Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talking.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful saturday here in Los Angeles, and we
Speaker 1: join right now by the man that is the architect
Speaker 1: of the unprecetented success the Dodgers have had, including back
Speaker 1: to back championships. A man that is not as emotional
Speaker 1: as people on Ventura Boulevard. That's the one and only
Speaker 1: Andrew Friedman. Thanks a lot for the.
Speaker 2: Time, Absolutely thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1: It feels like this is just one of those moments
Speaker 1: in time during the season where you're dealing with some injuries,
Speaker 1: some guys are sick, but it feels like the cavalry
Speaker 1: is on its way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we go through this every year, especially
Speaker 2: in April. I think every single year I've been here,
Speaker 2: we've had have meetings about our relievers, with our catchers,
Speaker 2: just with our relievers about what their strengths are. It's
Speaker 2: like groundhog Day. And so there's periods where we're playing
Speaker 2: well and it feels like we're never going to lose again,
Speaker 2: and there's periods where we're not playing as well and
Speaker 2: you're waiting for something bad to happen. It is the
Speaker 2: cycle of a major League season. That being said, when
Speaker 2: you're in one of the downturns of it, it's frustrating.
Speaker 2: It's not fun to go through.
Speaker 1: I haven't talked to you since the news of Edwin
Speaker 1: Diaz going down with chips in his right elbow surgery.
Speaker 1: How does that affect the bullpen and how much do
Speaker 1: you need Rock Stewart and Bruce Stark Graderol to come back.
Speaker 2: Don't forget Evan Phillips.
Speaker 1: That's a while away, Andrew.
Speaker 2: That's sure, that's true. You know, with that one, obviously
Speaker 2: it's a big loss. But you know, it was something
Speaker 2: he had been feeling in his last couple of outings
Speaker 2: and velocity was down just where the chip was was
Speaker 2: pushing right on the tricep muscle and so something that
Speaker 2: just wasn't allowing him the same freedom to get to
Speaker 2: his velocity and just a lot of discomfort. So fortunately
Speaker 2: it didn't involve anything with the ligament. It wasn't near
Speaker 2: the ligament, and doctor Elatrosh felt really confident, let's go
Speaker 2: and get it out. It will alleviate those symptoms and
Speaker 2: he'll come back and be in a good spot. So
Speaker 2: it's good in terms of you know, the prognosis of
Speaker 2: him coming back and helping us in the second half
Speaker 2: of the season and hopefully through a long October, but
Speaker 2: frustrating for the now and us navigating the next you know,
Speaker 2: two two and a half months, and you know it'll
Speaker 2: be opportunity for some guys. And you know, we've seen
Speaker 2: over the years when that opportunity has been created, it's
Speaker 2: given guys some runway to go and create a real
Speaker 2: role form. We saw it with Robo last year. We've
Speaker 2: seen it with Evan Phillips in the past. We've seen
Speaker 2: it with a number of guys. So you know, we'll
Speaker 2: have this opportunity for some guys to emerge.
Speaker 1: Her starting rotation has been phenomenal, Emma Sheen coming off
Speaker 1: as best start of the season. Tyler Glass now eight innings,
Speaker 1: allowed just one hit in San Francisco. I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about Glass now because you've known him obviously
Speaker 1: for a long time. Why is he so different this year?
Speaker 1: What's different about him to allow him to go to
Speaker 1: this next level.
Speaker 2: There's just there's even more confidence, you know, I think
Speaker 2: just going through some of the injury stuff he had
Speaker 2: gone through earlier in his career and then with us
Speaker 2: in that first year, you know, I think it eats
Speaker 2: into your ability to be as confident and just getting
Speaker 2: him to believe just how good his stuff is. There
Speaker 2: aren't a lot of guys that can beat guys in zone.
Speaker 2: You almost need to get ahead and zone and then
Speaker 2: on to off and get guys to chase. He can
Speaker 2: dominate guys end zone. That's how good his stuff is.
