Speaker 1: Oh, we continue on thread Rogan Rodney Pete on AM
Speaker 1: five to seventy LA Sports. Uh so the Dodgers are well,
Speaker 1: there may be a roster spot open. Let's just put
Speaker 1: it like that. There might be a roster spot open,
Speaker 1: and we will talk about that, I promise coming up
Speaker 1: later on in this hour, but in our two hour program. Now,
Speaker 1: let us welcome on our colleague, our NBA insider from
Speaker 1: the LA Times, Dan Wyking and Dan, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2: Fred. You know, after a big game, there's almost nowhere
Speaker 2: else I'd rather be A sleep would be one, sure,
Speaker 2: and then you know, on with you and Rodney's number two.
Speaker 1: Okay, I was going to say, is sleep number one anywhere? Else?
Speaker 1: Number two? With us number three? But at least we
Speaker 1: made the list either way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're on. You're on the list, which is like
Speaker 2: ultimately right, Like it's uh, what did my mother say?
Speaker 2: Is that that? You know, it doesn't matter what they
Speaker 2: call you as long as they call you like amen?
Speaker 1: All right, So it's funny, Dan, I watched the game
Speaker 1: last night. As a matter of fact, now I'm watching
Speaker 1: all the games because they're exciting and because I care,
Speaker 1: and I think just acquiring Luca as an overview here
Speaker 1: has made people care again because I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: that lost some o their luster, well.
Speaker 2: They're certainly like, Okay, so when you see twenty years
Speaker 2: of excellence, right, like there's a fatigue to that. You know, like,
Speaker 2: like what more can Lebron do at this point that
Speaker 2: is new and exciting territory that he hasn't already done
Speaker 2: in Cleveland and Miami and Franklin, Right Like this stuff
Speaker 2: is all you don't want to say it's all old that,
Speaker 2: but like we've seen it all before and this is
Speaker 2: an injection of life and excitement and new franchise that
Speaker 2: is always sort of built to not just embrace that stuff,
Speaker 2: but really highlighted. Like there's just something about it. And
Speaker 2: I know I'm going to sound like a Laker fanboy,
Speaker 2: and that's not if anybody knows me that that's not
Speaker 2: the case in any real way. But it's just like,
Speaker 2: you know, there's like something to like seeing you know,
Speaker 2: Luka Dacic firing behind the back passes out d Austin
Speaker 2: vis that like it makes you think about Magic Johnson
Speaker 2: in a way that it wouldn't have happened if he
Speaker 2: was doing it for Sae, the Charlotte Hornets, like you
Speaker 2: wouldn't be longing for the days of Kelly Trapuca, you know.
Speaker 2: Or like basically there's like three or four franchises where
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, really you can really elicit these
Speaker 2: types of feelings and Los Angeles is one of them.
Speaker 2: And Fred, it makes total sense to me that you're
Speaker 2: locked in like it's it is sort of a you
Speaker 2: don't know what you're going to see other than you
Speaker 2: know you're going to see something spectacular, and uh, it's
Speaker 2: pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: Well it was exciting last night. Looka playing against the MAVs.
Speaker 1: We'll go backwards Anthony Davis. He got a nice reception,
Speaker 1: didn't he from the fans?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, And I mean I think, you know, it's
Speaker 2: one of the weird parts about this trade, right, is
Speaker 2: that there were no disgruntled parties, like seemingly other than
Speaker 2: the Mavericks organization and leadership, you know that that everybody
Speaker 2: else was basically like it is, you know, has good
Speaker 2: feelings generally speaking about the trade. I think not that
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis wanted to be traded, but I mean I think,
Speaker 2: you know, he's excited for the opportunity, not excited that
Speaker 2: he's not on the court, but but you know, this
Speaker 2: is a next step for him in a franchise that
Speaker 2: has you know, some some real some real belief in
Speaker 2: him and the immediacy. And I think for Max Christie,
Speaker 2: it's obviously a real opportunity to to do a little
Speaker 2: bit more than he was going to do in la Uh.
Speaker 2: For Lukatanachi, it's an opportunity you know, to be a
Speaker 2: global superstar in a way that he's not, but like,
Speaker 2: you know, to really focusing on ad Like I mean,
Speaker 2: I think he's one of those players that you know,
Speaker 2: like his number will be in the rafters right, like
Speaker 2: there's no doubt and even though it's like not that
Speaker 2: many games and stuff like that, Like when you look
Speaker 2: at like what he did for five year is a Laker,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, the the pure statistics, they are
Speaker 2: on par with virtually any big man per game that
Speaker 2: that's that's played for the Lakers. Like he's in that
Speaker 2: class statistically, He's won a championship, he'll be a Hall
Speaker 2: of Famer. He's a top seventy five all time player.
