4/22/24 - The Mo Egger Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
It's an effective commercial right there.Good afternoon on Molegger. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening. Hope you had a great weekend.
I hope your week is off toan awesome start. We have a lot
of ground to cover today. EricEager one of my absolute favorite football slash
draft analysts, somebody who has beenon the show a bunch of this offseason

(00:22):
because I love his work. Heis going to join us coming up at
three forty five. We are lookingforward to that. Also, the new
women's basketball coach at NKU, avery familiar face to folks who cover area
women's basketball, Thomas Moore. JeffHands had a ton of success there and
oversaw that program's jumped to the NCAADivision two level. He is now off

(00:47):
to Highland Heights taking over the women'sbasketball program at NKU. So Jeff is
going to join us at four tothirty five. And the UC baseball team
is red hot. Jordan Bitchell isgoing to be with us at five twenty.
Today, We've got some draft stuffto get to. I am I'm
really intrigued by something that happened inbaseball today. We have some Sam Hubbard
news to get to Ben Baby haswritten about him for ESPN dot com and

(01:10):
obviously a lot on the Reds,including Hunter Green getting the ball tonight.
It feels like every start that HunterGreen makes is a referendum on Hunter Green.
Will tonight be the latest referendum?Can Hunter Green give the Reds at
least six innings tonight? We'll getto that coming up here in just about
fifteen minutes. Reds and Phillies thisevening, first of four at GABP.

(01:33):
It was a very good weekend forthe Reds, which we're going to get
to now. I don't like doingthis, but I have to because we
well, we have an obligation becauseI like outlining for folks on social media.
What we have coming up on ourshow, our show preview video which
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Thanks to Emory Federal Credit Union onair now on ESPN fifteen thirty. Listen

(02:20):
Live colon ESPN fifteen thirty. Dotcom slash Listen show Preview is a service.
I'm a terrible typis of Emery FCU. And then I gotta do this
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(02:42):
part, and then this, andthen I click on that, and then
I do this thing here and Iupload the video and I wait for it
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I'll hit post, and then wecould actually start the sports talk radio
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(03:04):
can start now while I wait forthis to upload, because all I really
have to do now is hit post. So stand by for that on Twitter.
It's an amazing minute and thirty fivesecond of internet video content that you'll
never forget. Oh, I canhit it now, post very good,
all right, thank you. Gowatch that on social media. Over the
weekend, the Reds sweep the LosAngeles Angels of Anaheim. They do so

(03:30):
in spite of being no hit intothe sixth inning yesterday. They do so
in spite of Frankie Montas not beingable to get out of the first inning
because he takes a comeback or offhis pitching elbow. It would appear,
and David Bell is going to talkwith the media here in about twenty minutes,
it would appear that he, Frankieand the Reds have dodged a major

(03:51):
bullet here, because if you're likeme, when you saw that happen yesterday,
you feared the worst. Right now, it feels like Frankie, by
his own admission, is perhaps gonnahave to miss a start. But the
worst possible outcome that we were allthinking about yesterday right now doesn't appear to
be the most likely outcome. Thingscould change, and maybe David Bell will

(04:12):
have some things to say about thatcoming up in just a bit. Second
consecutive weekend that the Reds beat thedregs of the league. You've got to
do this now. Much has beenmade about what's coming up. Starting tonight,
first of four with the Phillies.The next thirty eight to forty games
are an absolute gauntlet. Tony andAustin, I think we settled on.

(04:32):
Crucible was the word that they used. Schedule gets tougher, But look,
the Reds have avoided the bad startman, and you've got to beat the
bad teams and then hold your ownagainst the good teams. And that's an
oversimplification for me, more than anything. You're gonna have series where you get
swept. Don't like what happened inSeattle, but it happens. You're gonna

(04:55):
lose three games in a row,You're gonna lose four games in a row.
You can't have those long losing streaks. You can't lose five to six
seven games in a row, andif you do, you can't do it
all that often. So the threebad days in Seattle didn't turn into a
four game losing streak or a fivegame losing streak or a six game losing
streak. The Reds this weekend gotterrific work by its bullpen, fifteen scoreless

(05:20):
innings, including the eight and athird yesterday. You got to give props
to Brent Suter for his readiness tocome into the game in the first inning,
totally unexpected and he was ready togo. They get a good weekend
from Tyler Stevenson who is being rewardedby being moved up to third in the
batting order today, they get moreElie Dela Cruz awesomeness. He is being

(05:42):
rewarded by being slid to sixth inthe batting order today, which I do
not understand. A good weekend.I have said since February, I believe
this bullpen can be a bona fidestrength of the team if the starting pitching
will allow for that to happen.Now, yesterday wasn't Frankie Mantas's fault.
It's just stuff like that does happen. The bullpen stepped up, but stepped

(06:05):
up all weekend long. So toodid Ellie Dela Cruz. Three weeks ago,
Ellie had the bad game in Philadelphia, A lot of folks lost their
mind. Today, I am goingto give you an opportunity if you're among
those who, in the immediate aftermathof that one bad game decided Ellie's should
go to Triple A, or Ellieshould be benched, or Ellie's a bust,

(06:30):
or I'm done with Ellie Dela Cruz. I heard, and frankly more
so saw versions of each of those. If you were among those who said
those things, or put those thingson your Facebook page, or put them
on x or if you've called aradio show to say those things, whether

(06:51):
it's mine or anybody else's, todayis going to be your opportunity to take
back your bad Ellie dela Cruz.All he did over the weekend was he
was well a one man show.On Friday with the Homer, he drives
in three, he creates a runwith his legs. He steals three bags.

(07:14):
On Saturday night he draws four walks. There are a lot of things
that when he got called to thebig leagues I thought we'd see from Elie
de la Cruz. I thought he'dhit for power. Didn't know if he'd
hit for average. By the way, for what it's worth, right now,
he's sitting at three oh six.His OPS is ten to fifty one.

(07:39):
It's early. You can you couldsee, you know, statistics get
thrown out of whack this early inthe season based on one or two games.
But his OPS is ten fifty one. He continues to rank among National
League leaders in things like slugging percentage. He is currently fourth and OPS.
He is an adjusted OPS plus.He leads the National League in stolen bases

(08:05):
he's ninth in the National League andruns battered in He's second in the league
in offensive wins above replacement. Thereare a lot of things I thought we'd
see from Elie de la Cruz,some good, some maybe not so good,
some reflective of inexperience and a playerwho is still developing. I didn't
think i'd see him walk four timesin one game, and yet Saturday night

(08:26):
that's what he did. Obviously hada positive imprint on the entire weekend.
Yesterday it continued, he's having anexcellent season. He has shown you this
season flashes, not even flashes.He has shown you the sort of player
that a lot of people, alot of smart baseball people, think he
can be. Does that mean he'sgoing to be the best player in the

(08:46):
game one day, I don't know. Again, that's a subjective title.
Does it mean he's going to bea multiple time All Star? My money
would be on that being the case. I think Elie de la Cruz is
going to be an All Star thisyear. Now. I was willing to
say that nineteen days ago, afterthat miserable Tuesday in Philadelphia where Ellie,

(09:07):
you know, frankly played poorly ata bad game at a couple of misplays
in the field, one I thinkwas effort related. We called him out
on it and then sat back andrelaxed and watched everybody say really stupid things
like he should be benched, orhe should be sent to a ball or
I'm out, I'm done with EllieDela Cruz. Over the last three weeks,
he's given you every reason to beall in on Ellie Dela Cruz.

(09:30):
We will stop talking about this todaybecause you know, it's sort of easy
to default back to the god.A lot of people think this guy should
be in Triple A. He willhave slums, he will have more bad
games. He is still a workin progress. I'm still not sure long
term he's going to work at shortstop. But that's a fair assessment and I
could be dead wrong about it.But if you were among those who three

(09:52):
weeks ago reacted to the one badgame and anger by telling us all and
then he had the game against theMets where he strikes out with the bases
loaded, which stunk, and itwas unfortunate and it was frustrating. Was
also an isolated plate appearance in themiddle of what is still his first calendar
year. In the big leagues.Since then, he's done nothing but put
up numbers. He's done nothing butpositively effect games with his speed and athletic

(10:16):
ability. He is growing as ahitter and I saw enough patience that he
drew four walks on Saturday. Sotoday is your day. You could take
back your bad Ellie Dela Cruz takeand will never hold it against you again.
Five point three seven four nine fifteenthirty eight sixty six seven two three

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seven seven six. Ellie Delacruz isthe most talked about Red right now.
He is arguably the best player onthe team. Hunter Green has been talked
about nearly as much as Elie Delacruz. Hunter Green has a big start tonight.
It is okay to ask from HunterGreen what I'm about to ask from

(10:58):
Hunter Green next on ESPN fifteen thirty, twenty two minutes after three o'clock.
I've worked in broadcasting for almost twentyseven years now, and I sometimes I
still forget to turn the microphone on. And really, if you can't do

(11:20):
that, does the rest of theshow have a prayer? U five three
seven four nine fifteen thirty is ourphone number. We will take your phone
calls today Eric Eager on the DraftSummer Sports Show. Eric does a terrific
job, and uh, he joinedus kind of after the first wave of
Bengals free agency, and he's prettybullish at least to this point. On

(11:43):
the off season the Bengals have hadobviously, you know, things have.
Our attention has turned toward the draft, which is on Thursday. Starts on
Thursday, and so I thought it'dbe good to get Eric on with us
to kind of talk about the Bengalsthrough the very specific lens of draft possibilities
that coming up in just about twentyminutes. This is not We were having

(12:07):
fun previous segment with a lot ofthe bad Elie Delacruz takes, and usually
the people who have the worst weuse the word take now I think way
too much. But the worst takesare the ones who are loudest, and
since they're loudest, you tend tothink that that bad take is shared by
a lot of people, and it'snot. It's like, if you follow

(12:28):
politics, the people on the extremeson either side are often the loudest,
but most people are kind of inthe middle. But we tend to think
that the folks on the way rightor way left represent you know people who
might lean in that particular direction orone direction or the other. And so
the bad Elie takes they were loud. Let's be honest, most of us

(12:50):
didn't react to his bad game inPhiladelphia by thinking that he should be benched
or sent down. It is nota bad take to say, God,
I wish Hunter Green would pitch deeperinto games. That's that's not a I
don't think that's a controversial take.I don't think that's a controversial opinion.

(13:11):
I think whether you believe Hunter Greenis going to be great, or you
think he's a bust, or youthink he's going to be somewhere in the
middle, I would imagine that theone thing I think we could all agree
on is it would be helpful ifhe could pitch deeper into games. Tonight
would be a primary example of needingHunter Green to pitch deeper into a game.

(13:35):
They had to go to their bullpenin the first inning yesterday. They
don't have an off day until nextThursday. One of their current relievers might
be used in a starting role becauseof what happened to Frankie Montas yesterday,
So tonight would be very very niceif Hunter Green could give them six,

(13:58):
like we're not. We don't lookat pitchers the way we did twenty years
ago and think this guy, he'sgetting the ball. The idea is to
go nine. We don't even lookat pitchers and go you know what,
the idea tonight is to go seven. I wish we were. I think
baseball was a little better when thestarting pitcher held a more prominent role.

