Home Care In Start, LA

The Kings are Cam Talbot’s seventh NHL stop in 11 seasons.

“And, I think, five in the last six years,” the 36-year-old goaltender said, and yes, he’s counting.

Talbot made his NHL debut with the New York Rangers in 2013 and then spent three-plus seasons in Edmonton, where he twice led the league’s goalies in games played. From there, he bounced around to Philadelphia, Calgary, Minnesota and Ottawa, where he reached a crossroads as a free agent last summer. His best option was a one-year contract that reunited him with Todd McLellan, the coach who had played him to the point of exhaustion in Edmonton but has nobly resisted the temptation to repeat that mistake.

Kings

Nov. 29, 2023

After so many moves and a lot of practice selling homes he no longer needed, Talbot would like to put away his suitcases and make Los Angeles his last stop. He certainly made himself at home here during the first quarter of the season, compiling a 10-4-1 record, 2.02 goals-against average and .928 save percentage in 15 appearances, 14 of them starts.

“I love the group. It’s one of the tightest groups I’ve ever been a part of as far as in this dressing room,” he said the other day. “We have a lot of fun together on and off the ice and I think that’s one of the recipes for success. When you’re part of a group like this you really want to play hard for the guy next to you, and you can see that when guys are blocking shots in the last minute or two of games.

“Guys care about the guys next to them and you can see all the guys up on the bench when a guy scores, and they’re just as happy for that guy as they are when they get a goal. It’s always fun to be part of a group like that, and I would love nothing more than to finish out my career here, for sure.”

After a difficult and injury-marred season with Ottawa meant Talbot would have to prove himself and his durability all over again, he signed what he called a “show-me contract” with the Kings. They needed to supplement Pheonix Copley and to replace Joonas Korpisalo, who left for Ottawa as a free agent four months after the Kings acquired him from Columbus. Salary-cap restrictions meant they couldn’t pay much.

Enter Talbot, who signed for $1 million plus a games-played bonus of $1 million that he has already met. He wanted a chance to play a lot, and to play for a winner. With a solid defensive structure around him, he has made that “show-me” contract look like a bargain.

“We’re very lucky to have him right now,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “He takes care of his body maybe better than anyone I’ve ever seen, and he’s a fun guy to have around. Awesome to have in the room. Added a lot of good energy and positive energy, which is good.”

With the Kings (13-4-3) about to plunge into the second quarter of the season by hosting Colorado on Sunday, the coaching staff met to evaluate each player’s performance to date. Talbot graded out with honors.

“Talbs at this point has exceeded expectations and has fit our group really well,” McLellan said. “Moving forward, we feel that Pheonix is really coming around, too. Over the last three or four starts he’s been outstanding and we think that will continue. So we think that we’ll have a tandem.”

Kings

Nov. 24, 2023

That means Talbot won’t play in 73 regular-season games as he did in 2016-17, when he was worn out. “That was crazy,” he said of the season he led the NHL in games, shots against (2,117), saves (1,946), and minutes (4,294) before playing 799 pressure-packed playoff minutes in 13 games.

Nor will he duplicate his ironman run of 2017-18, when he played a league-high 67 of the 73 regular-season games for which he was healthy. “That’s almost a decade ago. We’re not going to run him 78. We ran out of games,” McLellan said. “We can’t even do it anymore.”

Not that Talbot minded when he started five straight games in late October and early November while Copley regrouped after a slow start.

“Most teams are going to that 1A-1B thing. There’s not too many clear-cut No. 1s anymore,” Talbot said. “I think it’s proven that guys that play between 50 and 55 games are fresher come playoff time and don’t burn out. The playoffs are a grind, as everybody knows, and to get all the way to the end you need everybody. I think that the pace I was going probably wasn’t realistic. He’s come in and played extremely well the last two games so it’s good to have that 1A-1B kind of rotation.”

Talbot can see the value of playing less now in hopes of playing deep into the playoffs later.

“Todd does like to ride his hot goalie when he plays well. I was hoping that would be the case again this year and it has been,” Talbot said. “But I think that at the same time, with Copper playing well again lately, it’s probably better off for everybody, for sanity, endurance, all that kind of thing. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, to the end of the season and probably a little better at my age to limit the workload a little bit when we can.”

Talbot, his wife Kelly, and their 7-year-old twins, Landon and Sloane, have settled in nicely here. The kids love climbing to the rooftop of their home every day to take pictures of Southern California sunsets, and they’re thriving in school. They’d always been in the same classes because moving so often put them in situations that might have made them uncomfortable, but they’re in separate classes now. “They’ve taken on new little identities and it’s fun to see as a parent,” he said.

