Speaker 1: The Dodgers are getting ready for first pitch in Saint Louis,
Speaker 1: and we're joining right now by former Cardinal NLCS MVP
Speaker 1: with the Dodgers, two time World Series champion with the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: That's the one and only Tommy Edmund. Tommy, thanks a
Speaker 1: lot for the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, thank you, Dave appreciate it. Always a
Speaker 2: pleasure chatting.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm the only guy that hasn't forgotten you, Tommy Edmund.
Speaker 2: That's right. I know I'm easy to forget, especially on
Speaker 2: this amazing team that we've got. But yeah, I'm excited
Speaker 2: to hopefully be back soon and you know, back to
Speaker 2: playing some ball and contributing for the best team in baseball.
Speaker 1: You seem to have a great perspective on life, but
Speaker 1: I'm sure this is testing your patience trying to get
Speaker 1: this right ankle to cooperating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's it's tough. It's it's tough when
Speaker 2: you know, we're baseball players and you know, or a
Speaker 2: lot of the time we find our value and just
Speaker 2: like how we're contributing on the field. But you know,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to do everything I can to you know,
Speaker 2: just stay part of the team. And and be the
Speaker 2: best cheerleader that I can be, and you know, just supporting,
Speaker 2: supporting everybody, supporting all the guys who are going through
Speaker 2: the grind and you know, hopefully I'll be a part
Speaker 2: of it soon.
Speaker 1: Have some of the young guys try to lean on you,
Speaker 1: like Alex Freeland, maybe he's Sun Kim here and there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's it's tough. You've seen, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: seeing everybody go through the stuff of a regular season,
Speaker 2: you know, all the ups and downs, and you know,
Speaker 2: me not really not being able to relate since I'm
Speaker 2: not playing, But you know, I've I've been able to
Speaker 2: have some good conversations with some of the guys and
Speaker 2: you know, just kind of trying to relate some of
Speaker 2: my own experiences and hopefully be a good influence and
Speaker 2: be a good leader for them.
Speaker 1: What's your therapy to try to maintain your patience until
Speaker 1: you come back.
Speaker 2: You know, it's we have a having two kids mix
Speaker 2: things a lot easier. You know, there's not much downtime
Speaker 2: even when even when I'm I'm not playing, So I
Speaker 2: guess that's been a good part of it is, you know,
Speaker 2: just getting a little bit of extra time with the family,
Speaker 2: and you know, Eli is gonna be a really good
Speaker 2: hitter by the end of my il stint because we're
Speaker 2: playing a lot of ball in the backyard right now.
Speaker 1: Sounds good at least at least that's the positive to
Speaker 1: all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, it's a that part's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I think it would definitely be a lot tougher to
Speaker 2: go through if I didn't have my family to lean on.
Speaker 1: Right now, Tommy Edman is our guest. All right, Tommy,
Speaker 1: I'll put the analyst hat on you, since you've had
Speaker 1: a front row seed when the team is here at
Speaker 1: Dodgers Stadium. What have you thought about the start the
Speaker 1: team has gotten off to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's been incredible, but you know that's
Speaker 2: kind of what's expected so far. You know, it really
Speaker 2: seems like we haven't gotten super high yet. I mean,
Speaker 2: our starting pitching has been unbelievable. We haven't gotten crazy
Speaker 2: hot as an offense yet, but you know, we're still,
Speaker 2: you know whatever, ten or ten games over five hundred
Speaker 2: right now. So it's crazy that, you know, we feel
Speaker 2: like we haven't played our best baseball yet, but we
Speaker 2: still have one of the best records in MLB and
Speaker 2: I'm just excited to see what happens when all our
Speaker 2: bats get hot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and especially the area of the lineup where you
Speaker 1: usually hit the bottom third of the order. It seems
Speaker 1: like you guys have got back to not only turning
Speaker 1: the lineup over, but those group of guys have really
Speaker 1: been productive.
Speaker 2: It's been crazy. Yeah. I mean, that's just the depth
Speaker 2: of our team right now. You know, Andy was hitting
Speaker 2: seventh for a while and he was in four hundred,
Speaker 2: you know, and Kim's doing an amazing job getting on base,
Speaker 2: a ton freelance getting on base, and you know, given
Speaker 2: the top of the top of the line up, a
Speaker 2: lot of opportunities to drive runs in. So you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's uh, yeah, there's definitely you know. It kind
Speaker 2: of just speaks to how good our offense can be
Speaker 2: when everyone's firing on all cylinders.
Speaker 1: What have you seen as far as the growth from
Speaker 1: Andy Pat.
