Dodgers 3B Max Muncy joins FT

00:00:02
Speaker 1: What's up, dude?

00:00:02
Speaker 2: How you doing.

00:00:04
Speaker 1: I'm good. I guys do really good.

00:00:07
Speaker 3: How's life right now? So we've talked in the off season about the back to back titles and you get to celebrate some of that to start the year. But it just seems like there's a lot going on. It's like a movie out there every single night. And last night was our Tani's debut and the Yoshi babble, and you know, people are probably lined up in the morning before Whale, before the players are even getting to the ballpark. So what's life like for you? Do you feel like it's a movie star kind of life. I don't know about movies star kind of life. It's you know, it's just a it's a it's a lot going on. But we're getting close to being, you know, into the daily routine.

00:00:46
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:00:46
Speaker 3: You know.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had the opening ceremonies and everything, the ring and the jersey. Uh, and then we have all the bubbleheads for the series, and then we have an opening day in DC and then Toronto be the World Series rematch. But once we get past to be you know, kind of groundhog Day for the next six months, and you know, I think all the guys are looking forward.

00:01:05
Speaker 1: To that a little bit.

00:01:06
Speaker 2: You get so used to just having your routine that you know you're ready to show up every single day and just go back your business and not have to have any of the extra stuff along with it.

00:01:18
Speaker 4: You talk all the time about everybody on this team knows what they need to do, knows where they need to be, all that stuff. But now you're the longest tenured Dodger. Is there some kind of like metal or like the fact, like, hey, Max, what should we do? You've been here the longest. Is there something in that? Because you just said, you just listened off so many things the ring ceremony and then you have, you know, different distractions. Is there a situation where you kind of had to be the Hey guys, I'm the grand marshal of this parade.

00:01:49
Speaker 5: Now I'll make sure you guys know where to be.

00:01:53
Speaker 1: No, I don't think there's any situation like that.

00:01:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just you just try to I might be the longest tenured guy, but i'm by no means the longest service time in that clubhouse. And you know that's the the funny thing about it. Uh, you know, the parking lot, the way the parking lot. So players, it's uh, uh, you know, for as long as I've been here, I feel like I've been in the same spot for all those years.

00:02:22
Speaker 1: I don't think I've moved up at all.

00:02:23
Speaker 2: We keep getting guys that have more service time than I do, so it's kind of a you know what that it's just, uh, the only thing you're really doing is people ask, you know, where do we go for certain things? And you just just point point the direction and guys find a way.

00:02:39
Speaker 5: Hey, Max, you know what Scott forgot to talk to you about last night? Your first homer? Did we talked about your first homer last night?

00:02:46
Speaker 1: Oh?

00:02:46
Speaker 5: You're Scott didn't even mention it. I think Scott forgot that you hit your first homer last night. He's all worried about bibbleheads and show Hey bitching, let's talk about Max once he's first homer.

00:02:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nice. I didn't have to wait till May this year to get that first one. So that's uh, you know, I feel bad that, Hey, Lefty, Yeah, it was a good one.

00:03:04
Speaker 2: It was off of you know, it was off Lefty and uh, you know, I've been feeling pretty good off lefties a spring. I think I had more bats off lefties than I did right he's all spring training. You know, it felt like every single day we faced the we face the lefty, and you know, we kind of expect that's how the season is gonna go for us. You know, I think teams are gonna stack lefties against us, just we've got a lot of lefties in the lineup, and uh you know, it's just it's gonna be their way to kind of combat that. And so getting all the all the practice off lefties and spring was good for me. I felt I feel really comfortable off to them, uh you know, staying in there, not not diving out.

00:03:37
Speaker 1: Uh So it's always it's always huge.

00:03:41
Speaker 5: Hey, hey Max, what about do you guys? Do you guys get the bibbleheads? You get tired of getting bibble heads? You have a house. I know you're sitting in your house. How do you have a room that's just wall to wall bibbleheads? Because I feel like the Dodgers give out a babblehead like a week. It's a show. Hey, it's a Freddy, it's a Mookie, it's a Yoshi, it's a Rokie. It's a month. See, it's a do you have a Kyle Tucker. I'm sure at some point.

