Dodgers Territory - Dodgers Observations, Important Night for Roki; Injury News and More!

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Alanna Rizzo, Katie Woo, and Clint Pasillas share their observations from a 3-0 start for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Is Will Smith the best catcher in baseball? If there's an argument there, you can at least say with certainty that he's the most clutch catcher. The hosts dive into Smitty's big bobblehead/birthday game. Is there any worry about Shohei Ohtani's slow offensive start? Katie shares her view of Shotime.  The Dodgers are leaning into the "villain" role this season. Is that a surprising move from the usually PR-conscious organization? Katie shares the latest on Kiké Hernandez and Tommy Edman's rehab and outlook on their return from the injured list. The hosts have opinions about weekend one of the ABS challenge system in place. And, is tonight the biggest start of Roki Sasaki's young career? Thoughts on what we need to see from Roki and more on this jam-packed edition of Dodgers Territory. Get 10% off your first month of BlueChew Gold with code FOUL at BlueChew.com Check out DT merch at https://dodgersterritoryshop.com Support Guidry's Guardian at https://guidrysguardian.org Find Clint on YouTube at https://youtube.com/@alldodgers Follow Katie's work at The Athletic https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/katie-woo/  Subscribe to Dodgers Territory on YouTubeRate and review our podcast on Apple and SpotifySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And I think that was going to be the case regardless of the kind of spring he had. Welcome to the Monday episode of Dodgers Territory. We are live. We are psyched that you are with us. I'm Alonarizzo. That is Katie Wu and Clint Paseas. We are your host. Get in the chat guys. What are you thinking? What's on your mind? Rate is five stars. Subscribe all of the things. As we continue to work our way to 20,000 subscribers, Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your pods and of course on YouTube. All right, before we get into the baseball type of stuff, let's get to the big ticket. I got a question for you, Wu.

Again, in case you are just joining us, perhaps this is the first time that you have taken in Dodgers territory. Welcome, friends. And let's again welcome Katie. Wu to the beat. She writes tremendously for the athletic, and she is on our show all year as a part of us. I'm interested to know, Katie, what your thoughts were after your first homestand at Dodger Stadium covering the beat. What say you? What a vibe?

I mean, opening day, coming back and like seen a sold-out Dodger Stadium. I feel like every time I've gone to Dodger Stadium, it's been sold out. But then the ring ceremony was. tremendous and the style of baseball that was played. I mean, technically three comeback wins, two in the eighth inning on Friday and Saturday. The reception for so many different players, Will Klein, World Series Hero, the love for Alex Bessia, the like stadium shaking anytime Otani

comes to the plate. It was it was just like a production. And I mean that in the best way. I will say though, I was shocked once again at how loud everything was. Like, I got noise canceling headphones and I still can't hear. Like, I'll leave the stadium and I'm yelling to people because I have like ringing in my ears. But if that's the price that we pay for good vibes, my hearing loss, I'll be okay with that. Overall, though, 10 out of 10, I did death sentence miss my exit on Saturday's game. 40 minutes later, 40 minutes later, I called up to media parking. Rookie mistake, better.

Because of that, you lose half a star. So four and a half out of five stars. Actually, I don't think that's the stadium's fault. I think that's more. No, I feel like it was not my fault. No, it's a little bit of user. There are signs everywhere. Come on.

Clint, baseball stuff. What is your biggest takeaway into? terms of the play on the field, not the sound system, not the vibes, but the play on the field. Let's start with King Tuck. Well, actually, I do have thoughts about the sound system because I went and saw the Savannah bananas at Angel Stadium last week. And I was like, the sound here is such trash. It just comes like super canned from behind you.

They had trumpets, they had brass on the field. And I heard them better when they were walking towards me facing me than. from stadium speakers. So Dodger Stadium production crew and everything they have there is phenomenal. But yeah, there was baseball to be played. The Dodgers are 3 and O, as we know. Kyle Tucker, the experience so far, so good. He is coming up in a little bit of clutch time. The glove looks good in right field. He's got, for the guy who said, or we were told, wouldn't speak to anybody and all that kind of stuff. He has two postgame interviews, I think one with Bob Costas and then the other with Kirsten Watson on the field because he's doing good things on the

field. The other thing you have to love about this team, you know, it's another day for Will Smith to clock in and do good stuff in clutch time as well. The clutch prince lives ladies. He hits a late and close. Go ahead, Homer. Alana, I just, I love, I love this man. I'm happy he's a Dodger for life.

He has ice water in his veins, man. You know what's interesting, too, and I want to get into this a little bit more, but it's his bobblehead night, right? So you have Kara there, of course, with Charlotte and Layton thrown out the first pitch, and then you not only get to do that and have your little girls throwing out the first pitch to you, but then you hit a massive home run to make such a huge impact in the game. And Katie, he wasn't even supposed to be in the lineup. What is that about?

