Buster Olney (7-17-24)

DV chats with baseball insider, Buster Olney. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We're joined right now by a manthat I thoroughly respect and love his podcast
Baseball Tonight. As I take mydog for a walk, there is only
one podcast I listen to to getcaught up on the rest of Major League
Baseball, and that's Buster Only's BaseballTonight podcast and obviously staple for Sunday Night

(00:20):
Baseball, Wednesday Night Baseball, andobviously going to be a big part of
ESPN's coverage of the home run Derby. And Buster joins us, not from
Vermont, but from Hartford, Connecticut. How you doing, Buster, and
field of Vermont disrespect coming at somepoint, you have long you have long

(00:40):
made jokes at the expense of myhome state, and I've always been shocked
by the level of your vitriol.But we'll move past that. Hey,
I promised you when I asked youto do this, I would not make
any jokes or cheap shots against thestate of Vermont. Uh huh, go
ahead to take your shot, andthen we'll move on to the baseball.
Well, it says a lot youwere in Vermont and you decided to go

(01:03):
to Hartford, Connecticut. Oh Iknow that. Okay, we got that
out of the way. Buster whenyou look at the All Star teams and
who's in who's out, there's alwayssome debate. But I was a little
surprised that Craig Kimberl and Kenley Jansendid not make the American League team,
but Clay Holmes made the team.And you do wonder when some of those

(01:27):
things come into, you know,come to pass. You do wonder about
the timing of when some of thosediscussions take place. Uh and and I
think that that may have had somethingto do with it. I think that
if you know, for example,that you know that that took place a
week later, two weeks later,thank Kenley would be in and Holmes would
be out, you know, becausewe've seen Holmes have struggled of late.

(01:49):
We know the Yankees are going tobe looking for bullpen upgrades before the trade
deadline out. On the other hand, Kenley Jansen's making it really hard for
the Red Sox consider trading him becausethey're playing so well. He's an important
part of that. As I wasdriving from Vermont to hart for last night,
I was listening in that the RedSox nearly blew an eleven to two
lead, and Alex score just madesure he had ken Lee Jansen warming up

(02:13):
in the bullpen with a score twelveto eight. Because ken Ley's mister reliable
buster. I know I'm a littlebiased because ken Lee spent the majority of
his career with the Dodgers all timesaves leader, But are we taking for
granted one of the great careers ofa closer because it feels like he's not
really mentioned among the best currently andhis career is remarkable that it's still going

(02:38):
at this level. I think itreflects the conversation within the sport. A
lot of the new front offices basicallydon't really value closers, you know,
I think in the way that theymight have thirty years ago, because they
feel like that, generally speaking,relievers are replaceable. We see it every

(02:59):
fall when you know relievers are cutfree, non tendered, very few of
them actually paid a lot of money, you know. I think that,
you know, the days when youknow guys like Roley Fingers Mariano Rivera are
considered to be the more dominant playersin the sport, those are gone.
And I think ken Lee, youknow, Craig Kimberler are two guys who
are feeling that disrespect. I justknow from my time covering the Yankees,

(03:23):
and I covered some great teams.Now they had set up men like you
know, Jeff Nelson, who weretelling me, yeah, I don't want
the closer job. You wouldn't know. And I know, no matter what
the numbers say, no matter whatfront offices say about anyone can be a
closer. That's not how the playersfeel. And I think that's how ken

(03:43):
Lee has distinguished himself in his career, doing this job better than just about
anybody in his time. Yeah,and I know talking to ken Lee a
lot, Buster the Hall of Fameis on his mind. Five hundred saves
is on his mind. And I'mnot sure if he's going to get to
the Hall of Fame, but certainlyhe's making a case for it. Heck
yeah, I mean, if hegets five hundred saves, I don't know

(04:05):
how you don't put him in becauseat that point, if I if I
have the numbers correct, the onlytwo guys in history with who would have
more saves than him would be MarianoRivera and Trevor Hoffman. And so to
me, he would be an automaticin terms of getting of the Hall of
Fame. Buster only from ESPNS joiningUS on Dodger Talk Buster, let's turn

(04:25):
our attention to the Dodgers. Isaid this over the last forty games,
and some of the players have gottenupset with me that they are leaving Los
Angeles wanting for more. As goodas they are, as big of a
lead as they have, they areleaving us wanting more. How do you
feel from your perspective? And itwas interesting because during the winter time,

(04:47):
you know, the conversations, willthey have the greatest lineup ever? Will
they you know, can anybody beatthe Dodgers, you know, will they
approach one hundred and twenty wins?They're not close to being that team so
far. We look at the youknow, potential if everyone is healthy,
if you you know, get Mookieback and he's okay with his hand the
rest of the year, and youknow, Tani and Fred are in the

(05:10):
lineup, if guys rebound in thatlineup, because the bottom half of the
order has really, you know,not performed generally, and if they get
their starting pitchers back healthy, thenyeah, they could make a big den
in October. But to this point, we haven't seen, you know,
that dominant team that we all forecastduring the winter time. It's not nearly

(05:30):
that. It has not demonstrated thekind of depth that we expected, and
that's why a lot of people arespeculating they're looking for an everyday outfielder to
lengthen that lineup. Uh do youbelieve that's right at the top? One,
A, one B of them lookingfor a starting pitcher, you know.
And it's interesting because when you lookat the Dodgers and the resources and

(05:53):
the players they have on their fortyman roster, it's not easy to see
what should be a priority. Ihave not spoken with Andrew Freeman recently,
but just from talking with other teams, I think the Dodgers are a little
bit like the Atlanta Braves right now, where they want to get a little
bit closer to the deadline before theyfigure out exactly what the biggest priority is.

