Jim Bowden: AL MVP & MOY picks, key to postseason dominance, Mets, Blue Jays + Astros playoff hopes

00:00:09
Speaker 1: It is time now for front office unfielded.

00:00:12
Speaker 2: We are always privileged and pleased to be joined by our GM, our resident GM, Jim Bowden. Of course you can follow him on x at Jim Bowden GM, MLB Analyst and Insider CBS Sports. Of course the Athletic MLB Network radio series Exam. The man is all over the place, and now he is on foul territory. Jim, What are the Mets doing? I tell you what, this has just been such a wild wild ride. What say you, my friends?

00:00:37
Speaker 3: Well, I think they're really happy that Arizona traded away Merrill Kelly and Josh Naylor and you Henneo Sprez at the trade deadline, because that's the only reason today they stand in third place for that last wild card spot.

00:00:50
Speaker 4: Look, it's going to be a fund race to the end.

00:00:53
Speaker 3: I mean, who would have thought the New York Mets would be standing here with Senga being optioned out, Manaia going to the bullpen, three rookies in the rotation. The ace of the staff is Nolan McClain, who will pitch Game one if they get in. I mean, I love this Mama drama. It's great.

00:01:08
Speaker 4: And by the way, Arizona.

00:01:09
Speaker 3: Even with losing those three guys, they're not gonna go away. This team has plays with a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm. They're playing loose and free. They've got nothing to lose, and it's fun to watch. So I'm glad at least in the National League we have one final race that we can kind of encapture over the next couple of weeks.

00:01:28
Speaker 5: I don't know if you agree with me, but I would cringe when guys would say, it can't get much worse like we're doing it. Can it get worse? For the Mets. I know they've won recently, but I feel like they're getting a lot out of guys they had no expectation of getting out of and the guys that they're expecting haven't played well.

00:01:49
Speaker 3: Well, except of course One Soda has played extremely well, as you know here over the.

00:01:53
Speaker 4: Last couple of months. But to your point, you're absolutely right.

00:01:56
Speaker 3: I mean to sit there and do what they're doing with the rotation the way it is has been interesting for sure, and the offenses, as you mentioned, been really inconsistent. You haven't gotten a lot from Nimo or McNeil in the bottom of that lineup. But I think at the end of the day, as we head down to crunch time, I think Lydnore, who hit that home run after his wife at a tremendous job on the national anthem. I think lilydn No will get hot. He's been really cold for a month.

00:02:19
Speaker 4: That's not going to stay.

00:02:20
Speaker 3: So lid Nore and Soto and Alonzo, even Viento's and the biggest moments here down the end, I think they'll get enough runs. I think it all comes down to their starting pitching and can the rookie pitchers do the job. I mean, McLean and Sprott have been their two best starters, believe it or not. Can Clay Holmes get that sinker working again to get the ground ball outs. Can David Peterson pitch like he did in the first half. That's going to be the key hit the Mets get to October.

00:02:45
Speaker 5: All right, Since we're talking about the races right now, what is the most dominant trait if you had to pick one, what is the most dominant trait of a winning a team that wins in the postseason? Is an offense for hitting home run or not striking out? Is it starting pitching? Is it bullpen is it strikeouts for pitchers.

00:03:08
Speaker 3: I'll go with bullpen and defense at the end of the day. But I mean each team could win in a different way, right, I mean, you look at the Dodgers, they finally got their starting pitching healthy. If they're matched up against the Padres, you know they get a lead early on, and then what are the Dodgers going to do with their rotation? Are they going to put two of those guys in the back end of the bullpen to fix that problem at the end. So I think it's all matchups. I think in theory though, watching October the last couple of years being on the field, I mean, I think bullpen and defense is key. Bullpen depth, especially in those series, I think is the most important.

00:03:41
Speaker 4: But you need every element you got to pitch.

00:03:43
Speaker 3: You gotta be able to score runs, you gotta be able to catch the ball, you gotta be able to run the bases. It's everything. I could never narrow it down to one thing. But when all the teams are matched up and we're getting the game seven and most of these series, I look at the bullpen in the defense.

00:03:58
Speaker 5: Jim, the Mets are going to get in there.

00:04:00
Speaker 6: I know that it's two games in the loss, it's three games because they have the tiebreaker. The Mets are gonna get in. As nice as of a story as everyone is in full panic mode up there in Queens. The Mets are in. Okay, they're gonna get in. There's ten games left, eleven games left for some teams. They're gonna get in. They're not gonna blow a three game lead with ten or eleven to go. I'm calling it now, Sorry, guys, but now I want to talk about those is the American League, okay, Because the American League, the team seem to be set the Yankees Astros, But now the Astros have jumped the Red Sox in the standings, and that I think is a bigger deal than people give it credit for. Because if I'm the Red Sox, I'd much rather go to New York and play the Yankees than have to travel cross country and possibly play the Mariners.

