May 15, 2025 • 38 mins
New LA Kings GM, Ken Holland joins us. Sasaki speaks on why he decided to try to pitch even though he had a bum shoulder. If Kim keeps playing well, will he be here to stay? If he does, then who on the Dodgers' roster has to go?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we continue on Fred Rogan Rodney Pete on
a five seventy LA Sports Excited about this been looking
forward to it all show. He is a Hockey Hall
of Fame Inductee's an executive general manager of the Red
Wings from ninety seven to twenty nineteen and one for
Stanley Cups in that span. We will not hold this
against him, but he was president and GM of the
(00:21):
Edmonton Oilers as well. So he is the new general
manager of the Kings. And we welcome Ken Holland to
the program. Ken, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, nice to be with you. I'm excited to be here,
all right.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So when you get to town, you look at the
roster and you think what.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think? So really good hockey team that I'm excited
to work with the people here to see if we
can try to take it to another to win some
playoff rounds and take it to another level.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Hey Ken, what the first of all, congratulations exciting.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I know everybody is excited to have you here in LA.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
When you look at the Kings from a from afar,
especially the last couple of years, and and and I
guess more in particularly this year because they had a
really good season. But when you look at them from
a far outside looking in, what is the perception of
the Kings as a team, you know lately and then
as a as a franchise.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, I would say this to you. It wasn't from afar.
I was a general manager of the Edmonton Oiters the
first three years of this of this series, so I
had a first hand look at the LA Kings. And
year one, l A had us down three games to
two coming into LA for Game six, and we found
(01:51):
a way to win a game with I say we
when I was with Edmonton then with four minutes to go,
and then game one game seven to one.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So and then the next year l A had us
down l A. L A had Edmonton down two games
to one and it was three nothing l A and
game in game four and somehow Edmonton won that game
in overtime and won the series. And then this year
l A was up two games to nothing and lost
the series and six So in three of the fourth series,
(02:22):
the margin has been very, very small. But in pro sports,
that's what you're that's what you're judged on, is the
final result. So I would say to you that this
is a very good hockey team. They're they're they're right
up there with all the best teams in the Western Conference.
Have to figure out a way to change the team
(02:45):
a little do a little something to make the team
a little bit different, a little bit better, so that
we we do qualify for the playoffs again, put ourselves
back in the same opportunity and it's a little bit
different and a little more haired and ready to try
to take another step next year.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
But Ken, are you taking over a team that's pretty
much pretty much up against the cap?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
No, not really, I mean the cap is going is
going up again? Uh No, I'd say, first off, are
we up against the cap? Yeah? Probably, But that's the
same that's the same story for twenty five of the
thirty two teams. You know, it's I mean, everybody is
pushing up against the cap. That's that's what the cap does.
(03:30):
So you know, I was when I was in Edmonton
in five years because of the COVID the cap went
from eighty one point five to eighty two point five,
went up one million in five years, And you have
to figure out how to put a team on the ice,
and and you know, so it's not something it's I've
been doing that since two thousand and five. Obviously, living
in a cap world in Detroit, living in a cap
(03:52):
world in Edmonton. So the whatever challenges you got, everybody's
got similar challenges.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Right, well, let me try it this way.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Do you have and if you do, how much wiggle
room will you have to be able to make moves?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That's how you know, do you sign Gavrikov or do
you not sign Gavrikov? Do you know? You know, like
it's that's that's that's that's you know. It's somebody can say, well,
we got twenty million, but if you've got to sign
four players, you don't have twenty million. You might have
two million. So it depends on how you want to
spend your money. And the other thing is, you know,
(04:31):
there's obviously do you want to make any trade? So
that's those challenges with the cap, That's what I'm saying.
They're the same, They're the same for for for everybody.
There's probably there's thirty two teams at times twenty three players.
There's there's seven hundred and twenty five players that play
in this league. Six hundred play in the league every day,
(04:53):
one hundred hundred and twenty five go up and down,
they move, they shuffle around, some young kids, some vets.
So as the cap goes up, those same six hundred
players and they rotate over ten percent go out and
ten percent come in because of age, because of variety.
But it's the same group of players that that command
most of that money. And as the cap goes up,
(05:13):
you might pay the same players. You know, if they
made three million four years ago, well they might make
four million four million now. And you just have to
manage how you want to spend your money. It's the
importance of drafting and developing. Part of this has to
be young kids, the growth of young kids. Like I said,
that's that's what I've been doing since two thousand and
five as a general manager of an NHL team in
(05:34):
the cap world.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Ken you mentioned, you know, you were with Edmonton and
you got a front row seat, you know when when
Edmonton played the played the Kings and in the playoffs
have been four straight years now when you look at this,
and you also mentioned that, you know, they have to
take a hard look at the roster and it might
be some moves. You know, sports is it's great because
(06:00):
it's it's unscripted. You never know what's going to happen.
I think people can try to overanalyze a lot of
things when it comes to wins and losses. But as
you look in at as the Kings, as they've kind of,
like you said, up two oh and then lose and
then have their heartbroken time and time again by Edmonton.
Is it something with the roster that you can put
(06:21):
your your finger on and point to you as maybe
this this group of guys or this guy doesn't match
with this guy that you have to take a hard
look at it, or is it just sports is being
sports and sometimes you don't really have an answer.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Well, you got to make some changes, you know, obviously,
you know when you don't get the desired result, then
you have to make you know, sometimes you know, minor
changes and sometimes you got to make You got to
try to see if you're going to make a major change.
You know, you look at this year, Ellie's up two
games to nothing. Is they're up four to three with
(06:58):
six minutes or seven minutes to go in game three
and they're up three to one after two periods, and
you and I are having these conversations and there's a
different general manager in place that's that's the business that
we live and it's just that this this fine line business.
So I have to figure out that's why I that's
why they've hired me. I have to figure out what
(07:22):
needs to be done to try to take another step
and get a little bit better, a little bit different
and over here over the next couple of weeks. You know,
I'm gonna talk Dansy Copeta. Yesterday for an hour and
a half. I talked to Drew Dowd. You have talked
to the coach, talked to Luke Rovitie, talked to Nelson Efferson,
assistant general manager. Today, I want to talk to the
(07:44):
analytics people. I'm going to look at some video. We're
gonna have our pro scout meetings, so I want to
have our pro people in and and then I want
to talk to general managers, the other thirty one general
managers in the league over the next two weeks to
see what they're thinking and maybe there's something out there
that you know. And then there's agent and there's unrestricted
free agency, and formulate a plan. And the goal is
(08:05):
to have another great regular season, to be in the playoffs,
and to be a little bit different. Then the team
was this year. But I don't reready have kent like
I've got to go through this whole process to get
to that point.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Are you to a point very early this process as
you begin, have you made a decision on if you're
going to make a coaching change or is Jim Hiller
going to be back?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Jim Hiller is going to be back. I met with
him yesterday. Yeah, I met with him yesterday. Jim Hiller.
He was the assistant coach on Mike Babcock staff in
Detroit fifteen years ago when I was a manager. So
you know, I know Jim, got a relationship with him,
and I follow you know, followed his career through the
Islanders and through Toronto, and I thought he did a
(08:53):
great job here in his time behind the bench. You know,
the team played hard, they checked and and top five,
top six and goals against. So I think he's done
a five of his job. And I also think that
these experiences that he's gone through are the last couple
of years against Edmonton are going to be a positive
(09:15):
and not a negative. And well why they were positive.
It's the experience. It's learning and knowing that this thing
doesn't quite work. We've got to change something a little bit.
