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Speaker 1: It wasn't just our lineup that under performed, it was

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Speaker 1: it was everybody. Our bullpen was atrocious. And I could

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Speaker 1: say that because that was a huge part of it.

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Speaker 2: Here we go, we Jay's picture Eric Swanson joining us

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Speaker 2: right now on FT ahead crats. This has to be

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Speaker 2: you to start to say hello.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I don't even need to see that ugly face.

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Speaker 3: I mean, look at that, why why why? No? Just Swanny.

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Speaker 3: The mustache just needs to be cleaned up.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to

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Speaker 1: tell you. We gotta do something. I don't have much there,

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Speaker 1: so I feel like, in order to look older than twelve,

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Speaker 1: I gotta at least have three hairs.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but now you're getting to the point where you

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Speaker 3: gotta look young. Contracts start coming out. They're like, oh,

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Speaker 3: that guy's like twenty six. Is that Sponson? No, No,

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Speaker 3: that's not Sponson, that's Swanson. Are you jealous that there's

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Speaker 3: another guy in the big leagues named Swanson? So he

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Speaker 3: kind of took your it kind of took your flash flair.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of. Now there's there's a couple of them, Swanson, Swanson, Swanson.

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Speaker 1: They're all over.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Yeah. As a AWR, you just have

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Speaker 3: to make sure you you keep reinventing yourself different things.

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Speaker 1: That's that's right, that's right.

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Speaker 3: Hey, how you feel.

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Speaker 1: Doing good? Man? Finally healthy? Feel good? Been a grind

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Speaker 1: of a couple of months. But we're finally back throwing

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Speaker 1: games again, so we're good.

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Speaker 3: What does that look like? What does that look like like?

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Speaker 3: Walk us through what the beginning of this season starting

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Speaker 3: in February was like for you. And then like that

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Speaker 3: mindset of like the Boys are gonna put me in

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Speaker 3: a big spot in these games once I get back.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, coming into to camp. I

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Speaker 1: actually went down to Florida in January, so I was

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Speaker 1: down there early. I felt great, body felt great, and

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Speaker 1: then the whole forearm thing happened where I had the

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Speaker 1: nerve issue and it was just just kind of link

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Speaker 1: for a while, couldn't get better. Which makes it pretty

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Speaker 1: frustrating to have to go through an entire spring training

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Speaker 1: constantly having setbacks and then now being at the point

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Speaker 1: where you're starting to build back up into games, and

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Speaker 1: then you have one more season starts and then you

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Speaker 1: got to watch the boys on on the iPad while

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Speaker 1: you're sitting in a hotel room down in Florida. Never

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Speaker 1: makes it easy. I mean, rehaving sucks. Nobody likes to

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Speaker 1: do it. But we made it out of there. We're

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Speaker 1: back and ready to go.

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Speaker 3: Do you think baseball babies you pitchers too much? From

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Speaker 3: whatever angle you want to take it. Ah, you were

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Speaker 3: starter and then you became a bullpen guy. Well, don't

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Speaker 3: throw so much. You gotta throw a lot to be

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Speaker 3: able to get Oh well this hurts. Okay, we're shutting

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Speaker 3: you down. Like, do you think if you were in

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Speaker 3: a different situation, do you think baseball baby's the pitcher's

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Speaker 3: too much? Just in any any way that you can

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Speaker 3: think about that, like a little thing hurts h Nope,

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Speaker 3: shut it down. We don't want to be big big time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean I think it goes both ways, though, right,

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Speaker 1: it goes some guys are getting babied and then now

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Speaker 1: we're we're trying to argue the the part of you know,

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Speaker 1: how do we let guys go longer? Now now guys

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Speaker 1: aren't thrown enough. So it's like that double edged sword.

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Speaker 1: It's like we're trying to figure out that happy medium

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Speaker 1: of it. But uh, yeah, for sure, guys are guys.

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Speaker 1: I think guys they come up depending on where you're at.

