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Speaker 1: New year, Same fish Bites. Eli Sussman here for the

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Speaker 1: first podcast episode of twenty twenty, the first of very,

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Speaker 1: very many on the Fish Stripes podcast feed. Subscribe if

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Speaker 1: you don't already follow us on social media if you

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Speaker 1: don't already at fish Stripes on Twitter and at fish

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Speaker 1: Stripes on Instagram, where we are coming up fast on

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Speaker 1: one thousand followers. We cover the Miami Marlins like nobody

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Speaker 1: else and we want a lot of company on this

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Speaker 1: ride heading into twenty twenty. I wanted to plug a

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Speaker 1: couple recent website features for us during this offseason. Spencer Morris,

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Speaker 1: who has a big background and covering the Astros, but

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Speaker 1: he's really intrigued by the recent changes in the Marlins system,

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Speaker 1: and he wrote up something on right hand er Evan Fitterer,

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Speaker 1: who was the fifth round draft pick in this most

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Speaker 1: recent draft for the Marlins, the very first pitcher off

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Speaker 1: the board and in some ways one of the biggest

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Speaker 1: pitching investments that Marlins have made in anybody under new ownership.

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Speaker 1: Remember last offseason they signed Sergio Romo to a couple

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Speaker 1: million dollar deal, but aside from Sergio Romo, Fitterer has

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Speaker 1: been the most expensive pitcher acquired by the Marlins under

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Speaker 1: new ownership. He's a guy that at the time, I

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Speaker 1: think he just turned nineteen right after the draft, so

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Speaker 1: obviously very young. They're betting on his potential, and Spencer

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Speaker 1: is pretty high on Fitterer and his possibility of being

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Speaker 1: a long term rotation piece for the Marlins. He got

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Speaker 1: his feet wet in the Gulf Coast League this past

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Speaker 1: and he showed the highest ground ball rate out of

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Speaker 1: all prospects in the Marlin system. So that's a tendency

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Speaker 1: to watch, and he's someone that is very projectable, where

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Speaker 1: he already has good stuff, particularly his fastball and breaking ball,

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Speaker 1: but there's the potential for him to add even more

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Speaker 1: velocity to that and he'll be an exciting guy to follow.

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Speaker 1: Still a little unclear what his next step will be

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. Will the team be aggressive and put

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Speaker 1: him all the way up to Clinton in low a

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Speaker 1: full season ball or will they queue him down in

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Speaker 1: extended spring training for a little while and have him

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Speaker 1: pitch another abbreviated season. Time will tell. The other feature

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Speaker 1: comes from Tyler Wilson, who likes Spencer is going to

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Speaker 1: be primarily sticking on the prospect coverage side, he wrote

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Speaker 1: up the whole backstory of Aaron Northcraft, who was a

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Speaker 1: recent non roster invitee to Marlin spring training on a

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Speaker 1: minor league deal, coming off a great season for Triple

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Speaker 1: A Tacoma, the Mariners affiliate. But there's so much more

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Speaker 1: in his entire last decade of professional baseball that led

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Speaker 1: up to that point, which was a big jumping off

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Speaker 1: points again, this deal and put him on the verge

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Speaker 1: of realizing a dream and pitching in the major leagues.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't have any major league experience right now, but

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Speaker 1: ever since coming back from a series of injuries, first

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Speaker 1: a partially torn UCL in his elbow and then a

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Speaker 1: hand issue as well a couple procedures that kept him

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Speaker 1: out nearly two full years, he returned to action and

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Speaker 1: since then, both in the Mariner system and then prior

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Speaker 1: to that, pitching internationally, he was lights out. He changed

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Speaker 1: his arm angle. He has a very low release point

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Speaker 1: that he throws from, doesn't have top end velocity, but

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Speaker 1: it's because of the angle day throws from and now

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Speaker 1: his ability to consistently throw strikes that has opened up

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Speaker 1: a whole new possibilities for this guy that now in

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Speaker 1: his late twenties, considering how much of his prime that

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Speaker 1: he lost to injury, it's all of a sudden he

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Speaker 1: has a new lease on his baseball life, and certainly

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Speaker 1: somebody to watch in spring training that could potentially nab

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Speaker 1: a roster spot. It seems like a really genuine personality,

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Speaker 1: someone that gained a greater appreciation for playing this game

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Speaker 1: after missing all that time because of injuries, and we're

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Speaker 1: really curious to follow his journey from here. Both of

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Speaker 1: those articles on Evan Fitterer and Aaron Northcraft on the

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Speaker 1: website fish Stripes dot com and one more plug for

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Speaker 1: a new thing. I finally got around to setting up

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Speaker 1: the fish Stripes YouTube channel. Previously, I'd uploaded some stuff

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Speaker 1: on my personal account, the Eli Sussman channel, but I

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Speaker 1: thought it was best to anything that's specific to fish Stripes,

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Speaker 1: things that where you embed on the website and share

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Speaker 1: snippets of on social media, where I put it up

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Speaker 1: on YouTube, and there's not really any limitations to the

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Speaker 1: lengths of the videos. So we already upload some stuff

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Speaker 1: this past weekend. There's gonna be some ex exclusive things

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Speaker 1: that we put on YouTube and that we won't spread

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Speaker 1: around to other platforms. The subscribe to fish Strites on

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Speaker 1: YouTube to get it there, So go ahead and subscribe.

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Speaker 1: Only a handful of people have so far, so you'll

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Speaker 1: be one of the first. And we appreciate everybody that

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Speaker 1: follows us on this ride. Now, on the rest of

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Speaker 1: this Fish Bites episode, I want to go in depth

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Speaker 1: on three particular recent events that have the potential to

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Speaker 1: affect the Marlins in twenty twenty and even for years

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Speaker 1: beyond that. Then we're going to finish up with a

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Speaker 1: conversation about who I believe to be the most obvious

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Speaker 1: contract extension candidate in the Marlins organization. I can promise

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Speaker 1: you it is not who you expect. This past week,

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Speaker 1: Starlin Castro finally found a new home. The Marlins infielder

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Speaker 1: the past two years, was a free agent for the

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Speaker 1: very first time, and he has signed a two year

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Speaker 1: deal two years, twelve million dollars guaranteed with the reigning

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Speaker 1: World Series champion Washington Nationals. So it shouldn't come as

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Speaker 1: any surprise that he left the Marlins. He was sort

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Speaker 1: of being squeezed out of the team even during this

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Speaker 1: past season. If you'll remember, acquired originally by the team

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Speaker 1: in the Gian Carlos Stanton trade, and he was considered

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Speaker 1: somewhat of an albatross, like it was very expendable to

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Speaker 1: the Yankees. On the Yankees, he's being pushed out of

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Speaker 1: a job by top prospect Glaber Torres, and now with

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Speaker 1: the Marlins, he's being pushed out of a job by

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Speaker 1: former top prospect Is san Diaz. He was put into

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Speaker 1: the deal because he had a couple of years remaining

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Speaker 1: on his contract before that at eight digit eight figure salaries,

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Speaker 1: both in excess of ten million dollars in twenty eighteen

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Speaker 1: and over eleven million dollars this past year. The Marlins

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Speaker 1: held a sixteen million dollar club option on him for

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Speaker 1: the twenty twenty season, and they chose to decline that

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Speaker 1: and said issuing him a one million dollar buyout. He

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Speaker 1: doesn't fully recoup all that money that he would have

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Speaker 1: made on the club option in this new deal, but

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Speaker 1: all things considered, he makes out relatively well considering that

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Speaker 1: second baseman. The free agent market has been oversaturated with

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Speaker 1: second baseman this year, in a year that if you've

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Speaker 1: looked around the league, you'll notice that free agents are

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Speaker 1: doing very well for themselves relative to the previous couple

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Speaker 1: of years. The one exception to that, in the most

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Speaker 1: part has been second base, where there are just so

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Speaker 1: many players out there that play that position and don't

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Speaker 1: have much other flexibility. In reporting this deal, Ken Rosenthal

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Speaker 1: of The Athletic noted that Starlin indicated a very strong

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Speaker 1: preference for remaining at second base in twenty nineteen, as

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Speaker 1: esan Diez was tearing it up in Triple A and

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Speaker 1: for the entire first half of the season as Staralin

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Speaker 1: was really struggling offensively. The team eventually called up Isan

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Speaker 1: in early August, and that shifted Starlin from second base

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Speaker 1: to third base, in the third base of a position

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Speaker 1: he had very minimal experience at any level of pro baseball.

