Dodgers Territory - What Have We Learned About the Dodgers Over the First 50 Games?

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Alanna Rizzo and Clint Pasillas are back and recapping the Dodgers' series with the Padres. What did we learn from the series (1:06)? The hosts discuss. (4:48) Blake Snell underwent the new nanoneedle procedure to remove loose bodies from his left elbow. Should Tarik Skubal's rapid recovery from his operation give Dodgers fans hope for an even quicker return for Snell? (7.02) The latest update on Tommy Edman bodes well for the utility man. When can we see him back and what will his role be? (13:50) We are 50 games into the 2026 season. Beyond what we've learned about the Dodgers from the Padres series, what have we learned about the team as a whole over the first 50 games? Alanna and Clint each share two guys who have impressed and two players who need improvement. (38.22) Plus, a look ahead to the series with the Brewers on this edition of Dodgers Territory! 🌶️ To explore coverage, visit aspcapetinsurance.com/FOUL. The ASPCA® is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance. Subscribe to the podcast!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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The only thing you got to worry about is win the division. And they're doing that. Good afternoon, everybody. And welcome to a brand new live episode of Dodgers territory on this Thursday, May 21st. We are your hosts. I'm Alana Rizzo. That is Clint Paseas. Katie Wu will be back with us on Monday, Tuesday, rather.

Tuesday, Tuesday, Monday is Memorial Day. So there you have it. So we'll be back on Tuesday. Great to have you guys with us. your comments in the chat. We'll get to them as we can. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Rate is five stars. We're trying to make our way up to 20,000 subs. We appreciate your support very much. Of course, we are part of the Filed Territory Network and it helps us tremendously. All right, let's talk about a couple of things in the big ticket, starting with a Padres series

recap. It was a good one. You take two of three. I love it very much. What is your overall impression of the series that was a good one, a good testing point for this team. Yeah. I think the narrative of today's show is kind of what did we learn about this team over that series and over the course of the first 50 games. That'll be the B block of today. But I think we learned the Dodgers can handle upper end pitching. I'm not going to call them elite pitching down there in San Diego,

but they got some dudes that can really throw a baseball, Mason Miller in there. Randy Vasquez yesterday is pretty good in his own right. Jason Adam, all those random names, hodgepodge of really good pitching. Even if the ERA as a whole for the Padres doesn't show it, that is how they're winning baseball games. And it's entering that series that we talked about it last night, Alana. I was confused as to how the division is as tight as it is with the Padres and Dodgers. is because we saw they're riding the shit out of Mason Miller. I think he's closed or saved more than like half of their wins or something like that.

But that's how they're going to do it. They're going to ride Mason Miller. They're going to ride that bullpen. They're going to try to get something out of their starting rotation until more guys get back. Michael King, the other name I forgot to mention very good start as well. The game, the Padres won. But it's a good tent pole for the Dodgers and for fans to see that maybe that two-week stretch was just a bad stretch of play and they could find a way to win ball games. Maybe it's not what we

expected, Riz, in terms of a lot of flash, a lot of dingers, a lot of points on the board. But I don't care. Win the baseball games. That's all you got to do. Yeah. I mean, that's it. You play the schedule that has been given to you. You play the schedule in front of you. And I agree with you on the pitching. We haven't been severely tested as far as the pitching is concerned. The best staff that we have faced so far this season was the Atlanta Braves, Clint. And we lost two of three from the Braves. And we're coming up on a series and we'll get to it

towards the end of the show with the Milwaukee Brewers and they have the best, second best ERA in all of baseball. Actually, the best ERA in all of baseball when you're talking about, well, and they're the top 10, let's put it that way because the Dodgers 312,

they are 318 in terms of a team ERA. So we can go up against good pitching. Another thing I wanted to talk about in terms of the overall series wrap up with the Padre series is hello show Aeotani. Just the way that he kind of broke out that offensive slump a little bit. So you knew he was getting hot. You knew he was heating up

coming into this. The seventh time, Otani has homered in a scoreless start, including the postseason, which breaks a tie with Bob Gibson for the most games of that nature since 1900. I mean, he takes the first pitch he sees offensively, sends it over the fence and automatically gives himself run support. Right. So he's back to kind of hitting and pitching again, they're managing that workload. But to lower your ERA to 0.73 is just stupid. And I had this conversation. He was my dude of the week on Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal

because I had this conversation just about how successful Otani is pitching. The only reason he may not get the Syeung in the National League is because of just innings pitched, right? If he's not, you know, I mean, he may just not put up the innings that perhaps the Paul Skeens would put up or a Mizorowski what the Milwaukee Brewers puts up. But anyway, the point is, Shohei looks great. And what a unicorn.

