MASSIVE: Yoshinobu Yamamoto Gets Opening Day Ball | Shohei Ohtani WILL PITCH Sooner Than Expected

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Yoshi Nobu Yamamoto threw the final pitch of the Dodgers 2025 Championship season,

and now he will throw the first pitch of the next one.

The Dodgers just gave their World Series Hero the opening day starts.

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We answer a listener line question about Kyle Tucker, and whether that huge contract

is actually a risky investment.

We've got an update on Shohei Otoni's pitching timeline, and it might be moving faster than

expected.

But first, Travis, Hey Roberts makes it official.

Yoshi Nobu Yamamoto will start opening day, something we all expected.

Yeah, certainly well deserved.

Certainly, something that he put in all the work last year, and this year can't wait

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one all the way from Tampa, Florida.

The last pitch of 2025, the first pitch of 2026, the Dodgers are starting their title defense

the same way they finished the last one with Yoshi nobu Yamamoto on the mound.

Dave Roberts confirmed that Yamamoto will start opening day when the Dodgers kick off

the 2026 season on March 26 against the Diamondbacks at Dodgers stadium.

And if you think about it, the symbolism here is kind of perfect because the final out

of the World Series at Stocktober, Yoshi, the first pitch of the new season, Yoshi.

It's the Dodgers essentially saying this guy is our ace and that's not just ceremonial

Travis.

Like you said, he earned it.

Yeah, I was, I was reading about him the other day and not that I had forgotten this,

but it just landed so hard when I read it again.

He was the winning pitcher in game six and in game seven.

And it's not like he came in in game seven and got an out at the end of the game and,

you know, kind of backdoor to win pitch three innings in game seven.

After pitching basically all of game six, he was just an extraordinary accomplishment

and he's already in a very short period of time put himself on that list of incredible

Dodger performers.

He's been here two years.

He's got two World Series.

He has moments in both of the postseason runs over the last couple of years.

The game that he pitched in the DS against the Padres.

He pitched beautifully against the Yankees in the World Series and then, of course, what

he did last year.

So he, we went from Clayton Kershaw, who was your opening day starter for basically a million

years and, and well deserve.

And then we had briefly had Walker Bueller, who kind of ascended into that role and well

deserved as well.

Walker Bueller was an incredibly important part of what the Dodgers have done.

But we are firmly right smack in the middle of the Yamamoto era and it is, it is a wonderful

time to be a Dodger fan because not only is he well deserving, which we all know, but

it means he's healthy.

It means that he was able to go through what he went through at the end of last season,

get ready to pitch in the WBC.

It's really well in WBC and still be able to get back to Los Angeles and get ready to

go to pitch opening day against the Diamondbacks.

It's just incredibly well deserved, you know, other than Paul Schienz.

I don't know if there's anybody on the planet that I would pick in a one game situation

to go for all the marbles in Yamamoto.

I just, I'm a huge fan of his and I can't wait to see him go on, on opening day.

And you brought up his postseason, but first let's kick off with the regular season because

quietly he became the most reliable arm in this Dodgers rotation because in a year where

the team dealt with injuries left and right from Blake's now, Tyler Glass now and others

and were shuffling their starters constantly.

He was the one guy that never missed a turn.

Thirty starts a two four nine ERA and he finished third in the NL side young voting.

And then of course October that just turned him into a legend in Dodger blue.

He threw back to back complete games in the postseason, something we almost never see

anymore dominating in both the NLCS and the World Series.

And of course, you already brought up the fall classic that game six, six innings game

seven coming in on no rest, securing the Dodgers championship.

So when Dave Roberts says naming him opening day starter was a need to see decision, of course

it was.

And then I don't want to sound bad, but even if Tyler Glass now and Blake's now and

Shohei and Rocky and everybody was in a perfect position, I would still take Yoshi

Noble Yamamoto.

You have a poker of aces in your rotation.

And he's the one that right now he's your no doubter to be your day one starter.

Yeah, look, Shojo Tani is the Dodgers best player.

He is their most famous player.

He might be the greatest player of all time and he's an ace pitcher, but Yamamoto is their

best pitcher.

