Speaker 1: Sometimes why you're listening to fish On First on Foul's
Speaker 1: territory network.
Speaker 2: Fish Unfiltered, Episode one thirteen, And you guys are in
Speaker 2: for a real treat. We just concluded a very great
Speaker 2: interview with the owner and chairman of the Miami Marlins,
Speaker 2: Bruce Sherman. We'll get to that a little bit later,
Speaker 2: but for now, I'm joined by Kevin Barrall fish On
Speaker 2: First founder Eli Sussman. We're gonna discuss a little bit
Speaker 2: of Marlins, a little bit of All Star Week festivities
Speaker 2: before we get into that interview.
Speaker 3: But Kevin, you are in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: Record this on Wednesday morning, the night after the morning
Speaker 2: after the All Star Game, Kevin, Citizens Bank Park. I
Speaker 2: have been fortunate enough to witness it during Red October.
Speaker 2: This must have been a totally different ballgame being there
Speaker 2: for All Star Week. What was that like?
Speaker 3: Oh, it was great. It was a it was a
Speaker 3: good experience. Unfortunately, the actual game itself was quite boring
Speaker 3: until Miguel Vargus hit the homer. But you know, very
Speaker 3: little offense on the National League side. But Auto did
Speaker 3: not get to hit, so that kind of saved saved
Speaker 3: the day a little bit in terms of at least
Speaker 3: our coverage to have something to stand on. And yeah, no,
Speaker 3: it was great. The home run derby was awesome. Seeing
Speaker 3: Jordan Walker come back the way he did and it
Speaker 3: really legitimately stuned Phillies fans was awesome because, I mean,
Speaker 3: you don't ever see fans booing a player in an
Speaker 3: All Star game unless it's like a division rival or something.
Speaker 3: The Phillies fans booed the absolute hell out of everyone.
Speaker 3: But this format was fun. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 3: It actually didn't feel as long as it may have
Speaker 3: come off as I thought. It was gonna be a
Speaker 3: little bit longer, just because there's no timer and things
Speaker 3: aren't timed up. But even with a later it started
Speaker 3: a little later because of all the intros and stuff.
Speaker 3: But no, it was. It was fun. Jordan Walker is
Speaker 3: an absolute monster. He's having an awesome year. Yeah, I mean, obviously,
Speaker 3: I think some disappointing performances in the derby. You would
Speaker 3: have expected Harper to do a little more. Caglione had
Speaker 3: some of the more impressive homers despite only getting some
Speaker 3: of the fewests. Ben Riots was not very good into derby.
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is with the Yankees hitters
Speaker 3: out after and Judge in the derby, But yeah, no,
Speaker 3: it was. It was a fun experience. Definitely looking forward
Speaker 3: to doing this at some point again. And next year
Speaker 3: it's in Wrigley. We'll see when that happens with the
Speaker 3: impending lockout, but yeah, no, fun experience. Definitely the right
Speaker 3: spot for a host as well. For this All Star game,
Speaker 3: the fans really showed up and showed up.
Speaker 5: You can't control the particulars of what happens during the
Speaker 5: All Star Game itself, and I think this one is
Speaker 5: by most measures, it's gonna be less memorable for that
Speaker 5: particular game than has been in previous years. But that's
Speaker 5: there's just some randomness to it as as that goes.
Speaker 5: And as for the derby there and there's been so
Speaker 5: many like minor tweaks to it throughout the years in
Speaker 5: ways that overall like it every single time. I think
Speaker 5: it is an event that is going to endure for
Speaker 5: forever pretty much, just because there is just a few
Speaker 5: things more satisfying evincing an absolutely crushed home run, and
Speaker 5: I think the total numbers, I mean, the only thing
Speaker 5: that's sick said is like the actual total number of
Speaker 5: home runs hit. It kind of pales as a comparison
Speaker 5: to the format from the previous few years, fewer total
Speaker 5: swings and that element to it, but it's I think
Speaker 5: overall it was still a successful event. I do always
Speaker 5: like it when it's some winner having some balance of
Speaker 5: winners that are established superstars versus those that are kind
Speaker 5: of breakout players, and Jordan Walker has had that breakout season,
Speaker 5: so I think it was kind of Even though he
Speaker 5: wasn't a favorite going into the derby itself, it's not
Speaker 5: a super shocking outcome either. I think it was a
Speaker 5: worthy champ and so for all, I do still appreciate
Speaker 5: the also our break itself, the way that they moved
Speaker 5: around the schedule a little bit. I guess he's less
Speaker 5: a couple of days. I've had a bit more time
Speaker 5: to breathe and recover during the season. Nobody thinks about
Speaker 5: the media, but this is like these few days, you know,
Speaker 5: for me, for those that aren't actually at the game itself,
Speaker 5: this is a very important recuperation time in the middle
Speaker 5: of the year for covering a sport that is every
Speaker 5: single day, not just with the major league level, but
Speaker 5: across the minor leagues as well. In these past handful
Speaker 5: of years, the minor leagues at the full season levels,
Speaker 5: they are all calibrated with the big league team in
Speaker 5: terms of taking their own All Star break. So that's
Speaker 5: kind of one little aspect. I'm grateful for it to
Speaker 5: have just a few days without the games, and as
Speaker 5: soon as they reve up again, though, you know that
Speaker 5: we're going to be covering it more thoroughly than anybody
Speaker 5: else does.