I know it's Shoah, and we talk about him a lot. But sometimes I think we don't talk about show hay enough, honestly. So that was another thing for me. We have some updates as well. Clint Blake Snell. What do you got? So Blake Snell, we knew he was undergoing that new Terik Scouble scope nanoneedle thing. Weird, weird, weird time we live in.

But all reports point to good. Everything was good in the surgery there. He had the surgery two days ago, so Tuesday. What really excites me about this, I guess this is really less about us talking about Snell and more an opportunity to talk about Terrick Scoobel who had this surgery on, I think it was May 3rd. May 3rd, yes.

He already threw like an intense bullpen today. He's thrown, yeah, he's thrown through. Yeah, he's shown three times, but today that bullpen was intense. What is? We're two weeks off of him getting, not even cut open. I mean, that's the whole point of it, is they don't need to cut you open as much as they might with a standard, you know, arthroscopic surgery or something like that. They're able to go in there, just pick the pieces out, give you a nice little, you know, Flintstone's Band-Aid and move on.

And you already got scuba throwing and, you know, whether or not. He looked ready to me today to go out there and throw. And if Kurt Schilling could throw with a bloody-ass sock in the 2004 World Series, I mean, and elbows a lot different, but still. I don't know. I mean, he had sutures, bro. He had sutures in his ankle. May 21st outing postseason.

I don't know. A couple of different things there. Apples and oranges, what I liked about it. I know. Talk about pumping the brakes. And A.J. Hinch is pumping the brakes, Clint, on Tarek Scuble, because they were saying, oh, he's not going to even need a rehab assignment. He hit the velocity that was targeted by him.

They didn't say what that VILA was for him, but he hit it. He was excited about that. No rehab. And AJ was like, he's going out on a rehab assignment. So pump the brakes a little bit. But the good thing is you're not on the shelf as long as you would be if you were physically cut open. And that's good. So it's good news.

This now nanoneedle procedure seems to be all of the rage right now. It also seems like loose bodies are all of the rage. Everybody has loose bodies now, right? So anyway, all right, Tommy Edmund, another update. When can we see him back and what will the role be? What are you hearing? Yeah, so the Tommy Edmund thing, I think people are wondering for a while. Where TF is Tommy Edmund?

Well, we got the update from Doc yesterday. He's heading out to Camelback Ranch this weekend. It takes him at Bats. Obviously, he hasn't swung a whole lot. We have seen him in the cage at times at Dodger Stadium, but he's taking it bats to Camelback Ranch. and then next week we'll head out on a rehab assignment. We don't know exactly how long that's going to be.

We anticipate at this moment that Kike Hernandez will be back with the Dodgers next week. I think he's eligible on the 24th or 25th. He wants to be back. He's swinging. I don't think his situation was as tough as it is for Tommy Edmund because Edmund, he's got to build back a lot of stamina. He hasn't been able to run or do very much in the way of baseball activities coming. off of that ankle surgery. So Kiki will be back. I would imagine, you know, two, five game

rehab stand. I think we could see Edmund extended a little bit more, probably in the 10 game, eight to 10 game. Dave hasn't said anything in that regard yet, but probably goes a little bit based on how the swing feels at Camelback. But the thing that's nice, you're getting Tommy Edmund back. And all of a sudden, the rest of that kind of roster crunch, the roster questions, first guy coming back, Kike, we know that's going to be Santiago Espinall. But Riz, like, what's the role going to be for Tommy Edmund and where, you know, like, who really, who's going to be the odd man out? Is it going to be Hesson Kim?

I don't know. Is it going to be Alex Call, who absolutely has been incredible for this team coming off the bench as a fourth outfielder? Very difficult decision coming up for Dave and Company. It really is a difficult decision. And I kind of want to say, well, it's whoever has the hot hand. at the time, but they always have a bigger picture in mind in terms of what they see with guys and options and, you know, just kind of the role that they're going to play moving forward.

I don't know. That's a great question. I think to your point, Espinall is a given when Kike comes back, but I don't know. I'm not certain what's going to happen when Tommy Edmund comes back. So, again, it takes more than the 40. So it'll be an interesting decision that they're going to have to make. guess is it's going to be um, Alex call. I don't want it to be Alex call. I don't know. But that would be my guess. Because I don't know. I mean, call he's, he's getting on base. He's,

he, I mean, Heson Kim has, of all the tools, he has probably the best tool that they would be sending down in the run tool. You know, he's got the, he's got the speed. He's got the foot speed. He's also, you know, can play some short, can play some second base if, let's say, Mookie needs a blow. But you also got Miguel Rojas in there. And guess what? Tommy Edmund has played shortstop. He was the starting shortstop for this team when they won the World Series in 2024. Kike can play some second, play some shortstop play outfield most likely.