This will be a place they make lasting memories. He hopes this stop, with a team he considers a Stanley Cup contender, will be his last.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind,” he said, “but happy to have landed here and I’m just trying to take advantage of the opportunity I’ve been given here, and I want to keep playing well for these guys.”

The NFL salary cap is real and the Los Angeles Chargers are proof.

Despite having one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL locked up with a long-term contract, the Chargers have started the new Jim Harbaugh era with a nasty thud.

Instead of adding new offensive weapons to help QB Justin Herbert and improve a team that finished a disappointing 5-12 last year, the Chargers have spent the first week of free agency cutting key players and restructuring contracts, just to stay below the NFL's hard cap.

"Holy poorly run organization," one fan tweeted. "LOL."

"They were a top team talent-wise and it was just so wasted it's crazy," a second fan posted.

"Poverty franchise," a third fan wrote.

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"That’s what happens when you hand blank checks to players that can’t stay healthy," a fourth fan said.

Harbaugh and his new Los Angeles team released veteran wide receiver Mike Williams to save the Chargers $20 million.

That move was specifically done to make LA cap compliant.

The NFL's salary cap was increased to $255.4 million for the 2024 league year, but the Chargers had to push hard to get under it.

Veteran pass rusher Khalil Mack was forced to restructure his contract to save more cap space, while Joey Bosa had to to do the same.

Then came the biggest blow for Herbert and Harbaugh.

The Chargers stunned the NFL by trading veteran receiver Keenan Allen to Chicago in exchange for a fourth-round pick.

It was basically a rebuilding move by a Los Angeles team that is supposed to be a playoff contender with Herbert at QB.

Allen, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, caught a career-high 108 passes in 2023 and eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards for the sixth time.

But he was due a $5 million roster bonus and declined to take a pay cut.

The Chargers' loss was the Bears' gain.

Expected to take USC star QB Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, Chicago is set up to surround Williams with impressive offensive talent.

Williams quickly liked a post about the Bears adding Allen via trade.

Meanwhile, Herbert is left with bare bones in Los Angeles, and Harbaugh could struggle during his first year back in the pros.

The Chargers mismanaged the salary cap and have failed to capitalize on Herbert's strong arm.

After major roster and coaching changes, they could be even worse than 5-12 in 2024.

RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech put up three runs in the first inning and never looked back, remaining undefeated on the season with an 11-3 victory over Xavier on Tuesday night at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.

The bats stayed hot for LA Tech (12-0) as the Bulldogs put up double-digit runs for the sixth time in the last eight games. On top of the crooked number in the first, they plated one run in the third, two in the fourth, broke it open in the sixth with four runs, and added another one for good measure in the seventh.

LA Tech wasted no time jumping on Xavier (6-6). After Caden Copeland went 3-up, 3-down for the first of his four innings pitched, the first four Bulldogs at the plate reached base.

After a leadoff single by Kasten Furr and a Cole McConnell walk, Dalton Davis delivered the first run of the game, with an RBI single up the middle. Ethan Bates followed with an RBI double to the left-field corner, and then Jorge Corona capped it off with an RBI sacrifice fly.

Davis, Bates, and Corona would account for nine of the 11 runs scored, each driving in three batters. The trio each drove in runs in the bottom of the sixth as well, which was when LA Tech broke the game open.

Davis registered an RBI on a fielder’s choice, Bates (went 4-for-5) tallied an RBI single, and then Jorge Corona crushed a 2-run homer over the left field wall for a 4-spot to make it 10-2.

The Musketeers did collect nine hits to the Bulldogs 13. They got an RBI double from Garrett Schultz in the second and plated another run in the third off an error to slice their deficit to 3-2.

Copeland (3-0) was able to shut down Xavier through the remainder of his outing. Greg Martinez, Grant Hubka, and Ryan Harland went the remaining five innings, allowing a combined five huts and just one run that came in the seventh.

Logan Schmidt (2-1) took the loss for the Musketeers, only going 1.0 inning while allowing the first three runs of the game.

QUOTABLES Head coach Lane Burroughs On the win … “We want to have more walks and HBPs. We have been doing a great job all year. We had 10 freebies to just five strikeouts. Xavier is physical and can hit. Their outs were loud. When they cut it to 3-2, I got a little concerned. I thought the difference was the sixth inning with our four-spot. The little things mattered. Thought our guys played well. Proud of Caden Copeland. Thought he threw the ball well. An all-out really good effort.”

UP NEXT The Bulldogs will be back in action tomorrow against the Musketeers with the first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. CT at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park.

SOCIAL MEDIA For all the latest in Bulldog Baseball, follow us on Twitter (@LATechBSB), Instagram (@LATechBSB), and Facebook (LATechBSB).

