Dodgers Territory - Fabian Ardaya Joins, Ippei Pleads GUILTY, LA Better Than Expected?

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

Shohei Ohtani's former translator and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, agreed to plead guilty to fraud after stealing millions from Ohtani over several years. Dodgers beat writer Fabian Ardaya (The Athletic) joins the show to share details from Mizuhara's arraignment and what comes next in the case.The Dodgers wrapped a homestand sweep and have won 14 of their last 16 games. Is this team even better than we expected? DT hosts Alanna Rizzo and Clint Pasillas hype the surging Dodgers, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto's recent dominance.Plus, updates on Walker Buehler's return to the mound, Clayton Kershaw's progression in his recovery from shoulder surgery and much more!DT streaks Mondays & Thursdays LIVE at 3p ET/12p PT on the NEW DT YouTube channel! PLEASE SUBSCRIBE --> HERESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He sort of is able to go around the ballpark by himself now. This is the first time he's ever driving himself to the ballpark. So, yeah, I think you're going to see some of this sort of change within him. Hello, and good afternoon and welcome to this Thursday live edition of Dodgers territory. That is Clint Paseas.

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stuff. See you here. We have a bunch of different things. But like us, join us. subscribe to us on the Dodgers Territory YouTube channel and Clint, it is time to get into the big ticket. Let's do it. All right. So let's just try to put a bow on this, if you will. It's not necessarily a gift or a present, but Ipe Mizuhara has pleaded guilty to charges that he stole from Shohei Otani and it could mean Clint that he spends the next 30 years in prison. Yeah, this case is we get now into the end of it into the home stretch of it, you know, deportation, obviously, on the table for Mizuhara. At first we hear it's going to be, you know, he stole four million dollars. And it's 16 million

dollars. Now we come up just under $17 million stolen from Otani's bank account. Like you said, he's pleading guilty to the whole thing. So maybe they are going to knock some years off of it. But this is insanity. And I think you were saying just before the show, is there actually a movie coming out about this? Or are we just waiting for it? it to happen. Well, no, I think actually Lionsgate is coming out with some sort of television series about the biggest scandal in baseball since Pete Rose. So Shohei Otani's issue, not knowing, obviously, that his best friend was stealing from him in the, you know, millions of dollars. And then he was saying, Ipe said that Otani did agree this take care of some dental work for him to the tune of,

what, $60,000 or some nonsense? I don't know about you, but no grill is worth 60 grand. Yeah, he pocketed that money, paid it off with a debit card or whatever. It's a wild story. And, of course, we have an expert on the subject here joining us on the show. Fabian Ardaia from The Athletic, of course, co-wrote the article there along with San Blum. Thank you for joining us, Fabian. Busy, Dave, I'm imagining for you. And this story is it nears its end.

Yeah, it's been a busy month, to say the least. Just from when this started, obviously, in South Korea to now. Yeah, it's been a very big month, but thanks for having me on, guys. Fabian, thanks for being here. And I like the sign behind you that says women belong in sports. I appreciate that very much. What do you make of this and the way that Shohei Otani was able to really compartmentalize his feelings and his thoughts? I mean, these two were seemingly incredibly close, but it didn't seem to affect Shohei on the field, as you can see by the numbers that he's posting.

But this is a big deal. Yeah, I mean, this is one of those things that, like, since he was basically coming up, as a rookie, everything like that. Every person that sort of talked about him, talked about his ability to sort of block out distractions, which there's always so many distractions around him. They sort of point to the fact that he hit a couple home runs on the day. He found out he had to have Tommy John surgery for the first time, just his ability to sort of block everything else out. This, like, of course, takes it to a different level, just considering, like, how important

AP Imiz Zahara was to his everyday life. He was basically his manager. He basically did everything for him. So to adjust that while also adjusting to a new team, adjusting to Mary life. There's so many things that have changed in his life in the last 12 months, but he's still producing. I think it's sort of is a testament to him and what he's been able to do. But yeah, it's beyond impressive, even if you remove all the additional context, that's sort of come with it. So Fabian, you, you've followed this team, obviously on a day-to-day basis.

