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Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to a new episode of fish Bites on

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Speaker 1: the Fish Stripes Podcast. I am your host, Eli Sussman,

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Speaker 1: just one more episode with me at the Helm before

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Speaker 1: our regular Danny Martinez gets back on the show, and

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Speaker 1: I have such a stacked episode for you guys, coming

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Speaker 1: off a four and two week for the Marlins at

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Speaker 1: the major league level that included a series win over

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Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks on Throwback Weekends. We're gonna go through all

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Speaker 1: the pomp and circumstance and great play that we saw

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Speaker 1: over the weekends and all the festivities that were involved

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Speaker 1: with that throwback to nineteen ninety seven. I have a

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Speaker 1: special guest joining me later in the episode. It's Miami

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Speaker 1: Marlins beat writer for the Sun Sentinel, Wells Dousonberry. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you've seen him on Twitter or read him in

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Speaker 1: the paper or online. He is just celebrating one full

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Speaker 1: year of Marlins coverage for the Sun sentinely does a

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Speaker 1: great job. We have a lot of respect for him,

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Speaker 1: and we have a very long conversation that's going to

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Speaker 1: be the majority of this episode with me and Wells

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Speaker 1: going through pretty much every single thing going on with

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Speaker 1: the Marlins on the field. Off the field, preseason expectations,

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Speaker 1: long term expectations, and some of his own personal observations

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Speaker 1: from being around the team every single day. But we'll

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Speaker 1: begin with the big breaking news from this weekend. On Saturday,

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Speaker 1: right handed reliever Sergio Romo officially traded from the Marlins

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Speaker 1: to the Twins. I would describe it as a very

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Speaker 1: creative trade design in that the Marlins, despite being the

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Speaker 1: quote sellers in this situation, are losing three players and

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Speaker 1: only getting one back in return. The full details are

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Speaker 1: Sergio Romo with right hander Chris Baalomont, who was a

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Speaker 1: fifth round draft pick of the Marlins last year, and

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Speaker 1: a player to be named later for first base prospect

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Speaker 1: Leywin Diaz. I guess we'll begin with Romo. Romo's the

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Speaker 1: one all of you guys recognize. He's been the closer

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Speaker 1: for the Marlins pretty much since day one, which I

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Speaker 1: always found a little bit ironic as soon as they remember.

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Speaker 1: He was coming off a twenty eighteen season where his

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Speaker 1: role was very flexible. With Tampa Bay, he drew a

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Speaker 1: lot of attention for being an opener, appearing at the

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Speaker 1: start of the air games in the place of a

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Speaker 1: traditional starter, and the Marlins really hyped up his versatility

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Speaker 1: and hinted that they might use it, and that's not

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Speaker 1: how it worked out, because the rest of their relief

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Speaker 1: corps relatively untested and inconsistent, so Romo had that fit

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Speaker 1: at the end of games as their closer. He posted

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Speaker 1: a three point five to eight ERA, a three point

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Speaker 1: eight nine to fIF one point two to two WHIP,

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Speaker 1: and that's in thirty seven and two thirds innings. Just

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Speaker 1: on those raw stats, he's pretty much a league average reliever,

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Speaker 1: but you could argue was much better than that, considering

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Speaker 1: that the situations that he did well in were the

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Speaker 1: most important situations. He was almost perfect in converting save opportunities,

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Speaker 1: and he ranked top ten among all qualified relievers in

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Speaker 1: baseball so far this season in win probability added. So

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Speaker 1: that just reflects the leverage of the situations that he

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Speaker 1: comes into the game and what he does based on

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Speaker 1: certain leverage. Early on in the season, it was kind

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Speaker 1: of a running joke that he had these very big

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Speaker 1: splits between save situations and non safe situations, and the

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Speaker 1: non safe situations he was not really keeping things close

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Speaker 1: at all, didn't really have that same adrenaline running through

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Speaker 1: him overall. Those really evened doubt because as we got

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Speaker 1: especially over this last month month and a half, he

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Speaker 1: was nearly perfect, at least in terms of run prevention.

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Speaker 1: He was right near the top of his game. That

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Speaker 1: being said, this was inevitable pretty much from the second

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Speaker 1: that they signed Romo. Is a two point five million

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Speaker 1: dollar salary this year on a one year deal for

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Speaker 1: someone in his age thirty six season to be a

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Speaker 1: reliever on a team that knew they weren't going to contend.

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Speaker 1: This is all about him just performing well in the

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Speaker 1: first half of the season and having that strong impression

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Speaker 1: with everybody behind the scenes, which by all accounts he did,

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Speaker 1: and then you know, thanking him for the service and

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Speaker 1: flipping him for younger players. As I said, this is

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Speaker 1: a creative deal and that he's not leaving on his own.

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Speaker 1: Chris Vaalomont twenty two year old right hander, having a

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Speaker 1: very strong season, first with Loway Clinton and then promoted

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Speaker 1: to High A Jupiter. Overall a three point one six ERA,

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Speaker 1: a three point h one fifth and that's in one

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Speaker 1: hundred and five and a third endings. He had been

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Speaker 1: the strikeout leader this season among all Marlins pitching prospects.

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Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty two strikeouts in the minor league

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Speaker 1: between those two affiliates, a twenty nine point two strikeout rate,

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Speaker 1: which is elite for anybody, especially a starting pitcher. Above

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Speaker 1: average fastball velocity load to mid nineties, even topping out

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Speaker 1: around ninety seven, a very sharp curveball, and a developing changeup.

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Speaker 1: That's the pitch that still needs more depth and consistency

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Speaker 1: to it. I know Valmont's a little bit better than

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Speaker 1: most of these prospects. We had arranged an interview almost

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Speaker 1: immediately after he was drafted in June twenty eighteen. He

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Speaker 1: was a very down to earth guy, someone coming from

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Speaker 1: a Division two school, mercer hurstwo University, so he was

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Speaker 1: very overlooked, didn't have much of an ego to him whatsoever,

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Speaker 1: and he was just very determined and took a lot

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Speaker 1: of pride in the fact that he was a starting pitcher.

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Speaker 1: He broke all sorts of records at Mercy, working deep

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Speaker 1: into games and piling up the strikeouts, and he thought

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Speaker 1: that would translate to the pros. After somewhat of a

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Speaker 1: rough debut in twenty eighteen, like I said, he's been

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Speaker 1: one of the best pitchers in the organization. This year

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Speaker 1: just in terms of performance. He does it mostly with

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Speaker 1: the two pitches. There's the fast ball and the curveball,

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Speaker 1: and there's some skepticism about how exactly that's going to

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Speaker 1: roll over as he goes to the high minors and

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Speaker 1: then eventually the majors. But someone that is with all

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Speaker 1: the workload he's had this year, he's really stretched out.

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Speaker 1: He's going to have an opportunity to be a starting

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Speaker 1: pitcher moving forward. But the thing is, if you've been

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Speaker 1: following the podcast closely, both here on Fish Bites in

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Speaker 1: and Earning their Stripes, you know how much minor league

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Speaker 1: pitching depth the Marlins have. And Valamont was a guy

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Speaker 1: that was somewhere around the tenth best pitching prospect in

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Speaker 1: their organization according to our Fish Strips rankings. Baseball America

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Speaker 1: MLB pipeline. We all kind of had him in the

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Speaker 1: same range among their top thirty prospects overall. But just

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Speaker 1: a handful of pitchers in the system that seemingly have

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Speaker 1: higher upside, that have, you know, three fully developed pitchers,

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Speaker 1: or that are a little closer to the major leagues

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Speaker 1: in Vaalamont is who's getting buried in that depth. Start

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Speaker 1: I do not like the word expensable, because anyway you

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Speaker 1: look at it, Valmont profiles as a guy that's going

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Speaker 1: to pitch in the major leagues in some role, whether

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Speaker 1: it's as a starter or as a reliever, and I

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Speaker 1: don't think that's expendable. Bottom line is if it's someone

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Speaker 1: has that talent to have an impact for you in

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Speaker 1: the major leagues, no matter what kind of depth you

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Speaker 1: have in that position. This was a significant price that

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Speaker 1: they gave up for the purposes of this podcast. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't seem that we're going to find out the identity

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Speaker 1: of the player to be named later, at least for

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Speaker 1: a number of weeks. I'm going to assume that it's

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Speaker 1: someone more likely than not who won't even appear in

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Speaker 1: the major leagues. That certainly it's going to be a

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Speaker 1: lesser prospect than Valmont is. So anybody that's really panicked

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Speaker 1: about that that there's another very significant piece in the deal.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you never know. There is a history of

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Speaker 1: players to be named later going on to having surprisingly

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Speaker 1: effective careers in the majors. But if you look at

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Speaker 1: the averages of it and you just consider the fact

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Speaker 1: that who's being moved in this kind of trade, in

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Speaker 1: all likelihood, it's going to be a much lesser prospect

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Speaker 1: than Valmont, someone unlikely to make it to the majors,

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Speaker 1: someone with me maybe a five percent chance of being

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Speaker 1: an average major leaguer in all likelihood. It's not someone

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Speaker 1: that they're gonna miss regardless. It's three players in total

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Speaker 1: that the Marlins are giving up, even though they're this

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Speaker 1: selling team, and they're doing it for Laywin Diaz. Laywin

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Speaker 1: Diaz addresses a pretty critical need in the organization as