As eager as Walker Buehler is to return from his second Tommy John surgery, the erstwhile Dodgers ace will have to wait at least an extra month to make his first regular-season start since June 10, 2022.

The Dodgers — with Buehler’s blessing — have decided to delay the veteran right-hander’s start to the season in order to limit his workload and increase the chances of him being fresh in October.

General manager Brandon Gomes wouldn’t go into specific numbers, but Buehler is expected to be limited to 150-175 innings and 24-27 starts. In his last full regular season, he threw 207 ? innings over 33 starts in 2021.

Dodgers

Feb. 4, 2024

“I think there’s a little bit of art to it, a little bit of science to it, in terms of how fast I can build up,” Buehler said at Saturday’s fanfest event. “I’m sure I’ll make some rehab starts and hopefully get into the rotation in the early part of the year, and then we’ll kind of go from there.

“We have a lot of depth, a lot of talent. Since I’ve been here, it’s never been a one-man show, and it’s not going to be this year, either, so I don’t feel this crazy burden to throw 220 innings or anything like that. But I want to be really good when I play, and I want to play a good amount.”

The Dodgers have more than enough depth to weather Buehler’s late start and ease the workloads of new starters Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched once a week in Japan, Tyler Glasnow, who has never thrown more than 120 innings in his eight big league seasons, and James Paxton, who has made only 20 starts in the last three seasons.

Young right-handers Emmet Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Michael Grove, Kyle Hurt and Landon Knack and left-hander Ryan Yarbrough will be available to fill out an early-season rotation that will feature Yamamoto, Glasnow, Bobby Miller and Paxton.

“I don’t think anyone has a timeline, but it’s fair to say it’s going to be a late start for the season for Walker,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But the rehab work looks great, and I expect Walker to have a heck of a year.”

Buehler, 29, has clearly been working hard in the weight room. He’s added about 20 pounds of muscle that he hopes will help him better withstand the rigors of the season.

“I put on some good weight,” said Buehler, who had his first major elbow surgery after he was drafted in the first round out of Vanderbilt in 2015. “My elbow keeps snapping, man, so I had to put a little weight around it and try to protect it a little bit.”

Ohtani rehab report

While Shohei Ohtani said he is “very confident” he will be ready to serve as the team’s designated hitter for the March 20-21 season-opening series against San Diego in Seoul, the two-way star has not begun the throwing part of his rehabilitation from a second Tommy John surgery last Sept. 19.

“We haven’t sat down and mapped that out just yet,” Gomes said of the pitching phase of Ohtani’s rehab. “Right now, we’re focused on the hitting portion of it. Obviously, throwing will be a main part of it at some point, but we haven’t spent a ton of time on it yet.”

When Ohtani suffered his first major elbow injury with the Angels in 2018, he had surgery in early October and missed the first month of the 2019 season. But once he returned on May 7, his pitching rehab didn’t interfere much with his hitting.

After a slow start in which he hit .250 with a .692 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, three homers and 13 RBIs in 20 May games, Ohtani hit .340 with a 1.091 OPS, nine homers and 22 RBIs in 27 June games. He finished the season with a .286 average, .848 OPS, 18 homers and 62 RBIs in 106 games.

“I’m going to start my throwing program when I get to Arizona and go from there,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “We haven’t scheduled anything like live [batting practices sessions]. We’re going to play it by ear through camp. The main focus will be on hitting, and we’re going to try to ease into the pitching program throughout the year.”

Sour taste remains

A $1.2-billion winter spending spree that netted Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow and others and has positioned the Dodgers as World Series favorites didn’t erase the playoff disappointment of last October, when the heavily favored 100-win Dodgers were swept by the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-game National League division series.

“I mean, it’s still there,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “There’s no way around it. We sucked. We really kind of blew it. I’m not trying to take anything away from the Diamondbacks — they played very well, and hats off to them — but we blew it. When something like that happens, it sticks with you for a while.”

The Dodgers were outscored 19-6 in the series and their three starting pitchers — Clayton Kershaw, Miller and Lance Lynn — were rocked for 13 earned runs and 16 hits, including five homers, in 4 ? innings. A Dodgers offense that ranked second in baseball with 906 runs and a .795 OPS hit .177 (17 for 96) with four extra-base hits.

“I feel like you can have a dartboard and throw a dart and it would land on something that went wrong,” Muncy said. “We didn’t hit. We didn’t score. We didn’t pitch. Everything went wrong.”

