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Speaker 1: Welcome to the official show here on the Fishtripes podcast,

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Speaker 1: first pod episode of twenty twenty one. It's Eli Susman here,

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Speaker 1: managing editor of Fish Stripes. Let me be the one

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Speaker 1: millionth person and hopefully the last person's wish you a

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Speaker 1: happy new year entering twenty twenty one. Thank you for subscribing.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully you've subscribed, but thank you for listening wherever you

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Speaker 1: are listening to this pod. We have big plans for

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Speaker 1: this pod network in the new year. I shouldn't say

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Speaker 1: plans because everything seems to be very fluid with the

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Speaker 1: way that Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball and

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Speaker 1: everything else is organizing for the new year. But we

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Speaker 1: had big aspirations in terms of churning out a lot

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Speaker 1: of content and very high quality content, fascinating interview topics

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Speaker 1: and other conversations that we'll be getting into. This episode

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Speaker 1: is going to have an interview most episode. He is

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Speaker 1: my one on one talk with Ben Witkins, who is

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Speaker 1: the co organizer of the Save Snappy petition. He is

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Speaker 1: a Beloit Snappers fan, and the Boloite Snappers are about

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Speaker 1: to become a minor league affiliate of the Miami Marlins.

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Speaker 1: Their New High a affiliate potentially for the next ten years

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Speaker 1: or more. So we're gonna talk all things Beloit with

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Speaker 1: Ben Witkins because I've never been to Beloit. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: ninety nine percent of you haven't been there yet either,

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Speaker 1: so his context and perspective on that is gonna be

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Speaker 1: very valuable and that's gonna be a lot of fun

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Speaker 1: to talk about. Before that, just wanted to touch on a

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Speaker 1: handful of recent news items that we've addressed on the

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Speaker 1: website on fishtripes dot com, as well as on social media.

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Speaker 1: So I'm assuming you guys are familiar with us over

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Speaker 1: there and have already gotten some of my takes on

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Speaker 1: them so far, But just to give a roundup, the

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Speaker 1: Marlins finally announced their first round of non roster invitees

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Speaker 1: to spring training. Traditionally, that announcement comes right around the

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Speaker 1: winter meetings, like a full three or four weeks prior

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Speaker 1: to what it did before the new year. We finally

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Speaker 1: got the first seven of them, which is also a

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Speaker 1: slightly smaller wave than usually get from teams during that period.

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Speaker 1: First of all, they confirmed four that were already pretty

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Speaker 1: well known that have already been agreed upon farm in

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Speaker 1: advance but they finally acknowledged the signings of four pitchers,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Bender, Alexander Guillen, Luis Madero, and Zach Thompson. We've

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Speaker 1: taken note of all those guys, none of them have

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Speaker 1: any major league experience. I think three of the four

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Speaker 1: don't even have experience above the Double A level, meaning

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Speaker 1: that I'm assuming we're heading into this year as them

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Speaker 1: as extreme long shots to make the opening day roster

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Speaker 1: and probably long shots to have any substantial time in

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Speaker 1: the majors this year. But all of them are still

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Speaker 1: relatively young, and a couple of them have especially filthy stuff.

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Speaker 1: Alexander Gien, the right hander, is one that really jumps

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Speaker 1: out out of these, or probably Guillen is the one

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Speaker 1: that has the best chance of being somebody for the

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Speaker 1: Marlins in twenty twenty one, and the other three a

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Speaker 1: couple familiar faces, Brian Navaretto and Eddie Alvarez, both of

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Speaker 1: them made their major league debuts during the short and

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty season. With Navaretto he is at this moment

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Speaker 1: he's gonna be the fourth catcher on the depth chart.

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Speaker 1: The other catcher also signing a new one for the Marlins,

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Speaker 1: but a familiar name to many of you is Sandy Leone,

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Speaker 1: who has had considerable amount of Major League time with

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Speaker 1: the Red Sox and with the Nationals. A switch hitting

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Speaker 1: catcher who was on that World Series team with the

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Speaker 1: Red Sox in twenty eighteen. Leon will be turning thirty

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Speaker 1: two years old during spring training, and I've found it

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Speaker 1: curious that it's the exact same contract that Brian Holiday

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Speaker 1: got two years ago. That should pretty much put it

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Speaker 1: into context what Leone is. He is not gonna give

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Speaker 1: you much with the bat. He's had a couple of

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Speaker 1: blips in his career where he has caught fire at

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Speaker 1: the plate, especially in twenty sixteen with the Red Sox.

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Speaker 1: I remember experiencing that live and how odd it was

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Speaker 1: that for an extended run he had his ops over

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Speaker 1: a thousand and was one of the more dangerous hitters

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Speaker 1: in all of baseball for just that brief stint.

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Speaker 2: High fly ball, deep down the line. Hi crushed that,

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Speaker 2: sad as I An jumped all over it. The Red

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Speaker 2: Sox Lady Thrina nine thing home runs again, Sandy belting

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Speaker 2: number three, handed the triple A sign.

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Speaker 1: But since then has come back down to earth. Someone

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Speaker 1: that is more going to be sixty to seventy percent

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Speaker 1: of the league average, but his pitch framing is consistently

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Speaker 1: very good, and the pitchers that have worked with him

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Speaker 1: really rave about the way that he manages the staff,

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Speaker 1: the way that he calls a game, very similar to

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Speaker 1: to a holiday a couple of years ago, where if

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Speaker 1: he makes me major league team right at spring training,

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Speaker 1: base salary will be one point twenty five million dollars

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Speaker 1: with some incentives attainable based on playing time after that.

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Speaker 1: And for the moment though, he is behind on the

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Speaker 1: depth chart, behind Jorge Oltharo and probably behind Chad Wallack

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Speaker 1: as well, because even though Wallack has his own limitations,

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Speaker 1: we saw how much the Marlins trusted him down the

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Speaker 1: stretch last year, and of course they have more familiarity

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Speaker 1: with Wallack being that he's been the organization the past

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Speaker 1: couple of years. So we had those guys on the

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Speaker 1: minor league side on the major league side. Ross Dettweiler

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Speaker 1: is the first and so far only major league signing

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Speaker 1: that the Marlins have made a guaranteed salary of eight

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars according to Craigmish, with one

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Speaker 1: hundred k in potential bonuses that he can earn. A

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Speaker 1: really underwhelming pitcher that, believe it or not, was highly

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Speaker 1: regarded coming out of college sixth overall pick in the

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Speaker 1: first rounds of the Washington Nationals way back in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and seven. To some extent, he's had a good

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Speaker 1: career and that he's still pitching in the majors. He

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Speaker 1: spent a bunch of years with the Nationals. One standout

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Speaker 1: year twenty twelve, the team first team that they had

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Speaker 1: that made the playoffs that year, pitching one hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty four in the third innings three point forty ERA

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Speaker 1: that year with a four point zero four FIP, But

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Speaker 1: since then that has proved to be the anomaly. That

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Speaker 1: is the only year where he's come anywhere close to

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Speaker 1: being a full time major league starter. Most recently started

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Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen with the White Sox, and it was

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Speaker 1: a disaster first career a four point five to six ERA,

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Speaker 1: a four to sixty one FIP, a high one point

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Speaker 1: four to seven whip. But he's been able to be

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Speaker 1: serviceable despite all the base runners because he's generally been

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Speaker 1: able to keep the ball in the ballpark, the only

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Speaker 1: exceptions to that being in twenty nineteen with the White Sox.

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Speaker 1: So on one hands, twenty twelve is an anomalye and

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Speaker 1: so distant in the past that he's simply a different

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Speaker 1: man at this stage of in his career, and at

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Speaker 1: the same time, twenty nineteen also seems to be somewhat

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Speaker 1: of an outlier on the other end, where he wasn't

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Speaker 1: really a playable major league player in twenty nineteen, but

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Speaker 1: he did have a nice bounce back in twenty twenty.

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Speaker 1: At this stage of his career, he is a soft

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Speaker 1: tossing left handed, pretty stereotypical, but the White Sox moved

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Speaker 1: him to the bullpen in twenty twenty and he re

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Speaker 1: rediscovered like a slider in his repertoire that he wasn't

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Speaker 1: using much at all in twenty nineteen, and thanks to

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Speaker 1: that in a variety of other factors, he did fine

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Speaker 1: during the short season. The three twenty eer a three

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Speaker 1: to ninety fifth, a below average strikeout rate, only allowed

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Speaker 1: two home runs in nineteen and two thirds innings, still

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Speaker 1: throwing very soft, He's not a guy that's gonna get

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Speaker 1: much above the low nineties with his fastball, but being

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Speaker 1: in a relief role, I mean it's putting him in

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Speaker 1: a position where he doesn't have to do too much.

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Speaker 1: The Marlins bullpen the past several years has been a catastrophe.

