West Coast Bias: Dodgers Early Spring Training Takeaways With Bill Plunkett

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2:02Hey, this is John Lester. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball is boring. Welcome to Baseball is boring. And welcome to another edition of West Coast Bias. We're going to go around and look at different spring training camps. And obviously we got to start with the defending champs. That there's a little bit of bias here from both of us. But the incomparable Bill Plunkett of the OC register joins me now, who is called, he's joining me from the compound in Glendale. And he's been having the early mornings for spring training and he's around it all. But Bill, thank you for taking time and joining me today. Hey, happy to do it. So let's, let's talk about camp. As you obviously it's starting, but this is a unique year because of the WBC. A lot, a lot of guys are excited about that. The Dodgers obviously have a handful of guys that are going off to WBC camps as well. But as camp started, from when you got there to kind of now, what's been your kind of overall sense of the vibe at camp? Because we're going into a, they, they just won the World Series for the second time in a row.

3:06And obviously the expectations are sky high for the fan base. Players obviously have sky high expectations as well. We saw Keke Hernandez alluded to it quite a bit. He's back for three. And so I just kind of wanted to get a general sense of what the vibe is at camp. In a word, boring. There's just no drama. It's go about your business. They, they have pretty much the everything decided. You know, there'll be a picture or two who probably opened the season on the IL. So some of the younger guys have an opportunity. Maybe they're kind of competing for that this spring. Second base isn't locked down because Tommy Edmunds going to start on the IL. So there's a little bit of that. But the other, the other side of it is. This is the first time in three years they've had a normal spring. The last two years, they opened the season early over in Korea and Japan. So spring was very different. It was almost a sprint to get ready for those.

4:11This year they are relaxed. They know they have six weeks to get ready. Max Muncie didn't play in a game until today in the cactus league. Mookie Beds hasn't seen the field yet. They were aware that last year their position player group had the highest average age in the majors. Guys like Freddie Freeman's 37. Max Muncie is what 35 or 6. Mookie's 33 or 4 somewhere in that range. So they're taking it easy on those guys. And spring training is at a much slower pace than what we saw the last couple of years. It's interesting to bring up River Rhine and Gavin Stone. Both those dudes coming back from different things. But Gavin Stone obviously surgery, big time surgery, getting kind of back in the groove of things. And I think to kind of your point, there's an opportunity there for those guys to probably kind of get ahead of the thing.

5:13I wanted to ask you, we've seen both of those guys now. What was kind of your initial takeaway from seeing those guys? Well, the initial thing is shoulders and elbows are very different. Tommy John rehab and that's what Ryan had is very established and regimented. And it's this step after this step after this step. It's very predictable as surgery can be predictable in the recovery. So you get that you know what you're going to get. Stone had a massive shoulder reconstruction. Shoulders are much trickier. The recovery is not this. It can be this in a very roller coaster. He looked good in the bullpen's I've seen. His first outing the other day in a cactus league game to change up looked really good. And as he says, that's my bread and butter. If I don't have that up screwed. So that's a positive river Ryan put on like 30 pounds.

6:18He took his year away and decided to get more physical that he thought he was too skinny loses weight during the season like most guys do. Maybe that was putting too much stress on his elbow. So he is a different looking dude than he then he left us looking. He's a much bigger guy. He said he used to be 190. I think he said and he got up as high as 230. And I saluted him. I think gaining weight is I could help you with that. But he also worked out so he put on muscle. I don't know if I can help you with that. And now his goal is to get it back down to around 220. That's where he wants to sit. But I think one of those two guys will open in the rotation. Because Blake's now won't he won't be ready. I'm still not convinced that they won't give Shohei Otani some more time to build up as a picture before they start putting them in games.

7:19But the image she in probably if they go with a six man rotation, which they are planning. I think I'm at she and sneaks in there and gets one of those spots too. But I still think at the front of the season there's going to be there's going to be starts for Ryan or Stone probably stone. If I had to guess I'd say stone. Yeah, I think you know, I think it's I think it's a very healthy competition because they both have really, really good stuff. And I think you're right. I think Gavin Gavin might end up kind of getting the I don't know if the nod is the right word right. But it's just, you know, out of the two, I do you kind of give Gavin the edge. But he's more of a proven commodity. Yes. I mean, he was terrific until the shoulder exploded in 2024. River, we've only made four starts in the big leagues before he got hurt. So if Stone is fully healthy, he's more of a proven commodity. I speaking of prospects. Brokey Sasaki is I want to I'm curious from your perspective.

