Dodgers second half, here we come! | Dodgers Debate

Dodgers second half, here we come! | Dodgers Debate

We missed you in Atlanta, Plash. It was it was quite a boondoggle. The whole time we were both thinking, why are we here? Pli is right. He’s going to give us so much. All had to do wonder why are you there? Well, that’s kind of harsh. No, you hurt my feelings. Maybe this one will be better. Motivate him. Read his moto column. Hello and welcome back to Dodgers Debate. I’m Jack Harris, the LA Times beat writer in person. I know we’re back in the studio. It’s been a while. When was the last time we did this? Uh, I don’t know. It’s been a month. Since then, we’ve done episodes from the Milwaukee airport, from Iowa, from outside of Dodger Stadium during an ice raid. Although, now that we’re back in the studio, what what are you writing a column right now, Doug? Yeah, kind of. Well, I mean, I had it. I figure I Oh my god. He He is writing a column. Can you wait? Good lord. Well, I mean, I figured I I brought it down here because Jack was I figured Jack would be late, which he kind of was, right? So, I figured I could at least get a couple paragraphs in. I don’t blame him for trying to save face. He He went to Atlanta and what did he come back with? He He ripped Otani for not being in the home run derby. He wants to be He ripped Freddy Freeman for not crying. That was a great exchange. Dylan’s trying to ask like, you know, have you moved on a little bit? Like, is there closure? And and Freddy’s response is, geez, Dylan, what do you want me to cry? Yes, he did. And no, he didn’t. Open your throat. Oh, I met the I met Freddy’s dad and uh uh stepmom and very very nice people. And you were very clear to say that the Brave fans have moved on. They have. They have their new guys. You said that Freddy C. You said that Freddy Cry. Uh yeah, because Did you Did you fly to Atlanta just to see Freddy Cry? No. I went to go talk to Yamamoto and people can read about it in the Friday edition. You’re writing down what you’re working on right now. It’s unbelievable. Okay. Well, don’t let us distract you. body of war. Dylan, good lord. This thing’s on once a week, Dylan. Come on, man. What’s What’s that on your nose? I don’t know. Started like acne shaming you or It’s not It’s What happens? Are you acne shaming him when you’re on the road for like 20 hours? Is that like a like a skin thing? No. Better his nose being red than your nose being brown from kissing. Oh my Clayton Kershaw. Although he was the Wait, wait. He was the one that wrote Kershaw. What do you What? Although I will say this, Clayton Kersaw was great. Yeah. See, I I wrote an accurate story. I love that. I loved the mic. He was fun. He’s He’s like This is the end of his career. By the way, he is quitting at the end of this year, right? That’s pretty clear. Is it? He’s kind of begun his farewell tour. I mean, I think he’s kind of a farewell tour is being kind of like thrust upon him right now, whether he wants it or not. I mean, one thing he did say on like media day was that the whole thing felt kind of awkward. He said because he didn’t know he was done if he was done yet. I mean, I made this point last time, but it’s like these guys aren’t wired the way you and I are. I mean, if I were him, I would have quit after 2020 probably. And here we are like five five years later. So happy. He seems so engaged. He seems so gregarious. This is exactly why he wouldn’t quit yet. He was so fun at the asseal was terrible on the microphone in the first inning. Clayton say he he saved the whole microphone. It was good. I mean, I thought Dave Roberts summed it up well. He’s like, I just like seeing Clayton happy. And I think there was a genuine kind of like for all of the for for as awkward as it was for him as as he pointed out, it was funny listening to him get questions about Jacob Miserowski and he’s like, well, I’m not really deserving of being here either. Um, but you know, I think he did kind of, and this is probably like part of a larger trend that’s happened with him over the last couple years, he did kind of embrace like, okay, I am like the older guy here, like Dave Roberts had him get up in front of the National League team before the game and speak. And he talked about how, you know, the All-Star game can kind of be like a pain with all the different things you have to do, but it’s still a privilege and it’s a very important thing for our sport. And you know, I think it somewhat surprisingly I think especially to like I mean you guys have been around him his whole career. You know, he has kind of embraced this elder statesman role in some ways even though he’s still competitive on a week- toeek basis, you know, with the Dodgers. Now, so it’s it’s it’s it’s like the mid-season break, so to speak. So, I brought a bobblehead, the Pope. Is this is this your ex pope? No, I’m not quite sure which pope it is. He has he has no number. He has no name in the back of his jersey. But he’s going to bless the second half of Dodger season. He’s going to say yes