Doc Roberts joins Dodgers Territory

00:00:00
Speaker 1: So pleased to be joined by Dave Roberts, the manager of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Dave, I tell you, it's an interesting thing, this great game of ours, because you get swept by the Angels and then you sweep the Padres. Baseball is a conundrum. Make it make sense? Skip?

00:00:18
Speaker 2: You know what?

00:00:19
Speaker 3: If I had the answer to that one, guys, I would have slept a lot better these last ten days.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: I don't get it, you know.

00:00:28
Speaker 3: I think the only thing I can, I guess wrap my head around is it's one hundred and sixty two games.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: It's a long season, and I.

00:00:36
Speaker 3: Know fans, media, us in the clubhouse don't understand why we can't be consistent with our play or any team for that matter. But it is crazy that, you know, we haven't won a game against the Brewers all year, can't beat the Angels, and then we you know, have our way with the San Diego Padres up to this point during the season. So, yeah, baseball is one of those things that you just won't I don't think we'll ever figure out out.

00:01:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it's it's a very very weird game. Saw a lot better brand of baseball out of your ball club this weekend.

00:01:10
Speaker 5: What can you say that you learned?

00:01:12
Speaker 4: Did the Dodgers learn anything about themselves from the series of the Padres this weekend?

00:01:18
Speaker 2: You know what?

00:01:18
Speaker 3: What what I can say is, uh, you know, we talked about urgency, and I've kind of said this the last you know, a few days or during that series where it's a it's a heightened focus. And I do think that when I kind of do step away and you see guys like Freddie Freeman, those guys guys like him who just don't ever give away and at bat or take a playoff, that's something that's hard to accomplish. But I think as a group this past weekend we did that. So I think that's so Quinn. I think, sorry Clinton, So I think that the lesson is is really try to get us individually to raise our sort of intensity or focus, you know, from here on out.

00:02:13
Speaker 6: Sorry Alana, Now that's okay.

00:02:15
Speaker 7: Let's give some love to alex Vessius because alex Vestia Dave has been put in situations that perhaps he's not meant for at the moment, but he's risen to the occasion, I mean, a big moment for him.

00:02:29
Speaker 1: Yesterday kind of like that big dog moment. Where have you seen him in terms of growth and development at the back end of your pen.

00:02:37
Speaker 3: Man, Alex is probably you know, I've had him for I think what seven years, maybe something like that.

00:02:45
Speaker 2: Six years. He's really really grown.

00:02:50
Speaker 3: I think he's gotten a lot more comfortable in his own skin. He's a quirky guy like most relievers are, but I just really he's as hard a work a worker, intentional workers I've ever been around. And his confidence has grown tremendously, and you know, I think it was one of those seasonal defining moments in the sense that you know, his last four he scuffled, and he's never run from it, and he's always taken the baseball. And then so right there, I feel that he's one of the guys that one of the core guys that we're gonna need throughout the postseason. So I've got to instill confidence in him. And so going to him in that spot, I felt good about him in that spot. And then also he came to me, to be quite honest, and said, if it's a safe situation, if we score a run, I want the ninth. And then so for me is when a player has skin in the game and is that convicted and has earned that right.

00:03:56
Speaker 2: I'll bet on him.

00:03:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I want to follow on that because we saw that, we heard about the conversation after the fact, and you know, the bullpen obviously it's had its ups and downs, probably a little bit more downs than anybody was expecting this year. Alex said, you know, the dog is still there, but maybe the dog was asleep in the bullpen.

00:04:16
Speaker 5: That felt like a dog moment.

00:04:17
Speaker 4: How important was that to the guys in that clubhouse to see Vesia kind of step up and take a little bit of ownership in in a kind of leader role where I mean, guys have been missing again throughout the course of the season in that bullpen. It felt like that is something to me, that's something big for the rest of the dudes in that bullpen, where you're like, f yeah, I can get behind this guy and now we kind of get that momentum going in the bullpen again.

00:04:40
Speaker 5: Am I reading.

00:04:41
Speaker 4: Too much into this or how do you feel this helps the rest of the boys in that pen.

00:04:45
Speaker 2: You nailed it.

