SHOCK: Loaded Team USA STUNNED | Dodgers Stars SNUBBED from Top 100

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Dodgers, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network.

On today's show, Rocky Sasaki flashed Ace-level stuff on Tuesday, striking out nearly every

one he faced against minor league opposition.

We're diving into the Lockdown MLB Top 100 list where seven Dodgers made the ranking

but several key names were mysteriously left off.

But first, absolute chaos at the World Baseball Classic, team USA loaded with MVPs and superstars

got stunned by Italy and one of the craziest upsets this tournament has ever seen.

Travis, the Americans don't even control their own fate anymore.

No, I mean, wow, did that happen fast and the manager may have blown this in a very, very

major way.

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The big headline of the day, if super teams are easy, team USA wouldn't be in trouble.

If you had asked anyone before the world baseball classic started, who the favorite was to

win the tournament?

A lot of people would have said team USA without hesitation, Aaron Judge, Bobby with Jr.

Gunner Henderson, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, and we can keep going on and on and on and

on.

A lineup full of MVP candidates and all start and yet Tuesday night, they got punched

in the mouth Italy beat team USA 8 to 6 and it wasn't even as close as the score makes

it sound Travis because the Italians jumped on the Americans early.

They launched three home runs in the first few earnings and they built an 8 to nothing

lead before team USA could catch its breath and start thinking, wait, what are the type

breakers of this tournament?

Oh crap, we need to start scoring a lot of runs and think about coming back on this

one.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it is a great example of why we love baseball the way we do and

how every time you think you kind of know what's going to happen, you're probably wrong.

It's just, I mean, weird stuff happens in this game.

The Italians, you know, beaten up the Americans in the WBC.

I don't think it was on anybody's bingo card and that's exactly what happened.

And I mean, now all of a sudden, it gets weird where like you said, Harry, you have to

hope that Mexico or that Italy wins or if Mexico wins by a very specific score that if

Mexico scores more than five runs and wins that game, the Americans are out.

Now, if Mexico wins and it's a four, they win four to nothing, four to one, four to two

or four to three, the Americans do advance in that spot.

So there's all sorts of weird things that can happen there.

But, you know, every game matters and every run in a tournament like this matters.

Those were those runs they gave up against Brazil matter.

They mean the runs that thankfully they got back in the game against Italy last night.

Good potentially matter.

But yeah, it's just shocking and it's funny, you know, watching it last night, it just

goes to remind you that even if you have the best team with the best players, the best situation,

etc, doesn't guarantee you anything.

And I think, you know, for me, at least something out of the dawn, they have the best players.

They are the favorites.

They are the team that, you know, has the deepest line up, the most pitching, etc, etc.

And it doesn't really guarantee you anything.

So it was a really good reminder of how quickly this stuff can change.

If they don't make it out of their pool, this is one of the great upsets in sports that

we've seen in years.

I mean, they were heavy, heavy favorites to not just maybe win the whole thing, but certainly

to win their pool and they may be going home in a day.

Exactly.

And the crazy part is you go and mark your Rosa that same day, Tuesday, early in the day,

he was on MLB network pretty much saying it's like, yeah, we already, we're in the quarter

finals and I've got to get some guys off their feet.

They still had a pretty good lineup.

When you go with the guys up and down that lineup, they had a good lineup.

They had Aaron Judge batting cleanup.

They ended up, I will Smith.

I know he ain't Cal Rally hitting 50 plus home runs, but he's a damn good catcher.

Peacrow Armstrong all star last season, bad second half, but still a damn good player.

And it was like, what's going on?

They get tacked on eight runs early and it's like, oh boy, I'll be honest.

I'm a team Mexico and a team USA fan.

I was like, okay, Italy, Mexico, it's winning.

You're in, but then I was like, wait, if Italy wins, that was the game.

It's a three and one, three and one.

And then if Mexico wins on Wednesday, it's three and one.

Everybody, what's the tie breakers?

I was like, and I start reading.

I'm like, oh boy.

And the game starts, it's going on.

And it literally, and you had Clinton Kershaw warming up in this game.

It was a situation where it's like, you need to throw in Mason Miller.

