Hell, Hi everybody, and welcome to Off Night Dodger Talk here on your
home of the Dodgers AM five to seventy LA Sports Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio
app. Thanks for being with us on this Monday night, June the third,
Yes, June the third, David Has caller Chris so eloquently put it
a couple of years ago, after the Dodgers got eliminated in the NLDS by
the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers off tonight. They are flying back east,
so take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the series that begins tomorrow at PMC
Parker. Then three games this weekend back in New York, this time in
the Bronx against the Yankees eight six six nine eighty seven two five seventy eight
six six nine eight seven two five seventy. We got a lot to get
to tonight, but a lot of your phone calls, we got plenty of
time to talk Dodgers baseball and a lot of things to cover here on Off
Night Dodger Talk. First, off, the Dodgers. Two months into this
twenty twenty four season, they sit thirty eight and twenty three, first place
atop the Division the Dodgers start the night with a six and a half game
lead over the San Diego Padres, an eight and a half game lead over
the San Francisco Giants, and the Dodgers right now playing some good baseball,
not playing great, just playing really good at this time, taking two to
three from Colorado over the weekend. They've won five of their last six.
And keep in mind the great start that this team got off to and then
the lull they got into offensively, top to bottom, especially hitters five through
nine in this lineup. Mookie got some struggles, Freddy has been up and
down with his swing at the plate right now. Shoho Tani is in the
midst of his biggest rut here in twenty twenty four. Despite all the ups
and downs, the injuries, the arms, the bullpen, Max Bunsei,
Jason Hayward, the Dodgers keep right on rolling with a first place lead here
in the division as we have now hit June eight, six, six,
nine eighty seven, two five seventy. But a lot to get to here.
We're gonna get to Blake Snell and what could have been for the Dodger
if he had not elected to sign in San Francisco. We're also gonna get
to a quick abbreviated farm report coming up at about seven and forty five.
We're not gonna go extensive into Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Great Lakes, and
Rancho Kucamongo just did that about four or five days ago here on off night
Dodger Talk. Not a lot has changed, but we're gonna point pinpoint a
couple of players who over the weekend had great games for the Dodgers and minor
league prospects. That's coming up at about seven to forty five, but again,
plenty of time for your phone calls at eight six, six, nine
eighty seven, two five seventy. Today in the La Times, an interesting
column penned by Dylan Hernandez title Dodgers are winning again, but who's convinced this
team will win in October? And he details the Dodgers running away with the
division, the ups and downs of the offense, the emergence of young arms
like Gavin Stone, Walker Buehler coming back from his injury, Chhinobu Yamamoto,
the rocky start that he got off to in South Korea, but really has
been quite good for this Dodgers team over his last start five to one,
two seventy two e rora. What Tyler Glass now has meant to this Dodgers
team and if this postseason started right now would probably be your Game one starter.
He goes in depth to what really has transpired over the last two months,
and what you know is Dodger fans has happened, and he brings up
with a lot of Dodger fans that I run into, bring up all the
time. We're used to win the division. We're used to being the champs
in the NL West. Come talk to me October. Yeah. Yeah,
they could do all this in the in the regular season. They can break
the records for wins in a year. They can win one hundred and eleven.
Guys can win the you know, cy Young, we guys can win
the batting titles. They can hit thirty thirty, whatever these guys are gonna
do. That's great individual accomplishments and collectively winning one hundred plus games and winning
the division ten the last eleven years. But it feels like Dodger fans have
gotten now into this. What about October? That's all we care about is
October and we joke about it. But there was a caller Chris to Dodger
Talk after the Dodgers won the World Series in twenty twenty, they come back
twenty twenty one, a rough go twenty twenty two, what happens to the
Dodgers. They get bounced by the San Diego Padres in the NLDS and the
caller to Dodger Talk on that night in which the Dodgers were eliminated by the
Padres and the NLDS in October twenty twenty two, Chris says, and very
emotionally, his friends give him a hard time about the twenty twenty World Series
and he's tired of it and this Dodgers team, He's tired of running away
at the division and falling short in October, and then this comes on literally
the same day. He references June third as an abbreviated season of what that
day would have been like it And Dylan Hernandez writes his column today about Dodgers
will winning again and who's can miss this team will win in October. Ken
Rosenthal pens an article for The Athletic last week when the Dodgers had lost five
in a row, got swept in Cincinnati about what moves do the Dodgers need
to make. Is it really at that point right now where Dodger fans you
don't really care what happens in May, June, and July. It's come
September and then really October, that's all you're caring about. And the regular
season numbers, the stats, winning division is not important. I find that
hard to believe. I know we all want to get to October, and
the ultimate goal is to win a championship, But I look at this Dodgers
team this year, I mean, forget what has happened in the past.