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Speaker 1: It was totally foreign to him. But because he had

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Speaker 1: slumped so badly early in the season and the Marlins

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Speaker 1: wanted to trade him and if not even dump his

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Speaker 1: salary just a part of it, just open up the

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Speaker 1: space for them to play Issan regularly. They weren't able

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Speaker 1: to find a taker for him, but they wanted to

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Speaker 1: keep him in the lineup.

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Speaker 2: On a hot to play by Castro, bad Crows got

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Speaker 2: a wild Starlin Castro.

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Speaker 1: It's been a week and a half over a third.

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Speaker 3: It's been ten years.

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Speaker 2: What a play now, fantastic reaction time by Starlin. One

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Speaker 2: step into the hole, comes up with that baseball. Well done, Starlin.

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Speaker 1: So they moved him over to third base and that

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Speaker 1: shifted Brian Anderson out to right field, and from that

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Speaker 1: point forward, Starlin's bat actually caught fire. He was excellent

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Speaker 1: offensively down the stretch anyway you sliced. He was the

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Speaker 1: best hitter on the Marlins for the last several months

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Speaker 1: of the season, and that's if not for that hot streak,

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Speaker 1: he probably would be settling for a one year deal,

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Speaker 1: just like Jonathan Scope did, just like Cisar Hernandez did.

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Speaker 1: A couple other second basemen in the same age range

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Speaker 1: as Starlin, both that had their own flaws, and both

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Speaker 1: of them took about one year six million dollar deals.

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Speaker 1: Castro is able to get a second year added on

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Speaker 1: to that. A guy that even at his worst, Starlin

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Speaker 1: is a bona fide major league player. I think the

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Speaker 1: question moving forward is whether he's a true everyday player.

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Speaker 1: The Marlins just did not have many competent bats that

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Speaker 1: were major League ready these past few years, and that

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Speaker 1: allowed Starlin to expect himself to be in the lineup

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Speaker 1: every single day. He played all one hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: two games this past season after playing one hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty four the previous year, easily the most playing time

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Speaker 1: of anybody in the Marlins organization during those two seasons,

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Speaker 1: thirty four total home runs, including career highs last year

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Speaker 1: in both home runs and RBIs he's the guy that

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Speaker 1: the big mystery is going to be distinguishing between the

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Speaker 1: terrible first half he had and his resurgence later in

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Speaker 1: the year, which one of those is more indicative of

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Speaker 1: what he's going to do moving forward. During the first

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Speaker 1: part of the year, what was so strange about it

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Speaker 1: is that he was making contact at a very high clip,

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Speaker 1: one of his lowest strikeout rates of his career. Early on.

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Speaker 1: The problem was that this is where I find some

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Speaker 1: stat cast st aida to be very useful. We could

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Speaker 1: tell that his launch angle was all out of whack.

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Speaker 1: He was pounding everything into the ground. And the one

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Speaker 1: thing that's really changed for the worst about Starlin as

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Speaker 1: his career has gone on is that he has lost

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Speaker 1: some athleticism. He came up to the majors as a

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Speaker 1: plus runner, and his sprint speed has gone down to

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Speaker 1: right around the league average at this point, and to

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Speaker 1: be very blunt, there are some situations where he doesn't

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Speaker 1: exactly hustle to the max trying to beat out ground balls.

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Speaker 1: So even his full athletic capability, that's not necessarily all

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Speaker 1: that relevant, because he could say he underachieves those measurables

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Speaker 1: sometimes because of his frustration. Regardless, when he's hitting the

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Speaker 1: ball on the ground, it's very bad, it's usually not

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Speaker 1: going to go very well. He grounded into a ton

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Speaker 1: of double plays during each of the last two years,

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Speaker 1: and whatever adjustments he made right in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the season, they allowed him to get the ball in

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Speaker 1: the air more often, and he led the team in

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Speaker 1: home runs over those last few months of the year,

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Speaker 1: and as I mentioned, a career high overall in the

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Speaker 1: season for home runs. Some of that, of course helped

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Speaker 1: by the juice ball that was in play this year,

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Speaker 1: but of course he was playing half his games at

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Speaker 1: Marlins Park, which this coming season is going to have

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Speaker 1: smaller dimensions, and we're going to get into that and

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Speaker 1: just a little minute, but last year was one of

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Speaker 1: the most picture friendly ballparks in baseball, especially in terms

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Speaker 1: of suppressing home runs. Anyway you sliced his full season's

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Speaker 1: that's were decent, and the Nationals aren't making a huge

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Speaker 1: gamble on him. That's not compared to like how much

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Speaker 1: they invested to bring back Steven Strasburg. And they've added

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Speaker 1: a few other complimentary pieces aside from Strasburg, with Castro

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Speaker 1: being one of them. So he's not necessarily locke to

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Speaker 1: play every single day for them, but he had a

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Speaker 1: preference to stick at second base, and that's a position

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Speaker 1: that they had available. So he's gonna get his wish

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Speaker 1: in that department for his age thirty in age thirty

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Speaker 1: one seasons, he's gonna be in the division. And you're

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Speaker 1: gonna see him really soon at Marlins Park, because the

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Speaker 1: Nationals are visiting Marlin's Park in the very first home

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Speaker 1: stand of the year, beginning on March thirtieth. It's unclear

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Speaker 1: where Castro will bat in the lineup. The past few years,

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Speaker 1: he was accustomed to batting on the top half of

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Speaker 1: the lineup, But the Nationals, even with Anthony Rendon leaving,

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Speaker 1: they of course have some very intriguing players from Trey Turner,

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Speaker 1: Adam Eden, want Soto, Victor Roblez is a guy that

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Speaker 1: could continue to take strides forward at top prospect Carter

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Speaker 1: Key Boom is expected to have a pretty significant role

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Speaker 1: on their twenty twenty seasons. So I would say in

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Speaker 1: most cases, Castro is going to be batting in the

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Speaker 1: bottom half of the lineup for the first time in

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Speaker 1: several years. That'll be a big adjustment to him. But

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Speaker 1: he gets to join a contender anyway. You sliced the

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Speaker 1: Nationals in the most pessimistic view, there's still going to

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Speaker 1: be a very competitive team coming off a World Series

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Speaker 1: with a lot of returning talent. And just the final

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Speaker 1: word on Castro as a Marlin, he was the guy

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Speaker 1: that when the trade was reported, he expressed some dissatisfaction

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Speaker 1: through his agent about not wanting to be involved in

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Speaker 1: another rebuild.

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Speaker 4: He was.

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Speaker 1: He went through the coldest years of the Cubs rebuild.

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Speaker 1: As soon as he came to the Yankees. Well, they

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Speaker 1: rebuilt on the fly. This first year there, they missed

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Speaker 1: the playoffs and they sold off at the trade deadline,

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Speaker 1: and then twenty seventeen, he as a team immediately sprung

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Speaker 1: back to being good again. He had his roles somewhat reduced.

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Speaker 1: I think some of that was injury related as well,

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Speaker 1: but he wanted to finally be in the middle of

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Speaker 1: a contending team, and it seems he's going to get

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Speaker 1: his wish with the Nationals. While he was with Miami,

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Speaker 1: he put up overall really decent numbers, especially relative to

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Speaker 1: his teammates, and there was not a single bad word

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Speaker 1: about him being with the team. He seemed to really

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Speaker 1: embrace being a veteran presence on the team, and he

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Speaker 1: was cooperative with the rest of his team. It'swers. There's

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Speaker 1: really nothing there about him being anything less than a

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Speaker 1: great professional on and off the field, and so we

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Speaker 1: appreciate his time there. It'd be ideal, I guess if

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Speaker 1: he had started off twenty nineteen hot and made himself

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Speaker 1: tradable in the middle of the year when it was

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Speaker 1: clear that the organization was moving in a different direction.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, some of that's just not fully within

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Speaker 1: your control. If you look at from thirty thousand feet up,

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Speaker 1: the overall picture, he was exactly what the Marlins had expected,

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Speaker 1: and of course accepting him allow them to acquire a

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Speaker 1: couple other prospects in that stance to trade, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to see how George Guzban and Jose Devers go

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Speaker 1: from here. But the first piece that has resolved itself.

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Speaker 1: As we begin to finally get far enough away from

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Speaker 1: those rebuilding trades to judge them, picking up Castro as

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Speaker 1: basically a salary dump proved to be a very decent

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Speaker 1: investment for pretty much everybody involved. Everybody gets their way

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Speaker 1: out of this, no hard feelings, and I imagine that

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Speaker 1: Castro will get some nice warm reception from the crowd

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Speaker 1: when he makes his return to Miami about three months

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Speaker 1: from now. Shortly after the Starlin Castro news broke, the

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Speaker 1: Marlins made an addition for themselves on Friday, signing switch

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Speaker 1: pitcher pat VENDITTI what does that mean, Well, you can

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Speaker 1: either throw with your left hand, you can throw with

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Speaker 1: your right hands, or you can switch between your hands.

