Dodgers Territory - Dodgers Pitching Coach Connor McGuiness Joins! Flaherty's The Man, Yamamoto Update

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

Did the Dodgers get back on track in Oakland? (3:15) DT hosts Alanna Rizzo and Clint Pasillas dive into the series that saw the bullpen return to dominance and Jack Flaherty show us all why he was LA's top trade target at the deadline.(4:37) Assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness joins the show to talk about the addition of Flaherty to the staff. (9:15) McGuiness also shares some positive health updates out of the bullpen and with injured ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.(16:03) McGuiness discusses his pitching tool company, Clean Fuego. (22:57) Mookie Betts is on the verge of returning. Max Muncy and Tommy Edman are reportedly not far behind. Also, a look ahead to the series against Philly.DT streams LIVE on Mondays & Thursdays at 3p ET/12p PT on the DT Youtube channel! PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kentucky can count on bourbon, basketball, and 975. WAMZ, Kentucky, Anna's number one for country. Hey, it's Rachel Elliott, and we never take for granted that you make us part of your day. That's why we make it a point to play your favorite country. Whether you're starting your day off with the Bobby Bone Show, making your workday go a little faster by hanging out with me on the job, or dealing with that Gene Snyder traffic on the ride home with Corey Calhoun, you can count on us for the best country music in Kentucky. In Louisville, you can catch us on the radio dial at 975 and anywhere on the IHeart Radio app. Jack couldn't have come in at a better time, you know, to go deep into that game, kind of reset the bullpen. It honestly set us up to win that last game of the series because we were to line up our lanes with the bullpen.

What is up, all? We hope that your weekend was enjoyable. Welcome to the live edition of Dodgers territory on this Monday afternoon. We are your host. I am Alana Rizzo. That is Clint Pesias. Coming up, Connor McGinnis, the assistant pitching coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Joining us on Dodgers territory before we get to that, though, don't forget to like us, subscribe us, do all the things. that you do with YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. We appreciate you very much. How about Clint, we get into the big ticket? Let's do it. All right.

They take two of three from the Oakland Athletics. Does that mean that they are back on track? Or does that mean it's the Oakland athletics? Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Keeping in mind that Oakland did have the best win-loss record in the month of July. Yeah, we came in there at the right time to actually have a little bit of competition. And I feel that there are some things in there. I think there's some getting back on.

on track. Seeing the bullpen kind of do what it did, getting some guys like, I mean, big series for Kike Hernandez, Lux continuing to do what he's doing were, I mean, if you go back two months ago, if we're going to say Gavin Lux is hitting in the three hole, you're like, what the F happened? But now all of a sudden, he's the right guy in that right spot, doing some good stuff there. So I very much appreciate that series, get the bad taste of the road trip out of your mouth, get back home and hopefully try to sweep them Phillies. Yeah, the last time that the Los Angeles Dodgers will see the Oakland Athletics at the Coliseum. They are moving apparently to Sacramento. We will see if they obviously

eventually get to Las Vegas. Let's brag on this Dodgers bullpen a little bit because we crapped all over them when they weren't doing well, but we've got to give them credit when they are. And Eric Stephen, who I loved to death, had a great tweet talking about the performance of the Dodgers bullpen. And after a very hectic and not very good. July, although it being a very busy one, July, the Dodgers bullpen allowed one run and 11 in the third innings this weekend in Oakland with 12 strikeouts, no free passes. They retired 13 to 14 batters on Sunday with the only hit being a sun double, that pesky sun in Northern California.

So what does this say to you, Clint? Has the bullpen figured it out? I mean, I think we still need to see a little bit more. Luckily, bullpen has some help coming back, but absolutely on the right track. I feel when Evan Phillips got that, that big out, Brent Rooker, bases loaded, comes into Relieve Ryan, River Ryan, that was the moment there. Like Evan Phillips is back on track. I think everybody's back on track right behind him.

So that's where I feel really, really confident about this team moving forward in the right direction. And again, a couple more pieces coming back. We'll talk to Connor about those guys when they come back as well. So good stuff all around, good stuff. You beat up on a team. You need to beat up on. that's what you hope for in Oakland.

Yeah, the thing is the bullpen is most effective when they are coming into the game, when they're supposed to come into the game. And that is what happens when you have good starting pitching, as we discussed at length. You're only as good as your next day's starter. Jack Flaherty in his Dodger debut was what he needed to be. What impressed you the most about his first outing as a Dodger. What I like about Jack Flaherty is he goes out there and he looks like a man. That's the important thing.

