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Speaker 1: Hey, Marlins fans, this is Eli Sussman hosting a new

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Speaker 1: edition of Big Fish Small Pod on the Fish on

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Speaker 1: First Podcast channel, presented by MPT College Consulting. Final Small

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Speaker 1: Pod of the Week from US is going to focus

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Speaker 1: on somebody that you probably have not thought about in

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Speaker 1: a long time, left hander Devin Smeltzer. Yes, he is

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Speaker 1: still with the Marlins organization for a second straight year,

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Speaker 1: and he's doing something new that caught my attention and

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Speaker 1: makes me wonder how it is that he could fit

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Speaker 1: into this Marlins major league pitching staff moving forward in

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Speaker 1: the not too distant future. For those watching on YouTube,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna show you exactly what I'm talking about here

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Speaker 1: during a night off for the Marlins on Thursday. Who

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Speaker 1: is checking out what's going on with the minor league affiliates.

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Speaker 1: Smeltzer is down there with tripa A Jacksonville since the

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Speaker 1: start of the season, putting up good numbers down there

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Speaker 1: through six games a one point eight ERA. He's allowed

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Speaker 1: just one run to this point in the season on

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Speaker 1: a solo home run, struck out eleven batters, and at

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Speaker 1: eight and a third endings less than one base runner

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Speaker 1: allowed per inning, and he is in several ways, a

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Speaker 1: different guy than who you remember from twenty twenty three

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Speaker 1: when he was going up and down from Jacksonville to

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Speaker 1: Miami as like a spot starter and a mop up man.

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Speaker 1: He has changed his delivery. For one, he has lowered

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Speaker 1: his vertical release points by about a full foot from

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Speaker 1: where it was just last year. He's getting closer to

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Speaker 1: home plate with this side arm delivery, essentially, and the

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Speaker 1: results have been really good. And his role is also different,

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Speaker 1: as those numbers may be illustrated. Last year when he

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Speaker 1: was down in Jacksonville, he was in their rotation, he

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Speaker 1: was staying ready as a starter in thing stretched out.

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Speaker 1: He made twenty starts down there, averaged over four innings

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Speaker 1: per appearance. And now he is just a reliever. He

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Speaker 1: is just going one time through the order at most,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes even less than that. His role has changed

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Speaker 1: quite a bit for Smeltzer, as he is now, how

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Speaker 1: twenty eight years old. He seems older than that, but

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Speaker 1: apparently it's actually only twenty eight parts of what five

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Speaker 1: big league seasons that he's had, including last season with

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Speaker 1: the Marlins. He's entering a different phase of his career.

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Speaker 1: He has made this adjustment on the recommendation of Marlins

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Speaker 1: pitching coach Mels Todermeyer Junior. And it is working out

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Speaker 1: so far down there in Jacksonville right now. His most

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Speaker 1: recent appearance coming on Thursday, so he'll get a little

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Speaker 1: time off before he pitches again down there, and I

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Speaker 1: think the Marvels might be able to use him at

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Speaker 1: the big league level in the not too distant future.

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Speaker 1: Have you've been following this team in during this horrendous

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Speaker 1: start to the twenty twenty four season, The one constance

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Speaker 1: struggle has been the Marlins bullpen. With such a strength

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Speaker 1: last year in clutch situations, this year completely the opposite,

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Speaker 1: arguably the worst bullpen in baseball, especially when it comes

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Speaker 1: to how they have guys performing in notable high leverage situations.

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Speaker 1: And one personnel difference from last year is their supply

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Speaker 1: of left handed relievers. Remember last year they went about

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Speaker 1: as heavy with lefties as almost any major league team.

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Speaker 1: They Tanner Scott in there for basically the whole year,

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Speaker 1: Andrew Nardi for almost the whole year, Ajpuck for almost

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Speaker 1: the whole year. With all those guys performing pretty well,

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Speaker 1: they acquired it's Stephen Oker there for the entire year,

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Speaker 1: even at the end of the season, they acquired Matt

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Speaker 1: Moore for that final stretch run and he was good.

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Speaker 1: All those guys lefties, maybe a couple other up and

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Speaker 1: down options that I'm forgetting. Even outside of those guys

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Speaker 1: who are effective as lefty relievers, this year the balance

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Speaker 1: has been completely different. As we've really emphasized, it is

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Speaker 1: strange how many lefties are in the Marlins rotation even now.

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Speaker 1: Oh it's been most of this year. Four out of

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Speaker 1: five left handed starters, including aj Puck, who's still in there,

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Speaker 1: and I'm recording this right after his start on Friday.

