Speaker 1: So pleased to be joined by Dave Roberts, the manager
Speaker 1: of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Dave, I
Speaker 1: tell you, it's an interesting thing, this great game of ours,
Speaker 1: because you get swept by the Angels and then you
Speaker 1: sweep the Padres. Baseball is a conundrum. Make it make sense? Skip?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 3: If I had the answer to that one, guys, I
Speaker 3: would have slept a lot better these last ten days.
Speaker 2: I don't get it, you know.
Speaker 3: I think the only thing I can, I guess wrap
Speaker 3: my head around is it's one hundred and sixty two games.
Speaker 2: It's a long season, and I.
Speaker 3: Know fans, media, us in the clubhouse don't understand why
Speaker 3: we can't be consistent with our play or any team
Speaker 3: for that matter. But it is crazy that, you know,
Speaker 3: we haven't won a game against the Brewers all year,
Speaker 3: can't beat the Angels, and then we you know, have
Speaker 3: our way with the San Diego Padres up to this
Speaker 3: point during the season. So, yeah, baseball is one of
Speaker 3: those things that you just won't I don't think we'll
Speaker 3: ever figure out out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it's it's a very very weird game.
Speaker 4: Saw a lot better brand of baseball out of your
Speaker 4: ball club this weekend.
Speaker 5: What can you say that you learned?
Speaker 4: Did the Dodgers learn anything about themselves from the series
Speaker 4: of the Padres this weekend?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 3: What what I can say is, uh, you know, we
Speaker 3: talked about urgency, and I've kind of said this the
Speaker 3: last you know, a few days or during that series
Speaker 3: where it's a it's a heightened focus. And I do
Speaker 3: think that when I kind of do step away and
Speaker 3: you see guys like Freddie Freeman, those guys guys like
Speaker 3: him who just don't ever give away and at bat
Speaker 3: or take a playoff, that's something that's hard to accomplish.
Speaker 3: But I think as a group this past weekend we
Speaker 3: did that. So I think that's so Quinn. I think,
Speaker 3: sorry Clinton, So I think that the lesson is is
Speaker 3: really try to get us individually to raise our sort
Speaker 3: of intensity or focus, you know, from here on out.
Speaker 6: Sorry Alana, Now that's okay.
Speaker 7: Let's give some love to alex Vessius because alex Vestia
Speaker 7: Dave has been put in situations that perhaps he's not
Speaker 7: meant for at the moment, but he's risen to the occasion,
Speaker 7: I mean, a big moment for him.
Speaker 1: Yesterday kind of like that big dog moment. Where have
Speaker 1: you seen him in terms of growth and development at
Speaker 1: the back end of your pen.
Speaker 3: Man, Alex is probably you know, I've had him for
Speaker 3: I think what seven years, maybe something like that.
Speaker 2: Six years. He's really really grown.
Speaker 3: I think he's gotten a lot more comfortable in his
Speaker 3: own skin. He's a quirky guy like most relievers are,
Speaker 3: but I just really he's as hard a work a worker,
Speaker 3: intentional workers I've ever been around. And his confidence has
Speaker 3: grown tremendously, and you know, I think it was one
Speaker 3: of those seasonal defining moments in the sense that you know,
Speaker 3: his last four he scuffled, and he's never run from it,
Speaker 3: and he's always taken the baseball. And then so right there,
Speaker 3: I feel that he's one of the guys that one
Speaker 3: of the core guys that we're gonna need throughout the postseason.
Speaker 3: So I've got to instill confidence in him. And so
Speaker 3: going to him in that spot, I felt good about
Speaker 3: him in that spot. And then also he came to me,
Speaker 3: to be quite honest, and said, if it's a safe situation,
Speaker 3: if we score a run, I want the ninth. And
Speaker 3: then so for me is when a player has skin
Speaker 3: in the game and is that convicted and has earned
Speaker 3: that right.
Speaker 2: I'll bet on him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I want to follow on that because
Speaker 4: we saw that, we heard about the conversation after the fact,
Speaker 4: and you know, the bullpen obviously it's had its ups
Speaker 4: and downs, probably a little bit more downs than anybody
Speaker 4: was expecting this year. Alex said, you know, the dog
Speaker 4: is still there, but maybe the dog was asleep in
Speaker 4: the bullpen.
