Latest / Foul Territory / Farhan Zaidi on Dodgers Territory

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Farhan Zaidi on Dodgers Territory · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Anybody who's worried about the level of motivation of this team,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: this organization. I think you could put those peers to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: rest that I think you're going to see, you know,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a team that's looking to raise the bar in itself.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, Welcome home for anxiety. I know that this
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: was you took one for the team. You went over
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: to the Giants to be a special informant just so
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: you can bring back all of the goods to the
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles Dodgers, where you belong. In all seriousness, though,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: welcome back. It's great to have you kind of just
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: explain how this all all went down and why you're
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: back with the team.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I appreciate all of that. Alan, It really
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: is great to be back with the Dodgers. Obviously, great organization,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: one that I got to spend a few really fun
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and rewarding years with. You know, after being let go
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: by the Giants at the end of last season, I
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: got a few phone that was really nice to hear
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: from people around the game, and you know, as I
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: started thinking about what to do next, the chance to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: be back among familiar people in a familiar place, you know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: even putting aside how incredibly successful the Dodgers organization has
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: been and all the positives that come with that. For me,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: it was really about the people. It was about, you know,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: my personal professional relationship with with with Andrew, with Brandon Gomes,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: with a lot of the other people. And I just
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: got to spend a couple of days in Arizona and
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: it was, you know, a fun reunion with all those guys.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So really just happy to be.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Back farhand, pleasure to meet you, hoping hopefully we can
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: collaborate and see some great things with this Dodgers team
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: this year. I do want to ask you how much
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: have you seen this team evolve since you left? Because
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, you're looking at this offseason. Obviously you're kind
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: of a cherry on top with everything in Clayton Kershaw
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: at the end of it, But yeah, how much has
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: this team evolved since you were last here.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny. I was joking with Andrew and we
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: talked really throughout the offseason on and off. Obviously he's
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: had his handful with a bunch of things, and I
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: joked that I just had to see how this offseason
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: went before I signed back on. It's very may say
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the least but it really has evolved. I mean when
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I was here in twenty fifteen to twenty eighteen, we
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: obviously had a lot of star players. You know, obviously
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Clayton Kershaw in his prime. You know, number of other guys,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: you know, your Corey Seekers and Justin Turners, and so
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: there's been some turnover. I think the biggest thing is
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: just you know, the mega star power on this roster
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: with Shohy and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts all guys
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: that came to the Dodgers after I left, you know,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: so you have that superstar group and then you still
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: have a really smart and discipline front office in terms
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of how they put the team around those guys, and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you know, I think that's a big part of why
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: d'ur in this group have been so successful.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Farhan, you have other responsibilities as well, not just the
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles Dodgers, but you're going to be working with
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Mark Walzer's other properties as well, Chelsea being one of
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: those teams. How do you imagine the balance of work
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: between all of the different major sports kind of what
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: is your role with all of those properties?
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's just gonna be People are probably
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: going to be playing hot potato with me, just handing
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: me around the tea. You know, when I start to
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: annoy people that we'll be on to the next thing.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: But in all seriousness, it's very early on in the process.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I'm still trying to get a lay of the land.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: You know. My first you know, job was just refamiliarizing
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: with with the Dodgers, with the front office. They're obviously
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: helping support them, and then you know, we'll take the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: other sports as they come. Obviously, Mark, Mark and his
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: business partners have had an interest in expanding UH into
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: other sports and I really look forward to learning more
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: about that and getting to pitch in there. But that's
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: just going to be a process. And you know, it
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: obviously felt great to me to hear directly from Mark
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and his enthusiasm bringing me back, and you know the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: fact that he thinks I can help out with some
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: of those other teams. But I think that'll just I'll
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: just take that as it comes. That may be more
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of a slower process.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you mentioned one of the big differences now compared
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: to before is the star power. We had Andrew Friedman
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: on this week and he talked about how really this offseason,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: the last two off seasons or those rare occasions were
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: all the A plans kind of work out. We don't
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: need to live too much in the past. But obviously
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: the Giants had their fair share of near misses when
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: it comes to big name free agents. What is the
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: challenge in trying to get some of these players to
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: kind of buy in and come to an organization, and
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: where you think kind of maybe some things fell a
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: little short with the Giants as where the Dodgers were
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: able to sort of hit on just about everybody. When
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: you look at that free agent off he's in signing list.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, obviously, I you know, have a close
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: relationship with Andrew, but it still stings a little to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: hear him say how all of his plan is given it?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: You know, that's that's you know, not obviously how it
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: always goes. There's thirty teams in Major League Baseball, and
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: certainly whenever you're trying to attract the star player superstar player,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: you're competing against twenty nine teams. And you know, the
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: sad reality is even finishing second or third doesn't cut it.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: You know, in fact, in a lot of ways that
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: winds up being worse. When I think about my time
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: with the Giants. Certainly we aimed high with some of