Like sometimes not to say, I'm a man, baby. I'm 40. He's not 40, but he's late. Yeah, I mean, he did exactly what you wanted, you know, nine days between starts for him, didn't really let the rust affect him too much there. I mean, a couple, you know, a couple base runners in that first inning, but he showed exactly what they pick him up for. A guy who can get you into the sixth inning probably could have gone longer if you really,

really needed it, but can kind of, I think, help mentally reset the team that was, pitching staff-wise was very clearly kind of floundering here and they're struggling. You know, we're just talking about the bullpen getting on track. I think, I really do think Jack Flaherty is a part of that. It gets everybody, you know, back in that right mindset. That day, like you said, the momentum of that day starter is your momentum of your whole team and Jack Flaherty going a long way for this ball club in that game one start of his, in his Dodger Blue career.

I'm a massive fan of the Jack Flaherty edition. I'm a massive fan of the Michael Kopec edition. I love those two pieces, not only to the Dodgers starting staff, but as well as the bullpen. It doesn't matter what I think. I don't work with them. My mechanics are terrible. Connor McGinnis is the assistant pitching coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I appreciate him coming on so much because it's the first day of a series.

And they're busy, these guys with scouting reports and making sure that they can handle the Phillies lineup. Connor, welcome to Dodgers territory. We appreciate you very much. What is the best way to attack a Phillies lineup that has been at top of the NL East for the better part of the season when you have such a long lineup. Yeah, they've got an incredible lineup, especially when they're hot. You know, it can be a very scary lineup to navigate, but we feel very strongly about what our pitchers are able to do.

And so it kind of just boils down to executing your strengths, getting ahead and trusting the defense behind you. So our guys have been doing an awesome job navigating, you know, the length of this season, the travel and whatnot. And so we feel like we're in a really strong place and we're excited to play them. So we're just talking about Jack Flourty. Flarity before we welcome you here onto the show, talk about what he's kind of added to the mix for this pitching staff.

And I would imagine everybody's mental just feels that much better when you're going out and getting the best guy available at the trade deadline. It's got to feel good in that clubhouse. Oh, without question. And kudos to our scouting group and Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes for going out and being able to pull off and execute that trade for us. And Jack couldn't have come in at a better time, you know, to go deep into that game, kind of reset the bullpen.

It honestly set us up to win that last game of the series because we were able to line up our lanes with the bullpen, being a little fresher than it was. So for him to come in, I know it was a huge relief to him, to be able to go and show that he was able to do that for us and get deep into the game. I mean, we're just ecstatic and happy to have them. I was really impressed.

I mean, it's the first time Will Smith's caught him or even met him or he introduced them, and he navigated him beautifully. And Jack made some awesome adjustments there after the second inning. And so they fell into a rhythm. It was a lot of fun to watch. I'm excited for the future with this guy. Connor, what impresses you the most? The swing and the miss from Flaherty or the fact that he can go deep into the game?

Honestly, all of that impresses me, but just the mound presence alone, you know, reading the game situations, base is open. You'll see the fastball velocity kind of fluctuate and he'll kind of tap into that extra velo when he needs it. And then just the execution of his slider. I mean, his slider is such a deadly weapon. And I thought he and Will did a great job of kind of use. using his curveball early to give him more of that front to back look.

But when he's got that slider on and he can kind of, you know, add that power to the heater when he needs it, it's a pretty tough at bat for opposing hitters. Connor, you mentioned the bullpen there. We're just talking before welcoming you here. The bullpen seems to have gotten on track, particularly those last two games. Maybe that is kind of the flarity factor. But scuffling for a good bit before that.

How much of that was kind of just guys being really overworked, tired, all the injuries and everything just piling up to, you know, the pain of the dog days of summer there. And, you know, now feeling better about, like I said, I think Evan Phillips is the key there, getting that big out. I think everything is just going the right way. But where are we at, bullpen wise? Yeah, the bullpen's in a great spot. Like you said, we've had a bunch of random injuries kind of pop up,

some lower body injuries here and there. Our medical staff has done a fantastic job, keeping our guys together and getting them out on the field. And so when you get a guy like Flaherty to come in, when guys were able to go deeper into games. Some of our rookie starters, you know, in Houston, I remember, going deeper into games and giving that bullpen a little bit of a reset. And then getting the additions of Kopeck, like you mentioned, Anthony Banda has been fantastic. Michael Kopeck coming in.

