4/15/24 - The Mo Egger Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I was in college, entered thisnationwide Keward on our website. Man Green,
that's green. Enter it now.What's up? Good afternoon, Moegar,
ESPN fifteen thirty Thank you for listening. Hopefully you had an awesome weekend.
It was gorgeous outside. There wasso much going on. Just a
great, great weekend. Punctu wayto buy the rads, going to Chicago

(00:23):
and sweeping free, which we'll getto here in just a few seconds.
We have a lot of ground tocover. I am. I am in
the middle. You know. I'man audio guy. I'm a radio guy.
I got an electronic media degree fromthe University of Dayton. That degree
came on the strength of audio work, not video, and so I tried

(00:45):
to be a little fancy with ourshow preview video and it's I'm not having
much success. But as soon asI get it up and running, you
can find that on Twitter at moegar. Once it is up, it'll be
a service of Emery Federal Credit Union, your credit union with Hart since nineteen
thirty nine. We're giving away Aerosmithtickets every day this week, and I

(01:08):
think it's gonna be every day.At four thirty three. I think I
do know we're giving them away everysingle day. I think the giveaway time
is going to be four thirty three. The Reds are in Seattle tonight.
They're getting ready to play the Mariners. They're gonna miss Luis Castillo. Cincinnati
coming off a three game weekend sweepin Chicago of the White Sox. So
we're going to test your knowledge ofconnections between the Seattle Mariners and the Cincinnati

(01:34):
Reds. There are a few ofthem. If you think, God,
you know what that's that's right inmy wheelhouse and I want to go see
Aerosmith. Well, your chance comingup at four thirty three. We've got
some Bengals to get to today.The off season program is underway Zach Taylor's
press conference. In the last hourof this show, Dax Hill spoke today

(01:56):
t Higgins talk this weekend, wehave all that to get too. We
have Mark Pope's big PEP rally slashpress conference yesterday at rapp Aerena, and
he did two things that I reallyreally like, and we'll spend some time
on that as well. Speaking ofthings I really like, how do you
not like everything we saw this weekendfrom the Reds, the White Sox are
terrible. They are even more terriblewithout their best three players. We talked

(02:21):
about that on Friday, but thisweekend felt big. First of all,
the Reds have now gotten through theirfirst fifteen games, slightly less than ten
percent of the season, right,and there's been a lot of bad news.
Bad news involving Matt McLain, badnews involving Noelve Marte, bad news
involving TJ. Fried. A lotof bad news dominated the discourse right before

(02:46):
opening day. And then there havebeen the requisite frustrations that come with you
know, La Dela Cruz and thegame he had in Philadelphia two weeks ago,
which I think by now we're spendingstill way too much time on and
questions about Hunter Green and the startingstaff. And yet here they are nine
and six, Like this team willgo into the second half of April at

(03:07):
least playing from ahead, playing againsta Seattle team that is not off to
a very good start. The schedulegets tougher in May, but there are
some winning opportunities in front of thisteam. Like they're nine and six's you
know what, that's six hundred ball. This is not a six hundred team,
but it's better than the start theygot off to last year, and

(03:29):
they're off to a good start.It's easier to say at nine and six
than it was to say at sixand six, But they've spent zero time
below five hundred this year. Theyhave gotten through the first fifteen games.
And it's just an imaginary mile post, but I'm gonna use it anyway.
They've gotten through the first fifteen games, despite all the injury issues, despite

(03:49):
all the bad stuff that we havespent a lot of time on three games
above five hundred going to Seattle tonight. But this series felt big because,
you know, let's be honest,the way that Milwaukee series played out left
a pretty gnarly taste in our mouths. Right. They were pretty dramatically outplayed

(04:09):
in the last two games of thatseries. Hunter Green didn't pitch very well.
There was the rain out on Thursday, and so, okay, here
you have this bad, hurt limpingteam in front of you. Go into
out of three or completely turn thepage and win three consecutive games. This
season is going to be largely shapedby which good teams play best against the

(04:34):
really really bad teams. You gottabeat the bad teams. You gotta beat
the hurt teams. You gotta beatthe struggling teams. You gotta beat the
teams that are playing without their topdudes. You gotta beat the teams that
just have a bad vibe surrounding them. The Reds did that in spades this
weekend. This is what you know. We talked about last year's team,

(04:54):
and sometimes we talk about last year'steam in terms that would make you think,
like, last year's team was reallygood. But one thing th last
year's team was really good at wasbeating inferior opponents. The Reds last season
against the six worst teams in baseballfinished seventeen and seven. They were thirteen
and five against the five worst teamsin baseball. By the way, of

(05:17):
the six worst teams in baseball,the only one they had a losing record
against was coincidentally, the Chicago WhiteSox. So, yeah, they've got
to be better against elite competition,but you got to take advantage of when
the schedule gives you opportunities for winsagainst inferior opponents. The White Sox are

(05:38):
an inferior opponent. One of thereasons why the Reds were in the race
until the second to last day ofthe season. Is that team a year
ago took care of business against thedregs of the league. Well, the
dregs of the league last year werethe Oakland A's, who are likely going
to be among the dregs this year. The Kansas City Royals, the Colorado

(05:58):
Rockies, the White Sox, theAngels, and the New York Mets.
The six worst teams. Each ofthose teams lost eighty nine games or more.
Reds went seventeen and seven. Theyneed to have a similar run against
inferior opponents this season. They needto be equally as good against the dregs.
The Chicago White Sox are among thedregs. The Reds just swept them.

(06:20):
They swept them, and a lotof good stuff happened. Ceestrove in
seven runs. Elie de la Cruzhad a four hundred and forty nine foot
bomb on Friday, and then Ijinxed him with a tweet. Jonathan India's
doesn't have a very good batting average, but he continues to get on base
at a pretty damn good clip ina role that we didn't expect him to

(06:41):
be serving in About a month ago, they continued to put pressure on other
teams Defensively, they're running. Theystole six bases yesterday, eight all weekend.
They got elite high end outfield defense. Sea Rent rosecrans Off. The
Athletic has a good piece today abouthow well the Reds deenly in the infield.
Leave a lot to be desired,but there are advanced metrics. Take

(07:03):
them with a grain of salt thisearly in the season, take them with
a grain of salt whenever, Butthere are a lot of advanced metrics that
would tell you the Reds have thebest outfield defense in baseball. We saw
that come up big this weekend,and perhaps most important, Nicko Loodolo came
back and showed you why we talkedabout a year ago. Nick Lodolo's rookie

(07:26):
season, his best being better thanthe best of any of those other dudes.
Hunter Green's got a lot of talent. Graham Ashcraft has a lot of
talent. Nick Loodolo has a lotof talent. Hunter Green once threw eight
no hit innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hunter Green last year in a start,
struck out fourteen guys against the MinnesotaTwins. But I still feel like

(07:49):
if you look at those three pitcherswhen each have been at their absolute best.
The guy who, for my moneyat least has been most impressive has
been Nick Lodolo. I have badWhite Sox lineup, aided by some really
good outfield defense. Still, Nicolodoloon Saturday was spectacular, and you just

(08:11):
you start to think about his highend, and you start to think about
the boost he could give to thisrotation, and you start to think about
the rotational depth they're going to need, and you just wonder if the step
forward we have been hoping for fromall of these other pitchers and that we
were hoping for from Nicolodolo last yearcan be the step forward he takes this

(08:33):
season. There was nothing not tolike. There was everything too like.
That conversation starts with the return andthe success of Nicolodolo on Saturday, who
struck out ten in five plus andabsolutely toyed with that bad Chicago White Sox
lineup. This team has to begood this season against bad opponents. This

(08:56):
weekend they crushed a bad opponent itand so now everybody feels good, right,
every dude right now they're nine andsix, Like, come on,
man, if you're a reds fit, you can't control what the other teams
in the division are doing. Iwish they would have played better against Milwaukee.
But if I say to you inthe morning of opening Day, or

(09:16):
when we were sitting here two anda half weeks ago, it's smoked justice
getting ready for the season, andI go, all right, first fifteen,
they're gonna be nine and six,you'd have said, cool, right,
he'd have been all right with that. I'd been more than okay with
that. They're nine and six,and so I'm gonna ask for something that
we often asked for only when thingsaren't going so well. So yeah,

(09:41):
Ces drove in some runs this weekend. His last five games, he has
three two hit games. Elie DelaCruz finally didn't get on base yesterday and
struggled at the plate in the finaltwo games of the series. But we've
seen what he has done since everybodywanted to send him to double a ball
two weeks ago after that game againstthe Phillies. He's raked, He's stolen
base, he said, for power, he said, for average, he's

(10:01):
on Friday that home run. Thedistance of the home run was impressive,
but the most important thing about thathome run was it came during and at
bat where he fell behind two strikeslike that, that's where the maturation as
a hitter has to come, andmaybe we saw a little bit of that
on Friday. So one of therecurring themes so far for me the first

(10:24):
couple of weeks of the season hasbeen, Look, this is hard.
I know I've said this, butthis is what the Reds are trying to
do is tough. It's hard.It's hard to win while you have so
many guys who are still developing andstill learning and still growing and still trying
to establish themselves. This is hard. And so you're you're gonna have to
be patient, which means you're gonnahave to be patient with Elie de la

(10:50):
Cruz, and you're gonna have tobe patient with Hunter Green, and you're
gonna have to be patient with Ces. And it feels like when they lose
or when some some things happen thataren't great, nobody wants to be patient.
But now that things are good,can we finally maybe put this part
of the discourse to bed once andfor all. And that's me asking,

(11:11):
are we truly willing to be patientwith this team this year? Now?
You're nodding along right now because theywon three games this weekend, and you're
nodding along right now because they didwhat winning teams are supposed to do,
and they just wipe the floor withan awful opponent in the Chicago White Sox.