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Speaker 1: You know, you get kind of putting that routine of

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Speaker 1: you know, the days that you're throwing on, and that's

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Speaker 1: always the big adjustment when when you see these young

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Speaker 1: guys come from the minor leagues of the big leagues

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Speaker 1: and they got to be ready to throw every day,

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Speaker 1: and it's it's that big of an adjustment. So I

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Speaker 1: think the organizations that do it where they kind of

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Speaker 1: treat those triple A bullpens like a big league bullpen

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Speaker 1: is a huge advantage.

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Speaker 2: All Eric, I want to talk about your team for

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Speaker 2: a moment. Where do you think the Blue Jays are

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Speaker 2: at right now? Is they've been playing much better ball

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Speaker 2: over the past couple of weeks, aside from you of

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Speaker 2: course back in the mix.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we're in a really good spot. I

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Speaker 1: think you look at up and down the lineup, the

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Speaker 1: guys that are showing up for us, the guys that

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Speaker 1: are expected to show up for us. Everybody's doing it

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Speaker 1: right now. You know, you see those power numbers start

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Speaker 1: to creep back up where they should be. You get

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Speaker 1: some of these young guys that are that are filling

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Speaker 1: their roles and coming up in really big situations. That's

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Speaker 1: what it takes to win ball games. So that's what

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Speaker 1: it takes to to end up playing meaningful, meaningful baseball

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Speaker 1: in September and getting into the postseason. So doing exactly

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Speaker 1: what we're doing right now moving forward is going to

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Speaker 1: be how we get there.

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Speaker 3: Is it hard to watch this team underperform? When they've underperformed?

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Speaker 3: I mean from afar, we're looking at this lineup like

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Speaker 3: day on, like, why did these guys not hit? Why

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Speaker 3: did they not hit last year and score a bunch

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Speaker 3: of runs? Is it hard to watch them? As a

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Speaker 3: bullpen guy, you're sitting out there last year now a

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Speaker 3: little bit this year and seeing it, like, how do

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Speaker 3: we not score nine runs a game?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? For sure, I mean yeah, there's no there's no

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Speaker 1: way to sugarcoat that. For sure. It's frustrating, But you know,

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Speaker 1: it's the same thing. You look at last year. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't just our lineup that underperformed, It was it was everybody.

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Speaker 1: Our bullpen was atrocious. And I could say that because

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Speaker 1: I was a huge part of it. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: last year was a perfect storm of you know, everybody

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Speaker 1: underperformed and then unfortunately, you know, you you end the

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Speaker 1: last year the way we did. We went out, we

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Speaker 1: signed some guys this year coming into camp, everybody's excited,

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Speaker 1: and I think, you, look at what we're doing right

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Speaker 1: now is what we're expected to be doing. So I

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Speaker 1: think there's a lot of hype around what we're doing

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Speaker 1: right now. But at the end of the day, it's

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Speaker 1: like the guys in the clubhouse, it's like, this is

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Speaker 1: exactly what we're supposed to be doing. So you know,

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Speaker 1: why why do anything or why expect anything different than

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Speaker 1: what we're already doing.

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Speaker 2: I want to play off the word that you just said, hype.

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Speaker 2: So for a couple of years, people were really high

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Speaker 2: on the Blue Jays, right people, fans, writers, etc. Sexy

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Speaker 2: World Series pick for maybe the prior couple years, you

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Speaker 2: didn't really see much of that heading into this season.

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Speaker 2: Do you believe in post hype, because that's the thing

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Speaker 2: with prospects. Sometimes it's like the guy's twenty one comes up.

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Speaker 2: If he's not good right away, people kind of forget

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Speaker 2: about him. I mean, I honestly even think someone like

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Speaker 2: Jackson Churio fits that mold, like he struggled for like

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Speaker 2: a month and a half, people forgot about him, and

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Speaker 2: then he was like probably the best rookie position player

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Speaker 2: in baseball last year for the rest of the way.

