WEBVTT

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We're joined right now by a man
that I thoroughly respect and love his podcast

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Baseball Tonight. As I take my
dog for a walk, there is only

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one podcast I listen to to get
caught up on the rest of Major League

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Baseball, and that's Buster Only's Baseball
Tonight podcast and obviously staple for Sunday Night

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Baseball, Wednesday Night Baseball, and
obviously going to be a big part of

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ESPN's coverage of the home run Derby. And Buster joins us, not from

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Vermont, but from Hartford, Connecticut. How you doing, Buster, and

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field of Vermont disrespect coming at some
point, you have long you have long

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made jokes at the expense of my
home state, and I've always been shocked

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by the level of your vitriol.
But we'll move past that. Hey,

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I promised you when I asked you
to do this, I would not make

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any jokes or cheap shots against the
state of Vermont. Uh huh, go

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ahead to take your shot, and
then we'll move on to the baseball.

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Well, it says a lot you
were in Vermont and you decided to go

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to Hartford, Connecticut. Oh I
know that. Okay, we got that

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out of the way. Buster when
you look at the All Star teams and

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who's in who's out, there's always
some debate. But I was a little

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surprised that Craig Kimberl and Kenley Jansen
did not make the American League team,

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but Clay Holmes made the team.
And you do wonder when some of those

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things come into, you know,
come to pass. You do wonder about

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the timing of when some of those
discussions take place. Uh and and I

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think that that may have had something
to do with it. I think that

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if you know, for example,
that you know that that took place a

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week later, two weeks later,
thank Kenley would be in and Holmes would

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be out, you know, because
we've seen Holmes have struggled of late.

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We know the Yankees are going to
be looking for bullpen upgrades before the trade

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deadline out. On the other hand, Kenley Jansen's making it really hard for

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the Red Sox consider trading him because
they're playing so well. He's an important

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part of that. As I was
driving from Vermont to hart for last night,

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I was listening in that the Red
Sox nearly blew an eleven to two

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lead, and Alex score just made
sure he had ken Lee Jansen warming up

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in the bullpen with a score twelve
to eight. Because ken Ley's mister reliable

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buster. I know I'm a little
biased because ken Lee spent the majority of

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his career with the Dodgers all time
saves leader, But are we taking for

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granted one of the great careers of
a closer because it feels like he's not

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really mentioned among the best currently and
his career is remarkable that it's still going

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at this level. I think it
reflects the conversation within the sport. A

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lot of the new front offices basically
don't really value closers, you know,

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I think in the way that they
might have thirty years ago, because they

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feel like that, generally speaking,
relievers are replaceable. We see it every

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fall when you know relievers are cut
free, non tendered, very few of

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them actually paid a lot of money, you know. I think that,

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you know, the days when you
know guys like Roley Fingers Mariano Rivera are

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considered to be the more dominant players
in the sport, those are gone.

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And I think ken Lee, you
know, Craig Kimberler are two guys who

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are feeling that disrespect. I just
know from my time covering the Yankees,

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and I covered some great teams.
Now they had set up men like you

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know, Jeff Nelson, who were
telling me, yeah, I don't want

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the closer job. You wouldn't know. And I know, no matter what

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the numbers say, no matter what
front offices say about anyone can be a

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closer. That's not how the players
feel. And I think that's how ken

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Lee has distinguished himself in his career, doing this job better than just about

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anybody in his time. Yeah,
and I know talking to ken Lee a

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lot, Buster the Hall of Fame
is on his mind. Five hundred saves

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is on his mind. And I'm
not sure if he's going to get to

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the Hall of Fame, but certainly
he's making a case for it. Heck

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yeah, I mean, if he
gets five hundred saves, I don't know

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how you don't put him in because
at that point, if I if I

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have the numbers correct, the only
two guys in history with who would have

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more saves than him would be Mariano
Rivera and Trevor Hoffman. And so to

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me, he would be an automatic
in terms of getting of the Hall of

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Fame. Buster only from ESPNS joining
US on Dodger Talk Buster, let's turn

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our attention to the Dodgers. I
said this over the last forty games,

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and some of the players have gotten
upset with me that they are leaving Los

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Angeles wanting for more. As good
as they are, as big of a

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lead as they have, they are
leaving us wanting more. How do you

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feel from your perspective? And it
was interesting because during the winter time,

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you know, the conversations, will
they have the greatest lineup ever? Will

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they you know, can anybody beat
the Dodgers, you know, will they

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approach one hundred and twenty wins?
They're not close to being that team so

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far. We look at the you
know, potential if everyone is healthy,

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if you you know, get Mookie
back and he's okay with his hand the

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rest of the year, and you
know, Tani and Fred are in the

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lineup, if guys rebound in that
lineup, because the bottom half of the

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order has really, you know,
not performed generally, and if they get

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their starting pitchers back healthy, then
yeah, they could make a big den

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in October. But to this point, we haven't seen, you know,

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that dominant team that we all forecast
during the winter time. It's not nearly

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that. It has not demonstrated the
kind of depth that we expected, and

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that's why a lot of people are
speculating they're looking for an everyday outfielder to

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lengthen that lineup. Uh do you
believe that's right at the top? One,

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A, one B of them looking
for a starting pitcher, you know.

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And it's interesting because when you look
at the Dodgers and the resources and

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the players they have on their forty
man roster, it's not easy to see

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what should be a priority. I
have not spoken with Andrew Freeman recently,

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but just from talking with other teams, I think the Dodgers are a little

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bit like the Atlanta Braves right now, where they want to get a little

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bit closer to the deadline before they
figure out exactly what the biggest priority is.