Yeah, I think early in the season, especially with the like four off days and four weeks, Dave Roberts is trying to find a way to kind of sneak in and rig the system and sneak in an extra rest day. Will Smith said, probably not. I think last year, correct me if I'm wrong, Dave Roberts sat Will Smith on his bobblehead night. And Dave Roberts's wife, Trisha, did not like that. He was reprimanded accordingly. So same conversation Friday night. You know, the manager sets the line up the night before the game.

Dave Roberts calls in Will Smith is like, hey, you know, I'm thinking about sitting you get some extra rest for Sunday's off day. Will Smith said, I didn't, I dropped the bobble card. Bobblehead card. Wow, that was hard. And Dave relented. And, you know, I think that goes back to the communication that Dave Roberts has with his players, obviously. But yeah, you can't send a player on his bobblehead night and his birthday. And no one was surprised when that ball left the yard in the eighth.

I think McGee Roe called it. He said he called a little more right center and to being a dead center. But yeah, Will Smith, one of the most underrated clutch players in baseball. We just have this conversation on foul territory comes through the clutch yet again. And we talked to him. He was like, yeah, I just slow the game down. I like those moments. That is a skill.

Is that all it takes just to slow it down? Very Will Smith quote. Yeah, I know, slowed it down. See ball, hit ball. He is the epitome of the tried and true line the Dodgers have, like, stay within myself. Try not to do too much. You know, that is him. That is Will Smith incarnate.

And, you know, he is just the most clutch human being in baseball, I think, right now. And I don't, I don't think there's a better catcher in baseball. Cal Rally aside, that's one year. We're looking at an entire career so far for Will. And he is on, like, a three-season heater kind of stretch. I'm expecting a big year out of him this year. He will need some of the rest days, though, here and there. Dalton needs to play.

Sure, sure. Sure, sure. Well, those are what Sunday day games are for. So Will Smith right now, a 273 average, two home runs already, five RBIs guys in 11 at bats. I'll take that. I will take that for Big Willie style. Happy birthday to you. Happy Bobblehead night to you. Happy unbelievable home run already for you. Will Smith, we appreciate that very, very much. All right, starting pitching, that's always the topic of conversation, you guys. So if we take a look at so far in the three games that the Dodgers have played, let's go for, game one, right? Yoshinobu Yamamoto. This is a guy, of course, that I all, I believe is an ace. We believe

he is an ace. Six innings, five hits, the two earned runs and no walks. I love that. And the 6Ks. Emmachian, 3 and a third, bit of a struggle for earned runs, two walks. Don't like that. SixKs. All of the guys had six Ks. Glass now, Yama, and she and all had six Ks in their starts, their debuts for the 202026 season. Katie, you were there. What is this? the biggest kind of, not takeaway, but you looked at these guys, Yama, great, Emmett. Okay. And Tyler was decent as well. What did you notice from those three? I think went into the season, especially for your season debut. If you can go six, right around that 90 pitchmark, that is perfect. You don't want to push guys really early in

March. So for the Dodgers to be able to get six from Yama, six from glass, I wouldn't say that they had their sharpest stuff, but they were certainly effective. And when you're Yoshnobi you have one pitch that isn't working, you have like 17 other you can go from. So like, it's fine. So yeah, great quality starts. That's all you need to see from those guys in their first starts of the year. Emmett Sheehan is, I don't want to make a bigger deal than it is because I'm in the camp where you need to see three starts in the regular season from a starting pitcher before you can afford, you know, have a narrative necessarily or form like a true opinion. But when you're looking at his stuff in the first inning, it's electric.

Vila was sitting in 95. The stuff is plain. He looks nasty. I believe he should Did he strike out the side in the first? I think he did. Stuff looks really good in the first inning. And then it's kind of perplexing what happens after that because the second, the VILA was sitting 93. And the stuff wasn't playing as sharply. And the Velo continued to hover right around 93 until the last inning.

The last fastball he threw clocked in at 91. So I don't want to make too much about Velo on the first or the last week of March in the first start of a 2026 season. But I do think the Dodgers are maybe not concerned. but intrigued as to why Emmett Sheen has struggled to sustain the velo even in spring. So I'm not going to nitpick, but I do think that is something to monitor going forward because he's so, so effective in that first inning. That stuff looked nasty, but he has to be able to sustain it going farther.

Otherwise, I think it's going to start to snowball like we saw a little bit on him in that first start. It's so funny. I'm looking at the ad here, guys. John C. underscore 90 says, Alana and Katie for president and vice president. Clint, you are the secretary of state, apparently. So I like that order in terms of our cabinet. Penn, when you're, Clint, when you're thinking about the Dodgers pen, decent, right?

