4/7/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yes, yes, what's upcod afternoon on my leder. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening. I hope you
had a good weekend. Hope you had a safety Again.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
A couple of things we've got to talk about really quick.
Number one, Where we are. We're broadcasting today from Twin
Peaks in Florence.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It is the home of the Tony and Borrow football Shower.
Tony is not here because it's not football season. But
I am and you are so if you haven't been
to Twin Peaks here in Florence, come on out and
say hi. Very easy to get to right off I
seventy five. You can get off. You can get off
at the Turfway Road exit. You can get off with
the Route eighteen exit. Pretty much be here in the

(00:40):
same amount of time no matter which exit you take.
We love coming here. The staff is awesome, the food
is great. They've got an awesome beer selection, they've got
an off awesome bourbon selection. It's just an awesome place.
It's a great place. This is one of the great
nights in sports. You got the college basketball men's College
basketball National Championship Game, which could be really good tonight.

(01:02):
Houston and Florida a pair of one seeds. By the way,
the NCAA tournament ratings have been awesome. Final four the
most watched since twenty seventeen. Not bad for a sport
that supposedly is dying. You've also got a Reds game tonight.
Red's played late out on the West Coast against San Francisco,
so you have a lot happening. If you want to
get out of the house kind of late tonight watch

(01:23):
both games, you could do that here. If you've dealt
with flooding issues, you certainly hope that everything turns out
well for you. I know that's been a problem for
a lot of folks in the Tri state area. It
is sunny out. That's the other thing. Like here in Florence,
there's not a cloud in the sky. It's warm ish,

(01:45):
it's not cold. Yesterday like felt like it was arctic out.
It's spit rain all day. It was cloudy like NonStop.
It felt like it was never gonna end. And maybe
there's more bad weather in the offing, but as of
right now, it is gorgeous out. And I woke up
this morning and there was the sun. I didn't recognize it.
It was awesome and it remains out and it's out

(02:07):
here in Florence, and so we're in a.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Mood, in a great mood.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
In spite of what the Reds did this weekend in Milwaukee,
they have officially.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Failed to avoid the slow start.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
They're now three and seven after losing three out of
the four to the Brewers in Milwaukee. Yesterday's game, they
couldn't sustain what they did on Saturday night and they
get blown out by the Brewers eight to two. Cincinnati
is now three and seven. They go play a Giants
team that has lost one game this year starting tonight.

(02:41):
Jackson Churio is a terrific player. Two homers, five driven
in Reds lose. Reds are three and seven. They have
dug themselves a hole. Now, they haven't dug themselves an
impossible hole to dig out of, but they've dug themselves
a hole none of the LEAs And this has been something

(03:03):
we have talked about for all the talk of the
new manager, for all the talk of new expectations, for
all the talk of different energy, different vibe, all throughout
spring training, through ten games. The feel is painfully familiar,
painfully familiar, and it's not because they lost yesterday's game.

(03:25):
Games like yesterday's happened. But games like yesterday are why
you can't lose the three consecutive one nothing games. It's
why you can't lose the game on Friday, when you
get good enough pitching, Mount Rallies still lose by a run.
It's why you can't lose on Opening Day. But it
is just such a frustrating and tired and played out

(03:48):
and trite trope that we deal with every single year,
where the Reds dig themselves a hole and then have
to spend a fair amount of time digging themselves out
of the hole. Now, I know last year was a
little bit different. They got through the first month of
the season with a winning record. They were what nine
and six through their first fifteen games, which is that's good.

(04:08):
That's a six hundred baseball. This team is playing three
hundred baseball right now. And again, it's not it's not
that the whole they have dug is impossible to dig
out them. They're a good week away from being above
five hundred. It's just how tired it gets almost every
single year, on a nearly annual basis, where the season begins,

(04:32):
there's some anticipation. Maybe some years there is a lot
of expectation. They play a week and a half worth
of games, and then you got to convince yourself that
they can dig themselves.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Out of the hole that they have done.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
They shrink their margin for air, They shrink their margin
for aerror when they dig themselves a whole. They shrink
their margin for air when they play with an incomplete roster.
This is already an incomplete team. You're even more incomplete
when you don't play with Matt. We'll see if he
is a go tonight. He obviously dealt with that tight hamstring.
Pinch hit nearly hit the ball out of the ballpark