So I'm looking forward to working with Jim and I'm
making the team a little bit different, a little bit better,
and going through this whole process to try to this
time next year to be playing hockey.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, congratulations on keeping him. I thought he did a
great job this year. I really did, so I'm glad
he stays.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
All right, So now you mentioned as an example, Gavrikov,
what do we do?
Speaker 4 (09:45):
All right?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
As you look at this roster, who are the guys
that are up? Who are the guys that you're looking
at yourself and going what do we do?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Who are those guys?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Well, I would say, you know, first off, when I
have a goalie here that's one of the finalists for
the Vesment Trophy. So feel good. We feel about good
about Kemper. We got to make you know, Riddich is
an unrestricted free agent, so we got to make a
decision in in in the goalie position. So we got
a good one two punch in net. There's lots of
(10:18):
pieces in place. You know Edmondson, you know Dowdy missed
sixty games or fifty games. He's going to have a
big summer. He'll be back next year healthy. I think
that will help Drew, you know, have a have a
full training camp and and and look for him to
have a continue to have a real big impact on
this team. And you know, great signing by Blakey on
(10:40):
Joel Edmondson and and and Mikey Anderson. We have to
make a decision on on on Gavkov. You've always got
a young Brad Clark, So there's lots of different options
and pieces. And you want to be good and deep
on defense. You want to be seven eight deep on defense.
So we got it. We got to make all those
decisions up front. I thought that they had you know,
they roll four lines. Maybe in the playoffs he cut
(11:03):
back a little bit to three lines because of the
of the moment. And did Jim cut back because of
the other team of his team? You know, those are
the conversations I got to have. But I thought that
LA had the best I'm going to call it third
line in the league, a matchup line, the Deno fogel
More line. They could play against anybody. And they all
(11:24):
had great years. You know, kemp be at thirty five goals,
Fiela had thirty five goals. Got to make a decision
on Kuzmenko talking to the coach. You got to talk,
got to talk to Kuzmenko's agent and just start to go.
Like I said, I call it the processing. People get
tired of hearing the word of the process. But you
got to go through the whole, you know, gamut of
of of of of information gathering to ultimately make some
(11:48):
decisions as to what we want to do. And then,
like I said, talk to thirty one or other general
managers and maybe somewhere now or somewhere down the road,
you make it. You make a trade. But I just
got a it's this is a good hockey team. They've
got They've got a lot of people in their prime.
(12:08):
They've got some people that are that are young and
on the on the upcome, and they're going to have
a bigger impact than the team next year in the
year after. And then you've got some some elderly statesmen
that are tremendous role models and leaders, and Drew Dowdy
and and uh Ansy Copatar that still have lots of
hockey left in him. So it's it's, it's, it's it's
(12:28):
a really good hockey team. I've got to figure out
how I can what I can do, what we can
do to make it a little bit different, a little
bit better.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
I got to tell you got to sign Cuzmenko. You
got to sign him, Ken, you got to sign the guy.
I mean, he is terrific. Yeah, who's the GM you were? No,
I'm just saying we're having a conversation.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You know. I actually tried to say he was in
Russia in two thousand. I was the GM of the
Red Wings in twenty seventeen. I offered him a two
year contract that year and he he signed a two
year extension to stay in Russia and he had a
year ago. So I tried to sign him for Detroit
and then and then when he was signed with Vancouver
three years ago, I actually had him in in Edmonton.
(13:11):
I thought we had him, he was gonna sign with us,
and he flew over to Vancouver the next day signed
with Vancouver. So I want you to know I'm very
familiar with Kuzmenko. I've sort of had him on my
radar screen going back to twenty seventeen. But if I
do not any help I gotta get. I'm gonna tell
Sean to give me your number, because maybe he could
give you a quick call and you could give me
you can help me out a little bit.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Hey, uh again, you know, I wasn't growing up in
Arizona and then uh, and then playing my college football
and baseball at US here in southern California, I wasn't
really familiar, too familiar with hockey until I got drafted
by Detroit and and and got to witness the Red
(13:54):
Wings in person, got to meet Stevie Eiserman, and and
and just how how passionate the Red Wings fans you know,
were there in Detroit. It was, It was truly amazing.
And I think that you know, although you know, LA
is not known as a hockey town, but you go
(14:14):
to a King's game, you do feel it, which is
really cool. But you've been different places you mentioned obviously Edmonton,
in Detroit and other places. But what can you think
that you bring from those places and those experience that's
going to help going to help the Kings go upward
and go in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I think you use the word experience, you know, if fortunate,
you know, in nineteen ninety four to nineteen ninety seven,
I was the assistant general manager of the Detroit Red Wings.
And I became general manager in ninety seven, but I
got to work every day with legendary coach Scottie Bowman.
And the senior vice president was a guy named Jim
(14:56):
Devi Lano, who is the architect, the chief, this drafter
of the building of the d of the New York
Islander dynasty. So that was my Harvard. That was going
to school every day and listening to them, watching them move.
And I then for three years and then and then
I became general manager. And then you know when I
became general manager nineteen ninety seven, Detroit we won in
(15:16):
ninety eight.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
We want to know.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Two, we want to know eight. We made the playoffs
for twenty five years in a row, you know, along
that run. So I bring experience. I know what winning
looks like. You know, I went Edmonton in twenty nineteen.
We've kind of had to grow and build that team.
Certainly had two soup too young superstars to build around
(15:37):
in Connor and Leon and they're they're and they're a
big they're they're a big part of that team. But
you still you still got to build a team. So
what do I bring. I think I bring experience. I
think I've been fortunate to have been around, you know,
teams that that that have a lot of winning. I
know what it looks like, what it feels like. And
(15:58):
you have to build a you know, you have to
build a culture, you have to have a plan, you
have to stick to it. And I've lived all those experiences.
You know. The Red Wings missed the playoffs my last
three years as general manager in sixteen, seventeen and eighteen,
and I charted the course for a rebuild there. So
I've kind of been at the top, been at the bottom,
been in the middle, and I've got lots I bring
(16:20):
lots of experience to the table.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
All right, Well, we appreciate you coming on. Welcome again
to Los Angeles. I'll tell you this, but you know
hockey and E've been around for so long. This fan
base here is exceptionally passionate. I'm sure you know that.
You should also know, and I've said it publicly, that
I hate Edmonton. I don't like the Oilers. So I'm
glad you're on our team now because if you were
still there, we couldn't like you.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Ken.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Everybody here does not like Edmonton. You should know that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
No, no, no, I don't blame him. I don't imbut
you know, my wife and I are so excited to
be here for personal and professional reasons. I've been for
professional the opportunity to work for a great owner. I
had Luke Robatie as a player in two thousand and
one and two and three in Detroit, and I've had
a wonderful relationship with Luke Robataie. I know there's a
(17:10):
passionate fan base. I know when they won the Cup
here in twelve and fourteen of a special time, and
how wonderful would be to be able to win a Stanley,
bring the Stanley Cup back to La here in the
next in the next few years. So that's that's the vision.
That's the goal, and we're gonna do everything we can
to try to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Appreciate it. Thanks for coming on today.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Ken.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Thanks guys, look forward to tying you down the road.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
All right, there goes Ken Holland. He is the new
general manager of the Kings Rodney. I like his attitude, man,
I love him, you know what, you know, he sounds
like old school, let's get to work, let's.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Get this done, let's start winning. I had no nonsense, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I love it, you know we don't like Edmonton. I'm
sorry you were there, but I mean, we just don't
like Edmonton here. But the other thing, Kuzmenko, that guy
can really play and he was a great addition at
the trade deadline. And for Ken to say I tried
to sign him out of Russia. I thought I had
him with the Oilers and he went to Vancouver, he goes,
(18:11):
I know him, I know that guy. Well, yeah, oh god,
he is good. So it's fun. I mean, it was
great to hear him. He knows what he's doing and
I think he's just going to be an absolute straight
shooter and that's what we want. A guy is just
going to be a straight shooter. This is the plan,
(18:33):
this is what we're gonna do. It's worked and it
will work here. So thanks again for Ken Holland coming
on the show. Well you get to pick your poison.
