Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2: Well, it's hard to believe it was six years ago
Speaker 2: that the Dodgers made a trade with the Marlins sent
Speaker 2: Dylan Floro to Miami for some left handed pitcher that
Speaker 2: nobody in LA had heard from. And here he is
Speaker 2: now a two time World Series champion. He just made
Speaker 2: his three hundredth appearance with the Dodgers and celebrated a
Speaker 2: very happy birthday with his first save of the season.
Speaker 2: And that's LA's favorite left handed reliever, Alex Vesia. Thanks
Speaker 2: a lot for the time. And man, it feels like yesterday.
Speaker 3: What an intro?
Speaker 1: I mean, wow, thanks, that's pretty good. I had to
Speaker 1: remind everybody off the top off the top of your
Speaker 1: head right there, that's pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, people think you're this guy out of nowhere,
Speaker 2: but it's been a non linear road to be the
Speaker 2: established guy and leader in that bullpen. Uh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's never a straight line, right, There's peaks and valleys,
Speaker 1: ups and downs, adversity, you know, but that's what the
Speaker 1: game is. The game, right, Baseball is very hard. It's
Speaker 1: never been easy, never never come easy to me.
Speaker 3: But I trust my routine.
Speaker 1: I trust the great coaching staff around me. I trust
Speaker 1: the veterans that I've been around the last six years
Speaker 1: to you know, kind of lead me the way, and
Speaker 1: you know, I have them to thank.
Speaker 2: Everybody always wants to know what's the special magic the
Speaker 2: Dodgers have, especially when it comes to bringing out the
Speaker 2: best in relief pictures? Can you describe why it's better
Speaker 2: here than it may be going to another team and
Speaker 2: trying to duplicate what the Dodgers do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 1: The communication right is definitely a priority.
Speaker 3: It's number one.
Speaker 1: I remember getting over here in twenty one and there
Speaker 1: was a book all about me, my strengths, weaknesses where
Speaker 1: I could get better at, you know, and they the
Speaker 1: dots are really good at finding what your strengths are,
Speaker 1: making those strengths even better, you gaining confidence in those strengths. Right,
Speaker 1: and then it's digging a little bit deeper to okay,
Speaker 1: where where I can we make you better?
Speaker 3: Where? What are your weaknesses? You know? Because when I
Speaker 3: when I first came up, I pretty much.
Speaker 1: Only threw a fastball, right, and then twenty one and
Speaker 1: kind of in twenty two is you know, very.
Speaker 3: Very heavy fastball usage.
Speaker 1: And then over the course of twenty one and twenty
Speaker 1: two and twenty three, you know, we incorporated the slider
Speaker 1: and that opened up a lot more room for my fastball,
Speaker 1: so you know, uh, game planning for a hitter, you
Speaker 1: could you know, I had to look at and take
Speaker 1: into consideration a slider. So you know, from top to bottom,
Speaker 1: you know, I definitely I love this organization.
Speaker 3: They've been great to me.
Speaker 1: You know, and I feel like, day in and day out,
Speaker 1: I never.
Speaker 3: Take that for granted.
Speaker 1: I work really hard, and you know, I believe in
Speaker 1: myself and you know when Doc puts me in positions
Speaker 1: for success, and you know, I believe in that. And
Speaker 1: you know that's where you see the confidence out on
Speaker 1: the mound, and you know it's It's never an overnight success. Man.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of doubt, a lot of failure.
Speaker 1: But that's also made me who I am.
Speaker 2: Alex Vessia is our guest. You know, Radar guns and
Speaker 2: Velocity is throwing our face a lot with different pictures.
Speaker 2: I mean, everybody's talking about Edwin Diaz is VLO. But
Speaker 2: it's April. You guys just started the season. What is
Speaker 2: what should be expected from pictures relief pictures in the
Speaker 2: first couple of weeks of the season.
Speaker 1: When we see things like that. Yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: every year is always different. I'm I'm I would say,
Speaker 1: predominantly a slower starter, right, Yet I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: throw very hard. I'm not a you know, I don't
Speaker 1: blow up the radar gun by by no means right.
Speaker 1: But I also I also think the way I throw,
Speaker 1: how I throw the vert and the metrics on my
Speaker 1: fastball is what makes me unique. You know. I've feel
Speaker 1: like I've thrown a fastball at eighty eight this year
Speaker 1: and I've thrown a fastball at ninety three this year.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, for myself, I just try to
Speaker 1: go out and compete with the best stuff that.
Speaker 3: I have for that day and know that it is early.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: What people don't understand is going on road trips where
Speaker 1: we fly to d C and there's time changes in
Speaker 1: Toronto and all that stuff affects the body differently and
Speaker 1: guys bounce back differently.
Speaker 3: It's it's never the same, you know.
Speaker 1: I wish it was super dry and simple, but it's not,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, we we do our best day.