(11:31):
But let's say this week we seethe other end of it, where
we see some struggles that you attributeto youth and an experience, and then
suddenly there's maybe not going to beas much patience. Are we finally and
understanding that I was patient with elidanlaCruz and he rewarded that patience, and
I was patient with Christian and Karnasion strand and over the last few games,

(11:54):
he is rewarded that patience. Understandingthat this team has a lot of
guys who are young but who havethe capability of rewarding you for your patients.
Are you truly, really genuinely willingto be patient with a team that
has as many young, inexperienced guysas the Reds do. It's easy to

(12:18):
ask this question when they're not playingso well. They just had a great
weekend. I'll ask it now.Five point three seven four nine, fifteen
thirty eight six six seven oh twothree seven seven six you can send a
tweet, you could send an Xyou could you could send me a message
on social media at moegar. Thanksto our friends at Delta Dental. Delta

(12:39):
Dental is building healthy, smart,vibrant communities for all good at Delta dentaloh
dot com. Uh Bengals off seasonprogram underway. We're getting closer to the
draft, which is now just tendays away. Uh T Higgins has spoken
publicly this weekend Dax Hill as well. There was also a story in Pittsburgh

(13:01):
that I laughed at. We havea lot of Bengal stuff to get to
today. We also have a dreamscenario. I want you to imagine it,
and we'll spend some time on thattoo. We have a lot of
ground tocover here Toll six Aerosmith ticketsbeing given away at four thirty three.
We are glad you're with us.It is gorgeous, It is beautiful out,
life is good. This is ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station. Anything

(13:24):
you might have missed you can findon the podcast page of ESPN fifteen thirty
dot com, including last week's segmentwith Charles Oakley. Taren, when do
we reach back out to Charles Oakley? To see if he's going to go
to the Cincinnati Music Festival with us. How long do we let that go
for I'm maybe like Cinemasia, maybeout June, my June, just to

(13:45):
remind him, hey, OK,we know you're It's not like he's not
coming to town. Like we knowhe's coming for the Big Three. Charles
Oakley was on this show on Fridayand he brought up, you know,
he has been to Cincinnati before forthe Music Festival, and that it occurred
to me this year's music Festival isthe same weekend that he's here for the
Big Three, and so I justasked, you know, could we go

(14:05):
to this year's music festival with themto go see New Edition? And he
said yes. And really that wasthe big takeaway from the entire twelve fifteen
minute conversation. And now I wanthim to know that that wasn't just a
radio bit, you know, likeI really want to hang out with Charles
Oakley. Anyway. If you missedthat conversation, or if you missed anything

(14:26):
that we do, anything we didlast week, go find it on the
iHeartRadio app. Podcasts of our showare a service of Long Neck's Sports Grill,
which is an awesome on a daylighttoday, on a weekend like this
one, they got four k TVsoutside. You set outside, enjoy the
warm weather, watch a ball gamelate night. Reds can't beat it.

(14:50):
More on the Reds coming up herein a bit T Higgins. This from
the dean of Cincinnati TV sportscasters,Joe Danaman, who is been cranking out
content as it relates to the Bengalsbecause players are available. First day back
offseason workouts underway. T Higgins wasat a camp yesterday and here is what

(15:13):
Joe posted tea, speaking very brieflyabout playing for the Bengals. Were anticipating
playing for the Bengals in twenty twentyfour? Do you anticipate playing for the
Bengals this year? We'll see.I do anticipate it, you know,
since he is I've grown up,you know, I love for since he

(15:35):
day. I didn't think I would, but man going forward to it.
So there you go. He anticipatesplaying for the Bengals this year. Why
would he not? I mean,why would he not? Of all the
different T Higgins things that are outthere, the one that I've laughed at
the most was a report by afriend of the show Andrew Philip, who

(16:00):
does sports talk radio in Pittsburgh,who reported over the weekend that the Steelers
have had internal conversations about making atrade for T Higgins. Now, I
am opposed to trading T Higgins.I'm open minded about saying yes, possibly
if you could be overwhelmed by apackage that puts the team in a better

(16:25):
position to win this year than theyare if T is on the team in
twenty twenty four. But by andlarge I'm opposed to trading T Higgins because
I think he is worth going forit with. But I cannot imagine what
it would take, what the packagewould have to be for the Bengals to

(16:47):
say, yes, we're gonna takeour franchise tagged player, one of the
better core members of our team.We're going to trade him inside the division
and play against him twice a yearwhen we had a hard time beating the
Steelers had to head with T Higginslast year. I mean, like,

(17:10):
legitimately, if of all the like, it's unlikely that they're gonna trade T
Higgins, right, I think wewould agree with that. It doesn't feel
like, even if you want thatto be the outcome, it doesn't feel
like the most likely outcome. Andthen you know, because of the Stefan
Diggs trade, some have wondered,what do you trade him to the Buffalo
Bills? And no, no,not not too interested in that because I

(17:32):
kind of feel like, for winningthis year, you can cross the Bills
off the list of possibilities. I'mnot letting them jump back onto the list
to look financially, I'm not surehow they would make that work. If
I'm a Bills fan, I'm coolwith what we're doing and we're gonna be
able to get better at wide receiverin this draft class. But from a
Cincinnati perspective, I might be willingto entertain trade offers. I'm not looking

(17:52):
at Buffalo, but if I woulddrive into Buffalo before I sent him to
Pittsburgh, I cannot imagine. Icannot imagine what that trade offer would have
to look like, not just forthe Bengals to say yes, but for

(18:14):
you and I to be okay withthe answer being yes. And I'm of
the belief like when you're talking abouttrades, like worry about what makes you
better. There have been uh intradivision deals before the Bengals nearly made one.
With the Browns a few years agoinvolving Aj mcchaern. You see them
in other sports all the time,I think a little bit more so frequently

(18:34):
than in the NFL. But goodgod, I'm taking I am cutting into
the unquestionable strength of my team tosend them to a place where I now
have to play against him twice ayear, where I give that team the
inside track on signing him long term. I cannot even fathom that trade package

(19:00):
would have to look like for theBengals to say yes, and for you
and I to be okay with themsaying yes. Now, By the way
he said he anticipates playing, Ithink we all understand that this is probably
gonna work similar to how it workedwith Jesse Bates, where you know T
is a no show for a lotof stuff, and maybe T doesn't come
to training camp on time, andT doesn't play in preseason games, which

(19:23):
is cool, and then shows uplate in the process. But he may
have asked for a trade, buthe he has no pull here, he
has no cloud, he has noleverage. He's going to play for the
Bengals in twenty twenty four, andthe Bengals will be better for that five
point three seven four nine, fifteenthirty. I think the most interesting Bengal

(19:47):
as the offseason program begins is DaxHill for a lot of different reasons.
I kind of like listening to someof the things he had to say today.
We're going to get to that.Other stuff happened this weekend in sports
a pretty interesting masters, including thefarewell to Verne Lundquist, and Mark Pope
was formally introduced if if he needsan introduction to the folks in Lexington.

(20:12):
And I'm not huge into winning thepress conference, but I do think he
did something pseudo important yesterday. We'llget to that look at sports headlines and
more when we come back. It'stwenty nine away from four o'clock. Your
phone calls are welcome to on ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Sincinnon Travis Kelsey

(20:33):
Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain protectionand guaranteed credit approval from their family to
yours for life, KELSEYSHEV, dotComrades and Mariners tonight in Seattle. The
very specific first pitch time of nineforty two this evening, Not nine forty
no, no, no, no, no, no, that's too early.

(20:55):
Not nine forty five that's too late, nine forty two. This evening,
first of a three game series,Red's and MS Frankie Montas will throw
against George Kirby, whose era thisyear is eight point one six. Game
is live on seven hundred WLW nineforty two. Tonight's first pitch Bengals offseason

(21:17):
program Joe Burrow everything is going positive, or Zach Taylor said specifically, quote
everything's been positive when asked about JoeBurrow's recovery from the wrist injury he suffered
last year. For what it's worth, there have been reports obviously of him
throwing and well, he did agood job holding that microphone at the Kelsey

(21:37):
Brothers podcast on Thursday night. TheBengals did today announce a couple of pretty
unsurprising signings. Cal Adamitas has beenre signed exclusive rights player long snapper as
well as an unrestricted free agent linebackerlinebacker linebacker Joe Bachi one year contract for
the twenty twenty four season. Thoseplayers have both been with the benk for

(22:00):
a couple of years, by actuallygoing back to twenty twenty one and played
in thirty five regular season games overthe past three years, and Atamitas taking
over for Clark Harris in twenty twentytwo and has delivered exactly zero unplayable snaps
on two hundred and eighty eight attempts. Meanwhile, yesterday Mark Pompe was introduced

(22:22):
as the head basketball coach at theUniversity of Kentucky and part of this process,
it was really cool. I watchedthis this morning. They did the
thing at Rapp Arena where they broughthim out and had him make a statement
and whipped the crowd into a froth. And they had a lot of guys
in the ninety six team and theyhad the ninety six National Championship trophy.

(22:44):
And Rick Patino has talked made thevideo last week talking about Mark Pope and
went on Alan Cutler's radio show downthere and Lexington and said, I'll throw
some money in via nil Well Kentuckyand Saint John's Rick Patino School. They
are going to play a home andhome series with the first game at Rupp
in the twenty twenty four to twentytwenty five season, and then the return

(23:07):
game is going to be at MadisonSquare Garden the following year. So there
you go, And like I've saidfor years, just watch as a college
basketball fan. I like John Caliperry. I do. I think he's an
engaging personality. I think in asport where the central figures remain coaches,

(23:29):
there aren't that many personalities relative towhen I first got into college hoops,
and John Caliperry is and I likehim. But I've also heard the gripes
of UK fans from the standpoint oflike non conference schedule. They've played a
lot of really good games. Thosegames are never played on site. They're

(23:51):
never played on Kentucky's in Kentucky's homegym rap arena. And and you know
not that Saint John's is a hugeprogram. It didn't even make the tournament
this year. Maybe Rick Patino getsthe Johnnies going. But the fact that
they're going to play at Reperina aspart of a home and home, a
genuine home and home, I thinkis pretty cool. Mark Pope was introduced

(24:14):
yesterday. This part of it stoodout to me, Tarn go ahead and
hit it. Every coach in America, at every other job in America stands
up to that press conference and theytry and moderate expectations. We don't do
that here at Kentucky. When thiscalled me and talking to me about being

(24:45):
the head coach here at Kentucky.I understand the assignment. We are here
to win banners, all right,there you go. And so whether he's
able to do that or whether he'snot, time will tell. But what
I liked about that is it itkind of represented a departure from the previous

(25:11):
coach, who talked often about youknow, remember when they had five Kentucky
players drafted in the first round ofthe NBA Draft, and he said,
well, this is the biggest dayin Kentucky basketball history with a number one
overall pick and five first round picks, which I think is kind of a

(25:33):
comical quote. I get what hewas doing, but it often felt like,
at least when he talked about howhe ran the program, that the
emphasis was more on lottery picks,guys getting to the NBA players over program
and all of that may be fine, but I do think it led to

(25:55):
a bit of a disconnect between arabid fan base and the person running the
program. I think if you're aKentucky fan, to hear a coach emphasize
what exactly the expectation is, whichis banners and the program winning a championship
with these sort of implied understanding thatall of that other stuff will then come.