to everything Dylan does. He’s He’s nodding no right now. Yeah. So anyway, here here’s the Pope. So I would say who who is the MVP of the first half of the season? The MVP of the first half. It’s got to be Otani. Otani might be the MVP. Will be Will Smith. Debate go. Why isn’t it Will Smith? This is like when people last year were trying to make the claim that like Teosscar Hernandez was like the most valuable player on the team. It’s like they have the best player in baseball. You you’ll recall on our mid-season show last year, I said Tyler Glasnau was the MVP of the team at that point in the season. Um, look, I think Will Smith has been very important and it’s probably like the number two guy on this list, but Otani’s got 31 home runs. He’s pitching again. Let’s put it this way. He’s barely pitching. If if the Dodgers didn’t have Show Otani versus if they didn’t have Will Smith going into the second half of the year, I think there’d be a lot bigger alarms about one of those situations than the other. But Will Smith plays the field, plays behind a plateund 20 games. Is that a good thing? Yeah. I mean, he doesn’t play that much. I mean, honestly, no, no, no. I’m just saying in terms of pitch calling and stuff, this has come under question by certain segments of the media. By who? you well the Japanese media seems to there were a couple there were a couple situations last week most notably in Yoshidobu Yamamoto start in Milwaukee where even Dave Roberts noted like yeah we probably got a little too predictable with the pitch calling at some points which is still like look that’s one of the things that over the years like Will Smith has gotten a lot better at he’s still not perfect at it and I think his you know whatever the reputation is probably sticks to the scouting reports a little too closely but like on the whole I think when you look at his job this year. The impressive part is more that he’s dealt with 35 different pitchers. He’s been able to, you know, give them like he hasn’t been the reason why the pitching numbers haven’t been as good this year. Um, and he’s the best contact hitter in the national and and he’s got like a 25 point lead for the batting title. I mean, he’s somebody who should be getting like MVP votes come the end of the year for sure. He’s probably not going to play enough to like really be in that conversation. Um, but you know, like I wrote about that this week. It’s just it is funny how with all the stars on the Dodgers, you even you go to the All-Star game, all the attention when it comes to catchers is on Cal Raleigh and what he’s doing rightfully so, but like Will Smith is having one of the best seasons out of anybody in baseball right now. And you go to media day and he’s kind of like shoved behind, you know, Clayton Kershaw and Freddy Freeman and Otani and he’s next to Yamamoto’s table and all the Yamamoto reporters are kind of spilling into his space and he’s just kind of there like, you know, I’m like, “Hey, do you feel overlooked? Do you care?” He goes, “No, I just, you know, want to go out there, win games, do my thing.” Vanilla as Dave Roberts says. Yeah. He’s he’s not a great quote. No. So that hurts him. But I think the guy who plays as much as he does, involves as much as he does with with the whole team, I take him over Watani MVP. Who’s Who’s the biggest bust? Biggest bust. Well, you could go a few different ways with this. You want to like rank him because I’d put It’s got to be Snell. I don’t know, man. Well, no, because the money matters, right? He just I mean, he and I mean, you you just tried to make the argument that Will Smith is more valuable because of playing time, right? Snow hasn’t pitched, but but he’s hurt. T you can’t cluster. So this is where it is recovering from Tommy John. How much you wanted to pitch? It can be snow. I would argue that it’s really probably been either Tanner Scott or Scott. Close your ears Dylan Roi Sasaki because at least Roki like like among guys who have played like if you want to remove Snell and Glass now and some of the guys who’ve been injured like compared to what the expectations were, I think he’s fallen shortest. Now, in terms of how it’s impacted the team, Tanner Scott’s been the biggest problem because that’s also something they’re going to probably have to address with the trade deadline. Exactly. He’s forcing them to make a trade to trade deadline on that that that they don’t want to make. I think they should trade it for another starter. You’re still on this boat. Come on, man. Tyler Glasnut came back looked good. Blake knows on the way back. Even Even Sasaki might be back, though I wouldn’t I wouldn’t put a lot of uh a lot of future uh stock into how he’s gonna pitch. But I brought a game for us to play. Oh, that wasn’t prepared today. No, this is our game. I can’t last cuz I got to be read this. All right. This This is a game. You brought a game. He brought work. You’re like, “This parents I don’t want to bother Dylan too much, but this is only for Dylan, not for you, Jack.” Okay. Oh, I don’t