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Speaker 1: Marlins fans welcome to a new edition of Big Fish

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Speaker 1: Small Pot for Monday, May thirteenth, here on the Fish

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Speaker 1: on First podcast channel, presented by MPT College Consulting. I

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Speaker 1: want to start a new routine here on Mondays called

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Speaker 1: the Marlins Prospect Spotlight. What I'll be doing the rest

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Speaker 1: of the season, hopefully, is picking out a player with

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Speaker 1: each of the Marlins full season affiliates Triple A, Jacksonville,

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Speaker 1: Double A, Pensacola, Hi A, Bloit A Jupiter, and just

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Speaker 1: going a couple of minutes on how they are doing,

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Speaker 1: especially in recent days, recent weeks, with that affiliate. One

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Speaker 1: reason or another why these players are kind of capturing

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Speaker 1: my attention. And usually I want this to lean towards

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Speaker 1: positivity guys who are doing well or improving their stock.

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Speaker 1: But for starters, we need to go with the Triple A.

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Speaker 1: Player of the week is going to be Max Meyer,

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Speaker 1: who remember from the major league level. Earlier in the year,

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Speaker 1: he was doing well in the majors and he's now

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Speaker 1: made four abbreviated starts with Jacksonvillson's getting options. He has

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Speaker 1: struggled quite a bit overall in those four outings combined

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Speaker 1: twelve and two thirds innings, a nine point twenty four

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Speaker 1: ERA six point zero five FIP and nearly two base

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Speaker 1: runners per enning a one point ninety seven whip in

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Speaker 1: those four abbreviated starts so far. Now, sending him down

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Speaker 1: was partly due to limiting his workload coming off Tommy

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Speaker 1: John surgery. It was also with an emphasis on getting

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Speaker 1: more comfortable and more trust in his changeup, so his

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Speaker 1: change of usage has nearly doubled from fifteen percent to

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Speaker 1: twenty seven percent. This isn't all about results. In fact,

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Speaker 1: results are pretty low priority. I would say it's just

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Speaker 1: when they're this bad for a guy that was performing

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Speaker 1: so well at the major league level, and also because

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Speaker 1: I would say his first outing down there was his

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Speaker 1: best and the most encouraging, and it's really been these

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Speaker 1: last three where his control has taken a significant step back.

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Speaker 1: He's not finishing off batters the way that he's capable

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Speaker 1: of doing, even with these pitch mixed changes. It's somebody

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Speaker 1: that you know I'm monitoring at the major league level

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Speaker 1: right now. The Marlins have at least one clear opening

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Speaker 1: in their rotation, and this would be the time of

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Speaker 1: year where if Max was doing very well in Jacksonville.

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Speaker 1: There would be a strong case for bringing him back

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Speaker 1: up to fill that obvious void, and simply he's not

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Speaker 1: performing right now. In order to do so, I'll continue

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Speaker 1: to keep my eye on him. He looks healthy by

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Speaker 1: all accounts, but this is in some sense an unprecedented

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Speaker 1: struggle for him at the professional level. So that is

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Speaker 1: why I felt it was worth mentioning here on the spotlight.

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Speaker 1: Moving on to double a Pensacola right hander Evan Fitterer.

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Speaker 1: He was a fifth round draft pick of the Marlins

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Speaker 1: way back in twenty nineteen. If you do the math,

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Speaker 1: it means that he was eligible to be plucked away

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Speaker 1: in the Rule five draft this past offseason, and he

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Speaker 1: was just so inconsistent in twenty twenty three that Marlins

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Speaker 1: didn't bother protecting him. He was a guy that barely

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Speaker 1: was in our top thirty prospect list on fish On

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Speaker 1: first entering the year, and for the moment he's not

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Speaker 1: even ranked in our top thirty, largely because of the

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Speaker 1: issues he's had throwing strikes in his career and overall

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Speaker 1: not performing quite as well as his raw stuff would indicate.

