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Speaker 1: And then if you're the Red Sox, you go out

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Speaker 1: and sign Blake Sneller, Mike's freed, you do some other

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Speaker 1: things as well, and bingo, you are back in business.

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Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory, and

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Speaker 1: believe it or not, we have an actual free agent signing,

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Speaker 1: a significant one, not one of these one year, two

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Speaker 1: and a half million dollar kind of deals. On Monday morning,

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Speaker 1: John Haymen the first to report that the Angels are

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Speaker 1: in agreement with yuse Kakuchi, left handed pitcher, on a

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Speaker 1: three year, sixty three million dollar deal. This qualifies as

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Speaker 1: something of a surprise, not with the number that was

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Speaker 1: exactly what Tim Britton of The Athletic projected, three years,

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Speaker 1: sixty three million, but the team. So one obvious question

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Speaker 1: is what are the Angels doing. We're going to get

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Speaker 1: to that, and we're going to get to some other

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Speaker 1: things as well on this show. The Atlanta Braves what

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Speaker 1: they're doing cost cutting. The Red Sox one of the

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Speaker 1: most intriguing teams out there right now this offseason. But

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Speaker 1: let's start with Kokuchi because he is a fascinating case

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Speaker 1: study in how a player can rebuild his value rather quickly.

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Speaker 1: If you remember Kokuchi in his first twenty two starts

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Speaker 1: with the Blue Jays this season four point seventy five er,

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Speaker 1: he gets traded to Houston, and what happens. Houston fixes

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Speaker 1: him like they do with so many pitchers two point

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Speaker 1: seven zero era. In his final ten starts, he doubled

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Speaker 1: the use of his slider, reduced the use of his

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Speaker 1: four seamer, and basically ditched his curveball, became a different pitcher,

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Speaker 1: and now he ends up with another really good free

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Speaker 1: agent contract with the Angels. It's a fascinating situation. They believe,

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Speaker 1: even though they finished last place in the AL West

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Speaker 1: last year, six games behind the A's, even though they

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Speaker 1: were that bad, that they are a team that can

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Speaker 1: actually make up some ground this season. Obviously it would

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Speaker 1: take Mike Trout being healthy, but they've done some things

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Speaker 1: this offseason to kind of reinforce what they have and

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Speaker 1: what they like about their team. Is this emerging young core,

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Speaker 1: Zach Netto, Noan, Shanuel, Ben Joyce, some other players as well.

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Speaker 1: Logan O Hoppi of course would be in that mix.

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Speaker 1: They still have some holes. They're going to likely address

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Speaker 1: those holes, but let's look at what they've done thus

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Speaker 1: far this offseason because they have easily been the most

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Speaker 1: aggressive team out there, trying again to take a step forward.

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Speaker 1: You see the Kakuchi deal three years sixty three, Travis

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Speaker 1: Darnault after the Braves declined his option, two years twelve million,

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Speaker 1: Kyle Hendricks, we'll see what he has left, one year

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Speaker 1: two point five million, Kevin Newman, the infielder, one year

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Speaker 1: two point five million, and the trade for Jorge Solaire

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Speaker 1: who is owed two years twenty six million. What do

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Speaker 1: all these guys have in common, Well, if you want

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Speaker 1: to generalize, they're all in their thirties, and they're all considered,

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Speaker 1: for the most part, high character types, every one of

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Speaker 1: those players, and the Angels are trying to change their culture.

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Speaker 1: I wrote about this today my notes Calm. This has

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Speaker 1: been something that they've been trying to do, starting with

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Speaker 1: the hiring of Ron Washington, kind of change up the

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Speaker 1: whole mix. And they non tendered Patrick Sandoval on Friday,

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Speaker 1: kind of a questionable move. He's a guy coming off

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Speaker 1: Tommy John surgery, probably won't pitch this year, but they

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Speaker 1: had him under control for twenty six and yet they

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Speaker 1: decided that wasn't worth the risk. Obviously they plowed the

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Speaker 1: money into Kokuchi, a better use of the money considering

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Speaker 1: the Kokuchi is healthy. But Sandoval is the latest of

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Speaker 1: a number of Angels players developed by the team that

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Speaker 1: they've let go. They're kind of just bringing in a

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Speaker 1: new wave here, new young talent and new veteran talent.