00:04:46
Speaker 3: You nailed at Clint, and it's funny as a coach where you can see guys evolve from the little puppy to the big dog in a certain role, right, and we've seen that from Alex, and he is a star the pen. He's one of the leaders in the pen, obviously losing Blake and getting Blake back, and you know he's accrued some service time. He's won two championships and so it's like, he's a guy, he's a real guy. And I do think that him adding a little light to the sleeping dog kind of message, not taking it too seriously, but really taking it seriously. On the other end of it is a message to the guys, because I will say, in the pen, it's one of those things that you know, you get gunshot, you get scared, then it really kind of shows up. But for him to bounce back the way he did definitely absolutely sends a message to his guys.

00:05:44
Speaker 1: Dave, you talked about making sure Alex had the knowledge that you had confidence in him. Let's speak to that when it comes to Mooky Betts. How is a manager do you tell MOOKI that you still have the confidence in him a guy that seemingly lost confidence in himself.

00:06:03
Speaker 3: I think it was one of those where Number one, I didn't move him down, and he even at times felt it might be better if he moved down in the order, and actually I moved him up to hopefully just change his you know way he looks at his role with the club offensively to maybe be a table setter that was short lived. And then basically I put him in the two hole and I even said it publicly, and I'm not going to give him any outs, and He's going to be our two hole hitter indefinitely. We don't have a better option in my opinion, when he's in the lineup. And so I felt right there saying, hey man, you're our two hole hitter indefinitely. So figured out and he took it and ran with it. So I think for me, that's the ultimate sign of confidence.

00:06:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's good having Marcus lend Batts back in that lineup. You know, it's a dude, we were hoping for the t deadline. It's like, if this happens. If this happens, no other team is able to add Mookie back to the lineup. You guys got him going again. It's it's really good to see him. Other pieces added back to the active roster. You're getting Snell, you got Snell back, Glass now back finally seeing that starting rotation that pissed everybody off in the offseason.

00:07:18
Speaker 5: You know, they bring baseball.

00:07:20
Speaker 4: How has that been to see this unit of five or six dudes come together, don't sleep on Clayton Kershaw by the way, how has that been for you to see? And can we say this is the best starting rotation in baseball?

00:07:33
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:07:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can say, you know, one through one through six, it's certainly the best rotation in baseball one through five. I still love what Emmitt's doing and it is nice. You know, each night we can I write the lineup and I see that starting pitch and I go, man, I like our guy better than their guy. And that's a good feeling. And you know, even Yama coming off a bad one, I think he's to be certainly motivated here tonight.

00:08:03
Speaker 2: And then we got show. Hey, who I know.

00:08:06
Speaker 3: When he pitched on Wednesday, We're going to see a show. Hey, that's going to dominate for five innings and so and the same thing with Emmett. So I just think we're going to keep this train moving and it feels good. And I just think that, you know, if we can continue to keep these guys healthy and perform the way that they're capable of. Everything sort of feeds off of starting pitching for our club this year. And I think last year we did it with with a lineup and a crazy bullpen management situation. But for us to win the last game in October, it's gonna have to be our starting.

00:08:40
Speaker 2: Pitching this year.

00:08:42
Speaker 1: And Dave is that is rookie Sasak on that starting train. What's the latest with him and is he willing or do you guys see a world in which Sasaki because of where he's at and the season could come out of the pen for you.

00:08:55
Speaker 3: So you know Roki right now, he's going to pitch later this week. I don't know if it's Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, it's later this week. For that OKAC team, we got to build him up number one a little bit more. We got to get that velocity up Alana, and once we get to like three and four outings, we need to start to see performance. And so I think for Rokie, he's a young ballplayer. I know he cares, I know he'll do anything that we ask him. And at the end of the day, we're going to go with our thirteen best pitchers, and you know his talent is there, certainly, but he's also got to be got to perform too.

00:09:40
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00:09:41
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00:10:41
Speaker 4: Doc Teams had injuries, unexpected slumps, just about everything in between.

00:10:45
Speaker 5: For you. What has been the biggest challenge so far this season?

00:10:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can start a laundering list if you need.

