3/26/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sweno, the NFL, the Official Hall of the Bank of
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, that's us, Good afternoon, it's five minutes after
three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moagar. Thank
you so much for joining us today. It is Opening
Day eve in Cincinnati. You know, Opening Day is here
because the Reds do not have a game today. There's
a workout going on and there's some Reds news that

(00:28):
we'll get to. But like, folks are ready, and you
could tell I got I got here. I'm at the
Moreline Logger House, which we'll get to in just a second.
But I got down here about two twenty this afternoon,
and there's already people like milling about just outside the ballpark,
just like just sort of loitering, which I think. You know,

(00:49):
it's a public space you're allowed to do. And it's
a pretty nice day outside. It's a little on the
chili side, but folks just want to like be a
part of baseball and Opening Day. And so what I
would say to those folks is typically I would say,
come down to the more Lined Logger House and hang
out with me, which is where we are. But I'm
going to explain what we're doing here today and tonight.

(01:12):
So there's an annual event that takes place here at
the more Lined Loggerhouse. It's the big Opening Day Eve
Party and it benefits the Reds Community Fund and it's
a great event and it's a ticketed event, and I
believe tickets are available so you could come down and
enjoy that event. There's gonna be a lot of celebrities,
I'm told, big time celebrities here and so if you

(01:34):
want to meet celebrities, this is your spot. And then tomorrow,
this is always a lot of fun. From noon to
eight Tomorrow is the John John and Friends Opening Day
Bash and watch party at the more Lined Loggerhouse, happening
right here on the lawn and that's going to start
four hours before the game. And if you have a
ticket to the game, you come to the party, you
go inside, you go to the ballgame. Or if you're like,

(01:57):
you know what, I just want to be down there,
but I don't have tickets to the game, well don't
have TVs. You could watch it. You could hang out
with John John and friends and that's gonna be a blast.
And you can find out more about that at the
Morelined Locker House Facebook page. So there you go. We
thank them for having us. It's awesome to come down here.
I will tell you this. If you're listening to this

(02:17):
right now, going god, you know what, mos at Lockerhouse.
I'm going down. The venue is not open at the
moment because they are preparing for the big party tonight,
but goodbye, a ticket and come on down and you
can hang out with celebrities. So that's gonna be a
lot of fun. And again we thank the folks at
the Morelined Lockerhouse for having us. A great place to
post up before Reds games, after Reds games, great plays

(02:39):
to go for dinner, great plays to go for lunch,
just a great place to be. All right, there's a
lot going on and a lot of moving parts for
this show today. Tommy Thrall, voice of the Reds, is
gonna join us in just about eight minutes or so.
Rick Browing a little bit later on from Musketeer Report
dot com he was with us yesterday. Obviously, the big
news last night and really big news in college basketball

(03:01):
last night, Richard Patino a surprise. Some may be shocked,
others perhaps a little bit less so. But when this
process started when we found out that indeed Sean Miller
is going to Xavier. You got significant minus odds on
Chris Mack. He was the overwhelming favorite. As it turns out,

(03:22):
Chris Mack is, according to Chris Mack, gonna stay at
the College of Charleston and instead Richard Patino will come
to Cincinnati from New Mexico to coach the Xavier Musketeers.
And that's it's surprising. It's it's surprising because it's not
Chris Mack. I said these two things to Tony Pike

(03:42):
and Austin Elmore, and I'll double down on them. I
think Richard Patino is a good hire. I sort of
throw out to a degree what the win loss record
was at Minnesota, because I don't think that's a very
easy job. And I'll be honest with you, for a
lot of those game if it came before nil and
the portal, I almost don't even care. I think what

(04:04):
we all want to know is if Donovan Dent, the
Mountain West Player of the Year, is gonna follow his
coach to Xavier University, because if so x he was
going to be getting an AP Honorable mention All American
likely a future NBA player and a guy who could
flat out go, So that's gonna be worth paying attention
to a number one. It feels like a rebuke of

(04:27):
Chris Mack. Everything that I've heard, everything that I've read,
and everyone that I have talked to has indicated that
Chris Mack had interest in this job. And I'll be
fully upfront with you, I like Chris Mack.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Chris.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
On the list of people who have been great to
our show over the years, Chris is near the very top,
So I like Chris. But this feels like a rebuke
of Chris Mack. It is jarring to see Xavier basketball
go quote outside the family. That is not a criticism,
but let's be honest, it's been twent five years since
XU hired a head coach from outside the family. It's

(05:05):
always been a sitting Xavier assistant like Sean Miller, or
like Chris Mack, or like Travis Steele, or a guy
with very clear exu ties Sean Miller. Two point zero.
Richard Patino is outside the family. I like this not
because I think Richard Patino is a great coach, a
good coach. I don't think he's a bad coach. I
think he's an interesting hire for that reason. But what

(05:28):
I like about this is it felt like when they
were hiring when they hired Sean Miller. Maybe Greg Christopher
didn't feel this way, but there was this hope that
Gollie g we hope Sean Miller stays for the rest
of his career. And my guess is, if you hire
Chris Mack, it's sort of done with the same thing.
Not that Richard Patino won't coach at Xavier for ten, twelve,

(05:48):
fifteen years, but I think if he has almost instant success,
we're gonna wonder where else is he gonna go? And
I think that's okay. I've said this about UC football
for years. Forget finding someone who's gonna stay, find someone
who's gonna do a really good job while they're here. That,
to me, is what college basketball program should be leaning into.
That's what universities should be leaning into. Let's go find

(06:11):
the guy who's best for right now in a very
much year to year sport, just go win right now,
Go devote resources to winning right now. Go find the
person who's best for right now. And if they leave,
they leave, because chances are they're always gonna leave. So
Rick Broring more on that coming up in just about
thirty thirty five minutes. We are looking forward to that. Meanwhile,

(06:32):
there is Red's news and this came down kind of
late last night. If you were listening to the Reds
exhibition game against their prospects in Dayton last night, Tommy
Thralin Jeff Brantley dropped on us right around the six
or seventh thinking that Austin Hayes was not playing last
night because he is dealing with discomfort in his calf

(06:54):
left calf strain. That injury will put Austin on the
injured list retroactive to twenty fourth, and so that's worth
noting because it's possible that he might only have to
miss the first six games. The team has put Tyler
Stevenson on the injured list, that's no surprise. Andrew Abbott
goes on the injured list with that left shoulder rotator

(07:14):
cuff strain, even though it feels like he is gonna
be able to pitch here very soon. That's no surprise.
Alexis Diaz with the hamstring, Ret Louder with the forearm,
and they've brought up from Louisville catcher Austin wins. No
surprise there either. The Austin Hayes injury is significant for
a couple of different reasons. Number One, from an offensive perspective,

(07:37):
he was the centerpiece of the offseason. I mean, nothing
against Gavin lucks. We're still trying to figure out where
Gavin LUCKX is gonna play. Nothing against Jose Travino, who
they obviously seem to really really like. But it felt
to me like for most of us, the surgeon optimism
about the Reds kind of kicked into a higher gear

(07:58):
when they acquired Austin Hayes, who has been an all
star guy who had success in Baltimore and a guy
who last year we kind of threw the numbers out
the window because of the lower body injuries he dealt
with which this is another lower body injury, and the
fact that he had a kidney infection. Austin Hayes also
had a good spring. He's supposed to help this team,
specifically against left handed pitching. He was the only outfield acquisition,

(08:23):
so let's talk about that first. When the offseason began,
Nick Krawl acknowledged we got to make the outfield better,
and then only acquired Austin Hayes. Many of us wondered
for months like, shouldn't they do more? Isn't it kind
of incomplete? We're still looking at the bottom of the
depth chart of the outfield, and you know, dudes like

(08:43):
Stuart Fairchild, who I guess has been DFAD and Jacob
heard Obese and Blake Done. Not that those guys can't
be good big league players, but they're they're kind of
uninspiring choices, and they're all familiar choices quite frankly so,
even before Austin Hayes got hurt, many of them wondered
have they done enough in the outfield without Austin Hayes.

(09:04):
And again, maybe this is a very short term thing.
The good news is Spencer Steer has been cleared. He
dh last night. He's gonna start the season on the
active roster. Hopefully he's okay. But it does amplify the
Austin Hayes thing. It does amplify the already built in
question of the time, which is, have the Reds done

(09:26):
enough specifically in the outfield to significantly upgrade their offense?
And it doesn't feel to me like relative to what
we all hope for back in October that the answer
is yes. If I would have said to you back
in October the Reds the only thing they're gonna do
in the outfield is acquire Austin Hayes, you would have
said that's not gonna work. And yet that's exactly what

(09:50):
they did, and the one player they acquired, unfortunately, is
gonna have to start the season on the injured list.
We've got all afternoon to work our way through that.
At Moeggar Twitter if you want to check out today's
show preview video, it's on there. Thanks to our friends
at Emory Federal Credit Union, your credit union with heart
since nineteen thirty nine. God to Emery FCU dot Org.

(10:13):
Rick Boring coming up in just about thirty minutes, but
first we'll chat with the Voice of the Reds, Tommy Thrall.
He joins us. Next, we're at the Morelin Lockerhouse on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station thirty. I'm Mooeger. Thank
you so much for listening. Today is Opening Day Eve.
Tomorrow is the best day of the year. Tommy Thrall
will begin this is hard to believe year six as

(10:36):
the Voice of the Reds. Kind enough on his final
day off before he gets set for the Big one
sixty two. I can't thank you enough for doing this.
What sort of things are going through your head as
you get ready for opening Day?

Speaker 4 (10:49):
You know, just I think pure excitement about this season.
It's the most excited I've been for a season maybe
that I can remember, you know, going into the twenty
twenty season, I had a lot of optimism for that year,
and then COVID hit and everything changed. Outside of that.
I mean, this is a very exciting young group. I'm

(11:11):
excited about the pitching staff. I'm fired up about Ellie's
next year, you know, of development where his career goes.
So there's just a lot to be excited about coming
into this season. And that's not even to mention having
Matt McClain back this year and what this season could
mean for him. And you know, if he has a
big year, how does that impact the rest of the lineup,

(11:33):
the rest of this team, and what kind of impact
does that have on Ellie. Those are all kinds of
things that I'm kind of thinking about going into tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
You were kind enough to join us right before the
first Cactus League broadcast. From then to now, what have
you learned about this club? You know, I.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Think one of the biggest question marks I have going
into the season is what's the bullpen going to be?

Speaker 5 (11:55):
Like?

Speaker 4 (11:57):
I was kind of optimistic going in the spring about
the bullpen, But at the same time, you know, as
we say, when players have really good springs, don't get
too wrapped up in the results. But some of the guys,
some of the veteran guys that this team is expecting
to count on, struggle a little bit in the spring.
So that's one of those things that I kind of
watch coming into the season and think, was that just

(12:19):
spring training or is it gonna.

Speaker 6 (12:22):
Take a little while for some of these guys to
get going. So that was one of the things.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
Another thing I learned is that the approach of this
team offensively seems to be much improved over last year.

Speaker 6 (12:33):
And Jeff and I talked about it a little bit
during the game last night.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
It's one of those things where, again it's spring training,
so he tried not to make too much out of it,
but we saw Ellie go the other way a lot,
and at times with some serious authority. There was a
bat that he had even last night where he takes
a base hit the other way with the left side
kind of opened up for him instead of trying to.

Speaker 6 (12:53):
Pull a ball and hit it a mile. So it
was a really nice swing.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
It was a good approach, and we've seen that kind
of up and down the lineup for guys all spring long.
I know that was going to be a point of
emphasis for this team and this coaching staff coming into
the season is having guys going to the plate with
a plan, with an approach, and we've seen it at times,
and if it carries over into the season, it's going
to be a really fun brand of baseball.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
I was kind of going to go there next because
I was listening to you and Jeff, and this was
early in spring, and you were talking about the impact
of Chris Valaka, the new hitting coach, and his approach
is you know, yeah, we got to cut down on strikeouts.
We can't swing and miss at strike three, but we've
really got to attack why we're getting two strike three right,
and so that's about not getting two strikes on ye

(13:41):
And to me, that strikes me as you know, you know,
gonna do a better job of being aggressive hitting early
in the count. How much of that did you see
when watching these hitters in the Cactus League.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
Yeah, I think it's just the product of that approach
is kind of what we saw. I think it is.
If you get your pitch early in the abat, don't
be passive, go after it, but try try to avoid that,
like you said, getting to the point where you've got
two strikes on it, you're still gonna It's still gonna happen, right.
I mean, it's just it's kind of one of those
things where, you know, I liken it a little bit

(14:14):
to golf. You can go to the go to the
t box and say, all right, I'm not gonna kill it.
I'm not gonna kill it. You start your swing, you're
still telling yourself that. Then when you get to the
top of the swing and you start to come forward,
you try to kill it. I mean, it's it's just
one of those things where repetition kind of uh takes
its toll and that's where you kind of that's where
the repetitions do their job to get you through practice to.