You were there in the early parts of the Shohei era in spring training. We've read a lot. We've heard a lot about the differences with Shohei in the post-Ipe world. What did you kind of get a feeling of a different feeling of show hey and you followed him of course uh covering the angels a few years ago um we've heard again a lot he he's more personable with the team he's kind of connecting he's given dave roberts uh porches and all that for breaking his homer record what's the feeling you get uh for the we'll call it new show hey i think we're seeing just him mature a lot as a person i think that's something i feel like even he would admit like just as you get older he's trying to figure out a lot uh he's almost 30 now he's married like there's a lot of sort of his

that we've already seen like the little hints of over the years like that he's laughs easy sort of stuff like we see that come out a little bit more it's easier to have more direct conversations with him at scenes and it's crazy you sort of just see him walk around the ballpark to sort of by himself sometimes which is something that you never saw when he came mozahar was around just because he handled so much for him handled so much of his schedule would carry around binders with scouting reports when he was a rookie like he did everything for him so now you'll sort of see him even when he goes out for his throwing progression he'll come out sometimes

and like there's no Will Arriton with him one of the trainers is sometimes with him but even then he sort of is able to go around the ballpark by himself now like this is the first time he's ever driving himself to the ballpark so yeah I think you're going to see some of this sort of change within him and sort of this change in the

different dynamics I think a lot of stuff sort of by proxy sort of went through Epage because they figured that would be easier for show hey on a day-day basis but I think they're sort of seeing like he can handle it He's a grown adult. He can sort of handle being like one of the guys. And I think that it's sort of helped him here,

especially getting a chance to sort of actually develop relationships with the guys. It's so much easier to do when it's just you as opposed to having to go through an intermediary. And I love the fact that he's becoming more independent, more personable. Although if I'm making $700 million, I don't care if it's deferred or not. I'm getting a chauffeur to take me in and out of Dodger Stadium. That L.A. traffic is no joke. All right. Fabi and Ardaya does a great job with the athletic.

Get your questions in for him here on the chair. chat here for Dodgers territory. And let's move past the IPE Mizuara situation. Let's look forward. And that is Walker Bueller. He is back. He made his first start since coming off of the IL hasn't pitched really in two years. Best thing, get it out of the way. Shake that rust off. He said for better or worse, Bobby, and it's great to be back. What's your biggest takeaway from his first outing in almost two years? I think the biggest takeaway is that first inning. I know he gave up a couple runs that first inning, but to be able to go out with the adrenaline that's where came and to hit 96, 97, 98, that was something that even Walker Bueller said he wasn't sure

what that was going to look like when he came back to the big league. It's something that you sort of talk about when you're rehabbing with guys. Like, all right, that last little bit of adrenaline is going to make me back to myself again. And you sort of hope and don't fully always believe it. And when you sort of see that, I think that says a lot. I think it says a lot about what the future Walker Bueller looks like because he said he feels like he said he feels like he could be good at 92 to 94, which is where he was for a lot his rehab assignment. He obviously has a good array of off-speed stuff. He's a smart guy.

Like, you could envision a future where he, like, is an effective big league starter, uh, just being able to use that stuff that he had during his rehab assignment. But when you have 96, 97, 98 in there still, I think there's a confidence and a comfort level for Walker Vuehler that comes with that, knowing he could sort of pitch exactly how he did before, maybe a little bit different, but not have to completely overall who he is now. I think knowing that going forward, then he can sort of focus on sort of a smaller tweak, sort of like learning how to finish guys off again with what he has, the running games, some of the smaller details that sort of come with pitching every fifth day.

He can focus on that rather than trying to chase the velocity of who he once was because we've seen that with guys after Tommy John, like they are so focused on trying to find that velocity that they had that it causes the rest of their game to sort of unfold. So knowing that going forward, the velocity is at least in there. He's capable of against that velocity. I think that's going to be the biggest thing for him going to unfold. Well, he'll make his next start against the Padres on Sunday, but Clayton Kershaw's getting back on a mound. His progression is happening at bullpen session just the other day.

