We sit down with Built in LA and Byran to discuss the upcoming Dodgers series.
The Pesky Podcast
The Pesky Podcast episode 106 Built in LA
follow video is brought to you by BSE and Boston Sports Entertainment Network please subscribe hit that like button and as always leave a comment and thank you for enjoying the video got to write slicing toward the pesky pole down the line and it's got to be out of the way fly down the right field line toward the pesky pole leaping up and that ball is gone that's a home run the rod of our nascent team as well I fly down the right field line headed toward the pesky pole that one tucked in and that ball is going to be against the wall and in the second base the number retired and that's wrong failed Denver is trying to retire that baseball inside a pesky pole well welcome to another episode of the pesky podcast I am your host the RIT with me like always is VOG George Sullivan George let's go on man how you doing? I'm doing well you know a little still a little warm up here in New England and we look like we might finally get a break starting tomorrow so you meant for that yeah well I have just found out that well we will not be live on X because apparently a premium account on Twitter is required now to create live broadcast on their platform so we will have to go out and get that blue check mark just so we can sit there and be live on Twitter which is a bunch of BS but you know George well I want to talk about real quick before we dive into the you know built an LA series coming up and let me sit there and present this real quick and then get your thoughts on it here's a high five ball off of the bat a gerundoran that one won't leave the yard and get the American leave it's first lead night for this dream season for gerundoran continues here with a homerun in the all-star game because the man that has power and speed a lot of speeds the Boston Red Sox got really athletic with their lineup it's why they're succeeding and he's going to be a huge part (Laughter) George what was your thought of seeing gerundoran do his thing in the all-star game first the bat homerun to run shot gives us the lead look he just he announced to MLB fans who had not been paying attention yeah I'm probably a consideration for MVP in the American League he's demonstrated time and time again there's no stage too big for him we know we can hit for power we also know that his speed is he's just deadly on the base pass sequels become doubles doubles become triples and his defense is vastly improved in the last couple years so man it was nice to see and it's almost perfect it ties in beautifully with the season it's been a year of first form just really nice to see do another big stage and in the end and I'm going to comment about it in my Sunday column he ended up picking up his buddy and teammate Tana Hauk who gave up the golfer ball to Shoei so you know he picked up his teammate to boot so hey outstanding job you know the world got to see what we've been looking at the first half of the season so yeah where to go big guy yeah absolutely so before we bring on the guys out in LA we want to sit there and give you guys a little bit about W energy W energy is an alternative to big energy made with coffee bean extract and other natural ingredients with no sugars to keep you alert with all the focus you need with no jitters or crash head on over to W.GG to try for yourself today and use promo code BlackEagle for 10% off your order W drink it and go concur a task so guys without further ado let's bring on DLA boys first we got Brian built for LA guys and built for LA's good friend and fan of the pesky podcast what's going on guys let's start with you Brian what's going on how you doing another much I kind of mentioned to you before I went from LA to Bismarck North Dakota where I kind of work for the hockey team and yeah I came here like an hour early and I'm like oh I'm late and you're like no you're like an hour early what do you mean it's absolutely crazy so built for LA man what's going on and it's a coincidental George that built for LA knows Brian yes Brian's a super good dude I met through King's Twitter not too long ago and very proud to say that he's the one behind my marvelous logo on Twitter and all my other social media accounts Brian I'm always in depth and you're dead for that we're doing great down here in beautiful Marietta California about two hours out of downtown Los Angeles gorgeous here and I'm just ready for a fantastic series between two historic ball gloves yes and what do you actually think about the pesky podcast you know being a fan of it um so the pesky podcast I go to you guys a lot for information and you guys are so awesome just like coordinating everything and just having a good time on the show so I'm a big fan of you guys as soon as as soon as Ron here told me that there was an opportunity to be on the show I knew I had to come down and be a part of it so I'm super happy to be here and thanks for having me on the show hey we appreciate you know you uh you coming on uh we appreciate both you guys coming on talking LA and let's get right down to it the Dodgers the Red Sox you guys got a lot of history between us uh more recently you guys have taken contracts after contracts off our hands you know left and right you know going back to Carl Crawford uh going to David Price you guys took Mookie from us uh man it's it's crazy how much history that the two teams have been on complete obstacles yeah um I feel like the the one memory I have was um well of course you know that the World Series which I don't like to think about besides that one game where I actually I was actually calling a hockey game and um we went in to that hockey game like an hour early and the game just got started and then the game went out it was like bottom of the 14th and I'm like that's the has to be a that has to be a forget the typo you know but wasn't it kept going but um the one the one memory I have Boston and LA was actually landing Mookie but I will have to say you know I love Mookie I love Mookie bets and no you guys can't have them back but it's like I was so heartbroken when um we got rid of the uh uh Alex Verdugo he he he was a guy and just quick side tangent I went to a Dodger game back in 18 and um when Dougie went up my my dad started tearing up because uh his walk up song uh Volver from Vicente Fernandez was my grandpa's actually favorite song and my dad said that he usually came into the garage and he would hear Volver playing as he was working on his old Chevy so but like you said a lot of history between the two franchise I'm more curious you know I know how it is in LA you know in terms of the old LA Boston rivalry you know it goes from baseball to especially NBA to hockey as well the Kings and Bruins what about you guys what do you guys feel about you know Los Angeles oh man uh George you want to start off oh sure yeah uh oh yeah he's ready to