May 19, 2025 • 37 mins
David Vassegh joins us as the Dodgers look to shake off the sweep at the hands of the Angels and look ahead to the D-Backs tonight. Dodgers' general manager, Brandon Gomes joins the show to talk about the team parting ways with Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor and also to provide an update on several players that are on the injured list.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And we continue on Fred Rogan Rodney Pete on five
to seventy LA Sports. Dodgers opened a four game series
with the Diamondbacks tonight. That's a big series because when
you're dealing with the NL West, you are dealing with
the best division in baseball, the best teams in baseball.
And although it is the regular season, and I've mentioned
(00:22):
this many times, every one of these games counts too.
You win, they lose. So these have a little extra
oomph against the Diamondbacks. So if you want to talk
about what happened over the weekend, and why would you,
that was pretty bad. That was just bad. The Angels,
(00:45):
one of the worst hitting teams in baseball, look like
the greatest hitting team in history. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, I don't know if it's something about LA that they,
you know, get up for, and I'm sure it is
and all of the talk and disrespect, but they they
put on a show at the plate over the weekend,
and they were like, who who the hell are these guys?
Who are these guys? Because they look like a team,
(01:15):
I mean, not just that one or two guys, not
just Ward, And it was it was up and down
that lineup that were I mean tattoo in the ball, Fred,
and it was like they knew what was coming is
how well they hit the ball over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And doctor pitching uh did a very good job of
contributing to that. For her, to be completely honest, Tony
Gotslin had the the nail issue. Yeah, and then it
started to bleed. What did you say earlier, Rodney? He
looked like, what, I forget what I wanted to. I
(01:52):
forget what I said. But yeah, yeah, I mean flo fancy, Yeah,
it was, it was, yeah, it was. It was bad.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You know at that moment when you saw that, that's
when you got to say, Okay, come on out, come
on out here, come on out here. And what do
you do though? If you're if you're the ump or
you're you know, are you? I mean, that's not a
foreign substance because it's coming from your body.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
But if.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
If blood can add actually enhance something, that might be
something that you know, maybe pitchers start to do, Fred.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Pull little uh pull little get a little pinprick before
they go out the pitch.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, blood help the spin rate, yes, exactly, Hey, White,
the hell not? People tried other things, remember, Gaylord Perry vasiline,
you had a dan sandpaper in his hat. He had
had the file, the nail file, yes, yeah, the nail file,
(02:57):
ye file.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy lengths.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
But I don't know, you know, I think they should
have Yeah, they should have pulled him because I think
it was more of a mental thing after that, once
he kind of got it addressed and there was that
big meeting on the mound and the blood's all over
his pants and now you're thinking about it every pitch
is this going to affect my slider? Is this gonna
affect my splitter? And his mind was not there after that.
(03:24):
It really wasn't.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, he had been good. He had been good up
until that start. Right, well, then he's bleeding. Yeah, but
it's also like, who do you go to?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
The bullpen is so messed up, like, and the starters
have not been going deep, so you've had to dip
into the bullpen. You had to do it Friday night,
a Saturday night. Like basically, if Tony Goslin, as long
as his arm was attached to his shoulder, he was
going stay out there as long as you can.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Short of bringing in Mickey Rowe. Yeah, he was going
to go as long as he can't. But did you
see the shot they had the long conversation Dave Roberts
did with Landing Neck and I don't know what the
conversation was, but uh and Landax going tonight.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Right, well, his discussion was and he said it after
the game running. It was like, if you know, if
they just determined that he couldn't go, Tony Gonslin couldn't
keep going, they were gonna use NAC yesterday and figure
out today today that was gonna be the plan that
they thought that.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Would to continue.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Wow, that's how that's how decimated this pitching staff is
that you gotta you gotta resort to try to call
in your your Monday your Monday night starter to go
finish the game on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And I remember before the season started, we were sitting
here laughing, my god, they've got ten starting pitchers. How's
everybody many find a start? They got too many pictures,
you have too many riches. They don't even have enough
now and they literally had ten. No, because of the injuries,
they don't have enough.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Here's the thing, you know, it's the it's year two
right when I say I wouldn't say year two, but
it's you know, last year they dealt with this in
a dramatic fashion. Every team goes through injury, so you
know you can't avoid that. But last year actually more
than that, because the year before that they ran out
(05:14):
of pictures too, because we talked about having to bring
in Lance Land as your as one of your aces.
You know, he had to bring he had to start
a playoff game against Arizona and got he got lanced.
And so for the last few years they've been dealing
with this. Is it a point where you kind of
go back in and investigate what are we doing as
(05:37):
an organization as a team in terms of pictures and injuries,
or is it something that you write off is going
this is just inevitable with pictures nowadays, and it's not
something that's unique to the Dodgers that we're doing.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Uh, it is to a degree unique to the Dodgers.
To a degree, it is part of baseball now. I
play fantasy baseball and you look at the available pitchers,
m h. And you can see all these guys. You're going,
I'm gonna pick him up right now. Oh, I'm sorry,
IL sixty day list, IL thirty days. Everybody's hurt everybody's
(06:16):
hurt soap. It is a part of baseball, but the
Dodgers had more of it in the past. Now, to
be fair, this year, Blake Snell wasn't here. Last year,
Tyler Glasnell was, but he came with arm injuries. Let's
go out to the stadium and bring on David Basset,
who joins us. Dave, Good afternoon.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Hey guys, the Diamondbacks are out here taking early batting practice.
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks soaking up for the second time
in a week.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
They had.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Dodgers ended their last road trips splitting four games at
Chase Fields, so this should be a very entertaining and
competitive series.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Hey, Dave, can you share with us from what you've
been able to hear, what the conversation was like with
Chris Taylor. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
I think Andrew Freeman had a hard time just being
able to, you know, share with Chris Taylor what the
reality was, and I think at that point you just
got to be really honest. I'm not privy to exactly
what the transcription was of the dialogue, but it happened
after Saturday night's game, where they brought Chris Taylor in
(07:27):
and informed them that you know, this was the direction
they were going to go in. And obviously Chris Taylor
believes he was going to get a job somewhere or
they would have, you know, maybe worked out something where
he went on the IL instead of being released. But
Chris Taylor wants to play, and he wasn't playing a
lot with the Dodgers.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, it's a tough thing, right, Dave.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
He's been here for such a long time, had so
many big moments for this team and this team's success.
He and Austin Barnes at the uh you know, and
and and within five days of each other. It was
kind of a tough thing to take for for Dodger fans.
But how how was it in the in the clubhouse
with guys, because those both those guys are such likable
(08:12):
guys and really been really good teammates, but they also
understand it's a business.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
How did they all react to it?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah, you know, it was business as usual, honestly, Rodney. Yesterday,
maybe it was because it was a day game and
there's not really a lot of time to really take
it all in. But you know, Chris Taylor was the
last guy on the team the last two years, so
you know, I think everybody understood what was what was
happening here. The Dodgers weren't playing him. Hey Sun Kim
(08:41):
exploded onto the scene and has made a real impact,
has brought a lot of energy and can do things
that the Dodgers were asking Chris Taylor to do in
a more amplified way. So I think everybody understood there
was going to be a crossroads here when Tommy Edmund
and Taoscar Hernandez came back. The Austin Barnes situation took
(09:04):
a lot of people by surprise more than the Chris
Taylor situation.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Dave Clayton Kershaw struggled on Saturday, what do you see?