And hope Italy doesn't score no more runs and use some, some way somehow try to come back and win it.

I think you're spot on.

I think DeRosa really screwed this up and he took ownership of it after it.

So I'll give him credit for that, but they weren't into the quarterfinals.

They had not qualified, they had not, you know, punched their ticket through to the next round.

And I hear what you're saying and you're right that they put together a good lineup

because no matter who you throw out there is going to be pretty good.

But I think you would agree.

I certainly feel this way.

I think most people said, that wasn't their best lineup.

That wasn't the best team that they could have put out there.

To your point, the pitching that they were setting up to do, those weren't their best guys

after McLean started the game.

And you needed to win that game.

And I'm sure the way that DeRosa positioned it with his guys,

I'm sure the way that the vibe in the clubhouse was, hey, we got this thing.

It wasn't a, hey, we're not in yet.

You know, just that mental, that switch you throw in your head between, hey,

no matter what happens we're in and hey, we need to win to advance to the next thing.

They clearly did not have that right.

It's a major, major mistake.

And, you know, maybe they'll get, maybe they'll get fortunate and they'll get to advance anyway.

And maybe this is the scare they needed to kind of get themselves over the top to begin with.

But Harry, if they don't get out, I mean, what a catastrophe.

No doubt about it.

I want to reference a tweet I saw from June Lee, an independent sports journalist previously on ESPN.

He said the following and quote, quote, quote the video from MLB network,

which by the way, MLB took down from their socials from their YouTube channel.

That's what you need to know, right?

That they took it down tells you how damaging it actually is.

No doubt about it.

It's like crazy.

But then it's like the, if it's on the internet, it lives forever.

June Lee posted USA hockey head coach, two time Stanley Cup champ, USA basketball head coach,

four times finals champ, USA soccer head coach, champions league runner up.

USA baseball manager, talk show host.

I know, Mark DeRosa is a decade plus veteran in the big leagues.

He's been there.

He's done that.

But you need some, someone that knows how to manage a team.

Somebody that knows how to what's on the line and what the format of the damn tournament is to be like,

OK, we got to do this.

We got to do that.

Japan, they were locked in for the next round.

When they were up three, when they won their first three games,

they benched some of their starters.

Show Haylton, you didn't play in the final game of full play at the Tokyo Dome,

but they had no issue because everybody else was playing for second place.

They couldn't reach them right here.

You just had to do the numbers and be like, man,

if we lose, we're going to be in a tight spot.

Yeah, they blew it.

They're like, there's no spinning it.

They blew it.

And somebody needed to tell him on his staff, like he should have known himself that to the number one

responsibility of a manager of a head coach of how we want to say it is to understand the format

of what it is you're going into play.

Because like, look, the Olympics are different than the NBA.

The Olympics are different than the NHL.

They understand the rules and how this is and how the number one priority for Mark DeRosa

after he had his roster and how he wants to do this is, how do we get out of our pool?

And then it's, okay, how do you win in the knockout round?

And then he didn't understand that a three-way tie goes to a tiebreaker and a loss to Italy,

put them in a position where it could be a three-way tie.

It's just a huge failure on his part.

It's a huge failure on his staff's part.

It's a huge failure on USA Baseball's part where somebody didn't go, yo, you're not in

yet.

You need to win this game.

If you don't win, you don't control your own destiny.

That's up to somebody else at this point that that never happened.

It's a failure across the board.

And you know, look, Aaron Judge, Bryce Hart for all these guys on this team.

And if they get knocked out in the pool, what does that feel like?

How do you carry that around knowing that you put together the best American team ever

and you can't get out of your pool?

That's brutal.

And honestly Travis and this makes a circle, all back to the Dodgers.

It's a perfect reminder of something that we've talked about in this show.

Baseball is the ultimate chaos sport.

The best roster doesn't always win.

It doesn't guarantee you that you're going to win a championship.

You could have the biggest payroll and it doesn't guarantee absolutely nothing.

To your point, it makes it almost a very high possibility, not a guarantee, but a high

probability that you'll make it to the playoffs.

Once you make it to the postseason, then it's a different monster because just like the

Dodgers team USA is stacked with elite players, but right now they're struggling to survive

full play.