What poison will you pick? We'll talk about it next right.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Oh, you're bringing them all out, Ronnie, come on a
little lakeside, come on now, Roddery, Pete, Fred Rogan and
a big big thank you Ken Holland, new GM of
the Los Angeles Kings. As we mentioned, no nonsense with him.
He ain't gonna be as you've fred, he coming straight
(19:10):
at you.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, he really is. I'm glad he's keeping Jim Hiller too.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
You know, we always talk about somebody's got to get it,
but I think he's he's a really good coach.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Well no, the guy that needed to get at got it,
Rob Blake. So now they're ready to move forward. Uh okay,
let's I want to talk about rookie Sazaki. Then we'll
talk about what happened last night in the Dodger game.
But before the game, Sazaki basically confirmed what you said, Rodney,
before anybody had said anything about it. I didn't know this,
(19:44):
and I don't know if you did either, But David
Vassai told us a number of players Sazaki basically has
his own medical staff. Yeah, I had no idea that
that existed. He's got his own staff, his own zeus,
his own medical people. So if he's hurt or he's
got a problem, he goes to his own people that
(20:07):
are with the club. I'd never heard that before.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Yeah, I haven't either.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
And and and certainly it's a lot of it is
to do with, you know, language barrier and feeling comfortable
and making sure they feel comfortable. Y I'm a motive
the same thing. Yammota's got a team of of of
his folks that are that are in the clubhouse. And
I did not know this, and I'm close to the
clubhouse that they they echn you know, have their own
(20:31):
like many staff within the staff of the Dodgers that
that are with them all the time. They're you know,
their own trainer and and you know medical people and
and so, which is big. I don't know many teams
that do that number one. And then I don't know
many clubs that would allow that number two because they
(20:55):
may feel threatened or make the current medical staff or
medical team or trainers or or athletic you know, fitness
teachers and coaches make them feel a little bit threatened
because this outside group is coming in. But but in
(21:15):
all the egos aside the Diet's like, come on, whatever
whatever makes you the best is when we can get
the best out of you, that's what we want to do.
But yeah, you know, I was I was shocked to
learn this too. But you know, him having you know,
three to four people in his camp that are that
are camped out there basically not to overuse the word camp.
But yeah, and I said, Yamamono does too, and I'm
(21:37):
sure Otani's got uh, you know, his little mini team
as well around there.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Well, the thing he said, which now it kind of
makes sense even before anybody said it, Sozanty knew he
was heard. He knew something was wrong, but he didn't
tell anybody because he knew they needed pitchers or he
didn't want to let them down for whatever reason. He
has been battling with this. So his his people knew,
(22:03):
but the Dodgers didn't know. He didn't let anybody know
that he'd been experiencing this discomfort, which is could be
you know, therein lies the problem, right if you have
your own your own team and your own staff, you know,
one of the things that has to be stressed. I
believe you know the moment you agree to.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
This is that that staff has to be open with
the Dodgers and the Dodgers' staff, I mean they're all
Dodgers now, but within the Dodgers, they have to be
open and honest because it affects everything that they do.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
So you can't keep secret. You can't keep something you.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Know private when it affects a player's health and and
and yeah, so they have an obligation to the to
the club if he's feeling a certain way, to to
really acknowledge that and let Dave Roberts and the medical
team know, not saying that they didn't or did I
don't know, but that is it. That is something. I'm
(23:01):
sure that was stressed. But they held that back and
you could feel it. You could feel that something was
off about him, right, and it turns out that he
was he was advances.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, so they knew, but didn't tell anybody. I'm sure
what will come out of this. Everybody's gonna know everything now.
M h, I'm sure. So what comes from this? He
he rests his arm, he gets better, and then everyone's
gonna talk. I will guarantee you that is the last
time that will happen.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
That that that's the end of that right here, right now.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Right If they're going to be here, they gotta they
gotta do it under our rules in the way we
do things here.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And there's no time, no exception, no no. That was
that and there's no timetable for his return. As for
the game, it was picked your poison, What would you
like to do? The a's had a choice. They could
pitch to old Tani or walk them. Now, when I
say pick your poison, you can pitch to Otani, you
can walk him, and then you have Mookie Betts standing there.
(24:09):
So however you want to handle this.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
It's up to you. And just think about that.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
When you look at the Dodger roster and everybody's firing
on all cylinders. You've got an MVP followed by an
MVP followed by an MVP. So whatever you want, however
you guys want to handle it, that's on you. You want
to walk two of them, we got this guy. Just
whatever you want. They walked ough tany Mookie Madam pay
(24:33):
And it's the right baseball move. You said earlier, if
the base is open, you put him on. Okay, well
you know it's not uh you know petersh Peter schmid
Lab hitting second.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Here, it's Booky.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Betto Peter's lab. It's Mookie Bets hitting second.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
I think I do to high school with Peter schmid Lab.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I think I yeah, oh no, it was a brother,
it was brother, Yeah, it was his brother.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, the Chico Schultz who played for Peeni.
You go and Mooki made him pay and that was
basically it not Yamamoto's greatest outing of the year, but
he won. Gave up a couple of home runs on
wasn't pleased with either one of them. But the great,
a really great moment came when Kim, who everybody loves,
now hit his first major league homer and we have
(25:18):
the call in koreandie.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
Don't us tell you manks it up?
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, you notice that Kim Hang Kim hasung. Yeah, that's
on Kim Kim ha sung. Yeah, that was great. It
was a great moment. He's happy, everybody's having a good time.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
But then it gets you to start thinking, Now, yesterday,
I think we were all surprised with what happened to
Austin Barnes because that's not really what the Dodgers do,
but it's what they did, and when you really analyze it,
you understood why. Doesn't make it any easier, doesn't make
it any less painful, but they did what they did.
(26:14):
So now Kim is playing well, and the big concern
and the reason he didn't break camp in the big
club was he basically couldn't hit, so they had to
work on his swing, adjust his weight, figure out how
he was going to make contact with the ball. Now
he's here, and as the old saying goes, he's getting him.
This time, he's getting the pitchers. They'll get him because
(26:35):
they'll adjust third times a charm who adjust to who?
But right now, we're in the honeymoon phase and he
looks pretty good, and he's fast, and he's exciting and
everybody loves to watch him. So that begs this question,
what happens when Taylor Hernandez and Tommy Edmond come back.
Dave Roberts was asked.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
I think that we wanted to get him here to
cut his teeth, get his feet wet, and see what
the big leaves is about, get familiar. And yeah, once
Tommy and Tail come back, there's some decisions to be made.
But yeah, performance and how he's playing certainly helps his case.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
All right.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Would you call that a ringing endorsement or we'd call.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
It a ringing endorsement? Yeah, want him to cut his teeth.
I love that, But it's hard, Like we talked earlier,
it's he's electric and it's hard to it's hard to
take your eyes off of him, you know, when when
he's in the game, especially on the base path. He
is clearly the fastest down the team now and can
(27:41):
make a real difference. I think that first game that
he came into where he stole second and got the
third and and it was just an exciting kid to watch.
And now that he's hitting, and hopefully that will continue.
Now it will dip, it will go up and down.
It's just a matter, you know, for a lot of
young kids, is how do you handle the downside? How
do you handle you know, when things are you are slumping,
(28:05):
you know, and not let that affect everything else. I mean,
a should all take a big deep look at Michael Conforto.