And quite frankly, it's not close.

It's like those other guys are terrific.

It's no shade at them at all, but as far as what we've seen in the last couple of years,

it's Yamamoto and everyone else, like to your point, he was the one guy that was available

last year.

And think about how unlikely that was coming off of his first season in the major leagues,

where he missed basically the middle chunk of the season.

He started it really well, then missed about three months before he came back and then

was very good at the end again.

And I think at least, you know, I won't say everybody, but my suspicion at the time was,

or my concern was, okay, maybe he's just going to be one of those guys, a little bit like

snow who can pitch sporadically, but to just run him out there once a week or every fifth

day or every sixth day or over the Dodgers want to set it up was maybe he's just not built

for that.

We got to pick the spot so you can deploy him where he's going to be most effective.

But he just went out there and grinded it out all year long and was terrific.

That he's got not only the highest of highs available to him, but that he's got that

grind gear is really something else.

And the Dodg, when they signed him, it's funny.

I was doing the oddly enough, Harry, the Raider Ram game on a Thursday night at Sofie Stadium.

And they showed Otoni on the big screen.

Otoni showed up for that game at Sofie Stadium and everybody goes crazy.

It's like Dodgers had just signed him and everybody's going crazy.

He's seeing Otoni at the Rams game.

And then after the game, it's the game that Baker Mayfield came back and beat the Raiders

at the last minute, there was an announcement that, oh, by the way, the Dodger signed this

guy Yoshinova Yamamoto as well.

And it was kind of lost in the sauce a little bit because the Rams had just had a huge

win.

Otoni was in the building at the time.

And I was remember saying, hold on, don't lose track of who this guy is.

This guy is one of the best pitchers on the planet.

You might not be familiar with him yet, but you will be.

And he's lived up to all of the possible hype, all that 325 million.

It's just been been worth every penny and he just continues to get better and better.

And I think we're just getting started with this guy.

And look, opening day for us baseball fans is a super special day.

But for Yamamoto, now it has another layer because last year it was awesome him being in

his native country in Japan at the Tokyo dome starting off the season.

But this year, it's going to be a Dodger stadium, banner ceremony, full house, the start

of a three-peat chase.

That's going to be one of the coolest opening day moments we've seen in a very, very long

time.

And if you're Yamamoto, this is exactly the kind of spotlight you signed up for when you

came into major league baseball and Travis, I have another trivia for you.

Who was the last Dodger's pitcher before Clayton Kershaw to have the opening day start for

the boys in blue and back-to-back seasons?

The last guy before Kershaw.

Kershaw had it from 2011 all the way through 2018 and then 2021.

There was one guy who had three in a row, 05 through 07.

Is it like Chad Billingsley or something like that?

Close.

Derek Lowe.

He had it.

2005 through 2007 and here's another part.

Joshi is the first pitcher since Kershaw to have back-to-back opening day starts for

the Dodgers because you had Ryu in 2019, May in 2020, Bueller in 22, Rias in 23, glass

down in 2020, or Yamamoto in 25.

That right there tells you, hey man, being the opening day starter isn't an easy gig and

it's something that you earn and Yamamoto last year, maybe you can say, okay, they gave

him the shot because they were pitching in Japan.

They were playing at the Tokyo Dome right here.

He's an undoubted day one starter opening day guy for the Dodgers.

That's something really cool.

It is.

It's very cool and it's something that he should be very proud of but when you're listing

off all those other names, those guys that had one shot at it, to me, it just speaks to

how random and how difficult it is to stay healthy.

There more than anything else, it speaks to how good Kershaw was to stay healthy that

off into it.

By the time the season rolled around again, he's ready to go at the beginning of the

year.

I just think that it speaks really highly of Yamamoto that he's able to take care of

himself like that and quite frankly get a little lucky too because health is a lot of

good luck along the way and then all those other guys cycle through just go show hard

it is to stay healthy for a long period of time.

Yamamoto.

Second Dodgers pitcher to get consecutive opening day starts since 2008.

The other one is Clayton Kershaw but how crazy is it?