Speaker 2: Indeed we will. The Marlins, Scurry said, seven games over
Speaker 2: five hundred, despite a first half ending sweep at the
Speaker 2: hands of the Cleveland Guardians. Just some uncompetitive baseball, but
Speaker 2: as Bruce Sherman said on our pod, ran into some
Speaker 2: All Stars right intoto, some tough left handed pitching, and yeah,
Speaker 2: regarding the All Star Game, the home rundry, it was
Speaker 2: pretty impressive watching pretty much every single right hand to
Speaker 2: hit or reach the second deck and left in Citizens
Speaker 2: Bank pargain. For those who don't know, it's not easy
Speaker 2: to get up there, especially with batting practice pitching velocity,
Speaker 2: it's not easy to crank them. As far as Wilson
Speaker 2: Contreras was doing Junior Camenero, et cetera, it was really
Speaker 2: a special show. I don't know, if, for example, Kevin,
Speaker 2: do you prefer the clock format or a swing slash
Speaker 2: out format?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 3: No, this format by far easily. I think the clock
Speaker 3: doesn't give players enough time to recover and they'd go
Speaker 3: on their own time. And for the most part, they're
Speaker 3: pretty quickly. They're pretty quick, and the fan base makes
Speaker 3: it known if they're displeased with if you're taking long
Speaker 3: time or if you're taking pitches like obviously that's not
Speaker 3: going to get in the player's head, but it's certainly
Speaker 3: it plays a factor. And yeah, no, I mean players
Speaker 3: aren't as tired and you're at less risk of an
Speaker 3: injury too, if you're swinging as quickly as you are
Speaker 3: to get as many as you can. The one thing
Speaker 3: I don't like about this format is that, and I
Speaker 3: think one of our guys, Alex Carver mentioned this, like
Speaker 3: we would be there for a little bit longer, but
Speaker 3: there's not the twenty something homer performances that we have
Speaker 3: seen in the past, right, Like you're winning with ten
Speaker 3: or twelve homers, which is still impressive, but it's not,
Speaker 3: you know, it's not the twenty something that we've seen
Speaker 3: Stanton or Judge hit before, even justin Borr was up
Speaker 3: there at some point in the derby, So that's my
Speaker 3: only I guess gripe with it. But overall, it's better
Speaker 3: for the game. It's gonna keep the players healthy, it's
Speaker 3: cause for less injury, and you're gonna see more impressive
Speaker 3: homers from start to finish. I mean, Jordan Walker hits
Speaker 3: some absolute nukes, so you know it's the players aren't
Speaker 3: getting tired as tired at least because they're going at
Speaker 3: their own pace.
Speaker 5: Well, the one thing you're guaranteed to see it and
Speaker 5: anyway in the second half is that at least one
Speaker 5: of these Derby guys is gonna have a pretty long
Speaker 5: home run drought coming out of the break, and there's
Speaker 5: gonna be in hindsight, there's gonna be people saying that
Speaker 5: it's the Derby that screwed up his swing. That happens
Speaker 5: every single time, and no matter what the results are,
Speaker 5: and that's just the kind of the byproduct of making
Speaker 5: the Derby in the first place. It means that you
Speaker 5: hit a ton of home runs just in the first
Speaker 5: half and that you might be due for a little
Speaker 5: bit of regression anyway. But I'm sure that somebody out
Speaker 5: of this field is going to be kind of the
Speaker 5: latest example that it's an annual tradition for people to
Speaker 5: freak out a little bit if their guy comes out
Speaker 5: slow coming out of the break. After earning his spot
Speaker 5: in the derby in the first half.
Speaker 2: Second half on deck, Bruce Sherman told us that he
Speaker 2: will give Peter Bennix the green light to do whatever
Speaker 2: he needs to do to make this team a competitor.
Speaker 2: He knows about the nles, how important that is. What
Speaker 2: would you like to see done both at the trade
Speaker 2: deadline and on the field and second half?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was like, obviously you guys will watch the
Speaker 3: interview with Bruce, but that was one of the more
Speaker 3: interesting things.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: That's not not only that he says publicly that he
Speaker 3: will give the green light to Bruce Peter, I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: but acknowledging like the decisions in play, you know, and
Speaker 3: he understands that there's a difference between the wild card
Speaker 3: and the division is extremely huge. It's the difference between
Speaker 3: either going on the road for a playoff game or
Speaker 3: hosting a playoff game. For the first time ever, had
Speaker 3: loan people apart, so it's a very different thing. And
Speaker 3: he acknowledged it pretty quickly.
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Speaker 3: What the Marls will do at the deadline, I think
Speaker 3: it starts at third base. I know Leo. He managed
Speaker 3: the last two weeks has actually been pretty good going
Speaker 3: into the break, but I still think that shouldn't change
Speaker 3: the view that this team is in need of a
Speaker 3: third baseman. They really do need one. I think you're
Speaker 3: going to a point where you may need a back
Speaker 3: end reliever, a higher leverage guy, and I think you
Speaker 3: need a starter. Unfortunately, I know Janson Junk kind of
Speaker 3: grinded through that last start, but I don't think long
Speaker 3: term he's the answer. I don't think Tyler Phillips long
Speaker 3: term is the answer as a starting pitcher. I think
Speaker 3: you need to add a starter, and I think that's
Speaker 3: honestly above all that may be the biggest need because
Speaker 3: at third base you played off with Sonoha and Lao.
Speaker 3: Is it ideal? No, but it may be easier to
Speaker 3: garner pitching in this trade market rather than a right
Speaker 3: handed hitting third base, which would be ideal. You know,
Speaker 3: one that could hit for a little bit more power,
Speaker 3: so more thumb in the lineup would be obviously ideal.
Speaker 3: So I think those starting pitching is obviously a big need.
Speaker 3: Third base is the biggest need, but third base, starting
Speaker 3: pitching and at least one high leverage reliever definitely should
Speaker 3: be what I at least I look at in terms
Speaker 3: of the needs. The names are still too tough to tell.