00:04:04
Speaker 2: They you know, we've always done Yeah, we've always done a really good job on the promotions. So every single year you're looking at I don't know what the number is, probably twenty bubble heads. Maybe it's a it's it's a lot, and uh, it's it's really cool, is what it is. You know, my my house in Texas, we've we've got a room, what we've got over one hundred bubble heads in it now, and it's a it's really cool to just see, you know, I know the guys always enjoy it. It's always finn for for the guys. You can get your own bubble head. You know, you show up and they have a bubble head sitting in your chair when it's your when's your bibble head day? So it's always it's always a good time.

00:04:50
Speaker 4: Do you have a favorite one? Do you have a favorite one that you're like, Ah, that one we definitely can't get rid of.

00:04:56
Speaker 2: I mean they're all they're all great. The the Yoshi the Yoshi one's pretty cool. My kids love that one so far. They've they've been getting big into Mario lately and so they they they really loved that one from last night. That might be their favorite one that I've seen, either that one or My kids also really loved the Hello Kitty bubblehead. My daughter loves Hello Kitty. So that's that that's a big hit for us. Also, that's huge. Maybe maybe you get a couple extra.

00:05:24
Speaker 4: How are the new guys acclimating Tucker and Edwin Diaz? How do new guys who are superstars acclimate to a team of superstars.

00:05:36
Speaker 1: I mean, they've they've been fitting in seamlessly, you know.

00:05:39
Speaker 2: I think the the good thing for them is there's just, uh, there's obviously expectations, but like you know, there's just as much pressure on everyone else than there is on them.

00:05:51
Speaker 1: And so you know, it's not like it's.

00:05:53
Speaker 2: A, hey, we need you to be the guy the whole season's writing on you. You know that that's not the expectation for them. It's more just that he, you know, find your footing. We know you're going to help us, you know, win a bunch of games this season, and you know, start start acommitting to life out here in LA get used to the routine, get used to you know, the drive into Dodger Stadium.

00:06:15
Speaker 1: You know, all that kind of stuff.

00:06:17
Speaker 2: It's just I think it's a it's a little bit easier for those guys and that one that is just you know, the world's not not weighing down on them, knowing that they can just fit in for us.

00:06:27
Speaker 3: This episode is brought to you by Fox One. Go get that new app, stream baseball, stream football, stream World Cup action. You'll be watching.

00:06:36
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00:06:54
Speaker 3: At yeah, the big sporting events. And by the way, the World Cup is June eleventh to July nineteenth. You can get a seven day trial of Fox one, so go check that out and you can start your seven day free trial today. Offers are subject to change. Go to Fox one for complete terms and conditions. Fox one Streaming.

00:07:12
Speaker 4: Now, yeah, we'll definitely make sure he I think we got time for that one. Then we'll definitely make sure we as we count this down, we'll say by to Marquee and we'll go We'll continue on with Max. But a j you can you can go ahead with it.

00:07:27
Speaker 5: Oh No, all I was gonna ask is when they first played the trump it's Edwin, did you get a little chills? Did you get a little chills? Because I mean every time in New York when they played that, I feel like you die a little chills. So when they did that, didn't they have the didn't they have a trumpet guy there the first night he came in, or didn't they do something special for him?

00:07:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had it. They had an artist to play the trumpet live. Not gonna lie. It's it's a pretty good skit. It's it's a good skit. You know that.

00:07:55
Speaker 2: There's there's certain guys where you just sit there and you go, man, that's a that's a good skit.

00:07:59
Speaker 1: When they come in the game and you know that one's one of the best.

00:08:02
Speaker 2: It's I gotta say, it sounds pretty good at Dodger Stadium with the sound system. You know, it's a they they may they may be crank it up a little bit extra loud. Uh, but that's all right. That's what you want. You know, it gets the stadium rockin. I think the fans are really starting to to love it. They you know, fans tend to lead the game maybe a little bit early to be traffic, and this has given them a reason mistake because they want to see the you know, they want to see the skid.

