Gwynn & Chris On Demand
Gwynn & Chris Sept. 25th Hour 4: What to do with Ha-Seong Kim?
Welcome into the final hour of Gwen and Chris here on 97 3 the fan. I'm Matt Scrabe. We got Braden Soprenit here with me. We also have Adam Klug here with me and we will have Sammy Levitt with us at around 545 later this hour. He's gonna update us on what's going on up at Dodger Stadium. Talk a little bit about last night. I'm glad that we asked him if he had his poncho ready because he needed one and he did have his poncho ready and it wasn't a curse and it wasn't a curse you're right. We have to bring that to his attention. But I think it's time now to focus on tonight and when I say that we're going to go back to the Otani at Bass from yesterday. But tonight is a big night for the Padres and they're two games back of the Dodgers for the National League West title and Dylan Cease is going to be pitching for the Padres tonight. Jack Flaherty is pitching for the Dodgers tonight. This is going to be a dandy and it's it means a lot. I mean this these next two games for the Dodgers and the Padres will determine basically the entire season and how they end up and I can't even believe we're sitting here right now with five games to go in the season and the Padres are right on the doorstep of tracking down the Dodgers for the division. So all work to do. I mean if you look at the odds of winning the division it's at 12% right now to win the division again if the the Padres win tonight win over the Dodgers tonight and all of a sudden it will it will move up just a little bit. It'll go up to 18 or actually it will go up to about 30 something percent with the win tonight. So and again to continue to put pressure on the Los Angeles Dodgers the more pressure you put on them the better it's going to be going into the weekend with the Dodgers half to win in order to prevent the Padres from potentially doing something but again Padres control their own destiny. So they got five games. They win five in a row here to finish the season. They will be division champs and have a first round by get get a loss anywhere in there and all of a sudden you got to start relying on some other results but take care of what you could take care of control your controllables and we'll see what Dylan still sees has tonight against Jack Flaherty. Is that something that you tell your football team control your controllables control the controllables a couple times here in the last couple days. Definitely I like it. It's it's a good way of putting it because you're right. There's some things that you just can't control and you can't worry about those things. Yeah my guy got that. Well we say it as a program all the time control you can control and you know when I'm working with Brock Ungrich over at USD he says it all the time to his his baseball team control you can control. I mean you can't worry about things that that you have no impact on and and however every other team participates those though and how they play as you have no say in what that is. So go out there and get the job done win tonight and we'll see what happens tomorrow with more pressure. One thing that I think is true for at least this season is the Dodgers don't seem to be as confident when they play the Padres. The Padres have been so good against them this year and with the the Padres right there I have to think that the Padres are living rent-free and the Dodgers head in that clubhouse and Chris Rose agrees with me. He on his podcast was talking about this very same thing. Sorry Adam I didn't give you a shot. Don't think I'll be asking Mickey Rowe about hitting into a game ending triple play and leaving Choe Heotani on deck in a 4-2 game. So now the Padres not only do they clench a playoff berth they're two back of the Dodgers in the West. Now I want to ask you since the Padres leave the season series 8-3 and knock the Dodgers out of the postseason two years ago in the divisional round does San Diego have a quote "mental upper hand" against Big Brother up the i5? Yeah yeah I don't know if there's and there's no other way to really put it yeah they do. Does that mean they're gonna like win a series against them if they play them? Like no it doesn't mean that for sure but you'd rather go into a postseason series with those victories under your belt. They're not just two games back of the Dodgers for the N.O.S. or two games back of the Dodgers for the best record in baseball. If say somehow surpass the Dodgers they'll get a buy. We've talked about it like they have that feeling or still saying is this the Padres year they got all the momentum in the world right now. I think the Dodgers would say listen it doesn't matter yeah they've taken care of us this year they knocked us out of the playoffs that stuff doesn't matter you go to the other clubhouse and they're gonna be like hell yeah it matters because it would matter to me if I were on the losing side of it. I mean they illustrated that perfectly and I believe that was Trevor Plouffe with Chris Rose there and he would definitely know he's been in clubhouses and all that stuff but whenever I asked Tony these things he's always very dismissive of whether or not a team is letting another team in their head but I can't think of any other way and Tony did say earlier in