So having somebody that's a little more limited in Kim, and if the goal is to get him as many at bats as possible. Yeah, you might be right there. Good problem to have. but you feel bad for Kim. Not that he's been tearing the cover off the ball, but he's been impactful. He's getting on base, you know, again, very good problem to have for this team.

I think I would be personally more upset. I'm seeing Shelley in the chat. I don't know if it's shouting, but saying like, really? Alex Call? I would say Kim goes down. I would be more upset if they sent down Alex Call. One, he's a friend of the show. He's been on, checking out.

Good chat we had with him a few months back. But also, like, again, he's just been really good at getting on base. He's hitting over 300, you know, for the course of the season. And again, he's found a good niche in the role that he is in. He's embraced it for sure. Yeah. And Kim needs to play every day. That's just what it's going to come down to you.

Guys, sound off in the comments as well. If you're watching this live or you're watching it after the fact, let us know who you would send down if you were Andrew Friedman and Brandon. gomes more d t to come we got real conversations it's been 50 games how do we feel these dodgers have been but first a word from our friends over a foul territory we love our dog bella who splays out in the open sun on our floor like she's an underwear model and that's why we love her so much to scratch her belly she's a cutie that bella and a quick message from today's sponsor the as psa pet health insurance program if you're frantically looking for what to do

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Anything with Thomas Charles Lassorder never gets old to me. Before we move on and talk about the first 50 games, We're going to talk about us right here, right now. Guys, you can become a YouTube member right here on the YouTube machine. You see it $3.99 a month. For some reason, I said $4.99 a month the last time Katie and I did this because I'm a moron. But it's $3.99. You get custom emojis.

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50 games in, Alana. It's been mostly good stretch of really, really bad. Could have been incredibly good had they not had that stretch of bad. But the question we're going to get into, what have we learned about this team? Third best record in baseball, they're behind the race, behind the Braves. Just overall, solid effort from the club. They've been very good on the road, too.

Let me put up the standings here real quick for everybody to enjoy because the standings say they're in first place. game and a half above the Padres who have been solid. Yeah, I mentioned good on the road as well. Let's throw these numbers up. Let me get rid of that topic bar real quick. On the road, usually people, you know, you play to split on the road. They've been very, very good.

16 wins on the road, 80 plus 80 on the wind differential. Sorry, run differential. Did have that series against the Angels. What, they scored 31 to three runs allowed. So yeah, that inflates the numbers a little bit, but that's all right. But the thing about this club is they win regardless of where they are. I know that we had that kind of garbage stretch where they didn't seem to be able to put any runs across the board or string anything together.

But I've learned about this team is that we should really at any point stop worrying about them, right? I mean, again, they haven't gone on this massive tear where we expect them, you know, to win 11 games in a row, but they still have a game and a half lead in the division. Listen to the differential here. This is interesting, you guys. that when we want to complain about the Dodgers offense being anemic and not playing well, they have a plus 98 run differential. The Padres only at a game and a half back have a plus three run differential.

Everybody else is negative in terms of the run differential in the division. So the Dodgers plus 98. I mean, they're 35 and 15, as we know. They're 15 and 10 at home 16 and 9 away, as you mentioned, Clint. And they're 13 and 8 against teams above 500. I tell you what, it's a fun problem to have to try to pick apart a team that's in first place and has won back-to-back World Series championships. But 50 games in, we're about a third of the way into the season.

And, you know, it's okay. I think they're doing just fine. The only thing you've got to worry about is win the division. And they're doing that. They're winning the division right now. That's the first checkmark that they want. That's the goal every time. You go out there, win the division, try to get that one or two seed, give yourself the break,

even if some people don't like the break, some people don't like that layoff. I would rather not see this team have to go through a wildcard series again. No. They've learned how to win through a wild card. They've learned how to win now with that layoff. So I feel fine about any sort of situation.

Great point, by the way. I'm going to pop this up from Mr. Classic. And something Katie had brought up as well. And she reminds us in the chat in our Slack channel. She has the game to do on Tuesday. So we definitely can't do a happy hour there. Well, then it's probably going to have to be on an off day then. She's going to get blasted.

We're probably going to have to be on an off day. I mean, think about it. But to this, Mr. Classic saying that Dodgers were sick, they were also going through an illness. A lot of guys in that clubhouse struggling with it. But numbers-wise, looking at just stats through, you know, compared against the other 30 teams in baseball, the Dodgers, again, second in team average. They are first in OPS, which is a big. one there. Homer's a little down for them if, you know, being in fourth place is down, but love getting on base, gives you opportunities to score runs and on the pitching side.