I mean, really, really better than decent, I should say. Really good so far. 11 and 2 thirds, scoreless, five hits, two walks, the 9Ks. And Edwin Diaz, so far is advertised. Yeah, the bullpen is fun. They are, if you're looking at stats, they are the best bullpen in baseball. They have not allowed to run, like you said, 11 and 2 thirds. We're quickly answering some of those questions we had entering the season with how is Blake Trinan going to look.

So far he's looked solid, Tanner Scott as well, pitching in a couple of different situations entering for a clean inning. I think he threw a one, two, three inning in the season debut coming in the next day and bailing out. I forget who was throwing in that inning, but still, recording the final out, leaving inherited runners, leaving ducks on the pond. that is going to be his role. And if he, if those two guys in particular were guys that we were worried about entering this season, so far, so great. One guy, and I appreciate Katie giving a shout out to Will Klein earlier on the foul. Will Klein all of a sudden is a guy who's kind of a dude. He's got a little bit of ravado going to him.

There's a show going on at Dodger Stadium. And let's be fair, the ball boy could enter the field and they would have a walk-up music and the lights would be going on. It's always a show at Dodger Stadium. But Will Klein quickly ascending the trust tree for Dave Roberts. That is pretty big, not only for Will in his career and his growth, but for Dave, who would like to have more guys he can rely on? Obviously last year relied a lot on Ben Conspirius. You need a couple more guys in that middle relief spot and to bridge their way to the man with the trumpets, or at least the trumpets around him, Edwin Diaz, so far as advertised.

for two and saves. Bullpen, looking good, looking good. Yeah, two games so far for Will Kline, one and O on the loss record, not that they really matters when you're a reliever, but you're going to take it. The most important stat for Will Kline, of course, is zero earned runs given up so far.

I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now got my own show. If you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app. Ready for a different take on Formula One?

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But if it's not a show, if we don't talk about Show Hay, a 120, average so far, no home runs, no ribbies, no extra base hits, four walks. Okay. A 587 OPS. Certainly not pushing any sort of panic button, Katie Wu, but what would you like to see more from Shohei in terms of at-bats? So, no, I don't think anyone that's worried about Shoah Otani and El-on. I don't think you're suggesting that either. It's been three games. It's also Shohei Otani. And those stats that you threw up, like factual, and I do think stats tell a part of a story, but they're missing a lot of context.

When I'm looking at a player to see where they're at in terms of approach or mentality, the walks will tell you and the quality of the bats will tell you. He's worked four walks. He's seen the ball well. He's maybe not doing damage on the pitches that he wants. But he is able to put together a bats that are helpful for the team in this three-game sample sample size on Friday, Alex Freeland, who had a nice game in his first start, Homer and a double, has that key double to lead off the eighth.

And Shohei, maybe not feeling 100%, just threads a ground ball through moves Alex Freeland from second to third. Freeland scores on Kyle Tucker's official, welcome to the Dodgers moment. That is just good quality fundamental baseball. And as Freddie Freeman said Saturday, they are 3 and O because of it bats like that. So yeah, Shoah, I think has the leadoff single on the home opener. And that's been it. He's working his walks.

It's going to be fine. It's Shohei Otani. Look at the quality of the ad baths. Look at the situational hitting. I know like when you show Hey O'Hatani didn't make a career out of situational hitting. But when you have a team one through nine that can bang, he's allowed to have free days to get warmed up. Hey, Alana. No, hang on.

It's going to be great. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. At first I thought the comment that Clint was Secretary of State when Katie and I were president and vice president was the best of the day. I have a new one. A.C. H. H.

4QD, whatever that means. Alana and Katie look like sisters. That's the great comment. My day and made. And then the OX experiment said cousins, maybe not. Listen, I don't care. Anything that looks like her, I will take it. All right. So Katie is not worried about

Shohei. I am not worried about Shohei. Dodger offense, Clint Passias. Playing from behind so far, I'll take the 3-0 start. But let's, like, is it too soon to want a laffer or are we okay with the constant come from behind.

It's okay to play from ahead, boys. It's okay to put some points on the board first. I will allow it. Let's maybe have a nice. We'll talk Roki Sasaki in a little bit. So have a nice one, two, three for Roki. And then maybe show, hey, shuts up all of the worry with a lead off Homer. And then, ho-hum, the actual season is going.

But, yeah, as long as you win, I don't care. Okay, fair. Fair? Fair? It could be there. I think there's like, what, five teams that made it out of their first weekend undefeated, right? The Dodgers, the Yankees. Brewers?

