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Speaker 1: Hey, we are so happy to have with it for

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another season of Astro spring training conversation and regular season

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for the next hopefully twenty six twenty seven weeks. We

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saw had a Brian Bogus Evic Space City Home Network Ball,

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get's Matt Ross. Great to have you back. How are

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you enjoying the WBC.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's good to be back. I like it. I

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think it's fun. It's really nice, especially this time of

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year when the novelty of spring training is wearing off

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a little bit, to see meaningful baseball and every once

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in a while it kind of gets the feeling of

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playoff baseball and high stakes. So yeah, it's a fun tournament.

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It's obviously new compared to most international tournaments, so it's

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not the same juice as the Olympics or the World

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Cup or whatever. But it's fun and guys play hard,

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which is enjoyable.

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Speaker 1: What do you do to do you ramp down or

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do you try? And you obviously don't want to maintain

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because the spring training game on March the twentieth against

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the Marlins would not have the zest that a World

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Baseball Classic game would be. So if you were in

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that locker room, in that clubhouse talking to those guys.

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How do they get themselves from the emotions of this

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big event to getting back into Hey, we got a

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regular season the counts in a week and a half

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and we needed to take it down a notch then

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ranch it back up again.

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Speaker 2: It's hard to figure because we've only had a handful

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of these tournaments, so there is really no you know,

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best practices and protocols for it. I think you know,

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once you get if you get through it to that

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point and you've played that many games at that high

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of an intensity, you should be pretty much game ready

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and you're stretched out. You're playing these guys, for the

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most part, playing full games, so you I guess, give

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a little bit of a buffer couple of days to

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relax and unwind a little bit and let anything recover

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that needs to recover. But then just try to roll

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into it. I mean, you're not going to replicate those

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kind of reps the last week of spring training, so

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try to keep the timing that you've that you've gained

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and kind of try to try to get your body

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ready to go day one. But I would imagine that

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they're there pretty much where they would want to be

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coming out of spring training, so you just kind of

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just kind of try to hold on.

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Speaker 1: All right, So let me go from the other side

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of things here, what is the club like the teams?

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And again there's just a few players gone here and there.

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But how do you think Joe and other managers in

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baseball have worked around this because they're trying for the

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end goal to get their team ready for the start

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of the regular season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's two sides of it, I think. I think

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the first side is everybody likes this. Everybody likes, you know,

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full competition as opposed to exhibition setting, and they like

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the international play and it's a good tournament. It grows

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the game. Everybody's on board with the tournament. So they

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do you know, they help guys out a lot. They

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got some of these younger guys more reps in the

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first week of spring training that maybe they would have

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gotten to get get them ready and up to speed

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of the WBC. But the other side of it is is, hey,

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we've got a regular season to play and it's a

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long season, and we need these guys and you're kind

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of just biting your nails as they're gone and hoping

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that you get them back healthy and ready to go.

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I mean, that's the downside to any kind of exhibition tournament,

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and certainly one that is happening. You know a couple

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of weeks before the regular season starts, is can't afford

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to have any major injuries. So yes, you enjoy it

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and you watch it, and you want your guys to

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do well and you want to grow the deed, but

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at the same time, it's like, just get our guys

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back healthy so we can move on to the regular season.

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Speaker 1: Brian Bogosivich with us here on seven and let's get

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to the Astros now. The number one story conversation piece

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this offseason was the congested infield and maybe the lack

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of quality or at least experienced bats in the outfield

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that might remedy itself early on. Especially Jeremy Paine is

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not going to be ready for the start of the season.

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You can move parades to third, move over corret a

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shortstop as you've seen it over the last five months.

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Talk if you can from a macro view of things

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of how this thing has turned out and if everybody

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eventually gets healthy, which hopefully will be the case. How

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does Joe Spotta navigate these waters.

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Speaker 2: It's difficult because you're talking about five guys for four spots,

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but it's also five of the six best hitters on

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your team, guys who you want and need in the

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lineup every day. And you know, I think what's happened

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here early with the pain of injury is it's a

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good lesson on not doing things until you have to

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do them. You know, everybody all off season is talking

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about a trade needs to be made and thrown around

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names and everything. But over the course of the season,

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things tend to work themselves out and situations change, and

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we see that here quickly. Although you know, fingers crossed,

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it's not going to last very long into the regular season,

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but you know, I think there are going to be

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I think there's no one set answer, right. It's not

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a at bat share at first base, it's not somebody

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moving to the outfield full time. I think it's a

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lot of everything, and over the course of time, you'll

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see these guys, these five guys in the lineup together

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almost every day, whether it's you know, being able to

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mix in yourd on in the outfield occasionally to open

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up a DH spot, or a regularly scheduled off day

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for a Korea or a walker where parades can slide

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into the corner and just just kind of enough everywhere

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to satisfy. That's got to be the long term answer,

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because that gets the most out of these guys who

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you need. I don't think we're going to see a

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single set solution to this anytime soon, and I don't

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think you need to just because over the course of

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the next six months, there are going to be very

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times when guys are banged up or struggling, or somebody

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is okay moving to one position or the next, that

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it's going to be able to kind of work itself

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out organically.

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Speaker 3: Moving to the outfield, especially on the young guys. I'm curious.