What do you think happens from here? Is that going
to be the way it is? Or was that just
a rough outing?
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Well, the first inning was rough. He threw thirty eight
pitches in that first inning. So after that he settled
down and had a little better command. But after the
game he said that was the biggest issue that he
didn't have the command, and it's understandable after missing over
a year before he pitched in a major league game,
But that thirty eight pitch first inning prevented him from
(09:44):
getting into the fifth inning. And that's not only a
Saturday night problem, but it's been a problem here for
the first part of the season because the Dodger bullpen
reached the two hundred inning mark as far as innings
pitched yesterday after Gonsolin also only went four innings. So
that's a big issue for the Dodgers. And we'll see,
(10:06):
we'll see how it goes tonight, whether or not they
use an opener for Landon Nak or if they just
start him. They're going to have to use a minimal
amount of relievers as much as possible, especially with Caribbeate's
now going on the injured list.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, this is.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Absolutely crazy a day because they they went out in
the offseason and tried to insulate themselves from from having
this this this issue, and you know, going through what
they did last year and the bullpen was phenomenal, but
they knew it was not gonna it's something that you
could really sustain, so they made moves to do that.
But now here we are and it's it's worse than
(10:43):
it was, you know last year. How are they handling
it and approaching it going forward? And can you tell
us when we can get some of the guys back,
like you know Snell and some of the other guys
that that may be coming out of the bulk as well.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
What are they coming back?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
All right, let's just start with the bullpen itself. Going
back to what you just said, Rodney, people thought that
Tanner Scott was a luxury and Kirby Yates was a luxury.
They weren't a luxury. They were a necessity. And I
think everybody has a really short memory that the Dodger bullpen.
Key relievers like alex Vesia Blake, Trina Brusdar graderoal Evan
(11:27):
Phillips were pushed to their limits and pitched earlier and
longer last season than any other key relievers in baseball,
and the Dodgers relied heavily on those guys to win
the World Series. And then compound that with the fact
that they reported to spring training earlier than any other team.
(11:50):
They had the shortest off season of probably any World
Championship team in the history of the game, considering that
they had to report right around the Super Bowl time
because of the Tokyo Series. So it shouldn't come as
a surprise, and it didn't come as a surprise to
Andrew Friedman to try to bring in some reinforcements, bring
(12:12):
in some fresh arms. But Kirby Yates is thirty eight
years old. He's not a guy that's going to throw
seventy eighty innings. Sixty innings was his career high, and
it was last year and many years ago with the Padres.
So that's the reality of what's going on right now.
And I know Andrew didn't want to have to be
put into a position to go out and have to
(12:34):
trade for more pitching at the deadline, but the reality
is he's probably he's going to have to go out
and trade for some relievers between now and the trade deadline.
And the guy that's closest to returning and you hope
when he comes back there's no return to the il,
and that's Michael Kopek, who also was pitching through a
(12:56):
lot of pain during the postseason last year. Jill hasn't
thrown a major league pitch this year. He's on a
rehab assignment. So that's the reality of the situation.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
All right, Well, Dave, we know you gotta run. Thank
you for coming on, really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
We'll talk soon, okay, guys, Thanks, all right, there goes.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
David vassaying out at the stadium. Okay, well there's the
reality of the situation. That's not a great reality either.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
No jolly like you said, which a lot of people,
including me felt like Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates were Wow,
they snuck those guys in, They got those guys, and
now they're overstocked. It's a luxury to have those guys
because they've they've been phenomenal in years past, and now
(13:46):
the Dodgers got them. So wow, the Dodgers are stock pilot,
when in essence they said those guys were necessities.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Those guys were.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
There was somebody that they targeted and they got to
They felt like they had to go out and get
not as a luxury, but as necessity and key figures
in the in the course of this season. So man,
it's it's going to be an interesting next two months.
To say the least.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
We're we're still anticipating Dodger GM Brandon Gomes joining the show.
If you can get it right, wouldn't you want to
get it right? Here your choices, get it right, get
it wrong? Who would pick? I want it wrong? That's next?
(14:37):
Come on, we keep it moving. It's moving fast on
a Monday.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Wow Flying by Rodney Pete Fred Rogan got a good stuff, Fred,
Are you deep down really be honest with me? Are
you Are you concerned at any point it's May nineteenth.
Are you concerned at all with the Dodgers right now?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Uh? No, I'm not concerned. Really into your bones, into
your heart, you're not concerned at all, But this tea, No,
I'm really not because I know everything's gonna shake out, Okay,
I know the pictures will all come back. I know
everybody's going to hit, So I'm not concerned. I'm just
(15:22):
more I just don't want to see him look bad
against the Angels. I mean, if you're gonna get beat,
I just don't want to see you look bad against teams. Yeah,
because there are so many guys hurt. I mean, what
do you expect. And again, we've seen this movie, we
lived at last year. All you have to do is
be ready when you need to be ready, and you
(15:45):
got some time for that. I just don't want to
see him look bad. They're gonna get beat, They're not
gonna win one hundred and twenty games. Whatever people were
saying at the beginning of the year that insanity just
don't look bad, that's all. But I'm not worried. You worried.
So they can lose. They can lose, and and you
(16:05):
you're not saying that they lose fifty games or anything
like that, but they can lose and you'll still be
okay with it even the way they're losing. No, I'm not.
I'm not worried at this point. But the question though, is.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Once you know, everybody says, okay, once we get these
guys back, it's all be good. All once we get
smelled and once we you know, once we get glass
Now back, it'll be it'll be good. Once the copek
comes back and trying and comes back, will be all good. Okay,
those guys come back, but they've been injured. There's no
guarantee that they stay healthy throughout the rest of the season.
(16:43):
On paper, it feels good that you know that these
guys are coming back, but they still got to come back,
and they still got to perform, and they still got
to get their their arms and legs and body and
mind and all those things in shape to be effective,
you know, because it doesn't just happen on paper. You
gotta come back and be effective. And so it's gonna
(17:04):
take a moment. And I know everybody's believing once these
guys come back, we're all good. But this it it
may take one or two or three or four games
for them to kind of get their feet back under them.
You know, Like everybody who's like expecting, I don't know
what they were expecting from Kershall. I think they were expecting, like,
you know, two twenty twelve, fifteen Kershaw. It's Kershall Day.
(17:26):
So it's gonna be lights out. You know, he's gonna
only give up two hits and if he gives up
a run, maybe he does, but nothing more than that.