Speaker 2: So last year, the walker right was a little elevated,
Speaker 2: and we're seeing that come down right now with the
Speaker 2: miss as high as it is. And he's a tough
Speaker 2: guy to square up. And so I think the success
Speaker 2: he had last October and really being a big part
Speaker 2: of us winning a championship last year, whereas in twenty
Speaker 2: four he was doing it as a cheerleader, you know,
Speaker 2: with the injury. So I think him being a big
Speaker 2: part of what we did last October provided some fuel
Speaker 2: going into this offseason, and now each start is just
Speaker 2: continuing to build.
Speaker 1: As far as that series in San Francisco, Utani may
Speaker 1: have pitched his best game in a long time as well.
Speaker 1: When you look at him the balance of him going
Speaker 1: full time pitcher, do you feel like a little bit's
Speaker 1: been taken away as a hitter or is that just
Speaker 1: the April that you were talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean last year, you know, Show got off
Speaker 2: to a little bit of a slow start offensively and
Speaker 2: then got going i think in late late April, and
Speaker 2: then took off from there. Look, it is hard. What
Speaker 2: he's doing is hard, and it is tiring, and we
Speaker 2: have to stay and lockstep with him to figure out
Speaker 2: how to balance that rest. And you know that being said,
Speaker 2: he's had prolonged stretches where he's doing both and excelling
Speaker 2: at both. We just have to stay really connected with
Speaker 2: him because what he's doing obviously is unprecedented and it
Speaker 2: takes a real toll. But to be able to compartmentalize,
Speaker 2: to be able to pitch the way he has this
Speaker 2: year has been incredible.
Speaker 1: How do you look at it? A lot of talk
Speaker 1: about him not being as good of a hitter to
Speaker 1: day that he pitches. How do you look at that
Speaker 1: conversation about looking at it, evaluating where he hits in
Speaker 1: the lineup, whether or not he does it when he pitches.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think it's all part of the
Speaker 2: rest and what makes the most sense. You know, it
Speaker 2: doesn't make sense for him to go wire to wire
Speaker 2: pitch your hit or playing every day, pitching every week,
Speaker 2: that's hard, and so we do need to mix some
Speaker 2: rest in there. Whether we do it on the day
Speaker 2: he starts and then therefore he can't hit late in
Speaker 2: the game, or if we do it around it the
Speaker 2: day before the day after, we would at least have
Speaker 2: the silver bullet off the bench and the ninth inning
Speaker 2: in a tight game to be able to pinch. You know,
Speaker 2: all those are questions and I think, you know, getting
Speaker 2: with him and from our standpoint, if there's a clear
Speaker 2: answer whatever it is, we're great with it. If there's
Speaker 2: not a clear answer, it's just going to require a
Speaker 2: lot of conversation and some trial and error to kind
Speaker 2: of feel it out.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, it's not normal. He's one
Speaker 1: of one and he's thirty one years old. Now how
Speaker 1: much do we all take that for granted what he's
Speaker 1: doing is normal when it's not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think most things that we encounter,
Speaker 2: we all have some kind of mental rolodex we can
Speaker 2: go back to and like, oh yeah, in my experience
Speaker 2: it's this. We show hey, there is none of that,
Speaker 2: and we have no experience dealing with this, and so
Speaker 2: it definitely makes it trickier. That being said, I think
Speaker 2: as long as we're just staying connected consistently, I think
Speaker 2: we will get at our way through kind of what
Speaker 2: makes the most sense.
Speaker 1: All right. So that brings me to the Otani rule.
Speaker 1: Great Council last week said he feels like the Otani
Speaker 1: rules an unfair rule as far as rosters and rosters
Speaker 1: when it relates to pictures. I went to ask him
Speaker 1: to clarify that yesterday and he doubled down in a
Speaker 1: very tense way. Where is this all coming from? Do
Speaker 1: you feel like this is just a carryover from all
Speaker 1: the talk during the offseason. Where do you think all
Speaker 1: this Otani rule talk is coming from now? I don't know.
