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Speaker 1: Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet on Lance McAllister, My first

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Speaker 1: guest is beginning his thirty fourth season as part of

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Speaker 1: the Reds broadcast team. Radio and television analyst for Reds

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Speaker 1: Baseball thirty four years. Always a treat to talk Reds

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Speaker 1: Baseball with Chris Welsh. How are you now?

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Speaker 2: I'm doing great, Lance yourself?

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Speaker 1: I am well and I don't want to bury the lead.

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Speaker 1: I want to get straight to the most important thing.

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Speaker 1: Can you confirm that you fired a hole in one

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Speaker 1: at the Wigwam in Arizona earlier this month?

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Speaker 2: Confirmed? Yes, I actually had two witnesses, so it wasn't

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Speaker 2: be out playing by myself sometimes. Yeah, that was number

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Speaker 2: four for me. And wow, it's always fun. It never

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Speaker 2: gets old.

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Speaker 1: How about that congratulations?

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Speaker 2: That is?

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Speaker 1: That is very cool? You were You were the subject

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Speaker 1: to Dave Laurla Fangrats turned to you for his Sunday

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Speaker 1: Notes this week and ask you about Matt McClain. What

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Speaker 1: do you make a McClain's spring and how important is

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Speaker 1: he to this Reds twenty twenty sixth season.

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Speaker 2: You know, actually David didn't ask me about Matt McClain.

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Speaker 2: He asked me which guy in the Reds batting order

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Speaker 2: is probably the most important player. And that's why I

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Speaker 2: picked Matt McClain, not only because he had a big spring,

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Speaker 2: but because there have been expectations from that he'd ever

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Speaker 2: since he was drafted number one by the Red several

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Speaker 2: years ago, and then he hurt his arm and he

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Speaker 2: missed the twenty four season. He came back last year,

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Speaker 2: didn't play that great, and then he turned it on

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Speaker 2: the spring, and I think we're finally beginning to see

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Speaker 2: what happens after the year. You're healthy, you feel a

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Speaker 2: little bit better, you get your confidence back, you take

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Speaker 2: your instruction from your hitting coach a little bit more

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Speaker 2: to heart, and I think that's all playing well for him.

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Speaker 2: He's made some adjustments at the plate physically, but I

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Speaker 2: think the confidence factor is the biggest thing of all.

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Speaker 2: And I really believe that McLain could have a monster year.

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Speaker 1: Chris, do you have any level of concern in the

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Speaker 1: spring performance of Andrew Abbott?

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Speaker 2: Not? Really? Be honest, I've seen so many times in

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Speaker 2: spring training which has no indication at all how you're

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Speaker 2: going to do. Now. As long as Andrew is healthy,

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Speaker 2: I think he's going to be fine. He's a bulldog.

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Speaker 2: He's a guy that reminds me a lot of the

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Speaker 2: way Tom Browning went about it, which you watch him

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Speaker 2: warm up and you're not that impressed, but you said,

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Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you see him bow down the

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Speaker 2: other team, you know, for five or six innings, and

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Speaker 2: it makes it look easy. Abbott is a guy that's

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Speaker 2: going to figure out how to get it done. And

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Speaker 2: I think that you really evaluate him less through all

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Speaker 2: of his individual pitches. You know, his velocity and his

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Speaker 2: spin ray and the curvature and all that stuff. It

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean that much to me. It's how he feels

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Speaker 2: on the mound and whether he can do the things

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Speaker 2: that he wants to do. And I think it'd be healthy.

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Speaker 2: He's going to be just fine. I know a lot

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Speaker 2: of people are really worrying about that, but I'm not

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Speaker 2: one of them right now.