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Speaker 1: a first baseman, someone that could potentially be the long

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Speaker 1: term first baseman for the Miami Marlins. We're gonna have

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Speaker 1: an article coming up this week that goes really into

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Speaker 1: depth about who he is. But just to give you

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Speaker 1: the skinny on it, he has nineteen home runs this

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Speaker 1: year that would rank second most in the entire Marlins organization,

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Speaker 1: behind only Isan Diaz, and people are already having a

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Speaker 1: lot of fun with the possibility that these two guys

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Speaker 1: are going to be the right side of the infield

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Speaker 1: for years to come. That's getting a little bit ahead

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Speaker 1: of ourselves. Whereas Estan Diez is on the verge of

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Speaker 1: a major league call up, with Leywin, it's more likely

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Speaker 1: going to be in twenty twenty and late in the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty season. He's great over the fence power as

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Speaker 1: I mentioned with the home runs, all that to the

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Speaker 1: poll side, but he does hit the ball hard to

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Speaker 1: all field, someone that a shift won't necessarily deter him

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Speaker 1: from getting base hits inside the ballpark, even in someone

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Speaker 1: like Marlins Park. He is just elite. If you adjust

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Speaker 1: his hitting stats for the leagues that he've been playing in,

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Speaker 1: first in the Florida State League and then in the

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Speaker 1: Southern League, he has a one to fifty six weighted

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Speaker 1: runs created plus keep in mind that one hundred is

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Speaker 1: average fifty six percent better than the league average as

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Speaker 1: a hitter, and that's in the ninety seventh percent tile

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Speaker 1: of all minor league players with three hundred plus play

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Speaker 1: appearances among guys that are basically playing on a regular

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Speaker 1: basis in the minors. Throughout this season, he's in the

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Speaker 1: ninety seventh percent tile, the elite of the elite in

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Speaker 1: terms of just the hitting ability. What also stuck out

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Speaker 1: to me and what gives me a little bit of pause,

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Speaker 1: is how reliant he is on fly balls, the best

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Speaker 1: type of contact you can make as a baseball player.

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Speaker 1: Is a line drive. If you hit a hard line drive,

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Speaker 1: it's going over the wall. Even if you hit one

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Speaker 1: that's not quite as squared up, it has a good

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Speaker 1: shot at finding the gap. He's someone that gets underneath

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Speaker 1: the ball very steep launch angle and arguably too steep.

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Speaker 1: It's a forty nine percent fly ball rate, which is,

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Speaker 1: if you use that same threshold of three hundred play appearances,

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Speaker 1: ninety fourth percent tile among all minor league players in

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Speaker 1: flyball rate. And so this is why that concerns me

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Speaker 1: a little bit. He'll be playing home games at Marlins Park,

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Speaker 1: that is pretty notorious for taking home runs away from

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Speaker 1: people that would normally go out in other ballparks. The

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Speaker 1: difference being it's just not caring quite the same when

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Speaker 1: it gets into the air. So that's an adjustment to

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Speaker 1: look at moving forward. He is only twenty two years old,

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Speaker 1: turning twenty three this offseason. An important factor is that

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Speaker 1: he'll be eligible for the Rule five Draft this coming offseason.

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Speaker 1: He needs to be protected on the forty man roster,

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Speaker 1: and that's not really that big of an issue for

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Speaker 1: the Marlins at this juncture in their situation. They have

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Speaker 1: a handful of pitchers and utility layers on the forty

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Speaker 1: man that do not have nearly the kind of upside

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Speaker 1: that Diez has. One thing that really does help his

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Speaker 1: case and is very important in the National League, is

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Speaker 1: that he is a smooth defender at first base. Some

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Speaker 1: of the judgments vary on how good that is. He

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Speaker 1: is a relatively large first baseman, but he improves his

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Speaker 1: athleticism a lot this year. Very good hands. The weakest

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Speaker 1: tool really in his defensive skill set is his throwing arm,

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Speaker 1: and that's the one that is of the least consequence

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Speaker 1: when you're playing first base. But someone that has a

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Speaker 1: potential to be a good all round player. The one

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Speaker 1: tool that he definitely will not have is running speed.

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Speaker 1: He's going to be a below average runner. But if

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Speaker 1: he's a smooth defender at least league average power, good

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Speaker 1: enough police discipline, and very good contact ability, that's like

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Speaker 1: the interesting combination is the above average contactability and the

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Speaker 1: above average power hitting. That's a guy that could play

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Speaker 1: every day in the major leagues, potentially the Marlins at

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Speaker 1: this point in the rebuild, where you can only point

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Speaker 1: to a few guys that seem to be a lock

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Speaker 1: as everyday players moving forward, not nearly enough to give

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Speaker 1: you confidence that this team is close to being competitive.

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Speaker 1: So this addresses a pretty critical need. None of the Marlins'

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Speaker 1: top thirty prospects had been first base, but Laywin Diaz is,

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Speaker 1: and he jumps in. According to MLB Pipeline, he was

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Speaker 1: now their number twelve prospect. He was number ten in

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Speaker 1: the Twins organization according to Baseball America before the trade,

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Speaker 1: and so after the trade it's going to be very similar.

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Speaker 1: He's one of their better prospects. Not quite a top

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Speaker 1: one hundred overall guy, but someone that has a very

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Speaker 1: good chance to be an everyday player in the major leagues.

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Speaker 1: As a flower, he will be a guy that hits

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Speaker 1: right handed pitching very well as a left handed batter,

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Speaker 1: so he might not be an everyday player. We need

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Speaker 1: to prepare for that scenario. And that is the one

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Speaker 1: thing that gives me a little bit pause about the trade.

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Speaker 1: Some people have been very positive about it. I do

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Speaker 1: think it was an appropriate trade for where the Marlins are,

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Speaker 1: and was certainly appropriate for where the Twins are leading

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Speaker 1: the Al Central and trying to contend. We need to

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Speaker 1: acknowledge that there is a possibility that Chris Vallomon goes

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Speaker 1: on to be the better major league player than Laywan Diaz,

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Speaker 1: if Valamon is able to stick as a starter, if

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Speaker 1: Diez has any setbacks in his conditioning or in his

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Speaker 1: approach against left handed pitching, and is an every day player,

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Speaker 1: there is a scenario. It's an unlikely one, but it

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Speaker 1: is a very real scenario that the Marlins actually gave

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Speaker 1: away the better young player than the one that they received. Regardless,

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Speaker 1: d as fits their needs so much better than Valamont does.

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Speaker 1: And as I said already, I mean, Romo was completely

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Speaker 1: expendable with the future of the organization. So while some

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Speaker 1: people have been effusive and their praise for this, including

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Speaker 1: some of the guys on our staff, I took a

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Speaker 1: poll of the Fish Stripe staff and about half of

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Speaker 1: those who weighed in gave the Marlins an A grade

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Speaker 1: for what they did here. I'm going to go with

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Speaker 1: a B. I kind of vacillated between a B and

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Speaker 1: a B minus. I think it's fine. I think it's

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Speaker 1: definitely appropriate considering the players that are involved. I am

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Speaker 1: amused by the creativity. I like the fact that as

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Speaker 1: a creative and not simply Romo on his own, because

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Speaker 1: that would not have fetched an impact prospect in return

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Speaker 1: that would be more of an organizational filler minor leaguer

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Speaker 1: coming back. By formatting this the way that they did,

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Speaker 1: they received someone in Daz that very specifically fits an

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Speaker 1: the organization moving forward. Diz has reported to Double A Jacksonville.

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Speaker 1: From there, you could envision maybe going to the Fall

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Speaker 1: League after the seasons to really fine tune his game,

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Speaker 1: and then with a normal progression in twenty twenty, he's

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Speaker 1: on to Triple A New Orleans and from there just

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Speaker 1: knocking on the door to the big leagues. So this

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Speaker 1: is a case where a veteran for prospect swap, we

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Speaker 1: find out relatively soon you know what kind of player

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Speaker 1: he's going to be with the Marlins organization. On behalf

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Speaker 1: of everybody at Fish Stripes, welcome Leyland Diaz to the

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Speaker 1: Marlins organization. Really excited to see what you do moving forward.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, while we watched Diaz develop from Afar,

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Speaker 1: the Marlins at the major league level are coming off

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Speaker 1: a great week, winning two of three games in Chicago

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Speaker 1: against the Chicago White Sox in an interleague matchup, then

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Speaker 1: coming home for Throwback weekend hosting the Diamondbacks. And taking

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Speaker 1: two of the first three in that series. When it

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Speaker 1: comes to Pitcher of the Week, I just could not

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Speaker 1: settle on one guy for the Marlins. Both Caleb Smith

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Speaker 1: and Zach Gallon incredible, virtually identical pitching lines in Chicago

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Speaker 1: during that series against the White Sox gets more style points.

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Speaker 1: He carried a perfect game into the sixth sending and

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Speaker 1: what was clearly his best start since returning from the

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Speaker 1: injury list.

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Speaker 2: Five games for Caleb Smith make it six on the

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Speaker 2: outside quarter called strike three, strikes out the side, and

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Speaker 2: Caleb Smith has not a lot of base runner.