(05:06):
on Friday, didn't play on Saturday, didn't play yesterday. Even
with a healthy Matt McClain, this team needs a boost.
There is a difference between acting out of desperation and
acting out of urgency. There's I think at least a
difference between panicking and acting out of urgency. If this

(05:29):
is truly a team that we're expected to, you know,
think can can get to the postseason. If this is
really a year that's about doing more than just existing
to be fodder for other teams. Then you have to
act out of a certain amount of urgency. This team's
offense badly needs a boost. The team's outfield was I

(05:51):
keep using the word incomplete. I used it often last week.
This team's outfield is at best incomplete. You have got
who are not carrying their weight offensively. I know he
hormered yesterday. Spencer Steeer is one of those players. Jamer
Candelario is one of those players. Jake Freeley is one
of those players. And yes, they would be in better

(06:11):
shape if Austin Hayes were healthy in playing right now
he is not. They would be in better shape. If
Tyler Stevenson was healthy and playing and was supposed to
have an MRI today, maybe we get some news as
to what the result revealed. Right now, Tyler Stevenson is
not playing, you gotta give Will Benson a shot man.

(06:32):
And I know you might snicker at that. I know
that it's to a degree an indictment against what the
Reds are and the team they have that a dude
who a couple of weeks ago was not good enough
to make the team might be their best option. But
I'll simply ask this, what what is the harm like,

(06:53):
what would be the harm in calling up Will Benson?

Speaker 3 (06:56):
There are other names we can discuss.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
We could talk about Tyler Callahan obviously, Noelvee Marte, like,
I'm on board for any and all options. But Will
Benson right now has an ops of nine to forty two.
He's batting three forty one. He is hitting the ball hard,
He's hit the ball with him pop. Will Benson's a
guy who if we were to talk about twenty twenty three,

(07:18):
that magical eighty two win season, his offensive productivity was
a big, big reason why the red surprised a lot
of people and hung into the race through the one
hundred and sixty first game.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
He is also a guy like you, you gotta do
two things. Number one.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
We talk a lot about accountability, right like, well, Terry
Francne is gonna hold people accountable. That's not just yelling
at guys when they make a mistake. That's not just
a benching them, which really hasn't happened when a guy
screws up on the base pass. It's holding players accountable
when they don't produce. The Reds have a lot of
guys on this team who are not producing. Are we
holding them accountable or are we giving players who don't

(07:58):
deserve a long leash a lot long leash. So there
is that, there's also rewarding people for when the clue
phone goes off. I don't know how many chances Will
Benson is going to get. I don't know how many
chances Will Benson is going to need. But I do
know this that a player who Terry Francona said when
they cut him during spring training, he said, there's a

(08:19):
there's a good player in there, with a good player
in there, went to Louisville and apparently, instead of sulking
or instead of firing off missives on social media, went
to Louisville and has tried to make the most of it.
You have that combined with what the Reds are not
getting from their outfield, which their outfield production is futrid.
Will Benson might not be the fix, but the problem

(08:41):
is there is no other fix besides sitting and waiting.
And as a Reds fan, I'm sure you're tired of
sitting and waiting, especially for players to produce who are
not worth.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Sitting and waiting for.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
So there's and again, we could we could extend the
conversation to a guy like Noelve Marte who you should
not give up on. And we can maybe talking about
Tyler Callahan because he provides a little bit more positional versatility.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
These aren't panic moves.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
These aren't moves made just because they're three and seven
and somebody's gotta pay for it. Their moves you make
if you're really acting with urgency. Their moves you make
if you're really gonna hold players accountable who don't perform,
and you've got a team full of players who aren't performing.
Thirteen minutes after three o'clock on moegar. This is ESPN

(09:29):
fifteen thirty Show previews available on Twitter at moegar. Thanks
to United Heartland Insurance.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Check out United Heartland Insurance at uchi ands dot com.
Also Emory Federal Credit Union, your credit union with Hart
since nineteen thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU dot org. Reds
are in San Francisco tonight. More on what happened this
weekend in Milwaukee and what's ahead tonight. Coming up here
in just a bit. We're gonna get a really fun

(09:58):
college basketball National Championship game tonight, I think more competitive
than what we had on the women's side. Day number
one seed Florida. Number one seed Houston, Florida with kind
of a gritty comeback of their own after being down
eight against Auburn at halftime on Saturday night in the
first semi final, and then Houston did what I would

(10:19):
have I would have thought to be pretty damn near
impossible coming back from down fourteen late in the second
half against the Duke team that for a while seemed
like they had all the answers, with Cooper Flag playing
great and Calvin Samson's team ends up putting on a
defensive clinic over the final eight minutes of the game.
One of my big questions about them was are they
going to be able to make free throws? Are they

(10:41):
going to be able to get to the free throw line?
Of the answers on Saturday were yes. We'll talk about
the actual game itself. One of the themes of this
tournament early on was that there were a lack of upsets.
It was a very chalky tournament. Does that end up
being the case move forward?