8:22How long and kind of from what you've heard because I mean, we all forget too. You're very plugged in all over the place with the Dodgers. With with Rocky, what do you think the leash looks like for 2026? Because I feel like speaking of like a proven commodity. I don't know if Rocky is a proven commodity, right? But it was interesting kind of in the off season. How they made emphasis of hey, he's going to be a starter and not a reliever, especially kind of coming out of the world series stuff. And listen, he was put in some very serious situations throughout the postseason to kind of, you know, get him in there, right? To see what the intensity of the game is. And in my humble opinion, sometimes especially when you're coming from Japan, you're coming from another kind of level. Sometimes that's the situations you've got to be thrown to the walls into. So you can really see kind of what a guy is made of and see where this stuff is. But you know, when you kind of look at it optically from what you've heard, kind of what you're gathered and you've been around the game long enough,

9:22what do you think that leash really does look like in 26 for Rocky? I think it is a mile long. I don't think they have any intention of making a quick decision or pull him from the rotation, you know, anytime early in the year. I think you have to think the way the Dodgers think. They don't value the regular season the way most teams have to value the regular season. They can afford to mess around a little bit and absorb some things because they're so deep and so good. That's why you will see the Oklahoma City Shuttle and pictures will be coming up and down, soaking up innings. You won't see a starting picture make more than I would say probably not more than 24 starts or throw more than 140, 150 innings because everything is built towards October. So they have no motivation or desire to make a quick decision on Rocky.

10:28He's going to get a long leash. The other thing is he's a 24 year old kid who has been kind of overwhelmed by the major leagues. Whether that's, you know, he's just an individually immature person. Whether the challenges of moving to the United States have been too much for him. Whether it's just a lack of confidence on the mound because he honestly hasn't had a lot of success. Here yet, so I don't think the Dodgers want to risk losing him mentally. And if he gets sent to the minors, gets yanked out of the rotation at this point. I think he would take it as a very hard blow to, hard thing to swallow. I think they're afraid they would lose him mentally if they did that. So I don't see that happening anytime soon.

11:30No, and it's interesting because there's not a lot of teams that can really afford to give a guy like that a mile away. The Dodgers absolutely are. I understand that there's people that are going to listen and watch this and be like, oh my god. But it's just the reality, right? That's the way they operate every decision they make is not made to, oh my god, we got to win the next home stand. We got to beat the Padres in this three game series. None of their decisions are made that way. Their decisions are all made. Well, we need to win the enough games to get into the postseason. And then we need to be at full strength or as close to it as possible in October. Everything that they do during the season is done with a view towards October. It's kind of like the old San Antonio Spurs like operation, right? Granted, not the same salary spending, all that jazz, right? But during those Duncan years with, you know, they had a monotony Parker. Like their whole thing was, hey, we just need to get in. Get everyone healthy and we'll make a run.

12:32Dodgers do want to get in with the buy. Of course. They didn't get that last year mainly because of injuries. But yeah, they they I think when opening day gets here and the playoff. Percentages are are posted by whichever website does that. It's going to be like 98% for the country. It's just an opening day. It's so that is not a concern for them. I was curious because looking ahead as we kind of look at the roster. Second base. Like you said, Tommy Edmond, obviously when he's healthy is is is a dynamic player that this roster absolutely needs for a litany of reasons, right? As the season starts, who do you think is going to be kind of the I don't want to call them a placeholder because these guys don't look at it that way. But who's going to be the guy for second basis the season starts in your mind? I don't I don't think it's going to be a guy. I think it's going to be a rotation of a couple guys. And I say that because the two left handed hitters in the mix are Hayson Kim and Alex Friedland.

13:38And in both cases, they don't like to play them against left handed pitchers. Friedland particularly is a switch hitter who really struggles from the right right side. He's he's way weighted to the left hand at swing. So you think of those two guys as both left handers. And then you have Rojas and Santiago Espanol who's in camp as a non roster guy. Both right handed hitters. So I think there will be some kind of a mix of right and left handed. But Kim has looked good in a handful of games here. He had a home run today and now he's off to the WBC. I think that hurts his case. He's not going to be here to keep playing and keep catching their eye and reminding them why they signed them. So I think that makes it even more likely that it's a combination of people. If I had to guess right now, I would say Kim and Rojas will split the second base starts with Rojas getting them against lefties.

