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Michael Duarte | NBC LA

Amy Lawrence Show / Amy Lawrence
The Truth Network Radio
July 24, 2024 3:29 am

Michael Duarte | NBC LA

Amy Lawrence Show / Amy Lawrence

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July 24, 2024 3:29 am

NBC LA's own Michael Duarte joins Amy to talk about the scorching hot Dodgers, the Lakers upcoming season, and everything else Los Angeles.

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Minimum $10 per order additional terms apply. And the hump show and Michael Duarte of NBCLA joining us now fresh off the Dodgers fifth consecutive win. And right now the second best win total in Major League Baseball, which kind of snuck up on me. I know they'd been scuffling a bit because of the pitching, but how would you grade where the Dodgers are right now, Mike?

Yeah, that's a great question, Amy. I would say they are doing an adamant job or above average job of keeping their head above water right now with all the injuries they have. You're talking injuries to a former MVP and Mookie Betts, who arguably could have been the MVP front runner when he went down with his injury. Obviously it looks like maybe his teammate Shohei Ohtani, who's picked up the slack offensively while Mookie's been down, has maybe taken the mantle as far as the MVP front runner in the National League. But they're doing what they can. They're doing it with rookie pitchers. I heard you mention it right before I came on.

As you told your listeners, I was walking the dog. They're doing it with only one pitcher, a rookie in Gavin Stone, who was on the opening day rotation. And they just DFA'd, arguably in my opinion, their workhorse pitcher, James Paxton, the most consistent and reliable pitcher they've had up until this point.

So they've been able to do it with glue and duct tape and just patch it all together. And now finally here as we hit the second half of the season, the cavalry is on the way. And it did kind of sneak up on you now that they had the second most wins. I've been looking at it like, okay, are they going to be the second team to 60? No.

Okay. But now they've passed those AL teams and are kind of sneaking up slowly on Philadelphia. And I said this the other day, Amy, even baddies can be saddies. And so I say that because the Dodgers are a baddie. The Yankees are a baddie. The Phillies are a baddie.

These are the teams that small market teams love to hate. They've been front runners. They have high expectations. They've been World Series favorites all year.

And even baddies can be saddies. They can go through these lulls in the season. They can go on losing streaks. They can blow leads. They can blow saves. This is what makes baseball baseball. Any given team can be any given team on any given day.

And that's what makes this exciting. But the cream rises to the top the longer the season goes on. And the Dodgers historically have been really good at these dog days of summer and kind of creating space as they're doing now between them and everyone else in the NLS. And as we will talk about next, I'm sure with all the reinforcements now coming to try to get this team healthy and whole, if it can all come together cohesively at the same time, and I mean offense, defense, bullpen, starting pitching, everything working and all cylinders firing, this team can be a really, really bad baddie and be very scary going into October in the postseason potentially. Well, I can't wait to see Clayton Kershaw back on the mound. I know he's a favorite in LA, one of my favorite pitchers to watch.

And it feels like forever since we've seen him. Tyler Glass now expected to return. So how optimistic are the Dodgers about finally putting together a pitching staff that can maybe stay intact for the second half of the season?

I don't know. I mean, I don't know how optimistic they can be. These injuries rear their head. They're taking a gamble on a 36-year-old Clayton Kershaw coming back after major surgery for the first time in his career, obviously in his left throwing shoulder. But he's looked good in his rehab assignments. He had to slow down his rehab and recovery because he wasn't, there was some soreness in there and he wasn't recovering as fast as you kind of need to to come back at the major league level and pitch every five days. But he's now moved past that and he's feeling really good. He should be coming off the IL and making the start on this Thursday.

So there's that. And then Tyler Glass now making the start on Wednesday. So there's two really good starting pitchers coming back to your lineup. Yoshinobu Yamamoto told reporters just the other day in the media here that he would be coming back this season.

It's not going to be a season-endering. He had some tightness in his forearm and that can obviously be scary for pitchers, especially in your throwing arm. But he's supposed to be back this year.

Right there, that's four guys at the top of your lineup and I'm not even finished, Amy. Walker Buehler has been on vacation in Florida and I don't mean it to mean he's been on the beach getting his tan. I mean he's been reworking his mechanics, reworking his delivery, because he wasn't happy with it when he came back. Obviously he's coming back after two Tommy John surgeries but he did pitch and was healthy and everything was physically fine. But he wasn't pitching the way he needed to be, the way he wanted to be, the way he had in the past. The big game pitcher that you know was throwing no hitters in the seventh inning of World Series against the Red Sox in 2018 and pitching on three days rest in the NLCS against the Braves in 2019.