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Speaker 1: At times. I've had their moments, but especially during the chunk,

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Speaker 1: the middle chunk of that twenty twenty season, the Marlins

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Speaker 1: were desperate to find any answers. The curious decision they

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Speaker 1: made here is signing Detwiler but also designating Stephen Tarpley

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Speaker 1: for assignment, essentially making dead Weiler the replacement for Tarpley

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Speaker 1: rather than just adding depth. They booted out Tarpley, who

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Speaker 1: just a year ago they gave up prospect James Nelson

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Speaker 1: to in a trade with the Yankees. So they gave

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Speaker 1: up something to get Tarpley. You didn't pitch much in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and he finished the season on a pretty

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Speaker 1: ugly note. Missed some time with injury along the way,

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Speaker 1: but he had several years of control remaining. I think

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Speaker 1: anybody would agree he is better raw stuff than Debt

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Speaker 1: Weiler has. He also has a fastball also as a

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Speaker 1: slider and gets more movement v. Low spin. You name

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Speaker 1: it on his stuff. Just better stuff. Younger minor league

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Speaker 1: options cheaper. Yet they made this kind of curious decision

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Speaker 1: to bring in debt Weiler. Then we have the outfield rumors.

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Speaker 1: We had reports from Mish and also from Mark Finestans

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Speaker 1: MLB dot com linking the Marlins to Adam Duval and

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Speaker 1: Yasiel Puigue. So two outfielders that you're very familiar with.

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Speaker 1: Duval terrorized the Marlins last year in heads d play

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Speaker 1: as a member of the Braves way back in the day,

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Speaker 1: he was an All Star with the Reds. Comparing the two,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting. They have a lot in common

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Speaker 1: if you just look at the last four or five

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Speaker 1: seasons combined. Puigue obviously missed the most recent season, whereas

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Speaker 1: Duval most recently all looks like a little bit of

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Speaker 1: an outlier in terms of how many of his balls

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Speaker 1: actually went over the wall. He's a guy that has

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Speaker 1: good power, but the fact that he was I believe

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Speaker 1: top ten in the National League last year in home

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Speaker 1: runs with sixteen home runs last year despite not being

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Speaker 1: a true full time starter, is pretty impressive. Probably unsustainable,

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Speaker 1: and it's gonna be curious to see what exactly the

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Speaker 1: Marlins do with the outfield. Because I've talked about this

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Speaker 1: a lot on Twitter. Well, this will be a longer

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Speaker 1: conversation outside of this podcast episode. But Marlins have so

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Speaker 1: many young potential outfielders in the higher levels of the

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Speaker 1: minor league system and others that are just past their

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Speaker 1: rookie eligibility, and yet being connected to these players showed

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Speaker 1: that they have a lack of trust in those young

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Speaker 1: outfielders and one instead bring in someone to handle what

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Speaker 1: would be the line's share of playing time in right

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Speaker 1: field and potentially pick up some designated hitter playing time

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Speaker 1: if it comes to that. But Pleague and Duval are

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Speaker 1: the two specific names that they've been connected to. Pleague

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Speaker 1: thing two year younger, but also coming off a year

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Speaker 1: where he didn't play in the majors and prior to

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Speaker 1: that his production had dipped a little bit from where

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Speaker 1: it was during his prime, relatively early prime of his career.

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Speaker 1: Both of them would be, I believe candidates for just

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Speaker 1: a one year deal. Some interesting context, Robbie Grossman just

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Speaker 1: signed to deal with the Tigers two years, ten million

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Speaker 1: dollars guaranteed, with an extra million dollars that he earn

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Speaker 1: incentives from the Tigers. And I'm sure that to most

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Speaker 1: of us, I mean, you would hold Duval and Puigue

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Speaker 1: in the same regard as Grossman, or even higher regard.

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Speaker 1: Grossman did some things that seem a lot more sustainable

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Speaker 1: in terms of how he was getting on base, how

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Speaker 1: he's improved as a defender, whereas with Duval he's consistently

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Speaker 1: had issues getting on base throughout his career even when

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Speaker 1: he's been at his best. Even this past season with Puigue,

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Speaker 1: as I said, been into Cline a little bit, has

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Speaker 1: this reputation of being difficult on the clubhouse, and with Puigue,

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Speaker 1: even though the Marlins made an offered to him last year,

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Speaker 1: he voiced a very specific complaint that he preferred not

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Speaker 1: to be in a community that is so heavily Cuban.

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Speaker 1: It's between those guys. No, there's no safe bet unless

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Speaker 1: the Marlins are willing to spend a little bit more money.

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Speaker 1: I mean, my preferred outfield targets for them, if they

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Speaker 1: are really serious about upgrading in the outfield and adding

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Speaker 1: a consistent bat to playing right and potentially to a

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Speaker 1: platoon and left for Dickerson. If Dickerson doesn't bounce back.

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Speaker 1: I mean, my favorites have been Jack Peterson and Eddie Rosario.

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Speaker 1: I think those two are specifically more valuable they're gonna

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Speaker 1: be more valuable, and they're at a stage of their

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Speaker 1: careers and they have certain skill sets that you can

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Speaker 1: more reliably project moving forward. But I imagine, especially Peterson is

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Speaker 1: going to require a multi year deal. There's going to

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Speaker 1: be a handful of teams involved for both of them.

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Speaker 1: So unless the Marlins are willing to step up in

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Speaker 1: the payroll department, as things currently stand, they're going to

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Speaker 1: be bottom three in projected payroll heading into twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 1: really not even up to sixty million dollars in money

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Speaker 1: committed to this point, between guaranteed salaries arbitration eligible as

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Speaker 1: other controllable players that you would think they have some

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Speaker 1: room to add with this new TV deal going into

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Speaker 1: effects soon, and with an expectation that being in Florida,

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Speaker 1: with the the way that state government has handled the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: that the Marlins are probably more likely than some other

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Speaker 1: teams to actually have in person attendance and revenue at

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Speaker 1: the start of next season, And of course, coming off

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Speaker 1: of the first postseason appearance in a long time, you

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Speaker 1: want to sustain that momentum and give fans reason to

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Speaker 1: expect even more this year, you want to try a

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Speaker 1: little bit, but I've touched on these subjects before. With that,

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Speaker 1: we are going to transition to our interview with Ben Witkins,

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Speaker 1: Blite native, Blite Snappers, super fan, co organizer of a

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Speaker 1: Save Snappy petition. He's going to bring a great perspective

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Speaker 1: about this team that has been around for close to

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Speaker 1: four decades and at least for the next one decade,

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Speaker 1: is poised to be a Marlins minor League affiliate. Enjoy

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Speaker 1: It's the official show on the Fish Stripes podcast. Eli

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Speaker 1: Susman here to welcome in a special guest. The Beloit

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Speaker 1: Snappers are soon to be the high affiliate of the

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Speaker 1: Miami Marlins, expected to sign their MLB Professional Development License

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Speaker 1: in the coming weeks. That will officially mark the beginning

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Speaker 1: of a ten year partnership. So to help familiarize us

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Speaker 1: with the team, it's history and several key changes on

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Speaker 1: the horizon, I am joined by Ben Witkins. Ben is

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Speaker 1: the co organizer for the Safe Snappy petition, which we'll

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Speaker 1: be diving into shortly. He's also a Beloit, Wisconsin native,

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Speaker 1: a passionate Beloit Snappers fan, and for a very brief time,

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Speaker 1: he wore the Snappy mascot costume. Himself, so I know

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Speaker 1: he has an incredible perspective on all things about what

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Speaker 1: this team is and what it means now that they're

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Speaker 1: going to be affiliated with Miami Marlins. So thank you

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Speaker 1: for coming on the show. Ben. I hope you're new

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Speaker 1: year off to a great start.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me, and I hope

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Speaker 3: your years off to a great start as well.

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Speaker 1: So, as I told you before we started recording, we

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Speaker 1: need to go through the very basics about what Beloit is,

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Speaker 1: about where it is. I mean, we're in twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 1: where people can obviously google Beloit, Wisconsin in a second

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Speaker 1: and find out where on the map it is. But

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Speaker 1: we want to like understand what the city is like well,

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Speaker 1: knowing that you were born and raised down there and

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Speaker 1: that Marlin's players are going to be spending their summers

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Speaker 1: down there, just about every Marlins prospect is going to

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Speaker 1: be passing through Beloit at some point, and hopefully Marlin's

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Speaker 1: fans are going to be visiting to see games at

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Speaker 1: the ballpark and understand what the community is. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you're the best person to ask what is it about

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Speaker 1: Beloit that you love growing up? What makes it unique

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Speaker 1: from other communities.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so, great question.

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Speaker 3: Beloit is a wonderful town of about approximately thirty seven

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Speaker 3: thousand people, and it's right on the Wisconsin and Illinois border,

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Speaker 3: like literally on the border. So and that's exactly where

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Speaker 3: the stadium is going to be. So it's a it's

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Speaker 3: a racially diverse town. It's a town that experienced some

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Speaker 3: trouble with with industry leaving around the turn of the century.

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Speaker 3: But over the last several years it's really undergoing this

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Speaker 3: incredible revitalization. Uh like sushi restaurants and you know, high

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Speaker 3: end burger places and uh, industry is moving in. It's

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Speaker 3: becoming like this tech hub. It's just uh, there's a

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Speaker 3: there's an international film festival. Believe it or not, there's

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Speaker 3: just don't sleep on bloyit it's really it's really kind

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Speaker 3: of a cool city. And if you ever want to

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Speaker 3: make the trip out, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

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Speaker 3: with all the fun things that are to do there.