14:43Santiago Espanol had some, you know, he played well at times for the Blue Jays and the Reds. And he may force his way out of the roster somehow. He can play third base and give Max Muncie a break or two and Max has been hurt each of the last two years. So he's going to get some down, down time. So Espanol is another, another one to kind of watch. I, when they got, when they signed him and I looked at his baseball reference page, I was shocked. He was an all-star for one season with Blue Jays. So yeah, I think he, he'll kind of force his way onto the roster somehow. Yeah, and I think, obviously, listen, Miguel Ro, I am 39. I know father time is undefeated because. Oh, I'm a little closer to father time than you are, right? Father time and I hear real buddies. But, but you know, my back hurts just because I'm alive, right? So like, even when you're an athlete, right? Like, like at that, at that level, like, you know, even with Freddie, you know, Freddie talking about how he wants to play to 40,

15:46those guys absolutely have to take a little more kind of care and, and more reps to kind of get ready every single day, right? Not, it's not a bad thing. It's just, that's just unfortunately the, unless you're LeBron James apparently, but that's just, that's just the way it goes, right? But since, yeah, I go espionally, it's a really interesting case because the Dodgers quietly gave him an on-raster invite. And, you know, it didn't really kind of move the needle any which way, right? And, and really this off season, when you kind of look back at the off season, you know, you, you, I think the Dodger fan base also forgets, like, yeah, that you're losing obviously Clayton Kershaw. You've lost, you know, as far as like position players, you lost Ben Rordford, right? You've lost Andy Ibanez, who's designated for assignment. I feel like 19 times. And then he throw in quietly, Tony Gonslin was designated for assignment. Michael Copic is not, looks like he's not coming back. Kirby eight's not coming back. Comforto has signed elsewhere. Clayton Kershaw retired, right?

16:46So, so like you, you kind of see those bigger things. And then you don't, you know, the additions are Kike Hernandez. Obviously that sounded like that was a match made in heaven. It doesn't sound like Kike was going to play for anyone else. It sounds like. And then Evan Phillips quietly added to the 60 day IL. He won't be ready for a minute. And so you don't really ever think like, oh, yeah. Something I was, you know, like that's, that's a guy that you pick up. And we, Dodger fan, I talked about it for a couple years up until the, you know, kind of this run. They're in. They needed that depth. And that was really the only thing they were kind of, you know, for lack of a better term missing. And he's a really good depth piece. And to your point, having him give Max those breaks is not a bad thing. Because I mean, Max, Max is a lot of things. But some, you know, the season's long. And it's going to kick your ass. And you need those breathers. So I, an astute observation on your behalf pointing that out. Because if I didn't even think about the third base part. He's, Espanol basically just replaced Abanyas. If they had snuck him through DFA and waivers like they hoped.

17:48Abanyas would be in camp getting the same, same opportunity. Yeah. Espanol just was signed as a replacement for Abanyas. And not a terrible, not a terrible replacement at all. No, a cheaper, cheaper replacement. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's, that's very important to the Dodgers. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Bill Plunkett from the OC register joining me here for a few more minutes. We're talking about the Dodgers spring training. The whole thing. I actually wanted to ask you for WBC stuff. Because, because I think this WBC is going to be a really good time. Just overall. Obviously, there's been a lot of kind of other headlines with the WBC. When it comes to insurance and things like that. Tarek Skubel apparently is only throwing one time. Like different things like that, right? But, but I, I, I hadn't thought about the part of like a guy like a Hayson Kim who's, who's fighting. I don't know for like a roster spot, if you will, or like a, you know, kind of a, I don't know if he's an everyday player yet on this team. But, you know, I think you can, you can eventually get there, I think. I didn't think about that part of like some of these guys leaving.

