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

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Speaker 1: Fish Small Pod for Monday, May twentieth, here on the

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Speaker 1: Fish on First podcast channel, presented by MPT College Consulting.

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Speaker 1: This is elas Susman here sticking with my plan where

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Speaker 1: on every Monday, get a small pod shining the spotlight

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Speaker 1: on a different Marlins prospect from each level, each full

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Speaker 1: season level of the Marlins farm system, for better or

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Speaker 1: for worse. We covered four different guys last week, so

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Speaker 1: go ahead and check that out in case you missed it.

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Speaker 1: Always going to pick a different batch of players from

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Speaker 1: one week to the next to highlight right here without

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Speaker 1: further ado. Triple A Jacksonville Xavier Edwards. He's back in

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Speaker 1: action after two plus months rehabbing from a foot infection

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Speaker 1: that knocked him out early in spring training. He's back

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Speaker 1: on the field, started a rehab assignment on Saturday. The

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Speaker 1: number eight prospect on our Fish on First Top thirty.

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Speaker 1: Just a refresher from last season. In Triple A, he

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Speaker 1: won the International League batting title, hit three point fifty

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Speaker 1: one career high seven homers, thirty two of thirty six

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Speaker 1: on stolen base attempts. He forced his way up to

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Speaker 1: the big leagues. He stuck around for that final month

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Speaker 1: of the regular season at the big league level, and

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Speaker 1: this year, because of the foot infection, he hasn't had

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Speaker 1: a chance to build off of that. It's created room

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Speaker 1: for some other infielders on the big league roster, and

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Speaker 1: he has picked up exactly where he left off. Very

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Speaker 1: first game back hit a triple for Jacksonville on Saturday,

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Speaker 1: then on Sunday has wanted his patented bunt singles where

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Speaker 1: it wasn't really particularly close either. That is a skill

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Speaker 1: that he has that has some value at the big

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Speaker 1: league level where it's harder to find guys that lays

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Speaker 1: it down. He played both of his games at second

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Speaker 1: base so far with Jacksonville. He made a pretty routine

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Speaker 1: error on Sunday, and that's just a refresher. That kind

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Speaker 1: of a reason why he's not super highly regarded or

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Speaker 1: penciled in necessarily as a long term building block for

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Speaker 1: the Marlins is because there are some limitations defensively with

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Speaker 1: Edwards as well as as an overall run producer due

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Speaker 1: to his limited power Right here anyway, he is on

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Speaker 1: this sixty day IL that's retroactive to March twenty fifth,

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Speaker 1: so if my math is right, he'll be eligible to

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Speaker 1: be reinstated by the Marlins as soon as Friday. I

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Speaker 1: think that's a little bit unlikely, but it's he's getting close,

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Speaker 1: and it's just a matter of whether or not he's

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Speaker 1: a clear upgrade or a more deserving player than somebody

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Speaker 1: else that they have on their position player group right now.

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Speaker 1: So we'll follow that. I wanted to feature him this

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Speaker 1: week just because there's a chance that he's not even

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Speaker 1: in the minor leagues anymore a week from now. Xavier

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Speaker 1: Edward's good to see him back on the field, going

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Speaker 1: to double a. Pensacola our number twenty five prospect on

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Speaker 1: ficial first, Joe Mack highly regarded draft pick three years

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Speaker 1: ago as a high school catcher, battlet some injuries the

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Speaker 1: first two years in pro ball, and then last year

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Speaker 1: completely injury free for the most part, but just highly disappointing,

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Speaker 1: especially offensively for Mac. And then this year you may

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Speaker 1: have heard that he got off to an incredible start,

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Speaker 1: repeating hye Beloit. He moved up to Pensacola after just

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Speaker 1: thirteen games or so, and now he is It's been

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Speaker 1: all right. He is one of the younger players at

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Speaker 1: the entire level, still just twenty one years old, and

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Speaker 1: so far in twenty four games since that promotion new

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Speaker 1: Double A, he is slashing two thirty seven, three oh one,

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Speaker 1: three eighty seven. It's an OPS under seven hundred. But