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Speaker 1: Through five, Smith piled up nine strikeouts. All of his

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Speaker 1: pitches fastball, slider, change up were all on point, and

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Speaker 1: what really stuck out to me was the efficiency that

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Speaker 1: he had doing at all. That's the one gripe you

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Speaker 1: could have about Caleb this season, even early in the

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Speaker 1: year when he was one of the most dominant pitchers

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Speaker 1: in the National League, is that it took a while

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Speaker 1: for him to put batters away. He'd work himself into

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Speaker 1: deep counts. He was very vulnerable to foul balls, and

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Speaker 1: that was not the case in this one. He was

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Speaker 1: cruising along and he had a very significant lead otherwise

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Speaker 1: he probably could have gone even deeper in the game

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Speaker 1: than he did. Just really impressive. Looked a lot like

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Speaker 1: the guy that we saw early in the year, someone

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Speaker 1: that had legitimate top of the rotation ability. And then

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Speaker 1: for Gallon seven innings also nine strikeouts as well, easily

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Speaker 1: his best outing since being elevated to the major league rotation.

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Speaker 1: Didn't go to it that frequently. Bo when Gallan did

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Speaker 1: throw his change up, I thought the movement was especially

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Speaker 1: nasty on it. He received more help from his defense,

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Speaker 1: I thought than Caleb did the previous night, in order

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Speaker 1: to preserve the great pitching line that he had and

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Speaker 1: what was ultimately a scorel's game until the later innings.

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Speaker 1: As for the Marlins Hitter of the Week award, I

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Speaker 1: was once again unable to select just one guy. Both

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Speaker 1: Miguel Rojas and Harold Ramirez really stuck out to me

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Speaker 1: with their contributions to the team. Rojashi Mayer, remember, was

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Speaker 1: coming off a mild shoulder strain that forced him to

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Speaker 1: miss a few games during the road trip. Overall, he

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Speaker 1: went seven for sixteen, four thirty eight batting average, and

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Speaker 1: most shockingly, he hit lead off home runs on both

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Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday's game.

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Speaker 2: A little George into this one the left field.

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Speaker 3: He's gonna Harry out of here.

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Speaker 2: Back to back days with a leadoff home run for

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Speaker 2: mcguil ros.

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Speaker 1: Rojas continues to be such a critical piece of this

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Speaker 1: Marlins team as their everyday shortstop and their leadoff hitter,

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Speaker 1: someone that frankly has really surprised me based on expectations

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Speaker 1: I had coming into the year that this power was

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Speaker 1: certainly out of the norm. He only had one home

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Speaker 1: run all season prior to this weekend, but nonetheless just

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Speaker 1: a really valuable player, and we saw the latest examples

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Speaker 1: of it here. As for Harold's one of my personal favorites,

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Speaker 1: dating all the way back to the beginning of the year,

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Speaker 1: five for twenty a two fifty batting average, but two

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Speaker 1: home runs, one of them on the road, the other

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Speaker 1: one at Marlins Park on Sunday and a walk off

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Speaker 1: sacrifice fly to open up throwback weekends. One of the

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Speaker 1: great moments of this Marlin season so far.

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Speaker 3: And no one is ser fields back, He'll make the cash.

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Speaker 2: I can't explain how I feel right now.

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Speaker 1: I feel so good. And the cherry on top of

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Speaker 1: it all were two leaping catches in left field near

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Speaker 1: the wall in the later endings on Sunday to preserve

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Speaker 1: the lead the Marlins had. Harold is never going to

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Speaker 1: be known for his defense when everyone's healthy, He's going

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Speaker 1: to be limited to an outfield corner. His instincts may

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Speaker 1: not be the best out there, but in those two moments,

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Speaker 1: really great plays to preserve the lead that they had.

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Speaker 1: It's great to see him as a significant part of

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Speaker 1: the team while they wait for their higher profile outfield prospects.

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Speaker 1: And even though as a whole, this month of July

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Speaker 1: has not been a very productive month for him, maybe

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Speaker 1: this is the beginning of him getting back on track

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Speaker 1: to that form we saw earlier in the season. We

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Speaker 1: all expect Harold to be safe on this Marlins roster

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Speaker 1: as we come up on the trade deadline July thirty first,

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Speaker 1: this Wednesday at four pm Eastern time, but many of

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Speaker 1: the Marlins players are not. They're on the trade block.

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Speaker 1: This team is in cell mode, still looking to improve

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Speaker 1: on their already strong top ten farm system to really

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Speaker 1: pry open that competitive window just a couple of years

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Speaker 1: down the road. So to discuss that, what lessons we've

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Speaker 1: learned one hundred plus games into the current season, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of the very important developments happening off the

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Speaker 1: field to better improve the financial backing that the Marlins have.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna bring on from the Sun Sentinel Wells Dousonberry.

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Speaker 1: He's a beat reporter covering the Marlins. He's been doing

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Speaker 1: it for over a year now, and this was a

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Speaker 1: really fascinating conversation. Everybody enjoy Welcome back to fish Bites, everybody.

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Speaker 1: It's Eli here as promised. I'm joined by a special

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Speaker 1: guest this week, Miami Marlins beat reporter for the Sun Sentinel,

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Speaker 1: Wells Dousonberry. You can read his Marlins coverage in the

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Speaker 1: online at sundaesh Sentinel dot com. You can follow him

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at DU's Report, Dusee Report, and you can

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Speaker 1: listen to him right now with me. Wells, thank you

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Speaker 1: very much for coming on.

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Speaker 4: The pod, No problem, thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: So we're gonna start just with the big picture major

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Speaker 1: league team performance this year during the twenty nineteen season.

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Speaker 1: They've played one hundred plus games into the year. They

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Speaker 1: are probably a tier above, you know, the very worst teams,

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Speaker 1: the Orioles and the Tigers. But in that second to

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Speaker 1: lowest tier in terms of just being really non competitive

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Speaker 1: and obvious seller heading into the trade deadline, and the

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Speaker 1: second straight year that they've been in this exact position.

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Speaker 1: What I'm wondering is, how has what's happened with the

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Speaker 1: team this year compared to the expectations you had coming

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Speaker 1: into the year. We knew they were gonna be probably

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Speaker 1: the last place team in the NL East, But just

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Speaker 1: from covering every game and all these individual stories, how

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Speaker 1: does it compare to what you thought coming into the

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Speaker 1: year and what you think fans were preparing for from

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Speaker 1: the twenty nine season.

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Speaker 4: I think it's a little similar to what I was

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Speaker 4: thinking in the sense of coming into the year, we

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Speaker 4: knew that, you know, the pitching was probably gonna be

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Speaker 4: pretty good this year, and they're going to probably struggle

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Speaker 4: to score runs, and I think that's kind of played

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Speaker 4: out for the most part. It's kind of interesting looking

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Speaker 4: at this team because you can only kind of market

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Speaker 4: as two different points. You know, there was the ten

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Speaker 4: and thirty one start, which has been obviously talked about

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Speaker 4: as nauseum, and that was you know, really really bad,

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Speaker 4: and then you look since then and it's been you know,

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Speaker 4: much improved. Obviously, that's still you know, around five hundred,

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Speaker 4: slightly under five hundred, but clearly there's been you know,

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Speaker 4: market improvement in terms of that there. I would say

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Speaker 4: the starting pitching has been a little better than I

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Speaker 4: thought it would be, even though I thought that they

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Speaker 4: would have, you know, a pretty good rotation. Obviously, injuries

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Speaker 4: have you know, hindered a little bit. Caleb Smith, you know,

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Speaker 4: his performance this year. I think there was some question marks,

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Speaker 4: you know, after you know, how we'd fare coming off

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Speaker 4: surgery from last year. He's been really really impressive when healthy.

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Speaker 4: I think you look at the guy's Sandy obviously has

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Speaker 4: show and a lot of glimpses on there, maybe all thirteam,

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Speaker 4: and you know, obviously some guys have had a little

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Speaker 4: bit more mixed. Trevor Richard's probably a little more solid earlier.

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Speaker 4: He's had his struggles now. But I think looking at

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Speaker 4: the depth from the pitching perspective and seeing what Gallon, Yamamoto,

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Speaker 4: Elliots or her Nadez have been able to do has

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Speaker 4: really been a big, you know, bright spot for this

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Speaker 4: team and kind of the jumps those guys made because

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Speaker 4: I don't think prior to the season anyone was really

432
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:29,280
Speaker 4: penciling them in you know, quite to be in the

433
00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:31,480
Speaker 4: rotation yet this year, or maybe having the impact they

434
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:34,520
Speaker 4: did that's been a plus. And then hitting wise, you know,

435
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:36,560
Speaker 4: it's been a little bit of a mixed bag on there.

436
00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:39,640
Speaker 4: You've seen some good things coming up here. You've seen

437
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:42,879
Speaker 4: some mixed signs obviously, you know, Dearrek Cooper Stone, you know,

438
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,959
Speaker 4: some bright spots jumping in this. Harold Ramirez, you know

439
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,840
Speaker 4: Brian Anderson. Power numbers have been up, obviously, you know

440
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:51,800
Speaker 4: it's average, and some of those numbers have been down

441
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:55,480
Speaker 4: a little bit. But I think you've seen some encouraging signs,

442
00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:58,679
Speaker 4: mostly on the pitching side. I think that's kind of

443
00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 4: a long winded answer to your quiet there and what

444
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,000
Speaker 4: the kind of expectations or heading into this year, But

445
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:06,520
Speaker 4: I would say probably a lot on track with what

446
00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:07,679
Speaker 4: people were expecting.