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Speaker 2: Do you feel like the Blue Jays have a label

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Speaker 2: like that?

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Speaker 3: Can you feel that as a.

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Speaker 2: Team where you go somewhere and it's like, oh, we're

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Speaker 2: playing the Blue Jays, or maybe the prior couple years

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Speaker 2: it was like, oh, it's the blue Jays.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I think you saw it last year

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Speaker 1: a little bit. We went in we finished twenty three

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Speaker 1: where we lost to the wild Card in Minnesota, and

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Speaker 1: then we went into camp last year and a lot

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Speaker 1: of teams were or not a lot of teams, a

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Speaker 1: lot of people were kind of picking us to to

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Speaker 1: not do great, and guys get pissed off about that

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Speaker 1: and they you know, we talk about it, you see

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Speaker 1: or you hear what's going on, what people are saying

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Speaker 1: about you. And then you go into this offseason kind

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Speaker 1: of the same thing where it's like, all right, the

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Speaker 1: Blue Jays need to make make some moves whatnot. And

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Speaker 1: then we go into camp and it's it's kind of

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Speaker 1: the same thing. It's you know, the hype isn't as

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Speaker 1: high as it was in previous years, but I mean

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's like you're there

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Speaker 1: to do your job. You're there to to try to

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Speaker 1: win as many ball games as you can, and that's

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's all you can really try to focus on.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's the that's the easy answer to say.

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Speaker 1: It is what it is. But there's always going to

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Speaker 1: be hype. And when teams don't do well, people people

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Speaker 1: hop on that train as quickly as they can, and

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Speaker 1: people or pretty quick to hop off as soon as

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Speaker 1: it flips the other direction.

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Speaker 2: Hey, for the card collectors out there, you need to

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Speaker 2: they're called slab packs crafts. And then what happens if

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Speaker 3: Pulled, You get an instant offer, you get an insidt offer.

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Speaker 3: your showroom around, kind of like when I used to

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Speaker 3: put the cards in the sleeves and my buddies will

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Speaker 3: come over and show them. Now, bang, show them on

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Speaker 1: In the game.

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Speaker 3: How much of the boys talk about the stadium changes?

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Speaker 3: You talk about the boys and how they like talk

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Speaker 3: about expectations, what they're gonna do, how much of the hitters,

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Speaker 3: but also the pictures, Like it's not just your hitters

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Speaker 3: hitting in the stadium that seems like has suppressed home runs?

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Speaker 3: Do you pictures in the bullpen? Go ay suppressed nothing.

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Speaker 3: We just got a much nicer seat up here now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean that's something we've talked about the

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Speaker 1: last couple of years, for sure. I think going into

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Speaker 1: those renovations, everybody thought power numbers were just gonna soar.

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Speaker 1: Everybody thought they were gonna take off a little bit more. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and they didn't. Obviously, I don't. I don't know the

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Speaker 1: exact numbers of it. I don't know if it's you know,

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Speaker 1: gone up slightly or whatever it may be. But it

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Speaker 1: seems like it's pretty similar to what they were. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you talk about it. For me, it's more so like, uh,

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Speaker 1: is the roof openers the roof closes? Is one of

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Speaker 1: those power numbers start to creep up?

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Speaker 3: Which one is it? Which one's better? Because I know

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Speaker 3: Ari Dickey always wanted the roof closed so that his

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Speaker 3: knuckleball would knuckle puck.

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Speaker 1: Time roof open, the ball flies, especially you get a

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Speaker 1: certain wind in that city, it pushes it out pretty

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Speaker 1: good the center.

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Speaker 3: Or do you look because because when we would have

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Speaker 3: the roof open, I mean this was twenty fourteen, we'd

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Speaker 3: look at the banners that used to hang in center field,

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Speaker 3: and if the banners were moving, they the win was

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Speaker 3: like just flying straight out the center. Everywhere else it

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Speaker 3: played fair but center it would just launching pad.

