But there we go.
Fred Rogan or Rodney Peach on five seventy LA Sports, a one hour program for us today because the Dodgers are back at it in Washington, and of course we will have the game for you first pitch around three forty five before we get to the Dodgers, before we talk about what's going on with the Dodgers. Rodney, I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about what happened in Denver today. The Nuggets fired their coach, Michael Malone. I couldn't believe that. I couldn't believe it either.
Here we are on the edge of the playoffs and they fire their coach and general manager. I just don't understand that. You know, Fredd, it when things like this happen. First of all, you wonder what's going on up top, But then you got to believe that there had to be a serious blow up for something like this to go down at this point in the season. There has to be something more that we're not privy to. Would
you agree, yeah, one hundred percent. I mean I thought it was odd when the Grizzlies fired their coach, Taylor Jenkins, and the thought was they would get rid of him after the season anyway, but that close to the playoffs and you're thinking that doesn't make any sense. I mean, Adam is producing today and Adam is our NBA guy, Adam, I don't understand what happened here. Do you have any insight into what may have happened?
Guys, If the Luka Donciz trade is the most shocking trade in NBA history, this is probably the most shocking firing given the timing. We're talking about a guy who is less than two years removed from leading them to a championship in twenty twenty three. I know he can be prickly, he can be salty, he can be tough to deal with. But to do this with three games left in the regular season for the Denver Nuggets, this is bizarre. Now, something else is going on behind the scenes,
but this screams we need a complete makeover. We've lost four games in a row. They've lost to some good teams. They had that bad loss in double overtime to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Guys where Russell Westbrook smoked that layup and then fouled a three point shooter to lose that game. It's like, how much of this is just hinging off that one loss, like did that was that the straw that broke the camel's back. Mike Malone, though he must have lost the locker room to be fired like this.
I don't see how you don't talk to the guys in the locker room, talk with your superstar Nikola Jokics before you make a move like this.
Yeah, and then what about the DM booth right they fired him?
Did him and Malone not get along?
They didn't get along.
But also this is a situation where ownership wasn't willing to pay guys. Where they let Bruce Brown go, they let Contavious Caldwell Pope go, guys who were integral to them winning that championship in twenty twenty three.
They were kind of eroding. They were chipping away at their own foundation.
Losing these guys, they try to replace them. Christian Brown has been good this season for them, but they are twentieth defensively and Mike Malone is a defensive head coach and they haven't been able to fix that part of it.
And now Jamal Murray's been hurt.
He may not be available in the playoffs.
They're reeling.
They're sliding, they could fall into the play in But having said all that, to do it with three games left, when there's six days left in the NBA regular season, this is incredible. This is I've never seen anything like it.
And they and you said, you said they're sliding, but right now, like whether they the fourth season, I know there's a lockdawn right there with the four through eight, but they're in the four seed, Adam, with like you said, three games left. Nobody does this unless there is a tremendous problem behind closed doors.
Man.
From some of the stuff we've heard from Mike Malone recently postgame, he's made it sound like guys have tuned him out. They aren't watching film, they aren't responding to his tough love that has been there for.
A long time. That's who he is. Rodney, maybe you can speak to this.
But when you have coaches that wear on you, it's all good when you're winning, but things can turn very quickly when those guys start to lose and that message is no longer being received.
Oh yeah, definitely. It wears on you. Guys rub you the wrong way, and it's all rosy when you win, and you typically love coaches that are like even killed right same way when you win, you lose. They're constructive when you lose, but also constructive and you win. But if you go to the extremes on both sides, or you go to the extreme when you lose and you're kind of whole hum when you win, then guys see
that as well. But like you said, two years removed from winning a championship, sometimes that trumps a lot of things. If you're a coach that won it two years ago, that buys you, It should buy you a lot of real estate. And in this case, it didn't.
And this is Denver.
It's it's not La it's not the Lakers, where the standard is crazy high all the time, and you're in the pressure cooker right away because.
Of the history.
The history is Mike Malone winning them a championship there in Denver's that's the highest they've ever reached.
That is the top of the mountain for them for the first time.
Like that is an unbelievable move at this time of the season. I've never seen anything like it. I guess Hubi Brown was let go in the early eighties with the same amount of games remaining. That's the only thing you can compare it to. But I thought the Taylor Jenkins move, like Fred brought up, that was bizarre, that was wild.
This this is extreme.
