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Speaker 1: Dodgers. People seem to believe that he's going to get better.

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Speaker 1: And if he's mediocre at the start, a fringe average

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Speaker 1: in the scouting parlance, maybe he's averaged two months in

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Speaker 1: and maybe by the end of the season he's above average. Seriously,

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Speaker 1: the Sky is one of the best athletes in the game.

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Speaker 1: Would you put anything past him? I don't think we

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Speaker 1: should welcome everyone to fair territory and believe it or not.

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Speaker 1: To start the show this week, I've got some breaking news.

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Speaker 1: It's not maybe the breaking news you guys all want,

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Speaker 1: Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Ja d Martinez, on and on

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Speaker 1: and on. It's breaking news concerning this show. We're going

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Speaker 1: to be back live on Thursday at twelve thirty Eastern.

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Speaker 1: That's right, We're gonna have a second show this year.

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Speaker 1: Monday is gonna be the first show. Thursday is going

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Speaker 1: to be the second show. And not only are we

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Speaker 1: going to have two shows a week, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: be joined on Thursday by a co host who will

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Speaker 1: help me answer your questions. Now, I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: reveal the identity of this co host just yet tell

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Speaker 1: you who him or her might be. I'm holding that

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Speaker 1: for myself, but it's going to be a nice surprise

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Speaker 1: for you guys Thursday when you tune into the show.

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Speaker 1: It's someone I've worked before, someone who is at the

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Speaker 1: top of his or her field, someone that a lot

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Speaker 1: of baseball fans have a great deal of fondness for it.

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Speaker 1: So two shows a week this year, we're gonna run

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Speaker 1: through your questions on Thursday. We're gonna save dude in

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Speaker 1: Dork of the Week for Thursday. It's a little better

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Speaker 1: fit at the end of the week, and I'm really

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Speaker 1: excited that we're going to be doing this twice a

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Speaker 1: week all through twenty twenty four. Now, for the regular

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Speaker 1: portion of the program, let's begin. It's March eighteenth. Spring

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Speaker 1: training is coming to a close. The regular season, at

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Speaker 1: least for the Dodgers and Padres, starts on Wednesday in Seoul,

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Speaker 1: South Korea. The domestic regular season starts a week from Thursday. Now,

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Speaker 1: when I was growing up in New York, was a

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Speaker 1: little bitty child on the ten o'clock news on Channel five.

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Speaker 1: It was before Channel five was a Fox affiliate. It

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Speaker 1: was before Fox even existed. There used to be an

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Speaker 1: announcement at the start of the ten o'clock news, and

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Speaker 1: the announcement would be it's ten o'clock. Do you know

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Speaker 1: where your children are? Well, I will say that it

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Speaker 1: is March eighteenth. Do you know where your free agents

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Speaker 1: are signing? And yes, I'm talking about Blake Snell and

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Speaker 1: Jordan Montgomery and JD Martinez and Michael Lorenzen and Mike

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Speaker 1: Clevenger and Tommy fam and Brandon Belt among others. They're

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Speaker 1: still out there now. Snell is the hot topic of

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Speaker 1: the moment. He's been really the hot topic all off season.

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Speaker 1: On Friday, The Athletic reported myself and Chandler Rome that

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Speaker 1: the Astros were seriously engaged in a pursuit of Snell.

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Speaker 1: To this point that has not gone anywhere. Why Why

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Speaker 1: do you think shocking news here? Folks? There's a difference

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Speaker 1: in valuation between how the Astro c Blake Snell and

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Speaker 1: how Scott Boris his agency's Blake Snell. But yet you

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Speaker 1: still have the Astros in the mix, Jose or Katie.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna find out more about his injury on Monday.

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Speaker 1: You've got the Yankees Garrett Cole out probably two months now.

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Speaker 1: I know they have luxury tax issues. Basically if they

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Speaker 1: signed Snell or any other free agent. At this point,

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Speaker 1: it will be paying more than double his salary because

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Speaker 1: of the one hundred and ten percent tax. You've got

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Speaker 1: the Giants, Yes, Alex Cobb is ahead of schedule. Their

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Speaker 1: rotation is still down at least one starter until Cobb

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Speaker 1: and then in the second half Robbie Ray comes back.