What notes are you taken away from that? Jack Harris saying that it was 20 pitches, fastball two seamer and that Kirschaw's shoulder continues to feel good. Next steps ramping up and pens and mixing and breaking stuff. Really encouraging. How so, Fabian? Yeah, I would say it's definitely encouraging. He's off a mound because that's a big step. It's funny that the day after he threw his first bowl, I sort of asked how it was like,

I did it. That's basically it. And I think that's all you sort of need. Like, you just have to get through these sort of milestones. And once you start doing that, I think once you start seeing him face hitters, that's what most start to get like a better gauge, like what a timeline looks like, how he sort of fits in. But obviously, I mean, this is uncharted territory, even for him, because this is the first major shoulder or major arm surgery he's had.

So sort of coming back from the shoulder issue, like, no, I don't think there's any question that they got, like, competitiveness and sort of his, ability to sort of think through the art of pitching will help them sort of come back through this but you still have to see where physically is at where the velocity winds up ticking up to where the command is compared to where it was before but yeah obviously it's an encouraging sign for the Dodgers for the rotation health knowing that Dustin May is also about to start throwing bullpen sessions Bobby Miller is starting to ramp back up the rotation is starting to tick back health-wise in the right direction so we talked a lot about pitching we got to talk about the offense which took a little bit

of time to kind of find its footing. I point to, well, not the day Andy Paix has made his major league debut, but a couple days after him sort of becoming that solidifying factor at the bottom of the lineup, everything sort of seemed to click from there. What have you seen from the rookie that maybe people weren't expecting this out of him, especially this early? What are you seeing at a pot-heads? Yeah, he's been really impressive.

I think sort of the scouting port you always kind of rightly, all right, you figure there'd be some production in there power-wise, just consider to keep. hit so many home runs in the minor leagues, that he was a pretty smart guy. Defensively, he was pretty well-equipped, especially with the arm, but he's the guy who lost some weight the last couple of years, has gotten more mobile. You sort of figure that, like, overall, like,

this was going to be a big league package. It's just a matter, like, what it kind of looked like. But spring training, like, he turned a lot of heads, especially considering he was less than a year removed from labor surgery, which we've seen for some guys, it takes a while to get back to being yourself. and it looked like he was better than ever afterwards. Like the power is still there. You've seen that the barrel control was crazy.

I think that's the thing that sort of shot the most. Like his ability to manipulate the barrel, make contact when he has to. And that's going to be the biggest thing for him because the strikeouts have always kind of been a thing for him. But if he can continue to have that barrel control, he can at least manage the strikeouts, keep him at a manageable level, hit for enough power on average that it's a good offensive profile. With that defense, like, it's a very useful player. going forward. He's a guy who I don't see a world where they send him down at this point, just considering how valuable he's been, sort of how impactful he's been. He's been an everyday player, essentially since he's been called up. And I don't think what the Dodgers have tried

to mess with that in any way. Yeah, I've argued the last couple episodes here that any change his number already. He's clearly not going anywhere. As Lana said, you know, get him out of the tight end type of numbers there. But obviously, Dodgers on a role right now, winners of 14 of 16, I think it is everything seems to be firing right. We knew that was most likely the expectations of this team, but it almost feels like they're exceeding expectations. You know, would you argue, would you say maybe people are taking the Dodgers for granted? I think we kind of saw that this was in there.

Like there was this kind of run in there. They've had a couple of these runs last few years, even when the teams haven't been as talented as this year's team. The last year's team had a couple runs like this. But I don't think even within those runs, they've looked as dominant as they have these last 16 games. Like, their pitching has been the ERA's under two during this stretch. Like, they're producing offense of the best rate in baseball. They have the highest batting average baseball.