the show that yes the Dodgers probably are thinking and feeling the heat that the Padres are putting on him right now but I'd much rather be the hunter than the hunted well yeah that's always a it's always a lot more fun to hunt instead of be hunted oh yeah no one wants to be hunted but that being said the way I just I find it amazing that we're even talking about this after a couple of years ago and it seemed like the Padres could never get over the Dodger hump until they did it in the postseason in 2022 so you know I think from that point forward I think the Padres at least the core group of players that are part of this organization right now that were there in 2022 and before and the ones that are under contract for a long period of time they know as Joe Musgrove said they know what they've matured as a group they know you know what it what it means to win baseball games they know how to they've they know how to have put these these wins together and you know I think they flipped it a little bit where they've punched the Dodgers in the mouth they're not intimidated by Los Angeles anymore and whether or not they'd they'd ever admit to that is a different story I don't think the Dodgers would ever admit that they're they're thinking about the Padres at all you know what what people say in the media is a lot different than what they're thinking on the inside but you know the fact that the Dodgers are you know the Padres have had their number this year and they're there they're and it's it's been a tough battle for LA you know this season and hopefully that continues because this team's still a good ball club the Dodgers are there still the best team in the National League and they have the best record in all of baseball and the Padres get at any point I mean the next two days could go could go rough with the Padres you never know but take care of business tonight and you're being a good spot I mean you're only a game and a half behind the Phillies for second best record in the National League two games behind the Dodgers the best record they already passed the Brewers by a game as well so with a division championship would come a first round by and you know the number one seed is still in play if we continue to put things steps on a ladder of different things to accomplish going into the week I really think too that the I mean the Dave Roberts has an incredible amount of pressure on him because he's been managing this team for years and years and years and years and years and years and they did win the World Series in 2020 but mostly Dave Roberts's tenure with the Dodgers has been them falling short of a World Series title so I have to think that Dave Roberts is feeling the heat more so maybe than the players because I don't know that they're gonna fire him but he cannot come up short again if you're in his mind I can't come up short this year or else I might be gone I mean we don't know what the relationship is we don't like with with the Dodgers in the front office but you know a lot of the time and these front offices do run a lot of the organization in terms of what gets called and if if Dave Roberts says yes to a lot of things and the Dodgers continue to win and let the front office run things then he'll be the guy that still continues to be there for for Los Angeles I mean I agree with you eventually I don't know how many times you keep rolling it out there and getting the same result in the postseason but you know I honestly I think you gotta you gotta you gotta think about what you know Sarah said last year on Bennett Woods about you know the amount of games that you need to play to make it a fair shot in the planet the the playoffs are a crapshoot major league baseball without you know baseball is just baseball-y things as we like to say on the Annie and Elston show baseball-y and he says baseball-y things all the time I mean I want it what it what it Chris Ellos what did Chris say on the round table he said the only thing you can keep the Padres out of the spot is just baseball I mean that's that's what's weird about baseball so you know a lot of it is baseball things and sometimes you can't control that and I don't necessarily know if they have a better answer for a manager spot but no I definitely feels the pressure and be embarrassing to lose the division when you had the lead and you've done it all every year and it's almost been like a guarantee with the exception of the one year the Giants got hot out of nowhere but I'm three years well I'm talking about more recently I was like two years ago oh yeah oh great I see I'm because they had one like 10 straight and they were like 106 games or something insane like that right so I mean it's only a matter of time I think eventually but they have pressure on them big they they were the team going into the season that was expected to win the World Series because they spent so much money they got Otani the team was loaded the Padres cut payroll they relied on a lot of rookie right I mean they they were hoping jerks and pro-far was going to have a good year he was cut last year the Rockies cut him last year and now he's one of the now he's an all-star for the Padres back in the Padres organization so I like this underdog mentality the Padres have I know they're getting some hype now