Join right now to a man that makes the baseball world here in Glendale, Arizona feel right. If he wasn't here, nothing would feel the same way. And it's not a coincidence that his old pitching coach, Rick Honeycut, scheduled his trip to camel Back Ranch at the same time that Clayton Kershaw would come back here. So we're here to see if that truck still works. Because you only got so many summers, Clayton, thanks a lot for the time.
There was so much going on in that intro. I don't even know how to start, but good to see it.
Dave.
Oh, great to see you too. Tip of the cap to your guy, Brad Paisley.
Yeah that was really good. So many summers. I'm in that music video.
There's a music video.
Yeah you didn't seen it? Okay, good, we'll check it out all right, thank you.
MTV is not as popular as it used to be, so true. How about Rick Honeycut, It wasn't a coincidence to see him really take an interest in your one and only bullpen session this spring.
Yeah, Honey's great. It's always fun to have him here. And you got to hold on to the old guard. You know, it's nice to keep seeing people like I mean, you're old now, you know. So Honey's been here a while and we've got possum still so there's a few of us still around.
But no, it's been great. Honey's awesome.
I've never asked you this before, but during the seasons, if you feel like you're a little off or you want to bounce something off of somebody, do you ever reach out to him during a season.
We have a great group, you know, Mark. I have a great relationship with Mark too. He's been awesome. And Connor also as far as like pitch grips and different stuff. We have a really good group. But yeah, if Honey's ever in town or he sees something, and we always we always talk pitching.
I mean that's what we both know.
And so you know, there's too many cooks in the kitchen sometimes, but not not with those guys.
There's no egos.
They just want to help if they can, and we really do.
We have a great group.
Clayton, you're back here in camel Back Ranch. We did see the bullpen session, so I guess is that a good sign that you're knee and your foot are healing.
The right way, I think, so, Yeah, I mean it's definitely progressing. Arms feeling good. So I wouldn't say I'm like one hundred percent yet, but I think I'm getting close and it keeps getting better every day. So keep throwing bullpens this month and start facing some hitters here soon, and you know, doing the rehab starts all that. We're still you know, it's still a process obviously, but I feel I feel good about where I'm at and I feel like I'm on a good track to be ready soon.
What we saw a couple of days ago. Are you holding anything back in that type of setting or when you're landing on that front foot it's full force.
Yeah, I mean I don't have any pain.
It's just, uh, you know, I think obviously there's some mental hurdles to come come through anytime with surgery. I think I haven't done it with the shoulder, and now with these two. There's just some mental hurdles like hey, is it gonna hurt, and so getting over that and not thinking about that as hard. But that's what bullpens
are for, you know. And so there's no pain. It's just I think there's some you know a little bit out of sync a little bit, maybe not using all of my lower half like I can and just figuring out how to do that again.
But it's all.
Coming together and I think within the next, you know, a couple months to get there.
So you're traveling with the team to Tokyo. Are you planning on doing something there?
Yeah, I'm gonna do stuff, Dave.
I want to know what to say. I want to know the extent of how much you're gonna do at the Tokyo Dome.
Oh, you mean baseball wise? Yes, I thought you meant tourist wise.
I know you're gonna do stuff that that way.
Yeah.
I mean I'm kind of on like a Tuesday Friday bullpen plan right now, So I don't know how the days work over there. I'm assuming it's the same, but yeah, I'll go Tuesday Friday for a while and then start getting into like a five or six or seven or eight day rotation at some point and start facing some hitters.
Are you planning on doing some ambassador's ship for the Dodgers in Tokyo?
What are you?
You're gonna be out there with your family, Charlie. Charlie and Cali are gonna be there with you. So what's the Kruse shot fan plans in Tokyo.
Yeah, we got the whole crew coming. I don't know, obviously, we gotta we want to try the food. Everybody says the food's awesome. We want to ride the Bullet train. We want to maybe make a trip to Kyoto. We heard Kyoto is really cool.
So I don't know.
I know Ellen's got it all dialed in itenerary wise, So it's gonna be super fun once again, lifetime experience, once in a lifetime to go over there with Shohy and the Dodgers and kind of the global brand that they've become, especially with you know, kind of our three Japanese superstars that we have.
So it's, uh, it's gonna be wild.
Speaking of Otani and those guys, what have you seen from Otani during the course of last year, just from start to where you're at right now, where he's at as a teammate with everybody, I.