(14:20):
But there are reasons why that's nolonger the case, and that's maybe a
different discussion. Is it too muchto ask for him to consistently go six?
I mean, any pitcher yesterday,I'm thinking Frankie Montas has a good
chance to give him six, andI again, he fortunately takes a comebacker
off the elbow, So what doesn'thappen? That's not his fault. But

(14:41):
to me, I can, cantonight's starting pitcher give him six? Now,
sometimes that's more important than other times. Tonight would be kind of an
important night for Hunter Green to givethis team some length, some pitch efficiency.
So the other night last week inSeattle, he goes four innings,
and he made some really good pitchesto minimize the damage he gave up one

(15:03):
run in four innings. Unfortunately,the Reds lost the game, but also
unfortunately he only gave them four andso multiple things can be true at the
same time. Yeah, Hunter dida good job of not giving up a
bunch of runs, which wasn't thecase his previous start. But god,
it would have been cool had hebeen able to go six four innings.
To throw ninety eight pitches is notconsistently going to work. And you know

(15:28):
you're picking on Hunter. He's I'mthe most patient guy when it comes to
these individual players. I'm the guywho keeps talking about how hard it is
to do what the Reds are tryingto do, which is to win and
get to the postseason while they're stilldeveloping players at the big league level.
What they're trying to do, I'vesaid it almost every single day for a
month is really really hard. Butyou know, the next step for Hunter,

(15:56):
for me at least, is wekeep talking about reliability, ability and
performance, reliability in well start length. For lack of a better way of
putting it, Tonight will be hisfifty first big league start. Over the
first fifty, he has failed toget through six innings in thirty one of

(16:17):
them. Very basic math. Right, sixty two percent of the time that
Hunter Green starts, he doesn't geteighteen outs. I'm not asking him to
get twenty seven. I'm not askinghim to get twenty one. But like
there's before we talk about stuff likestaff Ace or All Star or even living

(16:42):
up to his contract, which HunterGreen's contract could still make him one of
the great bargains in the entire sport. But it's not at all a controversial
take to say, God, Iwish he would pitch deeper into games.
Right, So tonight they went totheir bullpen in they they went to that
pan a lot over the last week. Can can I get six? Can

(17:07):
I get six innings? Six quality? His previous start, which was against
Milwaukee, he pitched six innings andit gave up I think seven runs.
That ain't gonna work either. Justgive me the standard quality start, six
innings, three runs or less,and if he does that, I'll take
the Reds chances winning the game.Maybe it happens. If it does,

(17:30):
it's a great benefit to not justthe goal of trying to win the baseball
game tonight, but resetting your bullpenfor what could be a very difficult week
ahead. Can I get six inningsfrom Hunter Green tonight, and is it
all a controversial take or an inaccurateone to say? God, I kind

(17:52):
of wish and I'll say it aboutall of these pitchers, but the the
reality is Hunter Green's very much oneof the faces of this franchise. Uh.
But we could say this about allthese guys need six. Well,
some nights he needs six more thanothers. Tonight, the Reds need six
thirty eight percent of the time HunterGreen gets the ball, he gives them
six. That ratio is not goingto work. Five point three seven four

(18:17):
nine, fifteen thirty is our phonenumber. We will get to you.
We'll do sports headlines, a bitof a puzzling Reds lineup tonight and Uh.
Eric Eager from Sumer Sports on thedraft coming up in just about ten
minutes three thirty ESPN fifteen thirty CincinnatiSports Station, Cincinnati's ESPN lifetime power train
protection and guaranteed credit approval from theirfamily to yours for life, kelseyshev dot

(18:38):
com Reds and fills tonight first offour. UH, Hunter Green and Lefty
Ranger Suarez on the hill six fortyseven hundred WYLW the starting lineup tonight is
uh, it's not going over wellon social media. Uh. Fairchild's leading
off and right steers and left.Stevenson catching batting third, Candelario at third,

(19:00):
batting fourth, Cees at first.Ellie is playing shortstop and batting six.
Santiago Espinal, who is not agood hitter, is providing protection for
Elie. Delak Ruth and Night inthe seventh spot playing second base. Martini
is dhing. Bubba Thompson in centerfieldbatting ninth. Phillies will not have Bryce

(19:21):
Harper tonight. He has gone onthe MLB paternity list as he is going
to be there for the birth ofhis third child. So the way this
works probably know this, he hasto miss between one in three games,
so he can come back as soonas tomorrow and be around for Game two.
He would be off the paternity listby the end of this series,
which Game four is on Thursday.Lucho Acosta named to Team of the Match

(19:45):
day for his role in FC Cincinnati'stwo to one win over Atlanta. And
Jeff Hans is moving from Thomas Moreto NKU to take over the women's basketball
program in Highland Heights. Let's seehere Tyler in Columbus. You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Good afternoon. Hey, mom, So I just wanted to

(20:08):
I feel convicted about Ellie da LaCruz some criticism that I've given him,
and I want to say, firstoff, I've never advocated for him to
be sent down or bench or anythinglike that. I don't think he has
anything left to prove at any otherlevel than the majors, to be honest,

(20:30):
And I mean, who else arethey going to put there anyways?
Right now with everything that's happened.Sure, but the only thing that has
given me pause about him is histrack record is a free swinger, and
I from everything that I've ever reador heard, that's a trait that is

(20:53):
kind of hard to develop. Sobut he has I think, even dating
back to the end of last year, has improved that. Yeah, so
I don't know, that's that's myonly the only thing, like I said,
that's kind of concerned me in thepast. But I mean, I
can't say anything negative about him now. Yeah, No, he he has.

(21:15):
We have. We have seen himswing at some pitches out of the
strike zone that you're like, dude, what are you doing. I think
he's been more selective this year,so much so that, if you know,
remember that Friday night game against theMets where he comes up with the
bases loaded and strikes out on fourpitches and never takes the bat off his
shoulders, And yes, you know, my my reaction to that was,

(21:37):
God, you know what, he'staking some some first second pitch strikes that
I'm I appreciate him being patient.I appreciate him being more selective, but
buddy, don't let him get youbehind O two because you're not a good
two strike hitter. It's hard tohit with two strikes. I think the
selectivity is reflective of him trying tobe more patient. And if you look

(21:59):
this year, you know, SaturdayNight skewed things. He's walking in over
fourteen percent of his plate appearances,and that number was around eight percent last
year. He is striking out lessfrequently, and he still strikes out not
free out of every ten times,but that was closer to thirty four percent
last year. We have seen somegrowth, We have seen some growth with

(22:19):
his patients, so much so thatthere have been times where we've been frustrated
with him being too patient. Yeah, I agree with that too. I
think it's just one of those thingsthat he's just going to have to figure
it out, obviously, but Ithink maybe it's also just years of watching
Vado control the zone the way hedid, and it's like, you know

(22:41):
that that's a huge part of beingable to have success. And I don't
know. I think Dale Cruz issuber talented and if anyone can make that
adjustment over a sustained period of time, I'm sure he can. But that's
I don't know. I understand whatyou're saying though, about being aggressive in

(23:04):
the zone more than he he hasbeen. Yeah, or yeah, I
mean he Thyland, thank you somuch. There have been times this year,
early in the year, and it'sobviously we're still early. But if
I go back to the first weekor so, where I think he was
oh for his first eleven after beingdown two. Now, he had a

(23:26):
home run in Chicago in the firstgame of the White Sox series, and
I don't recall if the pitch hehit out of the ballpark was an O
two pitch, but he started thebat by falling behind OH two and then
watching some of those at bats,you're like, dude, Ellie, you're
falling behind oh two because you're takingstrikes. Now, if that's a natural

(23:48):
byproduct of him trying to be morepatient, you live with it. You
understand, Okay, he's gonna puthimself in the hole. So now let's
let's find that that sweet spot betweenbeing between being patient but also not letting
the pitcher just you know, getahead O two because you're not swinging like
Joey Vado. As great as hewas, there were times in the twenty

(24:10):
thirteen fourteen stretch where you kind offelt like early in the count pictures would
just throw it over the plate,knowing he's not going to swing. I
don't think we've ever gotten there withEllie de la Cruz, but I do
think since then, you've seen himbe a little a little more willing to
swing early it strikes and and capableof avoiding falling into the two hole.
He still strikes out thirty point sixpercent of the time, just to put

(24:34):
that in context, the league averagestwenty two point seven. But he's also
walking more frequently, and again,the four walks the other night this early
in the season really drastically skew thesample size, skew the numbers. He's
walking fourteen point one percent of thetime. Major league average is eight point
six and if Ellie de la Cruzis getting on via walk, we know

(24:56):
what he can do with his legs. More on Ellie, more on Hunter
coming up in just a bit.Let's spend some time on the draft,
which is Thursday. Eric Eager,Soomer Sports next doc with straight Talk,
You give and You Give. Itis thirteen away from four o'clock. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moweger NFLDraft Fast approaching Thursday, Round one.

(25:18):
We are broadcasting from the Holy Graildowntown. Eric Eager from Suomer Sports.
We've had Eric on I think twoor three other times this offseason. He
is always very insightful. We hadhim on I Guess about a month ago
to talk about his bullishness, hisbullishness a right word, his bullishness on
the Bengals with what they have donein free agency. I retweeted he did

(25:41):
a Bengals mock draft using the mockdraft tool that ESPN has and he's a
great follow on social media. SuomerSports show is outstanding and he's a great
guest, especially this time of year. Eric. What's going on, Moe.
It's good to hear your voice.Yes, it's the Holy Grails.
Great spot. That should be funfor Bengals fans. It's my favorite show

(26:04):
to host because it's the only showwe do where what you're talking about is
happening in real time. Everything elseis what we did the night before.
What's happening. The NFL Draft ishappening in real time. It's a great
venue in a great show, andI can't wait. Yeah, and everybody,
everybody's optimistic. It's the rare eventwhere every sports fan is enjoying it.

(26:26):
Yes that in schedule release night,everything else, there's pretty much someone
miserable. Your your mock draft.I tweeted it out. Folks can check
it out. You have them takinga Maria Sims. This is a player
who has often been mocked to Cincinnati. If he's the guy at eighteen,
how happy should we be? Ithink pretty happy. I think the Bengals.

(26:48):
Oh, you know, you knowDuke Tobin, you know said a
couple of months ago, the righttackle spot for the Bengals is going to
be, you know, a combinationof a veteran and a young person,
you know, young player Orlando.You know, they they had Trent Brown
there right and he's probably going toman that spot as long as he can.

