Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful day in La. You know what it is.
Speaker 1: It's snail Zilla's Saturday, and I'm with my guy again.
Speaker 2: Two times, two times.
Speaker 1: Cy Younger Wood winner Blake Snell, I saw you with
Speaker 1: the kids again today.
Speaker 2: You are very involved in the city.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Hey, it's all about the kids, man, it's all about you.
Speaker 1: I am itching for Blake Snell to be back on
Speaker 1: that mound. What can you tell the people of La
Speaker 1: where you're at.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm throwing one hundred and twenty feet now it's
Speaker 4: coming out, no pain.
Speaker 3: I feel good. I'm excited. Do a couple of changeups.
Speaker 3: Shut a tear, pretty excited. No, but I can't wait. Man.
Speaker 4: You know, when I signed, I was so excited and
Speaker 4: it's all I wanted to do. And then you know,
Speaker 4: having the way it sucks, and you know it's it's
Speaker 4: a long it's a long process.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna go slow. I'm gonna make sure I'm ready.
Speaker 4: So when I when I started pitching, I can get
Speaker 4: going and do my thing.
Speaker 2: I was on you yesterday. I'm so eager.
Speaker 1: Maybe not as much as you are, but we all
Speaker 1: are very eager to see you on the mound. What's
Speaker 1: the fine line there of not trying to rush it
Speaker 1: but also know where the team's at, where they need you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it was tough today. I mean you
Speaker 4: see Jeter, hey Rod, big coffee. I went out there,
Speaker 4: I started throwing. I was like, okay, I don you
Speaker 4: slow down. You just get excited. You see you know
Speaker 4: Hall of Famers, and you're just like, man, that's what
Speaker 4: I'm chasing.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it's tough. But today, yeah, I got a
Speaker 3: little excited. I just slow myself down.
Speaker 4: Hey, Like, let's really focus mechanically on how I'm throwing
Speaker 4: the ball, which I never do. I'm always like feeling
Speaker 4: it's a little things here and there. But today it's
Speaker 4: like I learned a lot and Connor helped me a lot.
Speaker 4: So I was really excited about that. Started feeling better
Speaker 4: at the end too.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, when do you think you'll throw off the
Speaker 1: mound and really take the next step?
Speaker 3: Ironically, I think it's San Diego.
Speaker 2: Oh, very fitting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. I think that's the plan.
Speaker 4: And we'll see though, but I think sometime in San
Speaker 4: Diego is the plan.
Speaker 3: But they'll let me know, and I'll be ready. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm just I'm excited. I'm throwing.
Speaker 4: There's no pain and like I can actually, you know,
Speaker 4: I can actually be excited for something like it's it's
Speaker 4: gonna come and it's gonna happen soon.
Speaker 3: And I'll take my time through it.
Speaker 4: And as long as my shoulder feels good, which I
Speaker 4: pray every day, man, you know, I'll just get back
Speaker 4: out here and and just you know, feel what pitching is,
Speaker 4: like I love I love going to battle and yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Can't wait to feel that again.
Speaker 2: That's so great. Blake Snell is our guest.
Speaker 1: He's on the way back to the Dodgers last night's game, Blake,
Speaker 1: you had a front row seat to maybe the best
Speaker 1: show we've seen this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the energy, man is just it's when when when
Speaker 4: a good team shows up and we're playing, man and
Speaker 4: you got showing Judge going.
Speaker 3: Back and forth. You know, it's tap.
Speaker 4: It's top notch baseball, and it's fun to watch. It's
Speaker 4: fun to watch the battles. And I mean Gonson being
Speaker 4: able to go six you with not his best stuff
Speaker 4: and hasn't pitched for a while is so impressive, man,
Speaker 4: Like for him to just battle his way through that
Speaker 4: game and give us six is really the reason why
Speaker 4: I believe we won.
Speaker 3: So that showed a lot.
Speaker 4: You know, he was giving up what four home runs
Speaker 4: and to battle through that and still give us opportunity
Speaker 4: to win.
Speaker 3: And it's big man, and Freed has been.
Speaker 4: Nasty all year and he goes five, you know, five
Speaker 4: plus and the offense is able to get to him
Speaker 4: and get him out. I mean it was just that's
Speaker 4: great baseball. You know, it's exciting to watch.
Speaker 1: I love hearing you say that pointing out Tony. I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot of these guys sometimes on a
Speaker 1: night like last night get overshadowed by Judge and Otani,
Speaker 1: like Freddie Freeman and couple of big at bats and
Speaker 1: great base running.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, he he's a special player for a reason.
Speaker 4: Just even the double down the line, just like getting
Speaker 4: the barrel out, like he's such an elite hitter, and
Speaker 4: you know, show Hey gets you know, most of the
Speaker 4: attention Freddie, I mean he gets a lot of attention too.
Speaker 4: But man, the way that he's able to just compete
Speaker 4: every bat, there's never like a wasted it that it's
Speaker 4: always competing.
Speaker 3: And to see his level of focus is really impressive.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't know this, but Blake Snell
Speaker 1: has a pretty good relationship with Aaron Judge. What can
Speaker 1: you tell us about Aaron Judge the person.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if Dodger fans want
Speaker 4: to hear it, but he's the man like great dude,
Speaker 4: works hard, loves to win, great baseball player.
Speaker 3: Like everything you see is really who he is, probably better.
Speaker 4: In person, honestly, but uh yeah, I mean he's been
Speaker 4: one of my really good friends in baseball for a
Speaker 4: long time.