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Speaker 1: Pat Vin Ditty is the only active switch pitcher in

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Speaker 1: the high levels of professional baseball right now, and I

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Speaker 1: could spend a whole episode just on pat Vin Diitty.

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Speaker 1: He's an interesting guy. He has some major league experience.

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Speaker 1: You may not have noised. He hasn't pitched very often

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Speaker 1: against the Marlins, but he has bounced around to one

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Speaker 1: to six different organizations over the past five years. Making

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Speaker 1: his major league debut with the Oakland A's back in

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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, then Toronto Seattle. He was in the Phillies

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Speaker 1: organization in twenty seventeen and then didn't make it to

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Speaker 1: the big leagues. More recently with the Dodgers in twenty

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Speaker 1: eighteen and with the Giants in twenty nineteen. The guy

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Speaker 1: that overall has sixty eight innings of major league experience

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Speaker 1: an ERA right around five, fielder independent pitching matching it

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Speaker 1: right around five. So his results have been pretty much

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Speaker 1: replacement level in the major leagues. But it's a really

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Speaker 1: small sample that he's been in professional baseball forever. He

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Speaker 1: was drafted in two thousand and eight. And I'll give

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Speaker 1: you one guess who do you think Pat Van Ditty

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Speaker 1: was drafted and developed by. He's a guy that the

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Speaker 1: Marlins have just signed. If the Marlins are targeting a player,

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Speaker 1: someone that doesn't have obvious standout success in the major leagues,

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Speaker 1: there's got to be a connection there. So I'll give

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Speaker 1: you about five seconds. Guess who drafted and developed Pat

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Speaker 1: van Ditty in professional baseball? Of course it was the Yankees.

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Speaker 1: It's always the Yankees. One in doubt. The Marlins acquiring somebody,

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Speaker 1: it has to be an x Yankee considering all the

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Speaker 1: connections that are currently within the Marlins front office. So

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Speaker 1: Vin did he spend the first seven years of his

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Speaker 1: pro career in the Yankees organization. Not a high priority

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Speaker 1: at any point. He was a former twentieth round draft

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Speaker 1: pick out of Creighton University, which doesn't exactly have a

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Speaker 1: great legacy for baseball. He was actually drafted in consecutive

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Speaker 1: years by the Yankees, both in two thousand and seven

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Speaker 1: when he didn't sign, and then in two thousand and

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Speaker 1: eight as a senior signing. So he's not a guy

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Speaker 1: that ever made a lot of money out of pro baseball.

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Speaker 1: Was never a high priority, and when it was clear

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Speaker 1: that he wasn't getting a major league look in the

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Speaker 1: Yankees organization, he signed with the A's as a free

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Speaker 1: agent and immediately made it to the major leagues. So

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Speaker 1: he throws with both hands, all right, and that creates

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Speaker 1: some very interesting situations because, as you know from baseball,

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Speaker 1: there is a significant portion of the population that switch

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Speaker 1: hits from both sides of the plate, and on the

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Speaker 1: Mothership at eSPI Nation, they did an interesting breakdown about

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Speaker 1: the quandary that comes up when switch pitcher Pat Van

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Speaker 1: Ditty comes up against a switch hitter.

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Speaker 3: He was playing for the Staten Island Yankees in the

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Speaker 3: minor Leagues against the Brooklyn Cyclones, and switch hitter Ralph

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Speaker 3: Henriquez comes up to the plate. And now there's a

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Speaker 3: little bit of like decision making happening because Henriquez has

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Speaker 3: just seen Pat Van Ditty warm up with his left hand.

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Speaker 3: But when he gets to the mound, he has his

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Speaker 3: glove on his left hand and he's getting ready to

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Speaker 3: pitch with his right hand. So Ralph switches to the

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Speaker 3: other batter's box. So then Pavin Didty goes, well, I'll

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Speaker 3: just pitched with mya now, So he takes off his

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Speaker 3: glove and he switches to the other hand, at which

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Speaker 3: point Ralph goes, well, I'm just going to switch to

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Speaker 3: the other bat fox now. And this happens back and

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Speaker 3: forth for a significant amount of time before the game

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Speaker 3: comes to an absolute screeching halt and the umpire spins

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Speaker 3: no joke. Six minutes, six solid minutes on the field

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Speaker 3: trying to figure out how to deal with this situation

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Speaker 3: that Pat Vandy's very specific physiology has introduced into this game.

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Speaker 1: Wait, so what else was like?

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Speaker 3: Was this the start of an inning, so they could

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Speaker 3: kind of just like this missed around. This ended up

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Speaker 3: being the final at bat of the game. The Brooklyn

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Speaker 3: Cyclones were behind by five runs and they had two

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Speaker 3: outs already. So very meaningful, so very meaningful. Yes, had

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Speaker 3: an asterisk on this game, big time. No, it meant nothing.

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Speaker 3: It meant nothing. It was just a bunch of dudes

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Speaker 3: having a pissing match over a very specific rule that

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Speaker 3: had not yet been written. And as a matter of fact,

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Speaker 3: Major League Baseball watched this happen and said, we need

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Speaker 3: to get a rule on the books as soon as possible.

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Speaker 3: Oh boy, so that this never happens again. Sir, something

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Speaker 3: is happening in Brooklyn right now. You need to see this.

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Speaker 3: So MLB puts a rule on the books, and they

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Speaker 3: ended up not needing it for another seven years, which

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Speaker 3: is how long it took Pat Vendit to get called up. Okay,

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Speaker 3: and then he did pitch his MLB debut in twenty fifteen. Wait,

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Speaker 3: so the what was the actual rule that they decided

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Speaker 3: The rule they landed on basically lets the pitcher decide

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Speaker 3: what hand he wants to throw with against the mound.

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Speaker 3: The actual text is a pitcher must indicate visually to

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Speaker 3: the umpire in chief, the batter, and any runners the

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Speaker 3: hand with which he intends to pitch, which may be

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Speaker 3: done by wearing his glove on the other hand while

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Speaker 3: touching the pitcher's plate. Okay, so you walk up, you

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Speaker 3: pick what hand you want to pitch with, and then

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Speaker 3: the batter decides what box he's going to stand in,

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Speaker 3: and then you just do that at bat. Okay, so,

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Speaker 3: and that's per at bat. So he can switch in

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Speaker 3: between batters if he wants to, but as soon as

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Speaker 3: he goes up to the pitcher's plate with that in

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Speaker 3: his hand, he's got a pitch with that hand for

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Speaker 3: the rest of the appearance.

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Speaker 1: Yes. That led to the passage of a new rule

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Speaker 1: in baseball to specify how the order of events are

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Speaker 1: supposed to go. When the switch pitcher comes up against

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Speaker 1: a switch hitter. It's ultimately the batter that gets to

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Speaker 1: make the final call where he sees the arm that

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Speaker 1: the pitcher declares with and he's able to give himself

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Speaker 1: the platoon advantage by stepping to the opposite side of

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Speaker 1: the batter's box. In the major leagues, ven Ditti's experience

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Speaker 1: is pretty split evenly between facing lefties and facing righty's,

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Speaker 1: And of course, if he were to have it his way,

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Speaker 1: every single plate appearance would come with him having the

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Speaker 1: platoon advantage righty on righty or lefty on lefty. But

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Speaker 1: he has faced a total of about forty about forty

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Speaker 1: played appearances against switch hitters in his major league career,

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Speaker 1: And so what sticks out is it's great that you

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Speaker 1: could throw with both hands, and it's somewhat interesting that

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Speaker 1: Venditti at this point in his career he has reached

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Speaker 1: a pretty consistent approach both ways, regardless of which hand

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Speaker 1: he's thrown with. He has a sinker and he has

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Speaker 1: a slider. In between those pitches, it makes up about

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Speaker 1: ninety five percent of his offerings, at least that's what

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Speaker 1: we have from the stat cast data. Very occasionally mix

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Speaker 1: in a change up in those situations. One thing that

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Speaker 1: was immediately mentioned in the initial report, which came from

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Speaker 1: John Paul Morosi of MLB Network, is that there's a

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Speaker 1: new rule coming to Major League Baseball next year, the

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Speaker 1: three batter minimum. It means that when a new reliever

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Speaker 1: comes into the middle of the game, he either has

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Speaker 1: to face a total of three batters or he has

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Speaker 1: to pitch all the way to the end of that

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Speaker 1: ending if it doesn't take three batters to reach the

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Speaker 1: end of the ending, and Vendetti being a guy that

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Speaker 1: in the vast majority of his plate appearances he has

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Speaker 1: the platoon advantage instead of seeing the kind of mixing

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Speaker 1: ma that you used to see in some bullpen management.

