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Speaker 1: All right, we're seeing the Matt Thomas Show with Ross

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ros Viria with you. Matt Thomas is out, Chris Gordy

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is here hanging out. And right now, our weekly Wednesday

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guest at eleven o'clock, as everybody knows, is Brian Boga

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Sevic please to be joined by him.

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Speaker 2: Uh Bogie Uh. First of all, actually let's start right

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off with this Jordon thing. Can you explain to me

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why home plate was so slick and why it looked

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like there was a slipping slide down there for him

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to get hurt.

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Speaker 3: You know what it's it's kind of always that way.

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You see guys slip all the time, and you know

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it's it's kind of like damned if you do, damned

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if you don't. You don't want yord On sliding your risk,

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you know, jamming your knee into the batter's box. Batter's

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box is a little bit harder than the field, you know,

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slide into second base or something. But at the same time,

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you're running full speed and you step on home plate

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and you get You see guys slip all the time,

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and that just that was an asculine there. There was

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there was a good replay. You know, right in on

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his foot and you saw, you know, go all the

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way over on it. That was a that was a

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nasty one.

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Speaker 2: We had Joe spot on yesterday. He talked about like

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guys toweling off home plate or something like, can you

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explain that to me? Like, is that something guys? It's

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as hitters do that before the first inning or something

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like that, because it's the fields all wet obviously from

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from the grounds crew wet wetting everything to start the game.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they spray down the batter's boxes and everything, and

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obviously home plates gets home plate gets wet, but it'll

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get wiped down. You'll see throughout the course of the

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game the Empire come out and wipe it down, or

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catchers will kick the dirt off of it. It's just,

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you know, it's kind of like a necessarily sary evil, right,

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You've got this flat, slick, hard surface right kind of

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in the middle of the action. It's not ideal. I'm sure,

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I'm sure Major League Baseball has explored better options. But

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you know, if you change the material and then somebody

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steps on it and their cleat catches in it and

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they you know, roll an ankle or twist the knee

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on top of home plate. Then you're gonna have everybody

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screaming about that too.

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Speaker 4: All right, Bog, you're reading between the lines of what

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Joe Spot has said yesterday. Is there any hope of

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perhaps you order? I mean, it feels like with two

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weeks left in the season where I can see back

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in the regular season game. But do you think it's

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possible deep playoff running could be back.

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Speaker 3: I think it's possible. I don't know if it's likely,

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but I mean, anybody that's played basketball, watched basketball, covered basketball,

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you see these ankle injuries all the time, and they're

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you know, there's about as wide a variant variance on

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an ankle spring as any injury you can have. And

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and once once the swelling goes down in the in

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the pain kind of subsides, you know, then you can

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figure out more of a timeline how long it's going

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to take to strengthen it up. And you see some

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sometimes guys bounce back in you know, a couple of

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days or a week, or or sometimes it's weeks in

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two months. So there's really no way to tell right now,

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but yeah, I think there's probably an outside chance that

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it's possible but you know, to put a percentage on it,

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and who knows these things? You have no idea. When

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a guy rolls an ankle, you.

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Speaker 4: You as a former hitter, how much does the ankle

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matter in the box? We know obviously we're out of

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the box. Run the bases. You got to have a

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good ankle. But how much does does that affect the swing?

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How much does does the ankle matter there?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, actually probably more so than it does running. You know,

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running is straight lining. You're up on the balls of

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your feet and you're kind of under control. When you're

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talking about hitting in the batter's box, there's a you know,

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it all starts from the ground up. There's a lot

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of force put into the ground. You're digging your cleats in,

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there's a lot of torque. You have to really like

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break through the dirt as you turn and transfer all

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that power. And if your ankles are weak, it's you know,

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certainly going to affect your swing from a power production standpoint.

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It's also probably going to affect you mechanically as you

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try to overcompensate. So yeah, I think honestly it will

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probably it will probably be easier to get back into

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a scenario where you can run in a straight line

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decently earlier than you're talking about being able to take

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one hundred percent, you know, full speed swings.

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Speaker 2: Brian Bogasvik was here on a Sports Talk seven ninety

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and that's all depressing, So let's get into something a

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little bit more uplifting. Zach Cole been pretty good for

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the Astros over three yesterday. Before that he had the

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big home run as he replaced Jordan Alvarez. Uh, what

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have you seen from him? And I was especially impressed

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by the home run where it was the forcing or

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top of the zone where pitchers like to pitch, and

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he got around on that one.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that was actually that was a good pitch. That

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wasn't a mistake that Jack Lader made and Jack Ledder

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was in a groove and had some good stuff. So

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you know, you start seeing a guy who can get

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on top of somebody's best pitch at the top of

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the zone, it's pretty impressive. He's got tools. I mean,

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he's he's bigger and stronger than you kind of think.

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He twitchy and explosive. He's got really really good back speed.

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He can catch up to a fastball. I think the

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thing that I've probably been most impressed about, though, is

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you know, the hits that he's gotten that aren't the

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home runs, the RBI bas hits, shooting the ball the

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other way. He's handled some at bats pretty well, getting

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down in the count, fighting back, laying off of tough

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off speed pitches. You know, sometimes you think a guy

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in that situation, a young a young hitter whose main

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tool is power and bat speed, is gonna come out

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there just hacking. But it's been pretty high quality at bat,

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which you know, gives you more hope to maybe this

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is somebody who can be helpful throughout the course of

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a couple of weeks and into a playoff push, and

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who knows next year, rather than just hey, this is

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the guy who was swinging a hot bat at the

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minor league. Let's ride it out for as long as

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we can up here in the big leagues, you know,

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and then we'll move on.