Speaker 2: Like I thought that moment was really well done. He's
Speaker 2: hit some iconic shots. I mean, you know, you could argue,
Speaker 2: and I think it's a would be a fun argument
Speaker 2: maybe for a later day that like the mamba shot
Speaker 2: in the bubble is like the biggest Laker shot of
Speaker 2: the Lebron James era, single biggest shot, you know, And
Speaker 2: and it wasn't a Lebron James shot. And so I think,
Speaker 2: you know, he deserves his flowers. I'm always underrated. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, he's a really really good bass player and
Speaker 2: a great dude, and I think, you know, I know
Speaker 2: people were very sad to see him go inside the
Speaker 2: organization because of how highly people thought of him.
Speaker 1: All right, But and then that brings us to Luca
Speaker 1: Donchs and he openly admitted it was kind of weird
Speaker 1: for him last night, kind of an yeah, very are
Speaker 1: feeling could you sense that in the arena? Totally?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think yea. I tweeted this during the game.
Speaker 2: But like the line I've been going with is it
Speaker 2: It reminded me fred of my presidential fitness tests when
Speaker 2: I was in junior high where you take on the
Speaker 2: mile and you just hit that for you hit that
Speaker 2: first six hundred meters a little just kind of what
Speaker 2: it felt like to me like you're a little guessed up,
Speaker 2: and you know, you realize you just got a long
Speaker 2: race ahead of you. And I think like emotionally it
Speaker 2: felt like that, right, Like, the emotion in the first
Speaker 2: fourteen to sixteen minutes of that game was so high
Speaker 2: that it was like it was it was really hard
Speaker 2: to keep it up. And you could see Luca affected, right,
Speaker 2: Dallas just swarming him on defense, throwing double teams, totally
Speaker 2: mucking up the game and doing so really effectively. Right
Speaker 2: credits Jason Kid credits of those maps for what they
Speaker 2: were able to do in that game. But you know,
Speaker 2: I think the Lakers poise, they showed patience, and this
Speaker 2: is this is one of the real benefits of this pairing, right,
Speaker 2: is that you know, on a night where Luca isn't
Speaker 2: his best, by the way, still hasn't absurd what nineteen
Speaker 2: fifteen and twelve triple double. Yeah, And you know Austin
Speaker 2: Reeves is really good and Lebron James is otherworldly when
Speaker 2: it matters and winning time, and you know that's kind
Speaker 2: of the waves the Lakers can hit you with now.
Speaker 2: And it's uh, you know they could do it with
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis too. It's just different when like when you
Speaker 2: can just kind of run everything through a player, you know,
Speaker 2: and that that really isn't the case for it, Like
Speaker 2: they would have to try to make Anthony Davis the hub.
Speaker 2: Like there's no trying with Luca, right, Like the ball
Speaker 2: is his, the offense is his, and everybody else is
Speaker 2: gonna have to figure it out. And and Lebron James
Speaker 2: Austin Reeves, Lakers have two tremendous players when it comes
Speaker 2: to figuring it out.
Speaker 1: Nico Harrison was the other general manager, so he can
Speaker 1: go to road games because he can't go to home
Speaker 1: games after making that deal, and.
Speaker 2: That's well, they thank them at the road games. They
Speaker 2: have different chants and.
Speaker 1: Laker fans were very appreciative of Nico.
Speaker 2: Look, I think you know you feel for you feel
Speaker 2: for people who are in these decitions to have to
Speaker 2: make these hard decisions. And I'll say, like credit credit
Speaker 2: to the Garrison. He was not hiding yesterday. He was
Speaker 2: you know, bright blue suit front and center and pregame.
Speaker 2: It was very interesting watching people kind of like you know,
Speaker 2: in some ways like sheepishly approach him, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like how's it going, Like how you doing?
Speaker 2: Like kind of like the first time you see your
Speaker 2: buddy after a divorce or something like that, where it's like,
Speaker 2: how's how's everything everything, like where you don't really want
Speaker 2: to know the answer, you know, like those kinds of questions.
Speaker 2: That's sort of how it felt like. You know, he's
Speaker 2: a relationships guy around this league, like every team has
Speaker 2: worked with him. He has particularly close relationships with the
Speaker 2: Lakers because of his time with Kobe Bryant and Nike,
Speaker 2: so not surprising to see Lakers people kind of interact
Speaker 2: with him, you know, I do think right like it
Speaker 2: is like like Dallas had its reasons. They may not
Speaker 2: be good reasons, but they had them, And I do
Speaker 2: think that, Like, you know, it'll be over the next
Speaker 2: two seasons, you know, which is what the current contract is.