lay into us uh no I look LA is in different city than Boston um you know you get nice of weather year round um there's a lot more to do you're fans are passionate um but yeah there's still kind of the the left coast laid back attitude that comes through um in Boston you you know you're performing or you die and the fans will let you know it the only place that might be worse than Boston is either New York but absolutely the worst is Philadelphia uh so you know we you were talking about doogie um yeah doogie had about two seasons of okay and then he got my cement head award last year because he just he couldn't do anything right and now he's uh Bianchi's headache and you know that's the way it goes man like I feel like that's the way it goes for a lot of uh um ball players and I mean even looking at the Dodgers you know that's as old as time with the Dodgers every time we get rid of someone it turns out that they're like the best thing ever you know Tyler Anderson going to the Angels um you had a hundred review going to uh the um the Toronto Blue Jays and it's like you even had you even had my thing is you even had you Darvish where was that you know that Cy Young caliber pitching in Game 7 bro where was it wasn't it games when I'm sorry yeah you know but with me I it's it's quite ironic uh when it came to basketball for instance I've always been a huge Shaq fan since he came out you know uh to Orlando so I followed him you know I wasn't a fan of any team I was a fan of you know Shaq himself you know you went out to L.A. you know one of a couple of championships went to Miami so you know I have I have a you know a couple of years of respect for Miami but now uh with LeBron out there uh when Shaq retired uh a Celtic I kind of just you know stuck there I'm like yeah you know I'm already here this rider died George on the other hand he's he's uh been a diehard Celtics fan for quite some time so yeah I you know Nate Smith and I went to school together you know I actually listen uh Lakers Celtics uh I mean classic rivalries for the years I mean I was kind of just to go to uh one of the one of the finals in '86 and uh it was I mean just an awesome experience in the garden the old garden so I mean yeah you want to talk about rivalries you know that that's up there you know you can't it's just absolutely you know and periodically it gets renewed in in good ways so yeah yeah so well let's let's go right into the end of the game one matchup uh the pitching matchup we got here we've got nasty Nick Pavetta and we had on their Tyler glass now but you know you guys informed that he probably won't be the one pitching so I don't know which one of you guys want to sit there and talk who do you think will be the replacement for game uh tell us a little bit about him you know if I were to it's not gonna be it's not gonna be it's not gonna be glass now you know it's been it's been to say the Dodgers have been bit by the injury bug is a gross understatement I mean our hot shot from Japan Yamamoto he's done glass now 15 day I.L. and uh built for L.A. was talking about before how um Walker Bueller made came back but I doubt it he's he's on the 15 day I.L. he's probably gonna be throwing simulations during this series Bobby Miller man he's not even up here anymore we we we we sent him down um if I were to throw a knot I think um it would probably be uh as much as he's struggling um Gavin Stone yep um Stoner uh you know he's decent you know you look at you look at his E.R.A. as opposed to like Tyler Glass now it's actually um it's a little bit lower at a three point three point two six E.R.A. um and you look at his uh wins and losses still respectable nine and three my thing with Stone is he is a very streaky pitcher you get him into a good rhythm and he is good for the entire for the entire game but if you get him off of his rocker early in in like maybe the first inning he he will get smacked around he is a very boomer bus kind of pitcher so it's all about the first three innings if he does well and it gets himself into a rhythm he's good he's good for the duration but if you if you if you knock him around early it's gonna be an early bullpen in a team that really doesn't have a strong one yeah I mean I can kind of just back that up perfectly I mean Stone we've seen how he can just be a phenomenal pitcher like Brian said it starts early that's how a lot of the Dodgers rotation has been throughout the year if you get them early it's going to be a rough game but if you let them get streaking they're gonna get hot Gavin Stone himself his most recent outing coming on the 10th of July against Philadelphia you pitch four and two thirds and he's allowed in four runs so not a fantastic outing but at the same time not a horrible outing I mean I'll take away and get at this point considering how thin we are pitching positions I mean the list of injuries goes on I mean it stretches away from our starting rotation which includes Yamamoto Walker Bueller Clayton Kershaw still in recovery he's doing his rehab assignments right now and he's just at her all still recovering as well he's on the 60 day and same situation with our bullpen there's just injuries galore Daniel Hudson Joe Kelly and Michael Grove it just goes on and on there's so many injuries but Gavin Stone I think would be a somewhat solid option for game one if not him most likely James Paxton but I do expect the two of them to make appearances in this series if a Walker Bueller doesn't return as I expected which I'm now that I hear out Brian I do agree with him okay George well what are we looking for for Pavetta? Pavetta's my man and if you listen to the show for a while you know I am a huge fan of weight he has pitched well he's had in the last five games two games in which he struck out eight in a row all right the only other Red Sox pitcher to do that was Roger Clemens however his bug and the thing that's killed him throughout his career is he also gave up the big fly all right so you know he'll be humming along and you know he's you know sets down eight in a row you know wow it's one of those games he's gonna strike out eleven batters you know he's gonna have a good one and it's a close game the you know he hasn't gotten a whole lot of run supportive weight and the next thing you know he gives up a three round Jack and you know you're looking up and still looking down so if he can you know not surrender the long ball he should be fine he's been he's been he's been steady his sweepers you know been fairly effective the last couple of outings you do have to you know he can spot the ball up and down with the best of them but yeah he's got to he's got to stop giving up the long ball at the most in-opportunetime so that's that's what you can expect but there's no tougher competitor on this team didn't make it better so yeah that makes me wonder that makes me wonder what what our managers are going to do because there's a lot of people that