00:04:45
Speaker 3: I would agree with that, although I think, and first of all, the Mets have a game and a half lead over Arizona, and I think the Mets are gonna get in two.

00:04:52
Speaker 4: But I think it'll be a race to the end.

00:04:54
Speaker 3: And in this league, look, I think it's gonna be Yankees one, Red Sox two, Houston three. I think Alvarez his injury is huge. I'm really worried about the offense. And I was talking to GM Dana Brown the other day because my initial concern was the rotation after Hunter and Brown, but because Javier and Alexander have pitched so well, that kind of issue went away. And as Dana told me on Sunday, he said, no, we just don't score enough runs.

00:05:17
Speaker 4: That's my concern.

00:05:19
Speaker 3: That's before Alvarez sprained his ankle, and I don't think we're gonna see him again this year, not even in the postseason. That's a pretty bad high ankle spring. But are they going to score enough fronts Now? It looks like eastak Paradis is going to be back for the Seattle series, so that could be huge. And I don't know if Zach Cole is real. I don't know if they're gonna find holes or not, but he sure has given them a big lift. This is a very right handed hitting lineup that concerns me, you know, down the stretch that could be a problem. Even Paradis is right handed, so Zach Cole, Haesu Sanchez become very important left handed bats in that lineup for Houston. I think Houston's gonna get in, but I think the Red Sox will end up as the second wildcard team. But I agree with you Aj in terms of who I'd rather play up on Boston.

00:06:04
Speaker 2: Jim, You're talking about the Houston Astros a little bit. And I know, obviously with your Don Alvarez in the ankle issue, estock parades perhaps is being rushed up there, but coming off of a hammy injury and not doing any sort of like rehab appearance. I mean, what type of savior are they looking for in terms of ESOC parades and how I know it seems obvious, But how big of an issue is this your Don Alvarez sing for the Astros moving forward?

00:06:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's huge. Obviously.

00:06:29
Speaker 3: If Paradis is down there in the minor leagues taking swings, he looks really good. According to Dana Brown, the general manager, he's going to come up the DH only that they're not expecting to play in the field. That doesn't mean if they make the playoffs, that may be a time that Paradis ends up at second base without two ve going to left field. But as of now, they're thinking is that he can DH and they think his legs are going to be good enough to do it, and they think he can provide the power that they need to extend this lineup a little bit. But again, as you know, the top of the lineup, all four of the hitters are all writing it hitters and the big boys have to get it done. It's updal A, Tuba and Korea and Christian Walker to do the damage. But they will miss Alvarez, there is no doubt about it. There's nothing you can do. So it's next man up. So let's have a story, right I love stories at the end of the year.

00:07:18
Speaker 4: Let Zach Cole be a story.

00:07:19
Speaker 3: I mean the first pitch he saw on the big leaguesy homeward to right field. They'd made a nice play against the wall. He's very athletic.

00:07:26
Speaker 4: I like the swing.

00:07:27
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if he can keep it up. But I love these late season unexpected stories and it makes the Pennant race is a lot more fun.

00:07:34
Speaker 7: I think, Krats, I'm gonna still line right from the top here about me undies a cut for every butt. I took a line that I feel like you would enjoy it, but then you stole my thunder with show and tell.

00:07:49
Speaker 4: What do you have.

00:07:49
Speaker 5: There besides a huge Baduka dunk. This is my pair of Miundies that I got. I'm not going to show you the other pair right now because I got them on, but it doesn't even feel like you have them on, super soft, flexible and yet holding everything together.

00:08:07
Speaker 7: I love the twenty different styles, one hundred different colors and prints, and the micro modal fabric is what you're talking about. Breathable, stretchy, unbelievably cozy and right now, as a listener of FT, you can get cozy and spooky for less with deals up to fifty percent off at me undies dot com slash foul and enter promo code foul. That's Meundi's dot com slash foul promo code foul for up to fifty percent off me Undie's comfort.

00:08:35
Speaker 4: That's made for fall all right.

00:08:37
Speaker 5: A non story is Otani winning the MVP, so we have to go to the American League. Since you like stories, should the MVP in the American League be a story? Because there's a lot of conversation and everybody's vitual hate on either side comes out. What do you say about it?

