WEBVTT

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Anyway, let's go to the KWA
Comsboro hotline and bring on Thomas Harding of

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MLB dot com. Thomas, how
you doing today? I feel good,

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I feel clean that I'm enjoying this
earthquake talk. I'm not doing well.

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You have never lived on an earthquake, no, but I lived in Memphis

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for eleven years. I worked at
the paper there before coming out here,

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what twenty five years ago to cover
the Rockies, and there was some guy

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I don't know if he was a
scientist or a huckster or what, but

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he was predicting that Memphis was going
to have the earthquake of the century because

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it's it's not far from Jonesboro,
it's right on a fault line. I

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mean, it got to the point
to where it became a joke. We

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had t shirts. It's not my
fault, but the earthquake never came,

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thank goodness. I just remember being
in buildings and they said, oh,

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this is earth this is earthquake safe, and I would always ask, how

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did you test it? Oh my
goodness. Yeah, we probably have to

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swap stories about Memphis some time.
I used to get out there when I

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live I lived just to the east
of little rock in a small town out

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there, used to get the MEMPHISI
at the time, get down at Alfred's,

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you know, and then a couple
of joints down there saw aw Green

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playing, you know, out there
on the streets. So good. Yeah,

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we'll have to swap the stories about
that sometimes about this bit, yes,

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but let's talk about the story of
the day right now. And that's

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the Colorado Rockies winning the home opener
in dramatic fashion. Ryan McMahon nearly throws

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the game away and then comes back
and totally redeems himself with the Grand Slam.

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Bat's kind of waking up a little
bit. It looks like over the

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last couple of games for Nolan Jones
and they desperately need that. Is this

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Rockies team as bad as the record
has been thus far, or is the

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last two games more indication of where
they can go? Well, if you

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look at Kyle Freeland has a twenty
seven era, I'm going to say that

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he's not that bad. Exactly where
this team falls. You see that starting

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pitching struggle a bit, And actually
today I thought that Austin Gombert he ran

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up a huge pitch count, forty
pitches in the first inning, but ended

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up getting through four innings just down
two to one. The pitching has to

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stabilize for this team to be good. Also, defensively, there have been

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a number of mistakes. You don't
expect that from this Rocky's team when you

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look at the identities of the guys
all around the field. So there are

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some things that say that make you
understand that this team probably will struggle quite

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a bit to season, but not
as badly as the beginning of the season.

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So if you're Bud Black after the
team kind of seem like they squad

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of the league and we're able to
win the game score in ten runs,

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what is kind of your message to
your team at this point? Known as

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though this was the first time Colorado
fans actually got a chance to see their

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team at home. Well, baseball
being such a day to day sport,

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there isn't really a big overarching message
here. Obviously you're happy that you get

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to win, but you have another
game to marn another the next day,

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and you keep going that way.
So I think the important thing And it's

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funny. I talked to Ryan McMahon
this morning and he was saying, in

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his younger years, he may have
been freaking out a little bit by the

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one and six start, but you
can't do that in this game, and

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it's hard not to do it,
but you can do it. You've just

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got to simply keep sending your pitchers
out there. Basic pitching principles. You're

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going to play defense, you need
to play defense, and just string together.

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They ad bets like they have done
over this game and one inning in

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the Chicago so you hope it does
build on things you but there isn't really

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a huge overarching message because it's right
there in front of you and they have

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what one hundred and fifty four more
games to play, you know. Pete

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Fairbanks was not happy with the consistency
of the base balls coming in during the

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bottom of the ninth inning, made
it a point to talk about that.

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I don't know if you caught any
of that. What can you tell us

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about that? Is that the legitimate
complaint there or is that just somebody makeing

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excuses. I think we will hear
more of this because the last two seasons

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the schedule has changed where every team
in the American League will play in the

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National League Park every other year,
So this was an experience and course field

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that he can forget that he wants
to forget. And I know that a

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lot of times when something goes wrong, pictures will say, hey, there's

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an issue with the baseball. Well, with the Rockies went through this back

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in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty where
a lot of their pitchers were struggling,

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But it wasn't the baseball, of
course, field they just felt that the

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ball was different. So there is
something that you can say. But here's

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the question. If Pete Fairbanks goes
back to the Mount tomorrow with the chance

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to close out a game, is
this going to be in the back of

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his mind. That's what the Rockies
pitchers deal with here all the time.

