With teams holding Spring Training 2.0 at their home facilities, the Los Angeles Dodgers have prioritized providing players with an opportunity to participate in live batting practice settings and intrasquad games.
With the Dodgers playing an intrasquad game at Dodger Stadium seemingly on a daily basis, the team has also made those available to fans for viewing. Moving forward, every Dodgers intrasquad game leading up to Opening Day of the 2020 season will be televised by SportsNet LA and live streamed on the team’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Alanna Rizzo is providing coverage from Dodger Stadium, while John Hartung is anchoring commentary from the SportsNet LA studio. Hartung is being joined by a rotating group of analysts in Nomar Garciaparra, Orel Hershiser, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Ned Colletti.
Although the Dodgers are accustomed to facing other clubs during a spring setting, manager Dave Roberts has been pleased with his team’s focus.
“I think it’s actually pretty comparable in the sense that guys are still building up their legs as far as playing innings, taking the at-bats regardless of who’s wearing the uniform across from you, and the pitchers running up pitch counts,” he said when asked for a comparison between intrasquad games and Cactus League play.
“As far as that evaluation, very comparable. Now you’re talking about performance, which certainly matters. Maybe more so right now for some guys than others. Guys are still preparing the right way, so as long as you’re playing, competing and have that mindset to get better, you can still evaluate.”
The intrasquad games have also served as an unexpected needed period of changes to the new batter’s eye at Dodger Stadium. The $100 million renovation ushered in a new center field plaza, among other amenities, which changed the view for batters.
Max Muncy said that was a factor when he got hit by a pitch, and Cody Bellinger also noted the different perspective. The Dodgers have since placed a black tarp on the sections of seats in the left- and right-field pavilions closest to the batter’s eye.
What channel is SportsNet LA on DirecTV?
Earlier this year Spectrum reached a carriage agreement with AT&T and its subsidiaries, including DirecTV, giving their customers access to SportsNet LA. It ended a stalemate that was entering a seventh season.
In addition to DirecTV, the agreement between AT&T and Spectrum Networks brought SportsNet LA to AT&T TV, U-verse TV and AT&T TV NOW customers in Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii.
SportsNet LA is currently available to DirecTV customers on channel 690. U-verse TV customers with the U-100 and above packages and U200 Latino and above packages can watch on channel 780 (standard definition) and 1780 (high definition).
SportsNet LA remains available to Spectrum customers in the Los Angeles area with standard TV in high definition on channel 319. Spectrum customers living outside of the Southern California region with the Spectrum Sports Pass can watch select SportsNet LA programming (no live game coverage) on channel 331.
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