argue that Pavetta could be better fit in a bullpen role rather than a starting role although I think he hasn't been terrible as a starter his 2023 was excellent as well but yeah it's been kind of an up and down year for him but as you said like the last couple of games he's kind of started to pick it back up so it will be interesting to see it will be interesting to see what Alex Cora and company do with the trade deadline with pitching staff correct so let's go to the game to match up which you know you guys already touched base with David Stone we're looking at Brian Baill so uh pitching for us what Baill we're going to have is a complete mystery Baill has you know he leads the team and wins but he just struggles to get there uh at some points uh so Cole was it there and take Brian Baill and uh you know let everybody in LA know what to expect so uh Brian Baill was the guy that was expected to be the ace at the beginning of the year um a lot of people looked at our starting rotation and thought like oh that's maybe not really a great starting rotation but the good news is that our starting rotation is definitely performed above expectations and they're a big surprise uh the only real real gripe and it's a big one that we have about Baill is his ability or I should say inability to stay focused he does often get in his own head at times and as soon as that happens it just like the rails just completely fall off of them and guys are taking him yard and if Baill is having a solid outing it's kind of similar to Stone like what you guys talking about with him uh he it's the first couple two three innings that count and hopefully he has a good start and if that's the case that he should be okay but he just has this problem where he just kind of gets in his own head and uh he and it really does hold him back from really taking that next step to becoming that elite pitcher that he's so promised to be with he's kind of a mixed bag we'll see what he brings to the table um but like we said he leads the team and wins but he also has the worst year a on the team at the same time at 5.22 so um we really don't know we'll just have to see come game time with Baill you know oh go ahead I mean to cut you off but um just hearing hearing more about Baill I feel like I feel like he is more of akin to a Bobby Miller for the for the Dodgers because Miller at the beginning of the year we thought that he was going to be our guy you know um he reminded me a lot of Walker Bueller but a little bit too much because Walker just like just like Bobby is he tends to get in his head a little bit where it's like if Bobby gets knocked around a little bit he can't he can't let it go you know as a pitcher that's a dangerous thing to have you cannot have a long-term memory you let up a home run you have to turn around pick up the the the rosin bag and just get back to the next pitch but um it feels like Bobby just never did that and more hearing about Baill in just his almost heckling jai uh um heckling I forgot you know the the good and bad the yin and yang that's your own heart about it reminds me of uh James Paxton where it's Paxton if it's either he has it or he doesn't you know it's not you know if he gets knocked around it's not even a confidence thing it's just you know standing up where he is now you know throughout throughout the he has seven wins but he has like I would say a sub-optimal you know he has a a 4.38 you know just in this year alone which again not terrible but you have better options and it's like a lot of the times the Dodgers had to pull his rump out of the fire but I have to say work and it's either we're going to be in for a very horrible pitching show or a very good A stool between that second two because my second two is going to be a James Paxton for game two against Boston I mean the piggyback on that I feel like that's been the biggest problem with Walker Bueller and Bobby Miller because a lot of fans including myself I'm guilty of it when we saw them both coming back we're like oh man we are back man we got two of our most killer pitchers over the last couple of years Bobby Miller hasn't been back in a long time so we were all very excited but they definitely gotten their own heads because I feel like their mindset was like they had to get 100% right back into the show right out of the gate not understanding you know the full recovery process like you get you get edged back into the game especially when you're gone for a good extent of time six plus months you don't go 100% immediately because we do that you're going to start degrading yourself and most importantly you're going to start thing is like okay I'm not doing enough I need to do more and then wanting to do more makes mistakes and then that's what the opponents look for they wait for that mistake to happen and then they're going to hop right on it why Mueller and Miller are both not on the active starting roster yeah um for me personally overall and you talked about Paxton a little bit Paxton is my only real worry honestly just because of him being a lefty and you know lefty's kill us so for game three you know we kind of mixed up a little bit here Michael Grove go for you guys he's still on the injured list at the moment he's listed in game three I feel like for the Dodgers and you know dog Roberts loves doing this I think it's going to be it's going to be a bullpen game it's going to be um you could see um either uh one of our long-term relievers like Evan Phillips take it uh Alex Vesia um Daniel Hudson just take the mound for the first couple innings see how far they go and then you're just going to see pitcher after pitcher so it's it's going to be up to the Dodgers um managerial crew Mark Pryor as well to see who of his guys is ready to take the nod but I really don't think you're going to see a starting pitcher for game three I I'm really praying that's not the case I'm I'm holding out hope that somehow uh he brings in one of our youngsters I mean uh it Brian is did Landon Nack get option or is he still with us uh Nack I think he is I want to say that he got optioned I'm not entirely sure I don't want to I don't want to spread false information I'll look that up because I didn't I do remember hearing that so I mean there could be a starter I mean if let's just say for argument saying Landon Nack is still on the roster you could see him uh rent Honeywell or Justin Roblesky so uh there's options I'm but just like Brian said uh Roberts just definitely love to go to the bullpen games and uh our last one was actually very recently uh in Philadelphia on July 11th Anthony Band has started that game and as he was probably doing that game and to kind of um uh answer the question I think he may be activated because of um Walker's 15 day I.L but again with Walker coming back I'm not sure if they option him right before the series so um I mean Nack is a really he Nack is a good is a really good pitcher he's electric