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Speaker 1: The show goes on. This is the official show on

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Speaker 1: the fist Stripes podcast channel with me Eli Sussman, the

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Speaker 1: managing editor of Fists Stripes, where we cover your Miami

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Speaker 1: Marlins every day in our own way. I was wrong

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Speaker 1: about this direction of the Marlins twenty twenty two season.

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Speaker 1: That's what this episode is going to be about. Before

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Speaker 1: we get into that, a appreciation thank you from the

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Speaker 1: bottom of my heart to everybody that helped us reach

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Speaker 1: one thousand subscribers on YouTube. Truly the honor of my life.

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Speaker 1: That was a goal that we set out for at

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Speaker 1: the beginning of the twenty twenty two campaign, and we

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Speaker 1: got there. Even if you weren't a part of the

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Speaker 1: first one k, you can hop in. Now there's room

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Speaker 1: for everybody, and the support is greatly appreciated. As we

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Speaker 1: expand even further our multi media outlet focusing on the Fish,

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Speaker 1: we're everywhere you look for social media. You'll find us

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Speaker 1: at Fish Stripes on Twitter, where we rolled out a

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Speaker 1: new super Follows subscription option. Be sure to check that

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Speaker 1: out if you want even more exclusive content. We're on

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Speaker 1: Instagram and TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, etc. Wherever you're listening

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Speaker 1: to this podcast. Please leave a rating and review wherever applicable,

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Speaker 1: let us know how we're doing. Support us that way,

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Speaker 1: and the main site has everything you could want about

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Speaker 1: the Marlins as we head into the busiest few weeks

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Speaker 1: of the season. And I mean that doesn't get any

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Speaker 1: crazier than the draft, the trade deadline, and the team

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Speaker 1: playing crucial games in between. At fishstripes dot com. Go

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Speaker 1: to fish stripes dot com. A few weeks ago, maybe

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Speaker 1: more than a month ago, at this point, I was

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Speaker 1: telling you that the Marlins were heading towards being sellers,

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Speaker 1: that this trajectory of their season was not going to change,

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Speaker 1: that there were issues and limitations and quality of competition

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Speaker 1: that they were not going to be able to overcome.

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Speaker 1: They have exceeded those expectations that I set out for them.

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Speaker 1: I'm reacting to Wednesday's wild win really unlike any other

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Speaker 1: game that the Marlins have played this year, in terms

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Speaker 1: of all the swings just in the final couple endings

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Speaker 1: of the game, all the momentum swings. I should say

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Speaker 1: as well, that got them to win over the Pirates

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Speaker 1: and walk off wild pitch fashion. The Marlins will head

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Speaker 1: into Thursday's matinee at forty two and forty five. There's

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Speaker 1: just a few games out of the final National League

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Speaker 1: wild card spot. This is the best that the team

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Speaker 1: has been this far into the season since what twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 1: and they need to keep going, they need to keep pushing.

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Speaker 1: And by they, of course, I'm talking about the players

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Speaker 1: in some respects. Mostly I'm talking about the front office

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Speaker 1: and the coaching staff who have seemingly been a sleep

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Speaker 1: at the wheel a lot of this season. Hasn't it

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Speaker 1: felt like that that they've just been sleepwalking a lot

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Speaker 1: of this year. We've been talking about it, really, probably

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Speaker 1: since May. The lack of urgency to follow through on

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Speaker 1: a declaration that this team would be improved this year,

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Speaker 1: to overlook some of plenty of homegrown options they've had

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Speaker 1: at various points to address various weaknesses, and I guess

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Speaker 1: the more noticeable thing has been the total disinterest seemingly

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Speaker 1: in making outside additions that could meaningfully impact this organization.

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Speaker 1: With few exceptions, it's so obvious that the pieces do

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Speaker 1: not fit together, that the talent on this team is

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Speaker 1: not comparable to some of the teams that they are

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Speaker 1: chasing in the playoff hunts as a whole. At least,

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Speaker 1: yet they are within reach and they need to keep pushing.

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Speaker 1: They need to keep pushing. They owe it to the

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Speaker 1: fans and they owe it to the player that as

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Speaker 1: of late, are pulling out a whole lot of close games.

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Speaker 1: Have you noticed that all the close games that they're winning.