like this. I know where this is going. I do not like this. I do not I object to this. I’m going to I’m going to give you turn off the cameras. I’m going to give you the name of a player. You tell me if he’s a Dodger or a Giant. The these players from the rosters of the last two seasons. Okay. Okay. You got to pronounce the names properly though. Flash Zack Lo. Uh this one’s kind of tough. Uh Giant Dodger. Dodger. All right, we’ll start. Wait, what does this guy do? He’s a pitcher. Left-handed relief pitcher. Yeah, we we’ll start something easy. Show Otani Dodger. Logan Web, giant. You got to warm him up. Mason Black, Giant. Okay, you got that right. All right. Carson Sagman, Giant. All right. Were you doing this during the games this weekend? Like I’m gonna get Dylan. You’ll never get this. Ryan McKenna Giant. He got it. Yeah. Hunter Fiducia Dodger. You’re cheating. You’re looking at my paper. No, I’m not. What position does Hunter Fiducia play? Uh pitcher. No. No. You don’t get this. He’s a catcher. Conor Brogden. Uh, isn’t that the Giant? No, he’s a Dodger. No, another Dodger relief pitcher. He actually played Well, this was last year. Acquired from the Phillies, I think like pitched two games and then had like a planter fasciitis problem. So, where is he? Is he a Dodger now? No, but that’s not the game. That’s not the game. I don’t I mean Tristan Beck giant got that right. Lou Trevino, Dodger. Both. Both. Trick question. I didn’t realize the Giants part. Yeah, you played last year. All right. I end this to test your knowledge. One more thing. The Dodgers were playing the Brewers and the Twins coming up. Who’s the Brewers manager? Oh, come on. ASU legend. Oh, uh uh Murphy. Pat Murphy. You can’t you can’t get I didn’t think I didn’t think saying Arizona State was gonna trigger that for him. I’m impressed. That’s honestly more impressive to me. Who’s the Twins manager? Who is the Twins manager? Baldi. Yeah. All right. Oh, I almost said Ron Gardy once upon a time. So bad about 500. What? 500? It was about 500. I think that was like closer to 750. I don’t think so. 500. You’ve said giants like every time. I didn’t I never heard of them. Anyway, I just I just wanted to tell the viewers how the expanse of our knowledge and how credible we are. It is always good to remind people. Do you all agree it’s a great way to end the All-Star game with with a swing on with the swing. Uh oh, it’s tremendous. Yeah. I mean, I thought look, I thought it was dumb initially because I just wanted to go home. So, I’m standing down there outside the clubouses waiting to go in, not aware, honestly, that there was such a thing as a home run swing off in these things. Dylan actually text me from the press box. Hey, FYI, there’s going to be a home run derby at the end. But then I went out on the field um like behind home plate and was watching it. And yeah, I think you know, like we were talking about this after the game. It’s probably like a good and bad thing. It’s good that it was so entertaining and that the players were so into it for as kind of gimmicky as it was. The problem with that though is it kind of really just hammers home like how stale the All-Star game itself has gotten that like we’re talking about oh one of the greatest All-Star games ever or at least recently because they did this like weird home run hitting thing where they didn’t even have the biggest stars in the game taking part in it. Well, you couldn’t because they they’ve been cold for two and a half hours. You going to risk injury? Sure. But that’s just, you know, like I mean, my thing was, right, I mean, you go back to that tie game in Milwaukee that really kind of triggered this whole thing, right? Um, you know, I mean, part of what triggered this thing is it’s like, okay, there are no ties in baseball. This, right? It’s kind of like a lack of respect for the game, whatever it was. And now you end it kind of like this, which just kind of hammers home the point that the whole thing is just kind of this like meaningless gimmicky thing, you I mean, I I don’t really know what the I mean, look, obviously, look, the NFL turned into their thing into like a flag football game. You know, the NBA’s had this problem of like, you know, just absolutely no defense. Um, I’m not really sure what the solution here is, you know, in terms of I don’t know. Do you do you That’s it. I think the the swing off is a solution. It was so much fun to watch. But how do you get in fact, I would definitely. Oh, you would. Oh, boy. That’d be a bl It was a blast. It’s a blast. Like it would get a little ridiculous. I mean, here’s the thing though. If you’re okay, like if it does become that, right? You’d be paying your coaches based off how well they throw BP, right? Wouldn’t you hire right at that point? Like, wouldn’t like what would stop somebody from like paying Greg Maddox a million dollars to be their quote unquote pitching coach? Well, you know, can I say this? I don’t understand. If the Dodgers are watching this, I’m sure they are. You need to get a bobblehead of