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Speaker 1: This was never really an issue with Don Maddingley anyway,

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Speaker 1: I think more less so than any other team. The

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Speaker 1: three batter minimum has a very small effect on the

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Speaker 1: Marlins because Maddingly has never been a guy that is

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Speaker 1: overly obsessive with matching up left and right. But Van

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Speaker 1: Ditti being a guy that can obviously just turn around

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Speaker 1: in most situations and have the better in an uncomfortable situation.

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Speaker 1: He's a guy that even if he's not a star,

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Speaker 1: and there's no indication that he's a star, he's a

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Speaker 1: guy that thirty four years old and a thirty four

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Speaker 1: year old journeyman. This is he's not a high priority

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Speaker 1: for the team. There's a reason they were able to

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Speaker 1: get him on a minor league deal with no strings attached.

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Speaker 1: But the fact that he's able to simply do this

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Speaker 1: makes him it extends his career. It probably wasn't all

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Speaker 1: that clear whether he would make it back to the

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Speaker 1: big leagues, and it's still not a sure thing, but

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Speaker 1: this is a clear opening to do that on a

433
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: Marlins bullpen that does not have a whole lot of

434
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:09,679
Speaker 1: experience whatsoever or a whole lot of superlative performers. The

435
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 1: one concern I guess that sticks out to me about Vendi,

436
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:15,280
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get in some more of his positives lately,

437
00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:17,960
Speaker 1: but the concern that sticks out is that he does

438
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:22,520
Speaker 1: have pretty wild platoon splits in the major leagues against

439
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:26,240
Speaker 1: right handed batters lifetime two eighty six batting average against

440
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: him with a nine oh four OPS, whereas against left

441
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:33,239
Speaker 1: handed batters one seventy nine batting average against a five

442
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: to seventy OPS. He's been great against lefties, he's been

443
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:41,160
Speaker 1: very not great against right E's against lefties, striking out

444
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,960
Speaker 1: about twenty six percent that he's faced in his career.

445
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: That's good major league average for against the position player

446
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: in the low twenties. Striking out about twenty six against

447
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:53,920
Speaker 1: right handed batters, it's a different story. Only an eleven

448
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 1: percent career strikeout rate against right handers, and the issue

449
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:03,439
Speaker 1: is that it's not so much that the lack of

450
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 1: swing and miss, it's that he also allows a lot

451
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 1: of fly balls on batted balls. For him, one of

452
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 1: the lowest ground ball rates of pitchers in recent years

453
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,640
Speaker 1: at the major league level, including last year. Last year

454
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: was even higher than normal. He spent most of last

455
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,360
Speaker 1: year with the Giants' Triple A affiliate before making two

456
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:27,120
Speaker 1: little appearances at the major league level, and for the

457
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 1: Triple A team is a ground ball rate just in

458
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 1: the mid thirties. As noted in the previous segment. For

459
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:37,119
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty season, the Marlins are bringing in the

460
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,320
Speaker 1: fences by a handful of feet in dead center fields

461
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:42,920
Speaker 1: and in right center fields. And now they go out

462
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: and sign pad Van Ditti, who has a little bit

463
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 1: of a fly ball issue. But I think you guys

464
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 1: know by now where I stand on this that although

465
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,439
Speaker 1: it was made some interesting news that they brought in

466
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:57,119
Speaker 1: the fences, if you actually look at the number of

467
00:26:57,119 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 1: balls that would be affected by the change, it's a

468
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:01,919
Speaker 1: very small number overall over the course of the season.

469
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: Even if this guy were able to stick on the

470
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:07,639
Speaker 1: roster for an extended period of time, you're talking about

471
00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 1: maybe one or two situations the entire year as a

472
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:14,320
Speaker 1: reliever where he would be affected one way or the

473
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: other by this. Not a big deal, just an observation,

474
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 1: just a little data point that has to go into

475
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: this signing and the potential fit that he would have

476
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: if he's able to make it onto the active roster.

477
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: But before we move on to our other topics, a

478
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,639
Speaker 1: few more details about ven Ditti's pitch mix. The reason

479
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:36,679
Speaker 1: why he was such a late round draft pick by

480
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:38,719
Speaker 1: the Yankees, why he didn't make it to the majors

481
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: until nearly age thirty, and why he hasn't really stuck

482
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 1: around that much is because he has far below average

483
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 1: fastball velocity. He throws harder with his right hand. It

484
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: used to be a high eighties fastball, but now as

485
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 1: a thirty four year old, just as in almost all

486
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:58,640
Speaker 1: other cases, the velocity has dipped a little bit, so

487
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,720
Speaker 1: now more a lot of eighty five, eighty six, eighty

488
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 1: seven fastballs from his right hand, and as a lefty

489
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 1: it's even lower than that, eighty two, eighty three, eighty four,

490
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: far below average fastball velocity, and that requires him to

491
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: mix in a lot of sliders almost as many sliders

492
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,400
Speaker 1: as fastballs, alternating between the two to keep batters off balanced,

493
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 1: and he still gets a pretty decent differential in velocity

494
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: between those pitches. The breaking ball is in the load

495
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:33,399
Speaker 1: mid seventies. So what stuck out to me about the

496
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: slider is the spin rate that he has on that pitch.

497
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 1: There's not a perfect correlation between spin rate and effectiveness

498
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: of your pitch, but especially with breaking balls, it is

499
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 1: a factor. It's you want to have as much spin

500
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,960
Speaker 1: as possible and that will generally help you miss more bats.

501
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 1: And for a guy that has way below average velocity

502
00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: and who we mentioned is vulnerable to flyball one opponent's

503
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: put it in play, it's very precious for him to

504
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,920
Speaker 1: miss bats whenever possible, either to get himself ahead in

505
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: the account or to put batters away. I ran a

506
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 1: query through stat cast where looking since twenty sixteen, so

507
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: over the last four major league seasons, all the pitchers

508
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,880
Speaker 1: that have thrown at least three hundred sliders in the

509
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: major leagues during that time, and there are several hundreds

510
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:32,000
Speaker 1: of them. It's basically hundreds, and he is elite in

511
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 1: that department when ranking all them by spin rate out

512
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: of the hundreds of relievers the last four seasons that

513
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 1: have thrown at least three hundred sliders in the majors,

514
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 1: and Vendetti just crosses that threshold with three twenty five.

515
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,920
Speaker 1: Number one on the list was Kyle Krick, his spin

516
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: rate nearly thirty two hundred revolutions per minute on the

517
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: pitch on average. Number two was Trent Thornton. Number three

518
00:29:55,480 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: was Marlin's fellow reliever, Jeff Brigham. So most of those

519
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 1: pitches for Brigham came just this past year, twenty nine

520
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 1: thirty four RPMs on his slider, and that's the reason

521
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:11,360
Speaker 1: why I'm really intrigued by Brigham heading into the new year,

522
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,560
Speaker 1: assuming that the Marlins are able to keep him heading

523
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 1: into opening Day. Right behind him Chad Sabatka, and number

524
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:22,720
Speaker 1: five out of hundreds of major league pitchers who threw

525
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: sliders the past few years in average spin rate is

526
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:31,320
Speaker 1: pad Van Ditti twenty nine thirteen revolutions per minute on

527
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: his average slider. To go down the list a little

528
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 1: bit further, number seven is Chaz Row. Chas Row very

529
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: famously gets extraordinary movement laterally on his pitch, and he's

530
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: been in the majors now for a handful of years.

531
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:51,120
Speaker 1: Number nine in this category slider spin rate is Sergio Romo,

532
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:54,440
Speaker 1: who of course got a lucrative deal from the Twins

533
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 1: and the Marlins were interested in resigning him. Number eleven

534
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 1: is Adam out of you know, who is an elite

535
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: reliever now with the Yankees. Number and right behind him

536
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: is Walker Buehler, who is one of the rising young

537
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: potential aces with the Dodgers. It's again, it's not a

538
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:16,240
Speaker 1: perfect correlation between that spin rate and being a successful pitcher,

539
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,320
Speaker 1: and not even perfect between the spin rate and being

540
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:24,040
Speaker 1: a great pitch, but it's better than nothing. It's certainly

541
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 1: the most appealing thing that I found about Venditti, and

542
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 1: some optimism about why he could be effective for the

543
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 1: Marlins potentially considering his handedness, is going to give him

544
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 1: somewhat of an inside track to sneak on to the roster.

