's
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: what you think you have to do. In the meantime,
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: let's hope the next CBA has a floor, a major
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: league floor for salary. Please talking about Oh my gosh,
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: anybody should be talking about the floor, not the cap.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: We already have a soft cap. It's all the luxuries.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Have a hard floor. Software is no good because a.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Software is still better than nothing because you have penalized
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the hard The soft cap penalizes you for spending too much.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: A software would would penalize you in money for not
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: spending enough. And the cheap people don't want to get
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: charged for not spending enough, so they'll spend more. So
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: if you can't get a hard or get a software,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: it's better than no floor.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: That's my sales.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: The problem is there's no software without a hard tap
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah. We'll get to that. We got plenty
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: of wins.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: We had a whole year.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: We got plenty of that. But JB, this was good.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: This was good. You were cooking. The realignment was fun.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Thanks for stopping by. Its always be sweatshirt and I
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: love your sweatshirts. Thanks JB.