Well, last week was Canada Day, but we still can talk to great
Canadian James Paxton. Thanks a lot for your time, James, appreciate it.
Absolutely. We've seen you pitch obviously. You've done a great job for
the Dodgers all season long. How has the experience been being on a new
team in a new city and still being very good for the team. It's
been great and I've had an awesome experience here. Teammates are awesome, coaching
staff, training staff, training staff. Everybody's treating really well, taking great
care of me. Yeah, I feel like I was just welcome with open
arms. We've heard from other pitchers that the Dodgers do it better than most
teams around baseball. Have you experienced that firsthand? Yeah, you know,
I really have. I've gotten a lot of help with some pitches. You
know, I came in and I needed help with my change up, and
I really got to help a lot of help there. And you know,
I'm kind of evolving in the way that I pitch. I don't have quite
the same stuff I used to have, and they're they're helping me make that,
make that change and learning how to pitch with different stuff. And it's
been it's been great. Is that the first step to understand that you are
evolving, That James Paxton at this stage of your career is not that James
Paxton from even five years ago. Yeah, you know, I think you
see it happen to all pictures, most pictures. You know, you get
a little older and you lose some velocity, maybe lose certain sharpness on certain
certain pitches, and you have to learn how to pitch a little differently.
And you know that can be tough, and it has been, you know,
frustrating and hard. But I've had a lot of help here to to
help me learn how to make that work best, and it's been good experience.
You always hear about love language when it comes to relationships, when it
comes to pitching, if somebody says the same thing but in a different way,
does it click for a picture more than maybe somebody else saying the same
thing. Yeah, you know, I've heard that. It just depends,
I think different people a little kind of grasp on it with things that are
said differently. You know, so a lot of people can say the same
thing to you, but it just takes you know, someone saying in a
way that you understand that really, like you said, clicks with you.
And I feel like they've done a really good job of helping me with that
and you know, finding things that help me figure things out. What does
Connor McGinnis so do so well that it seems to really click with so many
pitchers. I think he's just really good at understanding, you know, pitch
grips and stuff and how guys throw the baseball. And he's really good at
just explaining how the ball moves and how to create movement and stuff like that.
He's helped me tremendously with my change up and my two seamer I changed
my grip and my two team just the other day and really help with the
movement. So, you know, I think he's just got so much experience
working with different guys too, that he knows different things to try and trust,
right, he builds that trust with the with the pitcher, And how
does that trust form? Does it come from seeing what the ball does when
you change things or does it How does the trust start to form? You
know, I think it's just his personality. You know, he's very easy
to talk to, and you know, I think he just like he said,
everyone knows how experienced he is and stuff. How many guys he's worked
with and helped, and he's very patient with guys. And he also,
you know, is very good at cheering you on and you know, encouraging
you to keep on trying stuff. I've actually heard change up in James Paxton
a lot more during this season, so I guess he's really trying to encourage
you to throw that pitch. Yeah, you know, it's a pitch that
I've never really used a whole bunch of my career, but like I said,
where I'm not right now with my career myself. It's a pitch that
is extremely useful. I've heard Kershaw talk about change up envy. Do you
have change up envy as well? Oh? For sure, you know guys
with great change jobs. It's a pitch that's so effective, especially you've got
a really good one, So it's fun to kind of play with and have
some success with it now. James Paxton is our guest in front of first
Pitch, and James, you've been unbelievable. I feel like Houdini level where
you're able to navigate in and out of traffic. How have you been able
to do that so successfully all season? Just sticking with my process, you
know. So I'm on the mound and I'm giving everything I got in every
pitch and doesn't matter what's going on around me. I'm focused on throwing my
next pitch, and you know, just I think just having that mental kind
of approach has helped me work through situations. Were you I know I mentioned
at the beginning of this that you're a proud Canadian. What was it like
for you when you saw Eric Gagne last week be introduced and throwing out the
ceremonial first pitch. It's pretty cool, you know. It's it's awesome to
see those guys that represented Canada so well and had so much success, you
know, come out and just be examples of what you know Canadian baseball players
can be. And he's a great one. What is baseball like for a
young man in Canada? Is it as big of a deal as hockey is
or are you outlier when you decide I'm going to pursue baseball. You know,
I think it's getting more popular. There's definitely some good leagues up there.
There's not as many as in the States, obviously, but there's some
great programs and there's a lot of really good baseball players coming out of Canada
these day. Yeah. Are you a big hockey fan? I would say
I'm a big hockey fan. I enjoy I really like watching it live live.
Hockey is are my favorite sports to watch. I could see it being
something that I get into watching more when I'm done playing baseball. Would you
lean anyway with the team in Canada? Oh, I gotta stick with my
Canucks, you know, Vancouver hometown team. I'll be a Canucks fan forever.
See, this is what I wanted. I wanted that Canadian accent to
come out. Can you just say organization once organization. Thanks a lot for
the time, James. Great to watch you pitch this year and continued health
the rest of the way. Absolutely, thank you very much.