545
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: It depends what the Marlins do from here. I've been

546
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 1: pretty consistent with my thinking that they should be investing

547
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 1: some more in one more veteran reliever that has late

548
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 1: ending experience in the major leagues, and there's still a

549
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 1: few of them out there that should be had on

550
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:58,120
Speaker 1: one year deals, it will cost a few million dollars,

551
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:01,120
Speaker 1: whereas Benditti, even if he makes it to the majors,

552
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,479
Speaker 1: he'll be earning about the league minimum, and then he

553
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 1: is under club control for the foreseeable future. If the

554
00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 1: Marlins are like what they see from him and he

555
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 1: makes it through the year, then he's not even arbitration

556
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: eligible until twenty twenty two. Get next season at a

557
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 1: bargain rate, and assuming that Venditti doesn't pitch high leverage endings,

558
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,880
Speaker 1: this is going to be that's extremely affordable all the

559
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 1: way through the next handful of years. But that's certainly

560
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 1: looking ahead very far, because first he has to make

561
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 1: the roster. In my mind, it's safer bet to go

562
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 1: after somebody that is more experienced at the major league level.

563
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: But venditty is someone that has gone pretty rave reviews

564
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 1: as a person for his intangibles that he brings to

565
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: a team. So, if nothing else, just a positive presence

566
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:52,680
Speaker 1: to have around spring training and someone that is once

567
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 1: we see him in games during the Grapefruit League, it's

568
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,960
Speaker 1: very easy content for people like us at fits Stripes

569
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 1: to get fans curious about these games that ultimately don't

570
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 1: count an interesting signing, and again probably not the last

571
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: there's now in total, he's only the third pitcher that's

572
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 1: been a non roster invitee to Marlin spring training. Usually

573
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: that number is significantly higher. Even with all the interesting

574
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:21,560
Speaker 1: arms that the Marlins have internally that we want to

575
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 1: get a look from the coaching staff. I expect a

576
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: couple more signings, hopefully one at the major league level,

577
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 1: but Venditti is certainly a low risk, medium reward acquisition

578
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: that fits in with the direction that baseball is heading

579
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. The third and final current events topic

580
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:51,760
Speaker 1: on this fish by its episode the twenty twenty Don't

581
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 1: Blink home Run Derby in Paradise, which took place this

582
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:59,240
Speaker 1: past Saturday in the Bahamas with a whole lot of

583
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 1: Marlins participating. This is the second straight year that I've

584
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:06,280
Speaker 1: played close attention to this home run derby, and even

585
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:09,400
Speaker 1: more so than last year, a lot of Marlin's involvement.

586
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 1: First and foremost, it's meant to build up baseball in

587
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 1: the Bahamas. It's organized by a couple of Bahamian professional

588
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 1: baseball players, and it's meant to grow the game in

589
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:25,480
Speaker 1: the Bahamas, which has become in increasingly fertile grounds for

590
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:29,839
Speaker 1: finding professional baseball talent, most notably on the Marlins. They're

591
00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: one of their top overall prospects right now is Jazz Chisholm,

592
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,360
Speaker 1: who is a native Bahamian and this is this he

593
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:39,200
Speaker 1: may have participated all three years. This is the third

594
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:42,279
Speaker 1: annual year of the event. I know he participated last

595
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,280
Speaker 1: year and this year he was one of the featured

596
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:45,399
Speaker 1: players as well.

597
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:47,040
Speaker 2: So were.

598
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:51,480
Speaker 1: Ian Lewis, who was a recent international signing by the

599
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:52,720
Speaker 1: Marlins this past summer.

600
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 2: Drawn Sam, so many of you know, is the one

601
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:00,920
Speaker 2: of the co founders of Iva Elite, which has been

602
00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 2: responsible for a number of these guys getting signed to

603
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:07,279
Speaker 2: minor league baseball contracts. A season twives that was well

604
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:09,960
Speaker 2: out beyond the foundery. On his file swing of the

605
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,360
Speaker 2: bat to give him a grand total of seven to

606
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 2: open things up four Team Fox.

607
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:17,839
Speaker 4: That's pretty good to Ian considered looking at size, it's

608
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 4: probably why Hacking cut the Thomson.

609
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not a big guys, but he's definitely generating

610
00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,120
Speaker 2: some bat speed, able to get some good power on

611
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:25,919
Speaker 2: his shots. There.

612
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:30,400
Speaker 1: They also had Anthony Seymour, who was developed by the

613
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,840
Speaker 1: Marlins a return to the team this past year in

614
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,920
Speaker 1: the minor leagues, and at this very moment he's actually

615
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:39,840
Speaker 1: a free agent, but in the lead up to the

616
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,840
Speaker 1: event and even introducing him at the derby, he was

617
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: introduced as a Marlins player. So even though he's a

618
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:46,759
Speaker 1: current free agent, I'm not sure if he's going to

619
00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:51,240
Speaker 1: resign with the team. He's another Marlins affiliated player also

620
00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: participating Monte Harrison for he participated last year as well,

621
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 1: and the winner of the twenty twenty over in Derby

622
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:05,000
Speaker 1: in Paradise was Lewis Brinson with thirty two total home runs,

623
00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:08,839
Speaker 1: including thirteen in the championship rounds. He got stronger as

624
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:12,280
Speaker 1: the derby went on, and as someone that watched nearly

625
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,160
Speaker 1: every single swing of the derby, I can tell you

626
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 1: that he was not getting cheap shots. He hit some

627
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 1: of the most majestic home runs into the ocean out

628
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: of anybody.

629
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, but some of these guys, like wait, I was

630
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:27,719
Speaker 2: Brinton right now, absolute tats. I mean, he's he's got

631
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:31,720
Speaker 2: eight already, but you did this is the distance.

632
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a he's a freak man. Uh you know,

633
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:37,759
Speaker 1: there's just got a tough one for him.

634
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:40,960
Speaker 2: Yeah. So so he's now got nine home runs already.

635
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 2: I think last year you you you hit last? After

636
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 2: a talk, wasn't it with the boy against Todd? Todd

637
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 2: hit I had a pretty good round and we were

638
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 2: saying he put some pressure on you and you just

639
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:53,600
Speaker 2: came up and just so easy.

640
00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:54,879
Speaker 4: Maybe easy?

641
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 3: Dang?

642
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 2: How much things I take here? Well, well, I don't know.

643
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:02,920
Speaker 2: But he's got home runs already. Twelve swings. Okay, so

644
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:09,160
Speaker 2: that's just thirteen and give out thirteen home runs out

645
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 2: of fifteen swings. That that's pretty impressive.

646
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:15,880
Speaker 1: It should take a second to explain what makes this

647
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,360
Speaker 1: event unique in that they set up a platform on

648
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,839
Speaker 1: the beach that is facing out to the ocean. You

649
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: have you have a guy on the dock. There's a

650
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,239
Speaker 1: dock jutting out into the water, and that's where the

651
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 1: pitcher is throwing BP to you and you aim directly

652
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:37,320
Speaker 1: out into the ocean where they set up a makeshift

653
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 1: fence on the surface of the water. Not quite the

654
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,920
Speaker 1: same dimensions as a typical professional baseball field, probably more

655
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,279
Speaker 1: like three hundred feet instead of three fifty or four hundred,

656
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,719
Speaker 1: but still a home run derby, and you're limited to

657
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:55,840
Speaker 1: a certain number of swings was about fifteen swings per round,

658
00:37:56,160 --> 00:38:01,440
Speaker 1: and there were dozens of competitors did originally on the lineup.

659
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:04,920
Speaker 1: We're thirty hitters, all of whom have some sort of

660
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 1: professional baseball experience. Eastn Diaz was on that list as well,

661
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 1: the fellow Major leaguer, and so I'm a little unclear

662
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: what happened because i think just the day before the

663
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:19,920
Speaker 1: derby he was listed on the itinerary on the lineup

664
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:22,759
Speaker 1: and he did not ultimately play in the derby. But

665
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 1: out of the thirty players, the vast majority of them

666
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 1: that were listed on the lineup did end up hitting,

667
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,640
Speaker 1: and Brinson led the whole field. He had won the

668
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:34,120
Speaker 1: stronger first rounds in order to make it into the

669
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,960
Speaker 1: final eight, and then in the second rounds he had

670
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 1: eleven more home runs to get himself into the finals,

671
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 1: and then into the finals, he unseated one of the

672
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 1: fellow Bahamian players, who you'd expect had somewhat of a

673
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:50,080
Speaker 1: home field advantage, who had a lot of local support.