Speaker 7 (14:35):
Not do that.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
And I think that comes with you know, I say
that to say, I think that's kind of what we
want to see out of hitters when they do get
to two strikes, all right, So now you're not trying
to do too much at the plate when you get
behind an account, uh when you do get there, so
that you can still have a productive at bat. I
just I really liked over all the way guys approach
things from an offensive standpoint. I know there were some

(14:59):
days where they struggled to score runs. There was a
stretch there, like a week where they struggled to score runs.
But again, I think it's all part of that process
of making these adjustments at the plate. Sometimes it takes
a little while, but I thought we saw some really
positive things.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
I think for a lot of folks, the biggest just
overall question mark about the team is the offense, and
then if you dive into that, it's really the offense
coming from the outfield. Austin Hayes had a nice spring.
He's not going to start the season on the injured list,
hopefully with that CAF issue. It's not a long term thing.
How valid are the concerns about what they get from
the outfield.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
I think it's I think it's somewhat valid, at least
in the early going.

Speaker 6 (15:39):
I mean, I'm.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
Hoping Jake Freiley, I know, is a guy that was
trying to make some adjustments at the plate. I'm hoping
those start to take hold pretty quickly. He hit the
ball with some serious authority last night. I know it's
easy to say, well, yeah, they're playing their mind, sure,
but that minor league team ran out some pretty serious arms.
So it was good to see him hit the ball

(16:02):
harder than I really remember him hitting it all spring.
So maybe those adjustments that he's been working on are
starting to take effect. It's in there. We saw it
two years ago. This guy hit the ball pretty hard,
pretty consistently. Last year certainly didn't look like he was
feeling for it a little bit. So if they can
unlock the power that's there, then that that might help answer.

Speaker 6 (16:24):
Some of those questions and solve some of that. Look, TJ.
Friedel is not going to be a guy that's going
to hit for a lot of home runs. In fact,
they kind of told him they don't want.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
Him to hit home runs, and then you see the
approach change a little bit for him.

Speaker 6 (16:37):
He starts flaying balls the other way.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
And hitting the ball on a line a little bit
more consistently.

Speaker 6 (16:44):
That's the type of hitter that he needs to be.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
If he does that, he's kind of a table setter
at the top of the order ahead of Matt and Ellie.

Speaker 6 (16:51):
That's encouraging there so and then Austin Hayes.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
I was really encouraged with what I saw from him,
Like you say, hopefully he's he's going to be in
short order because I saw some I mean, guy as
an All Star a couple of years ago, had a
tough year last year, but really encouraging signs from him.
And like we've talked about all spring, you've got a
guy that's on a mission, that can be a dangerous player.

(17:15):
So I'm excited to see what the Reds get from him,
especially if he's going to be the guy hitting behind Elli,
protecting him in the lineup for majority of the season.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
You talk about a guy who was an All Star
a couple of years ago, Jose Travino. We're going to
see a lot from him early because Tyler Stevenson is out.
I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before
where they acquire a guy, then during spring training they
give him a contract extension, They hold the press conference,
and all of his teammates are there. So obviously the
Reds organization likes Jose Travino. That said something to me,

(17:45):
how much are we gonna like this guy?

Speaker 4 (17:47):
I think everybody's gonna love him. I mean he's a
great catcher. Most importantly, I think the pitchers are going
to love him. I think he can also be a
benefit to Tyler Stevens, and Tyler continues to get better.

Speaker 6 (17:58):
I thought he made some serious steps forward last year.

Speaker 4 (18:02):
And I think working with a guy like Jose Travino
who knows his role.

Speaker 6 (18:05):
I mean, Jose knows that he's not in.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
There to be an everyday catcher. He's there to back
up Tyler. And he's obviously a wealth of knowledge. There's
the reason he's had all the success that he's had.
You've heard the stories by this point about him working
with guys in the caravan in the back of the bus.

Speaker 6 (18:22):
Immediately after coming over.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
He's just a wealth of knowledge and continues to learn
and knows how to articulate what he does know in
an impactful way. So it's not like he's telling guys,
here's how you do it.

Speaker 6 (18:37):
This is the only way to do it. You know.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
He has a way of getting through to guys so
that they listen and they pay attention, and I think
that's really important, and that's why you see guys show
up to his press conference and he has the support
that he does. In addition to that, like I said,
he does a tremendous job with the pitchers. He knows
what they want to do and how they want to
attack hitters, so that way they can be on the

(19:01):
same page.

Speaker 6 (19:02):
He's going to be a great addition, I think to
this team.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
End of the twenty twenty three season, Terry Francona is retiring,
and I actively sought every podcast, every show that he
appeared on, just because I love listening to him talk,
great storyteller, awesome perspective. I just not a Guardians fan
by any stretch of course. I want to listen Terry Francona.

(19:24):
So now he's here and I still can't get enough.
Your relationship with the manager is unique because you're the
one person who gets one on one time with him
every day. And so give me that perspective of what
it's like to work with a guy that we're all
so excited is here in Terry Francona.

Speaker 6 (19:41):
You know, I'm get asked about him a lot, and the.

Speaker 4 (19:44):
One thing I say is it's really hard, especially when
people have a reputation like he does to a live
up to it when you get to know him on
a personal level.

Speaker 6 (19:52):
But he's not only done that, he has exceeded it.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
I mean everything I've heard about him, and I've gotten
pretty close with Tom Hamilton, who does the Cleveland Games,
I've gotten pretty close with him over the years, and
he was telling me how much I was gonna love
Tito and how great he was, and he just raved
about him, went on and on, and I thought, man,
he's set in the bar awfully high.

Speaker 6 (20:12):
And then you meet him, and.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
You work with him, and you talk to him on
a daily basis, and you talk to him for longer
than just the four minutes that the recorder is going,
and you realize why he's had all the success that
he has had. Everything you see is genuine.

Speaker 6 (20:29):
He is very real.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
He's confident who he is, which is part of the
reason why he's had so much success. That that allows
him to have tough conversations with guys. I remember one
of the first interviews we did with him during the
Hostow season.

Speaker 6 (20:43):
He goes, you know, sometimes.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
I'd rather have a tough conversation with a guy and
him be mad at me for a couple of days
than let it fester for weeks or months and become
a bigger issue. And that's how he handles things, and
I think that's so important for a leader. But he
still has a way to have these tough conversations to
where guys, sure they might be disappointed a little bit
with what they hear, but they still respect where he's

(21:07):
coming from. That's a hard thing for a leader to do,
especially a guy that's leading grown men like he is
in a highly competitive environment. But he just has a
knackt for it. It's not something that can be taught.
It's not something you can read in a book how
to manage and how to manage people the way he does.

Speaker 6 (21:23):
He's just got it. It's just the.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
Ability that he was born with. And I'm sure he's
learned some of it over the years, but for the
most part, it's just it comes very natural to him,
and it's it's really really neat to see.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, most definitely enjoyed tomorrow, enjoy the season. Can thank
you enough. Hopefully we can do it again soon.

Speaker 6 (21:43):
Man, Thank you absolutely, mo thank you anytime.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
The always awesome voice of the Reds Tommy Thrall getting
said to begin his sixth season. It's hard to believe
his sixth season as the voice of the Reds, Reds
and Giants Tomorrow at four to ten on the Reds
Radio Network and of course seven hundre WLW. It is
twenty seven away from four o'clock on ESPNS fifteen thirty,
we'll do sports headlines and coming up at about ten

(22:08):
minutes our Buddy Rick Brooring on Richard Patino on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (22:19):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. For National Doctor's Day,
we honor the UC Health physicians who are leading breakthroughs
for better tomorrows. Learn more at UCHealth dot com. Northbound
seventy one seventy five at Fort Washington Way, right lane
blocked off from a disabled vehicle. Traffic starting to back
up from Fifth Street there and on eighth at Harris Avenue.

(22:41):
Still got that accident. Traffic stop and go southbound seventy
five between Western Avenue and Fort Washington Way a three
minute slow down. I'm at Ezaalik with traffic.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios rapid radios.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Are ESPN fifteen thirty sports headlines.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Or a service of Kelson Lifetime power train protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life.
Kelseyshev dot Com Reds are getting set for the season
opener tomorrow against the San Francisco Giants. Hunter Green and
Brandon webbyard pitchers Cincinnati today unfortunately placing outfielder Austin Hayes

(23:19):
on the injured list. He as a left calf strain.
That's surprising because we found out about that injury last night.
The good news is Spencer Steer is apparently good to
go and going to start the season on the active roster,
which is a pleasant surprise. Yes, you can have pleasant
surprises in sports. Tyler Stevenson also placed on the injured list.

(23:41):
That's not a surprise. Neither is Andrew Abbott and Alexis Diaz,
as well as Ratt Louder. Those guys also placed on
the injured list obviously. Brandon Williamson also on the sixty
day IL as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Austin
wins up from TRIPA A Louisville. Meanwhile, Xavier It says
you're on the front page of an ESPN dot com that,

(24:02):
according to sources, Richard Patino is leaving the New Mexico
to come to Xavier. Let me help you with that.
The sources Xavier University, which is announced Richard Patino is
going to be the head coach on the cyclone skate
tonight at Kalamazoo. Rick Bororing joins us next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 8 (24:22):
From the UC Health Traffic Center for National Doctors. Today
for better Tomorrow's learn more at UCHealth dot com. Northbound
seventy one seventy five before Fort Washington Way, the right
lane is blocked from a disabled vehicle. Traffic stop and
go from Fifth Street. Got a spilled load westbound on

(24:44):
Martin Luther King at Reading Road. Use caution in southbound
seventy five slow traffic. Cooper to Ronald Reagan Highway on
that ezamik with traffic.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
This report is sponsored by Rapplay the Clipper Tonight.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Rick Brooring is with US musketeerport dot com the place
to be for all the latest on Richard Patino taking
over at Xavier. Players who may come, Players who may
come to Xavier with Richard Patino. He's also on Twitter
at Rick Brooring, and he has been on this show
twice this week. We were on the air last Thursday.

(25:17):
He was on our show last Wednesday. Are you are
you officially tired of me?

Speaker 5 (25:23):
No?

Speaker 2 (25:23):
I am not.

Speaker 7 (25:24):
I appreciate your patience as we've been trying to line
these things up.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Well, I appreciate you joining us. On a scale of
one to ten. When you found out that Richard Patino
is the guy, what was your level of surprise?

Speaker 7 (25:37):
So, I mean you're gonna say like, yeah, right, okay,
I was just telling tearing this off the air. Once
we found out Chris Mack was going back to Charleston,
we pretty much knew it was Richard Patino. I had
gotten a call maybe two hours before that with someone
who said they thought it was good for Patino and
kind of done. But that just didn't line up with

(25:58):
what most of the big owners that Xavier were saying,
and a lot of other people involved in this process.
And so I thought we were going to go to
bed last night with the idea that Chris Mack would
still be the likely candidate. Maybe they were going through
the process process still with a few other guys, but
we'd land on Chris Mack based on everything I was hearing.
And then it happens so quick. Chris sent out that

(26:21):
tweet saying he's returning to Charleston, which means obviously he
didn't get the job at that point. And then within minutes,
you know, we were talking about on my board that hey,
there's a lot of smoke for Richard Patino here. Sure
enough it was announced just like that. So I would
say not complete shock that it turned out to be
Richard Patino once we found out it wasn't Chris, But
certainly when Chris sent out that tweet saying he was

(26:43):
returning to Charleston, that was a shocking moment. And yesterday
overall was probably demost shocking day on the Xavier beat
that I've had in the sixteen years that I've been
covering the team. Now.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
So is this simply a matter of they like Richard
Patino more than Chris ma or is this a direct
rebuke of Chris Mack.