But it's a different it's a different time, different element,
different animal right now. And it's gonna take curseh two
three games to gotta get hisself back into pitching at
Dodger Stadium and on Major League mount.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, we'll see, we'll see if that's the case. Speaking
of curse uh so uh. The automated strike zone, folks,
is coming. We kind of touched on this earlier, and
it's only a question of when. Now, it's just a
question of when. And of course Baseball has to sign off,
the players Union has to sign off. I don't know
if the umpires have to get involved in this. A
(18:09):
lot of people have to sign off on going to
the automated strike zone. The concern, again is the human element,
and we don't want to remove the human element. Well,
the automated strike zone is going to get it right.
It's going to get it right. They're going to have it.
When they use it, it's going to be right. And
(18:33):
when they get to that point and they're moving in
that direction, why wouldn't you use it. Well, we don't
want to remove the human element. We've removed the human
element from life. It's called AI. You can communicate with AI.
You ask Ai a question, it thinks it knows you
when answers. AI is not human. So why in baseball
(18:56):
must we keep it? Well, we don't want to mess
with that. Oh no, but society is doing it like this.
Well we don't believe in that. Well you should. You
should believe in it. It's pretty simple. It's staring you
right in the face. If the human element is what
you're concerned about, the human beings play, let the computer
(19:22):
call balls and strikes because it's a really tough job.
And honestly, and you go well, you're all over the umpires. No,
but the truth is some guys are better than others.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Tell what about the people, what about the people that say,
you know, you just said it, human beings play? Why
don't you let human beings officiate. If you gotta let
human beings play, then let the human beings officiate. Otherwise,
this is go to the video game and put an
avatar of Jason Tatum and let him and you play
(19:54):
it through your video game, or you get the algorithm
that just says Jason Tatum would do this in this situation.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So this is how it's going to go.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And we're gonna put somebody on him that can guard him,
and if it comes with a double team, and we're
going to do all this and just plug it all
in and just let him play.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Okay, that was not a really good analogy. So that
was good, you know, like, no, I didn't know. I
can't do that. I'm sorry. I mean, look, I'll bite
on a lot of them. Don't get me wrong. I'm
sitting here and yeah that makes sense. No, no, no, no, no, no.
(20:39):
The bottom line is this, if you have the chance
to get it right, you should get it right. You
should in anything. If you can, you should. You shouldn't
roll the dice and go, well, maybe we'll miss a few. No,
if you can do it properly, you can get it right.
You should get it right understood. It changes a bit
(21:02):
of the dynamic of the game. And honestly, pictures will
hate it. If anybody's gonna hate it, pictures will hate it.
Hitters will love it because hitters will now know exactly
the area where that ball is gonna be. M hm.
There won't be any question. It's not like, hey man,
(21:23):
the umpire squeezing me, or he's giving me the corner.
Nobody's given you anything. This is where it goes. It
has to be in there, or it's not a strike.
So if you're a hitter, you're standar. They're going, okay, well,
I know one thing. He's probably not gonna throw a
lot on the corners, or if he is, they're always
going to be right on the corner because the automated
(21:46):
strike zone, the computer will figure that out.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
So is it an advantage going forward in these first
If they implement it in the first two years of
its implementation, the advantage is going to be to.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
The hitter or the picture. The hitter in my mind, yeah, one.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Because now you played baseball black and I know that
he's not going to get that outside pitch and that
umpire is not going to be able to call something wide,
and I got a good feel for my strike zone.
They're not gonna get anything by me, or he's not
gonna get anything by me because yumper is.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Taken out of the equation.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Absolutely, you're right, it's gonna it's gonna be an advantage hitter.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, I mean you play.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's what they want, right, That's what baseball wants. So
why the hesitation from baseball?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Well, because we have to get it approved with the
players and then these people have to consider it and
the and and they have to make sure it's right.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I mean, that's the other thing, the big that's the
big thing, Fredd is like they have to get the
kinks works out. Everybody's strike zone is different, so whoever
comes up to the plate, the computer has to adjust
itself and that takes time and all sorts of different things.
I think that's, more than anything else, is the bigger issue.
You can't have the same strike zone for jose Al
Twov that you do for Cody Bellinger.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Right, Yeah, yeah, how do they work that out? Well,
I don't know, is it is it a you know,
I'm sure they have measurements and all that thing for
every player on every single team. So they plug them in.
This is the strike zone for this guy and that guy,
and they plug it in and here it is. Because
you're right, Jose al tuove is different than Aaron Judge. Right,
(23:28):
so you can't call the same strike as low to
al two V as you do for Aaron Judge. So
there's a lot of there's a lot of you know,
obviously technical parts that you got to get in, you know,
get into place. But that's not hard because we're twenty
twenty five and it's already here. So that's that seems
(23:48):
like it would be an easy thing to do. Maybe
they wear under their jerseys. Oh they got sensors. They
got sensors.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, hoose al Tuovay already knows that drill buzzers, whoa, whoa,
who inspired there it is, he knows how to do that.
Uh No, Maybe they do have sensors on their shirts.
They go up there and that's what it is. Simple
(24:22):
could be yeah, yeah, oh it could be. It does
seem look it looks no.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Look if we if we got you know, driverless cars
out there that can sense anything happening and surroundings and
some car coming close to you or you traveling too
fast and the car can slow down or carking speed up,
or it recognizes, you know, a motorcycle coming beside you
and so it kind of you know, makes.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Way for that. Then this would be easy peasy. Yeah,
that would not surprise me at all to see go
to it sooner rather than later. And then people should
understand that it's a good thing because once it happens,
it happens. Yeah, that's it. It's done. They're not gonna
(25:15):
go backwards. Once it happens, it happens. And I know
there's an adjustment period because there always is, but long
term it will be a good thing. And moreover, I
believe it will actually happen. Okay, we are back with
(25:37):
a final segment here. Yeah, yeah, oh.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yes, come on down to home stretch they come, Rodney Pete,
fred Rogan, Yeah, Freddie.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
We were just talking about the strike zone earlier and
and I.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Was so against it two years ago, three years ago
when it was first introduced, and you talked about it
and you liked it, which is weird because you used
to be an umpire and from a former umpire standpoint,
you would think that you would be in a fraternity
with your guys and not want it. But do you
think most umpires would welcome this or are they standing
(26:28):
in opposition of this possibility happening?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
You know, it's interesting if you watch umpires today compared
to when the challenge system first started. I think initially
when the challenge system started, umpires looked at it like
they were being questioned and they were being overruled. Now,
if there is a challenge of any kind, you just
see the empire go okay, yeah, I got it. I
(26:53):
think they become accustomed to it. But now let's bring
on the general manager of the Dodgers, Brandon Gomes. Brandon,
thanks for coming.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
On, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Guys. Hey, let's start with this. Two difficult conversations last
week to guys that had been around. What I'd really
like to know. What are those conversations like, I know
you can't sit here and tell us exactly what was set,
but do people get emotional? Do they become upset? What
are those conversations like?
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Yeah, those are always really challenging. Two great players, great
people that have been here for a long time. So
you know, I think with those guys, it's being honest
and straightforward and also you know, having empathy for the situation.