Nobody was struggling more than him, and he just kept working,
kept his head down and now he's he's hitting the
ball like everybody thought he could when they signed him.
So he's excited to watch again. But like anything, somebody's
(28:26):
got to get it.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
And here's the dilemma, one hundred percent, right here is
your dilemma. He is exciting to watch, he is making
an impact. You don't know if it's gonna last, but
right now it looks pretty good. I'd ask you to
think back to James Outman when he first came up,
they make quite an impact, and now he's very close
(28:48):
to being banished to the Miners and probably out of
the Dodger system because he just he's not been able
to overcome and recover and he can't hit just being honest,
not being mean, He's just not hitting him all right.
But let's just say Kim does keep performing, he's going
to be a crowd favorite. Does that matter? Maybe a
little bit. Kim is a crowd favorite. That certainly helps
(29:12):
his cause with the Dodgers. Yeah, so he's gonna can
We'll assume he'll continue to play well, and then you
have these two guys coming off the IL. But if
Kim is playing this well, don't you want to keep
him in the lineup. Wouldn't you think you don't want
to keep him in the line of Rodney?
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yeah, I think so. I think you want to keep
him active as much as you can. Now, he's not
gonna play, you know, every day, but you want to
get him as many reps as you possibly can, because again,
he is going to be a weapon come October for
this team, and it could very well be a very
(29:49):
important weapon that the Dodgers utilize. Whether that him being
in the game or being a pinch runner at certain times.
He can do a lot of things, so I could
see why they're excited about him, and you certainly do
want to keep him fresh and keep him going because he's,
you know, he lacks the experience.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
As Dave was mentioning, he's.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Got to get eyes on the big league pitching and
they will come back and they will get him. But
he's got to continue to get reps because he's too
good and too valuable I think at this point, and
what he can do, which is multiple things for this team, all.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Right, So that means there's too many guys. If the
Dodgers follow what you just said, there are too many guys.
Everybody's healthy and back, and let's say, you know, Mickey Rojas,
keyk nobody gets hurt for a while. So now here's
the roster, So what do you do. Well, the Dodger
surprised everybody with Austin Barnes, everybody he knew because he
(30:54):
hadn't been performing defensively. But it still doesn't make it easier.
So now what do they do. I looked at the
roster and I'm thinking, who could go? If Kim really stuck.
Who Well, Okay, I guess they could d f a
ky K. I don't think they're gonna do that. No,
(31:17):
I think they could. He's too valuable too at this point,
he's more valuable they could do to Mickey Rojas. I
don't think they're going to do that. We're running out
of options here, Yeah, So who where would that option be?
Speaker 3 (31:31):
It's really one more, right, because it's outman's gonna go. Yeah,
and then one more So who would that person.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Be if going to be Chris Taylor?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Oh, that's the and that's the question. Now, Chris Taylor
makes fifteen million bucks finally year of his deal, so
the money's the money. But Chris Taylor is is not
playing every day and Chris Taylor's not hitting his three hundred.
So if there's a spot and you need one, would
(32:05):
it be safe to say Kim is Chris Taylor esque?
He plays multiple positions? Yeah, of course. He swings for
the left side. He is very bad experience, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
And that's the that's the dilemma, And that's the hard
part because you can't get out of your mind the
history of Chris Taylor with his team. You can't unforget
the moments that he had, big moments that he's had
in the postseason, and and you feel like you know
(32:41):
there there will be more of those moments that he
will be able to come through for you, and that's
what you're hoping, and so you're very reluctant to get
rid of a guy like that.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
It's like when you know Max Munsey's struggling as much
as he has been, but Max can can get on
a streak and get on a heater and makes that
line up even more potent when he's when he's on
you know, months, he can change a game in one swing.
And so in the back of your mind you're thinking
(33:12):
that can happen at any time. So I don't want
to I don't want to give up on that. I
think the similar feeling with Chris Taylor is I don't
want to give up on that because he he can do.
You know, yes, Kim can do a lot of those
things that Chris can do. He's faster runs, the basis better,
but the experience factor when it comes down to it
in big moments in big games, Kim has not been
there and Chris Taylor has.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
I hear you, but as I look at it and
maybe David Vassall come on tomorrow. As I look at it, it
looks like there's only one spot. And after they made
a move with Austin Barnes, I don't know if I'd
be surprised to see him make a move with Chris Taylor. Okay,
we are back to wrap things up in a minute.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Yeah, yeah, come on, Fred down the corner, around.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
The corner, they come. Let's go, body but.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
You Roddy p Fred Rogan throw back Thursday, Rodnie bringing
the hits all day long.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Love it, Ronald, tell us we get out of here today. Rodney,
you were right about those a's.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
They're pretty good. They just SLOs those athletics. They are
a good young team, right. They got a bunch of
twenty two, twenty three, twenty four to five year olds
on that team. And you know, it's the shame about them.
You know, every four five years, you know, they kind
of get onto a little heater and they make a
(34:42):
little run and then next thing you know, you don't
you don't hear from some of those guys again, or
they're playing for somebody else, and that team never stays together.
And it's got to be frustrated for A's fans.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Well, it's a little market game plan. Yeah, scout, well, draft, well, develop,
come on up here. We got you for so long
your your cost controlled.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Then when you get completely out of control, we gotta
let you go. Carvin Burns and Baltimore, but gotta let
you go. Oh we want you, but we can't afford you,
so we'll let you go. We'll try to find somebody
to replace you.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
The a The A's have been awful.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
They spent a little money this offseason, I think because
it was so humiliating and because they were going to Sacramento.
They wanted somebody there to show up for the games
because before that they were just terrible. Okay, they spent
a couple of bucks. Didn't go insane. But now look
those young players developing, and they're scary. I mean they
(35:44):
have put up a fight against the Dodgers. Yeah they haven't,
God off, they've been battling. They've been battling. And they
did that with the Yankees as well. I mean they
they will battle and again you know, the sad party
at two years from now, they won't. You don't recognize
the team. No, but it's fun for them well last yeah,
(36:07):
and then tomorrow. I guess I was gonna say because
I thought, well, the Dodgers will just have no problems
with the A's it's not been easy. Tomorrow will begin
with the Angels. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
How you feel about that, Kevin?
Speaker 8 (36:26):
I feel great for the Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
I think it's you say it, don't you say? To No?
I think tomorrow's Tyler Anderson and Dustin May.
Speaker 8 (36:37):
I think I think Anderson's on Saturday against Kershaw. I
believe I don't know who the Angel startered is for tomorrow.
I think they might be tb A too.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Actually, okay, well, like the whole team. Yeah, basically the
whole team's kind of TVA.
Speaker 8 (36:50):
When Frank McCourt owed the Dodgers and they took the
names off the back of the jerseys, the Angels should
do that too.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
They might. They might as well.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I told you the story of Jamie McCourt about that, right,
bought the names off the bank.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
You told her it was a bad idea, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Well, so I'm standing at Dodger Stadium, I'm on the field.