447
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, I generally agree with you in that aspect. And uh,

448
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,720
Speaker 1: we've been pretty across fistripes. We've been quick to emphasize,

449
00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:19,760
Speaker 1: you know, just how impressive it is that almost every

450
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,600
Speaker 1: single starting pitcher that they bring up is immediately like

451
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:25,159
Speaker 1: really solid contributor the fact that there have been so

452
00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 1: few growing pains with the ones that have filled in

453
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,159
Speaker 1: because of the injuries with Eliez or Ernendez and Gallon

454
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:34,040
Speaker 1: and Yamamoto. How Like with overall, if you look at

455
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,200
Speaker 1: the body of work for those guys, how their performance

456
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:39,080
Speaker 1: stacks up almost identically to the ones that were actually

457
00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:41,400
Speaker 1: slated to be in the rotation to start the year.

458
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 1: But but yeah, I mean the big, the big downspot

459
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:47,680
Speaker 1: of all this is the fact that if you look

460
00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:51,439
Speaker 1: at their lineup, well, with the exception of Garrett Cooper,

461
00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:53,919
Speaker 1: you look across all their lineup, everybody that's had like

462
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:57,440
Speaker 1: significant playing time this year, there's really nobody that's better

463
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:00,200
Speaker 1: than an average hitter. In the major leagues, we see

464
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,120
Speaker 1: a lot more potential with like Brian Anderson. And there's

465
00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:05,400
Speaker 1: someone of course in Lewis Princeton that we thought had

466
00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 1: that kind of upside if everything clicked, but instead he's

467
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 1: been moved backwards. And I think that's what I want

468
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,159
Speaker 1: to pick out is is Lewis Princeton because we're speaking

469
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:17,199
Speaker 1: here in late July and he's been absent from the

470
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:21,679
Speaker 1: roster for now half of the entire season. Was I

471
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:24,720
Speaker 1: think the demotion that he had in early May was

472
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:26,919
Speaker 1: pretty justified, and there was a body of work that

473
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:29,960
Speaker 1: said there was clearly something wrong with him and that

474
00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:32,480
Speaker 1: perhaps in a different environment he could work that out.

475
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,880
Speaker 1: But honestly, it's a little bit I'm a little unclear

476
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,439
Speaker 1: about what we think the plan is for him to

477
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,119
Speaker 1: get reacclimated on the major league roster. Yeah. Are you

478
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,639
Speaker 1: surprised in anyway by how long he's been down with

479
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: Triple A New Orleans And do you have any expectations

480
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:49,919
Speaker 1: about when he would be brought up and given the

481
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:51,680
Speaker 1: opportunity that he had entering the year.

482
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,600
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was been a little surprised in how long

483
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 4: this has been. I mean, this is going on, you know,

484
00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 4: let's close about like two months on here. It's been there.

485
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,520
Speaker 4: It's been a long com in here. Obviously, the struggles,

486
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:05,440
Speaker 4: you know, were you know, well chronicled on there. And

487
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,520
Speaker 4: I think that, you know, I thought he probably, you know,

488
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 4: would maybe show some improvements this year. Obviously that had

489
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:14,199
Speaker 4: not you know, that didn't bear out early on. I mean,

490
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:17,359
Speaker 4: when you have a player with his tools that he has,

491
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:19,680
Speaker 4: I mean, you obviously want to show so much patience

492
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 4: because you just don't have that many type of guys

493
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 4: in the organization. You know. Right now, the Marlins are

494
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:27,439
Speaker 4: saying that they want to work on his swing, some

495
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:31,159
Speaker 4: mechanics and try and fix all of that. And no,

496
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 4: that's obviously a great plan in terms of that. Whether

497
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,840
Speaker 4: that's going to transplate, you know, it's very much remains

498
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:39,919
Speaker 4: to be seen. I mean, it's not unheard folks for

499
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 4: guys to you know, figure it out a little bit

500
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:44,880
Speaker 4: later on after having struggles early. I mean, I would

501
00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,280
Speaker 4: expect that he's going to be back up here at

502
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,399
Speaker 4: the end of the year. I can't you give a

503
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 4: hard date on one that would be, but I would expect,

504
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 4: you know, they're going to try to get him some

505
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 4: at bats and I would think they've had a long

506
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 4: period of time to work with him in the minor

507
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 4: leagues now. But he's one of those, you know, definitely

508
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:04,879
Speaker 4: a conundrum. He's a more high profile guy obviously because

509
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:07,080
Speaker 4: he's always going to be paired with Christian Yelich and

510
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 4: he was you know, really the first one to be

511
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 4: up here on the big stage and that you know,

512
00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:15,280
Speaker 4: who knows how that impacted from you know, mental grind

513
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:18,280
Speaker 4: in the sense where he probably unfairly got you know,

514
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 4: compared in that where obviously Christianelich is an MVP and

515
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 4: Christian last year and Louis Brinson was really really having

516
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 4: a tough time, and you know with the younger Azaca

517
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:31,399
Speaker 4: Monte and Isan, they're still working out in the minor league.

518
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:33,639
Speaker 4: That's by no means an excuse. I mean, he just

519
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 4: did not perform flat and simple the first two years.

520
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 4: But I would think that he would be up here

521
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,480
Speaker 4: again by the end of this season and getting some

522
00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:44,119
Speaker 4: of that batch, because I think you want to come

523
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,720
Speaker 4: out of this season at least kind of having a

524
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:49,879
Speaker 4: better idea is Lewis Princeton a guy who can be

525
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 4: a piece of this team moving forward here And maybe

526
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 4: they won't be able to get a complete answer on

527
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 4: that by the end of the year, but I think

528
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 4: you need to have a better inclination perspective. He has

529
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:03,159
Speaker 4: four years of control. You don't have to kind of

530
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,159
Speaker 4: worry about it at that point. But in kind of

531
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 4: raster construction, seeing what you're going to do, I would

532
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:11,199
Speaker 4: think you want to have a better just kind of

533
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 4: glance an idea of what that's going to be by

534
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,359
Speaker 4: the end of the year, and I would think he

535
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 4: needs to get major league at bats to see what

536
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:19,439
Speaker 4: it's going to be. He's performed at Triple a before

537
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 4: and then he didn't have the success in major league level.

538
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,439
Speaker 4: So ultimately it's going to determine how he fares at

539
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 4: the major league level, and simply put, he needs to

540
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 4: get it back to do that. So I think we'll

541
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:32,000
Speaker 4: see that by the end of the year, right.

542
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:35,119
Speaker 1: Yeah. One reason why I just can't get him out

543
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:37,320
Speaker 1: of my mind is because I, like you, I watch

544
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: this team probably more than anybody should at the major

545
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,639
Speaker 1: league level, and the thing that probably jumps out the

546
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 1: most is that just the rotating cast of center field

547
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:50,040
Speaker 1: fillings that they've had while he's been gone, Because at

548
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 1: first it was a lot of Isaac Galway, and then

549
00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 1: it was JT. Riddle, and I guess more recently we're

550
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 1: at the point where cisar Playo, who had probably the

551
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,680
Speaker 1: best ending of his life, you know, on Wednesday when

552
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 1: he hit the game winning home run and then he

553
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: made a couple of game saving catches. But it's so

554
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,560
Speaker 1: obvious that, like on their active roster as it is,

555
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 1: they just don't have a real center fielder defensively, and

556
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: of course all the guys that they put into that

557
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 1: position can't really hit much either. So even though people

558
00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 1: go into watching this team know that winning at the

559
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: major league level isn't a super high priority right now.

560
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily need to maximize those that that's it's

561
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,719
Speaker 1: just the contrast and the fact that there's absolutely at

562
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,679
Speaker 1: certain positions you could point to prospects being blocked by

563
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,640
Speaker 1: veteran players. But that's the one position in center field

564
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 1: where that hasn't really set up. But that's going to

565
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 1: transition us to I guess the trade deadline coming up

566
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 1: on next Wednesday, the thirty first, where the one case

567
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: that everybody is following closely with the Marlins is begging

568
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,119
Speaker 1: and begging that is, San Diaz comes up pretty promptly

569
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,719
Speaker 1: after the deadline because he's been dominating triple A all season,

570
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:03,639
Speaker 1: so consistent and probably surpassing expectations as they thought people

571
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: had for him in your Marlins inbox on the Sentinel

572
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: this week, looking ahead at the deadline, this is supposed

573
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: to be like the most exciting time of the year

574
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:16,239
Speaker 1: probably for people that cover a baseball team, with all

575
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:19,159
Speaker 1: the rumors and possible transactions. But the Marlins are that

576
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 1: like one team where it's pretty much just dust blowing

577
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:26,920
Speaker 1: across the rumor mill right now, or not a whole

578
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:29,679
Speaker 1: lot of guys that are all that intriguing to contending teams.

579
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,640
Speaker 1: The ones that have been standout performers are the ones

580
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,119
Speaker 1: that they want to look at controlling long term. But

581
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,240
Speaker 1: you just pointed to really the obvious ones. The fact

582
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:41,840
Speaker 1: that you have guys in the last guaranteed years of

583
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: their deals in Sergio Romo, Starlin Castro, Curtis Granderson, Neil Walker.