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Speaker 1: And now he has had an incredible hot streak currently

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Speaker 1: twenty in a third consecutive scoreless innings for Pensacola as

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Speaker 1: a starting pitcher, includes three consecutive scoreless starts, most recently

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Speaker 1: six scoreless innings that he threw over the weekend. So

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Speaker 1: the control is still unremarkable. I'd say both that in

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Speaker 1: the command I watched almost every pitch that he threw

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Speaker 1: in his last outing. Still sometimes where he misses the

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Speaker 1: spot pretty badly, doesn't get a ton of swing and

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Speaker 1: miss a pretty average in terms of fastball velocity, but

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Speaker 1: he gets a ton of movement, especially downward on his

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Speaker 1: sinking fastball that he throws, and that leads to a

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Speaker 1: ton of ground balls. Especially this year. His ground ball

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Speaker 1: right well over sixty percent, where league average at most

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Speaker 1: levels is in the low forties. So that is something

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Speaker 1: notable I think seems sustainable moving forward is he's going

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Speaker 1: to continue to get a lot of people to swing

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Speaker 1: over his fastball and hit it into the ground. Overall,

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Speaker 1: with his approach, he kind of works a lot to

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Speaker 1: one side of the plate. He's a right hander that

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Speaker 1: throws glove side a lot inside to lefty batters, outside

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Speaker 1: to right handed batters. It doesn't give them a ton

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Speaker 1: of to think about on the other side of the plate.

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Speaker 1: So I'd like to see that change from him overall.

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Speaker 1: For a guy that has been at the Double A

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Speaker 1: level now for more than a calendar year. Pretty soon

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Speaker 1: he's going to be making the push up to Jacksonville

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Speaker 1: if he performs this way, and it's not outlandish to

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Speaker 1: think that he will have a good chance of appearing

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Speaker 1: in major league games for the Marlins by the end

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Speaker 1: of the year. So that was Evan Fitter, right hander

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Speaker 1: from Double A Pensacola moving down to High A. Jacob Miller.

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Speaker 1: He was the Marlins second round pick in twenty twenty two, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: right after Jacob Barry in that draft, and he has

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Speaker 1: arguably emerged as the best prospect from that draft class.

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Speaker 1: Him and Carson Mill Brandts have kind of been neck

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Speaker 1: and neck moving through the system together, but Miller is

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Speaker 1: the one that has stood out to me the most

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Speaker 1: so far for Beloit this season. He's in their starting

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Speaker 1: rotation era. Yeah, I think has dipped into the twos now,

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Speaker 1: coming off his most recent very impressive outing where he

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Speaker 1: tied a career high with eight strikeouts. With Miller, it's

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Speaker 1: been the improvement in his command for somebody that looked

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Speaker 1: a lot like Fitterer last year, throwing too many fallen

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Speaker 1: behind and counts too often and not finishing off batters

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Speaker 1: the way you would expect. And he's made a pretty

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Speaker 1: significant step forward this year. He started throwing his fastball

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Speaker 1: a little bit differently, so the velocity is very ordinary,

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Speaker 1: a lot of ninety three mile ninety two to ninety

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Speaker 1: four usually, but his breaking balls were kind of his

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Speaker 1: calling card entering professional baseball, and they continue to do

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Speaker 1: a good job of finishing off hitters. He has both

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Speaker 1: a slider and a curveball that he uses, and he

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Speaker 1: locates them really well, so that improvement in his the

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Speaker 1: way that he's repeating his delivery right now is very

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Speaker 1: encouraging for Beloit. This is his first time at the

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Speaker 1: high A level after spending last year in Jupiter, still

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Speaker 1: just twenty years old. Jacob Miller right there, so I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna keep it pretty quick on Miller, But somebody that

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Speaker 1: pretty rapidly was number eleven on our most recent updated

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Speaker 1: top thirty list, rising up pretty quickly in terms of

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Speaker 1: the very best pitching prospects in this entire organization in

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Speaker 1: Jacob Miller, certainly raising his floor as a pitcher with

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Speaker 1: the adjustments that he's made here in twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Lastly from low a Jupiter newly converted catcher Ryan Ignan.

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Speaker 1: He was the twentieth round pick for the Marlins in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. That means he was their very last

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Speaker 1: pick of the draft last year. He has a background

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Speaker 1: playing a bunch of different positions in minor, in college

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Speaker 1: and over summer leagues. In fact, when his first year

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Speaker 1: in pro ball last year, he didn't do any catching whatsoever.