Speaker 3 (11:01):
Could be?

Speaker 2 (11:01):
I suppose, Could it end up being a little bit
of a one year outlier. Could we down the road
get a normal NCAA tournament, which to me is you
got a fair amount of upsets, but also you'd have
enough teams that do what they need to do so
that you have kind of a good combination in the
sweet sixteen and the Elite eight of a handful of

(11:22):
teams that have come from nowhere and then a handful
of teams that you would expect to be playing that
late regardless. After the first round, all I heard from
a lot of folks in the national media. All I
heard from a lot of college basketball fans was, well,
a chalky tournament and the fact that nil has tilted
things in favor of the haves and less in favor

(11:45):
of the have nots. We're gonna have a top heavy tournament.
Nobody wants to watch one seeds. Everybody wants the Cinderella.
And then the first four rounds of the tournament were
the most watched in forever, The first weekend of the
NCAA tournament the most watched in nearly three decads, aid
the final four was the most watched since twenty seventeen.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
That's just Saturday's games.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
So uh, it just to me serves as a reminder
that a sport is ruined when people tune it out.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
College basketball has problems.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Like I'm as big an nil and transfer portal guy
as you'll meet. I love the fact that we have
an off season where there's actually stuff. I wish the
off season would start when the games are actually over.
That's got a change. But I'll admit that there should
be some regulation, there should be some guard rails, Like
I'm I'm all in favor of that, but you lose

(12:42):
me with this whole, like nobody's gonna care anymore when
I look at the data and more and more people
are watching. A sport is ruined when people tune it out.
Nobody's tuning out the NCAA tournament seventeen minutes after three
o'clock right twin Peaks and Florence till six o'clock five three, seven,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. I know you might

(13:05):
be going mode's ten games, got one hundred and fifty
two left. I need more than just a point at
the calendar. I need give me something constructive that the
Reds can do to turn this around. I know the
obvious answer is some guys just have to hit more,
some guys just have to play better. But in a
year that I think Nick Crawl is very firmly in

(13:26):
the crosshairs of the public and maybe even in the
cross airs of Red's ownership. Is sitting around and waiting
for different results from the same group of guys, something
that makes a whole lot of sense. We're gonna spend
some time on that. We have some comings and goings
with the UC basketball program. The portal is open, Cincinnati
eliminated from the College Basketball Crown on Thursday. We've heard

(13:48):
reports of a handful of players who are coming to Clifton,
and obviously we have seen that there are some players
who are leaving Clifton, including one who I think is
a bit of a surprise. We've got that to get to.
We've we got a big baseball signing this offseason and
what it's making some say about Elie de la Cruz.
And we have the draft getting closer two weeks from

(14:09):
Thursday night. I think one thing is gonna define this draft.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Check that.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
I think two things are gonna define this draft. We'll
talk about both those things coming up in the four
o'clock hour. We're here at Twin Peaks in Florence till six.
It's eighteen minutes after three o'clock on Mawegger. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (14:33):
Traffic from the UC help Traffic Center. April is donate lifemoth.
Register to become an Oregon donor or explore living donation
at uchelp dot com. Slash Transplant. Roadways remain accident free
around town at the moment. But what crews are off
on to the right shoulder southbound seventy five that's at
I seventy four. Ten mile road is closed off due

(14:55):
to storm damage. Both directions that between Wagner and Cole Road.
Please avoid the area until that's reopened. I'm at ezelic
with traffic.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
This report is twenty five minutes after three o'clock. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm owager. Thank you so much
for joining us today. Hopefully you have had a good weekend.
Hopefully your week is off to an unbelievable start. We
are at Twin Peaks in Florence, one of the homes
of the Tonymo Football Show. Don't want to slide our
friends in Westchester. We are here in Florence till six

