May 31, 2025 • 8 mins
It's SnellZilla Saturday! Blake gives an update on his throwing progression and talks about last night's showdown between Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's a beautiful day in La. You know what it is.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's snail Zilla's Saturday, and I'm with my guy again.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Two times, two times.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Cy Younger Wood winner Blake Snell, I saw you with
the kids again today.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You are very involved in the city.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hey, it's all about the kids, man, it's all about you.
I am itching for Blake Snell to be back on
that mound. What can you tell the people of La
where you're at.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Yeah, I'm throwing one hundred and twenty feet now it's
coming out, no pain.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I feel good. I'm excited. Do a couple of changeups.
Shut a tear, pretty excited. No, but I can't wait. Man.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
You know, when I signed, I was so excited and
it's all I wanted to do. And then you know,
having the way it sucks, and you know it's it's
a long it's a long process.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
But I'm gonna go slow. I'm gonna make sure I'm ready.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So when I when I started pitching, I can get
going and do my thing.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I was on you yesterday. I'm so eager.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Maybe not as much as you are, but we all
are very eager to see you on the mound. What's
the fine line there of not trying to rush it
but also know where the team's at, where they need you.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, I mean it was tough today. I mean you
see Jeter, hey Rod, big coffee. I went out there,
I started throwing. I was like, okay, I don you
slow down. You just get excited. You see you know
Hall of Famers, and you're just like, man, that's what
I'm chasing.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
And yeah, it's tough. But today, yeah, I got a
little excited. I just slow myself down.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Hey, Like, let's really focus mechanically on how I'm throwing
the ball, which I never do. I'm always like feeling
it's a little things here and there. But today it's
like I learned a lot and Connor helped me a lot.
So I was really excited about that. Started feeling better
at the end too.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So, yeah, when do you think you'll throw off the
mound and really take the next step?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Ironically, I think it's San Diego.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh, very fitting.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, I think so. I think that's the plan.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
And we'll see though, but I think sometime in San
Diego is the plan.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
But they'll let me know, and I'll be ready. But yeah,
I'm just I'm excited. I'm throwing.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
There's no pain and like I can actually, you know,
I can actually be excited for something like it's it's
gonna come and it's gonna happen soon.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And I'll take my time through it.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And as long as my shoulder feels good, which I
pray every day, man, you know, I'll just get back
out here and and just you know, feel what pitching is,
like I love I love going to battle and yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Can't wait to feel that again.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That's so great. Blake Snell is our guest.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
He's on the way back to the Dodgers last night's game, Blake,
you had a front row seat to maybe the best
show we've seen this year.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, the energy, man is just it's when when when
a good team shows up and we're playing, man and
you got showing Judge going.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Back and forth. You know, it's tap.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
It's top notch baseball, and it's fun to watch. It's
fun to watch the battles. And I mean Gonson being
able to go six you with not his best stuff
and hasn't pitched for a while is so impressive, man,
Like for him to just battle his way through that
game and give us six is really the reason why
I believe we won.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
So that showed a lot.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
You know, he was giving up what four home runs
and to battle through that and still give us opportunity
to win.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
And it's big man, and Freed has been.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Nasty all year and he goes five, you know, five
plus and the offense is able to get to him
and get him out. I mean it was just that's
great baseball. You know, it's exciting to watch.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I love hearing you say that pointing out Tony. I
feel like a lot of these guys sometimes on a
night like last night get overshadowed by Judge and Otani,
like Freddie Freeman and couple of big at bats and
great base running.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, I mean, he he's a special player for a reason.
Just even the double down the line, just like getting
the barrel out, like he's such an elite hitter, and
you know, show Hey gets you know, most of the
attention Freddie, I mean he gets a lot of attention too.