They're producing slug. Like, you're starting to see the bottom of the lineup to show some signs of life. They are a dominant team that has dominant stretches. I think there are still some things from their downstretched in April that are warning signs when you look towards October. some of the stuff with the bullpen, uncertainty, especially with some of the injuries they've picked up. There's still some uncertainty at the bottom of the line that they could be prone to going silent at times.

But those are things that you look towards October as things to address, but you still have to embrace what they've done during this stretch. Like, they've looked every bit like the sort of team that spent a billion dollars this winner. Like, that's what that buys you is sort of these sort of stretches where you look at Dominant, where you have guys, new guys like Tyler Glassdown, Yoshinoviyombo Yomoto is dominant, where Shohay Otani is looking like the best hitter on the planet. This is what you sort of dream of it looking like. And I think for 16 games, that's essentially what it's been.

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This Woman's History Month, the podcast, If You Knew Better with Amber Grimes, spotlights women who turn missteps into momentum and lessons into power. I think coming out of where I came from, I'm from the Bronx, I think I grew up really poor. I didn't know that then because I very much used my creativity to romanticize life. And I'm like, my mom did a really good job of like, you step back and you're like, whoa, we, I don't know how we made it. So a lot of my life was like built out of, like, like survival to get to the next place.

Like my drive, my like tunnel vision of like, I got to be better. I got to achieve this was off the strengths of like, I want to make a better life for us. If You Knew Better brings real talk from women who've lived it. Unpacking career pivots, relationship lessons, and the mindset shifts that changed everything. Listen to If You Knew Better with Amber Grimes on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. We have a couple of questions here as we get folks involved in the chat on Dodgers territory. We'll start with a question from Joe. What are the chances, Fabian, of Dodgers going after relief pitching by the deadline.

We know that Evan Phillips is on the aisle. We know that Blake Trinen is back. But do you think we know bruised are still away from coming back? So what are the chances Joe Mama wants to know? What are the chances of Dodgers going after perhaps some bullpen pieces? I think they're always sort of in a sort of market for relief help. I think even last year you saw them still trying to look to address that they got Joe Kelly there as the main addition there. But yeah, I think they sort of entered this season, maybe a lefty shortened bullpen.

You sort of saw that early on in the season, although Alex Vessie has really come on well as of late. Ryan Yarborough has been great sort of soaking up innings. But they still are probably going to look at some leverage options. you're kind of hoping that Blake trying to continue to look like he has so far that when Evan Phillips comes back, he looks like as dominant as he did. Daniel Hudson's been really good, better than anyone could have expected, especially considering he hasn't pitched in like two years. But yeah, I think teams are contending teams especially are always kind of in the market to add bullpen help. I think the Dodgers are no sort of exception there. I got another question here.

A fan favorite. Somebody that the team was expecting a lot of out of last year did not quite get. it, but Miguel Vargas, back down to AAA, kind of tearing the cover off the ball in some ways. We know this team needs a little bit of help either at second base, maybe in the outfield because there have been some struggles there. Are you hearing anything, any internal rumblings about the potential of a Miguel Vargas return to the big leagues? Not imminently from what I can tell.

I think the second base experiment with him is done. I think we sort of defensively that it just didn't work there. he's worked exclusively in the outfield this season. I think it's intriguing to see sort of as the season progresses if Chris Taylor can't get going, if James Outman can't get going, then all of a sudden you can start to discuss that going forward because obviously like you mentioned, the bat has been there for Vargas in AAA. It seems like the confidence is back. He lost a little bit of that last year when he sort of started the season with some hand

injuries and wasn't swinging as normal rate and then it's just got a little bit tentative in the box. Now you're trying to see a little bit more of what the Dodgers kind of envisioned when they made him in their opening day second basement last year. So, yeah, I think if some of the other options start, like, continue to scuffle, like, I don't think Chris Taylor's going to have the longest leash in the world as long as he keeps hitting this way. James Allen is obviously trying to work his way through some stuff at the bat at the plate as well. So there's a world where, like, he becomes an option. But I think as of right now, Andy Pa has just kind of supplanted him in that hierarchy. I don't think he's going to go anywhere anytime soon. Man, this game comes at you fast.

