Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talker.
Speaker 1: All Right, we're in his hometown. We are in Slam Diego,
Speaker 1: that's what they used to call it. But the Dodgers
Speaker 1: are back here at Peco Park. The last time they
Speaker 1: were here, they had a game and a half lead
Speaker 1: in the NL West, now a nine game lead over
Speaker 1: the San Diego Padres. And I'm in the office, the
Speaker 1: manager's office of the man that has three World Championships
Speaker 1: as the manager and in twenty twenty six the best
Speaker 1: record in baseball, and that is the one and only
Speaker 1: Dave Roberts brought to a spy downy Hunday. Dave, thanks
Speaker 1: a lot for the time.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it, Dave.
Speaker 3: Always a fun catching up with you, having a conversation.
Speaker 3: And yeah, coming off and off day, got in late
Speaker 3: a couple nights ago, guys reset did what they could do.
Speaker 3: And then today, you know, just kind of going around
Speaker 3: the clubhouse, everyone seemed recharged.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised even on the day off, just how
Speaker 1: whatever took place in Minnesota took on a life of
Speaker 1: its own with social media. I mean, it just seems
Speaker 1: like there's no controlling some of these things.
Speaker 3: No, I get it, and when you're the Los Angeles Dodgers,
Speaker 3: everything is certainly more magnified. And I guess the off
Speaker 3: day came at the right time, and you know, just
Speaker 3: seeing the guys right now. Ultimately we won three games there,
Speaker 3: and you're always trying to get better with communication amongst staff, players, staff,
Speaker 3: our players, among players, and so that's that's part of it.
Speaker 2: So nothing is always easy.
Speaker 3: But you know, coming in here today, I feel really
Speaker 3: good about, you know, communication where we're at.
Speaker 1: You got Walker Buehler on the mound for the Padres today.
Speaker 1: Obviously he's meant a lot to you, a lot to
Speaker 1: the Dodgers. What do you expect tonight as far as
Speaker 1: his emotions. Do you feel like that may get the
Speaker 1: better of him tonight?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's going to bring out the best
Speaker 3: in him in the sense of his motivation to want
Speaker 3: to pitch well against us. He means a lot to me, obviously,
Speaker 3: means a lot to the Dodger fans. Considering what he's
Speaker 3: done for all of us. I think who he is now,
Speaker 3: he has sort of reinvented himself. The fastball is not
Speaker 3: ninety seven ninety eight. You're going to see fours and
Speaker 3: threes and three to five. There's can be a lot
Speaker 3: of cutters, a lot of curveballs, you know, some two seamers,
Speaker 3: and kind of just mixing and matching more of an
Speaker 3: even distributed pitch mix.
Speaker 2: But he's still as competitive as ever.
Speaker 1: I'm always interested with what you're seeing from the dugout
Speaker 1: because you've had so many really good players come through
Speaker 1: this clubhouse that have moved on to other teams. Just
Speaker 1: when you're watching a guy like Walker who does feed
Speaker 1: off emotion, what will you know early in the game.
Speaker 3: You know, I think for me is he's not going
Speaker 3: I know Walker in big games, and this is going
Speaker 3: to be a big game for him. He's going to
Speaker 3: try to minimize slug He's not afraid to walk guys.
Speaker 3: You know, when it gets hot, he's going to go
Speaker 3: to his secondary pitches. You know, he's going to be emotional.
Speaker 3: I think that this is something that he's always you know,
Speaker 3: wanted to stay a Dodger and it just didn't work out.
Speaker 3: So his first crack at US, I think he's going
Speaker 3: to be pretty emotional.
Speaker 1: What did you love the most about him when he
Speaker 1: was pitching for you? We think back to twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: Game one, sixty three, obviously the last out in the
Speaker 1: twenty four World Series. What did you love the most
Speaker 1: about him being on your side?
Speaker 3: I think that I think the main thing I loved
Speaker 3: about him is that you knew that he was going
Speaker 3: to compete. He was going to make pitches when he
Speaker 3: needed to make pitches. He was prepared, he wasn't afraid.
Speaker 3: I think that you know, you said game won sixty three.
Speaker 3: There's been a lot of postseason games, you know, the
Speaker 3: clinching game coming back in New York in Game six.
Speaker 2: There's just a.
Speaker 3: Lot of things that this guy's just got a huge
Speaker 3: heart and compete.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll never forget the post at Yankee Stadium. I
Speaker 1: think that's the lasting image.
Speaker 3: I think he was just looking right at me, Dave, saying,
Speaker 3: I told you, Doc, I could do this.
Speaker 2: Just give me the baseball.
Speaker 1: Dave Roberts is our guest in front of first pitch
Speaker 1: between the Dodgers and Padres. Dave, just take an inventory
Speaker 1: of the first half of the season. You have the
Speaker 1: best record in baseball and your team hasn't been whole yet.
Speaker 1: How have you been able to do it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean I think that we haven't been whole. It
Speaker 3: doesn't feel like we have the best record in baseball,
Speaker 3: and I think that's a good thing. You know, We're
Speaker 3: always striving to get better and on the margins get better.
Speaker 3: Guys have stepped up, certainly in the bullpen. The bottom
Speaker 3: half of the rotation has been fantastic.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: The defense has been very consistent. Even with what Muki
Speaker 3: did in Minnesota on the defensive side was huge.
Speaker 2: How have we done it?