I don't think they're gonna buy into it they seem laser focused and go out and and light up Jack Flaherty tonight like they did like they've done in the past and hopefully put more pressure on the on the Dodgers come Thursday I don't think there's any individual figure in all the baseball who's got more pressure on him for the postseason than Dave Roberts Aaron Boone Aaron Boone's got a lot of pressure because he's the Yankees manager I could see Aaron Boone having more pressure than those Robert's I mean too and then those are like anti-cliff you know a gap between whoever's number three oh yeah for sounds of pressure on those guys yeah a little bit of an update on we were talking about earlier there's this hurricane on the East Coast is really really messing up everything sports related and of course we are more concerned about the people and everybody being safe and all that but it is going to mess up a lot of the baseball seedings and possibly the playoffs and college football but Joel Sherman is tweeting that if the Diamondbacks are eliminated over the weekend and the Mets and the Braves have not yet settled seating it will be the commissioner's discretion whether to play Monday for seating purposes so Rob Manfred would end up making that decision from David O'Brien snit Brian Snicker the manager of the Braves said it was his understanding that if Monday's second game isn't needed for postseason purposes meaning if the picture is already finalized after game one of the doubleheader then the Mets and Braves would not play the second game Monday so the Padres could I guess in a way help the Braves and the Mets and that's probably the team that they're going to be playing you know as of right now they're playing the Mets so if the Padres are able to eliminate the Diamondbacks over the weekend then the Mets won't have to play or the Braves or the Mets won't have to play that second game and it will save them a little bit but that's the situation right now I like the Joker in this situation we need as much chaos as humanly I like chaos I like chaos and I love chaos when it doesn't affect my ball club and right now this is this is chaos for the Mets and the Braves we taught we've discussed this a lot off air obviously with Adam being our resident Braves fan and saying it's BS it is BS you know the fact that they would make a major league baseball team potentially had to play two games on Monday and then travel late Monday night to a location that neither team knows where they're going and and and and potentially one to Milwaukee one to San Diego vice versa the right the Diamondbacks could potentially be waiting around to see where they have to go three teams in limbo the day before they're supposed to play a playoff game which we know they're not going to just purposely put the two nationally games at night yeah right they usually stagger it but we'll see maybe that will be the the the saving grace for these teams with the commissioner but we know that that's not necessarily the best decisions come out of that office over there in New York no but it's it's it's a problem for for probably three teams so right now I'm hoping that you go into the weekend or sorry you go into the yeah you go over the weekend and whatever the results need to be with the Diamondbacks and the Padres the the Atlanta Braves and the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets and the Milwaukee Brewers I hope it's it's a situation where there's no guarantee the Diamondbacks are in the playoffs unless something happens in Monday's game and they're all kind of around the same spot and tide where that game that last game matters because I think it's only going to be a benefit to the Padres in more ways than one and it's not just the Braves with the amount of games they're going to have to play because they might miss Friday's game in Atlanta with Kansas City that affects Kansas City who's battling for a playoff spot I mean there's a lot of a lot of moving parts to this that in terms of seating and you probably won't know where everybody's going until after the conclusion of the second game on Monday you know back when I was doing pre and post game before Sam Levitt came here we had a game that the Padres played in Atlanta and it got rained out it was like a five hour rain delay they finally rained it out I came up with the solution for this and it was to put a tarp over truest field in Atlanta Adam why does your team not have a roof on their stadium all stadiums to have a tactical roof yes well I don't know about all there's plenty of ball part of teams that don't have and it makes no sense to me because they have to deal with all this chaos what are you trying to call it specific teams for not having domes or you're saying all teams should have domes I don't think all two I like baseball being played outside but in Atlanta we're checking in Atlanta it's a different circumstance because they get a lot of rain during the summer and they have a lot of rain outs it's hot for tractable roofs then you get the best of all there you go track the roof or you'd be like so fine open air facilities this is like what we're talking about yesterday was separating the rookie of the year into a hitter and a pitcher and you're like this doesn't happen all the time we shouldn't