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Speaker 1: They need help. And though they would never be in

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Speaker 1: the mix for Blake Snell. The Miami Marlins. How about

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Speaker 1: their rotation, folks. They have lost in addition to Sandy

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Speaker 1: al Contra, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, they've

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Speaker 1: lost Braxton Garrett, Edward Cabrera and most recently Uri Perez.

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Speaker 1: They're down to heyzus Lozardo, le solid mid rotation pitcher

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Speaker 1: Ajpuck who is converting from the bullpen, and Trevor Rodgers

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Speaker 1: who was out most of the last season. And they'll

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Speaker 1: have to patch together the rest. It's a mess in Miami.

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Speaker 1: They certainly could use a Lorenza and Clevenger, But do

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Speaker 1: I expect them to actually spend money? No, I do

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Speaker 1: not expect them to do that. So these teams need pitching.

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Speaker 1: But here's the problem when it comes to Snell, and

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Speaker 1: I touched on this in The wind Up today. The

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Speaker 1: wind Up is the Athletics Free daily baseball newsletter that

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Speaker 1: I write every day of the week during the week

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Speaker 1: during the season with Levi Weaver. And the problem is

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Speaker 1: something that was summed up by a prominent starting pitcher

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Speaker 1: I spoke with last week. Did not want to be renamed.

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Speaker 1: He didn't want to be involved in this situation. But

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Speaker 1: he made a great point. This is a guy who

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Speaker 1: knows Blake Snell pretty well, and he said Blake Snell,

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Speaker 1: like most of us, needs time to get acquainted, to

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Speaker 1: get comfortable in new situations. That's understandable. All kind of

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Speaker 1: liked that, right. So it's not just that he might

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Speaker 1: be physically behind, and his agent, Scott Boris, would suggest

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Speaker 1: that he is not physically behind, that he's been training

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Speaker 1: at one of Boris's institutes, that he is ready to

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Speaker 1: go physically, and he has examples. Boris does that he

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Speaker 1: could share about pitchers who have done this, his clients

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Speaker 1: who have done this, Kyle Losch in twenty thirteen, Dallas

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Speaker 1: Kykeel in twenty nineteen. Loses signed at the end of spring,

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Speaker 1: Kykeele in June, and both had really good seasons. So

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Speaker 1: perhaps it's not a physical question whether he'll be ready

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Speaker 1: to go Blake Snell and for that manner, Jordan Montgomery.

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Speaker 1: But the way this pitcher described it, he said, listen,

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Speaker 1: I know Blake, Blake's going to need time because it's

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Speaker 1: not just the physical part of it. And think about it,

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Speaker 1: the adjustment to a new team. And yes, he's going

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Speaker 1: to a new team. He's not going back to the

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Speaker 1: Padres and he's not going back to the race. The

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Speaker 1: adjustment to a new team requires you to get acquainted

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Speaker 1: and acclimated with a new catcher, a new pitching coach,

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Speaker 1: a new manager, new teammates, a new home in a

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Speaker 1: new city. It's a lot of folks. Now, maybe Blake

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Speaker 1: Snell can handle it, maybe Jordan Montgomery can handle it.

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Speaker 1: All good, But again we're asking a lot of these guys,

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Speaker 1: and Snell is a guy who traditionally has not been

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Speaker 1: the fastest of starters. Remember last year he had that

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Speaker 1: run from late May to the end of the season.

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Speaker 1: That's one of the cy Young Award. He was brilliant.

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Speaker 1: But let's look at his career numbers before and after

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Speaker 1: the All Star break, because they're telling before the All

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Speaker 1: Star break, Blake Snell career era three point eight two

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Speaker 1: after the All Star break, Blake Snell career ERA two

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Speaker 1: point four to six much better in the second half

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Speaker 1: of the season. So, if you're a team and you're

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Speaker 1: considering Blake Snell and I've touched on this before, and

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Speaker 1: he wants an opt out after one year, which most

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Speaker 1: likely he does. He's thirty one, he is most likely

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Speaker 1: going to want another crack at this. You're thinking, Okay,

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Speaker 1: this guy is not joining us until late in spring training.