Dino Eel. That’s right. That’s great for Dino Eel. It’s got to be the next ball. It’s got to be this season. That was kind of my favorite part of it is that you did you did have and like Dino Evil’s part of games with being on the field, third base coach, sending guys, whatever. But you took like a a coach, a 59year-old coach who’s this baseball lifer, and you put him at a physical capacity in the middle of how an All-Star game was decided. It was just it was fascinating coming off a week in which he hadn’t slept because his son got drafted and he’s taking a redeyed flight. He probably threw it to his kid over the years, right? A lot. He’s thrown a lot of BP in his life. He’s thrown like four home run derbies. He’s also if you hear the He was the secret weapon. He He’s He’s one of the five most popular Dodgers if you listen to the Cheers of the Fans. It’s third base coach. It’s great. Great. Five most popular. I I’d say so. Otani Betts Freeman Kershaw Dino Evil. Yeah. All right. Teao. No. You think Dino’s more popular than Teao? Yes. Probably not. Teao. Maybe Will Smith. Yeah. Maybe. No. Kim is pretty popular now. No. But no. But I mean, you think Dino Evil is more popular than Kim? He’s been popular for Dino’s been popular for four or five years. You hear the cheers, the place goes crazy every time they introduce him. I mean, he’s popular, but he’s not like he’s not like EP Mizuhara popular when EP was with the Angels. I was asked this the the other day. Well, how Otani that whole gambling thing just didn’t stick to him. Teflon Otani. It was unbelievable. I mean, none of it. It just shows how how how much Hey, the federal government can still move quickly when they want to. It’s pretty incredible just kind of watching him, you know, deal with like the media and stuff how he’s, you know, like you can’t really trigger like a real like emotional reaction from him, right? He’s kind of been able to keep everything at like arms distance and he it kind of doesn’t matter like what he’s asked the you know, everything. I mean, honestly, the most viral clip I can remember of like an answer he gave it was like when I asked him last year like, “Are you nervous to be like in the playoffs for the first time?” And he like just cut off the question and said no. And the only reason that was like unusual is because it showed like some modicum of personality from him. Well, I think Dylan wrote this when when he’s on the mound, he really shows his emotions. Yeah. Yeah. I think his high school coach told me years ago that Otani viewed that as like his main job and kind of hitting is something that he kind of did for fun. And what was kind of interesting who who he did an interview was it with what’s that guy’s name? The guy that MCE the uh the press conference McAfee. Pat McAfee. Yeah. I think they asked him, right? they brought him on the show like do you see yourself as a hitter who pitches or a pitcher who you know um and I think for a long time like he was kind of insistent that like yeah even though my numbers might be better as like a hitter whatever like kind of pitching is kind of the main thing and he kind of went back the other way this time right like I think the the hitting has been so obviously uh dominant you know and he kind of talked about it you know I’ve done it longer it comes more naturally to me it’s going to be what he’s known for at this point but he’s not swinging the bat as since he started pitching. That is true. And that’s a problem. And that has me wondering whether the Dodgers ought to just shut him down from pitching. Um I think it’s too small of a sample size right now. It’s not like he’s, you know, 0 for 50 since he started pitching. It’s like he went from batting 280 to 220. He’s still like, you know, he hit the ball into McCubby’s Cove. He hit the home run off Misarowski in Milwaukee. Like he still had good moments and he does go through up and down stretches as a hitter. like he can be streaky. Um, but yeah, I think like when you look ahead to the second half of the season, that becomes one of the really core questions for the Dodgers to have to figure out because he’s 31 now, right? I don’t think that doing this just you based off some of the comments that Dave Roberts and others have made about like, oh, he’s a little fatigued today. You know, we’re really monitoring how he’s going to bounce back. the fact that, you know, when he threw three innings of a live BP that he went to the team after that and said, “Hey, this is a little too exhausting to keep doing it this way. Why don’t I just go to to pitching in games?” Like, I do think there is some level of whether it’s just cuz he hasn’t done it in a couple years or he’s a little older than he was the last time he was a two-way player. This is probably a little more taxing on him, maybe just in small ways. Um, and because of that, the longer that the offense drags, the bigger of a question this becomes because yes, as we’ve talked about, the most important thing for the Dodgers is having Show Otani hitting down the stretch