Speaker 7 (27:04):
I think the second statement would be too much. I
know there are a lot of people saying a lot
of things about the relationship between Chris Mack and Greg Christopher,
the athletic director at Xavier, and what that was like
when Chris left. Again, I think there's a lot of
smoke there to believe that there was nothing that happened
between them, or there wasn't some type of rip. But

(27:25):
we're also talking about several years ago. We're talking about
heat of the moment Chris was leaving for a bigger job,
So to act like that was the sole reason was
pettiness and that Greg Christopher was trying to stick it
to Chris Mack. I just don't believe that's true. I
think what's more likely the case is that if you
look at Greg Christopher's career at Xavier ever since he's

(27:48):
been there, it's already been incumbent guys like Chris Mack
was already the coach there. There were already Mario Mercurio
and other guys in place. They had all types of
ties and systems and relationships that were already going before
he got there. And then he went to Travis Steele
and they kept a lot of those same people around,
and then when there was time to make a new hire,

(28:09):
I think he kind of got pushed in the direction
of Sean Miller. That was really the only choice for
them at that point, and it was the same exact situation,
a lot of the same people, even bringing back some
older Xavier people from before that had pre established relationships.
This was an opportunity for a clean break, and I
think that's what Greg Christopher was seeking more than anything.
It's just a chance to start fresh with the program.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, you know, to me, it's jarring to think of
Xavier going outside the family, right. You have to go
back to sad Mada nearly a quarter or a century ago.
We're just so used to going back well before Greg
Christopher was in his current capacity. They hire from within,
whether it's an established assistant coach who has been a
part of the program, or somebody who had left the

(28:52):
program but obviously has clear Xavier ties, like Sean Miller
just a couple of years ago. It also, I don't know,
maybe I'm reading too much into this. It feels like
they're sort of leaning into the idea that it's it's
not worth finding the guy who's gonna stay, it's worth
picking the best coach. And I feel like Richard Patino,
a lot of people arrive at the same conclusion Xavier
is going to be a temporary stop off for him.

(29:12):
Whether that's true or not, time will tell. But it
feels like with Shawn Miller, the idea was this guy
is gonna stay. I think if you bring back Chris Mack,
it feels like at least fans are going to think
this guy is gonna stay. What I like about Richard
Patino is forget that. Hire the best guy win now.
I think he can do that. What are your thoughts?

Speaker 7 (29:32):
I can't tell you how stupid I think the notion
of trying to find a coach that is going to
quote unquote day is agree. I don't even understand what
that means. Like Chris Mack with that Zager for nine years,
That's a long time to work in a job, you
know what I mean? Like that, that was a long
career that Chris Mack handed Zeiger. John Caller Perry left
Kentucky for Arkansas, Willie Williams left Kansas for North Carolina. Like,

(29:55):
what job isn't leevable? There are no jobs that are
just like ud Does it happen occasionally with a Mark
Few or something like that at Gonzaga? Yes, there are
certain situations where it works out perfectly and a guy
stays forever. They're few and far between, and quite honestly,
it's not something that's aspirational to shoot for within your program.
You want guys that are hungry. You want guys that
are going to succeed at the highest level and have

(30:17):
aspirations to compete at that level. So this notion that
you're trying to find and by the way, the best
chance you ever had of doing that was hiring Sean
Miller to come back here three years ago, and look
how that turned out. So trying to do this just
doesn't make any sense. To your point, go out and
find the best coach. Is Richard Fatina That guy we'll
find out. But I do think he's a very interesting

(30:39):
hire because he already has a long track record. Like
we know to some extent what we're going to get
with him. It's not going to be a disaster. He
can definitely keep the program afloat and coach at the
high major level. He's proven that at some level already
at a very very difficult place to coach at in Minnesota,
and yet he did that as a very young head coach.
He's still a young it's just forty two years old.

(31:01):
I think there's a chance that he has learned, he
has gotten better, and there's still some upside for a
guy who's only forty two years old and is now
coming back for his second opportunity at the high major
level in the Big East.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Is Donovan Dent going to be a Xavier Musketeer.

Speaker 7 (31:17):
The thing I've been telling everybody at musketeerreport dot com,
which we have a fifty percent off sale going right
now if you want to continue to follow the transfer portal,
is very very unlikely that perhaps the top transfer available
right now ends up e Xavier. He's definitely one of
the top three or four transfers available. It's unlikely Zavier
will be able to get him. However, they had no

(31:38):
chance at a guy like this yesterday. Now with Richard
Patino Junior as his previous head coach at New Mexico,
having that pre established relationship with them, maybe I mean,
you're gonna be You're gonna be able to have a
conversation with him, and maybe he's going to consider you
and give you a little bit of a favorable view
when he's trying to pick his schools and you know,
the idea that Xavier could compete with what people are

(31:59):
saying could be as high is two to three million
dollars and in terms of an nil payment for him,
that seems outlandish. But I don't know. Maybe if you're
a coach who's coming in and really wanting to make
a splash, really wanting to fire up the other donors,
to show that you have some some proof of product here, like, hey,
I'm going to get this thing rock and if you
give me the funds to work with, maybe that's a

(32:21):
play that's worth it for your first year, to make
sure you have a high enough floor, knowing that you'll
get all that money back the following season and you
can spread it out a little bit more amongst recruits
and transfers.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Is your name really Richard.

Speaker 7 (32:35):
Richard Brewing Junior? Actually, this which I definite I have
to go by now.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
This is yeah, this is the first time that you
and the head coach will have the same name.

Speaker 7 (32:45):
Yeah, that's that's accurate. Correct?

Speaker 2 (32:47):
You will you bring that up to him at the
introductory press conference.

Speaker 7 (32:51):
I was not planning on it, No, No, I wasn't.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Well, just as an icebreaker, I would I would consider.

Speaker 7 (32:56):
That if if he had a son and named of Richard,
do you think he would go by Richard the third
or tres.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
That's a question for him. Why don't you ask him?

Speaker 7 (33:07):
That's a good point. I guess we'll have a good
time at the press conference early next week, all right.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
I look forward to that, and I'll probably call you
to get your back on after that happens. But in
all honesty and all seriousness, I can't thank you enough
because you have your own jobs to do, and to
spend some time with us is cool of you. So
thank you so much.

Speaker 7 (33:25):
Yeah, looking forward to your opening day covers. Marmou thank
you got it.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
That's our guy, Rick Browing Musketeer, Richard Browing Musketeer Report
dot com or yes, fifty percent off sale right now
if you want to subscribe and catch all the latest
transfer portal news. If they can get Donovan Dent to
come to Xavier with Richard Patino, lookout, it's it's an
interesting hire. I completely throw away what his record was

(33:52):
at Minnesota. By the way, he was at Minnesota, he
coached against Chris mac and the NCAA tournament beat him.
When when Chris was at Louisville that is obviously neither
here nor there. Minnesota is a tough place to coach.
Richard Patino was a very young man and it was
pre Nil and Portal. I almost completely disregard the results,

(34:13):
which if you look at them, are admittedly a little
bit underwhelming, and we're gonna get Patino versus Patino in
the Big East like this is it's interesting to see
Xavier go outside the family. And I felt like with
Sean Miller, in addition to his well established coaching bona fides,
there was this you know what, Yes, Seawn's great and

(34:36):
he'll stay. And I think had Chris Mack been the guy,
Rick's right, he was here nine years, Yes he'll like
I don't believe yes he'll stay or will he stay
should be a part of the equation at all. I
saw people on social media doing two things. One trying
to throw cold water over this, Well, he'll leave in
three years, so what like? College basketball has never been
a more more than has never been more of a

(34:58):
year to year sport. It's about like the next year.
So okay, all you care about is does he do
a good job while he's here. Now I'm a UC fan,
I want Xavier to coaches. I want Xavier to have
a good team on college basketball in this area to thrive.
But you know, you see some UC folks and the

(35:18):
Xavier people will clap back at him, like why don't
you just worry about Wes Like, no matter who the
Xavier coaches, UC basketball needs to be better. They play
one game a year. I as a UC fan, could
not care less about the Skyline Chili Crosstown shootout result.
I want UC to play in the NCAA tournament again,
like they're mutually exclusive. Xavier hiring a really good coach

(35:40):
or frankly hiring a really bad coach if that was
the case, has like zero percent impact on UC basketball.
A lot of that on social media last night, as
well as well as my Richard Patino joke that some
got others didn't, And when the others who don't get
the joke chime in, it's frankly not worth explaining. Chad

(36:03):
Dohnson's a great Reds rider. He is going to join
us in the next hour. Also Paul Danner Junior on
the Bengals as well, plus Brendaman and Jones on baseball
in an hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
Texting enrolls you into recurring ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Hi, it's out four oh four. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty on my leger. Thank you so much for listening today.
First picture is being thrown in just about twenty four
hours across the street from where we are. We're at
the Morlin Lockerhouse, Opening Day twenty twenty five. We don't
have Opening Day in this city without a handful of traditions.
One of them is the annual Opening Day Eve party

(36:43):
benefiting the Reds Community Fund. And this event has been
put on for years by somebody whose nephew we had
on yesterday, had Grant freaking on yesterday. Randy Freaking is
with us now, co author of the Big Red Machines.
Last Hurrah. How many years have you been putting on
this big soiree have going on here tonight?

Speaker 9 (37:01):
Hey, moke, great to be here. This is the thirteenth year,
thirteen year, thirteen.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Wow, this is big.

Speaker 9 (37:08):
It's gotten bigger and better. We raised three thousand dollars.
We kind of threw it together in twenty and thirteen.
We used to have these parties at our house on.

Speaker 5 (37:16):
Opening Day Eve.

Speaker 9 (37:17):
I've always been an Opening Day guy, and my wife said, hey,
why don't we try to raise money for a charity
and charge our friends ten bucks? And before we knew it,
we had three hundred people down to Phoenix and with
three hundred times ten according to my Finnytown math is
three thousand.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
Pretty good. Yeah, and then we've just grown it ever
since then.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Wow, and it's gotten bigger and bigger. And how much
money do you think you'll raise this year?

Speaker 9 (37:38):
This year we'll exceed Last year's total was fifty six.
We'll be somewhere around sixty or seventy this year.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Wow, that's incredible.

Speaker 5 (37:47):
We're gonna go over the five hundred thousand mark this year.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
That's incredible. That's that's really cool. So for the uninitiated,
because maybe they've heard us talk about the party, what
happens tonight? What's going on? I know, like, who's who
of Cincinnati here?

Speaker 9 (37:59):
Well, so who's who? We're hoping for Johnny Bench to
stop by, you know. Of course, we got Marty Brennaman
the Hall of Famer, we got Dennis Janssen, we got
John Popovich, Brantley, Tommy Thrall, hoping for Billy Hamilton, so
of various yeah, sundry people.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, so you got a lot of like famous folks,
but then you got like silent auction all that stuff too.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (38:25):
Well, the whole idea of this party is make it
reasonable for the normal person. We've we've kept the price
at forty nine dollars for probably the last six or
seven years. I never want to price people out of this.
I think forty nine is pretty reasonable when you're getting
good appetizers and you're getting a couple of drink tickets.
And it's obviously been popular because we're sold We sold

(38:46):
out of General Vision tickets just the other day, and
we've sold out all the other tickets now.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Right, Yeah, so bigger and better every single year, and
that's very cool, and it all goes. I mean, you're
such a great supporter. I love the Reds Community Fund.
I love every thing that makes baseball more accessible, more affordable,
gets more people playing it, more kids playing it, Foster's
educational programs, and so for my money, you can't do
enough for what those folks do.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
It's a great organization. I love it.

Speaker 9 (39:13):
I've been involved for about ten or eleven years, you know,
shortly after we started the first one. Charlie Frank, who's
a great executive director, invited me to be on the board,
so I became more familiar with it MO and I
love the educational programs out there, the success we have
with the RBI program. Our kids who play baseball or
softball in high school graduate from high school at nearly

(39:34):
one hundred percent rate, and if you compare that with
CPS graduation rates at sixty or seventy percent, and then
we've got a high percentage to go on to college,
which if you compare that to what you know CPS does,
it's much higher because the educational programs we've got, mentoring programs,
leadership programs, work ethic is always instilled in these kids.

Speaker 5 (39:55):
It's just a great place.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
And you know, the RCF has been around for so long,
and Charlie Frank and I have talked about this, the
executive director has been around for so long that like now,
you could see some of the success stories as adults.
You know, kids who are given a shot, kids who
are given a boost, kids who are given encouragement. And
maybe they're not big league ballplayers, but baseball played an
instrumental part in them as kids getting to where they've

(40:19):
ultimately ended up, and to me, that's got to be
so rewarding.

Speaker 9 (40:21):
Yeah, softball and baseball are basically the tools that we
used instill work ethic. You know, these kids have to
maintain GPA averages. We've got some great stories. You know,
one kid, I forget what it was, but it was
a very low number on his sat or act, like
thirteen or fourteen, and went through some of the college

(40:43):
prep help through through our CF and I think his
score turned out to be at twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
It was incredible, you know, almost as high as yours.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
He was going to say, I wish that program would
have been in place thirty years ago. Things would have
turned out a little bit for me.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (41:00):
But we also have the Menus tonight, great band, you know,
a long time man. Heck, I listened to them when
I was in college. Wow, that's how old they are.