Speaker 2: It felt very random and strange to me that he
Speaker 2: felt the need to bring it up. And when shohe
Speaker 2: was on the Angels and MLB was considering this, they
Speaker 2: reached out to a bunch of teams, us included, and
Speaker 2: I said, look, from a competitive standpoint, as the Dodgers,
Speaker 2: I don't love it, but wearing my industry hat, what's
Speaker 2: best for the Major League Baseball it is to do
Speaker 2: everything we can for Shoeo Otani to be in and
Speaker 2: stay in games, and obviously with the thirteen pitcher rules,
Speaker 2: so that's the part of him being able to stay
Speaker 2: in the game when he pitches and when he comes
Speaker 2: off the mound. You know, the old rule would have
Speaker 2: been then the hitter has to come out as well.
Speaker 2: But I was able to look at what is best
Speaker 2: for the industry and show Hey playing and playing more
Speaker 2: often and staying in games is what is best for
Speaker 2: this game and best for the fans and everything else.
Speaker 2: So that was when he was with the Angels. And
Speaker 2: as far as the thirteen pitcher rule, again, it is
Speaker 2: more that we have thirteen pitchers. I had to clarify
Speaker 2: this with Jim Bowden who said that we have nine relievers.
Speaker 2: We don't have nine relievers. We have eight relievers just
Speaker 2: like everyone else. We have five starters like everyone else.
Speaker 2: It's just when show Hey is able and the rest
Speaker 2: makes sense, Showy pitches. Also, it is not that we
Speaker 2: are carrying an extra reliever relative to others. So it's
Speaker 2: certainly an advantage, but it should be an advantage. What
Speaker 2: show Hay does and what he is capable of is
Speaker 2: so unique it should be rewarded, it should be celebrated,
Speaker 2: and everyone knew the show Hey rules and had an
Speaker 2: equal opportunity to sign him two years ago. So I'm
Speaker 2: not sure where the Cups were in that process or
Speaker 2: what council's thoughts were on it then, but that seemed
Speaker 2: like more of the relevant time to voice it than now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's something that I'm sure not a lot
Speaker 1: of us were ever aware of that. Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: checked in with you and other teams about implementing this rule,
Speaker 1: So if there were any objections, then was the time.
Speaker 1: Absolutely all right, thank you for setting the record straight.
Speaker 1: I love it, Thank you for the time. Great to
Speaker 1: see you. And look, I'm very steady. I'm right in
Speaker 1: the wave of one sixty two.
Speaker 2: I like it. You know, we've seen this year after year.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean it's fun while going through it, but
Speaker 2: we've seen it, and we've seen this group battle through it,
Speaker 2: and it's just the inevitable cycle of a long one
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty two game season. And I have the
Speaker 2: same amount of faith in these guys and the way
Speaker 2: they prepare, the way they compete, that the subt will
Speaker 2: come out and we'll start playing much better baseball.
Speaker 1: It's been amazing how these guys still have their edge,
Speaker 1: and each individual has a chip to prove something this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's what I said after twenty four
Speaker 2: that one of the concerns about the difficulties around repeating
Speaker 2: is that complacency sets in. Where teams won, they're like, okay,
Speaker 2: they exhale, they don't have that same edge about them.
Speaker 2: And it was very apparent after the parade in twenty
Speaker 2: four just how focused everyone was on doing everything they
Speaker 2: could to run it back in twenty five, and we
Speaker 2: saw the same thing after twenty five. This is a
Speaker 2: group that's playing for you know, their legacy, for the
Speaker 2: legacy of this group, you know, to continue to you know,
Speaker 2: do everything we can for this to be the Golden
Speaker 2: era Dodgers Baseball and for them to have been a
Speaker 2: huge part of it. And so that motivation is so
Speaker 2: much further beyond the Okay, I want a championship. They're
Speaker 2: being pigs and I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so is Andrew Friedman. Thanks a lot for the time,
Speaker 1: and thanks again for being so candid with all your answers.
Speaker 2: Absolutely thanks for having me on