- 14 hours ago
Voice of the San Francisco Giants Dave Flemming joins Sam Lubman and Joe Shasky on The Morning Roast to break down the Giants' recent success. Dave highlights the development of Landen Roupp. He also discusses Tony Vitello’s management of the bullpen and why the relief staff is finding a rhythm early in the season.
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00:01well i can't be an ordinary joe because i'm not a joe i'm a sam sam lubman filling in for
00:06joe spadoni here on the morning roast joe shasky along with me as well and uh we're gonna have
00:13dave fleming join us in just a moment because the giants got a win over the dodgers yesterday yay
00:18three one win giants over the dodgers it's always a great day when you wake up and the orange team
00:24is the winner over that evil blue team from down south is uh dave ready to go for us guys
00:30in the
00:30back all right let's get dave in here dave fleming joins us on the river islands guest line he is
00:35brought to you by the evil blue team it's you sound like a nine-year-old i love you dude
00:39dave
00:39fleming joins us on the river islands guest line he is brought to you by the ymca join the ymca
00:44of
00:44the greater san francisco and their youth community festival saturday may 2nd at crane cove park in
00:50san francisco it's free for all ages with live music and activities sign up at ymcasf.org
00:56slash game dave good morning glad to have you joining us this morning um let's just get right
01:01into it here landon roop last night terrific outing from him uh five innings seven strikeouts there just
01:08he has been just he's been their best pitcher for the most part out the gate here this season just
01:13what has been impressing you with landon so far to start this season well it was a weird outing
01:18that's for sure uh because you know that that fourth inning went sideways in a hurry uh what i
01:24guess part of what impresses me the most is is encapsulated in that inning where he found a way i
01:31mean this guy is a true everybody who gets to the big leagues is a competitor like you cannot you
01:36you
01:36don't get to this level if you're not a dogged competitor that's just a sort of a baseline but i
01:43think
01:43within this exclusive fraternity there are guys who just have you know maybe a little bit more
01:50mental toughness a little bit more ability to grind through adversity and i think that's landon roop and
01:56i think he's he's coming into his own i mean landon is a guy who has been around longer than
02:03maybe
02:04you realize i mean he's not he's not super young but in terms of big league starts and experience
02:11he's still a baby and i have noticed the difference this year in just the way he's carrying himself his
02:18attitude he's not i don't want this to come across the wrong way he's not like you know latching on
02:24to
02:25logan webb and following him around and imitating everything he does or doing what the young guys do
02:29he's his own dude right now and in a way he's carrying himself like the leader of this staff
02:35he certainly pitched like it um so i mean i i the stuff is really good too like sometimes maybe
02:42we
02:42get carried away with all the you know psycho babble and attitude and all that you still got to have
02:47big
02:47league stuff he's got a curveball that really is unique there's nobody who throws a curveball with as
02:52much side to side break high spinning as landed roop does and he's got other weapons too so he's got
02:59stuff that these hitters don't see very often combined with a mature attitude now uh he's one
03:05of the true positives early in this season yeah no doubt um take me back to the road trip you
03:10know
03:10they they're in baltimore i believe you were in augusta so you probably met them in cincinnati but you show
03:16up and they're kind of in the midst of a losing streak and then you know they lose three to
03:21eight
03:21uh on the 15th and that next day they win three nothing and then they go to washington it just
03:27felt
03:27like it felt like especially in that saturday extra inning game as wild as it was it feels like
03:32they're finding themselves as a team there's a lot of really good stories arise and adamas is looking
03:38good and chapman's had some big moments and jung hu lee starting to find himself we'll get to some of
03:43the other stuff but just take me back to that road trip and them kind of salvaging some big time
03:49wins that i felt the heartbeat of the team really needed yeah i mean i it sounds weird to credit
03:55jt
03:55brubaker but i you know you think back to that second game in cincinnati where in the second
04:02inning sal stewart hits his second three-run homer it's the second inning and and a dude on the other
04:08team has two three-run homers like it was that was headed in a bad direction and just everybody just
04:15looked a little defeated out there and it happens if you know when you're starting pitching is
04:21it fails you and your offense is scuffling it feels like you fall behind it's insurmountable