From 93 through 04, 5 different Dodgers pitchers had back to back opening day starts and

two of them Travis who are actually going to be with this Saturday Ramon Martinez and

Oro Herschizer.

Yeah, we're going to see the guys out at Legend's Attic again on Saturday.

So if you want to check that out, go ahead and Legend's Attic.com.

You can see what the tickets are and the availability and all that kind of stuff.

I'll be out there going to get a chance to interview Ramon and Oro and for the first

time I'm going to chance to talk to Pedro Martinez which I'm incredibly excited about.

One of the great pitchers never mind of his era.

He's one of the great pitchers ever and so it's going to be a real treat to get to talk

to Pedro.

I can't wait to share it with everybody.

Yeah, and also one of the most awesome media personalities now today on TV Pedro as

well.

So go check them out.

Go check out great poker of pitchers right there as well.

If you include Travis Rogers, Travis, Oro, Pedro, Ramon, I mean that rotation.

I'd stack it up against the Dodgers one nowadays as well.

So one of these things is not like the others.

That's cool.

Yeah.

It's like one of them doesn't belong.

No, you absolutely belong, Travis.

You absolutely belong, brother.

That's cool that you get to be out there with the fellas.

Not with those guys.

Go check out Legend's Attic this Saturday.

All right.

Circling back and finishing off now with Yoshi.

No, we got a moto.

The cool part is that he didn't come here to just be good.

He came here to dominate to winsai youngs and I feel that this year he's going to have

a really good shot at it.

Of course I got guy up in Pittsburgh.

He's going to be doing a good encore as well, but let's hope that Yoshi makes it even

closer this season.

But one thing's for sure.

One of those two guys is going to be fighting for a World Series championship.

The other one.

Good luck.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It won't be because of anything ski.

I can't wait to see both of them.

Yamamoto may be one of those things like it's like going up against Jordan in the NBA when

Jordan was at his prime.

You might be the second best player in the world and then he's like, yeah, cool.

Whatever.

It's all about Jordan and skiing is from another planet.

Yamamoto might be too, but I can't wait to watch both those guys.

Yeah.

And for Yamaha, he's the guy at the top of a championship rotation.

And when I posted the video yesterday, when Dave Roberts spoke about everybody, it was

like, well, yeah, of course, but, hey, man, he made it official.

And it's something that always happens every spring training.

The manager comes up to a microphone and declares who the opening day starter and year

after year after year after year for many years, it was Kirshokusha Kirshokusha Kirshokusha

now.

We get Yamaha.

All right.

Next, unlock Don Dodgers.

The Dodgers have another superstar from Japan whose timeline now is suddenly changing.

And it might mean we see him on the Mount sooner than expected.

We're talking about Shohei Otani in just a bit.

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dot com and use the code March or a month free show Hey O Tani might pitch sooner than

expected the Dodgers might be getting something they didn't expect before opening day show

Hey on a mound very very soon because when O Tani left the Dodgers camp to plan the WBC

the expectation was pretty simple Japan will probably go deep in the tournament maybe even

when the whole thing and because of that the Dodgers weren't planning on using O Tani

as a pitcher during the CAC to seek schedule well things changed Japan was knocked out

in the quarter finals which means O Tani is headed back to Dodgers camp sooner than

plan he was there on Monday and suddenly there's an opportunity so the good thing here

Travis that while he was away he was still preparing as a pitcher he kept his arm active

throwing both end sessions and even simulating multiple innings of live batting practice that's

positive for the boys and blue.