but the problem is and you know what this is just superstitious baseball talk for me every time Nack comes on the mound for some reason all of our top dogs just go silent you know Shohei doesn't get a hit Freddie doesn't get a hit Te Oscar who has been amazing this year by the way um you know he he gets a few uh single locks but never gets knocked in it's gonna the pitching the pitching is really gonna be what kills the Dodgers if it's gonna be anything but if they get good pitching they need to capitalize on it like you look at the last few games the Dodgers get out scored like nine to eight for example you know it or they it's a lapper of a comeback you know against uh granted a really good Philly's team but it's like you know it's they need they just need to capitalize when they have their foot on the throat they need to finish it out right now it's just been a uh it's been a season of half-measures with the Dodgers they come out dominant they come out swinging they go silent and then it's just it's zilch after that didn't it's nothing and you know you need you need help from your top guys Shohei has been awesome I will say that he's been awesome but what about with runners in scoring position what about runners on base at all you know he needs he needs to step up majorly so if i'm looking towards the offensive side of this series i feel like if the Dodgers if the Dodgers need to do something they need to have to prove it series against these against these socks you know it's like they need to have free for him in will smith they need to have chaos group who again has been really good and they especially need Shohei to come out and come sway in and just show this team show the world you know we didn't pay all this money for nothing because right now they're really showing it just one in six in the last seven you know it's it's it's not good it's not good optics it really isn't yeah and i mean to add on top of that i mean these past two games for the Dodgers perfectly sums up everything that Brian just said had leads in both of the last two games as we just recently lost the series did a lot to the Tigers we've most recently lost the series to the Tigers and in the last two games we had leads going into the ninth ending by both of them most notably the 13th the second game of the series allow the Tigers to stage a five run bottom of the night so we need more execution from our bullpen and we need more production offensively from the bottom half of our lineup because the top half has been fairly fairly consistent i'm not going to say very consistent because they haven't but they've definitely been the most productive part of our lineup for the past few months especially since the Mookey Mookey and Max injuries but the bottom half of the order has been so unbelievably inconsistent we need them to capitalize when we're in scoring position because that's been one of the biggest struggles with the Dodgers over the past while is getting runners in when they're in scoring position our our our batting average with running scoring position recently has not been good and especially loaded that's our Achilles heel recently no not even recently bro like that has been a problem ever since ever since i've been a Dodger fan bro we get we get we get people on base and it's just everybody decides to go silent and this is going all the way back to when we still had Justin Turner when we still had Cody Bellinger you know i don't know what it is do we need a new hitting coach? maybe like it's been it's been a real struggle for the Dodgers when it comes to runners in scoring position no one can find an answer we have the hottest bat in baseball and he as soon as he puts on Dodger Blue he's allergic to scoring runs or scoring runners i should say not runs like it's it's asinine and it's completely it's completely bewildering to see this team so loaded with offense go completely silent when you have runners in scoring position and again if if this last stretch for the Dodgers has been you know any inkling on how the rest of the season is going to go when we miss the playoffs we don't even win the division because right now like making the playoffs is not the goal you know you have an all-star lineup you have you have all these big names you know it's it's not even the LA Dodgers the LA All-Stars you know it's not the playoffs that's not the goal the goal is the world series and right now they're barely even trying to they're not barely and mind you when i say that they're not barely making the playoffs you know they have a sizable lead in the NOS it is not because they're good it's because everybody else in this division is really not taking advantage of this Dodger struggling Padres i'm looking at you um it's it's the last person on this front office that should go is Andrew Friedman i'm a big fan of Andrew Friedman he put together this roster with impunity he found the best high talent basically you know if you can't beat him by him that's Andrew Friedman's mentality look at what he did in 18 or after 18 obviously but he bought no e-vets he bought Freddy Friedman after the Braves beat him and you know you have you have all these talent you now have the again the biggest name in baseball what is happening so it's just been it's been a historical thing with the Dodgers it's been a frustrating thing as a Dodger fan seeing you know big names Mac Schurzer, Trey Turner and i hate to say it but Manny Machado we had Machado it looks weird looking back on the 18 series about the season by the way it's so it's so weird but it's like all these big names nothing to prove it nothing to show for it so i think right now the Dodgers need to do a lot of soul searching and it needs to it needs to come from within and i apologize i know this is this is a boston thing i'm turning into an L.A. you know yeah it's so i want to i i i do but i want to hold this in the back because i want to talk about it a little bit later because i you know i want to move on to kind of looking at the the infield in the outfield next but i i do want to take a couple of minutes at the end and talk about Dave Roberts and you know is his head on the block you know you know people you know want to you know they want to send him out of you know L.A. on a rail or whatever but i'm curious because i think he's a very good manager but i do want to touch that a little bit later so um i know where we're going in field right field next let's sit there and go to the outfield of the Dodgers you guys got Tiasco Hernandez James Altman and Andy Page's Bill Frellet join us sit there and you know pick one of those guys to talk about i mean who else better to talk about than the home run derby champion i mean Tiosco has been probably i would say the biggest surprise for us in terms of just what he brings the table because sure he he was uh he was a decent name when he was over in Seattle where he got him from but if you were to tell any Dodger