Speaker 3: And you know.
Speaker 4: It's tough, like when we're in battle, it's tough, you know,
Speaker 4: because you want your team to win, and you know
Speaker 4: that's my boy, so you want to see him succeed,
Speaker 4: and so it's a tough spot and it's it's a
Speaker 4: real thing, man.
Speaker 3: Like some people will say, you know, you don't want
Speaker 3: him to succeed.
Speaker 4: It's us first then, but you know, like that's been
Speaker 4: my good friend for a very long time, and I
Speaker 4: plan on him being my my friend for the rest
Speaker 4: of my life. So you know, I wish nothing but
Speaker 4: the best for him. And you know, I always want
Speaker 4: us to win, but I want him to You know
Speaker 4: have sex us too, Blake.
Speaker 1: One thing about last night everybody seems to talk about
Speaker 1: it is that they're really good players in the league,
Speaker 1: but Judge and Otani just do things nobody else can do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like when Judge hit the home run, you just
Speaker 4: knew SHOHI was gonna be like he's yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: everyone does. And it's like every at bat is like,
Speaker 4: You're like, he's gonna do it. You know it's the
Speaker 4: Judge's batten what right under? Four hundred two for five
Speaker 4: last night? Like and then Otani, I mean he went off.
Speaker 4: I don't even know he's what three hundred, He's right
Speaker 4: around there, twenty bombs, twenty one bomps, twenty two, he's
Speaker 4: on pace for sixty.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, he's on your team. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3: I mean watching show I play every day is special.
Speaker 3: And then they just know he can pitch too.
Speaker 4: It's like, what, there's a reason why he has all
Speaker 4: those MVPs. I don't know how many he's gonna collect
Speaker 4: over his career, but I know it's a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's gonna be special when you Otani, Clayton, Kershaw,
Speaker 1: and Yamamoto are all in the same rotation at the
Speaker 1: same time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Glass now and May's been picking it up
Speaker 4: doing his thing, like we got we got talent, man,
Speaker 4: So I'm excited.
Speaker 3: And then Gonsolin doing what he did last night.
Speaker 4: You know, I couldn't even imagine what it's like to
Speaker 4: come back from injury, you know, for for so long
Speaker 4: I have to pitch and battle, and you know, when
Speaker 4: you're not out here for a full year, the game
Speaker 4: changes every year.
Speaker 3: Man, so it's a lot to learn.
Speaker 4: And even watching when Kershaw was pitching in Cleveland, you know,
Speaker 4: the high fastball doesn't get the strike. They don't call
Speaker 4: it anymore, like you know, and he pitched last year
Speaker 4: and it's like, oh, I gotta get used to that,
Speaker 4: like and you could see his head like what where
Speaker 4: is that?
Speaker 1: And you talked about this after your first start. And
Speaker 1: I'm hearing more and more pitchers talk about the fact
Speaker 1: the high strike is a lot lower than what it
Speaker 1: was a year ago.
Speaker 3: It's gone. There's no high strike.
Speaker 4: It's a it's a belt strike and below to the
Speaker 4: knees and then you know the east to west you
Speaker 4: get a little bit of but no, the strike zone.
Speaker 3: They they've completely taken it away.
Speaker 2: Why did they do that.
Speaker 4: They want hitting to be you know, they want hitters
Speaker 4: to be more successful. So you take away the most
Speaker 4: difficult pitches to hit, the high heater.
Speaker 1: And now everybody has to start working a little bit
Speaker 1: lower down in the way again.
Speaker 4: But it's tough too because you know, before the high fastball,
Speaker 4: it was all about you know, sinkers and cutters, and
Speaker 4: then you know, then everyone went to four seam and
Speaker 4: you know vert, and now it's like, well, what are
Speaker 4: you gonna go to now, because then when you're going
Speaker 4: four seam vert, then you're going sweeper. Yeah, and the
Speaker 4: sweeper got high. But now it's like, so what's next,
Speaker 4: you know, change It could be the change up. But
Speaker 4: the struggle now with the strike zone is there's no
Speaker 4: east to west, there's no.
Speaker 3: North to south.
Speaker 2: So where do you go.
Speaker 4: You got out stuff them and you got to be
Speaker 4: doing in the zone, which not a lot you know,
Speaker 4: those are big league hitters.
Speaker 3: Not a lot of people can do that.
Speaker 4: You have to have elite stuff to do that, so
Speaker 4: makes it more difficult, more challenging. But yeah, I'm excited
Speaker 4: for when they do something that benefits you know the picture.
Speaker 3: You know, the pitchers keep getting better and they're throwing harder.
Speaker 4: But you know that's because we're working to do that
Speaker 4: doesn't mean you got to change the strike zone. So
Speaker 4: that's that's my frustration with it. I don't think you
Speaker 4: should ever change the strike zone. I think it should
Speaker 4: have the way it starts, well it should be, and
Speaker 4: I like it because it would be to my benefit,
Speaker 4: no doubt.
Speaker 2: You're a picture.
Speaker 3: Yeah I want.
Speaker 2: That's what I want. Make my life a touch easier.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: We can't wait to see you back out there, Snell Zilla.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the time on a beautiful Saturday.
Speaker 3: No appreciate it.
Speaker 2: He is the man, Blake Snell coming soon to Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 3: Man, let me hear your rar.
Speaker 2: Blake Snell, Little Gral ready to go. Bring that edge baby, yup.
Speaker 3: I can't wait.