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Speaker 1: I think it's important context that the Southern League is

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Speaker 1: playing extremely pitcher firmly right now. The entire league's OPS

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Speaker 1: is down about one hundred points from where it was

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Speaker 1: just last year, from seven forty to six forty, so

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Speaker 1: that means Mac is still ten percent better than the

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Speaker 1: league average hitter so far, despite the underwhelming raw numbers

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Speaker 1: with him, he is splitting time evenly between catcher and

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Speaker 1: d H so I find that interesting for somebody that

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Speaker 1: is highly important part of the equation that he develops

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Speaker 1: as a catcher. And they have a crewdit situation with Mac,

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Speaker 1: with Paul McIntosh, with Bennett Hostetler. Three of those catchers

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Speaker 1: on the roster right now, and the youngest one, Joe Mack,

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Speaker 1: is hitting the best that of all three so far

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Speaker 1: with him, there is an intriguing amount of pull side

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Speaker 1: power with Mac. The key question is whether it's more

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Speaker 1: gap to gap doubles power or at true home run power.

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Speaker 1: So far, in his career, it has been kind of

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Speaker 1: the former, where not a whole lot of balls that

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Speaker 1: are leaving the park, but some very solid line drives

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Speaker 1: that are producing runs. Nonetheless, and as a player that's

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Speaker 1: still relatively young, there is some room for him to

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Speaker 1: continue to add strength to his frame and perhaps that

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Speaker 1: will just lead to some better results. So far considered,

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Speaker 1: it's been a solid season four Max so far. That's

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Speaker 1: what earns him a spot back on our top thirty

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Speaker 1: list after being unranked entering the season, and he can

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Speaker 1: make the case relatively soon that he might be the

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Speaker 1: top catching prospect in this entire organization, although I think

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Speaker 1: that speaks more towards the lack of alternatives than it

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Speaker 1: does to Mac being a up and coming star. He

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Speaker 1: still has a lot to prove, but thankfully this has

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Speaker 1: been a much needed bounce back compared to what he

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Speaker 1: was in twenty twenty three. To hi a beloite. We will

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Speaker 1: go within unranked a former undrafted free agent signing for

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Speaker 1: the Marlins infielder Josh Zamora, somebody that we have not

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Speaker 1: covered a whole lot on vision. On first, he is

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Speaker 1: twenty five years old playing at high A so especially

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Speaker 1: on the position player side that is, so that is

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Speaker 1: a pretty big factor that makes you want to take

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Speaker 1: the numbers with a bit of a grain of salt.

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Speaker 1: But his numbers have been so good that I had

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Speaker 1: to at least shout them out right here. Zamora has

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Speaker 1: a nine to three ops this season in thirty games.

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Speaker 1: He is seven homers already in those thirty games, and

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Speaker 1: that's notable because he had seven total home runs last year,

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Speaker 1: which he played mainly at the same level in Beloit

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Speaker 1: and got a cup of coffee at Pensacola as well,

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Speaker 1: so he's repeating this level. He's old for the level.

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Speaker 1: He has mainly been their second basement so far this year,

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Speaker 1: although he does have considerable pro experience both at shortstop

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Speaker 1: and a third base as well. Yeah, an interesting guy.

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Speaker 1: He is undersized for sure, listed at five foot ten

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Speaker 1: that might be generous. He just turned twenty five. I'd

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Speaker 1: like to see him pushed up to Pensacola just to

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Speaker 1: see if there's anything more here. Even the raw tools

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Speaker 1: don't completely jump out yet. His performance has been outstanding

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Speaker 1: and there's nothing less to prove for him at that level.