(27:11):
And he played well last season.Uh you know, Orlando Brown play
okay last season, but he's thelong term answer at left tackle. But
this is always a team mo rightthat that they draft a year ahead of
time right there. You know,you look at their depth chart right now.
Their first round pick from last yearis not projected to start. Their
first round pick from two years agois not projected to start. You even

(27:33):
go all the way back to youknow, the the Marvin Lewis days,
all the way back to like theMike Zimmer DC days. You know,
Drake Kirkpatrick took a while, andthen you have the you know, some
of the failures, the Jake Fishersof the world and the Cedric Kuboies of
the world. Those guys were draftedand even though you know they didn't work
some of them, it wasn't acatastrophe for the Bengals because they were drafted

(27:56):
to to for the future and notto fill immediate need. And that's what
you know, that's what Mims woulddo, you know for this team.
Yeah. Also, you know theywere lucky last year they had the same
five offensive linemens start all seventeen games. That's probably not going to be the
case this year. Just doesn't workthat way. I don't love their backups,

(28:17):
so I just I need better backupsand if I could find one for
the short term in the first roundof the draft, I'm all in.
What was interesting to me about yourexercise is you had them taking three offensive
linemen within the first two days.They obviously have two third round picks.
Kind of walk me through that,because I think you'd have a lot of
people who would say, well,wait a minute early in this draft,
they need a defensive tackle and youdon't have them taking ones until late on

(28:41):
Saturday. Yeah, that was justkind of how the boards shook out.
And there's you know that is anissue, right, I mean, they
it has to shake out nicely.There aren't There are dtackles who I think
are going to be good players evenlater. Obvious you know the kid from
Texas Sweat. You know he hadhis issues off the field with the with

(29:04):
the dui that will drop him alittle bit. But there are other players
at that position where you know there'svalue a little bit later, and you
know when it comes to offensive lineman, I think that there's a ton of
value early nine and a half ten. Actually, if you look at the
jews on the in the sportsbooks,Keen projected offensive lineman going in round one,
and you know a few others thatI think are going to be good

(29:26):
players going earlier in day two.It falls off precipitously for lineman and almost
always has uh, you know,for defensive linemen, especially some of the
guys who are going to be lessyou know, everything everywhere all at once,
but more like you know one gaffers, guys you know who are going
to replace DJ Reader for example,you know types you know they're going to

(29:48):
be, you know, available later. Thinking about Travis Jones during the draft.
That also gave us Jordan Davis.Travis Jones is multiple rounds later than
Jordan Davis. But it's basically usas value. Your dog doesn't seem to
agree no, does not agree no, and yeah almost always seems to make

(30:11):
a yeah to make to make athing. Eric Eager from U suomer Sports.
By the way, go to Summersports dot com and you could download
their free twenty twenty four NFL RookieGuide, which is a terrific resource.
Getting back to round one. Now, obviously a lot of conversations here have
focused on taking an offensive lineman,specifically taking a right tackle. Mims is

(30:33):
a kid we have talked about alot. You will have folks who say
that's fine, but if Byron Murphy'sthere, you got to pull the trigger?
What do you say to that?I do think that there is some
some value in thinking about, youknow, Murphy being the best interior defensive
lineman. Newton actually I think isa little bit underrating the draft as well

(30:56):
the kids from Illinois. But asopposed to taking let's say the fifth or
sixth best offensive lineman, I thinkthat there is some value in that.
For sure. I think Murphy isclimbing up boards like I think that you
know, there are you know,I think that there was a pretty sharp
better who took fourteen to one onhim to be the first defensive player taken,

(31:17):
which would would certainly be a surprise. I think, given all that,
if you were to fall to eighteen, I know, you know that
Duke doesn't really you know, liketo trade up as much in the draft.
If he does fall to eighteen,that would be a value that I
think would be too good to passup to the Bengals, what if Boers
is there. I'm not a hugefan of taking tight end high. I
mean, Tyler Eifert was, youknow, a classic success story in that

(31:42):
realm, and I think Bengals fanswill will kind of you know, maybe
maybe twins and eyebrow at that becauseEifort had the kind of the one great
year in twenty fifteen, but wasmostly injured during his time with Cincinnati.
But it's just a position that's reallyhard to acclimate at the NFL. You
have to learn how to block,you have to learn how to catch the

(32:02):
physicality, the speed of the game. Both of those things are hard to
acclimate too when you are you know, when you're coming up at eighteen though,
when everybody's mocuum ten, that mightbe where I break a rule and
just say, look like this,this is the kid you bring in.
You have Gaseki as well, yetyou know, hopefully you don't make the

(32:23):
kid block too much. He mightbe the one exception in this particular offense,
especially considering this team lost Tyler Boyd. You know, I think our
box drafted Sumer on our website,sumer sports dot Com has them going with
Brian Thomas the LSU receiver. Ithink he's a good third option. This
team does need a third option inthe passing game, losing mixing and also

(32:49):
Boyd. I think that I thinkthat Bowers to me at eighteen is a
spot where if they took him,the historical hit rate is not high,
but I would I would not givethem any flatform. Eric Eager Sumer Sports
you mentioned wide receiver. They theythey are. I think I would be
stunned if if we get to lateFriday night and they haven't addressed that position.

(33:09):
There's the Tyler Boyd departure, There'swhat's likely to play out with te
Higgins and him not being a Bengalbeyond twenty twenty four. I would be
surprised that they took a wide receiveron Thursday, So it's probably gonna happen
on Friday. Who is the widereceiver on Friday? I should be most
hoping they can take Oh that's Ithink. Now this guy is probably gonna

(33:32):
fall and and he he does kindof remind me of of Higgins in some
you know, realistic ways, inthat his on field speed is much better
than his you know, his testingspeed. And that's Keon Coleman of Florida
State. Like, I think thathe is a player that can compliment what

(33:55):
Shakes does really well for this team. Now, now you know six four
two fifteen, he's only he's noteven twenty one years old yet, you
know, the forty time and allthat not gonna look great, but the
on field speed is quite good.I think he's gonna fall now. For
a lot of wide receivers, itjust takes one team. So I I
you know, Nikhil Harry for example, went a whole round ahead of DK

(34:20):
Metcalt so who knows that he'll bethere, But that's when I do like
I Also, you know one guythat I like a little bit a little
bit later is Malakai Corley out ofWestern Kentucky. I think that that offense
was very productive. He was abetter UH player in his second to last
year than his last year. He'snot quite as big, but but very
productive at Western Kentucky on offense.As you guys know kind of from that

(34:45):
you know in that in that kindof region throws the football lot. So
he's gotten a lot of a lotof reps there. So those are two
guys that I like there. UHand and Also, you know, this
is kind of a wild card becausehe's a six foot seven, two thirty
seven receiver. But Johnny Wilson outof Florida State, redshirt junior also very
interesting in this particular offense right whereyou know you're you had the kind of

(35:06):
every amazing all around player in Chaseand you're kind of looking for a bailout
player, which which Higgins has beenfor them forever. A guy that's six
foot seven that can move the waythat Johnny Wilson can is intriguing. Eric
Eager, suomer sports dot Com.He is terrific. I know you are
doing a lot of these this timeof year, so I do appreciate it.
By the way, your dogs seemto agree with that last take,

(35:28):
which is good, right. Itwas, Yeah, thank you, awesome
stuff. Man. I'm gonna botheryou after the draft. We'll talk about
what they did. I appreciate itas always anytime. Oh, have a
good one, you too, You'rethe best. Eric Eager. Sumer Sports
Show is outstanding and check out Sumersports dot com. They're free. Twenty

(35:51):
twenty four Rookie Guide is available.Download it now and you'll be better off
for it. Yeah. Our firstday is going to be a busy day.
So here there's what I want youto do, Okay, I want
you to just clear out all ofyour time on Thursday and join us at
the at Long Necks and Wilder broadcastingfrom there on Thursday afternoon from three to
six. Uh and if you can'tmake that, then come to the Holy

(36:15):
Grail and broadcasting from there. Tonyand I our portion of the draft show
will be from eight to ten onseven hundred WLW. So what you can
do is go to Long next andthen join me at the Grail. That's
the plug they wanted, uh,Long Next three to six, Holy Grail.
I'll be there with Tony from eightto ten. Lance and Rocky do

(36:36):
the first two hours, then Tonyand me and then the Chickster and ofufenelmore
uh five point three seven four ninefifteen thirty and eight six six seven oh
two three seven seven six. Ithink you know with the offensive line,
we we keep talking about a longterm right tackle solution, a long term
replacement for Jonah Williams and somebody thatcould maybe compete for a starting job and

(37:00):
play as soon as week one thisyear. What is not likely to happen.
And this is going to sound pessimistic. It just it reflects the statistical
probability of guys getting hurt. Lastyear, the Bengals were amazingly healthy on
the offensive line for all of theindividual games missed, for all the injury

(37:21):
issues they had, with the exceptionof Cody Ford having to play a handful
of snaps, they were remarkably healthyon the offensive line. That's probably not
going to repeat itself this year.So the good news is and Cody Ford
came in and played capably, buttheir depth wasn't tested. I know as
much today as I did a yearago about the backups on the offensive line.

(37:47):
I do believe had some of thosebackups had to play last year,
could have been quite rough. Sothey need some depth. They need some
better backups that could be addressed inthe draft as well. It's a four
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati SportsStation. This is Sports Centup. I'm

(38:15):
Christine Lyci question Mark surrounding a pairof seventy six Ers players for Game two
of their first round NBA playoff seriesagainst the Knicks Tonight seven Eastern ESPN Radio
center Joel Embiid left knee injury recoveryand point guard Tyrese Maxi with an illness,
both listed as questionable. Philly's downone game to none. Stanley Cup
playoffs maple leaves Ford William Nielander withan undisclosed injury game time decision Game two

(38:37):
against the Bruins Tonight's seven Eastern ESPN. That's followed by game one Golden Knights
Stars. It's a tough way fordefending champion Vegas to kick off its title
defense, notes ESPN. NHL analystPK Sue Ban Dallas, A keep team
hungry, Jamie Ben Tyler Sagan thewhole crew, Matt Musche Heiskinen at during

(38:58):
that these guys are poised to onemake a deep rutten. But you know
what, you want to beat thechaps. You gotta beat the chaps,
and Vegas has only gotten better,picking up Thomas Hurdle, Anthony Manta,
Noah Hannifit. On the back end, Golden Knights captain Mark Stone returns from
a lacerated spleen to play tonight.NFL Jets trading former number two overall pick
Zach Wilson and his seventh round pickto Denver for sixth rounder. Feeling great

(39:22):
starts with a great shave and greatshaves start with Barbisol shaving cream. That's
Barbisol's shaving cream, an American classicfor over one hundred years. Close Shave
America. Close Shaved Barbisol for theNFL Draft to Cincinnati Bengals select He's an

(39:44):
ESPN fifteen thirty Cruise Development Orange andBlack Draft profile. Choose Cruise presented by
Pellow, Windows, Indoors, GreaterCincinnati and Northern Kentin, Boxher Gas and
HOLMANRV dot Com Years Moegger with aname you need to know. With Tyler
Boyd hitting free agency, the Bengalscould use this year's draft to find a

(40:07):
replacement in the slot. One playerwho could fill that role as Michigan wide
out Roman Wilson. Wilson led lastyear's National champions in receiving, and he
was a second team All Big Tenplayer for the Wolverines. Wilson is a
sure handed pass catcher. He onlyhad one drop in sixty seven targets last
season, and he can be explosive, with more than a third of his

(40:28):
catches going for more than twenty yards. He also had twelve touchdown receptions last
season. He does have what scoutscall a smallish frame, and given that
he played almost entirely in the slotin college, there's likely a limit as
to how he can be used.Still, Wilson has a combination of speed
and reliability with his hands that makehim an intriguing prospect. Keep an eye

(40:50):
on Michigan wide receiver Roman Wilson hasmore listening for the next player profile on
ESPN fifteen thirty, the official homethe Bengals. This report sponsored that's us.
We are starting the hour two minuteslate because I am bad at clock
management. I'm oegar. This isESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you so much

