Justin Turner explains how fantasy football takes over the Dodgers’ clubhouse on Sundays | Ekeler’s Edge

Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler and Yahoo Sports’ Fantasy Analyst Matt Harmon are joined by Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner. The former World Series champion is closing in on yet another trip to the baseball postseason, but as he explains when the calendar turns to fall, there is another sport that take center stage for one of baseball’s best teams. Turner details the 12-team, ultra-competitive league, how Austin was the most highly debated player during their draft, and why the trash talking hits an entirely new level in the clubhouse on Sundays. Justin Turner is making a huge impact on the Los Angeles community through the Justin Turner Foundation. For more information visit justinturnerfoundation.com. Catch fresh episodes of Ekeler’s Edge every Wednesday on Yahoo Sports and your favorite social media platforms. Listen to Ekeler’s Edge on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast wherever you get podcasts.

Video Transcript

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JUSTIN TURNER: If we could have a camera in our clubhouse on Sunday morning, I mean, it would be--

AUSTIN EKELER: It sounds like it's better than that there's no camera there.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, yeah, maybe so.

JUSTIN TURNER: It's entertaining, man.

AUSTIN EKELER: I bet. I bet.

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AUSTIN EKELER: All right, we're welcoming our next guest, Justin Turner from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Justin, what is good, my guy? How are you doing, man?

JUSTIN TURNER: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Excited to be on the show. I got to admit, I think this is my first fantasy football podcast that I've been on.

AUSTIN EKELER: Let's go, man.

JUSTIN TURNER: Pretty fired up. Obviously, fired up to be on here with you.

AUSTIN EKELER: Likewise, my friend, likewise.

MATT HARMON: So Justin, we do want to talk to you a little bit about the Dodgers Fantasy Football League. How long has this thing been going on? How many teams are there? What's the format? Man, I do want to hear about your personal team as well.

JUSTIN TURNER: Yeah, so I've been in it for, wow, man, seven years, now eight years now. A PPR league, we have 12 teams. The demand is very high. So almost every single team has multiple owners, two and three owners on the team.

Trea Turner is the only one that was a stickler and kind of fought everyone off and said, I'm not partnering with anyone. I'm running my team. So this year, I'm partnered up with Joey Gallo and our strength, Coach Brandon McDaniel. This year, again, we had the second overall pick and the debate was, OK, are we going McCaffrey or are we going Ekeler?

Right? And McCaffrey was a big question mark for us. Obviously, the injury, the workload over there in Carolina. Are they just going to feed him again?

Was he going to break down? He is going into, this is his free agent year, it's his walk year, so he's probably going to produce. There's all that going into this. And like I said, I'm on a team of three, and I wanted to draft you, Ek, and I got outvoted.

AUSTIN EKELER: I was going to ask about that.

JUSTIN TURNER: They said, we have to go with McCaffrey. And I'm like, all right, then whatever.

AUSTIN EKELER: Hey, you got him. He's been doing all right, man. He's been doing his thing.

JUSTIN TURNER: He's been doing all right. He's been doing all right. I think Baker's been struggling a little bit, but maybe when he settles in, that'll probably help McCaffrey out a little bit.

AUSTIN EKELER: No doubt. No doubt. So I'm curious how the dynamic goes as far as like with three people on a team, are we voting?

Is it like a vote? How is that? How are decisions made?

JUSTIN TURNER: Yeah, we have our little group talks going on, and obviously, we see each other at the field every day and just trying to out, all right, what do we have coming up? It's kind of helps because you get some different perspectives, different angles. Joey Gallo is actually pretty dialed in on fantasy and digging into strengthen the schedule and not just making decisions for this week, but OK, but what's that going to look like two or three weeks down the road? And it's kind of cool to have multiple opinions.

But I mean, this league is competitive. You should see our clubhouse Sunday morning. Every TV is on a football game. The worst two guys, well, the worst guy is Austin Barnes.

He's crazy. Austin Barnes is nuts about fantasy football. And him and his partner, Cody Bellinger, are just nonstop, running their mouth, going out, popping off.

AUSTIN EKELER: Wow.

JUSTIN TURNER: If we could have a camera in our clubhouse on Sunday morning, I mean, it would be--

AUSTIN EKELER: Sounds like it's better than there's no camera there.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, yeah, maybe so.

JUSTIN TURNER: I mean, it's entertaining, man.

AUSTIN EKELER: I bet, I bet, I bet. You got to be there. You got to be there.

JUSTIN TURNER: There's crap talking going on. Oh man.

MATT HARMON: Justin, tell us a little bit about your foundation, what you're up to now with the baseball playoffs about to start, and everything that Justin Turner Foundation is all about?

JUSTIN TURNER: Oh yeah. The Justin Turner Foundation my wife and I started back in 2016. Our two main beneficiaries are homeless veterans, so we partnered with this organization called The Dream Center in Los Angeles. Opened up a men's veterans home, has 25 beds in it.

And my wife and I spent a lot of time in Children's Hospitals as well. So mainly CHLA out of Los Angeles. We do some stuff in Cedars Sinai and also UCLA Mattel. We do whatever we can to create experiences for them, and brighten up their day, and try to make them forget about what they're going through.

AUSTIN EKELER: If I want to make a donation, where can I go? How can I get involved?

JUSTIN TURNER: Yeah you can go to the JustinTurnerFoundation.com. My wife runs the whole website and has everything up over there that we're doing.

MATT HARMON: Justin, thank you so much for joining us today. Good luck the rest of the Fantasy Football season. But more importantly, good luck to the Dodgers the rest away, man.

JUSTIN TURNER: All right. Thanks guys. Thanks for having me on.

AUSTIN EKELER: Yep. Kill it, man.

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