Certainly the ultimate goal is to win a championship. When you fall short in
the World Series, you fall short in the NLCS like you did in twenty
twenty one against the Atlanta Braves and Freddie Freeman and that crew that won a
World Series, where you fall short in the NLDS like the Dodgers had the
last two years against Arizona and San Diego, you gotta get to the dance.
You got to get to the tournament, as they call it, the
postseason tournament. You gotta get there first. And the Dodgers are so talented
through the course of one hundred and sixty two they've earned the right over the
last twelve years to get to the tournament for a championship. Now they've come
up short the last two years. And we've talked about the struggles and what
they do right in the regular season as opposed to what they're not doing in
the postseason. Yeah, and the failures are what they are. Well,
I look at this twenty twenty four team and I don't see it as rinse
and repeat. I don't see it as just another Dodger regular season runaway and
they're gonna fail on October. And the reason I don't see it is I
see a different roster. I see a different makeup of this Dodgers team.
And I truly believe assuming everybody stays healthy and it is good to go on
October, now, certainly you're gonna have injury, groins, calves, soreness.
That's gonna happen. Oh, of course in one sixty two max months.
He's hurt right now with the oblique. We've seen some of the Dodgers'
arms hurt already as far as tightness, calf, muscle, hamstreak. About
that stuff happens. But outside of a major shutdown and losing a player or
players for the rest of the season. I look at this Dodger group having
more than twenty six guys that are can contribute, and when it comes to
the postseason, the mixing and matching at the top twenty six guys, you're
gonna find a talented Dodgers team with a different approach and ready for October this
year. Now, why do I say that what I've seen so far is
a team that has played small ball, a team that has added the run
element to the game with Shoe Hey Otani, have Jason Hayward. You've got
guys running Mookie Betts. You've seen some running hits, some hitting runs we've
seen We've seen safety squeezes. We've seen bunchs dobing guys over. This is
all new. This is things that the Arizona Diamondbacks implemented it into their offense
a year ago and wrote it without relying upon the long ball to a World
Series appearance. Now, certainly you gotta get some luck. That's part of
winning a championship. Ball bounces your way, ball goes certain distance your way.
There's a luck element to it as well. Let's be real, But
to set yourself up for the best situation. I truly believe this team,
the way they're built. We saw only a few games this year so far
where they have completely struggled to score runs. Yet on the flip side,
they've already shut out their opponents six times this season. And the contributions of
young guys, guys that they didn't even know who their name was, come
a spring training that have added to this Dodger team and then coming gone,
and the regulars out of the bullpen, and the additions that are coming,
especially with a Clayton Kershaw and hopefully a Bruce dargratterol and getting Joe Kelly back,
this team and makeup I believe will be ready for October. So I
find it interesting on this June third, the anniversary of June third David the
call her to Dodger Talk and the column pen today by Dylan Hernandez and the
column penn last week by Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic about what the Dodgers need
to do, what the Dodgers need to improve on. I mean, this
is a pretty talented Dodgers team right now, and it's not gonna happen very
often. Now. I know you can get into a five and seven game
series. You can't have it happen more than once or twice, or else
you're screwed and you're gonna lose the series. Well, I don't think this
makeup of a team is a team that one through nine is gonna go through
stretches where they're just not performing. I just don't believe that to be the
case. This lineup is too talented. And when you get to the postseason,
those hitters five through nine that we have talked about in the lack of
production we've seen, whether it's a order of Lux Hayward, Chris Taylor,
whoever in that five through nine spot, I think once you get to postseason
you'll see it even more. Guys ask to bunt, Guys ask to use
their at bats to move runners around, use their at bats for the betterment
of the team. Now, over the course of one sixty two, you
get into a game, you're not asking the guy to lay out a bunt
in the fifth inning in a one nothing game or a zero zero game,
or you're looking to attack on an insurance run if you're late in the game,
you just don't do that. But in a playoff game, I think
this Dodgers team, the makeup will You'll be different Offensively. You're not going
to see a team just slug slug, slug rely on the home run ball
and that's it. Home runner, die, home runner, bus, home
runner, go fishing. I think that approach is going to be different,
and we've already seen it this year, and we've still got a lot of
baseball for them to continue to show that here on a regular basis. Eight
sixty six nine, eight seven two five seventy. So yeah, it may
be the same old runaway with the division and it's already June, but I'm
telling you this Dodger team come October. I truly believe the makeup is different.