(26:18):
I don't know if it means thatMark Pope's gonna win, make people
feel good about him being the guy, make people wonder what else could they
have done to get one of thecoaches we were talking about a week ago
at this time, but at leastyesterday. As much as I don't really
care that much about winning press conferences, if you wanted to connect with a
fan base that had a lot offolks that were at least a little skeptical

(26:41):
about you being the guy, onething you can do is do what the
previous coach didn't do nearly as much, and that's talk about winning championship.
Not having guys go in the draft, not lottery picks, not how much
money everybody in the NBA is makingthat played for your program, but winning
championships. I think Mark Pope yesterdayfound a way to connect with people in

(27:06):
ways that for years, John Kellaperryfrankly could not. It's a quarter to
four ESPN fifteen thirty. We haveto come up with a poll question.
By the way, I got Igot something I got to talk about on
Twitter last night. We'll spend sometime on. We're giving away Aerosmith tickets,
and I believe in I believe inbringing sides together. I am going

(27:27):
to help Major League Baseball and thePlayers Association. And a few more items
on the Reds as well, inthe aftermath of their weekend sweep of the
White Sox in Chicago. It's fourteenaway from four o'clock. Five one,
three, seven, four nine,fifteen thirty eight six six, seven oh

(27:48):
two, three, seven, sevensix are our phone numbers on ESPN fifteen
thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. That'swhat's going on to the NBA. It
is ah, thank you, thankyou, yes, thank you, thank
you. I've a long vowed tobe obnoxious if they ever make a playoff
run, which they you know,last year they played eleven playoff games and

(28:10):
they won six. I think thatconstitutes a playoff run. Two see tarn
two. Oh boy, lucky me. By the way, if you want
revenge with the Miami Heat, Ido. I want revenge on the Miami
Heat. And I don't want toplay Joel mbeat and try to beat him
four times. I don't want todo that. So go Heat and then
go whoever the Sixers would play inthe elimination game in the play in tournament.

(28:33):
It is eight away from four o'clock. But by the way, I
got a tweet last night and somebodysaid, would you welcome a Knicks call?
And I said, we welcome allcalls. There are certain days we
get busy, and you know,don't we don't design the show around calls
because you can't do that, especiallyin twenty twenty four. And so there

(28:56):
are days where we just don't havea lot of time because we have a
lot of guests, we have alot going on. And then there are
days today would be an example wherewe have a lot of space and a
lot of time to hear from youand our audience. And then I sent
that last night, and see,here's here's where when you do this for
a living, you can get mixedmessages. Because I had somebody say to

(29:18):
me, you don't take enough calls, and then about ten minutes later I
looked and someone said you shouldn't takeany calls. And then I had someone
say you shouldn't take Mike from LA'scall that often. And then I had
someone say, I really like itwhen Mike from LA calls. So I

(29:41):
guess what I've learned is I shouldjust do what I want. If you
if you try to please everybody doingthis, you'll you'll fail because you can't.
That's a very clumsy segue to takingMike's call. Hi, Mike,
I'm well, how's it going?Yeah? If I'm not bumming anybody out

(30:03):
with my calls, but if Iam, I don't really care. Thank
you. Yeah, all matters isthat you take my call. My friends,
That's all I care about. Well, we try, Yeah, I
know you do. You do yourbest, and I bothered Terran all the
time? Is ill gonna take carstoday? And I'm sure there are times
when Terran feels like, tell me, why don't you just quit? Email

(30:25):
them? Mike Knocket all dummy?Sorry kid. Uh. I'm looking at
the upcoming schedule for the Reds overthe next month and a half and you
would think they're in the Western Division. Yeah, this is gonna be a
tough, tough six weeks. Thisis what's gonna tell the tale maybe for

(30:48):
the season though, it's gonna Butthat leads me into my next point.
These Central divisions in both weeks,man oh man, is it refreshing or
what? Look at the Cardinals andlast place seven and nine. The Twins
are in last play six and eight, but that's because they're hitting fifteen points
below the Mendozo, which is hardto beleave. But it's gonna be an

(31:11):
interesting upcoming time frame here because wedon't have the Naps in the schedule anymore,
and we don't have the Sox schedule, and we're gonna play a little
a little bit maybe Cup schedule.But what do you think about all that
nonsense? Well, you're I mean, you're you're right. Just I think
between now and Memorial Day, they'vegot the series this weekend in Seattle.

(31:32):
The Angels come here this weekend,they go out to Texas to play the
Rangers, who they swept last year. They go to San Diego, they
have Arizona here. In early May, they go to San Francisco. They
have the return series on the roadagainst Arizona in the middle of May,
and then that trip also includes fourwith the Dodgers out West, three with
San Diego here, and then threewith the Dodgers here Memorial Day weekend.

(31:56):
So yeah, I mean, it'sbut you know, look, everybody plays
everybody. The Reds did play wellagainst teams in the Western divisions, a
season ago, and it amplifies theneed to do what they did this weekend,
which is to take a bad teamand beat it into the ground.
Last year, the Reds hung inthe race because they were bad. They
were good against bad teams. Thisyear, their success could largely be determined

(32:22):
by how they do against bad teams. And again, they played okay against
teams in the Western divisions. Lastyear. They swept the Astros on the
road, they swept Texas. Here, they played well by and large against
the National League West and American LeagueWest. If the idea is to get
to somewhere exceeding eighty five wins,at some point, you got to beat

(32:45):
somebody pretty good. And that's youknow, you're gonna have to hold your
own against the Dodgers and the Padresand some of the teams they have coming
up on the schedule here in themonth of May. But you're right from
the standpoint that the schedule does seemto be dis proportionally balanced to them playing
the teams in the western parts ofthe United States, whether it's at home

(33:06):
or road early in the season.Yeah, and how about those Guardians.
I mean, we never talked aboutit. I don't even think about the
Guardians, but I'm looking at themwell because they've all to a very impressive
third. And how about the KansasCity royld bro Yeah, now, Cleveland's
what eleven and five. They've playeda ton of games on the road and

(33:27):
they've been very good. And meanwhile, the Royals have been mostly at home
for the first what sixteen games,and they've been awesome in their own park.
They lose yesterday In a sport wherethe conversation has been dominated by what
the Dodgers are going to do andhow good the Braves might be, and
the teams in the American League East, it would be fun. And look,

(33:47):
I mean Milwaukee has done nothing buthit. The Pirates have been a
fun story, and the Reds andCubs are right there too. We all
believe the National League Central was goingto be good and competitive. I think
it will be. It's I thinkit's fun for just baseball fans in the
middle of the country when the teamsin the central divisions are good. Last
year's American League Central was really notgood. It was Minnesota and then everybody

(34:12):
else. I still think the Twinsare going to be okay. The Tigers
are off to a good start.The White Sox may be historically bad,
but that division looks like it couldbe a lot of fun. And the
National League Central should be a lotof fun, which we've we've been anticipating
now for months. Yeah, andyou're right. It just makes it so
much more fun for all of usfans here in the Midwest, it really

(34:32):
does. Instead of going out,here comes a fire at you know,
one hundred and one or you know, one hundred Low Seas or whatever.
Real quick on the NBA, Itected the ost God. I got so
mad at the Nick's yesterday with thatpaint defense man. It was just not
good Mo. And they cannot keeprelying on Brunson they carry this team.

(34:55):
They just can't. And I feelsorry for the guys. Well, I
mean, that's that's gonna be howthey they advance. He he. I
don't want to say he is theiroffense. They've done a good job with
you know, complimentary players, andDevincenzo has made a lot of threes.
But I mean from an offensive perspective, he does all the heavy lifting and

(35:17):
so is he gonna score forty everygame in the playoffs? No, But
if they're going to win multiple rounds, they're there. He's just gonna have
to carry the offensive load. Theother thing that they've been good at all
season long is they've almost made offensiverebounding a part of their strategy in ways
that you don't typically see winning NBAteams do. And that's gonna have to

(35:38):
continue as well. But they Mike, thank you, Their their best player,
their best offensive guy, and aguy who I don't think should be
MVP. But I don't think youcould have a conversation without mentioning Jalen Brunson's
name. He's he's gonna have toplay like an MVP. He's gonna have
to be better this year in theplayoffs than he was last year, and
he was really good in the playoffsa year ago. A couple away from

(36:02):
four o'clock, we're giving away Aerosmithtickets coming up at four thirty five.
If you know your connections between theReds and the Mariners more and what Cincinnati
did this weekend, and I'm goingto bring baseball and its players together.
Plus we'll talk about dox Hill fouro'clock ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm christinely seeing

(36:23):
not much suspense when it comes tothe first overall pick in tonight's WNBA draft,
Indiana fever ready to select a householdname and a major reason for the
increased popularity of women's college basketball,Caitlyn Clark, ESPN basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo.
She fits her pieces. Olliot Bostonis an excellent player in the pick
and roll. Well, we've seenthat Caitlyn is elite in that. Kelsey

(36:45):
Mitchell, who was Indiana's leading forlast year in an All Star is in
a weak catch and shoot type ofplayer. Well, she's going to get
a lot of those playing alongside Caitlyn. Melissa Smith is a great rim runner,
and Caitlyn Clark's going to be ableto find her. Rebecca Lobo on
Carlin Versus Joe Draft coverage seven thirtyEastern ESPN. The intrigued tonight comes after
Clark's drafted LA holds the second andfourth overall picks, Chicago the third overall

(37:08):
pick. NFL Eagles extended star receiverDevonte Smith through the twenty twenty eight season.
ESPN's Adam Schefter reports it's three yearcontract seventy five million dollars fifty one
million guaranteed. Team also exercised hisfifth year option through twenty twenty five.
C se Lema the men's Boston Marathonwinner. Helen o'berry the women's winner for
a second straight year. Feeling greatstarts with a great shave, and great

(37:31):
shaves start with Barbisol's shaving cream.That's Barbisol's shaving cream, an American classic
for over one hundred years. CloseShave America, Close shaved Barbisol. This
reporting now your chance to win onethousand dollars. Enter this nationwide keyword on

(37:52):
our website and happy. That's happy. Enter it now. Happy, he
said, it's happy. Don't goalkdo that thing so that you can win
the prize. Happy. Hi,I'm a leger, this is ESP I'm
fifteen thirty. Appreciate you listening.Hopefully you're having an unbelievable, amazing,
incredible Monday afternoon. It's uh tyranny. No, I'm going to say this.

(38:15):
Today is to day. We shouldbe doing the show outside. You
know it won't say right, goahead, extension cord, extension cord.
I This year, I am goingto do a show from my fire pit
in my backyard. It's going tohappen at some point. I like being
outside too much. And not likewhen it's one hundred and five degrees,

(38:39):
because then the equipment melts, whichis almost what happened to me in Los
Angeles for the Super Bowl. Soat some point in the coming weeks,
I haven't even looked at the schedulethis week for the weather this week.
For I haven't looked at the weatherthis week, is what I'm trying to
say. I haven't looked at theweather. It might happen this week.