And you know, they both handled the conversations like pros
on the other end, as we expected, and you know,
(27:44):
nothing but respect and admiration for both of those guys
and wish them nothing but the best moving forward.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, but it's still tough, right Brandon.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I mean, you still got to deal with these guys
that have been around and been at big moments for
or for this team for a number of years, and
and and both of them were very.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Well liked by the fan base. So it's it's it's
got to be it's got to be tough. How much?
How much is it?
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And I said this earlier, Brennan, that I think you
guys do as good a job as any team that
I know of in any sport of being open and
communicating with your players, uh and staff. You know, I've
I've heard Andrew talk a lot about you know, we
wanted to give a certain player an opportunity to go
test the market, and and not every not every not
(28:37):
every organization does that. They kind of keep that under
the best and they don't really be open with the
player like that.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
But you guys have.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Do you was or these conversations had as a possibility
to Chris and Austin or was it just as a
time arose that you had to make the decision that
you pulled the trigger.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Yeah, I think there is a lot of conversations that
went into this, and you know, we're incredibly mindful of
opportunities here and elsewhere, and especially for these two guys
who have been such a huge part of our success
(29:19):
over the years, trying to you know, handle it the
right way, and however, you know, we're never going to
nail those one hundred percent of the way, but that
was the goal with this, to make sure that we
did this with as much you know, thought and class
and you know, mindfulness of the situation as we possibly could.
(29:39):
So as you alluded to, look, these are these are
hard conversations and they never feel good to be, you know,
to be the ones delivering the news. And these guys
have worked incredibly hard over the course of their careers
and given it all for the team, so obviously challenging
conversations are are tough along the way, but you know,
(30:01):
I think they'll you know, they'll be better moving forward,
and I'm glad we handle it the way we did.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Brandon. One thing about the Dodgers. You have obviously committed
to building a winning team every year, and you've told
the fans that by the investment the organization has made.
But if you want to build for sustained success, you
then have to start integrating younger players. So I think
this is kind of unique that you have a team
(30:30):
that can win the World Series, yet you also have
the ability to bring up younger players that can be
your future. Do you find this a unique situation?
Speaker 5 (30:41):
We were very fortunate to have, you know, the support
of ownership, and yeah, I mean the goal is to
win this year, but also to make sure that we're
doing everything we can to put ourselves in position to
continue the success. So we we've had the opportunity over
the years and this year too, when we get a
(31:01):
chance to get some younger guys in here to play
a little bit, and sometimes that comes via injury, first
veteran guys or you know, opportunities present themselves in different ways.
It's always helpful from our standpoint. To get an understanding
of how guys perform up here, and you know that
(31:24):
isn't always linear. Guys don't always just come in and
start hitting or performing on the pitching side, but getting
them a taste of what it is. If they perform
right away, great, If not, that's okay, then we have
an opportunity to send them back down and have a
cuitter understanding of Hey, these are things that you can
go work done while in Triple A. So I think
(31:46):
it's a nice balance, and you know, our player development
does an amazing job. And the challenge here is that
there's a pretty still a pretty big gap from Triple
A to the big leagues. So as good as our
group is, it's hard to you know, put it in
the end zone. We can get to the five to
ten yard line and we try to get as close
as we can of teaching these guys in the minor leagues.
(32:09):
But this is just a you know, one more step
to truly understand what they need to do in order
to hit the ground running once they get to the
big league. So these opportunities are good for us and
for the players.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, no, absolutely, And one of the things that.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I think separates the Dodgers from everyone else is that
you guys do look ahead. You do you know, try
to have that crystal ball and foresee the future. And
you understand that, Yes, last year, you guys won the
World Series, but you did it in a unique way
where you know, the bullpen was asked to do a
lot more than most bullpens around Major League Baseball, and
(32:51):
you went out and you addressed that in the offseason
and brought in a number of arms to help you
out with this. And yet here we are May nineteen.
There's serious, serious, serious injuries to the pitching staff. And
what can you tell us about some of the guys
that that may be coming off the aisle and and
(33:11):
getting back sooner rather than later, and and some of
the status of not only just the starters like like
Snell and Glass now, but some of the some of
the relievers like you know, Trynan and Kopek and some
of the other guys that you're gonna need down the stretch.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, I'm going back to the first point of obviously
having won last year and doing it in a not
so traditional way. I think it speaks to the many
different ways that you can, you know, construct the team
and go out and win a championship. And our goal
this offseason was to you know, do it a little
more straightforward with you know, a bunch of starters that
(33:48):
went deep and you know complimentary, have a strong bullpen,
kind of put it all together. So uh that that,
you know, hopefully that is the goal as we roll
into September October and down the stretch of a bunch
of really talented guys that are coming back and healthy
as far as guys on the men you know smelling
(34:09):
Glass are both throwing now, so we'll kind of progress
them through their programs. Both feeling good, which is great,
trying is throwing currently and feeling good. Rokie is you know,
kind of just in in a shoulder strengthening phase right now,
but overall we feel feel good with where he's at,
(34:30):
and once he gets thrown here in the near future,
copack out on rehab assignment, which is great, Evan, you know,
going to take a few more days here and kind
of assess what we're at before he starts any kind
of throwing program. So they have a number of guys
there and then obviously Kirby just going down with the
with the hand strength. You know, we'll see where he's
(34:52):
at in the coming days. We should be able to
keep his arm going, which is a good thing, which
always helps in you know, getting them back out on
the mound sooner, being able to keep the arm going. So,
you know, there's a lot of guys on there. It's
part of why you build depth in the off season,
and we're certainly testing those limits right now. But it's
not fortunately, Unfortunately, I guess it is not a unique
(35:15):
place for us doc in the in the pitching guys
do an amazing job of being able to navigate uh
these these times and still get out there and you know,
put up wins when we can, and you know, it'll
be a point where our offense may have to pick
us up a little bit more, and then at some
point in the future, uh, the pitchers will return the
(35:36):
favor to our h to our offense.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
So I'm going to tell you you didn't sound like
the general manager of the Dodgers. You sounded like a
guy coordinating a mass unit. Wow, you just listed all
those guys. It's like you have a medical chart in
front of you.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
The good thing is all those guys are super talented,
So we'll be patient.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
All right, Brandon thanks for jumping on. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
You got it, guys, Thank you again.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Okay, there we goes. General manager of the Dodgers, Brandon
Gomes got it. When you just sit there and listen
to it, well, you know, he's this, This guy's that,
he's over here, he'll be back. It sounds like he's
running an er.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
What.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
It also sounds like it's like, you know, for Dodger fans,
if you're you know that are listening, it's like, we
got it under control. It's gonna be everything's gonna be okay.
And it feels that way. I know that it doesn't
seem that that way right now with all the injuries,
but the way they navigated, the way he talked about
(36:37):
this is our plan and this is how we're gonna
go forward.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
He was very calming.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
It's like the bedside manner that you need if you're
a Dodger, if you're a Dodger fan, and it's stressed
out right now.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
All right. Thanks to Brandon for coming on the show.
