Dodgers Territory - It's Time for Shohei Ohtani to Come to Terms with His Health

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Alanna Rizzo, Katie Woo, and Clint Pasillas dive into the latest with the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers and the increasingly uncomfortable situation involving superstar two-way player Shohei Ohtani. Shohei is obviously hurt... why has he insisted on continuing to play? The hosts break down manager Dave Roberts' comments. (20:26) Behind the Seams explores what changed for the Dodgers and the rumored call up of outfield prospect James Tibbs III. (31:00) Plus, thoughts on the Angels being sold and how it might affect the Dodgers. Share your thoughts in the live chat! Use our code for 10% off your next order of MLB tickets on SeatGeek*: seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TERRITORY10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Subscribe on YouTube!https://www.youtube.com/@DodgersTerritory  Follow our social media channels for more content!https://x.com/LADTerritory https://www.instagram.com/ladterritory/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578546105253  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/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late round fantasy football podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. College football will hijack your weekend, ruin your sleep, and break your heart. And that's why we make the Solid Verbal College Football Show. I'm Ty Hildenbrand. He's Dan Rubinstein. Every week, we preview the games that matter and the storylines that are going to ignite your college.

group chat. And you can join us in the aftermath as we react to what happened, why it matters, and how the sport went completely bonkers yet again. Listen to the Solid Verbal College Football Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There needs to be a decision made on what you want and what the team wants. And maybe that's not the same thing right now. There needs to be everyone on the same page after this conversation today. And welcome to a brand new live edition of Dodgers territory on this Thursday, September 3rd. I'm Alana Rizzo, Katie Wu, Clint Pesias with you guys. The gang is back together again. Happy to be with you guys. Lots to talk about, including the fact that September has fixed nothing. Let's get to the big ticket.

All right, guys, a very ugly series so far against Katie's former team, the St. Louis Cardinals. So far, they have allowed 21 runs to the Redbirds, Katie. I'll let you dissect this one first. You know both of these clubs very well. What are you noticing from the pitching side of the Dodgers, or perhaps it's just better to say that the Cardinals have a pretty decent lineup that we didn't know about. Tell me more. I'm not sure it's either of those things. I think it's just a matter of the Cardinals have been taking advantage of scoring opportunities,

and the Dodgers have not. I was going through this lineup on Tuesday for the series opener for St. Louis and a team that I spent five years covering, and I didn't know a vast majority of the names on the active roster. they're without JJ Weatherholt, they're without Mason Wynn. And this felt like a get-right series for Los Angeles. Instead, it has pretty much pointed any optimism that we had coming into the new month back towards the August level of how we felt about this club. So going one for 18 with runners in scoring position last night, they left 13 runners on base.

You just can't do that against any club, regardless of record. And when you're comparing these two teams, the Cardinals took advantage of those opportunities. The Dodgers did not. Not a well-pitched game by Eric Lauer on Tuesday. It was a well-pitched game up until the sixth inning by Yamamoto on Wednesday. And then it just became a matter of who could cash in and who couldn't. So Cardinals have completely outplayed the Dodgers in the last two games. And it's not what you want for a team that has said.

It's September. It's time to step on the gas. We haven't really seen a lot of that. Okay. A little bit of technical background here, too. Katie doesn't have a regular computer. We're flying by the seat of our pants here. So if her audio sounds a little bit funky, everybody bear with us.

We're going to get you good content. I'm trying to, listen, she's honestly, the work she just put in, it was an amount. It was an amount to get us to hear. More work than what the Dodgers are doing offensively, pitching-wise. Defense has been pretty okay. But yeah, you were really hoping. I was really hoping that the month of September would do just something. And we'll talk more about this later.

You know, we were hoping there would be a spark maybe in the roster side, maybe in the James Tibbs, the third side of things. But, you know, they just decided to go different routes. Alex Freeland, not the answer, no disrespect specifically to Alex Freeland. He's not the reason show Hey, Otani isn't hitting. He's not the reason that, you know, Max Muncie has struggled of late and so on and so forth. And he's also not the reason that, you know, Eric Lauer was really bad on Tuesday. And also Yamamoto gave up to homers.

