August 29, 2025 • 10 mins
Nick Kirby of Chatterbox Sports joined Todd Walker to talk about the Reds.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Talking now with Nick Kirby from Chatterbox Sports, talking reds.
Right's get back at it with the Cardinals here at home,
and well, it's tough for Western swing, Nick, they always are,
and many red seasons have died during a West coast trip.
It started great but ended poorly at three and six,
and they were just really outclassed by the Dodgers, weren't they.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, and just truly a nightmare scenario with the Mets
getting hot at the exact same time that this happens.
And yeah, you know, the Dodgers series is what it is,
It's kind of it just kind of magnifies. It feels
like a lot of the other games that they gave away.
You know, the two games against the Brewers, they had
(00:44):
that game, the Abbot dominated against the Phillies, even the
final game in against the Angels. You know, kind of
the Dodgers you have to kind of expect there's a
chance will get swept or at least to lose two
out of three. What kind of feels like you had
to do better in those games before.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, that's a good point. And you know the other
thing is that this right the lineup, I know a
lot of people have a lot of consternation about Noel V.
Marte playing center field and some of the roster and
lineup choices by the front office. Slash the manager Terry Francona,
what's your frustration level and what are some of the
(01:24):
things that have you, I guess really second guessing all
of that.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, it's it's it feels like they're just not sticking
to one school thought or the other. Like they've clearly
made defense a point of emphasis, which is great, you know,
like I think you can you can win with defense.
I think the Brewers have really showcased that winning with
pitching and defense for almost a decade at this point.
(01:52):
But it feels like they haven't gone all in on that.
It's like they kind of pick and choose where they
want to have defensive spots and then they'll still leave
some weaknesses. They've made some strides defensively, there's no question
about him. I think every metric would show you as
went from legitimately one of the three worst teams defensively
to at least middle of the pack this year. But
(02:15):
they're just there's just a lot and you know, for me,
there's like Santiago West with all due respect to Santiago Espinal,
and he's done a nice job. I think he's done
everything he can within his capability. Him starting right field
a corner outfield spot against Clayton Kershaw, I don't understand that.
(02:37):
And there's about like seven guys down at Triple A
that all are legitimately better hitters than Santiago esp All.
The only reason Santiago Espital is on the roster is
because of really defense, And the only reason he's on
the roster at the beginning of the season was because
he was the best defensive third baseman. But he went
out and traded for the best defensive third basement in
(02:57):
the sports. So it just seems like Espinol's kind of
redundant and they're just not It doesn't feel like they're
maximizing every spot and every opportunity to add any sort
of advantage.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
No doubt, this team right now doesn't seem to be
built really to win. I think maybe that's part of
the problem Nick this team. I don't think they really
thought was going to be in serious contention, and then
you know, they just kind of messed around and they're
they're in the wild card race, and you know, really
if you look at the season, it hasn't They haven't
gotten a lot of breaks. I mean, Hunter Green has
(03:34):
missed time, Nicolodolo has missed time. So maybe they just
got caught off balance was how this team was performing
in relation to a chance to make the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, and and I mean also this Ellie daa Cruz,
you know, was one of the best players in baseball
up through July and in August. I'm not exactly sure
what has happened, but you know, he's legitimately had one
of the worst months probably we've seen in a Reds uniform,
(04:07):
which is is crazy because he was so good early
in the year and you know, really was the main
reason the Reds were even competitive up until that point.
So when you're your best player just completely falls off
for a month and I don't know what it is.
I don't know if it's the quad injury. I don't
know if he's exhausted. I know, you know, the guy
also lost his sister this this year as well, But
(04:30):
you have that and then there's just so many and
you know, Matt McClain, it's it's it. I think if
we would have realistically said going into the year that
led la Cruz would play this bad in August. Matt
McLain would have played this bad for a large portion
of the year. It would have been hard to really
squint and even see this team honestly, even being above
(04:50):
five hundred.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, I think it's obvious that day La Cruz is
not the same player, and that's gotta be because of injury.
You know, the Reds have unfortunately a pretty good history
of playing guys through injury, even though it's obvious they're hurt.