Yeah I mean like this is this is just get the continuation of him getting ready to pitch

in games that matter had he been in the finals tomorrow or I guess it's tonight against

the the Americans you know Venezuela not beat them he would be working on the side with

with team Japan and now he can do it with this team this is this is all good you know this

is just the randomness of that tournament this is the randomness of baseball where sometimes

you you know you lose a game that you don't expect to lose and all of a sudden you got

to figure something else out and I don't have any doubts that the Dodgers will get him ready

to go I don't have any doubts that when he does get unleashed against whether that's against

Arizona or the series after that you know Otoni is going to be ready to go I I'm really

excuse me excited to see how much depth they give him right out of the gates like are we

going to really slow play it the way that they did last year with you know really hard

cap and if pitching counter and innings limit or they're going to kind of let it ride a

little deeper I don't I don't think you're going to see him pitch six seven innings right

out of the shoot but could you see him pitch four or five right out of the shoot yeah I don't

know but I that he's healthy is really all that matters whether he gets a couple of A.B.s

or gets get chance to pitch against a couple A.B.s in spring training and you show Otoni basically

just showed up in the middle of the big league season last year and was ready to go so if he

does it great if he doesn't great I think he's going to be show hey when it's go time well I have

your answer for that inning question courtesy of Dave Roberts yesterday at Dodgers camp lets

us in a duck I think that you know last year we we had the plan to start from one inning to keep him

going active with this playing I think this year we're certainly north of that so whether it's

you know I don't see how we won't be able to get to three or four innings in a major league game

so that's certainly a better jumping off point than last year so we'll see how it goes so

definitely a better spot than twenty twenty five now in twenty twenty six looking at three to four

innings to kick off things and that's the positive right now for the Dodgers at the ramp up

process is already underway instead of last year just literally starting from zero in major league

games this year you already have him pretty much ready to go out there for three to four innings it's

better than what we were doing in twenty twenty five where it was pretty much a bullpen game for

Shohei Otani over his first couple of months on the mound starting in June now you got him for

multiple innings right off the bat depending on how things go so that's good that's the answer to

the question are do you feel a little bit more ease hearing that Dave says first off three to four

innings I think the part that jumps out of me is the fact that you won't have to lean on your

bullpen is heavily on the days that he's takes the ball because like you mentioned when when he

was pitching from the vast majority of last year when he would pitch that meant that you're going

to probably have to use seven other guys maybe six if somebody could get extended a little bit here

there and you know can you do it on any given day sure but what happens if the next day the other

guy is in particularly sharp and now you're back in the bullpen in the third or fourth or fifth inning

in that game and you just we saw it last year where the Dodgers really leaned on their bullpen for

an extended period of time and it it cost them later in the season when those guys were just

completely out of gas so hopefully that that mitigates this a little bit you know I've always

thinking that the pitching plans early in the season are more hopes than they are reality so

hopefully he goes out there and is really sharp and is very efficient in his pitches I think that's

one of the things about Otani that kind of gets lost a little bit sometimes he's a little inefficient

and how he goes about his his counts and whatnot but hopefully he's ready to go and the part

that I'm looking forward to more than anything else here is when we can just talk about Otani just

as a pitcher and not a a pitcher with limits and and well how many pitches he's going to throw

many and he's going to throw just let the hitters decide when it's time for him to come out because

I I think we got to be getting close to that no doubt about it and let's also remember the Dodgers

have been extremely careful with his pitching rehab so we got to see what the next step is are

they going to let him pitch in a in a cactus league game are they going to save him potentially

for a freeway series against the angels right before opening day now that you know that he won't

be pitching on Thursday against the debacks and they're always thinking long term they want him

healthy deep into the season in October not just ready for April so those are all questions

that are being asked about him but if anything that WBC disappointment might just being now the

new fuel to for him for the rest of the season and also where Yoshi know we Yamamoto which

honestly is kind of terrifying for the rest of baseball so how aggressive do you all think

that the Dodgers should be with Joe Hale tiny pitching this early should they ease him in slowly

or let him ramp up sooner if he's ready let us know what you think in the comments on YouTube

or via our social media all right coming up on lockdown Dodgers we've got a listener line

question that's really interesting someone asked whether the Dodgers made a risky investment

signing Cal Tucker and we're going to explain why we think the exact opposite might be true that's