Yeah, but look at it like this. So they getting rid of Malone is shocking, but they cleaned everybody out. They took the GM out as well, So you start to think was there a power play going on here and they both lost? Was Booth gonna support Malone no matter what? In other words, they went and said get rid of them, and he said no. Well here's the thing, hey, you'll go.
To Reportedly, Booth and Mike Malone don't get along. They don't like each other.
So maybe it was to your point, they can't connect, they don't have great chemistry. We're just gonna start over without choosing one of these guys. We're gonna go clean slate.
Here, Adam.
I heard one report because, as we all know here in LA, the Denver Nuggets are owned by Stan Kronki, who also owns the Rams, And there was a report that because of the harmony that the Rams have and the success that the Rams have had in their front office, being that Sean McVay and Less need all get along. Kevin Dimoff, it's really harmonious, and Fred can speak to that, but they all seem to be all on the same page.
And maybe you know after time that this came from the top going I can't have you guys button head, as you just mentioned, they didn't get along, Booth and Malone didn't get along, and then going down from there. Who knows how that building was, But could it be a thing where Stan Cronkie just got fed up and said, but I can't have this infighting and I just want some harmony here and you're both gone.
Yeah, the instability, those guys not being on the same page when things go bad, when they go poorly.
They have lost four in a row.
They look like over the last week we've been talking about them, like, guys, they're probably gonna fall into the play it. They very well could. Even with Nikola Jokic who had to give him what fifty five minutes in a sixty point triple double to still lose that game of double overtime to Minnesota. He can't save him right now because they don't have Jamal Murray. So they're probably just thinking like, if we can just light a fire
at the very end of this season. But I could only think of two examples where you switched out the head coach and it wasn't this late in the season, and those teams went on to win the championship.
I'm talking about ty.
Luin twenty sixteen with the Cleveland Cavaliers when David Blatt was let go, and then in two thousand and six, stan Van Gundhi was let go.
Pat Riley came in led the Mammy Heat to which championship.
But that was much earlier in the season, not like this.
This is unbelievable.
Yeah, it sounds to me, you know, as we just kind of work it out here, kind of workshop it.
Both of them alone had a problem. They couldn't get along.
It could have either been there both complaining to Daddy. Right, they're both airing their grievances and they didn't want to pick one or the other.
It's enough, it's enough with both of you.
Also, though, and Rodney, because you played, you make a move like this right now now, I know because as a sports fan, every season matters.
As an owner, you want to win every season.
But it's a business, and it says to me that whatever was going on was so awful. And by the way, you mentioned Kevin Demoff. You know he's got some skin in the game with the Nuggets.
Now you got some skin in the game with the Nuggets.
Now, Yeah, he's been promoted, he's got a little skin in the game with everything now. And it seems to me they say they're saying behind closed doors, yeah, we want to Salva just we wanna win again, but if we don't, it's better to clean this mess up right now and start again than have to live with us another day. By doing this, I think they're saying, you know, we'd like to win, but if we don't, there you go.
Yeah.
But to Adam's point, that sends a message to the players as well. So now, all of a sudden, this year where you've played what they've played, seventy nine games, seventy nine games getting ready and putting themselves in a position to go to the playoffs and make a playoff run. And they all know how to do it. They all know what it takes to win a championship because they
did it two years ago. You're telling those players, well, you know, this season is washed now, we don't care what you did for those seventy nine games, and if you win it, you win it. You don't, you don't, We're gonna move in a homele different directions. What that does, oftentimes is when that next guy comes up for a contract, he's looking to get out, or somebody's looking to get traded. It's like, I don't want to be a part of
this mess. They could fire and I will say, like, as prickly as as Mike Malone probably was, and it might be a case if he lost the locker room, but I think the guys respected him to the point where I don't think I would. I would bet that ninety percent of the guys thought this was a BS move to fire him at this point, regardless of how
prickly he may have been. And so when guys come up for contracts or they say, well, we want you to be a Nugget for life, or we want you to be here for multiple years as a player, you're going to take Paul, Do I really want.
To be a part of this organization?
You think the players are not pleased with this decision? I think I think it may be split. Look, I'm not in there, but I think when you get to this point in the season, no player wants a change like this. At this point, now midseason is a different things at all. Start break, if there's all that kind of stuff, that's when you make a move. But at this point, the players, your mindset is, Okay, we got to win this first series. We got to get into
who we play and all that kind of stuff. Let's just grind it out and we'll deal with it in the offseason. Nobody wants to deal with this right now as he entered the playoffs.