I mean, it's an unbelievable fastball. It's a ton of fun to watch. I mean, even Brent Honeywell, you know, what he did coming in, showing up late in Detroit, like, hey, bud, you're going to start. You know, I don't think he had touched the ball three days prior to us getting him in there in Detroit. and then just coming out and doing his thing. It's been massive. I think it's a little bit of tired.

It's a little bit of the ups and downs. It's also why we play 162. You know, you're going to take your lumps as the season goes along. But these guys are prepared for it. They've been in this situation before. And hopefully it's one of those things where they can kind of time it at the right time here down the stretch at the end of the year. Yeah, you know, continuing off of that, finally, for this Los Angeles Dodgers team,

getting some positive news. It felt like so much of the season, it was all, oh, this guy's hurt. or this is bad or pets heads are falling off i always got to get that in there but this week you guys could be welcoming some key pieces back could get the bazooka back you could get uh brazier back possibly by tonight i don't know if you're ready and willing to reveal that yet of course michael grove not too far behind uh give us a general update about particularly those three guys what we can see this week and and where they fit in uh in the bullpen mix yeah as far as the activations go it's a little higher than my pay grade but uh we'll see i'll just show up to scratch and see see see

who's ready to roll that night. But yeah, if we could get some of these key guys back, it would be great. And even, you know, they're going to be some tough decisions to make. A lot of these guys have been throwing the rock really well. And you only get so many roster spots. So I think it's more of a timing component, you know, making sure that our guys are in good positions to carry this through down the stretch.

But getting a guy like Gratterol, Brac, Brazier, a Michael Grove, even. He's been looking fantastic in AAA that I think guys kind of forget about. I think he was sitting 99, his last game, and he's got his slider cruising. So just getting some of these pieces back will really help kind of flush us out. But we're just excited to kind of hit the ground running down the stretch here. And hopefully we can get some of our other bats back in the lineup. And what everyone's been doing with our coaching staff and the pieces, Gavin Lux hitting three holes, been so much fun for watch.

I've been watching this guy for years, way back to Great Lakes. He's right where he belongs. So it's been a pleasure to kind of watch these guys go through it. And so we're just excited to get some of these pieces back and hit the ground running. Yeah, the pride of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Gavin Lux. Let's talk a little bit about Clayton Kershaw a bit. Connor, this is a guy, obviously, he'll be in Cooperstown five years to the day after he retires. What do you want to see in terms of Kirsch's next outing to let you know that, again,

coming off that first surgery in his career, he's getting back to where he wants to be, which is tough because Kershaw's standards are so high. Yeah, you know, he always sets the bar so high. It's never a guy I would ever want to bet against. If he's got the rock and he's on the mound, the Dodgers are in a good place. And so I think for him, he just wanted to fine tune a couple things. You know, his delivery was a little off. But for me, if he gets his slider cruising and he's able to use his curveball to kind of reset counts, he's going to be on his way. And so it was a bit uncharacteristic for him, his last outing. To us, we kind of chalk that one up as a fluke and, you know, erase that. and turn the page. So had a good bullpen in Oakland. So we're looking forward to him on this next start here. And if he gets that slider rolling and kind of plays the cat and mouse game with the heater and the slider and sprinkles in the curveball, I'm really excited for his next outing.

And we're talking positive injury updates. We can't not talk about Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Big news on the Yamamoto front. Hey, he's throwing a baseball. That's awesome. Talk about the latest there and kind of, I'd say, not tempering expectations, but not getting too far ahead with Yomombo. So give us a Yama update and where you kind of hope he slots in.

Yeah, he's been doing fantastic. You know, like I mentioned, our medical staff has been doing a fantastic job with him. Thomas Albert, Brandon McDaniel, John Irb, have been keeping close eyes on him. You know, you watch this guy throw right now. He's looking fantastic. And he's going about it the right way. It's been fun to kind of just get to know him throughout the course of the year. And it really felt like he had found himself in that Yankees game.

really kind of everything came to fruition. But he's in a great spot. You know, the throws have been looking great. He's got his coach with him, Yata, his personal kind of guru throwing guy. So it's been super fun to learn from him and kind of see his process of how he goes about things. So we're just excited to have the fact that he's out there throwing, you know, had a good bullpen the other day. As far as timeline goes, I'm not exactly sure.