(41:10):
for joining us. And at onepoint you wanted to help Zack Taylor with
Yeah, I wanted to help ZachTaylor with clock management, and yet I
am awful at it on my own. I would be better at managing the
clock for the Bengals than I ammanaging my own clock, though, right,
I think so one of these days. I'm My goal for twenty twenty

(41:31):
four is to have the perfect show. Now that that doesn't mean like when
I say perfect show, that doesn'tmean like I'm I'm gonna just have three
consecutive hours of coherent takes. Thatis impossible, or I'm going to have
just a bunch of opinions that areproven correct. No, no, no,
that the perfect show is I hitevery break right on time. Obviously

(41:54):
today's show, that's not gonna happen. I've already screwed it up. But
this year, Tarn, it's goingto happen. We're gonna have the perfect
show. And I have no ideawhat we're gonna do, what we're gonna
do to celebrate, Like, theperfect show doesn't mean I'm not gonna stumble
all over myself as I just didright there. Perfect show. Do you
think I'm capable of doing it?Yes, You're capable. But will you

(42:16):
Eh, we'll see, Nike.Maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow we are going to
aim for the perfect show where Ihit every single break correctly and right on
time. Tomorrow, no chance ofthat happening. That's true. Maybe this's
draft week. Maybe this isn't thegood week, a good week to probably
aim for a perfect show. Wewill see. Let's see women's basketball coach

(42:40):
at NKU, Jeff Hands, movesfrom Thomas Moore to NKU. He is
going to join us in just abouttwenty five minutes plus Brenneman and Jones on
baseball, and we have Stuart Fairchildbatting a lead off tonight. Also,
Frankie Montas is going on the fifteenday intered list with what is being diagnosed

(43:04):
as a right four arm contusion CaseyLegumina is up from Louisville, and so
at least an extra arm for them, I would imagine he is going to
be available tonight, an extra armfor a team that had to go into
this bullpen in the first inning yesterday, and bullpen was obviously terrific. But
Frankie Montos fifteen day injured lists,so that is basically three turns through the

(43:28):
rotation in that timeframe. I knowthey're off next Thursday, but it effectively
would tell you he's gonna miss atleast three starts, hopefully hopefully that's the
extent of it. I don't knowanybody who when we saw that, and
I it was actually in a ColumbusClippers baseball game yesterday. So I saw

(43:51):
the video on social media and myfirst thought was, Okay, that's that's
going to cost him his season.It doesn't feel like anybody believes that's going
to be the case. But thethe optimism of him maybe just missing one
start, that's also not the caseeither. Fifteen day injured list for Frankie
Montas not good, but relative towhat our worst fears were, it does

(44:16):
feel like it does feel like they'vedodged a bullet. But look, man,
this team, it's they're off toa twelve and nine start. They're
now gonna have to get by withouta guy. Frankie in his first two
starts was terrific. His two mostrecent starts prior to yesterday's he was the

(44:36):
exact opposite of terrific. But they'vedealt with with illness. They've dealt with
obviously, all the injuries that camedown late in spring training, plus the
suspension of Noelvee Marte, the startingstaff minus Brandon Williamson had gone largely unscathed.
That is now not the case.Gonna have to figure out a few
turns of the rotation without Frankie Montas. So we'll see. We'll see more

(44:59):
on that come up here in justa bit. Do we have the Aaron
Boone ejection from today's Yankees game.The Yankees opened up a series against the
Oakland a's today, A day gamein New York, a day game in
the Bronx on a Monday, andthe New York lost the game for what

(45:21):
it's worth, two nothing. Butthis game stood out and the reason I'm
bringing it up is Aaron Boone,the Yankees manager, was ejected by Hunter
Wendelstadt and at one o'clock. Thegame started at one o'clock. Attendance was
pretty sparse, and so because theballpark was largely empty, and because you

(45:45):
know, TV audio equipment is sogood these days, you could hear,
in very plain English, the audioof Aaron Boone losing his mind and after
he got ejected by Hunter Wendelstat.He was ejected in the first inning.

(46:05):
He was ejected after being told toshut up by Hunter Wendelstat and he did
shut up. And then a fanwho I guess was sitting behind the Yankee
dugout yelled something at the umpire.The cameras on the YES Network were focused
on Aaron Boone, who literally didn'tsay anything. But because the umpire,

(46:29):
Hunter Wendelstatt heard something that he thoughtcame from Aaron Boone, he kicked the
Yankees manager out of the game.Now, this audio, Tarren, you've
bleeped this correctly. Yes, allright, you're gonna hear a lot of
bleeps because there were a lot ofbad words that were not allowed to air
on these airwaves. So you're gonnahear a lot of bleeps. And then

(46:52):
I guess what the S network didis they just ducked the audio, like
they just at some point they justdecided, okay, we're airing this live.
We got to duck the audio,so they did. But uh,
give us the the bleeped version ofAaron Boone losing his mind understandably so for
being ejected when he didn't say anythingto the umpire who ejected him. Go
ahead and hit that. It's thefirst base umpire. You saw him making

(47:14):
that call. You're not yelling atme. I did when I best to
do it. Check, I fuckingyou got hit by the pit. You
got anything I have to say?You're gone? Hey, okay, Hunter,
you know we're not going to needa John Boy breakdown of that one.
We got a very clear there yougo. He now, Aaron saying
I didn't say anything. Aaron saying, hold on a second, I didn't

(47:37):
say a word. Wow, howdid not say anything? Okay, okay,

(47:59):
tarn, good job with the Sowhat you heard was five pitches into
the game, Aaron Boone was kickedout. Now he was initially a story.
Ruiz was hit on the back foot, a hit on his back foot
by a slider. Boone questioned whetherRuiz swung at the pitch, and Hunter

(48:22):
you heard him tell him like,hey, I checked, leave me alone,
and Aaron Boone then leaves him alone, and the cameras catching He's like
literally just he looked like he waslooking at his nails, standing there doing
nothing, and then a fan yellsat him, and Hunter wendelstaid, here's
it, and he thinks it's comingfrom Aaron Boone, so he kicks him
out of the game, which isridiculous. What I want to know is

(48:46):
what's the recourse for that, Like, it's pretty evident that the manager of
the New York Yankees didn't do anythingto warrant being like, it's not hard,
this isn't something you have to interpret. Watch the video once it's you

(49:08):
know, the game is now overright, and it's abundantly clear to the
umpires and to Major League Baseball,Like, can you imagine if that happened
to am like manager is getting kickedout? Who cares? They're managers,
right, Aaron Boone can still makedecisions, he just can't be in the
dugout. Uh. But can youimagine like a player getting thrown out,

(49:28):
like a player that fans come tosee, like if that's Aaron Judge or
locally here it's Elie de la Cruzand he gets thrown out because the umpire
thinks he heard something from the dugoutthat was actually yelled by a fan.
You imagine that. What I wantto know here is like what's what happens
to the umpire? Like that's that'sthe sort of thing I think that should

(49:52):
be punished. Now, the umpireshave a union. It's a really strong
union, which is why uh,certifiably bad umpires like Angel Hernandez still calls
games. But like, what somethingshould happen there? Right? You just
you kick somebody out who did nothingwrong. I mean, you get kicked

(50:16):
out. There is a fine that'slevied, hopefully that gets rescinded, but
you shouldn't be allowed to do that, correct, And like there are a
lot of a lot of criticisms ofumpires. I am anti replay. I
am anti robot OMPs. I dobelieve that games played by human beings should
be solely officiated and umpired by humanbeings. That toothpaste ain't being put back

(50:39):
in the tube, and that's fine. But my issue with umpires is it
feels like they are at times unnecessarilyconfrontational and that there are times looking for
a fight. Kind of felt tome like Hunter Wendelstatt was looking for a
fight. And again it's the managerof the team. The impact of the

(51:00):
manager being in the dugout versus notbeing in the dugout is not that big,
but oh boy, you're now kickingpeople out for things that are yelled
by fans, So there should besomething that happens. I don't know within
the agreement that exists between players orbetween the umpires and Major League Baseball if

(51:22):
there's room four or the rules allowfor an umpire to be punished for kicking
somebody out who clearly did not deserveit. But right there you had an
umpire kickout a manager who clearly didn'tdeserve it. That goes unpunished. Eighteen
minutes after four o'clock. More ofyour phone calls are welcome. Five one,
three, seven four nine, fifteenthirty eight six six seven oh two

(51:44):
three seven seven six. You cansend a tweet our Twitter feed, a
service of Delta Dental. Delta Dentalis building healthy, smart, vibrant communities
for all good at Delta Dental.Ohh dot com. Uh new women's basketball
coach at Nkujeff Hans is going tojoin US. UC's baseball team is killing
it. Jordan Bishl's the coach.He is going to join us in just

(52:05):
about an hour. We are lookingforward to that. Zach Taylor talked today.
Will have some of that for youas well on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station. It's twenty fourafter four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty on my Leger. Paul Taynerjitters tomorrow on Tuesdays. Lots of draft

(52:29):
conversation, content, hypotheticals, differentthings we'll discuss. He did a podcast
today with a mock drafted. Notenough of those, so go watch that,
then listen to Paul with us tomorrowat three five. We had something
else and I lost it because I'ma disorganized mess. So instead we'll talk

(52:50):
to Mike Hi. Mike Hi,Mo, how's it going how was your
weekend, Cowboy? My weekend wasunbelievable. How about yours? Pretty good?
Although I hate it? I hateit on the NBA? Boy,
did I eat cake? On theNBA? Wells just getting underway, and
so there's plenty of time to makethat money back, Yeah, there is.

(53:12):
I just I got shoot, youknow, thinking that the Lakers could
could pull it off. And andyou know I did that because I listened
to TJ. Housman's and the NFLplayer break down the Lakers Friday and tell
me how he thought they were gonnabe able to sneaks up on the Joker,
And I knew better. Nobody sneaksup on the Joker. He's too

(53:37):
big. You can't sneak up ona guy that big. Every every single,
every single one of those games theNuggets and Lakers play against against each
other, they take on a veryfamiliar feel, right like La builds a
big lead, Denver wins the game. That's what happened on Saturday night.
Yeah, and so I think you'reonto something here. So thanks for the

(53:57):
research. Hey you said, Zach, I have a funny feeling though that
Zach Wilson, White Stick cl andver I just think he was too much
of a almost a small town Utahtype kid or whatever, and that New
York was just too distracting fro him. I just had a good feeling about
him in Denver, m Maybe Idon't know. I didn't see anything in

(54:23):
New York that would make me lookI certainly believe that there's some validity to
the idea that Sean Payton could geta little bit more out of him.
But what I saw in New York, you know, and he angered a
lot of people where you know,late in the season, they wanted him
to be ready to play, andhe didn't want to play. That's certainly

(54:44):
not going to help. And likeyou could understand a player being disaffected with
the way a season is unfolding.But it just nothing that I saw from
him while in New York would suggestto me that that guy is capable of
being a quarterback that you could buildaround. To imagine that a guy seems
seemed to that arm seems so goodat DYU. Anyway, I was looking

(55:07):
at this defensive tackle scenario for theBengals and and I came up with a
stat It says drafting a defensive linemanin the fourth round in the fourth round
has the highest success rates of allpositions at thirty seven percent. What what?