and once you get into October. Now, at the same time, given the way the pitching staff’s kind of working out, you might still need him to give you some innings. And the way he’s pitched, I think it’s going to become more and more difficult to just shut him down as a pitcher. to trade for a pitcher at the the at the trade deadline, that’ll take the pressure off them. I mean, and and that’s one of the things that they got to try to figure out even in the couple weeks left is, you know, can we trust him, count on him to pitch somewhat without worrying about how it’s going to impact his bat? And if not, do we need to work around? But here’s the thing, though, right? This isn’t going to be their decision. This is going to be his decision. And ultimately the contract that he signed in the form that he signed it in where they’re paying him $2 million a year and they’re making millions and millions and millions of dollars off his name right through advertising. Uh they are not in a position to tell him what to do. And I think for him personally the two-way thing is a big part of his identity. Now I do think the winning part will probably trump all that. Right. And yeah, I agree. To where if he feels personally like it’s hurting his bat or that if he if or maybe they don’t need his arm, right? Maybe that if all the guys right, you know, the the Snell and Glass Now come back healthy, Yamamoto stays like this and maybe they don’t quite need him. The problem now though is he might be a better pitcher than all of them the way he’s pitched so far, at least in like these small bits. Dylan really understands two-way players cuz he’s doing a column while doing a podcast. But the ultimate two-way player today, but I think I know. But he hasn’t actually typed anything this whole time. But I think the other part of this though, right, is I do think like he’s kind of he’s very cognizant of like what people I do think he’s cognizant of what’s being said. And I do think he’s cognizant of the fact that like people are saying, you know, he can’t do both. And that’s that’s really what’s defining. He can’t do both. I’m saying it. I was about to say I don’t know if anyone’s actually saying that but I am right now just did no and I think look I I and my feeling just kind of being around the team is that their preference would be that he doesn’t pitch right uh that said I think that Otani’s entire career has been defi defined by kind of going against what everybody says I mean you got to go back even to when he came out of high school in Japan people in Japan were saying you can’t play both ways and then when he was getting ready to come here people were saying you can’t go both ways you know I mean Ichiro was the closest who came to saying he could do it. And even Ichiro’s suggestion was that he pitch one year, hit the next, basically alternate seasons as a pitcher and a hitter, right? And so like no one really his suggestion. That was his suggestion. Yeah. So like what he’s doing right now, that sounds like bad advice, you know? I think obviously teams, you know, were desperate enough to get him that they were saying, right? And were the angels kind of like I mean, what were the angels going to do? Tell me you can’t do both. I mean, they had nothing going for them, you know. But I do think that this kind of two-way thing in this form, the way it’s happened, uh, most people didn’t think he was going to be able to pull this off. I mean, I know the Dodgers for sure were looking at the Dodgers won a championship with him not pitching, they can do it again with him not pitching. Yeah. Case closed. Dodgers won one last year and he didn’t pitch. Why? Why could he do? Didn’t even hit that much in the playoffs either. But you Well, because I think that Well, because there’s no I mean I think look, if you went to him and I think if you guaranteed him another ring, if he didn’t pitch, he would take that. But like right now like you don’t know. And I do think like he feels like his biggest impact is kind of as a two-way player. I think he’s described even kind of the the entire kind of cycle, right? The six day cycles that he goes through as kind of that’s like my natural like playing rhythm. Um, and and to this point, the times these kinds of questions have come up to Otani the last couple weeks, his answers have been along the lines of acknowledging that his bat hasn’t been as good, downplaying or rejecting the notion that it’s because of how he’s feeling physically or whatever, and noting that I, like he said multiple times, especially when people have asked like how well he’s pitched, his point has been, I think I can still do better as an all-around player. So he does not sound like somebody who’s, you know, conceding to this, oh yeah, this might not work thing. Were Were there huge parties in Atlanta? Did Did you guys go out? Atlanta was I’ve done five all-star games now. This one was the worst because of the sterile sterile mall at the ballpark. The sterile mall, the weather, the setup, the media day setup was not ideal. That