fan that he was going to be putting up these type of offensive numbers let alone if you were to tell anybody on the face of baseball of a guy who's never participating in a home run derby going up against all these youngsters with bombs that he would win the home run derby who would who would have guessed that but i mean seriously Tio has been i gotta say one of the things i would i love most about Tio is his personality he brings so much light to the clubhouse i mean there were so many Dodger fans that just felt so good about him when that very popular video that interaction between him show hey and yamamoto during media day and on top of that just just how how much he enjoys the game and i mean there's so much to say about him but i think the thing that really surprised a lot of us was just how much power he has because i don't think many Dodger fans really realize you know the type of power he brings the table because i mean right how many home runs does he have on the year let's take a look let me pull that out the Oscar he has 19 home runs so not too shabby no not not too shabby whatsoever and on top of that he's been more than reliable in the outfield um so i mean this was a golden pickup for the Dodgers over the offseason and myself and many other Dodger fans are begging for an extension this guy's been phenomenal and there was no reason this guy should not be wearing Dodger blue for the foreseeable future you know and to kind of like bounce off of that a little bit i'm just like a little bit of a correction i think a lot of Dodger fans knew exactly what they were getting with the Oscar Fernandez because he is a utility man to end all utility men's he is a guy with the utmost power that just looking and looking at his mechanics in his swing it's like any ball that he touches it looks like it's gonna go out you know you look at his Toronto um his Toronto 10 year 32 home runs in 2021 and 2019-26 you know you're talking about a guy who can launch the ball so i feel like to Oscar Hernandez is the guy that really added you know life in the in the dugout but he added life to an offensive line that's pretty much been stagnant so i i always worry i always worry about the chris of the home run derby you know you know because there's a lot of there's a lot of history behind that guys who go out and set swatting the ball out of the thing and then the second half they go stale or you know it's like they're picking up a little bit of baseball with a straw you know well look at latte latte has them in the same sense you want it so not not to reign in your parade but boy i i don't want to i do not want a red Sox member ever to participate in a home run derby it's just like i think it's a curse but let's sit there and switch it over to the red Sox outfield and this is our bread and butter we've got tyler o'neill jaren duran the all-star game nvp and will your abreya so george out well which one do you want to sit there and talk about i think i would be doing him a great disservice if i did not talk about mr duran um and yeah i have great love for wayo abreya and tyler o'neill abreya you know rit is one of my favorite players on the team but to see how far jaren duran has come in the last two seasons in his overall game is to appreciate what focus looks like in a major league ball player he's been open about his struggles you know you know with depression and anxiety and things like that but i mean you can to my i don't see how you can ignore him as a candidate for mvp he is the mvp the red Sox for the first half absolutely he leads the teams in doubles and triples he's second in uh and uh the number of stolen bases uh if you you know and if you're a red Sox fan you remember what happened to him when you know in the game against toronto and the ball goes over his head and he had no idea where it was and you know next thing i know it's inside the pakaran slam that's that's a distant memory now because he's playing much better defensively and he's back in center field again because we need sit-on refiella at short stop and when sit-on goes out in place center field he plays left field and he plays it at a high quality level he's he's been he's got timely hits he's part of the things that make it go i mean you look at you know he's he's a lead-off hitter he's one of the most productive lead-off hitters in baseball right now you tell me somebody else should rather have at the top of your lineup i'll take him you throw david hamilton in front of him and at the end of the lineup you have rafiella you have three gazelles in a row and and for if you've been a red Sox fan for any length of time to say that the red Sox have speed you know they do and that's that's shocking in itself but yeah he's i think the world got to see how good he is um and how clutch he has been for this team when he had to go ahead home running the all-star game and most of all he picked up his buddy so you know i'll take that he's he's proven a lot to me at the beginning of the season riddle tell you i had him probably out of town by this time of the year um i'm glad nobody listens to me so yeah okay guys let's switch over to the infield let's start out with la you've got you've got freddy freeman covered first base you've got kike thank goodness he's out of boston Hernandez we've got cap we've got cab and bigio and galvin lux man you you guys got got on got an okay infield i'm just you know kike good lord you know it's so he was the biggest one that i was actually heartbroken when we lost because and you know you may look at me like cock-eyed like why look at this dude stats but it's just kike i feel like if you put him in the right environment he makes the team you know kike is not he's not really a good like hitter he's a good situation later i'll give him that but you know you look at his stats it's not exactly a uh a darling when it comes to the statistician but if you if you get him into the dugout when you have again you know say a game seven against atlanta in 2020 he is the one that loosens everybody up like guys we're still playing baseball this is just a game you know he's the one that that gets people to to really up and laugh but that's the last thing i'm gonna say about that because oh my gosh the errors that this dude makes oh no we had him last year with short stuff man uh you never knew where that ball was going you know i want to i want to give you you know your credit great guy extraordinary teammate it's just when the man's playing short stop for us last year and he thinks the cameraman behind first base is on his team like come on man like really i saw it i you you can't see you can't see tristan cost is standing there like the dude's huge and you want to throw to the cameraman like come on man not once not twice but repeatedly yeah and if you were first base coach in the american league last year you wanted to be in the dugout because you will play a game when he threw the wall across