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Speaker 1: Where it all goes, we'll find out. The Angels are

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Speaker 1: a team where it seems like they're either spinning their

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Speaker 1: wheels or trying something different every year and again. So

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Speaker 1: much will depend on Trout to a lesser extent, Anthony Rendon.

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Speaker 1: I don't know that the Angels are counting on him.

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Speaker 1: They still have their needs starting pitcher, perhaps another one,

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Speaker 1: and for sure second or third base, depending on where

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Speaker 1: they want to play Luis Renhifo. So the Angels can't

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Speaker 1: be done. It's always interesting to see how Artie Marino

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Speaker 1: approaches each offseason as the owner. This one he seems

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Speaker 1: to be inclined to spend other off seasons not so

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Speaker 1: much now. The Kukuchi deal is in line with the

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Speaker 1: Angel's general philosophy of not giving long term deals to

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Speaker 1: starting pitchers. They generally don't go beyond three years, and

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Speaker 1: yet this is the most expensive deal that the GM

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Speaker 1: Perrimansian has signed since taking over that position a few

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Speaker 1: years back. So the Angels seemingly are back in the

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Speaker 1: mix here to what end, well, no one seems to know.

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Speaker 1: We will not know until we see them play. And again,

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Speaker 1: with the Angels, it's a question of are you going

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Speaker 1: forward or are you spinning your wheels? All right now,

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about another team on the opposite coast,

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Speaker 1: another team I wrote about this morning in The Athletic,

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Speaker 1: the Atlanta Braves. The Braves to this point have taken

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Speaker 1: quite a different approach than the Angels have. They've been

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Speaker 1: cutting costs. They've been reducing salary, trying to trim down

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Speaker 1: their payroll in anticipation of doing some other things. So

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Speaker 1: the Braves are in a funny spot right now because

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Speaker 1: they had some unexpected things happen. One, Ronald Akunyer Junior

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Speaker 1: and Spencer Strider are likely not going to start the

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Speaker 1: season with the team. In fact, not even likely. It's

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Speaker 1: not going to happen with those two guys. They will

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Speaker 1: not be on the opening day roster. In addition, they're

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Speaker 1: setup man Joe Jimenez. He's a guy who might be

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Speaker 1: out for the entire season. So they've got these holes here,

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Speaker 1: an outfielder, a starting pitcher, and a setup man. They've

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Speaker 1: got to address these holes and do it in what

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Speaker 1: they believe is a responsible way. So let's look at

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Speaker 1: what they've done so far, because these moves have been

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Speaker 1: rather telling in terms of where they are going, at

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Speaker 1: least to this point. They're going to build up again.

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Speaker 1: But here's what they've done so far. Traded so Lair

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Speaker 1: to the Angels. We talked about that, that saved them

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Speaker 1: twenty six million over two years. They restructured Rinaldo La

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Speaker 1: Lopez and Aaron Bummer's contracts. The Lopez restructuring essentially save

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Speaker 1: them three million this season. Bummer as well save them

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Speaker 1: some money this season. They're trying to reduce that twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five number decline. Travis Darnault's eight million dollar option

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Speaker 1: winds up signing with the Angels. That's in everyone, it seems,

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Speaker 1: and then the non tenders of Loriano and Canning. The

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Speaker 1: Braves are a team that has exceeded the luxury tax

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Speaker 1: threshold two straight years. Probably don't want to do it

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Speaker 1: three straight years. Teams never want to go over over

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Speaker 1: over it again. But at the same time, they're not

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Speaker 1: all that far below the threshold. Fangrafts has them at

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Speaker 1: about two hundred and fourteen million in luxury tax payroll

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Speaker 1: right now. The threshold this year will be two hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty one million. That leaves them twenty seven million

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Speaker 1: to play with. It's going to be difficult for them

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Speaker 1: to get under in my opinion, if they're going to

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Speaker 1: sign quality players, and it certainly looks like they're going

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Speaker 1: to sign one significant starting pitcher, they have to Stryder

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Speaker 1: will not be ready to start the season. Freed could

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Speaker 1: be gone, Morton might retire. They have at least one

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Speaker 1: hole in that rotation. So they're an interesting club. They

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Speaker 1: are a club that is going to do some things.

