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Breaking Down Jack Flaherty's Comments About Willson Contreras · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  What's up everybody? Charlie Marlow here on a Monday
• 0:02
  talking a little Cardinals baseball.
• 0:04
  We had a pretty juicy nugget, I think it's fair to say coming
• 0:07
  from the Foul Territory podcast. Jack Flaherty doing an interview
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  a few days ago. I think it was Thursday, Friday.
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  Can't remember exactly. I watched the 30 minute
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  interview over the weekend. It's very interesting.
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  I think you should check it out. It's with the Eric Kratz, Scott
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  Braun, Todd Fraser. Obviously AJ Prasinski is
• 0:26
  usually on that podcast, but I think the piece of information
• 0:30
  that a lot of people are talking about and writing about is the
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  fact that Jack Flaherty was discussing Wilson Contreras and
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  defending Wilson Contreras and trying to clarify some of his
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  comments from last year, which was early May.
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  That he said about the pitching staff.
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  In terms of we're throwing pitches that don't make sense
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  and at the time I believe everybody took that as hey
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  Wilson Contreras is calling pitches that don't make sense
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  and and clearly you had something really odd happen.
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  I mean I'm I'm going on 42 years old been watching and covering
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  baseball my whole life. I've never, I've never seen a
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  catcher, especially a guy who's been in the big leagues about
• 1:13
  what, 7/7 plus years all of a sudden get taken out of the
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  catching role. So clearly something drastic was
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  going on. That's an obvious statement last
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  year. But look, Jack Flaherty, who has
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  now signed with the Detroit Tigers on a one year deal for
• 1:29
  $14 million. I'm very happy for Jack, by the
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  way. I hope he gets healthy.
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  I hope he's really good. Again, I have nothing against
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  Jack. I like Jack.
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  I'm not one of these people that's very much against Jack
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  for for other reasons, not just baseball and injuries and all
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  that, but clearly going back to the kind of the the Black Lives
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  Matter stuff there, there's some people that don't like Jack
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  Flaherty. We all know that.
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  I'm just trying to say that I have no agenda against Jack
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  Flaherty at all. So I'm just, I'm shooting
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  straight with you about what I think about what I watched and
• 2:01
  then kind of going back in time because I think we're entering
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  the spin zone here a little bit. I understand that Jack Flaherty,
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  you know, maybe he didn't say it perfectly.
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  He was frustrated after that outing against the Angels which
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  was a really rough outing and and maybe he didn't say exactly
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  perfectly what he meant but I think it was pretty clear to
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  fans and media what he did mean and and what other pitchers said
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  and also what happened. Like let's be real, let's be
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  real. This wasn't a minor thing and I
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  think sometimes we're doing we're doing some revisionist
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  history about what happened with the Cardinals last year with
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  Wilson Contreras and and by the way I like Wilson Contreras too.
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  I hope. I hope he's great this year.
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  I hope we turn this all around. I hope he's a a a solid catcher
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  and we don't talk about this anymore.
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  But to act like this wasn't this massive crazy story last year
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  that that changed seemingly day by day if you remember after
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  some of these comments and there's that Saturday the
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  Cardinals are playing and the announcement is made that Wilson
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  Contreras is now going to not catch for a while.
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  They're going to work him in the outfield.
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  The baseball world goes crazy and then the next day they
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  change their plan. And.
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  And I've been looking into this because I want to make sure when
• 3:13
  I do these videos, I know what I'm talking about because I
• 3:15
  misremember some things. And you look at Katie Woo's
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  reporting, So that Sunday, John Mozelak said, look, a lot, a lot
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  was said yesterday, but we talked with Wilson Contreras and
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  he's not going to be an outfitter unless it's an
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  absolute emergency. So clearly the plan changed
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  their, their plan on that Saturday changed.
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  Then on Sunday after John Mozelak said you can go to Katie
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  Woo's report that he talked with Wilson Contreras.
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  So, so clearly something changed in that 24 hours, probably some
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  ego involved. The baseball world is going
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  nuts. Everybody's talking about this
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  that's a that's a shot to an ego of a of a of a prideful very
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  good player like Wilson Contreras.