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Speaker 1: It has been perhaps assumed recently, including by myself, that

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Speaker 1: Puck his experiment as a starter could end soon because

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Speaker 1: he is leading the Majors in walks aloud. He's not

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Speaker 1: look comfortable in that role. Could just go back into

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Speaker 1: the bullpen and help the Marlins in that capacity. Maybe

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Speaker 1: that does happen, especially if he does struggle again on Friday. However,

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Speaker 1: they just don't have a whole lot of alternatives at

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Speaker 1: the moment for his rotation spot. The decision very unpopular

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Speaker 1: one to send Max Meyer down to Triple A. He's

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Speaker 1: not even allowed to come up for another twelve days

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Speaker 1: or so, and the expectation is that he's going to

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Speaker 1: stay down there for quite a bit longer than that,

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Speaker 1: as the Marlins aim to limit his workload and pace

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Speaker 1: it over the course of the season. We've had plenty

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Speaker 1: of discussions about the real motivations potentially at play with Max,

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Speaker 1: Regardless he's not gonna be filling in. The assumption is

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Speaker 1: that Braxton Garrett seemed to be on track to return

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Speaker 1: from the injured list soon, that he was fully stretched

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Speaker 1: out as a starter when he made his most recent

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Speaker 1: rehab start last week and then during a bullpen session,

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Speaker 1: had a setback what they were calling a dead arm sensation,

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Speaker 1: and it's still unclear what the next steps are for Garrett.

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Speaker 1: So if his return is not imminent and you just

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Speaker 1: look at the rest of the forty man roster, like

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Speaker 1: pucks spot and the rotation as a whole could remain

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Speaker 1: as it is for the near future. So that being

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Speaker 1: the case, that bullpen is still just down to two

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Speaker 1: lefties between Scott and Nardi, both of whom have been

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Speaker 1: awful so far here in twenty twenty four. Scott can't

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Speaker 1: throw strikes, Nardi has had consistent inconsistency with strike throwing

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Speaker 1: and just missing bats in general, He's been allowing a

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Speaker 1: ton of runs, both his own and a herited runners.

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Speaker 1: It's not out of the realm of possibility that Nardi

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Speaker 1: could be optioned down to Triple A for a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a breather and a reset in the not

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Speaker 1: too distant future. Even if he does stay up, it's

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Speaker 1: still just those two left handers in this bullpen. There

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Speaker 1: are other guys towards the bottom of this group that

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Speaker 1: are expendable, Burch Smith. I have no idea how Burch

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Speaker 1: Smith has hung around this long on the active roster.

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Speaker 1: He can be sent down, he has options. Declan Cronin

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Speaker 1: I like him a lot. I would prefer that he

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Speaker 1: stay up for the near future, but that's somebody that

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Speaker 1: still has a lot to prove in that role. Very

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Speaker 1: inexperienced at the big league level. Calvin Fouchet kind of

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Speaker 1: in the Declan Kronin role, where I've liked what I've

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Speaker 1: seen from him so far in a small sample. A

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Speaker 1: little bit redundant set to have all these right handers

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Speaker 1: in the bullpen and only two lefties and have like

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Speaker 1: zero lefties that are actually performing well with Smeltzer it

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Speaker 1: is a different look. What it should have mentioned up

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Speaker 1: top is with this change in his delivery, he has

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Speaker 1: sacrificed velocity as well. Year in the big leagues was

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Speaker 1: a soft tosser by Major League Sanders, but was averaging

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Speaker 1: eighty nine miles per hour on his fastball. This year

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Speaker 1: at Jacksonville, Smeltzer is maxing out at eighty nine miles

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Speaker 1: per hour. So he has leaned all the way into

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Speaker 1: throwing below the hitting speed, as they say, being all

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Speaker 1: the way on that extreme end of the spectrum with

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Speaker 1: his v low. If he feels that he's with this

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Speaker 1: new release point, being able to get closer to the

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Speaker 1: plate with his stride can compensate for having less vlow

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Speaker 1: that ultimately maybe that could get out relatively consistently in

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Speaker 1: the big leagues if he is back up still relatively

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Speaker 1: early on in this experiment for Smeltzer, so I'm sure

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Speaker 1: they'll have to be a bit of a more sample

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Speaker 1: that he has to show before the Marlins seriously consider

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Speaker 1: bring him up, considering he's not actually on the forty

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Speaker 1: man roster at the moment, they'd have to create space

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Speaker 1: for him. Should also mention JT. Chaugua he is about

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Speaker 1: to begin a minor league rehab assignment in TRIPAA. We'll

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Speaker 1: see how he looks. He has no minor league options.

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Speaker 1: If he is healthy, he's going to be on this

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Speaker 1: big league bullpen in some role. So that tightens the

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Speaker 1: flexibility for the Marlins a little bit, assuming that Shagua

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Speaker 1: progresses smoothly from here. Either way, this is a storyline

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Speaker 1: that is not expected to pay attention to. A lot

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Speaker 1: of credit goes to Smeltzer from making this adjustment, and

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Speaker 1: I'll be watching him pretty carefully moving forward. For this

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Speaker 1: Marlins team to just get any sort of consistency at

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Speaker 1: the big league level, they're going to have to have

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Speaker 1: guys that can trust in that bullpen, and Smeltzer with

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Speaker 1: this adjustment, he would not be the first quote unquote

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Speaker 1: failed starter to make that transition in to extend his

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Speaker 1: career find real meaningful success by doing something unique out

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Speaker 1: there on the mound and just taking advantage of that

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Speaker 1: different look that he brings. This has been Eli Susman

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Speaker 1: on the Small Pod presented by MPT College Consulting. Check

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Speaker 1: them out at Mptcollegeconsulting dot com. We'll have more audio

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Speaker 1: programming for you right here on fish On first next week.

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Speaker 1: Stick with us as always, Go fish