That is a 1-2 that they didn't necessarily have during the postseason last year.

I agree with all of that.

What I tend to say about this stuff is if you ask me to pick any one team versus the field in the playoffs, I am always taking the field.

But it is always hard for me to pick a team over the Dodgers in any series, especially a seven-game series.

And I will say this, Buster, about the Brewers.

The Dodgers outscored the Brewers 15-4 in last year's LCS sweep.

That is not going to happen again.

What do you think?

What is his status right now?

He's somebody who, at the very least, is trying to catch up and get reacclimated to Major League pitching.

This is somebody who has only had a handful of games under his belt by the time they start October.

And, you know, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has noticed in these last five regular season games since he came back, somebody who's kind of overanxious and who's trying to pack in, uh, a hearty enough sample size of seeing live pitching to get ready for October, and it just doesn't work that way.

Uh, from a health standpoint, the Dodgers believe he's about as healthy as can be.

Shohei Ohtani said previously that he is not gonna be 100% at any point this season.

He said the only way you get to 100% is if you don't play baseball games.

So the, i- if the Brewers just aren't able to Brewers their way through October, then they'll be in trouble.

Since they were the prohibitive favorites, would you say the Dodgers or the rest of the field to go ahead and go to the World Series and win the World Series?

I would, Darren, I would never take any team over the field in the baseball playoffs.

I just think they are too random.

It doesn't matter how good or talented a team is.

I mean, just think about like all the different ways that the Dodgers could have lost to the Blue Jays in last year's World Series.

The amount of tiny miracles that had to take place for the Dodgers to win that series, and that's just what happens every year.

I don't need to remind Padres fans of how thin the margins were in the 2024 National League Division Series, right? I'm not trying to open up a wound there or anything like that, but...

How important do you find this series to be for both teams?

That comes out on Thursday on ESPN.com. What did you learn?

Yeah, Buster, I appreciate you bringing light to that.

This story originated because I spoke to Omar Lopez, the manager of the Venezuelan WBC team that obviously overcame a lot of odds to win that tournament.

It was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, baseball thing that has ever happened in a baseball-loving country.

And he wanted to commemorate that championship.

by hosting a parade in Venezuela.

He told me that all of the players, all of the coaches had agreed to this.

What's in store for the Padres fans, do you think?

Mm-hmm.

I think that trade said more about the Dodgers than it did with the Tigers.

Again, this is the best offer the Tigers were gonna get for Tarik Skubal.

Um, but Zaire Hope might be the third or fourth best outfield prospect in the Dodgers system.

Um, in giving up River Ryan, what they did not give up was some of their young major league starting pitchers in Justin Robleski and Roki Sasaki and Emma Sheehan.

And then they got Tarik Skubal who, yeah, sounds superfluous when you consider the Dodgers have one of the best rotations in baseball, and I think they still lead the majors in rotation ERA.

But also, in a way, was necessary because Blake Snell's made one start all year.

Mm-hmm.

What do you think?

Yeah, Buster, it's interesting because going into the trade deadline and before things really got moving, the narrative was a lot about how there's not going to be any big stars moved and this might be sort of a boring deadline.

And then as this week has progressed, I've been surprised to hear about some of the names, some of the big names that have been involved in conversations that executives have told me are...

On the table, whether it's guys like Gunnar Henderson or Corey Seager or Otto Lopez, like guys that I never expected would be available.

And look, it's and you've dealt with this buster a lot this time of year.

It could be very difficult to distinguish between.

who the guys are that are actually available and who the guys are that teams are putting out there just to sort of gauge their value, right? Like how real is it that they would want to move them or do they just want to see what they can get back just and have that serve as intel for the future? Hunter Green one, I did not know about personally.

What's your sense at this point of what their desire is with that? What a fascinating

This is why you're on the show, sir.

Look, I started asking a lot of other front office executives about Mike Trout.

I want to say, I'm going to get the timing of this wrong because I don't remember exactly when it was that John Lozilli came in, but around June.

And asking people who know Mike Trout pretty well about the situation.

And you would hear sort of differing accounts.

One was the one that you hear the most often, which is that, look, Mike Trout has given zero indication that he wants to leave.

He's loyal.

Guys, how active do we feel like the Angels are going to be? How different will this team look in one week?

You know, for example, Blake Snell, start with him.

Yeah, I mean, Blake, that's the thing about how the Dodgers have navigated these last few years is that, like, Blake Snell and Tyler Glassnow, those guys would probably, in a typical year, they would be ready to go a lot sooner than they would come back.

But, I mean, starting with Blake Snell, I mean, he had basically the Tarek Skubal surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow.

He's already throwing off a mound.

And I think for Blake Snell, the best case scenario right now would probably be like right after the All-Star break.

And I think very similar to Tyler Glassnow.

I would say with the Tyler Glassnow thing, like every time you're talking about lower back spasms for especially like tall pitchers like him, especially him who has dealt with stuff like that before, I'm a little bit more cautious.

Alden, what do you think about Scooble? And if not Scooble, what do you see as the

But, but it feels like teams have, have taken a much more strategic approach to ABS challenges than, than I would have expected when the season started.

I, I think that's evolved over time.

I think at the start of the year, I think there were a lot of teams that were trying to figure out how to do this, and I think you've seen, like, major sort of fluctuations in terms of, like, the volume.

Like, there have been some teams that have used ABS a ton, and then they've tapered off.

I mean, close to, uh, nearby to me, like, I remember, like, Mike Trout at the start of the year was A- was ABS challenging everything, and now he's not.

He's barely challenging anything.Um, I, I think this has been a feeling-out process.

Um, but, but I think, you know, the conclusion that teams have come to, I think they've come to two of them, um, and I think they're both kind of obvious, but one of them is, like, don't let pitchers challenge.

Yeah

Alden, what was your reaction, and what was your kind of breakdown of Buster Posey making this trade?

Stunned.

I mean, you know, stunned in general because you don't see...

Well, I guess the Giants did this in June last year, but you don't really see trades like that this early in the season with so many weeks left before the trade deadline.

You know...

I don't know.

You guys might know more about this dynamic than I do.

Is there, I don't know, is there any feeling like he's not found himself this year? Or what are the Dodgers saying about Roki Sasaki, tonight's starter?

Is that still the case for Shohei Ohtani, or what do you think the game plan is when he faces off against the Giants this week?

I think that's very much in play.

Uh, and it's kind of like a week by week thing.

They sort of read and react.

I think, uh, it was, uh, a week or two ago, well, last week, yeah, when they were in Houston, um, the plan was for him to hit on his start day, and then Dave Roberts saw how that game played out, and they decided to sit him, uh, on his start day.

So they're still trying to figure this out.

I, I think there's a thought within the Dodgers too.

Yeah, yeah

Tell me about the Dodgers.

Yeah, and that's something that developed over time.

I would say collaboration is a major strength of the Dodgers, but what I think, and taking it a step further in terms of what I've heard throughout the league from players coming in, from other execs who try to model themselves after the Dodgers, Their secret sauce is synergy, okay? Every aspect of the organization being in lockstep, from every aspect of the minor leagues, from a training staff, from your pitching coaches, from your analytical staff, from your R&D staff, everybody sort of works in lockstep.

And that's part of that collaboration that you're talking about.

And The Dodgers, and I feel like this is what happened throughout the industry, where like everybody wanted to be first and wanted to be the most cutting edge, analytically minded team.

And then once that happened and everybody, to a certain extent, caught up to each other, the next advantage was how do you blend these two things together? OK, and that collaboration that you're talking about.

I'll go back to an example.

I think that was the first day that he was in the