00:08:55
Speaker 3: Though, Yeah, I think I think the conversation's great. I think the discussion is phenomenal. I mean, you're asking my opinion today. I think Garret Judge is the MVP of the league. But what cal Rally has done is ridiculous. I mean, passing Mickey Mannel, Are you kidding me? For switch hitters. He may end up getting to sixty home runs. Who knows, he might get past Roger Merris. This has been phenomenal. And then I think when you look at what he has done behind the plate, calling a game, framing pitches, blocking balls, shutting down the running game. I mean, to be able to do both of these things to the catcher, I mean, arguably, this is, without a doubt, the best season we've ever seen a catcher in the history of Major League Baseball. What we're seeing is phenomenal, and I think what you're going to find is a lot of the writers are going to look past the metrics, look past the algorithms, and they're going to say, hey, you did all that offensively, and you caught and you at sixty home runs. I think Rally's got a really good chance of getting the votes because it's votes right, the writers vote for this, so it's not going to be formula. So I think he's got a legitimate chance. If I were to give it today, i'd give it the judge just because the numbers he's putting up are just ridiculous.

00:10:09
Speaker 5: They are. But cal Rawley's the MVP. Sorry, Jim, I know, no, I know, I look it.

00:10:13
Speaker 3: I don't think there's a catcher that ever caught in the history of life that isn't thinking. Rally's the MVP, and I get it makes sense, I get it, all right.

00:10:24
Speaker 6: Okay, that's fine. We all have our opinions. Some people are wrong, some people are right. We'll find out again when the writers vote. I'm gonna have to slip some of these guys a nickel when I see him, just to try to help me out here. Okay, we all know. But all right, So I wanted to talk about this the Twins. I played for the Twins a long time ago. I was drafted by the Twins. Side of the Twins, they've gotten rid of all their scouts. How can they do drafts and proke scouting and all this stuff if you don't have any scouts out there actually watching players. I know the video is good now, and you can put metrics on everything and this and that, but don't you, at the end of the day want to see a guy how they perform under pressure, how how their mom and dad are, how you know their girlfriend breaks up of them? Can they still play things like that that a videotape can't measure.

00:11:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, they did not give up all of their scouts. They did not touch their amateur scouting department. All the amateur scouts are still employed. What they did was, like a lot of teams, they decided to eliminate their pro scouts, which consisted of four people. And the four people didn't go to games. They weren't at the ballpark meeting players, talking to players, talking to families. They weren't doing any makeup or character or heart. They were just sitting at home watching games on TV and giving opinions. And you know that you don't need that anymore. Right, there's enough good minds that are watching every single game. The analytic departments are breaking all that down. The video guys all have that taking care of. You don't need four people to tell you something you already know. What is the most important is exactly what you said. AJ These aren't robots. These are human beings. And you win with people. You win with who do you want to play with? Game on the line, Who's that guy you want? That's character, that's intestinal fortitude, And the only way you get that is to know the people. And so we are never going to lose the value of scouts, and the value of scouts. You know, it's not as important to measure, you know, the five tools of a player anymore. We can measure all of that. We don't need to dissect the swing in person. We can do that on video now. But the human element is how you decide, right. I mean, if you want to look at Kyle Schwarber as an example, it's not just the fifty to sixty homers he hits. It's his makeup, his character, his leadership, the kind of teammate he is, how he makes everyone around him better. There's no one that's going to catch all that on video.

00:12:45
Speaker 4: You have to be there.

00:12:46
Speaker 3: You have to hear him, see him, talk to his teammates, talk to his manager, talk to everybody that's around him to get that. So to your point, just to be clear, the Twins did fire four professional scouts, but they did not fire the amateur scouts, But you are.

00:13:01
Speaker 5: A gm at at middle and small markets. Isn't that the case where those teams should be having more people so they can get more value around the edges in those cases where they're able to talk to people and have people boots on the ground at a pro game to see how somebody's moving in the field to be able to get that little extra advantage.

00:13:24
Speaker 3: Absolutely, the amateur scouts are doing that. The amateur scouts aren't just doing the June Draft. They're also scouting the Midwest League, the Carolina League, the Florida State League.

00:13:34
Speaker 4: They have boots on the ground.

00:13:35
Speaker 3: They're not just doing this from an office and watching video those games. They are there. The four guys that were fired, which they called the pro Scouting Department literally was just watching major league games on video and nowadays you just don't need that.

00:13:51
Speaker 2: Jim, let me ask you this about the American League East and particularly the Toronto Blue Jays. Are the Blue Jays for real? If they are, how far can they go? And in your opinion, why won't Schneider win Manager of the Year.

00:14:05
Speaker 3: Okay, so, yes, Toronto can go all the way. You look at their starting pitching and you look at how they're pitching now. Kevin Gosman's last five starts, it's a one adra, Shane Bieber's last five starts three seven ERA, Bass's last five starts two three ERA. And they bring up Trey Savage, who looks nasty, nasty, nasty. I didn't even mentioned that.

00:14:25
Speaker 4: Suers Jose Barrios.

00:14:27
Speaker 3: George Springer is going. Is the player we covered when he won World championships with Houston. Laddie Daddy is playing like he's completely worth the five hundred million they gave him. And look, this team is one of the elite defensive teams in baseball. They have the best defensive outfield in the sport. They have plus defenders all over the field. I think Bobaschet, the shortstop, was the only below average defender on the field.