18:50And then kind of the, you know, your, your respective club watching you and, and, and whatever happens. Is there anyone else that you can kind of think of that you've seen that may kind of fall into that category? Yeah, it's happened over the years. I, I know in 20th, you know, it would have been like, then was it 17, I think the Dodgers said no to a couple of their relief pitchers, because they didn't want them burning up innings in the WBC. This year, Andy Pahez and Teosker Hernandez both said no, because, you know, the, you know, the wear and tear back to back world series, short off season. Teosker really hit, hit it hard in the off season to lose some weight and get in better shape, his legs back under him. So both of those guys said, said no to Cuba and Pahez case, Dominican Republic and Teos case. Bruised our grader all, got coming back from shoulder surgery.

19:50He could have gone and played for Venezuela. If he were a little farther ahead in his rehab, I don't think the Dodgers would have allowed it, because they, you know, he's, he's got some work to do before he can get back into the, to the mix. But yeah, you focus on the stars in the WBC, the big names. But there are a lot of teams and a lot of, you know, lower level players that play for their country and take a little bit of a whole lot of spring training in Kim's case. Yeah, he has a job to win. I go back in and kind of, like I mentioned, that everything is kind of boring right now, right? And I, only it's a bad thing. I actually think everyone just knows kind of what the task at hand is. Is, but when you kind of look at it and you see how locked in, Freddie and Mookie, and I mean, obviously, Otani are, is there at a vote kind of their big three?

20:51Like, who do you, and this obviously is just from looking at it from where you're at now, kind of 30,000 foot overview. Out of those three dudes, who do you think is just going to be like the guy that just absolutely just crushes it? Because every single year with the Dodgers, there's always a guy that comes out of nowhere. Last year, Andy Pahez had some big moments, especially in the World Series. I mean, I'm sure you knew that Mickey Rowe was going to hit a home running game seven, you know, to kind of get that going for the Dodgers, right? But like out of the big three, like who, like who do you, like you, because you mentioned, father time, you know, 37, I think 33, 34 from Mookie. Obviously, Otani's younger, but you know, we're kind of on the back end of these guys, you know, the two, their career, like where do you kind of see them kind of being at all season long? Well, I think Otani is Otani. You can never, you know, pick against him. I saw somebody mention that he could go 50 home runs and 200 strikeouts as a pitcher.

21:54That's crazy. That's just remarkable. Those are numbers that do not belong together in the same sense. He is one of a kind. He is a unicorn. He sets very high standards and goals for himself. And I think he has a very high goal as a pitcher this year. I don't want to say Si Young, but I think that's in his head. And with Mookie, I'm pretty bullish on Mookie having a big bounce back year. I think last year there was kind of a combination of factors that really dragged him down. He had that weird virus at the start of the year. I think it sapped his strength. So he was compensating for that in his swing and got out of his mechanics. Mookie is very hard at himself. And I think he beat himself down trying to get out of that. He had put a lot of energy into learning shortstop.

22:56All of those things I think are gone. And I think this year we see more of a typical Mookie season. Somebody told me stat that he had more home. It was something about taking your your spray chart on to a, like a little standard little league field who would have the most home runs. Mookie in Major League Baseball. He would have like 240 home runs last year because he had so many flyouts that went, you know, short of the short of the wall. I think some of those are going to go over the wall or off the wall for doubles next year. So I think I'm pretty pretty bullish on Mookie having a big bounce back. You know, it's interesting because there's a, you know, there's the story coming out of Freddie wanting to be a Dodger to retire. I think Freddie Freeman has cemented his case for that to happen. I don't see how the Dodgers are like, no,

23:58like we're not that ain't going to happen, right? And so I do think it's interesting because a part of the reason I think it works when he guys like Kyle Tucker, Teo Hernandez, like because those three guys kind of take the brunt, if you will, of the criticism, the attention, like all that, you know, the good and the bad that comes with all the attention, those guys take it. And then a guy like a Kyle Tucker can come in and kind of just quietly do what he needs to do. Yeah, he's getting paid a boatload of money. But in the expectations are all there, but he can quietly focus on that stuff, right? And no matter how you look at it, the fact that a guy like Shohei Otani is just on your roster is already bananas. But then you look at kind of everything he does and you're just like, oh, okay, cool. I can just quietly go about my business. And that's why I honestly think Mookie's going to have a bounce back year. Not, I don't know if it'll be like a, you know, an MVP caliber year. Could it be, maybe, you know, by, could it be all star caliber?