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Speaker 1: So as of heading into Thursday, this team is nine

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Speaker 1: and five in its last fourteen games. It does not

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Speaker 1: feel like that just based on the quality of the

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Speaker 1: play that we're seeing, but those wins are there over

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Speaker 1: that span. Nine wins last fourteen games one, two, three, four.

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Speaker 1: Four of those have been one run wins and two

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Speaker 1: more of those have been extra ending wins, which are

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Speaker 1: essentially the exact same thing. They are winning by the

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Speaker 1: skin of their teeth. They're as a whole being outscored

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Speaker 1: by their competition in recent weeks, and yet all that

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Speaker 1: matters is getting those w's and staying close with this team.

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Speaker 1: There's more reaction to Wednesday's particular game on the small pod,

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Speaker 1: but just some things that need to be pointed out.

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Speaker 1: Is to go into this crucial game with Avise el

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Speaker 1: Garcia still as your clean up hitter. Of course, it

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Speaker 1: should be noted that he had the biggest hit in

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Speaker 1: this game that broke up a shutout, but it broke

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Speaker 1: out a shutout in the eighth inning. A team that

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Speaker 1: went three times through the order against the you could

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Speaker 1: say it the rebuilding Pittsburgh Pirates, and had not scored

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Speaker 1: a run. This team has not hit a home run

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Speaker 1: in its last four games. That's very hard to do

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Speaker 1: in modern baseball at the major league level, to four

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Speaker 1: games without a home run, especially when in three of

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Speaker 1: those games you're facing the Pirates pitching staff, one of

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Speaker 1: the weakest in the league, one of the least experienced

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Speaker 1: in the league. For sure. They've done it without hitting

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Speaker 1: for power. They've done it with just poor fundamentals at

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Speaker 1: a lot of times. We've seen it Defensively, Brian Anderson

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Speaker 1: has had a rough last few weeks and if you

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Speaker 1: look back since his return from the injured list, just

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Speaker 1: has not at all been the same guy that he

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Speaker 1: was prior to his I think was his back issues

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Speaker 1: that sent him to the il originally. Jacob Stalling is

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Speaker 1: still submerged in the very worst offensive slump of his career.

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Speaker 1: But going back to the fundamentals of this team, Brian

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Speaker 1: Dela Cruz almost made almost cost the team the game

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Speaker 1: in the tenth inning on Wednesday night with his indecisive

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Speaker 1: base running that situation. He's a player that I think

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Speaker 1: a lot of us were very infatuated with as a

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Speaker 1: rookie in twenty twenty one, and it's been so different

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Speaker 1: this year in terms of all the little things that

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Speaker 1: he's just not doing as a major leaguer should with

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Speaker 1: this bullpen, it's been ups and downs, and ups and downs. Overall,

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Speaker 1: They've been good these last few weeks in order to

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Speaker 1: keep the team afloat. Yet we still have Tanner Scott

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Speaker 1: being miscast as a closer, his penchant for walking the

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Speaker 1: leadoff hitter in a lot of his endings, putting so

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Speaker 1: much stress on himself that even when he makes effective

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Speaker 1: pitches later in the inning, it's not quite enough or

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Speaker 1: it's unable to overcome that initial mistake, so he blows

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Speaker 1: a save eten in Wednesday's game. As we covered, they're

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Speaker 1: still doing it without a closer. I mean, what's most

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Speaker 1: impressed me The biggest surprise or the Marlins during this

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Speaker 1: recent stress reason why they are in my mind removed

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Speaker 1: from any sellar talk at this point is how the

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Speaker 1: back end of their rotation has stepped up in case

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Speaker 1: of injuries. I think every single person entering this year

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Speaker 1: would have said that Hayesius Lolzardo, Edward Cabrera, those are

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Speaker 1: guys you want your rotation over. Braxton Garrett, Daniel Costano.

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Speaker 1: You put their productions side by side, and these guys

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Speaker 1: have not missed the beat in the case of those injuries.