584
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: Is that basically what it's going to be, just all

585
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 1: these guys that are at the end of their deals

586
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: and just finding any super possible for them just to

587
00:28:58,000 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 1: open up younger guys.

588
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:02,120
Speaker 4: I would think. So, I mean, at this point, you

589
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:03,720
Speaker 4: look at you know, where it's a Romo and you

590
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 4: know Walker and obviously have these one year deals, you

591
00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 4: might as well, you know, try and maximize what you

592
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 4: can at the trade deadline if they're not going to

593
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 4: be back next season. And I think you know, when

594
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 4: we went back in spring training, we saw a lot

595
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 4: of these deals and you saw you know, those guys,

596
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 4: and it's like, Okay, these are cheap one year deals,

597
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 4: the kind of thing where you know, if it doesn't

598
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 4: look out, they don't perform, it's a pretty low investment

599
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 4: and you're done after one year if they perform well,

600
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 4: you know, that's obviously good on the field, and you

601
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 4: can potentially flip that. I mean, I think Granderson is

602
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 4: probably more case in the first where you know he

603
00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 4: hasn't obviously performed like they probably thought. But again, these

604
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 4: are low investments. In terms of that, I would think

605
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 4: that Sergio Romo seems like a guy who would be

606
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 4: a natural. I mean just in a sense where all

607
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 4: these teams and contenders are looking for more bulltend relief

608
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 4: help and he's a pretty inexpensive contract expiring. He has,

609
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 4: you know, these high levelged situations. He's not your prototypical

610
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 4: guy they're looking for. Who therese flamethrowing, you know, right

611
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 4: handers that can come out of bullpen. But he's kind

612
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 4: of a unique play I mean unique picture. Could probably

613
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:08,120
Speaker 4: face right handers who would probably make sense for someone

614
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 4: Neil Walker probably, you know, he has been dipped a

615
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 4: little bit in production since he's coming back from the injury.

616
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 4: He's really performing pretty strongly before. He's another one if

617
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 4: people want him, I would think that he gives another

618
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 4: option being that kind of switch hitter can play first, second, third,

619
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 4: that's pretty good versatility on there. You know, the one

620
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 4: which obviously we're all tracking is Starlen Castro. Of course,

621
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:34,800
Speaker 4: in terms of all I think Tomorwlins. You know, would

622
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:37,200
Speaker 4: you know definitely if they could find a suitor on here.

623
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 4: But you know, while Staring Castor has had a really

624
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 4: good career body of work, I mean latantly put, the

625
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 4: results just haven't been here this season. You know, among

626
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:50,400
Speaker 4: all qualified and all the second basemen, he's got the

627
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 4: worst war of all of them at minus point seven.

628
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 4: And you would have to think a team is thinking, okay,

629
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 4: when you're obviously acquiring a prospect, you're thinking, this is

630
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,200
Speaker 4: going to help our team. Is he an upgrade for

631
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,680
Speaker 4: someone at second base right now? Is he an upgrade

632
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 4: as that bench type of guy? And you know, we'll

633
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:10,640
Speaker 4: have to see what happens in terms of that, but

634
00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:13,560
Speaker 4: those would probably be the names on there. I know

635
00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 4: that there's the Marlins have listened to, you know, for guys,

636
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 4: whether it's you know, starters, whether it's a Caleb or

637
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 4: Trevor in terms of that, but I think those would

638
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 4: really have to be blown away type offers, and I

639
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 4: would I would be very hesitant about that. I don't think,

640
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:31,280
Speaker 4: you know, with Caleb, I think they've got a guy

641
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:35,640
Speaker 4: who's been really established himself as kind of a really

642
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 4: really strong kind of guy that they can move, that

643
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 4: he can have on this team going forward. He's been

644
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 4: top ten and now amongst starters in a lot of

645
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 4: categories right here. And something I wrote about mentioned in

646
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:49,920
Speaker 4: there is that these contenders want someone who can obviously

647
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 4: pitch into October, and Caleb's coming off shoulders injury injury.

648
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 4: They're going to watch his innings so he's not able

649
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 4: to pitch into the into October and do that significantly,

650
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 4: then that's good to limit his immediate return at least

651
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 4: for this year if you were to deal the so

652
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 4: that would probably him your return on you know, a

653
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 4: top prospect at that so I would think it'd probably

654
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 4: makes more sense unless there was an offer that just

655
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:14,560
Speaker 4: blew them away, to keep him on there and probably

656
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 4: just focus on the expiring contracts.

657
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,280
Speaker 1: And another big factor that's going to dictate, you know,

658
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 1: who they could be in the market for is how

659
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:25,560
Speaker 1: much money the team is making. People are more aware

660
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 1: now than ever before about the connection between the revenue

661
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 1: teammates and then what they're going to actually put into

662
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: the on field product. And I mean you just had

663
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 1: an interesting look at the state of their television viewership,

664
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 1: the fact that local ratings conventionally the way that they're

665
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,080
Speaker 1: measured on TV, are down, but that streaming is up,

666
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: And could you just explain to people, yeah, what that

667
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: update is on how many people are actually watching games

668
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 1: this year and the status of that next contract with

669
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Florida.

670
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 4: Yeah, so if you look at the ratings from last year,

671
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 4: they're down thirteen percent for cable for the Marlins games

672
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 4: on Fox Sports Florida. Compared league wide. MLV rangings are

673
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 4: down four percent league wide, so it's a little bit more,

674
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 4: but it's not also the worst one on there there

675
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 4: were thirteen teams that saw gross fifteen declines, and amongst

676
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 4: the teams that saw declines, there were nine that had

677
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 4: bigger drops than the Marlins did this year. I think

678
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 4: there were some, you know, obviously factors in terms that

679
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 4: I think that more people are migrating towards you know,

680
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:31,200
Speaker 4: streaming options. They're ditching cable on here. And sure there

681
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 4: are other sides where you've seen some jumps, like the

682
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 4: San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins saw the two biggest ones.

683
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,960
Speaker 4: You know, those teams also won. You had the Padres

684
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 4: sin Man named Achada, you had the twins or leading

685
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 4: the Ale Central. Those play a well play a factoring

686
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 4: as well as well as just winning. You know that

687
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 4: in reality is going to attract fans, especially for these

688
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,960
Speaker 4: TV types of numbers on here. In terms of what

689
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:57,480
Speaker 4: the numbers are, if you look last year, it was

690
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 4: about a one point eight rating with which is roughly

691
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,800
Speaker 4: translates about to eighteen thousand viewers per game. So I

692
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 4: kind of looked at the exact one on here. But

693
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:10,279
Speaker 4: so if you figure that's probably my math's not great.

694
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 4: On here, it's a little bit around, like just thirteen percent.

695
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:16,279
Speaker 4: What's on there. I'm gonna get the number, but you know,

696
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:19,360
Speaker 4: look on there, it's a little bit lower. But that's

697
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:22,400
Speaker 4: probably expected in a sense with a team that's rebuilding

698
00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 4: and storing the way they are. But you look on there,

699
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,240
Speaker 4: they're hot, they're happy. You know, the team is about

700
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,799
Speaker 4: the streaming. It should be noted that streaming is not

701
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 4: equivalent right now to cable viewership on here. There's still

702
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 4: a lot of growth to go, but that it is

703
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,839
Speaker 4: moving in a good direction for the Marlins in terms

704
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,399
Speaker 4: of TV deal that is still being negotiated right now,

705
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,319
Speaker 4: they've got two they got the deal comes up in

706
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:50,640
Speaker 4: twenty twenty, so they still got about a year and

707
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:53,280
Speaker 4: a half left on that one that's paying them fifteen

708
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 4: to twenty million, which you know, has been discussed as

709
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:57,840
Speaker 4: one of the worst in the league, and that's something

710
00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 4: that really hinders a especially small market teams in terms

711
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:06,400
Speaker 4: of having that money to spend on free agents and payroll.

712
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 4: In terms of the negotiations on that right now, they

713
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,799
Speaker 4: started negotiating when they were wait, right when the new

714
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,240
Speaker 4: ownership took over on here, and they're in the midst

715
00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:19,360
Speaker 4: of it. So what that figure is going to look like,

716
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:22,799
Speaker 4: it's hard to say at this point. The Tampa bay

717
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 4: Rays at one point got a reported eighty two million

718
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 4: on their deal. Then the Tampa Bay Ray's owner told

719
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,279
Speaker 4: it believe it's a Tampa Tribune, that that number was

720
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:33,759
Speaker 4: going to be a little bit lower, but he did

721
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,680
Speaker 4: not give an exact figure. Regardless, the moments are going

722
00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 4: to get a pre sizeable jump out, imagine in terms

723
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:41,839
Speaker 4: of this new TV deal, So that's going to play

724
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 4: a big factor. And then I know, one of the

725
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 4: things I've seen a lot is just you know, kind

726
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:47,720
Speaker 4: of people wondering why the TV has at deal hasn't

727
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 4: been done yet, and because this because the deal hasn't

728
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,439
Speaker 4: been done yet, that's not a bad sign. And that's

729
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:56,880
Speaker 4: mainly just a these things take a long long time.