Marlins are on there. Brewers, the Marlins. Yeah, because the Rockies got tough shipping. Yeah. All right. So there you have it. The Brewers are the Dodgers still undefeated. We will take that.

Interesting thought, guys. The Dodgers are the bad guys. Duh. Now, this is something from. the organization itself. Eric Vasquez, part of the great social media team, production team, all the things for the

Los Angeles Dodgers put together the video. He was one of those that put together the video about using Billy Elish's music and you know, we're the bad guys. And Dave Roberts was a little surprised by that, I guess. Dave said that the organization

did that. All right. The Dodgers manager said awkwardly. Well, if they said, were the bad guys, that self-proclaimed. So I guess I'll embrace it. I guess people like a villain. I guess that's respect in some way. I don't know. I guess that's a good thing. But you know what? It's funny though because it's like this is going off the narrative, Katie. And then Clint, I would like your opinion on it as well that the Dodgers are ruining baseball, right? This is Dodgers are bad for baseball, yada, yada yada. They're like, all right, if we're so bad for baseball, we're going to embrace it. Bullseyes on our back always. And they just kind of ran

with it and I'm okay with it. What do you think? Yeah. So I think maybe Dave Roberts certified nice guy probably doesn't want to be known as a bad guy. I feel like that like hurts him in his heart. But for the purpose of this exercise, of course the Dodgers are the bad guys. I mean, any team that wins the World Series once that comes in kind of as a target in their back, let alone twice, let alone the payroll of this organization, of course they have a target on their back. The Dodgers would be kidding themselves not to say like, yeah, you know, but 29 other organizations and fans hate us. So guess what?

We're still here. We're still going to do it our way and we're going to embrace it. I love the video and hype me up personally. I also just love the song. So, but I mean, yeah, they are the bad guys. And that's okay because they continue to win. And that's the only focus on that clubhouse. They're really not concerned about what their narrative is,

what the perception is again with them throughout the league. I see it firsthand. They show up in the clubhouse every day. and their only goal is to just win the ball game and go home and be with their families. It's a very nice life. Let them be the bad guys. Again, when you think about like

when the Yankees were in the middle of their dynasty run, everybody hated the Yankees. And in a way, it kind of united the sport. So really, I think this is a good way for like baseball to come together because 29 other fan bases can hate this one organization. And any time that there is a clear established dynasty run, It just makes baseball a better game because there is a common denominator for every other organization to hate. And that's the Dodgers.

That's okay. I love it. I'm happy. We know this team has a target on its back either way. Mookie talked about it, I think, heading into the 2024 season. We got a target. Every team we play, you know, we're their World Series as we come into town. To me, this coming from the organization, and this is an organization that very,

tightly protects things that go in, things that come out, whatever it is. You know, they try to very much control the public relations situation. So for the social media team to put this, I'll say, I love it. But for them to put this out to add to the potential bulletin board material, which I don't even know if bulletin boards exist anymore in Major League Clubhouses, but to add to that, to add to the noise and the chatter, it's weird, it's different, but I like it. Have some fun with it. You have the best team in baseball.

You can get away with it. Embrace it. Embrace the villain role. Bring it on. Be the bad guy. Wow. I was just like Billy. I'm basically William Eyelash. Yeah. Hey guys, we got more Dodger's territory coming up.

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Hey, our first behind the seams of the season, because we have baseball things to talk about other things, injured-less stuff, and I love injuries, not in the way that players are hurt, but in there coming back, and we saw some visuals. We've got Kike Hernandez at Dodger Stadium. taken BP. We saw Tommy Edmund before opening day taken to BP at Dodger Stadium. Katie, what can you tell us about the latest with these two dudes and how far they are away from coming back? Yeah, both Kike Hernandez and Tommy Edmund progressing nicely. There's still no definitive timetable, though Kike Hernandez has said on a previous podcast that he wants to be ready to go

when he's eligible to come off the 60 day on May 24th. And when we talk to Dave Roberts says that Kike looks fantastic. I'd be shocked if he was. wasn't ready when that time is up was the quote. And I think, you know, my speculation, just looking at what Kike's been doing on the field, he looks a little bit ahead of schedule. I'm no doctor, so don't quote me on that. But for the Dodgers to have Kikee progressing so well and Tommy Edmund, you know, we've said this before.

They're going to take their time with him because they want the full 100% Tommy Edmund to come back where he can play both second base and center field and not feel kind of any kind of confliction there or he's not 100%. So they're going to wait a little bit. But they both look really good. And you're looking at around the same time of year for them to come back again, maybe mid to late May. What that means for Alex Freeland, who I don't think I've given enough love on the show, forgiven what he's done in the last three days.

