Mark Prior (2-15-23)

Dodger pitching coach Mark Prior joins David Vassegh on off-season Dodger Talk.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We are joined by a very specialguest, entering his sixth season as the
Dodgers pitching coach and with the Dodgersstaff. He is a proud USC Trojan
and on my top five favorite USCpeople and it's a very short list.
It ends at five and Mark Prioris part of it. Mark, thanks
a lot for the time. Appreciateit, my pleasure anytime. Mark.

(00:25):
This is going to be a verydifferent season. I'm not sure people realize
it. How real are these newrules for you? Yeah? No,
they're real. I mean I thinkwe're got a crash course. I mean
we've all read them, but youknow, reading them on papers a little
bit different than how they actually look, and you know, live action and

(00:46):
then the actual implementation of the rules. And then apparently there's some more that
are coming out over recently in thelast twenty four hours, you know,
with some of the pitching deliveries andthe things that guys have done, h
you know, to make themselves,you know, the mess with timing of
hitters and make themselves unique in somedifferent ways. So it's gonna be real,

(01:06):
you know. I do think probablythe younger kids or have a little
bit of a leg up just becausethey've been used to some of these rules
with the pitch clock, uh andthe engagement rules from the rubber and stuff
like that. So you know thatthey'll you know, they'll maybe have a
little bit of head start, buteverybody's got the same same rules, and
everybody will be in the same youknow, same boat as far as trying
to figure them out, and howeach team applies them will be unique to

(01:30):
themselves. That seems to be ascript flip, right, the young guys
helping out the veterans since they've experiencedall this. Yeah, I mean,
I mean guys even like Phil Bigfordexperienced it last year when he went down,
you know, he started out withus, and then when he got
sent down for that brief time,you know, I think in the spring,
you know, he was unaware andhe got balled a few times,

(01:53):
you know in his accounts, justbecause it was it was new to him
and you know, it wasn't partof his you know, traditional rhythm,
uh, you know, between pitches, so it was definitely a learning curve
for him. And so I thinkit's gonna be you know, for some
guys, it's not really going toaffect I mean Clayton works really fast at
times, Julio is working really fast, but at other times they do slow
it down. Uh, you know, it's a way to control the game

(02:15):
in some respects. And hitters doit too. I mean, I think
one of the better guys are oneof the best guys that I've you know,
witnessed, you know, recently asMachado. I mean, he really
controls is it bad, and controlsthe tempo to make sure, you know,
he does as much as he canto make it on his own terms.
And so these you know, thetodds of the shot clock or pitch
clock is is gonna be a realthing. But I think in general,

(02:36):
you know, speeding up the gameand trying to get these games, you
know, moving along is not necessarilya bad thing. You just don't want
a game obviously decided by you know, a pitch clock violation at the end.
And you know, hopefully those thingskind of you know, rectify themselves,
you know, early in the seasonand then we're off and we're just
playing and people forget about it.That's a great point, Mark, And

(02:58):
that's one thing that I've been wonderingand talking about in a big moment in
a big game. Let's say thepictures ahead in the count oh two,
do you feel like to make thatright pitch, they may allow the clock
to expire even if they take aball in the count. Do you feel
like some strategy might be in playthere? Yeah, I mean it can

(03:21):
be. Again, I think thisis where it comes down to how each
team wants to strategize and how touse these these rules, you know,
either to their benefit or try toexploit them as much as you know you
can as far as the time youknow it's it's going to be unique again.
And I think the obviously the implementationof the rules and how they're enforced

(03:43):
it is important too, because there'stimes when you know, you get one
of my the instant replay. There'syou know, there's supposed to be a
clock and and sometimes you know thatclock lapses and nothing. You know,
you're still able to challenge it.And at other times some other umpires were
a little bit more strict and enforcingyou know that time you know that pitch
clock or that challenge clock. SoI think again it's it's how you know,

(04:08):
how consistent across you know baseball isthese rules or some're gonna be a
little bit more relaxed. Is oneor two seconds, So we're gonna get
five, some are gonna give none. So again, I think those things,
hopefully we'll get ironed out in thefirst three or four weeks of the
season. But then again, youknow, I think the other thing that
compounds the pitch clock is you haveyou know, where you have the lack