You go back to a year ago and we were probably saying the same
thing, but they got hit by injuries late in the season. Consolin broke
down, we lost dustin May. You saw a Dodger pitching stuff not as
deep as it is right now, relying on a young Bobby Miller who was
figuring it out as he goes an up and down Gavin Stone who was really
not effective until September, relying upon, you know, a veteran bullpen that
they only had a few arms. They can go to because they were dead
arms at that point. That's the beauty of what we're seeing right now with
Gavin Stone yesterday pulled after five innings seventy five pitches. No need to tax
his arm now in early June, no need for him to go out there
and prove what he can go seven innings, ninety five pitches. Why he's
already in line for a four to nothing lead, or at the time it
was three to nothing before they attacked on a run, he had already gone
five shutout innings, struck out six and the final four innings. You've got
Grove, Vessia and a Hudson the hand of the ball to pretty good guys
at the back end of your bullpen. You're not asking Elis or Hernandez or
a late addition to the roster, or you know, a DFAE player from
somewhere else like Baltimore in the Mets, asking him to come in here and
get you out of a jam. No one's healthy here. You're seeing the
back end of the bullpen really be able to help them out. And again
yesterday Gavin Stone five innings, seventy five he saw James Paxton start shorten.
We've seen it already with this Dodger team not having guys having to go deep
into games. There's a strategy to that. There's a way of looking at
how many innings, how many starts, assuming you're healthy, you're gonna get
over the course of one sixty two and having now a five day gap between
starts. Okay, so yesterday was a four day the old traditional four days
between starts, Well, it's not traditional any more, Dodger fans, Baseball
is changing. And when with usually now five days off in between starts,
when you ask Gavin Stone to go four days between starts may not seem like
a lot to you, but you don't want to tax the arm in June.
What's the purpose of having him go out and throw seven innings ninety five
pitches and then come back in five days, rinse and repeat, and you
get to the All Star break and the young man's arms gonna fall out or
he's already hit the amount of innings he's pitched all of last year. By
this year's All Star break, what have you accomplished? You've wasted his arm.
There is a strategy to piece you together innings and starts, and where
we see a guy going into the season in postseason, all right, so
we need to get this many innings out of this start. They project all
that. It's not just we're gonna figure it out and in five days,
hey, good to go, You're back out there and every five days.
No, there is a strategy to this. And sometimes guys go on the
iel arm fatigue. It's to give him a break because they know they're going
to be needed in maybe July and August, and maybe there's another eyel stend
because the soren is or fatigue, now calfs, hamstrings, those are different
stories. Those are free things that happen and twinges to muscles that you can't
control. But again, I think they're doing as best a job as they've
ever done now managing these innings to make sure a possible All Star here in
Gavin Stone, for what he's done already, is available in October, to
make sure Tyler Glass now Dodger f who's had a history of injuries, has
already had an arm surgery two years ago. You don't tax them by the
All Star break. So Yoshinoba Yamamoto, who is used to pitching every five
days in Japan once a week, you don't just throw them in the major
leagues in his first year and overtax his arm, which could happen and leads
to arm fatigue, leads to a surgery. You don't want the worst case
scenario, so going into it, figure out a plan. That's where they're
at with all their pitchers right now, even relievers. It's it's it's the
analytics of baseball in a good way, projection, looking ahead. This is
where we think they're gonna get to. That's why they look at a guy
coming back from an injury and reramp up. Okay, this starts gonna be
so many innings, so many pitches. The second start, we're gonna increase
that. So many innings, so many pitches, until you get to where
you're comfortable. Five innings, seventy five pitches is kind of the new norm
for starting pitching. You may or may not like it, but it's baseball
in twenty twenty four eight nine eighty seven, two five seventy. So the
Dodgers two months into the season. Where are you out with this Dodgers team.
I'm enjoying what we're seeing so far. And to think of Shoeyotani wasn't
in a slump right now where this Dodgers team would be. To think of
yesterday as a prime example. Dodgers shut out the Rockies for to nothing.
Great pitching, Stone Grove to two shutout innings, Alex Vessio one, two,
three, eight, Daniel Hudson pitches the ninth. Can't ask for anything
better right there. Offensively, you get home runs from Rookie Betts, you
get a home run from Freddie Freeman. Rojas at the bottom of the lineup
drives in a run, You manufactured a running the eighth inning for an insurance
run. Hitters five through nine had five of your eight hits in the game,
and you do without Shoey Ootanni producing. Can't ask for match much more.
Austin bars two for fourth. The bottom of the lineup. The Dodgers
yesterday were like one for eleven. I think in runners in scoring position and
stranded double digit base runners. They could have blown open this game if they
get a couple more clutch hit but they still get to win. And they
left a lot out there offensively, a lot left out there yesterday. We'll
get into Shoeo Tani coming up in just a little bit. Don't forget.
We'll get you a little mini farm report coming up about seven to forty five.