04:28um and jt brubaker got fired up in that game and you know it was kind of an innocent thing
04:36like
04:36the guy steer calls time and he thinks he shouldn't have been allowed to and he stares in and then
04:42he
04:42holds and steers yelling at him while he's getting ready to throw the pitch and he gives up a hit
04:48and
04:48he stalks around the mound more and he's glaring at the umpire and like of all the guys on this
04:53roster if you would have said you know who flipped the switch on the attitude it's jt brubaker you
04:59probably he might have been the last guy you would have come to uh but i do think you watch
05:04that game
05:05back again the at-bats late in that game got a lot better a lot more determined and i'm not
05:11saying
05:11nobody was trying before that but it's almost like he his little tantrum out there and an expression
05:18of emotion was an example for everybody else to follow like i don't care what the score is we're
05:25going to fight this other team we're not going to let them and i think it carried over into the
05:29next
05:29day and rup hits steer uh you know says that the ball slipped but i think we all kind of
05:35know what
05:35happened there giants played an edgy game they played really well on friday they fought through that
05:40game on saturday in some weird ways i'm going back to jt brubaker in the middle of a blowout loss
05:47uh kind of refocusing the group and i think this team has to play edgy to be the best version
05:54of
05:54themselves they're not you know they're not talented enough to to sort of coast along like maybe the
06:01dodgers can do during parts of this season and so i don't know maybe we'll look back on that night
06:06where as a turning point adopting the personality of the manager lots of good stuff happened at the
06:12end of that road trip uh no absolutely dave and the one kind of good thing we're still kind of
06:17waiting for to happen with this team as you know ramos is swinging the bat better jung hu lee's
06:22swinging the bat a bit better uh adamus chapman like we're seeing from them we're still waiting
06:27on rafi devers there and just he had the base hit yesterday the rbs thing on the first that was
06:33that last at bat of the game he had in the eighth inning just an absolutely terrible swing there and
06:39he just seems so lost when it comes to the strikeouts but what's also very concerning we've talked about
06:43this on the past here um it's the lack of walks uh he had a 15 walk rate last year
06:48that's at five
06:49percent right now and we're about you know almost a month's worth of games into the season here um and
06:55this is very uncharacteristically low walk rate for him is this it's a product of his approach or how
07:00teams are approaching him or just what are you making by this these lacks of the lack of walks
07:06to rafi devers so far yeah i don't think it's an approach i think his timing is so off with
07:13hitting
07:13the fastball the teams are just throwing him fastballs in the strike zone so you're not going
07:18to walk dudes if if that's if if your approach against a hitter is i can challenge him with fastballs
07:23the walks are are not going to be there and uh so i mean he obviously he's got to get
07:29that corrected
07:30um they're just pumping pumping challenge fastballs one after the other and it's not like i mean
07:36everybody's looking at stat cast metrics and maybe the bat speeds down a little bit i mean i think
07:41you talk to the giants hitting coaches and they really feel like part of that is just when your
07:45mechanics are off you're not swinging as fast you know your your body's not in sync it's not like a
07:51he's physically breaking down or declining and he'll never be the same athlete that he was
07:57it's not that he just his timing is not there he's late on these fastball swings he knows it
08:04that's why you saw the swing late in the game that you did he's frustrated as heck like whatever you
08:10think about rafi he this guy plays every single day and he lives to hit like that's what this guy
08:17wants
08:18to do and so it's incredibly mentally frustrating for him pitches that he knows he should be doing
08:26damage on he's not even connecting on and whether it's one swing that's going to do it or just
08:33continuing to work on the side and finding a little more you know rhythm in the season or whatever it
08:38takes there will be a point when he hits those pitches but right now he's not hitting those and so
08:44why would teams mess around with kind of pitching around him and and being careful to him they can
08:50they can just attack you know it's interesting like i i'm like it is it a vision thing is it
08:55a
08:55subtle adjustment in the stance and and tweaking things that way okay a brief aside okay dave bear
09:01with me here i'm a glove fanatic i got a box of gloves i mean my whole garage is filled
09:05with gloves
09:06he uses the smallest wilson first base pattern that they make someone has got to get that guy a bigger