But man, the way that he's able to just compete
every bat, there's never like a wasted it that it's
always competing.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And to see his level of focus is really impressive.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
A lot of people don't know this, but Blake Snell
has a pretty good relationship with Aaron Judge. What can
you tell us about Aaron Judge the person.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if Dodger fans want
to hear it, but he's the man like great dude,
works hard, loves to win, great baseball player.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Like everything you see is really who he is, probably better.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
In person, honestly, but uh yeah, I mean he's been
one of my really good friends in baseball for a
long time.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
And you know.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
It's tough, like when we're in battle, it's tough, you know,
because you want your team to win, and you know
that's my boy, so you want to see him succeed,
and so it's a tough spot and it's it's a
real thing, man.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Like some people will say, you know, you don't want
him to succeed.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
It's us first then, but you know, like that's been
my good friend for a very long time, and I
plan on him being my my friend for the rest
of my life. So you know, I wish nothing but
the best for him. And you know, I always want
us to win, but I want him to You know
have sex us too, Blake.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
One thing about last night everybody seems to talk about
it is that they're really good players in the league,
but Judge and Otani just do things nobody else can do.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Yeah, Like when Judge hit the home run, you just
knew SHOHI was gonna be like he's yeah, I mean
everyone does. And it's like every at bat is like,
You're like, he's gonna do it. You know it's the
Judge's batten what right under? Four hundred two for five
last night? Like and then Otani, I mean he went off.
I don't even know he's what three hundred, He's right
around there, twenty bombs, twenty one bomps, twenty two, he's
(05:33):
on pace for sixty.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I mean, yeah, he's on your team. Yeah, I love it.
I mean watching show I play every day is special.
And then they just know he can pitch too.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
It's like, what, there's a reason why he has all
those MVPs. I don't know how many he's gonna collect
over his career, but I know it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, And it's gonna be special when you Otani, Clayton, Kershaw,
and Yamamoto are all in the same rotation at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Yeah, and Glass now and May's been picking it up
doing his thing, like we got we got talent, man,
So I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
And then Gonsolin doing what he did last night.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
You know, I couldn't even imagine what it's like to
come back from injury, you know, for for so long
I have to pitch and battle, and you know, when
you're not out here for a full year, the game
changes every year.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Man, so it's a lot to learn.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
And even watching when Kershaw was pitching in Cleveland, you know,
the high fastball doesn't get the strike. They don't call
it anymore, like you know, and he pitched last year
and it's like, oh, I gotta get used to that,
like and you could see his head like what where
is that?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And you talked about this after your first start. And
I'm hearing more and more pitchers talk about the fact
the high strike is a lot lower than what it
was a year ago.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
It's gone. There's no high strike.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
It's a it's a belt strike and below to the
knees and then you know the east to west you
get a little bit of but no, the strike zone.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
They they've completely taken it away.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Why did they do that.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
They want hitting to be you know, they want hitters
to be more successful. So you take away the most
difficult pitches to hit, the high heater.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
And now everybody has to start working a little bit
lower down in the way again.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
But it's tough too because you know, before the high fastball,
it was all about you know, sinkers and cutters, and
then you know, then everyone went to four seam and
you know vert, and now it's like, well, what are
you gonna go to now, because then when you're going
four seam vert, then you're going sweeper. Yeah, and the
sweeper got high. But now it's like, so what's next,
you know, change It could be the change up. But
(07:27):
the struggle now with the strike zone is there's no
east to west, there's no.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
North to south.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So where do you go.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
You got out stuff them and you got to be
doing in the zone, which not a lot you know,
those are big league hitters.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Not a lot of people can do that.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
You have to have elite stuff to do that, so
makes it more difficult, more challenging. But yeah, I'm excited
for when they do something that benefits you know the picture.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
You know, the pitchers keep getting better and they're throwing harder.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
But you know that's because we're working to do that
doesn't mean you got to change the strike zone. So
that's that's my frustration with it. I don't think you
should ever change the strike zone. I think it should
have the way it starts, well it should be, and
I like it because it would be to my benefit,
no doubt.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
You're a picture.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah I want.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
That's what I want. Make my life a touch easier.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
We can't wait to see you back out there, Snell Zilla.
Thank you so much for the time on a beautiful Saturday.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
No appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
He is the man, Blake Snell coming soon to Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Man, let me hear your rar.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Blake Snell, Little Gral ready to go. Bring that edge baby, yup.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I can't wait.