Couple of guys the spotlight down the minor leagues who had great weekends for
the Dodgers down in the minor leagues. Eight six six nine eighty seven,
two five seven. We'll take a break, we'll come back. I got
one line open. If you're on hold, I see you. I appreciate
it. Let's talk some Dodgers baseball. We'll also get into Blake Snell.
The Dodgers look like they dodged a bullet with Blake Snell. He almost signed
with the Dodgers. Reportedly they were there. He ends up going to San
Francisco, and boy is it not worked out? Eight six six nine eighty
seven, two five seventy. It's off night Dodger Talk. The boys are
in Pittsburgh tomorrow to start a three game series against the Pirates. Your phone
calls a week comebacks, Tim Kates. Posts are up Off Dodger Talk here
on FI seventy, LA Sports Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio. H Well,
David Vassay has got the night off. He is in Pittsburgh, hopefully enjoying
a nice meal in the four to one two as a Dodgers started a three
game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates tomorrow. Should be a fun three days at
PNC Park. Truth be told, I've never been to the city of Pittsburgh,
so I've never been to P and C Park. I had no desire
ever to go to Three Rivers Stadium because the design of the Vet Three Rivers,
and Bush Stadium in Saint Louis, all of them were just kind of
cookie cutter stadiums with turf, and I had no desire to go at any
of them. But P and C Park looks absolutely beautiful even to this day
and holding up with the test of time. There now twenty plus years,
almost twenty five years, I think that place has been in existence, right
there on the banks of the Allegheny River and right across the bridge from downtown
Pittsburgh. I don't know what the downtown is like, but heck, that
baseball stadium looks tremendous. Would love to go to a baseball game there in
Pittsburgh. As far as the Pirates are concerned, they have lost six of
the last ten. They're eight and a half games back in Milwaukee and the
NL Central. Currently they're twenty seven and thirty two on this season, but
they are going to see two of the best young pitchers in baseball, that
is the Dodgers in the first two games of this three game series. First
pitch tomorrow is at three forty Tyler Glass down the Mountain. Right hander Jared
Jones, the hard throwing right hander for the Pirates, will go at it.
He has got an eleven starts seventy strikeouts, that's top three amongst rookies
in baseball. He's got four quality starts in a row. He's got a
three to fifty five ERA. And then on Wednesday, James Paxson will go
for the Dodgers, and the Dodgers for the first time will get their eyes
on former first round pick out or Turtle High School by way of LSU,
Paul Skeens, who was the number one pick in the draft a year ago.
The twenty two year old has really been good. I mean just absolutely
filthy with the strikeouts and throw one hundred plus mile at an hour. I
mean he's already got thirty strikeouts, five walks, and four starts two forty
five eras. Last three starts have been really good, all three quality starts
in a row. Allowing three runs and a total of eighteen innings with twenty
three strikeouts over those three starts. He is a fun young arm to watch
major League Baseball. He's got one hundred mile an hour fastball and a sweeper
that's just absolutely nasty. So it'll be fun to watch the Dodgers offense go
up against Jared Jones in the opener, and then Paul Skeens on Wednesday,
and then Walker Bueler get the finale on Wednesday afternoon in Pittsburgh. Eight sixty
six, nine eighty seven two five seventy. Let's go out to the phones.
I appreciate body being patient. Let's go out to Lis. How you
doing, Welcome to Dodger Talks to how you doing? Buddy? Hey Tim,
how are you doing? Am? I really enjoyed what you said,
and I agree with a lot of it, especially on the pitching side.
I appreciate it. Yeah, I think it's so much better in the depth.
It's just so much stronger. My only concern is still there's so much
strikeout in the entire lineup, even amongst the hitters who are who do well.
You know, Freddie and in Muki are probably the best. But I
think Freddie has struck out more. And then the only other question I have
that just comes at me is is there a way that they can incorporate more
running? And you mentioned it earlier and they have done more, but I
still see a number of opportunities even with the top three guys, and I'm
glad shohe is doing it, where like, yeah, a two in one
counts, this is the time to steal, to put some pressure on.
And then the final comment, and you sort of alluded to it, but
all of these comments by Ken Rosen and Dylan Hernandez about are they going to
go to a six man rotation? The Dodgers aren't playing that game. The
Dodgers, as you have pointed out, have sort of in the beginning of
the season, allotted innings to each picture and they have that down to a
science, and that's what they care about. And whether it's a seven man
rotation one week and a four man rotation the next week, that's what they're
doing. And the media is being as usual lazy frankly as smart as Ken
Rosenthal is, and I like him, and I think that's where we're at.
I appreciate that a lot of good insight there. I think you're right
as far as the Dodgers putting guys in motion, and I just bring up
show Hey O'tani as an example. He leaves the Dodger team right now with
fourteen stolen bases. Showy Otani in his career, you know what the most
stolen bases he's had in one season, twenty twenty one, twenty six bases.
