Speaker 1: All right, we continue on Fred Rogan, Rodney Pete on
Speaker 1: I SEV of the LA Sports. Later on this hour,
Speaker 1: Dylan Hernandez at the LA Times joins the show. He's
Speaker 1: always got something to say. We'll see if there are
Speaker 1: any any casualties when he's on today, because a lot
Speaker 1: of people take in coming when Dylan's on, so we'll
Speaker 1: find out if that works. Also, don't forget if you
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Speaker 1: As the Dodgers open preseason play tomorrow against the Cubs,
Speaker 1: you'll hear it right here in the radio station starting
Speaker 1: at noon. The team is in place, our broadcasting team
Speaker 1: is in place as well, So be with us at
Speaker 1: noon tomorrow. Major League Baseball this spring training is going
Speaker 1: to try something and it's basically the computerized strike zone.
Speaker 1: So now they're going to bring it into spring training.
Speaker 1: But here's the way it's going to work. It's not
Speaker 1: going to call balls and strikes for every pitch they've
Speaker 1: been doing in the minors. What's going to happen is
Speaker 1: you can challenge a ball or a strike. You can
Speaker 1: challenge that. Now, if you challenge that, they will go
Speaker 1: to the automated strike zone to make the determination. You
Speaker 1: have a total of two challenges. If you challenge and
Speaker 1: your challenge is upheld, you keep it. But if it's denied,
Speaker 1: if you missed, if you're goofed, you'll lose it and
Speaker 1: you only get two. So let's start with that. Rodney,
Speaker 1: what do you think of that? I kind of actually
Speaker 1: like the challenge aspect of it. That way it keeps
Speaker 1: it keeps the umpires and involvement involves and strikes. It
Speaker 1: allows the catchers to still be involved in being a
Speaker 1: catcher because part of being a catcher is maneuvering behind
Speaker 1: the plate, framing pitches, catching pitches, location, all of those things.
Speaker 2: So I think that is that is a good thing,
Speaker 2: and and that you you know, you only get a
Speaker 2: number of challenges. You know, you don't want to see,
Speaker 2: you know, teams that that that don't like a certain
Speaker 2: umpire or teams that are just trying to waste time
Speaker 2: out that they're challenging every single pitch. So there's got
Speaker 2: to be a limited number to that. So I don't
Speaker 2: actually think I like the format. I think that eventually,
Speaker 2: if they utilize this, that the challenge will challenges will
Speaker 2: be a little bit more than two because there are
Speaker 2: gonna be some close calls and some close situations that
Speaker 2: guys challenge and all of a sudden they become you
Speaker 2: think it's a striking, it's a it's a barely a ball,
Speaker 2: and you lose that challenge and you can challenge anymore.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you have to be strategic, but I think
Speaker 2: it gets more than two. But I do if we're
Speaker 2: going to use the system, I kind of like using
Speaker 2: it this way then every ball and strike being automated.
Speaker 3: One thing too, that I'm not sure if people are
Speaker 3: aware of the umpire can basically choose not to go
Speaker 3: to the ABS system if they determine that there's influence
Speaker 3: on the batter, So basically the challenge only comes from
Speaker 3: the batter. They cannot get influenced from the dugout. They
Speaker 3: can't have the manager say oh, come on, and then
Speaker 3: the batter says, yeah, challenge it. It's strictly up to
Speaker 3: the batter, and if the umpire.
Speaker 1: And momentarily right, it's right, immediately right, instantaneously.
Speaker 3: Yes, they cannot have any influence from any other player.
Speaker 3: And if the umpire deems there's influence from another player,
Speaker 3: they can choose not to grant you a challenge.
Speaker 1: Is that the same with the picture. Does the picture
Speaker 1: get the challenge? I don't think the hitter, I'm not entred.
Speaker 4: I don't think so. I think it's just the hitter
Speaker 4: so wrong.
Speaker 1: Pictures too, Pictures get to tap their hat or di something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, it goes both ways, Ridney, You're right,
Speaker 3: it goes both ways. But you cannot have any influence
Speaker 3: from any other outside source other than the actual player
Speaker 3: themselves on the field.
Speaker 1: All right. So if the pitch is in the dirt
Speaker 1: and the umpire calls it a strike and Dave Roberts
Speaker 1: or the Dodger bench goes, oh, you can't challenge that.
Speaker 3: If the umpire teams that you influence the bat or
Speaker 3: into saying they want to challenge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I gotta be He's got to be direct
Speaker 2: right away to the umpire. He got challenge that, right,
Speaker 2: And it's got to be almost simultaneous, is he because
Speaker 2: if he looks at the dugout and go, oh, challenge that,
Speaker 2: they don't know that. But if he deems that happened simultaneously,
Speaker 2: like everybody went up in arms about the pitch, including
Speaker 2: the hitter, then he can say you were you did
Speaker 2: it instantaneously. They just don't want him to pause, look
Speaker 2: at look at Dave Roberts and go okay, I want
Speaker 2: to challenge.
Speaker 4: Correct. That's what they want to guard against.
Speaker 1: I don't like that. I think if you're gonna chat look,
Speaker 1: obviously you don't have forty seconds to challenge it. But
Speaker 1: if you, if you aren't sure, or somebody goes hey,
Speaker 1: you should be able to challenge it. You should be
Speaker 1: able to challenge that. Or what did you say before, Rodney,
Speaker 1: when we talked about this like a month and a
Speaker 1: half ago, you just yell out, challenge, challenge somebody else,
Speaker 1: have challenge from somewhere, challenge right, if it's Dave Roberts,
Speaker 1: it's challenge done. That's what I'm saying but in any event, because.