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Speaker 1: So we'll see how well that ages as we go

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Speaker 1: on to a Thursday, where I think we'll be seeing

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Speaker 1: Braxton Garrett pitch yet again. But that's been the biggest

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Speaker 1: surprise with this team is how adequate the back end

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Speaker 1: of the rotation has been, giving the bullpen not enough rest,

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Speaker 1: but maybe just enough to continue using these guys in

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Speaker 1: most of the situations that you'd want them to to

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Speaker 1: keep this going. It's so confusing to talk about this

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Speaker 1: team because I think the takeaway is that they are

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Speaker 1: at a talent and a fit deficits compared to the

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Speaker 1: other competition. I mentioned Garcia being miscast as an everyday

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Speaker 1: player and as a middle of the order bat, and

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Speaker 1: you can say the exact same thing about Hey suss Aguilar,

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Speaker 1: who ultimately scored the game winning run on Wednesday. That's great,

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Speaker 1: but and also had the critical hit to get on

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Speaker 1: base in the first place. During that bottom of the

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Speaker 1: tenth inning, there goes Bertie penzilion drive backs hit center field,

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Speaker 1: tuck of the game, and now the winning run. He

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Speaker 1: is ninety feet away as Agular comes through. But he's

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Speaker 1: a flat player man with his limitations defensively as a

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Speaker 1: base runner and with power as well, like even when

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Speaker 1: he squares up the ball these days, it's a lot

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Speaker 1: of warning track power. He's being miscast on this team.

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Speaker 1: A lot of players are hey, sus Sanchez, the everyday

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Speaker 1: center fielder, no matter who else is in the lineup

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Speaker 1: with him, their stubbornness or really their complacency, just to

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Speaker 1: leave him in a position where he's just not comfortable

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Speaker 1: and not effective. It's really clear that he has more

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Speaker 1: to work on with his offensive approach an on base

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Speaker 1: percentage in the mid two hundreds as we get more

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Speaker 1: than halfway into the season. For the team not to

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Speaker 1: like seriously explore other changes at center field to optimize

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Speaker 1: that position to this point is baffling for this team,

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Speaker 1: and I think it's inexcusable the way that they've just

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Speaker 1: left him there, even especially at this particular time, with

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Speaker 1: somebody like Jorge Solaire being injured, not getting more creative

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Speaker 1: to shift things around and optimize the roster. It took

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Speaker 1: an injury, well, it took it with severe struggles to

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Speaker 1: Payton Henry and then an injury to bring Nick Fortes

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Speaker 1: up here. And he's certainly been a big bright spot

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Speaker 1: for this team during the stretch. He's been an important part.

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Speaker 1: I do want to if you want to give the

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Speaker 1: team some credit for making a mid season adjustment, you

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Speaker 1: could just point to Wednesday's game. It was the first

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Speaker 1: time this year that Nick Fortes has been the starting

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Speaker 1: designated hitter for the Marlins, the very first time that

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Speaker 1: they Boo had that idea, Hey, he's one of the

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Speaker 1: best hitters on this team, regardless of position. If we're

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Speaker 1: not gonna let him catch Sandy Elkonto or Papolo Lopez

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Speaker 1: on the days that they start, we can still get

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Speaker 1: him involved in the game in some way, can't We Yes,

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Speaker 1: you can as the DH. So that's one small sign

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Speaker 1: that they're not in highly sleepwalking. Most of the other

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Speaker 1: evidence points to the fact that they are. The pieces

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Speaker 1: still don't fit together and they need to do something

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Speaker 1: about it. And I wish I had the obvious answers,

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Speaker 1: because I think the bottom line that I need to

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Speaker 1: acknowledge here is that I'm in this aspect, I'm sticking

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Speaker 1: with my original thought process that it is a very

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Speaker 1: very slim chance that the Marlins make the postseason this year.

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Speaker 1: They are in a significant hole compared to those other

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Speaker 1: playoff contenders. The division is already out of reach. Outside

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Speaker 1: of so Layer and Jazz and also Cody Poteit, most

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Speaker 1: of their other injured guys aren't yet, you know, even

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Speaker 1: in the picture of returning yet. There's still a lot

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Speaker 1: of rehab to go before they get back those other

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Speaker 1: starting pitching options. But the front office needs to do something.

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Speaker 1: They owe it to the players fighting as hard as

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Speaker 1: they have been, and they owe it so much to

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Speaker 1: these fans, the fans that injured three and a half seasons,

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Speaker 1: or you could say three seasons, several seasons of purposeful

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Speaker 1: losing in twenty eighteen, in twenty nineteen, even in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one. They just did not invest in proven players

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Speaker 1: on this team, and they suffered the consequences, losing ninety

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Speaker 1: five plus games in each of those full length seasons.

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Speaker 1: The Marlins have mentioned this year, they've pointed out proudly.