But, you know, fingers crossed if he continues on this kind of line of progression, hopefully you can see him back out there on the mouth for us. All right. Blink twice if he's going to be back within the next two weeks. I'm just kidding. What's it been like, Connor, working with Mark Pryor. Obviously, this was a guy that was, just had all the mechanics going for him.

They called him like the perfect pitcher in terms of mechanics. What's it been like just working around him and kind of taking things from him? And how do you guys work in tandem? How do you split up the pitchers in terms of duties? Oh, without question. It's an absolute joy and pleasure. I've had quite a different background kind of career path to get to this position than Mark did. You know, I like to joke. I'm clearly not here for my athletic abilities gang, so bear with me. But it's, I've learned so much from this guy. He's helped me out tremendously. I truly can't thank him enough. I can't even imagine doing this without this guy. But it's been such a fun balance. You know, I think for him, it's just kind of teaching me the days in, days out. A lot of like, the field components, the timing of when to talk to guys and whatnot. He's really helped me out tremendously. The game planning, him and Mark and Danny Lehman are incredible when it comes down to the game

planning. And then it's kind of on Bardo and I to kind of make sure that the bullpens falls suit. So we're very, very in sync in our communication when we go about it. And there are no egos. You know, you look at this guy. He's on cover of Sports Illustrated. I mean, he was the Strasbourg before Strasbourg, the Harper before Harper, all of this. You know, and it's kind of funny.

I like to tease him a little bit because some of our young guys don't even really know who he is. You know, we're like, hey, go YouTube, Mark Pryor, buddy. You might want to watch some of these highlights. You need to put some respect on this guy's name. But it's an absolute joy. And so it's really fun to kind of go back and forth and throw things against the wall to see. And a lot of it, you know, I'm more of the guy that kind of like wants to push the envelope. You know, like, hey, I think we can really add this pitch or, you know, how do you,

feel about that and he's fantastic at kind of keeping me contained and making sure that the timing of these things are being introduced correctly and so it's a really fun back and forth and I truly we don't have enough time for me to give him as many compliments as this guy deserves for how much he's helped me with my career but it's it's a pure joy to work with our group and I'm so excited to be here for it so it's been fun back and forth as far as like any formality of how we spread out the workload or anything like that amongst us it's very free flowing You know, it's very open. Sometimes it's, you know, he's connecting better with a pitcher at a certain moment, or I am,

or even sometimes our strength staff is. And so we kind of lean into that. There's no egos here. Our training room is very in touch with what we're doing. Our medical staff, our strength staff. So if we're trying to work on, you know, something with someone's rear leg or anything like that, our strength guys know about it. Our training staff knows about it.

And we want to make sure that we can kind of slow drip that and get these guys into those right positions to execute. But yeah, working with Mark Pryor. I mean, I pinch myself every day. I got to make sure I stay locked in for doing the work. But it is an absolute joy to be working with him. Yeah, that's what Clint says about working with me. But anyway, I digress.

Go ahead, Clint. Go ahead. Alana's got the back of the baseball card. Pryor's got the back of a baseball card. I don't. Connor don't, but you also have your claim to fame in this game. This ball has too many sides on it. But clean fuego.

Let's talk about clean fuego. How awesome has that been kind of seeing this thing grow into something that is so damn important in this game now. And also, you're going to send me one of those for free? Absolutely. You kidding me? I hope my brother's watching. He'll be just saying, Clint, send him the address. We'll send you a care package. Absolutely. I want to get my pause on one of those for a while. I just can't justify it on the count of I'm not an athlete, but I got a decent carry to the fastball can top out about 62 or something like that. But anyways, yeah, again, the growth of this thing in the game. How special has that been?

It's been an absolute joy. And honestly, kudos to the Dodgers for honestly letting me run with this while I'm working here. You know, this goes back to 2017 spring training. I'm with Rick Honeycutt and Charlie Huff at a spin station with hockey pucks. And, you know, I was filling my brother in on what we were doing. He was like, my goodness, you guys are the Dodgers. You can't get anything better than a hockey puck. Like what do we, you know, the weight's wrong, the shape of it's wrong. And so we did a little research. There were some other products. out there overseas that were kind of close, but they weren't really getting it down to the detail that we really needed to accomplish the pitch shapes and movements that we really wanted. So for me as a coach, if there's anything that you can hand to an individual that's so simple that it just kind of clicks and there's not a lot of conversation, and it's kind of like a, hey, here you go, go figure it out and play catch and have fun with it. I'm all in on it. And so it's a simple product.

