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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to big Fish Small Pod. I'm Andrew Werdall.

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Speaker 1: Today is August fifth. Where we are really in this

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Speaker 1: Marlins season is a couple of days after the trade deadline.

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Speaker 1: The Marlins had a day off yesterday, traveling to Chicago

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Speaker 1: for three games all starting at twenty eastern time, just

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Speaker 1: like heads up to you there to twenty eastern time today,

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Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday for that, like you know, day games

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Speaker 1: at Wrigleyfield should be a nice time for baseball for

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Speaker 1: the Marlins and a good time for Peyton Burdick to

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Speaker 1: possibly debut this weekend. He's gotten the call. Whether he

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Speaker 1: gets into a game, it seems, you know, almost a lock.

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Speaker 1: And Edward Cabrera will be returning to the team, allegedly

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Speaker 1: per Fish on the Farm, starting Friday's game again at

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Speaker 1: two twenty.

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Speaker 2: Kind of a weird one.

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Speaker 1: Why I make sure you get that some kind of

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Speaker 1: early afternoon baseball should be fun. I'm excited, I say

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Speaker 1: in the most pregnantive ways, because really, what I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about today here on big Fish Small Pod is the

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Speaker 1: envy of Major League Baseball. This like well AJ Prelers

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Speaker 1: Padres talking a bit like about where the Padres are

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Speaker 1: at It's been a.

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Speaker 2: Real like process for them to get to this point.

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Speaker 1: Like as early as most recently as twenty seventeen, they

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Speaker 1: were featuring the lowest payroll in Major League Baseball, not

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Speaker 1: like the first time either, like twenty twelve another year

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Speaker 1: where they had the lowest payroll.

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Speaker 2: But what we're talking about is.

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Speaker 1: This team as it is today, and that really starts

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Speaker 1: with Aj Preller hired his general manager in twenty fourteen

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Speaker 1: ahead of the twenty fifteen season, and I want to

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Speaker 1: talk a bit about his history as general manager and

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Speaker 1: how I'm glad he's not the general manager of Miami

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Speaker 1: in what I think this team meaning like Bruce Sherman,

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Speaker 1: Kim Ang and those of the top can learn from

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Speaker 1: this Padres team and they're like radically different method of

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Speaker 1: team building. So really, when the Padres brought in Aj

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Speaker 1: Preller before the twenty fifteen season, he didn't take a

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Speaker 1: wait and see approach with the team like kim Ang

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Speaker 1: has in Miami. Coming off the playoff season in twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: Preller like immediately took like a hot iron to the

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Speaker 1: roster and placed his stamp on the team, acquiring some

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Speaker 1: star players. If you followed the league for a couple

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Speaker 1: of decades now, but maybe some kind of like past

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Speaker 1: their prime stars at the time with Matt Kemp, Will Meers,

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Speaker 1: Justin Upton, Craig Kimberl Melvin up at the cost of

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Speaker 1: like some major prospect talent, he switched out the team

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Speaker 1: they had there, sent away even like outfielders like Carlos Quinton,

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Speaker 1: who had provided decent offense out of town to get

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Speaker 1: just the players he wanted at the major league level,

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Speaker 1: giving up probably even bigger talent than what he got

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Speaker 1: by trading Yasmni Grendal, Trey Turner, and even the draft

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Speaker 1: pick that the Atlanta Braves used to select Austin Riley.

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Speaker 1: It was a rather like devastating set of trades for

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Speaker 1: the Padres, immediately deemed like Prowler Palooza by the media

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Speaker 1: at the time, but turning that around and taking that

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Speaker 1: team for the twenty fifteen season amped it up with

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Speaker 1: some major league talent, The Padres wouldn't have a winning

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Speaker 1: record until twenty twenty from that point, after even more

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Speaker 1: trades that helped turn the roster over a again to

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Speaker 1: cut costs, so he took a team that was in

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Speaker 1: third place reinvented. The team wound up in fourth place

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Speaker 1: the next year, and fans did respond in the offseason

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Speaker 1: to the hub up. About two hundred and fifty thousand

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Speaker 1: more players attended Padres games in twenty fifteen than fourteen,

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Speaker 1: and a few more like the year after, but that

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Speaker 1: was about it for like an attendance increase. The fans

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Speaker 1: didn't come to this losing baseball. By twenty seventeen, Perelers

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Speaker 1: Padres sported the lowest payroll in baseball, and the push

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Speaker 1: to conten had like already failed. By twenty sixteen, they'd

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Speaker 1: made the call to sell, shipping off like a free agent,

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Speaker 1: signing James Shields.

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Speaker 2: Pretty like critical piece.

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Speaker 1: They got back with Fernado Tattis Junior from the White Sox,

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Speaker 1: and they continued to make a few other trades to

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Speaker 1: get back some more talent than Chris Paddock.

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Speaker 2: That helped build this.

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Speaker 1: Like Padres team as it is, but with the fact

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Speaker 1: that their general manager had been over aggressive, the whole

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Speaker 1: organization had to reset so to keep the cash flow solvent,

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Speaker 1: to keep the organization going, really not knowing exactly the

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Speaker 1: numbers the owners were dealing with with San Diego, the

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Speaker 1: fact that he'd gone a bit out of his shorts

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Speaker 1: early was critical and did result in a pinch, and

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Speaker 1: he had done it by like shipping off top talent

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Speaker 1: to try to get you know, whatever he could in

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Speaker 1: that exact moment, pretty like oh, just a lot different

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Speaker 1: than what we see with him haang. So this push

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Speaker 1: for the Padres has centered around top talent, you know,

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Speaker 1: the one Soto trade being the talk of the town now,

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Speaker 1: but before that it was Manny Machado, like someone.