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  So. But getting back to the reason
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  I'm doing this video is the Jack Flaherty comments.
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  I just think that a year or so after the fact you know Jack
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  Flaherty is trying to explain himself probably feels bad about
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  it. And my guy, Jimmy the Cat Hayes
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  also had Miles Michaelis on his podcast on YouTube.
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  The what? The Cat's Corner and Miles
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  Michaelis said similar things. He said, look, we we took, we
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  basically allowed Wilson Contreras to take the bullets
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  for us and and go watch Cats interview, by the way, also with
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  Miles Michael, so you get the direct quote.
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  All I'm saying is I I think we're doing some revisionist
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  history. I understand that after the
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  fact, emotions calm, People feel bad about what they said.
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  They like these guys. Like nobody's doing this.
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  Nobody's doing this because they dislike each other.
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  It was just an awful season for the Cardinals last year.
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  It was a terrible start. I mean it is, it is more the the
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  pitcher's fault. But also look, let's be real
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  about this. There, there essentially has to
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  be a mutiny. There essentially has to be a
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  pitching mutiny where the the staff goes to the the coaching
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  staff and says we can't throw to this dude that that that's what
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  happened. Let's be honest, you don't take
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  a dude who's 7 plus years in the big leagues who did catch during
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  a World Series run and he's been he's been very solid.
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  We know he's not the greatest defensive catcher, but you don't
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  take that dude in Year 7 or 8, whatever it is, and say you're
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  no longer a catcher. That just doesn't happen unless
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  there's essentially A mutiny from the pitching staff and says
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  we can't throw to this dude, We got to clean this up.
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  That's what happened. I mean, let's be real.
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  Let's let's not. Let's not insult the
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  intelligence of a very smart baseball fans and for the most
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  part, smart media, right? Are we pretty smart?
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  OK, some of us, I'm not that smart.
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  But you know what I'm saying? Look, I'm not, like, mad about
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  this. I just think sometimes, look,
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  guys want to kind of sanitize the record of what happened.
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  I understand that Jack Flirty. You should.
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  You should watch the whole interview.
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  It's about 30 minutes. I wish Jack the best.
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  I hope he pitches really well for Detroit.
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  I hope he gets paid. Hey, I hope the Tigers are good.
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  I mean, that's a wide open AL Central Division.
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  But if the Tigers aren't good you, you'd think if Jack
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  Flirty's pitching well again, he'll get flipped to a contender
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  once again at the trade deadline.
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  And I hope he gets paid down the road.
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  It's kind of funny. We all thought, oh, Jack,
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  Flaherty's definitely going to play for the Dodgers.
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  He's going to be on the West Coast and he signs with the
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  Detroit Tigers in the freaking Rust Belt.
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  I grew up going to Tigers game, so whenever the Tigers are good,
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  I'm excited about that. I was never really a huge Tigers
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  fan, but my family is. So it's all good.
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  But again, what do you guys think?
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  Comment. Like, subscribe?
• 6:37
  What do you think about what I said?
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  If you watched the Jack Flaherty interview, I think months later
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  the next season, he feels bad about what he said.
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  He's trying to clean up the record a little bit.
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  And again, I'm not saying he said the exact perfect thing.
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  He was frustrated after that Angels outing when he said we're
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  we're throwing pitches that don't make sense.
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  To me, that was very clearly calling out who's who's calling
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  the pitches in Wilson Contreras. Now could he have just not said
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  that perfectly? Sure.
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  I'm going to. I'm going to give give folks the
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  benefit of the doubt, usually. But I think when we saw what
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  happened Wilson Contreras, I think what he did mean at the
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  end of the day was Wilson Contreras, whoever you want to
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  blame it on. Whether it was the communication
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  between Dusty Blake, Wilson Contreras pitching staff, you
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  know, pitch clock, new catcher, bunch of guys missing from the
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  World Baseball Classic. Not Jack Flaherty.