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Speaker 1: And my understanding from following along what you've been doing

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Speaker 1: with River Rockers, and we'll be getting into that shortly,

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Speaker 1: is that the team has been a part of your

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Speaker 1: life for almost all of your life. Could you tell

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Speaker 1: us growing up. I know, way back in the day

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Speaker 1: was affiliated with the Brewers and since then the Twins

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Speaker 1: and the A's. But when did your connection with the

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Speaker 1: team start? I mean, how old were you started attending games?

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Speaker 1: Who are some of the players that you remember passing through?

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Speaker 1: I think players that went on to be major league

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Speaker 1: stars are just players that were special down there in Beloyd,

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Speaker 1: and he stick out to you in your memory.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So I grew up attending Bloyd snap Boy Brewers games

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Speaker 3: and eventually they became the Boyd Snappers in nineteen ninety five.

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Speaker 3: And you're always attending at a very small community field,

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Speaker 3: Pullman Field was what it was called, and.

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Speaker 4: Very very.

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Speaker 3: Not an extravagant or a really amazing stadium by any

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Speaker 3: stretchedy imagination, but a really great community stadium. And my brother,

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Speaker 3: who who was also on our on our small team

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Speaker 3: of people working on this Bloy River Rockers movement, he

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Speaker 3: started working there running the scoreboard. So as a as

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Speaker 3: a younger brother, I thought that was the coolest job

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Speaker 3: in the world. And I was also inspired to eventually

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Speaker 3: work at work for the team when I became a teenager,

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Speaker 3: and that was basically my summer job throughout high school,

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Speaker 3: I sold Dippin' dots in the concession stand, and I

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Speaker 3: was Snappy the Turtle himself. I was the mascot as

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Speaker 3: you mentioned, and just just had a.

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Speaker 4: Ton of great memories at the stadium.

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Speaker 3: I'd say my favorite all time Bloyd Snapper would easily

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Speaker 3: be Prince Fielder. He came through there and he was

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Speaker 3: on the two third two thousand and three squad, and

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Speaker 3: it was just an an awesome squad of Prince Fielder,

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Speaker 3: Ricky Weeks, and Tony gwyn Junior. And I was just

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Speaker 3: a huge, huge Milwaukee Brewers fan at that time, So

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Speaker 3: it was like it was like heaven on earth to

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Speaker 3: be a to see that up close and personal.

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Speaker 1: Right, And I guess in total, the affiliation started way

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Speaker 1: back in nineteen eighty two, so almost forty years of

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Speaker 1: history with the city. And I mean, obviously this year,

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Speaker 1: so much has been uprooted. All the plans that people

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Speaker 1: thought they had when it came to minor league baseball

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Speaker 1: have been shaken up by the pandemic COVID nineteen. But

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Speaker 1: even before, like the pandemic was even on even something

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Speaker 1: that entered people's minds. I think people that followed minor

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Speaker 1: league baseball closely either, of course in Beloit, but even

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Speaker 1: myself and anybody that covers prospects pretty consistently knew that

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Speaker 1: a restructuring was on its way, the way all of

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Speaker 1: minor league baseball was headed. And this consistent desire by

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Speaker 1: MLB to reduce the number of teams flatly, just in

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Speaker 1: order to save money in certain ways, in order to

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Speaker 1: upgrade facilities. I mean, a lot of motivations that went

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Speaker 1: into it. But considering where beloitd is just how I

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Speaker 1: guess far removed it is from conventional huge population centers,

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Speaker 1: and how much concern was there among people in Beloit

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Speaker 1: about with the end of this professional baseball agreement last

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Speaker 1: year about losing the team. I mean the fact that

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Speaker 1: it had been in the community for so long and

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Speaker 1: we just saw with Marlin's affiliate in the Midwest League

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Speaker 1: for one year they were with the Clinton lumber Kings,

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Speaker 1: and the lumber Kings, as many unfortunately predicted, they got

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Speaker 1: phased out and weren't part of this restructuring. I mean,

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Speaker 1: how much concern was there in Beloit when this big

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Speaker 1: decision was coming, and just what did they try to

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Speaker 1: do in order to save the team.

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Speaker 3: Right, So this ties into our new owner, quint or

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Speaker 3: excuse me, the team's first ever owner, quint Suitor. And

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Speaker 3: this is where his involvement really comes into play and

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Speaker 3: why as a community were so incredibly appreciative appreciative of him,

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Speaker 3: because quite frankly, BOYD and base ball for all intents

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Speaker 3: and purposes was dead. As I kind of alluded to earlier,

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Speaker 3: Pollman Field was a very It wasn't a great stadium.

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Speaker 3: I mean, there's really no no way to say it.

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Speaker 3: It was didn't have great amenities. It was old, it

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Speaker 3: was outdated, and it just absolutely would have been on

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Speaker 3: the chopping block, just like unfortunately Clinton was. However, Quinn

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Speaker 3: Stuter stepped in along with Diane Hendricks, another extreme actually

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Speaker 3: the richest self made woman in the United States, I believe,

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Speaker 3: just an incredibly you know, it was a it was

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Speaker 3: a it was a great union, those two coming together.

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Speaker 3: And what they did was they invested in this new

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Speaker 3: stadium downtown which is going to be state of the

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Speaker 3: art ABC Supply Stadium, it's it's called. And what they

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Speaker 3: did was they built that stadium to a T by

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Speaker 3: MLB's specification. So MLB was like, you know, MLB wants

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Speaker 3: good facilities. They want good locker room as they have

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Speaker 3: lots of things that they that they really care about.

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Speaker 3: So what Diane Hendricks and Quinn Steward did was they

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Speaker 3: they built the stadium absolutely up to MLB specifications. So

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Speaker 3: it wasn't necessarily a surprise, because you know, MLB would

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Speaker 3: probably you know, they'd be kind of crazy to not,

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Speaker 3: you know, go forward given the fact that they you

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Speaker 3: know that they built this state of the art stadium, right, and.

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Speaker 1: I guess you're being pretty blunts about Pullman Fields and

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Speaker 1: some of its limitations. But I've seen the mockups of

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Speaker 1: the new replacement ABC Supply Stadium. They also have that

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Speaker 1: live camera setup to actually monitor the construction progress going on.

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Speaker 1: With that, you can see from looking at Minor League

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Speaker 1: Baseball records that attendance that Pullman had been slipping the

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Speaker 1: past few years, even based on where it was earlier

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Speaker 1: in the two thousands, I mean, the last five years

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Speaker 1: averaging about one thousand fans per game, which even by

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Speaker 1: Midwestley standards was pretty low. I was just wondering if

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Speaker 1: you could be more specific about what you thought the

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Speaker 1: limitations of the fields was and what do you think

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Speaker 1: how are those going to be addressed in the new stadium,

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Speaker 1: just based on what you've seen, because I guess that's

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Speaker 1: the yeah. I'm wondering is when you see that low attendance,

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Speaker 1: at least on paper that games had in the late

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Speaker 1: in recent years, do you think that's gonna be fixed

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Speaker 1: pretty immediately by the new stadium or are there other

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Speaker 1: factors in play?

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Speaker 4: I do.

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Speaker 3: I think that just the new energy of the state

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Speaker 3: of the art stadium, and it also been right in

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Speaker 3: the heart of downtown. I think that alone is going

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Speaker 3: to really increase attendance. So I'm really really excited about

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Speaker 3: that Pullman Field. As I have alluded to from now

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Speaker 3: several times it did the product got stale. It was

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Speaker 3: kind of a hard to get to stadium in the

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Speaker 3: middle of a residential neighborhood. Now with ABC supply statements,

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Speaker 3: going to be right in the heart of downtown, you

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Speaker 3: get drinks, you get dinner with your family and friends,

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Speaker 3: and you meander over to the stadium. It's going to

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Speaker 3: be a totally new environment with a lot of new

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Speaker 3: energy and life in views to it. Thanks to quin

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Speaker 3: Stutter and the Miami Marlins, I.

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Speaker 5: Think Blite can be the epic center of the Midwest.

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Speaker 5: I think Blite's going to be that next great city

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Speaker 5: because people like diversity today. They don't want to go

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Speaker 5: to Homo genius type of city. They want diversity, they

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Speaker 5: want grit. They want to create something magical here that

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Speaker 5: people from all over complin.

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Speaker 1: You say, hey, we got to get down to Bloite.

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Speaker 1: With this construction of the new stadium. Quin Studter has

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Speaker 1: come up with this idea to use this opportunity to

433
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: rebrand the Beloit Snappers for the first time. And as

434
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:47,200
Speaker 1: you said, twenty five years, and I know that's been

435
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,320
Speaker 1: an issue that you've been really focused on. And I've

436
00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: come up with some great alternatives too, And I mean

437
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:57,959
Speaker 1: based on my understanding. Of course, as I said, the

438
00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,920
Speaker 1: pandemic has shifted things to focus. But it seems that

439
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 1: they're on a trajectory that the stadium could be done

440
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:08,400
Speaker 1: later this year, but potentially not in time for opening day,

441
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,200
Speaker 1: where it would be a situation where they transition during

442
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: the season. Yeah, I suppose that stuff is still a

443
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: little bit up in the air. But whenever they make

444
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:23,200
Speaker 1: that transition, planning to rebrands, and I mean, at least

445
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:27,399
Speaker 1: from what quin Stutter has been saying, is is there

446
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 1: any particular reason why they're so committed on rebranding and changing.