3.12 ERA. They are 0.01 behind being tied with the Atlanta Braves. So they are very good. They don't give up a lot of base runners, so on, so forth. What we have learned about this team is they're pretty good. Even when they're struggling, they are a very good. baseball team. And I like what you said. It's like maybe we just don't need to panic. We don't need to overreact. I mean, that's how we put butts in the seats in the early parts of May. Something goes wrong.

Everybody loses their shit about it. But it's been good. General thoughts on pitching and offense. It has been good and it's going to continue to get better as guys come back. Getting Tommy Edmund back, getting Kike Hernandez back. And on the pitching side, you've got a lot of dudes. River Ryan will be somebody who comes and is available to join this team.

I don't have a lot of faith in Gavin Stone, but at some point you're going to get Blake's no back, at some point you can get Tyler Glasno back, maybe, probably. And then bullpen, you know, you assume Edwin Diaz returns and there's nothing that comes from his whole situation and other guys, you know, like getting Evan Phillips back at some point this season. Don't hold your breath about Brousard Gratterol. You know, they have some dudes.

Hell, even Jack Dreyer, who's out right now. He will be back. They're in a very good spot all around, and they're going to continue to get better. Well, I think that's, I think, no, I just think that that's how we'll determine what the needs are at the trade deadline. Who's back at the end of July? And that's how they're going to figure out what they need to add or subtract at that point.

But overall, I think this team has done very well. They're in first place. That's all that really matters at this point. But there, as always, room for improvement with certain guys. So we're going to break this down in terms of who were two guys, Clint. First, let's start with Show Hay. Okay. And then I want you to tell me your two guys who you think have really impressed you.

And then your two guys that think maybe a little bit you'd like to see something more from. So let's just obviously talk about Show Hey. We did it early, a .73 ERA. We both agreed. We can't pick Shohei. Yeah. So not Show Hay. I'm not named Shohei that impresses you.

He is above everybody else in terms of being impressive. Correct. My sweet word, he has been impressive. If I'm leading us off on this one, I'm going to cheat because that's just what I do, apparently, whenever we do these sorts of exercises, clearly I'm not good at exercises. But I want to talk about the bullpen. You and I talked last night a little bit about Eduardo Henrique, somebody who's been improving over the course of the season.

but the bullpen as a whole has been phenomenal. And, you know, I mentioned Edwin Diaz just a minute ago. I didn't even realize this stat at the moment. Shout out Alden Gonzalez, ESPN. Apparently, Dodge Bullpen had put together 28 consecutive scoreless endings without Edwin Diaz. Now, I don't know if that's in the immediate wake of losing Edwin Diaz, like whatever or whenever it is. But these arms, these kind of, I want to call them a hodgepodge of arms. But they're not the guys you really expected to be big names, big plays.

players for this deep into 50 games into the season. You know, I really like Will Klein. I didn't know that, you know, two months ago, me would have bet on him still, you know, being here in the bullpen. But he has been great. You know, he's earning ninth inning opportunities. My guy, my dog, my love, Kyle Hurd. Okay, too much.

Too far. You guys know I love Kyle Hurd. Kyle Hurd is moving up into bigger opportunities. And he has just been absolutely a dog, finally getting some love and respect and recognition from people. And Henriquez, after kind of of a slow start, he has been really good. And any time you have a hundred, two

miles an hour on your fastball in your back pocket, you can get away with a lot of stuff. Maybe you want to see the punch still go up for him. But he has been good. Vesia has been slightly up and down for what we expect out of him still been good. Tanner Scott.

Riz, let's talk about Tanner Scott for a second because this was a guy entering the season. We talked about it. Me and Katie talked about it. If there was somebody who needed to have a very good start to a season, it's Tanner Scott and 137 ERA, 21 games, not necessarily guaranteed to get the ball in the ninth inning, but he has been good in whatever role Doc has thrown him in. Well, that was one of the biggest things we said coming into the season is who are the guys that you wanted to pinpoint that absolutely needed to improve upon what they did last year. Now, if you

look at the bar last season from Tanner Scott, you would think, I mean, it wouldn't be that hard to improve, right? But he has gone above and beyond what I thought was possible this early on in the season. I think he's just really come into his own. He doesn't, maybe he's not feeling the pressure as much as he was last year. Maybe the mechanics are better. Maybe the health is better, the lower body issue thing that he was having last season. He just seems like a more complete player, more of a guy that is convicted in his stuff, more of a guy that seems like he's, He knows where the ball is going and just has a different poison presence about him. So we are always ripping on guys when they don't do their jobs.