Speaker 5 (41:08):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (41:08):
And we have Matt Waters, who's a great singer songwriter. Yeah, appetizers, food.

Speaker 5 (41:15):
I think the eighteen sixty nine.

Speaker 9 (41:17):
Red Stockings, if they're still alive, they're gonna make an appearance.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
The mascots. So place is gonna be crowded. The place
cann be hopping it's.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Gonna be gonna be a lot of fun. It's talking
about the book, Oh, the book last for all you've
been you know, Grant and I were talking about this yesterday.
I have every single book you've contributed to Reds related.
This might be my favorite because it's the one that
I the one that taught me the most. I was
four years old in nineteen eighty one. I knew the

(41:46):
basic framework of the story strike plan, where we're gonna
have first half and second half winners. Reds are neither,
but they have the best record in baseball, a lot
of remnants from the big Red machine. It gets dismantled,
they don't get to play in the postseason, and they
lose one hundred games the next year. I knew that.
I didn't know a lot of the nuts and bolts
of the strike labor dispute plan, what was going on

(42:09):
with the team, and then you crafted around all of
that this really good fictional story that sort of answers
maybe the question what would have happened had they been
allowed to play in the postseason. It's really well done.

Speaker 5 (42:20):
Well, thank you very much. We really enjoyed it.

Speaker 9 (42:23):
You know, Grant and I started that in twenty twenty
during COVID. You know, he's just such a great nephew.

Speaker 5 (42:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (42:29):
I love Grant like nobody. And he wrote, you know,
it's funny. Oh, he's a great sports writer. So he
wrote the fact portion of the book. I was a
lawyer one time, so I could make things up just
like I did in the courtroom. You know, I retired
four years ago, and I just kept my fictional storytelling

(42:52):
going and pretty good.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
I don't want to blow the ending, but.

Speaker 9 (42:55):
The Reds do reach the World Series that year in
our fictional book, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna
blow the end.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Don't do that. But like you know, Grant was telling me,
you kind of had the idea of COVID five years ago, right,
So not a lot is going on. What compelled you
to write a book about the nineteen eighty one Reds.

Speaker 9 (43:12):
Well, so you were four years old then, Yeah, I
was twenty four and I was in law school and me,
this is so weird. I happened to live with a
guy who was a Cardinals fan and they got screwed
by the strike too. And I lived with another guy
who was a Tigers fan, but all three of us
were baseball Nuts, and we were just outraged by this

(43:35):
split season and Booie Kon's decision to you know, make
it so that the bigger markets automatically qualified because the
four bigger markets won the first half quote unquote one,
and so he inserted them in the playoffs in July,
you know, to be playing in October, and you know,
the Reds end up in second place in both of

(43:56):
the halves, and it was just such a screw job.
And the Cardinals also got screwed. And so we were
sitting at a local pub on Saturday night before the
playoffs were going to start, and we decided, well, we're
in law school. We could file a lawsuit, and so
we did. We filed a lawsuit on the Monday morning
after the season ended. Now you know, I lossuit didn't

(44:17):
last very long. Judge Canary pulled us in there on
Tuesday morning.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
I had to find a sport coat to go into
the courtroom.

Speaker 9 (44:24):
And Judge Canary said, politely, eight boys, do you know.

Speaker 5 (44:29):
Where the clerk's office is? Yeah? Yeah, Judge, that's where
we filed in lawsuit yesterday.

Speaker 9 (44:33):
Be goes, I suggest you go down there and file
a voluntary notice of dismissal, and the dean of law school.

Speaker 5 (44:40):
Was already on our rear ends a little bit.

Speaker 9 (44:44):
My future employer was definitely on my rear end, even
though they represented the since they end, I never really
understood why they were so upset, but they were upset,
so you had to hit the So we hit two
eject and so you know, and I've got old articles.
It was in the Columbus Dispatch and it got some
pretty good play actually, because you know, people were outraged.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Yeah, but you know what you mentioned. Saint Louis also
got screwed. Yes, but it's different because the Cardinals would
go on to win the World Series the next year, Yes,
and then go back in eighty five and go back
in eighty seven, and we're one of the premier teams
of the eighties. The Reds weren't right.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
Oh what might have been? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (45:23):
Can you imagine the Reds win the World Series in
nineteen eighty one?

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 9 (45:28):
You know, the early eighties would have been completely different.
You know, Pete would have come back to a better
team instead of finishing in second place. What eighty five,
eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight, you know, who knows
what would have happened. I mean, the entire franchise history
was changed by Buie Coon's lame brain decision.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah. Well, the book is terrific. I learned a lot
about that time that I was too young to remember.
The big Red Machines, Last Hurrah. The party tonight is
going to be awesome. Thirteen years it's all. You've raised
a lot of money and it's going to be a
lot of fun tonight. Thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (46:04):
Yeah, thank you, Mo. Glad to be here.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
You got it. Randy freaking We are broadcasting from the
home of his big opening Day Eve party here at
the Morelin Loggerhouse. It's fourteen minutes after four o'clock, right
across the street from a great American ballpark. Our buddy
Chad Dodson is going to talk Reds with us next
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (46:29):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. For National Doctor's Day,
for better tomorrows. Learn more at ucehealth dot com. Traffic
is remaining slow on northbound seventy one seventy five between
Burlington Pike and the Brent Spence Bridge to a fifteen
minute delay. There, westbound two seventy five is down to

(46:51):
one lane for construction net for repairs in the Carrol
Cropper Bridge. Traffic running slow from the Petersburg exit. I'm
Attie Zelik with traffic.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
That's after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty on
Moegger's opening day. Eve Reds and Giants to be playing
twenty four hours and right now, barring some sort of
weather event. One of my favorite people over the years
to talk with about the Reds and to read read
their work about the Reds is Chad Dotson. He has

(47:24):
a preseason column up at Cincinnati Magazine dot com right say,
a regular Reds column for that publication has a newsletter
which is terrific, The Riverfront, which you should subscribe to
that and he has also released a second edition of
one of my favorite Reds books, The Men and Moments
that Made the Cincinnati Reds. He co authored this with

(47:44):
a guy by the name of Chris Garber, and the
first edition came out in twenty eighteen. Since then, there
have been other men and other moments, and so there's
an updated version. I have it in my hands. I
have Chad on the line. That's a long intro. It's
great to have you opening day. How are you.

Speaker 10 (48:02):
Good to talk to you again, Moe. Just getting ready
for this baseball season.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Here's what I hope. I hope this season and I
hope the coming seasons. I hope the rest of this
decade compel you to have to do like the Big
one hundred. I hope the next four or five years
are that memorable, that meaningful. I hold out hope. How
about you?

Speaker 10 (48:20):
Oh, I want to update this book as often as
I can, to add all the new championships and all
the new exciting moments. So you know, it's a line
I used in my column this week was that that
hope is undefeated in March, and and so that's I'm
in that hopeful mode right now. Is the season getting
ready to get started?

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Yeah? I think we all are. And we'll get to
that here in just a second. You were kind enough
to join me when you and Chris put this book together.
The first time which I looked it up today, was
twenty eighteen, and I told you then what I'll tell
you now. I like the fact that this isn't necessarily
a countdown of moments, right. I think there's there are

(48:59):
books who have done that, any of us can do that.
I like the fact that there are plenty of moments,
but it's really about the individuals, and that, to me
is what I like most about what you and Chris
have done.

Speaker 10 (49:10):
Yeah, you know, we didn't want to be just a
straight countdown either, but sort of fifty important men and
moments that every Reds fan needs to know more about it.
And our approach to this was we need to pick
the big men in moments, but also for every one
of those moments, each chapter needs to be.

Speaker 5 (49:30):
If you're a.

Speaker 10 (49:31):
Brand new Reds fan, you can dive in and you're
gonna learn all about it. But even if you're a
hardcore long time Redspan we wanted something every single chapter
that we learned and there were plenty of things in
doing the research, so there's something for every level of
Redspan and we're really pleased with the final products.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Yeah. No, as you should be. And I think I
said this to you seven years ago. There's lots of
stuff in here that when I saw, all right, they've
done a chapter on this, you know, or they've done
they've done a chapter on this moment or this player
that I thought I was really familiar with that in
reading what you wrote about it, I learned something that
I didn't know.

Speaker 10 (50:09):
Well, we went to a lot of primary sources, original
newspaper columns, you know.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
I mean, we.

Speaker 10 (50:13):
Really did a deep dive on everything and talk to people, interviews,
and so yeah, that's my hope is that whoever thinks
they're the most well read or knows more about the
rent history of anyone, you going to find something in
this book you didn't know, I guarantee you.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Yeah. And the primary example of that for me is,
and this is maybe a little bit of a deep
cut for some of our listeners, is the chapter on
the nineteen nineteen World Series because I think, in large
part because of the movie that came out in the
late eighties, I think that entire ordeal and that entire series,
I think the Reds roll in it and why they
should have won anyway, even if the other team wasn't

(50:51):
on the take. It's totally obscured by history.

Speaker 10 (50:55):
Yes, And that was a fun one to research and
to learn more about it because that was the same way
that's a narrative that's the narrative we've been said our
entire lives, and so just to go back and look
at who the team actually was and that they were
a legitimately good team under manager Pat Moran and had
you know, Hall of famers and just it was. It
was not what it is portrayed to be because the

(51:16):
narrative of the Black Sox took control. But I probably
learned more myself in researching and Chris and I writing
that chapter than maybe any other chapter.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Yeah. I also like the fact that you include a
chapter about when you think of the Reds and you
think of their history, you don't think pitching first, right,
Like if we were to sit down and come up
with a list of like the ten to fifteen most
identifiable figures in franchise history, we're talking offensive players for
the most part. There are exceptions, and so you had
a chapter on flamethrowers, and there are other chapters about Anne,

(51:52):
Tom Severs, No Hitter and other seminal figures in this
franchise's history. I love the fact though, that there's a
chapter devoted specifically to the men on the Mound, because
those are not the guys you think of first when
you think of this franchise.

Speaker 10 (52:05):
You're right, And and that's actually a chapter that it's
new in this uh, in this the revised updated edition.

Speaker 7 (52:11):
Of the book.

Speaker 10 (52:11):
Because we liked folks a little bit on flamethrowers, because
there have been a lot of them, uh over D's history,
and you know, Hunter Green is the most recent, uh obviously,
and we wanted to talk about Hunter Green and just
uh because I last year he established himself as an
ace and he's a he's a big name in this organization.
But but you're right, we don't focus a lot on

(52:33):
on the pitching and so uh to that to that point,
probably my favorite chapter in the entire book is a
chapter on Yule Blackwell, the wit they called him, you know,
and uh, just I learned so much about him in
writing it, and and it was it was fun to
listen to and read about the different things they called

(52:56):
called him, back to the all kinds of all kinds
of crazy nicknames. So we did. We tried to focus
on some things that were important in history and maybe
a little underserved sometimes.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yeah. And by the way, I think there are a
lot of teams that are underserved, right, Like you know,
the twenty twelve team. You have a chapter on them,
and obviously that goes back to the first publishing of
the book. But when everybody thinks twenty twelve, they think
of blowing the two to zero lead. I think of
a ninety seven win team that might be the best
Reds team of my adulthood. I think of the ninety
nine team, which, if you talk to a lot of

(53:28):
folks my age, is like the one that brought them
back to baseball. A lot of people to this day,
more than a quarter century later, say that's their favorite
all time team. I love. I love things like this
that give those teams their due and for more than
just how it ended, whether it was with success or disappointment.

Speaker 10 (53:45):
Well, and I guess maybe that's the generational thing with us,
is that we haven't had as much. You know, I
was a teenager when they won the World Series. But
you know, maybe my favorite team is ninety five or
ninety nine, and definitely twenty twelve. You know, twenty twelve
is a team that we all remember the Buster Posey
Grand Slam and blowing the two ole when they came

(54:07):
back home. But what I really remember from that is
we had an actual team that year. All year long.
That was a legitimate World Series contender. No, they didn't
get there, but I had a lot of fun over
one hundred and sixty two games with that team. Some
great personalities and great performances. It's a team that doesn't
need to be forgotten just because they didn't get past

(54:28):
get to the ultimate goal. We wanted them to get there,
so we thought it was important to include them.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Yeah, I would agree with that. The Big Fifty, the
men in moments that made the Cincinnati Reds, Chad Dodson,
Chris Garber revised and updated it is. Do you like
it when people say it's available wherever you get books? So,
do you have a place you want people to go?