24:58Absolutely. I mean, Mookie has shown that he can play the position at a high level. Like that's, that's an incredibly difficult position to play. You know, the off. I mean, to your point, I had completely forgotten about the virus thing. If I'm not mistaken, he lost like 15 pounds or something like that. Yeah. And you didn't have a whole lot of pounds to waste. Yeah. He's got a big guy. No, no, no. And, and so I think having, and I think it's just important to emphasize that because also the Dodgers have obviously have something in the works for the future because they don't just look at this off season, next off season. However, I mean, you know, they look several ahead to kind of see how they can, you know, you've taught, you've heard Andrew Friedman talk about it, going and getting X player to make it work with what they're looking at. And so, so I, you know, again, looking to the future, that's that. But I think for 2026, you know, I think I'd be foolish to think that, uh, that Mookie isn't going to, you know, kind of do the thing. But here's the interesting thing because you have Otani, who's a unicorn, dual, you know, two way player.

25:59He also does that for the pitching rotation. You know, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, I honestly think, is going to be a sion contender, again, just casually, right? And I think the reason it's going to be casually is because Otani really does set those standards for himself, right? And if he goes out there trying to do the 200 strike, I think he's going to be in that same conversation as well. I think it'll be a healthy competition between Yoshi and Otani. But nonetheless, it's not a great, it's not a bad place to be and when you have two contending pitchers for the sion on one roster, right? So I wanted to ask you about the rotation that we talked about, you know, Gavin maybe getting in there and for the season to start as well. Rotation wise, do you think that this rotation, and obviously the other big thing too, is everyone's healthy. As far as we kind of know, everyone's healthy, glass now included, everybody's healthy. What's kind of your, like, look at the rotation for the year this year? Well, the other thing that Otani does that helps the pitching rotation is,

27:01he's a six starter. They're going to go six man rotation. And he doesn't take up a roster spot down the pitching staff. You know, he has a two way player. They can still carry 13. That means they can go with a six man rotation and not impact their bullpen, not go short in the bullpen. And that has the trickle down effect of helping all those other guys. Yamamoto last year may pitch mainly on a once a week basis. And that's why he was strong all year. Tyler Glass now has a history of injuries. So the more time, down time, you can give him the better. Shohei lets that happen by allowing the six man rotation. So I think they're all going to be in a much better place because of that. But Dodgers aren't going to push him. And that's the thing that I think may hurt Otani or Yamamoto for a say young. Because they're not going to pile up big innings. They're not going to have the lead league and strikeouts because they're not going to face enough batters

28:06and pitch enough innings. So the quality is going to be there. I don't know if the quantity will be, you know, will hurt them when it comes to the voting for those things. But that's the way that Dodgers operate. No team in baseball has given their starting pitchers more rest since Andrew Friedman got here. The five or four days off pitch on the fifth day is a rarity with the Dodgers. It's extra rest whenever possible. So you end up at the end of the season with 10 starters making 12 to 20 starts each instead of, you know, five guys that we're going to run with over and over and over again. They tried that in Kershaw's prime and it killed him in October every time. They didn't have the depth. He wasn't at his best. You know, that kind of stuff. It cost him an October and now they have the depth to do it that way and keep those guys fresh.

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30:09It will not be that regimented. Edwin in the ninth will be the only thing that's locked in. First of all, Phillips. I don't think we see until August. Yeah, grad or all I don't know when we see. And who's the other one there's another. Oh Brock Stewart. Last year's deadline pick up I think we see him. Month or two into the season so. All those guys in front of Edwin DS like trying in Tanner Scott et cetera Alex Vessia. They're going to be matchup based decisions. There's somebody in the sixth inning that's dangerous. Blake Trinon's going to get it. If if nothing dangerous comes up until the eighth whether maybe Blake Trinon pitches the eight. You know, if there's a left handed spot in the posing lineup. That's when Vessia and Tanner Scott are going. They're not going to wait until the eighth inning you know and hold one of them.

31:09It'll be matchup based all the way up until DS. That's a great problem to have. Where are we going to stick Tanner Scott? But the problem is they tried that last year. That was the way they were going to handle the closer closer position. Tanner Scott was not signed to be the closer. He was signed to be one of the options. Well, Evan Phillips was the another option in his elbow blew out. Blake Trinon was another option and he got hurt and didn't pitch for much of the season. He was going to be in that mix and he got old real quick and just did not pitch well. And then it ended up being Tanner Scott just by default and we saw how that worked out. He was he was not up to just being the dedicated closer. So you think you go into a season you think you have a lot of options but things happen. You know, things happen in the picture changes. The one thing that the Dodgers do have is depth.