He's on pace to break that career high twenty six stolen bases in twenty
twenty one. He's already got fourteen. He had twenty last year. Granted
he missed about thirty games roughly, but in twenty twenty one, he played
one hundred and fifty five games, he was healthy, and he stole twenty
six bases. He's already got fourteen now on this season the Dodgers. You
look at Mookie Betts, even Freddie Freeman had a stolen base over the weekend,
showing off his speed. He's got two. Mookie Betts's got nine stolen
bases. Guys are starting to steal, I mean a lot more than they
did a year ago, and I think that's going to continue. We've seen
the bunt, We've seen them running, hit, hit and run. We've
seen him kind of do all. And that's the beauty of this one sixty
two this year is you're seeing, I believe, a different approach. Now.
There was a game in Cincinnati. I don't remember off the top of
my head, but they got swept the last road trip. It did feel
like they reverted back to the Dodgers of the last few years. And again
it I can't remember it was the Friday, Saturday or Sunday game off the
top of my head, but there was at bats during that game where I'm
like, Wow, this looks like a team that's a bunch of individual guys
out there just looking to crush the ball. And maybe it's because they're trying
to snap the losing straight after losing, you know, two in a row.
And then maybe it was the second game on that Saturday and they had
already lost the first game, and you don't want to keep the losing going,
and you're playing in Cincinnati, which is a home run friendly park,
one of the stadiums that the ball travels out frequently, that maybe these guys
were trying to jacket out of the park and get on the scoreboard and give
the Dodgers the lead. And coming out of their shoes a little bit,
as so to speak, and getting away from their approach. And I think
that's something that's been instilled in this Dodgers' offense or the hitting coaches Robin Skoyek
and crew. Is the approach. Dave Roberts has talked about it a lot.
He even mentioned I think in that Cincinnati series is that we got to
stay to our approach and guys can't, you know, start chasing pitches,
and guys can't start worrying about, you know, winning things or or creating
things with just one swing of the bat like a home run, that they've
got to put the ball in play. They've got to, you know,
get the motion going as far as guys on the base pass and just keep
that line moving for the Dodgers offense. And they've done a lot better job
of this year. That's why I go back to this articles from Dylan Hernandez
and other baseball insiders and the anniversary of June the third, David, they
call it a dodge of talk. I just don't see the same repetitive Dodger
approach from years past that we kind of hope that, oh, you know,
I don't worry when we get to October, they're just gonna can you
continue to slug? Oh yeah, I know. Games get shortened and you
know, all of a sudden, twenty seven out you start counting them and
you start wornting a little bit because it's a one run game or a tie
game late and you start thinking, Wow, when's that home run gonna come?
When when's that big four run any where they hit two acts gonna come
for the Dodgers, and they don't come, and they get beat by the
Diamondbacks or they get beat by the Padres. I don't think that's the approach
that we're seeing right now, and Dave Roberts knows they can't go back to
that approach, and so that's why you're seeing the philosophy change and they're still
winning games, but yet at the same time still hitting home runs because that
is part of the game. You can't just rely on Okay, we're just
we're not get the ball out of the ballpark anymore. You're not eliminating that
part of the game at all. It's just a different approach, shorting up
your strike zone and not chasing pitches because that's what happens when you start pressing
and you're you start trying to jack the ball. I mean, you just
see a pitch and you just want to crush it, and you think you
can get any pitch in the zone inside outside ausby pitch, and all of
a sudden, you know you're away out in front of the ball and you
look silly on strike three, or you're chasing a pitch that's ball four.
That if you're dialed in and you're looking about just you're at bat right now
and getting on bass however you can. You're taking that pitch knowing it's out
of the strike zone and taken first and given the bat to the next guy
to start getting something going offensively. That's the approach what you've seen, I
believe this year, and I think we'll continue to see. And that's why
I think there'll be a difference come October. Frank and Temple City. I
appreciate you being patient. How you doing tonight, Frank, Hey, pretty
good. Thanks for taking my call. I think you just segued perfectly into
what I wanted to talk about, because come October, you know, I
don't I'm not questioning Nobody's going to question the talent and the preparation and the
professionalism of this team, but what we ran into the last couple of years,
and Matt Murdey Smith did a good job when last season flamed out talking
about how you know Philly has a superstar in Bryce Harper that's going to be
an emotionals and if we find ourselves dropping the first game of the divisional series
and then all of a sudden we're down by three runs halfway through the next
game, have we addressed who's going to be that emotional leader for us?
Because we know it's not in the DNA of Mookie or Freddy and because of
the language barrier, maybe even show Hey to be that guy? Is tay
Oscar the person who are going to rally around or who's going to bring the
fire when we're up against the wall, because during the regular season, we're
not going to be up against the wall that much. We might be cruising.