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Speaker 1: If we sign him now, he might not get going

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Speaker 1: right away. He's gonna need time to get acclimated. As

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Speaker 1: we just discussed, he is traditionally better in the second

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Speaker 1: half than he is in the first, and we're going

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Speaker 1: to lose a draft pick or that we can't recover

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Speaker 1: because you can't make a guy qualifying off for a

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Speaker 1: second time. If he signs right now, Wow, that's a

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Speaker 1: lot when you're paying him in addition to all this,

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Speaker 1: twenty five to thirty million, most likely per season. That

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Speaker 1: is the price that at least Blake Snell and Scott

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Speaker 1: Boris would want for him going forward, probably closer to

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Speaker 1: thirty than twenty five. It was twenty five. Maybe the

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Speaker 1: Astros would have this done by now. So again, you've

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Speaker 1: got these examples Boris uses Lotion, Kiko, and guys who

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Speaker 1: have succeeded in these circumstances. But it's still a relatively

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Speaker 1: small sample size of pitchers who have done this, and

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Speaker 1: we still have no clue, no idea really, how Blake

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Speaker 1: Snell is going to handle it, how Jordan Montgomery is

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Speaker 1: going to handle it. Maybe they'll be fine, as I

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Speaker 1: said before, but maybe they won't be. So I ask again,

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Speaker 1: it's March eighteenth. Do you know where your free agents are?

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Speaker 1: Time now for the Inside Dish, the portion of the

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Speaker 1: show where we talk about something I've written, an issue

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Speaker 1: in the game, and this.

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Speaker 2: Week it's going to be kind of a combination of

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Speaker 2: both something I've written and one of the hottest issues

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Speaker 2: in spring training, one of the most fascinating questions of

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Speaker 2: the upcoming season, and it regards the Dodgers' plan to

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Speaker 2: use Mookie Betts at shortstop.

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Speaker 1: This is going to happen, folks, and it's amazing that

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Speaker 1: it's going to happen. Considering the Dodgers signed nine free agents,

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Speaker 1: made six trades, awarded two extensions, spent more than one

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Speaker 1: point two five billion on players this season in future commitments,

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Speaker 1: and yet they still have a question at shortstop. And

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Speaker 1: they have a question in shortstop of course, because Gavin

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Speaker 1: Lux at the start of spring demonstrated renewed throwing problems.

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Speaker 1: He's had them before at short so they determined that

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Speaker 1: they wanted to move Mookie to short but keep Gavin

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Speaker 1: Lux in the mix, play him at second base. You

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Speaker 1: might ask why the Dodgers are doing this. Why are

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Speaker 1: they disrupting one of their franchise players moving him to

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Speaker 1: a more difficult position. He was supposed to be the

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Speaker 1: second baseman to accommodate a guy that maybe he shouldn't

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Speaker 1: even be in the lineup at all. Well, part of

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Speaker 1: the reason is the Dodgers really believe, as I wrote,

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Speaker 1: that Gavin Lux can hit. They believe he is going

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Speaker 1: to be an offensive force in the middle infield at

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Speaker 1: some point sometime soon, so they want to play him.

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Speaker 1: He's been a top prospect. He's had the throwing issues, yes,

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Speaker 1: but they believe that they will be somewhat alleviated at

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Speaker 1: second base. It's not as difficult to throw, so that's

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Speaker 1: part of it. The other part of this, and this

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Speaker 1: is really A fascinating part is that Mookie wants to

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Speaker 1: do it. He wants the challenge. He's a gold Glove

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Speaker 1: right fielder. We know that he is someone who can

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Speaker 1: be more than capable at second base. We saw that

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Speaker 1: last season, and he wants to prove to the Red

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Speaker 1: Sox and to the world that the Red Sox should

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Speaker 1: not have moved him off shortstop in whatever it was

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Speaker 1: twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. He is eager for this. He

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Speaker 1: relishes the challenge. Now, this is not necessarily settled. Remember

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Speaker 1: Dave Roberts famous line about this entire situation, It's permanent

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Speaker 1: for now, one of my favorite phrases of the year.

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Speaker 1: It might not be topped by the way permanent for now. Now.

