March 10, 2025 • 10 mins
David Vassegh talks to Clayton Kershaw on Spring Training Dodger Talk.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Join right now to a man that makes the baseball
world here in Glendale, Arizona feel right. If he wasn't here,
nothing would feel the same way. And it's not a
coincidence that his old pitching coach, Rick Honeycut, scheduled his
trip to camel Back Ranch at the same time that
Clayton Kershaw would come back here. So we're here to
(00:21):
see if that truck still works. Because you only got
so many summers, Clayton, thanks a lot for the time.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
There was so much going on in that intro. I
don't even know how to start, but good to see it.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Dave.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh, great to see you too. Tip of the cap
to your guy, Brad Paisley.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah that was really good. So many summers. I'm in
that music video.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
There's a music video.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah you didn't seen it? Okay, good, we'll check it
out all right, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
MTV is not as popular as it used to be,
so true. How about Rick Honeycut, It wasn't a coincidence
to see him really take an interest in your one
and only bullpen session this spring.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, Honey's great. It's always fun to have him here.
And you got to hold on to the old guard.
You know, it's nice to keep seeing people like I mean,
you're old now, you know. So Honey's been here a
while and we've got possum still so there's a few
of us still around.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
But no, it's been great. Honey's awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I've never asked you this before, but during the seasons,
if you feel like you're a little off or you
want to bounce something off of somebody, do you ever
reach out to him during a season.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We have a great group, you know, Mark. I have
a great relationship with Mark too. He's been awesome. And
Connor also as far as like pitch grips and different stuff.
We have a really good group. But yeah, if Honey's
ever in town or he sees something, and we always
we always talk pitching.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I mean that's what we both know.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
And so you know, there's too many cooks in the
kitchen sometimes, but not not with those guys.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
There's no egos.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
They just want to help if they can, and we
really do.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
We have a great group.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Clayton, you're back here in camel Back Ranch. We did
see the bullpen session, so I guess is that a
good sign that you're knee and your foot are healing.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The right way, I think, so, Yeah, I mean it's
definitely progressing. Arms feeling good. So I wouldn't say I'm
like one hundred percent yet, but I think I'm getting
close and it keeps getting better every day. So keep
throwing bullpens this month and start facing some hitters here soon,
and you know, doing the rehab starts all that. We're
(02:22):
still you know, it's still a process obviously, but I
feel I feel good about where I'm at and I
feel like I'm on a good track to be ready soon.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
What we saw a couple of days ago. Are you
holding anything back in that type of setting or when
you're landing on that front foot it's full force.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, I mean I don't have any pain.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It's just, uh, you know, I think obviously there's some
mental hurdles to come come through anytime with surgery. I
think I haven't done it with the shoulder, and now
with these two. There's just some mental hurdles like hey,
is it gonna hurt, and so getting over that and
not thinking about that as hard. But that's what bullpens
are for, you know. And so there's no pain. It's
just I think there's some you know a little bit
(03:01):
out of sync a little bit, maybe not using all
of my lower half like I can and just figuring
out how to do that again.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
But it's all.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Coming together and I think within the next, you know,
a couple months to get there.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
So you're traveling with the team to Tokyo. Are you
planning on doing something there?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, I'm gonna do stuff, Dave.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I want to know what to say. I want to
know the extent of how much you're gonna do at
the Tokyo Dome.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Oh, you mean baseball wise? Yes, I thought you meant
tourist wise.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I know you're gonna do stuff that that way.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I mean I'm kind of on like a Tuesday Friday
bullpen plan right now, So I don't know how the
days work over there. I'm assuming it's the same, but yeah,
I'll go Tuesday Friday for a while and then start
getting into like a five or six or seven or
eight day rotation at some point and start facing some hitters.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Are you planning on doing some ambassador's ship for the
Dodgers in Tokyo?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
You're gonna be out there with your family, Charlie. Charlie
and Cali are gonna be there with you. So what's
the Kruse shot fan plans in Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, we got the whole crew coming. I don't know, obviously,
we gotta we want to try the food. Everybody says
the food's awesome. We want to ride the Bullet train.