And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's a beautiful day in La. You know what it is.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's snail Zilla's Saturday, and I'm with my guy again.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Two times, two times.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Cy Younger Wood winner Blake Snell, I saw you with
the kids again today.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You are very involved in the city.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hey, it's all about the kids, man, it's all about you.
I am itching for Blake Snell to be back on
that mound. What can you tell the people of La
where you're at.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Yeah, I'm throwing one hundred and twenty feet now it's
coming out, no pain.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I feel good. I'm excited. Do a couple of changeups.
Shut a tear, pretty excited. No, but I can't wait. Man.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
You know, when I signed, I was so excited and
it's all I wanted to do. And then you know,
having the way it sucks, and you know it's it's
a long it's a long process.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
But I'm gonna go slow. I'm gonna make sure I'm ready.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So when I when I started pitching, I can get
going and do my thing.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I was on you yesterday. I'm so eager.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Maybe not as much as you are, but we all
are very eager to see you on the mound. What's
the fine line there of not trying to rush it
but also know where the team's at, where they need you.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, I mean it was tough today. I mean you
see Jeter, hey Rod, big coffee. I went out there,
I started throwing. I was like, okay, I don you
slow down. You just get excited. You see you know
Hall of Famers, and you're just like, man, that's what
I'm chasing.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
And yeah, it's tough. But today, yeah, I got a
little excited. I just slow myself down.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Hey, Like, let's really focus mechanically on how I'm throwing
the ball, which I never do. I'm always like feeling
it's a little things here and there. But today it's
like I learned a lot and Connor helped me a lot.
So I was really excited about that. Started feeling better
at the end too.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So, yeah, when do you think you'll throw off the
mound and really take the next step?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Ironically, I think it's San Diego.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh, very fitting.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, I think so. I think that's the plan.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
And we'll see though, but I think sometime in San
Diego is the plan.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
But they'll let me know, and I'll be ready. But yeah,
I'm just I'm excited. I'm throwing.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
There's no pain and like I can actually, you know,
I can actually be excited for something like it's it's
gonna come and it's gonna happen soon.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And I'll take my time through it.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And as long as my shoulder feels good, which I
pray every day, man, you know, I'll just get back
out here and and just you know, feel what pitching is,
like I love I love going to battle and yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Can't wait to feel that again.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That's so great. Blake Snell is our guest.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
He's on the way back to the Dodgers last night's game, Blake,
you had a front row seat to maybe the best
show we've seen this year.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, the energy, man is just it's when when when
a good team shows up and we're playing, man and
you got showing Judge going.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Back and forth. You know, it's tap.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
It's top notch baseball, and it's fun to watch. It's
fun to watch the battles. And I mean Gonson being
able to go six you with not his best stuff
and hasn't pitched for a while is so impressive, man,
Like for him to just battle his way through that
game and give us six is really the reason why
I believe we won.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
So that showed a lot.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
You know, he was giving up what four home runs
and to battle through that and still give us opportunity
to win.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
And it's big man, and Freed has been.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Nasty all year and he goes five, you know, five
plus and the offense is able to get to him
and get him out. I mean it was just that's
great baseball. You know, it's exciting to watch.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I love hearing you say that pointing out Tony. I
feel like a lot of these guys sometimes on a
night like last night get overshadowed by Judge and Otani,
like Freddie Freeman and couple of big at bats and
great base running.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah, I mean, he he's a special player for a reason.
Just even the double down the line, just like getting
the barrel out, like he's such an elite hitter, and
you know, show Hey gets you know, most of the
attention Freddie, I mean he gets a lot of attention too.
