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Speaker 1: Hey, Marlins fans, Welcome to a new edition of Big

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Speaker 1: Fish Small Pod for Wednesday, May fifteenth, here on the

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Speaker 1: Fish on First Podcast Channel, presented by MPT College Consulting.

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Speaker 1: I'm Eli Sussman. As this game was going on on

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Speaker 1: Tuesday night with Ryan Weathers dealing, I knew about halfway

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Speaker 1: through that I would have to do a pod reacting

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Speaker 1: to it. It was easily the best starting pitching performance

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Speaker 1: by a Marlins pitcher so far in twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: and even though it was unique in several regards, it

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Speaker 1: also was extremely familiar to me. I'll explain why. The

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Speaker 1: final line for Weathers eight scoreless endings against the Detroit Tigers,

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Speaker 1: three hits, no runs, no walks, four strikeouts, ninety seven pitches,

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Speaker 1: sixty five of them for strikes. No Marlin's starter had

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Speaker 1: recorded or even gone out to pitch this seventh ending

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Speaker 1: at all during this season until Weathers just did it

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Speaker 1: right here and more more than a quarter the way

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Speaker 1: through this season. This was such an outlier in terms

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Speaker 1: of the both effectiveness and the efficiency, the ability to

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Speaker 1: go deep into a game the way that he did

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Speaker 1: and not exactly out of nowhere. For Weathers very quietly

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Speaker 1: he has had. I would say this is his third

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Speaker 1: straight great start. Even though the final lines the previous

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Speaker 1: couple of times didn't necessarily reflect that this was like

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Speaker 1: a natural step in his progression moving forward. It was

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Speaker 1: also very unusual. It was not, by any means a

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Speaker 1: dominant outing. I would not say it was a phenomenal outing.

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Speaker 1: You can use a lot of high praise for it,

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Speaker 1: Let's not confuse it with a dominance that kind of

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Speaker 1: pitcher controlled, overpowering performance. As I noted, just four strikeouts,

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Speaker 1: a ton of ground balls for Ryan Weathers in this game,

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Speaker 1: a ground ball rate of sixty eight point two percent

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Speaker 1: for somebody that entered this game at about forty five

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Speaker 1: percent ground balls this season, and he's somebody that, including

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Speaker 1: this start, he leads to Marlins pitching staff in strikeouts

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Speaker 1: this year. We've seen games where he has been overpowering

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Speaker 1: with his swing and miss stuff, including a double digit

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Speaker 1: strikeout game just a few weeks ago. And yet in

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Speaker 1: this one, only five swinging strikes out of fifty two swings.

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Speaker 1: That is alarmingly low. Without even diving into it, I

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Speaker 1: can assure you that is the lowest whiff rate that

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Speaker 1: he's had in any outing. This year, and yet his

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Speaker 1: most successful one against the Tigers. What's it out to

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Speaker 1: me is that the Tigers loaded up their lineup with

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Speaker 1: about as many right handed hitters as possible. The only

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Speaker 1: lefty in there was their star outfielder Riley Green, who

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Speaker 1: DHD in this one. Everybody else was either a right

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Speaker 1: handed batter exclusively or a switch hitter with Weathers and

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Speaker 1: may have gone under the radar actually how large his

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Speaker 1: platoons What's had been entering this outing about a four

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Speaker 1: hundred gap ops between righty's and lefties. He's been able

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Speaker 1: to miss a lot more bats against lefties this year, unsurprisingly,

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Speaker 1: and this was I'd say, I think the only time

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Speaker 1: this year where he's had to deal with this many

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Speaker 1: opposite handed hitters, and yet over and over and over

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Speaker 1: again he got them to roll over hate ground balls

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Speaker 1: to the left side. In particular, Tristan Gray extremely busy

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Speaker 1: at third base, making a ton of throws across the diamond.