00:08:31
Speaker 4: Is there anybody's song that plays on the Dodgers sound system? For anybody who hasn't been to l A, it is the best sound system by far, Like it's another level sound system. But is anybody's song with anybody you play that's on that sound system that you're like, like that just didn't that just didn't hit. I feel like everybody's song hits any time that I've ever been there.

00:08:54
Speaker 2: No, there's there's plenty of songs that that that don't sound that great. And that's that's part of the U the train and finding a walk up song. Is you gotta you gotta really really try to guess if it's gonna sound good at Dotter Stadium or not a lot of times guys will pick a song and they after one night they go, yeah, that didn't sound break, I gotta gotta move on. There's not any that pop right into my head. Most guys do a pretty good job of finding a song. This sounds great on there, but uh yeah, the sound system is just different, easily the best. It's uh you know, I love having that.

00:09:29
Speaker 5: Hey, Max, when you when we were talking about this earlier with the show Show, he said, Oh, I'm not gonna pitch every fifth day. I'm gonna pitch every sixth or seventh day, And I said he could absolutely win a so Young doing that. Do you think Show he could win a so Young if he pitches every sixth or seventh day like they're planning on using him.

00:09:45
Speaker 1: Now, I mean, I don't see why not. I mean, I think the the only the only thing that would hold.

00:09:55
Speaker 2: Him back is if there's a guy that's got very similar numbers to what he's gonna just have that extra two three starts, And I really think that the voters will take that into account when it comes down to it at the end. But you know, I don't see any reason why Show couldn't want to side out. You know, he's incredible on the mound, and I was talking about it last night that you know, I know everyone talks about his hitting and how impressive his hitting is, Uh, pitching is what he really really loves to do. Like he is so bought into pitching. He loves everything about it. He loves the preparation for it, the build up for it, you know, the scouting, like he just he really really loves pitching. And you can tell that's just like pitching is who he is. That's that's what he loves to do in baseball. And he just happens to be really good at hitting, but pitching is where he's you know, you can tell he's fully bought into pitching.

00:10:51
Speaker 5: Hey, and by the way, if he wins to Cion, guess what, you guys would get another bubblehead so you could just add it to your collection. See, everyone just get more bubble heads and then your kids are going to just have to keep choosing which one so to win win for everybody.

00:11:05
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, absolutely, yes, I think I think the one bibblehead that we're not gonna get, at least I don't think we are yet is the shirtless Sunday bibblehead. When we had Robleski on the other day, I guess it was now a month ago, but he was talking about how, yeah, you know, we're continuing the shirtless Sundays. Will that continue during the season? You've only had one Sunday? And do we need to have a shirtless Kershaw bobblehead?

00:11:33
Speaker 2: You know what, I wouldn't be surprised if they did something like that.

00:11:37
Speaker 1: I know, I know Kersh would love that.

00:11:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was a big you know, he was a big, big proponent of the shirtless Sunday and he loved it.

00:11:46
Speaker 1: He got he got super excited for Sundays.

00:11:49
Speaker 2: He would just pop his head down in the weight room, yell at everybody, make sure the tarp's off, and you know, go. He he'd be. He'd be in those who were always his best workout days with shirtless Sunday. You know, he was fully bought into it.

00:12:04
Speaker 5: Hey, speaking of workouts, Max, have you seen Mookie doing? Was it Roi Rokie stuff? Is that what he's doing? Are you gonna get on that train soon? Are you gonna get on the Mooki and Rookie workout train?

00:12:16
Speaker 1: Dude? I don't know, man.

00:12:17
Speaker 2: He uh So, he started doing the javelins because he wanted to work on his throw, and within like two weeks he was throwing absolute missiles across the infield. And I'm sitting there looking at him do this, and I'm like, man, maybe I should start doing the javelins also, because like he you like, Mook's always had an unbelievable arm, but like when you watch the way he's throwing now, like he's throwing absolute rockets to first base and he's so accurate with it every single throw, You're just kind of like, maybe I should start doing this. You know, maybe I'll put maybe I'll put you out a sense on my shoulders and start walking around and see what happens.