Speaker 10 (54:46):
Well, no, it should be available in bookstores around the area.
It's also available all online retailers, so no, just pick
it up. I guarantee you're going to find something there
to enjoy.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
I would concur with that talk with you about this
year's team because I read your Cincinnati Magazine column and
it kind of hit the sweet spot where I am
and where a lot of us are, where I could
look at data and I've read every projection, and I've
read all the smart people who objectively sort of bring

(55:19):
the mood down and tell you this team's ceiling is
not that high, and the most likely outcome is they
finish closer to the bottom of the division than closer
to the top of the division, and they throw cold
water over our playoff expectations, and like nobody wants to
read or hear that in March or April. I genuinely
do think, Chad, that this team has more potential than

(55:43):
the one that came before it, and the one that
came before that one, and certainly the one that came
before that one. I would imagine, and this is more
than just you being a Reds fan, because you could,
you could put some more thought into this than I can.
I would imagine that you agree.

Speaker 10 (55:58):
Well, you know, it's it's easy to just say, oh,
the Reds, they're gonna break our hearts.

Speaker 7 (56:03):
They always do.

Speaker 10 (56:05):
But I absolutely one agree with that, And I don't
believe it's just my sort of annual spring fever about
the Reds and spring optimism, because there are significant differences there.
I think we have a little more depth on the
pitching staff than they've had in recent years. We have
another year of growth with with the kids. You know
Ellie's Eli and Hunter Green are established all stars now,

(56:28):
but you know Mclaim's back and and you know we're
hopeful about being Knossi on strand and so. But but
the piece of it that really is different than any
and I'm so eager to see how this manifests itself
in the regular season is the Terry Francona fiees. You know,
Francona has a not just the history of winning, but
history of winning with rosters that are somewhat similar to

(56:50):
what he's gonna have here this year, next year, the
year after, And so I'm as eager to watch the
development of this this roster in this organization in the
next you know, thirty days, ninety days year, two years
than I have been in a while. I think there's
a real chance of turning a corner. And so I
don't want to believe the data either. I'm choosing to
be optimistic and.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
The data doesn't account for and frankly, I can either
that the data doesn't necessarily account for how many wins
a manager is going to be worth.

Speaker 10 (57:21):
Well, it's exactly right, And you know the data really
doesn't It's it's a computer, it's it can't talk about
how much is Eli daily cru is going to be
even more transformational this year, you know, and it says
what the numbers say it should say. But I think
things like that, and especially Frank ConA, how much if
he if he's a I don't want to put a

(57:43):
number how many wins, but any wins that he provides
that we wouldn't have had otherwise, this team starts looking
a little bit different because it's going to be a
fairly tight division. I mean, the Cubs are supposedly improved,
but no one else really stands out to me, So
there's an opportunity here.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
Yeah, I again, I would agree with that. Chad Dotson
with this for another couple of minutes. I'm a fan
of The Riverfront, which is your newsletter, and the most
thought provoking piece for me that you wrote this winter,
I think came on a weekend. I have always been
kind of ambivalent about the Hall of Fame case for

(58:19):
David Conceptsion, right, Like, I didn't grow up watching him play.
I grew up when he was an aging player on
the Reds playing some first base, you know, late eighties.
I don't remember him in his prime, and so I've
always appreciated and honored his place in Red's history. I've
never been particularly moved by his Cooperstown case, but I
love a good Hall of Fame argument. So you write

(58:41):
this piece about David Conceptcion, and by the end of it,
not only was I convinced, I started to think that
David Conceptsion's omission from Cooper'stown is egregeous. So Number One,
awesome piece, because I love things that make me think
and make me sort of change my point of view.
Number Two, if this is something you want a champ
moving forward, I'm right there with you. This has to happen, so.

Speaker 10 (59:04):
Let's do it.

Speaker 7 (59:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (59:05):
No, I've changed my mind over the years on this
as well. You know, I was the same as you.
You know, I saw Conceptsy at the end of his
career and he was one of our you know, links
to the big Red Machine, obviously, but I thought he
was in the Hall of very good. We would say,
you know, a really good player, but maybe maybe not
quite a Hall of Famer. So then you start looking

(59:26):
at a couple of things, And what really got my
mind changing on the subject was when Harold Baines was
elected to the Hall of Fame a couple of years ago,
and I'm a Hall of Fame guy. Always loved the
Hall of Fame arguments always have when that happened, and
Harold Bains was a good player, but Harold Baines was
not my idea of what the Hall of Fame had
traditionally been. And so in my mind, I said, well,

(59:50):
if Harold Bains is a Hall of Famer, and he
is at this point, then what arguments are there to
exclude a guy like Dave Conceptcy owned conceptci owned, Unlike
Harold Baines, was considered to be an elite player at
his position during his career, multi Gold Glove winner, he
could hit more than people realize, and when you look

(01:00:12):
at it, you can compare him to Ozzie Smith. The
only thing Ozzie Smith really has over Dave conceptsi On
is that Audie Smith.

Speaker 11 (01:00:18):
To do backflip.

Speaker 10 (01:00:21):
I just if you look at the context of a
bigger haul, which is what the Hall of Fame is now,
when we're including guys like Jack Morris and Harold Baines,
I just don't see if there's any way to keep
conceptci On out. And I think probably his case gets
diminished a little also because he played with a bunch
of legitimate legends of the game, and so maybe that

(01:00:44):
diminishes the way he looks some But I'm all about
I'm ready. I'm ready to try to make the case
and take this on as the call.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Yeah, I'm with you too, and I think people also,
and you made this point as well, like I think
people don't realize how dreadful most shortstops were offensively in
that era, and so Davey really stood out because there
were very few peers. You mentioned Harold Bains. So I'm
excited for this year because I'm a huge Dave Parker fan,
right like, one of my absolute favorites growing up, and

(01:01:12):
he got Cooper's towns.

Speaker 5 (01:01:13):
Call this year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
And what really made me feel like, you know what
Dave Parker should go in is when Harold Bains went in.
My argument was maybe a little bit less nuanced, but
my thing was Harold Bains became a full time DH
of twenty seven. Dave Parker was a two way player
with five tools and robbed of some prime years because
of injuries and other things in his early thirties when

(01:01:34):
he was playing out his time in Pittsburgh. But if
Harold Bains basically a one dimensional player for the most
part his entire career can get in, then Dave Parker
can get in, and this year he does. So I'm stoked.

Speaker 10 (01:01:47):
Well, I'm exactly the same way, And there are similar
arguments to Parker, except Parker was at one time the
most fearsome hitter in the league. Yes, and then if
you've never seen the throw he made in the All
Star Game from right field, he was a very definition
of a five tool player. So yeah, I mean, clearly,
if Harra mind's the whole or Parker should be slammed up,

(01:02:09):
because I'm the same way. When he came to Cincinnati,
he quickly quickly fell in love with his game and
watching him play and his personality. And so I'm thrilled
to see him going in.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Yeah, thrilled that he goes in and thrilled that he
gets a chance to be there to enjoy it. I
enjoyed the Big fifty, the men in moments that made
the Cincinnati Reds. Chad Dodson, along with Chris Garber a
terrific read A great sort of listen to the ballgame
with the background and read about the Reds. Maybe one
weekend in the coming weeks. This is really good. I

(01:02:41):
always love having you on. Man, Let's do it during
the season. Thank you so much.

Speaker 12 (01:02:45):
Well.

Speaker 10 (01:02:45):
I appreciate the kind words and as you know, always
happy to come on and talk about the Reds.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
So what you should do is you should subscribe to
his newsletter, The Riverfront. You should also read his column
at Cincinnati Magazine, and you should buy his book, Chris Garber,
the other guy who rot it with them. Chris is
very good in his own right. Uh, the Big fifty,
the men in moments that made the Cincinnati Red sports headlines,
and we got poll questions and injuries to talk about.
Next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (01:03:17):
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Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Sports Headlines Service, a lifetime powertrain. We guarantee credit approval
from there to yours for our lives chelseaschev dot Com.
Austin Hayes will start the season on the injured list
for the Reds. He is dealing with a left calf strain.
Spencer Steer will start the season on the active roster,
which is a pleasant surprise. Headed to the inter list

(01:04:14):
to no one's surprised Tyler Stevenson, Andrew Habitt, Alexis Diaz
and Rhet Louder. Austin wins up from Triple A Louisville
to start the season in Cincinnati. Obviously redsney two catchers.
He'll be the second Hunter Green and Brandon Webb tomorrow
are Brendan Webb tomorrow in the season opener Reds and
Giants at GABP four ten, Richard Patino hired as Xavier's

(01:04:37):
head coach, and the Cyclone skate tonight at Kalamazoo. A
couple of poll questions. Thanks to our friends and yours
at United Heartland Insurance. The single greatest insurance company in
the world, two of them number one. On March eighth,
twenty twenty four, Nick Crawl said, quote, the outfield needs
to get better. That's a direct quote. On March twenty

(01:04:59):
seventh to twenty twenty five, tomorrow is the outfield better?
Vote now? Yes, kinda, not really or no question Number two,
Xavier has hired Rick Patino. Great hire, good hire, higher
or bad hire? Vote now at mulwager. It's time to
talk injuries with one of the experts from Ortho since

(01:05:20):
orthopedics and sports medicine. The great thing about Orthosince is
they have specialists and locations and services all over the
tri State, including in Highland Heights where my guy, doctor
angel Velaskaz fixed my neck walk in orthopedic urgent care
at five locations, extended evening and weekend hours in Edgewood
and Anderson. Learn more at Orthosincy dot com. That's Ortho

(01:05:44):
ci Ncy dot com. Doctor John Fridge from Ortho Cincia
is with us. Let's start by talking about Tyler Stevenson,
who is going to start the season on the injured list.
He is dealing with an oblique injury. Are there different
grades for oblique injuries.

Speaker 11 (01:06:01):
Yeah, absolutely, thanks for having me on the show though. So, yeah,
we see these oblique strains time and time again, pretty
common injury in baseball. We grade them based on the
MRI findings on a grading scale of one to three,
one being mild a little bit of stretch muscle to
being partial tearing, and three being more complete tearing of
the muscle itself. The treatment generally is pretty much the

(01:06:25):
same but gives us some guidance as when we can
expect them to be able to return to play.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
So these injuries always seem to last longer than the
minimum eyel stint. Why is that?

Speaker 11 (01:06:38):
Absolutely so, these types of injuries were waiting on the
muscle to heal, and even after it does heal, they're
at high risk of it retearing or re injuring, and
that's why they seem to always take longer than expected,
particularly in baseball, where you're relying on rotational movement through
your core.

Speaker 6 (01:06:56):
It's put in pretty.

Speaker 11 (01:06:57):
Much anything you're doing, whether it's adding pitching, and it's
going to be pulling on your obliques and so these
have a high rate of reinjuring and so end up
taking quite a bit longer to get them back to play.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
They always seem to just kind of pop up, like
a player will come back right from an oblique injury
and then they'll go, you know and play for a
few weeks and then it feels like it pops up again.
Why is that.

Speaker 7 (01:07:22):
So?

Speaker 11 (01:07:23):
We think it's because that there's kind of a weak
spot where things tour and they heal, and so when
the muscle heals together, it forms that scar tissue there
where it heals together, and we think that the week's
point is right adjacent to that, so that the high
risk of re injuring this. Although it's safe for them
to return to play, we're really working on kind of rehabing,

(01:07:44):
making sure that they're stretching their obliques and core strengthening.
But unfortunately, somebody are unavoidable.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
How does an injury like this get treated.

Speaker 11 (01:07:56):
So, like we talked about a little bit, the biggest
thing is initial period of rest, avoiding those rotational movements,
so unfortunately that means not really throwing or batting for
a period of time. Icing, different methods of taping can
help with the recovery, and then pretty extensive rehab to
work on acentric strengthening of these muscles, so strengthening your

(01:08:18):
obliques and core while elong dating those muscles to help
with the recovery period.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
It's also, I think concerning that he plays catcher right
like a physically demanding position. Lots going on. Obviously every
position is susceptible to injury, but is there an added
concern because of the position that he plays. Oh?

Speaker 11 (01:08:38):
Absolutely, I mean the specific pas seed that are required
to him during a game are certainly going to put
more stress on his core than the average player, and
so it's very possible that this could take up a
little longer to recover from, and he's certainly at risk
of re injuring. I know their physical their athletic training
staff is certainly taking this into consideration and it's being

(01:09:02):
extra careful with returning in the play.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
Ask you about Alexis Dias. Doctor John Fridge from Orthosinsia
is with US also going to start the season on
the injured list with a hamstring injury, said he felt
something during fielding drills late in February, which was obviously
a while ago, early during spring training, went through spring,
appeared in four games. He wasn't that effective. He has

(01:09:25):
since been placed on the injured list. How do you
typically treat a hamstring injury?