Well, like you think, this can't be a distraction to Rodney's point, for the players to have to answer this now, Yeah, there's three games left. What's funny is their next game is in Sacramento. Ten years ago, Mike Malone got fired by the Kings, which turned out to look like a very bad move. They haven't been able to figure it out since they lost him. And he got fired because DeMarcus Cousins got meningitis and after a hot start of the season, they went into a tailspin because he didn't
have his best player. Well, Mike Brown got fired from the Sacramento Kings earlier this season.
You know what Mike.
Malone said about that that organization has no balls, no class. See that's what he went right after them and now because of the wild and craziness to that firing and making it look like there's such instability there. Well, now he gets fired with three games left in the regular season. I mean, Mike, Mike Brown was fired early in the season by Sacramento. This is much more shocking. This is incredible.
It must have been so toxic.
There like nothing we have ever seen between ownership, the GM and Mike Malone.
Nothing must have been working.
They didn't even pick the GM in all of this. That's the point.
They didn't even say, Okay, we know this is bad and we really don't want to do it, but Mike, you're done and you're still the GM.
They got rid of both of them. I mean, they are in.
Essens, starting fresh. They're starting over in the structure of their management and with it. Now, let me throw this into the mix. Do you think as they look at it, they believe that window of opportunity for them, including this year. I'm talking about the management now, not the team the players. Do you think they looked at an analytic when he said, we think the windows closing, you've got to go in a different direction.
Now, could that be a possibility with Jo being in his prime. I know they're seeing the windows closing.
Well, the window may be closed now because of what they did, but I don't know if that's the case. And and again the option of the players revolting and said we can't take any more could be. I mean, that's definitely a possibility. I don't know what three games left, the players have a player's only meetings, then let's get
rid of the coach. It may happen, like Adam said, mid season, and it might be a guy on the bench that they love, like when they brought tylu in, but that was way before the end of the season and they like him. And I guess what, Adamman is going to take over the team, right, Yeah.
Yeah, it's going to take over the team.
And you know, maybe he is a well liked assistant to coach that they you know, they'll they'll rally behind. But it's still late in the season, and I don't know if you're throwing a towel when you've got the jokers still there in his prime saying the windows closing.
Guys, Nikoljokicic is still the best player in the NBA. SGA is probably gonna win the MVP. His team has won twelve to fifteen more games. But you look at the numbers when Jokic is off the floor for the Denver Nuggets, they're like a bottom five team in the NBA.
They're that bad without him. He completely carries them. And so the head coach of the best player in the NBA was let go three games before the playoffs, where you still feel like, look, I know Denver is in a bad spot currently, but nobody wants to play them still because Nikola Joki is going to average forty two minutes per game in the playoffs, He's going to be a problem. You might be able to beat them, but
it's going to take everything. The only thing I could see is if they believe Jamal Murray has done for the year and he's had a hamstring issue, and Mike Malone did just talk about that, saying he's hopeful he'll be able to start the playoffs. But they were hopeful a couple of weeks ago two with him. This has been an ongoing issue. If they think he's done, maybe that's where they go. What Fred was saying this season is a rap. Anyways, let's just rip the band aid off.
But now.
Now, oh you doing I'm saying it makes sense.
I'm just trying to follow some line of logic here, Fred, that's all, No.
I hear you.
Well, look, I would say this, and maybe it's the incorrect thing to say. I think his chances of winning just were reduced greatly. I think they've actually reduced their chances of winning. Now not okay, guys, adaman's here, let's go get him. And by the way, who's in the front office, who cares he's done anyway? Don't listen to him. I'll get you through this, guys, and let's just get
out there and give it our best shot. It's really strange, But as part of it is given that we know Kevin Demoff is now got a seat at the table. He's got a seat at the table. This is not how he operates, This is not how he does things.
He wouldn't do that.
This is completely reflexive and impulsive. It's it borderline to most people from the outside. I'm sure Michael Ola would say this right now, since he's stuck up for Mike Brown. He'd be like, well, this is unprofessional. How could you
do this with three games left? I mean, what does this mean for Niko Jokic's future because whoever comes in as the new head coach and the new GM are gonna have to sell him on the fact that, hey, we have a direction, don't worry, stay with us, don't demand a trade request.
We got you.
This could turn into something much worse this offseason if Jokic now wants out.