I'm not sure. But now I understand why the Dodgers were a little bit more motivated to start Freeland on the opening day roster over Kim, because I'm not sure who's going or what playing time is left for Alex Freeland at both Keke Hernandez and Tommy Evan come back at the same time. But that is a great problem to have through the Dodgers because you have so much depth at so many different positions. And I'm looking forward to kind of seeing how this Miggie Row, Alex Freeland, Platoon plays out until Kike and Tommy are back. Yeah, we got some injuries there on that front. Of course, we're also waiting to hear some news on the pitching side.

Somebody asking the chat right now, what's the latest with Gavin Stone? Haven't really heard much there. Obviously, he's kind of shut down and slowly ramping up hanging out at Camelback Ranch there, Dodgers facility in Glendale, Arizona. same with Blake Snell. He's somebody who's now, what, pushed out to end of May, I think was the target they're looking at, Katie? Well, you know what? This is a great reminder for me to do my job and ask Dave Roberts about that today. Just see where Gavin Stone is.

Blake Snell threw a bullpen, I believe, on Friday, along with Evan Phillips. So that's exciting. But, yeah, getting Blake Snell back, obviously huge. Getting Gavin Stone back healthy would be great for the pitching depth. Robert Ryan, not slated to start with Oklahoma City. He's going to throw a couple of simulated games in Arizona, and then he'll join the OKC staff. All of this is a great segue to I'm sure what's next, Mr. Roki Sasaki. But getting that pitching up back fortified to where the Dodgers needed to be, that will be huge,

especially if Roki looks the way that he did this spring. We will get to Roki, bearing the lead for everybody, as I love to do. But first, we had our first weekend of ABS. And Alana, I wanted your thoughts on that because I, I mean, outside of C.B. Buckner's wild ride. It seems like it's gone off without a hitch. But that's, I mean, what you need to talk about, though, right? That's exactly why I think a lot of people were clamoring to have some sort of automated ball strike situation.

CB Buckner, and you could see, and again, I know what these guys do is incredibly difficult in real time. I understand that. But it is a magnifying glass, if you will, on the fact that sometimes, these guys are so unbelievably egregious that you need a system like this to keep them. And Angel Hernandez would have had to retire, move like light years before he actually retired. CB Buckner is also a guy that, I mean, you need to know who's behind the plate. He's bad. You need to know who's behind the plate in terms of when you go into the game and know what strike zone you're dealing with.

I like it. I like the fact that they have this tool now to be able to make sure that they're, if they're making the right call. Now, I will say this as well. You need to also be smart about it. Like having it in the second inning in a zero zero game, probably not the best time in the world to use it. I mean, be strategic about when you want to use it. I understand I was watching, I watch baseball like all weekend long, like many games as I could possibly watch, just kind of to see who was, you know, who was using it, how it was going down. And there are some guys that are already on a you're not allowed to use it list because some guys are doing it too liberally when

they should really think about it more situationally. So I think it's important. I think it's a, I think it's a good tool. It can only help you, right? I mean, if you see the ABS challenge results so far, batters were 42% correct, catchers were 64% correct, which you would expect that, right? You would expect the catcher to be the most well versed at whether it's a ball or a strike. And pitchers were two for five in terms of usage. They were about 40% correct. So I like it. I think it's a good thing.

And you could see how visibly frustrated that CB Buckner was getting guys as that game with the Red Sox went on because it was like, was it the Red Sox or was it us? It was the Red Sox. Yeah. Yeah. So it was. You better, you better recognize because those the um, the umpire reports report card. that come out. Now it's on full display for everybody watching the game. So I like it personally. I think it's a good tool. Katie, any ABS thoughts? So shocker, woman who said she was going to hate

something actually doesn't mind it now that she's tried it. I really like the strategy behind it. I like when teams, Astros, for example, don't want their pitchers challenging. Some catchers are going to have the right away. Some pitchers on other organizations will. I like the strategy behind it. And it's a really cool way for the fans to get involved. I also love the kind of different dynamic it can bring. We saw with the twins and Orioles. Derek Shelton gets tossed and a great call

from the Orioles broadcaster Kevin Brown, who said he's arguing with the robots. You can't argue with the robots over the call of an ABS. And it's fantastic because I think there is a little bit of subjectivity to this rule, because the umpire does have final discretion on if you've challenged quicker. enough and both the catcher and the pitcher and that obviously the hitter too can challenge,

but you can also challenge verbally. So for us, like, if we don't see a catcher or a pitcher hit his head, we don't know, but a catcher can turn around and verbally challenge that and we don't see it. We don't hear it. So then it creates all the subjectivity around the umpire and I love drama. So I think that the Orioles twins dynamic there with Ryan Helsley and the ninth was a perfect example. I also like how the fans get into it on the scoreboard. I mean, their call didn't go the Dodgers way on Saturday's game by like a fraction of an inch. And the entire crowd groaned because they were like, that's not like, come on. Like, are you serious, you know?