And look, you ask anybody, you win three out of four games, everybody's going to say,

yes, I'll take that.

But you never thought that the rest of your opposition would be playing the way that

they're playing right now.

And that's something that you have to contemplate that you have to consider.

That's it.

You know, once you saw that Italy had not lost a game, you know, hey, the plan has changed,

right?

Because I think everybody thought that that game between Mexico and the United States

was going to be the one to win the pool because we assumed that Italy would have lost

a game leading up to this point.

Well, they haven't.

And now all of a sudden Italy is in charge of this pool.

Italy is the team that can go through the pool unbeaten.

They can be the top seed coming out of it.

And now you're down to a tiebreaker between Mexico and USA.

And it's a, it's, I mean, it's, it's a mess if they don't get out.

Travis, it's as easy as this.

Why do you play Terrick Scooble, who's only going to pitch once in the tournament against

a great Britain?

Those guys are great playing soccer.

Basically, I'm not that much.

I know that they'll take some players that are born in the States with British roots to

go and play in the tournament, but save them.

Look at the rosters and be like, OK, maybe Italy is more worthy of facing Scooble.

They played schemes against Mexico.

They didn't think that one twice.

They should have think three, three, three times about where to pitch Terrick Scooble.

And now, I mean, I didn't, I didn't think it was going to be must watch TV today.

Mexico, Italy.

And now all the United States fans are going to be watching.

And that's another part too, Travis.

I look at other teams on other fan bases.

And I think that they're taking it way more seriously than the United States.

They were taking it for granted that they were going to make it to the quarterfinals.

And that maybe they'll start paying attention in the quarterfinals, semi-finals, championship

game.

And that's something that needs to be evaluated too.

I think it's possible.

I certainly think Mark DeRosa did not have his eye on the prize.

I think that's for sure.

I can't speak to the players look to be playing hard.

The players I don't think are taking a lot for granted.

I think American baseball fans did.

I think that, you know, you look at the Dominican fans.

You look at the Puerto Rican fans, the Mexican fans, the Japanese fans, the Korean fans.

They're certainly more invested in this than maybe the American fans are.

But I know I'm not going to say that about the players because I'm not in that clubhouse.

I can't speak to their level.

When I watch it, it looks like they're engaged, but their manager certainly dropped the ball.

There's no question about that.

I'll say this.

If the US does make it to the next round, they might be unstoppable because they won't

take nothing for granted, having to sweat, watching other teams be with their ticket on

the line for the next round.

That's for sure.

And look, winning championships is very hard.

And it's exactly why circling back to the Dodgers, what they've built is remarkable

with the team that they have.

Everybody thinks it's easy to win championships like that?

No, it's not.

Look at team USA.

They're sweating bullets right now.

All right.

Next on Lockdown Dodgers, seven Dodgers players made the Lockdown MLB Top 100 list.

But honestly, in my opinion, that number should be higher.

I've got three Dodgers who absolutely deserved to be ranked in one of those snubs is especially

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Seven boys and blue made the locked on MLB top 100 but these Dodgers were rubbed because

yes, they dominated the top 50 but when you go deeper at it Travis, I gotta say Edwin

Diaz, not being on this list is crazy.

The Defending Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year.

He has won that award twice over the last four years.

One of the most dominant closures in the sport and somehow not in the top 100.

That right there in my opinion is tough to justify.

Yeah, I think had he been in there.

I don't think it would have been a huge surprise.

I think that it would have been understandable that he is.

I think it's probably to do with the fact that you mentioned Diaz's career has kind of

been good year.

Not so good year.

Not so good year.

He kind of ping ponds back and forth between that, which by the way, pretty common for relief

pitchers.

That's just kind of the way that relief arm goes.

I think this is one of the reasons that I'm optimistic about Tanner Scott as I think

that just because he was really lousy last year doesn't mean that he'll be really lousy

this year.

There's a chance for a bounce back but I'm with you.

I think Diaz, if you're just looking at the best 100 players in baseball, the guys like

if we're just, if you just put everybody into a draft, it does, Edwin Diaz get picked

in the first 100 picks.

I think he does.