change the rules because it happened once just because there's a couple of rain delays in the 2024 season doesn't mean every team in this in on in a certain geographic location needs to go out and build a new stadium our new retractable dome I'll stitch some tarps together and send it down to truest part even if they had a dome they probably wouldn't play anyway because it's a they have a state of emergency and I see a good chance saying hey it's a state I know I know we're we're just having fun with this conversation not everything has to be taken so seriously people when we get back here on going to chris we are going to tell you the one pager is player that could be added to the postseason roster so we'll reveal who that is when we get back on 97 3 the fan this hour is brought to you by indeed need to hire you need indeed their end-to-end solution helps you attract interview and hire candidates all year round schedule and conduct virtual interviews right from your indeed dashboard learn more by visiting indeed.com/credits Matt Scravey Brayden soprano Adam Klug here on 97 3 the fan Gwen and Chris Chris will be back next week and Tony will be back with us tomorrow Brayden will also be joining us tomorrow for the final game between the Padres and the Dodgers okay when I went to break I said there's going to be a possible addition to the postseason roster for the Padres and a lot of people guessed it on the chat it would be Hassan Kim and from an update earlier from Kevin Asie he said he's it's Kim's expected to work for the next few days at the Padres facility in Peoria and then join the team at Chase Field on Friday they're not sure when he's going to be activated if he's going to be activated Friday or if he's going to be activated for the post postseason but there is a lot of questions as to what will happen when Hassan Kim comes back and if he gets back on this team if he's ready to go major question is where does he play does he play second base does he play shortstop we briefly talked about it earlier Brayden and both of us agreed that Xander should stay at shortstop but where I guess the better question for us is where where can they put Hassan Kim to you know give him the best chance of succeeding would it be second base or shortstop I'm I'm thinking second base because of his shoulder injury you know it's not going to be easy for him to throw across the diamond he tried to throw a couple weeks ago and they said that hey he couldn't make it from shortstop to first base not that he couldn't make it but his arm wasn't as strong so I would think second base might be the more natural position for him once he comes back with that injury coming off the bench no I mean you've moved Jake back to first you put Hassan Kim said I'm saying I'd you want to come off the bench I wouldn't start him absolutely not I don't I don't think I don't think you could just throw him back in the lineup he's missed a significant amount of time he's not a better hitter than than the guys that are currently in the lineup aside from the catcher but you need to catch her in there anyway but I still rather have Diaz in the lineup than Kim I think he'd be a good defensive replacement late in the ball game maybe a pinch run guy I mean I he's there for the vibes they love the vibes they're for the vibes but I just you know the way that everybody's hitting right now I'm not if I'm an opposing team I'm not afraid of Hassan Kim coming up to bat I'm not no not in a playoff game I mean right now your lineup's legit you got good players all over the place and I don't think Hassan Kim's not a good player but I don't think he's better than the guys that you currently have in the 789 spots he would come off the bench I wouldn't mess with anything I would like to amend my points or my decision on where you should play if he comes back this weekend and gets him at bats you may consider putting him in the lineup for the postseason but if he does not come back this weekend to get any at bats I'm not comfortable with him trying to get re-acclimated to the game after being away for over a month in the postseason it's just not something that I think many players would be good at and it's not setting him up to succeed so that's maybe I'm thinking about this right now maybe why he would come back this weekend I mean I get him getting him up to speed yeah you can't get anything going on in the minor leagues right now you have to he's going to be thrown into the fire and with the way he was hitting earlier this year I'm not comfortable with throwing him into the fire in the postseason I'm not I'm not taking Solano on the lineup so I mean that's I honestly that's what I think it comes down to I mean I'd have a ride comfortable with his his first base play though Solano Solano yeah I mean we could talk about defense all you want but at the end of the day you got to be able to swing the stick in the teams that do well in the postseason swing the stick the Phillies the year they went to the World Series were one of the worst defensive teams in baseball they swung the stick they made it to the World Series you got a swing and you got a pitch and if the pitching's good you're not gonna have to worry about you know the defense per se and it's not even like Solano's like a major liability at