We want to maybe make a trip to Kyoto. We
heard Kyoto is really cool.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I know Ellen's got it all dialed in itenerary wise,
So it's gonna be super fun once again, lifetime experience,
once in a lifetime to go over there with Shohy
and the Dodgers and kind of the global brand that
they've become, especially with you know, kind of our three
Japanese superstars that we have.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
So it's, uh, it's gonna be wild.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Speaking of Otani and those guys, what have you seen
from Otani during the course of last year, just from
start to where you're at right now, where he's at
as a teammate with everybody, I.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Think show is awesome, I really do, you know. I
think I think having him around and he's just been
you know, you hear stories and until you actually meet
the guy for sure, you just don't know, right, And
so last year I know, it was a lot whirlwind
getting to know everybody, and I felt like he really
came together with all of us. And this year's kind
(05:05):
of been more of an extension of the same and
man seeing what he has to do now, like get
ready to pitch and get ready to hit.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It is it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's a lot, like you finish your throwing and then
you go straight into the cage, like I can't imagine
trying to be elite, elite at both and so, but
that's why you show, hey, you know, and so we're
excited to see that. Obviously, it's going to be really
cool to watch. And I mean the year he had
last year is pretty tough to beat, but when you
throw pitching on top of it, it's gonna be kind
of amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
When you see Sazaki in spring training, does it remind
you of how Yamamoto was adjusting to life in Major
League Baseball in a new environment. Do we underappreciate how
much that is part of this learning curve?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, I mean it's it's so much, you know, like
I can't imagine going to Japan and learning a new culture,
learn like whole new living situation, speaking not speaking the
language and then learning out how to pitch.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So Rookie's obviously super talented. His split is like one
of the best pitches in the game. Yeah, like when
it's I don't think it's really hard to catch, let
alone hit. It's just got so much movement, and so
there's some stuff to work on.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Obviously he's only twenty three. He's not as polished as Yama.
You know, Yama was twenty five, a free agent, been
doing it for a while, and even Yama this spring
looks just way more comfortable than he did last year.
You know, So there's gonna be some learning curves, I'm
sure with Roki, but the talent's undeniable and he's gonna
get a lot of people out for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
We know you're a creature of habits. Starting pitchers are
creatures of habits. So what is the adjustment if all
six of you are in the rotation at one point
in time during the season. Is that an adjustment or
do you feel like Andrew and Dave have kind of
started to morph the pitching staff into five days of
rest the last few years.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, I do think it's I do think like a
six day rotation has become a little bit more normal
for us.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I feel like the last couple of years especially, you know,
the trick is like if there is a time where
you have to throw on that regular rest, you know,
you don't want it to feel like short. So it's
kind of like having routines locked in for both and
kind of going from there. But you know, I think
the extra day everybody's gotten used to now, and I mean, hey,
when we have Shoe and Roki and Yama all going,
(07:19):
it's going to be that way. That's the way it
was in Japan, and that's the way it's going to
be here, and we're all gonna have to figure out
how to adjust to that.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And but I think we all kind of did it
last year, so we'll be good.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Clayton Kershaw is our guest. Before I let you go,
I love to rewind to last year the World Series.
Walker Buehler is not with the Dodgers this year for
the first time in his professional career. I've never asked
you this during the excitement of the parade and all that.
What were you thinking when you saw him go out
to the bullpen and when you saw him come into
(07:51):
the game in the ninth inning, because he obviously said
he learned by watching you he wanted to be that
for the team because you were not available, like all
of that.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
How did you feel, Yeah, you can say whatever you
want about Walker, but you can't.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You can't.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You can't deny the way he takes the ball, you know,
and so we're going to miss him around here. He
just he he was special in that regard. There was
a lot of times when he just kept wanting to
take the ball. You know, he's not afraid, and that
was a kind of a great moment for him and
super special, and we needed every pitch that he had
(08:29):
and us, you know, we were pretty much then, we
were pretty much out at that point. So for him
to come in close a game like that, it was
a really cool way to end his Dodger tenure.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
And I'm happy for him.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I know Boston is going to be a good setting
for him and he can handle that media crowd and
be good.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And so you know, I hope, I hope you pitch
as well, just not against us.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, has he reached out to you since he signed
with Boston?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
He, uh, yeah, we faced on a few times. He's
feeling good, he's in spring training and the ball's coming
out good. You know, he's uh, he's back up to
ninety five or so, and I think he's excited, you know,
another year removed from surgery.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
So I think I think he'll be good.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Did you uh, did you appreciate him referencing you doing
what he did several times? I, Walker's great.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You know, I think there's he was going to do
that regardless stuff, you know, like he just uh, I
mean for better for whereas Walker's he go is going
to let him go out there and he knows he's good, and.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
That's just it was really cool to see.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
How about how he he did not hide the fact
that his pose after the last out of the World
Series was not spontaneous. He said he'd been thinking about
that pose for a while.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, he's like I said, he's special. He's special. Thanks
a lot for the time. All right, Thanks Dave.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Good to see you, man, Great to see you too.
Were you really excited to see me?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I was like in the middle, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but
yeah it kind of you grow on you as the
season goes, you know, so we need an off season though,
to reset.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well maybe you and I, you and I can tag
along in Tokyo. Maybe I'll be the fifth cruise Shaw.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You want to hang out with us, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Let's see where. Let's see where the bullet train takes
us
Speaker 3 (10:11):
One step at a time.