We also thank David Vasse for coming on today. Ronnie,
great job, terrific way to start the week. Kevin forlorn
Angel fan, thank you for your hard work, Nottney, we
get them tomorrow, yes, sir,
And we continue on Fred Rogan Rodney Pete on five
to seventy LA Sports. Dodgers opened a four game series
with the Diamondbacks tonight. That's a big series because when
you're dealing with the NL West, you are dealing with
the best division in baseball, the best teams in baseball.
And although it is the regular season, and I've mentioned
(00:22):
this many times, every one of these games counts too.
You win, they lose. So these have a little extra
oomph against the Diamondbacks. So if you want to talk
about what happened over the weekend, and why would you,
that was pretty bad. That was just bad. The Angels,
(00:45):
one of the worst hitting teams in baseball, look like
the greatest hitting team in history. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, I don't know if it's something about LA that they,
you know, get up for, and I'm sure it is
and all of the talk and disrespect, but they they
put on a show at the plate over the weekend,
and they were like, who who the hell are these guys?
Who are these guys? Because they look like a team,
(01:15):
I mean, not just that one or two guys, not
just Ward, And it was it was up and down
that lineup that were I mean tattoo in the ball, Fred,
and it was like they knew what was coming is
how well they hit the ball over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And doctor pitching uh did a very good job of
contributing to that. For her, to be completely honest, Tony
Gotslin had the the nail issue. Yeah, and then it
started to bleed. What did you say earlier, Rodney? He
looked like, what, I forget what I wanted to. I
(01:52):
forget what I said. But yeah, yeah, I mean flo fancy, Yeah,
it was, it was, yeah, it was. It was bad.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You know at that moment when you saw that, that's
when you got to say, Okay, come on out, come
on out here, come on out here. And what do
you do though? If you're if you're the ump or
you're you know, are you? I mean, that's not a
foreign substance because it's coming from your body.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
But if.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
If blood can add actually enhance something, that might be
something that you know, maybe pitchers start to do, Fred.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Pull little uh pull little get a little pinprick before
they go out the pitch.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, blood help the spin rate, yes, exactly, Hey, White,
the hell not? People tried other things, remember, Gaylord Perry vasiline,
you had a dan sandpaper in his hat. He had
had the file, the nail file, yes, yeah, the nail file,
(02:57):
ye file.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy lengths.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
But I don't know, you know, I think they should
have Yeah, they should have pulled him because I think
it was more of a mental thing after that, once
he kind of got it addressed and there was that
big meeting on the mound and the blood's all over
his pants and now you're thinking about it every pitch
is this going to affect my slider? Is this gonna
affect my splitter? And his mind was not there after that.
(03:24):
It really wasn't.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, he had been good. He had been good up
until that start. Right, well, then he's bleeding. Yeah, but
it's also like, who do you go to?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
The bullpen is so messed up, like, and the starters
have not been going deep, so you've had to dip
into the bullpen. You had to do it Friday night,
a Saturday night. Like basically, if Tony Goslin, as long
as his arm was attached to his shoulder, he was
going stay out there as long as you can.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Short of bringing in Mickey Rowe. Yeah, he was going
to go as long as he can't. But did you
see the shot they had the long conversation Dave Roberts
did with Landing Neck and I don't know what the
conversation was, but uh and Landax going tonight.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Right, well, his discussion was and he said it after
the game running. It was like, if you know, if
they just determined that he couldn't go, Tony Gonslin couldn't
keep going, they were gonna use NAC yesterday and figure
out today today that was gonna be the plan that
they thought that.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Would to continue.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Wow, that's how that's how decimated this pitching staff is
that you gotta you gotta resort to try to call
in your your Monday your Monday night starter to go
finish the game on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And I remember before the season started, we were sitting
here laughing, my god, they've got ten starting pitchers. How's
everybody many find a start? They got too many pictures,
you have too many riches. They don't even have enough
now and they literally had ten. No, because of the injuries,
they don't have enough.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Here's the thing, you know, it's the it's year two
right when I say I wouldn't say year two, but
it's you know, last year they dealt with this in
a dramatic fashion. Every team goes through injury, so you
know you can't avoid that. But last year actually more
than that, because the year before that they ran out
(05:14):
of pictures too, because we talked about having to bring
in Lance Land as your as one of your aces.
You know, he had to bring he had to start
a playoff game against Arizona and got he got lanced.
And so for the last few years they've been dealing
with this. Is it a point where you kind of
go back in and investigate what are we doing as
(05:37):
an organization as a team in terms of pictures and injuries,
or is it something that you write off is going
this is just inevitable with pictures nowadays, and it's not
something that's unique to the Dodgers that we're doing.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Uh, it is to a degree unique to the Dodgers.
To a degree, it is part of baseball now. I
play fantasy baseball and you look at the available pitchers,
m h. And you can see all these guys. You're going,
I'm gonna pick him up right now. Oh, I'm sorry,
IL sixty day list, IL thirty days. Everybody's hurt everybody's
(06:16):
hurt soap. It is a part of baseball, but the
Dodgers had more of it in the past. Now, to
be fair, this year, Blake Snell wasn't here. Last year,
Tyler Glasnell was, but he came with arm injuries. Let's
go out to the stadium and bring on David Basset,
who joins us. Dave, Good afternoon.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Hey guys, the Diamondbacks are out here taking early batting practice.
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks soaking up for the second time
in a week.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
They had.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Dodgers ended their last road trips splitting four games at
Chase Fields, so this should be a very entertaining and
competitive series.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Hey, Dave, can you share with us from what you've
been able to hear, what the conversation was like with
Chris Taylor. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
I think Andrew Freeman had a hard time just being
able to, you know, share with Chris Taylor what the
reality was, and I think at that point you just
got to be really honest. I'm not privy to exactly
what the transcription was of the dialogue, but it happened
after Saturday night's game, where they brought Chris Taylor in
(07:27):
and informed them that you know, this was the direction
they were going to go in. And obviously Chris Taylor
believes he was going to get a job somewhere or
they would have, you know, maybe worked out something where
he went on the IL instead of being released. But
Chris Taylor wants to play, and he wasn't playing a
lot with the Dodgers.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, it's a tough thing, right, Dave.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
He's been here for such a long time, had so
many big moments for this team and this team's success.
He and Austin Barnes at the uh you know, and
and and within five days of each other. It was
kind of a tough thing to take for for Dodger fans.
But how how was it in the in the clubhouse
with guys, because those both those guys are such likable
(08:12):
guys and really been really good teammates, but they also
understand it's a business.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
How did they all react to it?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah, you know, it was business as usual, honestly, Rodney. Yesterday,
maybe it was because it was a day game and
there's not really a lot of time to really take
it all in. But you know, Chris Taylor was the
last guy on the team the last two years, so
you know, I think everybody understood what was what was
happening here. The Dodgers weren't playing him. Hey Sun Kim
(08:41):
exploded onto the scene and has made a real impact,
has brought a lot of energy and can do things
that the Dodgers were asking Chris Taylor to do in
a more amplified way. So I think everybody understood there
was going to be a crossroads here when Tommy Edmund
and Taoscar Hernandez came back. The Austin Barnes situation took
(09:04):
a lot of people by surprise more than the Chris
Taylor situation.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Dave Clayton Kershaw struggled on Saturday, what do you see?
