It's the white Sox facing those
Dodgers today at three o'clock
Eastern right here on MLB
Network and who's got a better
spot than Tim?
Never.
It'll be calling the game for
the Dodgers today.
Tim, great to see you.
Thanks for giving us a few
minutes and you had some
breaking news in the commercial
break.
You just got the lineup for
today.
Give it to give it to us.
It's not official yet, but I
know that I know who's going to
be in the top three, which we
were expecting.
Ok.
So we, we do know Mookie Betts
is gonna lead off and either
Freddie Freeman or Shy Otani
will be 2nd and 3rd, but, but
this will be an interesting
lineup this year because here's
a note I got yesterday on this.
You've got three former MV PS.
Right bets.
You've got a two time MV P in
Otani.
You've got Freddie Freeman won
in 2020 bets in 2018, only 12
times in the history of
baseball.
There's been like 350,000, some
odd games in the history of
baseball.
Only 12 games.
Have there been three former MV
PS hitting 123 in the batting
order.
Now, the Dodgers are going to
break that record after about
two weeks this year.
So it's, uh it's gonna be pretty
remarkable.
It's been a remarkable camp uh
because of the attention, not
just for Shoy Otani, but also
for Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Uh you know, a lot of the other
newcomers, this, this Dodger
team has so much talent on it,
but one thing and, and I know,
you know, see why you can
appreciate this from playing for
different clubs.
You go to different spring
trainings and early in February
when you start opening up the
camp to the fans, you know, you
get a tripling of fans in.
Well, that's not been the case
of Camelback Ranch.
It's been packed every single
day with people hoping to get a
glimpse of joy ocon taking some
swings during live BP and some
folks have not been
disappointed.
I know his first batting
practice.
He took 21 swings to kind of
them out of the ballpark.
And that was, you know, national
news, uh not only in the US but
in Japan and the amount of media
that is there to cover is
unprecedented.
And so this has got to be one of
the most anticipated spring
training games in recent memory
and certainly one of the most
anticipated Dodger seasons ever.
I, I mean, I, I bet, I bet it
is.
And you have, you have me at the
edge of my seat too, Mookie's
leadoff.
So Mook's leading off and we
know the three MV PS.
What's, what's, what's the order
for Freddie that I'm talking to?
I can, I can tell you that will
Smith's batting for.
Come on and the, and the rest,
the rest, the rest of it, you're
gonna have to wait till eight
o'clock.
Oh, man.
What a tease.
What a tease man.
And with spring training
underway and, and you talk about
the energy that's going on over
there at Camelback Ra Ranch with
the season being three weeks
from, from tomorrow, three weeks
away from tomorrow with the pace
of spring training.
Have you noticed anything
different with the pace of
spring training?
Because guys have to be ready a
little bit earlier, especially
the Dodgers and the Padres
because they started earlier,
they had the first couple of
games before anybody else and
Then they go open the season in
Korea on the 20th of March.
They'll play two games that
count and Then the Dodgers will
come back to Southern California
and play three exhibition games
, uh, two at Dodger Stadium and
one in Anaheim against the
Angels in the freeway series
before opening at home against
the Cardinals and the games
counting again.
So when you have those
international games early in the
season, you have to ramp it up a
little earlier.
So what I've heard from some of
the guys is that they treated it
like I know I heard
Freddie Freeman, say this the
other day too.
Uh On one of our telecasts, he
said he's been treating it like
the W BC, you know, being ready
early, being ready on time,
getting, you know, enough at
bats early and, and just being
ready to go when the games start
to count on March 20th, which
sounds so early.
Otani.
I mean, it's gonna be like
covering the Beatles this year.
Tim, I'm so happy for you and
our buddy Steven Nelson.
Of course, the entire crew,
Otani himself, is there a real
aura around him like when to
came and talking to IFE,
obviously his, his interpreter.
What is it like?
Just being around Otani and
seeing that circus?
It's different.
I gotta tell you that, I mean,
he's a one man industry uh with
a lot of talented people around
him and the guy can play.
There's no doubt about it.
Uh You know, this year is going
to be very interesting too,
watching him just hit and just
concentrate for the most part on
hitting.
He will get into a return to pro
program, but he's not gonna
pitch this season, but just
concentrating on the offense I
think is going to be uh
remarkable to watch considering
the fact he had 44 home runs
last year.
Uh What's he gonna do this year?
He had a career high batting
average last year was over 303
05, I believe.
Uh And, and you know, he's one
of the fastest ever to get to
100 and 50 home runs and 75
stolen bases.
Well, we see him run the bases a
little bit more because he's not
having to worry about going back
in the game to pitch.
So, uh II I think offensively
this has the potential to be
just an absolute monster season
for Chili Otani.
I, I think you're dead on it.
I think he will use his legs
this year.
When, when I think about
powerhouse teams and you have
this many superstars on the team
sometime, what you can into is
that every superstar player
almost has his own camp.
You know, that follows around
with them to where it really