They're getting guys on base. They're leaving them on base. And it just comes down to overall team production. And, you know, when they're slumping, apparently they are slumping hard, they're slumping together. And Katie, you're the person that's in that clubhouse. How are things in there? Because it seems like maybe it's starting to get a little testy. It's business as usual, which I think is a testament to the patience of the club and them knowing themselves.

Again, this is one of the most accomplished experience groups in all of baseball. But you've heard it from Freddie Freeman. You heard it from Max Muncie. You heard it from Tasker Hernandez. It's time to step it up a little bit. And going one for 18 with runners in scoring position, that's what Friday Freeman. He didn't even know post game. We were talking about it.

And he said, 18. That's probably why we lost. Yes, great analysis. Freddie Freeman. That is essentially why the Dodgers lost. And I see what he was saying yesterday when he said, you know, the fact that we had 18 opportunities is a good sign for our offense. Yes.

But the concerning sign is that those opportunities were not cashed in. And this is with a homer from Freddie in his first. 47 games, I believe, had in Homeward since July 4th. Mookie Betts also homered. It's the third time this season that both Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts have homered in the same game. That seems a little concerning. To Oscar Hernandez, for as hard as we've been on him, have three really good pieces of hitting and his bats have looked better in the last three-game sample size.

So we're seeing guys trend in the right direction, but we're still not seeing those opportunities scoring. And to win baseball games, say with me, guys, you have to score runs. So this Dodgers team, I know. I believe it was September 6th last year when they hit their rock bottom against the Baltimore Orioles. Well, we're almost there. And it feels like this series, or this game today, the series finale against the Cardinals, once again feels like a must-win game.

Otherwise, I feel like we can make the argument that they're right around that rock-bottom point that they were at this time last year. All right. It's going to be great. I still say that. But there's one big thing we need to address. Before I get to that, this is a funny comment to me. John C. underscore 90 says, I almost can't even watch. these shows. He's not talking about us, I'm sure.

Because anything to do with baseball makes me pissed off and upset. Now that the Dodgers are proven, they're probably not going to three feet. First of all, John, okay, these guys are experienced professional Hall of Famers. They don't need to spark. They just need to do their job jobs. Okay, yes, that is true. And they do need to

do their job jobs. But I will say this. I am much more concerned of Shohei Otani's lack of offense and the whole situation of not putting him on the IL than I am worried about the rest of the Dodgers and how they are performing on September 3rd. I do think this team will figure it out when it matters the most. But guys, Sho Hay's struggles are continuing to get worse.

And Dave Roberts finally had to admit it publicly, which what I probably assume is what he obviously already knows, being the man that he is. But everybody is asking the question and we're only hopeful to be able to get answers on Shohay Otani because he does not speak to the media. Katie obviously talked to Dave last night, a quote. Clearly tonight you could see the swing wasn't the swing we're used to sing. He feels he needs to post and I respect that. But if he's feeling the way he visibly looks, then really not helping anyone, that's the conversation I'll have with him. So it's finally gotten to the point, Katie, and you certainly know more than I, because you're in there every single day. It's finally

gotten to the point where it's forcing Dave's hand to address it, because when was the last time Shohei spoke about it or spoke at all? A last time Shohei Otani spoke to the media was August 17th in Denver, and this is, you know, many requests through Dodgers PR that, you know, we're trying the best that we can. And eventually, fair or not falls on Dave Roberts to speak for his players when his players are either not available or choose not to make themselves available. And I think yesterday, when it was very clear. The four strikeout game aside, it was the quality of the swings, it was the wincing, it was the shaking out the hand. We know he's not 100% of because he was shut down from what felt

like a pending return to pitching 24 hours before that was scheduled to happen. And no one's really 100% this time of year, but we don't know where he's at with his health because we haven't talked to him. And it's not for lack of effort here. Dave Roberts then has to spend 10 minutes post game after an already frustrating loss trying to answer on behalf of his superstar. And yes, that's part of what a manager is paid to do. But like we talked about before earlier in the season, the last thing that you want to do is speculate on how someone feels certainly as someone as important as Shoah Otani. And we just don't know where he's at other than being able to read the swings and looking at the production that he's not right. And that's what Dave Roberts said yesterday.