447
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 1: Do you think it's just mainly focused on the revenue

448
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,200
Speaker 1: boost that comes with new merchandise and a new logo

449
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,920
Speaker 1: and all that, or is there any particular desire from

450
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 1: the community to actually change.

451
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 4: That's a great question.

452
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:54,399
Speaker 3: The messaging from the ownership is that merchandise sales is

453
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 3: a critical revenue stream to a successful minor league operation,

454
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:04,640
Speaker 3: which makes whole sense. And the Boyd Snappers merchandise sales

455
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:12,320
Speaker 3: were very poor, so naturally they believe that a rebrand

456
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:16,560
Speaker 3: will improve that. So that's that's the that's the mindset

457
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 3: that they're that they're going forward with. And Quinn Sutter

458
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 3: has actually been successful rebranding a minor league team in

459
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 3: the past, as he has done with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos,

460
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,119
Speaker 3: so he's he has that as in his in his

461
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 3: back pocket is a really relevant experience that he's bringing

462
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:37,159
Speaker 3: forward here. However, when they so, what they did was

463
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 3: when they announced that they were going to rebrand the team. Uh,

464
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:44,320
Speaker 3: they worked with a San Diego based marketing company and

465
00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 3: they conducted this contest basically they called it a fan vote,

466
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 3: and then at the end of that, they announced five

467
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 3: finalists that they were choosing from, and the five finalist

468
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 3: names were the Cheese Ball, move Poka Pike, skycarp and

469
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:13,919
Speaker 3: Supper Clubbers. So there was instantly a huge revolt in

470
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 3: the community because the names felt off. And the reason

471
00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 3: why they were off is because I'm sure you know knows,

472
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:25,639
Speaker 3: but I'm I'm gonna mention it. Bloyd has a really

473
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:31,440
Speaker 3: really deep relationship with with turtles. There's these turtle burial

474
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,359
Speaker 3: mounds that are on the Bloyd College campus right now,

475
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 3: and that really shaped the whole community. The town used

476
00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 3: to be called Turtle Village and it these mounds were

477
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 3: the inspiration for the Bloy College logo. The team plays

478
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 3: at the confluence of Turtle Creek and the Rock River.

479
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 3: There's Turtle Creek bookstore right by the stadium, Turtle Tap

480
00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 3: in nearby bar, the Turtle Township. I mean, the town

481
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:04,719
Speaker 3: is turtle obsessed. So when you kind of completely, uh

482
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:09,920
Speaker 3: take that out of the equation, and and not only

483
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:11,960
Speaker 3: do you kind of take the turtles out of the

484
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,400
Speaker 3: equation in a real in a meaningful way, you give

485
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 3: us these really kind of lazy Wisconsin cliches. Move For example,

486
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 3: you know, like, I've never milked a cow, I've never

487
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:28,240
Speaker 3: shoveled manure, but it almost feels like that's what the

488
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,960
Speaker 3: San Diego marketing company thinks we all do in Wisconsin.

489
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:33,680
Speaker 4: Same with Poka.

490
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 3: It's like an outdated European music, you know, genre that

491
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 3: it doesn't really resonate. Skycarp sounds like skycrap or it

492
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 3: easily could. So it just it just it felt off.

493
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,160
Speaker 3: And that was the inspiration for us starting a petition

494
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 3: which really quickly got thousands and thousands of signatures, and

495
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,320
Speaker 3: that ultimately let us down the road to coming up

496
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 3: with the compromise of the River Rockers.

497
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 1: That's right, and that's kind of how you drew my

498
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 1: attention in the first place. Is this compromise you came

499
00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 1: up with, I guess in your own words from the petition.

500
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: As much as fans have always loved our badass turtle logo,

501
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 1: we think most would probably agree that after twenty five years,

502
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: it was probably due for a modern update. And here

503
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,280
Speaker 1: we have the River Rockers, where in the middle of

504
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 1: all of it you have Snappy, you have that turtle mascot,

505
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: and I mean for people watching on our YouTube channel,

506
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: they can see all this, and if you're visiting this

507
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 1: on fishtraps dot com, they could see some of the

508
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:40,360
Speaker 1: artwork that you and I guess some of your friends

509
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 1: have put together really honestly professional level renditions of what

510
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 1: this rebrand would look like where it still involves Snappy

511
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: and right here, integrating those other names that the firm

512
00:29:53,760 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: has suggested, getting them involved in this animal bands, this

513
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 1: mascot bands, and I mean, there's kind of detail that

514
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,120
Speaker 1: you put into this is just incredible, These little bios

515
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:11,720
Speaker 1: that you put together for the band members, for Skycarp

516
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: and Mister cheese Ball, Poka, Pike, broost Here, and Snappy.

517
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 3: I mean, because what this movement is about is about compromise,

518
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,720
Speaker 3: because we want the same things as the team. We

519
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 3: want the team to be successful, so we're trying to

520
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:27,920
Speaker 3: meet in the middle, you know. So it's like, can

521
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:32,040
Speaker 3: we save Snappy? Can we incorporate the names you've proposed?

522
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 3: Can we come up with some sort of grand solution

523
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:37,600
Speaker 3: here that satisfies the fans by keeping Snappy but also

524
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 3: gives the ownership a lot of new merchandise opportunities. So

525
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 3: that's really the goal. And in addition, I don't think

526
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 3: it can be understated that Rock River Rockers play in

527
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:56,200
Speaker 3: Rock County along the Rock River, So it's just it

528
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:57,479
Speaker 3: all kind of works together.

529
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 1: It certainly does mean this part got the best of all.

530
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 1: These these signatures, these rock star signatures for each of

531
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 1: the characters.

532
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 4: Yeah, this was great.

533
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 3: We had a supporter email these to us, so he

534
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 3: was he he came up with, uh, the snappy one,

535
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:18,080
Speaker 3: which which he called the snappy graph and then I said, hey,

536
00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:19,920
Speaker 3: these are great, can you do the rest? And and

537
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 3: he didn't disappoint, So, uh, really fun and it just

538
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 3: shows where we're a community thing and we're we're taking

539
00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 3: suggestions from from the community and and and all that.

540
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 4: So it's it's been a lot of fun, I mean.

541
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 1: And an alternate logo for the team using a.

542
00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:37,880
Speaker 4: Guitar, Yeah, this was I.

543
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 3: I leveraged some graphic designer friends of mine to help out,

544
00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 3: and uh, it's it's been a real, real collaborative effort.

545
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, logos, putting these mock logos on the head and

546
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: of course nothing is complete without the uniforms themselves. Alternate

547
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 1: uniforms as well.

548
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:56,959
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, we did we we did it all.

549
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 3: We got home whites, alternates, uh, all sorts of fun things.

550
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the level of detail is uh yeah,

551
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,240
Speaker 1: it's pretty incredible.

552
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 4: On all that I did you think so?

553
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think the Marlins players would appreciate it

554
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: as well, because, of course, the Miami Marlins themselves they

555
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 1: rebranded just a couple of years ago. Not I mean,

556
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 1: the name of the team has stayed the same since

557
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, but when in the first full year after

558
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: Jeter took over, entering the twenty nineteenth season, they switched

559
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:34,280
Speaker 1: up their color scheme, feeling that the initial one. I

560
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 1: guess there's some parallels to be drawn between the Marlins

561
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 1: and Beloit, because when the Marlins shifted from Florida to

562
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 1: Miami entering twenty twelve, entering their new ballpark after playing

563
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,280
Speaker 1: in that football stadium for the first couple of decades

564
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 1: of their existence, the rebranding that they did was it

565
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,239
Speaker 1: was un I'm trying to be polite. I guess at

566
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 1: the time people didn't there wasn't as much of an

567
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 1: out cry, but very soon into its existence, it just

568
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: felt so tacky and so lacking in authenticity because what

569
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,680
Speaker 1: they did is they leaned into the fact that Miami

570
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: is a very colorful place, a very exotic place, and

571
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: their solution to that, the way that they wanted to

572
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 1: convey that in the brand was just piling as many

573
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 1: different colors into the brand scheme as possible. I think

574
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 1: at one point they had five actual colors within their

575
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:33,840
Speaker 1: official brand scheme, and the way it blended together it just,

576
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:35,960
Speaker 1: I mean, it didn't work on the field. I guess

577
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:38,080
Speaker 1: that's always the big thing at the major league level,

578
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: where competitiveness is so important, that on the field when

579
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: the team was losing, people start nitpicking about everything. But

580
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:49,479
Speaker 1: it just wasn't authentic to what Miami was. Of course,

581
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 1: as people listening to this, no, the team was being

582
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:56,520
Speaker 1: run by Jeffrey Lauria and his step son who did

583
00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 1: not have any sort of real roots in Miami. They

584
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: were both from New York, original New York, and actually

585
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: I believe his step son, David Simpson, was from Wisconsin.