(55:30):
What? What defined? What definessuccess? All pro status in this
particular context, I would I wouldhave to look that up, but I
mean, I guess I don't knowwhat. It was from a website called
Arrowhead Pride dot com. Okay,but it's not like really pro Kansas City

(55:54):
or anything. I just thought itwas interesting because we're talking about Murphy and
then we're like, well, afterMurphy, there's nothing left forget about it.
There can't be another guy in therethat can play. Well, that's
what it sounds like, doesn't sure. I don't know if it's that,
though. I think what it iswith Byron Murphy is this guy is good

(56:15):
enough to veer away from taking aplayer at another position they have to address.
Like I think we would all bestunned if they don't select a defensive
tackle, and maybe more than onein this draft. They have ten picks,
right, But the Byron Murphy conversationisn't so much about they're not being
other defensive tackles. It's he's goodand productive enough that you would be willing

(56:42):
to take him instead of a playerat on the offensive line, where they
obviously want to start building the offensiveline for the future. And so I
think the Byron Murphy conversation is aboutthe either or they need a defensive tackle.
There are others they could take.Is this guy good enough that you
would pick him instead of a tacklethat you have graded as also being worth

(57:07):
using the eighteenth overall pick on?And I think that's also where the brock
Bowers conversation comes in, right,So you can say, well, the
Bengals really don't value tight ends thatmuch. There's something to be said about
that argument. I think it getsthrown out there a little bit too loosely
sometimes, but look to have mikeYASICKI. First round tight ends, for
the most part, typically don't work. But God, this guy's viewed as

(57:28):
a top ten prospect. You gethim at eighteen. Is he good enough?
Is he valuable enough? Is hegoing to be productive enough that you're
now willing to say we'll hold offon a defensive tackle and we'll hold off
on a right tackle until later Andthat I think in a different context,
that's where the Byron Murphy conversation ishe's good enough that you're willing to pass

(57:50):
on taking a tackle, even thoughyou want to take a tackle in this
draft and need lineman to back upin the short term and be long term
solutions. I think that's the keyto this observation. It's what you talked
about with just that depth on theoffensive line, because, like you said
last year, to go all yearthat a significant injury on that offense,

(58:12):
that's very unusual. And so you'reright, it's probably somebody's gonna go down
this year. And and they dohave to have some depths because I can't
tell you any offensive lineman right now. The second stringers, I can't even
tell you they are well, youknow, Cody fod did play a little
bit last year, but it's youknow, it's it's it's Jackson Carmen.
Do we believe in Do we believein Jackson Carton? Right? I mean,

(58:35):
are you are you comfortable if ifJackson Carmen has to play? Uh?
Max Sharping was was on the teamlast year. It's uh. And
you know, Zach Taylor talked aboutthis today as well. In the era
where you can now carry eight offensivelinemen, you you you don't necessarily need
somebody who could play multiple positions wherewhen you were on game day carrying seven,
you kind of needed somebody who couldplay both guarden center, or ideally

(58:58):
somebody who could play both tackle andguard. I think that's that's less important
now. But yeah, I meanlast year, if they had to play
any of their backups, we didn'tfeel very good about that. You feel
good about the same collection of guys, and I think we have to talk
about that as much as we talkabout guys stepping in and starting a long
term Mike, I got a run, man, Thank you. I know
you do. Hey, Mo,We've got to give a little credit to

(59:20):
these guardians. They're the stunning teamin the mam LB this year. Gotta
admit it. At thirteen point fivepercent of the season. Thanks buddy,
all right, Mike, thank you. NKU has a new women's basketball coach,
A national championship winning women's basketball coach. Jeff Hans won huge at Thomas
Moore. Can he win big inHighland Heights. We'll find out. We'll
chat with him next. It istwenty three away from five o'clock. This

(59:45):
is ESPN fifteen thirty on Bleger NorthernKentucky University as a new women's head basketball
coach, and quite again, JeffHand's time at Thomas Moore was incredible.
Won nearly ninety percent one of hisgames, multiple national championships, eight conference
tournament titles, eleven tournament berths,three time National Coach of the Year.

(01:00:08):
Takes an unbelievable resume to Highland Heightsto take over the NKU women's basketball program,
and I'm sure on what's been abig day for him kind enough to
give us a few minutes to talkabout the job change. Normally, when
a new coach gets hired, wesay something like welcome to the greater Cincinnati
area. We don't have to dothat here. Nonetheless, congrats, thanks

(01:00:29):
moo, I appreciate it. Whatattracted you about this opportunity? The opportunity
to be here at KU and nothave to move kind of like what you're
talking about there in the opening wasa big thing. So I was here
before with coach Winstel as an assistantcoach from two thousand and eight to twenty

(01:00:51):
eleven, and just that opportunity thepeople here at NORYK Tuck University, through
the administration, the area, theopportunity to make this place into a contender
year and a year out in theHorizon League is something I think that we
can do and looking forward to thatchallenge. It's a challenge, and it's
a challenge. Any job is achallenge. The timing of this right,

(01:01:14):
it's late April. Typically coaching changeshappened much earlier. Just the way the
process unfolded. The timing is,I guess one might argue less than ideal.
Kind of walk me through the specificchallenges just related to getting hired kind
of late in the process. Yeah, it is because the timing because we
don't have two weeks left the schoolhere, so we can't do any workouts

(01:01:37):
with our players here this year.We got wait till summer, so not
being able to get out there andget to know them work with them on
the court a little bit in thespring will set us back going forward.
But also the recruiting piece with thetransfer portal and trying to bring in more
players to hear to help us rebuildthis. You know, we're just behind

(01:01:58):
a little bit, but it's stilla poor I mean, you hear it
all the time you deal with sports. You see it, you go that
you see in those games, andI mean there's all kinds of players out
there, so we'll try to seewhat we can do to make sure the
roster is full and ready to gocome November. Yeah, you know that
the word whirlwind is often used whena coach at any level uh takes over.
I can't imagine for for you specificallywhat the next just a few weeks

(01:02:22):
are gonna have to be. LikeI guess the good news is you don't
have to move, but still it'sgoing to be really busy and really different
it is MO and we have toget a staff put together, get those
uh, those guys in here sothat we're ready for June, to make
sure that they are helpless, toput us in positions to be successful,
uh, to finish out the roster, you know, and then make sure

(01:02:44):
we finished finish out our current players, finish out the academic you're strong,
so that we're ready for May recruitingevaluation weekend and then also summer workouts some
June and and ready to start puttingin our system. And you know,
we're really work on the chemistry partof it. That's that's a big piece
for us. You mentioned working forcoach Winstell and such a huge figure in

(01:03:07):
the history of n k U athletics, there aren't that many that that loom
larger than coach Winstall. Give usan idea of some of the things you
learned from her while working for alot of philosophies from x's and o's,
some things to run, how todefend, and but a lot of a
lot of how to talk to playersand run a program. You know,

(01:03:30):
how you treat everybody from custodians,janitors to administration and making sure that you're
you're with everybody and everybody feels likea little piece of family to you.
Uh, you leave a place andto say that you left an indelible mark,
and Thomas Moore would be an understatement. It's a it's a program that

(01:03:50):
you you didn't just win, youushered him into two different higher levels of
intercollegiate athletics. Kind of take usthrough the decision to leave a place that
I know you love working at.It was a tough decision to leave Thomas
Moore with everything we've done for thirteenyears there. And you know I talked
about the people here at at NOIKentucky University the same as has said about

(01:04:13):
the administration. Terry Conner, JeffHetzer, the athletic administration at Thomas Moore
and the respect and love that Ihave for those guys and what they allowed
us to do on a women's basketballfront there and to be successful. It
wasn't easy by any means. Andyou know they'll they'll get somebody in there
and do very well and continue thatthat tradition, probably better than what I

(01:04:35):
did, which is what I hope, and so that they can leave their
mark. But you know, it'sjust this opportunity here, you just one
you can't pass up if you havethe chance to take it. And I
just felt like it was the righttime. What is it like working in
women's college basketball when the sport isat its peak of popularity? It's great

(01:04:58):
right now? It is great.You know, the every thank you saw
during the Insaway Tournament was pure thegame and how it's played. The stars
that you have there, you know, they translate and and then you see
what happens with Caitlyn Clark going toIndiana fever and selling out her jerseys like
overnight. You know, it's justmaybe we can try to be a small

(01:05:21):
part of that here at NKU andbuild for the future. Yeah, I
certainly hope. So I know youhave a lot going on, so I
do appreciate you joining us. Congratulationsand hopefully we can chat again before the
season begins. Thank you so much. Thanks Ma, I appreciate your time
anytime. Jeff Hans, the newwomen's basketball coach at NKU, after a

(01:05:44):
remarkable run at Thomas Moore, takesover in Highland Heights. It is seventeen
away from five o'clock. Brenivan andJones on baseball is coming up. Also,
the baseball coach at you see JordanBischel. This is a team having
a very good season in a yearone of the Big twelve will chat with
him coming up at five twenty.More phone calls are welcome. Five one,

(01:06:04):
three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty. Ellie Dela Cruz
was awesome this weekend the Reds beata bad team three straight. Now the
hard work of well running through thenext few weeks begins, starting with the
Philadelphia Phillies tonight. Stuart Fairchild's battinglead off. I don't know, I

(01:06:28):
don't know. I mean like Idon't know, I don't I know what
to say about that? Then,Stuart Fairchild, and it's it's reflective of
where the roster is and illness andwho they I mean, I get it,
but wow, Stuart Fairchild's best EllieDela Cruz, I'm I think if
there's if there are If there's anythingwe've established on this show over the years,

(01:06:50):
it's that I don't spend as muchtime growsing about the lineup or where
guys hit in the batting order.But like Ellie Dela Cruz is having a
very good seat, he's batting sixth. The protection is going to be Santiago
Espinal. That's the guy who's goingto be protecting Ellie Dela Cruz. Like
what's It's It's basic math, right, The earlier you hit in the order,

(01:07:14):
the more likely you are to cometo the plate four or five times.
Right over the course of a season, Over the course of a game,
these top three hitters hit more frequentlythan the hitters in the lower half.
If you will, of a battingorder, why would be why would
anybody right now be opposed to EllieDela Cruz batting as much as possible and

(01:07:39):
they're hitting them sixth. Like I'ma David Bell. Dave Bell's good manager
man, So I just don't wantto take gratuita shots at David Bell,
I asked him, understand the battingorder is it's a reflection of a collaborative
effort. Ellie Dela Cruz is battingsixth somebody make that make sense. On

(01:08:01):
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station whenit come injured list because he took a
comebacker. A comebacker I don't reallythink does a justice. It was more
just a line drive. Right,it took one off his elbow. The
official diagnosis is right for arm contusionfor Frankie Monta, So he's gonna miss

(01:08:24):
at least a few starts. RightyCasey Legomina up from Louisville to take his
roster spot. Hunter Green gets theball tonight. I need I need six.
I need six from Hunter. DavidBell needs six. The read's bullpen
needs six. I think in thisday and age, it feels like there
are very few things we could agreeon, right. I mean, you

(01:08:47):
can find folks who when it's aseventy nine sunny day and seventy nine degree
sunny day and you say it's anice day out, they'll say, it's
not like. There are very fewthings in this day and age that I
think. Monoculture is very few thingswe can all agree on, but I'm
going to say something at five ohfive that I think we will all agree
is the correct take. I willget universal agreement with what I'm going to

(01:09:13):
say at five oh five the firsttime in the history of maybe sports talk
radio. But first Brendan to Joneson baseball Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic
from the UC Health Traffic Center.Regular screenings are key for early cancer detection,
especially for brest lung and corectal cancers. Schedule yours now at the University

(01:09:33):
of Cincinnati Cancer Center called five onethree, five eighty five UCCC today James
E. Sau Senior Drive block dueto down wires between Curlis Lane and half
Acre Road. And there's a fewaccidents in your way seventy five South near
Seventh Street, Paddock Road, northof Norwood Lateral Expressway and Tri County Parkway
at Northland Boulevard. I'm John Crawfordwith traffic. This report to Nattie's sports

(01:09:55):
station, ESPN fifteen thirty. Alot of sound effects there. What's up,
good afternoon, I'll my he here. Yeah, this is ESPN fifteen
thirty. Thank you for joining us. Hope you had a great weekend.
Hope you're having a very good Monday. Just hope life is treating you well.

