Yoshinobu Yamamoto Could Be Dodgers Postseason Ace, Jack Flaherty, Ohtani's MVP Lock & More

Mr Jose Moda joining us today one of the great baseball ball knowers in the game this guy does it all you hear him on the radio broadcast you hear him doing sideline reporting he's on Roku Spanish or English he used to pitch he used to hit it's like the show hey Otani of Dodgers analyst right now Jose thank you so much for joining us here on Dodgers Dugout live dougy always a pleasure but the comparison Otani goes way high but I'll take it I'll take it I'm I'm wearing my Otani Canada shirt which you know that's a fire t-shirt I saw silhouette right away you love that oh gota love it man counted a big Club over in Canada started when he was with the angel and getting bigger and bigger of because he is in blue absolutely by the way also you do commercials we have a comment that says they love your car commercials so three three languages we're doing three languages three languages the trifecta right there there's nothing that this man can't do there's nothing that sh Otani can't do so we might as well just start there because pretty much the only thing hotter than Los Angeles right now is a player playing for the Los Angeles in show Otani you saw the seats people were saying they were empty I had Dodgers fans saying that the Golden Glove bar was packed and everyone's watching the game in there but still sh Otani went deep once again he's now on Pace for 52 home runs 52 stolen bases there's a 68% chance right now that he hits 5050 so 46 and 46 just your call was amazing I love the C on the call but first Jose where the heck did that ball land uh where nobody expected it that's pretty much all I can say where you know you got have enjoying your hot dog enjoying a drink it's a hot day and before you know it oh there's a baseball who hit it who else I mean the facade I mean some people were saying it hit the 19 the the World Series commemorative sign right there it's like did they hit it so hard it just vaporized but just what they want to ask you is down the stretch here you've seen this guy do things that we've never seen before as far as adding the stolen base still hitting with power but what gives you confidence that we're going to see this version of sh Otani in the postseason cuz I'm already hearing people out there saying he's never played in the postseason is he ready for the bright lights I'm saying have you seen him in the WBC there's no one that's built for this like Shi couple of things that gave me confidence that he's going to continue to play at this pace number one is the fact that he doesn't have to carry a team which plays a huge role in a guy's psyche mentality number two is his ability man I mean you play in October to shine you play in October because you know there's a lot of lights on you and he's done it before he did in Hokkaido he won in Hokkaido too before he even won in the World Baseball Classic and then number three is a World Baseball Classic I mean every eye every ear globally is on sh Otani what is he gonna do is he gonna play day one he says I am gonna play and then the way he acted among with the fans uh carrying the load of an entire country Stephen Nelson and I just were in awe the entire time where Brock can the games in Tokyo because it seems like he was just enjoying every single moment now the weight of a country or the weight of a dodg your nation I think it carries a lot to say that he's comfortable doing either but I really truly believe that because of everybody they surrounded by and the fact that he's playing for something means a lot and the fact that sh's a guy that even talking to his father years and years ago in going back to high school days he thrives on people trying to be better as a team than his team and that pretty much brings out the best but hopefully we will see that and hopefully we will see a shohi that does not try to carry the load by himself and you're with shohi in his time in Anaheim and unfortunately for him that team did not have a lot of success they never finished with a winning record and this is the first time he's really been playing meaningful baseball in late August deep into September how much do you think he's thriving because of that and do you think there's anything different from him just because of these circumstances it is different because when you are counting the days to the season to be over and your team is struggling it is heavy I mean there's a lot of teams going through that right now the Angels going through that again uh showing went through that a lot of times obviously with the angels every single year with them but there's something to be said about how much you're fed in your energy you forget about the the tiredness you forget about what's coming up you forget about extra BP or whatever you need to get your swing right you think about competition and maximizing everything that you can from your throws as a position player and as a pitcher to your at bats and the pitches that you see and that's why it is so important to have a mentality that he understands and he's put in play for so many years Doug and taking it one day one pitch and go from there don't try to see the big map or the big picture well it's all about now and feeding up guys like Freddy Freeman Matt Muny Will Smith these guys have been there before I mean certainly Muki bets has been there multiple times and it only allows to to go and look around the room and say well uh we're in this unit together