Speaker 11 (01:09:32):
I mean, the vast majority of hamstring injuries are treated
without surgery. Really, the only time we treat it with
surgery is when the hamstring tendon rips off of the
pelvis where it connects kind of up fire butts. More
commonly it's a muscular tear or strain, and unfortunately there's
difficult injuries to recover from, but mostly get better without

(01:09:53):
a surgery. The types of treatment we use, aside from
raster rehab and says therapy, it'll work on the centric
strengthening icing an Athletes sometimes will consider injections of hoart
zone or plate leverage plasma to help recovery process. That
all kind of depends on the degree of injury and location.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
One more to ask about a prospect who I think
everybody agrees has a really bright future in front of him.
Cam Collier has a UCL tear in his left thumb.
Had surgery on March thirteenth. The hope is that he
is going to start hitting by the end of next month.
I've heard of UCLs as they relate to elbows. What
does the UCL of the thumb do?

Speaker 11 (01:10:37):
So pretty similar to the elbow. It's a stabilizing ligament
at the thumb. It helps keep it stable side to side.
And so oftentimes when you injury this because you've got
your thumb on something and I've pulled it and pour
that ligament.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
Does the ligament have to be torn to require surgery?
They obviously perform surgery here.

Speaker 11 (01:10:58):
Usually and so performed if the thumb is unstable, and
so if you're able to move it more than you
should side to side, then that generally indicates that that
ligament is torn or its attachment site, that the bone
is broken, and so that warrant.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
The surgery timeline for Cam makes sense that it would
it would seem reasonable to expect him to start doing
baseball stuff by late April.

Speaker 6 (01:11:21):
I think so.

Speaker 11 (01:11:23):
I think recently our surgical techniques for repairing these have
gotten a lot better. The hardware we're using is more resistant,
and so typical return to drills is about four to
six weeks and return to play on average around eight weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
You see in baseball now when guys reach base they
put on what looks like in oven mid. In fact,
that's just what we call it, the protective oven mid.
Cam got injured making a swite tag. But for base runners,
do you recommend the oven min?

Speaker 11 (01:11:55):
I mean the best answer is it depends. It's all
about risk and benefit. I do think the oven likely
decreases the incidents of these tysandries your thumb catching something
because it's covered and protected. But I mean, what do
you lose from that? You lose some dexterity in your hand.
I mean maybe not all players feel comfortable with having
that on their hand. They's a limiting factor.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
Every kid that I know that plays baseball has an
oven mid, and I don't think they were for protective purposes.
I think they think it looks cool. But we'll see.
I appreciate the time as always. Man, thanks so much.

Speaker 11 (01:12:28):
All right, thanks both, take care.

Speaker 5 (01:12:30):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:12:31):
Doctor John Fridge from Ortho Sincy, I say this every week,
and I'm serious about this. I took my daughter to
Ortho Sincy when she broke her foot. My wife messed
up her ankle, went to Ortho Sincy. My neck was
just a colossal mess. I went to Orthos Sincy. Weren't
Ortho Sincy family Orthos since the orthopedic urgent care. You
never excuse me, need an appointment, go to ortho ci

(01:12:53):
ncy dot com. That's ortho ci n Cy dot com.
Brennanvan and Jones on.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
Baseball Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (01:13:05):
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Speaker 5 (01:13:26):
That's a five.

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Minute delay right now. Northbound seventy one seventy five. Some
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a ten minutes slow down on that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
He's out like with traffic teen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Right, it's five minutes after five o'clock. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Thank you so much for listening today. I
hope you're having like the greatest Wednesday of all time.
It is Opening Day Eve, it's the night before, It's
like Christmas Eve night something like that. Rad You're going
to play in less than twenty four hours. Tomorrow is

(01:13:58):
the greatest day. And since I can't wait, I'll be
on with Tony and Austin tomorrow. Right now, I'm at
the Moreland Lagger House, which tonight is going to host
this big Opening Day Eve party. This is an event
where baseball fans collide with high society of Cincinnati. It
is they say, a who's who, like a who's who

(01:14:21):
of Cincinnati is going to be at this thing. Why
we're here debatable, but a who's who of Cincinnati, like
every good looking person, every wealthy person is going to
be here mingling with you know, just you know Joe
Reds fan. So it's it's a great event. And obviously
everything benefits the Red's Community Fund, and I have such

(01:14:42):
a soft spot in my heart for the Red's Community Fund.
I love the work that they do and Charlie Frank
and his staff are awesome, and so sign me up
for anything that helps them do the great work that
they do. We have a lot to get to this hour.
It's our last show before the season starts. You know,
we're doing a gambling segment. So Josh Ingles covers dot

(01:15:04):
Com is like their baseball guy. I'm gonna ask him,
shall we bet on the Reds. I do know there
is a Reds related prop that he loves that. I
didn't even think about before he and I talked off air.
That is coming up at just about thirty five minutes
and a few minutes with Paul Danner Junior of The
Athletic and the Growlar Podcast, because we didn't have a
chance to have Paul on the show yesterday because he

(01:15:26):
was on vacation. His vacation's over. There's some Bengals stuff happening,
and Paul's going to talk about that stuff with us
here in just a bit. A newsy day for the
Reds and a disappointing one. You were just listening there
to Brendaman and Jones on Baseball talk about Austin Hayes
and their hopes for him, and that is a good acquisition.

(01:15:47):
Austin Hayes had some really nice seasons in Baltimore. Last
year kind of a wash because of lower body injuries
and the kidney issue that kind of felled, if you will,
his chances of helping the Phillies once he got traded
to Philadelphia. Last night, the Reds played a team of
their prospects up in Dayton. Austin Hayes did not play,

(01:16:08):
and the reason why he's got a calf issue. That
calf issue is being called a strain, and it's putting
Austin on the injured list to start the season, so
it doesn't necessarily have to be a long term thing.
The way they've backdated it would suggest at least that
there's a possibility that he would only miss the first
six games we will see. It does amplify the biggest

(01:16:31):
question about this team now. The good news is Spencer
Steeer is going to start the season on the active roster,
which is a pleasant surprise. You wonder if Austin Hayes
was healthy, would Spencer Steer be on the injured list?
And if the answer is yes, he would be. Is
that because he's still dealing with soreness? And so how
much are we going to have to monitor that. I

(01:16:52):
think the consensus about the Reds this year, and I
certainly mesh with it, is starting pitching, good offense, shaky
bullpen question mark. I still think some of their better
arms in the organization and the bullpen are not in Cincinnati.
That's a little bit of a different discussion. But offensively,
is this team good enough? And I think as you

(01:17:13):
focus on Nick Crawl, did he do enough now? It's
beyond his control that Tyler Stevenson is hurt. It's beyond
his control that Austin Hayes is hurt. And there are
some high ceiling players on this team. I think we
would agree. I think we would agree that Ellie Deayler
Cruz is a high ceiling player, and Matt mcclean's a
high ceiling player. And I'm as big a Tyler Stevenson

(01:17:36):
fantas will find. I think he's a high ceiling player.
And I'll even say Christian and Carnassi on strand because
I think he's got the ability to hit twenty five
to thirty home runs, especially playing here, He's got to
stay healthy. It does I heard Marty talking about this
with Racy feel very much like a put up or
shut up year for him. I think those are four
high ceiling players. I think the team's overall offensive profile

(01:18:00):
is not very It doesn't lend itself to thinking to
us thinking it's it's a high ceiling offensive team. It's
a clumsy way of me saying I don't think this
team's offense is gonna be great, and I think most
of us would not along with that. So the question becomes,
did they do enough? Did they do enough this offseason?
And it doesn't do a whole lot of good looking back,

(01:18:21):
but you can't help. And this is not a reaction
to all and Hayes getting hurt, But I mean, there
we were at the end of spring training wondering if
roster spots were gonna go to Jacob Hertebes and Stuart
Fairchild and Blake Done and you know Stuart Fairschod, I
guess is gonna be dfaid that those guys might bring value.
But you still look at the outfield in particular, and

(01:18:45):
you just you go, eh, like that's very I'll admit
amateur sounding analysis, But look at that outfield. Does that
look like the outfield of a ninety win team? That's
the goal here, right to win ninety or more like,
that's we'll compete for a championship with Austin Hayes. I'm
not sure the answer is yes, without them for however

(01:19:08):
long that is, I know it's not yes. So how
do they overcome that or does the outfield production surprises? Look,
we're already wondering who are they going to get at
the deadline, and when we wonder that, the answer is
get an outfielder because we know it's deficient. If you
know it's deficient, why did you make it any better?
Nick Krawl said on October eighth last year, the outfield

(01:19:30):
has to get better. Now, yes, some individual players must
perform better, but it just it feels like the work
on that area of the team is really really incomplete,
and then it's exacerbated by injuries, including the one to
Tyler Stevenson. So we're kind of working through that. You

(01:19:52):
could vote on my Twitter feed at maleger thanks to
United Heartland Insurance as to whether or not Nick Crawl
did enough to make the outfield better. The other news
is obviously the Xavier basketball situation, and there's there's a
couple of different ways of looking at it. It feels
like a direct rebuke of Chris mack now. I am
a big fan of Chris mack Selfishly, when Chris was

(01:20:15):
the coach at Xavier and even a couple of times
at Louisville, he came on our show and was awesome,
and I think he's a very good basketball coach. This
felt obvious for a lot of folks, and the fact
that it was so obvious and didn't happen, it feels
like a rebuke of Chris Mack, whether it's a rebuke
of Chris Mack by the athletic director or by some
influential people. Chris didn't forget how to coach college basketball.

(01:20:38):
He had twenty four win season at Charleston, So it
does feel like a rebuke of Chris. But you could
say that and also acknowledge Richard Patino might be the
better candidate. You know, Chris's resume is a little bit
more extensive. But Richard Patino, you know, number one. If
he could bring Donovan Dent with him the Mountawest Player

(01:20:59):
of the year, that's a big win. Richard Patino did
a good job at New Mexico, coach at a tough
place at Minnesota. Is still just forty two years old.
I kind of look at the record at Minnesota through
three different lenses. One pre nil and portal, so I
almost don't care. Two Minnesota, who cares? Three He was

(01:21:20):
really really young. He was learning the ropes as a
head coach in the Big Ten, which is not easy,
So I give him a pass there. I've talked to
three people who work in college basketball who love Richard Patino,
love everything about his personality, says one guy told me
late last night the sort of dude that I'm gonna

(01:21:42):
love because he does not take himself all that seriously,
kind of the polar opposite of his dad. But I
think the two other takeaways from here, Number one, if
you're a big Xavier fan or if you are just
familiar with the program, like this is the antithesis of
how they do things. Now. This is not a criticism,
but the reality is every coaching hire in men's basketball

(01:22:05):
for close to a quarter century has been in the family.
Sean Miller was hired because he had not because but
was already on fad modest staff. Fad leaves, they hire Sean.
Sean Miller leaves, They hire Chris Mack from his staff.
Chris Mack leaves, They hire Travis Steel from Chris's staff,
Travis gets bounced, They bring back Sean Miller, who had

(01:22:28):
already coached Xavier. So it's just it's different. Different can
be good, different can be not so good. It does
feel to me, and to me this is the most
important part. In recent years when there's been a UC
football coaching change, I'll hear people say, gotta hire someone
who's gonna stay. By the way, when they hired Luke Fickle,
they did. He stayed five years. Gotta hire someone who's

(01:22:51):
gonna stay. And my takeaway is, forget that. It's the
most overrated part of any coaching search or any coaching
hire hire the best coach. Especially now, college basketball has
never been a never been more than a It's never
been more of a year to year sport. All that
matters is what are you doing this year? What are
you doing right now? What are you doing this year?

(01:23:11):
Who you bringing in? What are you gonna do this?
Hire the best coach? Forget who's gonna stay. What this
is to me is it's Xavier leaning into you know what,
We're gonna hire the right guy. He may leave. I
have no idea if Richard Patino is gonna be here
for a year, five years, ten years, two years, I
do not know. I think few of us would be
surprised if Richard used Xavier as a jumping off point.