It's simply just trying to improve your spin efficiency. So it's the idea of, let's say Alana and I were playing. catch with the football, you know right away if you threw that football correctly, right? You know if it's on that perfect spiral or if it's wobbling or it's the bad duck pass. Those are all me. Yeah, I know, I know. Me as well. But when it comes to a baseball, it's such a small object and it's being thrown at such high velocities. It's nearly impossible to really know how clean or how true that spin is. And so when we got under the hood, there are massive impactful numbers when you can clean up the spin efficiency of your fastball.

And then they're kind of some of the subtle other tweaks in there as well. If they're a natural supinator, which just means they're a little more on the outside part of the ball when they're releasing it, it's almost a little closer to a football. You can clean that spin up and actually produce really good two seams and sinkers. And so this was something that we did when we acquired Blake Trinon back in 2020 prior to that World Series run. And, you know, he had always kind of assumed it was a, oh, I got to roll this pitch. climb and whatnot. And so really understanding, I think the idea of seam shift has kind of taken

over the public space a little more of these previous years. But the clean fuego gets kind of put in that bucket of, oh, it's just a pitcher's tool for four seam ride, that type of thing. But in fact, if you kind of know what you're doing, getting that clean fuego, if it's cutting like crazy on super clean spin, you can actually flip it to a two seam and really fine tune that action to create the sink. So I apologize to nerd out on you guys for a little bit, but it's a fun product. And, you know, my brother might get mad at me for this, but we are excited. We're going to be releasing a new product coming out here in a few weeks or if not sooner. Well, we actually created a plio ball version of the Fuego ball.

We're going to call them Flyos, Fuego Flios. My brother's fantastic with the marketing and whatnot. But I'm very excited about this product because there's so many guys and, and kids around the country using weighted balls, but to have it with this shape and this style, what it's going to do is it's going to help centralize that weight. So what oftentimes happens is when they're throwing those plow balls into the wall, all that sand is hitting the back of the ball when they lay back.

And so those can actually promote supinated throws or sometimes more of those cut fastballs. And so by now introducing this product, we can eliminate some of those bad habits for guys who don't necessarily want that sort of sensation or feel. And so I'm just really excited to get these in the hands of baseball players around the world. And yeah, no pressure, Mike. Hopefully we can get these things launched coming soon.

They're just breaking news for everybody there. And again, I'm looking to get my pause on one. But one last thing we got to talk about. All right. I'll do it. I'll do it. Alana. We're going to have you talk to Connor.

But we got to bring it to the reality, life, humans being in that clubhouse all next to each other. And obviously we're getting positive. news now, but the the horribleness that's kind of surrounded the Freeman family, how has the team kind of put Freddie on their back and Chelsea and Maximus and all this through this, this trying time. And now to this point where Max is able to get back home, be with his family and all that. You know, how much does that like that baseball, that clubhouse community? How much does that like help somebody like Freddie or even vice versa, bringing a team together more through this adversity? Yeah, no, without question.

You know, my heart goes out to them, and it's such a relief and a joy to hear that he's doing better and the family's doing well. And so we're excited to get Freddie back, but it was a no-brainer. You know, when this sort of thing happened, it's, yeah, you have to go. You have to go be with your family. That takes top priority. And we consider Freddie family. And so this was a no-brainer for him to go be with them and be with his son to make sure everything was okay. And it's just great news that things are moving.

in the right direction. He's doing much better. But I just want to make sure that, you know, for us, that he takes his time, you know, and make sure that he's ready to go and that his headspace and the family's headspace and everyone's good and healthy. And he can kind of then get back to work, but there's no rush on that. You know, life takes priority. Family takes priority over this stuff as important as all this is to a lot of people. But that takes priority. So for him to get through this and make sure that everyone's strong and healthy has been massive. So to get the news that we've received, we're just overjoyed to hear that things are in the right direction. And honestly, yeah, we can't wait to get the MVP

back in the lineup. You know, we've got a couple of MVPs we're waiting on to get back in there. So we're just very thankful that everything's looking well right now. Yeah, family is everything. And we're super happy that you're part of ours, Connor. Thanks again for everything. I appreciate you very much. Best of luck the rest of the way. Love that we're getting some reinforcements. And good luck with you. Clean Fuego and we'll talk to you soon, my friend. Absolutely. Thank you guys.