730
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:59,640
Speaker 4: I think that when you have to factor in with

731
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:03,720
Speaker 4: this is that people the way people are watching TV

732
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 4: is just so changing, radically changing. I mean, if you

733
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 4: think of how you watch TV like two years ago,

734
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:13,880
Speaker 4: five years ago, it's pretty significant. And then you have

735
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 4: to then project, I mean, who knows what someone's going

736
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:19,399
Speaker 4: to look like in ten years, and these contracts usually

737
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:22,799
Speaker 4: last about you know, ten to fifteen years, so there

738
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:24,759
Speaker 4: are so many different things in play. I mean, is

739
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 4: even going to be cable in ten years? Is everything streaming?

740
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:30,240
Speaker 4: Is there going to be some new type of device

741
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:32,440
Speaker 4: that someone has not even created yet that we're going

742
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 4: to watch on here? And then kind of factoring in

743
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 4: how you price those out is makes this, you know,

744
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,759
Speaker 4: a very complicated endeavor. So that's probably why these are

745
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:43,959
Speaker 4: this is taking so long. Plus that they have another

746
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:45,920
Speaker 4: year on this deal, so there's really no rush for

747
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:49,759
Speaker 4: them to get this finalized right now. But that will

748
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,600
Speaker 4: play a very big role obviously in this team sustainability

749
00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:56,160
Speaker 4: going forward, and they need to secure a good deal

750
00:36:56,239 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 4: for it because these deals are locked in for ten years.

751
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 4: So and you saw what happened with the Marlins in

752
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:03,920
Speaker 4: their previous deal. You know, maybe a ten to fifteen

753
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 4: million dollar deal looked really good a while ago, but

754
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:10,160
Speaker 4: then that burns you in the latter half of a decade.

755
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,279
Speaker 4: So the Marlins, they will definitely have to get a

756
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 4: good one on us to be sustainable going forward. They're

757
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:18,319
Speaker 4: well aware of this and they're kind of how they're

758
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 4: targeting this going forward.

759
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,239
Speaker 1: Wells Dusonberrie of The Sun Sentinel here with us. It

760
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:25,839
Speaker 1: does also pretty significant the revenue that they get from

761
00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:28,680
Speaker 1: people actually attending games and coming to the ballpark and

762
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:33,200
Speaker 1: doing everything involved with that. So that's another thing I

763
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:34,839
Speaker 1: wanted to bring up with you. Even though we're really

764
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,440
Speaker 1: deep into the season, if you look last year to

765
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:41,560
Speaker 1: the previous last year to this year, attendance is relatively flat,

766
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 1: even though the team was very vocal about all the

767
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 1: changes it made the ballpark. Enhancements to the color scheme,

768
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:49,960
Speaker 1: of course, but also through to so many of the

769
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 1: different functions and attractions and the pricing of going to

770
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:56,359
Speaker 1: the ballpark for a Marlins game. You were someone that

771
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,279
Speaker 1: you started on the Marlins beat last year, and you've

772
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 1: obviously been around throughout this year. So even though we're

773
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,600
Speaker 1: pretty deep into the year, as I'm sure you've noticed,

774
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 1: there's just not a whole lot of people going to

775
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:08,640
Speaker 1: the games. And that means some of the people listening

776
00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:12,359
Speaker 1: to this haven't actually seen the ballpark enhancements that went

777
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: to effect for the twenty nineteen season. So, as someone

778
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:19,000
Speaker 1: that saw both the before and the after versions of

779
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 1: the park, could you just explain some of the differences

780
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 1: in Marlins Park, Not necessarily like listing all the different features,

781
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,440
Speaker 1: but yeah, just what the difference is in the Marlins

782
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:34,320
Speaker 1: Park experience that you've noticed from twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen,

783
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:37,839
Speaker 1: the differences and whether you think that those have been

784
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:38,520
Speaker 1: effective or not.

785
00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:42,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think that they've gone in towards

786
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 4: of a more kind of modern direction in the way

787
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 4: that stadiums are going in terms of you know, we've

788
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,600
Speaker 4: talked about the Auto Nation Alley and centerfield getting or

789
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,400
Speaker 4: the home run sculpture, a lot of standing room only sections.

790
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 4: This is you know, using the buzz where they was

791
00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:58,360
Speaker 4: used targeting the millennial audience. But this is how a

792
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 4: lot of these ballparks are going, I think the more

793
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 4: and more, like if you're watching a Marlins game on TV,

794
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:05,239
Speaker 4: you'll usually see a lot of places where you'll see

795
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 4: skating room only decks are kind of seating, and I

796
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 4: think that they're kind of going to modernize and make

797
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 4: this experience, you know, a little bit better. And the

798
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 4: food options and drink were significantly improved in the off

799
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:21,799
Speaker 4: season as well, and I think it's about making that

800
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:26,919
Speaker 4: atmosphere better for going to these Marlins games. Obviously, yes,

801
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 4: you know, everyone says, oh, that's great, but you have

802
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 4: to win. But these are also two separate things on here,

803
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:34,799
Speaker 4: and that one there obviously are working towards getting better,

804
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,040
Speaker 4: but you also want to make a good environment and

805
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,040
Speaker 4: a good place where people can enjoy the game as well,

806
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 4: and those kind of will be separately, and that that

807
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 4: they're targeting that point now to try and make it

808
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 4: a little bit better. I think that ultimately that's not

809
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:52,839
Speaker 4: going to drive people to the game. I think that

810
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:54,400
Speaker 4: that's the kind of thing that will help and is

811
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 4: definitely necessary on there. Ultimately, I think what's going to

812
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:02,080
Speaker 4: drive attendants is you know, winning, but not only just winning,

813
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:06,319
Speaker 4: but showing. I think trust is the big factor you

814
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:08,759
Speaker 4: have to see. I think Marlin's are very kind of

815
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,399
Speaker 4: unique from a lot of other places where it's been

816
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:17,759
Speaker 4: well documated, how burned South Florida has been by this franchise,

817
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:21,400
Speaker 4: not this ownership group over the past twenty five plus years,

818
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:23,960
Speaker 4: and where there's a lot of people are just like,

819
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,359
Speaker 4: you know what, I don't know if I necessarily trust them.

820
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:28,040
Speaker 4: I want to invest in this. I need to see,

821
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 4: you know, them be successful or for X amount of years,

822
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:33,759
Speaker 4: or I need to see that they're putting in the

823
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,640
Speaker 4: effort and work, and that doesn't happen quickly. So I

824
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:40,160
Speaker 4: think that that's going to be a big thing they're

825
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:45,160
Speaker 4: working towards overcoming. I think that getting the stadium improvements

826
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 4: was definitely a start and a good help, but I

827
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:49,680
Speaker 4: don't think it's going to be And I think they're

828
00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:51,799
Speaker 4: well aware of this too. It's not like we do

829
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:53,160
Speaker 4: this and all of a sudden people are going to

830
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 4: show up, because the numbers have been pretty similar, if

831
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 4: maybe even slightly lower than last year for attendance, and

832
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:01,439
Speaker 4: if you see of these games, there's a lot where

833
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:03,920
Speaker 4: it's pretty rough. You know, in terms of no one

834
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:08,080
Speaker 4: being there. So I think it's kind of a slow

835
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:11,360
Speaker 4: kind of growth and you know the quote unquote earning

836
00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 4: the trust back. But I think the improvements have been

837
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:15,880
Speaker 4: good for the ballpark. But it should also be noted

838
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 4: that's not going to be enough to get people back.

839
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. Something that aside from being a pretty

840
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 1: critical time of year for the team, it is somewhat

841
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:29,960
Speaker 1: of a special time of year for you. This is

842
00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:33,359
Speaker 1: right around your first anniversary of being the Marlins beat

843
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:36,480
Speaker 1: reporters for the Sun Sentinel. Congratulations on that.

844
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 4: Thank you.

845
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,359
Speaker 1: So now that you've been around the team for all

846
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: that time, what I'm curious about is how the job

847
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:46,839
Speaker 1: is different than you may have imagined going into it,

848
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:51,279
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of fans, for one, heck,

849
00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:54,080
Speaker 1: and even frankly, some of the writers that are with

850
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:56,799
Speaker 1: me at Fish Stripes, some of their goals in their

851
00:41:56,840 --> 00:41:58,920
Speaker 1: careers are kind of to be where you are, to

852
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,400
Speaker 1: be someone that's around the team all the time, the

853
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:04,160
Speaker 1: players and in the clubhouse and at the ballpark constantly.

854
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:08,719
Speaker 1: And yeah, but what I'm wondering is just it's a

855
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,920
Speaker 1: very unique experience covering a major league team just because

856
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:17,080
Speaker 1: of the really unforgiving schedule, and how and how even

857
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: ahead of the regular season, how a spring training is

858
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:22,279
Speaker 1: such an important time of year, and how long that

859
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,040
Speaker 1: drags on. So it's a really unique grind that you're on.

860
00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:28,200
Speaker 1: And yeah, even as someone that may have done reporting

861
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:30,759
Speaker 1: prior to that with other sports, it is somewhat of

862
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 1: a unique situation. So, how has been around the team?

863
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 1: Being an MLB beat writer been different than you imagined?

864
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 1: And I guess specifically about the Marlins, just thoughts you

865
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,759
Speaker 1: had about what the Marlins organization was like coming into

866
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 1: the job, and what you've learned about certain players or

867
00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:50,919
Speaker 1: about leadership in the Marlins organization while you've been here.