It sounds very unlikely. We'll see, I don't know, again, but it sounded unlikely based on Dave speaking on behalf of Shoah, that you would go on the IL, maybe a rest day today on Thursday, get him reset. But it's really difficult to understand exactly where he is with his health. The only thing that we know about Shohei is that he wants to return to pitching this year. I think it's very valid to tie in that concerns with if he wants to pitch so badly, but he's not healthy enough to do so. Is that bleeding into his lack of offense production over the last three weeks? And then the big question is, what's more important? What Shohei wants to do or what Shohei could do that is best for the team? And right now, again, based on what we're talking about,

talking about through a third party, those things don't seem to be aligned. The overarching question for all of this is, you know, I guess it's not even question, but it's really, you know, show hey, you can't always get what you want. I understand he wants to be in there. I understand he wants to play. I understand that he feels he can contribute. And you know what, every time that we've had this conversation about, and we've been having this for months now, they announced that he had a knee issue, you know,

before the All-Star break early in July. obviously did not play during the All-Star game, had the injection in the knee. We knew he was getting shut down pitching-wise. We've known about this injury for a while, and I've been barking for months. Shut him down, let him get right, don't let him pitch, or whatever it may be, but it has very clearly bled into the offense. And if Shohei wants to play, that's cool, that's noble. You want to do your job, bro. You get paid either way, so you don't need to play. But right now it is actively hurting the team and I think it's just the the physical struggles have spun into mental struggles and now it feels to me, Dave, Dave was, Dave had to take on a lot last night.

You usually, every, every media member, they just let it eat 10 minutes of Dave on show hey, almost specifically on show hey there. And, you know, Dave has to talk. It sounds like Dave needs to talk to show hey. through the media now because he's not listening to what he is saying, what the organization is saying. And we have some video from that before, Riz, I want your thoughts on all of this. Because again, it's just, it's very bizarre the way this is kind of, um, it's two sides feel very far apart. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

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Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, to whom much is given much is expected. Shohei Otani was given a $700 million contract, and I completely, completely understand that he was worth every single penny of it, simply on the ROI, simply on the return on investment that the Los Angeles Dodgers are benefiting from

by having Shohei Otani on their roster. We could talk about how much money they're getting in return just because Shohei is in the lineup, just because he pitches every fifth day when he was healthy enough to pitch, the advertising, everybody that wants to get a piece of the Dodgers now because of Shohei, I understand it from a business perspective. But I remember where I was when he got that deal. And this was before the Juan Soto 765 or whatever the heck it was. And now the exorbitant contracts

as they continue. But I was like, oh my gosh, 700 million. This guy must be unbelievable. I mean, obviously we've seen him now and he is unbelievable. He's one of a kind, right? Nobody is discounting what Shohei brings to the table. But he's not healthy. And at a certain point, you have to understand that Shohei is just a part of the sum. He is not larger than the sum. He is a puzzle piece to what has been an unbelievably juggernaut of a puzzle. But if at this point his lack of production offensively, perhaps because of the injury and the pitching side of things,

is hurting the team as a whole, at what point do you say, listen, Shohei, we respect you, we appreciate you, but you're hurting the team now. And that to me is not, And I'm not saying Shohei is not a team player. But what I've noticed is Shohei talks when he wants to talk. Shohei has separate areas of the clubhouse, the dugout, those types about the dugout to the clubhouse and in certain things.

And, you know, he has been put on a pedestal. I understand because of the resume, because of what he brings to the table. But if your teammates have to answer for you, if your manager has to kind of answer for you and be your mouthpiece, that's a dangerous thing. Dave doesn't want to have to do that. It puts Dave in a terrible position to have to constantly talk about Shohei's injury and what's happening. That's going to piss off Shohei.