Really appreciate it. Absolutely. It's our pleasure. Connor McGinnis, assistant pitching coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Always great to get that insight, Clint. There's so much that I can learn from talking to these guys. I mean, they'll forget more baseball than I'll ever know. And I think I know a lot about this game, but I tell you what, it's impressive to hear

what they do on a day in and day out basis. We talked a little bit about injuries, but let's get into it a little bit more with blue balls. Hey, they're in for it. They're coming. They're coming. When Mookie comes back, we had this discussion, by the way, it was a great opportunity for fans to get it on this on how crazy they think I am for wanting Mookiee to go to center and putting to Oscar and right and Kiermire and left. It's always fun to hear the fan perspective, but Mookie is coming back.

We have a plethora of middle infielders. Where does he go when he comes back? I mean, at this point in time, it seems like it will be shortstop. I think the fact that he's continuing to play there. Let's just say this. There's no wrong spot for Marcus Lynn Betts to be on the baseball field. I think there's ways to make the team the best version of itself when you're talking about defensive metrics, when you're talking about in the lineup and all of that.

But there's also the factuality, the reality that somebody like Mookie Betts, an MVP, multi-time gold glove award winner, multi-time All-Star, he kind of can say, I don't really want to do that. You know, he's not going to, I understand he doesn't want to play a utility role. maybe in my opinion after watching baseball for so many years, I think that's a role that makes a lot of sense for them. The reality is that's not how the Dodgers are going to view it. So to the question, it will be shortstop, and then it will be somewhere else.

I think Miguel Rojas has kind of found his way to cement himself as that starting shortstop in October. I think you could see some pieces kind of moving around. Is it the right way to do it? Is it the best way to put the team together? Who knows? What do we know? after i just say watching baseball all these years same with you alana like you know what you would

prefer to see where you would prefer to see these guys be but again with mooky bets am i wrong in saying there's no there's no wrong answer in where you put him at on the field i don't see mokey bets as a utility player elisheva jones says uh no at shortstop either and i and i'm with uh with that comment Mario Torres is DFA Nick Ahmed, Kevin Begio and Option Pahas and Outman. I mean that's that's probably there's so many flipping people now on the 40 man if everybody comes back.

It seems like Clint Paseas is so married to Lux. Actually he's not I'm the one that was married a lot. Not Clint. Clint has come around on it but Clint and Lex have had have had rounds. I will say this about myself and Gavin Luxe.

I'm hard on the kid because I want the kid to do well. I know the talent is there is reason he's a first round pick. And he said it himself, you know, a lot of the issues were there were in his brain. One of the things I talked about on my show, you know, weeks before the season, one of the concerns I had was coming off that knee, you know, how much is it affect the hitting? Because you are planting he is somebody that kind of gets into his stance a lot. And he admitted that he was being very timid, very hesitant with that knee, understandably coming off of that injury. So I'm always going to be tough on luck because I know.

know how good he can be. And the only thing I know is tough love. Well, he's proving you're right right now because he's doing well. When can Edmund go to center field? I don't know. Is Tommy Edmund our third baseman? I mean, Max Muncie apparently is riding the ship and turning the corner and is going to be here before we thought he was going to be here. I mean, but does he go to third? Does Edmund go to third? Do they platoon third? I mean, it's an option. Edmund could be that guy who ends up being the super utility guy playing some playing some center, playing some third base. You know, what is the long-term Kevin Kiermeyer plan with this team for all of the accolades he gets with the glove?

He also is somebody who is far below league average with the bat this year. When we talked about it, you know, what they did at the deadline, they just gave themselves a bunch of options. And as even Connor said, there are going to be some tough questions in the pitching staff, on the pitching staff side of things, but also when it comes to the position player side of things. There's some people that, you know, open the season with this team that might not be getting a whole lot of looks if, you know, even being on the active roster in the postseason. I'm looking at guys like Jason Hayward, maybe Kike Hernandez, who had himself a hell of a series in Oakland. You know, they need to put out the absolute best dudes for, you know, on that 26 man when we get to October. But, hey, they still got two months to figure these questions out.

and the more options they have, whether it's Max coming back and also Freddie and then Tommy Edmund, not too far behind, Chris Taylor, somewhere in that mix. We're getting the positive updates that we want more of. And Freddie, Freddie coming back, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow soon. I don't want those decisions. Those are the things that people don't understand. It's like all these business decisions. You imagine Kike Hernandez is not on a postseason roster, just considering what he's done in the past

as a clutch hitter in the postseason. I get it. I understand. What have you done for me lately? but those are decisions that, thankfully, I do not have to make. All right, time now for last licks presented and powered by baseballism. We appreciate baseballism so much. Baseballism is the official lifestyle brand of baseball.