And I think we can all kind of get behind that in terms of like, that's the rule. And we can see how close of a pitch it was so we can understand like why the empire didn't get it right necessarily. But if the ball is a seam, hits the seam for like in the strike zone, like that much, is it really a strike? According to ABS, yes. According to baseball fans, not really. So I just love the whole different discourse it brings.

I was wrong. Sorry, I do like it. I think it's funny, though, how the height, you have to change your dating profile now because the height is very much going on with the strike zone. That is not my final thought on the ABS. My final thought on the ABS before we move on to Roki and the garden coming into town is it's interesting to me

that if you use both of your challenges, guys, during regulation time, if you will, in the nine innings, and it goes into extra innings, then if you've used them both, then you get an extra challenge in extra innings. But let's say you only use one in extra innings, then you still have that one in extra innings, but you don't get another one. I don't think that's fair. I think if you use them and you get an extra one, if you don't use them, then you also still should get an extra one.

Like why should the team that uses both be rewarded with an extra one, but the team that doesn't have to use them not be rewarded with an extra one? I find that that's a little bit strange that not as bad as the ghost runner and extras in the regular season, but it's a little strange that they don't reward both teams equally with giving them another challenge. Figuring things out. They're still figuring things out. What I like is, you know, when the league instituted the pitch clock, we're getting a lot less blowback from this than we did then

or even checking for sticky stuff. The the ump shows that were going on then. So far, I only have one one ump show through a weekend of baseball. Tells me it's, you see it. It's the computers, it's the lasers telling you.

You can't argue with that. The only thing apparently you could argue is whether or not you tap your helmet or your hat on time, on time. So it's fun. It's fun. You got one more thought on this? Katie?

One more. I think like, umpires have had a really tough job with all of the you just brought this up there's been so many different rule changes starting from sick is sick stuff in the middle of 2021 uh the pitch clock yes challenges like it's a really thankless job i'm not just saying that because i went to umpire school for three days like it's very true like they're learning on the fly too and there's so much change and so much just so much blowback everything that they do is magnified that's part of the job i get it but they've had to adjust to a lot of changes just like fans just like media just like players

and they're not going to get it right every single time i think buchner is a great example of this but overall i think over the last five years the way that umpires have adapted to a vast change in their profession i think we're not talking about that maybe enough it's fair extremely fair but Really quickly, really quickly. This is going to expose some umpires. Don't be bitter, be better. That's what Todd Frazier said on the ABS challenges on foul territory. He's right.

You've got to be better at your job. I mean, you can't continue to make those types of calls because now the entire world is going to see. I talk about this over the weekend as well. Like Angel Hernandez is the poster boy for being a bad umpire. C.B. Buckner has been like historically worse when it comes to the ball strikes and all that. Angel was bad on the base paths as well. And that's a lot more magnified when there's somebody saved by like an entire foot or the batters already

threw the bag. And, you know, then the glove hits the back of the ball or the ball hits the back of the glove. Yeah, it's going to get bad. And he, CB was embarrassed, A.F. I loved it. It was fun. It brought me joy. His pain. It was very, it was very exposing.

Let's let's say that. It was very exposing. All right. Somebody else, guys, that. has had some stuff exposed, if you will, or has certainly been under the microscope, perhaps, or a magnifying glass, is Roki Sasaki, Katie Wu. He is taking the hill tonight against the Cleveland Guardians as the Dodgers welcome the guards into town. You had said that you were not in the camp that we need to worry. And then most recently, on Thursday's show,

I believe it was, you were saying maybe not worried. I don't want to put words in your mouth. But it gave you some pause what you saw. What does he have to do tonight to start to write the ship? Get through the first inning would probably be a good start. If you're Roki Sasaki, get through the first inning. Look, there's no player under more scrokey entering this season than Roki. And I think that was going to be the case regardless of the kind of spring he had, just because of the talent, the way that his rookie season went,

and then I think the high hopes that everyone had after he finished in the bullpen in that postseason, they don't have their second World Series ring without what Roki did. But it's fair when you look at how we struggled this spring, spring training numbers or spring training numbers, I'm looking more at the lack of consistency. There was erratic command. He couldn't navigate the fastball. He's adding that third pitch, but he struggled to even command his first two, let alone the new pitch.

Mechanics were out of whack. He just didn't look like himself. And that last spring outing that we saw, he just looked like he had no confidence left. The body language was alarming. The silver lining is we can throw all of that out because spring training doesn't matter. But to say that there isn't a concern about Roki Sasaki, well, the Dodgers are not going to outright say that. But let's read between the lines. We have not seen, I talked about this on foul territory.