I think he deserves to be in there so I'm with you on that and I'm just trying to come

over the reasons why maybe he wouldn't have been in there and that's really all I can

come up with because he's been, you know, and by the way, it's only a little bit, a

little inconsistent but I'm with you.

I think he probably should have been in there as well.

And Vitt were the 2025 MLB, the lockdown MLB top 100, I get it.

He didn't play in 24, he was not good.

You look at all the stuff like we said, one year good, one year bad, one year goes alternating

back and forth.

After a bad year, I would get it if he's not on the top 100.

He was a reliever of the year last season.

He definitely elite closures impact games at the highest leverage moments imaginable.

They shorten games and if you don't put Diaz in that top 100, I don't know what you're

doing.

So fellow lockdown host that didn't have Diaz in the top 100, I'm keeping an eye on

you.

Then there's Tyler Glass.

Now, and look, I understand the injury history conversation, but if Blake Snell is ranked

comfortably inside the top 50 missing a bunch of time just like last now did last year,

why is Tyler Glass now not in the top 100 because when healthy Travis, he has some of

the nastiest stuff in baseball.

Yeah, I think that the comparison you make with Snell is the right one because they

played about the same amount and actually Glaznell might even have played a little bit

more than Snell did.

I think Glaznell's reputation works against him here and the reputation is twofold and

I think that one kind of works against the other because he's so talented because this

stuff is so amazing.

It feels like you're actually getting even less when he misses time and he misses a lot

of time.

This goes back to Pittsburgh.

This goes back to Tampa.

This is continued as he's come to Los Angeles that whenever you see these lists of who's

got the best stuff in baseball, Tyler Glass now's name shows up every single time.

Like one of the toughest at bats that any major leagueers are going to have come against

Tyler Glass now.

He just doesn't play enough.

Like I understand why Tyler Glass now has left off these lists because he's just not

available often enough.

I appreciate your point with Snell, but Snell typically has been a little bit more available

than Glaznell.

But if we're just talking pure talent, Glaznell is not only on the list, he's near the top

of the list.

I think he is one, I didn't want to say a full season.

I'm not saying that he's got to go through and make 35 starts.

I'm saying, can we get a season where Tyler Glass now makes 25 starts, maybe even 21

or 22 starts?

I think he rockets up the list of things like this.

He obviously is one of the most talented guys.

He just hasn't played enough.

And then there's a player Dodgers fans appreciate way more than national rankings ever will

max Muncie.

Is he going to win an MVP more than likely not, probably not, or I'll say no.

But is he somebody that one, he's out of this lineup for X, Y, or C reason, the Dodgers

absolutely feel that he's not there 1000% his impact on this team Travis is incredible.

Now the longest 10 year Dodgers Dodger player on this roster.

I know his defense is always a little that a little circumstance that people say, but

I'll be honest, I watch almost every single Dodgers game and I have more damn.

What a good play than damn.

What a mistake that Max Muncie just threw right there like the inverse of Teosca Hernandez.

With his bat, he's amazing.

His discipline up at the plate is great.

It's literally the moment he gets injured is when this lineup goes from being old damn.

They're great.

Oh, we're missing something right there in the middle that we're now we're not connecting

the top to the bottom.

Yeah.

Look, I think let's start with the defense.

He went from a substandard defender to he's fine.

You know, no one's going to think that he's manning Machado over there.

He's not going to be somebody like that.

He's not going to be Nolan Aranotto holding down third base defensively, but he went from

a eye to a no, he's fine.

He does what needs to be done.

He makes the plays you would expect him to make and that's fine and offensively like to

your point, he is kind of a glue that holds a lot of this stuff together.

I think that the thing that works against Max Muncie quite frankly is that he's just

buried on a team with a million other stars that if Max Muncie were stayed with the Oakland

A's for instance, I think you would get a little more shine if Max Muncie were a Chicago

cub or even an Atlanta brave and he was one of two or three good players on a team we

talked about.

The problem is Max Muncie's one of eight or nine or ten or twelve good players on the

Dodgers and Dodger fans certainly understand it because we get to see him every night, we

get to appreciate everything he is.

But if you're just kind of dropping in occasionally, you're looking at Otani and Betts and Freeman

and Will Smith and you know, Snell and Yamamoto and Kershaw when he was here and all those

other guys, it was a bit, he's just going to get lost in the shuffle.