Speaker 2: Because they want a kid been into player's hands, right,
Speaker 2: they want to make sure that there's because there's there's video,
Speaker 2: there's live feeds, there's all kinds of stuff that you
Speaker 2: may see. They don't want to they don't want that
Speaker 2: the influence if you're a hit up there, you know,
Speaker 2: if you feel if it's a ball or strike, then
Speaker 2: you're the one that's got to make that decision.
Speaker 3: Now, it can hurt that challenge, right as as a player,
Speaker 3: their owners falls on your shoulders because if you say
Speaker 3: that you want to challenge it and it doesn't go
Speaker 3: when it's against you, you're affecting the team moving forward, right,
Speaker 3: So it's people don't just frivolously say challenge that, you
Speaker 3: know what some guys might be apt to do. So
Speaker 3: it actually it adds a little bit of accountability on
Speaker 3: the players part, Like I can hurt the team if
Speaker 3: I try to have a challenge and I know them
Speaker 3: a heart of hearts, that's not a strike or it's
Speaker 3: not a ball or whatever.
Speaker 5: Right, But ye, some guy may want to challenge when
Speaker 5: he's up, when he's up three and oh, three and
Speaker 5: oh on the college, it's a questionable strike and he
Speaker 5: challenge it's three and oh I'm gonna be three and one?
Speaker 1: Why are you challenging? Right? But that's no one to
Speaker 1: four fisty walk. But here's the thing, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? What if you blow out your challenges in
Speaker 1: the first two winnings, No way. So obviously you have
Speaker 1: to hold onto your challenge so it manners. So what
Speaker 1: are they telling them the dugout, no challenge before the
Speaker 1: seventh inning? They might if you can challenge your challenge,
Speaker 1: That's how I look at it. I'm not saying you
Speaker 1: should have one hundred of them, but if somebody in
Speaker 1: the dugout, you know, see something, they should be able
Speaker 1: to yield challenge. And I like that system of just
Speaker 1: yelling it. Don't throw a red flag or anything, just
Speaker 1: yell challenge and that's it. You got to look at it.
Speaker 1: But then they're going to go to the automated strike
Speaker 1: zone to determine it. So the automated strike zone apparently
Speaker 1: will do a better job. And because of that, this
Speaker 1: is going to happen. And this is the thing. And
Speaker 1: if you're a fan, you're not gonna like this very
Speaker 1: much because it's not made for TV. They're gonna get
Speaker 1: rid of, or at least they're thinking of getting rid
Speaker 1: of the k zone, which is the box that you
Speaker 1: see when it batter's up at the plate when you
Speaker 1: can make a determination. Well that pictures two feet outside
Speaker 1: he called a strike. Here's why they're going to get
Speaker 1: rid of it, because they're saying, the box isn't always right,
Speaker 1: but the empire is. Think about that. The box isn't
Speaker 1: always right, but the umpire is. So when we switch
Speaker 1: to the automated strike zone, there can be no question
Speaker 1: about that. So we won't have that box anymore because
Speaker 1: major League Baseball is handling the strike zone, So that
Speaker 1: box will be gone and then it'll just be up
Speaker 1: to the umpire or the computer.
Speaker 2: What do you think of that plan? Ride getting rid
Speaker 2: of it altogether, getting rid of the box. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: understand it, because it's not Major League Baseball system, right,
Speaker 2: it's the network system. So major League Baseball, I get it.
Speaker 2: They don't want to have conflicts with their own system.
Speaker 2: If they're going to implement this and their system is
Speaker 2: contradicts what the networks have, then that's a problem. If
Speaker 2: we're going to use a system, it's going to be
Speaker 2: our system and that's what major League Baseball is saying.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 2: So that's what's gonna happen, and that okay with it.
Speaker 2: Because you're a big box guy. You like that box.
Speaker 2: You're a big box guy. You like it adds to
Speaker 2: the broadcast. Anything that adds to the broadcast is a
Speaker 2: good thing. More tools, more gadgets, more gimmicks. It's good
Speaker 2: the majority of time it's good. The only time it
Speaker 2: was bad is when, for whatever reason, the people that
Speaker 2: operated at that time Fox Sports West that became Ballys,
Speaker 2: that became Fan Duel. Anyway, it's the same production group.
Speaker 2: They decided to be great to draw lines on the
Speaker 2: ice watching the puck passed around.
Speaker 4: Oh the blue puck, that's right.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even the blue puck, Kevin.
Speaker 3: So that that's when Fox, I think Big Fox actually
Speaker 3: got the NHL package and they put that on nationally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, later on the regional broadcast. What they did just
Speaker 1: think of a guy skating to the right and passing
Speaker 1: the puck. There'd be like a line on the ice
Speaker 1: following the puck, and then he'd passed it across and
Speaker 1: there'd be another line. It was the most confusing, awful idea.
Speaker 1: I don't know who had that idea, but it was
Speaker 1: terrible and they did it for like two games. And
Speaker 1: you know, whoever came up with the thoughts, see it
Speaker 1: works until everybody looked at it and said, that is
Speaker 1: the worst thing we've ever seen. But what they did
Speaker 1: do is pay them money to make that happen. That
Speaker 1: was a bad idea. That was a terrible idea. But
Speaker 1: the box is a good idea. I mean, it lets
Speaker 1: you stay really invested in every pitch. If you're just
Speaker 1: watching at home, every pitch, you're invested because remember their
Speaker 1: TV shows, I understand their games, their TV shows all
Speaker 1: are you do you think this is this.
Speaker 2: Information that we got coming out of here with with
Speaker 2: abs and all that is trying is a way to
Speaker 2: or Baseball to discredit that box that we've seen for
Speaker 2: a number of years. Now, say don't trust that box.
Speaker 2: What you've been seeing over the years. You know people
Speaker 2: like you that are proponents of that box, because we
Speaker 2: shouldn't know more than the than the people there. But yeah,
Speaker 2: that box is not always right, it's not always correct.