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Speaker 1: I was struck by a conversation you had with Tommy

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Speaker 1: during a broadcast during the spring about how pitch is

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Speaker 1: thrown an Innings thrown in the spring are different than

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Speaker 1: throwing major league gettings, and I wonder it seems, because

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Speaker 1: of injuries that they're putting a lot on the shoulders

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Speaker 1: right from jump on Chase Burn's red Ladder and Brandon Williamson.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a little concerning to me, to be honest

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Speaker 2: with you, because, you know, let's just take the example

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Speaker 2: of Matt McClain. He missed an entire season in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty four, he came back in twenty twenty five. The

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Speaker 2: expectations by a lot of people around the ball club

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Speaker 2: where the oh, he's going to pick up right where

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Speaker 2: he was when his rookie year. You know you did

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Speaker 2: so well. Well, it's not that easy, especially when it

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Speaker 2: comes to pitching, because now you're going to ask them

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Speaker 2: guys to fill in the gap that they're just not

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Speaker 2: used to doing. Their body's not ready for it, their

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Speaker 2: head isn't ready for it, and I think it's going

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Speaker 2: to be very tough to do. This is the one

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Speaker 2: biggest thing I think facing every team, not only the Reds,

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Speaker 2: but every team out there. As you see fewer and

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Speaker 2: fewer pitchers going deep in the games and then going

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Speaker 2: deep into the season, a major league team has to

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Speaker 2: somehow cover around fourteen hundred to fifteen hundred innings per season.

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Speaker 2: And if you've got guys that used to throw two

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Speaker 2: hundred innings years ago and now they're only throwing one

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty innings. Now, how do you fill the gap?

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Speaker 2: And now you have injured players that are coming back

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Speaker 2: they're healthy this year, yes, but really, what can you

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Speaker 2: expect that of Burns? What can you expect that of Williamson,

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Speaker 2: Aggie Are I mean, any of these guys coming up?

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Speaker 2: How many innings can you actually expect out of them

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Speaker 2: so that you can satisfactorily fill that gap with good pitching?

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Speaker 2: And I think that's every general manager's nightmare. And I

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Speaker 2: think it is probably keeping Nick crawl away at night too.

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Speaker 1: Chris, did you ever deal with blisters during your career?

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Speaker 2: I think every pitcher is double blisters, But I never

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Speaker 2: had recurring blisters. So sometimes, you know, you get a

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Speaker 2: baseball on a certain nye, you grip it especially hard,

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Speaker 2: and you end up with a blister of some kind.

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Speaker 2: But you know, Nicklodolo has a blister on his index finger,

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Speaker 2: which is very unusual for pitchers. Most of the time,

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Speaker 2: when you get a blister as a pitcher, it's on

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Speaker 2: your middle finger and right on the pad where you

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Speaker 2: kind of that's the last finger to really be on

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Speaker 2: the base fall. But there's a pitch that Lodolo throws

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Speaker 2: where I think it's a slider that comes off that

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Speaker 2: index finger is in a funny way, and he tends

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Speaker 2: to irritated. And I have not been around pitchers that

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Speaker 2: have done that very often. I've always wondered, you know,

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Speaker 2: since it's his third year doing this, he's missed two weeks.

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Speaker 2: Last year, he missed two and half weeks. I think

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Speaker 2: the year before, you know, while I spend the winter

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Speaker 2: figuring out a different way to fill that bitch, because

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Speaker 2: you know, his his magic on the mound is not

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Speaker 2: due to how the ball comes out of his fingertips.

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Speaker 2: It's his size, it's his presence, it's his stride towards home,

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Speaker 2: played his armslot all those things together, and I think

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Speaker 2: that he could have figured out a way to get

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Speaker 2: around that so that you don't have a worry about

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Speaker 2: the the you know, the index finger and the blister.

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Speaker 2: So I'm a little surprised that's still going to be

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Speaker 2: bothering him. Hopefully, as in the past, you get it

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Speaker 2: taken care of and it doesn't get to you there

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Speaker 2: for the rest of the year.

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Speaker 1: Cristito's kicked around the idea of having sal Stuart now

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Speaker 1: bat fourth after Ellie and in front of au Hideoswarez

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Speaker 1: as you saw sal last year, you saw him in

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Speaker 1: the spring. What are what are your impressions? What excites

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Speaker 1: you about someone who I hear a lot of people

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Speaker 1: say maybe a young hitter, but he doesn't perform like

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Speaker 1: a young hit. Performs more and carries himself more like

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Speaker 1: a veteran.

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Speaker 2: He's the best young hitter I've seen the Reds uniform

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Speaker 2: in a long time. I mean a long time. And

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Speaker 2: it goes to show you too, that Tito has been around.