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Speaker 1: If Luxure's throwing problems become an issue at second and

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Speaker 1: we're going to find out real quick. Season starts Wednesday

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Speaker 1: for the Dodgers. If they're an issue, the Dodgers have

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Speaker 1: a number of other ways they can go. The most

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Speaker 1: way is to put Miguel Rojas at short move Mookie

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Speaker 1: back to second, which could have been the plan all along.

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Speaker 1: Mcguill Rojas was the primary short stuff for the Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles Dodgers last year. They scored nine hundred runs. They

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Speaker 1: had a pretty good season. But the Dodgers seem to

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Speaker 1: believe that at thirty five, Rojas maybe can't handle that

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Speaker 1: big a load. So that's one alternative. It's certainly a possibility.

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Speaker 1: They also have others in the mix. Chris Taylor probably

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Speaker 1: better at second than he is a short key. Kate

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Speaker 1: Hernandez not good at short last year for the Red Sox,

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Speaker 1: but we now have learned that it might have been

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Speaker 1: due to his injuries, his hernias situation, so he can

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Speaker 1: go back to short too, So they have ways they

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Speaker 1: can go. But again, Lookie is kind of the driving

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Speaker 1: force here too, because of his desire to do it now.

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Speaker 1: As I wrote in my column on Friday, the danger

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Speaker 1: is not that he's going to take his defense over

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Speaker 1: to his offense. Lookie is great a come departmentalizing. No

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Speaker 1: one with the Dodgers expects this to be a problem

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Speaker 1: in that regard. The danger is also not that it's

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Speaker 1: a greater risk of injury. Though shortstop clearly is a

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Speaker 1: more physically demanding position than second base, it's not leaps

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Speaker 1: and bounds more demanding. It's still a middle infield spot.

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Speaker 1: And remember last year Mookie Bets wanted to go to

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Speaker 1: the infield because it reduced the wear and tear on

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Speaker 1: his body. And he explained it to me one day.

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Speaker 1: I thought it was amazing. He said, Hey, when I

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Speaker 1: run to the outfield to write field from the dugout,

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Speaker 1: how many steps is that? And when I run to

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Speaker 1: second base? How many steps is that? Obviously fewer steps.

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Speaker 1: He was trying to make the point to this simple mind.

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Speaker 1: And believe it or not, for a player that is

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Speaker 1: where and tear. You do that nine times a game,

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Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty two times a year. It's something

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Speaker 1: that adds up. So Mookie is positive about this. He's

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Speaker 1: a guy who wants to do it. And here's what

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Speaker 1: he said when I asked him about it. When I

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Speaker 1: asked about the doubts that some people have over how

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Speaker 1: good he can be at second base, what Mookie Betts

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Speaker 1: said was this, there's a lot of doubt out there,

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Speaker 1: which is cool. That's what makes it fun. Someone's going

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Speaker 1: to be right and will find out. So getting back

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Speaker 1: to this, if the danger is not that he's going

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Speaker 1: to take his defense into his offense, if the danger

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Speaker 1: is not that he's going to be more physically exposed.

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Speaker 1: Then what is the problem, Well, the problem or the

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Speaker 1: question is whether Mookie Betts will be good at shortstop.

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Speaker 1: Might turn out that he's mediocre at best. He hasn't

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Speaker 1: played this position with any regularity since the early twenty tens,

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Speaker 1: and even then with the Red Sox, he was playing

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Speaker 1: other spots as well. He played as a kid, but

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Speaker 1: he hasn't been a regular shortstop really forever. So it's

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Speaker 1: certainly possible that he's not going to be a gold

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Speaker 1: glove cannon. But Dodgers' people seem to believe that he's

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Speaker 1: going to get better. And if he's mediocre at the start,

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Speaker 1: a fringe average in the scouting parlance. If he's fringe

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Speaker 1: average at the start, maybe he's averaged two months in

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Speaker 1: and maybe by the end of the season he's above average. Seriously,

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Speaker 1: this guy is one of the best athletes in the game.

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Speaker 1: Would you put anything past him? I don't think we should.

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Speaker 1: And here's another interesting element which I raised in the column,

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Speaker 1: which I learned when I was out at Dodgers camp

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Speaker 1: about a week ago. Mookie Bets addressed the Dodgers' minor leaguers.