586
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:09,800
Speaker 1: But either way, that's even probably more detached from actual

587
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:14,920
Speaker 1: Miami values and what the fans wanted themselves. And I

588
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 1: do wonder how long that would have lasted if the

589
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: ownership didn't sell you a few years later. But that

590
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:22,360
Speaker 1: was one of the first orders of business when Derek

591
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: Jeter and Bruce Sherman and their group took over is

592
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 1: switching up the color schemes, actually asking their fans. They

593
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:32,320
Speaker 1: went through this process called Demilo where they actually asked

594
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:36,439
Speaker 1: fans to give specific reasons why they wanted to see

595
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 1: color scheme changes, getting a lot of input, and ultimately

596
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 1: arriving at a solution where the new colors which are

597
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:51,280
Speaker 1: red and Calliante red, Midnight black, Marlin blue, and slate gray.

598
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:53,319
Speaker 1: I believe those are the four now, but actually like

599
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 1: finding some significance in those colors and actually having a

600
00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:01,840
Speaker 1: reason for the font they chose for the combinations they chose.

601
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:06,480
Speaker 1: And I think even now it's not a unanimous approval

602
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,000
Speaker 1: for the rebrand that they did, but that just seemed

603
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: to be maybe like a world of difference into what

604
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:12,759
Speaker 1: they came up with, the fact that they actually got

605
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:14,239
Speaker 1: input from the community about it.

606
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, absolutely, Man, So much goes into a rebrand

607
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:21,320
Speaker 3: like that and and logos, and there's so many opinions

608
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:23,839
Speaker 3: and there's so much passion wrapped up in it. You know,

609
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,680
Speaker 3: there's like the do we go to back to the

610
00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 3: black and teal, do we do something totally new, do

611
00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 3: we like try to honor our history. Somehow, there's so

612
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 3: many opinions, and I don't envy those designers who have

613
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:35,800
Speaker 3: to make those.

614
00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 1: Calls, right, I mean, in the Marlins case, they're still

615
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:42,359
Speaker 1: catching some flag for not incorporating enough teal because teal

616
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:45,359
Speaker 1: was that distinctive color that.

617
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:46,560
Speaker 3: Was like the look of the nineties, that was like

618
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:49,560
Speaker 3: that in the Charlotte Hornets and like a couple other

619
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,720
Speaker 3: just iconic looks from the nineties. I just I personally

620
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 3: love although they I know they could be a little

621
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:56,560
Speaker 3: bit divisive for people, some of them think it's kind

622
00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:57,799
Speaker 3: of tacky or dated.

623
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's there's still some ocase during the season where

624
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:04,240
Speaker 1: they do throwback the Nights, and they've done some teal

625
00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 1: inspired remixes since then that have been very popular. Of Course,

626
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:11,919
Speaker 1: the Marlins did win one champion, they won two championships

627
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 1: during the Florida days, but it was really in the

628
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 1: ninety seventeen that was the team that leaned into the

629
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 1: teal more than any other, And that particular team is

630
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 1: the one that really changed baseball forever in Miami. The

631
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,560
Speaker 1: fact that they won championships so early in their existence,

632
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:31,799
Speaker 1: and so there's still even when you get the rebrand right,

633
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:33,440
Speaker 1: or you feel like you get it right, there's always

634
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:37,720
Speaker 1: going to be voiced opinions about what you could do differently,

635
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,239
Speaker 1: what you still need to do. And I mean, for

636
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:47,240
Speaker 1: the moment, some of that conversation has quieted down. Something

637
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:51,240
Speaker 1: that had been really expected at this point, the fact

638
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:54,319
Speaker 1: that the season upcoming in twenty twenty one won't be

639
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 1: quite as long as what we're used to in minor

640
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:01,319
Speaker 1: league baseball, where I mean traditionally for these all these

641
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,400
Speaker 1: full season affiliates, it's been one hundred and forty games

642
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: per season, and maybe they get all those dates in

643
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:10,360
Speaker 1: this year, but the start date is going to be

644
00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 1: delayed with all the continued decisions that need to be

645
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:19,359
Speaker 1: made about the pandemic and about vaccinations and about how

646
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:23,080
Speaker 1: to get in person attendance and gate revenue back to

647
00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,879
Speaker 1: where it used to be, that the start date for

648
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:30,359
Speaker 1: all minor league levels below Triple A is probably going

649
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: to be in May at the earliest, potentially Memorial Day

650
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: or a little bit after that. In some ways a

651
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 1: bummer that you have to wait longer for actual baseball games.

652
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:46,719
Speaker 1: But I mean, just from my casual research, it does

653
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:51,800
Speaker 1: seem that April in Beloit could be difficult for players

654
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 1: to go through with all the cold, and potentially by

655
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:59,319
Speaker 1: pushing back later into the calendar year, that it'll be

656
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:04,120
Speaker 1: more comfortable environment for players to play in and potentially

657
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:08,160
Speaker 1: for fans to attend. Is that something that actually judged

658
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:12,400
Speaker 1: with the reality that some of those April nights aren't

659
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: going to be missed quite as much as days later

660
00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 1: in the season.

661
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:19,560
Speaker 3: No, Yeah, it's cold. It is cold, and those April

662
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:22,280
Speaker 3: nights can be cold. I recommend stocking up on lots

663
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:26,320
Speaker 3: of River Rockers sweatshirts and jackets if you get the chance,

664
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 3: because yeah, it's it's brutal, So pushing that is one,

665
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,759
Speaker 3: definitely on one benefit of the later starts. For sure,

666
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:35,280
Speaker 3: it's gonna be a lot of a lot warmer.

667
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:40,520
Speaker 1: Yeah. Potentially shifting dates, I mean this is all still

668
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: very preliminary, but based on Baseball America reporting, they could

669
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:48,520
Speaker 1: shift it from May into early October instead of what

670
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 1: is traditionally early April to early September. And I guess

671
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 1: the decision they're also making is no playoff games, which

672
00:38:57,480 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 1: I guess was a big bright spot from the two

673
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,320
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen Minor League season with the Marlins their Midwest

674
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:07,000
Speaker 1: League affiliate in twenty nineteen was the Clinton Lumberkings, and

675
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:10,839
Speaker 1: after the draft, the Marlins did a really good job

676
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:13,160
Speaker 1: in that draft. A lot of the college players they

677
00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 1: selected went straight to the Midwest League and the team

678
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 1: caught fire. It made the postseason, and I believe they

679
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 1: made it all the way into the actual championship series

680
00:39:23,719 --> 00:39:26,760
Speaker 1: for the Midwest League, and that was a bright spot

681
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:28,840
Speaker 1: during a year where the major league team lost one

682
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:31,880
Speaker 1: hundred and five games, being able to actually in September

683
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:33,600
Speaker 1: when the Marlins were ready out of the race, being

684
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:36,400
Speaker 1: able to follow that playoff run. And that seems to

685
00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: be a casualty of this season where they'll have the

686
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:42,840
Speaker 1: regular season running hopefully through late September early October, but

687
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:45,920
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like they'll actually have a playoff environment

688
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 1: to follow. So I mean it's a trade off in

689
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:51,879
Speaker 1: order to just have baseball at all and to get

690
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 1: those players as many reps as possible to make sure

691
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,360
Speaker 1: to make up for a year where so many players

692
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: didn't really get much development time whatsoever. I don't think

693
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 1: we mentioned it in this conversation, but I know that

694
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:08,440
Speaker 1: even though born and raised in Beloit, you are not

695
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:13,319
Speaker 1: based in Beloit anymore out of town, following the team

696
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:15,920
Speaker 1: in must the same situation that I am with the

697
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:20,919
Speaker 1: Marlins falling streaming streaming games and following them that way.

698
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:25,680
Speaker 1: I'm curious what your experience is being able to as

699
00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:28,799
Speaker 1: someone myself that I keep track of Marlin's affiliates using

700
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:32,520
Speaker 1: m i LB TV in streaming games that way. And

701
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:35,799
Speaker 1: one of the frustrations I had with the Midwest League

702
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: last year and with the Marlins affiliate is it was

703
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 1: only a small handful of games over the course of

704
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: the season that were available to be streamed. In your

705
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 1: experience in Beloit, do you know what kind of setup

706
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: they have in terms of actually broadcasting games on TV

707
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:56,239
Speaker 1: or are there any particular road cities that you think

708
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,719
Speaker 1: have been able to do that? Because whether I guess

709
00:40:59,719 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 1: in my cases, I'm a little unique in that I'm

710
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:05,920
Speaker 1: using these primarily to actually scout and evaluate the players themselves,

711
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:09,240
Speaker 1: but even for entertainment purposes, that's gonna be so big

712
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 1: to grow the game for people outside of late What

713
00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:17,799
Speaker 1: can you are what can you tell us about the

714
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:21,399
Speaker 1: setup that they've had in past seasons? H I mean,

715
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 1: hopefully across all of minor league baseball that's going to

716
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:27,040
Speaker 1: be a priority to change moving forward now that they

717
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:30,120
Speaker 1: have MLB's cooperation. But what do you know about what

718
00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 1: this setup has been in recent years on the TVS's.