Speaker 3: In and day out.
Speaker 1: And you know, Diaz is a is a veteran, He's
Speaker 1: done it for many years, and you know, there's not
Speaker 1: a single doubt in any of our minds that when
Speaker 1: he goes back out there, whether it's tonight or tomorrow,
Speaker 1: that he'll be him.
Speaker 2: Is there such a thing still in baseball of dead arm?
Speaker 2: I used to hear dead arm a lot.
Speaker 3: So there. I've heard that term this year one time.
Speaker 3: I think it with an Angels Angels picture.
Speaker 1: I don't really know. I've never I don't know if
Speaker 1: I've really ever witnessed that. I know that, you know,
Speaker 1: there's like body fatigue and arm fatigue, and I understand that,
Speaker 1: but I don't know really what like dead arm symptoms
Speaker 1: would be.
Speaker 3: I know what what having a very fatigued body feels like,
Speaker 3: you know, and.
Speaker 1: A couple of red bulls and and some adrenaline from
Speaker 1: fifty thousand a daughter stadium.
Speaker 3: That that seems to do the trick.
Speaker 2: Hey, speaking of that, when you first started, you heard
Speaker 2: the roars for Kennley Jansen when he would come in,
Speaker 2: But now the roars are equal for alex Vesia. What
Speaker 2: does that mean to you? With everything that's happened in
Speaker 2: the last six months to get fans on their feet
Speaker 2: every night here when you come in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I feel it, I hear it, I
Speaker 3: see it.
Speaker 1: You know when we're in the bullpen, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people have you know, said their condolences and you know,
Speaker 1: saying that they're rooting for me, and you know that
Speaker 1: that's really nice. It's and honestly, it is a it's
Speaker 1: a breath of fresh air. And you know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of love that that's been been spread around the
Speaker 1: last you know, a few months. And you know, for myself,
Speaker 1: I just try to, you know, have that fuel the
Speaker 1: fire and you know, really really really you know, let it,
Speaker 1: let it show out on the mound and you know,
Speaker 1: do my best and you know, to to put up
Speaker 1: zeros and and get the guys back in the dugout
Speaker 1: so they can hit. You know, we can win some
Speaker 1: ball games, and you know, it's just it's really.
Speaker 3: Nice to be back. Excuse me, it's nice to.
Speaker 1: Be back out on the baseball field.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: On obviously with everything, it's it's been tough, but having
Speaker 1: a goal and having you know that the every single
Speaker 1: player on this team man has meant the world to me.
Speaker 1: Because it's nice for them to joke around and laugh
Speaker 1: and you know, we have such good personalities on this
Speaker 1: team that like, that's that's helped out a lot.
Speaker 2: How great was it to be back on the plane
Speaker 2: with the boys on that first road trip?
Speaker 3: That was awesome. Yeah, that was cool man.
Speaker 1: We we definitely had a good time. And you know,
Speaker 1: those are those are the memories that you know, I
Speaker 1: definitely don't.
Speaker 3: Take for granted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I really looking forward to that and
Speaker 1: just it's it's fun to kind of just be yourself
Speaker 1: and just enjoy those moments.
Speaker 3: And you know, at the same.
Speaker 1: Time, you know, when you go into a game and
Speaker 1: everyone's rooting for you and you have success, it just
Speaker 1: makes that that much better.
Speaker 2: All right, before I let you go? The beard, Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is a little more fluffyer than the last time
Speaker 2: we saw you. But I like it.
Speaker 3: It's growing. I I've got a couple people ask me
Speaker 3: what product of how I made it?
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it's I think it's gonna stay for
Speaker 1: a little while.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 2: You have to like it. Who cares what I like?
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, it's it's Kayla's approval. She's she hasn't
Speaker 3: told me to shave it yet. So we're gonna keep
Speaker 3: it rolling. And but yeah, it's been it's been fun.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: It's getting a little long to like in the morning,
Speaker 1: it's all over the place, so I gotta, you know,
Speaker 1: come in and put some water in it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a a.
Speaker 3: A new look. Well we'll rock it for a little while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it fits the music that you come into. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: their whole energy does all right. Hey, I'll embrace it. Hey,
Speaker 2: we embrace Alex Vesia. LA's got their arms around you
Speaker 2: and Kayla and man, it's so great to have you
Speaker 2: back and doing your thing. And don't take for granted
Speaker 2: what it was in the beginning and what it is now.
Speaker 3: Yeh, I appreciate it. Thank you Dave for you know,
Speaker 3: always always being there here the man always will be.
Speaker 2: Just ask Cory Seger and Jock Peterson. They couldn't get
Speaker 2: rid of me.
Speaker 3: There we go, wherever you go.
Speaker 2: Vessia, I'll be there.
Speaker 3: I like that like that.
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot for the time, Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3: Have a good day.