It's going to piss off his agency. It's probably going to piss off people in the front office. But that puts Dave in a horrible position. But Dave also has 24, now in this case, 27 other guys that he needs to deal with. And I remember a couple of years into the Shohei Otani tenure with Los Angeles Dodgers, his teammates get sick and tired of talking about him all the time, right? You get tired of that. And it's like, it's a lot. And I get it. He's an amazing player, but you're not bigger than the Dodgers.

And I just feel like if he is hurt to the point where he's not able to pitch and they want to shut him down for the remainder of the season and he doesn't want to do that, which again, like Clint said, is a noble thing. You want to take the ball every fifth day. You want to be there. You don't want to be on the IL. But if that's hurting your team, shut it down, whether it's 10 or 15 day IL because he's a two-way player. I don't know the logistics of that. I apologize. guys, but at some point, shut him down. I mean, why did you call Dalton rushing back?

Is Dalton rushing show? Hey, no, but throw him in as the DH. Give him some at-bats. Shut your way down. You have a big enough lead in the division. Get to October. Be healthy. You're not bigger. You are not bigger than the sum. You are a part of it.

Even though you're probably the most important piece of the puzzle, you're not the entire puzzle. Yeah. And them are facts. And it's not shutting him down for the rest of the season. I think the important thing to throw out here is that we are not saying that Shohay has done for the year, that he is hurting the team, because it's not just him. He's not the reason again. Same way Freeland isn't the reason Shohay is struggling. Shohay is not causing Max Muncie struggles. He is not causing them to hit into 58 double plays per game, all that kind of stuff. But the point is here, you have about a month. And we're going to listen to Dave right now and let Katie go. go scorched earth as professionally as she wants to. But if you have this time to rest up now and get right for October, your MVP odds are done. Chances are gone. Don't worry about the MVP.

Don't worry about a Cy Young. Don't worry about pitching for this team. You got four other guys that have some pretty good stuff behind you. Get your body right and then start figuring it out from there. Go back to square one. But I say from here, let's listen to Doc, because he had a lot of things to say, and then we'll come back and kind of digest it all. I saw the same thing that everyone saw. I'm going to talk to him tomorrow and really try to figure out, you know, get with Thomas and figure out where he's at physically because, yeah, I saw the shaking of the arm, I saw the wincing, and clearly the swings aren't who he is.

And so obviously there's some compensation. So I'm going to talk to him and then, you know, I'll make a decision tomorrow about his availability. It won't be an I.L. Unless it is, but I'm very, it's very unlikely. But I do think that I'm going to have a conversation and I'll decide, we'll decide, you know, after I talk to him, you know, what's the extent of it? You're not that Shohei doesn't look right. How much of this is weighing him maybe needing a day and also him not wanting to take the day? He definitely doesn't want to take the day.

He feels that I know speaking for him, I think, I know he feels that he needs to post and be in the lineup. And if he's upright, he should play. I respect that. But if he's, you know, feeling the way that visibly looks, then really not helping anyone. So that's the conversation that I'll have with him. is a day or two or, I mean, shoot, even 10 days, is that going to help get him to be 100%? Don't know the answer.

You know, but I think where we're at, I think he's just going to have to find a way to make do and do the best he can. But what can I do? Have the conversation, you know, get him off his feet, kind of try to get some strength back, get him feeling better, and then, you know,

them out there. Okay, so I ask you, what's next for the Dodgers? Where do they go from here? Yeah, they need to have that conversation. And I think Dave Roberts did as good of a job as he could in trying to downplay the concerns of whether or not Showe, we know he's not 100% again, but the concerns of giving him some time to figure out the slump, but also reading the body language, it got to a point last night where you just could not ignore the body language.

So he'll sit down with the training staff. And more importantly, he'll sit down with Shohei and get everybody on the same page to say, look, it's probably, it's very unlikely O'Tani goes on the aisle. I just, I think for show A to admit that or to want that, I think they're going to start with taking a day. So I would be surprised to see him in today's lineup. But again, if Show A wants to play, they're going to play him. And that's the kind of the bind.