first base he does a solid job at first base but you could also use probably a rise at first base if you really wanted to I know a lot of people like having Jake Krone with it first like oh he's a really great first baseman well no s the kids are short they got kid the guys the shortstop if you put any shortstop it made you league baseball at first base he'd be a great first baseman he's a shortstop of course he's great at first base I don't think Kim it's gonna come down to would you rather have Kim in the lineup or do you rather have Solano in the lineup I think Solano's bat is more important than Hassan Kim's defense and I would have Solano in the lineup in the postseason and then if you want to use defense late and you want to use a defensive replacement you bring Kim in late into the game you can reshuffle the infield if you want put Kim at shortstop you can move Bogart's over to second Krone with could play first you get Solano out of there in the in the late innings when you need defensive players I think that's that's worth you know what it is I I don't think Kim's a great base runner but he is but he is fast but I don't really want to see a pinch run and I don't want to hear Chris Ello bitch about it the next day if he gets thrown out of the base pass because of him pinch running so I don't think I don't think in a world series level lineup Hassan Kim is a part of it from an offensive standpoint I don't think his defense overcomes his bat compared to what the options currently are to have in the lineup with the bat I do agree with you I do I think that Donovan Solano has been someone I mean he's been in it for the last couple weeks for the last more than a month and Donovan Solano has come through for the Padres many times this year I Hassan Kim has struggled all the way around he struggled at the place struggle defensively struggled running the bases so I'm glad I don't have to make these decisions because then who are you going to take off the roster yeah you got to take somebody out the roster probably Nick Ahmed I guess poor Nick Ahmed is it is it 25 or 26 for the post season I don't remember it expands right or does it go down expanded for the uh it expanded um for the 26 it says it was 25 prior to 2020 all right so he had Moby dot com yeah there's 26 been wrong but it's up to 28 right now isn't it for September don't you get like two extra roster spots yes so it's back to 26 you're gonna have to take two guys off anyway so Walkridge and Ahmed probably I'd take Walkridge on a playoff roster he's a good base runner yeah absolutely and I trust him more in the base pass than what I've seen uh Hassan Kim do this year because there's been a couple times where we're like what in the world is happening but you're gonna have to take somebody off the rock you're gonna have to take two players and Ahmed's probably definitely off the roster and then you'd have to find somebody else off the roster you you get take Tyler Wade off after you've made the entire team the entire year now Tyler Wade's too important to this team well then you got Lockridge too well that's gonna be a tough decision for them do you want the pinch run I mean is somebody gonna go on the injured list uh we don't have like a Matt Carpenter on the team where it's just expendable you know yeah I mean you're you're you're order you're you're your roster right now you're not gonna it's not gonna be Dias or Higashiokas you know it's gonna be probably Nick Ahmed but then you need somebody else and then if you add Kim you're gonna take a third person off the roster that is a good point that's a lot of people to take off a roster honestly I mean usually you're making moves one or two guys maybe maybe three guys but go into the postseason I don't want to mess with the vibes I don't want to mess with the vibes all right that is it for Brayden today thank you so much Brayden for coming in and hanging out with us today you'll be back with us tomorrow we'll see what's happening with the Padres but when we get back I am gonna talk to Sammy left he's gonna get the scene set up at Dodger Stadium we're also going to uh we're also gonna go over if we have time some of the most important games of the year for Padres uh in regards to the championship leverage index so that's all up next here on 97 through the fan really tell us how good they could be this season on Zach Gell Final segment here on Gwen and Chris, Matt's gonna be with you Adam Cluke still here with me Brayden Suprena is off and he is gonna be doing his soccer play by play so he'll be back tomorrow to uh help us finish up this Padres series against the Dodgers we're gonna check in with Sam Levitt here shortly and just a little bit he is down or up at Dodger Stadium and he will give us a little bit of what's going on up there Rod on the chat says quote AJ Preller HSK defense is a key to playoff run now if he really did say that it's gonna put AJ Preller into uh a little bit of a corner but we were just talking about whether or not how son Kim should be put back in the lineup come off the bench and some more even saying in the chat that this you know Kim might not have might not ever play a game as a Padres again which is really dramatic but we'll figure it out because on Friday it should have some we should have some