and amount of games doesn't matter how hot it is it doesn't matter we got to out there know that we are targets you've been targets for you know a long time since day one because the expectations have been so high with or without sh yeah and we had Matt Kevin in 2011 we had belly in 2019 early mooki guys where if you're going past the TV if you're at Dodgers Stadium you better be in your seat when those guys are in the Box you never know what it's going to happen for Shi something special is going to happen whether it be stolen bases a triple which I still think is the most exciting play in baseball a moonshot by Shi but when you look at this individual accomplishment the 50/50 something that's never been done before I asked him a couple weeks ago about getting to 50/50 and he told me hey if I get to 50/50 it just means that I'm helping the team more more home runs help the team more stolen bases help the team any examples of how sh Otani really is team first despite these great individual accomplishments well you look at the thing that he does uh for the team is he running every CH chance he gets no he's not running he's running in smart situations if he trying to steal third every time no he is understanding that there's a game to be played you know in their culture there is so much respect to how you play the game that has transferred into the way he play the game here that's not going to change now the challenge is that he knows that he is the target for so many people and he got the bullseye hey stop the run now Mak your mov with Shani was at the first base make sure he makes your your looks to second base when he's at second base because he does get very good jumps and theal execute your pitches if as best you can because we know sh sometimes gets into his swing mode and then Swing Swing Swing without the ball even being around the plate but when he tones it down uh Doug I think we all know it's a thing of beauty because no bat no bat in big bigball explodes the way he does maybe Aaron judge sound but there's very few guys have the impact that he's had and then feeding off this whole environment remember Shani played three games last September he had the side issue couldn't play anymore he tried and he came out of BP pain and and that was painful to watch for me as a friend but man this is so different as to how much every game means and in a way I'll tell you what and I'm talking about this is it's good that the Dodgers are actually not with this big 10 12 game lead and please don't take that wrong because migy Ro house talked about this Fred Freeman talked about this m b Will Smith all these games mean so much it's like playing a playoff game and that just makes every player forget about the individual accomplishments yeah and you put it like that great to put things into perspective let's not forget this is a rehabbing pitcher that's doing all this it's kind of wild when you think about that as far as the MVP vote goes I saw this morning people were talking about West Coast bias never heard about West Coast bias about sh Otani and talking about Francisco Lindor he's had an incredible season the shortstop position the premium position but let's not act like pitchers Haven it won the MVP in the past let's not act like show otani's impact on this team considering that mooki missed significant time Freddy missed time and they have the best record in baseball do you think he's the clearcut slam dunk there's no question about it he should run away with the MVP award he should win the MVP because all the reasons that you mentioned um I'm I'm not sure it's going to be a runaway because obviously there's a lot of people in the east coast that believe that Lor should be a part of this uh Marcel Zuna also is going to get some votes I believe but I mean when you when you see this and by the way when when's the last time we ever heard about West Coast bias I was I was laughing on it's crazy what what happens now is you think about this back East we're so inclined to watch basball in the west there's one reason only his name is Shani in upset exactly and what I hate about these debates is you kind of have to really just say one players not good you have to talk down on them disparaging stuff but no Francisco Lindor is an incredible shortstop he's having a great year but this is alltime stuff we're going to be talking about Shi season in 2024 until the end of time now as far as Shi Otani goes by the way I'm already thinking about what's his next big accomplishment after this earlier this season I had him hitting 50 becoming the Dodgers alltime home run leader did not have him stealing 50 Bas I'll tell you that so I'm not going to take credit for that but I'm thinking I was watching the first start at Angel Stadium where he goes six in a thirds Innings of perfect baseball could it be a perfect game could he hit for the Triple Crown I mean just kind of fun stuff and what's the next incredible accomplishment I think we're going to see I'm I'm I'm going to say perfect game I'm going to say at least no hitter I'm going to call perfect game for him at some point his dodg career he can do that uh I don't know if you've seen his bullpens but he is not holding anything back bullpens it's like oh he's competing already right now and by the way let me tell you something else that Dodgers fans have not seen Shani the competitor on the mound it is a totally different monster very demonstrative very emotional he'll pump his fist he will pitch inside and get you off the