What Dave Roberts said right there is, what can I do? I can have the conversation. Because show A and the way that they communicate is so important. And I think there's a lot of trust there between Otani and Dave Roberts and the communication. and we've gotten Otani to really begrudgingly take the rest days before earlier in the season. I think that's what they start to do today. Give him a day to reset and see how the body recovers. Again, we don't know how Shohay feels.

We don't know what he prefers. We've been told that he wants to keep pitching. I talked to Andrew Freeman in a brief conversation on Tuesday, and he said the plan is still for Otani to pitch, and he's confident that they're going to get him in a game. But what's the cost? And Alon, I think you're spot on. And at some point, Dave Roberts finds himself in a bind here because he's speaking on behalf

of the most important and recognizable player in the world here. And if he misspeaks, it becomes a much bigger deal. We just don't know what Otani is feeling. So once the Dodgers have this conversation between here, we need to know how you're feeling physically. And there needs to be a decision made on what you want and what the team wants. And maybe that's not the same thing right now. There needs to be someone, everyone on the same.

page after this conversation today. And in my opinion, that should start with giving Otani the rest day and making sure that he actually takes it. I agree with that. A thousand percent. Let's start there. Again, a horrible position for Dave to be in. I would like to hear from Shohei Antony himself. So there is no speculation or room for guessing. Much more Dodgers territory to come. But first, a word about seek geek. All right, guys, the much anticipated Hiké Hernandez, Andy, Pahez, the catch bobblehead on Sunday. Go get yourself some tickets to support the boys with our friends at Seatkeek with over 35 million download Seatkeek.

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Okay. This is, because I'm going to get agitated if I think of- I know. I know. And that's why we are just full of venom and vigor right now, aren't we? So here's the situation. No disrespect. I can't hit a ball out of the infield.

But the fact that they didn't bring up James Tibbs the third is very questionable in terms of Alex Freeland. We really thought that we were going to see Tibbs the third. A lot of people did. And we were incorrect. But the at-back quality, Katie Wu, has not been what I had hoped for. What are you seeing?

Yeah, you look at what the Dodgers could have done in expanding their rosters that I think Dave Roberts made it very clear they wanted the left-handed bat. And we talked about platooning Teo in Detroit. This is before Teo started to trim things around just a little bit. Certainly not enough for me to buy back in completely. But when you're looking at trying to find Slug for a team that scored the third fewest runs in the National League in August,

with all respect to Alex Breeland, who is a great defender at second base, he doesn't scream. slug to me. And I thought this would be a good time instead of many other people in the organization to look towards that surplus of outfields, especially all the bat first outfielders, and maybe platoon. However, I think what changed the line of thinking was Dalton rushing, being able to stay behind the scenes in Los Angeles, take live a bees and take a bats off a trajectory machine. When the Dodgers called him around Monday morning and said, where are you? Can you take a batts? Dalton said, yeah, because of course Dalton's going to say that. He might not be ready to catch,

but he can still hit, he can step in the box. That became their left-handed bat. And ultimately, fans don't want to hear it. I get it. I would have loved to see James Tibbs too. Comes down to the 40-man roster spots. The Dodgers are so particular in 40-man and Freeland's already been up. He already has a spot on the 40-man.

James Tibbs does not. He does not need to be protected at the end of this year either. There are several names on the 40-man currently that, with respect, could have been waxed to make this happen. But Andrew Freeman doesn't take a lot of risks here. very particular about how a sporty man roster looks and kind of navigating those spots. So they said, well, we have our left-handed bench bat. We're going to have Dalton rushing, do it. He can still build up the story and progression while hitting only. And also, it just

reinforced once again that if the Dodgers plan on three-peating, if the Dodgers plan on winning again, it's going to be with these guys, their veterans. It's on to ask Hernandez to figure it out. It's on Kyle Tucker to figure it out. It's on the guys that they put money on to do so. not necessarily a prospect that has earned a right to come up in the big leagues. Just look at the season James Tiz's been having. But it's a double down again on the guys that they've already bought into and the veterans they expect to carry this club. And it also is a little bit of 40-man manipulation, not manipulation, but structure.