You know. You know, you could say led a Cruise
at eighty percent or whatever is better than most players,
but really is he I don't know that maybe they
(05:16):
should have put him on the d L and let
him get better. His whole game has built off as
speed in athleticism and that's clearly not there.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, it's hard enough. I mean, he did look good
running the last couple of weeks, much better, and we've
seen him be a little bit more aggressive the last
few days, So it does feel like maybe the injury
is behind him. But to your point, you know, maybe
they should have given him time off when it wasn't
because I think it's maybe compounded, like he might be
(05:49):
completely fine now. But because he's been hurt, he kind
of got him out of his whole rhythm and all
of that sort of stuff that it's just taken him
a while to kind of get back into that. It's
just crazy that he's gone almost like two months with
any like one home run, hasn't hit a single home
run in August because he was showing really good power
(06:12):
earlier in the year.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, now the Reds are really behind the eight ball,
so to speak. They've got a four and a half
game deficit. They do have a three game series with
the Mets coming up next weekend, but it feels like
the season just officially got away from them on the
West Coast and they've got to go west yet again
for another trip. It seems like this was the week
where the Reds got broken. Are you there yet?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I'm as close as you can probably get to there.
They'll have an opportunity this weekend, Todd. I mean the
Saint Louis Cardinals are a team that's has been worse
than the Reds, believe it or not. I was looking
up some numbers their offense. The Cardinals offense has been
worse than the Reds in August, which feels almost impossible
to believe. But the numbers back that have an opportunity
(07:00):
this weekend, and you know, realistically, I guess if you
could just get to that Mets series and maybe you
could pick up a game game and a half and
go to that series three or four back, obviously you'd
have an opportunity to sweep them and completely get back in.
But even if you were able just to pick up
one game in that series and maybe be like two
(07:23):
back at the end, okay, well you're two back with
three weeks left to play in the season, and you
give yourself a chance and you would get the tiebreaker
over the Mets. So basically, you only have to play
the rest of the season to try to tie the Mets,
not not to uh, you don't have to you don't
have to have to pass them. You could literally just
try to play to be tied because you would have
the tiebreaker was the Reds won the series earlier in
(07:45):
the year. So it feels it everything feels like it
feels like we done our post case last night, like
it was a funeral. But the Reds lost four games
and in a matter of six days to the Mets.
It's possible the other way, and that Mets team, we
should have expected they would get hot. I think people
that thought they were going to play this bad all
(08:07):
year was kind of silly. But on the flip side,
that team has been vallied to all year, and they
have followed up a lot of really good stretches of
baseball with really really bad stretches of baseball. So maybe
the Reds can get lucky and get back into this.
But unfortunately you're relying a lot more on the Mets
at this point than yourself.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Nick Kirby. But Chatterbox Sports is our guest. Of course.
Now the minor league season is drawing to a close,
there's a clamber to bring up Sal Stewart. What makes
everybody so sure he's a superstar and waiting, Well.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
He's done everything he possibly could have hoped for this year.
I don't think people should ever have expectations that someone's
gonna come up and instantly be a success. I think
the Reds, honestly, Todd, have had a much better run
of that of late than than you would expect. Like
Elie coming up and instantly being good, McClain, Marte Christian
(09:07):
and Carnassio and Strand like that's not really normal. There
is had a really crazy run of guys coming up
and really getting hot right off the bat.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
As unfair as the salad, feels like just naturally you're
due for one of these guys to come up and
kind of lay an egg. But south Stewart, I mean,
he's been incredible this year. I mean he is just
you couldn't have performed any better than he has. And
I like to look at some of the more advanced
numbers and you know, come up with some of his
hard hit rates and things like that down down at
(09:38):
Triple A. It's all feels like what he's doing isn't flukey,
and his powers just continued to improve. I never thought
he'd be a twenty home run guy, which he's been
this year in the minor league. So the biggest knock
on him, and the thing that that's going to hold
him back the most is every report I've ever read
on him. I don't watch every single game, and a
(10:01):
lot of the camera angles you can't even really see
this stuff anyways. But his defense is below average, poor
footwork that it just doesn't have a lot of range.
I probably, based on what I've read, it feels very
Jonathan India like in terms of defense, so it's gonna
be for him. I think he'll hit now, is he great?
(10:23):
I don't know. I think he'll hit enough, but we'll
be able to hit enough to justified defense and be
where does he fit in positional wise?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
That's Nick Kirby with Chatterbox Sports. You hear him on
the Reds pregame show as well. Nick, we always appreciate
you checking in to talk about the Reds.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
All right, thanks Dot, I appreciate having me on
Talking now with Nick Kirby from Chatterbox Sports, talking reds.