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Speaker 1: How attendance is up at Lone Deevo Park. It's still

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Speaker 1: nothing to be proud of, but it's up considerably overwhere

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Speaker 1: it was last year, and overwhear was in pre pandemic

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Speaker 1: times as well. And yet they're going to see games

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Speaker 1: like this where the team is held scoreless by the

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Speaker 1: Pirates deep into the eighth inning, where they had the

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Speaker 1: pinch hitters that they're forced to use in crucial situations

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Speaker 1: are Luke Williams. And how Billy Hamilton is still a

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Speaker 1: major leaguer here in twenty twenty two somehow, and how

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Speaker 1: Brian Dela Cruz is playing almost every single day, whether

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Speaker 1: it's in left field or whether it's in right field.

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Speaker 1: For this team. They should they should not be this difficult.

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Speaker 1: It should not be this complacence for this team, whether

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Speaker 1: it's going outside the organization to make some trades. Don't

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Speaker 1: need to wait till the trade deadline to really push

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Speaker 1: the matter on that and get something done, because there

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Speaker 1: are several different ways which you could optimize the roster.

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Speaker 1: If not that, then just promote from within. The Triple A.

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Speaker 1: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are having a really impressive season on

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Speaker 1: the team level. On the individual level, a great combination

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Speaker 1: of conventional top prospects and also pop up success stories.

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Speaker 1: The names that you got to start with are Max

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Speaker 1: Meyer and JJ Bleda. Bla Day on Wednesday hit his

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Speaker 1: nineteenth home run of the season. To this point, he's

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Speaker 1: not quite the prospect that we hoped he would be

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Speaker 1: three years ago or even one year ago. He's made adjustments, though,

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Speaker 1: and he has leaned into that power. He still has

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Speaker 1: great plate discipline, and he has the versatility to play

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Speaker 1: every outfield spot. He can make this team better above

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Speaker 1: the loll's being a left handed bat for a Marlins

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Speaker 1: team at the moment that their only competent left handed

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Speaker 1: bat is Joey Wendel, but Jazz still out with Hayeshu

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Speaker 1: Sanchez struggling for the vast majority of the season, it's

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Speaker 1: hard to It's hard to make any sort of coherent

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Speaker 1: case for continuing to hold Bladet back when he's producing

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Speaker 1: power in games, which to this point is one of

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Speaker 1: the biggest deficiencies on the major league roster. On the

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Speaker 1: pitching side, with Max Meyer, we were saying back in May,

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Speaker 1: he is ready. He's ready to contribute on this team.

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Speaker 1: He is going to be a top five starting pitcher

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Speaker 1: on the major league team. He is ready to do that.

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Speaker 1: I understand. It's an all awkward situation this team. They

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Speaker 1: are reactive. They are not proactive. This is what's frustrating.

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Speaker 1: They are a reactive organization. They've seen Trevor Rodgers all

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Speaker 1: year long look mediocre, not terrible, not you know, totally

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Speaker 1: out of his element, not completely overmatched, but just mediocre.

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Speaker 1: Just not good enough. With his combination of poor run

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Speaker 1: prevention and lack of depth into games, inefficiency with his pitches,

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Speaker 1: and just shortcomings in clutch situations that he's somebody that's

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Speaker 1: not good enough to be in the rotation for a

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Speaker 1: team that's trying to win at the present time. As

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Speaker 1: much as I want to applaud Daniel Castano for pitching

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Speaker 1: better than he ever has before, he has some obvious

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Speaker 1: limitations to his game as well as a starting pitcher,

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Speaker 1: and there have been bright spots with him. But I

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Speaker 1: don't think there's a single town evaluator out there who

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Speaker 1: would say head to head that they'd prefer to have

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Speaker 1: Castano in their rotation right now over Max Meyer. It's

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Speaker 1: that simple in terms of the tools that these pitchers

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Speaker 1: have their abilities to adjust deep into games and to

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Speaker 1: simply miss bats. That's really the one characteristic that Castano

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Speaker 1: has always will always be lacking, and even one frankly

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Speaker 1: that Trevor Rodgers has taken a huge step back in

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Speaker 1: as well. For Max Meyer to still be just toiling

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Speaker 1: away in Triple A and putting up pretty terrific numbers

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Speaker 1: when he's pitching healthy and still not get this opportunity

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Speaker 1: despite everything that the team invested in him, it's I'm speechless.

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Speaker 1: I am perplexed by the fact that they have not

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Speaker 1: found a way to get him into this team at

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Speaker 1: the major league level. Yet hopefully that is coming very soon.