(01:10:15):
I'm gonna make sports talk radio historyin just a few minutes. We're
gonna I'm gonna do something that maybehas never been done in the history of
sports talk radio. I think Ithink we're about to make history just a
few minutes away. We also havethe UC baseball coach you see, came
this close to sweeping Houston over theweekend. The Bearcats are nine and nine

(01:10:36):
in the Big Twelve, twenty threeand eighteen overall in their first season as
Big Twelve members, with first yearhead coach Jordan Bishell. He is going
to join us for a few minutescoming up at five twenty. The Reds
news today is not great. SoFrankie Montas takes the line drive off his
elbow yesterday. All of us understandablyso default two worst case right, default

(01:11:01):
to thinking this is gonna be bad. He exits, He leaves, They
do X rays their negative. That'sgood. After the game, talking with
reporters, he mentions, yeah,I think I'll have to miss a start.
Okay, Well, that's the sortof thing that shouldn't require a stint
if you will on the injured list. Unfortunately, well, the news isn't

(01:11:26):
great. He's got to go onthe injured list now fifteen days, which
would suggest three starts. The thirdone he would miss would basically if he
came back within that timeframe fifteen days, came back after the fifteen it's essentially
like moving the last start back.But he's going to miss at least two
technically three, I guess h.But this is now going to be another

(01:11:50):
thing that we pay attention to overthe next couple of weeks. Now at
phase value, can you be withoutFrankie Montas for a couple of starts,
Yes, especially if it's the Frankiewho pitched poorly in the previous two starts
prior to yesterday. But it isjust another thing to watch and pay attention
to. And for all of theinjury issues the Reds have dealt with,

(01:12:12):
for all of the illness issues theReds have dealt with, the starting staff
has largely gone unscathed. Obviously thatis no longer the case with Frankie having
to miss some time. So thereyou go. There's the news. The
lineup is out Reds and Phillies tonight. By the way, no, Bryce
Harper. He is on the paternitylist, which means he has to miss

(01:12:33):
anywhere from one to three games.It's a four game series, and so
you would expect to see him forPhiladelphia on Thursday. Nothing but the best,
Bryce Harper. I would encourage himto take his time and get everything
settled and not feel rushed to comeback. And so the Reds, already
playing a very formidable Philly lineup,will at least play tonight and most likely

(01:12:55):
I guess the next two without BryceHarper in the lineup. So good for
Bryce Harper. It's it's the sortof absence you can root for. I
got a root for injuries, butan absence for this. Yeah, Bryce,
take your time coming back. Avery good weekend for the Reds.
The schedule gave them the Anaheim Angels, or I guess they're the Los Angeles
Angels of Anaheim. I don't know. The schedule gave them the Angels,

(01:13:17):
and the Reds took advantage, andthey've been really good against bad teams.
Kicked the hell out of the WhiteSox last weekend, beat the Angels this
weekend. Three straight. Now agauntlet now a what's the word that Tony
and Austin came up with, Iforget already crucible. The schedule gets really

(01:13:40):
tough, starting with a Philadelphia teamthat the Reds did take two out of
three from in Philadelphia just a coupleof weeks ago. You know, I
think people are gonna make too muchof we'll hear the next thirty eight games.
The good news is they've insulated themselvesa little bit by not getting off
to a bad start. They're twelveand nine. They've avoided the bad start
that we always talk about. Whatthis weekend was about to me was,

(01:14:03):
first of all, you're going toget swept in series. You're gonna lose
three games in a row. You'regonna lose four games in a row.
You can't have those. You can'thave those just season torpedoing seven eight,
nine game losing streaks. They avoidedthat this week. They avoided that because
of a very good start by NickLodolo on Friday, some unbelievably good bullpen

(01:14:25):
work, not just yesterday, butover the course of the weekend, fifteen
shutout innings by the bullpen, sometimely hitting Tyler Stevenson with a grand Slam
and Ellie Dela Cruz all weekend long, just continuing to do Ellie Dela Cruze
things, stealing a run with hisspeed on Friday, hitting the home run,
walking four times on Saturday, whichis something I never thought i'd see

(01:14:46):
him do. He's just a guywho's off to a very good start this
season. It's maybe too early tostart talking about who's going to be in
the All Star Game, but ifyou believed as many did that the it's
most likely all Star was Ellie DelaCruz before the season, you should feel
pretty good right now. That doesn'tmean the Reds are only going to have
one All Star, but he's havingan all Star caliber season. I want

(01:15:10):
to know. You know, it'sa fun thing to do on social media
when Ellie does something to help theteam, or he hits a home runner,
has a big game, or doessomething insane on defense like he did
in Seattle last week when he traveledabout a thousand feet to go catch a
ball on the left field foul line. Folks will mention those who two weeks
ago, three weeks ago, wantedthe Reds to send Ellie Dela Cruz to

(01:15:31):
Louisville or to a ball or benchhim and like, I'll admit, there's
kind of a short shelf life forsuch stuff. But there was this like
tiny stretch of time within the firstbut guess week of the season where Ellie
had the bad game in Philadelphia wherehe had a couple of defensive miscues,

(01:15:51):
one I think was clearly effort related. And then he had a few days
later the at bad against the Metswhere he struck out looking the bases loaded
in the seventh inning of a closegame. And so you know, then
you know the the proverbial stock,the imaginary stock that we always talk about,
Like a lot of folks were sellingtheir Eli Delacruz stock. How many

(01:16:14):
of you have called your broker totry to buy it back? There are
those like me who never We nevernever sold the stock. I even said,
I'll take your Eli Delacruz stock.I'll load up on it. I
will. I'll buy as much asyou'll sell me. Well, I feel
pretty good about holding onto my ElliDelacruz stock. Have you reached out to
your broker to go buy back yourEli Delacruz stock And have you deleted if

(01:16:39):
you went on Facebook or Twitter orsomething and said some things about how Ellie
was overrated or bust or you weredone with Ellie? Have you have you
deleted those things or have you savedthem for posterity? That's what I want
to know. Five one, three, fifteen thirty. Hunter Green gets the
ball tonight. I'm gonna make sportstalk radio history right now, Are you

(01:17:02):
ready? I am going to saysomething that one hundred percent of my audience
will agree with. This never happensright in the history of talk radio,
in the history of sports talk radio. I don't think a host has ever
said something that one hundred percent ofhis or her audience would not along with.

(01:17:27):
But it's about to happen right now. Are you ready? Here it
is. It would be awesome ifHunter Green could consistently give the Reds six
good innings. You're nodding along rightnow, like there are a lot of

(01:17:49):
times you might be listening to meor whoever and someone says something and you
kind of you might even look atyour radio with that weird face like huh,
No one's doing that right now.One hundred percent of my audience,
right now you are listening. Thankyou, And perhaps for the first time
ever, I've said something that youagree with or that makes sense. It

(01:18:11):
would be awesome if Hunter Green couldconsistently give the red six good innings.
I didn't say six no hit innings. I didn't say six shutout innings.
I didn't say nine innings. Hell, I didn't even say seven six good
innings. Is Is that a controversialtake? Is that an off base take?

(01:18:39):
I don't think so. Hunter ispitching tonight, the Reds bullpen was
taxed. You get a little reliefwith legamina getting called up, but they
had to go to the bullpen inthe first inning yesterday, They had to
go to it in the sixth inningon Saturday. This bullpen, I think
can be a strength of this team. I think David Bell could take advantage

(01:18:59):
of a bonafide weapon with his leadeningrelief. But the starting pitching has to
help make that happen. So ona night after, bizarre circumstances, unfortunate
circumstances meant the starting pitcher had toleave in the first inning and you had
to turn things over to Brent sudterincompany with two outs in the first The
day after, be kind of coolif your starting pitcher could give you some

(01:19:24):
length. We have talked a lotabout Hunter Green and his upside versus what
he sometimes doesn't do. Last starthe had against Seattle was a very mixed
bag. It was kind of thethe epitome of the Hunter Green experience.
Four innings, only gave up arun, struck out some guys, truck

(01:19:45):
out some guys in big situations,but ninety eight pitches through four. I
know we talk about starting pitchers differentlythan we used to. Nobody expects the
starting pitcher to go nine innings.I don't think beyond dudes like Max Sures
are in just Verlander. I don'tknow that there's a starting pitcher who's who
takes the mound, who wakes upon the morning of a start thinking tonight,

(01:20:05):
I'm going nine. So that's that'snot the metrik. I'm looking for
six. I'm looking for six inningson a very consistent, reliable basis.
Is that too much to ask?Hunter Green has made fifty starts. By
the way, I'll buy all theHunter Green stock too, I'm I will.

(01:20:28):
If we're doing the whole fake stockgame, you want to sell your
Hunter Green stock man, I willbuy it. I'll buy stock. And
the guy who leads baseball in strikeoutsPart nine innings, But at some point
they're gonna need him to give thema consistent number of innings more or less
every start. In his first fiftystarts, Hunter Green has gotten through six

(01:20:53):
nineteen times, So thirty eight percentof the time Hunter Green gives them six.
That's not good enough. Basically,two out of every three starts he
doesn't get you through six doesn't getyou eighteen outs. So as we talk
about his upside and what's next andwhat he takes a step forward, and

(01:21:15):
is he ever going to realize hismassive potential in the people who still mention
his contract, which I still franklydon't understand, let's just start with that.
On a consistent basis, could Iget two out of every three starts
he gets eighteen outs? Could certainlyuse it tonight. But I did it
for the first time in sports talkradio history a host has said something that

(01:21:36):
one one hundred percent of the audienceat least should agree with. It'd be
great if Hunter Green can give themsix innings on a consistent basis, including
tonight. Your phone calls are comingup. I promise five point three,
seven, four, nine, fifteenthirty and eight six, six seven oh
two three seven seven six. Usee baseball is forty one games into its

(01:21:58):
season. You're one of the BigTwelve. You're one of the Jordan Bischel
Era, the head coach of theBearcats, joins us next since nat it
is twenty one minutes after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Mowegger.
The University of Cincinnati baseball team overthe weekend took two out of three
from Houston. The Bearcats are noweven up in Big Twelve play at nine

(01:22:18):
and nine. They are twenty threeand eighteen in their first season as members
of the Big Twelve, and inthe first season under head coach Jordan Bischell,
who's kind enough on an off dayto give us a few minutes.
It's good to have you coach,especially in season. What's going on.
Nothing, we're getting spring on us. We're pretty deep into our season.