swing off happened at midnight Eastern because they didn’t even start the game until 8:30 and and the the stands were empty. Yeah, that part was a little weird because like I was down there and like half of the lower bowl had had emptied out. Plus, I had to take a a red eye after all of my travel nonsense last week. A red eye to Atlanta. Didn’t get any sleep. Didn’t get done till 3:00 a.m. after the game. This is why my face is breaking out. And what was Dylan a good teammate? Did Did he buy you dinner? No, Dylan did not buy me dinner. Did Did you Did you go out together? No, he worked he worked too late. I went out with the Japanese guys. Oh, we found this great will always turn you down with the Japanese guys. We found this great of all places, right? In Atlanta has great skimming. I did I had no idea. Okay, before we get out of here, I was reviewing our uh predictions at the start of the season because I wanted I want to refresh them here at the start of the second half. I do want to point out that Dylan called 121 wins before the start of the year. So, I did the math on that. The Dodgers only have to go 63 and two the rest of the way to get their done. You want to stick with that one or Wait, is it really 63 and two? Yeah. 121. So that would be 41 losses. They already have 39 losses. I picked 106 which means like 47 and like 15 or something which is at least within the realm of possibility. Flashky did it the best because he said that they were going to start 32 and0 but still only had him at 103 wins. So yeah. I I think it’s interesting. You look at the national media, nobody is is taking the Dodgers to to win it all anymore. They’re all taking the Yankees or the Tigers or the Cubs or the Are people picking the Yankees right now? They kind of stink. Well, the Tigers are interesting, but they’re all kept on Yankees meeting was the deadline. I I won’t we’ll skip the win total, but like do you still have them winning the World Series? And then what like or who concerns you the most? Uh when you look at like the rest of we’ve covered the team’s problems like if they don’t win the World Series like who’s going to stop them? I think the biggest problem is I hate to say it is Freddy and Mookie. I think that’s a huge and you see them against you saw them against those tough bullpens the last several weeks of before the Allstar break. They they need them to hit. Otani can’t carry it from the top. They need those guys. tail king can’t carry from the b the middle and I’m concerned about Mookie and Freddy and I’m concerned that they’re not for injuries and other reasons they’re not going to get it done this year. That’s my concern. Yeah, they there’s certainly a lot of like pitfalls, right? Starting pitching, bullpen, mookie, Freddy, you know, now I think those to me are like all kind of non-negotiables, right? They’re going to have to have good starting pitching. Uh they’re going to have their bullpen’s going to have to be solid. I think Muki is going to have to hit if they’re going to win. Uh Freddy’s going to have to hit um at some point, right? And I’m not saying that they all have to be going at the same time, but between those and that was the recipe last year, right? Yeah. And so to me though, the the concerning guy is is Teas Hernandez um Yeah. Well, because again, like if you look at those things as being kind of non-negotiable, right? And you look at like the surrounding pieces that kind of maybe take you over the top there. To me, Teao was kind of that difference maker. And I just think uh you know, and I’m not even kind of going off that the ball he fouled off himself. Uh you know, I don’t think he’s been the same since that groin injury has earlier this year. He’s running like 200 since then. Yeah. And it’s just been, you know, I I think like look like with with Muki, I could see him starting to hit, right? With Freddy, I could see him starting to hit the pitching. I could see that working out. The one thing that I I’m looking at and thinking like, man, I don’t think that’s going to turn is Tioscar Hernandez just because again of how long this has gone. This is just going to be one of those years for him where he’s just not at 100%. And well, I know he looked terrible in the outfield. He runs terribly, right? So on the Teao point, I think yeah, clearly he’s the one of all those guys that seems the most limited by what he’s been dealing with and playing through given the kind of injury it is, given the fact that he only missed the two weeks when he did go on the IIL and just has not looked right at the plate or in the field since. I would kind of put him in the bucket of like what you said about the non-negotiable stuff. Like if any of those things falter, like the way you work around that is because Deos Oscar Hernandez is hitting and Maxy is down there hitting and Andy PZ is performing more like an all-star rather than kind of how he cooled off the last couple weeks of the first half. Um and yeah, all those things are kind of question marks and I think much like last year unless