What do you think happens from here? Is that going
to be the way it is? Or was that just
a rough outing?
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Well, the first inning was rough. He threw thirty eight
pitches in that first inning. So after that he settled
down and had a little better command. But after the
game he said that was the biggest issue that he
didn't have the command, and it's understandable after missing over
a year before he pitched in a major league game,
But that thirty eight pitch first inning prevented him from
(09:44):
getting into the fifth inning. And that's not only a
Saturday night problem, but it's been a problem here for
the first part of the season because the Dodger bullpen
reached the two hundred inning mark as far as innings
pitched yesterday after Gonsolin also only went four innings. So
that's a big issue for the Dodgers. And we'll see,
(10:06):
we'll see how it goes tonight, whether or not they
use an opener for Landon Nak or if they just
start him. They're going to have to use a minimal
amount of relievers as much as possible, especially with Caribbeate's
now going on the injured list.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, this is.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Absolutely crazy a day because they they went out in
the offseason and tried to insulate themselves from from having
this this this issue, and you know, going through what
they did last year and the bullpen was phenomenal, but
they knew it was not gonna it's something that you
could really sustain, so they made moves to do that.
But now here we are and it's it's worse than
(10:43):
it was, you know last year. How are they handling
it and approaching it going forward? And can you tell
us when we can get some of the guys back,
like you know Snell and some of the other guys
that that may be coming out of the bulk as well.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
What are they coming back?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
All right, let's just start with the bullpen itself. Going
back to what you just said, Rodney, people thought that
Tanner Scott was a luxury and Kirby Yates was a luxury.
They weren't a luxury. They were a necessity. And I
think everybody has a really short memory that the Dodger bullpen.
Key relievers like alex Vesia Blake, Trina Brusdar graderoal Evan
(11:27):
Phillips were pushed to their limits and pitched earlier and
longer last season than any other key relievers in baseball,
and the Dodgers relied heavily on those guys to win
the World Series. And then compound that with the fact
that they reported to spring training earlier than any other team.
(11:50):
They had the shortest off season of probably any World
Championship team in the history of the game, considering that
they had to report right around the Super Bowl time
because of the Tokyo Series. So it shouldn't come as
a surprise, and it didn't come as a surprise to
Andrew Friedman to try to bring in some reinforcements, bring
(12:12):
in some fresh arms. But Kirby Yates is thirty eight
years old. He's not a guy that's going to throw
seventy eighty innings. Sixty innings was his career high, and
it was last year and many years ago with the Padres.
So that's the reality of what's going on right now.
And I know Andrew didn't want to have to be
put into a position to go out and have to
(12:34):
trade for more pitching at the deadline, but the reality
is he's probably he's going to have to go out
and trade for some relievers between now and the trade deadline.
And the guy that's closest to returning and you hope
when he comes back there's no return to the il,
and that's Michael Kopek, who also was pitching through a
(12:56):
lot of pain during the postseason last year. Jill hasn't
thrown a major league pitch this year. He's on a
rehab assignment. So that's the reality of the situation.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
All right, Well, Dave, we know you gotta run. Thank
you for coming on, really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
We'll talk soon, okay, guys, Thanks, all right, there goes.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
David vassaying out at the stadium. Okay, well there's the
reality of the situation. That's not a great reality either.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
No jolly like you said, which a lot of people,
including me felt like Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates were Wow,
they snuck those guys in, They got those guys, and
now they're overstocked. It's a luxury to have those guys
because they've they've been phenomenal in years past, and now
(13:46):
the Dodgers got them. So wow, the Dodgers are stock pilot,
when in essence they said those guys were necessities.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Those guys were.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
There was somebody that they targeted and they got to
They felt like they had to go out and get
not as a luxury, but as necessity and key figures
in the in the course of this season. So man,
it's it's going to be an interesting next two months.
To say the least.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
We're we're still anticipating Dodger GM Brandon Gomes joining the show.
If you can get it right, wouldn't you want to
get it right? Here your choices, get it right, get
it wrong? Who would pick? I want it wrong? That's next?
(14:37):
Come on, we keep it moving. It's moving fast on
a Monday.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Wow Flying by Rodney Pete Fred Rogan got a good stuff, Fred,
Are you deep down really be honest with me? Are
you Are you concerned at any point it's May nineteenth.
Are you concerned at all with the Dodgers right now?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Uh? No, I'm not concerned. Really into your bones, into
your heart, you're not concerned at all, But this tea, No,
I'm really not because I know everything's gonna shake out, Okay,
I know the pictures will all come back. I know
everybody's going to hit, So I'm not concerned. I'm just
(15:22):
more I just don't want to see him look bad
against the Angels. I mean, if you're gonna get beat,
I just don't want to see you look bad against teams. Yeah,
because there are so many guys hurt. I mean, what
do you expect. And again, we've seen this movie, we
lived at last year. All you have to do is
be ready when you need to be ready, and you
(15:45):
got some time for that. I just don't want to
see him look bad. They're gonna get beat, They're not
gonna win one hundred and twenty games. Whatever people were
saying at the beginning of the year that insanity just
don't look bad, that's all. But I'm not worried. You worried.
So they can lose. They can lose, and and you
(16:05):
you're not saying that they lose fifty games or anything
like that, but they can lose and you'll still be
okay with it even the way they're losing. No, I'm not.
I'm not worried at this point. But the question though, is.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Once you know, everybody says, okay, once we get these
guys back, it's all be good. All once we get
smelled and once we you know, once we get glass
Now back, it'll be it'll be good. Once the copek
comes back and trying and comes back, will be all good. Okay,
those guys come back, but they've been injured. There's no
guarantee that they stay healthy throughout the rest of the season.
(16:43):
On paper, it feels good that you know that these
guys are coming back, but they still got to come back,
and they still got to perform, and they still got
to get their their arms and legs and body and
mind and all those things in shape to be effective,
you know, because it doesn't just happen on paper. You
gotta come back and be effective. And so it's gonna
(17:04):
take a moment. And I know everybody's believing once these
guys come back, we're all good. But this it it
may take one or two or three or four games
for them to kind of get their feet back under them.
You know, Like everybody who's like expecting, I don't know
what they were expecting from Kershall. I think they were expecting, like,
you know, two twenty twelve, fifteen Kershaw. It's Kershall Day.
(17:26):
So it's gonna be lights out. You know, he's gonna
only give up two hits and if he gives up
a run, maybe he does, but nothing more than that.
But it's a different it's a different time, different element,
different animal right now. And it's gonna take curseh two
three games to gotta get hisself back into pitching at
Dodger Stadium and on Major League mount.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, we'll see, we'll see if that's the case. Speaking
of curse uh so uh. The automated strike zone, folks,
is coming. We kind of touched on this earlier, and
it's only a question of when. Now, it's just a
question of when. And of course Baseball has to sign off,
the players Union has to sign off. I don't know
if the umpires have to get involved in this. A
(18:09):
lot of people have to sign off on going to
the automated strike zone. The concern, again is the human element,
and we don't want to remove the human element. Well,
the automated strike zone is going to get it right.