Speaker 2: Has his uh, you know, it seems like his his
Speaker 2: mindset has really grown a ton. You know. I feel
Speaker 2: like he's able to adjust from at bat to add
Speaker 2: bat a lot easier. It seemed like maybe in the
Speaker 2: last couple of years he would, you know, go into
Speaker 2: a bit of a slide and that would kind of
Speaker 2: impact the rest of his day, maybe the next couple
Speaker 2: of days. But I've really been impressed with the way
Speaker 2: he'll He'll maybe have it at bat that didn't go
Speaker 2: the way he wanted it earlier in a game, but
Speaker 2: then find a way to have a huge at bat
Speaker 2: later that day. So I think just being able to
Speaker 2: adapt and you know, figure out how to improve from
Speaker 2: at bat to at bat.
Speaker 1: Is that the biggest thing for a young player, Tommy,
Speaker 1: when you first start getting some success and then you
Speaker 1: may not have the at bat that you want the
Speaker 1: first time up. How much is that part of not
Speaker 1: just giving away the game from that point on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really important, and it's something that you know,
Speaker 2: I think even veterans have to work on. I kind
Speaker 2: of struggle with it myself from time to time, you know,
Speaker 2: just understanding it's it's it's a whole season. You know,
Speaker 2: it's six hundred at bats, it's not just one game.
Speaker 2: So if you have one or two at bats to
Speaker 2: start off the game, like that's such a small sample
Speaker 2: size over the course of a full year, and it's
Speaker 2: tough to have two bad at bats and then but
Speaker 2: stick with your same approach going into your third and
Speaker 2: fourth But you know, it's an important lesson to know,
Speaker 2: just not try to change anything crazy just because one
Speaker 2: or two at bats didn't go your way.
Speaker 1: Tommy emmon is our, he asked in front of first
Speaker 1: pitch between the Dodgers and Cardinals. Tommy around the league, now,
Speaker 1: we've heard, obviously teams have gotten off to disappointing starts,
Speaker 1: and you're starting to hear from some of those players
Speaker 1: on those teams that they don't feel like they're heard
Speaker 1: from or their opinion is valued. With the Dodgers, it
Speaker 1: seems like Andrew Freeman and Dave Roberts have always valued
Speaker 1: and always had an open communication with you guys. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like that's been a big part of the
Speaker 1: success the team has had the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was definitely very impressed with it when I
Speaker 2: first got here. It was just how open Doc and
Speaker 2: Andrew were with all the players. You know, sometimes that's
Speaker 2: not necessarily the case, you know, having everyone be like
Speaker 2: one strong, cohesive unit, and I think that's kind of
Speaker 2: what happens with the teams that haven't performed as well
Speaker 2: as expected. You know, I'm sure obviously there's We're thirty
Speaker 2: games into the season, so anything can happen the rest
Speaker 2: of the year, and maybe it's just teams have gotten
Speaker 2: off to a slow start, But I do know that
Speaker 2: that's one thing that has made this organization very successful
Speaker 2: over the last decade or so, is you know, just
Speaker 2: the fact that everyone is is pulling on the same
Speaker 2: rope and there's open communication, and you know, it doesn't
Speaker 2: feel like you're on an island in any case, even
Speaker 2: for myself being on the ilt right now, I still
Speaker 2: feel like I've had great communication with everybody on the team,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's it's just everything runs very smoothly
Speaker 2: from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: Is it important for players to feel like they have
Speaker 1: a voice and is it important for the front office
Speaker 1: with the manager to not only say you're doing this,
Speaker 1: but give you a reason behind why they're making a decision.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think that's that's really valuable. You know,
Speaker 2: there's certain decisions, certain moves that are made over the
Speaker 2: course of a season that if there's no communication, it
Speaker 2: can kind of be you know, kind of be a shock.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think that this team does a
Speaker 2: good job of kind of preparing you for for what
Speaker 2: might be coming up, you know, in the in the
Speaker 2: near future. And yeah, I think that's I think that's
Speaker 2: so important in this business of baseball, you know, where
Speaker 2: things can seem kind of chaotic, that just to have
Speaker 2: you know, some people that you can lean on and
Speaker 2: people who are kind of prepare you for what's to come.
Speaker 1: All right, Tommy, I'm glad we have an open line
Speaker 1: of communication. Always enjoy being around you. You're such a
Speaker 1: great positive person to be around and certainly a great
Speaker 1: teammate even on the IL. And we can't wait to
Speaker 1: have you back out there soon.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Dave. I appreciate it. I'm excited to be
Speaker 2: back and hopefully we'll have some more communication our near future.
Speaker 1: I love it. We'll share a col brew together.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'll maybe some hoaviers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you some good places in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: You got it, Tommy Edmund has been our guest. He'll
Speaker 1: receive a gift card to Javier's with a brand new
Speaker 1: location in Pasadena. You know the staple in Newport. They're
Speaker 1: all over southern California. Go see our friends at Javier's.
Speaker 1: We'll send it back to you. In the studio, Tim