09:13glove at first base the amount of times and forget the misplays the matter of the ball is like moving
09:19around in that wilson first baseman's mitt like the defense at first base has just been it's been an
09:26adventure for the whole team but in particular him yeah i agree i mean it is noticeable he uses a
09:31really small first base glove um and look you're asking him to play a different position and you're
09:38trying to get him comfortable there and ultimately the athlete you know he needs to be comfortable
09:42so i understand that part of it but i do think you did that's just a disadvantage like you're
09:47putting yourself at a disadvantage when you use a smaller mitt over there uh so i'm hoping that maybe
09:53on the side they can try to get him more comfortable to where he could get into a game with
09:58a bigger first
09:58baseman's mitt watch some of these giants pitchers uh you know some of the giants pitchers are still using
10:05small pitchers gloves eric miller everybody else tiny one you know i think adrian hauser's using a
10:13pretty small glove it makes it easier to tip your pitches when you use a small glove in the era
10:19of
10:19teams using an army of analysts to analyze every tiny movement that every pitcher makes when you're
10:28gripping the ball the bigger the glove the harder it is to find those tells and i think every pitcher
10:33needs to work hard to be more comfortable i know i've talked to some of them it's like a balance
10:39thing and oh my i put a bigger glove on it feels like my body's you know sort of off
10:44kilter you got
10:45to work at it because that's you you you have to be able to hide the ball and you should
10:50use whatever
10:51tools it takes to do that the easiest uh so i think there are a few glove related issues right
10:59now
10:59on this team that would be helpful to to to maybe change some equipment and make it a little easier
11:05on themselves all right coach joe's gonna come with his bag of gloves and we're gonna work on
11:09the pregame um the guy who has not been an issue defensively louisa rise has made a bunch of plays
11:14at second you know i was told this guy is not good defensively he makes a lot of plays and
11:20i think
11:20he's been in and it's one month i think he's been an a signing for them thus far i agree
11:26uh you know
11:27god love kevin franzen he's a friend of all of ours he's a former giant he's a bay area guy
11:31he
11:32still cares about the giants i love kevin franzen but he kept we were in washington over the weekend
11:37he does the nationals broadcast and he kept saying to us man a rise just isn't a good defensive
11:41second baseman i'm like dude that's fine if you think that that's fine if that's what it looked like
11:47when you watched him but just watch now and even after the first game where he's making all these
11:53plays yeah yeah we'll see i'm like okay that's you know you can have your opinion that's fine
11:58but this guy by every metric by the eye test has played a really high level second base he's showing
12:05range he's ranging to his left he's really i mean some of the plays he's made going to his left
12:10have
12:10been about as impressive as almost any second baseman in the game right now he's got a great arm
12:16uh and kudos to him for you know working on his body getting healthier and then working with ron
12:21washington just to tighten some things up he's he's been excellent over there and i think you're
12:27right like louisa rise has been a very very positive addition to this team uh dave uh dave fleming here
12:34joining joining us here on the river islands guest line a broadcaster for the giants also does college
12:39football and the masters as well from time to time uh ryan walker uh his uh his travels through as
12:45the closer have been well documented a lot of ups a lot of downs last night for him was
12:50pretty high stakes you're facing the bottom of the dodgers lineup but you got shohei otani looming
12:55there uh due up fourth and i texted these guys it's just you need a one two three here because
13:00you do not want shohei otani coming up in this situation here that save last night he showed a
13:06little bit more emotion after that one for just a regular season save that one looked like it meant
13:11a lot for him how much of a confidence boost is that going to be for ryan walker uh getting
13:16that
13:17save last night and kind of showing him that like you really can be this lockdown ninth inning guy
13:21that we need you to be yeah should be huge i mean a couple quick points to make about that
13:27number one
13:28dodgers seven eight nine hitters cumulatively for the season have a higher ops than otani
13:32so even though it's the bottom part of their order there there's seven eight nine hitters for the season
13:38have like a 960 ops was that before they pinch hit pa has to or does that include pa has
13:44pinching
13:44yeah that's just for the whole that's not those three individuals that's seven eight nine spots in
13:50their order for the whole season so you know the dodgers lineup gives you no break so the idea of