00:12:53
Speaker 4: Okay, that's the one I was gonna ask about. I don't care about the rocket because you know, we don't ever get to see how far the rocket goes. Every video we see it's just like them standing there and then they throw it. I want to see how far it goes. So until I see that the one where you had a sense was on his back. Do you feel like you're built for that? Do you feel like if Max Munsey has somebody on his back, like it's gonna go well or not?

00:13:18
Speaker 1: Well?

00:13:19
Speaker 2: You know, the thing is, since they only weighs maybe one hundred pounds, you know, he's not a real big guy. But uh, you know, it's A. It's a From my understandings, it's all about engaging your core and using your core the correct way. That's you know, trying to find the balance in your body while engaging your core. That's why he puts you know, he puts himtuff on your shoulders. Is he want you to understand that? I don't know much more than that, but that's my basic understanding of him being on your shoulders.

00:13:50
Speaker 5: All right, have you done abs yet? Have you challenged? Because you guys have like no challenges so far. Does Dave Roberts say you guys aren't allowed to challenge because Umpire's never miss calls on the dog because you guys get every call anyway, so you don't want to rooin that reputation.

00:14:04
Speaker 1: Uh, that's that's false. Uh, we do not. We do not get every call. That's uh. You know, I would like to think we do, but we definitely do not.

00:14:13
Speaker 2: No, you know, we've had a lot of meetings about, uh, you know, when is the proper time to use to use a challenge. And obviously, if you're one hundred percent certain that you know pitches the ball and it gets called a strike, you challenge that any point. But if it's one that your borderline on. We have, you know, certain situations where you have a green light to challenge, and then there's other situations where it's you know, you probably shouldn't challenge if you're borderling on it. That's something that we've been real big on so far this year. It's just understanding, you know, the situation, understanding you know, leverage counts and uh, you know is the runners on base?

00:14:49
Speaker 1: No runners on base? Are you leading off the union? Is the sixth inning on?

00:14:54
Speaker 2: Uh?

00:14:54
Speaker 1: You know.

00:14:54
Speaker 2: The biggest thing for us is just saving the challenges for for Will and uh adult and behind the plate. You know, the the data is very, very point blank that catchers are much better at challenges than hitters are. So we want to make sure our catcher always has a challenge for later in the game and well really at any point in the game. And Will has already been proven that so far. Will has been amazing behind the plate. There was only a there's only one I think that he's missed, and that was just a ninth inning challenge where it was like, hey, let's take a chance, why not and we still had another challenge behind that. So I have not done the challenge yet I've h I had one challenge on me last night and uh it was not overturned, so I was you know, that was a good one for me. But yeah, the biggest thing we've been trying to harp on so far as just understanding when is it when's the right time to challenge challenge a pitch because you don't want to run into a situation like the uh, you know, like Cleveland ran into last night where they were out of challenges by the by the fifth inning.

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00:16:52
Speaker 1: It's blue Choo.

00:16:54
Speaker 5: Hey, I did a game on Saturday. I did a game on Saturday Max where the Braves in the first inning, Drake Baldwin dropped the boo boom in the top of the first missed it acunya. There was a ball like in the middle of the plate that they call a strike, and he challenged leading off, and the four hitters into the game Braves out of challenges. So the smartest thing you can remember is that catchers always get it right. So just let the catchers challenge. Okay, nobody else, including.

00:17:22
Speaker 1: No Like I said, I say like I said that.

00:17:24
Speaker 2: The data is very clear on that when you look at it from the last couple of years in the minor leagues. This year in spring training and so far, catchers are about was it like sixty five percent something like that.

00:17:34
Speaker 1: I think.

00:17:36
Speaker 2: And hitters are only forty so uh yeah, the data is pretty clear that catchers are always going to be a lot better, and you know they're seeing more pitches beyond the plate, so it makes sense, all right.

00:17:46
Speaker 4: So you obviously you haven't challenged yet, like you said, but you've got to challenge on it. It's riveting for fans. They all look up at the board, they're watching it when they challenged. I forget who was behind the disc that challenged the call. Did you sit there and go, I know him right, or do you say that could have touched that could have just gotten on the edge.