Speaker 2: I assume there will be an extension. You know, there's
Speaker 2: more money to come, so over the next five six
Speaker 2: seasons of this this you know experience with Luka Doncic, Like,
Speaker 2: we'll see if those reasons manifest in Los Angeles. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, that should be a real consideration. I just
Speaker 2: haven't talked to anybody really fred around the league who
Speaker 2: thinks this is a good idea for Dallas really like
Speaker 2: that just hasn't like that, you know, almost no matter
Speaker 2: what you would say that it's still like you. You
Speaker 2: would just figure it out because the whole point is
Speaker 2: to get players as good as Luka Doncic.
Speaker 1: You can never give away the Greatstan You just can't
Speaker 1: do it. You cannot let one of the game.
Speaker 2: They gave away, of the they gave away the best
Speaker 2: player in the trade and the youngest star in the trade.
Speaker 2: Two like you, you could envision a world right where
Speaker 2: the roles are reversed and say, like, Okay, Denver, I'm
Speaker 2: just making stuff up here that Denver would would have
Speaker 2: a a you know, a Nicola Jokic sort of consideration
Speaker 2: because Luka Dati is just four years younger, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Like you could talk yourself into something
Speaker 2: like that. Maybe it's it's to me, it's just the
Speaker 2: word that I keep hearing when I talk to people
Speaker 2: around like you short sighted. This was a short sighted
Speaker 2: decision from Dallas and the Lakers were are are in
Speaker 2: the unique position both the benefit benefit from it in
Speaker 2: the short term and benefit in the long term too.
Speaker 2: It really they've really been given a lifeline here and
Speaker 2: it's pretty incredible. They're playing like it.
Speaker 1: Uh okay, given the way they're playing, let's just look
Speaker 1: at the lake now, they've won fifteen of nineteen, one
Speaker 1: game behind Denver and Memphis, and the loss column for
Speaker 1: the number two seed in the West. I think we
Speaker 1: can agree all of a sudden, they're legit. They're really
Speaker 1: in the conversation. But now things get tough, Dan, Now
Speaker 1: the schedule picks up, and are we going to find
Speaker 1: out who they are right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know, I think the biggest question right is
Speaker 2: like how real is the defense? You know, so much
Speaker 2: of it is predicated currently on effort. You mentioned that
Speaker 2: nineteen game span. We'll kick it back another game to
Speaker 2: twenty games. They have the best defense in the NBA
Speaker 2: over the last twenty games in terms of efficiency, which
Speaker 2: is anybody who watched them, like me, played the first
Speaker 2: twenty games of this season is sort of laughable, Like
Speaker 2: that's crazy, Like they were good for like a week
Speaker 2: to start the season and then they were pretty atrocious defensively,
Speaker 2: Like that switch is flipped, you know, like they are
Speaker 2: flying around the court defensively, and you know a lot
Speaker 2: of it has been effort and energy, Well effort, energy
Speaker 2: is going to get tested here a bunch at home,
Speaker 2: because you know it's Minnesota. It's two with the Clippers,
Speaker 2: you know, like New Orleans will come through. But then
Speaker 2: it's the Knicks, then it's the Celtics. You know you're
Speaker 2: gonna catch Milwaukee here soon. You know, the good the
Speaker 2: good teams are coming right, like really now, I think
Speaker 2: the promising thing right as you mentioned that fifteen to
Speaker 2: nineteen stretch, Fred, look at who they've lost to it.
Speaker 2: It hasn't been the challenges, right, it's been sort of
Speaker 2: the Snoozers losing the Utah losing to Charlotte, getting waxed
Speaker 2: by like a third of the Philadelphia seventy six ers. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know there's a there's a Clippers loss in there,
Speaker 2: you know. And the Spurs loss are kind of the
Speaker 2: the other two and the twenty game span. The Spurs
Speaker 2: loss was the first game after the Fires. The Clippers,
Speaker 2: the first Clippers loss, I believe was their first game
Speaker 2: to into it them like they didn't have Vic Dorian
Speaker 2: Finney Smith had just come back and and the energy
Speaker 2: wasn't there for them in that game. But you know,
Speaker 2: when when they've been able to like put their put
Speaker 2: their foot on the gas and they've done it when
Speaker 2: the situation is demanded it. They've been one of the
Speaker 2: best teams in the NBA, and it is a you know,
Speaker 2: it has been a big enough sample. Twenty games is
Speaker 2: like enough of an NBA sample where you start to
Speaker 2: you start to make real assumptions like maybe that's just
Speaker 2: who this team is. It is like a really tough, tough,
Speaker 2: tough nose, you know, defensive minded team that has you know,
Speaker 2: three just excellent offensive players as well. And if that's
Speaker 2: the case, that's that's what a contender looks like.
Speaker 1: A real right now, this this is a conversation we
Speaker 1: would not have had six weeks ago.
Speaker 2: With Anthony Davis. No, right, all right, I was just
Speaker 2: kind of getting there with them, Fred, like just sort
Speaker 2: of getting there is sort of like maybe this team
Speaker 2: has a shot at a deep run. Was kind of
Speaker 2: where I was at versus Now it's like, oh, no,
Speaker 2: Like they can go into playoff series credibly and have
Speaker 2: the two best players on the team on the court
Speaker 2: on their team.