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Speaker 1: Eight assists for Tristan Gray on this night. He was

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Speaker 1: kept extremely busy with Weathers, pitching fastball velocity right where

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Speaker 1: we come to expect it in the mid nineties, topping

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Speaker 1: out at ninety eight, averaging with his vorce hemer in

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Speaker 1: ninety six point four, plenty of sweepers he mixed in

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Speaker 1: and plenty of changeups. Those are his two main putaway

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Speaker 1: pitches so far this year, and yet in this particular

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Speaker 1: game they didn't really put away that many batters. But

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Speaker 1: ultimately what matters is throwing up zeros getting through ennings efficiently.

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Speaker 1: He's somebody that probably could have gone out for the

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Speaker 1: ninth ending under different circumstances. Of course, on the other

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Speaker 1: side of this game, Reese Olsen of the Tigers was

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Speaker 1: equally effective, almost an identical final line for Olsen in

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Speaker 1: this one, except with a couple more strikeouts than even

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Speaker 1: Weather's head, and so because of that, Marlin's understandably go

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Speaker 1: to Tanner Scott in the ninth ding with the game

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Speaker 1: still scoreless entering the ninth ending, and they ended up

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Speaker 1: pulling it out and winning an extra endings. As I

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Speaker 1: teased a couple of minutes ago, the reason why this

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Speaker 1: felt so familiar despite being so unmatched by any other

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Speaker 1: Marlins pitcher this season, is that had a lot of

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Speaker 1: traits of a Sandy al Contra start. Sandy, of course,

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Speaker 1: the most recent Marlins pitcher to give eight innings in

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Speaker 1: a single start. Even last year when he didn't perform

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Speaker 1: up to his usual standards in terms of run prevention,

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Speaker 1: he would still go deep into games, having several of

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Speaker 1: those outings where he ate up those innings, even a

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Speaker 1: couple were they were scoreless as well, and he did

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Speaker 1: it on those days for the most part. Those would

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Speaker 1: be the days when he also had lower than usual

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Speaker 1: strikeout numbers. For him, when he wasn't necessarily going for

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Speaker 1: swings and misses, he is prioritizing soft contact ground ball contact.

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Speaker 1: Sandy has made it a tradition throughout his career to

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Speaker 1: get a lot of ground ground balls, and with weathers,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is relatively new. He has not had

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Speaker 1: any particularly high ground ball tendencies during his career or

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Speaker 1: even this season coming into this outing, and he made

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Speaker 1: that interesting strategic approach in this one in order to

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Speaker 1: get those grounders and to get quick outs. This is

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Speaker 1: a Marlins infield defense that has not performed well this year.

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Speaker 1: There have been other games where ground ball heavy performances

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Speaker 1: have backfired for those pitchers and they've not been rewarded

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Speaker 1: forgetting what should be really makeable ows. But in this one,

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Speaker 1: whethers did a good job at exactly that. I think

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Speaker 1: it was that broke up a perfect game in the

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Speaker 1: sixth ending. It was a ground under that was just

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Speaker 1: out of the reach of Josh Bell at first base.

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Speaker 1: So maybe if there is a more agile first baseman there,

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Speaker 1: that Weather's perfect game bid it goes a little longer

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Speaker 1: than it actually did. But the combination of being really

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Speaker 1: efficient getting that soft contact. Overall, I think there were

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Speaker 1: only two hard hit balls that were not on the

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Speaker 1: ground against Weathers, meaning balls ninety five miles prour or

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Speaker 1: more exit velocity. All the other ones were on the

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Speaker 1: ground and that made them easily makeable plays. He used

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Speaker 1: his change up. It is that kind of pitch that,

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Speaker 1: especially against righties, he usually leans on it to get

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Speaker 1: those strikeouts. Instead, he used it a lot early in

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Speaker 1: the count in this one to get some of those

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Speaker 1: off balanced swings and guys weren't expecting it. It was

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Speaker 1: not by design to get as few swinging strikes as

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Speaker 1: Weathers did, but he made it work for him all

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Speaker 1: things considered, with the way that he was mixing up

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Speaker 1: his pitches that he was attacking the zone, and to

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Speaker 1: be honest, his command was not especially precise either. Yet

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Speaker 1: another Sandy al contra comparison, where there are times where

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Speaker 1: simply having control is can be just as important as

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Speaker 1: your command. That throwing strikes and getting ahead in the

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Speaker 1: count could be just as important as actually dotting the corners.