It's going to get it right. They're going to have it.
When they use it, it's going to be right. And
(18:33):
when they get to that point and they're moving in
that direction, why wouldn't you use it. Well, we don't
want to remove the human element. We've removed the human
element from life. It's called AI. You can communicate with AI.
You ask Ai a question, it thinks it knows you
when answers. AI is not human. So why in baseball
(18:56):
must we keep it? Well, we don't want to mess
with that. Oh no, but society is doing it like this.
Well we don't believe in that. Well you should. You
should believe in it. It's pretty simple. It's staring you
right in the face. If the human element is what
you're concerned about, the human beings play, let the computer
(19:22):
call balls and strikes because it's a really tough job.
And honestly, and you go well, you're all over the umpires. No,
but the truth is some guys are better than others.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Tell what about the people, what about the people that say,
you know, you just said it, human beings play? Why
don't you let human beings officiate. If you gotta let
human beings play, then let the human beings officiate. Otherwise,
this is go to the video game and put an
avatar of Jason Tatum and let him and you play
(19:54):
it through your video game, or you get the algorithm
that just says Jason Tatum would do this in this situation.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So this is how it's going to go.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And we're gonna put somebody on him that can guard him,
and if it comes with a double team, and we're
going to do all this and just plug it all
in and just let him play.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Okay, that was not a really good analogy. So that
was good, you know, like, no, I didn't know. I
can't do that. I'm sorry. I mean, look, I'll bite
on a lot of them. Don't get me wrong. I'm
sitting here and yeah that makes sense. No, no, no, no, no, no.
(20:39):
The bottom line is this, if you have the chance
to get it right, you should get it right. You
should in anything. If you can, you should. You shouldn't
roll the dice and go, well, maybe we'll miss a few. No,
if you can do it properly, you can get it right.
You should get it right understood. It changes a bit
(21:02):
of the dynamic of the game. And honestly, pictures will
hate it. If anybody's gonna hate it, pictures will hate it.
Hitters will love it because hitters will now know exactly
the area where that ball is gonna be. M hm.
There won't be any question. It's not like, hey man,
(21:23):
the umpire squeezing me, or he's giving me the corner.
Nobody's given you anything. This is where it goes. It
has to be in there, or it's not a strike.
So if you're a hitter, you're standar. They're going, okay, well,
I know one thing. He's probably not gonna throw a
lot on the corners, or if he is, they're always
going to be right on the corner because the automated
(21:46):
strike zone, the computer will figure that out.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
So is it an advantage going forward in these first
If they implement it in the first two years of
its implementation, the advantage is going to be to.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
The hitter or the picture. The hitter in my mind, yeah, one.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Because now you played baseball black and I know that
he's not going to get that outside pitch and that
umpire is not going to be able to call something wide,
and I got a good feel for my strike zone.
They're not gonna get anything by me, or he's not
gonna get anything by me because yumper is.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Taken out of the equation.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Absolutely, you're right, it's gonna it's gonna be an advantage hitter.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, I mean you play.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's what they want, right, That's what baseball wants. So
why the hesitation from baseball?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Well, because we have to get it approved with the
players and then these people have to consider it and
the and and they have to make sure it's right.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I mean, that's the other thing, the big that's the
big thing, Fredd is like they have to get the
kinks works out. Everybody's strike zone is different, so whoever
comes up to the plate, the computer has to adjust
itself and that takes time and all sorts of different things.
I think that's, more than anything else, is the bigger issue.
You can't have the same strike zone for jose Al
Twov that you do for Cody Bellinger.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Right, Yeah, yeah, how do they work that out? Well,
I don't know, is it is it a you know,
I'm sure they have measurements and all that thing for
every player on every single team. So they plug them in.
This is the strike zone for this guy and that guy,
and they plug it in and here it is. Because
you're right, Jose al tuove is different than Aaron Judge. Right,
(23:28):
so you can't call the same strike as low to
al two V as you do for Aaron Judge. So
there's a lot of there's a lot of you know,
obviously technical parts that you got to get in, you know,
get into place. But that's not hard because we're twenty
twenty five and it's already here. So that's that seems
(23:48):
like it would be an easy thing to do. Maybe
they wear under their jerseys. Oh they got sensors. They
got sensors.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, hoose al Tuovay already knows that drill buzzers, whoa, whoa,
who inspired there it is, he knows how to do that.
Uh No, Maybe they do have sensors on their shirts.
They go up there and that's what it is. Simple
(24:22):
could be yeah, yeah, oh it could be. It does
seem look it looks no.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Look if we if we got you know, driverless cars
out there that can sense anything happening and surroundings and
some car coming close to you or you traveling too
fast and the car can slow down or carking speed up,
or it recognizes, you know, a motorcycle coming beside you
and so it kind of you know, makes.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Way for that. Then this would be easy peasy. Yeah,
that would not surprise me at all to see go
to it sooner rather than later. And then people should
understand that it's a good thing because once it happens,
it happens. Yeah, that's it. It's done. They're not gonna
(25:15):
go backwards. Once it happens, it happens. And I know
there's an adjustment period because there always is, but long
term it will be a good thing. And moreover, I
believe it will actually happen. Okay, we are back with
(25:37):
a final segment here. Yeah, yeah, oh.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yes, come on down to home stretch they come, Rodney Pete,
fred Rogan, Yeah, Freddie.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
We were just talking about the strike zone earlier and
and I.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Was so against it two years ago, three years ago
when it was first introduced, and you talked about it
and you liked it, which is weird because you used
to be an umpire and from a former umpire standpoint,
you would think that you would be in a fraternity
with your guys and not want it. But do you
think most umpires would welcome this or are they standing
(26:28):
in opposition of this possibility happening?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
You know, it's interesting if you watch umpires today compared
to when the challenge system first started. I think initially
when the challenge system started, umpires looked at it like
they were being questioned and they were being overruled. Now,
if there is a challenge of any kind, you just
see the empire go okay, yeah, I got it. I
(26:53):
think they become accustomed to it. But now let's bring
on the general manager of the Dodgers, Brandon Gomes. Brandon,
thanks for coming.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
On, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Guys. Hey, let's start with this. Two difficult conversations last
week to guys that had been around. What I'd really
like to know. What are those conversations like, I know
you can't sit here and tell us exactly what was set,
but do people get emotional? Do they become upset? What
are those conversations like?
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Yeah, those are always really challenging. Two great players, great
people that have been here for a long time. So
you know, I think with those guys, it's being honest
and straightforward and also you know, having empathy for the situation.
And you know, they both handled the conversations like pros
on the other end, as we expected, and you know,
(27:44):
nothing but respect and admiration for both of those guys
and wish them nothing but the best moving forward.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, but it's still tough, right Brandon.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I mean, you still got to deal with these guys
that have been around and been at big moments for
or for this team for a number of years, and
and and both of them were very.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Well liked by the fan base. So it's it's it's
got to be it's got to be tough. How much?