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Speaker 2: Had to pay him. He was like a star player.

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Speaker 1: So this signing of Manny Machado, who was a top

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Speaker 1: talent before the Padres were even expected to be good.

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Speaker 1: The twenty seventeen Padres finished under five hundred and saw

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Speaker 1: the debut of Fernando Tatisse along with Machado, and seat

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Speaker 1: like that side of the infield up for success going forward,

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Speaker 1: like they had established a bit of a core because

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Speaker 1: Preler made this like rather aggressive offer, didn't backload the money,

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Speaker 1: gave the business room to profit down the line with

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Speaker 1: his like ten year, three hundred million dollar deal that

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Speaker 1: allocated a twenty million dollar bonus up front to Machado

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Speaker 1: before settling into like a regular steady income we've seen

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Speaker 1: fans reward that effort. Obviously, it seems like it's yet

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Speaker 1: to be seen whether or not the Padres team will

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Speaker 1: off it from this season, but with Juan Soto, man

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Speaker 1: Machado Tatisse around beyond twenty twenty two, Padres fans have

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Speaker 1: plenty of choices for like player jerseys, and honestly, their

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Speaker 1: uniforms are kind of great. They're like brown and yellow.

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Speaker 1: It's a unique color palette in baseball with their like

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Speaker 1: plus their city connect uniform are like really cool to see.

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Speaker 1: It's not really a wonder why the Padres have the

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Speaker 1: fifth fifth largest crowds so far in twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 1: to go with their two hundred and eight million dollar payroll.

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Speaker 1: Fan for reward that effort and by signing Machado, Preller

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Speaker 1: really drew the line for this reinvention of the San

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Speaker 1: Diego Padres logo and all. And it is thanks to

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Speaker 1: that over the top effort that the name San Diego

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Speaker 1: Padres will have a different meaning for a new generation

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Speaker 1: of fans than it did ten twenty years ago.

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Speaker 2: So taking this.

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Speaker 1: Back to Miami, obviously, Kim Aang has been a lot

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Speaker 1: different as general manager.

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Speaker 2: She didn't blow all.

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Speaker 1: Of her options immediately like aj Preller and won't have

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Speaker 1: to recoup a farm because of it. So from the start,

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Speaker 1: kim Ang does have us ahead, but without this strongly

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Speaker 1: visioned investment into like a top tier talent like Machado,

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Speaker 1: it's not clear that Miami has the in house role

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Speaker 1: modeling even for that level of performance from an every

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Speaker 1: day player. No Marlin has led the league in at

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Speaker 1: bats and led with strong production for all the talent

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Speaker 1: we see in an everyday player like Jazz, a veteran

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Speaker 1: star really sets a different precedent, and it's certainly to

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Speaker 1: the Marlin's favor that they do not need to follow

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Speaker 1: Preller's model of like ruin the team, restore the team,

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Speaker 1: then optimize from there. Kim Ang came in and committed

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Speaker 1: to a or in compliment of the roster and then

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Speaker 1: worked that again, signing Sandy long term, filling up the

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Speaker 1: roster with some role players in areas of need like

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Speaker 1: Solaire Avey Stallings, and that did come from strong business

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Speaker 1: in Miami, which we saw the team signed deals with

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Speaker 1: Balley Sports Lone Depot and that led to the money invested.

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Speaker 1: So it isn't clear from this moment, how much is

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Speaker 1: available beyond what's already spent. But the next step to

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Speaker 1: improve the team is incredibly clear. It's adding to the

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Speaker 1: top of the roster with a major and aggressive investment.

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Speaker 1: And if Miami doesn't have that money to put forward

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Speaker 1: to a free agent, it's not clear that they'll ever

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Speaker 1: be competitive with these teams that are building out these

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Speaker 1: like Big three type rosters. Thinking the Padres for one,

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Speaker 1: and the Atlanta Braves with Akunya and Alby's and now

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Speaker 1: Austin Reiley game.

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Speaker 2: Long term, it actually is.

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Speaker 1: A matter of like competitive parody, like you're not differentiating

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Speaker 1: yourself by going for these stars. The Texas Rangers last

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Speaker 1: year got two star players for like nine figure contracts,

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Speaker 1: and they're just in the middle of the pack themselves.

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Speaker 2: And that's a team.

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Speaker 1: That's done what we're asking the Marlins to do twice.

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Speaker 1: It's actually that saturated of a market for top talent

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Speaker 1: in Major League Baseball. Looking ahead at this free agency,

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Speaker 1: Aaron Judge and Trey Turner jump out as like the

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Speaker 1: type of difference making stars out there, and we know

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Speaker 1: nothing can really change until then. The truly I admire

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Speaker 1: the way Kim Ang has kept the window for Miami

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Speaker 1: fully open and stretched it out with trades for talented

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Speaker 1: long term players like Jesus Lozardo and Jordan Grossen's. But

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Speaker 1: those sorts of games seem so marginal compared to what

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Speaker 1: AJ Prowler and the Padres have been able to put

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Speaker 1: together across the country but in the National League.

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Speaker 2: Totally A lot to.

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Speaker 1: Think about between now and the off season, when the

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Speaker 1: modlds will be making their more major decisions for this team.

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Speaker 1: But until then, plenty of baseball to watch. Weekend series

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Speaker 1: again against the Cubs, two.

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Speaker 2: Twenty start times.

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Speaker 1: Look Out for the debut of Peyton Verdick, the return

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Speaker 1: of Edward Cabrera, and some nice weather at Wrigley Field.

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Speaker 1: Fish Stripes Live will be with you before the game,

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Speaker 1: but for the podcast, I've been Andrew Wrdall. I'll be

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Speaker 1: back with you on Wednesday,