Yeah, definitely. We don't always understand the, well, Katie understands it very well. But there's always a reason behind the method behind the madness that we don't necessarily understand or agree with. But listen, I am not going to. to question what Andrew Friedman is doing. Clint, your take on this. Why even bring up Dalton Rushing?

Alec Thomas has gone. What are we doing? I'll question it. For the first time and a long time, I am questioning little Andy F, friend of the show here. I don't under, and it's not just Andrew, it's not just Dave,

it's not just Brandon Gomes. But there are some names on that 40-man roster that aren't going to mean shit, and you need the space at some point in the off-season if you're going to protect people from the Rule 5 draft. That is, if you are, because, you know,

maybe there's a chance they don't because the CBA thing is weird and guys who aren't on the 40-man roster will be able to play baseball next year if the owners choose to do that and that's going to be a whole thing. That's going to be fun. We'll talk about that later. But the point is, it just feels like there are moments in a season where you can try to spark a team. And I'm not saying a 23-year-old rookie outfielder who has some holes in his game was going to be the spark that fixed everything. He had earned his opportunity. You have two outfields.

We talk a lot about Teoscar Hernandez. He's actually hitting the ball pretty well right now. He's hitting the ball hard. Some tough luck in there. Kyle Tucker should not get at bats in the postseason at this point. He is awful. He is miserable. He is not producing in any way, shape, or form.

The swing looks bad. It looks like he's trying to find grass. God bless him. but if he's this year's Michael Conforto, I will be a happy boy. But the only way you're going to kind of light that spark under Tucker's ass is if there is somebody else there who says, no, I want your job. And maybe that's Kiki Hernandez. That would be another boring move for the team as much as I love Kiki. This is about spark.

This is about competition. This is about saying, hey, this really is a meritocracy. You can earn your way to playing time if you are good at your job. at the major league level, whether it be Kyle Tucker or Teosker Hernandez or James Tibbs the third. Instead, they went the most boring route. Alex Friedland, they didn't need another outfield. It might as well have just kept Alec Thomas up. So you have the one like true center field option. But it was disappointing. It was massively disappointed. And I'm sure to the guys in that clubhouse, they are never going to say it was disappointing. But to a

degree. It brought them disappointment and more of a slog now entering the first few days of September. I think the biggest situation with the Kyle Tucker problem is that you have to admit then that you made a mistake. I mean, Michael Conforto was what, a one year $17 million deal? Not to say that that's not great money. I would take it in a heartbeat. However, Kyle Tucker, what is a four-year 240 contract. That's a $60 million a year, AAV, which is probably the highest AAB, I think, that we've had in a very long time. I just think that you have to admit that he's having a down year in the first year of a four-year deal. Does he need a blow? Sure. Should he get at-bats in the postseason? Not if he's playing like this, but that would be a very hard pill to

swallow to admit like, shit, we really made a mistake. We missed the mark on this. guy and maybe and maybe he pans out years two through four but right now he i have a better shot of getting finding grass right now than mr tucker yeah it's been tough woo well to your point alana i think there's a reason why dave was only talking about platooning teo and not tucker even though both of them have had essentially the same amount or lack there of production in the second half because $240 million plays and it's much easier to look at Tay Oscar over the last two years and cite a noticeable decline and say, bats our platoon candidate, then look at your prize-free agent, injects youth in the lineup. He's going to be our number two hitter, best signing ever,

and then platoon him. That was just never going to be a question. And when you look at how the call-ups kind of fit all of this, my devil's advocate is this is ideally not the roster that we are going to see in the first round of the playoffs. Again, Erdogan is hopeful that Andy Pahas comes back. You're feeling better about the overall lineup with Andy Pahas in it, offensively and defensively. But what the Dodgers did do with these moves for as unsexy as they are, as they gave Dave Roberts a bench and some flexibility.

