Dodgers Struggle Revealed: Key Players & Division Hopes
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00:00Let's bring in our guest, Jeff Spiegel, Dodger Blue, dodgerblue.com.
00:06Jeff, you heard that conversation.
00:09First of all, thanks for the time.
00:10Are we nuts even thinking about the division?
00:13I wish I could say you were, but I looking at the schedules, the Dodgers have a brutal
00:18next six weeks.
00:19They're still not healthy.
00:20And the Padres actually have a pretty, pretty easy run in over the last couple of months.
00:24So you know, a few days ago, I would have said, maybe you're crazy, but four and a half
00:29games is, uh, is a small number.
00:31See?
00:32See, Browner?
00:33This, this thing was like, what, like nine for like the whole season, nine, eight games
00:37all year.
00:38And now it's down to four and a half.
00:39And listen, to be totally honest with you, I don't think they're going to win the division,
00:44but I will say like, it is a possibility now.
00:47Whereas like you said, a month ago, I'm not saying it's a possibility, no chance.
00:51I say this is, this has been my take on it the entire time.
00:56Get within three games and then let's, let's, let's, let's sit down and have a conversation
01:00about it.
01:01Get within three games.
01:02Okay.
01:03Cause before you was nine.
01:04Oh, here is, yeah.
01:05Here's the schedule.
01:06The Padres, here's the next three series.
01:09How about that?
01:10The Padres versus the Rockies and at Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh kind of up and down, but they
01:14are 55 and 53 so far.
01:16So they're a good team.
01:18And then at Miami who just sold everybody.
01:20So that's a park again.
01:23And then Colorado, right?
01:27And the Dodgers versus the A's in Oakland, then Philly, then Pittsburgh at Milwaukee
01:33at St. Louis.
01:37And the Dodgers aren't getting healthy for another two, two, two and a half weeks.
01:40So that's where we start there.
01:41Can we start there?
01:42What is going on with the Dodgers?
01:44What's going on with Mookie Betts?
01:45What's going on with Freddie Freeman?
01:47What's going on with Max Muncy?
01:49What's going on with Yamamoto run through the list.
01:51Start wherever you want, man.
01:52Like what's going on over there.
01:54So Freddie, it's a big question mark.
01:57There's a major health issue with one of his kids.
01:59And so he's on the family list.
02:00I believe you can stay on that for seven days.
02:02He's in the midst of that.
02:03The Dodgers have basically said he can take as long as he needs.
02:06We're not even asking questions right now.
02:07So nobody really has info on Freddie Freeman.
02:09If he goes past the seven days, there's been speculation, like maybe they put them on the
02:13restricted list and there's all sorts of stuff.
02:15But Freeman's a wildcard in some senses, I would say he's probably the quickest back
02:19of all these guys, but it's just a total unknown.
02:22Mookie Betts starting to take some swings that we got a positive injury update on him
02:26yesterday.
02:27The other good news, probably doesn't need a rehab assignment.
02:29So he'll probably just do some simulated games and then be back.
02:32So I think Mookie Betts, you know, that Cardinals series, August 16th, maybe a couple of days
02:37before, feels like a landing spot.
02:39Tommy Edmond, the new guy they just acquired, he has to go back out on a rehab assignment.
02:45He's maybe the same time, two weeks.
02:47Max Muncy.
02:48Has that ever happened in baseball before, where they trade for a guy that hasn't played
02:51all season?
02:52Like that's wild.
02:53It's crazy.
02:54It's crazy.
02:55And I mean, you know, Dodger fans have been wounded before by by positive injury updates
02:59that turned out to be not positive.
03:01And so there's definitely some some fear, you know, whether you trust the front office
03:05to have done their due diligence on a guy like this.
03:08We talked to the Cardinals beat reporter, and she seemed to think that he's on track
03:12for the next week or two to be back.
03:15Yamamoto is throwing a bullpen today.
03:16So so that's a good step for him for a guy that, you know, most Dodger fans, I think
03:20were skeptical if we even see him again this year.
03:23And then and then Muncy, the oblique starting to take swings, you know, breakthrough, I
03:27think, was the language they used yesterday.
03:29So I mean, it's possible that by the time we get to mid late August, outside of Yamamoto,
03:34every guy we just mentioned is back.
03:36It's possible.
03:37I don't think any Dodger fan would say likely.
03:40But we're kind of like Browner in that sense.
03:41We try not to get our hopes up.
03:43You know, we just if you get your hopes up, then you just get hurt.
03:45Yeah.
03:46Yeah.
03:47I mean, I'm seeing what I'm seeing from it.
03:49I thought the first game that they had against the Padres, that's just a Padre victory.
03:54Guys, guys got guys got to the ball, got it over the fence in the ninth inning.
03:59That happens.
04:00It's a very long.
04:01It's one hundred and sixty two game season.
04:03You're going to have some of those.
04:04I don't care how good you are.
04:06Yeah.
04:07Yesterday is I think that is the more glaring one to me.
04:11That's the one where you got the three errors.
04:14You Clayton Kershaw looks ineffective and I'm being polite.
04:19And this is a leader.
04:20This is a this is a guy who people look to this to people galvanize behind.
04:24And so when he just even though it's a second start, he still doesn't seem to have the it
04:31that we expect to see from Clayton Kershaw.
04:33So where does this team go for that now galvanizing person?
04:38Because it appears to be he's at the end of his rope as far as the legacy, the career
04:42that he's had.
04:43Yeah.
04:44Who's the guy that now leads this team with is from a player perspective or are people
04:49listening to Dave Roberts?
04:50Dave, Dave, Dave's a controversial guy.
04:53We'll put it that way.
04:55I mean, he's interesting because he's he literally has the best winning percentage of any manager
05:00in Major League history.
05:01It's Dave Roberts.
05:02But they hate him.
05:03They hate him.
05:04They can't.
05:05A lot of people can't stand him because he gets blamed for everything.
05:07Like two nights ago is a perfect example.
05:09Blake trying to comes in, gives up two home runs in the ninth and they lose and everyone's
05:11mad at Dave Roberts.
05:13And I've been quick to criticize Dave Roberts at times if he makes a bad decision when it
05:17comes to going to the bullpen too early or too late or who he brings in or whatever.
05:21I like I'm up for criticizing managers.
05:24Me too.
05:25Like trying to gave up two home runs.
05:26Dave Roberts didn't give up two home runs.
05:28So, you know, that's kind of where I land.
05:30And look, the Dodgers bullpen is a whole nother story.
05:32But to the Kershaw question, I mean, Kershaw is our guy.
05:36He's my guy.
05:37He's he's the go for my life, by the way, as a Dodger.
05:41So seeing him struggle is like there's an emotional level.
05:44I've joked that watching Kershaw win the 2020 World Series was like the most impactful sports
05:49moment of my life because I just the struggles that he had gone through and obviously terrible
05:54postseason performances, him getting it like I won.
05:56I was happier for him than I was for like the Dodgers and Dodger fans.
05:59It was it was Kershaw that I cared about.
06:02So realistically, this year, there are lots of people skeptical of what you were going
06:05to get from Kershaw.
06:06So I will say I don't think people are, you know, apoplectic over what they saw because
06:11I think there's a large portion of the Dodger fan base that said major shoulder surgery,
06:15first major shoulder, first arm surgery of his career, by the way, tons of innings, velocity
06:20has been diminished.
06:21I just don't think there's a ton of people that were like banking World Series hopes
06:25on Clayton Kershaw being a part of the equation.
06:27So I do think there's some people that there's a there's an element of optimism that comes
06:31from just not feeling like he's the centerpiece.
06:34I think he's going to be built on offense.