674
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 1: Also during this weekend, former Marlins World Series champ Charles

675
00:38:55,600 --> 00:39:00,600
Speaker 1: Johnson was in the area. He was there some sort

676
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,400
Speaker 1: of association with Major League Baseball itself. They brought some

677
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:07,480
Speaker 1: film crews down there, and this was one of the

678
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 1: priorities of this whole setup was to grow the game

679
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:13,400
Speaker 1: in the Bahamas. It's become an increasingly fertile ground for

680
00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:18,640
Speaker 1: baseball talent. And they held just the day before the derby,

681
00:39:18,719 --> 00:39:24,320
Speaker 1: on last Friday, they held some impromptu camp for young players,

682
00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:27,640
Speaker 1: teaching them some of the basics as hitters, as fielders,

683
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:32,040
Speaker 1: as base runners, with the actual players themselves as guest instructors.

684
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:34,320
Speaker 1: So that was really cool, and I'm sure you're gonna

685
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:38,160
Speaker 1: see on Major League Baseballs on the website or on

686
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:40,960
Speaker 1: their social media feeds. I think they're gonna be sharing

687
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 1: some of the specifics about those camps and growing the

688
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:48,640
Speaker 1: game for the next generation of players. I want to

689
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:53,120
Speaker 1: focus on the derby on Saturday, because of course Brinson won.

690
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,839
Speaker 1: Jazz Chisholm was another standout performer. He made it into

691
00:39:56,840 --> 00:40:00,799
Speaker 1: the final eight and it's a really cool event and

692
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 1: Brinson seemed to take a lot of pride in his victory.

693
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:08,759
Speaker 1: I went out of the way to record highlights from

694
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:11,560
Speaker 1: all the Marlins players that were participating. You can find

695
00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:14,520
Speaker 1: that on our YouTube, our new YouTube page, the Fish

696
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,759
Speaker 1: Stripes on YouTube, where I uploaded all the rounds for

697
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:21,279
Speaker 1: all the Marlins that were participating, including all three of

698
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 1: Brinton's rounds, all thirty two of his home runs, and

699
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 1: all the commentary to go along with that. Of course,

700
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:34,800
Speaker 1: during major league regular season action, Brinson has been one

701
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:39,520
Speaker 1: of the biggest disappointments of this entire rebuild for the Marlins,

702
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 1: the centerpiece of the Christian Yellows trade, two years in

703
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,920
Speaker 1: a row, breaking out of spring training Pencilton as the

704
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:52,040
Speaker 1: everyday starting center fielder, and in twenty eighteen losing that

705
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:53,720
Speaker 1: job in the middle of the year due to injury.

706
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, somehow, even far he was below such

707
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 1: a low bar that he set in twenty eighteen, and

708
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:06,080
Speaker 1: he somehow disappointed even more than that this past season,

709
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:09,320
Speaker 1: getting demoted to Triple A New Orleans, where he spends

710
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:14,720
Speaker 1: about half the year trying to re trying to fix things,

711
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: and he returned to the majors in August given one

712
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:23,160
Speaker 1: other opportunity to play on a nearly regular basis, and

713
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 1: the offense just still isn't there. He was one of

714
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 1: a very small number of baseball players last year in

715
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 1: the major leagues who didn't hit a home run. He

716
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 1: had a couple hundred plate appearances in the majors the

717
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 1: year of the juice Ball, and you can make excuses

718
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:41,759
Speaker 1: for Marlins Park. There was one notable home run. I

719
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:44,799
Speaker 1: remember one honable would be home run that he hit

720
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:47,560
Speaker 1: in Colorado over four hundred and twenty feet away that

721
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:49,839
Speaker 1: was robbed from him. But you can make all the

722
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:53,320
Speaker 1: tiny adjustments you want. He's simply one of the worst

723
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:57,359
Speaker 1: offensive players in the Major leagues over the past couple

724
00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:00,320
Speaker 1: of years for a guy that was universally regards guarded

725
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:04,239
Speaker 1: as a top prospect now for his lifetime in the

726
00:42:04,239 --> 00:42:07,160
Speaker 1: major league's one eighty three batting average a five point

727
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 1: thirty one OPS. I ran the research a few months ago,

728
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,239
Speaker 1: right at the end of the regular season, and the

729
00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:19,400
Speaker 1: outlook is very grim. He just cannot find other outfielders

730
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 1: in the recent history of baseball on any team in

731
00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:26,280
Speaker 1: any situation that as twenty four to twenty five year olds,

732
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:31,200
Speaker 1: which is these days. At that age it's still relatively young,

733
00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:34,720
Speaker 1: but not all that far removed from entering your prime

734
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:39,080
Speaker 1: of your career, and to struggle to this extent in

735
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 1: the majors over a very significant sample up over seven

736
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,840
Speaker 1: hundred career played appearances in the majors and not produced

737
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:50,160
Speaker 1: has been mystifying. He's been great in spring training each

738
00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:51,719
Speaker 1: of the last two years. When he went down to

739
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,319
Speaker 1: tripa A, he demonstrated more of that power using their

740
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:59,360
Speaker 1: own juice ball, and heading into this new year, he

741
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,960
Speaker 1: still has a minor league option remaining. Breaking ties with

742
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:07,320
Speaker 1: him right now would be selling low and you wouldn't

743
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:10,840
Speaker 1: expect to get much in return at all, which is

744
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:12,840
Speaker 1: leading to the expectation that he's still going to be

745
00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:15,919
Speaker 1: with the Marlins in twenty twenty, and at least coming

746
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 1: out of spring training he'll once again have some what

747
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,439
Speaker 1: of a decent shot of breaking camp with the major

748
00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 1: league team, especially now that there's an active and extra

749
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:29,279
Speaker 1: active roster spot. I want to be crystal clear that

750
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:34,400
Speaker 1: Brenton's Derby performance means absolutely nothing for a potential turnaround

751
00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:38,080
Speaker 1: to his major league career. It's just the latest reminder

752
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:42,719
Speaker 1: that he's still a premium athlete. He was universally regarded

753
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 1: as that great prospect, the consensus number one Marlins prospect

754
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:50,280
Speaker 1: entering the twenty eighteen season, because he has these exceptional

755
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: tools his power, his throwing arm, his defense, his base running.

756
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 1: The only question was was the hit tool, and of

757
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:02,360
Speaker 1: course it's given him so much trouble in the major leagues.

758
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 1: Are secondary pitches, anything besides the fastball. He's had a

759
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 1: lot of trouble just recognizing that out of the pitcher's

760
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 1: hands and getting any sort of contact on it. A

761
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:16,000
Speaker 1: lifetime strikeout rate in the majors right rounds are we

762
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:21,600
Speaker 1: up to thirty percent twenty nine point eight percent in

763
00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:25,760
Speaker 1: the major leagues. And this derby performance won't do anything

764
00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:29,480
Speaker 1: to change that. He was given very hitable pitches, as

765
00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 1: you normally would during a derby. But it's another reason

766
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,800
Speaker 1: why you just can't quit on Brinston quite yet, because

767
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:40,800
Speaker 1: he's still motivated to he's still in shape. He hasn't

768
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:45,280
Speaker 1: let his roster spot or his major league salary change

769
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:49,400
Speaker 1: his work habits off the field. I mean, the question

770
00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:52,560
Speaker 1: is whether he just has all the ingredients tangible intangible

771
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 1: to make a click in the major leagues. This is

772
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:58,000
Speaker 1: going to be coming into his age twenty six season,

773
00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:03,920
Speaker 1: turning twenty six early in the regular season, and even

774
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 1: though the Marlins have added outfield talent this off season

775
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:09,120
Speaker 1: and the name of Corey Dickerson, they have some great

776
00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:11,560
Speaker 1: outfield prospects on the way held in the same kind

777
00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:14,239
Speaker 1: of high regard that Brinson was not that long ago,

778
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 1: like like Monte Harrison, like Hayeshu Sanchez. Further down like

779
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:23,920
Speaker 1: JJ Bolday and Cameron Meisner and Connor Scott in Gerar

780
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:27,279
Speaker 1: and Carnacion. There's a lot of talent coming. This is

781
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:31,480
Speaker 1: really this is a true make or break year four Brinson,

782
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:34,560
Speaker 1: and even more so it's there's gonna be a lot

783
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:38,400
Speaker 1: of scrutiny early in the year. I'm glad that this

784
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:41,799
Speaker 1: performance should have helped his confidence a little bit and

785
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:45,399
Speaker 1: just showing the talent that's still there for being able

786
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:49,640
Speaker 1: to do a lot of impact on a baseball I mean,

787
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:53,040
Speaker 1: that's it's a very basic element that you need as

788
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 1: a potential impact players. It's everything else that remains a

789
00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:02,640
Speaker 1: big question for Brinson heading into spring training. Anyway, I

790
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:06,360
Speaker 1: encourage you to check out all those Derby highlights uploaded

791
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:08,960
Speaker 1: to YouTube fish Stripes on YouTube as well as on

792
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:12,360
Speaker 1: fishtripes dot com. I wrote up a full article embedding

793
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:15,840
Speaker 1: all the highlights and putting everything into a full perspective.