And the bullpen tends to, in general, as a collective, never get the praise that they deserve because we only oftentimes talk about bullpens when they blow up, right? And they've done such a great job of keeping this team in games and really taking a step forward in that direction, especially without Edwin Diaz at the back end. of that bullpen, which is obviously a massive blow. I thought Edwin Diaz was the biggest offseason signing of any club, of any position. And without him, these other guys have to, you know, proverbably, I've said that wrong, step up and, you know, kind of next man in mentality.

So Tanner Scott is now great Scott, according to Mr. Classic underscore 81. So well done there, sir. Yeah, all right. So your bullpen as a whole is your one that has impressed you. I'm impressed by Andy Pahas. He's somebody that, you know, again, was one of those guys in terms of position players that really needed to take a step forward

in his game on both sides of the ball. I think that he has gotten so much better defensively covering center field, which obviously, in my opinion, is the hardest outfield position, the most ground to cover. He's reading routes better. He's noticing the ball, flight,

and path and pattern off of the bat quicker, quicker routes, not as circuitous as he was doing as he was doing last year and just making some really, again, we lose the World Series. If Andy Paas doesn't make that catch, you know, last season. So I think he's just really improved there, but he's also improved offensively. And when Freddie Freeman, who is a first ballot Hall of Famer, says that that is one of the most impressive at-bats that he has ever seen. And he's talking about Andy Pa-Has.

You know that Andy Pa-Haz has taken his game to the. next level. Imagine him if we talked about it earlier, if he ended up as an angel. That could have happened, you know? So there's one moment that we wanted to send Andy Pahas to the moon. And now he's, where would this team be without him? So he's really improved on both sides of the ball. And he's just been a huge, a huge benefit for this club. So he's my number one guy. Another guy, honestly, is Justin Rubleski. You know, I wasn't necessarily certain what we were going to get from him. But when you have good. guys in your starting rotation, what we thought we were going to have to start the season of

the Blake Snells, the Tyler Glasnos, the Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who certainly was in the Syong conversation last year, you know, Shohayotani, of course, Roki Sasaki was expected to take the next step. Gavin Stone. Justin Rubleski kind of gets lost in the shuffle when you have those other names of these massive superstars that have proven track records, and he is just absolutely shuffed. I know every outing hasn't been the most amazing, but you have 10 really, really good, you have 10 really, really bad, and you have 10 that are just kind of average.

And I think what we've seen so far with Justin Robleski is that he belongs in a Major League Baseball starting rotation. And, you know, when all these other guys are on the IL, he's posting every five days. And all you can ask for is a quality start, an opportunity to give your team a chance to win and not absolutely abolish your bullpen by only going three things. And he's done all of the things that Robo has been asked of. So he's certainly my guy that has impressed me. He's been impressive and impressively shut me the F up because I was very loud for the better part of 12 to 18 months.

This is a bullpen guy. This is a bullpen arm. He learned a lot last year and put all the pieces together. We knew the mentality was there. Maybe the stuff wasn't there, but he found the stuff. You know, you see the conviction when he's on the mound. You see that dog mentality. And you see the belief he has in whatever fingers the, you know, Will or Dalton are pushing down or more so, the buttons they are pushing on their knees because of pitch calm.

I really love the growth of Robo. And this team would be lost without his growth this year, his maturity, his endings that he has provided. Those are the good. Those are the people that have impressed us. You and I were talking before the show. What do you got? I mean, I don't know that any of us would have had this. I would not have had Queen singing queen on our bingo card.

I would not have had Justin Robleski with a six and one record, a 249 ERA in eight games, seven of which are starts. 50 and two-thirds innings pitched. Strikeouts, he has 27 punchies with a whip of 1.03. Never would have, never would have imagined that. So I apologize, Justin, for doubting you, sir. And you have been incredibly impressive. All right, so what about you in terms of guys that perhaps need a little bit of improvement?

And you can qualify this as well. Exactly. I think you and I were talking earlier, you know, getting ready for this show. And having the question, like people, players who need improvement, it's the Dodgers. Like it's a difficult task to find guys without it being like, okay, now you're just nitpicking. I would say the guy at the top of my mountain of people that need improvement on this team, we need to see more out of mooky bets. This team is not, they're probably going to go far.