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Speaker 1: No, you're exactly right, those banners start to move out

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Speaker 1: there in center, that ball floats out there just a little.

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Speaker 3: Just for the fans when they go to the park,

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Speaker 3: they need to know.

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Speaker 4: Eric, Yeah, exactly, Eric.

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Speaker 2: So, so your rookie year is twenty nineteen. Now we're

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Speaker 2: at twenty twenty five. Where do you think the game

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Speaker 2: is at with signs compared to how you got to

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Speaker 2: when you first entered the league in terms of signs stealing? Right, Like,

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Speaker 2: you know you've been on the Blue Jays for a

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Speaker 2: few years now. I was thinking back. I remember the

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Speaker 2: whole thing with the Yankees with with Peekaboo Judge, and

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Speaker 2: then recently we had the Red Sox and the Angels

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Speaker 2: with some beef and then you see afterward the first

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Speaker 2: base coach taking some signs. I'm texting with friends who

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Speaker 2: think that it's illegal, I'm like, nah, as long as

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Speaker 2: they're just not using a device, you can do that.

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Speaker 2: So from a pitching perspective, where do you think the

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Speaker 2: game is now compared to where it was in twenty nineteen?

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Speaker 2: And what do you guys do as a team to

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Speaker 2: try and make sure that you know signs aren't being stolen?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely in the game, right It's

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Speaker 1: It's been in the game for as long as any

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Speaker 1: of us has played. Obviously, you know the technology that's

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Speaker 1: there allows people to archive certain things, pick up on

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Speaker 1: tendencies and that's just the world we live in now.

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Speaker 1: Unfortunately as a pitcher, but I think there's certain things

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Speaker 1: that you can do to figure that out. Some guys

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Speaker 1: do a great job with it. Unfortunately, some guys don't

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Speaker 1: figure out there they have certain tendencies until they get

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Speaker 1: to the big leagues. And you know, it goes both ways.

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Speaker 1: It goes you know, he takes teams time to try

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Speaker 1: to figure out who they're facing to figure out their tendencies.

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Speaker 1: But you also got to have guys on your team

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Speaker 1: they're able to say, hey, this is what you're doing,

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Speaker 1: and you need to stop doing this because somebody's gonna

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Speaker 1: pick up on this pretty quick. And that's not necessarily

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Speaker 1: just you know, whether you say it's a first base coach,

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Speaker 1: third base coach, that's a guy at second base too, right,

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Speaker 1: Like guys relaying signs from them from second have been

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Speaker 1: It's been a part of the game forever, and as

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Speaker 1: a pitcher, that's up to you to to try to

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Speaker 1: make sure he doesn't figure out how to do that.

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Speaker 1: It is what it is. Obviously, you know, it'd be

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Speaker 1: great if it wasn't part of the game. It'd be

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Speaker 1: a lot a lot easier on me, but uh, it

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Speaker 1: is what it is, and you got to figure out

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Speaker 1: a way that that, you know, guys can't pick him up.

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Speaker 1: All right?

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Speaker 3: Who's the guy on the mic? Because I remember calling

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Speaker 3: you up to the front of the bus when you

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Speaker 3: were in Triple A and making you get on the mic.

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Speaker 3: But who's that was? That was twenty eighteen. You've grown

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Speaker 3: up now, Okay, So who's the guy on the mic

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Speaker 3: right now? Who who does who does that the most

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Speaker 3: work in the front of the bus on a road

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Speaker 3: trip for the boys?

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Speaker 1: That's Springer right there.

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Speaker 3: And what's his what's his what's his go to that

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Speaker 3: you can tell us here.

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Speaker 1: His go to? Let's see, let's see what do we

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Speaker 1: what do we say that we that we can't get

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Speaker 1: in trouble? That Springing does a good job. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he's you gotta have a good personality on the mic.

