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Speaker 1: Go ahead and say it. Future American League Manager of

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the Year, Joe Spot.

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Speaker 2: I'm doing well, guys. Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 3: Hey, congratulations on the win. Congratulations for Bryce Matthews. Tell

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me what it's like managing a young man who probably,

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as you even admitted it, has some work to do,

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not a finished product, but comes up, takes them all

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to get that first major league hit and then is

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certainly very impactful for you last night.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he's been you know, the game he had yesterday,

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you know, against a really good starter in the in

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the position that we are in right we are fighting

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through a tough stretch of injuries, and these young players

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continue to come up and and and step up and

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have games the way Bryce just did. It just impacts

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you know. It brings his energy to the club house

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and to our team that we needed. And you know,

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I'm not surprised about his success. We know that he's

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got all the ability and the capabilities to be a

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really good player. But how every game he's starting to

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settle down, calm down, understand what they're trying to do,

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play good baseball on both sides of the ball has

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been remarkable and a great story. You know, this is

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a Houston kid, is a kid that went to the

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Astros Academy. So the whole thing is special. And you know,

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it's it's great to see having success and we you know,

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we need to keep this going and and and it's

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excited to be to be managing this, this group of

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players who are so excited and want to contribute.

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Speaker 1: Are you committed Joe to keeping him at second base?

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Speaker 3: Obviously you're the second basement before him has been playing

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a little bit of left field, obviously some DH as well,

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and you'd moved him to second. We're speaking obviously with Jose,

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but what are your plans at least for the short

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term at that second base spot.

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Speaker 2: You know what I've really got to I want to

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really give him an opportunity. You know, it's it's you know,

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right now with our roster and how much is changing,

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and we can really predict what the future will bring.

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But right now he has earned the right to continue

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to get opportunities. Like I've always said, you know, any

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young player, you had to keep an eye on how

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he reacts and how he makes adjustments. I don't want

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to throw a young player out there and not be

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able to help them through struggle. So I'm constantly keeping

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an eye on all these young players and trying to

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put him in a position where they can feel comfortable

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and have some success. But right now he's handling himself.

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Speaker 3: Very very well with all the injuries and your roster adjustments.

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I mean, the Sugarland Houston Express is unbelievable, toll chargers

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and everything, but you guys can handle that. Let me

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ask you about trying to get guys off their feet,

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whether it's Jose, whether it's Victor, whether it's Jannare. Does

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it become even a bigger challenge because I feel like

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every other series you're having to kind of create and

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manipulate a new twenty six man roster.

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Speaker 2: You know what, I think that it's it's challenging. But

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when you get guys to like Bryce right who's performing

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the way he is, he allows me to give out

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to a back to back d H days like I'm

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going to do today with with with with Hostel too.

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If I'm going to d H him again, Brice can

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get another opportunity to play second base. I could keep

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Hosy off his feet on the turf. You know, Carotine

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will get a blow today. Yeah, your DS will be

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back in there today against a lefty pitching. I am

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really trying to get everyone involved, you know. Uh, Tremmel

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swinging the bat really well, so he's getting an opportunity

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to you know, get you know, play more on the field. McCormick,

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you know, have two hits yesterday. He can play some center.

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So I'm really trying to get everyone a breeder doing

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the best I can to try it also win as

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many games we can. Keep it in mind that we

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need to keep these guys healthy and you know, doing

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this next nine ten days that we we have games.

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But I think you know we are we are kind

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of controlling the volume of the early work we do

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our VP times were kind of pushing things back, kind

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of trying to keep these guys healthy while we get

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the rest of the guys who uh you know, get

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back to us.

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Speaker 3: Joey sincerely apologize that so much of our conversation this

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year has been about injuries. But that has been a

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storyline of this team, and you're you're certainly well aware

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of that. Uh, let's get to your very talented third

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basement who looked absolutely terrible running to first base at

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our day.

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Speaker 1: And I know there wasn't much word yesterday.

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Speaker 3: Do you have anything more you can tell our audience

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right now about what we know about Esak and in

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any evaluation you had medically here in town.

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Speaker 2: You know what. Obviously you know the injury, uh did

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not look good. It's going to be it's going to

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take it. It's going to take some time for for

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us to get Paradis back. You know, this handstring injury

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was different from the other one. The other one, what's more, Uh,

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it was not as intense or as you know, as

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bad as this one. So this is going to take

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Paradis some time to come back, you know. And and

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we are going to miss him during during this stretch

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of not having him in there. And and again we

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need you know, who's going to be the next guy up,

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who's going to step up and and and help us?

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And we I've been doing that. Good guys for talking

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about I feel like for a few months now. But

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but I feel good about our guys.

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Speaker 3: Man.

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Speaker 2: They fight, they understand in the position that we are in,

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we're protecting our house, We're protecting what we you know,

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what we love, and it's it's continue to be the

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best team in the West. And as long as we

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got this guy's fighting and trying to do the best

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they can, that's all I can ask for.

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Speaker 4: One of the great things that Esak brought to the

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table was the amount of pitches he was able to

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take and the patience that he had. Uh, can you

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just give us some thoughts on basically what is in

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him that allows him to do that? And how do

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you kind of try to coax more out of that

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out of the rest of your lineup, but while still

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keeping guys within themselves.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think what Issach does really well.

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Number one, I think he has no panicating with two strikes.

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When you have a hitter that you know he'd rather

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be all in one than aero for one. It allows

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you to de pitches and confident that I can hit

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with two strikes. And he's always been able to, you know,

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control the strikes and he knows his strength, he knows

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what he's looking that day. I guesst that particular picture, right,

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So we have, you know, we have some guys that

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are capable of doing that. So I'm trying to stack

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some of those guys up where our lineup can stretch

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out a little bit more. We can see pitches we

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can allow our guys to hit with Many's scorn positions.

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I'm trying to stack up some guys that can hit

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with Many's porn position, trying to get some big hits

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in certain moments. You know, it's it's it's tricky, but

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you know, we we're going to continue to shuffle things around,

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and the guys are all in and you know, I'm

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going to communicate with them my thought process and hopefully

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we can keep these going.

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Speaker 4: Astro's manager Joe Spotto was here on Sports Talk seven

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ninety and one of those guys you've had to move

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a lot, Cam Smith has basically been everywhere in the lineup.

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Do is it a situation where you want the approaches

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to be the same or did you talk about possibly

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seeing more pitches now with him leading off?

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Speaker 2: You know what, he's been seen pitches throughout the whole

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entire season. I really like he's approached and and I'm

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trying to, you know, make sure that he doesn't have

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to change he's planned. He could still be the same

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in that lead O spot. Just try to drive the

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battle rights in a field. He's come up with some

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men in scorn positions. He's got that big double against

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Wu in Seattle. Got another big knock yesterday. So I'm

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trying to be you know, trying to put him in

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a spot where it is not overwhelmed by by the spot.

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You know, he has Altuba hitted behind him, so he's

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getting some good pitches to hit, you know, and trying

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to you know, stack some hitters behind all two where

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that we can get some get some big hits with

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you know, with men's scorn position.

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Speaker 3: Last three starts Joe for Hunter have been laborsome, to

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say the least.

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Speaker 1: What are you seeing? Is there something that's happening? Is it?

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Speaker 3: Uh Nickel and diamond to death? Is it the corners

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are not getting called strikes? What combination of things do

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you see that has seen his zer a spike up

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a little bit of the last two weeks or so, You.

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Speaker 2: Know what, I think his stuff has been really good

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at bats have been you know, anytime you face someone

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with that that's that caliber, hitters get to you know,

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they lock it in and and I see hitters uh,

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you know, really making adjustments to he's arsenal and how

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he's attacking a lot of foul balls, a lot of

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long bats, which is driving his pitch counts up, he's

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you know, he made some quality pitches in Seattle, and

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those guys were able just to put some bawling play.

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And but but I don't think it's something that we

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should be worried about. I think every great picture goes

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through stretches where they show their human side of them

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and and I think once you know, Hunter gets back

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on the mound and he gets going again, I think

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he's he's gonna get on a roll here pretty soon.

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Speaker 3: One more thing about a starting pitcher, and this may

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be overly simplistic, So if it's if it is straightened

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me out, can lance is it a strike throwing that

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is getting him in the most trouble right now that

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maybe he just needs to be able to trust the

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stuff to get her over the plate and say, yeah,

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there may be some contact, but I've got good enough stuff.

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Speaker 1: Because it feels like the pitch.

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Speaker 3: Count, especially early in games, has really gotten in behind

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the eight ball.

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Speaker 2: And that's it. You know, his stuff is really good

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if if we try to get him to throw the

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ball in the box and let let the natural movement

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of his pitches do the talking. If you if you're

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behind the count, the one, zero two. The hitter is

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completely in control, you know, off the bat, and they

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can wait out, and they can sit on pitches, and

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now they can control the part of the plate that

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they want to handle. You know that they want to

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hit the ball. So but when you control the bat

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and you get ahead in the count, and now you

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use your sweeper and now I can get my curveball

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over my two seamen, it is a completely different ball game.

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And you know it's not easy, you know. I Lancey's

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been a really good pitcher when he's being healthy, and

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he's shown this for many, many years. But we try

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to get him to simplify his repertoire how attack hitters

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and just get him to be in the box more often.

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If he does that, he's going to find himself pitch

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in five six innings.

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Speaker 1: All right, if I let your run.

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Speaker 3: Colton Gordon and Brandon Walter, I mean have been I

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mean huge assets for you. They weren't even on your

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radars radar and have come up and helped you out

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in terms of not only giving you outs in one case,

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not throwing base on balls. And the strike count has

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been good. And then you needed a link last night

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and you got it from one of your starting pitchers.

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So two blessings for you right now for the squad.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what they when we went in the

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off season, you go and you sign players and you're

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making your depth chart. You always signing pictures arms that

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you know at some point they could come up and

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help you give your starters a breeder. You know, you

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never you never prepared for the amount of injuries that

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could happen to your rotation. But we always prepare to

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have some depth. But in case something happens, we know

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Colton Gordon is capable of throwing strikes in giving you

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four or five minutes. When we went and got Walters,

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can he can also do the same. So we we

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acquire these players knowing that in case something happens, this

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is our second line of defense. And these guys have

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been have been solid and allow us to give time

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to those pitchers who are on the sideline who are

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working their way back, just to keep us in the fight.

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And that's all we have. Just keep us in the fight.

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And then when we get the rest of the players

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coming back, maybe you know, then we're in a position

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to make a strong push in August in September Skip thanks.

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Speaker 3: The visit has always congratulates on the win. Thank you

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to Milwaukee for beating the Mariners last night. Enjoyed that

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five game lead and help it stays that way tonight

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against the Dbacs.

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Speaker 2: Yes, sir, Thank you guys,