you get the ro the one difference about this year is like the rotation could be if everything went right in a in a fundamentally different place than it was going into October last year. Like if you have Yamamoto, Snell, Glaz, now some version of Otani all pitching well on top of all the other depth you have, that is a real difference compared to like half of Jack Flity starts being good and Yamamoto being okay and Beller, you know, pitching in a couple good outings along the way. Um, but yeah, I mean outside of that, I think it does like I understand the Teao point, but I think it still comes down to like whether he’s performing or not. you know, this team, Dylan and I were talking offline about the Clippers yesterday. Um, and how you talk about the Clippers. Well, he knew Bradley Beley Beal ex your guy. No, no, I’m a Suns fan. He’s the opposite of my guy. But it’s given me great insight into the two big interesting moves of the LA teams this year with him and DeAndre Aton. Anyway, my point was like, look, the the Clippers, yeah, they made some nice moves. built a nice bench, but like they’re their two guys have to be playing well for them to win. And I think this Dodger team, despite all of the money they’ve spent, we’re comparing the Dodger to the Clippers. Well, and that’s kind of the problem, right? They’re like a much better version, but despite all the money they spent and everything they’ve done, like if they get to a point at in October where Freddy and Mookie are struggling and everything else isn’t perfect around them, it’s going to be really difficult for them to win. Are you guys still picking them to win the World Series? I am. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think, you know, kind of going back to the point of like the guys that kind of have to get back on track, I’m still kind of willing to bet on each one of those guys. I’m willing to bet on Muki. I’m willing to bet on Freddy. I’m willing to bet on Otani. And I just think that those that will, you know, um and especially too like when you see like when Otani hits, the effect that that has on the team a lot of times, right? like, you know, I mean, going back to like that first home run that he hit in that Padres’s series in the in the DS last year. Um, you know, Padres’s have the momentum going into the series to go up three nothing. You know, Otani hits that home run and just everything just kind of changed. I’m also a big believer in Andrew Freeman. I think he’ll he’ll he’ll make the moves. Whatever needs to be done, he’ll do it. He’s proven that time and again. Now, who’s Brownnosing? No. Yeah. Yeah. Who’s he going to I’ve written that who’s he going to spend $200 million on next winner that’s going to break down? I’ll still I I’ve written that. Come on. I will uh I’ll still pick him to win, but I feel a lot less I was re-watching the confident the supreme confidence we had on opening day this year about this team winning. And I I I’m more in the boat of like I think they’ll win, but it’s because I think a lot of things will still break their way, which is not the kind of team we thought that they would be this year. But uh and frankly like a lot of like usually you see with teams right and across various sports when you have a season like this where just things are just kind of going bad things are kind of going bad like it’s really kind of hard to you know reverse that bad juju right and so you know I think kind of the odds are right if you’re you know you’re really just kind of trying to look at this from a detached standpoint uh the odds are that they’re not going to do it but again I just think there’s a reason no team has 25 but And I I just think that, you know, again, those those certain guys that I mentioned, I think they may have the bottom line is they’ve been very ordinary and just still the second best team in baseball. Same best record. You know why they’re still going to win the World Series? Cuz they’ve been they’ve been blessed. Are we sure that’s a pope? You sure that’s not like I’m sure it’s it’s a pope. Okay. Well, we missed you in Atlanta, Flash. It was it was quite a boondoggle. Yeah. The whole time we were both thinking, why are we here? Plask’s right. He’s gonna give us so much. All I had to do was read Dylan’s comment. Wonder why are you there? Wow, that’s kind of harsh. No, you hurt my feelings. Maybe this one will be better. Motivate him. Read his Yamoto column. You got to watch him write it. Yeah, right down. Great. No, it was It was great stuff. It was You all got good inside stuff from them. That was great. Second half of the season. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. We say it with such dread. [Music]

The Dodgers ended the first half a little down. Do they come out in the second half swinging and hitting and pitching the way everyone thinks they should? Or is this the beginning of the end? Los Angeles Times reporter Jack Harris and columnists Bill Plaschke and Dylan Hernández look at the road ahead.

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