Speaker 3: You're gonna start seeing a lot more sellers in the
Speaker 3: market now when in the next week or two so,
Speaker 3: things will begin to, you know, become more clear as
Speaker 3: to what names. And I think this is when we
Speaker 3: really start hearing the real rumors take place.
Speaker 5: Right Yeah, you kind of arrived at the place where
Speaker 5: I was at in terms of I do think it's
Speaker 5: starting pitching first and foremost. That that's I don't think
Speaker 5: it's a successful deadline unless they acquire additional starting pitching
Speaker 5: from outside the organization. They don't have enough internally right
Speaker 5: now they have outside of the guys that are currently
Speaker 5: in their rotation, and I'm not exactly sure who's currently
Speaker 5: in their rotation. I'm not one hundred percent sure if
Speaker 5: Tyler Phillips still is the way that they used him
Speaker 5: on Sunday that I felt like they got an ending
Speaker 5: from him and already getting him reactulated. It seems a
Speaker 5: bit to being a reliever. If anybody goes down, it's
Speaker 5: it's Braxton Garrett in case of the injury, and I
Speaker 5: think we will see Braxton at the big league level
Speaker 5: at some point you just can't rely on him when
Speaker 5: you really haven't seen any sort of major league success
Speaker 5: from him in like three years. It's like late twenty
Speaker 5: twenty three, which means that they got to add somebody
Speaker 5: from outside the organization. I think that's the one area
Speaker 5: where there's a lot of different directions to go, Like
Speaker 5: there always are starting pitcher ors moved at the very
Speaker 5: least rental ones, But this is I put in a roundtable, like,
Speaker 5: I think this is a good opportunity for the Marlins
Speaker 5: even to get somebody with some club control looking ahead
Speaker 5: and understanding that even looking to not only something to
Speaker 5: fill a gap for twenty twenty six, but looking ahead
Speaker 5: to twenty twenty seven and feeling like they could I
Speaker 5: don't think they necessarily have all the answers internally for
Speaker 5: next year either when it comes to that. So this
Speaker 5: is an opportunity to really adjust that concern both now
Speaker 5: and moving forward. At the very least.
Speaker 3: Guys coming back from injuries can also feel like an
Speaker 3: internal type of trade. So never Bender comes back, hopefully
Speaker 3: john Kin comes back soon. Those are two pieces that
Speaker 3: you're adding to the bullpen that you know it's currently
Speaker 3: weak right now, but you have them two plus Phillips,
Speaker 3: maybe you don't really need to fill up that bullpen.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe that's a good point there, Elie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just a reminder for who is on the IL
Speaker 2: for the Miami Marlins when they return to play on Friday,
Speaker 2: July seventeenth. You have had amazing Robbie selling both out
Speaker 2: for the year. You've got Bender Echnes, Kempner and John
Speaker 2: King and Andrew Nordi all on the IL, with obviously
Speaker 2: Ronnie Henriquez not going to pitch this year either. So
Speaker 2: I agree some pitching need is needed here, and I
Speaker 2: think a perfect addition would be a Tyler Phillips guy,
Speaker 2: but not him. Obviously you've added him to either the
Speaker 2: rotation or to the bullpen, but you need someone that
Speaker 2: can be a hybrid starter and reliever because they're need
Speaker 2: help on both sides and they just sort of want
Speaker 2: to bring in one big arm. Someone that can fulfill
Speaker 2: both those needs I think would be ideal. But with that, Kevin,
Speaker 2: just really quickly, if you want to touch on, you
Speaker 2: were at the Major League Baseball Draft on Saturday, weird
Speaker 2: timing this year, in the middle of a Marlins baseball game.
Speaker 2: The Marlins basedectly fourteenth overall pick, Jacob Lombard from my
Speaker 2: alma mater, Gulliver Prep Preparatory School. Kevin, what do you
Speaker 2: know about the young man? From what I can see,
Speaker 2: he's developed quite well physically as an eighteen year old.
Speaker 2: One could only wish, but six three, one hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty pounds eighteen year old kid out of South Florida.
Speaker 2: Your thoughts on the Marlins first overall pick and the
Speaker 2: rest of the draft?
Speaker 3: Yeah, real quick, it was a weird timing for this
Speaker 3: draft that was on a Saturday, right before Marlins game
Speaker 3: or Major League Baseball games, not even just the Marlins.
Speaker 3: So there's this thing at which I did not know
Speaker 3: this is a thing until I joined the BBWA, but
Speaker 3: there is a breakfast like brunch type thing each year
Speaker 3: the day of the All Star Game where BPA, the
Speaker 3: MLBPA guy talks. I was used to be Tony Clark,
Speaker 3: Nuts Bruce Meyer and and Rob Manfred and Rob Manford
Speaker 3: was asked about, you know why moved the draft? Why
Speaker 3: why'd you do that? It definitely affected I don't know,
Speaker 3: he said, you know, like it affected just the way
Speaker 3: people's days when it was a little bit annoying.
Speaker 4: Whatever.
Speaker 3: He kind of said, like, you know, as part of
Speaker 3: the TV deal, that's the best one that was available
Speaker 3: to us. And regardless of that, I don't know how
Speaker 3: much this is truth, but like he did say, they
Speaker 3: got back very good reviews with it and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: But I found that interesting. That was like there was
Speaker 3: a lot spoken about in those meetings, but Lombard very
Speaker 3: good pick. I don't think anyone could have imagined this
Speaker 3: being a scenario for the Marlins except Jim Kallis. Apparently
Speaker 3: he actually had the Marble taking Lombard like literally the
Speaker 3: day of the draft or something like that the night before.