(15:25):
o'clock tonight. Great place to watch both the Reds game
tonight and the NCAA Tournament title game, which, by the way,
thirty minutes earlier tonight. My entire life, the NCAA Tournament
title game has tipped off at nine to twenty.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
In recent years.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
That has turned into something that people love to go
to social media to complain about. I understand it. I
think it's ridiculous to start a game that late on
a Monday night. In particular, I'm a night al so
it doesn't bother me, but I can certainly understand why
it bothers.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
They have moved it. It's a little bit earlier.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
It's still on the late side, but eight point fifty
Tonight's tip off in San Antonio, Florida and Houston. Meanwhile,
the transfer portal is open. It's been a busy last
couple of days from a UC perspective. Let's talk first
about two players who are reportedly coming. Kirk Cresa has
gone ahead and acknowledged as much on social media.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Guy who the.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Bearcats Cincinnati played against Arizona the Moullley Invitational a couple
of years ago.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Kirk Creesa was on that Arizona team.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
He has since gone to West Virginia, went to Kentucky
last year only played in a handful of games. He
is coming to Cincinnati. He is a guy who was
going to bring some.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Confidence with him.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
If you've ever watched kerk Cresa, that is a guy
who was not short on confidence. They've also gotten a
commitment from Sincere Harris, who played this past season at
West Virginia, started his college basketball career at Illinois. He
has played in sixty five games. I think it's fair
to say known for his defensive acumen, he is not

(17:05):
going to be a guy who if you look at
his statistical profile or if you watched West Virginia play
at all this year, he's not a guy who wows
you with what he does offensively, but he brings a
lot to the table on the defensive end. He averaged
just under six points a game last year for the Mountaineers.
We're all waiting to see how how the Bearcats get
better in the front court. We have seen today that

(17:27):
Dan Skillings has entered the transfer portal. Rayvon Griffith from
Taft has entered the transfer portal, and then.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
I think what is a little bit of a surprise.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Josh Reid has also entered the transfer portal, and so
I'm not sure that that two of those three are
a big surprise. It felt like, with wes Miller's rather
public affinity for Josh Reid, in the fact that Josh
in the second half of the season this year really contributed,
it felt like there might be a place on the
team for him this coming season. Von for what it's worth,

(18:00):
has acknowledged that he is leaving open the possibility that.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
He stays at UC. I am obviously.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Interested, as we all are, and who the Bearcats ad
in the portal and how they put together a team
that is obviously better than any of the four that
wes Miller has had so far.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
I am.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Dan Skillings is interesting to me because I think we
were all really excited a year ago about him coming
back for his junior season, wondering what that might look like.
It ended up being a pretty disappointing year. I often
watched Dan this season, and I don't know that the
Bearcats were built this past year for him to be

(18:41):
the best player, but he was certainly supposed to take
on a starring role for this team on both ends
of the floor, doing a lot of different things, and
it just didn't take. I can't help but wonder, and
I read the Jeff Barzello tweet that is connected schools
like Alabama and Baylor and Florida who is playing tonight

(19:04):
to Dan Skillings. I can't help but wonder if on
a team where he is cast in more of a
supporting role, if that can provide him an environment where
he could thrive more so than the environment he was
in this year where it felt like he was gonna

(19:25):
have to often be the guy. I'm really interested though,
And look with you know, Josh Reed was a guy
who often didn't play, played later in the season this
year and played pretty well.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Ravon Griffith for.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Whatever reason, just didn't get much of an opportunity here,
although he got sufficient playing time or significant playing time
in the College Basketball Crown. And then there was Dan Skillings.
I'm really interested in where either of those three players go.
And I'm sure there are gonna be more guys who
still hit the portal, maybe even we find out while
we're on the air today. But do they do better

(20:01):
elsewhere than they did here? Because let's face like, against
the backdrop of a disappointing season for UC basketball, z
awfully frustrating watching Victor Lockin, who I think a lot
of is were kind of okay with moving on from
go to Clemson and play really well and be a
real contributing factor to a Clemson team that had a

(20:23):
really good season made the NCAA tournament. If you're bringing
in players and you don't succeed with them, and the
players who leave your program go and succeed elsewhere and
tap into parts of their game that they never really
tapped into here, not exactly.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
A great look for a coaching staff.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
So, by the way, we're gonna have Corey Evans, the
general manager, the new GM at U see, who comes
to Cincinnati from the Oklahoma City Thunder. He is going
to join us on Thursday show. I believe that is
going to be at some point in the either four
or five o'clock hour. But Corey Evans joins us, And