So I understand why it's not there, but they're not too many third baseman and baseball

that I trade him for.

Same here, same here and look.

So while the Dodgers already dominated the top 100 list, seven in the top 50, there's

a very real argument that at least three more names deserved recognition and maybe this

time next year we might be talking about damn, maybe they needed five more players on

this list.

Who Alex Messia has a great year pop him in there.

If Andy Pahez has an amazing third season pop him in there as well.

Tommy Admin, when he's healthy, he's incredible because this roster isn't just talented, it's

absurdly deep and it's the embarrassment of riches.

Know that about it.

I think that the guys that are more likely to pop in are pitchers than they are position

players.

I mean, I think a year from now, if Emmett Sheen was on the list, if Rocky Sasaki was

on the list, like that wouldn't surprise me if Gavin Stone had a great year.

Like he did a couple of years ago, like I think those guys have an opportunity as well.

They just, they got talent all over the field.

And speaking of talent coming up on lockdown Dodgers, the Dodgers might have another ace developing

Rocky Sasaki flashed electric stuff, even if the hitters he faced on Tuesday were minor

leagueers.

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Meanwhile, you can find Travis at Travis Rodgers on it, X and Instagram and I'm on X at

Harry Ruiz Instagram at Harry underscore Ruiz and at TikTok at Harry under Harry Ruiz

under sorry, once again at Harry Ruiz underscore Rocky Sasaki flashes a stuffed even if it was

just only against prospect and love spring training is always tricky when it comes to evaluating

pictures.

Sometimes a dominant outing comes against minor leagueers and that's what happened yesterday

or Rocky Sasaki who Travis his first two starts and cactus league action weren't good.

The second one he actually got pulled even before finishing the first inning and then came

back to pitch a couple of innings where he looked better, but yesterday they just decided

throwing in the backfields and having play against the prospects, the minor leagueers

from the Chicago White Sox and let's see what happens and he was actually pretty damn

good.

He struck out nine, including six in a row.

This fastball was sitting between 98 and 100 miles per hour.

It was something impressive, but now we go back to the same what you say spring training

games, preseason games, you don't put a lot of stock into it and I feel right here it

was more that they just wanted to have him have a slump bluster and be like okay, they're

cool feel comfortable and now we'll throw you in there later, but right before we go

to the freeway series.

Yeah, I understand that much like when he pitched poorly a couple of times I kind of shrug

my shoulders like yeah, whatever, it doesn't really move me, this doesn't really move

me that much either that I do kind of agree with you on the idea of building some confidence,

but Rocky Sasaki knows those guys aren't major leagueers like him going out there and mowing

down a bunch of minor like he better mow down minor leagueers, he's you know, he's supposed

what he's supposed to do that's not you know, just blowing away a bunch of guys that you're

supposed to blow away. Okay, I mean, I guess it's good that he did it, but I think that

Rocky Sasaki is going to be evaluated on how he pitches when it matters and when I'm optimistic

we've seen him, you know, step up in really important moments we saw in in in October

last year, we saw him struggle in moments last year as well early in the season. So the

velocity is good. I think matters. I think that is that is an encouraging sign that the

pitches had bite. I think matters that that's an encouraging sign, but the the results that

in and of themselves don't really move me all that much. I I'm really curious to see how he's

going to do this year. I'm really curious to see how they're going to use him. I'm really

curious to see how much runway they're going to give him if he does get off to a bumpy start,

like do you give him three starts? Do you give him 10? Like what what how do you use him if he's

not as sharp as you would like him to be before you say, all right, we need to reevaluate

this. We need to tweak some things in the minor leagues. We might have to move into the bullpen.