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Speaker 1: We know that Alexanthropolis will certainly scan the outfield market

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Speaker 1: try to come up with some pieces who can fit

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Speaker 1: until Acuna is coming back. That outfield market is quite deep.

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Speaker 1: I listed a number of outfielders left handed hitting options,

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Speaker 1: right handed hitting options in my column today. The Braves

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Speaker 1: would prefer a left handed hitting outfielder, but really it

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter. They want the best player, and the longer

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Speaker 1: they wait, the more the bargain should emerge. In that

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Speaker 1: particular aspect of the market. So the Braves are a

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Speaker 1: team to watch, certainly because so far they've gone backwards,

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Speaker 1: not forwards, and their plan is to go forward again.

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Speaker 1: Oh and one more thing, if you want more on

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Speaker 1: the Braves, listen to Hammer Territory, available on YouTube and

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. They are part of the

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Speaker 1: Foul Territory network. Well well, time out for the Inside Dish.

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Speaker 1: The part of the show I talk about something I've written,

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Speaker 1: maybe something I've said, maybe some trend in the game,

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Speaker 1: maybe something else. Entirely, today, I want to talk about

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Speaker 1: a story, actually a column I wrote back in September,

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Speaker 1: and it was about the Red Sox and their need

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Speaker 1: for a right handed hitter. The headline why the Red

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Speaker 1: Sox need to add a right handed masher in the

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Speaker 1: off season. I started the column with the scenario. The

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Speaker 1: scenario was move Devers to first Raphael Devers their great

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Speaker 1: third basement, to first Tristan Cassis, you trade him and

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Speaker 1: then maybe you sign an Alex Bregman. That was the

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Speaker 1: scenario I presented. Of course, a bunch of people told

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Speaker 1: me I was nuts, That's par for the course. But

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Speaker 1: here we are two months later and some of this

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Speaker 1: seems to be taking hold, at least the idea of

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Speaker 1: moving Devers to some other position. Raphael Devers is a

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Speaker 1: below average third baseman, So what do you do with him? Well,

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Speaker 1: you could move him to first, yes, or you could

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Speaker 1: DH him And I don't see them dhing a guy

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Speaker 1: entering his age twenty eight season with ten years, two

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty six million left on his contract, that

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Speaker 1: would not seem to be a very productive thing to do.

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Speaker 1: I can't see him playing first base, even though his

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Speaker 1: agent has come out and said, my guy is a

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Speaker 1: third baseman. But you're the Red Sox and you have

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Speaker 1: this situation, you have a need for more right handed hitting,

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Speaker 1: and you have a desire, and I believe this desire

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Speaker 1: does exist in the organization to get Dever's off third base,

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Speaker 1: where by every advanced metric he is not good. So

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Speaker 1: the trade Cassis, Well, let's look earlier in the offseason

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Speaker 1: at what Craig Breslow, their president of baseball Operation, said

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Speaker 1: about that idea, because he seemed to throw water on it.

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Speaker 1: He said, I'm not sure where that's coming from. Cassis

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Speaker 1: is a guy that we think has forty home run potential,

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Speaker 1: he's young and also has a great strike zone, discipline

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Speaker 1: and controls in a bat. We're excited he's on our team. Okay,

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Speaker 1: sometimes chief baseball officers presidents of base operations say things

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Speaker 1: that proved not to be true. But that's a pretty

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Speaker 1: strong statement from Breslo. Now, could you trade Masataka Yoshida? Well,

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Speaker 1: he's got three years fifty four million dollars left. You're

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Speaker 1: not going to get anything for him. You're gonna probably

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Speaker 1: have to eat most of the contract. So I don't

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Speaker 1: know how that works, but this remains an intriguing scenario.

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Speaker 1: The whole thing because of the Red Sox need to

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Speaker 1: get more right handed, and I want to show you

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Speaker 1: here just what I mean. Let's look at how far

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Speaker 1: they lean to the left in terms of how their

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Speaker 1: position players line up. Their left handed hitters include Cassis Devers,

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Speaker 1: Jaron Duran, will your Bra and Yoshida, and beyond that,

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Speaker 1: three of their top four prospects, three of the big four.