868
00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:55,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's definitely been an interesting kind of year. Thinking

869
00:42:55,960 --> 00:43:00,319
Speaker 4: back in terms of on this, I'd only done major

870
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 4: league games. I think I had pinch hit so to speak,

871
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 4: three times. I'd filled in a couple of games two

872
00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:09,040
Speaker 4: years ago, but I'd never done anything significant terms of that,

873
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:12,640
Speaker 4: whether that was on a professional beat. My background was

874
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,160
Speaker 4: that I started I was on high school beat before

875
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 4: for the Sun Sentinel for a few years and then

876
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:20,680
Speaker 4: moved into this role. I think that, you know, it's

877
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:23,880
Speaker 4: kind of an interesting in that it really is a

878
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:26,640
Speaker 4: kind of a daily grind, which you really and I

879
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 4: don't mean that in a negative way. I mean it's

880
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:30,759
Speaker 4: just that it is kind of you know, it's a

881
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 4: daily sport, and it's that it really is kind of

882
00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 4: a year round thing, but like it's the kind of

883
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:39,200
Speaker 4: thing when you go because of that, you get so

884
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:42,839
Speaker 4: immersed with kind of the or to the team and

885
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,359
Speaker 4: just like everything that kind of surrounds that because you're

886
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,319
Speaker 4: really with that on a daily basis, and that's for

887
00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:52,200
Speaker 4: nearly I mean an entire year, eight months or so

888
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:56,600
Speaker 4: from spring training, you know, I've had you know, depends

889
00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 4: like it seems kind of thing where you learn so

890
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:01,920
Speaker 4: much about these players because you're in the clubhouse. You know,

891
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:06,520
Speaker 4: every day there's that hour availability before you really have

892
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:10,320
Speaker 4: these relationships with the people there around the team, the organization,

893
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:13,600
Speaker 4: around the reporters you know wanted to come and I

894
00:44:13,719 --> 00:44:15,960
Speaker 4: sit next to Joe every night on there, so you know,

895
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:18,160
Speaker 4: I'm talking with him probably more than like anyone else

896
00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:21,279
Speaker 4: on here. And it's like it's just like an interesting

897
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:26,160
Speaker 4: kind of grind in terms of that, but very fulfilling

898
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:29,080
Speaker 4: and it's interesting. As a kid, this was probably something

899
00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:32,760
Speaker 4: I like definitely dreamed of doing on a major league level,

900
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:35,840
Speaker 4: Like in the middle kind of portions of my career.

901
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:38,839
Speaker 4: I kind of like maybe necessarily didn't think I would

902
00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:41,799
Speaker 4: be covering major League baseball, but it's been It's been

903
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:44,600
Speaker 4: a pretty cool unique especially from being a kid when

904
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:46,520
Speaker 4: this is kind of something you dreamed of. I never

905
00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 4: really envisioned. I never had any backup plan other than

906
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:53,880
Speaker 4: being a sports reporter. I never considered any other career paths.

907
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:58,200
Speaker 4: So it definitely has been pretty cool in that regard.

908
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 4: In terms of here and you know, it's as the team.

909
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:04,280
Speaker 4: It's definitely interesting jumping in at the beginning of a rebuild,

910
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:06,840
Speaker 4: which I think was probably you know, one of the

911
00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 4: more interesting times to try and see this kind of

912
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,439
Speaker 4: built up from the beginning because for pretty much every

913
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 4: one this is kind of new from you know, most

914
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:18,240
Speaker 4: to the people in the organization, especially on the communications side.

915
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 4: This is they've been right there just from twenty eighteen

916
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 4: and seeing how this is growing and getting kind of

917
00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:29,400
Speaker 4: an inside look at the growth and how this really goes.

918
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,040
Speaker 4: In terms of a first time experience, it's almost I'm

919
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 4: kind of a rookie going along with them on that experience.

920
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 4: So Yeah, it's definitely kind of an interesting going on

921
00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:42,040
Speaker 4: this kind of path of them at the same time,

922
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:45,600
Speaker 4: but it's definitely been, you know, extremely fulfilling and something

923
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:47,799
Speaker 4: you know, I've definitely been blessed to have the opportunity

924
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 4: to do. But yeah, I would definitely say that's a

925
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:54,959
Speaker 4: very long answer of getting around it, but just saying

926
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:57,880
Speaker 4: probably in terms of I would say, just you know,

927
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 4: how much of it is you're in it, Like twenty

928
00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:03,439
Speaker 4: four to seven is probably a little more than kind

929
00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:06,319
Speaker 4: of I thought going in, But that's just kind of

930
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 4: the nature of the beast in Major League Baseball. But

931
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 4: it's definitely something that I've been really excited and really enjoyed.

932
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:16,640
Speaker 1: Sure, the last thing before you go, Although a significant

933
00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 1: part of your coverage is the games and themselves and

934
00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 1: news as well around the team, you do also do

935
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:28,080
Speaker 1: really good work that larger stories about players or about

936
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:30,640
Speaker 1: certain things going on with the team outside of just

937
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:35,840
Speaker 1: that everyday business. So if if we were to plug

938
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:37,800
Speaker 1: one of the links to one of your old articles

939
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:40,760
Speaker 1: that you've done over the past year about something related

940
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:43,839
Speaker 1: to the team that you think aged well, not necessarily

941
00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 1: related to the day to day what's going on with

942
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:47,520
Speaker 1: the team. But whether it was a feature on a

943
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:51,839
Speaker 1: certain player or a certain aspect of the organization, which

944
00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:53,960
Speaker 1: of those are you most proud of? And do you

945
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:58,040
Speaker 1: think gets people really inside what's going on with the Marlins.

946
00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:02,759
Speaker 4: I think they did on the Marlins Education program in

947
00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:05,759
Speaker 4: the off season in terms of what they were really

948
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:10,120
Speaker 4: focusing on specifically, and you know, teaching English. They're Spanish

949
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:14,000
Speaker 4: players Spanish to their English players. They gave me a

950
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:15,920
Speaker 4: very good look in terms of what they're doing, and

951
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:19,560
Speaker 4: I think that that kind of shows that Marlins do

952
00:47:19,719 --> 00:47:22,440
Speaker 4: have a very good plan, especially in terms of player development,

953
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,719
Speaker 4: in terms of trying to you know, obviously bring these

954
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 4: players along. And I was kind of fascinated by kind

955
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 4: of everything they did. Emily Glass, who runs the program,

956
00:47:31,680 --> 00:47:34,400
Speaker 4: does a terrific job there and they've you know, really

957
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:37,640
Speaker 4: started to pour the resources into that and I think

958
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:41,120
Speaker 4: that that's been you know, a very kind of positive

959
00:47:41,120 --> 00:47:43,080
Speaker 4: thing they've done so far, and that that's going to

960
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:45,680
Speaker 4: be something that really kind of I think shows where

961
00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:47,840
Speaker 4: this is kind of going and player development. You know,

962
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:50,319
Speaker 4: this is something an education program the Marlins did not

963
00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:54,279
Speaker 4: have under the prior regime, and I think getting kind

964
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:58,240
Speaker 4: of getting the opportunity to tell that story in terms

965
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:00,520
Speaker 4: of you know, sitting in in classes and talking where

966
00:48:00,719 --> 00:48:04,360
Speaker 4: Emily and talking with players on there was a really

967
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:07,839
Speaker 4: fascinating look in terms of how that is all kind

968
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:12,719
Speaker 4: of progressing and going. I think another one where kind

969
00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 4: of I did on the state just of the financial

970
00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:19,840
Speaker 4: situation for the whole Marlins. That was a couple of

971
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:23,040
Speaker 4: months ago, two or three months ago. It was interesting

972
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:25,480
Speaker 4: talking to people from a lot of different departments and

973
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:29,719
Speaker 4: avenues in terms of really getting a glimpse of every

974
00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:32,759
Speaker 4: how everything works together, whether it's from a revenue perspective

975
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:35,640
Speaker 4: and whether it's you know how much TV ticket sales,

976
00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:40,479
Speaker 4: corporate partnerships, how all these things that maybe people don't

977
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:45,520
Speaker 4: think of immediately play very very large roles. And like,

978
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:49,160
Speaker 4: for example, the corporate partnerships things are working on, whether

979
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:51,919
Speaker 4: that's with autonationality, something that they're going to be working

980
00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:55,719
Speaker 4: on with stadium naming rights. There's just a lot of

981
00:48:55,840 --> 00:48:58,080
Speaker 4: really things that kind of go into this you know,

982
00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:01,399
Speaker 4: giant machine that's running a major baseball team, and they

983
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 4: all play really important roles and if they get neglected

984
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:08,320
Speaker 4: and if they're not helpful, that's gonna really hurt you

985
00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 4: if you're a small market team. I think that the

986
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:14,239
Speaker 4: Marlins have shown a lot of promise, especially on the

987
00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:16,120
Speaker 4: business side. I think they have a lot of smart

988
00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:19,120
Speaker 4: people in this organization running some of those things, So

989
00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:22,760
Speaker 4: it'll be that one was definitely interesting having a chance

990
00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:25,080
Speaker 4: to talk to a lot of people from inside those

991
00:49:25,120 --> 00:49:28,879
Speaker 4: departments in terms of how that operates. So those are

992
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:30,359
Speaker 4: two off the top of my head that I think

993
00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:34,160
Speaker 4: kind of give an interesting glimpse of where of how

994
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:37,040
Speaker 4: they're building this thing up and where it could be

995
00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 4: going potentially.