(39:00):
I want to do the show fromit. We should have done it.
We had to do the show atTwin Peaks last Monday, a CLIPS day.
Would have been a fun day todo the show outside. That had
been cool. It been fun todo radio shows outside this weekend. Would
be fun to do show outside today. But we can't Red Sweep three from
the Chicago White Sox. I've gotan imaginary Bengals scenario we have to talk

(39:21):
about. We have the Reds andMariners, which means because we're giving away
tickets this week Aerosmith They're coming toa Heritage Bank Center on October the seventeenth.
We have tickets to give away everyday this week. Today you'll win
tickets if you know your Reds andMariner's history, their shared history. If

(39:44):
you have a keen knowledge of theshared connection between Cincinnati's major league baseball team
and Seattle's major league baseball team,that is coming up in just about twenty
five minutes. I know you can'twait. I don't know what we we
have officially determined. Is the startof the season. Is it the first

(40:08):
forty games, is it the firsttwenty games? Is it the first twenty
I don't know. It's probably morethan the first fifteen games. But like
if you think of if you thinkof all the different years where you know,
just a couple of weeks into theseason the season was over. Like

(40:31):
to just go back to twenty twentytwo, like you know, for all
the where are they gonna go?And Phil Castelinian as mad as everybody got
mad at him, and for asmad as everybody deservedly felt about what Phil
Castellini said on opening day two yearsago, the real problem was the team

(40:53):
itself didn't do anything to make anybodystop talking about where you're gonna go?
Through fifteen games, they were twoand thirteen season over, season over to
a thirteen season over no chance,see you done out of it? Finished

(41:16):
whatever they may do the rest ofthe way. This is admittedly easy for
me to say now, but Igive myself credit for saying it two years
ago. I came in I didn'tsay it through fifteen games. I said
it through seventeen games. I'm sorry, I said it through sixteen games.
I came in here there three andthirteen said season over, like, what's

(41:37):
next? Season over? Not alot of people didn't want to hear it.
I get it, But season over? Did I think they were gonna
lose one hundred games? Not necessarily, but season over twenty nineteen famously,
So that was the Seo Puig yearwhere they have a fun and interesting offseason
and actually make some moves to tryto make the team better, and then

(42:00):
they start one in eight Season overdone. Season over. Now. You
might remember they started one and eightand then won their next four games,
and then they lost their next fourgames, and then they came back and
won their next three, and theywere good enough that for this stretch of

(42:23):
time in the middle of the summer, on a daily basis, you would
hear, well, you know,if you take away the one on eight
start, they're actually like four gamesover five hundred and it's like, yeah,
that's cool, but you can't takeaway the first nine games, like
those games counted and those games torpedotheir chances of really competing. Twenty eighteen,

(42:44):
very similar cost Brian Price's job.They fired him. They were three
and fifteen, I believe three andfifteen season over. They were two and
thirteen to the first fifteen games,season over before it even starts. Middle
of a season over. Even lastyear. You know last year, it

(43:05):
was so cool last season, howthings just changed on a dime, where
for the first couple of weeks itkind of felt like same old, same
old, and maybe to a slightdegree and extension of what had happened the
previous season. Through fifteen games lastyear, the Reds were six and nine,
not as bad as they had beenthe year before, but you know,
it kind of felt like, allright, this is going to continue

(43:30):
unless they start calling up some guysand create some electricity and create some interest.
Six and nine now, maybe seasonnot over. The Reds were in
first place as late as August.They were mathematically alive up to the last
Saturday of the season. But asmuch fun as last year was, as

(43:54):
interesting as last year's team turned outto be You were being re if you
thought, God, how could thingshave turned out? If A the team
they had to start the season gotoff to a slightly better start, and
b what if some of the guysthey called up a month or so later

(44:16):
that they called up starting with guyslike Matt McClain and Andrew Abbott. What
if some of those guys would havebeen called up sooner? What if some
of those guys would have started theseason with the big league club, Perhaps
they could have gotten off to abetter start, and maybe the eighty two
wins they finished with could have beensomething like eighty five or eighty six,

(44:39):
and that would have been good enoughto get him into the postseason. I
don't know for sure. You don'tknow for sure, but six and nine,
and I think things got last yearin late April, things got to
as bad as seven and fifteen.In fact, I just thought about this
because they they were seven and fifteenand they swept the and I remember saying

(45:01):
on this show before that first gameagainst Texas, like, I think it'd
be a good idea for David Bellto start winning some baseball games. And
then you know, they won.I think they swept Texas. They went
to Oakland and won the next twoand kind of got the season at least
a little bit back on course.But I thought often last year like they
came out of the gate and lostnine of their first fifteen games. So

(45:22):
this year they're nine and six.That guarantees nothing. Three days ago they
were a five hundred team after losingto out of three to the Milwaukee Brewers.
But they have at least gotten throughthe first couple of weeks amid a
small avalanche of bad news that wewere greeted with to start the season,
with all the injuries, they've survivedthe first couple of weeks with a nine

(45:47):
and six record. I'm not hereto tell you that I think that means
this team's going to win ninety games. I'm not here to tell you that
I think you know this team.They've they've eliminated the slow start thing,
and now they're good to go.If they were to go there and lose
like I don't know, eight oftheir next nine, that's going to be
really hard to come back from.But they've at least played roughly ten percent
of their schedule. I think tonightwould be it would be Game sixteen,

(46:12):
basically ten percent of the schedule,and they will at least not have an
early season hole that they have todig out of, a really early season
hole that they'll have to dig outof. Last year they had to dig
out of a little bit of anearly season hole. Two years ago,
they dug themselves such a big holethat didn't matter. Twenty nineteen they dug
themselves and for what was otherwise apretty decent team, they dug themselves too

(46:37):
much of a hole they couldn't comeout of it. Twenty eighteen, remember
Wrigglemania, Jim Riggleman. They playedpretty good ball late June July, just
too big of a hole early toreally mean make any of that matter.
They've at least not dug themselves ahole that would make it really, really
really hard to dig out of.They've at least not dug themselves the sort

(47:00):
of whole that if you play tworeally good weeks in late June, you're
still looking at below five hundred isurerecord because you dug yourself too deep a
hole early in the season. Ihope that made sense. I'm not sure
it did, But nine and sixis a good record as a nine minute
soliloquy on me telling you that nineand six is a good record. Sixteen

(47:22):
minutes after four o'clock five point three, seven four nine, fifteen thirty.
We have our Draft show coming upon Draft Thursday. I'll be it Long
Necks from three to six, LongNecks and Wilder, and then we have
the big six hour Draft broadcast downthe Hall, which we're broadcasting from the
Holy Grail, and it is easilythere's lots of cool broadcasts. We do.

(47:47):
Opening Days awesome, and you knowwe're on the air from the Grail
before home Bengals games, Tony andken Brew and me, and that's that's
obviously always a blast, and it'sit's a lot of fun to be on
from the Grail the morning that theNCAA Tournament begins. And it's fun to
do the Tony and Mo Football Show. Like there's lots of different types of
shows we do. My favorite broadcastto be a part of is the NFL

(48:12):
Draft broadcast because it's the one thingwe do where the thing we are talking
about is happening in real time.Shows like this, usually we're reacting to
something that happened the night before,or you do a pregame show and you're
setting up the game that's about tohappen. You're doing a postgame show and
you're talking about the game that justhappened. The NFL Draft is taking place

(48:36):
while you're on the air, andit's challenging, but it's a lot of
fun. And it also requires afair amount of homework and research, which
I like doing. Believe it ornot, I like doing homework and research.
So I took some time this weekendto start researching and working on the
Draft show. And it's, youknow, not making it sound like it's

(49:00):
mind bending work. It's in thegrand scheme of things, the easiest thing
you could do. But I startedthe research for the Draft show this week,
and I think I've made up mymind on what I want the Bengals
to do because I keep running througha dream scenario. We'll tell you what
it is when we come back onESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station. Our

(49:23):
Betty Betty, let's try that oneagain. This is live. We can't
do this on a podcast. Liveradio means if we screw up, we
just got we gotta suck it upand take it tomorrow. On our show,
Our Buddy Paul Danner Junior is gonnajoin us because it's Tuesday, and
because Paul's awesome three to four tomorrowon a whole bunch of different Bengals related

(49:43):
issues as the off season program getsunderway and as we get closer and closer
to the draft. Also on tomorrow'sshow, we're gonna have on with us
one of my absolute favorite people totalk draft with, and that's a Dame
Brugler, and I reference this everyyear. His pre draft guide is essential

(50:06):
and it's voluminous, which I'm notsure I know how to spell. It's
comprehensive, which I think I knowhow to spell. And it is awesome,
which I know I know how tospell. In all seriousness, it's
it's the best draft guy going andit's great and you get it with a
subscription to The Athletic. And Daneis going to join us tomorrow. I
am not we are not entirely surewhat time, but but he is going

(50:28):
to be with us. And Igot his guide came out last week and
it is an essential part of youknow, what we do. I was
mentioning before the break the Draft show, and there's lots of different resources you
could use and you know, youcould use what you watched watching college football
during the season. That's a bigpart of it for me. You could

(50:49):
use various mock drafts and there area lot of them. You could use
what you hear when you talk withpeople who cover the team, and you
could use the evaluation tools put forthby folks who you trust. Dun Dane
is not the only one, buthis evaluation tools I think are I put
a lot of stock in them,and so I spent some time over the
weekend just kind of doing some preliminarywork for the draft show, which again

(51:12):
is a week from Thursday night Tonyand Iron together from the eight to ten
portion. And it's it's not justthe Bengals, although obviously the Bengals are
the main focal point of our draftshows. It's every pick, it's every
team, and so you know,you're doing a lot of work on what
every team's need is, and you'redoing a lot of work on prospects,
and then specifically for the Bengals,since that's kind of the foundation around which

(51:35):
the show is built. I'm readinga lot about some of the players the
Bengals could be interested in drafting,and I kept coming back to a long
list of offensive linemen, and that'skind of that's kind of understanding that there

(51:57):
are a lot of different directions theBengals can go in. Folks have had
the Brock Bauers conversation. He's interestingto me. Although as much as I
would have liked to have seen theBengals take a tight end in last year's
draft, quite frankly, the historyof first round picks at tight end in
this league not being all that greatgives me some pause. And then there's

(52:22):
the Byron Murphy conversation that a lotof people have had. The defensive tackle
from Texas and for what the Bengalsare looking for, which is somebody who
could be really adept against the run, there's a case that could be made
for him. And I'll be honestwith you, if they were to take
either player, I will talk myselfinto it. But I keep coming back