okay yeah it was horrible the man and the man before the season wanted to talk what was he my resume what resume for what good lord man uh resume also means resume you know you use zoom play when you learn how to play the game again might go out oh but you know he made interesting passes look bad on a couple of occasions no though he's you know tristan still had a lot to get off the bag but my god you never knew where that ball was headed yeah i mean you know fairs fair when it comes to kike because it's like again you know he jekyll and hide is what i was trying to say before yeah he is the the antithesis of a jekyll and hide player you know somebody fondest memories from kike is his clutch hits like you know again you have game seven in uh against um against atlanta to tie it and it's like he just ice in the veins he's a good situational hitter he's a clutch hitter oh my god but sometimes you just want to throttle that man uh he's not fun he just want to put him in dh and and and make sure he doesn't see the field believe it or not we actually had him in dh at one point and i think he did pretty well he did better than he did when he was a he was a uh positionator but again that's that's that's key and it and they're forced down this path because of how many injuries they have you know we don't have Muncie jay is gone you know outman wouldn't even be out there and that that that's one thing that i was going to say is like you know that the outfield for for the dodgers we talked about the bats we didn't talk about the gloves you know because um jason hayward he was he was the guy and now we have um again i don't want to i don't want to dis outman you know he's he's a really good kid um but it's like you look at his glove not exactly not exactly you know come up in and the only wild card here i would say for the infield is bizio you know bizio is one guy that i feel like again i feel like i've been sitting in a lot hot and cold but um i feel like bizio if he can if you really dial it in at third base and we can move luxe maybe to short when Muncie comes back and move bizio to second maybe we we find a salvage for this infield but right now it doesn't look pretty no there's there's left and right right now i mean and there's been so many combinations over the last couple series in the infield because we just can't seem to find a foothold right now with the injuries because we're missing pretty much no not pretty much we are missing half of our main infield in mooky bets and uh and Muncie so i mean we we've just been trying so many people out i mean Miguel Rojas has been getting a lot of time uh the main story goes for Gavin Luxe he kept his god and filtered in in the infield cabin bizio i mean didn't didn't vargus play a couple games infield as well so i mean there's i just have so little to say about this if you want to talk about the infield look no i mean honestly like the infield air after air and again you really it's not like you can fault them per se because a lot of them are not aren't even playing the position that they were meant to you know Gavin Gavin Luxe isn't he it was a was a second baseman to start you know but now we're waiting for him to get you know back to it's a mental thing you know i don't know if you guys saw what happened to Gavin uh last spring training yes he's horrible it was absolutely horrible and it was coming off of a of of an off season where he and Muncie lived together practiced together every single day and they got they got himself down to a tee and now it's a mental thing with with Gavin that you know he can't find the ball you know in in fact i'm actually going to be trying to get into my doctorial talking about this the yips and how we can actually affect people not only sports but in in life you know Gavin i feel like is going through that he's going through his own version of the yips he needs to find himself because i want his glove in the infield we're we're sorely missing him in the infield but can't really we can't really lobby is bad anymore because it's like submen does align you can't have that in the lineup especially in the way that this Dodger season's going yeah well let's switch over the red socks and field now and here we go we've got the dominator i'm stealing that from your carobus the dominator Dominic Smith we've we've got slash David Hamilton we've got two scoops raffy divers and then we got the human highlight reel sadon raffaiella so hey cool how about you how about you pick somebody pick somebody from there and uh give us a little talk about him well i think i'd be doing a disservice if i didn't talk about uh two specific players amongst this group uh raffy devers and sadon raffaiella i'll start with devers first because he's been a huge reason for our success you know they say you pay a man you pay someone the big bucks to be the face of the franchise so far in the first half of the season raffy devers has lived up to that hype on his last 17 games he's at 375 batting average he's got nine homers his bat is red hot right now and here's another interesting stat that i saw on twitter the other day too uh but there's only three players in red socks history that have had 20 or more home runs in four straight seasons before the all-star break the first one was mauve on between 94 and 98 then many remieras in 03, 206 and now raffaiella devers from 21 to 24 end of the list there's no doubt that raffaiella devers is a superstar in earnest league he's the real deal and he leads by example the team if they rally around him guys like him jaren doran they rally around them and it's really making an effect on the team and how the team's built around them as well um so devers he's playing amazing and then sadon raffaiella um this the move to short stop after Trevor's story got injured in i believe it was the angel series that Trevor's story got injured uh a lot of people wondering like how do we how are you feeling this role do we call someone up for the writers uh but they chose to move him down to short stop and it was it was a considered a risky move at the time because sadon raffaiella is a golden glove and in center field um but he's he's done serviceable he's getting really really good at short stop and also contender for rookie of the year as well and not to mention second on the team in rvi's as well um from from the ninth part of the ninth part yeah to go i feel like sadon is still has the way to go he does strike out a little bit too much for my liking but there's no doubt that he is starting to adapt to major league baseball and he can only get better from here so it's it's in keeping it's in keeping with his development as he came up to the minors he would whenever every person he'd make he'd start off slowly and then begin to go but he's his own he's his he's harder harder on than anybody else can be i saw it in portland you know i'm only 25 minutes from portland i saw it a couple times last year