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Maybe a cheap home run will happen
or something a ball will land in the

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spacious outfield, and they've got to
get back on the Mount and pitch.

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And if they let that get to
them, whether it's whether it's just what

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happens here or the thought that maybe
there's some skullduggery, either of those things.

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If that's in your head, it
is very hard to pitch. I'll

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be interested to see what Pete Fairbanks
does for the rest of the series.

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Well, Tom is that's very interesting
because before you came on, Ben and

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I was having a conversation about the
Rockies pitching and how can they elevate their

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their bullpen and a lot of pictures
I mean, and speaking of the whole

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Pete Fairbraings thing, this may player
a role into it moving down the line

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where pitchers don't want to come here. So how is it that Dick Montfort

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and Bud Black they're able to attract
more quality pitchers to the city of Denver.

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Well, I don't think there is
a way to attract quality pitchers to

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the city of Denver unless they're coming
off injury, like the Coda Hudson.

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I mean, he's first free and
can signing in a while. What you

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have to do is you have to
build that through your minor league system.

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And if you go back and look
at the trades that the general manager,

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Bill Schmid has made, I think
every trade but one, the one that

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got Nolan Jones, has brought in
pitching. So they're going to attack this

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problem with numbers, figuring if you
have as many starting pitchers as you can

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collect, you'll have five of them
to get you through a major league season,

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and maybe some of them will turn
out to be standouts, and they

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can and they can win some games
for you. So that's the way they

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do it here. Because if you
go out on the free agent market,

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I'll tell you what happens back years
ago, Mike Hampton and Denny Nagels saying

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pretty big contracts with the Rockies.
If you and if you go back and

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you look at what they should have
brought on the free agent market, it

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was the Rockies are not paying one
year at top dollar more. If you

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figure the lady you get into the
contract, you're not as effective, but

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yet you're paying top boller for one
more year. So the Rockies were pretty

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much out of that market. What
they're going to have to do is maybe

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trade for pitching, like with like
Hermont Marcus, where they traded Corey Dickerson

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to Tampa Bay and got him in
here at the start of his career.

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That is the best way to do
it. One thing I suggested in the

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last hour from from my layman's perspective, was, if we're going to fix

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pitching here, why not go out
and attempt to acquire ground ball pitchers,

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you know, and that's not something
that the Rockies traditionally have done. I

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mean, you had, you know, you had Freeland and Gobber, who

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are both in the forties in terms
of how how often they produce ground bowl

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groub ball outs in the league.
But guys like the Giants have gone out

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and got guys like Logan Webb and
Alex Cobb who are a tops at it.

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Why wouldn't that Why wouldn't you do
that and have that be an advantage

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here? Actually, if you look
at the starting pitchers for many years,

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like guys like Freeland and Marcus and
guys like that, they usually are in

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the top seven to sixteen in the
league in ground ball rate. I mean,

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you know, obviously you have some
extreme ground ball pitchers, and if

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you look at the history of the
Rockies, Aaron Cook, Baldovo, Menez

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to a certain degree, although he
was a strikeout guy, Jeff Francis,

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they have a lot of ground ball
pitchers. Actually, the staff, you

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know, you're pitching the contact,
you're trying to get either ground ball or

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weak contact. But if you look
at at the end of the season,

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you'll see a lot of Rockies pitchers
in the top fifteen to twenty in ground

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ball rate. So that is one
way to do it. I know that

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one of the criticisms is actually they
don't have large strikeout guys and they never

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have, not since Baldomanz and a
few other guys, although Marquez is one

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of them. They don't have a
lot of high strikeout guys. But usually

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those are guys that are proven strikeout
guys, and when free agency comes and

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they get the Mega contract, they
go to a team where they can still

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pitch, and a lot of them
are not going to come to the Rockies,

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especially if they think they're going to
get another Mega contract at the end

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of their career. Well, when
Chris Bryan came to Denver, he was

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viewed as being one of those sluggers, but it hasn't really turned out that

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way. Do you think that today's
game probably is one of those games that

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kind of get Chris Bryan back on
track. The home run did help.