Speaker 3: But yeah, no, this was a guy who was supposed
Speaker 3: to go in the top five. He was the top
Speaker 3: high school player in the draft. I'm pretty sure too,
Speaker 3: or like one top two. So you know, our guy
Speaker 3: Sean McCormick just wrote an article and he's the best
Speaker 3: outcome for this guy could be Troy Tulwisky. So that's
Speaker 3: very exciting to hear. Lombard's gonna stick at shortstop. That's
Speaker 3: that's very exciting to hear. And I don't know, I
Speaker 3: think this is a guy you could potentially move through
Speaker 3: the system relatively quickly, although I wouldn't rush it because
Speaker 3: we know what happened with the last two high school
Speaker 3: guys they took in the top with their top two
Speaker 3: picks has not gone very well. It's very different talent, obviously,
Speaker 3: but you know, rushing them like that and putting throwing
Speaker 3: them into the fire right away, did it work, And
Speaker 3: hopefully that's not the case with Lombard. Take your time
Speaker 3: with him. You have guys ahead of him, like a cobba,
Speaker 3: like an arquette organizationally at shortstop where you could take
Speaker 3: your time with Lombard. But hey, if he's the one
Speaker 3: performing better than all those guys and he's moving up quickly,
Speaker 3: then you go with him. And we're gonna have to
Speaker 3: do a top thirty update again, hopefully not adding a
Speaker 3: lot of prospects to it because of being sellers at
Speaker 3: the deadline. But Lombard's a top three prospecting the system
Speaker 3: right now, and I know we were discussing that, and
Speaker 3: then you know, overall the draft, it was a very
Speaker 3: weird draft. They actually chose a lot more high school
Speaker 3: guys and I would have anticipated, but I'm assuming that's them,
Speaker 3: assuming they already had a predne deal with Lombard. But again,
Speaker 3: they kind of admitted like they didn't expect this guy
Speaker 3: to fall to them, so I'm curious to see what
Speaker 3: happens there. They chose a couple more high school guys.
Speaker 3: I think the biggest pick outside of Lombard was Rentaro
Speaker 3: Sasaki out of Stanford. He was It's an interesting case.
Speaker 3: He was an absolute phenom coming out of I believe
Speaker 3: it was Japan. So that's like a dude who hits
Speaker 3: for a lot of power. He struggled in his first
Speaker 3: year at the collegiate level in Stanford, but was very
Speaker 3: good this past season. And the big thing with him
Speaker 3: is that he was selected in the first round of
Speaker 3: the MPB Draft, so he could make a lot more
Speaker 3: money over there, or go back to Stanford, or you know,
Speaker 3: sign with the Marlins. So that's that was a wild
Speaker 3: card pick. I don't think anyone would have thought he
Speaker 3: was going to get picked, but they are under the
Speaker 3: assumption that he will sign, so we'll see that continues
Speaker 3: to be the case. And outside of that, nothing really
Speaker 3: stands out. I'm gonna have to do my own little
Speaker 3: deep dive on the draft, but I think right now,
Speaker 3: you look at this list and top thirty guys I
Speaker 3: think Lombard really the only one. Maybe the other two
Speaker 3: picks slipped towards the back end of that, but overall
Speaker 3: good draft can't complain. We'll see if they sign. I
Speaker 3: think this is a big thing of this will be signability.
Speaker 3: They are able to keep guys and able to sign them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely want to keep them from going to
Speaker 2: college in this case. With that, I think we can
Speaker 2: sort of migrate over to our big interview with the
Speaker 2: principal owner of Your Miami Marlins, Bruce Sherman.
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Speaker 2: Today, we are really pleased to be joined by the
Speaker 2: principal owner and chairman of your Miami Marlins, Bruce Sherman.
Speaker 2: Mister Bruce, I can't thank you enough for taking the
Speaker 2: time to spend it here with us this morning. How's
Speaker 2: your morning going.
Speaker 6: He's going great.
Speaker 8: And I want to thank you guys for hosting me
Speaker 8: and for all your tenants with all the games.
Speaker 6: And Kevin was at the pres got up really early.
Speaker 8: He was at the All Star Game. And I listened
Speaker 8: to your stuff or read your stuff. I watch your stuff,
Speaker 8: and uh, it's good to be here.
Speaker 2: We appreciate it. You watched so much, and you mentioned
Speaker 2: Auto Lopez. What's how fun is it watching some of
Speaker 2: your players every year? Obviously watching some of your players
Speaker 2: participate in the Midsummer Class like every July.
Speaker 8: I think we could have had more than two. It's great,
Speaker 8: you know, when anybody get hurt. But we've got a
Speaker 8: lot of all stars on that team and a lot
Speaker 8: of emerging all stars.
Speaker 2: Bruce, you're coming up on a ten year anniversary since
Speaker 2: when you bought the Miami Marlins in October of twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: I'm curious how the reality of being the Miami Marlins
Speaker 2: owner has compared with what you expected going in. How
Speaker 2: is it differed. What has your experience been like owning
Speaker 2: this Marlins team.
Speaker 8: I guess we're coming up a ninth at seventeenth right
Speaker 8: closed in October seventeen. It's one of the great privileges
Speaker 8: and thrills I've had in life. I just love where
Speaker 8: we're headed. I enjoy the interaction with all the people.
Speaker 8: I enjoy my interaction with our other owners, with all
Speaker 8: the management, with the front office. And I'm a passionate
Speaker 8: baseball fan. I've lived in Floria of fifty years, and
Speaker 8: I remember we didn't have baseball in Florida. So it
Speaker 8: was an exciting day when the Florida Marlins came into existence.