Speaker 5: That felt like a dog moment.
Speaker 4: How important was that to the guys in that clubhouse
Speaker 4: to see Vesia kind of step up and take a
Speaker 4: little bit of ownership in in a kind of leader
Speaker 4: role where I mean, guys have been missing again throughout
Speaker 4: the course of the season in that bullpen. It felt
Speaker 4: like that is something to me, that's something big for
Speaker 4: the rest of the dudes in that bullpen, where you're like,
Speaker 4: f yeah, I can get behind this guy and now
Speaker 4: we kind of get that momentum going in the bullpen again.
Speaker 5: Am I reading.
Speaker 4: Too much into this or how do you feel this
Speaker 4: helps the rest of the boys in that pen.
Speaker 2: You nailed it.
Speaker 3: You nailed at Clint, and it's funny as a coach
Speaker 3: where you can see guys evolve from the little puppy
Speaker 3: to the big dog in a certain role, right, and
Speaker 3: we've seen that from Alex, and he is a star
Speaker 3: the pen. He's one of the leaders in the pen,
Speaker 3: obviously losing Blake and getting Blake back, and you know
Speaker 3: he's accrued some service time. He's won two championships and
Speaker 3: so it's like, he's a guy, he's a real guy.
Speaker 3: And I do think that him adding a little light
Speaker 3: to the sleeping dog kind of message, not taking it
Speaker 3: too seriously, but really taking it seriously. On the other
Speaker 3: end of it is a message to the guys, because
Speaker 3: I will say, in the pen, it's one of those
Speaker 3: things that you know, you get gunshot, you get scared,
Speaker 3: then it really kind of shows up. But for him
Speaker 3: to bounce back the way he did definitely absolutely sends
Speaker 3: a message to his guys.
Speaker 1: Dave, you talked about making sure Alex had the knowledge
Speaker 1: that you had confidence in him. Let's speak to that
Speaker 1: when it comes to Mooky Betts. How is a manager
Speaker 1: do you tell MOOKI that you still have the confidence
Speaker 1: in him a guy that seemingly lost confidence in himself.
Speaker 3: I think it was one of those where Number one,
Speaker 3: I didn't move him down, and he even at times
Speaker 3: felt it might be better if he moved down in
Speaker 3: the order, and actually I moved him up to hopefully
Speaker 3: just change his you know way he looks at his
Speaker 3: role with the club offensively to maybe be a table
Speaker 3: setter that was short lived. And then basically I put
Speaker 3: him in the two hole and I even said it publicly,
Speaker 3: and I'm not going to give him any outs, and
Speaker 3: He's going to be our two hole hitter indefinitely. We
Speaker 3: don't have a better option in my opinion, when he's
Speaker 3: in the lineup. And so I felt right there saying,
Speaker 3: hey man, you're our two hole hitter indefinitely. So figured
Speaker 3: out and he took it and ran with it. So
Speaker 3: I think for me, that's the ultimate sign of confidence.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's good having Marcus lend Batts back in that lineup.
Speaker 4: You know, it's a dude, we were hoping for the
Speaker 4: t deadline. It's like, if this happens. If this happens,
Speaker 4: no other team is able to add Mookie back to
Speaker 4: the lineup. You guys got him going again. It's it's
Speaker 4: really good to see him. Other pieces added back to
Speaker 4: the active roster. You're getting Snell, you got Snell back,
Speaker 4: Glass now back finally seeing that starting rotation that pissed
Speaker 4: everybody off in the offseason.
Speaker 5: You know, they bring baseball.
Speaker 4: How has that been to see this unit of five
Speaker 4: or six dudes come together, don't sleep on Clayton Kershaw
Speaker 4: by the way, how has that been for you to see?
Speaker 4: And can we say this is the best starting rotation
Speaker 4: in baseball?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can say, you know, one through one through six,
Speaker 3: it's certainly the best rotation in baseball one through five.
Speaker 3: I still love what Emmitt's doing and it is nice.
Speaker 3: You know, each night we can I write the lineup
Speaker 3: and I see that starting pitch and I go, man,
Speaker 3: I like our guy better than their guy. And that's
Speaker 3: a good feeling. And you know, even Yama coming off
Speaker 3: a bad one, I think he's to be certainly motivated
Speaker 3: here tonight.