We have not seen Justin Rebleski yet. We know that the Dodgers are going to open the season with their six-man hybrid rotation, use Rebleski in that hybrid role, that piggyback role that was originally supposed to be for Shohei Otani. It is now for Roki Sasaki. And while the Dodgers will not outright say that, if we read between the lines, Saturday, Roki Sasaki through his regularly scheduled bullpen, you know who else did that?

Justin Reblesky. So the Dodgers are aware that they cannot go out there and just hope that Roki looks good. That's not a sustainable strategy. What they have is Rebleski available behind him in case things go sideways in the early innings because the last thing you want to do is punt early on a game and tax the bullpen.

The Dodgers tax their bullpen early in the 20-25 season, excuse me, and it plagued them throughout the year. They can't do that. So no, the Dodgers are going to give Roki some run here. I get why we've talked about that before, but to say there isn't concern just isn't true. There's a reason why Justin Robleski has scheduled to be lined up to pitch on Roki Day in case they need him.

This is a massive, massive outing for Roki Sasaki and the Dodgers. You know every show that does what we do is they're chomping at the bit, champing at the bit. I apologize to be able to, talk about another bad Roki Sasaki start. And Katie, you bring up a really good point that the lights looked really, really bright on him in that final tune-up at Dodger Stadium last week. He needs to find a way to tune out all the noise, get that tunnel vision, throw the baseball

to Will Smith behind home plate, or if it's going to be Dalton tonight, it's probably going to be Will because they had a day off. But he needs a one, two, three inning. He needs confidence because I think in each of his spring training, starts. He was pulled in the first inning and then reinsert into the game. You don't get that luxury here in the regular season. This counts. And if you don't do your job, everybody else has to pick up the slack for you. And you can't, you can't get away with that for very long in this league. Despite all of the pomp,

all of the circumstance, you need to piece it together early. If you're right, but guys, that's not even just the lights at Dodger Stadium, Clint. It was the lights at Camelback. It was the daytime at Camelback. It was the sun. I just need to see him have a little bit more conviction in his stuff. He just looks scared to death. And again, we all want Roki Sasaki to succeed. We're pulling for the guy, right? But, I mean, he just looks terrified out there.

So I hope, I mean, to Katie's point, let's start with pitch one. Let's start with anyone. Like, let's, you know, attack the zone. Maybe tonight's not the time to work on shit. Maybe tonight is just attack the zone, go with what has worked for you, go to what has gotten you to this point where they wanted to sign you to begin with, and have some conviction, show some presence out there. Because right now he is not instilling the fear in anybody, especially. I mean, I would love, I mean, can we get through the order twice? Is that a goal for us to get through the order twice for Roki Sasaki tonight?

It feels like a goal. At the bare minimum, that's the goal. Yeah, because we know Robo needs to throw either way. Correct. So if you can get Roki through two times through the order without incident, and then you can just, that's a huge confidence booster, especially because we all know what happens to just take time through the order. You don't want to put that on.

So if he can go through two times through minimal damage, you have Robleski who looked damn good in his last exhibition start. He needs to throw anyway. The only question I have there is like, what if, you know, Shohei isn't built? but I think show hay's already answered that question. I think he's built up just fine. So if you're the Dodgers,

you had the flexibility and the affordability today to use Robleckey when needed. Rokey going through two times through the order, though, I think is like the perfect season debut for him. Five innings, five innings Rokey, four innings Rebleski, hit it, Randy. That's my goal. No, you don't even need to see Edwin tonight.

You're just like... Give him the night out. Give Tatana Tate, or as somebody on my All-Dodger Show called her, Tina Trumpets because it's just it's a great name it's wrong in all the ways but shout out Alexander Rose for giving us the name that will live on with me for the rest of my life that is Tina trumpets we'll talk more about the trumpets in a little bit by the way but yeah big night big night at Chavez ravine tonight Katie will be there to get all of the uh the hot goss with

rokey the hot the hot stuff um big night for you guys potentially those that are listening and watching us, April 13th is a big night. Let us tell you more about that in Last Licks. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind and now got my own show. So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies available on all TSN platforms and the IHeart Radio app.