Speaker 8: It's even more exciting now with the privilege of, as
Speaker 8: you said, getting to be the person being the chairman
Speaker 8: of principal owner. I think I guess, I mean, I
Speaker 8: guess that you know further on that, it's it's been
Speaker 8: an evolution, their highs and their lows. We're in our
Speaker 8: eighth year of operations, and it's particularly gratified to see
Speaker 8: where we're headed and the direction we're headed in which
Speaker 8: I'm really very positive about.
Speaker 2: I think we can tackle some of the quote unquote
Speaker 2: misconceptions that fans may have pretty early in this show.
Speaker 2: I'm curious you and I have spoken very really once
Speaker 2: to just how maybe fans don't understand how lucrative it
Speaker 2: exactly is to own a major league team. You know,
Speaker 2: some teams, it is. Some teams it's not, just not
Speaker 2: as lucrative as fans seem to think. What is one
Speaker 2: misconceptions misconception the fans have about the organizations finances that
Speaker 2: maybe you'd like to nip in the butt.
Speaker 6: Oh you got to.
Speaker 8: If you have an hour, I could talk about that.
Speaker 8: But the reality is I didn't get involved, and I
Speaker 8: don't believe all my partners got involved just for a
Speaker 8: quick internal rate of return.
Speaker 6: We're all passionate about baseball.
Speaker 8: We're very healthy financially a very healthy financial organization, and
Speaker 8: with that comes never taking funds out of the stadium
Speaker 8: team and putting funds back in and as a result,
Speaker 8: that allows us to build subject sustainable versus just something
Speaker 8: in a one shot deal. Fans are always interested in
Speaker 8: just very simply, you know, play a payroll and trade
Speaker 8: deadline all the noise. We're doing it in a I
Speaker 8: think terrific manner, hiring the best people, engaging the best people,
Speaker 8: and investing throughout the organization to build something that's sustainable
Speaker 8: forever and at the same time very important to.
Speaker 6: The South Florida community.
Speaker 8: And I guess that's you know, critical, especially when you
Speaker 8: look at the investments we made in baseball operations. It's
Speaker 8: not popular for fans or for media to talk about it,
Speaker 8: but we put hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody
Speaker 8: looks at that number over and above the purchase price
Speaker 8: into the Marlins to create an organization with Peter Bendix,
Speaker 8: Gabe Kapler, Clayton mccullor, et cetera, would be thrilled to
Speaker 8: operate in. And it's not just the people, which is
Speaker 8: a substantial investment, it's the facilities.
Speaker 6: And I repeated it, but the investment.
Speaker 8: We made in the Dominican Republic several years ago to
Speaker 8: be state of the art. Are Jupiter Complex, which took
Speaker 8: several years, and there's even more construction going on now
Speaker 8: is state of the art. And I get to visit
Speaker 8: with the players and some of the fans and some
Speaker 8: of the front office and see the change we made.
Speaker 8: And it doesn't even stop there. It continues with the
Speaker 8: tens of millions of dollars improvements we made at Loan Depot.
Speaker 8: And the fans don't get to go behind the doors.
Speaker 8: We do, and I think that's a big misconception. And
Speaker 8: I think you're starting to see now the fruits of
Speaker 8: all those efforts in the third year of Peter Bennix.
Speaker 3: Buruse appreciate you taking the time. You've made a career
Speaker 3: out of making good events and investments. Where do you
Speaker 3: think the models ranking those investments that you've made.
Speaker 8: I only got to this point with my fellow owners
Speaker 8: by being a good investor and good at what I
Speaker 8: did in my business, both developing and hiring lots of
Speaker 8: people and then ultimately selling the business but running it
Speaker 8: for twenty five years. This investment was never about internal
Speaker 8: rate of return because only the only internal rate of
Speaker 8: return comes at the end of the day someday in
Speaker 8: the future of unbeknowned state. The reality is it's low.
Speaker 8: There's psych benefits, there's the government benefit. I don't miss
Speaker 8: a pitch both the thirty or forty home games. I
Speaker 8: go to every single away game. I try to go
Speaker 8: to as many way games as possible, and I interact
Speaker 8: with all the people, so you don't see that because
Speaker 8: you're appropriately.
Speaker 6: Talking to the management group, not the ownership group.
Speaker 8: And I get extraordinary benefit from knowing the baseball was
Speaker 8: round eight years ago and knowing as much as I
Speaker 8: know now about all the intricacies of owning and running
Speaker 8: a baseball team, and taking the awesome responsibility of being
Speaker 8: the control person and being the ultimate authority at every decision.
Speaker 3: Bruce, one of the times we get to talk to
Speaker 3: you during the season is at spring training during the
Speaker 3: first Stiffs full squad, and you deliver some notable sound bites.
Speaker 3: Last year, you said that the team will win more
Speaker 3: games than people expected. That was true in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 8: I think we're gonna win a lot of games, a
Speaker 8: lot more games than you think we're gonna win.
Speaker 6: This year.
Speaker 4: That this year.
Speaker 3: You made it know that your focus is to w
Speaker 3: I and win. Where does that conviction come from? And
Speaker 3: where do these do you?
Speaker 7: Do?
Speaker 3: You plan these ahead of time? How does the uh?
Speaker 3: How do you end up working out for you? They
Speaker 3: they've worked out pretty well the last two years.
Speaker 8: I wish I was that smart, but believe me, I'm not.
Speaker 8: And it just comes from the heart. Why I always remind.
Speaker 6: Everybody at the end of the day, this is a
Speaker 6: baseball team.
