Well, the Dodgers certainly missed their third baseman, Max Muncie. You don't
know what you have until it's gone. And we're joined right now by Max
Munsey, who has a lot of time on his hands. So that's the
reason why I've been able to track him down. He can't run away these
days. Thanks a lot for the time. Don't let David foll you.
He bribed me to be here, no doubt, and that'll come at the
end. But I know you're really frustrated with the way things have gone with
this oblique injury. How have you tried to keep yourself sane? You just
try to stay as locked in with the team as you can. You know,
you try to be as involved as you're allowed to be. And you
know, for me that's just you know, you're you're in the group chat
when the hitters meetings are going on, you're listening to hitters meetings, you're
listening to the approach, and you know you have history of some of these
guys, and so it's you know, try to offer up anything you've got.
And you know, for for someone like Show who's been in the American
League for all these years, it's always good for him to hear, you
know, off on you know, National league guys, and maybe he's never
face before. So I just I try to help out any way I can,
and I don't really feel like I'm actually doing anything, but that's just
the best way I can stay as involved as I can be. Right.
I've heard players say this when they're on the I l they don't feel as
a big a part of the team because the disappointment of being hurt. But
this seems to be a way where you can still stay plugged in and like
you said, help in any way you can. Yeah, you know.
Unfortunately, our schedule wasn't the most ideal for me. You know, it's
obviously in every idea getting hurt, but this is the way our schedule was.
We've been on the road the majority of the time that I've been hurt,
and you know, when when you're rehabbing, you don't you don't get
the travel with the team. So that's been a frustrating one for me.
It's been nice having time at home with family, but you know, for
me, like I want to be out there in the field, I want
to be playing, I want to be at the boys, and it's just
I'm very thankful for my time with my family, but at the same time,
I want to be back out there playing, no doubt, that's what
Dad does, plays baseball and play is it at a high level. Where
are we in this process to maybe ce Max month's seedback? Not entirely sure.
You know, things just aren't rebounding as well as we've been wanting them
to. And you know, we're trying to slow play it and uh,
you know, just make sure that we're we're good to go one hundred percent.
That way, we don't have any setbacks, we won't have any you
know, lingering effects. And it's just, you know, it's taking longer
than any of us expected, especially considering it was something that at the beginning
we thought might not even have to go on the IO for. And it's
just, you know, it hasn't gone away, and it's, uh,
it's been extremely frustrating for me and everyone involved. We've been trying to do
everything that we can and uh, you know, for for me, that
could be something along the lines of I've been trying to do too much,
you know, you know me, I fight through a lot of stuff and
I've been trying as hard as I can to get back, and that could
be something that's not allowing me to bounce back as as fresh as that I'm
maybe doing too much, but it's you know, we're we're doing what we
can. We don't know what the timetable is yet, but we're hoping we'll
be out there at some point. When you look at the game and you're
not playing, do you see it differently? You see a lot of things,
you know, you see a lot of things in dugout, You see
a lot of things on the field, see a lot of things in the
clubhouse, And it's always an interesting perspective. But you know, I like
our guys. I like where we're at, and you know, we we're
struggling a little bit now, but you know, every team goes through it,
and I know that the talent and the character in this clubhouse, it's
just we're not gonna be held down for long. You know. I know
everyone thinks it's the end of the world out here, but it's really not.
We're still playing good baseball and we're gonna continue to play a good baseball
and we're gonna have, you know, a really good stretch here before too
long where we're just you know, tearing the cover off the ball, pitching
lights out and maybe win a lot of games in a row. Max Muncie
is our guest. Max. I've said this a few times on the Post
Game Show. You don't know what you have until it's gone, and you
don't realize the value of players, especially a guy like yourself, and how
you're not just an individual, but you're part of an extended lineup, a
group of nine. Do you do you see that? Do you feel like
people realize that now? Well, I've always felt for me, you know,
I know my numbers are whatever they are, but for the bats that
I have, I've always felt like that's something that helps a team out tremendously.
Yeah. You know, you have certain guys that want to go out
there and swing early in the count, and that's who they are, that's
what makes them successful. And then you have certain guys that work balns.
You have certain guys that just put together at bats. And you know,
for me, when you have me in that lineup, it allows everyone else
to be themselves instead of everyone else trying to make up for that. Yeah,
you know, I don't know what my exact number is, but I
know it's something that I see close to five six I average five six pitches
in a bat. Yeah, and that's quite a lot of pitches when you
when you're talking about the course of a game. And that allows other guys
to just be themselves and not have to worry about should I be taking a
pitch he or should I be swinging? Should I should I be taking a
strike? And you know, that's something that I've always taken pride in is
that you know if someone's in front of me, and you know when when
whenever you're leading off an inning, you always you always go to the guy
that's that's on deck and you say, hey, I'm gonna be aggressive,
you're be ready, or hey I'm probably gonna see one. You're always talking
to the guy and you know when you have when you have me and there
fact that always allows people to just kind of be themselves and say, hey,
I want to be aggressive height here, and I'm always like, yeah,
go for it. I don't mind taking a strike, I don't mind
taking two strikes. That doesn't really bother me. I know my numbers don't
always look the best, but I just feel like being being able to put
together those at bats, it allows other people to be themselves and that makes
a huge difference in a lineup. Yeah, that's a great explanation for how
it all fits together. It's a lineup, you're not islands. Yeah,
and that's why, you know, it's always so unique how each team is
constructed and when you when you look at that, and uh, that's something
that we've always been extremely good at is you know, the starting pitcher for
the opposing team, it's hard for them to get through six seven innings,
and that causes the bullpen to have to work and a lot of times that's
where we do a lot of damage. And you know when you're facing that
uh, you know that that middle of the middle of the pack bullpen guy
in the fifth inning, that's when you can hit your home runs and do
your damage and that kind of stuff you're not gonna really hit you. You're
not gonna do damage off the eighth and ninth inning. Set up and closer
guys. You know, that's there's a reason why they're a set up and
closer. They're extremely good, you know, and I know the talent we
have on this roster should be able to be anything, but those guys are
major leaguers too. You know, they're all stars. Also, they're they're
making just as much money, they're just as talented, and that's the reason
why they're in that position for the other team. And that's not the guy
that you're wanting to get the hit off of. Yeah, it's just that's
not reasonable to think that you can do damage on a certain type of guy
when that's the whole reason that they're in the game of baseball is to not
let you do that. Yeah, And so that's you know, when you
have the guy that's not as good pitching in the fifth inning because the starter
threw one hundred pitches trying to or you know, trying to work his ass
off get to get through our order. Well, now you have a guy
that has to pitch the fifth, you have a guy that has to pitch
the sixth, Well, you get to do damage off them. Well,
then the next day if you do the same thing, well, those guys
can't pitch, then they have to pitch someone else who might be even worse.
And that's when you start putting together these big stretches where you're scoring a
lot of runs and doing a lot of damage on these teams when you're just
tiring out the bullpen and everything, and so when you have a whole wine
important together, that's something we've always done extremely well. And I feel like,
you know, that's that might be something the last week or two that
the guys have been struggling with and that's you know, that's part of what
happened in the lineup, does no doubt Well, hopefully it happens sooner rather
than later. The good news Max is the Dodgers have a sizable lead in
the division and we all know it's all about October and that's when Max Muncy
shines the most. Thanks a lot for the time. Great to see you,
and I know this is tough. This whole thing is tough, but
like I said, I think Dodger fans appreciate you even more now. Thanks
a lot. I appreciate it. And uh yeah, don't worry. I'm
gonna collect on that bribe that you had to get me out here.