Speaker 2: So you know, the credibility of that box is just
Speaker 2: don't believe it.
Speaker 1: What you've been seeing over the years is not really accurate.
Speaker 1: I think that's exactly what's happening. I think the empires
Speaker 1: have been complaining. I think I think the Empire's union
Speaker 1: is upset. They look bad. I mean they look bad.
Speaker 1: When the ball is a foot outside and the guy
Speaker 1: calls it a strike and it's clear that it's not
Speaker 1: even close to the box, they look bad. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, since the inception of the box, the
Speaker 1: umpires behind the plate have really been getting it bad
Speaker 1: because we're judging your work. There is a report card,
Speaker 1: and if you're working the plate, you're getting a lot
Speaker 1: of grains, and they're not writing out a curve. You're
Speaker 1: getting a lot of grains. If you're working the bases,
Speaker 1: you might be tested twice. Okay, you got two shots
Speaker 1: to make an A. But behind the plate, when every
Speaker 1: pitch in theory counts, you have over one hundred chances
Speaker 1: to make an A. Well, nobody gets straight a's one
Speaker 1: hundred times in a row all the time. So then
Speaker 1: it comes down to, Okay, if it's not an A,
Speaker 1: what is it? And then if the ball bounces, then
Speaker 1: they call it a strike. It's you know, it's outside
Speaker 1: the box. But maybe it was close to the bottom
Speaker 1: of the strike zone, and the guy calls it a strike.
Speaker 1: We can all see that you failed. That's an f
Speaker 1: and nobody wants f's. We want all a's. So I
Speaker 1: do think that they're taking that box away because I
Speaker 1: think the umpires are complained about it. I think when
Speaker 1: they start and umpires have said it, and Rodney you said,
Speaker 1: some players have said it, that box isn't always accurate.
Speaker 1: Could we make the argument it's pretty damn close. Can
Speaker 1: we make that argument? Oh, if something that is so
Speaker 1: egregious that it's not even remotely near the box, it's
Speaker 1: still close enough we can still see it. And if
Speaker 1: the Empire misses the call, I think that really frustrates
Speaker 1: them and upsets them, and I think it makes their
Speaker 1: job harder. It's like, why are you looking at me
Speaker 1: so closely? Why look at me? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Do you think that they're judged on that box as
Speaker 2: opposed to, you know, major League Baseball looking at them
Speaker 2: objectively from another situation, as opposed to looking at it
Speaker 2: through that box. And we counted thirteen times that you
Speaker 2: called the wrong pitch. You called it a ball when
Speaker 2: it was a strike, and you called it a strike.
Speaker 2: When it was a ball thirteen times in the course
Speaker 2: of nine innings, you missed the call based on that box,
Speaker 2: or they got their own system it says based on abs,
Speaker 2: you only miss seven.
Speaker 1: Here's what I think. Box opens up more questions. If
Speaker 1: there's no box, then everything they do is internal. Everything
Speaker 1: they do is which is what they want right in
Speaker 1: the league office, right. They don't want you sitting there
Speaker 1: going these guys are terrible. They don't want that. And
Speaker 1: by the way, they don't want to be terrible. And
Speaker 1: there's a good possibility that it's always been this way.
Speaker 1: I mean, when Angel Hernandez was missing pitches, go ahead, Rodney.
Speaker 2: When Angel was missing pitches, and it happened quite often,
Speaker 2: Angel missing pitches, and he subsequently retired. But I would
Speaker 2: imagine that there are more people watching the box when
Speaker 2: Angel was behind the plate than ever was before, just
Speaker 2: because people were waiting to see how many pitches he
Speaker 2: was gonna miss. When Angel was missing pitches, and it
Speaker 2: was abundantly clearer was it the box or Angel?
Speaker 1: It was Angel? The box dotted the exclamation point. I
Speaker 1: just think it's a great thing for the game. I
Speaker 1: think it's good for baseball. I think it keeps fans
Speaker 1: more engaged. But but if they went to the automated
Speaker 1: strike zone the whole time, I would have a problem
Speaker 1: with it the whole time, not the challenge the whole time.
Speaker 2: Like you could challenge as many times as you want to,
Speaker 2: or just have the automatic strike zone call the strikes
Speaker 2: and balls. Just have the automatic strike umpire. There's no
Speaker 2: challenge or anything. It's just an automatic strikes. How would
Speaker 2: that work? They would get a click click click twice
Speaker 2: for a ball, click once for a strike. Somebody umpire's
Speaker 2: ear right?
Speaker 1: You would you would probably want you're right, the umpire
Speaker 1: to call it, so they'd have a system. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even have that. What I would do? Call
Speaker 1: it you ready, here's the pit Yeah, scoreboard strike, just
Speaker 1: like that. The scoreboard calls it right, the scoreboard strike,
Speaker 1: It's recorded. That's what I would do.
Speaker 3: So would you have like the hometown announcer go even
Speaker 3: you know, a wild over opposing player striking out. You
Speaker 3: want like Todd lights to be like when a guy
Speaker 3: gets wrung up? Is that what you want? Over the
Speaker 3: speaker at Dodger Stadium Todd with his big booming voice,
Speaker 3: is that what you want?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, is that what you want? Fred? To be honest,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind it.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you would. I'll say that's all, that's exactly
Speaker 4: what Fred wants.
Speaker 1: But the cares. But then for the Dodgers, strike out even,
Speaker 1: strike three.
Speaker 4: Strike three, right three now.
Speaker 1: Batting and Manny Machadle strikes out.
Speaker 2: A seating money, don't you see that?
Speaker 3: Living at the game, that would be I will say, Fred,
Speaker 3: I hate your ideas. Like ninety of the time, I'm
Speaker 3: actually liking this one. They think that'd be fun, It
Speaker 3: would be hilarious.