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Speaker 4: The big question, Brian. We've had from a lot of folks,

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you know, just bounce around town. People will go, hey,

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what do you think that the Astros make the playoffs?

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You think they got any chance? All this kind of stuff,

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And my answer I'm giving to them now is this

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is the playoffs, right, I mean, like with what Seattle's

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doing right now, ten in a row is absolutely stupid.

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But we'll see what the Astros could complete the sweep

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tonight of the Rangers, but matters will play another game

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tomorrow against the Royals. You'll know where this thing is.

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Speaker 3: There?

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Speaker 4: You a game back? Are you? You know? Two games back?

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Whatever going into this weekend. But man, you talk about

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the importance of a series, how crazy is this weekend

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going to be? With Seattle coming in here? Basically they're

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tied season series tied five and five. I mean, this

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is the playoffs right here.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the real deal. This is every pitch matters,

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every inning matters. There's no you know, we spend six

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months talking about the big picture of baseball and things

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will level out and you just keep making the right

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play and you'll be fine over time. This is like

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trust your gut, take some chances, roll the dice and

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whatever you have to do. I mean, you can just

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tell by the way the games are being managed. This game,

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this series with the Rangers on both sides. You see

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the amount of moves being made, pitching change is being made.

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You know, both managers playing matchups from a pinch hitting standpoint,

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guys coming in and out of the lineup on a

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day to day basis. This is real baseball. This is

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playoff baseball. And I mean, you know, Joe Spotta essentially

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emptied the clip yesterday and did everything he could to

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secure that win. It took every bit of Brian Abraw

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And you know, is he probably not available today? Yeah? Sure,

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but it doesn't matter because you had to get that

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game yesterday figure out today today. So yeah, I mean

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it's playoff baseball started this week here in Houston.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And what do you think the mood is around it?

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We know that it's been a lot of veterans in

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that clubhouse and a lot of guys who've been through

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these types of wars. And they did win the last

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two games, but it just feels like from an outside perspective,

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the hits just keep on coming. With jord On going

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down the way that he did, Seattle just does not lose.

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How do you think things are going there? Just in

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between the guys.

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Speaker 3: You know, it seem it seems pretty steady. I mean,

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you have plenty of guys who have gone deep into playoffs,

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plenty of guys who have faced this kind of pressure,

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and even the young guys that have come up through

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the organization, they've been conditioned that this is eventually what

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it turns into. This is not surprising for anybody when

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they when these guys come up through the Astros organization

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and they think about playing in the big leagues, they

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think about playing in the postseason. So it's not really

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sneaking up on anybody. But you knows, it's a strange

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thing to say, but having lost so many players throughout

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the course of the season, you know, when Jordon goes down,

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obviously it's a huge blow, and you could just tell

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by you know, how quiet the stadium got, and everybody

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knew how serious it was, But it almost felt like

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this was like, oh, you know, here's another one. And

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it's almost like everybody's so kind of exasperated with with

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how many injuries there's been. It's almost just, yeah, we'll

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just keep doing what we're doing. It's almost doesn't have

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that much of effect because they've had to deal with

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it over and over. If this was a team that

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was completely healthy all throughout the season and then you

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get dealt this big blow, it would be a little

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bit more shocking than kind of what has been felt

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this last week.

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Speaker 4: You know, back in second week of September twenty twenty three, Brian,

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there was a guy named Evan Carter that got called

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up by the Rangers and got red hot for them,

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was a big part of their postseason run. Can Zach

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Cole be the Astros version of Evan Carter here?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's actually probably a lot of similarities

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between the two, just in terms of, you know, the

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positions that they play, the kind of their game, the

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power speed combinations, and it's you know, it's not uncommon

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to go down into the farm system, find one of

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your big prospects, guys playing well, and try to make

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them the X factor. That's what Evan Carter was. It's

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a kind of a different story with Zach coll I mean,

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he was completely off the prospect radar. This guy I

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wasn't in spring training. He was down you know, I

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think around twenty in terms of the prospect rankings coming

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into the season and repeating the level of double A

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going into this year. So it's been a more out

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of nowhere thing. But but yeah, certainly the same scenario

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of we've got a guy who can probably help us

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in some way, and we're going to go and we

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need every bit that we can get out of the organization.

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So can it be the extract? He's already been the

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X factor. He's maybe not single handedly, but been a

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huge part of two wins that they really needed.

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Speaker 4: And what I like about him too, Brian is even

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on nights where he's hitless, he works a walk, you

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know what I mean, Like he's he's finding ways to

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get on base for you. And that's what this team

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is needed desperately the last couple of weeks.

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Speaker 3: Well, they need people who can affect the game, and

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he's done that. And you know it's been obviously the

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big swings of home home runs, but yesterday he had

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a played appearance where he walked. He tagged up from

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first to second on a ball to right field. Then

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he tags up from second to third on a ball

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that was like medium depths in center field. He didn't

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end up scoring, but he turned, you know, just a

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walk with nobody on base into a legitimate run scoring opportunity.

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And that's what they need as much as they need

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a guy who can come up and provide a little

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bit of juice to the lineup. Just give me as

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many guys as we can in that order. Who can

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you know, get it rolling a little bit, all right?

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Speaker 2: Brian bogus Sevic weekly Wednesday guest here on Sports Talk

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seven night Bogie. We appreciate, appreciate the time and insight

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as always.

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Speaker 3: Talk to you next week, all right, See you guys,