I remember in spring training a couple of years ago, I was like if James Outman is not on the big league club soon, I'm going to absolutely riot, and it just shows you how difficult it is to get to this level, and moreover, to stay at this level. Fabian, you're not going anywhere anytime soon. The athletic is lucky to have you. We are lucky to have you here on Dodgers territory.

Thank you so much for being a part of our show today. We really appreciate it. Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. All right, time for behind the scenes. We're going to start with moving or looking forward, I should say. I know that the Dodgers are basically landing in San Diego soon. So I think, right, don't they play San Diego?

They're going on a six-game road trip, right? So they have the Dodgers against the Braves and then against the San Francisco Giants. So it's a big NL West wing, right? I mean, the Dodgers already have a significant lead in the National League West. But they have an opportunity to pad that lead. I mean, how do you look at the upcoming six games? I look at this the way the Dodgers usually look at every series, every game. It's just another day, play the game the way they've been playing the game.

What I love out of this team right now is they are just playing their version of baseball. I'm calling it almost like surgical level of baseball in their recent stretch of dominance. They're beating the bad teams. They're beating teams they're supposed to beat. They're also beating some good teams like the Braves in there. We don't quite know where the Padres fall yet. still, you know, they still have to figure out some things in that starting rotation there. But anytime you do face an N.L. West foe, a rival, if you want to call them a rival,

there's going to be some pomp. There's going to be some circumstance. Everybody will be looking at this series. But the Dodgers at this point in time, it's not like, it's not a shocking statement to say. They are a better team than the San Diego Padres. And I think we will see that shine this weekend. All right. So they have it's Glasnau,

versus King, then Paxton versus Waldron, then Bueller versus Darvish. Pad Padres beat them in a three-game series in April, but that's fine. Then the Dodgers head to San Francisco to play the Giants from Monday to Wednesday. Dodgers sweeping the Giants in a three-game series. Are the Giants worse than you thought they would be? I thought they were going to be better in terms of their pitching staff. Yeah, things are a little bit of a struggle over there in San Francisco. Of course, we'll kind of preview that series a little bit on Monday, but just not clicking there

for the for the damn giants i wasn't say the friars but for the giants at this point in time um but we'll talk more about that next week i guess yeah no and i don't i don't i mean i don't feel bad i mean let's be honest i don't feel bad that that they're not clicking but i wanted to ask you your opinion that you asked fabian about whether we take this team for granted or not and i i had a conversation this morning on another show on another production call that was basically like when the Dodgers win, you know, 17 of 20 or 14 or 16 or, you know, they have a nine game win streak. It's like, ho-hum, people expect it. You know, if the pirates rolled off 10 in a row, it's like, that's awesome. The pirates are playing really hot baseball right now. But I think when

you look at the Dodgers, it's almost like, well, they better be doing that. Do we often, do we take this team for granted of what they've been able to put together for the amount of years that they've been able to do it. I would say, yeah. If we were talking about the totality of the dominance over the last, you know, 10 to 12 seasons, which is makes me feel really old to talk about, they just keep finding new ways to be insanely good at what they do in this team might be an exception when we're talking about being insanely good.

They went out and spent a lot of money. You expected them to be very, very good at playing baseball. but somehow they're playing better than you would expect, considering all of the pitching injuries that they have suffered through. They're missing part of their starting rotation. They're missing depth parts of the rotation. They're missing half of their bullpen, if not more. But people are stepping up.

They're stepping into roles, settling into roles. The pitcher by or closer by committee so far has worked out well with Vescia stepping in there, Daniel Hudson stepping in there. all of a sudden you look, Dodgers are third in baseball in team ERA at 325, keep looking better. All the issues I would say we had, you and I had about, you know, our concerns really about this bullpen. They've they've proven us wrong big time. Alex Vescia types. Michael Grove has settled into a phenomenal role.