Speaker 1: Right that thing said when we get to the playoffs, Uh,
Speaker 1: you look at the West, I'm a fleet. If they're
Speaker 1: filing on all cylinders, I think now they can win
Speaker 1: the West, And I didn't think that six weeks ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, like parody cuts both ways, right.
Speaker 2: I do think that the West sort of feels open.
Speaker 2: I think that if we like took deep, like real
Speaker 2: deep Haart looks at four or five teams in the West,
Speaker 2: we could have sort of similar conversations right about their chances.
Speaker 2: Really basically everybody other than the Oklahoma City Thunder like
Speaker 2: involves like some level of speculation. But but I think,
Speaker 2: you know, I think the the things that I'm seeing
Speaker 2: right is like, you know, you have a team like
Speaker 2: Memphis who it sort of feels like they've been there
Speaker 2: and like they're gonna need to go to another level
Speaker 2: of the playoffs that they've never really gotten through, right,
Speaker 2: Like they've sort of had their cracks at this and
Speaker 2: it flamed out. The Thunder is obviously the ascending team.
Speaker 2: Minnesota is fighting to be who they were last year.
Speaker 2: They're not quite the here. You know, Houston has inexperienced,
Speaker 2: you know, the the Clippers are are kind of a
Speaker 2: try hard group. You know, we'll see like I mean,
Speaker 2: the Warriors suddenly seem pretty sneaky and dangerous. But you know,
Speaker 2: the Lakers have handled them. They haven't handled this version
Speaker 2: of them. WHI Jimmy Butler. But you know that's that's interesting.
Speaker 2: They feel like there's a crack like I mean, the
Speaker 2: Denver Nuggets certainly to me Saturday's game notwithstanding, I feel
Speaker 2: like a very dangerous team, but not to the not
Speaker 2: to the level that they were. So yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: you can kind of see it like it was. It
Speaker 2: was funny the other day, you know, are Los Angeles'
Speaker 2: favorite son of one of them? Maggie Johnson tweeted something
Speaker 2: like this Lakers team has a chance to make the
Speaker 2: Western Conference Finals, and I was like, whoa magic? Like
Speaker 2: now all of a sudden, you're you're you're off the
Speaker 2: hyperbole on the social media, like like why stop at
Speaker 2: the Western Conference finals with this group? Like like honestly, like,
Speaker 2: if you think this team can win two playoff series,
Speaker 2: then you probably think they can win three. And it
Speaker 2: was surprising to me to see him kind of He's
Speaker 2: usually a pretty excited guy and certainly reactive to the moment,
Speaker 2: and I thought like, this was a moment you could
Speaker 2: really get behind. It's like you watch them just you know,
Speaker 2: beat the pants off of Denver and in a way,
Speaker 2: that it's like, wow, it's kind of all coming together.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So if you look at it like that and
Speaker 1: the stars aligned and they somehow can win the West
Speaker 1: again six weeks ago, this is not a conversation. But
Speaker 1: if they did, now you look forward and who's there,
Speaker 1: Cleveland or Boston I meant to win the whole thing
Speaker 1: or no.
Speaker 2: I mean, we'll see, right, Like, I think those teams
Speaker 2: have both had better seasons than the Lakers, but like, okay,
Speaker 2: let's let's let's put on our tinfoil hats here. If
Speaker 2: you're Adam Silver, you're talking about things like ratings and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, and I hate going down this road,
Speaker 2: but like, think about the storylines between either of those
Speaker 2: two series, Lebron James and Cleveland for an NBA Finals
Speaker 2: in year twenty one, like twenty two, Like that's crazy,
Speaker 2: that's nuts. Or you get Luca getting his first taste
Speaker 2: the Lakers Celtics, you know, you know, yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: it feels like it's all sort of there for this
Speaker 2: to be like a real like historic playoff, you know,
Speaker 2: for the league in general. And I think and I think, look,
Speaker 2: even if it's not the Lakers, I was on I
Speaker 2: was on the herd earlier today, and I said this, like,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, if it's the Thunder like that
Speaker 2: feels like a team that's going to be here for
Speaker 2: a little while, right Like there is a you know,
Speaker 2: if it's the Warriors sort of last stand, it's really
Speaker 2: set up for this West to be to be really interesting.
Speaker 2: And I think there are a lot of teams that
Speaker 2: have pretty good arguments for a place in this I
Speaker 2: think the thing that I would say right to your
Speaker 2: point in the past, you'd really have to squint for
Speaker 2: the Lakers one, you know, and you can be clear
Speaker 2: eight about it. Right now, it's it's like the list
Speaker 2: of things that has to go right for the Lakers
Speaker 2: to make the conference finals or the finals has gotten
Speaker 2: much more attainable, Uh, when you have a player like
Speaker 2: Luka Doncic, because like we just I mean we saw it.