But man, the way that he's able to just compete
every bat, there's never like a wasted it that it's
always competing.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And to see his level of focus is really impressive.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
A lot of people don't know this, but Blake Snell
has a pretty good relationship with Aaron Judge. What can
you tell us about Aaron Judge the person.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if Dodger fans want
to hear it, but he's the man like great dude,
works hard, loves to win, great baseball player.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Like everything you see is really who he is, probably better.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
In person, honestly, but uh yeah, I mean he's been
one of my really good friends in baseball for a
long time.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
And you know.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
It's tough, like when we're in battle, it's tough, you know,
because you want your team to win, and you know
that's my boy, so you want to see him succeed,
and so it's a tough spot and it's it's a
real thing, man.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Like some people will say, you know, you don't want
him to succeed.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
It's us first then, but you know, like that's been
my good friend for a very long time, and I
plan on him being my my friend for the rest
of my life. So you know, I wish nothing but
the best for him. And you know, I always want
us to win, but I want him to You know
have sex us too, Blake.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
One thing about last night everybody seems to talk about
it is that they're really good players in the league,
but Judge and Otani just do things nobody else can do.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Yeah, Like when Judge hit the home run, you just
knew SHOHI was gonna be like he's yeah, I mean
everyone does. And it's like every at bat is like,
You're like, he's gonna do it. You know it's the
Judge's batten what right under? Four hundred two for five
last night? Like and then Otani, I mean he went off.
I don't even know he's what three hundred, He's right
around there, twenty bombs, twenty one bomps, twenty two, he's
(05:33):
on pace for sixty.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I mean, yeah, he's on your team. Yeah, I love it.
I mean watching show I play every day is special.
And then they just know he can pitch too.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
It's like, what, there's a reason why he has all
those MVPs. I don't know how many he's gonna collect
over his career, but I know it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, And it's gonna be special when you Otani, Clayton, Kershaw,
and Yamamoto are all in the same rotation at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Yeah, and Glass now and May's been picking it up
doing his thing, like we got we got talent, man,
So I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
And then Gonsolin doing what he did last night.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
You know, I couldn't even imagine what it's like to
come back from injury, you know, for for so long
I have to pitch and battle, and you know, when
you're not out here for a full year, the game
changes every year.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Man, so it's a lot to learn.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
And even watching when Kershaw was pitching in Cleveland, you know,
the high fastball doesn't get the strike. They don't call
it anymore, like you know, and he pitched last year
and it's like, oh, I gotta get used to that,
like and you could see his head like what where
is that?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And you talked about this after your first start. And
I'm hearing more and more pitchers talk about the fact
the high strike is a lot lower than what it
was a year ago.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
It's gone. There's no high strike.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
It's a it's a belt strike and below to the
knees and then you know the east to west you
get a little bit of but no, the strike zone.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
They they've completely taken it away.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Why did they do that.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
They want hitting to be you know, they want hitters
to be more successful. So you take away the most
difficult pitches to hit, the high heater.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
And now everybody has to start working a little bit
lower down in the way again.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
But it's tough too because you know, before the high fastball,
it was all about you know, sinkers and cutters, and
then you know, then everyone went to four seam and
you know vert, and now it's like, well, what are
you gonna go to now, because then when you're going
four seam vert, then you're going sweeper. Yeah, and the
sweeper got high. But now it's like, so what's next,
you know, change It could be the change up. But
(07:27):
the struggle now with the strike zone is there's no
east to west, there's no.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
North to south.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So where do you go.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
You got out stuff them and you got to be
doing in the zone, which not a lot you know,
those are big league hitters.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Not a lot of people can do that.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
You have to have elite stuff to do that, so
makes it more difficult, more challenging. But yeah, I'm excited
for when they do something that benefits you know the picture.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
You know, the pitchers keep getting better and they're throwing harder.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
But you know that's because we're working to do that
doesn't mean you got to change the strike zone. So
that's that's my frustration with it. I don't think you
should ever change the strike zone. I think it should
have the way it starts, well it should be, and
I like it because it would be to my benefit,
no doubt.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
You're a picture.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah I want.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
That's what I want. Make my life a touch easier.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
We can't wait to see you back out there, Snell Zilla.
Thank you so much for the time on a beautiful Saturday.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
No appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
He is the man, Blake Snell coming soon to Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Man, let me hear your rar.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Blake Snell, Little Gral ready to go. Bring that edge baby, yup.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I can't wait.
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