Yeah, and you hope you better hope that Jokic and Malone didn't have a tight relationship, because if they did, this becomes a real problem. To Adam's point, it's like, you're gonna now you got to go try to sell him. And if they were tight, regardless of you know who he might not have been tight with in that locker room as well.
If he and and the.
Joker had a great relationship, that's a tough sell for him to say, this is what you did to my guy, and you want me to be loyal to this franchise.
You kidding me?
I want to get out and that and you and you're gonna start maybe hearing you would hear that like in the room, Oh, there's reports that the Joker wants he traded the reports and there you know, if something wants if something is leaked, that somebody wanted it to get leaked, and that's what could happen.
So you know, it's a dangerous game that they're playing.
I don't want to call it a game, but it's a dangerous situation that the Nuggets are playing right now.
Since we're talking about the Nuggets, we might as well stay in the NBA. And the Lakers tonight in Oklahoma City, well, I don't know if they are the real Lakers. A lot of guys that had him on the injury list tonight.
Yeah, just a little bit.
Everybody is questionable pretty much. Mario Hachimora is already out. Now we've seen this before, and then Lebron and then Luca are magically available right before tip off. But I think the Lakers are planning it like this. Guys that game against Okay see, they just won. We're cool with that. We prove to ourselves we can beat Oklahoma City, and it's probably unlikely we beat them for a second time
in okac in three days. So why don't we actually rest and go full force at the Dallas Mavericks in Luca's return tomorrow night.
That's the issue.
It's the front end of a back to back tonight where they're going to Dallas tomorrow.
That makes sense.
And also, you beat Okac and again, do you want you want to give them the revenge of beating you again if you've got all your guys out there since you've beat them, say okay, we're gonna rest our guys. We don't give them a chance to beat Lebron and Luca and us at full strength and say, oh, you know that was a fluke or whatever. We came back and blew you out the next night. They're not going to give him that opportunity. And I think you're right.
This is a opportunity for Luca to go back to Dallas and them wanting to be at least at full strength as they possibly can for that game and call it, which you will and say it's another game. And I know Anthony Davis is trying to play downplay and say, oh, it doesn't mean much and no big deal, just another game.
But for both him and Luca, this is a big deal.
This is the biggest game of the season, maybe in the NBA in the regular season. It is Luca's return to Dallas. We're expecting a revenge game where he dropped sixty on them. We're expecting fire Nico Harrison chance throughout the entire game. But the only problem here with the Lakers doing this is there is a battle in the Western Conference with standings implications, and you can't just throw away a game.
Now.
Working in their favor is the fact that there are a game and a half up on the Denver Nuggets, who aren't a tailsman obviously, and I believe they even have the tiebreaker over them, so it's really two and a half games. I think the Lakers know the three seed is theirs. They're gonna be just fine as long as they hold onto that three seed, and there's a really good chance that that's where they end up, meaning they'll take on the sixth seed in the West, and
that is yet to be determined. There's plenty of teams that could end up there, including Denver, so they can take tonight off, they can afford to chase the win tomorrow in Dallas instead.
In Luca's return, do you think it'll mean more?
And I understand you know it'll mean a lot to Ad playing against the Lakers, But my god, Luca going back to Dallas, I think you're right at him. I think he is going to try to light them up. Light them up tomorrow. Oh, make them know they made a mistake. Just look Nico Harrison directly in the eyes and keep winking at him.
Well, here's the thing.
The entire fan base is going to be behind Luca in that game. The Dallas Mavericks fan base are rooting for Luca to light them up. They want this to happen. They want to stick it to Nico Harrison. They're still upset, they're still irate, as they should be with him being traded in the first place. They thought he was gonna get a statue eventually next to Dirks outside the arena. So really, he's not an enemy territory at all. This is the type of heroes welcome that you can be
looking for returning to your old stomping grounds. Luca's gonna have everybody behind him. It's him versus Nico in the front office. It has nothing to do with the Dallas Mavericks fans. I don't expect them to boo.
Him at all. I think they're gonna give him a standing ovation guys.
Honestly, yeah, yeah, kind of like I mean, Adie didn't play when he came to LA But La gave him a tribute. I don't know if there'd be a tribute in Dallas, but LA gave him a tribute, and the fans gave him a standing o. Had he played, I don't know, but they did that. But I think you're right at him. I think the Dallas fans are going to go crazy for him when he steps on that quart, when he runs out for warm ups orhere he's introduced,
They're gonna go crazy for him. And that's going to be an ugly look for the front office of Dallas.