It didn't work yesterday, but being able to pinch hit Kike and Will Smith, I mean, Will Smith hit that ball about as hard as you could without actually leaving the park. So we haven't seen Dave Roberts. have that kind of flexibility. He had a very right-handed heavy bench for almost all of August, and it's not even like he was using Alex Call for most of that. And a lot of it, his only left-handed bench bat, was the backup catcher. And you're not going to put him in there because what happened to something, you know, happens to your starting catcher, then you're out one. So he didn't

have a lot of options. At least in getting Freeland here, you improve on the margins, you improve the peripherals. It's not a big, like, wow, huge franchise roster altering move. But it does, does give flexibility that should be erratically allow Dave Roberts to have more options. We saw that yesterday. It didn't work out. But I do think just based on the Dodgers and playing the matchups, we'll see a different result more often than last night's. I do agree, though.

This is just not the lineup that we're going to see come October. If it is, I think our shows are going to have a lot of a different tune coming into that. We're going to be drunk. We're going to be drunk the entire show. I'll drink to that. If this is. And you're also looking at a team. that's not going to go very deep into the playoffs i think you know the next time we're all together

hopefully hopefully they've rattled off a few ws but the thing is you know we we talked about it a lot last year alana like flipping that switch can they snap out of it when do we raise the red flag in earnest because the team has been playing poorly now for months but we three and a lot of people that do what we do here on the internet have said everything's going to be fine it's going to be great they're going to figure out because they have done it Because they've done it a number of times. They have shown us that they are a group of professionals. Like that chat said earlier, you know, there's a whole bunch of MVPs and superstars.

The thing is they do figure it out. It's just right now, this is miserable. Thankfully, it's happening in July and August and September, rather than October. But, you know, I just really hope that we don't need to have, you know, end our October early and start flipping the script to. We're not. Calm down. Calm down. It's going to be fun. It's going to be great. Alleged. It's going to be fun. According to sources, those sources also said that James Stips was coming up. Anyways, hey, let's talk about a dog. The Hard Rock Bet Casino app is here, Ontario. It's safe, secure, and crystal clear with fast payouts and 24-7 local support.

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Anyway, this is Frankie and he needs an adopter. And he's adorable and he lives by Katie. So I don't know why she just doesn't adopt him. But he is three years old. He is a three years old. He is a. Chihuahua poodle mix. He is vaccinated. He is healthy. He is neutered. He's great with other dogs. He likes cats. He has no problem with cats or chickens or anything that's smaller than him.

Adopt him. He's awesome. He's awesome, awesome, awesome. Reach out if you need any more information. Reach out, reach out, reach out. Comes at the beach. I wish. I wish. Thought for the road. And Clint, I'm going to tee up on this because, holy crap, I know you hate R.E. Moreno. Angels have sold to Stan Cron. who owns five other sports franchises, including two in Colorado, which I, where I am from. He is a very good owner. The angels are no longer under the poopy thumb of Artie Moreno, Clint Paseas thoughts. Yeah, this is where if YouTube and, you know, like all the media groups wouldn't immediately demonetize us, you'd be playing,

celebrate good times. Come on. I'm not an Angels fan. I hate the Angels. I hate Angel Stadium. I hate everything about them. probably a lot of that comes from Artie Moreno's tenure. But just the out of nowhere of this, the joy around the baseball world.

And obviously I have idiots as friends. So there are some Angels fans in my phone. I was it say Rolodex, but I don't think people know what that is. It's a joy to have maybe something happening down there in Anaheim. because it was a fun organization to watch it at one point. You know, I got into watching baseball a little bit later in my life. My first real world series that I was like all gung-ho on was that O2 World Series. Great one between the Giants and the Angels, I'm sure, a young Katie Wu and her Giants fandom enjoyed that one as well.