decisions from the Padres on what they're gonna do with Kim let's go to the phones real quick before we go to Sam Levitt Mike in Carl's bad was once to talk about last night's game so what's up Mike how are you doing I am doing great oh you screw baby very very good especially after last night and now I understand that you were out there yeah so we'll start on Sunday so my son and I have been numerous Padres games we are lifetime like forever a Padres man and he's 12 plays a lot of baseball on Sunday we were bummed because we couldn't make it to any of the games last week and I said hey putty you want to go to and he goes yeah let's go didn't finish the sentence okay so we get tickets to go on Tuesday my daughter his twin sister wants to go to so the three of us go we are sitting in the middle deck right at first base and straight I can't make this up about the fourth inning my son looks mean he goes hey dad have you ever seen a triple play live I'm like no no I've never seen a triple play I don't even know if I've seen one on Sports Center right and you know what happened yeah I'm telling you that last inning he we're sitting there and we're surrounded of course by Dodger fans and they're going berserk and I'm about ready to vomit being what's probably inevitable and that play happens and I kid you not you could hear a pin drop in that stadium it was freaking awesome and what was really cool honestly all these Dodger fans turned to me and they went wow I got a couple high fives I thought they're gonna be pissed they were smiling they're like did that really just happen and they were just in shock yeah and we walked out of that stadium peacefully and no one gave us any crap got a bunch of high fives you're like wow that was amazing um well that's a great story Mike and that's something that you and your your your kids are gonna remember for the rest of their lives I mean oh did you did you take him I'm gonna tell his kids yes yes did you take him out of school for this to get up there or no we just we I picked you up at school right at school and then we made it up well hey that is awesome and good dad points right there and thank you Mike for calling because I remember when I was a kid there was a Monday night football game 49ers against the Broncos it was it was Steve Young against uh what why John Elway Jerry Rice was making his return from an ACL injury and he caught a touchdown and I can tell you right now that was one of the best memories of my childhood and I think your memory Mike is going to be a little bit better because it had a triple play involved and it had the Padres clinching and playoffs but I guarantee you that's something they remember for the rest of their lives all right thank you Mike for the phone call time to go up to Dodger Stadium but first let's check our traffic report Sammy Lev is with us Sam how did you survive last night that was uh amazing stuff I saw all of your content I said go to his Twitter @Samilove you'll see a bunch of great videos but how you doing buddy Scrabie I'm doing well beautiful night here in LA Padres taking batting practice and getting ready for another big time game here at Dodger Stadium crowd filing in it is a Clayton Kershaw bobblehead night so what typically what's uh known to be as a late arriving crowd I think uh here a little bit earlier here tonight because of the bobblehead giveaway but as far as last night I mean it was uh obviously a tremendous ending as you can see for those watching on YouTube I had poncho on ready to go really that poncho was was useless and I realized later I realized later in the night as we were in the clubhouse like all the veterans you know the AJ Casavilles the Kevin ACs the Dennis Lynn's Bob Scanlan uh mud Tony included you know nobody's got poncho's on they just you know they get wet so I think hopefully when I'm in there the next time yeah no poncho just made things a little bit more difficult but it was a great time good celebration um this team deserves it and now they have to turn the page and focus on tonight and I felt like last night those guys understood that already that there is still work to be done I think this team understands the opportunity they have in front of them here tonight and tomorrow and what it could possibly mean and certainly they've got a guy in Dillon sees on the mound today who uh could deliver a big time outing he was sensational in that last start against the Astros so last night was fun but I think officially right now uh all the focus on today's game yeah and that's uh very true because Udarvish even was a guy who was like I'm done celebrating I gotta go prepare for my my start don't see same way but I mean let's put it into perspective that the beginning of this season I don't think anyone really thought the Padres were going to be competing for the division title at the end of the year possibly but most likely not and now they're on track if they win out they're gonna win 96 games on the season like how incredible has this run been yeah I think the second half in particular has been just outstanding I mean talk about a team just firing on all cylinders and you're right sitting at 91 wins with five games remaining I don't know that a lot of us even after the trades for season arise and watching the up and down nature of