When I asked David bet say this, he got a little upset.
Maybe he was jet lagged. I don't know, maybe there was a long
time on the tarmac. But who do you think the team's going to need
to hear from if things go south or things start off a little Rocky at
the start of a playoff puts good question. It's a good question, fak,
I appreciate it. I think tay Oscar could be that spark, that
vocal leader. He's certainly been around. It's not like he's a young player
anymore. He's spent time in Toronto, he was in Seattle, and even
though it's his first year with the Dodgers, he's been in baseball now a
while. So I think he's got a voice that would be well respected in
that clubhouse, even though it's his first year. Jason Hayward is not a
raw, raw in your face guy, but we certainly know what he did
in the clubhouse with the Cubs back in their World Series run in twenty sixteen
that a delay, helping them come back and win that World Series. He
is a really well respected voice in any clubhouse that he is in, and
he's a vocal guy that gets his message across. And it doesn't do it
in a yelling, in your face, you know, necessarily as you as
you said, kind of raw, raw attempt. But I can see both
those guys being leaders. I think last year we saw Miguel Rojas. I
want to say it was the end of the year when they clinched. Yeah,
that was right when they clinched the division in September and they gave their
toast in the clubhouse. It was Miguel Rojas giving the the speech to the
players when they toasted winning the division. And you look at what Miguel Rojas
means to Mookie Betts, really his mentor at shortstop. I mean, if
you get out to a Dodger game early when the gates open, even going
on away game, when they're out there when the fans are there, you'll
see Miguel Rojas and Mookie Betts standing together out at shortstop and going over things
and approaches and technique, and Dino Ebol's right there. They're just taking ground
ball off the ground. I mean I sat and watched it yesterday for like
twenty minutes, just ground ball, ground ball left right, charging the ground
ball, backhanding, the glove side everything. You can imagine, different kinds
of ground balls, and they were working on out there. So I can
see Miguel Rojas being that leader as well. And now that he's back and
he's in a second year in a Dodger uniform, maybe even more so of
a vocal leader. But again, let's hope this Dodgers team doesn't get into
that kind of situation. And I truly believe that if you got the top
four, even top three with Mookie Bets, Freddie Freeman and Shoo Tani,
I like my odds. I'm at a gambler, so to speak. I'm
not a poker player. You know somebody that goes to Vegas and does that.
I love a little sports betting, but I'm not a poker player.
But I would believe that if you were to ask me if all three of
them are going to struggle in a five game series or a seven game series,
all three of those guys Otani, Freeman, and Betts, odds are
at least one of them's gonna produce and help out this offense and carry them.
Now you're gonna counter back, and I can already see the phone ring
and saying, well, what about lost against the Diamondbacks. Nobody came through,
nobody hit offensively. I don't think that happens. Again, I don't.
And it didn't help that the pitching for the Dodgers didn't keep them in
games, and the Dodgers were constantly and then pressured to come from behind in
that series and start feeling that pressure of no, we just had a wonder
one season. Oh no, we gotta get out of this whole up.
I gotta be the guy who hit the home run, and he start changing
your approach, and he starts swinging out of your shoes and swinging the pitches
that are out of his own, and we saw what happened. So I
don't think it gets to that point. James in North Hollywood, thanks you
for to be impatient on this Monday night, off night Dodger Talk as the
Dodger started a six game road trip tomorrow in Pittsburgh. How you doing tonight,
Good, Tam good, sim Hey, I wanted to talk back to
you about what you mentioned about managing pictures. I love the logics for right
now during the regular isn't absolutely However, come August, I would like to
make sure that all of these guys are built up to one hundred plus pitches.
And the reason for that is because come the postseason, you know a
lot of times we've seen, you know, maybe the front office Dave Roberts
get a little bit cute with pitching management and going to the analytics, and
obviously, if a guy is mowing down competitors, like pretty much all of
our starters, at least at some of the time, have shown that they
can do. You want to be able to let them run and if they've
been babied, if you will a little bit, which is necessary in today's
game, right you know I get that now, But come August, I
would love to see all those guys feel very comfortable throwing one hundred pitches,
which, with as efficient as they've been, could be seven innings of solid
work. That shortens the game so much, allows us to keep you know,
these bullpen guys fresh, and as you said, all the injuries,
we only have half the bullpen guys available, or you know, if we're
down a starter or two and we have to piece together you know, a
game five start in a five game series or something like that. I think
that it goes a long way to have these guys ready to go one hundred
and be strong for all one hundred pitches. So I agree with the logic
now, but I do think that come August you have to start building them
up a little bit. Yeah, no doubt, And I don't know at
one point they start that James and I appreciate it. I would as I
would have to imagine that they have got this mapped out, assuming everybody stays
healthy. That whether it's August, the middle, the end of August,
the trade deadline, September one, September fifteenth, I don't know. At
some point, you're right, you got to take the restraints off the horses
here and let them ride, and let them get out in full stride and
get ready for the postseason. But at the same time, when you've got
the back end of the bullpen like this Dodgers team, I feel pretty good.