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Speaker 1: You hear a lot about these guys, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer,

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Speaker 1: and Kyle Teel. They're left handed hitters too. Now from

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Speaker 1: the right side, where are they? Well? Tyler O'Neil is

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Speaker 1: a free agent, so he's no longer there. The right

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Speaker 1: handed hitters, the guys who will play most regularly Connor,

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Speaker 1: Trevor Story, Rob Refsneinder, Sedan Rafaela. None of those guys

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Speaker 1: except perhaps Story is a middle of the order bat.

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Speaker 1: They're very high on Christian Campbell. I expect him to

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Speaker 1: play a major role this season. So ultimately they need

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Speaker 1: to find more balance. They need to find a Manny

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Speaker 1: Ramirez to Devers, David Ortiz. They need that right left

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Speaker 1: balance that all teams want, and especially for a team

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Speaker 1: playing at Fenway Park where you have the Green Monster

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Speaker 1: hovering over left field. I don't know how the Red

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Speaker 1: Sox are going to figure all this out. Maybe they

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Speaker 1: won't figure it out this offseason, but ultimately, Devers at

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Speaker 1: third is not going to be a long term thing.

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Speaker 1: I think it's pretty safe to say that. And the

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Speaker 1: question then becomes, Okay, how do you redo your team?

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Speaker 1: What Sean McCadam on Mass Live mentioned was the possibility

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Speaker 1: of Devers at first and Nolan Arnatto becoming a trade

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Speaker 1: piece that the Red Sox would acquire to play third.

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Speaker 1: Gregman can play third, Willie Domas can play third. What

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Speaker 1: do you do with Cassies. Well, yes, Cassies does have

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Speaker 1: great potential. He is a guy that if I were

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Speaker 1: a Red Sox fan, I'd be excited about. Even though

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Speaker 1: he missed about four months last year. He does have,

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Speaker 1: as Craig Breslow said, that forty home run potential. But

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Speaker 1: what if, and this is the suggestion I had back

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Speaker 1: in that September column, what if you could trade him

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Speaker 1: for one of Seattle's young starters. Seattle needs a first basement.

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Speaker 1: They're not going to spend on Peter Alonzo or Christian

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Speaker 1: Walker in my estimation. Well, here's Tristan Cassis, a minimum

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Speaker 1: salary guy for another year or two. And if you

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Speaker 1: maybe give up a Brian Wu or some other young

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Speaker 1: starter who would be, in my opinion, the most likely one. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's interesting. And then if you're the Red Sox, you

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Speaker 1: go out and sign Blake Snell or Mike Freed, you

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Speaker 1: do some other things as well, and bingo, you are

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Speaker 1: back in business. I'm not saying this is going to happen.

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Speaker 1: I'm speculating, But at the same time, all of these

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Speaker 1: scenarios are the kinds of scenarios that I and I

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Speaker 1: would imagine I feel even stronger than that I would

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Speaker 1: feel pretty certain that the Red Sox are discussing I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it's the specific names, but the idea

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Speaker 1: of moving Devers off third, Yes, that is something that

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Speaker 1: I would think they are discussing the idea of getting

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Speaker 1: more right handed, Yes, I would think that is something

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Speaker 1: they are discussing. This is a team that is looking

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Speaker 1: rather interesting with what they might be going forward with

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Speaker 1: the Big Four coming, with the idea that they already

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Speaker 1: have some pretty good young players in place and these

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Speaker 1: others going to join them. They're in position to spend money.

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Speaker 1: They are eager to spend money. They've been saying that

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Speaker 1: all off season. Now they have to figure out how

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Speaker 1: to make the pieces fit. This entire conversation changes if

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Speaker 1: the Red Sox happen to be the team that signs

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Speaker 1: Juan Soto. Now, yes, Juan Soto is another left handed hitter.

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Speaker 1: He is also the premier left handed hitter along with

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Speaker 1: shohe Otani in the game today. He's a guy that

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Speaker 1: if you get him, you forget the rest of the planning.