Join right now to a man that makes the baseball
world here in Glendale, Arizona feel right. If he wasn't here,
nothing would feel the same way. And it's not a
coincidence that his old pitching coach, Rick Honeycut, scheduled his
trip to camel Back Ranch at the same time that
Clayton Kershaw would come back here. So we're here to
(00:21):
see if that truck still works. Because you only got
so many summers, Clayton, thanks a lot for the time.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
There was so much going on in that intro. I
don't even know how to start, but good to see it.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Dave.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh, great to see you too. Tip of the cap
to your guy, Brad Paisley.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah that was really good. So many summers. I'm in
that music video.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
There's a music video.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah you didn't seen it? Okay, good, we'll check it
out all right, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
MTV is not as popular as it used to be,
so true. How about Rick Honeycut, It wasn't a coincidence
to see him really take an interest in your one
and only bullpen session this spring.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, Honey's great. It's always fun to have him here.
And you got to hold on to the old guard.
You know, it's nice to keep seeing people like I mean,
you're old now, you know. So Honey's been here a
while and we've got possum still so there's a few
of us still around.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
But no, it's been great. Honey's awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I've never asked you this before, but during the seasons,
if you feel like you're a little off or you
want to bounce something off of somebody, do you ever
reach out to him during a season.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We have a great group, you know, Mark. I have
a great relationship with Mark too. He's been awesome. And
Connor also as far as like pitch grips and different stuff.
We have a really good group. But yeah, if Honey's
ever in town or he sees something, and we always
we always talk pitching.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I mean that's what we both know.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
And so you know, there's too many cooks in the
kitchen sometimes, but not not with those guys.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
There's no egos.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
They just want to help if they can, and we
really do.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
We have a great group.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Clayton, you're back here in camel Back Ranch. We did
see the bullpen session, so I guess is that a
good sign that you're knee and your foot are healing.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The right way, I think, so, Yeah, I mean it's
definitely progressing. Arms feeling good. So I wouldn't say I'm
like one hundred percent yet, but I think I'm getting
close and it keeps getting better every day. So keep
throwing bullpens this month and start facing some hitters here soon,
and you know, doing the rehab starts all that. We're
(02:22):
still you know, it's still a process obviously, but I
feel I feel good about where I'm at and I
feel like I'm on a good track to be ready soon.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
What we saw a couple of days ago. Are you
holding anything back in that type of setting or when
you're landing on that front foot it's full force.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, I mean I don't have any pain.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It's just, uh, you know, I think obviously there's some
mental hurdles to come come through anytime with surgery. I
think I haven't done it with the shoulder, and now
with these two. There's just some mental hurdles like hey,
is it gonna hurt, and so getting over that and
not thinking about that as hard. But that's what bullpens
are for, you know. And so there's no pain. It's
just I think there's some you know a little bit
(03:01):
out of sync a little bit, maybe not using all
of my lower half like I can and just figuring
out how to do that again.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
But it's all.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Coming together and I think within the next, you know,
a couple months to get there.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
So you're traveling with the team to Tokyo. Are you
planning on doing something there?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, I'm gonna do stuff, Dave.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I want to know what to say. I want to
know the extent of how much you're gonna do at
the Tokyo Dome.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Oh, you mean baseball wise? Yes, I thought you meant
tourist wise.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I know you're gonna do stuff that that way.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I mean I'm kind of on like a Tuesday Friday
bullpen plan right now, So I don't know how the
days work over there. I'm assuming it's the same, but yeah,
I'll go Tuesday Friday for a while and then start
getting into like a five or six or seven or
eight day rotation at some point and start facing some hitters.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Are you planning on doing some ambassador's ship for the
Dodgers in Tokyo?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
You're gonna be out there with your family, Charlie. Charlie
and Cali are gonna be there with you. So what's
the Kruse shot fan plans in Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, we got the whole crew coming. I don't know, obviously,
we gotta we want to try the food. Everybody says
the food's awesome. We want to ride the Bullet train.