the first half I don't know that any of us could have predicted this team to win 90 plus games and if they do play really well in the final five games win the mid 90s in games so it's a testament to this team the way they've gelled the way they played the moves that AJ Preller has made not just before the season but during the season at the trade deadline fortifying this bullpen getting guys like Solano and Braulta in here pushing the right button with Jackson Merrill knowing that he was ready at a spring training I caught up with AJ last night and I'll tell you the more and more I think about it that guy deserves a ton of credit for the way he put this team together and how well they've played what a cohesive unit it's been so it's a it's been a little bit of everything Scravey I mean this team's just playing really well every phase starting pitching relief pitching offense they've hit all year it's hard right now no matter what happens tonight and tomorrow here in LA look if they can win tonight it sets up just a super intense game tomorrow yes and then you see what happens in in Arizona you see what happens tomorrow first but regardless of what happens I mean I think if you're a Padres fan right now you have got to be feeling really good and really confident with where they're at now the wild card series it's tough it's a three game series and you get off to a bad starting game one all of a sudden your backs could be against the wall but I think you're a Padres fan if you're listening in San Diego right now you should be really proud of what this group has been and what they've accomplished but you should be really excited about the potential of this group I mean this is a group that can hang with anybody to me and they're proving it day in day out right now and you got all the talking heads out there saying that the Padres are the most dangerous ones that or that teams should be worried to face in the playoffs and I think last night kind of showed me you know AJ's moves for Tanner Scott and Jason Adam I want to focus in on Tanner Scott because Shouhei Otani has been the hottest hitter on the planet here in the last month and he came out he doubled on the first pitch off of Michael King and you thought okay this is going to be a Shouhei Otani game again and then he walked in his next appearance then he made now on a great catch by jerks and pro far but here's where I think it proves why AJ Preller deserves more credit because the left-handed Scott why did I forget Tanner Scott he came in and he struck out Shouhei Otani on three pitches you go lefty against lefty great pitcher against the best hitter in the game and Tanner Scott won that battle and that proves to me why AJ Preller needs more credit yeah I mean look let's talk about that seventh inning because before the triple play Scrabie I think you can make the argument when they're leading four to one in the seventh inning last night when Scott comes in he gives up a base hit to Gavin Lux then to be a double playoff the bat of Rojas then he strikes out Otani before that triple play you could very well make the argument that the double playoff the bat of Rojas to make it two outs and nobody on for Otani was the play of the game I'm being serious yeah yeah you think about what the situation is if Rojas gets on there then you got Otani up two on nobody out bets behind him Freeman behind bets even if you don't get two outs there then you still got Otani with bets the tying run waiting on Zek I thought aside from the triple play last night Scott getting through that inning after giving up the lead-off hit and getting that double play out of the nine spot from Rojas I thought that was massive look it's going to be interesting moving forward as you mentioned and talked about Tanner Scott to you know see what they do with with the ninth inning in safe situations right now yeah but we'll play what Mike Schult had to say earlier today he used the term interchangeable parts when talking about the bullpen and I do get the sense now we saw Suarez last night but I do get the sense that this is going to be about moving forward where the lane is in that particular part of the lineup it may not be about oh it's the seventh inning it's time for Scott oh it's the eighth inning it's time for Adam oh it's the ninth inning it's time for Suarez I'm starting to get a real feeling that it's going to be much more about where in the lineup are you where is the lane for all three of those guys and where do they make sense and not so much about it's the seventh inning time for this guy eighth inning time for this guy that that might be something you know you'd see in the regular season in June if Suarez was struggling but right here right now as we come down the the final stretch I think you may start to see that a lot more of where guys fit in in the final few winnings rather than beginning dictating who's coming in so it's going to be fascinating bullpen for the most part has been great look the bullpen was great last night yeah of course I mean aside from the three hits given up by Suarez to start that ninth inning it was great so I know very long answer no you're good all different kinds of directions but yeah it's going to be interesting to see how the Padres operate the back end of this bullpen in the