Speaker 1: People would get so into it. They get so into it.
Speaker 3: That's what we need, I mean, because it's really no
Speaker 3: different than at an NBA game.
Speaker 4: If you know, Lebron makes it three, Lebron James.
Speaker 3: And if Steph makes it three at Staples, it's just
Speaker 3: Jo Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: I don't call Lebron bricked it.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 1: Yes, they don't say that the guy strikes out, that's
Speaker 1: a bad thing. Strike three. It has to be at
Speaker 1: here piece in the umpire's ear. There has to be
Speaker 1: something in that.
Speaker 4: That's the original model. Rodney.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would be after word, automated, fully automated zone,
Speaker 3: the umpire will still be back there. If the umpire
Speaker 3: will get a buzz or something in their ear that
Speaker 3: would tell them whether it's a ball or strike, and
Speaker 3: they would call it to try to keep some level
Speaker 3: of normalcy for themselves and for all the players on
Speaker 3: the field.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, can we shift to something real quick here,
Speaker 1: real quick? Sure? So? P K. Souban played in the
Speaker 1: National Hockey League and he's not an analyst for ESPN
Speaker 1: on their NHL coverage, and it was talking about the
Speaker 1: difference between the NHL All Star Game and the NBA
Speaker 1: All Star Game and the mindset. Listen to them.
Speaker 6: Hockey's a different sport from the NBA. You can't compare
Speaker 6: the cultures because of the way the game is played.
Speaker 6: You can step on an NBA floor and go through
Speaker 6: the emotions. You can't do that in hockey. You can't
Speaker 6: like the culture of our sport. You have to play
Speaker 6: it with passion. You have to be willing to fight,
Speaker 6: you have to be willing to leave it on the ice.
Speaker 6: That's what fans are investing in. So for us, when
Speaker 6: we charge fifteen hundred dollars for a ticket to come
Speaker 6: to Fortit, fans know what they're getting cal mccarr, the
Speaker 6: best defenseman in the world, wasn't in the lineup for
Speaker 6: this game. This was the most viewed game that we've had.
Speaker 1: In years, and you see it. It's because it's.
Speaker 6: Not just based on the skill and talent, it's based
Speaker 6: on the pride. I got a question for the NBA players,
Speaker 6: what the hell are you playing for? What are you
Speaker 6: playing for? It's not about the money. You make all
Speaker 6: the money. What you're injured. Well, there's a difference between
Speaker 6: being hurt and injured.
Speaker 1: In hockey. We play hurt. That is the.
Speaker 6: Culture of the sport. It's always been that way. You
Speaker 6: got to fight sometimes for your country. You got to compete.
Speaker 6: You got to go out there and leave it on
Speaker 6: the ice because those people are paying the price of admission,
Speaker 6: so fans know whether our stars are on the ice
Speaker 6: or not. They're getting their money's worth. The NBA has
Speaker 6: that issue that they got to work on. You got
Speaker 6: to create a better culture for your players.
Speaker 1: It starts with the leaders. This issue.
Speaker 6: There was no issue in Jordan was around, there was
Speaker 6: no issue in Kobe was around. There's no issue in
Speaker 6: Sydney Crosby's around. There's no issue in Wayne Gretzky was around,
Speaker 6: because those are true leaders. They lead by example, Sidney
Speaker 6: Crosby Hockey Canada, those players both Canada and US. It
Speaker 6: was the players that did that for the four nations.
Speaker 1: That's not the league.
Speaker 6: The league set it up, but the players went out
Speaker 6: there and decided and said.
Speaker 1: You know what, boys, we're all in.
Speaker 6: You gotta be on the court, you gotta be there,
Speaker 6: and when you're there, you gotta go all in. The
Speaker 6: fans got to feel that they're getting their money's worth,
Speaker 6: and right now there's a big difference between what the
Speaker 6: NHL's doing with those events and what the NBA is doing.
Speaker 1: All right, Rodney, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think there's something to definitely what he says,
Speaker 2: and I would agree to this point that you can't
Speaker 2: half ass hockey because hockey's a physical sport and if
Speaker 2: you half asked, you will get hurt. Same thing with football.
Speaker 2: You can't go out and foot ball and go halfway.
Speaker 2: If you're playing and you're in there and you're trying
Speaker 2: to dog it or you're going half, you're gonna get hurt.
Speaker 2: Somebody's gonna hit you and knock you out. So you
Speaker 2: don't you can't half asset when you go between your lines.
Speaker 2: Basketball different story, because you don't have to necessarily play defense,
Speaker 2: you can kind of let up a little bit.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's.
Speaker 2: Talking about the four Nations tournaments versus you know, regular
Speaker 2: season hockey games and regular season NBA games. If he's
Speaker 2: talking to four Nations versus what we saw from the
Speaker 2: NBA All Start, that's a different that's a different animal.
Speaker 2: As I said before, you're playing for your country. It's
Speaker 2: more like Olympics, the hockey, the four nation hockey deal,
Speaker 2: then the All Star Game, playing you know, against your
Speaker 2: peers that you're not trying to get hurt and there's
Speaker 2: a buddy system going on if you're playing against If
Speaker 2: USA's playing against Spain and France and Serbia and a
Speaker 2: four Nations basketball tournament, trust me, they play a little
Speaker 2: bit harder than they played in the NBA All Star Game,
Speaker 2: if it was if it was set up that way
Speaker 2: as the NBA Four Nations. Uh, they play a little
Speaker 2: bit harder. So that I disagree with and and but
Speaker 2: I also disagree with if if guys what we don't
Speaker 2: see in the NBA as guys playing every game, which
Speaker 2: is true but if you're going to a Golden State
Speaker 2: game and Steph Curry is playing, you're getting Steph Curry.