Gonna be tough, no question about it, and I think it puts Ad in a tough spot too. Honestly, how would you like to be Anthony Davis? Who is a great guy, Yeah, very talented, and the entire crowd is now cheering for the person that you were traded for. So no matter what you do, you are not going to be able to live up to that. I mean, Ad is gonna have to score fifty seven points, grab thirty two rebounds, and have nineteen assists and then people will go, oh my god, now this worked.
This is the move we're looking for.
And it makes it worse if tomorrow the Lakers go out and blow them out. Could you imagine how bad that's gonna be for the Mavericks and the emotion Ad will feel because not only is he not the most popular guy in the room, the fact he was traded for it's the guy that was traded away. And then if they blow him out, the fans have to sit there and watch this, and it kind of dots the exclamation point about how this is.
Not going to work.
Then that day, on the verge an art, the Mabics ran on the verge of the of the play in right now.
Yeah, they're tenth.
Yeah, I think they're likely going to be the play in.
I'm not even sure.
Well, Phoenix just fell apart and that has helped them, but they're a game behind Sacramento from being the ninth. Neither of them can move up past ninth or tenth. But yes, it looks like Dallas is going to be the play in, which was part of the reason why Ad came back to begin with, and just to show a good face. Hey, this is what we trade for. He's available. Look, he's good. He's a star too. He can be really good. But if Luca drops fifty on him and Anthony Davis has thirty points in a twenty
point loss to the Lakers. It's not gonna matter. There's going to be a revolt tomorrow night. The fan base is going to be livid and they have been frothing at the mouth waiting for this moment. This is sticking it to Nico, not just Luca doing it, the entire Dallas Mavericks fan base.
All right, one hour four is today when we come back. Dodgors are in Washington. Let's talk about what's happening. And if we really wanted to talk a lot about it, it's not very good, So we'd have a short conversation, but we'll try to figure out what is going on.
Oh, yes, welcome back.
Quit short show on a Tuesday, Rodney Pete, Fred Rogan, Yes, a lot of things going on right now.
Fred I, it's.
You know, the Dodgers just get uh and we'll talking about the Dodgers just get started with their season that winding down in the NBA as we get ready for the playoffs. Mart's madness has happened. To think about the Florida Gators kind of pulling off that win last night.
That was absolutely incredible. That was incredible. Yeah, and the poor kid from Houston at the end.
Felt bad for him, amazing, Yeah, because the closeout was incredible and he had no choice because that shot was either he had no choice because the chot was gonna get blocked and knocked all the ways probably to the other basket that he had to let it go and then couldn't touch it. It's just a rough way for it to end like that.
Yeah. And Houston had such a magnificent run.
Yeah, I mean, coming back the way they did the game before in one of the great college basketball games of all time, and then really putting up a great battle last night. And Florida having dominated the game, they dominated the game for or what for thirty eight minutes
fred yep. And then to lose it like that, just so you a little bit resilience of Florida and who they've been all season long and never never never were too far out of it, always stayed in striking distance, and then then they struck and and but you know what it reminded me was is say again, it goes back to what you know, we talk about football, and when Eric Sony talked about a lot you gotta run the football, you gotta play defense, but it reminded me
of old school, because you gotta play defense basketball.
At the end of the day.
You can have the high flyers, you can have the three point shots, you can have the big boys and the dunks and the crazy wild plays, but the end of the day, you got to get stops and you gotta play defense. And both those teams know how to play defense, which is why they got there. But at the end, Florida's defense went out, which was Arkansas's claim. The fame going into that is that they they smothered teams defensively.
Mm hmmm mm hmm. It was a great series.
I mean, it was a great game, and really the final four came down to the four best teams, which was great. I mean it kind of loses a little of its luster. I think in the process, when you don't have that Cinderella somewhere, you go, well, maybe they got a shot, but the best team's finished and Florida really, let's say, earned that. But my heart went out for
him last night. That final shot. He dropped the ball and you could see in his eyes it was like he was praying, somebody pick it up and shoot it. Somebody get over here, Somebody kick the ball out of bounds, you know, kick the ball at a bound Florida said, he touches it.
It's it's Florida's ball. Anyway, Yeah, it's a dead ball. It's Florida's ball. So he's trying to block people out and again he never saw the guy coming. He thought he had a wide open three shoot it, and all of a sudden, he's got a wall in front of him.