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Speaker 1: You kind of just figure it out from there. So

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Speaker 1: I don't expect that to happen. I still expect Soto

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Speaker 1: to be with one of the New York teams. But

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Speaker 1: if the Red Sox gets Soto, well they're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to do some other things, mix it up in some

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Speaker 1: other ways. Time now for Grill and Ken, let's get

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Speaker 1: to your questions. First question comes from Austin Douglas, who asks,

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Speaker 1: what are some reasonable infield options for Seattle to pursue

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Speaker 1: in both free agency and the trade market? Also, do

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Speaker 1: they need to trade one of their starting pitchers to

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Speaker 1: make a serious upgrade to their lineup? Well, Austin, this

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Speaker 1: is just what we were talking about, and it's a

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Speaker 1: really good question because if you have the starting pitching

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Speaker 1: that Seattle does, you don't want to trade it because,

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Speaker 1: let's face it, you trade one of these guys, then

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Speaker 1: maybe another one gets hurt next year, and you're back

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Speaker 1: to where you started looking for starting pitching. At the

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Speaker 1: same time, these guys have extreme value. Gilbert and Kirby

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Speaker 1: woo the whole group. So if you're the Mariners, that's

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Speaker 1: one way to go. You could possibly trade one. I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't do it unless I was getting someone like a

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Speaker 1: Tristan Cassis in return, and I wouldn't be trading Gilbert

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Speaker 1: or Kirby either. The other way to do it would

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Speaker 1: be through free agency or trade of another kind. This

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Speaker 1: is a team that probably could use Alec Bohm for

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Speaker 1: the Phillies' third baseman, who has been out there and

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Speaker 1: is quite available. This is a team also that ideally

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Speaker 1: could look at first base as well, although I do

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Speaker 1: believe that Alonzo or Walker will be out of their

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Speaker 1: price range. So there are guys like Carlos Santana, Justin Turner,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Rizzo, Paul Goldschmidt, a whole host of first basemen

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Speaker 1: free agents who are available. Would any of them be

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Speaker 1: enough along with a new third basement or second baseman.

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Speaker 1: I don't believe so, and that's why the temptation to

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Speaker 1: trade one of the starters for a bigger bat has

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Speaker 1: to be there for the Mariners. If they're not going

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Speaker 1: to spend big in free agency, and that's something I

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Speaker 1: don't anticipate them doing, then the way to get the

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Speaker 1: biggest possible return would be to give up something that

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Speaker 1: you cover yourself, and it will be difficult for them

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Speaker 1: to do. They don't want to do it, But if

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Speaker 1: I'm the Mariners, I at least have to listen, all right.

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Speaker 1: The next question comes from Jason McIntosh, who asks who

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Speaker 1: will be next year's breakout rookie? Good question, and certainly

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Speaker 1: there are a number of candidates. Kobe Mayo of Baltimore

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Speaker 1: is one, if they can find a spot for him.

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Speaker 1: But the guy I'm going to choose is a guy

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Speaker 1: who was up last year like Mayo, Dylan Cruz of

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Speaker 1: the Washington Nationals second pick of the twenty twenty three draft.

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Speaker 1: A guy who has worlds of potential will get to

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Speaker 1: play next year, so he'll get the opportunity, and everyone

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Speaker 1: thinks he's going to be, if not a star in

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Speaker 1: this game, certainly a very very good regular player. So

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Speaker 1: I'll go with Dylan Cruz as my breakout rookie. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure as spring training approaches, and as we get into

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Speaker 1: spring training, some more names will emerge. And finally, Mike

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Speaker 1: Miller asks, not counting Bryce, who has the best hair

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Speaker 1: in mL BE great question, and Bryce Harper, Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: would say he has what the players call the best flow,

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Speaker 1: that's the term they use for hair flow. But after Bryce,

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Speaker 1: I have to think about this a little bit. I

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Speaker 1: had to get on the internet a little bit kind

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Speaker 1: of poke around, but I'm gonna go with Toronto Blue

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Speaker 1: Jays shortstop, Bo Bishett, Let's take a look at ba

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, come on, there's some serious flow there. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it's Bryce Harper quality, but it's pretty impressive.

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Speaker 1: So Bobaschett best hair in MLB outside of Bryce Harper,

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Speaker 1: at least in this man's opinion. Want to thank everyone

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Speaker 1: for their questions, Thank everyone for listening, for watching. You

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Speaker 1: know where to find us YouTube, wherever you get your podcast.

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Speaker 1: We will be back this week on Friday with a

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Speaker 1: special Black Friday Post Thanksgiving edition of Fair Territory. Myself

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Speaker 1: and Alana Rizzo tune in in.

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