(01:23:36):
And that's okay, as long as he wins while he's here.
What I like about this is it is a school
to me at least going Look, we're gonna hire who
we think the best fit is, who best fits our
current sensibilities best fits the current sensibilities of college basketball
in twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six. It doesn't have
to repair any relationships that might have been fractured seven

(01:23:57):
years ago. And you know what, if he leaves, that's
okay because it is hiring somebody with a primary motivation
being someone who's gonna stay to me. That's that's what
a bad eighty does. That's a foolish decision. This is
not a foolish decision. And let's face it, it's Richard
Patino who should be judged on his own merits. But

(01:24:19):
the fact that he's gonna be coaching in the same
conference as his dad, who just won the Big East
is really fun. So selfishly, I like Chris Mack, but
as a college basketball fan, it's a different twist. It's
an interesting dynamic and I can't wait to see how
it unfolds. Sixteen minutes after five o'clock, we're at the

(01:24:40):
m Morelin Loggerhouse, which is right across the street from
a Great American Ballpark. They will be hosting a huge
John John and Friends opening day bash and watch party
that starts at twelve noon tomorrow, goes all the way
until eight o'clock. We have a lot of ground to cover.
We're here till six on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:24:57):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:25:03):
From the UC Health Traffic Center for National Doctor's Day,
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Cropper Bridge, traffic there is running slow. From the Petersburg exit,
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with traffic block.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moegor. We are broadcasting
from the more Line Loggerhouse, which tomorrow is hosting an
enormous John John and Friends opening day bash and watch
party right outside here. They're setting it up now. We're
right across the street from the ballpark. So if you
have tickets, come on by here and post up before

(01:25:54):
the game. If you don't have tickets, you can watch
the game here and you can hang out with John,
John and Frank and Greg Hartman. Who's here? What's going on?

Speaker 13 (01:26:02):
Oh my gosh, are we pulling our hair out getting
ready for opening day?

Speaker 5 (01:26:06):
We've had all winter to think about it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
It's always that mad rush.

Speaker 5 (01:26:10):
Right at the end.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
I was gonna say, you're gonna sleep tonight? Probably not, No, no,
very good. But you're gonna have fun tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:26:15):
Oh I'm gonna have fun tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:26:17):
Yeah. There you go. You got the party happening here
benefiting the Reds Community Fund, which you guys have done
such a great job. Something that started as a small
event has just gotten bigger and bigger than you guys
are a big, big reason why Well, you.

Speaker 13 (01:26:29):
Know they used to host it out at the Academy. Yeah,
and it was a little drive out for people. And
Randy Frecking, who actually as the host of the party,
he basically said to me, Hey, Greg, how would you
like to host it down here? And you know, let's
let's let's pull it off to be a really big thing.
And a lot of people don't realize it, but Randy
called me up on an emergency. The last year they

(01:26:49):
had at the Academy had said, my food vendor bailed
on me. Can you help me out? And I'm like,
who are you? He goes, I only need food for
five hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
People, that's it. I was like, get right off, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:27:03):
Tomorrow, you know.

Speaker 13 (01:27:03):
So I met him there and then he said he
wanted to move it down to the Loggerhouse and it's
just a much spectacular location.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
And you know, he uh, he.

Speaker 13 (01:27:12):
Saw what we were doing with opening Day. Obviously, the
Banks has a great party and everything, and and we're
like two inches from the Banks, and you know, we
always came around with people being like, you know, hey,
this is a little more intimate, you know, and people
can really you know, hang out and meet some you know,
really cool people here.

Speaker 2 (01:27:31):
It's it's a lot of fun. So for folks who
haven't been down here for opening Day, and it's it's
important to mention, like if you're looking for a place
to watch the game, if you don't have tickets, just
come watch it here. But the festivities start well before
first pitch throw.

Speaker 13 (01:27:43):
Well, you know, it starts noon tomorrow and it's the
John John and Friends Opening Day.

Speaker 3 (01:27:49):
Bash and watch party, right and.

Speaker 13 (01:27:52):
So we we we have an unbelievable lineup of DJs
from prime Time to d LO and it goes on
and on and on all day long. And then John
John has his special VIP area which it's open to
everybody basically, uh, and he basically shows everybody a great time.

(01:28:13):
It's celebrity after celebrity after celebrity. Tomorrow we have like, uh,
former Red Billy Hamilton coming in. Yeah, he's gonna hang
out in that as well as uh the since he
hat man Ted Carris himself.

Speaker 5 (01:28:27):
He came last year.

Speaker 13 (01:28:28):
He had so much fun and it was one of
their largest uh days that people actually bought since he
hats and they were like, hey, like we're coming back,
and I was like, oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:28:39):
So he's coming tomorrow after the parade.

Speaker 5 (01:28:41):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:28:42):
And it just goes on and on and on and on.

Speaker 13 (01:28:44):
So we we're really excited long long games.

Speaker 2 (01:28:48):
Uh.

Speaker 13 (01:28:49):
It's it's a lot of vendors, really cool things, photo booze,
character artists, vendors, vendor vendors.

Speaker 3 (01:28:58):
It's amazing.

Speaker 13 (01:28:59):
So the event LO at the Loggerhouse is the place
to be all day long.

Speaker 2 (01:29:03):
And then you know, you get to take your breath
because there's no game on.

Speaker 13 (01:29:06):
Friday, Oh, you know happy hour on Friday here after
the gas because a lot of people come to town. Right,
It is a really fun happy hour here down at
the Loggerhouse, and we have our five dollars beer wine
spirits three to six pm Monday through Friday.

Speaker 3 (01:29:24):
So it's really fun.

Speaker 2 (01:29:25):
Can't beat that. The festivities get underweight at noon. It's
really cool to be here between like four and five
tomorrow when you have the game is starting. Maybe you
have people who have just gotten off work, the sun's
hopefully been out all day long, and so like right
in that sweet spot is a really fun time here.

Speaker 13 (01:29:42):
Oh my god, it's you wouldn't believe people are eating dinner.
They're they're they're watching the game on the TV because
they need to have tickets there. We keep the DJs
going all the way through the game, right, We show
the game out there too.

Speaker 3 (01:29:55):
So it's just it's a fun event. It's just terrifically exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:29:59):
And it can't beat John John right and friends. Oh yeah,
I got a lot of friends.

Speaker 13 (01:30:04):
I mean it's like a cond Like I said, it's
a constant celebrity thing with John John.

Speaker 3 (01:30:07):
It's like one after.

Speaker 13 (01:30:08):
The other, just coming up and party in and we
have a Molly Wellman mixology bar too. That's cool now
and we actually have that right as you walk into
the Loggerhouse. It's in our front pavilion bar and she's
taking that over. And so she's working with our friends
from both Jack Daniels and Tito's Wow, and they made

(01:30:30):
a really cool Tito Franconia drink.

Speaker 3 (01:30:32):
So I'm really I'm excited about this Wow.

Speaker 13 (01:30:34):
I'm actually gonna taste it tonight for the first time.

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
That sounds that sounds amazing. That sounds awesome. All right,
So the fun gets underway at noon and you guys
are are setting up and it's going to be a blast,
and John John's going to be here and you guys
are awesome. Thank you for having us.

Speaker 13 (01:30:48):
Out here well as always, we love having you out here,
Mo and thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:30:52):
Good times. The party tonight should be awesome, and hopefully
you have us back next year and then the party
tomorrow will be cool as well. Thank you so much.
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:31:00):
Be safe, you got it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:02):
That's our guy, Greg Hartman from the more Lion Loggerhouse.
We are here until six o'clock. We'll see if we
can make some money on the Reds next on ESPN
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
X Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:31:17):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. For National Doctor's Day,
for better tomorrow's 're more at UCHealth dot com. No
accidents right now, but construction southbound two seventy five leaves
that down to one lane on the Carrol Cropper Bridge.
Traffic is moving slow from US fifty. You're also going

(01:31:38):
to find some stop angle traffic southbound seventy five between
the Western Hills Viaduct and Fort Washington Way five minute delay.
I'm at Ezelik with traffic this report.

Speaker 1 (01:31:48):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:31:51):
Head lage are a service to Kelsey show Maalay. Austin
Hayes will start the season on the injury list for
the Reds. He's got a capstrain. No good Tyler Stevenson,
Andrew Abbott, Alexis diazn't reat Louder join him. Spencer Sear
does not. He'll play tomorrow unless his shoulder hurts. Reds
and Giants tomorrow. Hunter Green making his second opening day
start four to ten tomorrow afternoon on seven hundred WLW.

(01:32:13):
Richard Patino has changed his Twitter handle to at XU
coach Patino and there's a picture of the Asinta Center,
so that makes it official. Let's do this. It's Opening day, eve,
Let's talk gambling. I do this every year, and let's
be honest. I think the Reds this century have been
the worst team in baseball at hitting the over. And

(01:32:35):
I know this from experience because every year I bet
the over because I want something to root for in September,
and I usually don't win. This year, it's seventy eight
and a half at covers dot com, which is where
Josh Ingles is covers dot com. Follow him on x
at covers Underscore, Josh seventy eight and a half? Should
I make my over wager again?

Speaker 12 (01:32:55):
So it's all relatives to where the other win totals
are within the vision. Pittsburgh seventy seven and a half.
I can't feel good as a Cincinnati fan. Let's be honest,
and Saint Louis at seventy six and a half while
the Cops are at eighty five and a half. So
the betting market's saying that the Reds are closer to
Pittsburgh and Saint Louis than they are Chicago and Milwaukee

(01:33:16):
at the top, and if you look, you can bet
like where they'll finish within the division. The betting favorite
is dead last thirty two percent implied probability plus two
to fifteen for the Reds to finish fit. Now, there
are a lot of issues with this Red team. Let's
be honest. I think it looks like can we be fair?

(01:33:37):
It's it's really a ball club that suited for probably
one of the best hitting parks in all of baseball.
There's one guy, one position player, and that's Allie that's
over six feet in the starting lineup. And this was
a team that had a bullpending gave up more home
runs than any other National League team last year, terrible
long run games. It's it's a tough spot and I'm

(01:34:00):
not really sold on the Red I know they're exciting.
I'm a blue Jay said I love the youth movement.
It was exciting for a time, but then you realize
that waiting is probably more important than you. Guys Chase
Milwaukee year in and year after, and you see that
roster and you're like, how it's his team still winning
they just know how to get it done. And sadly,
I'm not really sold on Cincinnati in terms of that

(01:34:22):
win total. I think if you're a Cincinnati fan and
you want to get in on the studying angle this year,
I think I plus three hundred or so could make
the playoffs. Don't do that, don't touch that one. Go
bet Terry Frankcoona for Manager of the Year plus five hundred.
That's probably a better chance if they get it. Terry's
one of the betting favorites for the ANEL Manager of
the Year at that price, So if they do get in,

(01:34:45):
Terry Farcota will have a very good chance. So you
don't have a good chance at winning that award, and
if they even get close, you also have that extra
help too, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
I like that. I think a lot of people have
looked at the reds you talked about to make the
playoffs plus three hundred. I think in a division where
like it feels like the wild card winner or a
wildcard winner is not going to come out of the
National League Central, so it's win the division or bust,
it does feel like nobody is really capable of running
away with it. And I think a lot of people
have looked at the Reds plus four seventy five as

(01:35:15):
a good value play to win the Central you would
recommend staying away from.

Speaker 12 (01:35:19):
That one hundred percent. Yeah, it's not something that I'm
running out to get When I see all the projections
that are kind of on the under at seventy eight
and a half, like it's one of those things is
a better where you're like, wow, red team, okay, a
decent year last year, had some bad variants in one
run games, and they can kind of get to five

(01:35:40):
hundred and that maybe get some extra wins, and just
in your head, you get to a number and then
you look at all the other projections and they're like
seventy seven, seventy eight, and there's nothing that's really pushing
this through like an eighty two, eighty three, eighty four
forty five where you probably need to make the playoffs.

Speaker 7 (01:35:56):
So I lost.

Speaker 12 (01:35:58):
The division just gets so and it's a doggy, doggy
division where everybody just kind of beats up on each other.
It's just going to be so hard for them to
win this division. And like you said, the Dodgers, the
Diamondbacks of Padres and then on the other side and
land a Philly in the Mets, Like, which one of
those six are not gonna make it? Because you'll be
lucky if you get two from the division, obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:36:18):
Josh englescovers dot Com on x AT covers Underscore, Josh,
I think you're gonna have folks who hear this conversation
who are going to look at it this way. They
won seventy seven games last year, a disappointing season because
they were an above five hundred team in twenty twenty three,
but still seventy seven, so the bar is pretty low.
They were awful in one run games last year, and

(01:36:38):
so in that regard, the pendulum should swing a little
bit more in favor of at least getting closer to
five hundred and one run games. And if they do that,
they've got to win two more games this year to
sail past seventy eight and a half. And yet you've
thrown cold water over all of that.