(21:05):
you talk about a guy who I'm sure is very
busy right now. He is going to join us on
Thursday twenty nine away from four o'clock.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
We're a twin Peaks in Florence.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Our phone numbers are five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty and eight sixty six seven oh two three, seven.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
Seven six.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
I read Ellide la Cruz's name today on a piece
of ESPN that really doesn't have a lot to do
with Ellie de la Cruz. I will make that make
sense when we come back on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati
Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 5 (21:37):
The UC Health Traffic Center April is Donate Lifelant, Register
to become an Oregon donor or explore a living donation
at uchelp dot com slash transplant. No accidents around town
at the moment, but ten Mile Road is blocked off
due to an obstruction on the roadway between US fifty
two and Wagner Road. Miami River Road also closed to

(22:00):
due to flooding. Map between Cooper Avenue and Miami cresstribe
traffic Salo northbound seventy five Mitchell the town I at
e Xelik with traffic this year.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Sports headlines are a service of a Kelsey Chevrolet Home
of Lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours for life, Kelseyshew dot com, Reds and Giants.
First of three Tonight in San Francisco, nine five, First
Pitch seven hundred WLW, Hunter Green and Logan Webb a
rematch of the pitching matchup on Opening Day night game Tonight,

(22:33):
night game tomorrow afternoon affair on Wednesday, Cincinnati limps into
town with a three and seven record. Giants have lost
just once this season, again nine to forty five Tonight's
first pitch on seven hundred wl W, we talked about
this last segment, Dan Skillings, Ravon Griffith, and Josh Reid
entering the transfer portal leaving the University of Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Raveon has left open.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
The possibility that he could return to You see this
after we found out that Kerr Crisa and Sincere Harris
are joining the Bearcats. Crisa spent last season in Kentucky
and Sincere spent this past year at West Virginia. Meanwhile,
Xavier today announced officially a pair of transfer editions for
Richard Patino. Anthony Robinson, who comes to Xavier from Virginia,

(23:21):
and Philip Borovichinen, who spent last season playing for Patino
at New Mexico, averaging five point nine points and four
point six rebounds a game. Robinson with the Cavaliers averaged
three and a half points and two and a half parts.
By the way, I got an email today from Steve
that's Nu'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah. Steve wanted to know if we're gonna have Richard Patino.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
On the show, and I said, no, not this week,
because we had him last week. Richard Patino joined us
last week. If you missed that conversation, go get it.
It is on the iHeartRadio app. Also tonight, the college
basketball tournament comes to an end. The NCAA Tournament comes
to an end. You get Florida, you get Houston. Eight

(24:07):
p fifty is the tip off. If you want radio coverage,
it is going to be on Fox Sports thirteen to
sixty Pregame coverage starts at six thirty. The big baseball
story of the weekend came out of Toronto, where Vladimir
Guerrero gets a fourteen year contract worth five hundred million

(24:30):
dollars guaranteed no deferrals, half a billion dollars for Vladimir
Guerrero Junior. This after what was a bit of a saga,
the kind of wound its way through all of Toronto's
spring training, and it's worth pointing out no deferrals. The

(24:55):
LA Dodgers, famously this offseason used a lot of deferrals
to bringing some of the guys to the defending World
champions that they brought in. It's the third largest largest
contract in Major League history, behind Shoheyo Tani with the
Dodgers and Juan Soto with the Mets. Like Juan Soto,
no deferred money. So I'm reading today a Q and

(25:17):
A with some of ESPN's MLB writers Buster One as
well as Bradford Doolittle, David Seanfeld, and Jorge Castillo. Pardon
me for pausing, my mouse got stuck. And so they
asked a series of questions about Vladimir Guerrero and if
this is good for baseball, which it is, and where

(25:39):
vlad Guerrero would rank among the game's top ten, or
top fifteen or top twenty players. One of the questions
that was thrown to the panel is which young star
could be the next to land a mega deal like
Guerrero's contract. Castillo answers the answer would have been Gunner Henderson,
the Baltimore Orioles, or Elie Dela Cruz if their agent

(26:01):
wasn't Scott Boris, who has a track record of preferring
to take his star clients to free agency. Now not
only does Scott Boris have that track record, Scott Boris
has gone on record is to say like, it's better
for our guy if he hits free agency. Buster Olney says,
with no explanation, just Ellie Dela Cruz and David Schanfield,