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Speaker 1: Now they had Bets do this. THEYD Clayton Kershaw do

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Speaker 1: this for the pitchers, and Mookie Bets basically told the

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Speaker 1: minor leaguers listen, guys, i might flop, i might not

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Speaker 1: be good at this, but I'm willing to do it

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Speaker 1: because it's best for the team. Again, a superstar in

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Speaker 1: the middle of a three hundred and sixty five million

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Speaker 1: dollar contract, switching positions, going to a more difficult position

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Speaker 1: on the defensive spectrum because he believes it's best for

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Speaker 1: the team. And think about the message that sent to

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Speaker 1: the Dodgers minor leaguers. Here's a guy making himself vulnerable,

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Speaker 1: willing to fail for the benefit of the team. That's

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Speaker 1: a pretty powerful message that he is sending. And clearly

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Speaker 1: he wants to prove a point here. He wants to

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Speaker 1: prove to the Red Sox people who moved him all

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Speaker 1: shortstop all those years ago. He wants to prove that

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Speaker 1: he can be only the second player in history to

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Speaker 1: win a Gold Glove in both the infield and the outfield.

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Speaker 1: Darren Urstad the only other guy to do this, and

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Speaker 1: his infield position was not in the middle, it was

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Speaker 1: at first base. So Mookie Betts could make some history here.

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Speaker 1: And what a thing this is It'll be fascinating to

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Speaker 1: watch no matter how it turns out one way or

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Speaker 1: the other. And there are a lot of people who

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Speaker 1: question this, A lot of people who say, what about

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Speaker 1: the Dodgers doing it's Mookie Betts leave them alone. I

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Speaker 1: get that argument, but I do want to see how

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Speaker 1: this works. Mooky sent a powerful message to the minor leaguers.

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Speaker 1: He is an astonishing athlete. This is a compelling storyline,

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Speaker 1: to say the least. Time now for grilling Ken. Let's

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Speaker 1: get to your questions. First question comes from ms Cards,

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Speaker 1: who says, simply, Ali marmal extension. Well, this is a

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Speaker 1: good question, and it's one a lot of Cardinals fans have.

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Speaker 1: In reading Katie Wou's account on the Athletic, it was

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Speaker 1: really interesting to see the comments. I can't recall seeing

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Speaker 1: one positive comment about the two year extension that Ali

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Speaker 1: Marmle signed from twenty twenty six. And in fact, if

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Speaker 1: we were talking a week ago about managers on the

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Speaker 1: hot seat, he would have been pretty high on the

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Speaker 1: list coming off the season that they had last year,

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Speaker 1: one of the worst seasons in recent Cardinals history. Aaron

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Speaker 1: Bruin's on that list. Dave Robertson is on that list.

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Speaker 1: There are others on that list, but Oli Marvel would

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Speaker 1: have been on it. So what the Cardinals did was

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Speaker 1: decide that they did not want him going into the

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Speaker 1: season as a lame duck. They did not want that

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Speaker 1: being a distraction. They believe in Ali Marmal and they

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Speaker 1: want him to be their guy. It's rather interesting. He

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Speaker 1: has not proven that he is a winning major league manager.

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Speaker 1: First year is pretty good, second year not so good.

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Speaker 1: A lot of different issues came up. He's someone who

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Speaker 1: has a lot of ability, no doubt, smart guy has

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Speaker 1: leadership qualities, no one's questioning that. But a lot of

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Speaker 1: smart guys with leadership qualities haven't succeeded as managers. So

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Speaker 1: we don't know yet if Ali Marmal is going to

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Speaker 1: succeed as a manager. But the Cardinals place this bet,

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Speaker 1: and I wonder a little bit if they place this

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Speaker 1: bet to quiet the noise that would have arisen if

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Speaker 1: the Cardinals struggle and Yadio Molina is lurking and Albert Pooholz,

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Speaker 1: who wants to manage, was lurking, could have been a

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Speaker 1: little bit of an issue. So I was surprised to

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Speaker 1: see this yes, I'm not saying I hate it because

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Speaker 1: I don't know what to think honestly, if Ali Marmal

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Speaker 1: just yet, but if this team struggles, the issue of

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Speaker 1: his security is going to come up. Even though he

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Speaker 1: signed for two more years. Manager's salaries are basically the

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Speaker 1: utility infielder salaries, at least when you're at Marvel's experience level.

