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Speaker 1: Hey Marlins fans, New big Fish Small Pod for Monday,

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Speaker 1: April first, twenty twenty four. Presents it by MPT College Consulting.

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Speaker 1: It's Eli Sussman hosting this one for you. Coming off

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Speaker 1: a disastrous first series for the Marlins of the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four season, they are tied for the worst record

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Speaker 1: in baseball at zero to four heading into Monday. That's

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Speaker 1: certainly the main storyline on a team level. On an

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Speaker 1: individual level, Avasajel Garcia is in the middle of it,

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Speaker 1: not necessarily for his individual performance in these four games

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Speaker 1: against the Pirates, but for the unique atmosphere surrounding him

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Speaker 1: throughout this entire series. From opening day introductions through his

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Speaker 1: final strikeout on Sunday, Avi was booed by his own

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Speaker 1: home fans at Lone Debau Park when he was coming

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Speaker 1: to the plate. He put out comments through the Miami

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Speaker 1: Herald on Sunday about that topic, and from closely following

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Speaker 1: the reaction from our audience during these four games, I

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Speaker 1: think I can fill him in on the other perspective

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Speaker 1: about why it is that he is getting treated this

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Speaker 1: way when very few Marlins players have in recent years.

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Speaker 1: Just to give you a small sample, of what this

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Speaker 1: booing sounded like. Here is one of the double plays

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Speaker 1: that Garcia grounded into on Friday this past weekend. Got

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Speaker 1: the start against the lefty Martine Perez, now facing the

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Speaker 1: rightings and the grounds one two cruise, the second time

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Speaker 1: that Abby has grounded into it. So you can hear

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Speaker 1: it at the very end, that was not a sellout

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Speaker 1: crowd on Friday when that happens. It was perhaps what

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Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen thousand fans in attendance, and several thousand of

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Speaker 1: them I think participated in that unenthusiastic response when he

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Speaker 1: hit into a double play for what was his I

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Speaker 1: think his second straight at that or that may have

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Speaker 1: been his first of two on Friday, and that's what

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Speaker 1: it sounded like after most of his played appearances during

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Speaker 1: this past series. So Avi entering Sunday's game, telling the

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Speaker 1: Miami Herald, we want to have results. I want to

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Speaker 1: have results. Last year I was hurt. This year, I'm healthy.

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Speaker 1: Every time they put me in the lineup, I want

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Speaker 1: to do my best, of course, but it's not good

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Speaker 1: for players to hear that the first at that of

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Speaker 1: the season, I strike out and they boom. That's not

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Speaker 1: good like I don't like that. It's the first time

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Speaker 1: in my career that happens. Fans are fans. The game

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Speaker 1: looks easy from the stands. I understand that, but it's

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Speaker 1: not fair. I imagine a lot of the unsatisfaction with

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Speaker 1: these comments will hang on that last phrase, that it's

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Speaker 1: not fair to Avi saiel Garcia. This is early on

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Speaker 1: in year three of a four year, fifty three million

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Speaker 1: dollar contract that Aviy signed with the Marlins. It was

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Speaker 1: the largest free agent signing in terms of guaranteed dollars

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Speaker 1: of the Marlins I've given out under Bruce Sherman's ownership era.

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Speaker 1: According to reporting at the time, it was largely pushed

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Speaker 1: by Derek Jeter, who was CEO at the time when

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Speaker 1: they signed him two and a half years ago. It

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Speaker 1: was even in the moment a bit of a head scratcher,

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Speaker 1: even though his skill set wasn't enticing, he was coming

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Speaker 1: off a good year. I don't think anybody quite grasped

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Speaker 1: why it is or who the Marlins were bidding against

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Speaker 1: to guarantee fifty three million dollars over four years for

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Speaker 1: a player like him who had shown he could be

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Speaker 1: a very good everyday player. But his career had been

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Speaker 1: rife with inconsistency throughout. He was entering free agency either

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Speaker 1: for the second or third time until he was ready