final five games of the regular season and but no doubt they have a luxury of options back there which is like you said originally a credit to AJ Prowler and what he did at the deadline so we have the lefty situation figured out with Tanner Scott now if we're going into the ninth thing and it's a righty righty righty we need a righty matchup are we going Jason Adam or are we going Robert Suarez at this point I know you we just got to talk about it but I think there's an argument to be made that Jason Adam might be the better choice at this moment in time yeah I mean so the thing about Adam is he gets righties and lefties out right again I think look Robert and Adam are both good options to have out of your bullpen would it shock me to see a Robert Suarez come in in a high leverage spot in the seventh inning and the Padres save Adam for later in the game maybe even a save opportunity in a game coming up no it would not shock me based on what's being said right now in that term interchangeable parts when it comes to the back end of this bullpen so look I think the misconception when people have talked about some of the struggle Suarez has experienced I mean he's not going to be relegated to mop up duty I mean so if he's not pitching the ninth inning well it's going to be somewhere else I mean even somewhere higher earlier yeah I mean to me he's going to come in in close games and high leverage spots probably when you have a lead I mean forget about the order for a second and that and that's why I think it is very very important regardless of if he's pitching the ninth inning or the eighth inning or the seventh inning they got to get Robert Suarez back on track because he's very important to this bullpen regardless of what inning he's pitching in very true I reminded a stay tuned for the eco water so Cal Padres pregame show with Sam Levitt next on 97 3 the fan that gets started at 610 last one for me Sam we were just talking about the news the hustle on Kim may be rejoining the team here in Arizona or for the postseason he's definitely going to meet back up with the team in Arizona so our conversation was what do you do with them a Brayden wanted to have him come off the bench I sort of said maybe you put him at second base because of the injury to his shoulder but the more I think about it the more I think that that coming off of the bench is the best thing but what are your initial thoughts on where hostile and Kim should go once he gets put back on this roster well I think you bring up a really interesting point and I have this conversation with Annie and Elston earlier today we didn't really touch on this part of it you know is he um is Kim with the throwing to a point where he can play the infield right like I would assume he's not going to be back on this roster unless he can confidently make a throw from shortstop right if he's got to play there so let's assume that he's healthy enough to play the infield um I don't see the Padres and I don't think they should I don't see them moving Zander back the second and now flip-flopping that I really don't I think Zander probably stays at shortstop um that's not for sure who knows maybe maybe goes to second base um but I would be hesitant to move Zander back after he've already moved him back to short and he's had to transition now a couple of times um I see Kim likely as somebody who's either in somewhat of a platoon with Jake you know maybe he's facing left-handed pitching or somebody coming off the bench and he's coming in for defense and he's pinch hitting and he's an option to start um I don't know that you're taking Jake out of this lineup half the time right now so um it's gonna be interesting it really is because I think a lot of us have operated as of late like Kim's not coming back yeah just based on the schedule but we'll see I would not move Zander though from shortstop and back to second base again that's me I wouldn't do it but who knows we'll see what happens well you are a smart guy so I'll listen to you Sam now I'm not as smart as the guys in that duck out uh what's coming up on the pregame show coming up on the pregame show we'll hear from Mike shilt we'll hear from Fernando Tapi's junior and I had a good four five minutes with Jeremiah Strata as well really good stuff from Jeremiah who by the way you want to talk about big moments in last night's game comes in in the sixth inning four one game two on and tying one at the plate and Tommy Edmond through one pitch got a pop up and that was it and a strata uh was really important in that game and he's been a big part of this bullpen and he's been really good as of late so Jeremiah he grew up in the Coachella Valley you know is very familiar with the Dodgers and the Padres in this area so it was actually his first appearance here at Dodger Stadium last night so he was telling me about that how cool it was to have last night awesome game was so yeah good stuff with him and we'll talk with Jesse as well coming up in a bit all right thank you so much Sam everybody stay tuned and listen to the eco water so Cal Padres pregame show starting at 6 10 p.m. Sammy Lev the hardest working guy in Padres radio he's always doing stuff thank you Sam uh all right we just have a few minutes left here on the Gwen and Chris program on 97 three the fan