(06:14):
You know, if some of theguys in the bottom half of the
lineup begin to hit, then theconcern about that is mitigated and maybe they
go in another direction. You knowbetter than anybody, you know, the
Dodgers through the years tend to slowplay their players with injuries, their starting
pitchers in particular, and you know, they might actually feel good about their

(06:36):
starting pitching down the stretch. Maybeyou know this is just a case where
they're giving Tyler klass Now a chanceto rest up and get ready for the
postseason, because we pretty much knowthe Dodgers are going to be in the
Dance in October, and they tendto focus on trying to get guys ready
for them. So I think we'llknow more about what the priorities once we

(06:57):
get close to the deadline. Withouta doubt, Buster, this was a
great coincidence, opportunity, whatever youwant to call it, to say,
you know what, Tyler, you'regonna just miss one more start. We're
going to give you an extra periodof time to cool down this back and
get you ready for the second half. But there is still a lot of
uncertainty surrounding the return of Yoshi Yamamoto, Walker, Bueller, and Kershaw is

(07:21):
determined to come back, but youknow how how fickle those shoulder surgeries are.
There's no guarantees that he's going tobe that guy. So I feel
like the talk about Garrett Crochet islegitimate, but also Buster, if the
Dodgers have an opportunity to trade forNathan Valdi, it feels like that is

(07:43):
even more tempting than going after Crochet. Yeah, Nathan Evaldi would be perfect
for them. He also would beperfect for the Red Sox. And I
can tell you this. You know, a couple of weeks ago, when
there's you know, talk in themedia the Rangers going to be sellers.
Chris Young, who's their general manager, the message going from him was,
we're going for it. We arenot gonna sell. And maybe the mask

(08:05):
changes for them. But if younoticed so last week or so, they're
starting to play better. Their offenseis better. They got guys coming back.
I would not count on that.We know Crochet is going to be
moved. The obvious question is,you know, how comfortable is the acquiring
team with the number of innings thathe's thrown already? He had never gone

(08:26):
more than I think fifty four goinginto this year. He's gonna go well
past that. You worry that he'stired. I think one of the contenders,
maybe it's the Baltimore Oils, maybeit's the Red Sox, maybe it's
the Dodgers says, you know what, We're not gonna worry about the innings
so much. We're gonna bet onthe talent because he is big and left
handed and physical, and you'd havehim under control for another year, so

(08:50):
he to me would make sense.I would say this in a bidding situation.
The last couple of years, itfeels like so often the Dodgers have
had advantages over other teams because oftheir farm system. If the Baltimore Orioles
ever got serious about acquiring a bigyou know, a big name picture is
available, they might have an advantageover all of the teams because their farm

(09:11):
system currently is so deep without adoubt buster. And that's the danger for
the Dodgers. If the Orioles wantthe same picture they do, they're the
one team that can trump them withprospects. Yeah, one hundred percent,
because they can and they have awide range, you know. They It's
interesting, you know, when Iwas in Baltimore for Sunday Night Baseball recently,

(09:33):
I had someone there ask me,you know, have you seen anything
like this in terms of player developmentand the depth of the farm system,
Like, yeah, the Dodgers,you know, the Dodgers. The Dodgers
are very much like where the Oriolsare now, where not only are they
you know, picking the right players, but they're doing a great job of
developing the players. Uh, andthat's why the Orioles are in the situation

(09:54):
where it's possible if they get seriousabout bidding for an available starting p they,
you know, I think absolutely couldhave an advantage over the rest of
the industry. Buster only is ourguest. As we are getting ready for
the second half of the Major LeagueBaseball season, I feel like watching the
Dodgers and Phillies go at it inPhiladelphia, They're going to do it again

(10:16):
at Dodgers Stadium in a couple ofweeks. Buster, I'm not sure Andrew
Friedman looks at it this way,but certainly you would have to imagine when
the Dodgers see Nola Wheeler Christopher Sanchez, they've got to think that we've got
to find a way to match thatin a playoff series. If we see
these guys. I thought when youstarted that sentence of what you're going to

(10:39):
say, was you know they couldyou first see a matchup in October,
not just in a couple of weeks, because I ain't on paper right now,
Phillies are the best team in baseball. They're the most complete team.
You know, so many of theother contenders we look at and we say,
well, you know, the Yankeeshave a major hole with their bullpen.
You know, the Braves clear leaguecould use some outfield help. The

(11:01):
Phillies are the one team where Ithink they don't necessarily have this gaping hole.
They got an excellent rotation. Youknow, you ran through three names.
How about Ranger Suarez. It mightstart the game for the All Star
Game. They have an excellent bullpen, they have an experienced lineup. Those
guys are incredibly hungry after having ashocking exit from the playoffs last year.

(11:22):
I do think the Phillies are thestandard. And if you're Andrew Freeman,
you know it's you're probably gleaning someinformation being able to watch them in person
leading up to the trade that long. It would be incredibly electric. Buster
Dodgers Phillies in the NLCS. That'swhat as a baseball fan, I'm hoping
for. Back to those those matchupsin nineteen seventy seven, nineteen seventy eight.

(11:46):
Yeah, you know that sort ofthing where I mean they would really
be two powerhouse teams going at it. Yeah, that would be special.
I feel like Matt Camp and AndreEthier are still traumatized by Matt Stairs in
those eight nine nlcs's exactly, ThanksBuster for the time. Always great to

(12:07):
catch up with you and look forwardto seeing you in Los Angeles Sunday night
baseball, Dodgers, Red Sox rightout of the break. That sounds great,
David. I appreciate you asking