00:14:51
Speaker 4: That's huge.

00:14:53
Speaker 3: Hoffmann, relatively speaking, has done the job as the closer for them, so they mix and match well. They do a good job of platooning their players with left rights. So yeah, they I think they're missing Baschet's bat, right, I mean, he's one of their best hitters. But there's a good chance that he is back for the postseason, So you know, I look at the American League, I don't think there's a great team, and in fact, I would take probably four National League teams over all the teams in the American League. But when I look at Toronto Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, Astros, Tigers, I don't look at any of them and say, oh, this is the best team. They're going to the World Series. So my answer to that is yes. My second answer on Schneider is, you know, I wrote an article predicting awards in The Athletic and I had Schneider finishing second, So I had great respect for what he's done. I'm all the managers. I had him second out of fifteen this year, I had aj Hinch winning Manager of the Year. And the reason I had him slightly over Schneider, and I means slightly, is I just think the job he has done with a bullpen has been ridiculous. He's just so good at matchups. He's the best, one of the best in the game at doing that. And then to watch the platooning that he did with that Tiger team, the way he uses guys like Kerry Carpenter, I mean, he just has a great feel for that, even pinch hitting I mean, no one's had more success pinch hitting this year than the Detroit Tigers. AJ just has that great sense. I don't think AJ has as good a team as Schnyder has with Toronto, but I think I think he's been more important to the Tigers than Schneider has been to Toronto by a little bit. Again, I had Schneider's second, so I respect what he's done, and he's done a great job.

00:16:39
Speaker 5: What's the process of trying to figure out if you're the GM of the Blue Jays, if Trey you Savage is going to be on your playoff roster because he didn't just come up to the big leagues and go, oh, I'm thrown from this ridiculous arm angle downhill plane splitter. He looked nasty in his minor league starts, So how do you make that? Do you make that decision saying, Okay, he's probably not fitting in into our rotation because our rotation is already pretty nasty, But how can he not get us outs in the playoffs?

00:17:10
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:17:10
Speaker 3: He pitches Game four for me. I didn't see the delivery with that kind of angle. Since Diego Sagie with the Red Sox way back in the day. Look gosmind Bieber Bassett and you Savage is what I want. I want to see if Mighty Max will go to the back end of the bullpen with me. I'll let Barrios kind of be a guy that can go long if one of the starters start to falter, because we know Schneider's gonna have a quick hook because he always does. But you, Savage, from what I saw, it's like McClain of the Mets.

00:17:39
Speaker 4: Why not.

00:17:40
Speaker 3: I don't care that they haven't been to the Big League is a long time. I just want outs. Who's gonna give me the best chance to get outs? And you Savage to me, he's one of the top four guys for Toronto. Love what I've seen. So if I were a GM and I was talking to John Schneider, that would be my thoughts in my recommendation.

00:17:58
Speaker 1: Jimal, I want to know is where to you get that?

00:18:00
Speaker 5: At?

00:18:00
Speaker 1: Which LV outlet? Did you get that snazzy jacket? And can I borrow it?

00:18:05
Speaker 3: You definitely can borrow it without a doubt.

00:18:08
Speaker 4: It'll be way too big for you, but yes, you can borrow any time you want.

00:18:11
Speaker 3: And present from my wife at the holidays last year very.

00:18:15
Speaker 1: Nice, Louis Vaton. I'm digging it.

00:18:18
Speaker 2: Jim Bowden, we appreciate you very much as always, Front Office Unfiltered. Much more to come on Foul Territory guys. Jim Bowden just talked about it for a hot second there. It doesn't look like Boba Shitt will be back for the regular season. We knew that, but he could very much be back for the postseason. This from Mitch Bannon. His second opinion didn't show anything new confirm the spring to PCL Blue Jays hope he can start ramping up later this week to be back as soon as possible. AJ what void does this create?

00:18:48
Speaker 6: A big void? Offensively? It's a big offensive void. I think defensively with the min as they can cover it. But I think I think offensively in the presence he brings hitting in the middle of that lineup, getting on base, getting big hits, and just Oba shit. I mean, he just has a he has a thing about him. So hopefully can get back for the postseason. We'll see, but you better get some the bats before then because he needs to be ready to go once they jump into that.

00:19:09
Speaker 2: Alds Kratz, is this team this year better prepared to cover this type of void this season versus in seasons past.

00:19:16
Speaker 5: Do you think, I mean just because they went out and spent a lot of money in a trade on Andre Semenez, I mean they covered Miles Miles Straw's contract from the Guardians, and they're paying andres Semennez a lot of money because he didn't play shortstop at a big league level and he hasn't played for a while, but that's what he came up as. So yes, they can cover