Speaker 2: Am I right or wrong? You're not getting half as
Speaker 2: Steph Curry. If he's on the court, you're getting Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: So this is where I disagree.
Speaker 2: If you go, if Lebron happens to play and not
Speaker 2: holding a cup of coffee like he did for you,
Speaker 2: Fred or glass of wine, come in with a Starbucks cuff.
Speaker 2: If he's actually on the court, he's playing, you're getting Lebron.
Speaker 1: That's absolutely fair.
Speaker 2: So in that point I disagree with him that they
Speaker 2: bring it every night because the one thing that the
Speaker 2: that the NBA players don't do is play hurt enough
Speaker 2: like hockey players and football players probably do, and they
Speaker 2: don't play every night that they're available.
Speaker 1: They will sit.
Speaker 2: So a fan coming to the arena thinking they're gonna
Speaker 2: see Kawhi Leonard or Lebron James go at it. They
Speaker 2: may not. But if they're on the court playing, they're
Speaker 2: gonna play. That's fair browin fans.
Speaker 1: Your number three ranked women's basketball team returns to Pauli
Speaker 1: presented by Westcom this Thursday. They face number twenty five
Speaker 1: ranked Illinois for the annual Play for K game at
Speaker 1: six thirty. Visit UCLA Bruins dot com slash tickets for
Speaker 1: more information. All right, when't we come back? Dylan Hernandez
Speaker 1: of The Times will join us. He has been in
Speaker 1: spring training with the Dodgers. All right, Fred rug and
Speaker 1: Rodney Pete and five seventy LA Sports. Dodgers open spring
Speaker 1: training tomorrow. The games at noon right here on the
Speaker 1: radio station against the Cubs. Yamamoto will start for the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: and a man who has been with the Dodgers at
Speaker 1: Camelback Ranch in Glendale is Dylan Hernandez of The Times,
Speaker 1: and he joins us now, and Dylan, thank you for
Speaker 1: jumping on.
Speaker 7: Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1: I don't know why you have to start with these
Speaker 1: guys could win one hundred and twenty games. I don't
Speaker 1: know why you had to do that. Why That's what
Speaker 1: I said, Why did you have to start that, Dylan?
Speaker 7: Because I looked at the team and I'm like, how
Speaker 7: are these guys gonna lose more than what would it be?
Speaker 7: Forty two games? You know, It's not just that they're
Speaker 7: like stacked in like one area. Right to me, what's
Speaker 7: kind of scary if I'm another team, is you know,
Speaker 7: because usually these attempts at putting together super teams. Sure,
Speaker 7: you might have a great lineup, you might have a
Speaker 7: great rotation, you know, but maybe you don't have a
Speaker 7: good bullpen or something.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: The fact that they even put like one hundred million
Speaker 7: dollar into their bullpen on top of everything else that
Speaker 7: they've done, this is a team that's gonna have you know,
Speaker 7: you kind of talk about right even like especially back
Speaker 7: in the playoffs. Okay, if this isn't working, you know,
Speaker 7: sure they could lose. This team has a lot of
Speaker 7: avenues to victory.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: And I just kind of think again, like you especially
Speaker 7: you know, the regular season just kind of being this
Speaker 7: war of attrition. The depth of Dodgers have, I think,
Speaker 7: especially in the regular season, is gonna be mad. It's
Speaker 7: gonna make them very very hard to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that, Dylan, And I don't think
Speaker 2: it's out of the round for them to win one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty games Fred Fred. Every time I bring
Speaker 2: that up, friends, I don't care what they win as
Speaker 2: long as they do it in the postseason. But they
Speaker 2: get very well easily and I'm with you on this
Speaker 2: just kind of fall into one hundred and twenty wins
Speaker 2: just because they are so good at every position, and
Speaker 2: as you mentioned, the depth that they have from the
Speaker 2: pitching staff. There are no days off for hitters, and
Speaker 2: there are no non dall for pictures that face the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: They are as stacked a team as I've ever seen.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think so, you know, and I think right,
Speaker 7: I mean, and look at it, like kind of from
Speaker 7: the opposite perspective. If you're, you know, Dulston May right now, right,
Speaker 7: I mean, you're you're probably the number three starter on
Speaker 7: almost any other team right now. Uh, and he's basically
Speaker 7: gonna have to fight tooth and nail, you know, to
Speaker 7: hold off Tony Gonsolin, just to nail down that fifth spot.
Speaker 7: And that's at the start of the season, before Alatwani
Speaker 7: comes back, before Kershaw comes back, you know. So, I think,
Speaker 7: you know, Dave Roberts yesterday kind of mentioned kind of
Speaker 7: acknowledged this reality that like, hey, like kind of from
Speaker 7: our end, you know, dividing up the playing time could
Speaker 7: be an issue, you know, right, And so look there
Speaker 7: there are potential kind of you know, the obstacles here,
Speaker 7: you know, the pametime thing being one of them. The
Speaker 7: fact that they're starting the season in Japan could be another.
Speaker 7: The fact that you know they kind of have this
Speaker 7: like relatively short offseason because you know they play all
Speaker 7: the way to the end of the World Series. But
Speaker 7: that's said, you know, kind of from a talent stamp
Speaker 7: one you Rodney, this is this is a good a
Speaker 7: roster I think we've seen at least in modern baseball.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, all the things you mentioned about concerns are
Speaker 1: not concerns to me at all. And I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: They're simply too deep and too talented. My thing is
Speaker 1: this about the regular season. I don't care how many
Speaker 1: games you win. I honest to god, I don't get there,
Speaker 1: and let's see what happens. They're going to get there,
Speaker 1: so let's see what happens. And in the past when
Speaker 1: they have won an enormous amount of regular season games,
Speaker 1: we saw what happen when you got to the playoffs
Speaker 1: this year or last year, it was tight, it was
Speaker 1: a fight in a game, the momentum to win. I
Speaker 1: don't want these guys to be cruising along and then
Speaker 1: they hit October. Dylan and then it just all goes
Speaker 1: to hell.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, that's terrible.