How much is it?
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And I said this earlier, Brennan, that I think you
guys do as good a job as any team that
I know of in any sport of being open and
communicating with your players, uh and staff. You know, I've
I've heard Andrew talk a lot about you know, we
wanted to give a certain player an opportunity to go
test the market, and and not every not every not
(28:37):
every organization does that. They kind of keep that under
the best and they don't really be open with the
player like that.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
But you guys have.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Do you was or these conversations had as a possibility
to Chris and Austin or was it just as a
time arose that you had to make the decision that
you pulled the trigger.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Yeah, I think there is a lot of conversations that
went into this, and you know, we're incredibly mindful of
opportunities here and elsewhere, and especially for these two guys
who have been such a huge part of our success
(29:19):
over the years, trying to you know, handle it the
right way, and however, you know, we're never going to
nail those one hundred percent of the way, but that
was the goal with this, to make sure that we
did this with as much you know, thought and class
and you know, mindfulness of the situation as we possibly could.
(29:39):
So as you alluded to, look, these are these are
hard conversations and they never feel good to be, you know,
to be the ones delivering the news. And these guys
have worked incredibly hard over the course of their careers
and given it all for the team, so obviously challenging
conversations are are tough along the way, but you know,
(30:01):
I think they'll you know, they'll be better moving forward,
and I'm glad we handle it the way we did.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Brandon. One thing about the Dodgers. You have obviously committed
to building a winning team every year, and you've told
the fans that by the investment the organization has made.
But if you want to build for sustained success, you
then have to start integrating younger players. So I think
this is kind of unique that you have a team
(30:30):
that can win the World Series, yet you also have
the ability to bring up younger players that can be
your future. Do you find this a unique situation?
Speaker 5 (30:41):
We were very fortunate to have, you know, the support
of ownership, and yeah, I mean the goal is to
win this year, but also to make sure that we're
doing everything we can to put ourselves in position to
continue the success. So we we've had the opportunity over
the years and this year too, when we get a
(31:01):
chance to get some younger guys in here to play
a little bit, and sometimes that comes via injury, first
veteran guys or you know, opportunities present themselves in different ways.
It's always helpful from our standpoint. To get an understanding
of how guys perform up here, and you know that
(31:24):
isn't always linear. Guys don't always just come in and
start hitting or performing on the pitching side, but getting
them a taste of what it is. If they perform
right away, great, If not, that's okay, then we have
an opportunity to send them back down and have a
cuitter understanding of Hey, these are things that you can
go work done while in Triple A. So I think
(31:46):
it's a nice balance, and you know, our player development
does an amazing job. And the challenge here is that
there's a pretty still a pretty big gap from Triple
A to the big leagues. So as good as our
group is, it's hard to you know, put it in
the end zone. We can get to the five to
ten yard line and we try to get as close
as we can of teaching these guys in the minor leagues.
(32:09):
But this is just a you know, one more step
to truly understand what they need to do in order
to hit the ground running once they get to the
big league. So these opportunities are good for us and
for the players.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, no, absolutely, And one of the things that.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I think separates the Dodgers from everyone else is that
you guys do look ahead. You do you know, try
to have that crystal ball and foresee the future. And
you understand that, Yes, last year, you guys won the
World Series, but you did it in a unique way
where you know, the bullpen was asked to do a
lot more than most bullpens around Major League Baseball, and
(32:51):
you went out and you addressed that in the offseason
and brought in a number of arms to help you
out with this. And yet here we are May nineteen.
There's serious, serious, serious injuries to the pitching staff. And
what can you tell us about some of the guys
that that may be coming off the aisle and and
(33:11):
getting back sooner rather than later, and and some of
the status of not only just the starters like like
Snell and Glass now, but some of the some of
the relievers like you know, Trynan and Kopek and some
of the other guys that you're gonna need down the stretch.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, I'm going back to the first point of obviously
having won last year and doing it in a not
so traditional way. I think it speaks to the many
different ways that you can, you know, construct the team
and go out and win a championship. And our goal
this offseason was to you know, do it a little
more straightforward with you know, a bunch of starters that
(33:48):
went deep and you know complimentary, have a strong bullpen,
kind of put it all together. So uh that that,
you know, hopefully that is the goal as we roll
into September October and down the stretch of a bunch
of really talented guys that are coming back and healthy
as far as guys on the men you know smelling
(34:09):
Glass are both throwing now, so we'll kind of progress
them through their programs. Both feeling good, which is great,
trying is throwing currently and feeling good. Rokie is you know,
kind of just in in a shoulder strengthening phase right now,
but overall we feel feel good with where he's at,
(34:30):
and once he gets thrown here in the near future,
copack out on rehab assignment, which is great, Evan, you know,
going to take a few more days here and kind
of assess what we're at before he starts any kind
of throwing program. So they have a number of guys
there and then obviously Kirby just going down with the
with the hand strength. You know, we'll see where he's
(34:52):
at in the coming days. We should be able to
keep his arm going, which is a good thing, which
always helps in you know, getting them back out on
the mound sooner, being able to keep the arm going. So,
you know, there's a lot of guys on there. It's
part of why you build depth in the off season,
and we're certainly testing those limits right now. But it's
not fortunately, Unfortunately, I guess it is not a unique
(35:15):
place for us doc in the in the pitching guys
do an amazing job of being able to navigate uh
these these times and still get out there and you know,
put up wins when we can, and you know, it'll
be a point where our offense may have to pick
us up a little bit more, and then at some
point in the future, uh, the pitchers will return the
(35:36):
favor to our h to our offense.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
So I'm going to tell you you didn't sound like
the general manager of the Dodgers. You sounded like a
guy coordinating a mass unit. Wow, you just listed all
those guys. It's like you have a medical chart in
front of you.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
The good thing is all those guys are super talented,
So we'll be patient.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
All right, Brandon thanks for jumping on. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
You got it, guys, Thank you again.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Okay, there we goes. General manager of the Dodgers, Brandon
Gomes got it. When you just sit there and listen
to it, well, you know, he's this, This guy's that,
he's over here, he'll be back. It sounds like he's
running an er.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
What.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
It also sounds like it's like, you know, for Dodger fans,
if you're you know that are listening, it's like, we
got it under control. It's gonna be everything's gonna be okay.
And it feels that way. I know that it doesn't
seem that that way right now with all the injuries,
but the way they navigated, the way he talked about
(36:37):
this is our plan and this is how we're gonna
go forward.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
He was very calming.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
It's like the bedside manner that you need if you're
a Dodger, if you're a Dodger fan, and it's stressed
out right now.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
All right. Thanks to Brandon for coming on the show.
We also thank David Vasse for coming on today. Ronnie,
great job, terrific way to start the week. Kevin forlorn
Angel fan, thank you for your hard work, Nottney, we
get them tomorrow, yes, sir,
Roggin And Rodney News
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