They're not going to go as far as easily as they could without mooky bets, becoming some version of the mooky bets that we saw in the past. He's not as slow as he once was. He is older than he's ever been. The bat is coming around. I mentioned it last night, either here or on the post-post game on All Dodgers. Check it out, guys. Subscribe right here on my hat.

he's had suffered through so many different like little injuries and knick-knack things and illnesses that he's had a lot of time to sit around and tinker and try to change things in an effort to in his mind feel good instead of going out there and probably just playing base he's playing baseball on the defensive side he's a he's a wizard i don't know if he's a wizard he's very very very good at shortstop will be in the conversation once again uh for the the gold glove, even with the month's time missed with the injury early. But

we need to get that bat back, especially if he is somebody who's going to be hitting in the two-hole or three-hole somewhere in the top of this lineup. We need you back, Mookie. And I have faith that he can find something. I'm not counting out Mookie, but if there's one guy, again, if you're looking

through this roster, the number one guy I need to see improvement out of is Mookie Bets. Now, I don't know if we want to go. He's a glue. guy. He's a glue guy, right? I mean, he's a guy that is a four-time World Series champion. He makes your lineup better. He's obviously amazing defensively. I mean, he's done every single thing that this team has asked him to do. He would go anywhere that this team asked him to do. Yeah, Alex Rensuri, he's a staple guy, a glue guy. You need more from him. And again, this is not a bashing Mookie Betts situation. This is just, we know there's more in him because we've seen it time and time again and to who much is given much is expected. And Mookiee Betts is that guy that's just made that own name for him. of a level of expectation. So I get that as far as your concern. For me, I think it's Kyle Tucker. I'm still kind of waiting. And I don't know if it's just because he has a very, you know,

level-headed personality, but I'm still kind of waiting for more of the, it's official, Kyle Tucker is a Dodger moment. I know he's had some home runs. I've know, I know he's come up in some clutch situations, but I just, I just, I want the Kyle Tucker. I feel like every time he steps to the plate as an astro or as a cub last year, that he's going to do damage. I don't know that I feel necessarily that way so far with him as a Dodger, you know, striking that much fear in the opposing pitcher as he did perhaps when he was with an astro. Maybe it's because he's surrounded by all these other superstars.

I don't know. But to me, I need to see a little bit more from, you know, Kyle Tucker just in terms, it's never been an issue with his defense for me anyway. It's just more of like the more consistency in terms of offensive production, bigger moments like I want a guy like it would be nice for me and maybe this is unrealistic but I want a guy that when your bottom of the knife you know down to your final strike like a Justin Turner or a Max Muncie like I just felt like so confident knowing that those two were the guys that were in the box in that moment and again he has four home runs it's relatively early I guess I don't know 50 games in four home runs a 251 average OPS of 748 I'm just kind of waiting for more for more for more four from Tucker. So he's my first guy. Yeah, I would say at this point in the season, May

20th, 21st right now, I wouldn't expect Kyle Tucker to be hitting 250. Definitely would not. He's a guy who, the anticipation was he would show up with his bat kind of, you know, plug and play kind of dude has not been terrible, but we'd

like to see a little bit more. I agree, Riz, out of your $60 million billion trillion dollar guy. The other guy I have, and again, And we are, we'll put the caveat back out here in that we're talking about things we've learned and things we'd like to see improve over the next 50 games. Roki Sasaki, we saw something good. We've seen a little bit of good, sprinkled in. There's a little bit of bad.

But coming off of this angel start, it was the Anaheim Angels. Don't let it be that, you know, you beat the Angels and then you take two massive steps backwards. I think that was a difference maker of a game for Roki Sasaki in terms of his ability, in terms of his confidence, his mental state and where he's at. We've seen a lot of growth and maturity, as we've talked about here on the channel, already a few times. But that game you saw, and I'll laugh every time when I borrow from Katie and his four-pitch mix, but you saw a pretty close to true four-pitch mix.

You saw the fastball actually have a little bit more life. on it. And Riz, I could recall, back at spring training, last year when they signed him, the worry was it's a very flat fastball. So if you're able to get the movement going there and have pitches that can break down, break into a lefty, and break away a little bit from, well, I guess break in as well to a right-hander with your forkball, he's going to continue to improve. But that is one of the things, if I'm looking at somebody in that rotation, now more than ever, Roki Sasaki's importance is highlighted for this team with Snell down, with Glasnaud down. Continue to improve.

This is not me slamming Roki. I'm just saying, keep doing what you're doing, bro, because you're going to be fine, but build, build. Big start coming up against those brewers. Yeah, that's just it. We don't want the great start against the angels to be like, oh, it was just against the angels. The continued improvement is key, and I think that we'll do wonders again for his offense. And it does seem like the communication is better. They're more all on the same page, that type of thing.