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Speaker 1: He played some second base, he played some left field,

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Speaker 1: and he hit very well. He'd made it out all

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Speaker 1: the way up to Hya Beloit last year as a

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Speaker 1: new draft pick. This year he's in Jupiter from start

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Speaker 1: to finish. That team. If you follow the minors very closely,

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Speaker 1: they've been getting terrible offensive production overall from the Jupiter Hammerheads.

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Speaker 1: He's been the bright spot. He has been unequivocally their

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Speaker 1: best regular hitter on the season this year, slashing three

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Speaker 1: h nine four eighteen four fifty five. Somebody that was

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Speaker 1: pitching a lot at this time. A year ago, he

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Speaker 1: made nineteen relief appearances in his final college season and

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Speaker 1: with kind of middling results. He had played so many

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Speaker 1: different defensive positions as well, not just second in left

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Speaker 1: field in the pros, also some third base. He had

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Speaker 1: been playing some right fields. Basically, the only position he

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Speaker 1: hadn't gotten considerable experience that in recent years was catcher,

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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, that is his only spot

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Speaker 1: where he's spending time between catcher and DH. Not only

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Speaker 1: are the results really good, but so are some of

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Speaker 1: the underlying metrics. He had a couple of balls just

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Speaker 1: on Sunday where were one hundred miles per hour or harder.

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Speaker 1: His average exit velocity ninety one point two miles per hour,

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Speaker 1: And to give you some context, that's about the same

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Speaker 1: as Dane Myers with the Marlins at the major league

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Speaker 1: level this year. That'd be the third highest mark for

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Speaker 1: any Marlins major leaguer who's actually getting substantial playing time

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Speaker 1: this season. And that's what you look out for. Not

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Speaker 1: much room to fill out. He's five foot nine and

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Speaker 1: she has fully maxed out his frame, so I don't

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Speaker 1: think he's getting considerably stronger moving forward. He is twenty

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Speaker 1: three years old, which means that he's old enough for

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Speaker 1: this level of competition he's at. He actually turns twenty

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Speaker 1: four about two months from now, So yeah, you're not

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Speaker 1: going to learn a ton about him till he moves

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Speaker 1: with the ranks. And it's that awkward balancing act where

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Speaker 1: he's learning a brand new position at catcher, and it's

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Speaker 1: hard to learn that position that you need to go

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Speaker 1: down to a lower level to really start over from

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Speaker 1: that standpoint, even if you are overqualified from the offensive

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Speaker 1: side at that level. And this catching still needs work

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Speaker 1: from my observation, Receiving and framing need a lot of work.

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Speaker 1: He's ready been charged with six pass balls in about

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Speaker 1: fifteen games behind the plates, and wild pitches are occurring

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Speaker 1: more often than usual when he's catching. He has had

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Speaker 1: some success throwing out runners over thirty percent caught stealing

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Speaker 1: when Ignafo is behind the plate. That is very high

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Speaker 1: for somebody playing at the low eight level, just somebody

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Speaker 1: that I'm keeping an eye on. It's unusual that somebody

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Speaker 1: drafted this late in the draft even makes it to

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Speaker 1: the majors. He's still quite a bit away from that.

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Speaker 1: Marlins have had several examples now in recent years of

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Speaker 1: converting normal infielders to catchers, and he's the latest one

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Speaker 1: in this trend. Off to an encouraging start Ryan Ignafo

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Speaker 1: with low a Jupiter My Prospects spotlight that for this

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Speaker 1: week Max Meyer, Evan Fitterer, Jacob Miller, and Ryan Ignafo.

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Speaker 1: So I will have more details about these guys on

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Speaker 1: the site fish on first dot com. We'll pick out

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Speaker 1: a new batch of guys next Monday for the Small Pod,

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Speaker 1: and between now and then we'll have a lot more

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Speaker 1: audio programming covering your marlins here on the Fish on

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Speaker 1: First podcast, presented by MPT College Consulting. I've been Eli Susman,

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Speaker 1: Go fish