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the star players that we went after and obviously came short.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: But I think there were different reasons for all of those.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Whether it had to do with the player's geographic preference
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: in terms of his family where he felt the most comfortable,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: maybe the ballpark was a factor in some cases. And
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you know, again, I think where you are on your
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: competitive cycle really determines, you know, how players look at
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: your team. My first offseason, we talked a lot with
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Bryce Harper, and you know, Bruce bochie Hat pretty much
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: made it known that it was his last year with
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the team, and so for Bryce, I think the concern
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of being part of an organization and transition really loomed
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: large in his decision. So, you know, that really had
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with geography. Other times, you might be
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: coming off a down season and a player may question
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: where's this team going to be next year, Where's this
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: team going to be five years from now? So I
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: think in every case it was different. And again, I
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: in most cases, superstar players are going to go to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: their top choice, you know, and you may make a
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: really good impression on them. They may be impressed with you.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: But you know, if you start the process in second
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: or third place, it's hard to get to that top number.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: So I think it's a challenge. Is a challenge that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: all teams face. The Dodgers have obviously been incredibly successful.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, Ila is a place that's a huge attraction
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: for players, especially guys from California, from the West coast.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: The team, the organization, the success that they've had, you know,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and once you start building that momentum and you can
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: create even more momentum, that's when you can really get
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: on a run of executing Plan a's and obviously that's
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: what Andrew and his crew have been able to do Farhan.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Let's move forward the Dodgers. Obviously, you guys are looking
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: to probably do a six man rotation just because of
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the quality of arms and the amount of arms that
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: you have. It's not a great you know, it's a
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: great problem to have, but with it comes some challenges
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: for Mark Pryor and Josh Bart as far as managing
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: the bullpen.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: How do you.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Explain the calculus of pitching through one sixty two with
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: an organization that's built for October? Like, what's the best
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: route to go through right now. Is Dustin May being
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: built up as a starter? Do you see him you know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: or do you work with him as a bullpen arm?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: How does that work for you guys as a front
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: office trying to figure out that balance in formula.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, having had the pitcher and catcher kind of player
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: review meetings a couple of days ago, this came up
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: with a number of players, players coming back from injury,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: players who have the ability to start. But given the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: depth of the starting pitching, you know, especially with Kursh
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: coming back just the most recent edition and you know,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: one of the deepest pitching of charge I think I've
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: ever seen, and certainly other people have ever seen, there's
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: gonna have to be some flexibility a lot of these
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: players we talked about in terms of getting them stretched
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: out early in the season and then seeing where the
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: team need is. You know, does the starting pitching thin
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: out a little bit where you need guys to continue
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to get stretched out, Does the starting pitching look really
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: good and some of these guys may have to fill
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: in the bullpen because obviously there's been a conversation about
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: some of the relievers maybe being a little bit behind
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: early in the season, guys who pitched a ton last
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: year and just wanted to bring them back steadily and
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: make sure that they're put in the best position from
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: a health standpoint. So I think as you look get this,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: it's just always a good idea to have a lot
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of pitching and to be flexible as that plan plays through.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I think one thing from a strategic standpoint that you
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: have to keep in mind when you're doing a six
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: man rotation, especially early on when Shohy probably is not
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: going to be a part of that, is you've got
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a seven men bullpen, and that means you just can't
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: match up strategically this way you would with a full
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: pen and with pitchers more stretched out. So you might
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: see more multi inning relievers early in the season because
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: you just need guys to pick up bigger chunks with
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a shorter pen and with the starters maybe not fully
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: stretched out.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Kind of piggybacking off of that, we saw the news
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: yesterday a couple of guys behind schedule at least at
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: the start of camp, Evan Phillips and Michael Kopek. Is
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: the team kind of really concerned about those dudes? Are
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: we kind of letting the first few weeks of spring
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: training dictate our level of concerns.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Again, I think it's having the luxury of depth
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and a lot of young guys who have the opportunity
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: to fill in early in the season. You know, I'm
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: you know, in my advisory role. Those aren't going to
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: be decisions that that I'm that I'm gonna make. As
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Andrew likes to say, you know, we had a really
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: serious negotiation about whether to go with special advisor or
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: ordinary advisor. So that should tell you a little bit
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: about my level of influence. But again, I actually, you know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: throughout my career, I think it's you know, when you
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: have injuries, it creates opportunities for young players. It creates
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: opportunities to kind of deepen your bench, you know, your
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: quote unquote bench it. But that holds true for leaf
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: pitchers also, and from the outside looking in, some of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the young arms in this organization that might otherwise be
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: slated for Triple A are guys that would be on
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the big league roster in many other places. So hopefully
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: they take that opportunity early in the season and run
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: with it, and it gives you the chance to, you know,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: be more conservative with some of these guys that pitched
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: a lot last season, including in the playoffs.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Farhun, You've been around this game a very long time.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: One of the best baseball minds in the sport. Are
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: the Dodgers bad for baseball?