when he was here he'd have a bad game and he would be ticked at himself and then the next game he come out there you know bash a home run and then you know put one in the alley and be sitting on third base um you know he he's very he's very very intense on himself and sometimes he shows it emotional he was a good shortstop and he killed the other they came up with a shortstop then they need him i'm glad i think if they did the right move they don't need to rush Meyer you know he needs a little bit more seasoning i think he's in triple A within a week or two myself but yeah he's he's he goes out there and he's a leader absolutely he's a leader and i i'm to go back to raffy raffy has become the most complete player he can be by becoming a leader that he should have been last year okay this is his team he's shown the young guys how it gets done so i have increased my my respect level for raffy and as in richness to hear me say a hundred times i'm sure you have to left field is his friend so yeah yeah let's uh let's go back to lla and let's talk about and finish up your guys's lineup we got the catcher and then we got the d8 we got will smith and then we've got mr uh was it two million a year two mistake and don't worry guys we're gonna when we close before we close the show we're gonna talk about that we got shohail uh otani so um brian you pick your poison which one you want to talk about y'all i'll talk about mr uh mr 40 dollar michilateral over there dude like i swear dodger dodger dogs have never been more expensive but you know what believe it or not i'm willing to pay because this man has been actually pretty good for the dodgers again running and scoring runners in scoring position historically has really been shohail is kind of and not not not good you know um um um bifural i could could kind of attest he watched him uh during the angels um he's a very he's a very you know long ball kind of guy he's not really the past but in the the ton kind of guy that's why we have him that's why i don't mind him in lead-off what even when mookie gets back i will i will absolutely love it if shohail ends up just being the lead-off guy because again i don't like shohail in the hole the main reason why is you get mookie on base you get freddy on base then shohail strikes out or flies out i'd rather have shohail strike out fly out first then you have your your um come up it's batters between freddy mookie will you know getting back up there and i know i'm just saying like when mookie gets back but you know when it comes to power shohail day but when it comes to consistency that's where i'm going to give it to will smith and i was even talking to a couple of uh a couple of my dodger buddies uh like when i was still in my office um we may be looking at one of the better short stops in dodger history and if shoh if will smith keeps going the way he is i feel like he's going to have a case to even beating as my mom likes to coin him uh mike the dude piazza but i feel like you know um when it comes to a guy that that um the red socks need to look out for i would say it's it's it's gonna be will smith because he's the guy that you get you get people on base i want will on there yeah okay i get back up brian perfectly on that i think it's attention to otani it's very closely uh over the past few years and that's been where his struggle has been is consistency because he'll have these three four sometimes you fight hit games and then follow that up with uh two or three games where he gives either no hits or just one or two hits would combine so i mean he definitely has looked a lot better since he got moved up into that starting position uh lead-off excuse me so i would same stories brian i would love to see otani stay in the lead-off position and then have him be followed up by mookie and then freeman um he he i just feel like the his style the way he swings let alone the way he approaches uh every at that it's definitely the style of a lead-off hitter and plus like brian said i would much rather see him get that out before we have people on base because if he has one of those nasty ground out it's not going to be a double play if he has a fly out it's not going to cost uh it's not going to cost a run and then if otani does what he does we have instant offense and in a blink of an eye as a one zero lead so um and then same story goes for wil smith will smith has man he's earned the money that he got this season uh he's been nothing short of phenomenal uh in the catching position the only thing i have to say and this isn't direct that wil smith this is more directed that dave roberts i don't like the amount of off time that wil smith is received there has been a lot of games where austin barns would come in over wil smith and those are just days that are just unnecessary for him to be taken off so i gave roberts what play him more than he does even though wil smith still gets the most play time he captures he doesn't get as much as i believe he should but going back to wil smith he's easily been our most consistent they're all things but late there's just very recently coming off a three-home run game um so and let alone you know behind the plate he's more than serviceable he's very good in blocking his arm is extremely strong he's thrown out of a good handful of players attempting to steal at him already so i mean i don't know what more i can ask for from these two players twinkle smith and the otani only thing i could ask for more is otani tends to live in more with runners scoring position but as brian mentioned he also struggled with that on the angels so uh hopefully he'll spring out of that uh when bookey comes back and once again i pray to god that dave roberts keeps him in the lead off position that's where he belongs okay let's switch over to the red socks uh catcher and dh we've got connor wong and then we got masataka yoshita so georgia who do you want to sit there and talk about there well because we're playing the doctors i i'm almost have to go with wong okay uh the forgotten man in the the trade uh this year is his best year as a pro he's hitting above 300 he's steadied himself at the plate he's had timely hits driving and runs shown some power and his defense has been solid um thank you he's a starting catcher he's gonna hold down the post until kyle teal comes up from the minor leagues and i feel totally comfortable with that yeah so let's sit there and go go around the uh the room you know and we're going to choose uh the series outcome so let's start with you george uh you know what's it going to be i'm going to go to one red socks um okay i think if Paxton goes against us i am concerned because he was here last year he knows he knows these guys knows their strengths and weaknesses and he's a lefty and good god almighty we have had some real problems with lefties this year so um yeah i got two one socks and i got them i got them crossed okay brian what about you you