plate by the way and if not ask Mark can what happened in Oakland a few years back when he hit him a couple of times and he's not afraid to compete and say hey you know what I want to throw that splitter throw that slider in certain spot I need a little bit of the plate here's a fast ball at 101 102 please get off the play a little bit more and and he's gonna get hit sometimes because he does throw a lot of strikes even though his reputation when he came up with the big leagues was not of a strike thrower he became a strike thrower by shortening his stride and sometimes even going dug to a slide step with nobody on base he'll go from the stretch obviously he'll pitch from there like UD doers does and so many Japanese pitchers do but uh there's a side of him that uh when it's he's on the mound uh he had a different animal out there it's going to be fun to watch and hopefully think roll well so he goes into spring training doing some special things and getting ready for a season and when he takes him out you just never know he could beat you at 91 to 95 and then the next outing he can go out there and be 98 to 101 nasty splitter and there are days when he'll throw the splitter away and says cutter fast slider I'm good to go let's go out there and compete and that's so exciting about this that even if the Dodgers when the Dodgers go out there and win the World Series you still have sh Otani pitching to look forward to next spring training by the way you're making me laugh because you're talking about that Mark Hanah thing where he was throwing the fast ball inside I'll never forget that when the base is cleared on that and they're kind of jawing with each other and show he Otani just asking for a new ball smiling it really just shows you everything for the show he's notna get involved okay let's let's get going it's like okay okay yeah yeah yeah okay awesome subu now speaking of pitching Jack flarity was outstanding yesterday and Jack flarity continued to be exactly what the Dodgers needed from as far as acquiring a pitcher at the deadline someone that can go deep into games someone that can pitch with Runners on base he's so poised and so far a 261 ER in seven starts 47 punch outs 10 walks and 41 in the thirds Innings but has he been even better than you expected in la oh way way better I mean there's no doubt um we knew this guy was good and he has been on the radar for the valers for you know a couple of years but man he brings an edge that you can can only learn by watching him pitch on a daily basis by watching his workouts it's 110 degrees the other day at D Stadium he's out there on that field doing his work and preparing for yesterday's start well look at the weather yesterday there's not a lot of guys that sustain that and that are not looking the bulp in the fifth or six going please I need a little help out here but he's so focused his stuff good and he makes it better by the way he pitches and here him explaining that he has talked about how guys take pit I ask players on the opposing side doing my homework hey the way you take a pitch what does it say about you well sometimes it says I might take a pitch to fool the pitch and think make him think that I was full on the take just to see if he repeats It Well Jack FL reads things like that like Clinton kerser is now for so many years and says I'm gonna repeat it again and again until I steal strike and then we're going to go out there and play the cad Mouse game which pitch is coming because he can beat you with 93 94 up in the zone thinking that it's going to be 97 98 in your and perception when it's not but he is not a thrower this guy's a pitcher he inundates The Zone he floods The Zone with quality strikes and that's one thing Strike One turns a hitter into more defensive hitter and then what he does is because if you look at 0 and one contact D throughout baseball watch everybody go look at this all in one contact throughout baseball over 300 0 and one yes they are but now what happens is if you're 0 and one then you next pitches just close enough or by that turns into an 0 and2 because you're spreading the zone or he takes to a one and one where they reach out then it's a different story this guy knows how to pitch and his stuff plays down well in the zone he he believer in pitching downstairs inducing ground balls and keeping his defense ready to work consider that even last night or yesterday his strikeouts didn't come out until middle of the game when he found it though he was able to spin and finish guys up but he had his defense engaged because he throwing a lot of quality strikes out The Zone yeah it almost feels like a throwback type of pitcher right I mean it all starts with the fast ball command and even if he does miss the Zone with the fast ball it almost feels like it's intentional he knows exactly what he wants to do out there with every single pitch I mean opponent hting 189 with runners in scoring position on him I mean I just think Jack Flair's been a fantastic fit and I think I love the way he trust his defense allows that uh pitches to the pitch count low and you're going more efficiently and I think that he's a fantastic fit the question is where dides he fit into the postseason rotation because Tyler glass now he's your clear-cut one Yamamoto will see him tomorrow but I mean Jack flairty is someone who could be your number one or your number three it doesn't really matter right you know I'm going to go into with an open mentality about this okay I'm going to say