(01:22:40):
If it's been exciting first year inthe Big Twelve, I really appreciate you
having me on. You were werekind enough right before the season began.
You let me come up to youroffice and I did an interview with you
and we ran it here. Andyou know it's before the season it's year
one for you here, it's yearone of the Big Twelve. The unknowns
outweighed the knowns. What have youcome to know about this club? Yeah,

(01:23:00):
I mean, I've been really reallyhappy with how we've improved throughout the
season. Our non conference schedules certainlyhad some good opponents, but we didn't
have, you know, a reallythick, deep schedule because we knew a
lot of change, a lot ofadjustment, and we just kind of maybe
played okay sure that the first fewweeks and jumping into Big Twelve, play
little unknown what to expect again knownit's a great league. And what I've

(01:23:25):
been really happy with is on aweekly basis, we've been really competitive.
We've obviausly won a number of ballgames, but more than anything, again,
I've just seen us improve a lot. We seem like so much better
baseball team than we were in themiddle of February, and that's exciting to
see. Where where has that improvementcome from? Where it stands out the
most, you know, I thinkit's our pitching has had some nice jumps.

(01:23:47):
We knew it was really really anexperience there, and we're starting to
see the hands on experience improve butI think more than anything, it's it's
just the style of baseball starting toreally run the bases the way we want
to, have consistent hitting approaches theway we want to. We really hadn't
had any real come from behind victory'snot really trusting ourselves. And over the

(01:24:08):
weekend we were down for to nothingback to back games and came back and
one and both. So not somuch one specific area, but more just
kind of that culturally and stylistically,just just the depth of the buy in
and excitement to do it has beenfun to see. And obviously you weren't
here. The American Athletic Conference wasa good baseball league. How would you

(01:24:28):
describe the leap though, from thatlevel to the level of play that you
get on a consistent basis in theBig twelve. Yeah, and the American
is it's a very good lead.You're going to have, you know,
a couple of teams every year thatare plenty good to play in the NCAA
tournament and really no bad programs.But what's been really interesting with this league.
I think Houston is a great example. Houston last year finished second in

(01:24:53):
the America and they won every oneof their conference series, and now they're
in last in the Big twelve andthat's not an indictment a few and when
we played them this weekend, itwas a very talented team that's just lost
a lot of close games. Andthe challenge is everybody is good. There's
just you don't have a weekend whereyou say, man, they've got some
holes on the roster. Every teamis is a legitimately kind of a top

(01:25:16):
hundred program out of the three hundredin the country. And so there's just
there's no breaks. And that's that'sthe biggest thing. And then then the
top teams are they're legit top twentyfive programs, and so the depth of
the league is, to me,what's so impressive. There's just no breaks.
Jordan Bishell is with US, headcoach of the UC baseball team.
The Bearcats are on the road thisweekend at UCF They will be home the

(01:25:38):
first weekend of May. They havea two home series left. Obviously,
the weather is maybe this weekend,notwithstanding starting to turn for the better,
so a good chance to go watchthe Bearcats on the third, fourth,
and fifth of May, and thenlater on in the month of May as
well. Uh I Love following playersfrom Cincinnati. Your program has a bunch
when I when I look at theteam and I look at the numbers,

(01:26:00):
the thing that stands out more tome than anything is you have a freshman,
Carson Carson Mars from Mohler High Schoolwho leads your team in appearances.
How much trust? How hard isit to trust a freshman at pitching that
many games within such a tight amountof time. Yeah, Carson has been
really impressive for us. He's akid who just had an okay fall for

(01:26:20):
us. We thought there was someupside. He was going to help us
down the road, but kind oflack of experience and depth and a couple
of injuries opened it to her forsome opportunity. It turned out an opening
day for us. We were ina TI game in the ninth inning and
his number got called. He gaveup a walk off home run in his
first career appearance. But it's thatexperience that he's learning from and what's been

(01:26:42):
so impressive with him. If youcheck the stats that he just does not
walk anybody. There's really no figureout there. He's throwing a ton of
strikes attacking hitters, and a lotof those appearances earlier were more non conference
games, maybe middle of the game. But Saturday he came out of the
bullpen in a tie game and throughthree scoreless inning and gave us a win
out of the pen when we cameback and rallied late. And that for

(01:27:03):
a freshman who, you know,probably two months ago thought oh, I'll
just get a few innings midweek whatever. It's pretty cool to see him just
continuing to get better. Definitely areally cool local story. I'm interested in
your take on this because at thehighest levels of the sport there's a lot
of talk of why we have somany arm injuries and the role of at

(01:27:24):
the highest level to pitch clock,and then you hear folks who say,
look, there's too much of anemphasis on velocity. I'm curious from your
standpoint, where you're recruiting high schoolkids and you're coaching college kids at the
amateur level, what do you sayto those who say there's too much of
a focus on velocity. I thinkthey're probably right. Obviously, velocity matters.

(01:27:45):
It's harder to hit ninety five thanit is ninety, and it's harder
to hit ninety than there is eightyfive, and it is crazy the velocity
we are now seeing. I mean, we must have seen seven different pitchers
over the weekend that got it upto ninety four ninety five. And as
a team that's struggling in our league, like it's it's one week after the
next, but we're also seeing alot of opponents where they have score or

(01:28:09):
three really quality arms on the shelf, and I'm not criticizing what they're doing
or how they're developing. I thinka lot of these things are probably started
before we get our hands on them. But we really try to develop our
velocity count of organically, not spendinga lot of time with the radar gun,
but just talking about quality throwing progressionsand quality away from time and eating
the right things and developing your bodyand hoping the jumps come that way,

(01:28:32):
because there's nothing that can really crippleyour season more than unavailable pitchers. But
if you know, I think you'reseeing less and less guys I really know
how to pitch. And Carson isa guy that we just talked about that's
kind of the opposite. Now he'sninety one ninety two, that's pretty good
on for a freshman, but hecommands the baseball and I think that's that's
kind of our path as a programis let's find guys that may not jump

(01:28:55):
off the page in terms of stuff, but can really pitch. But certainly
it is a little bit scary thenumber of pitchers that are going under the
knife and definitely something we got tolook to correct a little bit. You
hear that term all the time,learning how to pitch for a dumb guy
like me. Walk me through thatprocess. What does that look like.
I've been trying to figure that outfor some years now too, so don't

(01:29:15):
feel like I mean to me,it's how do you throw with a high
level of intent, but really stillworry about how I command the baseball and
how do I treat you know,a two run lead with nobody on base,
or a tie game in the ninthwith the bases loaded. Being able
to breathe and have a good mentalitywhere you have the same effort level and
not trying to do too much whenyou have success, not losing focus and

(01:29:40):
overthrow. I mean, there's somany layers to that. Obviously, being
able to mix different pitches, pitchto both sides of the plate, but
so much of pitching is between theyears, like if you think about trying
to throw a baseball into you know, a four inch by four inch square
six inch by six inch square,which is what it requires to be successful
at this level, and to dothat with super high intent really difficult.

(01:30:01):
So if your head's off by evena little bit, right, the ball
is not going to come out thesame every time. And so kind of
get guys to really have that mentalprocess of blow the game down and just
execute the pitch. Worry about whereyou're throwing it, not what the result
was the umpire's call, was theball hit hard? Did we make an
air? Or how's the crowd here? And you name it? I mean
that's the big challenge is how doyou slow all that down? It sounds

(01:30:25):
really easy, but obviously it's not. No it Well, put Jordan Vishion
with us. The baseball coach atthe University of Cincinnati. The Bearcats off
until a weekend series at UCF.It starts on Friday. This this is
also probably a dumb question, butwhen you have a slew of off days
in season, what you're obviously workingout, but do you scrimmage? What

(01:30:46):
are those those quote off days lookinglike? Yeah, and a typical week
for us, we'll play Friday,Saturday, Sunday and then play one,
if not two games during the week. You know, we always give our
guys one day off per week,and then that was today, and so
usually we only have a couple ofpractice days. But this few weeks unique
because it's actually our finals week,so we're really light in the load.
Let them get on top of theclassroom stuff, and then when it comes

(01:31:09):
to kind of Tuesday Wednesday, we'llwe probably won't do much inner squad because
we're forty plus games into the seasonand getting them off their feet a little
might be might be valuable, butit'll be a good chance for us.
You know, for example, UCFis a program that bunts a lot.
Let's make sure our bunt defenses arein place. Let's make sure we do
some stuff with the pitchers in theinfielders. So maybe finding that opportunity to

(01:31:30):
do a few other things that wedid a lot of in January and February,
but we haven't been able to hiton as much lately. The you
see baseball team twenty three and eighteennine to nine in a very crowded Big
twelve. They're on the road thisweekend back at home next weekend, the
third, fourth, and fifth WestVirginia will be in town. They have
two home series remaining. There's alsoa week weekday morning game against yukon Education

(01:31:55):
Day at UC Baseball Stadium. It'sbeen fun to follow your programs path.
Hopefully we can do it again,coach, Thanks so much. Yeah,
No, I appreciate you having meon MO. I know there's a million
things to do in Cincinnati. It'sbeen an awesome place to move to.
But I would really encourage folk toget out and see us these opponents we
have coming up, our high,high level teams that are going to be
playing in the NCAA Tournament. Itshould be really exciting baseball at you see

(01:32:16):
the next month. I would wouldI would second those thoughts. Thank you
so much, coach. I appreciateit. Have a good day anytime.
Jordan Bishall, baseball coach at theUniversity of Cincinnati, Tarren, did I
say something? We suddenly have alot of folks on hold? Did did
I make a mistake? No,people just want to talk about Ellie.
Okay, well we'll do that nexton ESPN fifteen thirty. ESPN fifteen thirty

(01:32:41):
Sports said lines of service a Kelseychev lay home of a lifetime powertrain protection
and guarantee credit approval from their familyto yours for life Kelsey chev dot Com,
Red's and Phillies Tonight. Bryce Harperis not going to play for the
Phillies because he's on the paternity list. Were encouraging him to take his time
coming back. Hunter Green throws againstRangers Suarez this evening, six p forty.
Tonight's first pitch game is live onseven hundred WLW. The red starting

(01:33:06):
lineup tonight has a Stewart Fairchild leadingoff in right field, Steerson Left playing
batting second, Stevenson behind the plate. Candelario's back He's at third base.
Cees is playing first, batting fifth, La Day La Cruz is hitting six
for some reason. Espinall's at secondbase, batting seventh. Martini is dhing.
Bubba Thompson in centerfield. Frankie Montashits the fifteen day injured list with

(01:33:32):
what the Reds are calling a rightfore arm contusion after taking a line drive
off his elbow yesterday. Casey Leguminaup from TRIPA A Louisville to take his
roster spot. What else do wehave Jeff Hans moves from Thomas Moore to
NKU to take over via women's basketballprogram at Northern Kentucky. Lucho Acosta named