We want to maybe make a trip to Kyoto. We
heard Kyoto is really cool.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I know Ellen's got it all dialed in itenerary wise,
So it's gonna be super fun once again, lifetime experience,
once in a lifetime to go over there with Shohy
and the Dodgers and kind of the global brand that
they've become, especially with you know, kind of our three
Japanese superstars that we have.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
So it's, uh, it's gonna be wild.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Speaking of Otani and those guys, what have you seen
from Otani during the course of last year, just from
start to where you're at right now, where he's at
as a teammate with everybody, I.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Think show is awesome, I really do, you know. I
think I think having him around and he's just been
you know, you hear stories and until you actually meet
the guy for sure, you just don't know, right, And
so last year I know, it was a lot whirlwind
getting to know everybody, and I felt like he really
came together with all of us. And this year's kind
(05:05):
of been more of an extension of the same and
man seeing what he has to do now, like get
ready to pitch and get ready to hit.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It is it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's a lot, like you finish your throwing and then
you go straight into the cage, like I can't imagine
trying to be elite, elite at both and so, but
that's why you show, hey, you know, and so we're
excited to see that. Obviously, it's going to be really
cool to watch. And I mean the year he had
last year is pretty tough to beat, but when you
throw pitching on top of it, it's gonna be kind
of amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
When you see Sazaki in spring training, does it remind
you of how Yamamoto was adjusting to life in Major
League Baseball in a new environment. Do we underappreciate how
much that is part of this learning curve?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, I mean it's it's so much, you know, like
I can't imagine going to Japan and learning a new culture,
learn like whole new living situation, speaking not speaking the
language and then learning out how to pitch.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So Rookie's obviously super talented. His split is like one
of the best pitches in the game. Yeah, like when
it's I don't think it's really hard to catch, let
alone hit. It's just got so much movement, and so
there's some stuff to work on.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Obviously he's only twenty three. He's not as polished as Yama.
You know, Yama was twenty five, a free agent, been
doing it for a while, and even Yama this spring
looks just way more comfortable than he did last year.
You know, So there's gonna be some learning curves, I'm
sure with Roki, but the talent's undeniable and he's gonna
get a lot of people out for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
We know you're a creature of habits. Starting pitchers are
creatures of habits. So what is the adjustment if all
six of you are in the rotation at one point
in time during the season. Is that an adjustment or
do you feel like Andrew and Dave have kind of
started to morph the pitching staff into five days of
rest the last few years.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, I do think it's I do think like a
six day rotation has become a little bit more normal
for us.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I feel like the last couple of years especially, you know,
the trick is like if there is a time where
you have to throw on that regular rest, you know,
you don't want it to feel like short. So it's
kind of like having routines locked in for both and
kind of going from there. But you know, I think
the extra day everybody's gotten used to now, and I mean, hey,
when we have Shoe and Roki and Yama all going,
(07:19):
it's going to be that way. That's the way it
was in Japan, and that's the way it's going to
be here, and we're all gonna have to figure out
how to adjust to that.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And but I think we all kind of did it
last year, so we'll be good.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Clayton Kershaw is our guest. Before I let you go,
I love to rewind to last year the World Series.
Walker Buehler is not with the Dodgers this year for
the first time in his professional career. I've never asked
you this during the excitement of the parade and all that.
What were you thinking when you saw him go out
to the bullpen and when you saw him come into
(07:51):
the game in the ninth inning, because he obviously said
he learned by watching you he wanted to be that
for the team because you were not available, like all
of that.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
How did you feel, Yeah, you can say whatever you
want about Walker, but you can't.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
You can't.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You can't deny the way he takes the ball, you know,
and so we're going to miss him around here. He
just he he was special in that regard. There was
a lot of times when he just kept wanting to
take the ball. You know, he's not afraid, and that
was a kind of a great moment for him and
super special, and we needed every pitch that he had
(08:29):
and us, you know, we were pretty much then, we
were pretty much out at that point. So for him
to come in close a game like that, it was
a really cool way to end his Dodger tenure.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
And I'm happy for him.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I know Boston is going to be a good setting
for him and he can handle that media crowd and
be good.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And so you know, I hope, I hope you pitch
as well, just not against us.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, has he reached out to you since he signed
with Boston?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
He, uh, yeah, we faced on a few times. He's
feeling good, he's in spring training and the ball's coming
out good. You know, he's uh, he's back up to
ninety five or so, and I think he's excited, you know,
another year removed from surgery.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
So I think I think he'll be good.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Did you uh, did you appreciate him referencing you doing
what he did several times? I, Walker's great.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You know, I think there's he was going to do
that regardless stuff, you know, like he just uh, I
mean for better for whereas Walker's he go is going
to let him go out there and he knows he's good, and.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
That's just it was really cool to see.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
How about how he he did not hide the fact
that his pose after the last out of the World
Series was not spontaneous. He said he'd been thinking about
that pose for a while.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, he's like I said, he's special. He's special. Thanks
a lot for the time. All right, Thanks Dave.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Good to see you, man, Great to see you too.
Were you really excited to see me?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I was like in the middle, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but
yeah it kind of you grow on you as the
season goes, you know, so we need an off season though,
to reset.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well maybe you and I, you and I can tag
along in Tokyo. Maybe I'll be the fifth cruise Shaw.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You want to hang out with us, Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Let's see where. Let's see where the bullet train takes
us
Speaker 3 (10:11):
One step at a time.
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