Speaker 2: That's the most mind boggling thing about the trade to
Speaker 2: me is that, like we just saw last year, how
Speaker 2: he can win playoff series. I don't want to say
Speaker 2: single handedly, but by being the dominant player right by
Speaker 2: being the unsolvable problem, like we just saw it. And
Speaker 2: now he's going to enter a postseason with Lebron James.
Speaker 1: All right, nich that's yeah, it is. And I want
Speaker 1: to thank you for continuing on this season with us
Speaker 1: because it makes uh, it warms the cockles of our heart.
Speaker 2: Oh wow. All right, I'm glad you added the hard part.
Speaker 1: All right, Dan, thanks for jumping on. Appreciated, right, take care.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into the Dodgers now. One question.
Speaker 1: Apparently it's spring training. Maybe there is a roster spot
Speaker 1: open for grabs and we'll talk about that next.
Speaker 3: That's right, Rogan and Roddy down the home stretch, two
Speaker 3: hours show today. Sure, sure it spread, Freddy, all right,
Speaker 3: let's talk Dodgers. Let's talk them, okay, and you know,
Speaker 3: everything is rosy. And by the way, for those that say, well,
Speaker 3: you know, what's their exhibition record, who cares?
Speaker 1: The games don't count. It doesn't matter. It's completely irrelevant,
Speaker 1: and they're just trying to work stuff out. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: if they ask you, fred the regular season doesn't count either,
Speaker 1: so well, not really. The playoffs count, but certainly, let
Speaker 1: me put it like this, the regular season counts a
Speaker 1: little more than the play the preseason, right, fair enough? Okay,
Speaker 1: So the only question seemed to be who's going to
Speaker 1: be on the roster the end of the roster. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, they acquired the second basement from Korea Kim
Speaker 1: and everybody said he had a magnificent cloth. Apparently that
Speaker 1: is the case if you look at his highlights on
Speaker 1: YouTube or you talk to the people at Camelback Ranch.
Speaker 1: This guy can play defense and the guy can also run.
Speaker 1: But even when they first signed him, word was he
Speaker 1: didn't have a great bat. Now the Dodger coaches believe
Speaker 1: that they can get him to a point where he's
Speaker 1: going to be a viable big league hitter. But certainly
Speaker 1: from a defensive standpoint, is not even an issue. Rodney.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's like a gold glove guy already. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you've seen him watch and he even
Speaker 3: watched a little bit of highlights, if you've seen spring training,
Speaker 3: he is he is phenomenal with the glove. Yeah, but
Speaker 3: that is the question that was a question before they
Speaker 3: signed him. You know, how would he be at the plate.
Speaker 1: And then of.
Speaker 3: Course there will be an adjustment, you know, going from
Speaker 3: playing in Korea and the face now facing major league pitching.
Speaker 3: That's a big adjustment. So there will be a learning
Speaker 3: curve for him, and you know, we just don't know
Speaker 3: how long that's going to be and how long it's
Speaker 3: going to take him to adjust. It used to be,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, Fred, back in the seventies and eighties,
Speaker 3: in Major League baseball, if you were playing second base
Speaker 3: or shortstop, it didn't really matter a whole lot. You
Speaker 3: didn't have to have a great bat offensively, it was
Speaker 3: it was secondary to your defense. They wanted you to
Speaker 3: be an exceptional defensive shortstop or second baseman. And if
Speaker 3: you you know, if you hit two twenty, that's okay,
Speaker 3: if you're two ten, that's okay. Nowadays you got to
Speaker 3: produce on the offensive side of it. So so we'll see,
Speaker 3: we'll see. I think time will tell. I'm you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's early for him and he's you know, just
Speaker 3: getting his feet wet with the major league pitching.