Speaker 1: Before you answered that, Dylan, Before you answer that, Fred,
Speaker 1: how dare you say that? Fred?
Speaker 2: Cruising along so you want them to kind of they're
Speaker 2: head by five runs into six. Okay, let's pull it
Speaker 2: back so we don't win too many No, no, we
Speaker 2: just we don't win. They gotta do that by default
Speaker 2: because they're so good, Fred, if they're not gonna be
Speaker 2: able to help winning so many games. Sorry, I'm just
Speaker 2: saying the focus should not be winning one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty games. The focus should be being the best they.
Speaker 1: Should It'll be winning though, it'll that's fine if I
Speaker 1: want them, but I'm saying that should not be the focus. Dylan.
Speaker 1: I asked you a question. You get to answer now.
Speaker 7: Yeah. You know, well, what I found encouraging about this, right, look,
Speaker 7: and the one hundred and twenty thing was kind of
Speaker 7: based off something to go Rojas said, right. And you know,
Speaker 7: Rojas is what we consider like a good media guy,
Speaker 7: meaning that like he gives us the quote we want, right,
Speaker 7: and you know, Rojas knew what we were kind of
Speaker 7: looking for there, and he said, sure, one hundred twenty. Uh,
Speaker 7: and that's what kind of that column was based around.
Speaker 7: But you know, you go around to the other parts
Speaker 7: of the clubhouse, you know, and I just kind of
Speaker 7: sense this very kind of business like approach that these
Speaker 7: guys have. You know, Mookie bets that he didn't care
Speaker 7: about the win total. Max months he said the same thing.
Speaker 7: And if you kind of watch the way these guys
Speaker 7: have worked, especially in the last few regular seasons, it's
Speaker 7: just right, there is no kind of up and down, right.
Speaker 7: If anything, it's been so consistent to the point where,
Speaker 7: you know, kind of in the playoffs in the past,
Speaker 7: we've wanted them to kind of elevate their game a
Speaker 7: little bit. You know, we saw them do that this
Speaker 7: past October. So I don't think that's going to be
Speaker 7: a problem, uh, you know. And again, like I just
Speaker 7: think that they're they have this very kind of workmanlike
Speaker 7: approach to things that that you see with great teams, right,
Speaker 7: I mean, when you're kind of in that clubhouse right now,
Speaker 7: it's very kind of I did think, you know, in
Speaker 7: the past, things that you know, we asked them kind
Speaker 7: of found its way of infiltrating the room, right and
Speaker 7: kind of maybe affecting the way people felt and the
Speaker 7: way people thought. I don't really sense that anymore. You know,
Speaker 7: I really think that the culture has really kind of solidified,
Speaker 7: uh you know, and they're going to take every Wednesday,
Speaker 7: you know, and they're gonna play hard by way they
Speaker 7: did last year the year before that. And I think
Speaker 7: now you know where you know, frankly, you know, maybe
Speaker 7: it was that home run that Otani hit, you know,
Speaker 7: in that that first playoff game against San Diego last year.
Speaker 7: All of a sudden, Now these guys found a way
Speaker 7: to kind of turn it on, and so I kind
Speaker 7: of don't think any of this stuff is going to
Speaker 7: be a problem really, you know. And I think again,
Speaker 7: you know, obviously, look they've just kind of won one
Speaker 7: World Series right in this thing here, But I really
Speaker 7: wouldn't be surprised if, you know, we're talking kind of
Speaker 7: about this three or four World series down down the
Speaker 7: road here, you know, and you know, look back at
Speaker 7: this period. It's kind of started this kind of dynasty,
Speaker 7: because that's what this feels like when you're in that clubhouse.
Speaker 7: They're they're really I think these guys know who they are.
Speaker 7: They know who they are, what they are as a
Speaker 7: baseball team, and how they go about business and kind
Speaker 7: of all these expectations have been kind of you know, again,
Speaker 7: it's solidified over time. I mean, I think it makes
Speaker 7: it very easy even for like the young guys that
Speaker 7: come in to kind of fill into that. So I
Speaker 7: really don't think, you know, whatever we talk about here,
Speaker 7: I don't think there's gonna be any kind of jinks
Speaker 7: any of that, because you know, I don't think they're
Speaker 7: even thinking about anything we're talking about at this point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right. I think they're so insulated.
Speaker 2: They're insulated that they're not even gonna think about that,
Speaker 2: and they're gonna be so good. And you got to
Speaker 2: look up in early August and they're already gonna have
Speaker 2: one hundred wins and they're like, ooh, yeah, we're close.
Speaker 2: And I don't think that's going to put a pressure
Speaker 2: on them. And in the past, you know, they've had
Speaker 2: situations where they faulted out because Mookie and Freddy didn't
Speaker 2: hit in the playoffs and then they nobody else hit,
Speaker 2: or they ran out of pitching and lance Lynn had
Speaker 2: the start of a playoff game. They're so depth, they
Speaker 2: have so much depth that they're not going to run
Speaker 2: into that. You know again this year. And and you know,
Speaker 2: but from my standpoint, Dylan and you mentioned Otani, if
Speaker 2: he's not pitching until May, they say, how much do
Speaker 2: they actually use him this year given what the what
Speaker 2: they did in the offseason in terms of bringing in
Speaker 2: so many arms.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Like, my guess is that gonna keep them probably
Speaker 7: on a once a week schedule, you know. I mean,
Speaker 7: if they wanted to, look, they can have them pitch
Speaker 7: like once every ten days or something. Again, they have
Speaker 7: the depth to do that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: That said kind of knowing Otani and kind of what
Speaker 7: he's about, right, I mean, this is a guy that
Speaker 7: again doesn't want to take days off. My guess is
Speaker 7: going to be about once a week, you know, which
Speaker 7: is kind of more or less what he had with Anaheim,
Speaker 7: kind of like what he's used to at this point.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: Sasaki and Yamamoto, there's those are two other guys that
Speaker 7: are kind of used to pitching, you know, once every
Speaker 7: six seven days based on the workload in Japan, you know.