(52:43):
to a really good and intriguing listof offensive line prospects, and then I
keep coming back to this thought,which is something that Paul and I talked
about a couple of weeks ago.The Bengals this past season had an ok
ish offensive line, and the yearbefore they had an ok ish offensive line,

(53:10):
and this coming season they're probably gonnahave an ok ish offensive line,
and that may be good enough.Two years ago, it almost was good
enough to get him back to theSuper Bowl. They got to a Super
Bowl behind a bad offensive line intwenty twenty one. What I would like

(53:34):
to see happen, though, atsome point during Joe Burrow's prime, is
to see what a Joe Burrow runoffense could look like if he's playing behind
one of the best in the sport. And I don't think that you could
build an offensive line that is consideredto be among the best in the sport

(54:00):
by not drafting offensive lineman early.I don't want to relitigate twenty twenty one
when they took Chase instead of PineSeoul. I was team Seool. I'm
sorry, I was team Chase.I'm glad the Bengals did what they did
and it has worked out, andwho knows what would have happened had they
drafted Pine Seoul, who's been aterrific player for the Lions in his own

(54:21):
right. But I was on boardwith what they did, but kind of
understanding what the likely outcome here isthat Jamar Chase is going to get a
second contract, although not likely thisoffseason, and they've already locked into Joe
Burrow, and there are some financialparameters that they have to work within that
weren't there a couple of years agounderstanding than in the short term, they're
probably happy with the offensive lineman theyhave. But if you really want to

(54:46):
see, really want to see whatJoe Burrow can do in his prime years,
at some point, don't you wantto put him behind any lead offensive
line. And they should obviously beopen to adding offensive lineman in free agency
every offseason, but chances are they'renot going to be going after the best

(55:06):
of the best. If they wantthe best of the best at multiple positions,
that's going to have to come viacheap labor, which is what the
draft provides. And so I amnot qualified to tell you which of this
long list of really good right tacklesis the best. I'll defer to people

(55:30):
like Dan Brugler and many others overthe next week and a half. What
I can tell you is I keepthinking about, God, you know what,
at some point, what if theycould put Joe Burrow and put this
quarterback and have this offense function withan offensive line that is not considered okay
ish, but is considered one ofthe strengths of the team. Wouldn't that

(55:51):
be great? Well, the bestway to do that is, I think
to attack the offensive line as earlyas possible with this group of guys that
project to be really, really good. I want to see at some point
the Bengals have an elite offensive line, and I think you've got the luxury

(56:12):
of being able to start addressing thatin the short term and getting some value
out of the player in the shortterm, with an eye on in a
year or two having an O linethat is genuinely among the league's best.
You can't do that by having youroffensive lineman be five free agents that you've
signed as well within the two yearsof each other. It's going to have

(56:37):
to come via the draft, andso as we talk about positions that you
want to see them address and wherethe priority should lie. I'm very much
team O line right now, becauseI think it'd be fascinating if you could
put Joe Burrow down the road.It's not going to happen in twenty twenty

(56:58):
four, but if you could putJoe Row behind an offensive line that's that's
constructed by players who are considered tobe among the best at their position.
I don't think that's their line rightnow, and it's not going to be
their line this coming season. Couldit be in a couple of years The
answer could start to be yes.If you nail it at that position.

(57:19):
In ten days, your phone calls, I promise are coming up at five
point three seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty Aerosmith. Aerosmith is coming.
They were supposed to play at HeritageBank Center in January and then the
show got postponed. They have rescheduledit October seventeenth, which is a Thursday
night. If you want to gosee Aerosmith, we're giving away tickets.

(57:40):
Now. We've we've gotten into thehabit of playing little games, so we
no longer do unless we're totally outof ideas. We no longer do like
seventh caller, No, we makeyou earn it. So what we're gonna
do today, because the Reds areplaying the Seattle Mariners tonight, we are
going to test your knowledge of theshared history of the Cincinnati Reds and Seattle

(58:05):
Mariners. As we do, weneed two contestants. Lines are open five
one three, seven, four ninefifteen thirty eight six, six, seven
oh two three seven seven six.If you think you have a really good
working knowledge of the Reds, andeven better, if you think you have
a really good working knowledge of theReds and their shared history with the Seattle

(58:27):
Mariners, which on the field isa pretty limited history, you could play
our game and if you win,you'll win tickets to go see Aerosmith in
October at the Heritage Bank Center.We're looking for contestants five one, three,
seven, four nine, fifteen thirtyeight six, six, seven oh
two, three seven seven six,and we'll play, and someone's gonna win
Aerosmith tickets. After we do sportsheadlines on ESPN, fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports

(58:51):
Station, and fifteen thirty See thereyou go. We're giving away Aerosmith tickets.
So we're playing some Aerosmith music.I feel like I'm watching the opening
credits to a taste and confused.Before we give away Aerosmed tickets, I've
got to do local sports headlines thereadmittedly aren't that many. We'll tell you
that the Reds and Mariners play tonightat nine forty two. The game is

(59:15):
live on seven hundred WLW, firstof a three game series, Frankie Montas
we'll throw against George Kirby. Redstarting lineup is not out quite yet,
as you might imagine, because thegame is still almost exactly five hours away.
Zach Taylor says, quote, everything'sbeen positive when it comes to Joe

(59:36):
Burrow. You'll hear Zach's press conferencein its entirety coming up in just over
one hour. Cincinnati signing Joe Bashiand cal Adamitas to one year contracts.
Offseason workout program beginning today, NFLDraft a week from Thursday. Local player
workout tomorrow at the venue formerly knownas Paul Brown Stadium. All Right,

(01:00:00):
Tarren, are you ready? Areyou excited? Ey h? I appreciate
the transparency and the honesty. Areyou are you? Are you not that
excited because you don't like it whenwe play silly trivia games or you're just
not an Aerosmith guy, not toofamiliar with Aerosmith? All right, well,

(01:00:21):
very good. Well, perhaps oneof our winners this week will take
you to go see Aerosmith, whichSteven Tyler and Company coming to the Heritage
Bank Center on October seventeenth. Ticketsare on sale right now to go see
Aerosmith at the Heritage Bank Center.All right, we have a couple of
contestants, Tarren, what you dothe honors of putting them on the air

(01:00:43):
simultaneously, since I have no ideahow to do that. We have Joe
and Joe are you there? Iam wow, incredible? And then we
have Tyler. Tyler are you there? Yes? All right? I would
imagine both you guys more excited aboutthe possibility of seeing aeros Smith and Arran
is absolutely okay, very good?Uh, Taryn? Do we do we

(01:01:06):
want to who do we we haveto flip the coin? Who do we
want to call it? Uh?Joe, go ahead, call it?
All right? Joe called the virtualcoin in the air. Heads are tails
a night? The tails never fails? Oh wow, that went way up
there, Tarren. What do wehave it? It is tails? Joe?
Would you like to play or sitand do nothing? Nothing? All

(01:01:29):
right? Joe wants to sit andthat's my kind of guy. Let somebody
else do all the work. Iappreciate. All right, Taron, put
Joe on hold and uh we willsee Tyler. Are you are you a
Reds fan? I am okay?Are you considering yourself a knowledgeable Reds fan?
Are you familiar with the franchise thatis the Seattle Mariners. Yes,

(01:01:50):
sir, okay, very good.Are you ready to test your knowledge?
We have five multiple choice questions.You have to get three correct. If
you do, you're gonna go seeAerosmith and you can take Tarran with you.
If you failed to do this,then Joe is going to win.
Have I made the rules and proceduresclear? Do you understand them? Yes,
sir, very good. Here isquestion number one. I'll tearing with

(01:02:15):
the music, all right. Intwo thousand and one, the Seattle Mariners
won one hundred and sixteen regular seasongames. On that team's pitching staff,
starting rotation and bullpen, there werefour pitchers who also in their career pitched
for the Cincinnati Reds. One wasNorm Charlton, one was Arthur Rhodes,
one was Ryan Franklin. Who wasthe fourth? Was it a Brett Tompko,

(01:02:39):
B. John Smiley or C.Denny Nagel? Is all right?
He sounds confident. Yes, hehad the answer before we spin out the
other options. I like Tyler's chanceshere, all right, he's one for
one. He's got to get twomore. Very good, Tyler. The
first ever trade between the Reds andMariners took. On December ninth, nineteen

(01:03:02):
seventy seven, Cincinnati traded pitcher ShaneRaleigh to Seattle in exchange for who A
Junior Kennedy, B. Harry Spillmanor C. Dave Collins. Let's say
B, we have B Harry.It was Dave Collins. Dave Collins.

(01:03:23):
Very good, All right, you'reone one for two. You gotta get
two out of three to go seeAerosmith Heritage Bank Center, October seventeenth.
All right, two men have managedboth the Reds and the Mariners. One,
as you probably know, Lou Penellawon the nineteen ninety World Series with

(01:03:43):
the Reds and then was with theMariners for a bunch of playoff appearances.
So one was Lou Panella? Whowas the other? Was it A Jack
McKeon, B. Vern Rapp orC. Jim Riggleman. I'm gonna say
see see yeah? All right?Is it? See yes? Jim Riggleman

(01:04:04):
managed the Mariners for a chunk ofgames in two thousand and eight. Very
good, you've gotten two correct,one incorrect. You've got to get one
of the next two, and ifyou do, you're gonna go see Aerosmith
the Heritage Bank Center on Thursday night, October seventeenth. The Reds and Mariners
played against each other for the firsttime in the regular season in two thousand

(01:04:27):
and two a three game series.Seattle won all three games. These games
were played from June eighteenth, twothousand and two, through June twentieth,
two thousand and two. I don'tknow what the hell that was. This
was the first time the Reds playedthe Mariners. Cincinnati lost all three games
in the series. Only one Redhad an RBI. Who wasn't a Jan
Francisco, b Sean Casey or cAdam Dunn Up I I'm gonna go with

(01:05:00):
Sean Casey. Oh no, itwas one Francisco, the only Red to
have an RBI in the first everthree game series between the Reds and Mariners.
All right, it's the deciding question, question number five. If you
get this right, you're going toAerosmith. If you get this wrong,
Joe was going to Aerosmith, andyour night is free on October seventeenth,

(01:05:23):
Are you ready? All right?The most recent American League Championship Series game
for the Seattle Mariners was Game fiveof the two thousand and one ALCS Seattle
lost that game to the New YorkYankees. The most recent National League Championship
Series game for the Reds was Gamefour the nineteen ninety five NLCS. Cincinnati

(01:05:44):
lost that game to the Atlanta Braves. There's one player who played in both
of those games. Was it aReggie Sanders, b Eddie toubinse or c
Brett Boone? Bred Boone? Wasit Brett Boon? Red Boone played for
both the two thousand and one SeattleMariners hit like a thousand home runs because

(01:06:06):
he did steroids. And then healso played for the nineteen ninety five Reds
and was in that game Game fouragainst the Atlanta Braves. Cincinnati got swept
in that series. Congratulations Tyler,you're gonna go see Steven Tyler. Were
you named after him? I willhave to ask my mom because that's who
I'm taking. Sorry, take yourmom, Take your mom too, Okay,

(01:06:27):
I'd rather hang out with your momtoo. Ask your mom if you
were named after Steven Tyler and youand her are going to have a blast
at the Heritage Bank Center. Willput you on hold, get all the
information and congratulations, we are goingto give away tickets every day this week.
That's right. I'm not taking anydays off this week, so we
can give away tickets every day thisweek. And if you don't win tickets
to go see Aerosmith, like ourfriend Joe, you could buy them.