That's when I got stigmada. By the way, after the
Olympic Tor TRN and we wrap up at Dodger Stadium
and I'm standing on the field and uh, Frank is
going to address the crowd or something I don't know,
and Jamie McCord is standing next to me, and I said,
I gotta tell you, Jamie, I think that was a
(37:26):
terrible idea to take the names off the back of
the jerseys.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
I said this to her as.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Frank is speaking, and she goes, you think I want Yeah,
I actually I do.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
She goes, yeah, you're right. But guess what.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I guess he knows everything. Was that a procusion to okay, okay, hey,
kind of the roadmap of what took place? Uh West Ronnie,
thank you, Kevin, great job, and Rodney, let's wrap it
up tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Let's do it
All right, we continue on Fred Rogan Rodney Pete on
a five seventy LA Sports Excited about this been looking
forward to it all show. He is a Hockey Hall
of Fame Inductee's an executive general manager of the Red
Wings from ninety seven to twenty nineteen and one for
Stanley Cups in that span. We will not hold this
against him, but he was president and GM of the
(00:21):
Edmonton Oilers as well. So he is the new general
manager of the Kings. And we welcome Ken Holland to
the program. Ken, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, nice to be with you. I'm excited to be here,
all right.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So when you get to town, you look at the
roster and you think what.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think? So really good hockey team that I'm excited
to work with the people here to see if we
can try to take it to another to win some
playoff rounds and take it to another level.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Hey Ken, what the first of all, congratulations exciting.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I know everybody is excited to have you here in LA.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
When you look at the Kings from a from afar,
especially the last couple of years, and and and I
guess more in particularly this year because they had a
really good season. But when you look at them from
a far outside looking in, what is the perception of
the Kings as a team, you know lately and then
as a as a franchise.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, I would say this to you. It wasn't from afar.
I was a general manager of the Edmonton Oiters the
first three years of this of this series, so I
had a first hand look at the LA Kings. And
year one, l A had us down three games to
two coming into LA for Game six, and we found
(01:51):
a way to win a game with I say we
when I was with Edmonton then with four minutes to go,
and then game one game seven to one.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So and then the next year l A had us
down l A. L A had Edmonton down two games
to one and it was three nothing l A and
game in game four and somehow Edmonton won that game
in overtime and won the series. And then this year
l A was up two games to nothing and lost
the series and six So in three of the fourth series,
(02:22):
the margin has been very, very small. But in pro sports,
that's what you're that's what you're judged on, is the
final result. So I would say to you that this
is a very good hockey team. They're they're they're right
up there with all the best teams in the Western Conference.
Have to figure out a way to change the team
(02:45):
a little do a little something to make the team
a little bit different, a little bit better, so that
we we do qualify for the playoffs again, put ourselves
back in the same opportunity and it's a little bit
different and a little more haired and ready to try
to take another step next year.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
But Ken, are you taking over a team that's pretty
much pretty much up against the cap?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
No, not really, I mean the cap is going is
going up again? Uh No, I'd say, first off, are
we up against the cap? Yeah? Probably, But that's the
same that's the same story for twenty five of the
thirty two teams. You know, it's I mean, everybody is
pushing up against the cap. That's that's what the cap does.
(03:30):
So you know, I was when I was in Edmonton
in five years because of the COVID the cap went
from eighty one point five to eighty two point five,
went up one million in five years, And you have
to figure out how to put a team on the ice,
and and you know, so it's not something it's I've
been doing that since two thousand and five. Obviously, living
in a cap world in Detroit, living in a cap
(03:52):
world in Edmonton. So the whatever challenges you got, everybody's
got similar challenges.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Right, well, let me try it this way.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Do you have and if you do, how much wiggle
room will you have to be able to make moves?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That's how you know, do you sign Gavrikov or do
you not sign Gavrikov? Do you know? You know, like
it's that's that's that's that's you know. It's somebody can say, well,
we got twenty million, but if you've got to sign
four players, you don't have twenty million. You might have
two million. So it depends on how you want to
spend your money. And the other thing is, you know,
(04:31):
there's obviously do you want to make any trade? So
that's those challenges with the cap, That's what I'm saying.
They're the same, They're the same for for for everybody.
There's probably there's thirty two teams at times twenty three players.
There's there's seven hundred and twenty five players that play
in this league. Six hundred play in the league every day,
(04:53):
one hundred hundred and twenty five go up and down,
they move, they shuffle around, some young kids, some vets.
So as the cap goes up, those same six hundred
players and they rotate over ten percent go out and
ten percent come in because of age, because of variety.
But it's the same group of players that that command
most of that money. And as the cap goes up,
(05:13):
you might pay the same players. You know, if they
made three million four years ago, well they might make
four million four million now. And you just have to
manage how you want to spend your money. It's the
importance of drafting and developing. Part of this has to
be young kids, the growth of young kids. Like I said,
that's that's what I've been doing since two thousand and
five as a general manager of an NHL team in
(05:34):
the cap world.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Ken you mentioned, you know, you were with Edmonton and
you got a front row seat, you know when when
Edmonton played the played the Kings and in the playoffs
have been four straight years now when you look at this,
and you also mentioned that, you know, they have to
take a hard look at the roster and it might
be some moves. You know, sports is it's great because
(06:00):
it's it's unscripted. You never know what's going to happen.
I think people can try to overanalyze a lot of
things when it comes to wins and losses. But as
you look in at as the Kings, as they've kind of,
like you said, up two oh and then lose and
then have their heartbroken time and time again by Edmonton.
Is it something with the roster that you can put
(06:21):
your your finger on and point to you as maybe
this this group of guys or this guy doesn't match
with this guy that you have to take a hard
look at it, or is it just sports is being
sports and sometimes you don't really have an answer.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Well, you got to make some changes, you know, obviously,
you know when you don't get the desired result, then
you have to make you know, sometimes you know, minor
changes and sometimes you got to make You got to
try to see if you're going to make a major change.
You know, you look at this year, Ellie's up two
games to nothing. Is they're up four to three with
(06:58):
six minutes or seven minutes to go in game three
and they're up three to one after two periods, and
you and I are having these conversations and there's a
different general manager in place that's that's the business that
we live and it's just that this this fine line business.
So I have to figure out that's why I that's
why they've hired me. I have to figure out what
(07:22):
needs to be done to try to take another step
and get a little bit better, a little bit different
and over here over the next couple of weeks. You know,
I'm gonna talk Dansy Copeta. Yesterday for an hour and
a half. I talked to Drew Dowd. You have talked
to the coach, talked to Luke Rovitie, talked to Nelson Efferson,
assistant general manager. Today, I want to talk to the
(07:44):
analytics people. I'm going to look at some video. We're
gonna have our pro scout meetings, so I want to
have our pro people in and and then I want
to talk to general managers, the other thirty one general
managers in the league over the next two weeks to
see what they're thinking and maybe there's something out there
that you know. And then there's agent and there's unrestricted
free agency, and formulate a plan. And the goal is
(08:05):
to have another great regular season, to be in the playoffs,
and to be a little bit different. Then the team
was this year. But I don't reready have kent like
I've got to go through this whole process to get
to that point.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Are you to a point very early this process as
you begin, have you made a decision on if you're
going to make a coaching change or is Jim Hiller
going to be back?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Jim Hiller is going to be back. I met with
him yesterday. Yeah, I met with him yesterday. Jim Hiller.
He was the assistant coach on Mike Babcock staff in
Detroit fifteen years ago when I was a manager. So
you know, I know Jim, got a relationship with him,
and I follow you know, followed his career through the
Islanders and through Toronto, and I thought he did a
(08:53):
great job here in his time behind the bench. You know,
the team played hard, they checked and and top five,
top six and goals against. So I think he's done
a five of his job. And I also think that
these experiences that he's gone through are the last couple
of years against Edmonton are going to be a positive
(09:15):
and not a negative. And well why they were positive.
It's the experience. It's learning and knowing that this thing
doesn't quite work. We've got to change something a little bit.
So I'm looking forward to working with Jim and I'm
making the team a little bit different, a little bit better,
and going through this whole process to try to this
time next year to be playing hockey.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, congratulations on keeping him. I thought he did a
great job this year. I really did, so I'm glad
he stays.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
All right, So now you mentioned as an example, Gavrikov,
what do we do?