32:11These aren't going great in the first couple of months. Well, here come Brock Stewart and Evan Phillips to you know reinforce and bounce a couple other guys out of the way. Well, and if and if need be right, you you can hey, Eduardo Enriquez. You know, we need you to to step in here, right? Oh, hey, we'll climb like. Yeah. Like there. And then conspiracy is just a blezky on and on. Yeah, they have a lot of options. Before before we wrap this guy up, I wanted to ask you how weird. You've been around the Los Angeles Dodgers for a long time. How weird is it going showing up to camp and Clay and Kershaw isn't there? You know, not as weird as I thought it would be. His locker right by the door to the that goes to the weight room is now Blake Snells. Well, Clayton was never at his locker very much and neither's Blake Snell this spring. So it's just the usual empty locker. I think, you know, for fans, it may be more emotional, but I think we were kind of prepared for this.

33:15You saw how it was coming. You know, Clayton had his physical issues the last couple springs and was not even around that much. So it was like we kind of he was nice enough to kind of ease us into it, but it is definitely the end of an era. This is a Hall of Fame first ballot guy. I think he will be around more than you realize because he's doing the NBC broadcasting. And I think he's going to be terrific at it as long as he lets himself be terrific at it. You know, a lot of times retired players censor themselves too much and they become bland and not don't add a lot. I think he can be really good at it. So I've been asking guests that have joined me kind of in the spring training episodes. I'm asking you for a hot take. And in this case, I'm going to ask you for two hot takes. One, do you think the Dodgers three Pete and two?

34:17What is your hot take for the season with this Los Angeles Dodgers team? Hot take number one. I absolutely think they're going to win again. If you say, I mean, their lineup is clear or their roster is clearly the most talented in baseball. You can't, you can't argue that. And if you say, well, what happens if they have a lot of injuries? They had a lot of injuries the last two years and won the World Series both times. So that's hot take number one. I don't know. Hot take number two. I don't know if I got one for you. I have to think about that. I think we already talked about it. The Otani 50 200 figure. I think you get it. So do you think you think that's tenable for him? I think he wants it. So he's going to shoot for it. And I think he gets it. If I'm trying to, I don't think anyone's ever done that in baseball history, right? Oh, absolutely not. Yeah, like I think. I mean, I know for sure that that's the the 50 200 thing in the sense of like that.

35:18But but just like, but but anything like offensive and like that crazy pitching wise has never, ever been done before. And no reason I'm just thinking about it is because I feel like with Otani, you have to question everything because it doesn't feel real, right? It just because again, like I mean, I think about the World Series game, ten strikeouts, three home runs. And LCS. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what happened. The story in front of that, he was struggling in the postseason. The family really locked him up. And the first couple games against the Brewers, he didn't do anything. Well, on the off day, we had interviewed him. He came in the press interview room in Milwaukee during those first two games. And the questions were really pretty negative. They were, you know, why are you struggling? What's wrong? You don't know that. Don't you hit left handers even if they were, he didn't take well to it. Shohei is very polished about handling these group interviews.

36:20And you could see the smoke start and come out of his ears. And then on the off day, they travel back to L.A. And they work out at Dodger Stadium. He throws a bullpen because he's going to start game four. So he throws a bullpen while everybody else is working out. And it looks like things are done. He comes walking out of the dugouts with a baton hand. And they play his entrance music, his walk-up song. And all the teammates are clapping and going crazy down there. He never takes batting practice on the field. Ned Verr, he prefers it in the batting cage. It's the first time he came out at Dodger Stadium to take batting practice on the field. And he was launching bombs, just launching. And I think game three, he had a triple in his first hit bat. I think you're right. Game four, he had that epic best postseason game ever. It was like, oh, you're going to question me. Look at this.