Short hops

Top pitching prospect Nick Frasso, who went 4-6 with a 3.77 ERA in 25 starts for double-A Tulsa and triple-A Oklahoma City last season, underwent minor labrum surgery in November, and the 25-year-old right-hander will miss most, if not all, of the 2024 season. “His rehab has gone well,” Gomes said, “but he’s so young and talented, we’re not gonna take any risks in pushing him if he’s not ready.” … The Dodgers signed reliever Dinelson Lamet, who is 17-24 with a 4.66 ERA in parts of six seasons with San Diego, Colorado and Boston, to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.

TEMPE, Ariz. —

The more that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has gotten to know Tyler Glasnow this spring, the more he uses one specific adjective to describe the team’s new frontline — and potentially opening day — starting pitcher.

“Very cerebral,” Roberts said Saturday morning, describing his early impressions of Glasnow shortly before the pitcher’s spring debut with the club.

“I’ve already learned early that he does a lot of homework,” Roberts added. “He knows his strengths, what he’s good at. And he appreciates the hitters’ weaknesses as well. So, how he attacks each hitter and goes into games, it’s very evident to me that he’s very mindful.”

For now, most of Glasnow’s mental energy is expended on his personal preparation for the upcoming season.

Sports

Feb. 23, 2024

The veteran right-hander looked a little unsettled in the Dodgers’ Cactus League game against the Angels on Saturday, finishing a 1?-inning start with one run, four hits, a walk and a strikeout.

“Not, I guess, the greatest in terms of execution,” Glasnow acknowledged.

However, Glasnow was still pleased with where he is at physically, especially compared to his many injury-plagued springs in the past, how the ball was coming out of his hand, and how it felt to wear a Dodger uniform in an official game for the first time.

“Maybe a little bit, sure,” he said when asked if he felt any nerves for his spring debut. “Warming up, it was nice to get going again. There’s a little bit of excitement. And then I think going out there, it’s just kind of like all right, it’s good again.”

More profound emotions might come next month.

This last week, Roberts called it a “safe bet” that Glasnow and fellow offseason acquisition Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who is expected to make his Dodgers spring debut this week — would start in the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Korea in late March.

If Glasnow gets the nod for the first of those two games against the San Diego Padres, it would mark just the second opening day start of his eight-year MLB career.

“First year coming in, it’ll be just a cool experience to go pitch in Korea,” said Glasnow, who joked that his only previous international playing experience was the occasional trip to Toronto with the Tampa Bay Rays. “Just to be a 1 or 2 [starter in the rotation] is a great honor for sure.”

In the meantime, Glasnow still has plenty to check off his spring training to-do list.

The common theme for most of those objectives: adapting to the Dodgers’ way of doing things, and connecting with pitching coaches Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness in particular.

Like Roberts, Prior has noted Glasnow’s physical self-awareness, highlighting how in tune the lanky 6-foot-8 hurler is with his body and his mechanics.

“He’s big feel guy,” Prior said. “He wants to feel something [as the pitch comes] off his hands.”

Because of that, Glasnow and his teammates have interacted almost like a new couple in the early stages of spring. They’ve asked one another a lot of questions. They’ve traded observations and ideas about Glasnow’s game plan on the rubber.

And, as Glasnow embarks upon another season after he signed a five-year, $136.5-million contract with the Dodgers this winter following his trade from Tampa Bay, the sides are trying to accelerate the getting-to-know-you phase of their burgeoning relationship — a process made all the more imperative by the Dodgers’ early start in Korea.

“It’s more about just trying to get that rapport,” Prior said. “It’s a lot of questions. We definitely have some thoughts [for things he can do on the mound]. But I think our first thing is always to try to draw out of them how they want to go about the process, and what they internalize.”

In bullpen sessions and live batting practice outings, that approach has led to detailed discussions with Prior and McGuiness about Glasnow’s release point, footwork and transfer of weight through his delivery.

“It’s more [telling them] things I want to feel,” Glasnow said, “and them helping me with the cues to feel stuff like that.”

Other times, it has led to simple moments like what happened in Saturday’s first inning, when Prior sensed Glasnow could use a quick breather — in this case, in the form of a mound visit — after allowing three of the game’s first four batters to reach base.

“The thing that excites me is that the dialogue with him and Connor and Mark has been fantastic,” Roberts said. “Kind of opening up the curtain, the hood on him, it makes this process of learning each other work quicker. So that’s been good.”

The hope is that, by the time opening day arrives, Glasnow will already have a comfort level with his new club and coaching staff. That he will be ready to immediately anchor the team’s new-look rotation. And that, even after his blockbuster trade this winter, he’ll enter a highly anticipated 2024 season feeling settled in his new surroundings.

“It’s been awesome so far,” Glasnow said. “They’ve got a lot of good information for me. And I’ve learned a lot already.”