719
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 3: It's a it's a great question, unfortunate it's gonna be

720
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 3: a really short answer because I truly don't know too

721
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,120
Speaker 3: much about that aspect. My relationship with the team has

722
00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 3: always been live, and I just quite frankly, have never

723
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 3: dove into really understanding or searching for ways to watch

724
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 3: them online. It's just for for better or worse. My

725
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:58,760
Speaker 3: baseball viewing is on TV is always for the majors

726
00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:01,680
Speaker 3: and it's never never been for minor leagues. So that's

727
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 3: that's pretty much I'll have for that one, right.

728
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:09,839
Speaker 1: I've been optimistic that part of this restructuring, the fact

729
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:13,000
Speaker 1: that Major League Baseball is taking more direct step, and

730
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 1: the fact that for all the issues and complaints that

731
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,760
Speaker 1: people have about the league and some of the choices

732
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: they've made, they have been pretty incredible when it comes

733
00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:26,560
Speaker 1: to the quality of the stream. So you've been able

734
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:29,200
Speaker 1: to provide for major league games and even for minor

735
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:31,520
Speaker 1: league games in the past, and now now the fact

736
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: that they have a more direct financial interest in these teams,

737
00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:38,759
Speaker 1: maybe they build out that aspect of the broadcast a

738
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:41,839
Speaker 1: little bit more in order for us to follow them

739
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:44,800
Speaker 1: as closely as possible. One thing I wanted to circle

740
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:46,520
Speaker 1: back to when it comes to the names and the

741
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 1: rebranding is that, even though you've really developed this River

742
00:42:51,239 --> 00:42:56,840
Speaker 1: Rockers idea pretty detailed, if it did come to a

743
00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:01,360
Speaker 1: situation where ownership is has a lot of conviction in

744
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:04,480
Speaker 1: these finalists that they came up with the Cheeseballs, Move,

745
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 1: Poka Pike, skycarp Supper clubvers. Is there any one of

746
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 1: that group that you find more bearable than the others,

747
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:16,799
Speaker 1: that you understanding that they'll be supporting the team regardless

748
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 1: no matter what choice they make it comes to this situation,

749
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:24,520
Speaker 1: which of those five is the least of Yeah?

750
00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:29,600
Speaker 3: So yeah, I can break that down the So there's five.

751
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:34,359
Speaker 3: The two that I find to be personally again I'm

752
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:37,759
Speaker 3: speaking just for myself and no one else. The two

753
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,120
Speaker 3: that I find to be personally the most offensive are

754
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 3: the cheese Balls and the move. Uh and and I'm

755
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:46,239
Speaker 3: gonna break something on this on this podcast. We heard

756
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:50,320
Speaker 3: from a credible source that those names are not in contention,

757
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:54,759
Speaker 3: So that is not a confirmation Uh, but it's it's

758
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:57,520
Speaker 3: a it's a source that we found credible who reported

759
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 3: that to us. So that leaves the poka like sky

760
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:05,359
Speaker 3: Carp and supper clubbers, and I would say I think

761
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:12,480
Speaker 3: the Skycarp probably to me, has the most regional and

762
00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:13,880
Speaker 3: it's kind of the most unique.

763
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:14,520
Speaker 4: Uh.

764
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,439
Speaker 3: There are a lot of geese on the Rock River,

765
00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 3: which is skycarp is a nickname for a geese based

766
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 3: Canadian goose, and there are a lot of those on

767
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:27,200
Speaker 3: the Rock River. Unfortunately, they're kind of known for defecating

768
00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:29,800
Speaker 3: all over the place and it's a real problem in Bloyd,

769
00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:33,399
Speaker 3: so that that has caused for concern. And again, when

770
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:37,320
Speaker 3: you have a name that has skycarp so closely resembles

771
00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:41,440
Speaker 3: the word crap, I feel like that's the problem. Supper clubbers,

772
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of like it, but it's like

773
00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:48,680
Speaker 3: Bloyd has a problem, or excuse me, Baseball a little

774
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:54,440
Speaker 3: bit has a problem with attracting young minority fans. And

775
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:57,279
Speaker 3: when you have a team that's in honor of a

776
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:04,239
Speaker 3: you know, supper club where older white demographics tend to

777
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 3: hang out, I don't know if that necessarily resonates all

778
00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:10,040
Speaker 3: that well, but don't get me wrong. I love supper clubs,

779
00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:14,200
Speaker 3: but yeah, so I don't know. I'd say it's kind

780
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:18,280
Speaker 3: of a tie between skycarp Polka Pike, and supper clubers.

781
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 3: For me, I'd say those are my top three. And yeah,

782
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:21,759
Speaker 3: we'll see what happens.

783
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:25,640
Speaker 1: Right, it could be all this could be a diversion.

784
00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:29,560
Speaker 1: The fact that Marlins fans went through this actually pretty

785
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 1: recently with the Wichita where, of course Marlins had an

786
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:37,680
Speaker 1: affiliate in New Orleans for about eleven years that used

787
00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:39,920
Speaker 1: to be the New Orleans Zeiphers. They rebranded to the

788
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:41,360
Speaker 1: New Orleans baby Cakes.

789
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:44,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, familiar, and it didn't it didn't go too well.

790
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,600
Speaker 1: Nope, Nope. Within a couple of years after the rebrands,

791
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,319
Speaker 1: they picked up the team and they moved to Wichita.

792
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:52,279
Speaker 1: I mean part of that a lot that was tied

793
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:56,080
Speaker 1: to the facilities they did not for Triple A team,

794
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:59,160
Speaker 1: especially the facilities in New Orleans just were not adequate,

795
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:01,880
Speaker 1: and so they were able to actually get public funding

796
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:04,839
Speaker 1: on a new stadium in Wichita to build a new team.

797
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:11,240
Speaker 1: They had this process in which they the initial phase

798
00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:15,399
Speaker 1: was that they got public feedback on suggested names. They

799
00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:19,279
Speaker 1: said reportedly they got upwards of six hundred names that

800
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:22,960
Speaker 1: they took seriously submissions from Wichita as to what to

801
00:46:23,239 --> 00:46:26,920
Speaker 1: rename the team, But instead of acknowledging which of those

802
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:30,319
Speaker 1: submissions were among the finalists, what they did is they

803
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:35,480
Speaker 1: did a rollout every two weeks during the fall preceding

804
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:40,360
Speaker 1: the rebrands, where they showed one of the potential nicknames

805
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:44,600
Speaker 1: along with a logo of that nickname, and then they

806
00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 1: went silence. Two weeks later they came out with a

807
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:52,440
Speaker 1: new logo and a new suggested nickname, and then went silent. Overall,

808
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:55,719
Speaker 1: they came up with six finalists, and all the six

809
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:59,160
Speaker 1: finalists that had some sort of like regional significance. But

810
00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:01,719
Speaker 1: then as we got later into the winter and they

811
00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:05,360
Speaker 1: finally did the big reveal, they landed on Wichita wind Surge,

812
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:07,719
Speaker 1: which was not at all any of the names that

813
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:10,560
Speaker 1: they've been teasing throughout the whole process. So they choose

814
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:13,440
Speaker 1: the names, and I think even when they did those

815
00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:16,480
Speaker 1: finalists and even when they were teasing them and they

816
00:47:16,520 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 1: gave a whole backstory as to what the name would

817
00:47:20,040 --> 00:47:24,440
Speaker 1: be referring to, but then they went in a different

818
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:27,200
Speaker 1: direction the name that they came up with, and in

819
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:31,040
Speaker 1: their case, they collaborated with professional It wasn't a full

820
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 1: brand as I know that they're doing and beloite. It

821
00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:38,080
Speaker 1: was with an individual, Todd Random, who has a long

822
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:43,080
Speaker 1: history when it comes to logo design and rebranding. But

823
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 1: it was the same sort of thing, yeah, where he

824
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:48,120
Speaker 1: was not based in the town itself. You know, he

825
00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:50,200
Speaker 1: did his best to come up with a name and

826
00:47:50,239 --> 00:47:53,600
Speaker 1: a design that reflected the community. But the reception was

827
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:57,720
Speaker 1: probably lukewarm at best in terms of what they final

828
00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:00,600
Speaker 1: decision was. But just throwing that out there, I'm sure

829
00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:03,759
Speaker 1: it's crossed your mind that maybe these finalists aren't real

830
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:06,959
Speaker 1: finalists at all, and maybe it's just something to stir

831
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 1: the pot while we wait.

832
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:11,640
Speaker 3: Our team has considered every possible scenario at this point.

833
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:13,759
Speaker 3: It's kept it's kept us up at night. There's so

834
00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:16,359
Speaker 3: many ways that they could go. We truly don't know.

835
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:20,239
Speaker 3: And unfortunately we used to have We used to be

836
00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:24,720
Speaker 3: in somewhat periodic conversation, uh with the with the owners

837
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,759
Speaker 3: during the initial phase of this, when we're doing our

838
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:31,160
Speaker 3: Save the boyd Snappers campaign and I had a really

839
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:34,040
Speaker 3: great hour long conversation with with Quinn Stutter and and

840
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:38,680
Speaker 3: we send him some presentations and he responded, and but

841
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:41,000
Speaker 3: since then we've gone kind of dark.

842
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:41,719
Speaker 4: Unfortunately.

843
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:46,839
Speaker 3: I'd love to get communication back going with the organization because, yeah,

844
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:49,520
Speaker 3: I would love to know what what potentially is in store.