that you have to prove to me that you are ready to be number one to go out there and beat a team right away you know healthwise and right now glass now has to answer that question for me and for a lot of people if Jack flowy not the name IID like to know who it is the way he's pitching right now he should be the one being considered number number one he's going to go out there and take the ball against anybody and stay to his standards number two is you want to save some Innings out of that Bullpen okay and then the fact that he is going to be able to know that he has played through this before significant games with the Cardinals back in a very early age and know that his stuff the way he works is not going to fizzle out in October um and you need somebody to set a tone of you know what this really matters and it bothers me if we have a bad inning and no better than somebody like this even though he is not for many people a number one I think you an open mind and say who's pitching better who deserves to have the momentum for us to carry into a game five or a game seven eventually right right now to me the answer is the guy taking the M who has been uh you know better than advertised because we know what kind of competitor he is that's Jack flarity yeah I love that that really just speaks to the depth that the rotation potentially has if everyone's healthy and with Jack flarity he does have game one stuff he does have game two stuff and also thing too his floor is really high especially when you consider the fact that he was dealing with the back you really see no signs of that affecting him on the mound so really the blowup Innings even if he gives up a couple runs hey you got a great offense and if you go out there and Pitch six seven Innings potentially two three run ball you know you give your team a really good chance to win now as far as yoshinobu Yamamoto I could not be more excited to see him back on the mound tomorrow going up against sh imaga that's going to be fantastic for all of our Japanese fans as well that Japanese Showdown but what do you think are fair expectations for yoshinobu Yamamoto in his return for the rest of the month and of the postseason hopefully he'll be able to give you four Innings you know give you four solid Innings and it's one thing we got to be careful too is if he's out there at four Innings and he's dominating uh and he's a 55 60 pitches how much do you want to push him to say hey maybe he does have 65 or 70 you got to be very careful with that his body will tell you the ball the ball's the way the ball's coming over his hand will tell you but this first start remember now is between the white lines with Big L team that he actually pitched pretty well against back in April in Chicago he pitched a a couple bases load of jams we got to see how Stuff plays out too because if there's a lot of effort in in finding the zone and efforting to find velocity hopefully it's not going to be the case maybe 50 is the limit and he goes three three plus but in a perfect world dug we would like to see five and 655 and 75 and 75 because that means that the way he keeps regressing coming from that injury it's only a matter of building up more to know that hey he's a guy that perhaps could be slotted right into the top of rotation in October um but I'll see how things play out you know keep an eye also on when guys are coming off the shoulder injury if there's any pushing if there's any variance in their delivery the push needs to come from the legs and needs to stay on top of the baseball to make sure that everything flows right into where it needs to flow and also how much usage you does on a splitter tomorrow be very indicative yeah I was just about to ask you what is something you're looking for early on in some of the these starts that tells you that hey he is okay that shoulder is fine and you can really count on him in the postseason I'm not going to look at my velocity I don't want to see 97 98 to be convinced of anything if he's a 93 94 that's good enough for me because he has enough to work with his stuff to locate and then uh the answer that I need from him is which pitch is he going to go to get early outs which he can do with the ground ball and how much he forces a strike out I hope that the strikeout does not become the primary purpose of showing people that he's ready and he just goes out there and shows the world that he is a complete pitcher by pitching and not throwing unbelievable and I think you look at him some people say oh he's a rookie I see the three-time sore winner I see the guy who in game six of the Japan series had 14 strikeouts and threw 138 pitches to force a game seven what kind of expectation should we have for him if everything's right in the postseason someone who's more like a rookie or someone who has that big time Big Game experience there's no rookie in this guy love only by the standard Major League Baseball right which he e the rookie but uh with the experience with the Innings um the stadium that he's playing and uh the expectations the pressure who he you know the years that he's carried a team and a flag into postseason and into the Japan series just tell you that he knows exactly what the expectations are here even though he hasn't lived it but baseball is baseball man 50,000 the stands 45,000 stands knowing that every single game counts every single pitch counts those are things that you cannot teach and it doesn't matter where you play and what the pressur is like you know who you