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  But you can, you can talk about that with Wayno, with Miles
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  Michaelis, with some other guys. So in that interview, Jack
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  Flaherty basically said I didn't, I didn't mean it was the
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  pitches that Wilson Contreras was calling.
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  He said in this interview with foul territory, you know, I
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  meant it was we weren't executing.
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  So if we have an O2 pitch, I throw a slider.
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  All of a sudden though, it's in the zone, it gets, it gets hit,
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  I give up a double, whatever it is.
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  You know, I'm not talking about the pitches being called, I'm
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  talking about the execution of the pitches.
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  But I think it's fair to say that most people when that
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  happened back in May, that they interpreted what he said for for
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  what I think what he meant, which is we're calling the wrong
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  pitches. Something's not right.
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  There's miscommunication. We're not on the same page.
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  And and look, clearly that was the case because they sat
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  freaking Wilson Contreras down for about 8 days and didn't let
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  him catch something. I've never, I've never seen in
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  the big leagues. I'm going on 42 years old.
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  Been in Saint Louis now what? Like covering the team for about
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  16 years. I've never seen or even heard
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  about that happening with the Cardinals or any other team.
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  So I, I, I understand. But I don't think we should also
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  kind of sanitize the record and and try to act like what we
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  didn't see happen and what we didn't think happened and what
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  happened, didn't happen, right. We all know what happened.
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  But also let's let's turn the page.
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  I, I understand. Say Charlie, how can we turn the
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  page when you're talking about, well, this is in the news.
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  This was a big, this was a big news story in the last 3-4 days
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  in Cardinal Nation. Everybody talking about it,
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  everybody writing about it. I understand what Jack
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  Flaherty's doing well. Look, the pitching staff sucked
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  last year. Wilson Contreras early on, was
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  doing something so, so bad, so bad that they took him out of
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  the freaking catching position. So it had to be pretty Dang bad,
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  right? It had to be pretty Dang bad.
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  I don't know exactly what it was.
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  We've heard reports that he was calling, pitches that pitchers
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  didn't have, that Michael Kay report from the Yankees.
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  Will we ever know exactly what happened?
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  I don't know, But it was bad enough that they took the dude
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  out of the freaking catching position for eight days.
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  At first they said he's going to be an outfielder in year one of
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  a five year deal. So let's not pretend like this
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  didn't happen. That's all I'm saying.
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  Jack Flirty. I'm not mad.
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  I'm a fan of Jack Flirty. I hope he does well.
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  All I'm saying is when I watch that interview, I heard him talk
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  about Wilson Contreras. I said I don't know if that's
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  exactly how it went down, but that's my opinion.
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  You should watch the interview. It's very interesting too,
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  talking about Yachty and Wayno and a lot of respect for those
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  guys. But that's just my opinion.
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  It is what it is. What do you guys think?
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  Comment. Like, subscribe.
• 10:11
  Did you watch the interview? What do you think?
• 10:12
  Do you agree with me? Do you disagree?
• 10:14
  Do you agree with Jack? Do you disagree?
• 10:16
  If you like this show, share the Share the video.
• 10:19
  Share the channel, Share the show.
• 10:21
  Word of mouth is great. Put it in the group text.
• 10:24
  Put it on social media, whatever it is.
• 10:26
  All right, It's cold outside, my hands shaking.
• 10:30
  If you're saying, Charlie, you wear this sweatshirt all the
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  time in your videos. I do.
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  This is kind of my around the house thick, almost coat
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  sweatshirt. I don't really care.
• 10:37
  I'm going to wear the same 3 sweatshirts for all these
• 10:40
  videos. I don't give a crap.
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  This ain't about fashion. We're just talking baseball.
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  All right, all right. Have a great week, everybody.
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  And for the 87th time, let me know.
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  Comment. Like, subscribe, Reply.
• 10:52
  What do you think of Jack Flirty's comments?
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  Do you believe him? Do you think he's kind of trying
• 10:56
  to sanitize what happened last year?
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  Little bit of the spin zone. That's what I'm saying.
• 11:01
  What do you think? All right, Peace out guys.