know i'm gonna have to agree with george for different reasons though i'm going two one socks but i do feel like it's going to be a game one win for the Dodgers they're going to win off the back of Gavin stone they're going to drop the one against Paxton and the bullpen that's cracked you you know um that one is just flip a coin but i feel like with the luck that the Dodgers have had this year it's going to go the socks way so two one red socks is my pick cola let's uh let's get your opinion i'm also going to go to one red socks here um i think the biggest x factor really for the red socks is brian bale um if brian bale has a good outing i think that the red socks should have this series if he doesn't then i can see it switching over to the Dodgers i do have the same concerns about Paxton as well uh like what george was saying uh but it should be either way it should be a really really good series and then i'm gonna go to one red socks there bfl what about you man uh let's break the trend people i'm gonna go to one Dodgers um he's a driver there's man it really can't go either way for me it's all going to come down to the outings from Gavin stone and james Paxton i agree those are going to be the two people we're going to be leaning on in the starting position um but i'm not going to sleep on land and mac either if somehow Dave Roberts lets him play i i kind of agree brian i don't think he will and they'll probably do a bullpen game please don't but um Gavin stone and james Paxton are definitely going to be the games that we even have a remote chance of winning uh in this series and it's going to come down to how they perform out of the gate because like he was mentioned earlier in the show they're both streaky pitchers and they can get hot early they're going to finish hot but if you catch them if you catch them sleeping early you get a couple pitches they got away from them it's going to be a rough outing for the Dodgers but if the two of them can come out uh just kind of deliver their material mainly james Paxton james Paxton is going to be the name i have highlighted most because i was lucky enough to see uh his fantastic outing in san diego um and his knuckle curve is where it is that that's been his most consistently disgusting pitch throughout the year so if he can really get good command of that knuckle curve and at the same time you know make sure you're keeping the fastball in not going to haywire with his slider um i think the Dodgers can definitely challenge it but no matter what every game i feel like is going to be close i don't think that either team is going to have a blow out win in this series so i'm going to go to one Dodgers okay well i was on a podcast last night and you know we talked about how the socks haven't lost a series since the end of may and george is probably thinking right now what are you doing right don't do it man don't do it so but we're not we're not going to sit there and lose this series it's not going to be uh two one though it's going to be three oh socks are coming out hot oh i'm sitting there and we're going on on the backs of our pitching we are going to be going hey we're all going to get FM shirts gerund rad's giving them to all the boys because not only did they sit there and talk about uh gerund rad and not believe in him not not one person believed in this team and look what they've done uh big poppy he he sit there and said bam red socks fillies and it's going to be a bloodbath on the way and unfortunately l_a_ is just the first stop so i'm saying i'm saying three oh sweet of the of the Dodgers uh george knows when i say that it doesn't sound good because uh well bad things happen when i call sweet but no i i think i think we hit the dog i paid you not to do it man but that's okay hey well we have we have hit the Dodgers pitching at the best time they've had a they've had a plus seven the starters have had a plus seven e r a in their last i think seven uh starts so it's all about when you play your team and right now we're playing them at the best point uh we don't have to worry about tanner how can misplace in a pitch to show a otani in this series so that's a plus for us but you guys do have to worry about the all-star mbp uh lead in the pack uh within jerene verand so i'm going with this sweep so uh let's start off and we're gonna go around me around the pool built for l_a_ uh tell everybody where they can find you at uh the fours years uh you can find me on twitter slash x instagram uh at milk for l_a_ both of them covering all things real los angeles teams and be sure that drop a follow i'll be around all the real teams except for the south bay galaxy uh my name's col you can find me on twitter instagram and tick tock with the handle at cold dash nine um i on my tick tock i've been starting to do more sports related stuff on there um i also have a veggie school nights hockey twitter account as well so our big hockey fan follow me there um you can find me any social media you know uh insta x whatever you would like to call it the bird at uh br floor is 1999 um i mainly do hockey i sometimes just post jokes i'm not really active you know as much anymore but if you want to hear my beautiful voice and you guys have solid internet connection uh the season for the bizmark bobcats is coming up you can listen to me on super tock 1270 of a free super tock 1270 app uh home of the bizmark bobcats and hopefully we win the roberts and couples here i want to read so that george what about you my man well you know i do my i do my bid here on the pesky podcast as well as i do a sunday baseball column uh it's on sub stack i posted on twitter it's called uh sunday morning coffee thoughts uh it's mostly baseball but i do touch on other boston sports as well so you can always find me there uh you guys thanks for coming on uh thank you so much for having us it's a pleasure to be here hey thank you brought out guys brian will be a big part of our uh trade uh deadline show for the national league next week but guys head on over to bscn 617. that's where dot site order your shirts now we've got the acknowledge him jaren dorand shirt the me kosas as sukosas shirt we have got the all star halka mania shirt uh that my that's right me and papal bond uh put out there hungry like a wolf jaren dorand leading the pack hollywood halk once he made the all star team halk goes hollywood and guys a little throwback from the o four season fault the curse so get your shirts now uh overhead bscn 617 dot square dot site head on over to our youtube or our twitter bscn_617 uh check us out hopefully by next week we will be on more than just uh youtube so i will fix that and take care of that but for vog for brian for bfl built for la and cole thanks for checking out the pesky podcast i'm gonna tell you story i'm gonna tell you about my town i'm gonna tell you big fat story baby i talk about my town yeah down by the river down by the banks of the river