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Speaker 1: You gotta have a guy that can that can keep

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Speaker 1: things rolling and constantly talk. He does a good job.

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Speaker 1: Anytime we got on the bus after you know, big

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Speaker 1: series win, whatever it is, you know, we're shouting out

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Speaker 1: people who did good stuff in that series. You know,

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Speaker 1: try to get the boys a little bit fired up.

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Speaker 1: Talk about who we're gonna face this next series and

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Speaker 1: make sure we know what we gotta do, and then

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Speaker 1: you know, depending on how long the bus ride is,

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Speaker 1: and we have some fun with it.

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Speaker 4: You mentioned first of all before I even ask you

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Speaker 4: a question bare down. Then second of all, did you

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Speaker 4: did someone call Springer up to the front of the

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Speaker 4: bus and ask him why he was jumping up and

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Speaker 4: down like a two year old and then got tagged

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Speaker 4: out after he slid into third and came off the

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Speaker 4: base by about this far.

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Speaker 1: He was just excited. Man. You know, sometimes you get

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Speaker 1: a little bit excited, a little bit of a little

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Speaker 1: bit of an ankle ankle issue, I think is what

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Speaker 1: it was. A little uh tweak tweak the ankle.

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Speaker 4: Okay, And are you really sold on JJ McCarthy as

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Speaker 4: your starting quarterback because there's a good chance you guys

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Speaker 4: finished fourth in that division this year.

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Speaker 1: I knew that is gonna get brought up. We're not

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Speaker 1: finishing fourth. I I like J J JJ is gonna

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Speaker 1: be good for us. You know, Donald Donald was was

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Speaker 1: a good filling why while we needed him. I think

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Speaker 1: JJ healthy Now I think I think he does really

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Speaker 1: good for for the Vikings.

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Speaker 3: Wait, you you just said us and we, So you're

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Speaker 3: so you're gonna be taking you're gonna be taking snaps

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Speaker 3: in the cold north like you're gonna be up here,

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Speaker 3: or do you Is that fair? Can you say us

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Speaker 3: and we you're not on the team, Swannie?

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Speaker 1: That is that is a pretty good debate that I've

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Speaker 1: had many times. You never know, I might take some snaps.

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Speaker 1: We'll see, we'll see if we can't get up there

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Speaker 1: for uh mandatory practice here in a couple of weeks,

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Speaker 1: and maybe might be out there. You never know what position?

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Speaker 3: Would you play?

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Speaker 1: Kicker?

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Speaker 3: Could you kick? Could you make a field goal? Or are

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Speaker 3: you just saying you're you're just on the kickoff team

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Speaker 3: like you're just doing the kickoff.

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Speaker 1: No, I can boot it. I can boot it a

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Speaker 1: little bit.

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Speaker 3: That's what they teach you in North Dakota.

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Speaker 1: I kicked a little bit, kicked a little bit of

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Speaker 1: practice growing up, punted a few few times in the game,

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Speaker 1: so I got a little bit of a boot. We

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Speaker 1: could get there, Okay.

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Speaker 2: Eric, I want to finish with this. I mean, you

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Speaker 2: of course know this, and maybe I'll bring in aj

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Speaker 2: and Kratz right now, although I don't know if they'll

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Speaker 2: get this. Maybe they will. So you've been involved in

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Speaker 2: three trades in your career, and I'm looking back at

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Speaker 2: other players involved in those trades.

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Speaker 3: Nice names.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure you know the three, right?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Should we see if they know?

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Speaker 4: I know the three because I've been to Fargo North

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Speaker 4: North Dakota before.

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Speaker 3: What does that matter?

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Speaker 1: What does that have to do with anything?

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Speaker 4: Because I'm the only one that's been there on this show.

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Speaker 2: So you know the three players that eric'sson has been

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Speaker 2: traded for due to the fact that you've been to Fargo,

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Speaker 2: North Dakota.