Speaker 4 (09:45):
All right?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
As you look at this roster, who are the guys
that are up? Who are the guys that you're looking
at yourself and going what do we do?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Who are those guys?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Well, I would say, you know, first off, when I
have a goalie here that's one of the finalists for
the Vesment Trophy. So feel good. We feel about good
about Kemper. We got to make you know, Riddich is
an unrestricted free agent, so we got to make a
decision in in in the goalie position. So we got
a good one two punch in net. There's lots of
(10:18):
pieces in place. You know Edmondson, you know Dowdy missed
sixty games or fifty games. He's going to have a
big summer. He'll be back next year healthy. I think
that will help Drew, you know, have a have a
full training camp and and and look for him to
have a continue to have a real big impact on
this team. And you know, great signing by Blakey on
(10:40):
Joel Edmondson and and and Mikey Anderson. We have to
make a decision on on on Gavkov. You've always got
a young Brad Clark, So there's lots of different options
and pieces. And you want to be good and deep
on defense. You want to be seven eight deep on defense.
So we got it. We got to make all those
decisions up front. I thought that they had you know,
they roll four lines. Maybe in the playoffs he cut
(11:03):
back a little bit to three lines because of the
of the moment. And did Jim cut back because of
the other team of his team? You know, those are
the conversations I got to have. But I thought that
LA had the best I'm going to call it third
line in the league, a matchup line, the Deno fogel
More line. They could play against anybody. And they all
(11:24):
had great years. You know, kemp be at thirty five goals,
Fiela had thirty five goals. Got to make a decision
on Kuzmenko talking to the coach. You got to talk,
got to talk to Kuzmenko's agent and just start to go.
Like I said, I call it the processing. People get
tired of hearing the word of the process. But you
got to go through the whole, you know, gamut of
of of of of information gathering to ultimately make some
(11:48):
decisions as to what we want to do. And then,
like I said, talk to thirty one or other general
managers and maybe somewhere now or somewhere down the road,
you make it. You make a trade. But I just
got a it's this is a good hockey team. They've
got They've got a lot of people in their prime.
(12:08):
They've got some people that are that are young and
on the on the upcome, and they're going to have
a bigger impact than the team next year in the
year after. And then you've got some some elderly statesmen
that are tremendous role models and leaders, and Drew Dowdy
and and uh Ansy Copatar that still have lots of
hockey left in him. So it's it's, it's, it's it's
(12:28):
a really good hockey team. I've got to figure out
how I can what I can do, what we can
do to make it a little bit different, a little
bit better.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
I got to tell you got to sign Cuzmenko. You
got to sign him, Ken, you got to sign the guy.
I mean, he is terrific. Yeah, who's the GM you were? No,
I'm just saying we're having a conversation.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You know. I actually tried to say he was in
Russia in two thousand. I was the GM of the
Red Wings in twenty seventeen. I offered him a two
year contract that year and he he signed a two
year extension to stay in Russia and he had a
year ago. So I tried to sign him for Detroit
and then and then when he was signed with Vancouver
three years ago, I actually had him in in Edmonton.
(13:11):
I thought we had him, he was gonna sign with us,
and he flew over to Vancouver the next day signed
with Vancouver. So I want you to know I'm very
familiar with Kuzmenko. I've sort of had him on my
radar screen going back to twenty seventeen. But if I
do not any help I gotta get. I'm gonna tell
Sean to give me your number, because maybe he could
give you a quick call and you could give me
you can help me out a little bit.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Hey, uh again, you know, I wasn't growing up in
Arizona and then uh, and then playing my college football
and baseball at US here in southern California, I wasn't
really familiar, too familiar with hockey until I got drafted
by Detroit and and and got to witness the Red
(13:54):
Wings in person, got to meet Stevie Eiserman, and and
and just how how passionate the Red Wings fans you know,
were there in Detroit. It was, It was truly amazing.
And I think that you know, although you know, LA
is not known as a hockey town, but you go
(14:14):
to a King's game, you do feel it, which is
really cool. But you've been different places you mentioned obviously Edmonton,
in Detroit and other places. But what can you think
that you bring from those places and those experience that's
going to help going to help the Kings go upward
and go in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I think you use the word experience, you know, if fortunate,
you know, in nineteen ninety four to nineteen ninety seven,
I was the assistant general manager of the Detroit Red Wings.
And I became general manager in ninety seven, but I
got to work every day with legendary coach Scottie Bowman.
And the senior vice president was a guy named Jim
(14:56):
Devi Lano, who is the architect, the chief, this drafter
of the building of the d of the New York
Islander dynasty. So that was my Harvard. That was going
to school every day and listening to them, watching them move.
And I then for three years and then and then
I became general manager. And then you know when I
became general manager nineteen ninety seven, Detroit we won in
(15:16):
ninety eight.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
We want to know.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Two, we want to know eight. We made the playoffs
for twenty five years in a row, you know, along
that run. So I bring experience. I know what winning
looks like. You know, I went Edmonton in twenty nineteen.
We've kind of had to grow and build that team.
Certainly had two soup too young superstars to build around
(15:37):
in Connor and Leon and they're they're and they're a
big they're they're a big part of that team. But
you still you still got to build a team. So
what do I bring. I think I bring experience. I
think I've been fortunate to have been around, you know,
teams that that that have a lot of winning. I
know what it looks like, what it feels like. And
(15:58):
you have to build a you know, you have to
build a culture, you have to have a plan, you
have to stick to it. And I've lived all those experiences.
You know. The Red Wings missed the playoffs my last
three years as general manager in sixteen, seventeen and eighteen,
and I charted the course for a rebuild there. So
I've kind of been at the top, been at the bottom,
been in the middle, and I've got lots I bring
(16:20):
lots of experience to the table.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
All right, Well, we appreciate you coming on. Welcome again
to Los Angeles. I'll tell you this, but you know
hockey and E've been around for so long. This fan
base here is exceptionally passionate. I'm sure you know that.
You should also know, and I've said it publicly, that
I hate Edmonton. I don't like the Oilers. So I'm
glad you're on our team now because if you were
still there, we couldn't like you.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Ken.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Everybody here does not like Edmonton. You should know that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
No, no, no, I don't blame him. I don't imbut
you know, my wife and I are so excited to
be here for personal and professional reasons. I've been for
professional the opportunity to work for a great owner. I
had Luke Robatie as a player in two thousand and
one and two and three in Detroit, and I've had
a wonderful relationship with Luke Robataie. I know there's a
(17:10):
passionate fan base. I know when they won the Cup
here in twelve and fourteen of a special time, and
how wonderful would be to be able to win a Stanley,
bring the Stanley Cup back to La here in the
next in the next few years. So that's that's the vision.
That's the goal, and we're gonna do everything we can
to try to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Appreciate it. Thanks for coming on today.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Ken.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Thanks guys, look forward to tying you down the road.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
All right, there goes Ken Holland. He is the new
general manager of the Kings Rodney. I like his attitude, man,
I love him, you know what, you know, he sounds
like old school, let's get to work, let's.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Get this done, let's start winning. I had no nonsense, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I love it, you know we don't like Edmonton. I'm
sorry you were there, but I mean, we just don't
like Edmonton here. But the other thing, Kuzmenko, that guy
can really play and he was a great addition at
the trade deadline. And for Ken to say I tried
to sign him out of Russia. I thought I had
him with the Oilers and he went to Vancouver, he goes,
(18:11):
I know him, I know that guy. Well, yeah, oh god,
he is good. So it's fun. I mean, it was
great to hear him. He knows what he's doing and
I think he's just going to be an absolute straight
shooter and that's what we want. A guy is just
going to be a straight shooter. This is the plan,
(18:33):
this is what we're gonna do. It's worked and it
will work here. So thanks again for Ken Holland coming
on the show. Well you get to pick your poison.