are because you've done it before that's the thing you remember the most when you have that little voice in you that says boy I'm in you know different Ballpark and different country and and they're yelling at me and I'm an opposing team at ballpark you don't think about those things you think about what got me through this before what did I go to and then let me go back to that pool and use that there's a warehouse is a storage room to go I'm going to pull out for that to know that I need to go out there just execute pitches and I've done before in uh in big scenarios too and we saw what he did on a big stage at Yankee Stadium yes it wasn't the postseason but I think that was a small taste of what we're going to see from Yamamoto yamam Mania is still happening in 2024 now as far as another injured player that is going to be a big X Factor for this team teosa Hernandez feels like the Dodgers dodged a bullet a couple of days ago he gets a ball on his foot thankfully it was a slider wasn't a fast ball like he told us yesterday but what have you SE from teoscar before the game just kind of working out I mean what do you think his status is and how confident are you that he's going to be able to come back and be who he was my biggest reli for the fact that uh tasar did the smart thing and they got him out of the game U actually I thought I spoke with Matthew Boyd um two days ago and he felt so bad I mean he was like I feel terrible that I hit this guy he goes I'm happy it was not a fast ball it was a breaking ball but I still feel feel bad because he's a key piece obviously of that team out there when you know that's when the guards are competing for something and boys ALS Al looking to keep that pace place in the rotation that tells you how much you know bigly players care about each other but tasar very encouraging what I saw on the field him working out uh the strength uh the jump the push and you know the the quick ex exit off its first step I think um are are key things that are encouraging to me I think the weather helps a lot too he's from the Dominican he knows what the heat is like it is so much better to go out there and try to recover from an injury when it's warm like this and when it's cold and I know the Tasco will do the smart thing in KN and tell and unate with his team and Dave Roberts and the rest of the medical staff if something's not right now it is not his push leg it is his Landing foot and in that case sometimes you know what doug I've seen a lot of guys get hurt in the front foot and become better hitters because now there's a softer landing and your hands have to do all the work for you and we know what happens when tasar is a very good hands hitter things do explode right through the zone and you know we're going to see him in full gear now just like we see show he Otani with all the gear all the prot itive gear so I definitely looking forward to seeing that version of tar Hernandez but outside of the big three outside of shi and Otani and Freddy Freeman would you say he is the most important bat for the Dodgers in the postseason or is it some like a Will Smith or a Max munzy I'm gonna go Will Smith Tal's gonna do what he does M's gonna do what he does he's been there before too but Will Smith to me what he show back in 20120 playing in a very difficult scenario neutral scenario um just tells me that there's way more in that Tang what we've seen hopefully the last series and the better at bats are an indication of that and the fact that now he he doesn't have to feel like I'm batting fourth you know we have you know no mooki in there and no Freddy or no Muny I'm batting fourth all the time or third he can go down and and and just fool people by hitting in the lower slot knowing that the opportunities will be there no matter what and then for will different path and even mentality than tcar is a contact type of mentality with men in scoring position that's why throughout his career he's been so good he can spoil a lot of good pitches and frustrate pitches which also helped guys coming behind him to go out there maybe make productive Els and score some runs but the Dodgers need Will Smith to be a solid Will Smith because that just makes it even more impossible for the guys on the other side absolutely agree with you and I think that he's a guy that's going to benefit from when the postseason comes along everyone's batting averag is triple zero right and he's not going to look at it at the scoreboard he knows his postseason success he's going to get hopefully the layoff of four days with the Dodgers winning the division hopefully so totally agree with you on that one I think Tas Hernandez as long as he's healthy he's going to do what he does man this guy just RS that's what he does but Jose also want to talk to you about your experience on the call doing a game on Roku Dodgers fans that didn't have Roku they were scrambling thankfully we all found a way to get it unfortunately wasn't a great game for the boys in blue roesy he tied a record for 10 earned runs given up but still I mean talk about the experience and one of the great things about it was because of the score you got a chance to tell some really cool stories oh it was great man we had Heraldo Pomo you know miked up at Short St and I am one that I don't like to bother players like with a microphone when they're playing but I was like you know what we got to go out and maximize this and just take the fans on the mentality of a Fielder what is he thinking right now and