13:55like
13:55we got to get through these guys and i'm with you like i was staring at otani too but the
14:0079 hitters
14:01are no joke when you're facing that team so there's no easy pocket everybody's got to be on their game
14:07uh and walker was the other point to make i think is we're starting to see tony vitello's like tony
14:15you know it's amazing you speak of scouting reports that aren't correct like we were talking about a
14:21rise like tony vitello i think everybody said you know he's full of bluster and like he's a college
14:28coach and rah rah he's he's to me he's kind of the opposite of that like this is a guy
14:34who mostly
14:35just puts his head down and works he he talks a lot in his pre-game press conferences but you
14:41know
14:41a lot of that is just sort of like kind of yucking it up talk this is a guy who
14:46goes to work and has
14:47a long-term plan this is not a fly by the seat of his pants like i'm just figuring it
14:54out on the
14:54flight this is a guy who has a very clear vision for each individual player about how he gets the
15:02best out of those players and i think you're already seeing that with ryan walker like ryan early in the
15:08year got the quick hook almost unlike anybody else in the bullpen and immediately got switched to a
15:13role where he wasn't pitching the ninth inning and it's almost like tony was setting the expectation
15:19level using walker as an example like nobody here is guaranteed their spot and then immediately now
15:26this is just me kind of like reading into things but immediately then vitello went to building him
15:32back up and putting his arm around him and telling him and showing him that we do believe on in
15:37you
15:37using him in big spots having him stay in the game on saturday even though he blew the lead in
15:44the ninth
15:44inning and he got a huge boost walking off the mound in the 10th inning after getting through bases loaded
15:49nobody out after that outing coming back to him last night in the ninth inning against your rivals in front
15:55of a sold out crowd like i think you're starting to see with tony and and several different of these
16:02guys how his how his plan is coming together to here's my here's my idea of coaching these players
16:10and i think with ryan walker if you talk to him after the game last night it's working with ryan
16:15uh
16:16speaking of the rest of the bullpen here dave i thought tony did a great job managing the bullpen last
16:20night i feel like we're just not giving him enough credit for the job he's done with the bullpen what
16:24can
16:24you say about how tony's been managing this bullpen over the last couple weeks it's the hardest job for
16:29a big league manager it's the part of your job that gets most scrutinized it's the part of the
16:34game where you have the most impact and the giants bullpen's been really good with a bunch of guys who
16:39are unproven in certain roles and he should get some credit for that he should um so i he's to
16:46me
16:46that's been a big positive here early in the season that his bullpen management has been excellent
16:52um i think you talk to those guys there's no sometimes you know you're around a big league
16:57team and the bullpen doesn't have like purely defined roles and you immediately start to hear
17:03the rumblings and the grumblings from those guys even if it's just sort of on the side like well
17:08we'll see if i get in the game today or not who the heck knows or you know whatever i
17:12we hear none of
17:13that so i think everybody is really bought into the idea of this is a team and i'm giving jesse
17:20chavez some credit too jesse chavez is like a an amazing story his big league career and he's been
17:28through everything the highs the lows all of it and he's down there with those guys as the bullpen coach
17:34and he's with them every game all game and i think that dude is making an impact with that group
17:39i really
17:39do like he's there's nobody who's got more experience in the game than jesse chavez and i love
17:46that dude i think he's doing a really good job with that group and you heard vitello give him
17:52credit and a bunch of the guys in the bullpen credit yesterday in the post game it was awesome
17:55um how's this rotation looking outside of roop outside of ray and logan webb right now um i think
18:04a lot of i think a lot of stuff is up in the air um how do you think it
18:08goes over the next couple of
18:09weeks with the the rest of the rotation got to be a lot better a lot but not just a
18:14little bit
18:14better it's got to be a lot better what are they 29th out of 30 in war from starting rotation
18:20like
18:20that ain't gonna cut it with the way this team is built uh so that's on everybody uh even landon
18:26roop i mean as impressive as roop has been like last night he only goes five and because he you
18:33know
18:33just got so off kilter there now give him all the credit in the world for finding a way
18:38but you know this is a this is a team that absolutely need the needs those guys to be better