(01:06:50):
They're available Heritage Bank Center box office, go to Ticketmaster, get your tickets.
Steven Tyler Aerosmith. They're calling itthe Farewell Tour. Sure, I
believe them. They will be atthe Heritage Bank Center on Thursday, October
seventeenth. I'm going to that.Yes, yeah, I'll be there.
I had tickets to that show.It was scheduled for January and then like

(01:07:13):
Steven Tyler lost his voice, soI wasn't gonna go. I've seen Aerosmith
twice and I'm not really ever surewhen the you know, the Kiss has
had like seven farewell tours and theEagles had like five farewell to whenever I
farewell tour, this is it?It's like probably not, but okay,
fine, you'll upcharge the tickets,although Aerosmith of course hasn't done that.

(01:07:34):
But yeah, I'm going to thatshow now. It's it's a it's Thursday,
October the seventeenth. I reserve theright to change my mind if the
Reds are in the playoffs. Fair, yes, I'll be Do you want
to go? I'm right, Okay, we'll give away more tickets tomorrow.
I like it when the suspense builds. I like it when we get to

(01:07:55):
the fifth question for those games,I like I like it. I don't.
I don't love it when you knowthe person just gets all three correct
or all three incorrect, and thenwe don't get to the fourth and fifth
question. I'd like it when wecan to just extend the segment as long
as it'll go, and I thinkI've done that. It's eleven away from
five o'clock. Brenneman and Jones onBaseball is coming up. I don't know

(01:08:15):
how much we want the twenty twentyfour Reds to be like the twenty twenty
three Reds, but there's one thingwe do. There's one similarity we should
be begging for, and we gotit this weekend. That incredible sports talk
radio topic is coming up on ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station. Kruger always
gives you savings and for the cwardon our website for money, that's money,

(01:08:39):
enter it now, HI remember meon myer This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you so much for joining us. I hope you had a great
weekend and having an unbelievable Monday.Great star to your week. We're we're
having a good start to ours.We have a lot of ground to cover.
Zach Taylor, he had a pressconference today. It's it's kind of

(01:09:01):
like it is during the season aa Zach Taylor press conference. This would
be the press conference where he talksabout the start of the offseason workout program.
My guy Tarren Bland made a veryshrewd observation. So if you remember
two years ago, three years ago, actually twenty twenty one, Zach Taylor

(01:09:27):
talked often about, hey, wehave one hundred percent attendance at these voluntary
workouts, which was great, right, and you might argue that's one of
the ingredients that led to the Bengalsgetting to the super Bowl that year.
And then you know, Mini Campgot here, and if you recall,
the Bengals only had a one dayMini camp because that was the reward for

(01:09:50):
everybody coming to voluntary workouts. Inthe press conference that we air for you
coming up in just about thirty minutes, you're gonna hear or Zach kind of
refused to go into who's there andwho's not there. That's because they probably
don't have one hundred percent attendance,And by the way, that's okay,

(01:10:12):
But he was asked about t Higginsand he didn't want to get into who's
there and who's not there. Andagain, you could understand why you would
love it if every player came toevery voluntary workout. I have a hard
time getting mad at somebody when theydon't do something that's voluntary and for what
it's worth. Until t Higgins signsthe one year contract that comes with the

(01:10:39):
franchise tag, he is technically nota player under contract. Now, yeah,
he can't go to another team,but he is a player without a
contract, And so I'm going toassume that this plays out kind of the
way it did with Jesse Bates.T Higgins spends most of the offseason not
working in any official capacity with theBengals, even though he does say that

(01:11:00):
he anticipates playing for Cincinnati in twentytwenty four. So anyway, the Zach
Taylor press conference coming up in justabout thirty minutes. Meanwhile, a good
weekend for the Reds. This wasthe kind of series that they had to
have. You might argue the ChicagoWhite Sox are terrible. They are,

(01:11:21):
They're now two and thirteen. Youmight argue that for a second straight year,
that team looks like it's quipped tolose one hundred games. You might
have been able to make that argumenteven had they had some of their better
players, which obviously right now theydo not. That makes them even worse.
But you gotta beat the bad teams. You gotta beat the hurt teams.

(01:11:41):
You gotta beat the teams that arestruggling. The Chicago White Sox qualify
as all three. That could beand I think most likely will be something
that goes a long way toward determiningwho wins the National League Central, who
comes out of the National League andmakes the postseason, or not. The
Reds can improve upon what they didlast year. This is what last year's

(01:12:03):
team did. Main reason why thisteam hung in the race for as long
as it did is they were goodagainst bad against the six worst teams in
baseball. Last season, the Redswent seventeen and seven. They were thirteen
and five against the five worst teams. For what it's worth, the one
losing record they had last season againstbad teams came against the Chicago White Sox.

(01:12:26):
We saw this weekend Christian and carnassionStrand reward us for our patients.
He drove in seven runs this weekend. He had two multi hit games.
In three of his last five gameshe's had two hits. We saw Ellie
Dela Cruz hit a four hundred andforty nine foot bomb on Friday. By

(01:12:47):
the way, if you read theChicago Sun Times today, there is a
piece about Ellie dela Cruz and howWhite Sox fans should wish they had someone
like him now. Yes, hisbat cooled off a little bit in the
second two games of the series.Yes, Ever since I sent a tweet
on Friday about how good he hasbeen since that bad game he had in

(01:13:08):
Philadelphia, he has not gotten ahit. Nonetheless, Elie de la Cruz
rewards us for our patients. TheReds get Jonathan India continuing to get on
base at a pretty high rate.The batting average is not great. Who
cares he is getting on base fourwalks on Friday. We saw more running
six stolen bases yesterday, eight allweekend, and perhaps most importantly, the

(01:13:32):
return of Nicolodolo, and he wasterrific. Said this kind of at the
beginning of last season. I feltlike, ifuld go back to twenty two
when Hunter Green made his debut andNicolodolo made his debut and Graham Ashcraft made
his debut, Like the guy whosebest was better than anybody else's was Nick

(01:13:55):
Loodolo. Now that's not a shotat Hunter Green, it's not a shot
at Graham Ashcraft. I just Ifelt like watching the guy who I thought
was when he was on his game, looked the best was Nick Lodolo.
I don't know what his season isgoing to look like. I think with
him, you're just hoping he couldestablish a pattern of health. And if
he does, maybe he does whatwe're looking for Hunter Green and for Graham

(01:14:17):
Ashcraft to do, which is establisha pattern of reliability. But man,
what we saw on Saturday was encouraging. It was dominant, It was overpowering,
and made me feel pretty good aboutwhat he could bring to the table
this year for this team. Avery good weekend, the kind of weekend
they had to have, the kindof weekend that I've talked about the first

(01:14:41):
fifteen games. You know, wein baseball sometimes we come up with imaginary
mile posts. Well, here's whatthe team's record is to the first forty
games, and it matters why.Or here's their record to the first third
of the season, and here's whyit matters. Here's their record on Memorial
Day. We could do that throughfifteen games. We could do it through

(01:15:02):
twenty five games. All that reallymatters is what's the record through one hundred
and sixty two games. But youknow, you do have to acknowledge this,
man aided perhaps by the schedule,you gotta take advantage and when the
schedule gives you things to take advantageof. And the Reds did that this
weekend, I think, in particularthough, coming on the heels of how

(01:15:23):
that Milwaukee series unfolded with the rainand Hunter Green not pitching that well and
Frankie Montas not pitching that well,and a Brewer's team that has done almost
nothing but hit kind of taking thingsout on the Reds on Tuesday and Wednesday
and then the rain out and whichjust allowed those last two losses to kind
of fester. They bounce back andbeat up a bad team. You're gonna

(01:15:46):
have to do that, and throughfifteen games again, it's just fifteen games.
Prior to opening Day, there wasjust an avalanche of bad news,
right Matt McClay, TJ Friedol,Noel Marte, NonStop injuries, so many
so that I had to watch peoplewonder if it's the faults of the Reds

(01:16:09):
team trainers and doctors, which isa ludicrous place to take the conversation,
especially if you're paying attention to what'shappening to pitchers all throughout Major League Baseball.
But there was an avalanche of badnews. And then the first you
know, because the expectations are sohigh, and because everybody is so excited
about this team, a hyper focuson every single game, which I love,

(01:16:30):
and a hyper focus on every singleplay, which I love, and
a hyper focus on every single keyplayer, which I love. But all
of that added up to, youknow, frustration maybe with Ellie de la
Cruz, or frustration with Hunter Green, or frustration with Cees. Well,
they've played fifteen games, they've wonsixty percent of them. This is not

(01:16:54):
a six hundred ball club. Butyou know what, we could revisit this
after the Seattle series. We canrevisit this this time next week. Their
winning series. They haven't been belowfive hundred. They're playing from ahead.
They're keeping pace in a division thathas been remarkably good. Milwaukee's been unbelievable

(01:17:14):
offensively, Pirates have been a funstory. The Cardinals have held their own,
the Chicago Cubs have held their own. Everybody's off to at least a
so so start. Nobody has buriedthemselves. The Reds have at least kept
pace, and at the very leastthey have kept themselves from having to play
catch up through the first fifteen games. So very good weekend for the Reds.