996
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:41,879
Speaker 1: Right even following the team from Afar, I think it's

997
00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:45,360
Speaker 1: fairly obvious, even though you can't guarantee success at the

998
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:48,840
Speaker 1: other end of this rebuild, that the organization that the

999
00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:54,200
Speaker 1: way that front office ends higher ups are how things

1000
00:49:54,239 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 1: are organized outside of the highest level of ownership, and

1001
00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:01,880
Speaker 1: the contrast that's between what's happening under Bruce Sherman and

1002
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:04,839
Speaker 1: Derek Cheater and how things may have been organized under

1003
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:08,320
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Laurier, and how some of the differences that they're

1004
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:12,120
Speaker 1: looking at in terms of developing players and developing people

1005
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:15,880
Speaker 1: and of course making nice with the surrounding community. That

1006
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:19,120
Speaker 1: the contrast between that and what used to be Marlon's

1007
00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 1: baseball is so extreme and yeah, I mean they're always

1008
00:50:23,719 --> 00:50:25,960
Speaker 1: going to be like a pretty significant chunk of this

1009
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 1: community that does not come back until in very clear terms,

1010
00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:33,160
Speaker 1: there are success at the major league level. But it has. Yeah,

1011
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:35,799
Speaker 1: it's been really fascinating through both your coverage and then

1012
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:38,719
Speaker 1: just from following the team as closely as we do

1013
00:50:38,719 --> 00:50:41,520
Speaker 1: at Fish Stripes, being able to see all the differences

1014
00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:45,080
Speaker 1: and how it's a franchise that sort of resembles other

1015
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:49,080
Speaker 1: successful franchises for the first time instead of one that's,

1016
00:50:49,120 --> 00:50:53,560
Speaker 1: you know, making headlines for all the wrong reasons. It's yeah,

1017
00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:56,120
Speaker 1: I guess you could. You should consider yourself a little

1018
00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:58,719
Speaker 1: bit grateful that you're covering the team in this era

1019
00:50:58,920 --> 00:51:02,680
Speaker 1: instead of maybe back a few years ago when decision

1020
00:51:02,719 --> 00:51:07,000
Speaker 1: making was a little bit different, and yeah, it didn't

1021
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:09,359
Speaker 1: get the team exactly where it wanted to be. So

1022
00:51:09,560 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's it's been an interesting ride. And but

1023
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:16,120
Speaker 1: you think we're still a couple of years away from

1024
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 1: seeing success at the major league level.

1025
00:51:18,440 --> 00:51:23,160
Speaker 4: You think, right, Yeah, I would say probably in my guests,

1026
00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 4: I think twenty twenty is probably a year where we'll

1027
00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:30,560
Speaker 4: see some growth, I think, and maybe that growth means,

1028
00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:33,239
Speaker 4: can they maybe you know, get close to maybe a

1029
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:35,680
Speaker 4: five hundred team. Can they maybe be around that, you know,

1030
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:38,080
Speaker 4: whether it's like a seventy five one team or something.

1031
00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:40,759
Speaker 4: I think if you see growth kind of to go

1032
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:42,400
Speaker 4: back to a point where were talking about earlier this

1033
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:44,279
Speaker 4: team is that I think entering the year, we said

1034
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:46,480
Speaker 4: we want to see growth from the pitching and from

1035
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:51,360
Speaker 4: three position players in particular, where Brian Anderson, Jorge Alfaro,

1036
00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:54,040
Speaker 4: and Lois Brinston were the three key ones. Obviously the

1037
00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:56,640
Speaker 4: Brinston one has not worked out so far. I think

1038
00:51:56,680 --> 00:51:59,279
Speaker 4: that Alfaro has been you know, performed pretty much. I

1039
00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:02,680
Speaker 4: think the way people expected a lot of positives with him.

1040
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:06,880
Speaker 4: Brian Anderson, I think that he's beginning to you know,

1041
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:09,160
Speaker 4: get a pick up a little bit. The power numbers

1042
00:52:09,160 --> 00:52:11,200
Speaker 4: are going to be increased, you know, a lot from

1043
00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:13,799
Speaker 4: last year. So you definitely see enough there. I think

1044
00:52:13,920 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 4: next year it's can what do we see from a

1045
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:20,160
Speaker 4: guy like Gararek Cooper, Is he's going to be someone

1046
00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:22,560
Speaker 4: can you continue this? Maybe the power numbers canning up

1047
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:25,399
Speaker 4: to because Harold Ramirez a guy who is a long

1048
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:29,920
Speaker 4: term piece on here, is Isan Diaz and Mark Monte Harrison.

1049
00:52:30,080 --> 00:52:33,120
Speaker 4: How those guys do in their rookie seasons I think

1050
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:36,600
Speaker 4: will really kind of determine where this team goes. And

1051
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:39,360
Speaker 4: I would specifically say those two guys, if Mante Harrison

1052
00:52:39,360 --> 00:52:42,600
Speaker 4: Andan Diez really can come out and be guys right

1053
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:44,360
Speaker 4: out of the gate, and then maybe that timeline of

1054
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:46,880
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one for a playoff team, maybe that's a

1055
00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 4: little bit you know, more realistic. If the pitching continues

1056
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 4: to be at a very high level and if you

1057
00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:54,680
Speaker 4: see six to do you know, be there at the

1058
00:52:54,719 --> 00:52:57,319
Speaker 4: end of the year, and Edward Cabrera Inch is way

1059
00:52:57,360 --> 00:53:00,680
Speaker 4: closer than you know, that's possible for twenty twenty one

1060
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:02,839
Speaker 4: to be a playoff team. But I think that they're

1061
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:04,640
Speaker 4: going to have to have a lot of growth, especially

1062
00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:07,120
Speaker 4: with some of the position players. I would say Isan

1063
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:09,439
Speaker 4: and Monte are the real key ones. And if they

1064
00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 4: get Sprinston to be, you know, to take and tap

1065
00:53:12,600 --> 00:53:14,920
Speaker 4: into that, then that would be even better. But I

1066
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:17,719
Speaker 4: think that's going to be the really big factor will

1067
00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:21,200
Speaker 4: be those guys and can the pitching keep playing at

1068
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 4: a level. But so I would think probably twenty twenty

1069
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:26,440
Speaker 4: one could be you know, a year where they maybe

1070
00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:29,719
Speaker 4: they can contend. I think that's going to depend on probably.

1071
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:33,120
Speaker 1: Those guys, right, and it depends a little bit on

1072
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:36,320
Speaker 1: their competition as well. As we're recording this, Baseball America

1073
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:39,840
Speaker 1: just released their updated farm system rankings and the Marlins

1074
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:43,200
Speaker 1: now officially a top ten farm system, which is I

1075
00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:45,080
Speaker 1: guess a milestone that a lot of us at fish

1076
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:48,520
Speaker 1: strips that circled for a while. Even though Baseball America

1077
00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:51,040
Speaker 1: is not the only outlet covering this kind of thing,

1078
00:53:51,080 --> 00:53:53,800
Speaker 1: they have a great track record that identifying this. Meanwhile,

1079
00:53:53,800 --> 00:53:55,400
Speaker 1: you have three teams in the same division, and the

1080
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:57,200
Speaker 1: Mets and the Phillies and the Nats that are all

1081
00:53:57,480 --> 00:54:00,399
Speaker 1: in the bottom six spots seven spots in the farm

1082
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:02,440
Speaker 1: system rankings. So those are teams that don't have those

1083
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:05,279
Speaker 1: same reinforcements coming up, that they don't have that same

1084
00:54:06,200 --> 00:54:08,960
Speaker 1: cost control of their players. But you still have the

1085
00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:12,560
Speaker 1: braves that are gon really built up to be juggernauts

1086
00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:15,200
Speaker 1: really for the foreseeable future. So it's gonna be interesting

1087
00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:17,279
Speaker 1: to see it unfold. The team's gonna look a lot

1088
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:19,759
Speaker 1: different down the stretch this year than to to start

1089
00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:22,120
Speaker 1: the year. And as you referred to, you have all

1090
00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:25,880
Speaker 1: these great prospects that are gonna come up, presumably in

1091
00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:27,920
Speaker 1: the next calendar year, so we're going to get to

1092
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:30,879
Speaker 1: a point where this roster could be pretty much as

1093
00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 1: homegrown as they want it to be with all the

1094
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:36,080
Speaker 1: talent they have in here and hopefully moving forward. We

1095
00:54:36,160 --> 00:54:39,080
Speaker 1: have you back on the podcast because this was really great. Wells.

1096
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:41,440
Speaker 1: We're going to check out your work at The Sun Sentinel.

1097
00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:43,720
Speaker 1: We're going to follow you along on Twitter at dus

1098
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:46,799
Speaker 1: Report and everybody here. If you're listening to this, make

1099
00:54:46,840 --> 00:54:49,080
Speaker 1: sure you're subscribe to Fish Strips Podcast wherever you get

1100
00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:51,919
Speaker 1: your podcasts. You can listen to us on Slam Radio

1101
00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:56,279
Speaker 1: as well Serious XM on Mondays for these episodes. So

1102
00:54:56,360 --> 00:54:59,000
Speaker 1: once again, thank you so much Wells. Congrats on the anniversary,

1103
00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:00,759
Speaker 1: and we'll talk you again real soon.

1104
00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:02,239
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me on