Speaker 7: And I think that as long as those guys are
Speaker 7: just kind of ready to go in the postseason, they're
Speaker 7: going to be fine, you know. And and kind of
Speaker 7: you know, with cop of the pitching problems in the past,
Speaker 7: you know, you minised and kind of land slim there,
Speaker 7: you know, and even like last year, if you kind
Speaker 7: of right, if we're gonna be honest going into the playoffs.
Speaker 7: I mean, frankly, I was very concerned about their pitching
Speaker 7: how it looked going into going into October, because you know,
Speaker 7: they didn't have kind of that like ace type guy,
Speaker 7: right and you know, now it's now now it's Otani now,
Speaker 7: you know, and I think Yamamoto's I'm back looking. You know,
Speaker 7: he physically looks more solid. You kind of hear good
Speaker 7: reports about the way the ball's coming out of his hand.
Speaker 7: I think he's gonna make a big jump this year.
Speaker 7: You know, in Sasaki might be the most talented guy
Speaker 7: in the entire step. I mean, I think there's still questions,
Speaker 7: you know, how does the slider play? Can you get
Speaker 7: away with two pitches? That type of stuff, But you know,
Speaker 7: I wouldn't be shocked if he has a great year also,
Speaker 7: but there are a lot of high octane arms now
Speaker 7: kind of at the start of this rotation, you know,
Speaker 7: and obviously with Glass now he's been an injury concern
Speaker 7: over time. But again with the number of pitchers that
Speaker 7: they have, maybe they can kind of space out his
Speaker 7: starts a little bit better to ensure that he gets
Speaker 7: to October. And so you're also going to have not
Speaker 7: just the depth, but you're going to kind of have
Speaker 7: these kind of high end, high quality arms and not
Speaker 7: just one of them, right, They're gonna have multiple kind
Speaker 7: of high end quality arms there. And you know, again
Speaker 7: the regular seasons, I mean, at this point, I think
Speaker 7: one of those like right, you know, Oddsite had them
Speaker 7: like at one hundred percent to make the postseason. They
Speaker 7: haven't put a single game yet. I mean, that's how
Speaker 7: stacked this team is, you know. And and I do
Speaker 7: think everything is going to be geared to October. I
Speaker 7: just think that as they're kind of going along and
Speaker 7: kind of taking care of business the way they usually do,
Speaker 7: you know, they're just going to pile up these wins
Speaker 7: and we might see one hundred and twenty and frankly,
Speaker 7: you know, if there's an injury here or there, they
Speaker 7: have enough high end talent elsewhere, you know, whatever department
Speaker 7: to kind of overcome that.
Speaker 1: Hey, Jellen, what do you think of some of the
Speaker 1: owners suggesting they need a salary cab and that the
Speaker 1: Dodgers and the Mets are out of control.
Speaker 7: That's so stupid, because here's here's the thing, right, I mean,
Speaker 7: the Sasaki things seemed to really kind of set off
Speaker 7: a lot of teams. That happened because owners were cheap. Okay,
Speaker 7: like these other owners that are complaining right now, they
Speaker 7: did that to themselves, right, because they did not well,
Speaker 7: these teams did not want to pay you know, the
Speaker 7: Japanese teams kind of the market value for these players
Speaker 7: because you know, when Matsuzaka came over, when Darbish came over,
Speaker 7: these posting fees started to get up in the sixty
Speaker 7: seventy million range, and the owners got started getting worried, like,
Speaker 7: oh no, you know, we're paid too much. Let's find
Speaker 7: a way to make this cheap. And so they came
Speaker 7: up with this ridiculous system that had Roki Sasaki, you know,
Speaker 7: a season professional with you know, who's really really good.
Speaker 7: He was qualified, you know, categorized with sixteen year old
Speaker 7: Dominican kids, right, and that's what allowed the Dodgers to
Speaker 7: get him. I mean, without that rule, you know, if right,
Speaker 7: the Dodgers probably have to choose between Snell and Susaki,
Speaker 7: which one to go after well because of this system
Speaker 7: that was created because of these chiep owners. That's what
Speaker 7: made the Dodgers kind of richer in a way, you know.
Speaker 7: And also right, the whole salary camp thing, I mean,
Speaker 7: the players aren't going to agree to that, you know.
Speaker 7: I think maybe they'll find ways to kind of tighten
Speaker 7: things and the money differ rols, right, the NHL kind
Speaker 7: of went through that at some point. I could see
Speaker 7: maybe something bad and the owners are going to kind
Speaker 7: of have to concede here. But you know, I think
Speaker 7: from the players standpoint to look, the players Union loves
Speaker 7: this obviously, right. They want teams to be spending, and
Speaker 7: the Dodgers and the Mets in a way are going
Speaker 7: to have the players on their side here. So I
Speaker 7: don't think this is going to go down that easily.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, speaking of something that hasn't happened easily.
Speaker 2: What's going on with Dave Robertson's that deal going to
Speaker 2: get done soon?