(01:17:34):
Everything that happened in baseball this weekendoccurred against the backdrop of what I
think are some interesting conversations about startingpitchers and the number of starting pitchers that
so far early in the season havehad to go on the shelf to have

(01:17:55):
Tommy John surgery. And it's remarkableand it's not good for the sport.
One of the changes that we havewatched in baseball over the years is starting
pitchers as central characters in the sportaren't what they used to be. That
they're just they're not. They're noton the mound as long. They don't
seem to matter nearly as much.So in this climate where there are a

(01:18:18):
lot of pokes, a lot offolks who want to get the starting pitcher
back to being sort of the centralprotagonist, if you will, in every
game. To have all these injuriesto all these good starting pitchers is not
good for the game. Jason Starkpoints out in The Athletic Today, of
the six pitchers who lead all activepitchers in era whip and wins above replacement,

(01:18:41):
five of them now are on theinjured list, justin Verland or Clayton
Kershaw. Maxschers are Jacob de Gramand Garrett Cole. Of the ten active
pitchers who have won a cy Young, eight are currently hurt, the five
that I just mentioned, plus ShaneBieber, Robbie Ray, and san Al
Contra. Of the five active starterswho have won multiple cy Youngs, all

(01:19:04):
of them are hurt, with theexception of Blake Snell. Of the twelve
active starting pitchers who have led theirleague in strikeout rate in any of the
past season, seven aren't physically ableto throw a baseball. Everybody that I
just mentioned, plus Spencer Strider,who some would argue should have won the
cy Young last year, and showHey Otani. So there's this epidemic of

(01:19:30):
arm injuries throughout baseball, and Ithink some really good conversations to be had
about what the causes are and whatcan be done to slow down the rapid
rate at which pitchers are having togo into the knife and having to miss
time. We had doctor Brandon Korusfrom orthosinci with this last week to kind
of talk about this. The PlayersAssociation says, it's the pitch clock.

(01:19:51):
Now. I love the pitch clock. I frankly can't find anybody, even
those who are skeptical that the pitchclock was gonna work. I can't find
anybody who doesn't love the pitch clock. Gets made for a quicker game,
a better game, and easier towatch game. I can't find anybody who
would disagree with that. Players Association, though, says, look these pitchers,

(01:20:13):
especially this year, they've shaved twoseconds off the pitch clock when runners
are on base. So now youhave to deliver a pitch within eighteen seconds
if guys are on and within fifteenseconds if guys aren't. The Players Association
is saying, look, pitchers needmore time pitch to pitch to sort of
recover, get themselves geared back up, and then to have them throw,

(01:20:34):
and Major League Baseball is saying,no, no, no, it's not
that. It's velocity. You know, the average fastball in nineteen eighty nine
wasn't even ninety miles per hour.The average fastball in twenty twenty four is
almost ninety five miles per hour.There's such an emphasis on velocity. Velocity

(01:20:55):
is now the floor. Right.It used to be like, well,
he's got great stuff, and ohman, he could throw ninety two to
ninety three. Now it's well,how hard does he throw? And if
the answer is he gets it upthere in ninety four ninety five, it's
okay, Well, then what elsecan he do? The velocity is a
floor and you hear and read picturestalk all the time about look, we

(01:21:15):
just throw as hard as we canfor as long as we can, and
almost wait for there to be somethingbad that happens. And so it's another
instance of the Players Association and MajorLeague Baseball bickering with each other and not
being able to come to an agreementon what some of the causes are here.
I will try to be the adultin the room and say, hey,
yes, there is an amazing emphasison velocity and pictures are throwing harder

(01:21:41):
than ever, and they're being trainedfrom the earliest possible ages to throw harder
than ever. But also, yeah, with the pitch clock, there is
probably, anecdotally there are some pictureswho could benefit from a little bit more
time between tosses. So does itmake sense to not get rid of the

(01:22:03):
pitch clock, which I don't thinkanybody would want to see, but at
least consider that because pitchers are throwingharder than they did forty years ago,
when pitchers were naturally working more quickly, that maybe it would make sense to
slightly lengthen the amount of time thatpitchers have between pitches. Nobody wants to

(01:22:27):
see the pitch clock go away,nobody. I think it's been great,
to be honest with you, justas a viewer, I'd have less time
between pitches. But okay, we'rehaving these pictures put so much stress on
their arms, more so than atany point in the history of the game.
Maybe maybe it would make sense forpictures to have a little bit more

(01:22:48):
time between pitches, and perhaps exploretaking the pitch clock and adding just a
little bit more time between pitches.Inta out of players association banging their hand
on the table, going it's thepitch clock and baseball banging their head on
the table, hand on the tableand going, no, it's not.

(01:23:10):
Could maybe we compromise and achieved somecommon ground because I'm watching this happen throughout
baseball and granted the Reds got NickLodolo back, but just seeing what's happening
throughout the sport, how do younot wonder when's it going to be the
Reds term? Now? Obviously tjAntone has already gone on the injury list
and had another surgery done last week. But epidemic means it's spreading, and

(01:23:32):
so does does this starting staff.Obviously, Hunter Green has already had Tommy
John surgery. Lodolo and Ashcraft angGreen missed a lot of time last year,
Lodolo with more of a lower bodyinjury with his leg and Ashcraft had
the toe problem late last season.But man, you're watching this happen throughout
the sport, you just wonder when, When's When's when's it going to impact

(01:23:57):
Cincinnati? All Right, it's twentyminutes after five o'clock. We will take
some phone calls, a few Bengalsitems to get to as well as Zach
Taylor's press conference. Lots of groundto cover between now and six five o'clock.
Happy Hour, by the way,a service of Mick Ultra, which
sounds awesome. Right now on abeautiful, warm day like this, phone
calls coming up, Zach Taylor aswell. Here till six. I'm moegar.
This five point three seven four ninefifteen thirty, by the way,

(01:24:18):
is our phone number. This isESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.
Cincinnati's EA press conference is moments away. It's uh, it's gonna be like
you give us a little feed ourZach Taylor press conference. Fix. The

(01:24:39):
NFL Draft is a week from Thursday. We'll be broadcasting that afternoon from a
long Neck and Wilder. We hopeyou are there. We have a folks
waiting on hold. Brian, it'sbeen on for a while. I appreciate
you hanging on, Brian. You'reon ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon.
Yeah, Hey, thanks for takingmy call. I we did you last
night about the NIXT call, soI appreciate you take Curious as Tamar DeRozan's

(01:25:03):
shot was up last night at theend of the game, if you were
hopeful that the shot went in.I was conflicted. I will admit to
being conflicted. I have a hardtime. I don't expect a team to
try to lose. I don't.I don't. I don't expect a team
that I think this season has beencome to be defined for its competitiveness and

(01:25:26):
feistiness. I have a hard timeaccepting, well, they should have just
tried to lay down in Game eightytwo. That wasn't going to happen.
I will admit to you that ifI'm looking at this solely through the lens
of first round, I don't wantto play Philadelphia. I'm very skeptical that
they could beat Philadelphia with a healthyMBAID four times, and playing the Miami

(01:25:47):
Heat in a series is just miserable. I guess it's going to be Philadelphia
because I think they'll beat Miami,So I don't want to play the Philadelphia
seventy six ers. At the Atthe same time, the idea is to
win the champion to get to thefinals, and not that it's easy,
but the easiest way to do thatin that league is to play as many
home games as possible, and youhave enhanced your ability to do that by

(01:26:10):
being the two Instead of the three. So I convinced myself of that,
and when the shot didn't go in, I was happy they got the two,
but I wouldn't have been heartbroken hadthat knock gone in. And then
they're the three and they could playIndy and I could go see them in
person up the road. Yeah,yeah, exactly. I felt the same
way, most partly to avoid theHeat Sixers potential matchups, but also to

(01:26:33):
take my two boys to the gamein Indy. So I guess we'll just
have to beat either the Heat ofthe Sixers and then hope the Pacers beat
the Bucks to go next round.Perfect, We're on the same page.
But one other question. Do youif you had to put money on it,
do you think Brunson gets first teamon? Yeah? No, no,

(01:26:56):
I don't. I don't think.I don't. I think he should.
But there was a straw poll donemaybe two weeks ago of MVP voters,
and I know MVP is different thanall NBA. He didn't finish in
the top ten. Now things havechanged. He's been so good here down

(01:27:17):
the stretch. Maybe that alters howpeople view him. If he's not among
the first ten. I have ahard time believing he'll place in the top
five to be all first team AllNBA, He'll be All NBA, the
first team All NBA. Seems likethat's gonna be a bit much for him
to achieve. Yeah, it wasinteresting. I heard Bill Simmons and Ryan

(01:27:39):
were still talking that they both hadhim in their top four or five of
the MVP voting, but neither oneof them have him First Team NBA,
which that was a little bit interesting. But hoping that that happens for him.
But you know, it definitely deserved. No one has done more for
a fifty win team. No one'sdone more. Yeah. Yeah, I

(01:28:00):
have no problem not making him mv P none whatsoever. I do think
he's an All NBA first team guy. Yeah, especially this year. I
know it's position I think this isthe first year that it's positionless, so
maybe gives him a little better ofa chance than than previous years. Uh,
with some of the great guards thatare out there. But well,

(01:28:21):
but but the thing is, likeyou could you could pick now, like,
for instance, you could pick fourfront cord players, right. I
don't think they're gonna do that.Yeah, but I mean you you theoretically
don't have to have a point guard. So I think Sga is going to
make it. My guess is uhDoncic makes it, Tatum Giannis Jokic,
and that's gonna leave Jalen on theoutside looking in. Yeah, we'll see.

(01:28:46):
Thanks Brian, thank you. Yeah. So, for those of you
who don't follow our our beloved Knicksplayed the last game of the season last
year, a great game that goesto overtime against the Bulls New York one
Terren's guide Demarga Rozen had a chanceto win it for Chicago by winning New
York as the two seed, butthey'll play one of the teams in the

(01:29:09):
play in. The seven eight gamein the play in is Philly versus Miami.
The Sixers are in the play inbecause and Beide missed a ton of
time, but now he's back inhealthy, and so there's a very good
chance they could play a Philadelphia teamthat, had Embiid not gotten hurt,
would have would have been possibly thetwo seed. They're gonna play him as
a seven, whereas if they're thethree, they play an indie team which

(01:29:31):
is good and fun and interesting towatch and obviously close to here, but
not quite as good as Philadelphia.So there are many Knicks fans who wanted
them to lose. I was conflictedbefore we do, Zach Taylor. I
got a minute here, Phil,go ahead and take it. You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you.Bo. Is there any rule that prohibits

(01:29:51):
a major League baseball pitcher from pitchingunderhand like Jenny Finch? No. If
you're in a or you're a majorleague baseball team and you have a picture
that you really like, who's goingon their second, maybe third major elbow
surgery, do you go, Hey, there's somebod I want to introduce you
to. They struck out Alice Rodriguezand Barry Bonds in the same day.