Speaker 2: And then we got show. Hey, who I know.
Speaker 3: When he pitched on Wednesday, We're going to see a show. Hey,
Speaker 3: that's going to dominate for five innings and so and
Speaker 3: the same thing with Emmett. So I just think we're
Speaker 3: going to keep this train moving and it feels good.
Speaker 3: And I just think that, you know, if we can
Speaker 3: continue to keep these guys healthy and perform the way
Speaker 3: that they're capable of. Everything sort of feeds off of
Speaker 3: starting pitching for our club this year. And I think
Speaker 3: last year we did it with with a lineup and
Speaker 3: a crazy bullpen management situation. But for us to win
Speaker 3: the last game in October, it's gonna have to be
Speaker 3: our starting.
Speaker 2: Pitching this year.
Speaker 1: And Dave is that is rookie Sasak on that starting train.
Speaker 1: What's the latest with him and is he willing or
Speaker 1: do you guys see a world in which Sasaki because
Speaker 1: of where he's at and the season could come out
Speaker 1: of the pen for you.
Speaker 3: So you know Roki right now, he's going to pitch
Speaker 3: later this week. I don't know if it's Wednesday, Thursday,
Speaker 3: or Friday, it's later this week. For that OKAC team,
Speaker 3: we got to build him up number one a little
Speaker 3: bit more. We got to get that velocity up Alana,
Speaker 3: and once we get to like three and four outings,
Speaker 3: we need to start to see performance. And so I
Speaker 3: think for Rokie, he's a young ballplayer. I know he cares,
Speaker 3: I know he'll do anything that we ask him. And
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, we're going to go
Speaker 3: with our thirteen best pitchers, and you know his talent
Speaker 3: is there, certainly, but he's also got to be got
Speaker 3: to perform too.
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Speaker 4: Doc Teams had injuries, unexpected slumps, just about everything in between.
Speaker 5: For you. What has been the biggest challenge so far
Speaker 5: this season?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can start a laundering list if you need.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Oh my god, as I put my
Speaker 3: head down, and I think the biggest challenge, the biggest
Speaker 3: challenge is here's the thing is when you're starting pitching,
Speaker 3: wasn't healthy and then your bullpen was banged up. So
Speaker 3: this is a run prevention thing, certainly in the sense
Speaker 3: that you're trying to figure out how far you can
Speaker 3: push guys that aren't really ready to face call it
Speaker 3: twenty three twenty four hitters, and then also have guys
Speaker 3: like Alex Vesia, you know Tanner, Scott kirbyates early that
Speaker 3: you can kind of put in different roles to kind
Speaker 3: of kick the game down the road to save the
Speaker 3: game potentially earlier than you'd like. But if you look
Speaker 3: at a lot of Major League games, a lot of
Speaker 3: games are won and loss in the fifth and sixth inning,
Speaker 3: and so it was hard to push starting pitchers early
Speaker 3: because that's when injuries typically happen than not redline relievers,
Speaker 3: so kind of balancing threading that needle. Clint was probably
Speaker 3: the toughest part. Fortunately, knock on wood, we've had positional
Speaker 3: player health outside of obviously a few guys, but that
Speaker 3: part of the pitching was probably the most like mind
Speaker 3: numbing thing for me.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel like I just want to give you
Speaker 1: a hug. Yeah, let's think of the positive right now.
Speaker 1: Will Smith, my goodness, he set the world on fire
Speaker 1: on Saturday. Don't run on Willie Dill's. This is a
Speaker 1: guy that has been so instrumental behind the plate managing
Speaker 1: your pitching staff obviously, but to have a guy that
Speaker 1: can hit like that and do so many things has
Speaker 1: got to be pretty special. What do you take away
Speaker 1: from him?
Speaker 3: I think he's Freddie Freeman two point zero. I think
Speaker 3: that he has really become a much better ballplayer because
Speaker 3: of Freddie Freeman. And Will doesn't speak a lot, but
Speaker 3: he watches, and I think that he's really learned from
Speaker 3: Freddie as far as how to take it bats and
Speaker 3: behind the plate. He just has a great relationship with
Speaker 3: our pitchers. Uh, the arm really plays. And I think
Speaker 3: last year I read that he led major league catchers
Speaker 3: and caught stealing. So I said it the other day.