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Speaker 5: Okay, go ahead, Beltron, Okay, there's one that was good,

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Speaker 5: the Oscars one, yep, and.

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Speaker 4: The third one just escaped me.

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Speaker 3: But there's a left, the big the Big Maple. Come

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Speaker 3: on the Big Maple.

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Speaker 4: Paxton, James Baxton.

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Speaker 3: You know that's pretty cool.

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Speaker 2: What do you think about being involved in trades for

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Speaker 2: some pretty big deal players or I mean, do you

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Speaker 2: not care at all? I mean, probably more cool to

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Speaker 2: look back on someday when you're talking about your career

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Speaker 2: sitting in a rock and chair, like, hey, got traded

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Speaker 2: for some pretty big names.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I say the first two I got

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Speaker 1: traded for were I was I was the throwing I

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Speaker 1: was the I wasn't the player to be named later,

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Speaker 1: but I was not the headliner of either one of those.

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Speaker 5: Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then I'll say the third one, third one I earned.

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Speaker 1: I earned the third one.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but justice Justice is not pitching Justice Sheffield. If

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Speaker 3: you guys remember that name, was the young, tiny little

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Speaker 3: we call him tiny little Lefty. He was like Ricky Romero,

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Speaker 3: like two point zero. But he was the headliner of that.

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Speaker 3: And then Swanny got thrown in because he had a

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Speaker 3: really good catcher who probably helped him succeed at the

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Speaker 3: triple A level, just.

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Speaker 1: Saying yeah, yeah, some would say that.

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Speaker 3: It was Hagy, it was Higgy, it was it was

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Speaker 3: Higgy that was helping.

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Speaker 4: We wouldn't say that, right, Sonny. We wouldn't say that,

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Speaker 4: but some people might.

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Speaker 1: Some people might, some people might.

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Speaker 4: But before you go, I know Josh Allen and we

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Speaker 4: gotta go. But Josh Allen comes up there and takes

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Speaker 4: me pece. So next time you see him, were your

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Speaker 4: vikings at and say, man, I wish you would have

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Speaker 4: kept Sam Darnold because they're pretty close. So I just

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Speaker 4: want to see what his answer would be.

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Speaker 1: All Right, I'll say something to him. He was there

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Speaker 1: two years ago. I don't think he came up last year.

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Speaker 1: We'll see if he comes up this year.

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Speaker 4: Okay, because they I've seen them together, I've met them together.

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Speaker 4: They they're pretty.

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Speaker 3: Tight and off topic, completely off topic. So that people

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Speaker 3: know you do spell your name correctly. You're one of

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Speaker 3: the like three people in baseball that spells your name E, R, I, K.

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Speaker 3: So there's that.

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Speaker 1: I don't know another one that does.

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Speaker 3: He's a GM for the race. Eric Neander, all right.

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Speaker 1: There you go.

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Speaker 2: Wait, I want to last word on this. No get

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Speaker 2: you get headliner in two trades. I know Justice Sheffield

403
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Speaker 2: didn't work out. You were looked at as the side

404
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Speaker 2: piece at the time. How did twenty twenty two go

405
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Speaker 2: Mariners make the playoffs first time in a billion years?

406
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Speaker 2: You had a one six eighty R, seventy punches in

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Speaker 2: fifty three and two thirds innings. I would say if

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Speaker 2: I look back at the history of that trade worked

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Speaker 2: out pretty well for the Mariners. It's the only time

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Speaker 2: they've been in the playoffs in twenty In the past

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Speaker 2: twenty something years, they've been in the playoffs two thousand

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Speaker 2: and one, I think it is twenty twenty two and

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Speaker 2: that's it in the twenty first century.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty cool one to be a part of.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we'll give you that one. You've got two

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Speaker 2: out of three. I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for

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Speaker 2: putting up with R. E.

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Speaker 1: R I K.

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Speaker 3: Good talking to you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I appreciate it. Fellows, thank you.