(01:30:14):
They're they're Delivererius a little on orthodox, but I think you could prolong your
career, like like, who's goingto be the first team to do this?
That's my question and that's all Igot. Yeah, you're asking rhetorically,
which means I don't have an answer. I don't know. I don't
know. I wish I could elaborateon that. I don't know. Maybe

(01:30:38):
tj ant Now, who's had histhird Tommy John surgery, should try it.
The pageantry of a Zach Taylor pressconference is coming up next on ESPN
fifteen thirty since BSPN fifteen thirty CincinnatiSports Station Hi Sports headline service to Kelsey
Chevrolet Home a flight time, powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their

(01:31:00):
family to yours for life, kelseyshevdot com Red's in Seattle nine tonight on
a seven hundred WLW. Frankie Montaswill pitch for Cincinnati against righty George Kirby.
Are you ready for a starting lineup? Here you go? I was
gonna say get your scorecards out,but I mean, I think we've beaten
that to death over the last howevermany years. Nobody has got a scorecard.

(01:31:27):
India's batting second. India is playingsecond, batting leadoff. Good god,
thank god you don't have a scorecardat of screwed it up already.
India is leading off, playing secondbase. Benson's in center, Cees at
first, Spencer Steer and left Freileyin right field. Elie de la Cruz
over five yesterday, time to sendhim down. He is playing shortstop and
batting sixth. Candelario at third,martiniz dhing. Tyler Stevenson has in the

(01:31:51):
ball really hard. Recently is catchingand batting ninth nine tonight, the game
is live on a seven hundred WLWBank Spangles have a resigned cal Oudamidas and
Joe Bashi. They have started theiroff season program. And I had something
else, but I forgot what itwas. So now now it's time.

(01:32:11):
We have to do this, thecontractually obligated airing of a Zach Taylor press
conference. Right here here it is. Get ready, this is it first
time in months on ESPN fifteen thirtyCincinnati Sports Station. Okay, good to
see everybody. You know, wegot our players in today. We'll have
a team meeting here in about fortyfive minutes, and so excited to see

(01:32:32):
all the old faces new faces.And then we're in the middle of draft
prep upstairs with Duke and his staffas well. So a lot a lot
of good things that are happening rightnow and looking forward to taking your questions.
What's the message with the team meeting, Well, there's several things.
We got to reintroduce some of ournew players and our players that have been

(01:32:54):
back, you know, like vonBell, So that's exciting. Got some
new coaches, you know that weneed to make our guys aware of added
some new faces to that group aswell, so I'm excited about it.
And then just the expectations for theoff season program. And I'll get into
that with the team before I getinto it and here, but but those
will be some things that you coverto kick off the nine week off season
program that we've got, he getsaid yesterday, especially, I won't speculate

(01:33:24):
who's going to be here for thevoluntary program. We'll keep everything internal with
our players. You've a number ofthese. What's the most important factor to
accomplish between now and when a newgroup of players in the draft. Again,

(01:33:45):
we just always want our guys toget a chance to feel like we've
got the chemistry that's going to beneeded during the season. And number two,
give ourselves the best chance to hittraining camp off and running. So
making sure our guys get time inour schemes, get time with whatever we're
doing in the off season, theon air stuff as we do it on
the field, the eleven on elevenwalk through type setting stuff, seven on

(01:34:06):
seven special teams. The purpose ofit all is to give guys a chance
to put the best foot forward inlate July when we show back up and
get ready for the season. Sothose are things that we want to make
sure over the nine weeks those guysthey've got it down cold, and so
then when they get a chance torefresh it during their time off, then
come back in training camp and beready to help us go win. Guys,

(01:34:28):
they've got it down. These guysare ranking on this year, and
it's even more to take the market. It is it is you're talking about
the second year of players. Ithink they've got one year under their belt,
so they've seen the lay of theland, they know how it all
works, and now they get achance to come back and really take a
big step, you know. Andwe had a lot of guys play play

(01:34:51):
roles for us last year, andthose roles will only continue to increase as
they earn that opportunity. But butagain you're right in that this this starts
a step for them where they geta chance to feel like they're really putting
their best foot forward. It's alittle bit longer this year from your last
game until the start of this process. Do you feel that you do the

(01:35:11):
guys feel that break? I wouldthink I don't want to speak for them,
he does feel like a longer break, you know, And there's changes
that we had in the past,you know, from hiring new coaches that
took us some of the time forus and you get a chance to start
a little bit sooner in the freeagency in the draft process. So those
are the changes really from the coachingside. From the players, you know,
a lot of these guys go awayand they train at their own spots,

(01:35:32):
and so they get a little moretime to do that before they come
back over here and start with ustoday, obviously having filled out the death
starts the state of the last Yeah, we feel good, you know that
we put ourselves in a really goodposition going into the draft where Duke can
do the things that he feels likehe needs to do to help our team

(01:35:55):
next year and in the future.And so I think we're really well positioned
going into the draft next weekend.What you did through you can see where
you perceived Gass willing to be andwhere would you bring him and would you
like to said one us spot.Yeah, I mean we've had a pretty
good idea in our minds, youknow, and we'll let the off season
play out with that before we getinto it and here, but feel comfortable
with our communication with the decks andwhere that all stands. Who learned what

(01:36:20):
you want to learn that Essentially,when you're a certain amount of graph that
player in college, you get tobuilding about taking what you know, happy
to print the building and make surethe dolls work. Ever started mate,
he phrase that one more time playerthat have and how could have? You
know, snaps hundreds and feel goodabout when we get into the building and

(01:36:42):
get the goolf for what they stuallygets work. I think it's a tough
balance, you know. There there'sa lot of guys can find themselves in
different situations with injuries or the rolethey were in before they came a starter.
So I can't put a snap counton a guy. Again, Duke
does a good job and and thescouts a good job of being thorough on
why this guy would succeed or whyhe may have challenges, and you have

(01:37:04):
to take all that into account.Much encroachery with kind of I think it's
very similar. You know, it'sa big change for us has been you
know, offensively Dan Pitcher being theoffensive coordinator. So I think that's been

(01:37:25):
fun to see him him take chargeof that group and and do it in
his way. And so I've givena lot of that to him over the
course of these last couple of weeksto get ready for the off season process,
and so that's been good. Soas far as the change goes,
that's a change, you know,that's different than obviously Brian was doing that
year's past. Now is pitch defensively, you know, we had movement with
Jordan Kovac's going in the safety positionand hired Ronnie ragoul over there on that

(01:37:48):
side of the ball as well,So a couple of new faces there and
so it's been good all that.But but the basics of the routine,
the NFL kind of lays it outfor you because of the way the calendar
plays out, so it keeps youon the schedule. And right now we're
in the thick of the draft stuff, which is which is fun to hear

(01:38:09):
the scouts talk and the coaches talkon their impressions of these guys. How
is Joe really his recovery process wherehe actual everything has been positive, It
is still still there's still on tracts. The way you feel like you do
whatever you gets to the negotiations,get to be able to us, yes

(01:38:30):
about it. This is pretty bad. Not as often. Yeah, if
everything is on track, everything's ontrack, you know. And so Matt
Summers and and our staff there.You know, Nick Cosgray works with a
lot of the rehab guys. Theydo a real good job. Full confidence
in them and full confidence of theplayers are giving them what they need to
give them. And so really asa whole our rehab, everybody's been on

(01:38:53):
track and and here positive reports onon the pace that we think they need
to be on of staff number yeah, you know, it's these players.
Again, My role as head coachesis to make sure I'm engaged with him
and understand what they're going through.But at the same time, that's what
they could ask every day by everyperson that sees them, you know.
And and it's the number one questionI get ask in public when I'm at

(01:39:15):
basketball games or whatever it is,is how's Joe? You know? And
uh, so that's that's part ofit, you know, He's he's a
big part of what we're doing.And I obviously understand the concern everybody has,
but uh, the guy has hasbeen through some rehab processes and so
he knows how to attack it.He knows how to get his body back
right where it needs to be andso excited to see, you know,

(01:39:36):
what the season will bring for him. Hundreds of times, you guys,
you guys have a draft or theday of the draft, you know that's
that's a better question for Duke.But uh, he's got a great process
that we all believe in and hashas always put us in a really good

(01:39:56):
position. And so, uh hedoes a good job, know this the
last week of the draft, makingsure he's got no questions unanswered and taking
in all the information he can takein and you know, making the decision
so full full faith in his process. We've seen it now. I've seen
it now over six years is mysix year with him, and I think
it's a really good one. Isthe hardest part of the evaluation of the

(01:40:20):
player that you can take the drafttalks, Well, what is the hardest
part of you guys find yourself thinkingabout the motive and diving into your most
right now at this point, Well, I think you're you've seen all the
videotape and so you're you're making sure, Okay, Now, what was your
interactions to the combine, the AllStar games, the Pro days, the

(01:40:42):
individual workouts, the Top thirty visits, all that kind of stuff the local
day will have, you know,so raining in all that information and making
sure you have the complete picture asbest you can. Like anything, it's
it's you're never going to feel likeyou've got one hundred percent of it.
And so that's that's the position Dukein is is taking those information from the
scouts and and making the best decisionhe can make. And so again it's

(01:41:06):
it's I I don't envy that thatjob is not for me. The coaching
is for me, and so Ilove seeing those guys at work and going
through their process and making sure theyask the right questions. And it always
puts us in a real good positionto evaluate. When you get your dispoint
certain positions, you can feel likeyou, I feel confident about these these
sorts. But when you get ina certain positions or some of them are

(01:41:27):
just harder to know, right,Yeah, I think I could answer.
I could create an answer for alot of different positions for a lot of
different reasons. Okay, you can. You can get into I'll give you
a couple of examples. You know, quarterbacks planting into certain systems, you
know, and so how are theygoing to project? We've seen over years.
Guys, guys project, you can'tput them in a box anymore.
It's it's you got to look atsome traits and do for thir evaluations running

(01:41:49):
backs, pass protection. You know, maybe they just weren't asked to do
that in their scheme. You know, different different UH systems or competition alignemen
have gone against you know, howdo you evaluate all that? So you
can go position by position and createan answer for why. It's a difficult
position to evaluate. But at theend of the day, you just got

(01:42:09):
to find the guess that fits youbest. All right, there you go.
Show's over. Got to go tomorrowrecap of Red's M's Late Night Baseball
in Seattle and Paul Danner Junior inthe first hour of the show on a
thousand different Bengals issues, and ourbuddy Dan Brugler from The Athletic as well.
His draft guide is out. We'lltalk about it tomorrow. I believe
you've in the five o'clock hour,but find out when you join us tomorrow

(01:42:33):
afternoon. We have to go.My thanks to a Terran Plan for producing,
and of course thanks to you forlistening. Have an awesome night.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sportsstation. If you love your meals,

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