Speaker 8: We can have special events at lone Depot, and Caroline
Speaker 8: O'Connor does an extraordinary job coordinating these events, our staff
Speaker 8: under her and bringing people into events, whether it's the
Speaker 8: Winter Classic, whether it's you know, Monster Truck or any
Speaker 8: other event. Nothing is important other than winning. And that's
Speaker 8: why I've spent so much of my time on the
Speaker 8: operations side, working with Peter, working with Gabe, and providing
Speaker 8: the financial resources and providing the guidance to be successful.
Speaker 8: And uh, maybe I was lucky with those two statements,
Speaker 8: but I believe it because I see the development not
Speaker 8: only at the major league level. I see the development
Speaker 8: at the minor league level. I was talking to Peter
Speaker 8: just the other day and I looked at some of
Speaker 8: the earlier years when you know six seven, eight nine
Speaker 8: were up in the lineup and you wonder where.
Speaker 6: The runs were going to come from.
Speaker 8: Now, when six seven, eight nine are in the lineup,
Speaker 8: I feel a lot more confident they have at any
Speaker 8: other point in the season. And you don't have to
Speaker 8: go beyond that. You can look at our relief pitching.
Speaker 8: You've got our starting pitching. Yes, we've had some injuries,
Speaker 8: but everybody has injuries. So my confidence comes from Clayton
Speaker 8: and Peter Dabe Kapler and the culture that they've created. Yes,
Speaker 8: on a day to day basis, they're working the ten
Speaker 8: twelve hours a day home and away, and they're creating
Speaker 8: the culture ownership of supporting that culture, and it seems
Speaker 8: to be going in the right direction. I'm really happy
Speaker 8: about that. And the culture even goes beyond that. We
Speaker 8: do a lot in the community with the Marlins Foundation.
Speaker 8: I do things personally as well, which you don't see,
Speaker 8: but most importantly, Caroline the team do an awful lot.
Speaker 6: To create.
Speaker 8: A good feeling in baseball. With everything in South Florida,
Speaker 8: I just hope it extends from the Miami area all
Speaker 8: the way up to the northern part of to Palm
Speaker 8: Beach County.
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Speaker 4: Bruce.
Speaker 3: The Monits are currently seven games over five hundred. It's
Speaker 3: good enough for the third National League walidcard spot. What
Speaker 3: have been your thoughts and Al Clayton and the team
Speaker 3: off played up to this point.
Speaker 6: It's been great.
Speaker 8: Uh, nobody likes being swept the last three games before
Speaker 8: the All Star Game, but you take it on balance
Speaker 8: the organization any even in that game, we ran in
Speaker 8: some good left handed pitching and we ran into some
Speaker 8: very uh you know, not a team that just come
Speaker 8: off some losses. And I think you have to take
Speaker 8: it on balance. So I'm extraordinarily excited. I appreciate the
Speaker 8: fans coming out in more size now and I probably
Speaker 8: enjoy more than anything else, how hard the team is playing,
Speaker 8: how smart they're playing, how they compete all night innings,
Speaker 8: the comeback wins, and the consistency, I mean, one of
Speaker 8: the things. And you know I've read your columns when
Speaker 8: the times people criticize some of the moves we make
Speaker 8: in the coaching staff, the reality is unbalanced.
Speaker 6: I love the.
Speaker 8: Consistency, I love the moves. I love that it's a
Speaker 8: well thought out plan for every move that's made before
Speaker 8: the game. During the game, it's Clayton and the coaching
Speaker 8: staff to run. They're involved in every aspect and it's
Speaker 8: truly extraordinary to see the amount of effort that goes
Speaker 8: into every aspect, most of which is not seen.
Speaker 6: Even the extraordinary.
Speaker 8: Training methods we're using, all right, were the only the
Speaker 8: team still calling pitchers from the which is not training.
Speaker 8: But with the team still calling pitches from the dugout
Speaker 8: our training sometimes out there you've seen it. It's bring
Speaker 8: training and that gives me a lot of beliefs. And
Speaker 8: you know, the organization that the front office said, they.
Speaker 6: All may not work, but we're going to try them
Speaker 6: and we're.
Speaker 8: Going to try to add value to the organization, not
Speaker 8: just the twenty six of twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty
Speaker 8: nine and beyond. And that gives me great comfort in
Speaker 8: the people, because it's all about people. At the end
Speaker 8: of the day, I'm not hitting the ball and I'm
Speaker 8: not throwing the ball, and they're developing a lot of
Speaker 8: good people, and you see it in the farm system.
Speaker 8: We all have our favorites and it's going in the
Speaker 8: right direction. So I'm happy about that.
Speaker 2: And the innovation is really a lot of fun to
Speaker 2: watch from the outside, Bruce. Every single time we have visitors,
Speaker 2: it's like, what the heck is that during vatting practice.
Speaker 2: But my next question sort of is about the baseball
Speaker 2: operation side of things. You recently spoke to Marlin's radio
Speaker 2: talking very highly and fondly about Sanrielle Cantarra, who was
Speaker 2: fully overlapped with your tenure with them Miami Marlins. I
Speaker 2: know what he means to you, to the community, to
Speaker 2: the city, and you mentioned that you look forward to
Speaker 2: having this guy be with Miami for a long time.
Speaker 2: My question is how do you balance the emotional slash
Speaker 2: business aspect of a player like that without interfering with
Speaker 2: baseball operation side and saying, Okay, hey, maybe we should
Speaker 2: trade the guy, even though everyone doesn't want that to happen.
Speaker 6: Look, that's a great question.
Speaker 8: And if you look at the job that the front
Speaker 8: office is done, headed by Peter on the whether it's
Speaker 8: rule five, whether it's trades. I mean I had talked,
Speaker 8: We had talked to everybody. When you know a two
Speaker 8: time batting champion, which traded. Okay, we've been through this movie.