Speaker 1: So we got to give him some time. The thing is,
Speaker 1: given the fact that he does appear to struggle, and
Speaker 1: that's a decision now that they've made really quickly. They're
Speaker 1: floating around the idea, maybe we start him in triple A,
Speaker 1: you know, let him work on his bat, let him
Speaker 1: get some confidence, let him get up to speed, and
Speaker 1: if that happens, there's your roster spot. Now before you
Speaker 1: go any further, and you go, well, that was stupid
Speaker 1: for him to trade Gavin Lucks, right, because that's the
Speaker 1: first thing you would say is, oh my god, they
Speaker 1: traded Gavin Lucks and this guy can't hit. No, this
Speaker 1: is a long term play, and they believe Gavin lux
Speaker 1: had hit a ceiling here at least. So if that's
Speaker 1: the case, then you know, Okay, now we have an
Speaker 1: opening at second base. So then the question becomes, okay, Rodney,
Speaker 1: what do you do because we know Mookie's gonna play short.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you got options. I mean that's the beauty
Speaker 3: of the Dodgers. You've got a lot of options. I mean,
Speaker 3: Chris Taylor can play second base, Key K can play
Speaker 3: second base. You can move Edmund into second base and
Speaker 3: have Pahz play center field, or Chris Taylor plays center field,
Speaker 3: Key K plays center field. The Dodgers are built this
Speaker 3: way that it doesn't matter. They have options, and they
Speaker 3: have enough guys that can play multiple positions that they're
Speaker 3: insulated against. Someone may that may have a slow start
Speaker 3: or maybe struggling a little bit offensively, they can replace
Speaker 3: that player immediately with guys on that team and on
Speaker 3: that roster. So if he starts in triple A, which
Speaker 3: by the way, might not be a bad thing, just
Speaker 3: to take some pressure off of him and to get
Speaker 3: him as many at bats as possible early in the season,
Speaker 3: because at some point I think he will be you know, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, an important piece to this Dodger team. But
Speaker 3: but there's no, there's nothing wrong with him starting in
Speaker 3: triple A. And because if he's he's with the big club,
Speaker 3: you know, he probably won't play every day, you know,
Speaker 3: and so he's not going to get the number of
Speaker 3: a vats that he would get in triple A. So
Speaker 3: go down there, get as many as the bats as
Speaker 3: you can, get comfortable, and then bring him up slowly.
Speaker 1: So that means who who's on, who's in, who's not
Speaker 1: going anywhere? So the name, I think, and we'll have
Speaker 1: David vass On by the end of the week. How
Speaker 1: about it. When Rosario m obviously a big league guy
Speaker 1: and he's played for the Dodgers, and when he did,
Speaker 1: he looked pretty good. He's kicked around his little bit,
Speaker 1: but at one yeah, he's having and he's having a
Speaker 1: good spring. Yeah, could that be the guy if they
Speaker 1: start Kim and the miners, and if they had him
Speaker 1: on the roster, I have to tell you I think
Speaker 1: he would play, because you're right in Rosario. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think they're gonna put him on
Speaker 1: the roster and let him sit there and Wan. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the other thing. Do you how you know.
Speaker 3: How much are you going to use Chris Taylor? Say
Speaker 3: Kim does go down? You know what what is that?
Speaker 3: How often are you going to use Chris Taylor? You're
Speaker 3: going to give him reps the kid to see if
Speaker 3: he can get back to form that he had a
Speaker 3: couple of years ago. Are you gonna let Key k
Speaker 3: be a regular second basement if you put Kim down?
Speaker 3: Or are you going to go with what I said?
Speaker 3: You know, move Edmunds into the infield and now you've
Speaker 3: got your outfield and you allow Pahz to continue to
Speaker 3: grow at center field. They've got a lot of choices,
Speaker 3: a lot of options, and it's a good problem to have,
Speaker 3: but sometimes it can keep you up at night.
Speaker 1: It's like, what do we do?
Speaker 3: You know we have we brought in Rosario, He's proven
Speaker 3: he could be effective in Major League World Series MVP
Speaker 3: and we got to play him, you know, and so it's, uh,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be tough, but but you know, again, it's
Speaker 3: a good problem to have.
Speaker 1: It just seems to me, who's gonna play second base?
Speaker 1: It's that simple, because I don't think anybody's moving. I
Speaker 1: don't think at the beginning of the year they're gonna
Speaker 1: start putting Mounsie at second and somebody at third, just
Speaker 1: moving guys around.
Speaker 3: No, No, I don't think so either. I don't think
Speaker 3: I think Munsey is your third baseman. I I see
Speaker 3: it it shifting probably with key k If if that
Speaker 3: doesn't work, I could see them bringing Edmund in and
Speaker 3: having him play second base.
Speaker 1: That opens up the outfield.
Speaker 3: So if they decide, okay, we're gonna we're gonna put
Speaker 3: Kim and start him in triple A and and start
Speaker 3: working Tommy Edmond at at second base, and then does
Speaker 3: that open the door for Pies and outman to kind
Speaker 3: kind of have a shot again because the outfield spot
Speaker 3: is open at center field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's what it is. When you determine
Speaker 1: who's going to play second base or how you're going
Speaker 1: to approach that. If Kim has sent them, then you know,
Speaker 1: what they're looking for, you know, the guy that they
Speaker 1: would look for. I still think given the spring Rosario
Speaker 1: seems to be having I think that's the guy they
Speaker 1: would keep. I mean, they have options on Pae as
Speaker 1: an outman, and somebody will get hurt during the year
Speaker 1: and those guys will come up, at least one of them.
Speaker 1: But if Rozario's actually hitting the ball and playing well
Speaker 1: and a veteran and a guy who's been there, I
Speaker 1: can't see why they wouldn't just just put him on
Speaker 1: the roster. Yeah. Yeah, we can't forget though. You know.