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Speaker 2: I mean, he's seen a lot of players, and he's

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Speaker 2: thinking about moving him up in the order, in the

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Speaker 2: number four spot. Here's a kid that's what twenty two,

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Speaker 2: twenty three years old, So I think that's really a

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Speaker 2: feather and the cat for Stewart, He's not intimidated at

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Speaker 2: the play. He's got great stage presence. You watch Stewart,

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Speaker 2: you know, play the game. I mean he's always talking

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Speaker 2: to somebody. He'll go down, get to the first base, He'll

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Speaker 2: talk to the first base coach, talk to first base

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Speaker 2: umpire Terry. Frank Crona told him, he's just how many

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Speaker 2: years you've been in the league. You know everybody in

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Speaker 2: the league already because that's what it seems like. It

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Speaker 2: just goes to show you, though, how comfortable he is.

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Speaker 2: That's one of the big obstacles young players have to

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Speaker 2: get past, is you know, feeling like they belong here. Well,

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Speaker 2: Stuart feels like he belongs here. There's no question about it.

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Speaker 2: I think it's you know, some people call it cockiness,

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Speaker 2: others call it confidence. But I think it's a good

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Speaker 2: spot for him, and he's dangerous. And because you have

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Speaker 2: Stuart and now you have any heros Warez, and you've

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Speaker 2: got a new year now for Ellie da la Cruz

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Speaker 2: who popped on twenty two or twenty three last year

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Speaker 2: when he was injured. I think this is a deeper

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Speaker 2: lineup than they've had in a long time, and it's

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Speaker 2: got more thumb.

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Speaker 1: I was like, as we close, talking about a passion

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Speaker 1: of yours, and that's the Baseball Rules Academy, Baseball Rules

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Speaker 1: Academy dot Com, I believe, tell everybody about it.

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Speaker 2: Well, next couple of days look on Twitter, because I'm

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Speaker 2: going to come out with a three part series on

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Speaker 2: at least two part series on the ads and all

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Speaker 2: the little intricacies of the ADS and the effects that's

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Speaker 2: going to have on Major League Baseball that people haven't

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Speaker 2: thought of so far. That's going to be out there.

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Speaker 2: It's going gangbusters. I'm getting several thousand people a day

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Speaker 2: on the site. It's more rather than it's a website

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Speaker 2: about the rules. I think I've developed more of a

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Speaker 2: learning platform on how to learn the rules of baseball,

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Speaker 2: and kind of a fun way. So I'm working at it.

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Speaker 2: It's a passion of mine. Thanks for asking me, and

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Speaker 2: we keep plugging away and having some fun.

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Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. I got about a

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Speaker 1: minute and you sparked another question. I forgot. What are

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Speaker 1: your impressions of the ABS going through the spring with

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Speaker 1: it and how it may impact the game.

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Speaker 2: I think it's going to you know, they say it's

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Speaker 2: going to add about a minute to the game. Okay,

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Speaker 2: So I think that it's what fans wanted. As soon

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Speaker 2: as we saw that strike zone box up on the

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Speaker 2: screen every pitch, starting about what six or seven years ago,

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Speaker 2: I knew that this was coming because there's no way

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Speaker 2: that you're going to fill a pitch. It's being evaluated

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Speaker 2: now by umpires, it's being evaluated by people at home

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Speaker 2: watching it on the screen. So you have to give

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Speaker 2: players a chance to have a correct call made and

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Speaker 2: in a very important time part of the game. And

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Speaker 2: I think that's what the ABS challenge does. It's not perfect.

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Speaker 2: You can't believe everything that it says that it's more

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Speaker 2: accurate than anything else. But really the bottom line for me, Lance,

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Speaker 2: is that it shows me the Major league umpires are

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Speaker 2: pretty dog one, good at what they do, very well.

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Speaker 1: Said he is Chris Welsh. He's on x at Think

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Speaker 1: Pitch for more Man. This is always a treat. It

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Speaker 1: is great here in your voice and hope to see

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Speaker 1: you on Thursday.

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Speaker 2: Do you better believe it? Lance, Good luck to you

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Speaker 2: and go red.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Chris. There you go, Chris Welsh, the crafty left

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Speaker 1: hander checking you in. Let's get a check on news

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Speaker 1: around the corner. The former Bearcat Leonard Stokes talks Jared Calhoun.

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Speaker 1: It's Arnel Carrier Sports Talk, presented by Kelsey Chevalet seven

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Speaker 1: hundred WLW