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Speaker 1: in his thirties. When he was making that deal, there

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Speaker 1: was quite a bit of downside and it was not

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Speaker 1: necessarily a clear path for him to providing surplus value

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Speaker 1: on that contract. His first year, he showed up to

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Speaker 1: camp overweight. That was obvious. Throughout most of that first

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Speaker 1: season until the very end of the year, he performed

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Speaker 1: extremely poorly. He came back in twenty twenty three in

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Speaker 1: great shape, no doubt about it. There's enthusiasm there were

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Speaker 1: He spoke very confidently about himself about how that would

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Speaker 1: put him in. He was in the right frame of

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Speaker 1: mind to settle in with his new team. And yet

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Speaker 1: the results in twenty twenty three were even worse than

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Speaker 1: the year before. He missed even more time due to

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Speaker 1: the injury. When he was on the field, he hit

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Speaker 1: one eighty five He hit three home runs total in

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Speaker 1: thirty seven games, and his strikeout rate was even higher,

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Speaker 1: went from twenty nine percent very bad in twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: two to thirty three percent last year, which would be

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Speaker 1: one of the worst in the league. Among guys that

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Speaker 1: get any sort of consistent playing time. So entering this

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Speaker 1: year looked pretty bad in spring training, and I think

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Speaker 1: it was fair to question entering the year why it

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Speaker 1: is that he was on the team. There are, perhaps

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Speaker 1: it is all minority of these booers that personally dislike

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Speaker 1: AVI and are holding that against him. From my vantage point,

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Speaker 1: I don't think that most of these boos are personal

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Speaker 1: towards him. It is more a loud rejection of the

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Speaker 1: way that the Marlins are handling this situation, because this

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Speaker 1: is a player that over those last two years, even

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Speaker 1: regardless of what he did these first four games of

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Speaker 1: the season, Ave has put up a five to seventy

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Speaker 1: six OPS. He's missed essentially half of these teams games

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Speaker 1: while on the IL. When he has been active, he

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Speaker 1: has been below replacement level negative one point one wins

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Speaker 1: above replacement. According to Fangrafts, most of these fans are

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Speaker 1: not fluent in sabermetrics, and they don't need to be,

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Speaker 1: because if they just watch the games and if they

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Speaker 1: just look at the standard numbers, they can see this

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Speaker 1: is a player that is a liability even compared to

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Speaker 1: the next man up. In the mind that they could

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Speaker 1: bring in just about anybody who is performing well in

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Speaker 1: TRIPLEA and reasonably expect them to be as good as

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Speaker 1: productive as avasel Garcia has been. So for people that

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Speaker 1: are investing quite a bit to attend these games, to

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Speaker 1: buy merchandise for this team, who only have one local

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Speaker 1: team in the Miami area to root for, who don't

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Speaker 1: get to choose who they root for, all they expect

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Speaker 1: that the bare minimum is for the decision makers of

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Speaker 1: this team to put together the best possible combination of

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Speaker 1: players on their roster. If Garcia was not signed to

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Speaker 1: the contract that he was signed to right now, he

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Speaker 1: would not be in the major leagues for any team

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Speaker 1: he would. He would be trying to earn his way

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Speaker 1: back in the upper miners. There is just so little

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Speaker 1: precedent for somebody performing as badly as he has the

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Speaker 1: past couple of years, combined with the injuries in the

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Speaker 1: particular nature of his performance, where it just does not

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Speaker 1: seem reasonable to project much improvement moving forward. For somebody

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Speaker 1: that struggles with his plate discipline to make contact, who

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Speaker 1: doesn't play a premium defensive position and is only getting older,

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Speaker 1: this is not the type of player that would be

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Speaker 1: on the roster in any significant form, much less start

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Speaker 1: several games in the opening series for a team coming

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Speaker 1: off a postseason appearance. The vitriol would be substantially less

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Speaker 1: if the team was not competitive and not even attempting

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Speaker 1: to be competitive. But on the heels of the first

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Speaker 1: full season playoff berth in twenty years for franchise that

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Speaker 1: has never had consecutive playoff berths, and yet are still

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Speaker 1: messing around with a player that is sub replacement level

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Speaker 1: where they have better alternatives internally, and this team, the

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Speaker 1: decision makers in the front office, and this really goes

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Speaker 1: up all the way to ownership, are not giving the

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Speaker 1: green light in order to replace him with a better player.