845
00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:51,759
Speaker 3: I wish I had more insightful things to say, but

846
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:53,560
Speaker 3: I truly don't know. Are they going to go with

847
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 3: these one of these five they mentioned? Are they seriously

848
00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:59,040
Speaker 3: considering our proposal? Are they going to go with the

849
00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 3: Boyd Snappers? Is a new name coming up down the pike?

850
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,120
Speaker 3: Really no idea, but it's gonna be very These next

851
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:07,040
Speaker 3: couple of months are going to be very, very interesting.

852
00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:10,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, for the time being, I can tell you that

853
00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:13,759
Speaker 1: the general Marlins fan is pretty satisfied with the fact

854
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 1: that all their minor league team nicknames have a fishy,

855
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:23,080
Speaker 1: amphibious animal relationship that you know, there's a vague connection

856
00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 1: when it comes to from the bottom of the Jupiter Hammerheads,

857
00:49:26,120 --> 00:49:32,240
Speaker 1: the Beloit Snappers, Pensacola Wahoo's, and now the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp,

858
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 1: who were the John Bo Shrimp and the Hammerheads have

859
00:49:35,600 --> 00:49:38,719
Speaker 1: been part affiliated with the organization for a while now,

860
00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:42,600
Speaker 1: but both Pensacola and Beloit are new and I guess

861
00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 1: just to be clear, and in case we haven't emphasized

862
00:49:44,520 --> 00:49:48,640
Speaker 1: this already, quin stud owns Pensacola as well, and I

863
00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:54,520
Speaker 1: believe it's it's not much of a guest to conclude

864
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:58,279
Speaker 1: that it's not a coincidence that Pensacola and Beloit both

865
00:49:58,360 --> 00:50:04,040
Speaker 1: ended up in the same organization, that potentially that was

866
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:09,440
Speaker 1: intentional in order to just I think that's easiest for

867
00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:13,600
Speaker 1: everybody involved. The fact that the Marlins know exactly who

868
00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:17,000
Speaker 1: they're partnering with and what to expect from their affiliation.

869
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:19,439
Speaker 1: The fact and the fact that just this past year,

870
00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:22,360
Speaker 1: even we didn't have a minor league season yet, I

871
00:50:22,440 --> 00:50:25,959
Speaker 1: know that minor league teams were still busy doing creative things.

872
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:28,920
Speaker 1: And that's especially true for Pensacola, which was named by

873
00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:31,719
Speaker 1: Baseball America as the Minor League organization of the Year

874
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:34,480
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty. With some of the unique events and

875
00:50:34,600 --> 00:50:37,839
Speaker 1: philanthropy that they did during this year that was taken off.

876
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 1: So it's on both accounts, both Lloyd and Pensacola, it's

877
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:45,520
Speaker 1: those are really good additions for where the Marlins are

878
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:48,920
Speaker 1: open to go with their player development. We've referred to

879
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:52,200
Speaker 1: the petition that you have going save Snappy that as

880
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 1: of this recording, over thirty five hundred signatures out of

881
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:58,520
Speaker 1: a five thousand signature goal. So I hope this pod

882
00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 1: helps you get towards the finish line when it comes

883
00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:04,400
Speaker 1: to that, even just a little bit. Especially for people

884
00:51:04,440 --> 00:51:08,359
Speaker 1: that had no opinion on this subject before listening, I'm

885
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:11,359
Speaker 1: sure this will help sway them just a little bit.

886
00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:14,280
Speaker 3: It's also a great place to go for your listeners.

887
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:16,279
Speaker 3: They don't even have to sign the petition, but you

888
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:18,080
Speaker 3: can just go there and read all the updates because

889
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:21,320
Speaker 3: we post all our periodic updates, maybe every couple of

890
00:51:21,360 --> 00:51:23,920
Speaker 3: days or so, so it's a place you can go

891
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:25,800
Speaker 3: and read everything you want to know about the Boite

892
00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:29,239
Speaker 3: River river Rockers movement and more. Just go to save

893
00:51:29,320 --> 00:51:31,759
Speaker 3: Snappy petition on change that Org and then select the

894
00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:34,520
Speaker 3: updates tab and boom, it's all there for you.

895
00:51:35,640 --> 00:51:36,080
Speaker 1: Perfect.

896
00:51:36,920 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 4: Yeah.

897
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:40,080
Speaker 1: We'll have that link of course in the podcast description.

898
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:43,720
Speaker 1: If you're seeing this on our article at fishtrips dot com,

899
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:47,080
Speaker 1: you'll be there as well. Any place else that you

900
00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 1: want people to follow you for updates, either for the

901
00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:54,200
Speaker 1: rest of this rebranding process or during the season. What's

902
00:51:54,200 --> 00:51:55,280
Speaker 1: the best place for people.

903
00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:58,240
Speaker 3: To follow on the best place is our Facebook and Twitter,

904
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:02,319
Speaker 3: which you can follow at Beloite Rockers for both, and

905
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:04,080
Speaker 3: we have I think we have a really really fun

906
00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:09,799
Speaker 3: social presence. We're constantly pumping out uh concept uniforms to

907
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 3: consider as you as you alluded to earlier, we have

908
00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 3: UH we're getting endorsements from community leaders and we are

909
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:24,920
Speaker 3: getting UH we post fun merchandise, ideas and things to consider.

910
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:29,320
Speaker 3: We're constantly engaging with fellow you know, bloggers such as yourself,

911
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,239
Speaker 3: such as others, and it's just it's just it's a

912
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:34,719
Speaker 3: real fun feed, so very interactive and when we we

913
00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:38,279
Speaker 3: we communicate a lot with with with our supporters.

914
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:41,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty consistent with memes as well, editing.

915
00:52:41,800 --> 00:52:48,480
Speaker 3: Yeah whatever, we got memes, we got videos, alternate logos,

916
00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:51,640
Speaker 3: we have. It's a it's a lot, and we're having

917
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:54,160
Speaker 3: a good time with it. And we hope the ownership

918
00:52:54,400 --> 00:52:56,919
Speaker 3: is UH is taking notice of this movement we got

919
00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:59,239
Speaker 3: building and we hope they we hope they give us

920
00:52:59,239 --> 00:52:59,840
Speaker 3: a fair shot.

921
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:04,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean it's I can't overstate like how

922
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:08,960
Speaker 1: important this affiliation is. The fact that being at the

923
00:53:09,040 --> 00:53:11,959
Speaker 1: high A level is traditionally a level in minor league

924
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:15,439
Speaker 1: baseball where every single prospect goes there on their way

925
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:20,560
Speaker 1: to the majors. Everybody from I mean, famously, in recent years,

926
00:53:20,600 --> 00:53:23,360
Speaker 1: Juan Soto played about two games at High A before

927
00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:27,080
Speaker 1: he was promoted directly to the majors. But in most cases,

928
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:31,080
Speaker 1: the Marlins, for example, in twenty nineteen, of their top

929
00:53:31,360 --> 00:53:34,160
Speaker 1: draft pick JJ Bladay, they made the bold decision to

930
00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:36,719
Speaker 1: start him to start his professional career at the High

931
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:39,680
Speaker 1: A level. But even that was like a pretty big

932
00:53:39,719 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 1: anomaly where in most cases they start slightly under that

933
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:45,840
Speaker 1: and then work their way up to High A before

934
00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:50,239
Speaker 1: being seriously considered for a major league promotion. Everybody is

935
00:53:50,239 --> 00:53:53,360
Speaker 1: going to be passing through that, And I mean, this

936
00:53:53,440 --> 00:53:55,959
Speaker 1: is this is something we've been speculating about a lot

937
00:53:56,080 --> 00:53:58,560
Speaker 1: on fish drips now that's been so long without minor

938
00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:02,600
Speaker 1: league baseball, where exactly these players are going to be deployed.

939
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:05,319
Speaker 1: And I mean, the best that we could come up

940
00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:08,399
Speaker 1: with this from my friend Daniel to Vivo, who hosts

941
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:12,840
Speaker 1: his own Marlins related podcast, Swimming Upstream, he thinks a

942
00:54:12,920 --> 00:54:15,080
Speaker 1: number of the draft picks from twenty twenty are going

943
00:54:15,160 --> 00:54:18,040
Speaker 1: to end up in Beloit for most of the twenty

944
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:22,160
Speaker 1: twenty one season. Kyle Nicholas Zach mccambley, Jake Eaeder. These

945
00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:25,640
Speaker 1: are all starting pitchers that could be really fast movers

946
00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:29,440
Speaker 1: through the organization after pitching in college. And you'll learn

947
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:32,279
Speaker 1: pretty quickly with the Marlins that at this point in

948
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:36,000
Speaker 1: their history, they are stacked when it comes to outfielders

949
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:39,600
Speaker 1: at every level of the organization. They have outfielders with

950
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:43,880
Speaker 1: incredible tools, and especially at the light. We think a

951
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:45,719
Speaker 1: lot of their power hitters are going to go there.