I think he's scoreless in 11 of his last 12 outings or something like that. ugly three run outing in one of them, but it's fun to watch. This is a team that is fun to watch. And again, I'll say it, they're surgical right now in their domination over opponents. And we're seeing games under two hours. How fun is that as a reporter? By the way, hang on a second, because the flipping pitch clock wasn't in play when I was a reporter. It's like all of a sudden, I leave L.A. Not only do the Dodgers have Jennifer Lopez do the gala the year that I leave. Then the pitch clock comes into play and three hour and 20 minute games go away. And the Dodgers finish a game last night in an hour 51.

Where was that when I was in LA for seven seasons? I'm not mad about it at all, though. Come check this. IHeart and TikTok have come together to create something new. I love it. Where the world of TikTok meets your playlist. Three words that will change your life. IHeart TikTok radio.

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An ambitious, well-intentioned, ferocious, and wealthy mother looks like in the black community. This Woman's History Month, the podcast Keep It Posit, Sweetie, celebrates the power of women choosing healing, purpose, and faith, even when life gets messy.

Love is not a destination. You have to work on it every day. Keep It Posit, Sweetie, creates space for honest conversations on self-worth, love, growth, and navigating life with grace and grid, led by women who uplift, inspire, and tell the truth out loud. I have several conversations with God, and I know why. It took 20 years. To hear this and more, listen to Keep It Paz's Sweetie on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

It's the new me, and it's the old them. Everybody's on their journey, and your journey is different to this. This Woman's History Month, the podcast, if you knew better with Amber Grimes, spotlights women who turn missteps into momentum and lessons into power. I think coming out of where I came from, I'm from the Bronx. I think I grew up really poor. I didn't know that then because I very much used my creativity to romanticize life. And I'm like, my mom did a really good job of like, you step back and you're like, whoa,

we, I don't know how we made it. So a lot of my life was like built out of like survival to get to the next place. It's like my drive, my like tunnel vision of like, I got to be better. I got to achieve this was off the strengths of like, I want to make a better life for us. If You Knew Better brings real talk from women who've lived it, unpacking career pivots, relationship lessons, and the mindset shifts that changed everything. Listen to If You knew better with Amber Grimes on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You know what else I'm not mad about? Yamamoto is heating up. Take that one outing and soul.

Bye-bye. because he looks so good. Yama is fun to watch 176 ERA since Korea, spanning 41 innings. He's another guy, I would call surgical in his approach as well. He was having some issues with fastball location in there at one point. That seems to be behind him. He's throwing the whole mix well.

And him combined with that co-aist Tyler Glasnow, who's leading the league in just about everything, leading the team in just about everything for sure. That is a fun one-two punch. And oh, by the way, you welcome back Walker F. and Bueller, who, like he was talking about in his post-game. And I don't know if you watched his full post-game scrum, very candid, very open Walker Bueller. But he's talking about, yeah, I used to be that guy.

I want to be that guy alongside these guys. You know, you know how it goes with starting rotation, this pitching staff situation. It's a competition between them as well. They all want to be the best and things trending. up for an already very high Dodgers team. But that leaves me to my next question, Clint. How many starts do we give Walker before he's back to that guy that he wants to be? I mean, is that obviously he's going Sunday against the Padres two starts.

That's not enough coming off a second Tommy John surgery. I mean, what are we talking? Are we talking the deadline? How he looks by July 31st. What are we talking about here after the all-star break? What do we need from him? I mean, I think we're going to know within six. or eight starts of what kind of guy he's going to be.

I don't think we're going to see that 9798 regularly out of him like he was talking about, that adrenaline won't be the same day in, day out, start in, start out. But he's somebody who's, you know, over the years learned to be a pitcher rather than just a thrower. He can adjust to his game. He can adapt. He doesn't want to live in the 92, 94 range, but he can still, you know, get some good work done there.