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Speaker 1: If they need to make a move, they will make

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Speaker 1: a move, but they don't want to make a move,

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Speaker 1: and that's why they awarded him this extension. Next question

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Speaker 1: it comes from Nick asked, how does Toronto fill their

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Speaker 1: third base gap. Well, it's a fair question, Nick, since

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Speaker 1: they don't have Matt Chapman anymore. They lost him in

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Speaker 1: free agency. Giants signed him, But the Blue Jays addressed

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Speaker 1: this early in the off season. They addressed it by

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Speaker 1: signing Isaiah kiner Falfa. He is going to be most

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Speaker 1: likely their primary third baseman. They have other alternatives or

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Speaker 1: any Clement, David Schneiner, Cavin Biggio, you can do some

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Speaker 1: other things, but ikf is going to be the guy.

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Speaker 1: And it's interesting. Robert Murray pointed this out last week

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Speaker 1: in his Notes Calumn. He mentioned that Ikf's deal two years,

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Speaker 1: fifteen million is one of the better ones for a

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Speaker 1: player of this offseason, considering that a number of other

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Speaker 1: infielders like a Man Basario gi Orchella, forced to sign

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Speaker 1: much lesser contracts. Now you can argue Ikf is better

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Speaker 1: than those guys. He's got more versatility. But he did

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Speaker 1: pretty well, and the Jays, like the Cardinals of marml

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Speaker 1: are placing a bet here and we'll see how it

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Speaker 1: turns out, all right. Our final question comes from Sam

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Speaker 1: Sam asks, where do you think JD. Martinez ends up?

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Speaker 1: Feels like nobody is heavily involved in his market right now. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's hard to know what's going on in any player's

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Speaker 1: market at any given time. We as reporters learn some

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Speaker 1: things from time to time. We learn which teams are interested,

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Speaker 1: as we did last Friday the Athletic with Houston and

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Speaker 1: Blake Snell. But to know the entirety of it, you

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Speaker 1: really have to be inside the agent's cell phone, and

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Speaker 1: none of us are inside the agent's cell phone in

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Speaker 1: any of these cases. JD. Martinez represented by Scott Boris.

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Speaker 1: We have heard of interest this offseason, interests from the Angels,

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Speaker 1: interests from the Mets interest from a variety of teams.

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Speaker 1: There are a number of teams that still could use

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Speaker 1: help at DH and Brandon Belt from the left side

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Speaker 1: is still out there as well. Brandon Belt had a

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Speaker 1: pretty good year last year. But for me to guess

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Speaker 1: where Jad Martinez is going to end up at this point,

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Speaker 1: I would be just talking off the top of my head,

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Speaker 1: not with any real knowledge. I don't know. But as

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Speaker 1: I said at the top of the show March eighteenth, man,

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Speaker 1: let's go. These guys have to get into camp somewhere.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not saying they should accept horrible deals, but

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Speaker 1: at the same time, for the sake of their season,

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Speaker 1: sake of their futures, it would behoove them to at

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Speaker 1: least get into camps as soon as they possibly can

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Speaker 1: with the season so close to starting. I want to

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Speaker 1: thank everyone for their questions, Thank you for listening, for

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Speaker 1: watching by now you know where to find us YouTube, Apple, Spotify,

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Speaker 1: like us, subscribe to us, and remember we are coming

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Speaker 1: back on Thursday. We're going to two shows a week

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Speaker 1: Thursday at twelve thirty Eastern And as I said at

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Speaker 1: the top of the show, we are going to have

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Speaker 1: a co host. Now we have not talked about who

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Speaker 1: that co host is going to be yet, we have

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Speaker 1: not revealed that person's identity, but that co host will

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Speaker 1: be participating in the grueling can questions in the Dude

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Speaker 1: and Dork of the Week, which we are now running

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Speaker 1: on Thursdays, and I bet we'll have some doozies this week,

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Speaker 1: as we always do. But again co host is coming

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Speaker 1: his identity, her identity, whoever it might be, that will

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Speaker 1: be revealed Thursday, twelve thirty Eastern Live. If you're a

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