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He did strike out next to Eatings
and heard the booze of the fans,

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And it's not something you hear a
lot of in Denver, in Denver sports,

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and even with the Rockies, the
team that struggled so much, you

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don't hear the fans getting on someone. But I think Chris Bryant is strong

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enough. I mean, the guy
played in Chicago, he played for a

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World Series champion, and all kinds
of different things in a big market here,

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So I think that I don't think
that the fan reaction is going to

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bother him. The question is can
he just get the timing going. I

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found in spring training his swing was
in a pretty good place. I don't

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know exactly what the numbers are because
you don't pay attention to him, but

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at times he was hitting the ball
in the air. He had a few

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home runs, he git a few
balls to the warning track. It just

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seems like he's not seen the ball
well out of the pitcher's hand to start

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the seasons. The question is is
this the first eight games of the season

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just an eight game bad stretch that
everybody's going to have, or is something

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else going on. I think that
there'll be more focused because it's the first

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eight games of the season. But
if Chris Brian is professional that he knows

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that he is, then he should
be able to turn this around as long

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as he stays healthy. YE know, Brian hasn't lived up to the contract

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I think that they signed him to. I think he would be the first

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one to admit that Ryan McMahon's been
on a blistering pace so far this season,

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but traditionally bat's a a lot lighter
than what he's been hitting out of

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the gate. Out of this Rockies
team has to step up in order for

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this team to be competitive. Well, I think Chris Bryant has to be

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something close to what he was in
Chicago, where maybe not the maybe not

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a forty home run guy, but
if he gets around thirty home runs,

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that makes a difference. Ryan McMahon, the way he's hitting right now is

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if you look at his career,
he's had catches like this. If he

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can do it for a longer period
of time and limit the slumps, I

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think he can hit thirty home runs
in the season. Brendan Rodgers has not

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really gotten going either, and they
believe that he's going to be a guy

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who can drive in some runs,
hit some doubles, maybe in the twenty

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twenty five home run range, but
also drive in a lot of runs.

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So there are guys that should be
able to step up. You've seen it

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in part of their histories. They're
just going to have to do it consistently.

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Well. One of the things that
you know we were talking about was

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the pitching and the bats not waking
up early in the early part of the

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season for the Rockies. But there's
another thing that was occurring with routine defensive

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plays. What do you think is
the reason that we've seen the Rockies make

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so many defensive mistakes early on in
the season. Well, if you look

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at the left fielder Nolan Jones,
he set some records as far as being

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a rookie throwing people out on the
basis, but he really put a lot

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of effort into being a better all
around outfielder, tracking balls, fielding balls,

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and I think he pressed to begin
the season. The play today that

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gave the Rays there one run lead, McMahon bounces one over the first base,

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But it was a tough play there. That's one Bryant has to be

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able to make. And after the
game he made no excuses. He felt

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that, hey, hop, one
hop, throw right into his glove.

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He should have been able to catch
that. I have seen some uncharacteristic bad

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defense that if you go back to
last season, they led the free World

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and errors in April and from May
on they were one of the best defensive

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teams in baseball. It was a
secret because they didn't pitch well and they

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lost a lot of games, but
they were one of the best defensive teams

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in baseball, So it may be
just getting into the season. Well,

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see what happens from there. Tomorrow
you've got Tyler Alexander versus Ryan Feldner,

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both teams. The Rockies win,
they get a chance both teams to put

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them to three and six? Is
Tampa the team that Colorado needs to be

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playing right now in order to kind
of get right well? Tampa is a

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perennial contender in the American League East, and I'm expecting them to be that

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team. I mean what I've watched
today Offensively, they filed off a lot

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of pitches. They did strike out
a lot, but they fouled off a

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lot of pitches. They really made
the starting pitcher at Austin Gomber work And

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if they keep hitting like that,
they're going to be a good team in

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the American League East Division. So
I don't look at this team even though

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the record is three and six.
I don't look at this team as a

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bad baseball team because you'll probably see
them in the playoff hunt and we've seen

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them in the playoffs quite a bit
in recent years. They have to win

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because they have to win. But
it's hard to look at something nine games

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of the season and say, hey, that's a bad team. You have

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to beat them. Well fair enough, Thomas. We're gonna have to get

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together talk about Memphis at some point. It's always good to hear your voice.

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Look forward to having you on again
soon. Hey, thanks for having

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me. Guys. Absolutely take care
Thomas Harding MLB dot Com Rockies insider always

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get a chance to Always good to
get a chance to talk to him.

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As the Rockies get the ten to
seven home opener win and get their second

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win of the seasons against the Tampa
Bay Rays,