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I don't know how much hands on looks you've been

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able to get so far this spring, but Cam Smith

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has been hitting a little bit, and what you've seen

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out of Zach Cole, who's struggling some and then maybe

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somewhere in between Joey Librafido.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, first and foremost, I think what we've

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seen from Cam Smith is very encouraging. You know how

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many times last year were we talking about adjustments that

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he was making during the course of the season, and

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a lot of it had to do with getting the

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bad head out more consistently, catching the ball out front,

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being able to drive the ball in the middle of

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the field and on the pull side. And we've seen it.

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His setup is a little bit different, kind of the

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way he's holding his bat is flattened out. He's got

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a little bit more rhythm in his start, and you know,

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he hit a home run I guess two three days ago. Now,

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that was just a bullet to his pull side, which

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he didn't do a single time in spring training last year.

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With all the production that he had, all the hits,

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all the home runs that he had in spring training

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last year, he never pulled the ball in the air

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like that. So he's he's making the strides that we

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want to see him make. And if he can do

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that more consistently, what we saw from him last year,

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he has good enough back to ball skills, he has,

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you know, really good instincts in the outfield. If he

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can start driving the ball more, then just pencil him

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into right field every day. And we were seeing good

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signs early from him that hole. He looks like he's

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caught in between an approach. You know, he's the guy

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who had really good results swinging the bat a lot,

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and the kind of the thought was, Hey, you need

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to tighten up the approach a little bit to be

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able to have that success continue over the course of time.

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And he looks like he's caught in between being patient

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and being aggressive and isn't really getting either right now.

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So that's going to have to work at You know,

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he's gonna have to work through that and you know

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at bats and time will allow him to do that.

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The question is is that is that time going to

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happen in spring training, Is it going to happen in

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the big leagues to start the year, or is it

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going to take some minor league at bats. I like

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what I've seen from low Berfido. I mean he's driven

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the ball to all fields. You know, he's he had

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some strikeouts early, but he's tightened it up a little bit.

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What he did. You know, he had one hundred at

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bats or so in Toronto last year. His strikeout numbers

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were way down, his contact numbers were way better. And

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that was always the question with him when he was here.

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You know, we like the bat, we like the power.

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Is he going to make enough contact for it? To

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show there are legit signs of it going in the

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right direction, so he might play his way into a

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lot of at bats and left field to start the season.

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I like what I've seen from him and Taylor Schmell

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as well. He's he's kind of guy that I think

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we forgot about him a little bit. But you know,

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this time last year, he was a guy who we

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thought would maybe play a significant role before you know,

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injuries derailed most of the season.

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Speaker 3: Brian Bogosvik with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety

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to the pitching side. Can you temper my enthusiasm for

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for Mike Burrows or should I just be all systems

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go and get excited about his spring?

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Speaker 2: I'm with you. I mean, it's not just what he's shown,

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you know on the mound and and this stuff looks great.

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I mean, fastball is as a it's a more power

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fastball than I thought it was going to be. The

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change ups great, the sliders looked really good. But it's

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the demeanor. You know, a guy who doesn't have a

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ton of major league experience, he got about half a

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season's worth the starts last year, gets traded over to

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a new new team. I was kind of expecting a

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guy who was, you know, a little bit giddy and

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happy to be here and all this, Like he looks

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like he is all business and like, just put some

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real competition in front of me and I'm ready to

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run through some teams. He has been really impressive, and

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I think a guy who it was thought maybe, oh

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he'll solidify the middle of the rotation, it's looking like

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he can ascend to the top of a rotation. I

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like everything that I've seen from him, and he seems

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to be getting stronger as the spring goes on, and

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just like he's chomping at the bit.

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Speaker 1: We have eight million more questions for it. We'll leave

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with one here before we get to next week's visit.

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How short of a leash going back to the outfield

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do you think that Zach and Cam have And does

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that mean a guy like Bryce Matthew squeezes in the

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roster playing some center film moving guys around, And how

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much you're on an Alvarez do you want to see

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in the outfield at least maybe in the first two

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or three weeks of the season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I think the leash, the leash

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for Cam is probably going to be a little bit

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longer just because of because the ceiling is higher, and

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so he's going to get more of an opportunity to

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to to become that player at the big league level.

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I think for everybody else, low Brafito, call all those guys,

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I think it's going to be a short leash because

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there's going to be a lot of options and there's

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going to be a lot of guys that can be

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plugged in if you're not producing, So you know, somebody,

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somebody is going to take that job over the course

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of the next two weeks. But it's not going to

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be theirs until it's not. You know, it's going to

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be theirs until they prove otherwise. So that will be

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a short leash. And you know, you'ren they they don't

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want to do it, but it just might turn into

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a situation where you've got to if that is just

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you know, every once in a while at home with

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the small left field so he doesn't have to run

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a lot, or if it becomes a little bit more regular.

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I think it's something that Look, this is not me

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saying I know anything, but it's got to be something

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that's in the back of their minds of like, Hey,

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if all else fails, we can put yourd on out

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there every once in a while, or you know, fifty

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percent of the time or something just too free up

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at bats for other guys and make it work a

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little bit better.

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Speaker 1: Paul, get great stuff. Looking forward to our Wednesday visits

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at eleven o'clock. Friend, Thanks for the time and we'll

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talk to you next week.

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Speaker 2: Cool Thanks guys,