But yeah, give me six starts before I start to really formulate. an opinion on Walker. You know, it was kind of, it was death by a thousand paper cuts in his, in his first outing there with them free swing in Marlins. But yeah, that's what I'm looking at. I want six starts before we really kind of focus in or humming on some sort of solid opinion of, okay, maybe this isn't going to be the guy. Maybe this isn't.

I'm going to see how close you are because we're going to have Mark Pryor, the Dodgers pitching coach on our show, Dodgers territory next Thursday. So a week from today talking about that, like how long. long does he need Walker to have that opportunity to get back to where he was, how Clayton is progressing, all the things as far as the Dodgers' entire pitching staff is concerned. All right, how about we talk about Joe Kelly potentially a short IL stint? Joe Kelly complained of discomfort in his shoulder in his lat area after his last outing. This is again from Fabi and Ardaya who we just heard from. But scans didn't reveal any structural damage. Dave Roberts said they're hoping it's

a short term stint on the IL. Then things are looking up, Clint, for Jason Hayward as well. and Bobby Miller, but circling back to Joe Kelly, Mardiachi Joe. You need this guy. Talk about fire. Talk about a guy that, you know, has traffic on the bases, but finds ways to get out of it. You love the personality. You love, you know, he's cuckoo for cocoa puffs, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Yeah, I mean, losing him and then, you know, a day after Evan Phillips was definitely a little bit scary.

When you do look at that bullpen and I look over here because I have a paper where I write them all down because sometimes you forget the name. games when this revolving door at times. But luckily, the starting rotation has been doing its job, given six, given seven innings, sometimes dropping eight innings. And that really masks some of the concerns in the bullpen right now, because there's not a lot of weaponry in that bullpen with Phillips and Kelly down. And of course, still no bruised our graderol in the bullpen. You know, I've given props. And I see that the chat was given some props as well to somebody like Michael Grove, who has been very, very good over his last 12, 15 games or whatever. He has an ERA. I think it's at 203, not a problem really in that bullpen. And Alex Vesia, another dude, also very much stepping up.

So they're going to need to lean on these guys while somebody like Kelly is out. And we really, really, really need to hope that it is a short stint for Joe and Evan. I don't know how you feel about this, but I feel like if you have more than one closer, you don't have a closer. It makes me very nervous to have a bunch of different guys throwing the ninth inning. And I was talking about this earlier today when it comes to like another team like the Baltimore Orioles. They're going to go to the postseason, right? I mean, unless there's an apocalypse, they're probably going to be in the postseason. Craig Kimbril is not the answer. And I'm not trying to say that he's not a great closer. I mean, he's like on like top 10, top five in the all time saves list. But he makes me wicked nervous. I don't like not having a guy like a like a, you know, a Kenley Jansson.

back in the day and Eric Gagne, obviously back in the day, Mariano and Trevor Hoffman, those types of guys, Josh Hater before he went to Houston, you know, those types of things. Are you comfortable with this team going to the postseason with a rotating, you know, door in the ninth inning? Well, I mean, if Evan Phillips is healthy, he's going to be getting those save opportunities. You know, that was a conversation in the offseason. People had a lot. Like, who's going to be the Dodgers closer?

I mean, he's been there. He was essentially that guy last year. And that's Evan Phillips. And, you know, the numbers tell you, this is one of the best relievers in baseball. Yeah, he's not the sexiest name. He is white bread with bland peanut butter put on it. But sometimes he just need a snack. And he's very good at his job.

He just needs the pieces behind him to be healthy and, you know, bridge that gap to get to him. Which if everybody's healthy, it's a really good bullpen right now. But the health has been concerning. White bread with bland peanut butter. What he needs is some pan cubanno comentechia. That's Cuban bread with a little bit of butter. We get a little cafe cuanano in there and he'll be just fine.

All right. It is time now for last licks. A three-game set, Clint, before they play the Padres and the Giants. We'll get to that in just a second. But this is Mama Smoors. This little baby is a healer. She's super sweet. She's super smart.