I I think that's one of the big questions through the early part of the season. Yeah,

here's his stat line from yesterday's game for innings pitched one hit no earn runs one hit by

pitch nine strikeouts in 59 pitches 40 of them were strikes that's a stat line where you're like,

okay, he's looking better. Now let's hope that like I I will say after last year what we saw

from him the images and the dugout with him having tears in his eyes going then afterwards to

triple A and even in triple A he was struggling before he came back to the big leagues and became

the Dodgers top reliever out of the bullpen. I feel that this slumpbuster confidence booster however

you want to say it is going to be important for him, especially Dave Roberts after the game

he said that rookie Sasaki is going to be a part of the opening day rotation. He's going to be a

starter for this team as the season kicks off. So you know that they have all the trust in the

world in him. Now it's what can he bring and that developing that third pitch is going to be a big

part of his repertoire as well. Yeah, I don't think they have all the trust in the world and I

think that that that's just being nice. That's just saying something because you have to say

something into a TV camera. They they're figuring it out just like he's figuring it out. The guys

they have trust in are Yamamoto and Otani and Snell and Glasgow and those guys they

rookies Sasaki's experience in the major leagues is very very limited and just he just hasn't

pitched enough. We'll see you got to earn that trust. Now there's been some really high marks.

There's been some really big moments where he stepped up and didn't fantastic and hopefully

you stack a bunch of those together. I know Dave talks about that that trust tree during the regular

season and who's climbing it and who's not and and right now I think he's you know somewhere towards

the base of the tree and he's starting the climate and even each good outing he's going to get

a little higher on that tree and with each you know less than good outing you probably stay

where you are not slide back a little bit but yeah he's he's a prospect. I think that I think he's

been given a little bit of an unfair jump because this is not a finished product. This is not

somebody who has pitched a ton at the highest levels of this game. He is still learning how to do it

that Yamamoto I think you can evaluate right out of the gate like okay show me you got 300 million

let's go let's let's go use three times saw or more award winner show me and he did. This is

young man who is just getting started who is inexperienced who is learning a new league and etc etc.

I am more curious than I am disappointed in it. I just want to see how he does and how he continues

to improve. That's going to be a big opportunity for him though if he kicks off in the opening day

rotation and he does a good job. I'm not saying be yo she know we Yamamoto we Blake snail just be

a dependent starter for this franchise you're going to be like okay I earned myself another month

another month and hopefully he doesn't need to go back to the minor leagues this year like he did

last year because right now I feel like it's a possibility if he starts struggling. I know that

they are downblakes now that they are down Gavin Stone for now but they got a good support system

behind him of healthy arms of young arms that in any moment Roki doesn't feel good. Roki needs

something else you can you do know that you have somebody to cover that spot. Just don't walk people

and everything will be fine right. It really is they're not going to light him up it's just the

the stuff is good enough that he's not going to get lit up it's just if you're giving them free

base runners and then you give up a double here or there you give up a home run here or there

you know instead of a one run inning you have a four run inning just don't walk people and he'll

be fine and you know we'll see when he pitches well he doesn't walk people when he when he struggles

it's because he's afraid to come into the strike zone and that's when he finds all the all the

bumps in the road so if he throws the ball in the strike zone he's going to be all right.

So far the latest memory we have of him is that outing on Tuesday the backfields over there in

Arizona. I don't think there's anything else on me. That doesn't not not me. I don't know the last thing

that we that has been reported of him the last thing that he's put put out there has been a good

one. Now let's see what happens the next time he's out on the mound. It's been a roller coaster

experience with Rokey Sasaki since he arrived at the Dodgers. That's what out of that and he always

has a spotlight on him. All right. That'll do it for today's pod. Thank you for making

life on Dodgers. Your first listen of the day and thank you for making life on the number one sports

podcast network. We'll be back tomorrow and the biggest topic in baseball is we'll team USA with

that monster lineup make it into the next round but they need help. They'll be rooting for Italy

or they'll be rooting for Mexico to score tons of runs and with that have the possibility to go

into the next round. Travis I'm going to be glued to the TV at 4 p.m. and it's going to be very very

interesting. It could be one of the stories of the year of team USA doesn't make it into the next

round. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it certainly will be one of the baseball stories of the year. No

question about it. I mean, this was a team that was favored to win the whole thing. You know,

they were the favorite to win the whole thing and to not get out of the pool forget about it.

And they, you know, they are looking their baseball mortality right in the face. It's going to be

exciting. And maybe Benji Hill was onto something when he said US versus Mexico in the final on Monday

night. He maybe he had the script already in his hands. If you miss an episode the every day

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