James Paxton (7-9-24)

DV catches up with Big Maple before the Dodgers start a 3-game series in Philly. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, last week was Canada Day, but we still can talk to great
Canadian James Paxton. Thanks a lotfor your time, James, appreciate it.
Absolutely. We've seen you pitch obviously. You've done a great job for
the Dodgers all season long. Howhas the experience been being on a new
team in a new city and stillbeing very good for the team. It's
been great and I've had an awesomeexperience here. Teammates are awesome, coaching

(00:24):
staff, training staff, training staff. Everybody's treating really well, taking great
care of me. Yeah, Ifeel like I was just welcome with open
arms. We've heard from other pitchersthat the Dodgers do it better than most
teams around baseball. Have you experiencedthat firsthand? Yeah, you know,
I really have. I've gotten alot of help with some pitches. You
know, I came in and Ineeded help with my change up, and

(00:45):
I really got to help a lotof help there. And you know,
I'm kind of evolving in the waythat I pitch. I don't have quite
the same stuff I used to have, and they're they're helping me make that,
make that change and learning how topitch with different stuff. And it's
been it's been great. Is thatthe first step to understand that you are
evolving, That James Paxton at thisstage of your career is not that James

(01:06):
Paxton from even five years ago.Yeah, you know, I think you
see it happen to all pictures,most pictures. You know, you get
a little older and you lose somevelocity, maybe lose certain sharpness on certain
certain pitches, and you have tolearn how to pitch a little differently.
And you know that can be tough, and it has been, you know,
frustrating and hard. But I've hada lot of help here to to
help me learn how to make thatwork best, and it's been good experience.

(01:30):
You always hear about love language whenit comes to relationships, when it
comes to pitching, if somebody saysthe same thing but in a different way,
does it click for a picture morethan maybe somebody else saying the same
thing. Yeah, you know,I've heard that. It just depends,
I think different people a little kindof grasp on it with things that are

(01:52):
said differently. You know, soa lot of people can say the same
thing to you, but it justtakes you know, someone saying in a
way that you understand that really,like you said, clicks with you.
And I feel like they've done areally good job of helping me with that
and you know, finding things thathelp me figure things out. What does
Connor McGinnis so do so well thatit seems to really click with so many

(02:15):
pitchers. I think he's just reallygood at understanding, you know, pitch
grips and stuff and how guys throwthe baseball. And he's really good at
just explaining how the ball moves andhow to create movement and stuff like that.
He's helped me tremendously with my changeup and my two seamer I changed
my grip and my two team justthe other day and really help with the
movement. So, you know,I think he's just got so much experience

(02:36):
working with different guys too, thathe knows different things to try and trust,
right, he builds that trust withthe with the pitcher, And how
does that trust form? Does itcome from seeing what the ball does when
you change things or does it Howdoes the trust start to form? You
know, I think it's just hispersonality. You know, he's very easy
to talk to, and you know, I think he just like he said,

(02:58):
everyone knows how experienced he is andstuff. How many guys he's worked
with and helped, and he's verypatient with guys. And he also,
you know, is very good atcheering you on and you know, encouraging
you to keep on trying stuff.I've actually heard change up in James Paxton
a lot more during this season,so I guess he's really trying to encourage
you to throw that pitch. Yeah, you know, it's a pitch that

(03:20):
I've never really used a whole bunchof my career, but like I said,
where I'm not right now with mycareer myself. It's a pitch that
is extremely useful. I've heard Kershawtalk about change up envy. Do you
have change up envy as well?Oh? For sure, you know guys
with great change jobs. It's apitch that's so effective, especially you've got
a really good one, So it'sfun to kind of play with and have

(03:40):
some success with it now. JamesPaxton is our guest in front of first
Pitch, and James, you've beenunbelievable. I feel like Houdini level where
you're able to navigate in and outof traffic. How have you been able
to do that so successfully all season? Just sticking with my process, you
know. So I'm on the moundand I'm giving everything I got in every

(04:01):
pitch and doesn't matter what's going onaround me. I'm focused on throwing my
next pitch, and you know,just I think just having that mental kind
of approach has helped me work throughsituations. Were you I know I mentioned
at the beginning of this that you'rea proud Canadian. What was it like
for you when you saw Eric Gagnelast week be introduced and throwing out the

(04:24):
ceremonial first pitch. It's pretty cool, you know. It's it's awesome to
see those guys that represented Canada sowell and had so much success, you
know, come out and just beexamples of what you know Canadian baseball players
can be. And he's a greatone. What is baseball like for a
young man in Canada? Is itas big of a deal as hockey is

(04:45):
or are you outlier when you decideI'm going to pursue baseball. You know,
I think it's getting more popular.There's definitely some good leagues up there.
There's not as many as in theStates, obviously, but there's some
great programs and there's a lot ofreally good baseball players coming out of Canada
these day. Yeah. Are youa big hockey fan? I would say
I'm a big hockey fan. Ienjoy I really like watching it live live.

(05:05):
Hockey is are my favorite sports towatch. I could see it being
something that I get into watching morewhen I'm done playing baseball. Would you
lean anyway with the team in Canada? Oh, I gotta stick with my
Canucks, you know, Vancouver hometownteam. I'll be a Canucks fan forever.
See, this is what I wanted. I wanted that Canadian accent to

(05:26):
come out. Can you just sayorganization once organization. Thanks a lot for
the time, James. Great towatch you pitch this year and continued health
the rest of the way. Absolutely, thank you very much.