It wasn't up to his standard. He went to Florida, met with some pitching coaches, reworked his mechanics through a bullpen today. I would call it, I watched it here at the stadium, a very aggressive bullpen and he's gearing to come back soon.

He'll probably just need one rehab start. They're looking to have a really, really good starting pitching rotation here by the end of August and then if we can get Mookie Betts back, if you can get Max Muncy back, some other guys I didn't even mention, Gruzard Ratterall threw a scoreless inning at Oklahoma City AAA. He's a high leverage back-end relief pitcher the Dodgers desperately need. You also have Ryan Brazier who was an outlier last year, had a great season for the Dodgers. They picked up off waivers. He's coming back soon.

So you have all these reinforcements on the way. They can all stay healthy and everything can click and gel and speaking of that because I saw you play the clip with Gavin Lux. Gavin Lux has been struggling for most of the year but now he's coming off NL Rookie or NL Player of the Week. He's been batting.393, over.400 over that time. Chris Taylor, who couldn't hit the broadside of a bar in the first half of the season, he's hitting over.400 these last 30 days at playing at an all-star level.

You saw what Kike Hernandez did against old friend Kenley Jansen in that Red Sox series, coming back not just once but twice to tie the game in extra innings and in the bottom of the ninth. So if the back end of this lineup, which has been the Achilles heel for the Dodgers all season, can start to hit and perform and they don't need to hit like Shohei Ohtani or Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman, but if they can give them something at the back end and play the way they've been playing here so far to start the second half of the season, this team, especially offensively, is extremely dangerous. Alright, before we move on, what is the timeline for Mookie?

Mookie, I just talked to him. He's now able to do some light throwing work. He's able to field grounders. He really hasn't gone aggressively in the cage or with his swing, but him telling me that hand is kind of mostly healed. We're looking at, as far as timeline, I would say third week in August around there. I don't know if he'll probably need a rehab assignment or not knowing him. He's not going to want to, but maybe the coaches can convince him to go get some bats up there, you know, in AAA or close by here in Rancho before he decides to come up, but he's not too, too far away and same thing with Max Muncy. End of August, third week of August, he's coming off an oblique injury. He hasn't played in over two months, but they really need his bat in the lineup. That's 30 home runs, and they tried to kind of piecework third base with Max Muncy out with, you know, Cagon Biggio, Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez, just anyone who can go over there and play the hot corner, but they really need Max Muncy back and a consistent, steady, everyday player at third base who gives them power in that middle of the lineup. Michael Duarte is with us fresh off a dog walk because that's most important part of his day from NBC LA where there's never a dull moment.

I'm always amazed at the number of stories that you have to juggle. Let's talk about the Lakers a little bit. Coming off of summer league, there's talk that Bronnie James is a favorite for rookie of the year. How is that possible? When you're Vegas and people will give you money, then anything is possible, right?

Right, Amy? You and I were there together at the Super Bowl, so we understand it, but no, I don't think Bronnie James is going to be running away with any rookie of the year award trophies this year. I do not put him, no offense to Bronnie, who I got to speak to during his media day a few weeks ago, in the same category of a wenbunyama, and I don't even know if my new favorite player Dalton Connect to the Lakers drafted with number 17 pick in the first round this year I call Connect 4 who could have easily gone in the top 10. He might be a potential rookie of the year candidate because I think the Lakers will need him and be playing him, but no, Bronnie we expect and what I've talked to from sources and kind of talking to some people in the organization, when the new season starts, if LeBron can make it out of these Olympics healthy and ready to go, and so far so great, right? He's been looking like the best player on the court, even though he's the oldest player on the court for Team USA right now, but if everything goes well, they intend to open the season, you know, around end of October and have Bronnie be playing with the Lakers, make a big ceremony, make a big deal about it. I'm sure it'll be nationally televised. You're going to see Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. sitting courtside, other father and son combos I'm sure as well, to let Bronnie and LeBron be on the same court together at Crypto.com Arena where the Lakers play, and then after that and all the hoopla's done, I think you're going to see Bronnie go back to the D League and really try to grow and mature and learn the game and get some seasoning there, and only if there's some really, really serious injuries to the Lakers and they get depleted, would I see him coming back up to, you know, the main team, the Lakers team, and getting any run or getting any minutes. So once that whole kind of ceremony and charade is all done early in the season, I expect to see him down the G League after that. What are your reactions or your impressions to LeBron's Olympic experience so far, the run-up, and of course being asked to serve as flag bearer on the men's side for the Olympic team?