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Speaker 1: So it has to be noted that right after this

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Speaker 1: article came out from Jordan McPherson the Miami Herald, within

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Speaker 1: a couple hours, Garcia hit his first home run of

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Speaker 1: the year, an opposite field one against Bailey Falter of

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Speaker 1: the Pirates. His teammates seemed to rally around that it

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Speaker 1: was a nice moment for all involved, because I'll reiterate

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Speaker 1: that for the vast majority of these boots, they're not

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Speaker 1: coming at AVI personally. They're coming off a team they're

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Speaker 1: coming towards the team that is consciously holding back their

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Speaker 1: roster from reaching its full potential by having this player

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Speaker 1: on the roster just because they already guaranteed him a

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Speaker 1: certain amount of money. And what the fans are trying

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Speaker 1: to communicate. Their fans are just trying to reject that

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Speaker 1: notion that he has to be on here to justify

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Speaker 1: that contract. It is a sunk cost. I've said it before.

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Speaker 1: The home run does not change that. And this does

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Speaker 1: not mean that Avi is the reason why they've been

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Speaker 1: lost all four games to start this season. And it's

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Speaker 1: not his faults. He's not the only one that has struggled,

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Speaker 1: and we talked about that in detail on Fish on

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Speaker 1: First Spaces. I'm sure we'll continue to get into it

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Speaker 1: in our coverage. How many things are going wrong with

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Speaker 1: the team is not only on Avi that this is happening,

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Speaker 1: but it is completely fair. If he has somehow deluded

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Speaker 1: himself into thinking that he just needs more time to

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Speaker 1: settle in entering his third year with this organization, then

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Speaker 1: that's what's concerning. These commons show kind of lack of

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Speaker 1: awareness about that his very real degradation and skill level,

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Speaker 1: how he is from the moments that he joined the Marlins.

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Speaker 1: He has not been the player that they thought they

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Speaker 1: were investing in. And even though he's putting in the

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Speaker 1: work to get back to that level, under any other circumstances,

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Speaker 1: a player like him would be trying to earn himself

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Speaker 1: back to the major league level instead of being handed

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Speaker 1: a spot just because he is under a guaranteed deal.

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Speaker 1: I hope that clears things, some clear things up, But

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Speaker 1: with Avi, this has been big fish, small pod. I'm

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Speaker 1: Eli Sussman right here. We have small pods for you

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Speaker 1: almost every single weekday morning throughout the entire season, expecting

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Speaker 1: to see Avi in the lineup at least one more time.

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Speaker 1: This upcoming series against the Angels, they have a couple

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Speaker 1: lefties that are scheduled to start, and that is what

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Speaker 1: the Marlins are saying, that his role is to do

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Speaker 1: damage against left handed pitching, despite a whole lot of

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Speaker 1: evidence to the contrary. And I don't think there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of people rooting against Avi if he's gonna

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Speaker 1: be stuck on this team. Miraculous turnarounds in his career

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Speaker 1: would make a lot of them happy, because ultimately the

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Speaker 1: focus is just on winning games, and this is a

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Speaker 1: protest about how a player has been handled in a

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Speaker 1: way that is seemingly preventing them from reaching their full potential.

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Speaker 1: Check back on our next small pod. Follow all our

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Speaker 1: coverage on Fish on First dot com. All our podcast

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Speaker 1: episodes presented by MPT College Consulting. Check them out at

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Speaker 1: Mptcollegeconsulting dot com. Go Fish