00:18:10
Speaker 2: Well, the one on me last night, actually it was a check swing for me. So you know, anytime you get in the check swing, you don't really get like a full good look at the ball. So I was kind of like, I have no eye. I was just as engaged as the fans where I was staring at the board. You know, I was like, is this a striker is at ball? I don't know, just do the Randy A.

00:18:31
Speaker 5: Rose arena where you know it's a ball and he just walks the first he's handing all his jump to the bad boy, and they're like, you know, they're doing the thing and it was like, you know, two tenths of an inch off the play. He's like, I knew it the whole time. He was already at first base. No, I don't know if I'll ever do that.

00:18:46
Speaker 2: I'll make sure it's an actual ball before I start walking down. Last thing you want to do is take off all your guards and then have to put him all back on, and you know, and then everyone's sitting there waiting on you, and you know, I know some people probably enjoy that, but no, not me.

00:19:00
Speaker 5: Then you get the pitchclock violation. Then you could get a pitchclock and it would make up for the other things. See Souse, it was a strike to a ball, and then you get the pitchclock. See then it's all it's all big cycle. It's a vicious cycle.

00:19:11
Speaker 1: Max.

00:19:12
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, new rules are fun. I will say this. Some people were like, oh, when we do all this, there's never gonna be ejections again. I've seen some fun ejections already across the bigs from managers. They're figuring out ways to still piss off mpires and get themselves booted from games. Derek Shell no Weekend, Don Kelly last night, like, we're good, We're still gonna see some entertaining.

00:19:36
Speaker 2: There's sometimes where guys just don't want to sit there and dug out and they want to they'd rather be up in the clubhous.

00:19:42
Speaker 1: You know.

00:19:43
Speaker 2: Uh, there's always gonna There's always going to be those days, and that's just how it is.

00:19:48
Speaker 5: Hey, will Dave Roberts get ejected this year? Will he get or does he just always sit back like every time I show him, he's just saying that it doesn't even have the time. Look like he's watching the game. He's just like, we're gonna win. So yeah, I've got dinner reservations at ten thirty, guys, let's turny this up a little bit, you know, because I got to get out of here.

00:20:07
Speaker 2: No, as for whether he will get tossed this year, I don't know. Doc does a pretty good job of towing the line. He always stays on the correct side of the line. But there's a lot of times where he'll tell the line with the umpires. And but as far as getting tossed, I don't. I don't know. It would have to be a pretty big moment for him to get tossed.

00:20:33
Speaker 3: Max last one for it it's a fun one. So the Athletic does a Hopometer survey every year for eleven thousand fans on their optimism versus pessimism for their team. The Dodgers I think set the all time record. It was ninety eight point two percent, and that only equals I think one fan that said they were pessimistic about the Dodgers. So I wanted to get your take. It doesn't have to be serious on what you would tell that one fan who's not feeling good about and it's not just the current Dodgers. They kind of look at what they've done and then what is going to happen going forward? So what would your advice be to that one fan who does not feel satisfied right now?

00:21:10
Speaker 1: Go touch some grass, man get.

00:21:14
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's a it's I don't know what else you'd want from us. You know, we've we've won back to back World Series. We have a great team. We're off to a great start. If you if you can't finally hope in us, then like I said, go you got to go to touch the grass.

00:21:29
Speaker 1: And find something else to do, or play the video game.

00:21:32
Speaker 5: But they lost this year, They've lost the game this year, So of course there's gonna be somebody mad. You guys are supposed to win every game.

00:21:39
Speaker 1: It's just not gonna happens. It's just not gonna happen.

00:21:44
Speaker 2: No, no team is ever gonna no team is ever gonna go one sixty two, and it's just never gonna happen.

00:21:49
Speaker 3: No, some little kids will play like easy mode on a video game so that they win every single game. That might be what that fan needs to do. We're hoping the fan just made a mistake and it's like they were at the and they pressed the wrong button. They were like, oh shoot, I didn't mean to press that, but just wanted to get a little fun message out to that one person in case they're serious. Max Sure the man, thank you so much for joining us. We're enjoying the show. We'll catch you sooner, right

00:22:13
Speaker 1: All right, sound good, guys, Thanks for having me on.