(04:29):
of disengagement. You only have thetwo disengagements and so you know, if
you don't feel comfortable, you canstep off, but now you can only
do it twice, and so that'sgonna play a factor into it. And
again it's gonna come down to youknow, three two second and third two
outs with a game on the line, and you know, maybe you've already
stepped off once, like do yourun the risk of stepping off again?
And but then you got to hurryup and make a pitch. So again,

(04:51):
all those things are gonna come in. And you know, I'm sure
we're gonna have our moments where youknow, we fail and you know we're
you know, we get penalized.And I think all thirty teams at some
point are probably gonna have a youknow, be penalized at some point so
it's just how much does it impact, you know, winning a ball game.
Mark Prior, Dodgers pitching coach,is joining us here on Dodger Talk

(05:13):
Live from Glendale, Arizona, andMark, I guess the question is how
much and how much of a balanceare you going to have to strike to
get guys comfortable with all these newrules when it comes to pitchers and also
getting them ready for the season.Do you have to work with them on
slide steps to be quicker to theplate because of those rules? How do

(05:34):
you strike that balance? Well,I mean it's you know, some of
it's not balancing. I mean,the rules are what they are, so
I mean that is it's pretty blackand white, like, hey, these
are the rules. These the shotclock. You gotta be ready to go.
You know, you can only disengagea couple of times. So those
are kind of the rules. Soit's not really a balance there. But

(05:56):
the balance is on the other part, is okay, controlling the running game
now that you're not able to throwover as much being quicker to the plate.
Those are conversations that you know havealready been started with some guys that
have you know, you know,maybe have traditionally been offenders of being slow
to the plate, and you're tryingto you know, get guys ready,
but you're also trying to encourage them, like, hey, now's the time,

(06:17):
Like if we're gonna make mistakes,or if you're not going to execute
a pitch, rather do it ina Cactus League game than a normal game.
So, yeah, there is abalance, and what that balance is
will be, you know, specificto that individual. But those conversations are
already kind of ongoing with with someoffenders that you know are traditionally slow to
the plate. But we got tomake sure that, you know, we're

(06:40):
giving our catchers every opportunity to playtheir position too and throw guys out.
All right, Mark Prior, Dodgerspitching coach. Let's talk about some of
your pictures this year. Let's startwith Clayton Kershaw. I saw him at
camp today. Has he gone glutenfree? I mean that's a much leaner
version. He looks great, youknow, and uh, you know,

(07:01):
Clayton's you know, had a reallygood off season preparing himself and he looks
good. I'm excited to see himoff the mountain, you know, live
now. But he's been you know, I mean, look, he's done
this for years and when you givehim a good off season, get after
it, and he's ready to go. And he's always prepared. So excited
to see him and everybody else,but he's excited the way he came in.

(07:24):
He's he's excited, he's upbeat,and he's feeling good. How about
Noah's Synder garden Mark, He seemsto be one of the more interesting guys.
He picked up during the off season, another year removed from Tommy John.
I understand he's been thrown at CamelbackRanch for the better part of a
month. What are some of thesigns that you've seen that he's getting closer
to the guy he was before surgery. Yeah, he's look he looked great

(07:49):
today. He threw a bullpen,you know, late in the in the
day or kind of as most guyswere already gone, and he looked really
good. You know, we sawhim a little bit earlier in the off
season before we signed up, andthen, like you said, he's been
out here since the first of theyear at CBR working, you know,
with the guys out here, allour staff here. He looks in shape,
you know, he looks I meanhe's a huge guy, big guy,

(08:13):
strong, physical guy. You know, it kind of tweaked his delivery
a little bit to try to getback to some things that he was doing,
you know, pre Tommy John,uh and all indications. You know,
he feels really comfortable with that.And then he threw a bullpen a
day and it was it was prettygood. I mean, he was he
always has commanded the baseball, butthe action on his sinker and has change
up are really good, and he'sspending the baseball. So I think it's

(08:35):
We're excited to see, you know, where this goes when he starts facing
the hitters over the next week anda half so he can start getting some
results and seeing kind of how hispitchers are playing. But you know,
he's he's a guy. You know, look, everybody knows what he did
in New York. He was aplaying thrower. But the guy can pitch
and he throws strikes and and heputs ball and play and he can limit
some some damage at times. SoI'm excited to see him kind of you