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: You know, maybe it has to do with my own
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: competitive spirit, which might surprise people, But you know, I'm
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the type of person that when I'm playing a pickup
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: basketball game, i might be on a team that's lost
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: eight games in a row, and I always want to
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: run it back and play the same thing. Sometimes I
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: think I would annoy my teammates with wanting to do that.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: So I mean, if you're a competitor, you want to
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: compete with the best, And throughout my tenure with the Giants,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I never felt like it was unfair. I never felt
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: like the Dodgers were an overly stacked team. I was
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: kind of like, bring it on and look, we had
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: NIG success, There's no question about that. But I think
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: when the best teams, best organizations are raising the bar
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that to bring out the best in other organizations, I
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: think that's good for the sports. So again that's my
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: you know, people might view that as my take. Now
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: that I'm back with the Dodgers. But honestly, was how
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I felt was that I was in San Francisco too,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: So hopefully we see that, you know, we see the
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: bar being raised for teams around the game. I think
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: that is ultimately going to be great for the sport.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we saw the bar really raised in
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: the NL West this offseason. Kind of talk about the
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: competition that Dodgers will be facing this coming season. Arizona
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: looking great, obviously, San Francisco made some moves, the Padres
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: kind of making some move late moves late. What can
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: you tell us about how the Dodgers are viewing these
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: other organizations and how good is it for teams around
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: the Dodgers to kind of help it was it raising tide,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: raises all boats or all ships or whatever the saying is,
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: it helps the Dodgers. It feels like to me.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, you're the hunted in this division,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: right with the success that the team has had for
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: so many years in a rod go into the playoffs,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: so many division titles, all of those teams are gunning
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: for the top. Obviously, there's been this great rivalry with
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the Padres over the last few years. That team's gonna
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: look really different. But Aj Peller does a great job there,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and we've seen a flurry of late signings as they
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: you know, try to catch up and make up for
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: some of the losses they've had this offseason. Diamondbacks landing
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Corbyn Burns I thought was huge, getting Josh Neeler from Cleveland,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: a tremendous bat. You know, they're always reinventing themselves and
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: a very competitive team. I thought the Giants did a
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: great job landing Willie Adamis. That's been a hole for
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the organization for a while. He's one of the top
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: short stops in the game, and you know, be really
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: interesting to see how Justin Verlander does leading that young staff.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, one of the things that I felt during
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: my time there was there was a good pipeline of
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: young pitchers. They've got a group of young pitchers that
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: could wind up working their way into the rotation and
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: having a veteran like that lead them really helps. And
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Colorado's just had the steady stream of young players. Obviously,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Bill Schmid has a scouting background. They're trying to get guys,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: you know, through the draft, through the minor leagues and
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: up to the major league. Ross sure and that's always
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a tough place to go, as the Dodgers know, as
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: ied my time with the Giants. You know, going to Cores,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: you're always in for a fight. So it's a fun division.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I think it's the best division in baseball. It's really competitive,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: and you know, it's one of the tough things for
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: me about bouncing back and forth between teams. It's like
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: the competition is so staff that you get caught the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: crossfire a little bit. But you know, in some ways,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have it any other way. It's fun to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: be where the action is far before.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: We let you go just one quick one. How does
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: a World Series team that knocked out the big bag
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: New York Yankees in five games? How does a World
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Series championship team get better?
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: It was really interesting for me being around the last
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: couple of days, and again, a lot of the players
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: are different, a lot of the players, a few of
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: the players are the same. I mean, I it's kind
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: of reunited with guys like Clayton Kershawn and Max Munsey
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and Austin Barnes and obviously a couple of our giants
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: from last year twenty twenty four, Blake Snell Michael Conforto
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: are with the Dodgers now. I just sensed like just
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: great purpose and motivation and above all, just the level
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: of humility and recognizing how challenging this sport is, how
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: much of a challenge is to sort of roll that
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: boulder up the mountain every season, how every season is different.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: So I just saw an incredibly motivated group of players,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: staff organization that recognized the challenge ahead and aren't going
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: to take anything for granted. And I wouldn't expect anything less.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: But anybody who's worried about the level of motivation of
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: this team, this organization, I think you could put those
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: fears to rest. I think you're going to see, you know,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: a team that's looking to raise the bar in itself.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I heard some of Andrews interview and him talking about
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the bar that this organization needs to set for itself,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: and you really see that everywhere you look when you
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: go into camp.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: That is far anxiety the special advisor or the average advisor.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: To thank you, Mark Walder and the Los Angeles Dodgers farhead,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: we appreciate the time, looking forward to hopefully you getting
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: a ring with this team in twenty twenty five and
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: appreciate the time.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Again, thanks so much. Great talking to you guys.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Guys, thank you for watching, thank you for listening. Hopefully
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: subscribe to our channel, give the video a like, share
• 16:18
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• 16:20
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• 16:24
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• 16:27
  Speaker 3: really helps us out and helps grow the channel. Here
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: in season two of DT.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Yes and thank you to far Anxiety for being on
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: the show. Go Dodgers Clinton, I'll see on Monday.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: Byie Gyobye