Right's get back at it with the Cardinals here at home,
and well, it's tough for Western swing, Nick, they always are,
and many red seasons have died during a West coast trip.
It started great but ended poorly at three and six,
and they were just really outclassed by the Dodgers, weren't they.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, and just truly a nightmare scenario with the Mets
getting hot at the exact same time that this happens.
And yeah, you know, the Dodgers series is what it is,
It's kind of it just kind of magnifies. It feels
like a lot of the other games that they gave away.
You know, the two games against the Brewers, they had
(00:44):
that game, the Abbot dominated against the Phillies, even the
final game in against the Angels. You know, kind of
the Dodgers you have to kind of expect there's a
chance will get swept or at least to lose two
out of three. What kind of feels like you had
to do better in those games before.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, that's a good point. And you know the other
thing is that this right the lineup, I know a
lot of people have a lot of consternation about Noel V.
Marte playing center field and some of the roster and
lineup choices by the front office. Slash the manager Terry Francona,
what's your frustration level and what are some of the
(01:24):
things that have you, I guess really second guessing all
of that.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, it's it's it feels like they're just not sticking
to one school thought or the other. Like they've clearly
made defense a point of emphasis, which is great, you know,
like I think you can you can win with defense.
I think the Brewers have really showcased that winning with
pitching and defense for almost a decade at this point.
(01:52):
But it feels like they haven't gone all in on that.
It's like they kind of pick and choose where they
want to have defensive spots and then they'll still leave
some weaknesses. They've made some strides defensively, there's no question
about him. I think every metric would show you as
went from legitimately one of the three worst teams defensively
to at least middle of the pack this year. But
(02:15):
they're just there's just a lot and you know, for me,
there's like Santiago West with all due respect to Santiago Espinal,
and he's done a nice job. I think he's done
everything he can within his capability. Him starting right field
a corner outfield spot against Clayton Kershaw, I don't understand that.
(02:37):
And there's about like seven guys down at Triple A
that all are legitimately better hitters than Santiago esp All.
The only reason Santiago Espital is on the roster is
because of really defense, And the only reason he's on
the roster at the beginning of the season was because
he was the best defensive third baseman. But he went
out and traded for the best defensive third basement in
(02:57):
the sports. So it just seems like Espinol's kind of
redundant and they're just not It doesn't feel like they're
maximizing every spot and every opportunity to add any sort
of advantage.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
No doubt, this team right now doesn't seem to be
built really to win. I think maybe that's part of
the problem Nick this team. I don't think they really
thought was going to be in serious contention, and then
you know, they just kind of messed around and they're
they're in the wild card race, and you know, really
if you look at the season, it hasn't They haven't
gotten a lot of breaks. I mean, Hunter Green has
(03:34):
missed time, Nicolodolo has missed time. So maybe they just
got caught off balance was how this team was performing
in relation to a chance to make the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, and and I mean also this Ellie daa Cruz,
you know, was one of the best players in baseball
up through July and in August. I'm not exactly sure
what has happened, but you know, he's legitimately had one
of the worst months probably we've seen in a Reds uniform,
(04:07):
which is is crazy because he was so good early
in the year and you know, really was the main
reason the Reds were even competitive up until that point.
So when you're your best player just completely falls off
for a month and I don't know what it is.
I don't know if it's the quad injury. I don't
know if he's exhausted. I know, you know, the guy
also lost his sister this this year as well, But
(04:30):
you have that and then there's just so many and
you know, Matt McClain, it's it's it. I think if
we would have realistically said going into the year that
led la Cruz would play this bad in August. Matt
McLain would have played this bad for a large portion
of the year. It would have been hard to really
squint and even see this team honestly, even being above
(04:50):
five hundred.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, I think it's obvious that day La Cruz is
not the same player, and that's gotta be because of injury.
You know, the Reds have unfortunately a pretty good history
of playing guys through injury, even though it's obvious they're hurt.