Speaker 3: I think for us it's just really not worrying about
Speaker 3: the guys that aren't with us and just focusing on
Speaker 3: the guys that are with us and trying to you know,
Speaker 3: just collect wins, keep stacking wins and so and also
Speaker 3: just trying to get better every day.
Speaker 1: How much higher can the ceiling be for you guys
Speaker 1: this year?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we expect to win another championship. We
Speaker 3: have a long way to go, even from June twenty
Speaker 3: sixth to you know, to the postseason. But I think
Speaker 3: for us, you know, getting guys back, you know, getting
Speaker 3: Blake back, getting Eddie ds back, getting Will Smith back,
Speaker 3: getting Taoscar back, guys like that, Evan Phillips are going
Speaker 3: to make us, you know, raise that ceiling for us,
Speaker 3: but for me, honestly, seeing the younger guys play another
Speaker 3: guys get opportunities, that's been a big takeaway up to
Speaker 3: this point.
Speaker 1: Yes, So you mentioned Tommy Edmunds back taoscar Hernandez. Is
Speaker 1: he still coming back when you get to Sacramento.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the plan, is he's going to play again
Speaker 3: the next two nights and then Sunday. I think he'll
Speaker 3: be down and we'll meet us in Sacramento on Monday.
Speaker 1: I remember a couple of weeks ago you had mentioned
Speaker 1: around the fourth of July for Evan Phillips. Is that
Speaker 1: still trending in the right direction?
Speaker 2: I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Right now, I think he's going to take a couple
Speaker 3: of days off from pitching back to back, and so
Speaker 3: I think that that July fourth kind of timeline still
Speaker 3: looks to be.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know where we're at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you look at your team now, you're starting
Speaker 1: to get your bullpen looking like you wanted it to
Speaker 1: until Diaz comes back. With Brock Stewart back, it feels
Speaker 1: like some of these younger guys like Kyle Hurt have
Speaker 1: really seized their opportunity.
Speaker 2: No, Kyle Hurt is a guy that.
Speaker 3: You know, we traded for him a couple of years
Speaker 3: ago and just always liked his stuff, but just couldn't
Speaker 3: stay on the field. But now the body is strong,
Speaker 3: he's healthy, he's got a lot of real confidence and
Speaker 3: we've I've referenced that with Robleski with that real confidence.
Speaker 3: Now Henriquez, you know, Guarda is another guy that I
Speaker 3: think that he's come of age. And so with Kyle
Speaker 3: Hurt and Garda Henriquez doing what they're doing allows me to,
Speaker 3: you know, put Vessia and Tanner Scott in their rightful
Speaker 3: spot and having trying and down so we still really
Speaker 3: haven't lost much.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I love when you talk about your trust tree.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what, But the great thing is that
Speaker 3: it's not a plan, it's a trust tree. And that's
Speaker 3: a good thing for a manager when you've got a
Speaker 3: lot of different good branches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mookie Betts, you mentioned him and his defense. The
Speaker 1: trust tree has always been there with him. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like he's kind of turned the corner on his season?
Speaker 3: I do, I do, And I think the thing is
Speaker 3: for me is that the defense has been consistent, you know,
Speaker 3: from the outset. But I think the thing is that
Speaker 3: you know, we all have to wrap our heads around,
Speaker 3: is that he's not MOOKI from Boston. He's not playing
Speaker 3: right field, and so you know, people I think and
Speaker 3: even Mookie I'm sure, has that expectation have a nine
Speaker 3: hundred OPS, but you know, you're playing shortstop. And for me,
Speaker 3: it's you know, dominate the defense, which he has, help
Speaker 3: us win baseball games, which he has, and for me,
Speaker 3: I just don't look at the numbers. I really don't.
Speaker 3: I just want him. I still believe he's a productive play,
Speaker 3: but it's not something as shooting for a certain standard
Speaker 3: of an OPS to kind of validate who he is
Speaker 3: as a ballplayer right now.
Speaker 1: Does he understand that? Do you feel like he has
Speaker 1: that outlook for himself?
Speaker 3: I think so, you know, and we've had numerous conversations
Speaker 3: about that, about expectations and still you know, telling him,
Speaker 3: you know, how much I believe he is a great player,
Speaker 3: but understanding, you know, expectations. I think managing expectations is
Speaker 3: something really important for all of us. But you know,
Speaker 3: for people to expect him to, you know, be superman,
Speaker 3: that's sometimes unrealistic, but it is an ultimate compliment. But again,
Speaker 3: at the end of the day to put a ball
Speaker 3: on this day. We've got the best record in baseball.
Speaker 3: We're not whole. There's still a lot of good things
Speaker 3: that we're doing, and we got a fun series this
Speaker 3: week and ahead of us.
Speaker 1: No doubt, before we back out of here, Kyle Tucker
Speaker 1: is back in the starting lineup. It seems like that
Speaker 1: back issues behind him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so, you know, getting him a few
Speaker 3: days to kind of reset. He took swings the other
Speaker 3: day in Minnesota. He feels good and it'll be good
Speaker 3: to get him back in right field tonight.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for the time, Dave. Always great to
Speaker 1: catch up with you. I know it's a busy time
Speaker 1: when you're in San Diego, but it's always great to
Speaker 1: share you with the fans.
Speaker 3: No, I love the conversation and it's I enjoy kind
Speaker 3: of giving the fans this insight.