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underscore Ruiz and tiktok at harry Ruiz underscore why kowtucker might be the Dodgers perfect star

we got a great question on the lockdown Dodgers this online from john in Tampa about kowtucker

let's listen to it i just listened to your show for the first time yesterday because i followed kowtucker

since he was a high school player and i was questioning the decision to sign pile even though i

am a big fan for approximately sixty million dollars a year period i'm wondering if this was not

too much to pay and why the Dodgers did that i was thinking four years 150 million and obviously

they were much more generous the issue i see is that kowtucker playing baseball year round for a

very long time and i'm not too sure he will age that well so it's a it's a risky investment

at that level per year uh although i understand the short contract and any event i'd like to know

what your thoughts are uh and also i would advise you having watched him all the way up through

from plant to the astros the cubs who now with you that he gets in these elongated frustrating

slumps and can't seem to buy a hit that all of a sudden he hits for a storm

i will tell you that he's always hit the best on the west coast and recall that he won the triple

crown and the pcl in 2017 all right shout out to john first time caller all the way from tampa

florida so first off i was looking to help his numbers in triple a in the pcl which is a very hit

or friendly league i didn't find him as a triple crown winner he had great numbers with the

Fresno grizzlies while he was there uh for the astros but he didn't win the triple crown down there

but he had like i said some killer numbers 24 home runs 93 rbis 20 stolen basis 332 batting average

also when they went over to round rock 26 home sorry 34 home runs 97 rbis uh how many 30 stolen

basis or 30 30 in 2019 in triple a not triple crown but triple crown like numbers uh Travis when

you hear about that about the risk i'll just say this every player that the dodgers have signed or

traded for with big numbers attached to their salaries or risks and they've just been the gambler that

beat the house every time that they're up there either at the craps table at the back of our table

the the blackjack table they've just been winning with the gambles that they've taken and i think

that would call Tucker it's going to be the same case yeah who knows i mean eventually you miss

and i don't know if Kyle Tucker will be the guy you miss on or not when you place a bunch of big

bets you don't hit on every single one of them they hit on mookie they hit on Freddy they hit

on show hey they hit on yellow moto they they just they really have not missed on any of these big

guys that they've gone for um i don't i don't know about Kyle Tucker he's he's a terrific player i

don't think that's a concern i think that uh what what uh he was talking about as far as him aging

he just turned 29 so by the time that this deal is over he'll be 33 that's right smack in the middle

of a player's prime so i i don't worry about him you know aging poorly i i understand the idea

of him playing a lot of baseball but so has everyone else at this point that you know the the way

that these guys are brought through the system now is very different than it used to be a while

ago um is he expensive yeah and it's not just the 60 million a year when you put in all the penalties

and luxury tax and everything else he costs about a hundred million a year by the time it's all

said and done um the thing that i think is is interesting is that he doesn't have to be great he

just needs to be himself he just needs to do what he's done throughout his career and that's exactly

what the Dodgers are paying him to do i i think he's their second best player right now i think

that otani is their guy and then after that it's probably Tucker now mookie can bounce back and have

a great year and mookie can jump back to that number two spot Freddie Freeman is always going to give

you an incredible year and be somewhere between your second or third or fourth best player and on

this team that's amazing um counter doesn't have to go out there and hit 50 home runs this isn't a

team that he's joining where it's like okay go do everything for us he just needs to be part of the

thing um you know we'll see i the only thing that does give me pause is that the Dodgers have been

so good at giving out big money to people and having not you just don't bet a thousand in that

eventually you get one of them that's a little wrong now maybe Tanner Scott was the one that's

a little wrong but 70 million is a lot different than a hundred million a year um so so so we'll see

i i think he's going to be just fine i think he's going to slide right in there and have a monster

year there's not a ton of pressure there um he's he's just a really really good player that's

going to hit in the middle of a very very good lineup yeah last year they struck out with Tanner