Think show is awesome, I really do, you know. I think I think having him around and he's just been you know, you hear stories and until you actually meet the guy for sure, you just don't know, right, And so last year I know, it was a lot whirlwind getting to know everybody, and I felt like he really came together with all of us. And this year's kind of been more of an extension of the same and man seeing what he has to do now, like get ready to pitch and get ready to hit.
It is it's a lot.
It's a lot, like you finish your throwing and then you go straight into the cage, like I can't imagine trying to be elite, elite at both and so, but that's why you show, hey, you know, and so we're excited to see that. Obviously, it's going to be really cool to watch. And I mean the year he had last year is pretty tough to beat, but when you throw pitching on top of it, it's gonna be kind of amazing.
When you see Sazaki in spring training, does it remind you of how Yamamoto was adjusting to life in Major League Baseball in a new environment. Do we underappreciate how much that is part of this learning curve?
Yeah, I mean it's it's so much, you know, like I can't imagine going to Japan and learning a new culture, learn like whole new living situation, speaking not speaking the language and then learning out how to pitch.
You know.
So Rookie's obviously super talented. His split is like one of the best pitches in the game. Yeah, like when it's I don't think it's really hard to catch, let alone hit. It's just got so much movement, and so there's some stuff to work on.
You know.
Obviously he's only twenty three. He's not as polished as Yama. You know, Yama was twenty five, a free agent, been doing it for a while, and even Yama this spring looks just way more comfortable than he did last year. You know, So there's gonna be some learning curves, I'm sure with Roki, but the talent's undeniable and he's gonna get a lot of people out for sure.
We know you're a creature of habits. Starting pitchers are creatures of habits. So what is the adjustment if all six of you are in the rotation at one point in time during the season. Is that an adjustment or do you feel like Andrew and Dave have kind of started to morph the pitching staff into five days of rest the last few years.
Yeah, I do think it's I do think like a six day rotation has become a little bit more normal for us.
You know.
I feel like the last couple of years especially, you know, the trick is like if there is a time where you have to throw on that regular rest, you know, you don't want it to feel like short. So it's kind of like having routines locked in for both and kind of going from there. But you know, I think the extra day everybody's gotten used to now, and I mean, hey, when we have Shoe and Roki and Yama all going,
it's going to be that way. That's the way it was in Japan, and that's the way it's going to be here, and we're all gonna have to figure out how to adjust to that.
And but I think we all kind of did it last year, so we'll be good.
Clayton Kershaw is our guest. Before I let you go, I love to rewind to last year the World Series. Walker Buehler is not with the Dodgers this year for the first time in his professional career. I've never asked you this during the excitement of the parade and all that.
What were you thinking when you saw him go out to the bullpen and when you saw him come into the game in the ninth inning, because he obviously said he learned by watching you he wanted to be that for the team because you were not available, like all of that.
How did you feel, Yeah, you can say whatever you want about Walker, but you can't.
You can't.
You can't deny the way he takes the ball, you know, and so we're going to miss him around here. He just he he was special in that regard. There was a lot of times when he just kept wanting to take the ball. You know, he's not afraid, and that was a kind of a great moment for him and super special, and we needed every pitch that he had and us, you know, we were pretty much then, we
were pretty much out at that point. So for him to come in close a game like that, it was a really cool way to end his Dodger tenure.
And I'm happy for him.
I know Boston is going to be a good setting for him and he can handle that media crowd and be good.
And so you know, I hope, I hope you pitch as well, just not against us.
Yeah, has he reached out to you since he signed with Boston?
He, uh, yeah, we faced on a few times. He's feeling good, he's in spring training and the ball's coming out good. You know, he's uh, he's back up to ninety five or so, and I think he's excited, you know, another year removed from surgery.
So I think I think he'll be good.
Did you uh, did you appreciate him referencing you doing what he did several times? I, Walker's great.
You know, I think there's he was going to do that regardless stuff, you know, like he just uh, I mean for better for whereas Walker's he go is going to let him go out there and he knows he's good, and.
That's just it was really cool to see.
How about how he he did not hide the fact that his pose after the last out of the World Series was not spontaneous. He said he'd been thinking about that pose for a while.
Yeah, he's like I said, he's special. He's special. Thanks a lot for the time. All right, Thanks Dave.
Good to see you, man, Great to see you too. Were you really excited to see me?
I was like in the middle, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah it kind of you grow on you as the season goes, you know, so we need an off season though, to reset.
Well maybe you and I, you and I can tag along in Tokyo. Maybe I'll be the fifth cruise Shaw.
You want to hang out with us, Yeah, you know.
Let's see where. Let's see where the bullet train takes us
One step at a time.