haraldo and I have had a very good relationship for many years since he was a young kid coming out of Dominican uh the Scout this on him was one of my best friends J the bow back Dominican so things like that are important to me that the fans get to know about what double play depth that I was talking about with him uh the one time he asked us hey can you guys he the pitch because you know what happened with kand a long time I'm like no but what will you do if I tell that I can he never got to answer that that's one of the things also when you do a national game which I've done for you know for so many years back since 97 when I started broadcasting it is a perspective of both ball clubs and for a lot of fans sometimes like hey you're not talking enough about my team or your team is more like no but this is I'm talking about baseball I'm a baseball fan I study teams I look at standings I look at different scenarios I look at what's happening around the league not just what's going on with my team because I want to be more educated to relate that to the fan and to relate it to myself and be more informed right so that's why the national games to me are very attractive because it forces you to do a little bit more search on the other side and around the league of what they're facing to Leo went to his office 20 minutes I got to talk to Bren stom I got to talk to Joe Ma talk Damien ay I talk Mike feder so all those things that perhaps you don't get to do a regular basis at a national game now you're exposing things that being told by the opposing manager and coaches to the Dodger audience and vice versa so it just what happens every single day by the way among them and I think it it's terrific when thankfully and I've been very blessed I thank God I've been put in a situation where at least I can go out there and explain those things because I've been living those things in that Clubhouse since I was four years old and I understand what leaves and what doesn't leave a clove housee but I think the perspective is these are still human beings they're still trying to out manage each other outplay each other and now with technology like Roku and and and many other outlets you're allowed to get more in depth about that we actually had migy roas who couldn't use it uh miked up and going through his workout routine and he's talking about that first G and Arizona remember the many scores and who's going to win this game and ended up 10 to nine right and Mig is talking about man I'm out there going oh my God I feel bad oh I feel great oh I feel bad what then I feel great and things like that really feed after what the fans expected nowadays with social media and the many more information value that we have to provide for them it's a lot of fun for me give me as me inside of me I'm like you need to win oh no I totally get it and look that's why I think that guys like you and Joe Davis do such an excellent job at doing is look it's about gr the game it's about learning about other players other franchises and I feel like when you you know more about other team's players and how they go about it you have a better understanding of your team and I think for Dodgers fans you realize how good you have it okay let's be honest lots of success here for Dodgers fans and a lot of talent here as well but could not agree with you more I think it's a great thing to see one of my favorite miked up moments was uh was Miguel roas when he filled the play like oh I got to make this play and he goes back to it but then you got the Kik one against the Yankees where he doesn't make the play and things just you just never know that's what makes him so exciting I mean look give me all the mic up I think the first baseman of every single team should be miked up for every single broadcast would you sign for that Jose a lot of things are said at first base you can bleep stuff out come on yeah you can bleed it out I mean there's tons of managers like uh did they hear that like no no it's only only the truck heard and they know not all to you the umpires umpires themselves I miked up and you know it's not an issue so there's a way of doing it in which you get to hear enough and hearing enough how much fun it is the conversations that happen at first bace about hey how was dinner today you know what are you going to do after the game and things like that and even first Bas coach coming over and say hey get away from this guy I want to tell you something right that I see him this picture so all those things just so much fun I recall you know remember 1974 uh the Dodgers World Series against the ace I'm in ass sorta's miced up as a third base coach go find that film and you will have so much fun listening to Tom lorta talking about Joe Ferguson and Steve Garvey and then talking to umpire Ron Luciano at third base this conversation between the two Italians was marvelous go find that and you're going to have a lot of fun and that's where we're talking about how much it's grown since 1974 on fil Priceless stuff Priceless stuff and Jose Modo we thank you so much joining us here on Dodgers dougout live you're getting so much love Down Below in the comment section guys go follow him if you don't already on the X on Instagram listen to the Spanish broadcast him and pepe and ning and Fernando Valenzuela see him at the stadium but Jose it's getting real end of The Season's coming up postseason near we'll check in with you soon but thank you so much and I'll talk to you later Jose there you go [Applause]