Scott curbiates and micacomforto two of those deals were one year deals Tanner Scott were hoping he

bounces back and that was was a more longer term deal but didn't reach the hundred million threshold

right there but when it comes to Tucker i 1000% agree with you that they didn't sign them to be a

traditional superstar they signed them to be a stabilizer because look at that lineup you said

it show hey mookie Freddy those guys are explosive players who can carry an offense for weeks at a

time and even though as john from tampa brought up on his voicemail check out the dot locked on

dodgers this in the line you can leave your point of view there as well that he gets those cold

streaks well the good thing in this lineup is that you can get a cold streak and then the guy

behind you can pick you up or the guy after that can pick you up instead of your cult sucker

in another team and you are the number one or number two superstar and you get into a cold streak

then that team season might be a modified affected on the long term because there's nobody else

that can pick you up so Tucker one of the most disciplined players in baseball he sees tons of pitches

he doesn't chase much outside the zone he consistently puts himself in good counts i feel that you

get a max Muncie but with a more of a superstar role higher in the lineup so if you got two of those

guys in the lineup that's fantastic and that's what the dodgers were going for and that they over

pay yes it's higher than anybody expected him to go for but like you said Travis if somebody

valleys you at a certain price you're worth it yeah no i he got his money good for him you know

you're you're worth exactly what somebody's willing to give you i think the one thing that

i don't even want to say gives me pause or worries me it's not it's not that it's not that far

down is that he plays with a a disposition that seems a little disaffected he does not play

with a ton of emotion he is not a guy that wears his emotions on his sleeve this is not max Muncie

or Freddie Freeman or or or or mookie bets he's just really kind of chill like think JD Drew if

you're old enough to remember JD Drew it looks like they're just kind of going through it doesn't

mean that they are but that's what it looks like and if it does look like that and he does get off

to a slow start and they are paying him 60 million dollars a year what is the response of the

fans and then what is his response to the response and i think that can get a little interesting

because this is not somebody that is going to you know lift your emotions with his demonstrative

personality he's a pretty plain guy who happens to be a very very good player we'll see we'll see

how Dodger fans respond to but i i think he's going to have a really good he's just a very very

good player and good players continue to play pretty well so i'm i'm not worried about it really

at all and even if it's that's not like the way that the his flare that he brings to the game you

go into the clubhouse and you got to ask her on one side keke on the other micky roll guys that

bring that type of flavor to baseball and then the rest of the clubhouse is infected by it in a

positive way he could end up changing the way that he sees the game i know that most of the time

the player is the way he is the all the way but i feel that he's going to be going through a positive

reaction being with the team not only winning on the field but having positive interactions off

off of it and it's easy to see why the Dodgers believe he fits perfectly in this team and this

isn't just about adding another star it's about building the most relentless lineup in baseball so

for other teams he might have not been worth 60 million dollars for the Dodgers he does because

he just takes the lineup to another level and that's saying a lot when it comes to this uh

stacked lineup that the Dodgers fab so when it comes to kalt Tucker do you think the Dodgers made the

right call giving him that massive contract or do you see it as a risky move we want to hear your

thoughts you know it on the comment section on youtube or via our social media at lot thom

Dodgers then before we say goodbye we just got to bring up breaking news Dave Roberts has confirmed

that show hey old honey will be pitching in the freeway series so no more pitching in Arizona when

it comes to a game he will be doing it right before opening day against his former team the angels

all right that'll do it for today's pod thank you for making lot done Dodgers your first

listen of the day and thank you for making lot done the number one sports podcast network we'll

be back tomorrow team USA with will Smith takes on Venezuela with the 2026 wbc title on the

line Travis i know you're not into predictions but it won't be about the score it'll be about

is mark de rosa gonna play will smith as a starting catcher again or will cal rally be the man

that gets the not today yeah i think it'll probably be rolle just because rolle has been the

starter that they've run out there and in most of the gotta have it kind of games but uh i wouldn't

be surprised to see will smith at some point i hope will smith gets in the game but uh hard to keep

a 60 home run bat on the bench for a couple of games in a row hey it worked in the last game so

i hope that will smith is back out there and hey you never know he might be able to frame some for

for the for the pictures all right if you're never missing episode the every day or club is built for

you lot done Dodgers get lot done Dodgers ad free plus members only discord access and more

head to lot done Dodgers dot supercast dot com to join the club for those of you on video we

send you to the first ever 24 seven national lot done podcast network youtube channel

an audio make sure you make your second listen of the day a lot done fantasy baseball as you

gear up for the mlp season Travis and i appreciate you writing with us until next time keep it real

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