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Speaker 1: They need to do something. They need to give this

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Speaker 1: team something a boost. I should say, it's not all

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Speaker 1: about the tangible upgrades about they're very clear ways to

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Speaker 1: analyze the situation and point to the deficiencies that the

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Speaker 1: team has. I've kind of spoken generally about them to

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Speaker 1: this point, but the lack of power hitting, lack of

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Speaker 1: defense in center field, and the missing link at the

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Speaker 1: very back end of the bullpen, that premium bullpen option

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Speaker 1: that you'd love to have. As presently constituted, the Marlins

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Speaker 1: are not good enough to stay in contention, so they

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Speaker 1: should change the way that this team is constituted. I

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Speaker 1: don't think it's really that difficult to start taking action

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Speaker 1: and address the deficiencies on this team. The angle I

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Speaker 1: wanted to bring up about this before signing off on

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Speaker 1: this pod is Sandy Alcontra and the season that he's having.

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Speaker 1: So on one hand, you could look at it as

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Speaker 1: the Marlins have an extremely long window because of their

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Speaker 1: foresight to extend him when they did. He has another

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Speaker 1: five years of club control beyond this year, in what

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Speaker 1: should be the prime of his career. His track record

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Speaker 1: says that he's just going to continue to find ways

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Speaker 1: to get better and better and better and better, bringing

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Speaker 1: a little bit of realism into that. This feels like

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Speaker 1: the peak, right, This feels like the best that a

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Speaker 1: pitcher like him can be. He's been the most valuable

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Speaker 1: pitcher in baseball this season, making all of his starts,

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Speaker 1: going deep into practically all his starts, throwing up zeros

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Speaker 1: in almost all of his starts. He's been nearly immaculate

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Speaker 1: this season. He's locked in, He's figured it out, you

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Speaker 1: could say, and I don't anticipate there being much of

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Speaker 1: a drop off in the second half of the season.

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Speaker 1: So he's going to continue to get you wins in

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Speaker 1: games that you're not accustomed to winning as a team.

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Speaker 1: The Marlins cannot take that for granted. As much as

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Speaker 1: you'd love to dream about this being the guy that

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Speaker 1: he is every start every year for the next half decade,

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Speaker 1: I think history show is that pitching is complicated, Pitching

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Speaker 1: is risky, Pitching can break your heart. You just don't

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Speaker 1: know exactly when something could go wrong with him, and

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Speaker 1: you don't even want to think about that scenario. Instead,

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Speaker 1: you just need to take advantage of when he is

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Speaker 1: at the very top of his game, when he is

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Speaker 1: going to put the team on his back time after

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Speaker 1: time after time to keep a team that I did

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Speaker 1: not think would be this close to five hundred or

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Speaker 1: the wild card spot this deep into the year. And

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Speaker 1: Sandy has been the difference, the fact that he has

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Speaker 1: sustained what he was doing in May and in June

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Speaker 1: that there's just no end in sight for him throwing

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Speaker 1: a quality start after a quality start. He's been amazing

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Speaker 1: and they need to take full advantage of that. You

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Speaker 1: know they have financial flexibility to add talents, and we

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Speaker 1: know they have internal options to promote from triple A

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Speaker 1: Meyer and Bladet. I still like Payden Burdick a lot

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Speaker 1: as well. In the outfield, Charles LeBlanc, we need to

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Speaker 1: mention Charles LeBlanc knocking on the door again. I think

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Speaker 1: he hit yet another home run again as well, and

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Speaker 1: he plays a bunch of different positions. It's an offensively

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Speaker 1: challenged team. It's a high leverage pitching challenge team. It

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Speaker 1: is a fundamentally challenged team in terms of base running

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Speaker 1: and defense. It's imperfect. You could say it might not

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Speaker 1: even be traditional playoff quality as currently constituted. And if

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Speaker 1: that's how the front office feels about it, they should

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Speaker 1: do something about it. They cannot just sit back and

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Speaker 1: stand pat and just cross their fingers that this team

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Speaker 1: they put together plays up to the best of their ability.

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Speaker 1: They need to make adjustments. They need to make real

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Speaker 1: adjustments to give themselves a chance to try to make

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Speaker 1: this a memorable season. So far it has been. It's

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Speaker 1: been interesting. I wouldn't say anybody's gonna remember it beyond much,

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Speaker 1: celebrated in hindsight for years to come, unless the team

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Speaker 1: really does stay in the thick of contention through the

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Speaker 1: rest of the year that is feasible. I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to say there's a full proof plan here at Fish.