00:10:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Oh my god, as I put my head down, and I think the biggest challenge, the biggest challenge is here's the thing is when you're starting pitching, wasn't healthy and then your bullpen was banged up. So this is a run prevention thing, certainly in the sense that you're trying to figure out how far you can push guys that aren't really ready to face call it twenty three twenty four hitters, and then also have guys like Alex Vesia, you know Tanner, Scott kirbyates early that you can kind of put in different roles to kind of kick the game down the road to save the game potentially earlier than you'd like. But if you look at a lot of Major League games, a lot of games are won and loss in the fifth and sixth inning, and so it was hard to push starting pitchers early because that's when injuries typically happen than not redline relievers, so kind of balancing threading that needle. Clint was probably the toughest part. Fortunately, knock on wood, we've had positional player health outside of obviously a few guys, but that part of the pitching was probably the most like mind numbing thing for me.

00:12:21
Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel like I just want to give you a hug. Yeah, let's think of the positive right now. Will Smith, my goodness, he set the world on fire on Saturday. Don't run on Willie Dill's. This is a guy that has been so instrumental behind the plate managing your pitching staff obviously, but to have a guy that can hit like that and do so many things has got to be pretty special. What do you take away from him?

00:12:51
Speaker 3: I think he's Freddie Freeman two point zero. I think that he has really become a much better ballplayer because of Freddie Freeman. And Will doesn't speak a lot, but he watches, and I think that he's really learned from Freddie as far as how to take it bats and behind the plate. He just has a great relationship with our pitchers. Uh, the arm really plays. And I think last year I read that he led major league catchers and caught stealing. So I said it the other day. I think he's the best catcher in all of baseball and we're lucky to have him.

00:13:36
Speaker 4: I want to touch on some of the you know, the bats of the dudes in the that that line up there Taoskar and and has loved the dude, A great guy in that clubhouse. We know that hasn't been quite the same season. We're seeing some good some bad here and there where you think, what are you seeing in Tayo right now and over the course of the season, and you know, can we expect that that full uh you know, postseason version of ta Oskar back when we need him most, you know, in October?

00:14:04
Speaker 2: You know, I think I yes, is the answer.

00:14:07
Speaker 3: I think with Tayo, there was an injury earlier, wasn't hasn't been the same since. Uh, he's healthy now. But I do think that he is one of those guys that when the big moment presents itself, he's there. You know, certain people, you know that's what they have. You know, Keyk is one of those guys as well. And I just had a good feeling that once we played the Padres, it was gonna light a fire under him.

00:14:40
Speaker 2: And you can just see.

00:14:42
Speaker 3: Uh, there was just a little bit more hide and focus there was, And you know.

00:14:48
Speaker 2: Tayo himself can deny it, but I see it.

00:14:51
Speaker 3: I watched every bet, every play, and you know, in big games in the postseason, the best of tail comes out. Now the key is for us to get the best of him, you know, for the rest of the season, because all these games matter.

00:15:08
Speaker 1: Dave, there was a time early on in the season, I'll admit it that I wanted to send Andy Pajes to the moon, and I'm so glad that I didn't send him to the moon because he has been so good in so many different ways for this club, and I wasn't patient enough with him.

00:15:22
Speaker 2: But you were.

00:15:23
Speaker 1: Can you speak to the growth of what you've seen from pa Has.

00:15:29
Speaker 3: First of all, I want to give you props for even saying that I didn't know that was your thought earlier. But I love that you held yourself accountable. Thank you for that. I just think for me, Ilana, it's one of those things that I see behind the curtain. I see a kid from Cuba who has gotten considerably better, who works as good as any young player I've seen, and he's grown big time with that he's not scared of moments, and when you play for Thes, you are you're going.

00:16:01
Speaker 2: To play in a lot of big moments.

00:16:04
Speaker 3: He's not your prototypical center fielder, but his jumps have gotten better, his arm strength is an eighty and accuracy baked in as we saw yesterday, and I just felt that, you know, hitting sixth or seventh in the order, he can drive in a run. I just felt that he cleaned up the fastball at the top of the zone with his swing. He's got different swings different clubs. I talk about at times he now has a swing within a swing, and we saw that yesterday where he's got a swing, but then he gets a slider and he's got another swing within that to be able to ride that ball out for a homer. So those are the things that I started to see and was willing to bet on. And you can see, guys that there's certain players that I certainly have patients, more patients probably than most people would like. But I just it's it's partly my job to believe in people on our club.