When you're looking at they just say, yesterday Gavin Stone five innings,
seventy five. Let's say he labored for five innings and seventy five and still
put up a zero on the scoreboard. I feel pretty good about turning it
over to Michael Grove and Alex Vesia, Daniel Hudson, and I didn't even
mention Evan Phillips. Let's hope knock on Wood, Bruce Dark Graderol can get
healthy, and let's hope sooner rather than later a Joe Kelly could get Right
now, you're asking your starters to even go shorter in a game which only
benefits the Dodgers, But I'm with you. I think there is a point
this season in which you got to take the training wheels off, so to
speak. And not that they're babying, that's not the right term, but
you know, take the restraints off these guys and let them go out there
and if they're having a game like a Gavin Stone did the last two outings
in New York. When seven innings comes back on short rest, it goes
five and seventy five. So you look at the last two starts for Gavin
Stone, they did let him go the seven and yesterday short rest. In
today's world of baseball short red this is four days now for us older folks,
we know that pitchers routinely every year pitched on four days rest. That's
why the old pitch every five days comes up, because that's what starting pitching
used to be about in baseball. But now we're seeing it elongated here during
the regular season. I don't think it's a bad thing for the Dodgers,
and not at all, especially with the amount of veteran arms that they got
that have come through and coming off injuries, and you don't want to risk
anything. You just don't because with the prize goal being October. The last
thing I want to do is burnout an arm in August. Dead arm comes
September. I mean a couple of years ago, Tony Gonson had an All
Star year, but he also put a lot of miles on that arm.
He wasn't the same the postseason. He certainly wasn't the same the year after.
Ends up going on late last year having Tommy John surgery or whatever surgery
he had from his elbow. The yeah, Tommy John surgery. So you
don't want to get to that routine where you're just burning arms, and when
you've got a lot of money invested in these guys. And I know that's
part of the equation and fans don't like to hear it, but it is.
And you've got years on a guy's contract and that's part of it.
And you may not want to hear it because you want to win. Now.
I get it. But when you start talking about a Tyler Glass now
who's battle through arm injuries, Walker Bueller's now battle through to Tommy John surgeries,
Bobby Miller, Bobby Miller's on the IL right now image, She and
young arm on the IL right now now. Not to say they burned them
out a year ago. But you know, he had a lot of innings
on that arm last year from different levels, including the major leagues. Keep
in mind when they're down the minor leagues, the Bobby Miller's of the World,
guys who are in Triple A and DOUBA right now even a ball,
they're not throwing two hundred innings. They're not out there making thirty five starts.
Some of these guys get you know, extended spring training and don't start
until the first of May, so they miss the first month of the season.
Peyton Martin, who's in a ball rancher kuocacumas example of that. They
they lengthened him out in spring training so he would start a little later for
his regular season so he can go deeper into the year. Because you want
to build with these guys' arms. And we talk about the innings. Watch
Bobby Miller a year ago. We kept looking at that innings. Watch like,
man, Okay, he's now surpassing how many Indians he's ever pitched in
a minor league season, and uh, we're getting, you know, to
the last month of September. So these are all things you got to realize
that they're going through maximizing and minimizing innings depending on the pitcher and where they're
at. And again over the long one hundred and sixty two game season eight
six, six, nine eighty seven two five. Say we'll take a break,
we'll come back. We'll give you a quick update in one particular guy
who really excelled over the weekend in the Dodgers' minor leagues with a little mini
farm report. But your phone calls as well. They should be impatient,
they should being with us. On this Monday night, June glooms certainly here
gloomy all day. Sun finally broke through late in the afternoon. I guess
some Dodger base tomorrow. They're in Pittsburgh, take on the Pirates Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday. Then it's off to New York for a massive three game
series against the Yankees. Tim Kates Off Night Dodgitalk AM five seventy LA Sports
Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Off Night Dodga Talk continues here on your
Home of the Dodgers A and five seventy LA Sports Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio
at Morongo Casino Dodgers on deck. We'll get our coverage started tomorrow at two
thirty in the afternoon early Dodger game in Pittsburgh as they start a three game
series against the Pirates. First pitch of three forty Tyler Glassnow and Jared Jones
the pitching matchup. Dodgers will see former number one pick Lash in the draft,
Paul Skeens out of Atoral High School. That'll be on Wednesday in the
second game of this three game series, and then Thursday, Walker Bueller and
Bailey Falter the pitching matchup. And then it's off to New York for a
three game weekend set against the Yankees. Real quick over the weekend. What
a performance from Trey Sweeney, Dodgers shortstop in TRIPLEA Oklahoma City, taking on
the Reno Aces and then taking on Albuquerque in the next series. He hovered
three times and drove in five last Wednesday, after hitting a home run on
Tuesday in the six game series opener against the against Albuquerque. Sweeney drove in
five in the game three times this year, all of them against Albuquerque,
but what he did was pretty impressive. Tray Sweeney hit a couple of home
runs yesterday and during the six game series, he hit six home runs,
a triple A double, fourteen RBI and ten runs scored. He hit nearly
four hundred with an eleven hundred OPS in six games against Albuquerque last week his
series that ended on Sunday, six home runs, a triple A, double,
fourteen ribis, ten run scores in triple Oklahoma City for Dodgers, sore
stop Trey swinging. Pretty impressive. And that is your quick farm report.