Take what do I do? I can't shoot this? Yeah I was.
That was a tough way to lose. But what an exciting championship game.
All right.
So now let's talk Dodgers. And the thing about them is they go back at it today again. I think Robleski's gonna pitch. It's just so strange. You know, you said they weren't gonna win every game. Yeah you were right. I kind of knew it too. But I'm sitting here going, yeah, they can keep winning forever.
Okay, well, they weren't gonna win forever.
But it's the way they're not winning that at this early part of the season is troubling.
What does it mean? Not much? And we know that.
And you don't get too up and you don't get too down and everything will be all right. But the thing that is troubling about this Rodney is the mistakes they're making, and that is very uncharacteristic of the Dodgers. They are making physical mistakes, they are making errors, they are making mental mistakes, base running errors, and that's the thing that makes you take a step back for just a second here and go, wait a minute, this is not how these guys play.
Are you saying that you're it's troubling? Is that what you said?
Yeah, you don't want to see you don't want to have them beat themselves. There's a long way to go, but just overall.
From a guy that said he didn't care about the word regular season, he didn't worry about it, you know, no big deal. They're going to have moments like this. Look, this is the longest you know, when you go and you win, you win the World Series, you're you're playing probably a month and a half longer than anybody else.
And really playing.
Because teams that even even though a team is playing when they're out of it, they're not really playing. The mental mentality is not there. But if you're in the playoffs and your your mentality is to win, get seated and go to the playoffs on a roll. You're you're you're playing about a month month and a half more so than the teams that don't make the playoffs and don't win.
The World Series. And there is a time period.
Then there's the commitments after that, and then then there are the things that you have to do because you are the Dodgers, which is go to spring training with the microscope, and then you've got to get on a plane and go halfway around the world and play in Japan before everybody else plays, and you gotta come back, catch your breath, you go to the White House. You got to do all these things, and and so early in the season you're gonna have these type of situations.
And I'm I'm I'm with you on on the mental park because that shouldn't happen. But the physical part, I get it. You know, the guys are gonna make physical mistakes. Mickey Row and Mookie had errors yesterday. We've seen, you know, Max Muntsey have some situations and airs at third base early on in this season. Those things are gonna happen, but you don't you certainly don't want the mental plays to happen. But this physical stuff is going to happen, and there there is going to be a fatigue factor
that is going to set in a little bit. Yes, they got off to a great role and just going on adrenaline, but there's going to be a fatigue factor that setting in or going to set in with the doubt as an already that they're gonna have to deal with throughout this season as they kind of get themselves back acclimated. Okay, we're in twenty twenty five, now, let's just totally focus on that.
So you think, honestly just the amount of baseball they played last year contributes to fatigue and that we might be seeing that right now.
Yes, I do believe that.
I do believe that it does contribute to that, where you know, mentally and physically, I believe, you know, things that they're committed to individually as players, where sure a lot of the players got, you know, some more endorsements than they normally have, or more commitments to go speak
or go sign autographs than they normally have. And you know, then the attention in spring training and then you know, doing the Japan trip coming back and not only coming back but coming back then I have to go back to spring training baseball to play the Angels and then start the season. You start off hot, and I think hot. They started off just really on fumes. And now it's starting on this road trip, starting to kind of set in. It's like, man, this is this has been a lot.
This has been a lot, and uh, you know it's gonna you know, we're gonna have some moments like this early in the season. I wouldn't get too worried about it. What about Andy paie Has. I mean, he's not a center fielder by trade. They put him out there and the other day he got spun around like a top not exactly tearing the cover off the ball. Uh do you think from a perspective Andy paie Has. Obviously they like him, he's here, he's going to play. But you know, if he struggles hitting.
Wise, do you think then they think, all right, maybe we we call somebody up from Trumple Lane, send him down and get him some more at bats.
I'm not ready to do that with him yet.
I think that when you say call somebody down, I think him and James Outman is going to have the maybe going some back and forth. But I wouldn't I wouldn't. I'm not ready to send him down. I think he contributed so much last year and had such a really a big impact on this team as a as a rookie last year that you got to give him some time. I think he's talented enough that you got to let
him play through it. Sometimes when you do this and to a young player early on, uh, you your thought process is you don't want to break down their confidence either. And so for Andy pater has who I think, you know, and if they if he does stick around, is going to be a very good player for the Dodgers if they can keep him in the uniform.