18:43tonight's a big start for tyler malley like tyler malley just did not have any kind of command
18:49against cincinnati he was he was trying to execute pitches against sal stewart and was missing by
18:54he missed by two feet on that second home run like that's a by big league standards that's just a
19:00huge miss and so it's a big start for him he we know he's capable last year he was really
19:06good
19:06he's healthy he when you talk to him i've talked to him a lot he says he feels good uh
19:12so it's got
19:13to be better and web knows he's got to be better too now i thought logan was took a big
19:17step forward
19:18on friday i know the final line didn't really look like it but i thought everything looked crisper to
19:24me with with web so i expect him tomorrow to pitch really well um i think the best story on
19:30the team
19:30that kind of came out of nowhere is casey schmidt's uh kind of a rival this year they've got
19:36to find a way to get this guy's bat into the lineup every single day is there any world where
19:41outside of the infield and dh that maybe they find a spot for him in the outfield if i'm just
19:48asking
19:48because they got to keep this guy's bat in the lineup yeah it's a tricky one i i'm kind of
19:53with
19:53you i don't know which i don't know what the solution is going to be like let's say bryce eldridge
19:58just explodes and forces the issue and he's got to come up i don't know uh because it does feel
20:04that
20:04way his at bats are really good right now it's not just the bottom line results the approach is
20:10good uh so i think casey i i i don't know i i'm gonna try to ask that question and
20:17find out for you
20:18um because long-term planning yeah i think you sort of have to figure out a way to because i
20:25think
20:25there's more upside there i think he can do even more uh i i in some ways i don't think
20:30this has been
20:31fluky at all i think there's actually more in the tank with him so um you know that's not a
20:37concern
20:37right at this moment because the dh spot is just an easy spot for him but he's a good defensive
20:43player and you're kind of losing a little with him not being in the field somewhere so anyway i
20:48think it's a very fair long-term question for now you just keep plugging him in at dh and go
20:54with it
20:54yeah his arm is such a weapon just in general and then like his at bat quality the eyeballs so
21:00he's
21:00just everything he's seen and he's barreling he's his at bats have been fantastic i'm really happy for
21:06him yeah he's missed a few like there've been some of those you know he gets under it just by
21:12a quarter
21:12of an inch maybe and hits a 103 mile an hour off the bat fly ball to the warning track
21:18and left like
21:19as soon as he clicks in like just a little more timing those balls are going over the wall so
21:25i
21:25think actually there have been four or five swings that i can think of here in the first few weeks
21:29where he just missed a home run and i think some of those long balls are going to start to
21:35come sooner
21:35rather than later uh last one here for you dave before i get you out of here one of the
21:39big plays
21:39last night uh was at the end of that sixth inning jung hu lee thrown at the plate there uh
21:44just what did
21:45you see on that play on that play there and how things came together on that one yeah i'm i
21:50was
21:50okay with you know hector borg's been pretty darn aggressive here early in the season they've had
21:54some guys thrown out i i was okay with that one like the the throw was a lot i think
21:59it was call
22:00who had the throw he did lob it back in and i don't mind you know trying to take advantage
22:06of that
22:06like and and maybe sort of steal a run you're at the bottom part of the order the two outs
22:11like
22:11a lot of things lined up to being willing to take a gamble there you got yamamoto on the mound
22:16so i was okay with that now he was out by five feet so anytime you're out by that much
22:21it's like
22:22yeah um but i you know all things considered i was all right with that one i that would have
22:28been a
22:28really really cool play and it took a good relay to kind of recover from the bad throw from the
22:34outfield and they made the good relay and and he was out um and hopefully jung who's okay you know
22:40he banged his quad and yeah on a play at the plate in in washington it was really sore and
22:45i think he
22:45just kind of re-aggravated that last night i saw him walking around fine in the clubhouse after the
22:50game last night so i think he's okay but uh you know hopefully he's in the lineup tonight hope so
22:57as well dave thank you so much for joining us uh today on the show and uh we'll talk to
23:00you again
23:01next week and i'll probably uh see you at the ballpark this weekend i hope so yeah i'll look forward
23:06to talking to both you guys awesome thanks appreciate it go giants that was dave fleming
23:10there joining us on the river islands guest line
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