All right, guys, here we go. So Anita Olson is a massive Dodger fan, and she's also an unbelievable supporter of Gidre's Guardian Foundation, my nonprofit. And she has graciously offered four field level tickets and her parking pass to the Mets at the Dodgers game. I believe it's a Monday night. Mets at Dodgers, April 13th. These are field level tickets, basically behind the on-deck circle. And it is parking, free parking, which obviously, if you ask Richie Flores, we know that the Dodger Stadium parking lot is a pain in the butt. This is free parking, free parking and four tickets. The bid started at 20 bucks. The highest bid wins. Every single cent goes to Gidry's

Guardian to help dogs in need. You go to 32 auctions.com slash April 13th. That is the day of the game. You create a free account and you bid there. It lasts. The auction is live until April 6th. So that is a week before the game. Please consider bidding on these great seats with free parking to help the pups in me. Yeah. Anita, you're the man. Anita, you are the woman. All right.

So baseball thought for the road, Katie. You loved it. You said 10-10, no notes. What are you talking about? The bullpen catchers and the training staff brought their own little trumpets and played it as Edwin Diaz was coming in. And I know this because, like, the loser that I am,

I have my binoculars locked in on Edwin as he's coming out of the bullpen. And I was like, what is going on behind him? And that is what is going on behind him. I would say two out of three on rhythm. We're getting there. Can somebody ask Chico what the hell he's doing? He's trying his best.

Okay, yeah, he's trying his best. He's excited. I love, I love this. I love that Dodger Stadium is doing their best to try to make this, like, the same, but different. Like, we haven't heard something like since California love, elite entrance, by the way, for Kenley Jansett. And I wonder actually, because Tata Anna Tate has sounded great in the stadium, if the broadcast maybe isn't doing her justice, because she sounds awesome. And the stadium loves it.

The lights. I mean, at this point in the game, my hearing is gone anyway. But it's so loud, I can hear it still. It's so cool. So 10 out of 10, bullpen catchers, training staff, love the vibe. I talked to Evan a little bit about it. He's like, they told me about it. Obviously, I haven't seen it because he's running away from them.

But he's like, I really can't wait to see the video. like all in. Everyone's all in on the trumpets in my place, though. Yeah. I was so excited. That's the first thing I thought of when they signed him. I was like, I cannot wait to hear that entrance music at Dodger Stadium. We can confirm. Myself in the chat can confirm. That was one of the first things. Wait till they get the ribbon boards back in as well because those are still missing. That's going to be, you're going to not only be deaf, Katie, you're also going to be blind by the line. It's just going to be so much going on there.

Oh, no. Oh. Oh my gosh, amazing. I mean, yeah, hopefully they find those ribbons. Any day now. That's unfortunate. Not their fault. Not their fault. Not at all.

I didn't realize that the ribbon boards were missing. See, this is all the stuff that I don't know anymore. All right. So upcoming this week, you guys, we are doing, again, anytime there's a post game show, Katie is not available because she's actually doing post game writing for the athletic. But Clint, yeah, it's actually working. So Clint and I will be doing post game with you guys on Wednesday, okay? and then we are all of us are back on Thursday as are normally scheduled programming and then Clint and I will be doing post game for the day game on Friday and there you have that as well

as as a as a Clint doing it on all Dodgers his all Dodgers podcast as well all right so that is it for today we appreciate you guys very much don't forget Clint and I'll be back on Wednesday follow Katie every single day at Katie J. Woo. I think Katie. She's got she's got something she wants to show off as well We know, you know, we're stopping the music. Stop the show. Stop the show. Fuck, I'm do it live. We know Katie's getting the home office set up.

And friends of the show, they're actually in the chat, drip show, hooked it up for Katie Wu. What do you got for us? I, first of all, I saw your comments about the bobbleheads. Do I get any, like, redemption? Because there are a significant amount of Albert Poole's bobbleheads here, Dodger legend, too. So we all, we all know Albert. But no, shout out a drip show because as we continue to put together in my home office, they made sure that I have some Dodger love in here.

Holy crap. It's a banger. That's amazing. Awesome canvas print of Otani. I love this championship trophy in the background. And then one more from the good people at. And it's worth it. Drip Show.

Drip Show. Can you hook another sister up? That's awesome. What a cool. That's cool. Right here. Bobbables against the Guardians. Drip Show 10 out of 10.

Thank you so much for these. I can't wait to hang them right next to my Will Smith Bobblehead, which will make its debut the next time I do a show. I'm going to send you a... This is going to really elevate your home office. An Alana Rizzo bobblehead. Oh, yeah. Don't think it's not going to just take that.

I got Rizzo Bobblehead. I got Riz right there. Riz is on top of my Alexa. Why am I still in the box? I don't take my bobbleheads out of the box for the greater part. Oh, all right. I got a whole bunch of them up there. Still in box.

All right. Hit the music. Guys, thank you for watching. Drip show. Thank you. Thank you guys all for being with us. Don't forget, like, subscribe. Rate us five stars.

Clint and I are back on Wednesday. Katie is back on Thursday. We appreciate you guys. Go Dodgers. Bye. Bye. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip,

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