What poison will you pick? We'll talk about it next right.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Oh, you're bringing them all out, Ronnie, come on a
little lakeside, come on now, Roddery, Pete, Fred Rogan and
a big big thank you Ken Holland, new GM of
the Los Angeles Kings. As we mentioned, no nonsense with him.
He ain't gonna be as you've fred, he coming straight
(19:10):
at you.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, he really is. I'm glad he's keeping Jim Hiller too.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
You know, we always talk about somebody's got to get it,
but I think he's he's a really good coach.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Well no, the guy that needed to get at got it,
Rob Blake. So now they're ready to move forward. Uh okay,
let's I want to talk about rookie Sazaki. Then we'll
talk about what happened last night in the Dodger game.
But before the game, Sazaki basically confirmed what you said, Rodney,
before anybody had said anything about it. I didn't know this,
(19:44):
and I don't know if you did either, But David
Vassai told us a number of players Sazaki basically has
his own medical staff. Yeah, I had no idea that
that existed. He's got his own staff, his own zeus,
his own medical people. So if he's hurt or he's
got a problem, he goes to his own people that
(20:07):
are with the club. I'd never heard that before.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Yeah, I haven't either.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
And and and certainly it's a lot of it is
to do with, you know, language barrier and feeling comfortable
and making sure they feel comfortable. Y I'm a motive
the same thing. Yammota's got a team of of of
his folks that are that are in the clubhouse. And
I did not know this, and I'm close to the
clubhouse that they they echn you know, have their own
(20:31):
like many staff within the staff of the Dodgers that
that are with them all the time. They're you know,
their own trainer and and you know medical people and
and so, which is big. I don't know many teams
that do that number one. And then I don't know
many clubs that would allow that number two because they
(20:55):
may feel threatened or make the current medical staff or
medical team or trainers or or athletic you know, fitness
teachers and coaches make them feel a little bit threatened
because this outside group is coming in. But but in
(21:15):
all the egos aside the Diet's like, come on, whatever
whatever makes you the best is when we can get
the best out of you, that's what we want to do.
But yeah, you know, I was I was shocked to
learn this too. But you know, him having you know,
three to four people in his camp that are that
are camped out there basically not to overuse the word camp.
But yeah, and I said, Yamamono does too, and I'm
(21:37):
sure Otani's got uh, you know, his little mini team
as well around there.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Well, the thing he said, which now it kind of
makes sense even before anybody said it, Sozanty knew he
was heard. He knew something was wrong, but he didn't
tell anybody because he knew they needed pitchers or he
didn't want to let them down for whatever reason. He
has been battling with this. So his his people knew,
(22:03):
but the Dodgers didn't know. He didn't let anybody know
that he'd been experiencing this discomfort, which is could be
you know, therein lies the problem, right if you have
your own your own team and your own staff, you know,
one of the things that has to be stressed. I
believe you know the moment you agree to.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
This is that that staff has to be open with
the Dodgers and the Dodgers' staff, I mean they're all
Dodgers now, but within the Dodgers, they have to be
open and honest because it affects everything that they do.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
So you can't keep secret. You can't keep something you.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Know private when it affects a player's health and and
and yeah, so they have an obligation to the to
the club if he's feeling a certain way, to to
really acknowledge that and let Dave Roberts and the medical
team know, not saying that they didn't or did I
don't know, but that is it. That is something. I'm
(23:01):
sure that was stressed. But they held that back and
you could feel it. You could feel that something was
off about him, right, and it turns out that he
was he was advances.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, so they knew, but didn't tell anybody. I'm sure
what will come out of this. Everybody's gonna know everything now.
M h, I'm sure. So what comes from this? He
he rests his arm, he gets better, and then everyone's
gonna talk. I will guarantee you that is the last
time that will happen.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
That that that's the end of that right here, right now.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Right If they're going to be here, they gotta they
gotta do it under our rules in the way we
do things here.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And there's no time, no exception, no no. That was
that and there's no timetable for his return. As for
the game, it was picked your poison, What would you
like to do? The a's had a choice. They could
pitch to old Tani or walk them. Now, when I
say pick your poison, you can pitch to Otani, you
can walk him, and then you have Mookie Betts standing there.
(24:09):
So however you want to handle this.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
It's up to you. And just think about that.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
When you look at the Dodger roster and everybody's firing
on all cylinders. You've got an MVP followed by an
MVP followed by an MVP. So whatever you want, however
you guys want to handle it, that's on you. You want
to walk two of them, we got this guy. Just
whatever you want. They walked ough tany Mookie Madam pay
(24:33):
And it's the right baseball move. You said earlier, if
the base is open, you put him on. Okay, well
you know it's not uh you know petersh Peter schmid
Lab hitting second.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Here, it's Booky.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Betto Peter's lab. It's Mookie Bets hitting second.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
I think I do to high school with Peter schmid Lab.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I think I yeah, oh no, it was a brother,
it was brother, Yeah, it was his brother.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, the Chico Schultz who played for Peeni.
You go and Mooki made him pay and that was
basically it not Yamamoto's greatest outing of the year, but
he won. Gave up a couple of home runs on
wasn't pleased with either one of them. But the great,
a really great moment came when Kim, who everybody loves,
now hit his first major league homer and we have
(25:18):
the call in koreandie.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
Don't us tell you manks it up?
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, you notice that Kim Hang Kim hasung. Yeah, that's
on Kim Kim ha sung. Yeah, that was great. It
was a great moment. He's happy, everybody's having a good time.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
But then it gets you to start thinking, Now, yesterday,
I think we were all surprised with what happened to
Austin Barnes because that's not really what the Dodgers do,
but it's what they did, and when you really analyze it,
you understood why. Doesn't make it any easier, doesn't make
it any less painful, but they did what they did.
(26:14):
So now Kim is playing well, and the big concern
and the reason he didn't break camp in the big
club was he basically couldn't hit, so they had to
work on his swing, adjust his weight, figure out how
he was going to make contact with the ball. Now
he's here, and as the old saying goes, he's getting him.
This time, he's getting the pitchers. They'll get him because
(26:35):
they'll adjust third times a charm who adjust to who?
But right now, we're in the honeymoon phase and he
looks pretty good, and he's fast, and he's exciting and
everybody loves to watch him. So that begs this question,
what happens when Taylor Hernandez and Tommy Edmond come back.
Dave Roberts was asked.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
I think that we wanted to get him here to
cut his teeth, get his feet wet, and see what
the big leaves is about, get familiar. And yeah, once
Tommy and Tail come back, there's some decisions to be made.
But yeah, performance and how he's playing certainly helps his case.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
All right.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Would you call that a ringing endorsement or we'd call.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
It a ringing endorsement? Yeah, want him to cut his teeth.
I love that, But it's hard, Like we talked earlier,
it's he's electric and it's hard to it's hard to
take your eyes off of him, you know, when when
he's in the game, especially on the base path. He
is clearly the fastest down the team now and can
(27:41):
make a real difference. I think that first game that
he came into where he stole second and got the
third and and it was just an exciting kid to watch.
And now that he's hitting, and hopefully that will continue.
Now it will dip, it will go up and down.
It's just a matter, you know, for a lot of
young kids, is how do you handle the downside? How
do you handle you know, when things are you are slumping,
(28:05):
you know, and not let that affect everything else. I mean,
a should all take a big deep look at Michael Conforto.