For me, and again, this is no slight. I know what's in there, and maybe it's unrealistic to think because he's two years older and it's not the same year. But I need Teasca Hernandez to go back to the 2004, Teasca Hernandez, Clint, where he hit 33 home runs in the season. And what made all of us want to scream off of the mountaintop that they better bring him back, remember? I mean, the 2024 season was such an incredibly good offensive year for him and was just so locked in. That's what I need to see again. 2025 was not nearly as good. And I understand the hamstring issue and that type of thing for him.

And that's hard to come back from. But I think the move to left field certainly would help not have to worry so much about right. Yeah, you know, has helped and not have to worry so much about right field type of stuff. But yeah, I just need to see that offensive production again for him. I mean, what does he have so far? Two home runs on the season? No, this is over his last 10 games. He's actually...

Oh, okay. All right. So on the year, on the year, he has six home runs, right? Yeah, I think that's what it is. Yeah, six home runs so far. Not good, not bad. You need to get that LPS over 100. Over 800.

Sorry, go ahead. No, he's on pace for what, 18, 20 home runs. I mean, he had 25 last year. So even get to that home run total, I think, would be great. Again, this is not a knock on him. I love him. I think he's a huge piece to this wonderful World Series championship puzzle. I just, you know, I would like to see more consistent offensive production, you know, more chick stick the lung ball.

And we know that that's in there. He had 33, two years ago. Yeah. Again, he's been just inconsistent, but he has been okay. We know there's more in there. And this is not slamming him even slightly. That's the important thing. We are not saying any of these guys are bad.

We just want to see a little bit more because we know it is in there. Anyways, if you guys have different thoughts in us, sound off in the comments below. We do have more DT, extended DT today since you're not getting us on Monday with Memorial Day being observed. But we will be back to preview. We'll look at a couple of dogs and then also preview the Brewer Series right after Alana tells you about FanDuel. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. baseball fans, the MLB season is in full swing and Fanduil is giving you a chance to call your shot with daily dingers. Joining the action is easy. Just make your free pick on who's hitting a home run in their game.

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See terms at sportsbook.fandual.com. Gambling problem call or text 1-800 gambler. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now I've got my own show. So if you're tired or lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms and the IHeart Radio app. All right, I want to interest you guys to Nacho and Millie, and believe it or not, for those of us able to see us right now, not listening, but watching us,

these two are related. Millie is the Terrier on the right. I know. she she is nacho's mom can you believe that so nacho is the is the pity on the left and milly is the terrier on the right and we did the DNA test and it is 100 percent certain that milly is nacho's mom so these two were found in la puente close to clint actually in la puente and uh they were roaming around abandoned strays full of fleas and a mess we have a wonderful foster by the name of isabel who took them in and they're unbelievable

So we are not splitting them up. We are looking for an adopter for both. They are healthy. They just recently got neutered and spayed. They are good to go. Super sweet. Get along with everybody. Get along with other dogs.

Please consider spreading the word and putting them out there for adoption because they are so deserving of their forever home. All right, big series coming up. We just finished a big series, Clint. Another really big series coming up with the Milwaukee Brewers who are first in their respective division

as well. And this is a team that has the third best ERA in all of baseball. So again, another test for this club. What are you looking forward to? Yeah. Well, one, with the Brewers. How do they keep doing it? I don't understand how they keep doing it. I mean, you trade away Freddie Peralta. And I was like, look, there's no way. They had like two pitchers at the time. The Miz has taken it to another level this year. There's a couple other dudes whose names escape me. I guess I could just click on this button. We can look at their, there's starting rotation a little bit. Kyle Harrison, that was a huge off-season acquisition for them.

Whatever a Chad Patrick is, he's having himself a nice season. Yeah, this is an opportunity for the Dodgers to say what you saw against the Padres and pretty good pitching in an overall good team despite the offensive struggle San Diego has gone through. This is a chance to build on the good vibes from this run they've been on where they've one, what is it, like, eight of nine or something like that. I'm bad at math. It's a big test, though.

It's a big test. You don't have your aces necessarily ready to go. You are going with Rebleski in the series. You're going to see that. You're going to see a Roki. But the Dodgers also dodge Mizorowski, which is huge. But I don't know. I need to see some offense at the artist formerly known as Miller Park, which I'll always call

a Miller Park. I need to see the bats go. American Family Field, if you're nasty. So here's the thing, too, that's always interesting because they continue to do this in a small market, right? But I tell you, you got to give them credit. And I know we always talk about the Brewers with the situation and also the Tampa Bay Rays, and they go about their way a little bit differently than a lot of teams, but it works for them. I mean, the Tampa Bay Rays, I want to say have a four-game lead in the AL East right now.

But there is a Dodger connection to the Brewer. So Matt Arnold is their president of baseball operations. and Matt Arnold was actually hired by, you guessed it, Andrew Friedman, when they were both at the raise. I sent a message to Andrew earlier. I said, hey, were you guys there at the same time? And he said, yes, I hired him with the raise. We worked closely for many years. He was in the inner circle for everything.