794
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:18,200
Speaker 1: It's a great event that they have going on in

795
00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:21,879
Speaker 1: the Bahamas, and as recently as last summer signing Ian

796
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 1: Lewis trading for Jazz Chism. Those won't be the last

797
00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:29,920
Speaker 1: Bahamian players that you hear about potentially in the Marlins organization.

798
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 1: It is a growing hotbed for baseball talent, guys that

799
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:38,719
Speaker 1: are really enthusiastic about the game. And a whole lot

800
00:46:38,719 --> 00:46:42,960
Speaker 1: of credit to Lucius Fox and Todd Isaacs. They were

801
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:45,800
Speaker 1: the co organizers of this event from the beginning and

802
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:48,480
Speaker 1: they were participating in the derby themselves this past year.

803
00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:51,400
Speaker 1: So credit to them for putting on this event because

804
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 1: it is really making an impact and helping baseball become

805
00:46:54,840 --> 00:47:03,120
Speaker 1: even more of an international game. From every corner of

806
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:11,200
Speaker 1: the baseball industry, pundits, reporters, fans and opposing fans, there's

807
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:15,759
Speaker 1: almost a universal agreement that the Marlins have done very

808
00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:21,200
Speaker 1: well for themselves this offseason. A handful of offensive improvements,

809
00:47:21,239 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 1: signing Corey Dickerson, Heyesus Aguilar trading for Jonathan vr and

810
00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 1: even a high quality backup like Francisco Cervelli who could

811
00:47:32,160 --> 00:47:35,319
Speaker 1: have effects on the other side of the ball. The

812
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:38,320
Speaker 1: signings of Yami Garcia and some of these non roster

813
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:43,080
Speaker 1: invitee pickups. The decision to swallow the rest of Wayne

814
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:46,799
Speaker 1: Chen's contract and to free up another roster spot to

815
00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:50,359
Speaker 1: protect some of their high upside young players. You put

816
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:54,680
Speaker 1: all together, and they've spent money that almost replaces all

817
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:57,000
Speaker 1: the money they had coming off the books last year,

818
00:47:57,040 --> 00:48:00,400
Speaker 1: except this time they aside from the dead money on

819
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:04,560
Speaker 1: the Chen contract, they don't have any inefficient deals on

820
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:07,719
Speaker 1: their books, so they've really cleared up all their financial

821
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:12,080
Speaker 1: flexibility for the long term in these moves, taking on

822
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:14,440
Speaker 1: little to no risk in a lot of these signings

823
00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:19,920
Speaker 1: and leaving themselves open to trade some veterans in the

824
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:24,040
Speaker 1: future to get even more young, controllable assets if necessary.

825
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: But at very least on paper, this team has far

826
00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 1: improved from where they were in twenty nineteen, where they

827
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:33,799
Speaker 1: had a fifty seven and one oh five record. At

828
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:36,120
Speaker 1: this point, it's very hard to see them losing more

829
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:39,719
Speaker 1: than one hundred games again with the current roster, and

830
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:44,000
Speaker 1: there's a lot of upside because of their much improved

831
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:47,680
Speaker 1: farm system, one that MLB Pipeline ranked as the most

832
00:48:47,719 --> 00:48:52,400
Speaker 1: improved farm system during the year of twenty nineteen. The

833
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:54,600
Speaker 1: handful of trades they made during the middle of the

834
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:58,480
Speaker 1: year to creatively improve and address positions, how well they

835
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 1: did during the twenty nineteen draft, where they finally use

836
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:05,120
Speaker 1: that high position they had in the draft order and

837
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:09,200
Speaker 1: in international free agency yet again, spending big money on

838
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 1: several key infielders in particular that have a lot of

839
00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:19,040
Speaker 1: upside moving forward. It's this organization is certainly trending in

840
00:49:19,080 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 1: the right direction anyway you look at it. And maybe

841
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:23,960
Speaker 1: that's not saying a whole lot considering where they've been

842
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:27,480
Speaker 1: the past couple of years, but it's it's positive, nonetheless,

843
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:30,200
Speaker 1: and it's going to start showing itself at the major

844
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:34,040
Speaker 1: league level in the very near future, so fans can

845
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,960
Speaker 1: be excited about it. But what should we do about it?

846
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:40,239
Speaker 1: What are the concept? Why is it happening? For not

847
00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:43,520
Speaker 1: to oversimplify it, but that's a key question that we

848
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 1: should look at, is how did this happen? And it's

849
00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:49,640
Speaker 1: easy to credit some of the changes that have come

850
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 1: to the organization, of course, at the ownership level, getting

851
00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:56,400
Speaker 1: rid of Jeffrey Lauria and David Sampson and bringing in

852
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:59,960
Speaker 1: guys that are more collaborative and that are more experienced.

853
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 1: A lot of them have New York Yankees roots for

854
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:06,440
Speaker 1: some of them from other organizations as well. Building out

855
00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:11,480
Speaker 1: the international scouting department, building up the internal education department

856
00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:16,160
Speaker 1: that this franchise now has for both its English speaking

857
00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:19,440
Speaker 1: and its foreign language speaking players in getting them to

858
00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 1: integrate with one another in ways that probably wasn't the

859
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:27,200
Speaker 1: case under the previous ownership. A lot of new faces

860
00:50:27,239 --> 00:50:31,080
Speaker 1: that have come in, but the one prominent old face

861
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:34,000
Speaker 1: that has carried over since the beginning of the old

862
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,839
Speaker 1: ownership for nearly two decades now, Michael Hill has been

863
00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:41,880
Speaker 1: with the Marlins. He is entering his eighteenth season as

864
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:47,600
Speaker 1: a Marlins employee in their front office after previously playing professionally,

865
00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:54,319
Speaker 1: after previously attending Harvard University, and Michael's still here and

866
00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:58,640
Speaker 1: he's entering based on most recent reports from John Hayman

867
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:01,880
Speaker 1: of MLB Network, this is the final year of his

868
00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:04,920
Speaker 1: contract with the Marlins. It took some people by surprise

869
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:08,960
Speaker 1: when he survived the transition of ownership, considering he was

870
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:12,680
Speaker 1: in the room when a lot of the previous poor

871
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:16,480
Speaker 1: baseball transactions were made, and the fact that the initial

872
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:20,160
Speaker 1: reaction to some of the rebuilding trades were more negative,

873
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:22,399
Speaker 1: and if you want to be objective about it, yeah,

874
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:25,040
Speaker 1: the value that they got in some of those initial

875
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:29,680
Speaker 1: trades wasn't quite as clearly a net positive as their

876
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:33,080
Speaker 1: more recent transactions. There was some reason to believe that

877
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:37,120
Speaker 1: he might not stick around, so that Derek Cheter and

878
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:40,439
Speaker 1: Bruce Sherman would put out their own search to find

879
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,160
Speaker 1: a new leader of baseball operations. Michael Hill, now in

880
00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:47,400
Speaker 1: his this will be a seventh season as president of

881
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 1: baseball Operations of the Marlins, entitle he's the guy that

882
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:54,400
Speaker 1: is making a lot of big calls for this team,

883
00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:57,560
Speaker 1: and we know under the current front office it's a

884
00:51:57,600 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: little more collaborative with what Jeter b brings, what Gary

885
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:07,120
Speaker 1: denbo brings. His focus is more on amateur and prospects

886
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:10,959
Speaker 1: as in player development. But he has a very loud

887
00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:14,800
Speaker 1: voice and he has a strong personality in that war room.

888
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 1: But Michael Hill has been here through it all and

889
00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:22,560
Speaker 1: things are going so well, we think well generally speaking,

890
00:52:23,520 --> 00:52:26,040
Speaker 1: And even if that doesn't pay immediate dividends, if we

891
00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:28,400
Speaker 1: can all agree that this has been one of the

892
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:33,720
Speaker 1: better off seasons in recent Marlins memory, then shouldn't somebody

893
00:52:33,719 --> 00:52:38,160
Speaker 1: be rewarded for that? And entering what is believed to

894
00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 1: be the final year of his contract, Michael Hill seems

895
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:45,319
Speaker 1: to be a pretty obvious extension candidate. The Marlins probably

896
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 1: would not have been keeping him all that long if

897
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:52,319
Speaker 1: he were overpaid. None of this is public information, but

898
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:55,759
Speaker 1: I think we're led to assume that he is rather

899
00:52:55,880 --> 00:53:00,920
Speaker 1: modestly paid by baseball executive standards. Can consider hearing the

900
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:03,920
Speaker 1: lack of major league results that his teams have had

901
00:53:04,600 --> 00:53:07,240
Speaker 1: all of last decade, failing to have a single winning

902
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:10,920
Speaker 1: season even under the previous front office. There were there

903
00:53:10,920 --> 00:53:15,360
Speaker 1: are clear concerns about his track record. And he's someone

904
00:53:15,440 --> 00:53:20,960
Speaker 1: that fair or not. As a public speaking personality. He's friendly,

905
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:24,880
Speaker 1: he's accessible, he's not necessarily inspiring, and I'll give you

906
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,640
Speaker 1: a SoundBite right here to give you an example of that.