00:17:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a that's a perfect segue, because I think our fans would be upset with me with us if we didn't have to ask you about Michael Conforto. Obviously not at all the season he was expecting You guys are expecting love the hat tip of you never giving up on your dudes, and that's what makes you so so damn good at this job. At some point, obviously you really want to see the reward for that patience. What are you kind of seeing with Confordo? And you know, I guess we could be blunt as I keep playing bad cop and our good cup bad cop interview with you here is he gonna be kind of the dude for you in the postseason?

00:17:38
Speaker 3: That that is a fair, fair question that remains to be seen. That is up to Michael to be quite honest with you. I think a lot of what I look at, you know, there's a track record, there's obviously there's a recency, and also the other part of is what's the other alternative?

00:18:02
Speaker 2: Right?

00:18:02
Speaker 3: And I think that you know, when you look at things like that, the on basi is completely fine. And I felt that he I feel that there's not a better option verse right. I've given him some opportunities versus left, which he did the other day, versus Montsilli got a base at the left. I feel that he's he's making some strides this past series, so we're going to see but it's not an extended leash. But again you also have to look at who's a better alternative verse right So right now my money's on Michael And to your question, I hope he is the guy in October because I do think that if we have a hymn and Keith Gay are a call situation, that's our highest ceiling for left field for the postseason.

00:18:58
Speaker 1: Dave, six games with the Padres with a ten day window. Obviously, you just swept San Diego recently, a series with Colorado. Now you're in Denver as we speak, and then San Diego again. Does the division get decided this month?

00:19:16
Speaker 2: Probably not.

00:19:19
Speaker 3: No, and I and I guess I can say that pretty easily because the way we gave away five or six games so quickly, so.

00:19:30
Speaker 2: I guess we've lived it. That probably probably not.

00:19:36
Speaker 5: Baseball. Again, we just talked about baseball.

00:19:39
Speaker 1: That is, So that's why you should just stick to golf. Where are you hitting the links? Are you hitting the links?

00:19:44
Speaker 2: That all?

00:19:44
Speaker 7: Today?

00:19:45
Speaker 1: In Denver? The ball flies there, Dave.

00:19:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I play the meters Alta in Denver with the with the golf yardage, and I'm playing with my son actually, so we're gonna go play Cherry Hills a little bit later. The ladies are gonna go off early. Then I'm just going to play nine and then head the core. So yeah, So I got my golf a tire on, and honestly, I think that's been good for me because it's just a little something for myself and can hit the ball with my son a little bit and then kind of locking on baseball. So it's been a good kind of yin and yang for me.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: Where is he at in the whole baseball development with where is how's he doing?

00:20:25
Speaker 3: He's not playing actively right now, and he's kind of trying to figure out if he wants to keep doing this grind or or figure something else out. But he's with me, He's somewhere around. But for me selfishly as a dad, I get my son for a couple extra months, which is great.

00:20:43
Speaker 5: That's awesome.

00:20:43
Speaker 4: Well, Dave, we appreciate your time man. As always, it's a blast talk in baseball with you. Appreciate you letting me grill you a little bit. Not that you get enough of that. Day to day with the regular beat writers. But hey, go give him hell in Colorado.

00:20:57
Speaker 5: Man.

00:20:58
Speaker 3: No, we will no letdowns, And honestly, I think it's honestly refreshing just to talk to baseball. So I think, you know, this gives me an opportunity to kind of give everyone a look behind the curtain and be honest and transparent because a lot of times, you know, people don't know everything I know.

00:21:12
Speaker 2: But this is good. I appreciate you, guys, Dave.

00:21:15
Speaker 1: Nobody knows everything that you know, and that's why we want to ask the questions like that's why this team is so damn good and the way that you manage is so refreshing. Thank you, Skip, We appreciate you. Please give my best to the family and go get those Rockies.

00:21:28
Speaker 2: All right, guys, take care