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You know, if some of the
guys in the bottom half of the

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lineup begin to hit, then the
concern about that is mitigated and maybe they

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go in another direction. You know
better than anybody, you know, the

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Dodgers through the years tend to slow
play their players with injuries, their starting

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pitchers in particular, and you know, they might actually feel good about their

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starting pitching down the stretch. Maybe
you know this is just a case where

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they're giving Tyler klass Now a chance
to rest up and get ready for the

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postseason, because we pretty much know
the Dodgers are going to be in the

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Dance in October, and they tend
to focus on trying to get guys ready

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for them. So I think we'll
know more about what the priorities once we

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get close to the deadline. Without
a doubt, Buster, this was a

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great coincidence, opportunity, whatever you
want to call it, to say,

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you know what, Tyler, you're
gonna just miss one more start. We're

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going to give you an extra period
of time to cool down this back and

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get you ready for the second half. But there is still a lot of

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uncertainty surrounding the return of Yoshi Yamamoto, Walker, Bueller, and Kershaw is

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determined to come back, but you
know how how fickle those shoulder surgeries are.

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There's no guarantees that he's going to
be that guy. So I feel

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like the talk about Garrett Crochet is
legitimate, but also Buster, if the

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Dodgers have an opportunity to trade for
Nathan Valdi, it feels like that is

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even more tempting than going after Crochet. Yeah, Nathan Evaldi would be perfect

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for them. He also would be
perfect for the Red Sox. And I

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can tell you this. You know, a couple of weeks ago, when

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there's you know, talk in the
media the Rangers going to be sellers.

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Chris Young, who's their general manager, the message going from him was,

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we're going for it. We are
not gonna sell. And maybe the mask

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changes for them. But if you
noticed so last week or so, they're

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starting to play better. Their offense
is better. They got guys coming back.

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I would not count on that.
We know Crochet is going to be

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moved. The obvious question is,
you know, how comfortable is the acquiring

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team with the number of innings that
he's thrown already? He had never gone

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more than I think fifty four going
into this year. He's gonna go well

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past that. You worry that he's
tired. I think one of the contenders,

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maybe it's the Baltimore Oils, maybe
it's the Red Sox, maybe it's

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the Dodgers says, you know what, We're not gonna worry about the innings

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so much. We're gonna bet on
the talent because he is big and left

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handed and physical, and you'd have
him under control for another year, so

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he to me would make sense.
I would say this in a bidding situation.

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The last couple of years, it
feels like so often the Dodgers have

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had advantages over other teams because of
their farm system. If the Baltimore Orioles

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ever got serious about acquiring a big
you know, a big name picture is

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available, they might have an advantage
over all of the teams because their farm

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system currently is so deep without a
doubt buster. And that's the danger for

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the Dodgers. If the Orioles want
the same picture they do, they're the

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one team that can trump them with
prospects. Yeah, one hundred percent,

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because they can and they have a
wide range, you know. They It's

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interesting, you know, when I
was in Baltimore for Sunday Night Baseball recently,

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I had someone there ask me,
you know, have you seen anything

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like this in terms of player development
and the depth of the farm system,

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Like, yeah, the Dodgers,
you know, the Dodgers. The Dodgers

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are very much like where the Oriols
are now, where not only are they

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you know, picking the right players, but they're doing a great job of

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developing the players. Uh, and
that's why the Orioles are in the situation

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where it's possible if they get serious
about bidding for an available starting p they,

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you know, I think absolutely could
have an advantage over the rest of

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the industry. Buster only is our
guest. As we are getting ready for

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the second half of the Major League
Baseball season, I feel like watching the

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Dodgers and Phillies go at it in
Philadelphia, They're going to do it again

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at Dodgers Stadium in a couple of
weeks. Buster, I'm not sure Andrew

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Friedman looks at it this way,
but certainly you would have to imagine when

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the Dodgers see Nola Wheeler Christopher Sanchez, they've got to think that we've got

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to find a way to match that
in a playoff series. If we see

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these guys. I thought when you
started that sentence of what you're going to

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say, was you know they could
you first see a matchup in October,

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not just in a couple of weeks, because I ain't on paper right now,

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Phillies are the best team in baseball. They're the most complete team.

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You know, so many of the
other contenders we look at and we say,

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well, you know, the Yankees
have a major hole with their bullpen.

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You know, the Braves clear league
could use some outfield help. The

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Phillies are the one team where I
think they don't necessarily have this gaping hole.

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They got an excellent rotation. You
know, you ran through three names.

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How about Ranger Suarez. It might
start the game for the All Star

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Game. They have an excellent bullpen, they have an experienced lineup. Those

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guys are incredibly hungry after having a
shocking exit from the playoffs last year.

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I do think the Phillies are the
standard. And if you're Andrew Freeman,

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you know it's you're probably gleaning some
information being able to watch them in person

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leading up to the trade that long. It would be incredibly electric. Buster

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Dodgers Phillies in the NLCS. That's
what as a baseball fan, I'm hoping

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for. Back to those those matchups
in nineteen seventy seven, nineteen seventy eight.

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Yeah, you know that sort of
thing where I mean they would really

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be two powerhouse teams going at it. Yeah, that would be special.

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I feel like Matt Camp and Andre
Ethier are still traumatized by Matt Stairs in

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those eight nine nlcs's exactly, Thanks
Buster for the time. Always great to

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catch up with you and look forward
to seeing you in Los Angeles Sunday night

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baseball, Dodgers, Red Sox right
out of the break. That sounds great,

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David. I appreciate you asking