I am wearing the cap. I am wearing the shirt. And this is all the bow-wow line, by the way, from baseballism. I see the flagman there on the back of your hat. And this is Joy. Joy was a little lady that her family decided that, They wanted to take her to a high hill shelter. I know that's not very lady-like pose there, but she's relaxing.

And the neighbors took her in, but they can't keep her because their chihuahua does not get along with her. And so it's not joy. It's the chihuahua that's causing the fracas. She is available for adoption. She loves all dogs. She's wonderful with kids. She's healthy. She's spayed.

She's potty trained. She's all the things. She's a Rosemind, California is where she's located. Please reach out if you're willing to adopt her. She's a phenomenal young lady, young pup. All right. So baseballism, we have been partners with these guys on Dodgers territory and Fowd Territory for this season. But I've been partners with baseballism, Clint, for about four years.

They have sponsored Guidry's Guardian, my nonprofit foundation, for quite some time now. 10% of all the proceeds goes to Guidry's Guardian Foundation. We are a 100% donation-based organization. So they have T's, they have caps, they have a bunch of different stuff. You can go to Baseballism.com. You can pull up the collaborations. You can see Guidry's guardian there to the bottom left. And they have a bunch of different things going on as far as different styles of shirts and caps.

And they're retiring soon a lot of these because they're being sold out. And we are going to launch perhaps some new designs, some new brands. But the point is 10% goes to the foundation. And we're so incredibly grateful for baseballism for that partnership. And we can't thank them enough. All right. Let's do a final baseball thought. before you tell us what's coming up on all Dodgers with Clint Paseas tonight.

A big series, I guess, you know, with the Phillies. Your takeaway from that. And again, if the postseason started today, which is weird, because as long as it says, our producer told us, do you want to be the number one seat? I mean, I like slotting in that number two seed a little bit more. I would strongly hope that Dodgers don't have to play another NLS team in the first round just because there's a lot of bad memories and bad feelings with that right now. But focusing on this Philly series, it's not what we expected.

It's not what we expected a month ago. I mean, I'm glad the Phillies are kind of floundering a little bit because we don't need to see them go in, beat up on the very, very hurt and injured and depleted Dodgers. But still, has it lost juice? I mean, we had more time. We could pose the question to the audience, of course. But I feel like it's lost a little bit of some of its luster. hopefully maybe it becomes something special in the NLCS.

But yeah, you're looking at two teams that are kind of treading water, honestly, right now. They are, but I do think it's a bigger deal for the Dodgers. The reason I say that is the Phillies are leaders of their division in the NLAS by six games over the Braves. The Dodgers have a four and a half lead over the San Diego Padres, which are playing a lot better. So I think this is a bigger opportunity for L.A. to kind of continue to increase the gap between us and the Padres. and the Phillies coming up, by the way, I think they have the Marlins and the Pirates. So they're coming up against some opponents other than the Dodgers that are sitting with losing records right now.

So I want to see the Dodgers take two of three. I want to see the payback against the Phillies because they killed us when we were in Philadelphia. What's coming up on all Dodgers with Clint Bacius? We will be live tonight, 6 p.m. Pacific time. It's going to be just me. I haven't done a solo show in a little while as we got through the fun and excitement and terror of the trade deadline. So it's me hanging out. We got the voicemail hotline active, firing off.

So we'll hear people's complaints and thoughts and other things about this team or maybe even some positive affirmations from this team. But guys, tube in. Subscribe there to my YouTube channel. Subscribe here, of course, to Dodgers Territory. Hey, we just passed 2,000 subscribers here on YouTube. That's pretty freaking cool. We're trying to get to a million by the end of the day.

So help us get that hard. We appreciate you guys because literally, we probably wouldn't be doing this if you weren't here. So, oh, that was funny. That made me laugh. Yes, please tell your friend, like us, subscribe us. Let's double it. Let's get to 4,000 subs.

We'd appreciate that very much. Check out Clint's podcast tonight, all Dodgers. And Clint and I'll be back on Thursday afternoon at noon Pacific 3 Eastern. Thank you, Connor McGinnis for joining us. We'll see you next time. Okay, bye.