As far as what's happening down on the farm last week, you give you
more an extensive farm report, real quick before we get back out to the
phones. Dodgers may of well gotten lucky here with Blake Snell deciding to sign
with the San Francisco Giants, and he chose to go up there after sitting
out waiting for a long term deal, didn't get what he wanted, He
along with Jordan Montgomery, waited and waited and waited as Scott Boris clients,
and then spring training came, and deep in his spring training he finally signed
a two year, sixty two million dollars deal with the San Francisco Giants.
Didn't really have his spring training, didn't have a lot of minor league starts
at all. Just was through sim games and already he is now back on
the IL. He's appeared in six games this season and has yet to pitch
five full innings in any of them. He's got an ERA of near ten,
allowing three earned runs in four and two thirds of winning work against the
Yankees on Sunday and a loss. Keep in mind, this is a two
time cy Young Award winner. He came to San Francisco and he thought,
this is gonna be our bona fide ace. This is gonna be the guy
that's gonna help us out. We couldn't lend anybody else in free agency,
but we got Blake Snell and it has gone from bad to worse. Struggled
early on now injured tightness in his left groin. It's the second time this
season and it's been brief for Blake Snell because he started late that he's had
to deal with a groin issue. This time he's going to the IL.
It's too bad for him, too bad for the Giants. So has it
worked out for Blake Snell early in twenty twenty four, Greg and Corona,
thanks for being patient. Welcome to Off Night Dodger Dog. Greg what's up
case? How you're doing? Man? Don't what you do for the Daily
Show with the Petrous and everybody else. I love the narrative tonight. I
think like, we need we win. We win one hundred games every year,
right, but we need some dogs in there. And I love the
team. I love the roster. I think possibly, I mean, I
know Walker, Walker, Bueler is on his way back. Walker, I
think a couple of other guys, maybe Kaoscar Hernandez can be the dog that
gets these guys going. I mean, of course we have we have Hall
of famers on the team, but we we have to have some dogs come
October that pushes pushes up over the edge and it's just you know, you
know, and and and then also just real quick on On Sweeney, that
dude's a stud. He's six four short stop. He's gonna be up pretty
soon. I I see on. I'm Greg. Appreciate it and squeeze at
art in South l A. Appreciate your art for hanging in there. How
you doing to nine, Hey, sir, thank you for taking my call.
Came the first time I get in diehard Dodger friends. Glad you got
on board. What can we do tonight, Yes, sir, uh so,
I wanted to kind of piggyback off the last gentleman the call uh mentioned
getting the pictures prepped, you know towards uh, you know, October,
they're getting them, you know, and and you know, you guys kind
of referenced the analytics as well, being you know, being used right in
the in the postseason. I just want to I want to say one thing.
Had sabermetrics or analytics been you know, such a big deal? And
I know, you know, you know, everybody's changing the the you know,
the the athletes are getting stronger, they're getting faster, you know,
they're you know, they're you know their pronte injury yep. More. But
had analytics or stay a metric had anything to do with baseball back in no
in eighty eight, you know, when Kirk Gibson was hurt. Yeah,
I hear you, running out of time. Mart would never put him up.
I know, I hear you, to Bet, I hear you.
I appreciate it different air at different time. Not to say that today somebody
was hurt, they wouldn't try to play as much as they could or fight
through that injury. Not to say that at all. We just don't know
that's gonna do it. Thanks to Katy, Thanks to you for being a
part of the show. Is he I apologize we couldn't get to you have
a great say Fresh Year Thursday night. Thanks for being with us. Talking
some Dodgers baseball. They're back at it tomorrow first pitch three forty Dodgers in
Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates. So long, everybody,