(08:58):
know, do his thing. Lookslike he's in a good position and hopefully,
you know, another year removed fromTommy John. You kind of get
back to seeing the Noah that youknow he was beforehand? Mark, how
do you feel about this reputation thatyou and the rest of the Dodgers pitching
staff and training staff have gotten forhelping guys maybe find something they couldn't somewhere

(09:20):
else. It feels like these arethe expectations now when the Dodgers sign a
picture like Synder Guard because you've hadso much success. How do you feel
about this reputation? I mean,look, you know, I mean this
is saying going back to when youplay him in the game, is you
know, it's always you know,humbling at times. So you know,

(09:41):
I think at some point maybe we'regonna run, you know, have a
stretch of you know, the oppositeluck. But in the end, I
think it's a huge collaborative and it'sa big group effort to you know,
from you know, from our fieldstaff and run you know what we call
run prevention, from you know,Connor and Danny and Josh and myself and
and then working with you know,the and see staff and the training staff

(10:01):
about getting these guys. It's it'sit is a big collective effort making sure
these guys are moving well and identifyingpitches and what works, what doesn't,
and game planning and it's all youknow, there's so many layers to this,
and I think this just speaks to, you know, the culture of
our organization, you know, fromthe you know, from the coaching staff
and the you know staff standpoint ofallowing us to do our job and work

(10:24):
on you know, with each otherand talking to each other across departments.
But at the end, it's alsolike our front office does a really good
job of identifying, you know,things that make people special. And and
then you know, bringing in guyswho are willing to you know, put
in their work, who are veryresponsible, very disciplined about their their work

(10:45):
ethic and you know, their craftand so you know, you talk about
No, you talk about Tyler,you know, Chris Martin. I mean,
these guys are guys who really youknow, take pride in what they
do. And so a lot ofthe a lot of the you know,
compliments is really should be about theplayers because ultimately they're the ones who have
to go out and execute. Wedo everything we can to support them,

(11:09):
to try to help them, youknow, be the be the best version
of themselves, but ultimately it doescome down to the players executing and and
my hats off. And it isa lot of fun to watch these guys
go out and do their thing.And if we can be a small part
of that, great, That's that'swhat we're here for. And that's why
we get into coaching and get intoyou know, being a supportive role for

(11:30):
these players. Yeah, you've donea great job. You're very humble,
but you're right. You guys allseem to work together, including the player,
to get the best out of theseguys. Before I let you go
the closer situation in the past,we you know, we're spoiled with having
Ken for so many years. Uh, the offense was so good last year,

(11:52):
it felt like you never needed acloser. How does it look going
into camp this year? You know, it looks like it looks you know,
I mean, I think it's prettyclear that we don't have a you
know what to find you know,closer, And you know that's always you
know, a hot topic, butyou know, we're gonna go into it.

(12:13):
We feel really good with our guysin our bullpen. You know,
we'll just kind of see how thespring plays out, you know, and
it's you know, whether it's somebodylike Evan Phillips or Yetsi or Bessie or
Ferg. I think we all haveguys that we trust with their makeup to
handle that. Granted it is youknow, the ninth inning is completely different.
That's a it's a way different ballgame than sometimes in the sixth teenth

(12:35):
and eight. No matter who you'refacing, it's just closing a game out.
Is is a unique role in thisgame. But you know, we'll
see how it plays out. Butwe feel really good about all those guys
makeup, and you know, we'lleventually things flush themselves out and work themselves
out on their own, and andI think we'll be in a pretty good
spot. But I think collectively ourbullpen, you know, should be in
a pretty good shape. And wehave a lot of talent down there,

(12:58):
and I think we have a lotof debt, you know, even a
lot of the guys that we signed, you know, Miss Shelby Miller's guys
like that, who you know,who'll come in and be part of this
mix. I think that allows usto you know, take our time and
figure out what's the best course ofaction for the organization as a whole.
Mark always appreciate you taking time outof your busy schedule. I know you're
balancing guys, showing up today,balancing family, so I do appreciate it

(13:24):
and look forward to seeing you nextweek. My pleasure anytime there he is Mark Prior