She's good with other dogs. She's a little bit shy. So Healing Hounds Rescue. I'm working with them through Guidry's Guardian to help her with that. But she is located in Southern California. She's young. She's healthy. She's wonderful.

Check out Mama Smoors. I love the name. You can name dogs whatever you want. Like I saw a dog running around the other day. His name was Allen. I'm like, what, is he an accountant at night? His name's Alan. So Mama Smoors needs an adoption.

So check us out. By the way, Glasnow. King, what do you need to see against the Mariners before they hit the road for the NL West? Mariners, what are we talking about? I mean, what are we talking about? I mean, what are we talking about? The Padres.

What do you need to see from? Yeah. Why are I talking about? It's all good. We decided to not drink. No, I'm not even drinking. That's the problem. That's the problem.

We need to have a shot. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. They're off today. Padres. Yeah, what do we need to see from this Padre series? well, one, we need to see people go out there and adopt that dog named Mama Smoors because that is a great name for that dog. My God, what a... I mean, is that not a campfire name, if you've ever heard one? Mama Smoors?

I will be camping and there will be Smoors in about six or eight hours for me. So we will be having fun there. But you just need to see the team keep doing what they're doing. Let your starters do your thing. You got a couple of good ones in there with Bueller and Glassnow bookending the series for the Dodgers. You got a throwback series on Sunday, as somebody said in the chat with Darvish versus Bueller. So that one will be fun to watch. And then the knuckle ball are going for the Padres on Saturday.

Just Dodgers keep doing your thing. Don't care about the opponent. Just keep doing your thing. And they're going to be in a phenomenal spot moving forward. Is Louisa Rise enough for the Padres now that he went from the Marlins to the Padres? Is that enough to make the Padres, not that they're not relevant, but to make them a legit competitor in this division with L.A.? Does he pitch?

No. No. They need pitching. They needed starting pitching pretty desperately. And then they picked up a couple of guys from the Yankees in that Wonsoto trade. But still, you want the same way we're talking about Phillips. You need some big names. You want some names that feel, you know, instill a little bit of fear in the

opponent. So, Arise, yeah, sure, it'll make a, why not add another infielder. You got 50 infielers on that team playing all around the infield and outfield and catching, hell, why not throw that in there? But I'm interested to see the team this weekend and see how much Arise actually moves the needle. And I'm going to have fun on Monday just shitting all over the whole Tony Gwynn comp when it comes to Luis Arum.

Yeah. I have to say that. I get that. You can't, you can't, you cannot compare anybody, anybody to Tony Gwynn, which by the way, happy heavenly birthday to senior today is his birthday. But it is a little crazy in the first 507 or 570 career games between these two. I mean, you know, this guy, Louisa Rise is a single sitter. Tony Gwyn never struck out. But it is, it is crazy. But no, that's not a fair comp. And it's not fair to Louisa Rice either to compare him to Tony Gwynne Senior. sure he's not asking for the comparison. But, you know, in this day and age of analytics and Sabremetrics, we always have to, comparison is the thief of joy. And that is why I'm not comparing how I did today to the way that you can, you did today, because you win. And that takes away

my joy. So I'm not going to compare our performances today. Okay. The Dodgers are off today. What is on all Dodgers tonight? Nothing, because your boy's going to be out camping. So it is an off night. Either way, as my own boss, thankfully, I do get to take my days off or whatever. And this lovely, wonderful, amazing community of people, Dodgers fans here on YouTube are gracious in letting us have our good days or bad days or our nights off. So we could be drinking around a campfire. But either way, subscribe to all Dodgers with Clint Passia's here on YouTube. I will be back on Monday. And make sure you subscribe to the new Dodgers Territory YouTube channel here.

If you guys are watching, that's the channel it's on. We need to get to a billion subscribers by tomorrow or else. Or we lose our jobs, which I can understand why. They would want to kick me off the show. Have a good rest of your Thursday, Clint. Have a safe trip camping. We'll see you guys on Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern for Dodgers territory. Bye.

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