So my first impression is I don't think the media, and I look, I'm a member of it, so are you. I don't think we're talking about LeBron being named the flag bearer enough, as important as it is. You know, one person on the team usually gets this honor. I don't think it's ever been a basketball player that I'm aware of. It's usually a veteran person who's competed a lot.

Michael Phelps comes to mind. Some of these great Olympians over the years who have put in their dues, and LeBron gets that category, but this is not just voted on by his teammates on the Team USA basketball team. This is every Olympian getting together and voting LeBron with this honor, and it makes sense. You know, Kobe Bryant never got this honor. Michael Jordan never got this honor, but those guys were killers, right? They went in there, and they wanted to beat every team that they played in the Olympics by 30, 40 points to get that gold medal.

LeBron's been more of a statesman, right? He likes to get his teammates involved. He likes to have fun. He likes to be seen in the stands watching the swimming and the track and field, and he's really made an attempt and an effort over the years in the many Olympics he's participated in to go see the other events, to go take pictures and be with the other athletes. He was telling me personally his favorite experience was that 2016 in Brazil. He loved being down there in Rio and the culture and everything it was about and going and seeing the other athletes at the peak of their sports compete in their events, and so he's now seen all the rewards of that. He's reaping all the rewards of that, and everything he sewed in between, he's now getting it with this honor of being the flag bearer, and I really don't think the media is covering it up.

It's a really, really great honor. It's a really big deal, and I think maybe we'll be talking about it more here around Thursday night, Friday morning, right before the opening ceremony when we finally get to see him come out there, so I think it's a really big deal, and so far on the court what he's been able to do to close out these two games against teams that, not the Lakers, excuse me, Team USA should be beating by 30 anyway. We'll see.

You know, there's a lot of good teams out there, a lot of younger teams. We'll see if Lebron can be able to do this for the entirety of the Olympics. What about you? Which sports or events are must-watch at the Olympics? Well, I don't, I mean, first of all, I want to watch the surfing in Tahiti. When NBC was kind of putting the assignments together, and we don't send that many people out of our local office in LA, but I was like, I volunteered to go to Tahiti to cover surfing, if anybody else will, but I'm looking forward to the swimming, and I'm also looking forward to track and field. I will also catch the basketball, of course, but for me, those are the two things when it comes to the Olympics. We really don't get to see those athletes compete at that level until every four years, and so there's a lot of athletes that are looking for redemption. Track and field athletes like Sydney McLaughlin, who's kind of at such a young age. I watched her in her first Olympics. I think she was like 16 years old. Now she's the GOAT almost in her sport at the peak of her career, at the peak of her powers.

I want to watch her compete. There's a lot of athletes that compete in those sports that we really only give attention to every four years, so that's what I'm going to be turning into. Michael Duarte of NBC LA with a lot on his plate. Just as a kind of tack on, what about what the Lakers have done in this offseason?

I know Bronny James attracting the yeoman share of the attention, of course. You mentioned Dalton Connect. Are they done? I think as of now they might be done until they can see what could potentially happen at the trade deadline of the buyout market, or if anything crazy happens. Look, the number one targets for the Lakers were Klay Thompson. I think they had a jump on the fact that he might be available.

I know they tried to him. They made their pitch, their appeal to Klay, and I don't blame Klay for taking a longer year contract with Dallas. Still an opportunity to win a championship, arguably with the team that just lost in the finals to the Celtics, who has a better opportunity of winning and hoisting a Larry O'Brien trophy than the Lakers do maybe, but more for him. This probably might be the last opportunity for Klay to really get a good payday, a big contract, and the Lakers could only offer him that mid-level, and so I understand that. They wanted to go get a DeMar Rosen. Instead, he goes to their division in Sacramento.

Maybe, Laurie Markinen's a name that I would be potentially interested. I'm sure the Lakers would be interested in as well, but I know there's a lot of teams interested in him, and potentially if they want to do the move, Trae Young is still out there. I don't know if a Trae Young-D'Angelo-Russell swap really improves the Lakers, or if it's more of like a lateral move, but those are some moves that could still happen. I don't know if that brings them to that upper echelon, like the names that we were hearing before with Javonte Murray, who I know they were interested in. Obviously, Donovan Mitchell was a name that they were interested in, and he ended up staying put, so they didn't improve the way they wanted by kind of adding a third star. It's still potentially out there if they want to go lateral, like I said, but I think if they can kind of piece it together, let J.J. Redick coach this team, get his founding principles, figure out the offense he wants to run, his defensive schematics and strategies and schemes, you know, get his feet wet. They might be able to make a move at the deadline, and that might be the direction they go. Man, what a time to be covering LA sports.