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Speaker 1: Currently in Pensacola, the shortstop position is going to another

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Speaker 1: former undrafted free agent and Harrison Spahn. I don't want

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Speaker 1: to go on too much of a tangent, but Jacob

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Speaker 1: Barry at Pensacola mainly playing third base with some right

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Speaker 1: fields mixed in as well, he has had a disastrous

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Speaker 1: start to his season, and I don't think it's outrageous

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Speaker 1: despite the optics of potentially just switching spots, switching levels

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Speaker 1: and giving Jacob Barri a reset Apple Lait so that

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Speaker 1: Zamora can go out and perform and try to prove

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Speaker 1: that there's a little bit more offense to his game

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Speaker 1: than had previously been expected coming into the pros. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: so things going well for Zamora. Not a whole lot

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Speaker 1: to say about what it means for his future until

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Speaker 1: he actually replicates it against more similar age competition. We

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Speaker 1: will wrap up with one of the underperformers early on

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Speaker 1: this season, outfielder John Cruz. He was the centerpiece of

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Speaker 1: that package for John Birdie of the deal completed right

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Speaker 1: before opening day, number sixteen ranked prospect on our Top

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Speaker 1: thirty list, just eighteen years old at low A. It's

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Speaker 1: a brand new level for John Cruise and he has

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Speaker 1: been humbled from the very beginning. His batting average has

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Speaker 1: sunk below I think one p fifty for almost the

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Speaker 1: last month, if not longer. From the very beginning. He

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Speaker 1: was in a slump. Very recently. He's coming off one

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Speaker 1: of his better series as a Marlins prospect this past

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Speaker 1: week where he went five for nineteen a six forty

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Speaker 1: nine ops. But that just speaks to how low the

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Speaker 1: standards have been so far. He's just not hitting a lick.

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Speaker 1: He has so much room to add strength, especially on

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Speaker 1: his upper body, and right now he just does not

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Speaker 1: have the physical tools in order to do damage to

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Speaker 1: the ball. His average exit velocity this year eighty two

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Speaker 1: miles per hour, and that is very fitting because it's

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Speaker 1: almost a dead match for what John Birdie is doing

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Speaker 1: at the major league level, except with the cruise. This

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Speaker 1: is six' two sixty three guy that showed, power potential

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Speaker 1: and rookie. BALL i think that was a big part

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Speaker 1: of the. Appeal he's going to be a corner outfielder moving.

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Speaker 1: Forward he's playing almost exclusively right field so far this.

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Speaker 1: Season he allot to hit the ball a lot harder

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Speaker 1: than currently, is and so when you combine that with

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Speaker 1: more strikeouts than you'd, like a strikeout raid in the

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Speaker 1: high twenties with zero home run. Power the defense has

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Speaker 1: looked solid in right field all things. Considered nothing special

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Speaker 1: out there. EITHER i was surprised that when the fuller

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Speaker 1: to Complex league season started a couple of weeks ago

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Speaker 1: that he wasn't simply reassigned to that level to get things,

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Speaker 1: reset because he's been one of the worst offensive performers

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Speaker 1: in full season ball for any, organization and even in

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Speaker 1: This marlins organization so, far among guys that are actually playing.

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Speaker 1: Consistently so, Yeah, Cruise i'm not going to overreact so.

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Speaker 1: Far this is a new level for him against much

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Speaker 1: older experience. Competition that being, said not encouraging if you

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Speaker 1: were somebody that was hoping The John birdie trade would

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Speaker 1: bring back something substantial in. Return it's still a major

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Speaker 1: question mark as to What cruse will. Become early returns

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Speaker 1: have not been. Much it shows that both physically and

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Speaker 1: with his, approach he needs to get back to the

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Speaker 1: lab and a lot to. Learn, unfortunately he has so

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Speaker 1: much time on his side as an eighteen year. Old

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Speaker 1: so those are my prospect spotlight quartet for this. Week Xavier,

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Speaker 1: Edwards Joe, Mack Josh zamora And John cruse do this,

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Speaker 1: again same time next week here on The Small. Pod

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Speaker 1: subscribe to fish On first wherever you get your. Pods

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Speaker 1: all of our audio content presented BY Mpt College. Consulting

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Speaker 1: check them Out mptcollegeconsulting dot com to learn more about

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Speaker 1: their services and schedule a free. Consultation i've Been Eli,

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Speaker 1: Sussman thanks for. Listening go fish the don thing than

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Speaker 1: there