But that was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. And following that point, though, those teams were good. They were always in the postseason, having, you know, your washburns, and your X-Steins and your Shone Figgins and it was a it was a um they a group that played for each other a group that mostly came up together um

you also mix in Vlad Guerrero who is pretty good at baseball at that point as well but they were fun teams and then you just saw the slow decline to just the plummet off the face of the earth when they fired Mike Sosha um that team needs help it needs hope Stan Cronky is just a fantastic sports owner. He's going to get the right people in place. And, you know, the thing I guess you have to worry about as Dodgers people, Dodgers fans, does this affect the Dodgers? Does it take away some potential free agents who might have otherwise come to real LA? Will they go to the OC now? I just think it's good for baseball. I think it's good to have an owner that cares. You want the rivalry to be renewed as far as the I-5 series. You know, you want it to matter. It's going to take a minute for the angels to get back to where they used to be in the glory days. But I think it can get there where, you know, Jared Weaver, who by the way,

through a no-hitter for the Angels, I want to say in 2012 or something, he posted on X that under this new ownership, he truly believes that they are going to get back on the map. And I think he's right. And it's good for the baseball. It's good for the Angels fans. I mean, it's, it was the one unanimous ownership change that everyone was like, hallelujah, Whether you're an Angels fan or not, you were glad to see. And listen, no one feels sorry for Artie. He took $180 million investment or whatever it wasn't, turned it into $4 billion. So God bless him.

Good for him. You know what I mean? Good for him. I couldn't believe that the Angels went for more than the Padres. And Ken Rosenthal was saying, obviously, it's a bigger market. First order of business for Stan Cronky, change him back to the California Angels or the Anaheim Angels. They are not the freaking Los Angeles Angels. Orange County.

How about Orange County? O.C. Angels. They were County. And it's the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles, and it's the California or Orange County Angels please for the love of Pete. Yeah, that's all I got. I want all your thoughts. I mean, the way it's trending, it could be the St. Louis Angels with all their ties to that former organization. I'm about to get my St. Louis ticket revoked, so I'm so sorry.

But say what you want about Stan Cronki, who's not exactly beloved on the banks of the Missouri, but he builds winning organizations. and the Angels have been suffering for far too long. I will still never get over the fact that they had Mike Trout and Shohei Otani and did not win anything. This is good for baseball. It's great to see these teams going for $3.8, $4 billion like the Padres and the Angels did. If I'm an owner, though, the first thing I'm doing after the name change, Alana, I'm on board at Co-Sign. Get them a new stadium. Angel Stadium.

Yes. It sucks. Get them a new stadium. and I do think in about maybe three, four years. I don't think this Angels team is far off now that they have an owner who looks willing to spend and build and develop. But I don't think it's going to impact the Los Angeles Dodgers and free agency yet. I still think we're a couple of ways, or a couple of years, at least from that. I 100% agree.

And by the way, if Stan Cronkey doesn't get his stadium in three or four years, he'll just move the team like he did with the Rams, maybe to Nashville. Anyway, that is neither here nor there. We got a couple of super chats that we want to shout out. Thank you guys so much for supporting our show. It means the world. Skier loves baseball. 99 Super Chat. Yesterday team maintains show will pitch again this season.

Say what? Every other player goes on the IL at the All-Star break, but because show wants to chase a Syung, which was highly improbable in a six-man. I get it. I mean, the man, you love the fact he wants to compete. But you know what? This is probably not your year.

It's going to go to PCA. You're not going to get the Sy Young Award anyway. MVP's going to, you know, Pete Crowe Armstrong. Shut it down. Be healthy. Shove in the postseason. All right. another super chat here.

Some love. From Chava. Chava 59. Thanks so much on that 499 super chat. We appreciate you guys very much. All right, we will be back, I believe on Monday, but in order to find out when we're next, subscribe to the show. We appreciate you guys very much as we try to make our way up to that 20,000 mark

that we've been talking about for 712 years. Please subscribe. If you're watching us, it's free. It's free to do it, and it helps us tremendously. Go Dodgers, at least get one against the Redbirds. And thanks for being with us, you guys. We'll see you soon. Bye.

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