Nobody was struggling more than him, and he just kept working,
kept his head down and now he's he's hitting the
ball like everybody thought he could when they signed him.
So he's excited to watch again. But like anything, somebody's
(28:26):
got to get it.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
And here's the dilemma, one hundred percent, right here is
your dilemma. He is exciting to watch, he is making
an impact. You don't know if it's gonna last, but
right now it looks pretty good. I'd ask you to
think back to James Outman when he first came up,
they make quite an impact, and now he's very close
(28:48):
to being banished to the Miners and probably out of
the Dodger system because he just he's not been able
to overcome and recover and he can't hit just being honest,
not being mean, He's just not hitting him all right.
But let's just say Kim does keep performing, he's going
to be a crowd favorite. Does that matter? Maybe a
little bit. Kim is a crowd favorite. That certainly helps
(29:12):
his cause with the Dodgers. Yeah, so he's gonna can
We'll assume he'll continue to play well, and then you
have these two guys coming off the IL. But if
Kim is playing this well, don't you want to keep
him in the lineup. Wouldn't you think you don't want
to keep him in the line of Rodney?
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yeah, I think so. I think you want to keep
him active as much as you can. Now, he's not
gonna play, you know, every day, but you want to
get him as many reps as you possibly can, because again,
he is going to be a weapon come October for
this team, and it could very well be a very
(29:49):
important weapon that the Dodgers utilize. Whether that him being
in the game or being a pinch runner at certain times.
He can do a lot of things, so I could
see why they're excited about him, and you certainly do
want to keep him fresh and keep him going because he's,
you know, he lacks the experience.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
As Dave was mentioning, he's.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Got to get eyes on the big league pitching and
they will come back and they will get him. But
he's got to continue to get reps because he's too
good and too valuable I think at this point, and
what he can do, which is multiple things for this team, all.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Right, So that means there's too many guys. If the
Dodgers follow what you just said, there are too many guys.
Everybody's healthy and back, and let's say, you know, Mickey Rojas,
keyk nobody gets hurt for a while. So now here's
the roster, So what do you do. Well, the Dodger
surprised everybody with Austin Barnes, everybody he knew because he
(30:54):
hadn't been performing defensively. But it still doesn't make it easier.
So now what do they do. I looked at the
roster and I'm thinking, who could go? If Kim really stuck.
Who Well, Okay, I guess they could d f a
ky K. I don't think they're gonna do that. No,
(31:17):
I think they could. He's too valuable too at this point,
he's more valuable they could do to Mickey Rojas. I
don't think they're going to do that. We're running out
of options here, Yeah, So who where would that option be?
Speaker 3 (31:31):
It's really one more, right, because it's outman's gonna go. Yeah,
and then one more So who would that person.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Be if going to be Chris Taylor?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Oh, that's the and that's the question. Now, Chris Taylor
makes fifteen million bucks finally year of his deal, so
the money's the money. But Chris Taylor is is not
playing every day and Chris Taylor's not hitting his three hundred.
So if there's a spot and you need one, would
(32:05):
it be safe to say Kim is Chris Taylor esque?
He plays multiple positions? Yeah, of course. He swings for
the left side. He is very bad experience, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
And that's the that's the dilemma, And that's the hard
part because you can't get out of your mind the
history of Chris Taylor with his team. You can't unforget
the moments that he had, big moments that he's had
in the postseason, and and you feel like you know
(32:41):
there there will be more of those moments that he
will be able to come through for you, and that's
what you're hoping, and so you're very reluctant to get
rid of a guy like that.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
It's like when you know Max Munsey's struggling as much
as he has been, but Max can can get on
a streak and get on a heater and makes that
line up even more potent when he's when he's on
you know, months, he can change a game in one swing.
And so in the back of your mind you're thinking
(33:12):
that can happen at any time. So I don't want
to I don't want to give up on that. I
think the similar feeling with Chris Taylor is I don't
want to give up on that because he he can do.
You know, yes, Kim can do a lot of those
things that Chris can do. He's faster runs, the basis better,
but the experience factor when it comes down to it
in big moments in big games, Kim has not been
there and Chris Taylor has.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
I hear you, but as I look at it and
maybe David Vassall come on tomorrow. As I look at it, it
looks like there's only one spot. And after they made
a move with Austin Barnes, I don't know if I'd
be surprised to see him make a move with Chris Taylor. Okay,
we are back to wrap things up in a minute.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Yeah, yeah, come on, Fred down the corner, around.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
The corner, they come. Let's go, body but.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
You Roddy p Fred Rogan throw back Thursday, Rodnie bringing
the hits all day long.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Love it, Ronald, tell us we get out of here today. Rodney,
you were right about those a's.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
They're pretty good. They just SLOs those athletics. They are
a good young team, right. They got a bunch of
twenty two, twenty three, twenty four to five year olds
on that team. And you know, it's the shame about them.
You know, every four five years, you know, they kind
of get onto a little heater and they make a
(34:42):
little run and then next thing you know, you don't
you don't hear from some of those guys again, or
they're playing for somebody else, and that team never stays together.
And it's got to be frustrated for A's fans.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Well, it's a little market game plan. Yeah, scout, well, draft, well, develop,
come on up here. We got you for so long
your your cost controlled.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Then when you get completely out of control, we gotta
let you go. Carvin Burns and Baltimore, but gotta let
you go. Oh we want you, but we can't afford you,
so we'll let you go. We'll try to find somebody
to replace you.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
The a The A's have been awful.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
They spent a little money this offseason, I think because
it was so humiliating and because they were going to Sacramento.
They wanted somebody there to show up for the games
because before that they were just terrible. Okay, they spent
a couple of bucks. Didn't go insane. But now look
those young players developing, and they're scary. I mean they
(35:44):
have put up a fight against the Dodgers. Yeah they haven't,
God off, they've been battling. They've been battling. And they
did that with the Yankees as well. I mean they
they will battle and again you know, the sad party
at two years from now, they won't. You don't recognize
the team. No, but it's fun for them well last yeah,
(36:07):
and then tomorrow. I guess I was gonna say because
I thought, well, the Dodgers will just have no problems
with the A's it's not been easy. Tomorrow will begin
with the Angels. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
How you feel about that, Kevin?
Speaker 8 (36:26):
I feel great for the Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
I think it's you say it, don't you say? To No?
I think tomorrow's Tyler Anderson and Dustin May.
Speaker 8 (36:37):
I think I think Anderson's on Saturday against Kershaw. I
believe I don't know who the Angel startered is for tomorrow.
I think they might be tb A too.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Actually, okay, well, like the whole team. Yeah, basically the
whole team's kind of TVA.
Speaker 8 (36:50):
When Frank McCourt owed the Dodgers and they took the
names off the back of the jerseys, the Angels should
do that too.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
They might. They might as well.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I told you the story of Jamie McCourt about that, right,
bought the names off the bank.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
You told her it was a bad idea, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Well, so I'm standing at Dodger Stadium, I'm on the field.
That's when I got stigmada. By the way, after the
Olympic Tor TRN and we wrap up at Dodger Stadium
and I'm standing on the field and uh, Frank is
going to address the crowd or something I don't know,
and Jamie McCord is standing next to me, and I said,
I gotta tell you, Jamie, I think that was a
(37:26):
terrible idea to take the names off the back of
the jerseys.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
I said this to her as.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Frank is speaking, and she goes, you think I want Yeah,
I actually I do.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
She goes, yeah, you're right. But guess what.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I guess he knows everything. Was that a procusion to okay, okay, hey,
kind of the roadmap of what took place? Uh West Ronnie,
thank you, Kevin, great job, and Rodney, let's wrap it
up tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Let's do it
Roggin And Rodney News
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