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Speaker 1: Steps are going to spend the next few weeks looking

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Speaker 1: through all of the potential options that they can explore

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Speaker 1: inside and outside the organization to continue winning games after

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Speaker 1: the All Star break. That doesn't mean that the best

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Speaker 1: laid plans are going to work out. You just want

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Speaker 1: to see the effort. You just want to see some

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Speaker 1: sort of commitment to this current year of the team,

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Speaker 1: to see them prioritize for the first time in a

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Speaker 1: long time, prioritize the here and now. There's a balance.

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Speaker 1: There's always going to be a balance between the immediate

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Speaker 1: situation of the team and long term efficiency, sustainability, YadA, YadA, YadA.

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Speaker 1: They aren't balancing it enough right now, and it's been disappointing.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think this team, overall, where they are

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Speaker 1: in the standings, a lot of the big picture of

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Speaker 1: things about this team are pretty much exactly in line

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Speaker 1: with what would be reasonably projected entering the season. But

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Speaker 1: I don't think anybody is satisfied with that. Kim Ang,

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Speaker 1: kim Ang, this is on you. This is going to

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Speaker 1: be such a pivotal stretch of her tenure as Marlin's

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Speaker 1: lead executive leading up to this trade deadline, including the draft,

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Speaker 1: including call up options from the minors. This is going

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Speaker 1: to be very very important for her legacy. This is

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Speaker 1: it's only year two of her in this kind of

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Speaker 1: position as Marlins GM, but who knows. You never know

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Speaker 1: exactly how close they're going to be in future years

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Speaker 1: to being competitive and what is typically a pretty tough

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Speaker 1: National League East Division dealing with an owner in Bruce

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Speaker 1: Sherman that has pretty tight purse strings compared to other

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Speaker 1: owners around Major League Baseball. I'm not saying it's an

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Speaker 1: easy job, but I'd like to see some urgency, some creativity, something,

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Speaker 1: some signs that she's paying attention because they've made it

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Speaker 1: far even with what I would consider sub optimal roster

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Speaker 1: construction strategy. Everybody that wants to blame Don Mattingly I understand.

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Speaker 1: I think there are some things that have been very

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Speaker 1: odd with the way that he has utilized the players

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Speaker 1: on his active roster. You'd be naive to think that

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Speaker 1: is all in his hands. There's front office guidance that

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Speaker 1: goes into that. To this point, I'd say that a

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Speaker 1: lot of these questionable decisions that they've made have backfired,

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Speaker 1: and so the only reason why this team isn't even

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Speaker 1: better right now is because of some of the head

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Speaker 1: scratching ways that these players have been deployed. I'm just

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Speaker 1: grateful that this team is interesting. As I set up top,

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Speaker 1: this has gone better than I thought I feared it

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Speaker 1: would as we were just a few weeks ago. They

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Speaker 1: have stayed afloat, They have stuck arounds. They need they

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Speaker 1: need help to keep this going. They need help from

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Speaker 1: the front office, and I hope they get it. I

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Speaker 1: hope they get it. So we will explore from every

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Speaker 1: single angle here on fish Drives, both myself and the

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Speaker 1: rest of the staff. Be sure to tune in to well.

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Speaker 1: We have a whole bunch of live streams coming up,

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Speaker 1: even during the Ulcer break. We have Friday previewing the

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Speaker 1: Philly series at five point thirty pm Eastern Time. On Sunday,

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Speaker 1: that's the first day of the draft, seven pm live

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Speaker 1: stream leading up to the Marlins picking number six. Overall,

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Speaker 1: I'll be back with the official show on Monday. I

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Speaker 1: think in the middle of next week we're going to

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Speaker 1: have an exclusive interview with Tanner Scott as part of

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Speaker 1: the What a Relief series here on the Fish Drives

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Speaker 1: podcast that's with Noah Berger tuned into that as well

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of written content in between. So I

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Speaker 1: want to explore both those crucial decisions that need to

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Speaker 1: be made as well as, you know, some other quirky

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Speaker 1: but yet still significant storylines happening with this Marlins team

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Speaker 1: eighty seven games into this season. Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: your support. I've been Eli Susman here on the official show.

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Speaker 1: As always, go Fish