So I would. I would ride with it.
As long as you can, as long as it's not coming and at the expense of winning ball games, I would let him play through it.
Yeah, and you know there are full.
Starts, yeah, you know. I mean, and we talk about it every year. You know, Max Months's either going to hit it or he's not. It's pretty simple. If he hits it, it's gone. If he doesn't hit it, then that's that.
I mean. He has not had a great start to the season, No, not at all.
I mean he had the big hit and the rally that they had the walk off win. But but now he has definitely struggled offensively, which is why he's in the lineup. But also he's he's had some issues at third base a little bit early on Fred. But he's another guy that you want, you want in a line because you feel like at some point he's going to break through. And and Max has done it for this team in multiple years, so you feel like he's going to eventually get it going. But yeah, you're right, he's
off to a slow start, which happens. We're a lot of guys.
Yeah, so, I mean it's just part of the season currently against Washington. You don't expect what happened yesterday against Washington, you don't expect.
No, no, you don't. And look.
Even even in the game, like you mentioned the defensive part of the game. The other game, I think that Blake Snell started. You know, they got five runs and all of them were unearned. That's that's something that doesn't happen in August September when you're talking about the Dodgers, and then you know Dustin May, even Dustin May, I you know, you look up and go, well, how did he really do it? But it wasn't Dustin May. I
think Dustin May had a quality start. He did, and and then you you know, you fast forward, the bullpen didn't perform well. Then there were the errors and and so it looks bad for the Dodgers to lose to the Nationals. But I think they'll they'll, they'll be okay. And it's not a time right now, at least right now to overreact, because I think they will.
They will write the ship.
They got too many good players and they're too stacked with this roster to not work it out.
And the beauty of.
The Dodgers and what Dave Roberts has to work with is that they can allow Max Mounsey to kind of get off to a slow start because they've got so many other players that can pick him up. They can allow Pajez to kind of work himself through it and not necessarily not to cover off the ball right away, but work through it because they've got so much depth
that they can go to and win ball games. That again, no, you know, nobody outside of Fred thought they were going to go on sixty two and oh all right one for us, We're back to wrapping up, come on quick sprint today Rodney, p Fred Rogan, let's go.
Couldn't go on trigger than this. We're done. No, that was fast. That was a quick sprint.
Yeah, okay, three five today, Dodgers back at it. So we'll jump out of here, Petros and Money will jump in, take up to the pregame, and then we'll have to call the game here on the radio station. Tomorrow we will not be on. It's a getaway day for the Dodgers. It's a morning game in d C at least our time here, so we're not gonna be on tomorrow, and then we'll be back Thursday for our normal three hours show. During Dodger season, it gets a little iffy for us,
you know. If they're on the road, it's a getaway day there where we're not on. Some days we're only on for an hour when it's an East Coast started six forty five, which is three forty five our time. But it'll be you know, it's we talked about it. It's not that big of a deal. I'm just saying, you just don't expect a team like the Dodgers to commit those types of mistakes. Although I thought Rodney that was very good perspective. Maybe they're exhausted. Yeah, and it's
not an excuse. You're not using it as an excuse.
No, but think about Yeah, the trip to Washington, it's not only just the trip that they can just go, Okay, I'm just going to play baseball. Good, Now, we got to do the White House stop. And then then there's talk about the running that they're on and oh, you you know you guys were undefeated. Do you went to Philly?
Do you think I mean they got bombarded. I'm sure about the Phillies, you know series who you know, you guys maybe not as invincible as everybody thought you were, and the Philly is gonna give you a run.
So they had answered all those questions. But let's just get through the month.
Let's get through the first month of the season and let them settle in and then we can start really evaluating this team.
All right, fair point, And we appreciate you jumping on with us for just one hour today. Ah, Ronnie, thank you. Really your work was exemplary and you should be commendous.
Ronnie. Yes, Ronnie, good job.
Adam, thanks for filling in for Kevin, and thanks for the insight on the NBA stuff that Michael Malone story is still mind boggling. How you fire your coach at this point in the year and then tell the GM he's out two Yeah, I'm sure in days.
To come we'll learn more about it. Jesus got to win a title for you two years ago.
Well, you know there's job opening Sacramento. Oh, I'm sorry he had that one before, Adam. Thanks for filling it again, Rodney. Have a good day off tomorrow. We'll talk Thursday, Yes, sir,