Speaker 3: The guy that can play multiple positions is Meggi Rote.
Speaker 3: You know, if they need somebody to kind of hold
Speaker 3: down second base for you know, a month, month or
Speaker 3: two or whatever, and they're concerned about defensively, Meggi wrote.
Speaker 1: Can he play second base?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he could play second base. He played some.
Speaker 3: He played some third base for him last year. But
Speaker 3: it's certainly he's a tremendous short stole, but definitely he
Speaker 3: can play second base.
Speaker 1: All right. So that's what's going on with the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody's been trying to manufacture stories about, oh,
Speaker 1: are they as good as they say, and do they
Speaker 1: have enough pitching? Really, there's not a lot you can
Speaker 1: say about him till the season starts. Yeah, well it's
Speaker 1: still some rust, right.
Speaker 3: Look, Uh, you know, you know my man, Blake Snell
Speaker 3: came in and and you know, he's gonna do what
Speaker 3: he's gonna do. He's gonna be, He's gonna be. It's
Speaker 3: gonna be many nice You watched Blake Snell pitch. He's
Speaker 3: gonna be unhittable, uh, for for for most hitters. And
Speaker 3: in fact, I think it's it's in his first start,
Speaker 3: I think he had everybody oh to at one point
Speaker 3: he walked one or two guys. But uh, and then
Speaker 3: you know we're gonna have to see what Suzaki too,
Speaker 3: fred Uh, see how he he shapes up. He's gonna
Speaker 3: it's gonna be a learning curve for him as well
Speaker 3: to face major league pitching. I think he struggled a
Speaker 3: little bit as well.
Speaker 1: He has. I think it's going to be a bigger
Speaker 1: learning curve for him than it was for Yamamoto. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Yamamoto is still learning. Yeah. I think it'll be
Speaker 1: a little bigger learning curve for him. I don't see
Speaker 1: him come out in uh, in Tokyo and no hit
Speaker 1: the cops, although it would be great, but I don't
Speaker 1: think that's gonna happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's he's still got to learn, you know. Again,
Speaker 3: he's still got to learn and transition to to baseball
Speaker 3: over here, and it's going to take some time. And
Speaker 3: you know, I know they were helping them, trying to
Speaker 3: develop and you know, another pitch and being confident with that.
Speaker 3: He's certainly got great stuff, but it's going to You know,
Speaker 3: when a guy has great stuff and he's got a
Speaker 3: great splitter and above average fastball, sometimes you rely on that.
Speaker 3: You rely on it a lot, and you get away
Speaker 3: with it in certain situations. And he probably got away
Speaker 3: with it a lot in Japan. Guys over here are
Speaker 3: gonna make you pay. They make you pay, and if
Speaker 3: you don't have more than two pitches, then they really
Speaker 3: will make you pay.
Speaker 1: All right, Yankees made a decision long overdue, Highdad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to that. Yeah, Freddy, Come on, what
Speaker 1: you got, Freddie? What you're doing? Nothing? Sucking at something?
Speaker 1: Stop it? Ronnie?
Speaker 3: Only if you could hear what Ronnie said in my ear,
Speaker 3: Stop it, Ronnie. Don't you dare You're probably true though.
Speaker 1: Whatever. I don't know what you guys are saying, but
Speaker 1: maybe it is. Now I'm watching some video somebody shot
Speaker 1: here at the station this morning. That's all. That's all
Speaker 1: I'm doing. It's funny. Okay, before we get out of here,
Speaker 1: and because we haven't been on and our schedule has
Speaker 1: been kind of wait wait, wait for it real quick?
Speaker 3: Are you are you still he's still busting the bad
Speaker 3: guys out there, cracking down on Rodney.
Speaker 1: We don't have enough time.
Speaker 2: You get the mayor impeached out there or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is on it. You know what, when we
Speaker 1: have more time, I'll tell you the story about the
Speaker 1: guy that came in and brought like his bodyguard enforce
Speaker 1: or to intimidate me. I'll tell you that story. Why
Speaker 1: is that doesn't even surprise me. I just could see
Speaker 1: that happening.
Speaker 3: Rubbed somebody the wrong way so much that they came
Speaker 3: in with the body guy.
Speaker 1: We don't have time, all right, we'll do it real
Speaker 1: fast anyway, listen, I'll tell the story. The Yankees are
Speaker 1: letting people have facial hair now. There. Devin Williams, when
Speaker 1: he was acquired by the Yankees from Milwaukee, went in
Speaker 1: and said, I want to keep my beard, and of
Speaker 1: course they had this ancient rule that you couldn't have
Speaker 1: any facial hair. Now they're allowing you to keep fatial.
Speaker 2: It has to be a well groomed beard. By the way,
Speaker 2: we can't come in look like old school Johnny Damon.