Speaker 8: We've seen the movie Sandy's Special, Sandy Special. I made
Speaker 8: those comments with a lot of thought in them. You know,
Speaker 8: I know all the economics. We understand the economics, and
Speaker 8: Sandy's Special. He believes so much the organization on the field,
Speaker 8: off the field, and I mean, if you just look
Speaker 8: at what Standy's done. I mean I flew with him,
Speaker 8: you know, six hour round trip to the Dominican. What
Speaker 8: a wonderful person. His English language is perfect now four
Speaker 8: or five years ago, wasn't guess what my Spanish is
Speaker 8: like zero?
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 8: So I give people an awful lot of credit, not
Speaker 8: because he won the cy Young Award alone, because of
Speaker 8: who the person he is, the family man he is,
Speaker 8: and what he's done. I mean, he's a mentor to
Speaker 8: your he's a mentor to young pictures, he's a leader.
Speaker 8: We need that kind of presence in the clubhouse and
Speaker 8: we need that kind of person. And he's just special.
Speaker 8: And I'm looking forward to pitching the rest of the year.
Speaker 6: For sure.
Speaker 2: Bruce Kevin mentioned that you guys are seven games over
Speaker 2: five hundred. You guys are in a position to potentially
Speaker 2: add to your roster to really attack a playoff spot.
Speaker 2: You guys are even close to an and the least
Speaker 2: division title, something that hasn't been done in franchise history.
Speaker 2: Have you given Peter Bennix and the rest of the
Speaker 2: basal operations the green light to whatever resource is necessary
Speaker 2: to this roster to make it a World Series contender.
Speaker 6: Peter has a green light.
Speaker 8: It's not lost on me the benefits of a division
Speaker 8: champion versus a playoff spot. I lived through twenty three
Speaker 8: with the Phillies. I lived through twenty twenty was fans.
Speaker 8: There wasn't a lot of fun. And look what we
Speaker 8: did in twenty three, that was a bigger We took
Speaker 8: on a lot of money twenty three for you know,
Speaker 8: I think Josh Bellenberger, to their credit, made a difference
Speaker 8: in getting us to the playoffs that year. The picture
Speaker 8: not so much, but it was good. So as a result,
Speaker 8: that's available, and that doesn't mean you mortgage one year
Speaker 8: for the next. And it's something that the deep dive
Speaker 8: that our front office will go through, which is the
Speaker 8: same deep dive I did in my business all those
Speaker 8: years and was fortunate enough to be in this pitution
Speaker 8: will take place. There's still what sixteen games or so left,
Speaker 8: and we don't know what it's going to look like.
Speaker 8: There are percentages, there's analysis, there's players, there's contracts. All
Speaker 8: the building blocks are there, and I know that Peter
Speaker 8: will do a very, very thorough job. But I'm relying
Speaker 8: on Peter Bennix. I'm not relying on Bruce Sherman's instincts, right.
Speaker 2: Peter Bendix's instincts is what gotten you this far so
Speaker 2: quickly since hiring mister Peter. There's one thing I want
Speaker 2: to go off topic with you very quickly, is just
Speaker 2: the South Florida market since you bought the team in
Speaker 2: October twenty seventeen. Do you see baseball being sustainable in
Speaker 2: this market? You mentioned Palm Beachley sort of, I guess
Speaker 2: limited to their access to the ballpark, And I know
Speaker 2: you didn't choose it where the ballpark was chosen, but
Speaker 2: where it was placed. But what are your thoughts on
Speaker 2: the long term part of baseball being in South Florida.
Speaker 8: I'm really optimistic you can talk about the growth of
Speaker 8: the population. You could talk about traffic patterns, you could
Speaker 8: talk about a lot of things. You could talk about
Speaker 8: public transportation, but mostly we all know when we have
Speaker 8: fifteen thousand people there over the weekend per game m Cleveland,
Speaker 8: people can get there, they can park the car, they
Speaker 8: can get on ninety five, they can take the train
Speaker 8: down there.
Speaker 6: The neighbor is becoming very easy place.
Speaker 8: Access is improved, and I want people to look at it,
Speaker 8: not when there's forty thousand people there for the Winter
Speaker 8: Classic and there's a little more traffic in the parking lot,
Speaker 8: but the focus on what Caroline and the team has
Speaker 8: done to make ingress and egress acceptable, to provide the
Speaker 8: home runner.
Speaker 6: You know, Van, if.
Speaker 8: You will to come off the train, and I think
Speaker 8: if you win, people will come out.
Speaker 6: They want a winner, they've experienced a winner.
Speaker 8: And this is not the organization that's going to do
Speaker 8: what's happened in the past. You win, and if you
Speaker 8: don't get enough of ten and just say, oh okay,
Speaker 8: I'm disrupting the organization. We're not disruptors, we're builders. And
Speaker 8: that's why Peter was hired. That's why someone have gave
Speaker 8: capitalist staminas here and That's.
Speaker 6: Why Clayton joined the organization.
Speaker 8: We want to be sustained, we want to win, and
Speaker 8: there's no reason and give anything's going around in baseball
Speaker 8: that we can't be sustainable and winning for a long
Speaker 8: long time and change the fates of perception of not
Speaker 8: only baseball in Miami, but baseball in Florida as well.
Speaker 2: Since purchasing the team, we mentioned this is your ninth year.
Speaker 2: Which do you consider your best decisions and moments during
Speaker 2: this tenure and what are some things that you would
Speaker 2: have maybe done differently?
Speaker 8: Wow, the best decision, of which there are many, is
Speaker 8: clearly revamping the management the way we did. Okay, I
Speaker 8: think those decisions and giving Peter and the organization the financial.
Speaker 6: Tools to do what they've done have done.