You know. You know, you could say led a Cruise
at eighty percent or whatever is better than most players,
but really is he I don't know that maybe they
(05:16):
should have put him on the d L and let
him get better. His whole game has built off as
speed in athleticism and that's clearly not there.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, it's hard enough. I mean, he did look good
running the last couple of weeks, much better, and we've
seen him be a little bit more aggressive the last
few days, So it does feel like maybe the injury
is behind him. But to your point, you know, maybe
they should have given him time off when it wasn't
because I think it's maybe compounded, like he might be
(05:49):
completely fine now. But because he's been hurt, he kind
of got him out of his whole rhythm and all
of that sort of stuff that it's just taken him
a while to kind of get back into that. It's
just crazy that he's gone almost like two months with
any like one home run, hasn't hit a single home
run in August because he was showing really good power
(06:12):
earlier in the year.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Well, now the Reds are really behind the eight ball,
so to speak. They've got a four and a half
game deficit. They do have a three game series with
the Mets coming up next weekend, but it feels like
the season just officially got away from them on the
West Coast and they've got to go west yet again
for another trip. It seems like this was the week
where the Reds got broken. Are you there yet?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I'm as close as you can probably get to there.
They'll have an opportunity this weekend, Todd. I mean the
Saint Louis Cardinals are a team that's has been worse
than the Reds, believe it or not. I was looking
up some numbers their offense. The Cardinals offense has been
worse than the Reds in August, which feels almost impossible
to believe. But the numbers back that have an opportunity
(07:00):
this weekend, and you know, realistically, I guess if you
could just get to that Mets series and maybe you
could pick up a game game and a half and
go to that series three or four back, obviously you'd
have an opportunity to sweep them and completely get back in.
But even if you were able just to pick up
one game in that series and maybe be like two
(07:23):
back at the end, okay, well you're two back with
three weeks left to play in the season, and you
give yourself a chance and you would get the tiebreaker
over the Mets. So basically, you only have to play
the rest of the season to try to tie the Mets,
not not to uh, you don't have to you don't
have to have to pass them. You could literally just
try to play to be tied because you would have
the tiebreaker was the Reds won the series earlier in
(07:45):
the year. So it feels it everything feels like it
feels like we done our post case last night, like
it was a funeral. But the Reds lost four games
and in a matter of six days to the Mets.
It's possible the other way, and that Mets team, we
should have expected they would get hot. I think people
that thought they were going to play this bad all
(08:07):
year was kind of silly. But on the flip side,
that team has been vallied to all year, and they
have followed up a lot of really good stretches of
baseball with really really bad stretches of baseball. So maybe
the Reds can get lucky and get back into this.
But unfortunately you're relying a lot more on the Mets
at this point than yourself.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Nick Kirby. But Chatterbox Sports is our guest. Of course.
Now the minor league season is drawing to a close,
there's a clamber to bring up Sal Stewart. What makes
everybody so sure he's a superstar and waiting, Well.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
He's done everything he possibly could have hoped for this year.
I don't think people should ever have expectations that someone's
gonna come up and instantly be a success. I think
the Reds, honestly, Todd, have had a much better run
of that of late than than you would expect. Like
Elie coming up and instantly being good, McClain, Marte Christian
(09:07):
and Carnassio and Strand like that's not really normal. There
is had a really crazy run of guys coming up
and really getting hot right off the bat.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
As unfair as the salad, feels like just naturally you're
due for one of these guys to come up and
kind of lay an egg. But south Stewart, I mean,
he's been incredible this year. I mean he is just
you couldn't have performed any better than he has. And
I like to look at some of the more advanced
numbers and you know, come up with some of his
hard hit rates and things like that down down at
(09:38):
Triple A. It's all feels like what he's doing isn't flukey,
and his powers just continued to improve. I never thought
he'd be a twenty home run guy, which he's been
this year in the minor league. So the biggest knock
on him, and the thing that that's going to hold
him back the most is every report I've ever read
on him. I don't watch every single game, and a
(10:01):
lot of the camera angles you can't even really see
this stuff anyways. But his defense is below average, poor
footwork that it just doesn't have a lot of range.
I probably, based on what I've read, it feels very
Jonathan India like in terms of defense, so it's gonna
be for him. I think he'll hit now, is he great?
(10:23):
I don't know. I think he'll hit enough, but we'll
be able to hit enough to justified defense and be
where does he fit in positional wise?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
That's Nick Kirby with Chatterbox Sports. You hear him on
the Reds pregame show as well. Nick, we always appreciate
you checking in to talk about the Reds.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
All right, thanks Dot, I appreciate having me on
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