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Speaker 1: So in this one, Weather's for the most part, you know,

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Speaker 1: not necessarily hitting his spots precisely, but he was around

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Speaker 1: the zone. He was getting himself into advantageous counts, leading

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Speaker 1: to a lot of those desirable outcomes on balls and

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Speaker 1: play for him. He's not going to be Sandy the

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Speaker 1: rest of the season, not every time out, but as

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Speaker 1: I mentioned, the last couple starts entering this one, we're

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Speaker 1: also encouraging in my opinion overall, Now the last three

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Speaker 1: starts combined for Ryan Weathers, he has issued one walk

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Speaker 1: in twenty innings during that span. In his walk rate

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Speaker 1: this season, if you include Tonight's performance significantly better than

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Speaker 1: his career norms, and when he's also avoiding getting the

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Speaker 1: ball barreled, it's encouraging. Yet Another way that ties in

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Speaker 1: a little bit to what Sandy does is the differential

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Speaker 1: now between his era and his FIP. Entering this game,

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Speaker 1: there was a half run difference between them, and including

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Speaker 1: this one. It's now about three quarters of a run

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Speaker 1: three to eight to one. Ra for whether it's through

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Speaker 1: his first nine starts a fip A four point five seven.

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Speaker 1: Haven't watched him pitch a lot this season. I am

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Speaker 1: more of a believer in that run prevention number than

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Speaker 1: I am the underlying stuff. He has made really encouraging

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Speaker 1: strides with his pitch ability this year, now having four

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Speaker 1: pitches that he trusts quite a bit in his four seemer,

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Speaker 1: his sinker, his change up, and his sweeper. All of

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Speaker 1: them got pretty significant use in this adding against the Tigers,

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Speaker 1: so that has been really encouraging development. I remind people

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Speaker 1: for a relatively overlooked trade at last year's deadline that

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Speaker 1: didn't make much of a difference at all from the

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Speaker 1: Marlins in qualifying for the twenty twenty three postseason. But

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Speaker 1: he has impressed ever since spring training. Made that opening

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Speaker 1: day rotation. He is stuck in that rotation, and I

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Speaker 1: think it goes without saying that he's has that spot

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Speaker 1: locked down in this rotation for the foreseeable future, and

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Speaker 1: comfortably at that one of the top three guys in

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Speaker 1: this rotation for the near term, along with hayesiuse Zardo

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Speaker 1: and Braxton Garrett. So congratulations to Ryan Weathers. Even though

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Speaker 1: he has to settle for a no decision here due

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Speaker 1: to the inept Marlins offense, the team itself pulls out

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Speaker 1: a win, improving if we want to say so, to

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Speaker 1: twelve and thirty two on the season, and I'll continue

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Speaker 1: to be really infatuated with where Weathers goes from here

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Speaker 1: because he continues to get a little bit better. I

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Speaker 1: don't think it's premature to think that on a team

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Speaker 1: that just like every other, needs one All Star at

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Speaker 1: some point to represent them at the Summer Classic, it's

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Speaker 1: not outside the realm of possibility that Weathers could make

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Speaker 1: the case with the fact that he's been available in

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Speaker 1: that he continues to trends in a positive direction as

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Speaker 1: this season goes on. I've been Eli's husband for the

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Speaker 1: small pod here on the fish on First podcast channel,

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

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Speaker 1: dot com to learn more about their services and schedule

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Speaker 1: a free consultation. Go Fish