Speaker 3: I think he's the best catcher in all of baseball
Speaker 3: and we're lucky to have him.
Speaker 4: I want to touch on some of the you know,
Speaker 4: the bats of the dudes in the that that line
Speaker 4: up there Taoskar and and has loved the dude, A
Speaker 4: great guy in that clubhouse. We know that hasn't been
Speaker 4: quite the same season. We're seeing some good some bad
Speaker 4: here and there where you think, what are you seeing
Speaker 4: in Tayo right now and over the course of the season,
Speaker 4: and you know, can we expect that that full uh
Speaker 4: you know, postseason version of ta Oskar back when we
Speaker 4: need him most, you know, in October?
Speaker 2: You know, I think I yes, is the answer.
Speaker 3: I think with Tayo, there was an injury earlier, wasn't
Speaker 3: hasn't been the same since. Uh, he's healthy now. But
Speaker 3: I do think that he is one of those guys
Speaker 3: that when the big moment presents itself, he's there. You know,
Speaker 3: certain people, you know that's what they have. You know,
Speaker 3: Keyk is one of those guys as well. And I
Speaker 3: just had a good feeling that once we played the Padres,
Speaker 3: it was gonna light a fire under him.
Speaker 2: And you can just see.
Speaker 3: Uh, there was just a little bit more hide and
Speaker 3: focus there was, And you know.
Speaker 2: Tayo himself can deny it, but I see it.
Speaker 3: I watched every bet, every play, and you know, in
Speaker 3: big games in the postseason, the best of tail comes out.
Speaker 3: Now the key is for us to get the best
Speaker 3: of him, you know, for the rest of the season,
Speaker 3: because all these games matter.
Speaker 1: Dave, there was a time early on in the season,
Speaker 1: I'll admit it that I wanted to send Andy Pajes
Speaker 1: to the moon, and I'm so glad that I didn't
Speaker 1: send him to the moon because he has been so
Speaker 1: good in so many different ways for this club, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't patient enough with him.
Speaker 2: But you were.
Speaker 1: Can you speak to the growth of what you've seen
Speaker 1: from pa Has.
Speaker 3: First of all, I want to give you props for
Speaker 3: even saying that I didn't know that was your thought earlier.
Speaker 3: But I love that you held yourself accountable. Thank you
Speaker 3: for that. I just think for me, Ilana, it's one
Speaker 3: of those things that I see behind the curtain. I
Speaker 3: see a kid from Cuba who has gotten considerably better,
Speaker 3: who works as good as any young player I've seen,
Speaker 3: and he's grown big time with that he's not scared
Speaker 3: of moments, and when you play for Thes, you are
Speaker 3: you're going.
Speaker 2: To play in a lot of big moments.
Speaker 3: He's not your prototypical center fielder, but his jumps have
Speaker 3: gotten better, his arm strength is an eighty and accuracy
Speaker 3: baked in as we saw yesterday, and I just felt that,
Speaker 3: you know, hitting sixth or seventh in the order, he
Speaker 3: can drive in a run. I just felt that he
Speaker 3: cleaned up the fastball at the top of the zone
Speaker 3: with his swing. He's got different swings different clubs. I
Speaker 3: talk about at times he now has a swing within
Speaker 3: a swing, and we saw that yesterday where he's got
Speaker 3: a swing, but then he gets a slider and he's
Speaker 3: got another swing within that to be able to ride
Speaker 3: that ball out for a homer. So those are the
Speaker 3: things that I started to see and was willing to
Speaker 3: bet on. And you can see, guys that there's certain
Speaker 3: players that I certainly have patients, more patients probably than
Speaker 3: most people would like. But I just it's it's partly
Speaker 3: my job to believe in people on our club.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a that's a perfect segue, because I think
Speaker 4: our fans would be upset with me with us if
Speaker 4: we didn't have to ask you about Michael Conforto. Obviously
Speaker 4: not at all the season he was expecting You guys
Speaker 4: are expecting love the hat tip of you never giving
Speaker 4: up on your dudes, and that's what makes you so
Speaker 4: so damn good at this job. At some point, obviously
Speaker 4: you really want to see the reward for that patience.