(01:33:56):
to a Team of the masch Daymatch mesh Mash Team of the Match Day
for his Peremans inn FC Cincinnati's alosing streak breaking win on Saturday, come
back win over Atlanta. That's allwe got, all right. I have
a lot of folks waiting. Iappreciate everybody's patience. Tim, You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. What's going on? Hey? Mo, this is the

(01:34:18):
guy that bets you that he wouldn'tbe an All Star in three years.
So and my opinion, my opinionhasn't changed. I mean I didn't draw
that opinion in ten games. I'mnot changing it in ten games. They
played twenty one games this year.He's had about ten good games. Yeah,
we saw this last year when hehit three h seven in his first

(01:34:39):
month and then what happened over thathe went into the tank and hit two
thirty five and then as far asbeen an All Star this year, I
mean, are you forgetting about MookieBetts and Trey Turner and CJ. Abrams
and Orlando Urcia and William Thomas andall those guys had similar or better stats
and also don't leave the league inerrors. So there's uh and and you
keep saying in this one game thinglike I don't know, Like maybe some

(01:35:02):
people did it after one game,but I didn't come after him after one
game. I saw the guy forone hundred games last year, and that's
when I kind of made my opinion. And I'm not saying and I even
preface my last call was saying,I'm not saying he's a bus I do
think the guy will be a productivebig leaguer in the league for a while.
His athleticism and talent alone will keephim there. Do I think he's

(01:35:24):
gonna be a star? Like maybeyou and some other things? People think
no, And that's kind of wherewe differ. And I've also come to
realize that this is an argument thatI'm not gonna win, you know,
tomorrow. This is an argument thattwo years from now is where we'll see
where we're standing, to where thechips stay. You know, maybe I'll
be wrong. I don't know,I've been wrong before. It won't be

(01:35:45):
the first time, won't be thelast time. So That's just how I
look at it. So you haven'tseen anything since your last call three weeks
ago to make you think, youknow what, maybe the guy has a
chance to be really really good.You would see that's where you or yeah,
a few good games. Man,you keep coming after people for all

(01:36:06):
the one bad game to won acouple of games, and then you want
to take a victory lap after hehas a couple of good games. So
you can't have it both ways,that's all I'm saying. But I can't
have it both ways. I tooka victory lap after he played bad games
because I still think the guy isgoing to be really really good. All
I can do is react to what'shappened. I can't predict the future,

(01:36:26):
but I could use what I seeand how he's playing to make an assessment
about the future. But sure,I mean three weeks ago, I had
folks calling this show saying he shouldbe demoted, he should be sent to
a ball Well, thank god theydidn't do that. Can you imagine where
this team would be without him?Now we might differ on how good he's
going to be, But I hadpeople on I took phone calls on this

(01:36:49):
show three weeks ago from folks whothought he should be benched, Like why
I took phone calls on this showfrom people who said I'm out on Ellie
Dela Cruz, like out meaning theRed should find somebody to take him again.
You might not think he's going tobe an All Star, which is
fine. I tend to think thatif what he has done so far this

(01:37:13):
season is reflective of what his numbersare going to look like by the middle
of June, he'll be an AllStar. I mean, if he's if
he's if he's if he's fourth inops close to the All Star Game,
whether he's voted in or selected asa reserve, he'll be an All Star
regardless of what anybody else is doing. But I had people on this show

(01:37:36):
three weeks ago after that game inPhiladelphia, and then the following week after
he struck out against the Mets whowere who were saying they were done with
Ellie Dela Cruz. He's a bust. Let's move on. I shouldn't take
a victory lap when his presence onthe team has allowed them to get off
to a halfway decent start. Areyou kidding me? Well? Not not

(01:37:59):
if you're going to chastise people forbeing out on him after a few games
on chastise, don't chastise people.I just look, man, you're allowed
to have the opinion that they shoulddemote him. I think it was a
silly opinion. I think I'm gladthey didn't demote him. Yeah, I
mean, and I said they shouldhave set him down last year. This
year, no, you can't doit. Well, I mean, they

(01:38:21):
shouldn't have sent him down last yearbecause why why would you have sent him
down last season? I don't know. We had that talk. I don't
want to get into out again,but yeah, I mean I do think
he's gonna be in the big leaguefor for a long time. I just
don't think he's gonna be this star. Just like how they you know,
like what what what they what theysaid he was gonna be. It was

(01:38:42):
kind of an unfair thing, youknow, to judging by that, because
he's never gonna live up to that. It's not happening, correct, But
yeah, I mean that's just that'sjust kind of where I but you you
haven't you haven't seen. You haven'tseen. He leads the league in airs
after twenty one games because he madetwo in a one game made two in
one, and then you can alsoturn that around and say, yeah,

(01:39:02):
he's having a really great season aftertwenty one games. Well I can.
He's the second in all of baseballat offensive war. He's in the top
ten at on base percentage and sluggingtotal bases. He leads in stolen bases,
he's in the top five and runscreated and adjusted ops plus. He's
in the top eight in extra basehits. He's number four in offensive win

(01:39:26):
percentage. He is having so farthrough twenty one games, an excellent season.
An excellent season. Yeah, Imean, if you want to call
it ten games a season, yeah, no, to this point, he's
having an excellent season. By theway, he has one more error than
Mookie Betts, has one more airthan Fernando Tattis, has one more than

(01:39:50):
Luisa Rice. So what's that Ididn't bring up? Fernando todks okay,
is one more error than players younamed. Yes, he's started than Mookie.
The other guys don't, and hehas this. Those other guys have
better batting averages or the similar andwar Mookies is two point two. You're
with the wins. Bub replacement isright, Mookie Betts is an awesome player.

(01:40:15):
The fact that we are having aconversation comparing Mookie Bets, you brought
them up. You're you're comparing dela Cruz to Mookie Betts. Isn't that
a statement about how good this year? I'm saying he's not gonna make the
All Star Game because of Mookie Betts, not saying you know, there's there's
they take more than one player atevery position. But I understand that,

(01:40:35):
you know how that's that's how thatworks, right. The only way he's
gonna make it as if it's aninjury replacement where he gets chosen by the
league because the Reds have no otheruh, All Star Game, All Star
Game selection. That's the only wayhe's making it. He's not making it
over Tree Turner or Mookie Betts.It's not happening. Okay, But but
can he they'll take more than twoshort stops or c. J Abrams.

(01:40:59):
I mean they're all williet do Ohokay, we'll see. I'm not even
saying he's going to be an AllStar this year. I will say if
his numbers right now are reflective ofwhat they're going to be in two months,
then he will be. Now,that might not be the case offensively.
I do kind of expect him toslow down a little bit. But
if we were drawing up the AllStar teams right now, he would make

(01:41:23):
it. He might make it becausehe's the only Red deserving of it,
but he would make it. AllI can do is form an opinion based
on what I'm seeing right now,And what I'm seeing right now is a
player who statistically would be deserving ofAll Star consideration, and I agree with
that. After twenty games, ifthey had the All Star Game, yes,
he would probably be. He woulddefinitely be the lift. I'm and

(01:41:44):
I'm sorry. He's not as goodas Mookie Betts, who's been in the
league for ten years and is maybethe best player in the sport. No,
come on, you're making it likeyou're trying to back me in a
corner that I'm not trying. I'mtrying to I'm sorry, He's not as
good as Mooky Bets. God,can can he still? Can he still
help the team? Can he can? He can he still be an All
Star? Can he still help histeam win? He can be a productive

(01:42:09):
big LEI er? Yes, He'snot gonna be what you think though.
Okay, well, uh, Iappreciate you chiming in. I'm glad they
didn't demote him. Not demoting himwas the right decision last year, and
not demoting him has been the rightdecision this year, and so far I'm
looking more likely to be right thanyou. But we will revisit this often
during the season. Okayn, wegot it all right, Tim, thank

(01:42:30):
you. It's not as good asMookie Betts. How much time do we
have tern four minutes? Four minutes? We have three folks waiting on hold.
If we give everybody one minute,will that be good enough? Yep?
Okay, Phil, you can havea minute. Go all right.
I want to talk about Hunter Greenand how eerily similar his stats in the

(01:42:54):
first fifty games are to Johnny Quados. I'm gonna tell you this right now.
The next restarts all those foul pitchesthat we've been seeing, because he's
got to lead the league and foulin the foul pitches, they're gonna start
to turn the whips. But inthe June he's gonna be automatic. You
can book that and wonder real quickthe amount of Cincinnati Rids air quote fans

(01:43:18):
who call in who would rather beright about the Reds not being as good
as we are. That's got tobe unique to the city. Thank you,
all right, I appreciate it.I would tell you this as a
sports talk radio nerd, that's notunique to this city. Uh. There
are some great favorable comparisons between JohnnyCuato's first fifty and Hunter greens first fifty.

(01:43:40):
And again like within those first fiftyyou have seen some awesome stuff.
I just want to see more ofit. I want to see more innings.
I think we'll start to see them, but I want to see more
innings. Different era entirely. ButJohn Eyquato's first big league season, which
was otherwise kind of forgettable, hestill had eighteen games. He got through

(01:44:00):
six innings. Hunter has nineteen inhis first fifty. Uh, Jeff,
go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteenthirty. What's up. Well, now
we know why you don't like takingphone calls all the time. Taking the
setlist last night was off the hook. Now I'm gonna have to go to
one of these shows coming up.You gotta go, you gotta go.
Uh, the set list thing,it was incredible. You get spared in

(01:44:25):
the night, racing in the street, in the same night. That's like
on the steventy eight tour right there. Yeah, I think I'll give Fairchild
the benefit of the doubt. Ifyou look at his splits against left handed
bat pictures this year, it's it'ssounds terrible for him to lead off,
but if you look at his splitsagainst left east, it's not that terrible.
And I think this is Bryce's thirdkid, so he can definitely take

(01:44:47):
the rest of the week off.A good one. You two, Jeff,
thanks so much. Don you're onESPN fifteen thirty closes out, Okay,
well, I was. My commentis about Ellie. Ask any general
managers, managers players if they wouldlike to take Ellie off of the Red's
hands. Yes, just ask himthat question. Yes. And he's very

(01:45:10):
impactful. He's cut down on thisswing his bad pitching, and he can
hit the breaking bottle a lot better. He's not striking out as much,
and he's impactful even when he's notplaying well as far as offenses concerned,
which he is, he's impactful ifhe gets on the basis his defense,
just his being there, it givesthem the center to even play better because

(01:45:30):
he plays hard. And this isjust his first year. If he plays
a full season. So if that'ssaying I don't know what the fans and
you're listeners are listening are looking at. Look at the it's the eye test.
Even if you don't know baseball,look at the eye tests. He's
passing the eye test without a doubt, and so asking all the players if
they want him, they'll take himoff his hand in the art without question.

(01:45:53):
Don thank you very much, Yeah, without question. He puts a
lot of pressure on the other team. We have to go. If Elie
de la Cruz has a good gametonight, I'll take another victory lap.
And uh, if he has abad game tonight, I'll still say all
the same things about him. PaulDanner Junior is going to be here tomorrow
to talk about the draft. Threeo'clock hour, Red's Phillies, Nick Sixers.

(01:46:18):
You have to go, Lakers Nuggets, have a great night. Thank
you for listening. Thanks to TarrenBland for producing. We're back tomorrow three
oh five. This is the ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station. Hey, if you're

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