Speaker 12 (01:36:55):
I know, I know. If it's not me, I'm leading
on projections as well. I'm not original my own projections
on this. I'm just not seen anything from fangas go.
I've not seen anybody that really has this as an
outlier spot and yet what I think that mark was
fifteen to twenty eight straight up in one run games.
There should be some varian swinging in that way. They
had plus run de renial at plus five. That's pretty

(01:37:16):
good for a team that finished eight games under five hundred.
But in the spot it's there's not a lot of
places where I like this to be an eighty three
win team. Yeah, there's I'm gonna love at the top
of this order, but kind of after that, where do
you go. I do like the rotation. I mean, the
two halty lefties is awesome, but at the end of

(01:37:37):
the day, like this was a rotation that didn't get
a ton of innings last year. Hunter Green obviously it's
I mean, is he going to step up and be
that bona fide guy? Can they get something? Can they
get somewhere in that one hundred and eighty eting donement
Brady Singer is actually a really great pick, and that
has a lot to do with this fifty percent ground

(01:37:57):
ball ray and great American Ball Park. But there's just
so many strings. Like I said, if you want big
plus money and then you really want to tie up
your money for a prop that will probably win in
the last week or lose in the last week in baseball,
tie it up for six months. Now go plus money.
If you want to go bet Ellie for MVP at

(01:38:18):
around ten to one, twelve to one, that's probably a
more exciting bet. Or like I said, Terry Francona for
manager in the year, around plus five hundred. I think
if you're looking to bet on the Reds, those are
probably your two best cases right there.

Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
Yeah, I think the LA MVP prop is is going
to be a popular one. So if I don't want
to attach any dough to the Reds hitting the over
this year, if I want to stay away, can you
give me a team that you like that you go,
you know what, throw some money here, root for them
to hit the over and stay away from the hometown team.

Speaker 12 (01:38:51):
I mean, there is no love for the Padres this year.
I understand the situation that's happening with ownership, but that
has been price into a lot of these lines. They're
thirty to one, They're projected to finish third in division.
This is the team that might have the if if
everything stays on course and they don't sell and they
play the full year and it's not a disaster in

(01:39:14):
terms of what they have to do with the roster.
Dylan Cee's Michael Okay, best one two punch, I think,
and like that lineup one to seven is as good
as almost anywhere else. They show they can hang with
the Dodgers, and then that's where we are.

Speaker 7 (01:39:30):
That's kind of.

Speaker 12 (01:39:30):
Where we need. I do like Arizona to win some games,
but I'm seeing the value kind of fall on that.
I just think there's a lot in terms of what
the Padres have. Thirty to one, right Dylan to see
sixty to one young Dylan to see Dylan seas ten
to one to lead the NL in strikeouts. When you
see guys like Paul Schemes and stuff like that and show, hey,

(01:39:51):
obviously he's not pitching. But just in terms of their
bedding markets, those are guys you're not going to get
any value. Shoey Otni is plus one forty five for
National League. Be guess what that will be the same
price come June fifteenth. That's not getting any shorter anytime soon.
So there's no rush to get those guys, and those
guys really just affect the other market. So in terms

(01:40:13):
of where like value, San Diego is where I'm really leaning.
I mean, Dylan Ceef, Michael King, you darbish. They picked
up Nick Covetta. That's a good one. Matt Waldron can
be that swing guy if they need him. So there
is a lot of arm talent within that organization. Luisarees
at the top of the door like he's a candidate
to get sold. So if he stays fantastic, so Atis

(01:40:34):
hopefully can get back to some of his pre issue form.
Jackson Merrill's getting MVP left, and you have like e
Xander Bogarts in like the in the seventh spot there
in the sixth spot, Like that's a pretty good lineup.
I really like San Diego this year, and I think
the market's pricing them low because of their situation that
they might be trading seats and they might be trading

(01:40:54):
the rants.

Speaker 2 (01:40:55):
Yeah, looking at that win totallycovers dot com at eighty
five and a half. Josh, where can I get more?

Speaker 12 (01:41:02):
Probably on Twitter? Just like you said on ex everything's
in baseball do live release shows. We just dropped what
we dropped today, so exciting Chicago White Sox over fifty
three and a half wins. That's why we dropped what else?
The Yankees not to make the playoffs. Got plus two
forty today. That rotation is awful and the Mets underwin total,

(01:41:23):
so making a lot of people happy, unless betting on
the White Sox to win more than fifty three games
after forty one last year. It's a tough till the swallow.
But like in betty, that's value. If it sucks and
it's hard to bet on, there's usually value on that side.

Speaker 2 (01:41:39):
No question, awesome stuff, man, Do appreciate it. Hopefully we
can ted against soon. Man, Thanks so much.

Speaker 12 (01:41:45):
Yeah, good luck versus Logan Web tomorrow guys need it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
I'm still I'm still making my wager. Josh Singles Covers
dot Com, Paul Danner, Junior.

Speaker 1 (01:41:54):
Next Cincinnati's p fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:42:03):
From the UC Health Traffic Center for National Doctor's Day,
for better Tomorrow's learn more at UCHealth dot com. Northbound
seventy one after Smith Edwards, it's an accident. Another crash.
Northbound seventy five after Hoppole Street. That's on the right
shoulder on Cincinnati Columbus Road. It's an accident at Westchester Road.

(01:42:27):
Earlier crash has been cleared out Princeton Glendale Road at
Tylersville Road on at Ezelik with traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:42:34):
This report is sponsored by.

Speaker 2 (01:42:35):
Opening Dave Right's Baseball Tomorrow. Let's talk to Bengels right now.
We didn't get to have Paul Dayner Junior on the
show yesterday because he was on vacation. His vacation's over.
We've got questions. Let's start with Lucas Patrick, the guard.
I think a lot of folks are wondering what's what's
his role in the team going to be? So I'll
ask you what's his role in the team going to be?

Speaker 6 (01:42:54):
He could be a starting guard.

Speaker 2 (01:42:56):
I mean, he's in the competition.

Speaker 14 (01:42:58):
We've sort of been know, having some fun on the
podcast with the Royal Rumble concept and that, you know,
like they should just charge they should charge admission to
an actual Royal Rumble with like a with like an
actual ring and everything out there, and then use the
proceeds from that to pay whoever the winner ends up being.

Speaker 7 (01:43:17):
Because it's it's just.

Speaker 14 (01:43:18):
Seems like there's a lot of names and a lot
of options that are that are in there right now.
I mean, this is a guy that has started and
you know he started sixty four games. He started a
bunch in the last two years. He's had I think
some some success as as a pass protector. I mean,
he hasn't allowed any sacks the last two seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:43:38):
He's but he's he's.

Speaker 3 (01:43:39):
More of a you know, he's a reserve.

Speaker 5 (01:43:43):
Maybe he's your starter.

Speaker 14 (01:43:44):
He's kind of Cody fordish in a lot of ways,
and so but I think they feel like when they
looked at the rubble of the guard market there and
and kind of picked through, I think they felt like
they saw potentially something with Lucas Patrick that could fit
down and some of the qualities they were looking for

(01:44:07):
are there and can make work.

Speaker 2 (01:44:09):
We'll see and if it busts, it busts.

Speaker 14 (01:44:11):
I mean, it's not like we're talking about paying ten
twelve million dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:44:15):
So I think they're hopeful.

Speaker 14 (01:44:17):
At the very least he helps their depth, which is
an issue. Unfortunately starting is as well, and so that's
not great. But you know, you're you figure between him
Cody Ford Cordell Wolson, a premium draft pick. You need
to find two starters that you feel comfortable with and
we'll see down the line. If the brand and Sheriff

(01:44:37):
thing ever comes to fruition or whatever. But there's really
no other names out there that change the way you feel.
So that's probably, you know, the competition that you're looking
at for those two spots right now.

Speaker 2 (01:44:48):
Is is there something that over the last two weeks
you would argue, whether it's a specific player or maybe
even going back aways and just getting the Higgins and
Chase things done a while ago, is there's something that
you look at and go, they should have done this
by this point and it might have made an impact,
not just in terms of the team they're gonna have

(01:45:09):
this coming season, but it might better help shape the
draft strategy and make what they need to do in
the draft a little bit more doable.

Speaker 7 (01:45:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:45:18):
Well, I think you kind of hit it on it there.

Speaker 14 (01:45:20):
I think having what they did with Higgins and Chase
in the pocket before free agency probably would have helped
them feel like they could focus and have a little
more aggression and calculated the aggression in certain spots than
they did. I think, you know, they were getting closer,
but you know, when you're not all the way there,

(01:45:43):
you can be a little hesitant in it and not
get everything accomplished that you'd like to I think that's
probably the thing. I mean, that's the thing when you
look at that you could do that and you could
end up coming out of it feeling a little bit better.
I mean, that's that's that's the one that's the one
spot because it's really one, maybe two players. They're an
upgrade over what you signed that could have given you,

(01:46:03):
whether it was the pass rush, whether it was the
starting linebacker, whether it was a guard, you know. I mean,
one of those you could have maybe made an extra
push for if you felt like you had a better
feel for it, but that didn't happen.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
When we get to the draft, are they going to
have to reach because of what they haven't done in
free agency?

Speaker 14 (01:46:23):
Yeah, I mean they certainly don't feel like they can
even say with a straight face, best player available.

Speaker 2 (01:46:29):
You know.

Speaker 14 (01:46:29):
I just when when you're in the position that they're in,
and you're not talking about just needing depth behind guys,
but you really need guys that you hope will play
into a starting role pretty early at multiple positions.

Speaker 2 (01:46:42):
You can't.

Speaker 14 (01:46:43):
You can't just sit there and wait for you know,
and say, oh, well wait, we'll get that later or whatever.
And so I think right now you've got to you're
in a spot where they need to they need to
have three or four positions, positions that they that they
need to be doing this with, and and that makes
it hard. But you know, it's a spot they're in.

(01:47:03):
It has it can get you in trouble, and we've
seen that a bunch of times. Also though you know
a lot of times the draft does can fall your way.
I don't think that I don't know this is good
or bad, but like one position is any more desperate
than the other.

Speaker 7 (01:47:18):
I think they have boxes they need to check with.

Speaker 14 (01:47:20):
Their first four picks, and whatever order they come in
they can probably make do with. You'd probably prioritize pass
rush over all of those, but you can find different
ways to make that work for you. But yeah, you're
you're not gonna sit there and be like, we're stunned
that some position we weren't expecting fell into our lap.

(01:47:41):
That's a hard call for them to make right now
when you consider where they're at in terms of, you know,
quantity and need that they have in this draft.

Speaker 2 (01:47:51):
Another minute here with Paul Danner Jr. I want to
ask about an addition to the growlar here in just
a second. But one more on the Bengals. You are
going to the owner's meeting next week. Katie Blackburn is
scheduled to speak. What are you looking forward to finding
out from her?

Speaker 5 (01:48:06):
Well, I think there's a couple obviously.

Speaker 14 (01:48:07):
I mean, you've got to start with with what happened
with t and Jamar. You know, there there inside view
of how that got down, some of the things we
just talked about in terms of timing and some of
the precedent they broke in structure there to do things that.

Speaker 3 (01:48:21):
They hadn't really done.

Speaker 14 (01:48:23):
We're gonna be interested in what's going on with Trey
Hendrickson and her view on that. I think the stadium
conversation is going to be the fascinating headline here. Though
we don't get an opportunity to talk to them very often.
They're in the middle of this, and you know, I'm
sure that they're you know, these things are are fairly quiet.

(01:48:45):
You're not gonna want to be out there saying anything,
but it's it's important moment in time there, and so
her thoughts and where they're at with the stadium is
going to be a big deal, I think, And so
I think that's probably gonna gonna be what I'm most
interested in because it's the one that's most merky and

(01:49:05):
most unknown of what exactly is going on with those
negotiations as you you know, a deadline which is quickly
approaching here in the.

Speaker 2 (01:49:11):
Future, I'm really excited to spend a lot of time
talking about the stadium situation. That's that's gonna be. I
know who you are, I know where you are. Paul
Danner Junior. Hey, I did not have time to ask,
so I'm gonna mention this and then Paul and I
will go into greater detail in this next week. Power
Stacks new podcast that his burgeoning and growing podcast network

(01:49:33):
is launching is a Reds podcast. Features Charlie Goldsmith Who's Awesome,
Brian Geeson's log Who's Awesome, and they're gonna do a
weekly Reds podcast part of the Growler podcast network. If
you're a Reds fan, you owe it to yourself to
listen to those two because they're both awesome and highly
respected and well sourced and pretty much everything I'm not.
We're done, don't forget broadcasting tomorrow from Smoke Justice noon

(01:49:56):
to three with Tony and Austin. Thank you for listening.
Thanks to Mike Mills for producer on site and Taran
for producing back in Kenwood. Have a great night and
a happy Opening Day EVE. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station. Join us for the RNAL Carriers open

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