Speaker 8: Emphasize the cultural nature and whether it's the culture of
Speaker 8: treating the families specifically wonderful, the players' families and girlfriends,
Speaker 8: whatever the nutrition elements, the player development side, not just
Speaker 8: with the twenty six players you see in the dugout,
Speaker 8: but the two hundred and seventy players that are in
Speaker 8: the in the whole organization. So that decision is something
Speaker 8: I'm really proud of. I'm proud that Caroline has been
Speaker 8: with me for the full full eight years. It alleviates
Speaker 8: a lot of responsibility. Knows she's gonna take care of everything,
Speaker 8: and the commitments from the other owners to the plan
Speaker 8: that we have undertaken here, which is to invest these
Speaker 8: substantial resources that we've done to get in winning a
Speaker 8: winning culture. In terms of you know, disappointments, I hate losing.
Speaker 8: I am I disappointed that if we win and the
Speaker 8: fans don't come out, that will be disappointing. What I
Speaker 8: see in twenty when they couldn't come out because of COVID,
Speaker 8: what I see in twenty three at upticking attendance, and
Speaker 8: I expect to see an upticking tendancy now because I
Speaker 8: expect to win going forward. I'm not playing the game
Speaker 8: every day, Petere's not playing the game. But if you
Speaker 8: get the best twenty six people and that doug out
Speaker 8: you can have, you're going to have success. So that
Speaker 8: is a you know, a reasonable question, I think a
Speaker 8: reasonable good.
Speaker 3: Summer, Bruce, last one, again, appreciate you doing this a lot.
Speaker 3: Just what message would you give to the fans that
Speaker 3: are still doubting this team, that are still doubting what's
Speaker 3: going on? Here in Miami, and you know, to get
Speaker 3: fans to come out and support this team in the
Speaker 3: second half. You know, a team that's playing really good
Speaker 3: baseball in these last two months.
Speaker 8: I think the simplest way to look at that is
Speaker 8: and I'm a big analytics person, a data person that
Speaker 8: was part of my career, and certainly Peter in the
Speaker 8: front of us are very data oriented.
Speaker 6: If the average fan.
Speaker 8: Just looks at simple statistics of the thirty teams in baseball,
Speaker 8: not only wins and losses, but data points, you know,
Speaker 8: straight up the middle Joe Mack x Marc people like that,
Speaker 8: and then they look at the data. I don't know
Speaker 8: if for eight to tenth and team batting average over
Speaker 8: seven and ninth in one category or eleventh in the era,
Speaker 8: but we're no longer twenty fifth to thirtieth in any categories.
Speaker 8: They were leading in stolen base So look at the data,
Speaker 8: and the data translert translates to wins and losses. So
Speaker 8: as a result, there's no reason not to come. It's
Speaker 8: an inexpensive form. Relevantly, speaking of entertainment, we still have
Speaker 8: these packages. You get into that stadium for ten dollars,
Speaker 8: you get a hot dog, you have four for forty four.
Speaker 8: You can come in on the special promotions, you get gifts.
Speaker 8: It's a wonderful family outing. One thing I can tell
Speaker 8: you speaking to a lot of fans, not only the
Speaker 8: fans in the members area we have the PNC Club,
Speaker 8: but the average fan is excited.
Speaker 6: About what we're doing.
Speaker 8: They believe in it. The reality is we're winning. It's
Speaker 8: an exciting team. We run, we steal bases, we take
Speaker 8: extra bases. We're hitting home runs now, so what a
Speaker 8: great experience. And we organize it with a family intent.
Speaker 8: And there's nothing in the game's now only two and
Speaker 8: a half hours. Unless we're hitting a lot of runs.
Speaker 8: It hits, then there're three hours. But it's just a
Speaker 8: family entertainment. There's no reason not to come. Caroline always
Speaker 8: reminds we want to get one fan of a time,
Speaker 8: and Peter always reminds me we want to get one
Speaker 8: winter at a time, but not just for this year,
Speaker 8: but for sustainable success for the long period.
Speaker 6: And I think absolutely that's what we're doing.
Speaker 2: You are surrounded by the right people, it appears, and
Speaker 2: for what it's worth, I completely concur I think there's
Speaker 2: no reason to not be attending a Marlins game, and
Speaker 2: it's not in a bad area at all. It's very
Speaker 2: easy to get to and there's fun baseball going on
Speaker 2: and you're a baseball fan. There's absolutely zero reason for that, Saion, And.
Speaker 8: I'll leave you with one thing, the additional commitment we
Speaker 8: made to Miami Live, which is going to be on
Speaker 8: the west side of the ballpark. That'll be open, not
Speaker 8: really this year when you come to games, but next year.
Speaker 8: Whether it's Miami Live or there's going to a game,
Speaker 8: there's great opportunities. And our players participate in so many
Speaker 8: community events. It's really wonderful and you can get to
Speaker 8: know them. It's really great, great sport. I played it
Speaker 8: as a kid and we all grew up in a
Speaker 8: you five or six of you. There aren't Fisher First,
Speaker 8: wouldn't be here if you didn't love baseball yourself.
Speaker 6: So thank you, thank you, thank you for having me on.
Speaker 6: Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You certainly got that right, mister Bruce. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for taking the time. We know how busy times are,
Speaker 2: and hopefully this is going to be an excellent second
Speaker 2: half that we'll all remember for a very long time.
Speaker 2: And hey, who knows, maybe ten games over five hundred.
Speaker 2: Next year we can do this again.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, go Marlins. Let's get to the playoffs. Bye bye,
Speaker 6: bye bye.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for Kevin, for myself or Bruce,
Speaker 2: thank you all for listening, and as always, go Fish.