Speaker 7: He would have to think it has to write, I
Speaker 7: mean just I mean, the track record is there now,
Speaker 7: and not only that, I think, you know, to me,
Speaker 7: what was really kind of eye opening and interesting was,
Speaker 7: you know, Molkie Bets. Obviously he's got his podcast, and
Speaker 7: you know, after the last season, he had Dave Robertson
Speaker 7: and Mookie kind of talked about how, you know, at
Speaker 7: night when I guess Mookie's kind of a warrior, you know,
Speaker 7: how he would call Dave and kind of they will
Speaker 7: kind of talk through their things, right, I mean, I
Speaker 7: think they both, you know, that's there, talked about how
Speaker 7: they both felt they were under the gun.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 7: Obviously, Dave was under the gun and mooki as well,
Speaker 7: because like you mentioned, you know, he hadn't hid in
Speaker 7: previous postseasons and I think pressure was kind of mounting.
Speaker 7: And so you know the fact that roberts has been
Speaker 7: able to kind of forge very real connections with kind
Speaker 7: of like Bets, with guys like Otani, with guys like Freeman,
Speaker 7: that's not easy, you know, and again those are you know, right.
Speaker 7: You know, we talked about like last year even with
Speaker 7: you know, with Bets and kind of the move back
Speaker 7: to right field after you've been playing shortstop a bunch
Speaker 7: and how that turned into a non issue, right you know,
Speaker 7: And again you have to credit Bets for a lot
Speaker 7: of that, but the manager had something to do with
Speaker 7: that too.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: And so I just think, if you're the Dodgers and
Speaker 7: you've invested all this money in the roster, you don't
Speaker 7: want something stupid to just kind of blow this whole
Speaker 7: thing up. Dave's obviously shown that he's got control of
Speaker 7: the situation, you know. And look, now, managers salaries are
Speaker 7: kind of getting up their right. Craig Council, I think,
Speaker 7: is the highest paid manager at about eight million a year.
Speaker 7: You know, Dave's probably making about half of that right now.
Speaker 7: So this is a pretty significant rais. And this, you know,
Speaker 7: the Dodger ownership feel comfortable paying that much to a manager.
Speaker 7: I'm not so sure about that, but you know, maybe
Speaker 7: they kind of compromise, right, maybe you don't quite get
Speaker 7: to eight, but maybe the number of years are longer,
Speaker 7: you know, right, the contracts longer. I I just think
Speaker 7: it just makes too much sense for both, you know,
Speaker 7: Roberts to want to be here long term, and also
Speaker 7: for the Dodgers to want Roberts to be here. It's
Speaker 7: hard for me to imagine that this won't get done.
Speaker 1: Hey, yelling before we let you go. We know you're
Speaker 1: headed back for the for the Lakers. What do you
Speaker 1: think of Luca and Lebron. What do you really think
Speaker 1: of what came out yesterday about Luca that he liked
Speaker 1: the hookah and he was drinking too much and that's
Speaker 1: why they got rid of him.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well it's gonna you know, I mean, if anybody.
Speaker 7: I mean, the one thing, if I'm the Lakers, what
Speaker 7: I would be kind of optimistic about is the fact
Speaker 7: that Luca has said right that Lebron was a guy
Speaker 7: he grew up idolizing. He's going to get to play
Speaker 7: with Lebron. He's going to get to see Lebron work
Speaker 7: every day, you know, and we've kind of gone right
Speaker 7: these kind of Team USA documentaries that we've seen that
Speaker 7: have come up in recent years. You know, we saw
Speaker 7: the effect that Kobe Bryant had guys like Lebron and
Speaker 7: Durant and these guys, and you know, d Wade and
Speaker 7: those guys. So I don't think that that's going to
Speaker 7: be an issue just because you know, athletes tend to
Speaker 7: be competitive. Look, you get traded, you're gonna want to
Speaker 7: show up, right, You're gonna want to prove the team
Speaker 7: that let you go wrong. So I think we're gonna
Speaker 7: have we have kind of a pissed off, determined Luca,
Speaker 7: and he's gonna have a perfect guy there in Lebron James,
Speaker 7: you know. And I think it's just kind of a
Speaker 7: matter at this point of you know, them too, kind
Speaker 7: of finding kind of that boundary, the boundaries, right, I mean,
Speaker 7: they were obviously both used to being the guys, but like,
Speaker 7: once they kind of get along on the court, I
Speaker 7: think everything else is going to kind of fall into place,
Speaker 7: and then it's up to Kalinka, you know, in the
Speaker 7: front office, to you know, get the pieces around them. Eventually. Uh,
Speaker 7: you know, this year might be a little bit tough,
Speaker 7: but you know, I think next year, uh, you know,
Speaker 7: we should fully expect him back into uh into being
Speaker 7: contenders again.
Speaker 1: All Right, well, Dylan, we appreciate it. Safe, drive home,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 7: I was very positive today, Wasn't it too positive?
Speaker 1: You know what, Dylan, don't open the door. Don't open
Speaker 1: the door, Delan, We'll walk right in. Let's just leave
Speaker 1: it like that. It was really fun.
Speaker 7: Let's leave us there, Okay, thanks for having.
Speaker 1: All right, Bruin fans. Men's basketball returns to Paula Pavilion
Speaker 1: presented by Westcom this Sunday to face Ohio State's men's
Speaker 1: basketball Next time game twelve forty five, they'll celebrate the
Speaker 1: life and legacy of Bill Walton. Visit UCLA Bruins dot
Speaker 1: com slash tickets for more information, and you can hear
Speaker 1: the game on our sister station, AM eleven fifty. We're
Speaker 1: back to wrap it up. I Don't forget. If you
Speaker 1: missed any of the program, podcast the show, get the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio App. Download the app. Podcast whatever you missed. Kevin
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Speaker 1: Dylan was just on We've got Dodger Baseball. It'll be
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Speaker 1: Rodney and I are on standby, so if the game
Speaker 1: ends early, we'll jump on and if not, we got
Speaker 1: another game on Friday. Okay, so we got two games
Speaker 1: in a row. That'll be fun. That'll be fun, Ronnie,
Speaker 1: great job today. I appreciate it. Kevin, terrific work and Rodney,
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow