Red Sox Reality Check w/Chris Cotillo + Marlins talk w/Isaac Azout

0:00Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose Podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Kahn, the singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global hit, Stick Season, and one of the biggest voices in music today. Talking about the mental illness stuff, it used to be the thing that I was ashamed of. Getting to talk about this is not common for me. Right now, I need it more than ever. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHAR radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1. Including the astrology of the current grid, the story of the sport's most consequential driver's strike, and plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent, dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the iHAR radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:00I'm Lori Siegel, and this is Mostly Human, a tech podcast through a human lens. This week, an interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to the products we put out in the world. An in-depth conversation with the man who's shaping our future. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world of AI. Listen to Mostly Human on the iHAR radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Music Yes, we're going to talk about the Boston Red Sacks right now as Mass Lives. Chris Ketilla joins us. Chris, how are you doing, man? And how are the Red Sacks doing after a week of their performance on the field, while watching what I got to say at the Yankees are doing on the field against their opponents? I'm doing fine, despite the sky falling around this here in Boston.

2:03So fans are done the seasons over. That's the worst five-game losing streak in history of baseball. Now, I mean, it's a small sample size, but they have not looked good, especially in Houston. Lots of strikeouts, not passing the baton. Big time for the agent. Edition in Ranger Suarez. Struggling big time trade edition and sunny gray struggling. So if a team's ever needed an off day on April 2nd, it's today and they start their home schedule tomorrow, but definitely an ugly week after opening day. And I think there are some real concerns that people are starting to be worried about. Like the offense? Is it the offense? The pitching is good. I firmly believe the pitching. Crochet pitch, great. He's going to be fine. I think sunny gray is a five-inning guy. So everyone's like, oh, only through fornings. He's been basically a five-inning guy the last few years of his career, which is fine. Ranger, yeah. So Ranger's going to be fine once he gets settled in. Bayo, they know what they have in Bayo. Early look great when he pitched, right?

3:04So is it just offense that they're worried about? Or is there something else we're missing? I think the strength of this team needs to be run prevention pitching. You know, they built that roster around it over the off season. Braggman leaves. They pivot to Suarez. They already have Gray. They acquired Oviato who they were really high on. But to me, Gray didn't pitch great the other day. Suarez had a weird buildup because of the WBC struggled a lot in spring training and then the other night in Houston. Oviato seems lost. His velocity is down. He's an a long man. Piggy back roll. And you could see him getting options here in the next few days. So if they don't figure out the rotation in those pitchers, they're in real trouble. I think because this is a team that's not built on pop. It's not built on the big inning. It's a station to station. Put the ball and play offense. And we saw the strikeouts really pile up. You know, against Hunter Brown, against McCullors, against boroughs over the last couple of days. So the offense I think we knew was going to be maybe not clicking at the beginning as they kind of find themselves with Roman Anthony

4:06as the featured piece and how Contreras fits in. Durbin who's over 18. Now he fits in. They think the pitching is going to be a lot better. And it really has to be because the first time other than a good opening day start from crochet and a good one from early was really lacking and it shows up in the record. How about their defense? Which is directly tied to pitching. You're pitching unless they strike out the world like crochet usually does is tied to your defense. Like is this defense going to be what we're going to watch the entire season? It should be better than it was last year just because Contreras has good numbers at first in a small one-year sample. Meyer has a chance to be elite at second. Durbin at third is a guy they're comfortable in, comfortable with. He's been okay over there and I were on opening day. They've had lapses, some throwing errors from the catcher, some things here and there where they haven't been fully locked in over this six game stretch. But I think the defense in general is going to be a little bit better or a lot better than it was in previous years where they were cycling through so many guys at second

5:08and so many guys were coming up and first base was a mess. And I think it has to be with a guy like Suarez and the rotation. Lots of weak contact, gray same thing. They have no choice really. Do we ever find out why Narvaya has got benched? Is that ever come out why he was not in the lineup? Do we know the reason for that? Because that was odd so early into the year. Yeah, no. And that is, I can't take full blame because I wasn't in Houston on the trip. So I will be digging as the weekend goes on as everybody on the beat will be. What I'd say about Carlos Narvaya is he is one of the most well-liked guys they have in there, super friendly, super good teammate. A guy everybody likes, work ethic, not an issue at all as a rookie. To me, it was a little bit strange that he was the guy that got pulled out of the lineup and made an example of yesterday. I have to wonder if he was late or if he missed a meeting or anything like that. I do think it behooves the team or any team in this situation scenario to just say it

6:09because we're getting texts from scouts like, hey, what's going on here? What's going on? What's going on? If they just said, hey, he was late or he missed a meeting, it could kind of put some theories to bed. But to me, the earlyness of it, as you mentioned, I think, is kind of the striking part. You don't see managers do this super often where they pull a guy and say kind of the reason why that it was a disciplinary or manager's decision. I think that might speak to Alex Korra trying to get to this group a little bit and telling them to lock in. We're in the regular season. It's not spring training anymore. They had an instance the night before where they, as a team, didn't know the count. They cost themselves a Bayo strikeout. So there have been lapses and I think they're trying to get out ahead of that a little bit. But no, we don't know the exact reason for this one. What are you saying? So Alex Korra possibly had to keep the young guys under control. Like if they had somebody in their lineup or something like that that was like a leader that was played, say, third base and had the initials A, B. Do you feel like it was something that Alex Korra has noticed all spring training

7:14that, hey, who's going to be this veteran leader? Maybe I don't see it. And I need to step up and possibly be that guy as the manager of the team. They really have that and Trevor's story. You know, story and Breggman really kind of co-led from a position player, perspective last year. Story is super well respected in there and I think is at least to the position player group the clear captain with Roman Anthony, even at 21 taking on more of a role there, which is a scary thing. He's so young he doesn't have that much time in the big leagues, but he's so mature that they trust him to do that. Again, I don't know the real true reasons behind this Narvaez thing. It just speaks to Korra saying, hey, if there's any lapses, they're going to end week one. And I'm going to send a message to the group. He clearly did that. I can only remember Alex Rodrigo, I guess two or three years ago, getting benched and pulled out a lineup for a couple different things. That was very well covered. Some of the stuff that him and Korra were feuding over at times. I can't remember another instance where just randomly Korra does this.

8:16And you guys know, managers can cover for anybody. Oh, he has a tight hamstring or he's under the weather. Even if it is a disciplinary thing, here it was pretty clear like there's no injury. There's nothing physical, but something happened where he's out of the lineup. Nip it in the bud. That's I guess what they're trying to do. This one's for the dudes looking for that peak bedroom performance. Bluetooth just dropped their newest innovation. Bluetooth gold. Bluetooth is the number one chewable ED brand. And yes, Bluetooth gold dissolves under your tongue and works in as little as 15 minutes. Peak passion and peak performance in a single tablet. See why millions of men trust Bluetooth now with a gold standard upgrade that is changing the game for good. Make life easier and discover your options at Bluetooth.com. And we have a special deal for the FT fam. Get 10% off your first month of Bluetooth gold with code foul. That's promo code F-O-U-L. Visit Bluetooth.com for more details and important safety information.

9:18And we thank Bluetooth for sponsoring the podcast. This is the future of performance. Faster, smarter and precision engineered for results. Two ingredients for blood flow with upper morphine and oxytocin to turn up the arousal and connection in your brain and body. It's Bluetooth. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Kahn. The singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global hit Stick Season and one of the biggest voices in music today. Noah opens up about the pressure that followed his rapid success. His struggles with mental health and body image and the fear of starting again after such a defining moment in his career.

10:25Right now, I need it more than ever. Listen to On purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHAR radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. What about castes? We're stressing castes. I know he had a setback on his ribs. I thought he was recovering from a knee problem. What's going on there? Because that's somebody that Red Sox fans have been banging the drum for for years. This guy can be this and this guy can be that. He's going to be our next great player. But he gets hurt all the time and it sucks. But then he puts on the show with all the stuff he does. You know, not when he's not playing, right? So when are we going to get to see? Excuse me, the real Tristan castes show up. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a make a break year for him. And in a way, it's kind of already on the break side of that. Because they went out and they said, we're not going to keep this seat warm for you. We're going to go out and get Wilson Getreras to be our full-time first baseman. He's under control for this year. Next year in an auction for a third year. So that's kind of assigned to Cossus.

11:27Like just get healthy. We'll figure it out. But we can't rely on you as the every day first baseman. The two injuries he had were two freak things. The rib cage two years ago. The patellar tendon last year, which is a very serious thing. He was progressing really pretty well to the point where he was hoping to be on a rehab assignment around opening day. He got hurt on May 2nd of last year and it's a year-long recovery. So he was a little ahead of schedule. And then something happened where he pulled a muscle or came up with some soreness swinging the bat and trying to get that rib area back to 100%. As any player would know, and I'm certainly not one of them. But I've been told, when you are hurt, it's not just the area you're rehabbing. It's obviously getting back into game shape with everything else. And so that's why you see setbacks across different players, different body parts. This doesn't seem to be something that's going to keep him out extra months, but he still is far away. I mean, if he's shut down from swinging right now, take a couple of weeks to do that at get in some extended spring games,

12:30then get on a rehab assignment. But the red socks have done for themselves is build in that contingency where contraris, not a contingency, but a replacement really. Contraris is at first. He's going to be playing there every day. They already have five guys for the three outfield spots in the DH spot with Yoshida and Anthony Duran Rafael and Abrayu. So someone would need to get hurt for costus to really have a role anyway, so they can slow play it a little bit. But he's definitely had a crossroads. No question about that. All right, you just mentioned will you're Abrayu? The lone positive piece in this lineup he's been crushing since the season started. He was crushing in the WBC. Is there an indication or was there an indication coming into camp before the WBC that he had made a change that would say, okay, this is going to take him to the next level as a hitter where he already is as a two-time gold glove winner? Yeah, they were really excited about him from day one. He came in looking trimmer and more athletic.

13:32Last year he had slimmed down, but because he had a horrible case of the flu when he got to camp like a gastro thing. He wasn't a healthy leaner this year. He really was. He was smoking the ball in early spring before he went to the WBC. Was obviously really good there. This is a guy that had a similarly really hot start last year then cooled down and got hurt a couple times. And that has been what's happened with him here and there. But they want him to face lefties, which has been something he has not done. Because if he's doing that, he's in the field for every inning and right field. And that's very valuable, especially at Fenway where it's so spacious. This is a guy that really could be a running mate for Anthony and the lineup of Anthony truly is that star that they envision him to be. And a guy that I think is going to turn heads. And you see it, they barely scored over the first six games, but he's got three homers. He's tearing the cover off the ball already. They were excited about him from the start of camp and they still are. Chris, what would make Red Sarts fans happy? How would we get them all off the ledge?

14:33How would we get the mass holes all off the ledge? The Patriots, they were good this year. The Celtics are doing their thing. What can make the Red Sox faithful get off the ledge? If they go and win three games this weekend, if they sweep this weekend, well, they'd be like, oh, we're just kidding. We're fine. Yeah, I mean, I, if I knew the answer to that question, I'd probably run my Twitter account in a different way. I'll be able to figure it out over time with readership. But a good homestand would go a long way. The thing that I think is tricky for them is they have a pretty tough schedule early. The Padres this week, Michael Kang will be who they face tomorrow at Fenway. So the Padres for three, the Brewers for three with Woodruff and Mr. Rowski coming in to Fenway. I would say, you know, a winning homestand and going on the road against two probably inferior opponents in St. Louis and Minnesota. That would be a good start. But just cleaner baseball, better performances from some individuals. You know, a guy that's getting a lot of heat right now is Durban.

15:36O for 18. Story is striking out a lot. As I said, Suarez and Gray struggled. A good start from Gray tomorrow would be a good start. It's one in five. It's not one in 40. But I think the off date today will help in coming home. There's no let up because there's just, you know, two really good opponents waiting for them. But the pomp and circumstance and baseball at Fenway makes everyone happy even though there is a huge monster energy ad that's now on the green monster apparently. That's been the focus of the last 20 minutes on Twitter. Once you get past that home cooking should help them. And Don Ursula. Don Ursula, Durban. Is he going to get a standing ovation? Is he going to get a montage? Because I was there in the first game. He came back and he got a montage. It was a surprise. He almost started crying in the booth. Don Ursula has a special place in Red Sox fans heart. So hopefully he gets something tomorrow. Yeah, we're 10 years into that storyline. And Red Sox fans are still as pissed off about it as they were on day one. But it's a reunion weekend in a lot of ways.

16:37Bogarts hasn't played here since he left. He was hurt the first time. So that's intriguing. Walker Bueller coming back and pitching over the weekend. Nick Favett is not going to pitch, but he'll be here. So there's some crossover with the teams. And it should be an interesting series. I got a lot of interleague play early, which is a little different than you'd be used to. That sounds like a clever marketing play or people pissed because they don't want anything historic to be touched. I just saw it for the first time. It's a little big. I would say it's a monster. Is it real or is it AI? Were you able to fool? Were you able to fool? Fool's Chris by AI at 30. It's time to hang it up. Okay, we'll see. People fool. I got some people yesterday. It is the second. Right, it is the second. So that would just be cruel. All right, we'll keep an eye on it. Chris, you're the man. Thank you for joining us.

17:37Great to catch up with you. More work from Chris on his Fenway rundown podcast. And of course, on masslab.com with all of his articles. Follow him on X as well. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Let's talk Marlins. Isaac Azout joining us right now from Fish on First. And you can listen to Fish on First podcasts. Part of the FT network. We love having them as part of the fam. Isaac, great to have you back on. Man, good to see you. And good times for the Marlins so far in their first week of the season. What are you seeing that's working well for them? Yeah, five and one start. Before the season started, I sort of targeted the bullpen as a strength of this team. And they've only allowed Warner and Run in 17 and two thirds innings. But I mean, I think you can't not point at, excuse me, Liam Hicks and Sandial Contra. They're starts of the season. I don't think even Peter Bendig's expected this from Liam Hicks. So it's just great to see all the all the work that Liam put in the off season to swing a little bit faster,

18:39get a little stronger. And to see a paid dividends right away is really awesome. This is a picture of the greatest pitching of all time. Sorry, Scott. Now you're good. No, because the pitching all I've heard about having yelled at on Twitter that the pitching, and by the way, they played the Rockies and the Whitesucks. No offense to the Rockies and the Whitesucks. But they played the Rockies and the Whitesucks. And the Whitesucks hammered him one game just saying, the Whitesucks have one win and it was against the Marlins. So let's not get too excited over there. But is the pitching the greatest pitching of all time? By the way, Sandy, 93 three pitch complete games. Pretty awesome. Yeah, I don't know about the greatest pitching of all time. You mentioned the competition, but you know what? Hey, the Rockies went out and beat one, two out of three in Toronto. And the Whitesucks had a pretty good opening series in Milwaukee. And the Whitesucks have a little bit of offense in that line. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The Whitesucks had a pretty good series. They got swept. Well, they had an offensive. They had an offensive series in Milwaukee. That was amazing series. Thanks. Well, to answer your question, Sandy, we'll focus on Sandy because he really has looked fantastic.

19:40And he, since 2022, I have not seen this side of him in a while. This was vintage Sandy. He's averaging just about 10 pitches and innings. He's not going to rack up the strikeouts. He's going to pitch to weak contact right away. And he's done a fantastic job with that 16 scoreless innings to begin his season. We saw glimpses of it last year and the second half after a really uneven first half coming back from Tommy John. But this is something different. You could see it in just a way. He's executing his pitches. He's you going back to sinkered changeup with the occasional slider and sweeper. It's just vintage Sandy. You could see it on his face. We have not seen that smile on his face in a long time. And this, uh, yes, so his complete game shut out. It meant a lot to him, you could tell. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the on purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Conn. The singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global here sticks season on one of the biggest voices in music today. Noah opens up about the pressure that followed his rapid success. His struggles with mental health and body image and the fear of starting again after such a defining moment in his career.

20:41It's easy to look at somebody and be like, your life must be so sick. Man, you have no f***ing clue. Talking about the mental illness stuff, it used to be this thing that I was ashamed of. I'm just now trying to unwind this idea that I have to be unhealthy physically or in pain in some emotional way in my life to create good music. If someone says that I did a good job, I'm like, yeah, I'm good. If someone says that I suck, I'm like, f***ing guy suck. Getting to talk about this is not common for me. Right now, I need it more than ever. Listen to on purpose with Jay Shetty on the IHAR Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than no grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the astrology of the current grid. Lewis Hamilton, Crapicorn Sun, Cancer Moon, wouldn't you know it? Michael Schumacher is also a Crapicorn Sun, Cancer Moon. The story of the sport's most consequential driver's strike.

21:43We have one man who upon hearing that he was going to be fired, freaked out, and apparently climbed out the window of the bathroom. And was Daniel Ricardo's illustrious F1 career a success story, a cautionary tale, or some combination of both? He started getting all this attention, and he may be started to think, I'm bigger than this, I'm better. And plenty of other mishaps, scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Siegel, and I'm mostly human, I go beyond the headlines with the people building our future. This week, an interview with one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley, open AI, CEO, Sam Altman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products, bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to products we put out in the world. From power to parenthood. Kids, teenagers, I think they will need a lot of guardrails around AI.

22:43This is such a powerful and such a new thing. From addiction to acceleration. The world we live in is a competitive world, and I don't think that's going to stop. Even if you did a lot of redistribution, you know, we have a deep desire to excel and be competitive and gain status and be useful to others. And it's a multiplayer game. What's is the man who has extraordinary influence over our lives have to say about the weight of that responsibility? Find out on Mostly Human. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI. Listen to Mostly Human on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. All right, well, the guy behind the dish, Liam Hicks. You talked about that. You talked about his fast start. I actually, one of my assistant coaches on my baseball team worked with Liam all off season down at the Cressy Institute. Is it something that the Marlins pushed him to do? Or is it something that he took upon himself and said, okay, this is what I need to do to be the guy, because a lot of people are looking at like Augustine Ramirez as a guy that

23:46would be that guy in that position early on here. Hicks has proven that he should have that spot. Yeah, something the Marlins have been focusing on is really just increasing bat speed, right? And I think with certain guys, it doesn't make too much sense, but you look at a guy like Liam Hicks, who is just 98 percentile in chase rate. He puts the ball in play. He gets on base. And if he's someone that could get a little bit of more power in that bat, which is what he worked on in the off season, like you said, that's all of a sudden a really valuable commodity, who is someone who's really good catcher as well, who caught Sandy's complete game yesterday, like you mentioned. And if he continues to put the ball in play and not chase pitches and have maybe 10 to 15 home run power, you know, Miami may have something here. This was just a rule five big a couple of years ago. If you remember correctly. So really nice find by Peter Bendix. I don't think he's going to hit 30 home runs this year. I don't think we can expect the 1600 OPS for the whole year, but it's really exciting to see that tandem behind the plate in Ramirez and Hicks and just Joe Mack waiting behind the wings. All right, stop being such a hater.

24:47He can hit 30 homeers and he can have a 1600 OPS, okay? Because you're everybody's all smiles down in Miami, the like seven to eight people that watched him play so far. So is this five and one start of Assad? And is it covering up the things that weren't addressed in the absolute negative off season besides Pete Fairbanks that they had? I think a really good test is going to be this weekend in the Bronx. They're going to have a really tough situation there. They're going to have to face Max Fried. They're going to have to face Will Warren. And they're going to have to face old friend Ryan Weathers. It's going to be Yuri Perez and Chris Patic and Max Meyer for Miami. And so to answer your question, do I think they're going to be having an 800 win percentage for the whole year? I don't think so, but I do think that it'd be silly to not take these first six games and put a little bit more than a grain of salt on it. Because you know, like we said, the Rock is winning into Toronto and they won two out of three against the defending American League champions. And they were, it wasn't easy.

25:48Like you mentioned, the White Sucks put up eight runs against them. And I think that if you see the Miami Marlins take at least one or maybe two out of three in New York, then they face the reds at home, then they go to Detroit. I think after 14 games or so, you'll get a proper gauge of what this team can really be. And I think at this point in 2026, after the year that they had last year, winning 80 games, 79 games to be exact, you're going to see them add at the deadline. If there are anywhere near the postseason race, you're going to see them add significant talent to this roster, come trade deadline in July. Really? Hold on. I was going to ask some completely different, but not wait. What? Repeat that again, what you just said. I think that there's a strong possibility that when Miami, when an if, Miami is within 500 within, you know, striking distance of a postseason spot, you will see them sort of attack the deadline, similar to what they did in 2023. They brought in Jake Berger, they brought in Josh Bell, they brought in David Robertson. I don't think you're going to see the same sort of attack on the farm system that Kim Aing did, because Peter Bendis, he knows what he's doing.

26:50But I do think you're going to see some talent added to the roster. Like, payroll? Yes. What? Wait, hold on, my earpiece is broken. I think my earpiece is broken. Hold on. Let me into my good ear. Wait, what was, yeah, challenge, challenge. No, no, hold on. I'm going to tap me in, tap me in. They didn't spend it all in the offseason, and there were articles including the grab point, they were heading, I know, but they do have to spend a little because the lockouts coming up, and they have to show that they tried a little bit more on the financials since they're getting more money shares than what they're spending. In season, yeah, you take on a name or two. Yeah. Just think if they would have done that in the offseason, they wouldn't have to worry about it. Just, I mean, just, you know, I think following the one that is clarity on the collective bargaining agreement, you're going to see some spending and free agency. I think until this year didn't make much sense to do it. I think you saw them sign $13 million for Pete Fairbanks. You saw them have to sign a couple of other guys to minor deals. I will admit, but I think these next couple of off seasons, whether there's a cap or a floor or whatever that case may be,

27:52you're going to see them. I don't think they're going to be signing the Cal Tuckers of the world. I'll be honest with you, but I think there is an avenue in which they could spend more money than they have in years previous. All right. Well then, right off of that, let's go to Sandy's comments, post complete games. Sandy's been here forever, and maybe it feels like we're just attacking Marlon's fans, but it's so recency biased by me, watching the WBC in that electric stadium. AJ's been there. People behind the scenes on our show have been there, and it's electric. And Sandy says this after a complete game, hey, you know what, for the guy, for people who didn't show up, or not many of them showed up, or whatever it was, can this change be caught without what you just said? That's spending at the at the break or spending in the off season? Yeah, I found Sandy's comments interesting. I put out a tweet about it earlier. I pure speculation, but I think it was a well orchestrated maneuver by the Marlon's.

28:54I haven't sort of say that because my envy can't say that, but if it comes from your star picture, maybe it comes out a little bit better. And yeah, I think the Marlon's were a little bit disappointed with the turnout, not only just for the White Sox series, which is during the week, but games two and three over the weekend. Unfortunately, they had a little bit of competition to deal with. They had ultra music festival going on right here in downtown Miami. The president was here speaking at the Faina Hotel in Miami Beach. You had concerts going on because say a center in downtown. So I think not only that, you just had some fans that were maybe uneasy about driving and all that traffic, which is just not a good excuse if you ask me. And then, yeah, the White Sox series was 6,000 per game around. And I think they sort of hinted, hey, maybe if it comes from our ace pitcher, that'll help out a little bit. I think another factor also for the low attendance could be maybe a little bit of a baseball hangover coming from that WBC that you mentioned, maybe 36,000 every single day for 10 days straight in that tournament. Maybe there's a little bit of a hangover there, I'm not sure. But I hope that the fans come out a little bit more for that red series that starts next week,

29:56because I think Miami was a little bit disappointed with the turnout. But they've never drawn, though, that's my thing. I mean, obviously, it's like, why? Because everyone says, Miami, listen, I'm a Florida guy. I love baseball. I grew up playing baseball. When I grew up, though, the Marlins were, I was about to graduate high school. The Marlins appeared. The Rays weren't a thing, right? So team, they always got bigger crowds for the Yankees and the Mets and the Red Sox. And whoever else was a visiting crowd, but now they've been here for over 30 years. Why is the Marlins still not drawing? The only thing people ask me, and I say, well, the stadium's on a great spot. The stadium's inside, so you know, you're going to get a game. It's not on a great spot. The parking kind of sucks. You know, could they have put in a different spot? Sure, but they put it where they put it. Why? I just don't understand why people, they advertise. People know the Marlins are there. It's not like it's a new product. Oh, the Marlins are here. They came for WBC.

30:57So why do they not come to these games? I can't figure. They've had stars standing. I mean, they had a team with Stanton Rio Muto, Christian Yelich, right? Jose Fernandez. They had, I was there. I played against those guys. That was a team. They drew okay. Before that, you know, in the old stadium when they won in 1970, 2003, they did draw a little bit. But why is Miami not supporting baseball the way they should? I'm not sure. I wish I had the answer for you because like you mentioned, they had Stanton chasing 60. They had Jose pitching every fifth day. They went to the postseason in 2023 with a young team that added to the roster at the deadline. And he had no one showed up. People will blame previous PR moves by the team. For example, when Jeter bought the team, it was oh, no, more of the same when he traded all those stars. But I think it's time for fans to just sort of, you know, just realize that there's major league baseball being played in your backyard. So if I was a team, I think there's one thing that could maybe help to just make it more of a destination. We've all been a wriggly field, right? Wrigglyville is just incredible to go. Before the game, after the game, there's just a destination. There's things to do around the ballpark.

31:58The Marlins are working on that with the construction of Miami live, which should be ready towards the end of this off season. But I think years and years of continuity, when it comes with the president of baseball operations, Peter Bendix, when it comes with the manager. This is my fifth year on the beat, and it's already the third manager that I've covered. So I think once you see continuity both on the roster in the management and in the front office, along with some winning, which I think they're going in that direction that may equate to some more attendance, I hope. This episode is brought to you by Fox One. Go get that new app stream baseball, stream football, stream World Cup action. You'll be watching. I definitely can't wait. I actually want to try and get to a game, but while in there, I'll still have my Fox One app. I'll have MLB, the shows, the great shows that Fox has. College football that I love, college basketball. They have it all. This really is the app that you can get all of anything you want to watch on an app. Fox One has it and they are great at it. Yeah, the big sporting events.

32:59And by the way, the World Cup is June 11th to July 19th. You can get a free seven day trial of Fox One. So go check that out. And you can start your seven day free trial. Today offers our subject to change. Go to Fox One for complete turns and conditions. Fox One streaming now. The singer songwriter behind the multi platinum global hit Stick Season. And one of the biggest voices in music today. Noah opens up about the pressure that followed his rapid success. His struggles with mental health and body image and the fear of starting again after such a defining moment in his career. It's easy to look at somebody and be like, your life must be so sick. Man, you have no f***ing clue. Talking about the mental illness stuff. It used to be the thing that I was ashamed of. I'm just now trying to unwind this idea that I have to be unhealthy physically or in pain in some emotional way in my life to create good music. If someone says that I did a good job, I'm like, yeah, I'm good.

34:00Someone says that I suck. I'm like, f*** I suck. Getting to talk about this is not common for me. Right now, I need it more than ever. Listen to on purpose with Jay Chetty on the iHAR radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Isaac, do you think that the current front office group is aware of how to do that from a marketing perspective? I say that because this group is trying to take the raise model from a business standpoint and a fan affinity standpoint, that model doesn't work. If you're looking for wins and losses, it helps, although we can make the case that the raise haven't actually won a world series that come close. But the constant churn is not good for creating an identity. I lived in Miami for a while. So I saw what it takes there to and the mixes you have to have guys that are going to stay there for a while that people know, yes, Jose Fernandez and we were just kind of scratching the surface of his impact. Of course, that's an impact

35:00that's only once per week or so. So that's the one concern that I have is will they create a team that's more competitive but that isn't sexy enough for Miami? That's a fantastic point. That is my concern as well because yeah, you could have a 91 team every single year like the raise had and yet people do not show up to the top. I think Miami has a little bit of an advantage with their stadium. It's a really nice state-of-the-art ballpark that is in the middle of Little Havana, but that's not Peter Bendix's concern. You could tell the way he's handling this roster. He does not care about the PR. That is Caroline O'Connor's job, the president of the Marlins. And I think that department is at a better job as of late with the ballpark experience, with the marketing, with the social media. They have taken a step forward in that department no doubt about it. If you look at their intro videos the last couple of years, it was all AI. Now it's actually done by a really fun team. And I think in that department, they're doing better. But no, I'm not sure if they're model of constructing a playoff caliber team that's sustainable the way they want it to be is going to equate to sell-out crowds at Lone Depot Park.

36:03We were hoping that this off season was going to turn into maybe an extension for Yuri Perez, maybe an extension for Jacob Marcy. It didn't happen. I think that's what we talked about the last time I joined you guys. Maybe Joe Mac is that guy that they could possibly extend to that Cooper Pratt type deal. I'm not sure. But I agree with some sort of continuity. Even if it's against what they believe in in the upstairs department of the front office, I think you've got to have some sort of face to put where fans can know that they'll have one guy to root for for the next eight years. That was going to be my question about extensions. We had Kyle Stowers on and he would like to stay in contract extension talks. He was an all-star. So it's like, okay, that face is there. Is it disappointing for fans when you see Cooper Pratt? You when you see Colt Emerson, when you see other organizations that don't necessarily spend a ton. There's ideas that Connor Griffin is going to. Does it hurt more when Marlon's fans see that in other organizations and go, where worse than the pirates with this stuff?

37:06Yeah, it's got to be frustrating if you're a Marlon's fan, right? You see what's going on in Pittsburgh even. You see Milwaukee extending both Yellowwich and then everyone else. And Miami had had some, they do have some really good extension candidates. Some attractive extension candidates. I thought Yuri Perez was the pinnacle of that. A young, sour, a young right-handed pitcher that has all the stuff in the world and actually commands it well and who probably wants to be here. But I think they waited too long and now he's out of their price range, unfortunately. So that's why I would pivot toward someone that has not made their major league debut yet in Joe Mac. Jacob Marcy's already 24 years old. I found that peculiar from the get-go. So I didn't know if that made too much sense anyway. And then Kyle Stowers, yeah, he's another one who is also mid- as mid-20. So I'm not sure how much sense that makes either. But I think you got to look down in the minor leagues for one of those pre-arb extensions, pre-day-view extensions. Mac would make sense Thomas White as a Scott Borers guy. So I don't see that happening. Maybe snowing could be someone who we will see in the next couple of months for sure. But yeah, it's got to be frustrating for Marlon's fans. The last guy that they extended,

38:06I guarantee you guys will not get this is Richard Blire to a one-year, to your extension in the middle of the 22 season before that Miguel Rojas. So it's been a while since that big sexy sandy extension. So I think that is one thing that would help both the on-field product and the marketing as well. Yeah, I would not have gotten Richard Blire. You said that was one year, what, two million? I don't have the exact figures because it was a while ago. It may have been two-year extension for Richard Blire. Yeah. Okay, you would have gotten the correct. Well, only because we were teammates and then he teammates in Triple H and then it was like Dick Blire, extension, he was like, what, he was getting big outs for the Marlins. He was kind of that time when they were COVID time and all that and all of a sudden, he was like yelling on the mound. He was almost getting in a fight with other teams and then it was like he was the Marlins face of fury and then it kind of dropped off a little bit. Yeah, he was a cool guy too. It was a two-year six-million dollar extension in March of 2022 and unfortunately,

39:07I don't think he stayed with Miami for the duration of that contract. All right, we're gonna give it the college try and go for a bigger contract extension. But in all seriousness, the team's playing well. So performance is there so far in the first week of the season with restarted with Isaac. Thank you for joining us. Thank you guys so much for having me. Good, catching up, fish on first, by the way. The spot for Marlins coverage both to read and to listen to podcast platforms, YouTube channel, the whole deal, there are spot. Part of the FT Network, AJ Ramos, new to the party there, contributing the player perspective as well. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Khan, the singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global hit, Stick Season, and one of the biggest voices in music today. Talking about the mental illness stuff, it used to be this thing that I was ashamed of. Getting to talk about this is not common for me. Right now, I need it more than ever.

40:10Listen to On purpose with Jay Shetty on the IHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than no grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the astrology of the current grid, the story of the sports' most consequential driver's strike, and plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Siegel, and this is mostly human, a tech podcast through a human lens. This week, an interview with OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. I think society is gonna decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to the products we put out in the world. An in-depth conversation with the man who's shaping our future. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world of AI. Listen to mostly human on the IHA radio app, Apple Podcast,

41:12or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.