952
00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:51,360
Speaker 1: Peyden Verdict who had an incredible twenty nineteen season, Connor

953
00:54:51,400 --> 00:54:53,840
Speaker 1: Scott who is a former first round pick in twenty eighteen,

954
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:59,440
Speaker 1: Cameron Meisner also from twenty nineteen draft, and Griffin Conine

955
00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:01,440
Speaker 1: is the guy that that we're very excited about. He

956
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:03,880
Speaker 1: is the son of Jeff Conine.

957
00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:07,360
Speaker 4: Yeah, mister Marlin, I was about to say, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.

958
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:10,040
Speaker 1: He was drafted originally by the Blue Jays, but just

959
00:55:10,040 --> 00:55:11,759
Speaker 1: this past summer the Marlins kind of went out of

960
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:14,680
Speaker 1: their way to trade for him. And he's someone that

961
00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:17,360
Speaker 1: he was in the Midwest League in twenty nineteen, he

962
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:19,160
Speaker 1: was right up there among the home run leaders in

963
00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:21,160
Speaker 1: the league. But he still has some holes in his

964
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:23,160
Speaker 1: game that they'll want to work out and see exactly

965
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:24,920
Speaker 1: where he goes. So those are some of the guys

966
00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:28,760
Speaker 1: that I know Daniel is projecting to potentially either start

967
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:31,360
Speaker 1: there or at least spend the majority of their season

968
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:34,959
Speaker 1: in Polite. And I mean it's at a point where,

969
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:37,239
Speaker 1: not just now, where the Marlins have one of the

970
00:55:37,239 --> 00:55:39,800
Speaker 1: better farm systems in baseball, but that's going to be

971
00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:44,719
Speaker 1: a priority for in perpetuity because being knowing that there

972
00:55:44,719 --> 00:55:47,399
Speaker 1: are some sort of budget constrictions at the highest level,

973
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:50,479
Speaker 1: there's always going to be limited a number of free

974
00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:53,120
Speaker 1: agents that they can bring in that they're relying so

975
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:56,000
Speaker 1: much on homegrown players to actually rise all the way

976
00:55:56,040 --> 00:55:59,040
Speaker 1: up through their system and become core players at the

977
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:02,160
Speaker 1: major league goubles. If you want to see them first,

978
00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:05,160
Speaker 1: in most cases, you'll want to go down to the

979
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:07,960
Speaker 1: Lake yourself and actually get a front row seat. With

980
00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:11,319
Speaker 1: that continued question, as we said earlier about how many

981
00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:13,440
Speaker 1: of their games are actually going to be available to

982
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:16,799
Speaker 1: watch on TV, that to get the best look at them,

983
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:19,880
Speaker 1: you might as well show up to ABC Supply Stadium

984
00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:23,000
Speaker 1: and get that view perspective of it.

985
00:56:23,640 --> 00:56:26,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's going to be an awesome experience and hopefully

986
00:56:26,520 --> 00:56:28,920
Speaker 3: if the team goes forward with our idea, it's going

987
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:30,480
Speaker 3: to be a rock concert atmosphere.

988
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:32,640
Speaker 4: While you're there. There's going to be in game DJs.

989
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:33,480
Speaker 4: There's going to be.

990
00:56:35,160 --> 00:56:38,439
Speaker 3: A rock band, Snappy's rock band, jamming and right field,

991
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:40,279
Speaker 3: and when there's home runs, they're going to be walking

992
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:42,520
Speaker 3: around signing autographs for the kids. It's going to be

993
00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:46,320
Speaker 3: We just want it to be just an absolutely fun atmosphere.

994
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:49,640
Speaker 3: And you you rattling off all those players that they

995
00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:53,520
Speaker 3: have coming up. It's so exciting to think about because

996
00:56:53,560 --> 00:56:57,799
Speaker 3: I've heard, you know, first hand, or or I've read about,

997
00:56:57,880 --> 00:57:01,080
Speaker 3: I should say, how incredible the Marlin's farm system is.

998
00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:03,920
Speaker 3: So the high degree of talent that the fans are

999
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:08,759
Speaker 3: going to see. Combine that with an incredible in game experience. Man,

1000
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:12,120
Speaker 3: that could be awesome for both ownership and fans.

1001
00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:16,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, best case scenario, we might be four months away

1002
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:18,720
Speaker 1: from that starting. Maybe it's a little bit more than that.

1003
00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:21,320
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a year away. I mean, some of this

1004
00:57:21,440 --> 00:57:24,320
Speaker 1: being out of our hands with COVID nineteen.

1005
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:26,200
Speaker 4: I know that's the big buzzkill. Yeah.

1006
00:57:26,320 --> 00:57:28,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, all you can do, you can.

1007
00:57:29,840 --> 00:57:33,160
Speaker 3: The waiting is the hardest part, as Tom Petty said,

1008
00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:37,760
Speaker 3: and just the uncertainty. It's just so unfortunate. I hate

1009
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:38,760
Speaker 3: that piece of it.

1010
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:43,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, but whenever we get through this, Blloyd seems totally

1011
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:46,320
Speaker 1: prepared to really knock it down a park and put

1012
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:47,360
Speaker 1: on a great experience.

1013
00:57:47,440 --> 00:57:49,760
Speaker 3: We're ready to rock and roll.

1014
00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:52,440
Speaker 4: To he use a very very corny shameless plug.

1015
00:57:52,200 --> 00:57:56,760
Speaker 1: There, everybody listening, make sure to sign the petition, the

1016
00:57:56,840 --> 00:58:01,240
Speaker 1: Save Snappy petition and just incredible site here from Ben

1017
00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:04,560
Speaker 1: Wikins about where the team has been, where it is now,

1018
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:08,400
Speaker 1: where it's going. And yeah, we're just getting anxious to

1019
00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:11,240
Speaker 1: see it all starting up. I know, even busy with

1020
00:58:11,480 --> 00:58:15,720
Speaker 1: spreading the word about this movement, this resistance and but

1021
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:18,160
Speaker 1: but all it's all in good fun. And that's kind

1022
00:58:18,160 --> 00:58:20,480
Speaker 1: of what drew me to it in the first place, is.

1023
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:23,520
Speaker 3: That it definitely is. And that's I'm glad you brought

1024
00:58:23,560 --> 00:58:25,480
Speaker 3: that up, because that's like a big misconception. I want

1025
00:58:25,520 --> 00:58:27,400
Speaker 3: to just briefly touch on that we are not at

1026
00:58:27,480 --> 00:58:29,960
Speaker 3: odds with the Bloyd Snappers organization, nor are we at

1027
00:58:29,960 --> 00:58:33,439
Speaker 3: odds with Quinn Sutter. In fact, we're extraordinarily appreciative of him,

1028
00:58:33,840 --> 00:58:36,360
Speaker 3: and uh, I just I can't say that enough. I

1029
00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:38,680
Speaker 3: say it in every interview I say that every chance

1030
00:58:38,720 --> 00:58:41,600
Speaker 3: I get. Mister Suitor, if you're listening, thank you on

1031
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:44,600
Speaker 3: behalf of the entire boy community for saving baseball in Bloy,

1032
00:58:44,680 --> 00:58:47,800
Speaker 3: because without you, it'd be gone and we will never

1033
00:58:47,840 --> 00:58:50,800
Speaker 3: forget that. The only thing we're trying to do is

1034
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:54,200
Speaker 3: help this team. Basically just stick the landing. We think

1035
00:58:54,240 --> 00:58:57,760
Speaker 3: we have a better proposal that is receiving one hundred

1036
00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:01,760
Speaker 3: percent support from the community, It has regional significance, it

1037
00:59:01,800 --> 00:59:06,720
Speaker 3: has merchandise opportunities, and is it could be a killer

1038
00:59:06,800 --> 00:59:09,360
Speaker 3: idea very unique to minor league baseball. There's not too

1039
00:59:09,360 --> 00:59:11,440
Speaker 3: many rock bands in minor league baseball that I know of,

1040
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:14,720
Speaker 3: So let's let's make this happen and let's have just

1041
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:18,240
Speaker 3: an awesome, awesome next ten years and employed.

1042
00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 1: Ready to rock out as as as soon as conditions

1043
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:27,760
Speaker 1: allow for it. Is Eli Stussman with Ben Witkins. Check

1044
00:59:27,760 --> 00:59:30,400
Speaker 1: out fish stripes dot com specifically our minor league coverage

1045
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:34,200
Speaker 1: fish stripes dot com, slash prospects and people that follow

1046
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:38,040
Speaker 1: us on Twitter, you know, always tweeting out them updates

1047
00:59:38,080 --> 00:59:41,120
Speaker 1: on these prospects highlights whenever I can find them. So

1048
00:59:41,280 --> 00:59:45,680
Speaker 1: at fish Stripes on on Twitter, on Facebook, Instagram, and

1049
00:59:45,920 --> 00:59:47,680
Speaker 1: on YouTube. We're gonna be trying to use a lot

1050
00:59:47,720 --> 00:59:49,720
Speaker 1: more YouTube this year than ever before as well, so

1051
00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:53,000
Speaker 1: subscribe to us over there and turn on notifications. Thanks

1052
00:59:53,040 --> 00:59:59,880
Speaker 1: so much for listening. See you next time. Go fish

1053
01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:03,000
Speaker 1: I expected

1054
01:00:04,600 --> 01:00:12,120
Speaker 2: Effected, apted, defected,