37:20So if he says he wants to do, or if he's not going to say it, if he thinks he wants to do 50 and 200, because no one else has ever done it, no one else ever will, I would bet on him doing it. Oh, I mean, listen, he, I am still convinced that he sometimes to alien life form. Yes, yes, he's like, like, he would hear that about like, when Dion and Messi was in his prime, right, that he was in, like, all these players, like, yo, he's an alien, this doesn't make sense. It's kind of what Otoni is, right? But Otoni, what Otoni really, and the whole reason I don't try to talk a whole bunch about Otoni on these shows is he's got enough coverage everywhere else, right? There's, there's 22 books about him in two years. There's 25 other guys on this. I mean, these are the, you know, some of the best that they have what they do, right? And so they, you know, they kind of deserve the attention as well. But in that same respect, like, Otoni really does make you think sometimes because 50 homeruns, 200 strikeouts that broke my brain a little bit. Like, I had to think about like, yo, no one's ever done that before, right?

38:22And you think about the 10 strikeouts, three homeruns in a game. That also is kind of tough to comprehend a little bit in the sense of like, because as a Dodger fan, you're kind of jaded too, right? Because of what they've done the last couple of years. But even game seven of the World Series, which I think that may have been the best game seven ever. I think even like in the society that we currently live in, currently live in, we're a little jaded by it because you don't really think about like, oh, yeah, that was probably the best game seven ever. And that's not fully computing with me, right? Because the blue jays were two outs away from winning the World Series. I'll give you this. They were two inches away. Yeah. That played the plate where Will Smith's food came up. That was crazy. Yeah. And again, game of inches, right? And so it's one of those where you can't even like fully comprehend like what just happened. And that's kind of what Otani does. Because I am convinced with Otani that sometimes he is not trying. But that's also just how simple baseball is to him,

39:23because he can just kind of go out there and be pedestrian about it. But the season he had last year was a very quiet season. And it was not statistically quiet at all. No, that's kind of standards. Yeah. And you talk about the 25 other players on the team and how talented they are. They're also in awe of Shohei. They watch him do these things and can't believe it either. Because nobody knows how hard this game is better than those other guys. So to watch him accomplish what he does. Yeah, it blows them away too. I mean, I can't imagine being as good at the sport as if Freddie Freeman or a Mookie injured is like, what just happened, right? Like that's like when you see dudes like that that kind of have their jaws dropped. That's when you know that this is something beyond special, right? And if I swear to God, if when it comes up to voting for him for the hall, if there's one guy that makes it so he's not unanimous, I'm going to fight somebody. Like the fact that I'm still pissed about the Suzuki thing,

40:24each year of thing, because that why? Why, right? So, but there's always a guy, right? But, you know, we'll save that for about 10 or so years from now. Yeah, it's going to be a while. That's going to be a minute. Bill, working the people find all your fine writings and tweets and all that good stuff. Well, follow me on Twitter, Bill Plunkett, OCR on Twitter. You can follow me on Facebook. Look for my name, you'll find me. And go to the OCRedisture.com for all the coverage day to day. Bill Plunkett, if you want to buy my Otoni book, LA Story, send me an email and we'll get Venmo or something and we'll work it out. I'm not sure it might still be in Barnes and Noble bookstores, but it's the story of his free agency, that bull 50, 50 season, the all remarkable 2024. I encourage you all to go buy that book. We talked about it last year and it's a great book.

41:24And most importantly, Bill is one of the best writers in the game. He's dialed in with the Dodgers anywhere and everywhere. Follow him on Twitter. Great follow. And again, go to the OCRedisture, read the things. He's been posting stories, he's been putting his stories in every single day. So he's got you covered on screen training. Go do the thing. Bill, as always, thank you for the time. You're a legend and a scholar for effort joined. I am sorry that you have to be up at 6 a.m. tomorrow, though. No, no, don't remind me. Well, this has been another episode of West Coast bias here on the baseball is in boring platform. Please follow us. That baseball is boring. B.I.B. All that stuff on the internet, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff. But until the next time stay up, stay safe and we'll catch you soon. Shot clocks, big shots, upsets, aces, TGL playoffs are here. First, Atlanta Drive starts their repeat run against Los Angeles Golf Club. Then, rowies Boston Common Golf and tiger's Jupiter links face off in their Playoff debuts.

42:24Who will advance? Keep up, it's play-offs. Tune in Tuesday March 17th at 6.30 p.m. and 9.00 p.m. only on ESPN and ESPN App.