Speaker 4: What are you kind of seeing with Confordo? And you know,
Speaker 4: I guess we could be blunt as I keep playing
Speaker 4: bad cop and our good cup bad cop interview with
Speaker 4: you here is he gonna be kind of the dude
Speaker 4: for you in the postseason?
Speaker 3: That that is a fair, fair question that remains to
Speaker 3: be seen. That is up to Michael to be quite
Speaker 3: honest with you. I think a lot of what I
Speaker 3: look at, you know, there's a track record, there's obviously
Speaker 3: there's a recency, and also the other part of is
Speaker 3: what's the other alternative?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: And I think that you know, when you look at
Speaker 3: things like that, the on basi is completely fine. And
Speaker 3: I felt that he I feel that there's not a
Speaker 3: better option verse right. I've given him some opportunities versus left,
Speaker 3: which he did the other day, versus Montsilli got a
Speaker 3: base at the left. I feel that he's he's making
Speaker 3: some strides this past series, so we're going to see
Speaker 3: but it's not an extended leash. But again you also
Speaker 3: have to look at who's a better alternative verse right
Speaker 3: So right now my money's on Michael And to your question,
Speaker 3: I hope he is the guy in October because I
Speaker 3: do think that if we have a hymn and Keith
Speaker 3: Gay are a call situation, that's our highest ceiling for
Speaker 3: left field for the postseason.
Speaker 1: Dave, six games with the Padres with a ten day window. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you just swept San Diego recently, a series with Colorado.
Speaker 1: Now you're in Denver as we speak, and then San
Speaker 1: Diego again. Does the division get decided this month?
Speaker 2: Probably not.
Speaker 3: No, and I and I guess I can say that
Speaker 3: pretty easily because the way we gave away five or
Speaker 3: six games so quickly, so.
Speaker 2: I guess we've lived it. That probably probably not.
Speaker 5: Baseball. Again, we just talked about baseball.
Speaker 1: That is, So that's why you should just stick to golf.
Speaker 1: Where are you hitting the links? Are you hitting the links?
Speaker 2: That all?
Speaker 7: Today?
Speaker 1: In Denver? The ball flies there, Dave.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I play the meters Alta in Denver with the
Speaker 3: with the golf yardage, and I'm playing with my son actually,
Speaker 3: so we're gonna go play Cherry Hills a little bit later.
Speaker 3: The ladies are gonna go off early. Then I'm just
Speaker 3: going to play nine and then head the core. So yeah,
Speaker 3: So I got my golf a tire on, and honestly,
Speaker 3: I think that's been good for me because it's just
Speaker 3: a little something for myself and can hit the ball
Speaker 3: with my son a little bit and then kind of
Speaker 3: locking on baseball. So it's been a good kind of
Speaker 3: yin and yang for me.
Speaker 1: Where is he at in the whole baseball development with
Speaker 1: where is how's he doing?
Speaker 3: He's not playing actively right now, and he's kind of
Speaker 3: trying to figure out if he wants to keep doing
Speaker 3: this grind or or figure something else out. But he's
Speaker 3: with me, He's somewhere around. But for me selfishly as
Speaker 3: a dad, I get my son for a couple extra months,
Speaker 3: which is great.
Speaker 5: That's awesome.
Speaker 4: Well, Dave, we appreciate your time man. As always, it's
Speaker 4: a blast talk in baseball with you. Appreciate you letting
Speaker 4: me grill you a little bit. Not that you get
Speaker 4: enough of that. Day to day with the regular beat writers.
Speaker 4: But hey, go give him hell in Colorado.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: No, we will no letdowns, And honestly, I think it's
Speaker 3: honestly refreshing just to talk to baseball. So I think,
Speaker 3: you know, this gives me an opportunity to kind of
Speaker 3: give everyone a look behind the curtain and be honest
Speaker 3: and transparent because a lot of times, you know, people
Speaker 3: don't know everything I know.
Speaker 2: But this is good. I appreciate you, guys, Dave.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows everything that you know, and that's why we
Speaker 1: want to ask the questions like that's why this team
Speaker 1: is so damn good and the way that you manage
Speaker 1: is so refreshing. Thank you, Skip, We appreciate you. Please
Speaker 1: give my best to the family and go get those Rockies.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, take care