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure you point that out. No,
Speaker 1: you can't do that. That's fair, but you have to
Speaker 1: have a well groomed beard. I will talk more about it,
Speaker 1: because now you want me to tell you this story
Speaker 1: real quick before we get off the air, please. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I antagonize people all the time, all the time, and
Speaker 1: they don't know how I find out the information I
Speaker 1: find out, So it's kind of funny. Actually. So I
Speaker 1: did this story about some money that was being spent
Speaker 1: by one of the city councils out here, and I
Speaker 1: pointed out that, my god, this one company seems to
Speaker 1: get a lot of money from the city council, a
Speaker 1: lot of money from the city. So I looked at
Speaker 1: the company's website and it's basically nothing. They're like a
Speaker 1: consulting in PR firm, but they have no clients. And
Speaker 1: it just so turns out that the mother of the
Speaker 1: person that owns the consulting company has been involved with
Speaker 1: the city political for years and worked on their campaigns.
Speaker 1: So what does that mean. It's like one time this
Speaker 1: guy bid for a job and somebody else bid for it. It
Speaker 1: was the exact same job. The other people came in
Speaker 1: seventy five percent lesson, they still gave it to that guy,
Speaker 1: And that's misuse of public funds. I mean, that's how
Speaker 1: it works. So anyway, I'm telling the story on the air,
Speaker 1: and I actually mentioned his company and he calls me.
Speaker 1: He's very upset, very upset. He wants to defend himself.
Speaker 1: He said, we put a stain on his family's name.
Speaker 1: I said, well, come on in, come on in, we
Speaker 1: have an open seat for you. Come on in here.
Speaker 1: So the guy walks in and he's probably in his
Speaker 1: late forties and very nervous by the way, when he
Speaker 1: gets here, and he shows up with this guy who's
Speaker 1: probably thirty years old, built like a block of granite,
Speaker 1: and came out of the movie Sprockets. And there's no
Speaker 1: question in my mind that this guy, you know, is
Speaker 1: somebody that they employed to go out and kick somebody's
Speaker 1: ass if need be. So this guy walks in and
Speaker 1: he brings this person with him and I said, well,
Speaker 1: who's that and he says, well, he's a consultant. I said,
Speaker 1: you're a consultant. What do you consult on? And he
Speaker 1: goes data processing. I said, you're a consultant in data processing,
Speaker 1: but you came to this meeting because yes? I said,
Speaker 1: well what else do you do? He goes, well, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, I do it really well. And he gives
Speaker 1: me this really dirty look, like you better watch yourself, brother,
Speaker 1: You better watch yourself. I'm thinking, what is this? Where
Speaker 1: am I? What is with these people? You better watch yourself, buddy,
Speaker 1: you better watch That was exactly what you better watch yourself.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I'm talking now to the guy before we
Speaker 1: go on the air, and the guy is like terrified,
Speaker 1: And I said to him, look at me. I'm the
Speaker 1: most non threatening person you'll ever meet in your life.
Speaker 1: What are you concerned about? He goes, my family's here,
Speaker 1: my friends are here, I live here. Everybody here knows me.
Speaker 1: And if you even make any kind of reference to
Speaker 1: any wrongdoing, you have to understand what will happen and
Speaker 1: what will happen to me. I'm like, easy, easy, I said,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you a solid I'll just loby softballs tonight.
Speaker 1: The way this works out here, if you upset a
Speaker 1: certain group of people, they have people follow you home
Speaker 1: and drive up and down the street, or they call you.
Speaker 1: They wake people up at three in the morning and
Speaker 1: hang up to try to scare them. I know a
Speaker 1: woman and she actually died recently, but she was someone
Speaker 1: that used to feed me stuff. She got under the
Speaker 1: skin of people so badly that they called her and said,
Speaker 1: we want to have a one on one meeting with you.
Speaker 1: This group of people, we want to have a one
Speaker 1: on one group of meeting with you. And she goes,
Speaker 1: I'm not really comfortable with that, and no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're going to have a meeting. It's going to be
Speaker 1: at midnight in the desert. Oh my god, midnight in
Speaker 1: the desert. I'm telling you. It's like she said, she
Speaker 1: said to me, they were going to kill me. Then
Speaker 1: I went on, where am I? What do you mean
Speaker 1: they were going to kill you? And that s what
Speaker 1: they were.
Speaker 3: Well, Joe Petcy was going to walk around the corner
Speaker 3: and you can't imagine what in the world is going on?
Speaker 1: What are you doing out there? Frett you know how
Speaker 1: I am in the show every night now, making new
Speaker 1: friends every day. I bet you are all right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: tomorrow on standby for the Dodgers full show on Friday. Ronnie,
Speaker 1: thank you, Kevin, thank you. Rodney talked to either tomorrow
Speaker 1: or Friday.