And obviously, they remain good friends today. But there's something to be said about that. And I swear, you and I were joking. I was like, I wonder what the connection is there. We're like, did they work together at the raise? Did they both go to Tulane? But no, in fact, Andrew Hyder. Matt and that's kind of how he's taken that mentality from the raise and brought it over to the brewers.

And there you have it. So it's a good team. It's a perennially good team that was Ken Rosenthal's team that he enjoys watching the most, just the way that they go about their business. And remember, Clint, this is a team that got rid of Freddie Peralta. This is a team that got rid of Devin Williams. They got rid of Corbyn Burns a couple of, you know, whatever, a year ago or whatever. They don't have Andrew Vaughn right now. Yelich was hurt for some time. So they're still doing it without some pretty key pieces. So it'll be a good test. I'm looking forward to it.

Milwaukee is a sneaky, good town, sneaky fun town. So hopefully Dodgers fans can go enjoy it. And for the Brewers, this is a measuring stick series for them. We know every team that faces the Dodgers, it's their World Series. But for the Brewers and that fan base, this is going to be a measuring stick. Are they for real? And the NL Central has been really good as a whole with them, Cubs. Cubs on, you know, a little bit of hard times right now.

How about that? How about PCA's play in the outfield? Is that what we're calling it? Well, I mean, the misplay in the outfield and then the brewers have the inside, you know, little league home run inside the Parker. Couldn't happen to a better guy. Love you. Love you, PCA.

The Cardinals are really good, you know, not really good, but they're finding ways to win in that division. So still, it feels like a lot of smoke and mirrors in the NL Central, not that they've all been playing each other a whole lot. Teams are beating up on the pirates as they do. Pirates have good pitching. But the Dodgers need to take advantage of the series to know what works for them and what doesn't work.

And the Brewers need to see, okay, can we go up against an honest-to-god world series contender or are we going to need to be busy at the trade deadline? So it's going to be fun. This will be coming off of that Padre series, this will be a very fun series to watch as baseball people, unless the Dodgers. lose games. Well, I mean, yes, the brewers are 19 and 10 against teams that are 500 or better. So they're winning games that they, you know, there's tough competition for them too, is my point.

And, you know, it'll be, it'll be a good test, but another test for the Brewers, and this is for later down the road, obviously, because I do think they will be in the hunt for a postseason, they could be a postseason opponent for the daughters, but can they get, speaking independently of us, can they get over the hunt? right can they get past the first round of the postseason so and that's what we had we had that conversation with former dodgers pitcher uh cori cana gnable who was one of the co-hosts of brewer territory here on the foul territory network check it out him uh it's a kurt hoag host that one i think it's kurt if i got that wrong i apologize but they do good stuff there uh but that was the

question we asked uh canaubles like can they uh the brewers get over that hump because you can make it of the postseason as much as you want, as long as you're not the Angels or the Rockies. You can make it to the postseason, but if you don't advance, it kind of feels like a waste of time. So, good series. Hopefully everybody enjoys it. Hopefully you enjoyed this edition of Dodgers Territory.

I know I did. Sorry, it went long if you didn't want it going along, but it did, so deal with it. If you guys want to help us out further, check out the shop, Dodgers Territory Shop.com, hoodies, hats, sweaters, mugs, oh my. I think there's baby onesies in there, golf towels, a whole bunch of stuff.

Go check it out. And if you sign up to be a member, you could save 5% in the store. Scan that QR code or click the button here on the description on the YouTube video. We'll be back Tuesday with a regular show. Not a regular show, 1235 because we've got to come on a little bit later. Stephen Nelson's set to join us. So that'll be fun. Nellie is always a good time.

Anything else to say before we say bye? No, appreciate you guys for being here. Clint and I and Katie. We'll see you guys on Tuesday. Tuesday. All right. Happy, oh, by the way, thank you all the men and women that paid the ultimate price for this country. Memorial Day.

It's not a barbecue, guys. All right. We'll talk to you later. Bye. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin.

And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. Nice. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts.

We get to ask other people questions. we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Hey, it's Ashanti Plummer from Fud Around and Find Out.

This week, AZ Fud and I sat down with Step and Curry. Step talks pressure, confidence, and what it really takes to stay great. There's different categories, I guess, so in like conditioning, shooting drills where you try to simulate kind of games. Look at her face. We have a love-hate relationship with those because you know you're getting something out of it. You don't look forward to those days. Listen to Futter Around and Find out

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets.

He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off. And that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.