907
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:30,760
Speaker 4: Well, I think we just went with what the draft

908
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:32,960
Speaker 4: was presenting us. You know, we always go for the

909
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:36,239
Speaker 4: most impactful piece. As I've said, there there were some

910
00:53:36,440 --> 00:53:39,200
Speaker 4: very impactful college bats at the top of the draft.

911
00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:42,840
Speaker 4: So good for us that we had the opportunity to to,

912
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:46,879
Speaker 4: you know, evaluate those college bats. And you know, as

913
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:50,880
Speaker 4: I said, we're happy to add one to the mix

914
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:53,520
Speaker 4: to you know, to to give us that, you know,

915
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 4: another potential impactful, you know, position player piece that you

916
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:02,520
Speaker 4: know will will help us win champions here in South Florida.

917
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:07,359
Speaker 1: Hill doesn't exactly fit the new age baseball executive prototype

918
00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:12,480
Speaker 1: of being analytical and being so innovative and being white

919
00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:17,319
Speaker 1: to be blunts about it. That maybe doesn't matter all

920
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:20,879
Speaker 1: that much if we just see the bottom line transactions

921
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:23,440
Speaker 1: that are being made with him involved in the collaboration,

922
00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:27,480
Speaker 1: there's a lot to be said for having continuity and

923
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:30,640
Speaker 1: was assuming the Marlins haven't done this already, Maybe they

924
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:35,120
Speaker 1: did behind the scenes, because info about these executives isn't

925
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:37,759
Speaker 1: quite as transparent as it is about players. Maybe they've

926
00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:41,680
Speaker 1: already worked out a longer deal with him. It just

927
00:54:41,719 --> 00:54:47,640
Speaker 1: seems assuming they haven't, it just seems unnecessary to risk

928
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:51,680
Speaker 1: breaking up what you believe is finally a functional formula

929
00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:54,400
Speaker 1: within a front office that shouldn't be taken for granted.

930
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:57,120
Speaker 1: As recently as a couple of years ago, there were

931
00:54:57,120 --> 00:55:01,759
Speaker 1: doubts about whether bringing in Gary Denbow and the way

932
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:05,800
Speaker 1: he interacted with his new quote teammates, whether that was

933
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:09,000
Speaker 1: all healthy and whether this organization was on the right track.

934
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:12,480
Speaker 1: And now we have what amounts to not just this offseason,

935
00:55:12,520 --> 00:55:17,400
Speaker 1: but really almost a full year of information showing a

936
00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:21,359
Speaker 1: lot of creative decisions being made with Michael Hill, if

937
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:24,080
Speaker 1: not the only one involved with it, and maybe even

938
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:26,640
Speaker 1: not the loudest voice in the room, he's in the

939
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:30,280
Speaker 1: middle of it. As much as I advocate for spending

940
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:34,960
Speaker 1: on young, talented homegrown players, most notably Brian Anderson, I

941
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:37,640
Speaker 1: think maybe that's the one area that jumps out to

942
00:55:37,680 --> 00:55:41,279
Speaker 1: you as something that the Marlins have overlooked in that

943
00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:44,839
Speaker 1: they have not yet reached any of these low risk,

944
00:55:44,960 --> 00:55:48,360
Speaker 1: long term deals with some of their most talented homegrown players.

945
00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:50,480
Speaker 1: That's going to be a very critical step for them,

946
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:55,240
Speaker 1: because as we'll investing in free agency on high caliber

947
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:59,520
Speaker 1: players this offseason, spending on a lot of decent role players,

948
00:55:59,520 --> 00:56:02,720
Speaker 1: but not in as necessarily any guys of a certain

949
00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:06,360
Speaker 1: impact pedigree that you can count on, there's going to

950
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:09,759
Speaker 1: come a point within the next year, i'd say, where

951
00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:12,439
Speaker 1: you have to see the Marlins taking some of these

952
00:56:12,600 --> 00:56:15,839
Speaker 1: bigger risks in order to lock up guys that have

953
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:19,919
Speaker 1: a super high potential to really put this team back

954
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:23,640
Speaker 1: into contention. And so that's still to be determined is

955
00:56:23,640 --> 00:56:28,040
Speaker 1: how Hill and company spends on starter level, every day

956
00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:31,480
Speaker 1: caliber or from top of the rotation like free agents

957
00:56:31,719 --> 00:56:36,160
Speaker 1: or their own homegrown players. They have to select very carefully.

958
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:38,839
Speaker 1: There is somewhat of a science to this. It's not

959
00:56:38,920 --> 00:56:41,759
Speaker 1: every decision will work out, but they have to. They'll

960
00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:43,640
Speaker 1: have to take these risks eventually, and they'll have to

961
00:56:43,719 --> 00:56:48,280
Speaker 1: prove that they can distinguish between several comparable options players

962
00:56:48,320 --> 00:56:51,800
Speaker 1: that have similar, similar tools or track records. They'ought to

963
00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:56,040
Speaker 1: show that they have the analysis and foresight and the

964
00:56:56,160 --> 00:56:59,760
Speaker 1: developmental infrastructure to get the most out of these players

965
00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:03,200
Speaker 1: moving forward and bring this rebuild all the way out

966
00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:09,000
Speaker 1: on the other end. But at this juncture, considering where

967
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:12,240
Speaker 1: considering the recent events and how many of them appear

968
00:57:12,440 --> 00:57:17,120
Speaker 1: to align pretty well with the team's overall objective, just

969
00:57:17,680 --> 00:57:21,560
Speaker 1: don't if it ain't broke, then don't make all that

970
00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:26,120
Speaker 1: many changes to the decision making structure that the Marlins have.

971
00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:31,120
Speaker 1: So Michael Hill needs a new contract. And despite all

972
00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:35,080
Speaker 1: the dysfunction that he was around earlier this decade, this

973
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:37,800
Speaker 1: is a guy that's been with the organization almost as

974
00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:41,320
Speaker 1: long as anybody else that is currently with the Marlins team.

975
00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:44,760
Speaker 1: He was the one key holdover in the front office

976
00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:48,560
Speaker 1: in the baseball decision making structure from the old regime.

977
00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:54,040
Speaker 1: And finally we've reached a point where he is he's

978
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:58,440
Speaker 1: helping and bring this team to the right direction, whether

979
00:57:58,520 --> 00:58:01,520
Speaker 1: it happens prior to opening or even during the season,

980
00:58:02,120 --> 00:58:05,080
Speaker 1: my vote is for continuity in this Marlins front office.

981
00:58:05,120 --> 00:58:07,800
Speaker 1: Now that everybody appears to be on the same page,

982
00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:10,480
Speaker 1: I'm curious what you guys have to say about it.

983
00:58:10,720 --> 00:58:13,920
Speaker 1: When I floaded the idea on Twitter prior to this recording,

984
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:17,880
Speaker 1: it was met with a lot of initial skepticism or

985
00:58:18,600 --> 00:58:22,400
Speaker 1: disagreement even about hill status on the team. So be

986
00:58:22,480 --> 00:58:26,480
Speaker 1: sure to reach out to us on fish Stripes dot com,

987
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:30,560
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram about your thoughts about Michael Hill and

988
00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:35,200
Speaker 1: this offseason in general. As always, I greatly appreciate all

989
00:58:35,200 --> 00:58:37,760
Speaker 1: the Marlins fans that support us, that are part of

990
00:58:37,760 --> 00:58:41,400
Speaker 1: the Fish Stripes community that inspire the conversations that we

991
00:58:41,480 --> 00:58:44,800
Speaker 1: have on the podcast and on the website. Twenty twenty

992
00:58:44,880 --> 00:58:47,040
Speaker 1: is going to be the most exciting year in a while,

993
00:58:47,280 --> 00:58:50,200
Speaker 1: so tell friends we want to get as many perspectives

994
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:54,160
Speaker 1: as possible, to be part of the same community and

995
00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:58,200
Speaker 1: help us break down what should be a really interesting

996
00:58:58,320 --> 00:59:02,720
Speaker 1: year around the organization. I me Eli Susman, Goldfish