If nothing but the Lakers, it's still so, well, it's still so out of the box. They go from Dan Hurley offering him the job to J.J. Redick, and I know he's familiar to a lot of fans, but this is a completely new role, so that's going to be interesting once we get there. Clippers obviously have made some changes too, and Paul George is gone, but I want to sneak in a quick question about football since, whoa, it's nearly August in the Hall of Fame game. Matthew Stafford has a retooled contract. They're all happy that he's going to be in camp. A couple of top storylines for the Rams as they get busy again, Michael.

Well, Amy, you nailed that storyline. There was top thoughts that Matthew Stafford would hold out and not report to training camp. He only had $15 million guaranteed on his contract this season, and so he wanted that deal reworked.

He wanted more guaranteed money, more security. They've been talking about this for months. They finally got it done at the 11th hour, and he showed up to training camp today.

I saw in all the photos him arriving, so they get their guy. I know they have a tough schedule. I know, once again, teams are not really expecting or predicting this team to make the playoffs, but Sean McVay and the Rams have surprised us before, and as I've always told you when it comes to the Rams, it's all about health. So if you can keep Matthew Stafford upright, if you can keep that offensive line healthy, if you can keep Kyron Williams healthy, Cooper Cupp healthy, Pua Nakua healthy, you have a very good shot at making the playoffs and maybe making a deep run.

I don't know. Probably not, but to me, what I'm looking at as far as the storyline is who's going to fill the shoes of arguably one of the greatest defensive players all time, and we're talking about three-time defensive player of the year and a Super Bowl winner and champion in Aaron Donald. I was shocked when he retired. I didn't think he would.

I still thought he was at the peak of his powers. He is a match-up for any offensive coordinator to scheme against on the opposition. Everyone circles him and targets him, and you got to put three offensive linemen on him to block him, which is why other guys who played alongside him have been able to put up good numbers. So who fills those shoes? They haven't done it with a free agent. They're trying to see if someone can do it within.

They didn't do it through the draft, so who fills those shoes is going to be the interesting storyline for the Rams this season. Well, does it feel like you got to break it all this summer? Gonna get a break in all this summer? You know, the all-star break is usually when I get my break.

I decided not to take a break because I got side projects and stuff going on here, but hopefully we'll see. If the Dodgers make a run all the way to end of October, which is what we hope here in LA, that might mean I don't get a break, but we'll see if I can sneak one in here in the next month or so. Well, I think you should take a break in New York because that feels like a good way to completely get away from what you have to do there in LA. I agree, Amy, but you know New Yorkers come.

They take their summers here, not vice versa. I'll go spend fall there. That's what I'd rather be. We'll be waiting for you. And how's mom? Mom is good. Dog is good.

Parrot is good. Everyone's good, but I want to say something, Amy. We're going to miss James. I was texting with James last week telling him thank you for everything. Yeah, of course. So, James, if you're listening, we miss you.

Ryan, you've got big shoes to fill, but I was just telling James it was so cool to meet you both and him specifically also all the times we've talked and text. Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug? Ignored a leaky faucet? Pretended your half-painted living room is supposed to look that way? Well, you're not alone. We've all got unfinished home projects.

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Download Thumbtack and start a project today. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair, done well. Kitchen sink install, done well. Deck upgrades, done well. Electrical upgrade, done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well.

Hire high quality certified pros at angie.com. This season Instacart has your back to school, as in they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit, and they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow.

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Minimum $10 per order additional term supply. Yeah, in Vegas for the Super Bowl. So, you know, wherever he lands, I'm sure he'll land on solid footing, but we wish the best for him, but I'm gonna miss him. Just ensure you will too.

Yes, of course. It seems like each producer leaves his stamp, well, leaves his mark, you know, because I'm sure you've worked with a bunch of different producers as well. Time to adjust, but it's always a good thing to have some fresh eyes, fresh perspective on shows too that helps to keep it kind of moving forward and always morphing, always changing. All right, you can find Michael on Twitter at Michael J Duarte and from NBC LA.

This is not an exaggeration, never takes a break, and that's why he is highly decorated, award-winning journalist, and one of our favorites. Mike, thanks so much. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks for the kind words, and I'll be listening, Ryan, so I want to know what your Ask Amy question is. Have a good show. Caught, cooked, and eaten outside.

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Whisper: medium.en / 2024-07-24 04:44:50 / 2024-07-24 04:56:48 / 12

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