(26:21):
whose work I really like. Rights The window might be
closing for a Dela Cruz extension with the Reds, but
I'd love to see Cincinnati lock him up like the Royals.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
Did with Bobby Witt Junior.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
So this, this is gonna be interesting to pay attention to.
And I think it's going to be interesting to pay
attention at pay attention to not so much because I
think the Reds are gonna sign Ellie Dela Cruz to
an extension. I've said all along, I Am going to
go ahead and operate under the assumption that Ellie Delacruz
is going to be playing baseball elsewhere starting in twenty thirty.
And I'm more concerned with what the Reds can do

(26:56):
to win while they have him. But around sport, he
is viewed as kind of one of those next players,
and so I just I wonder how that plays a GABP.
I wonder inside the walls of gabp how that plays,

(27:16):
if there's even going to be an attempt to get
Ellie to stay here a long term, and not that
we're ever going to know the answer to this question,
but specifically what it would take. Like I said now
for a while, like somebody's going to be Baseball's first
billion dollar player, Ellie Dela Cruz has a chance to

(27:37):
be Baseball's first billion dollar player. I find it hard
to believe that the Reds are going to be the
team that makes him the first billion dollar player.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
I look at the terms of this contract.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
By the way, Vladimir Guerrero Junior is three years older
than Ellie Dela Cruz. Fourteen million dollars have billion dollars
just doesn't seem like that if you would associate with
the Reds. I don't know, but it is being talked
about among people who cover the sport and know how

(28:08):
it works that now that Vladimir Garero Junior has signed
his contract that the next at least should be Ellie
Dela Cruz. I don't think it will be, and Scott
Boris has pretty much come out and said it's not
going to be. But it's easy for me to say
and easy for me to believe. I wonder what it

(28:31):
looks like if the Reds go to Elle and try
to get him to sign here a long term. I
wonder what those dollars look like. I wonder what that
process looks like. First things first, Ellie and the Reds
have to get things back on track. Tonight seventeen away

(28:52):
from four o'clock five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen
thirty is our phone number. We will get to more
of that coming up here in just a bit. There's
an interesting piece in the Inquirer today about what may
or may not have to happen for the Reds to
go and get help at the deadline. I got some
thoughts on that coming up in the four o'clock hour.

(29:13):
But first, can the Bengals find a partner. That is
next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 4 (29:20):
Nattie's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
UC Health Traffic Center April is Donate lifemanth Register to
become an Oregon donor or explore living donation at uchelp
dot com. Slash Transplant Police are responding to a disabled
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(29:45):
and Hopper Road and four mile the road also closed
down due to flooding. That is between Kellogg Road and
Gwendolyn Drive on that ezek with traffic.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Speaking of which, and we're gonna get back to the
Reds coming up in the four o'clock hour. We're at
Twin Peaks, Florence here till six o'clock. Glad that you're
with us, even better if you're with us in person.
Speaking of trade. And so, the NFL Draft is two
weeks from Thursday night. We're excited for that, right, it's
the draft. And this is and I've said this before,

(30:21):
and it's it's not it's not to make these statements
that attract attention or to hot take it if you will.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
It's because I genuinely believe it.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
I think if if the Bengals are going to win
a Super Bowl with Joe Burrow, that is more likely
to happen in the next three years than in the
time after that. I don't think that's you know, that's
not that beyond the realm of of realism, so to speak,
Right like, if they're if they're gonna win a super
Bowl with Joe Burrow as the quarterback, which was the

(30:50):
idea when they drafted him. If if he's played eight
years and he doesn't have a ring yet the Bengals
haven't hoisted a Lombardi yet, I think it's the conversation.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Is going to be interesting, to say the least. I know.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
I've mentioned this before that have only been five quarterbacks
who have won their first Super Bowl after they.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Have already played eight years or longer.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
So I believe that to be the case that they're
more likely to win it in the next three years
than in any time after that, which is sort of
easy to say because well, he does have a contract
that's going to expire, But I believe that that's gonna happen.
If the Bengals is going to be the super Bowl
with Joe Burrow the next three years, this year's draft
class is going to be a major reason why. Look,

(31:35):
the Bengals have cratered a little bit, and it's relative.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Man, they're bad.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Has only been nine and eight the last two years,
but they have cratered a little bit in the years
subsequent to the back to back AFC title game appearances
because their draft classes haven't been very good, including the
twenty twenty one draft, which included Jamar Chase and Evan McPherson.

(32:01):
Last year's draft, I think the jury is still out.
There's a lot to be encouraged by. I'm bullish on
the two defensive tackles they took last year, bullish on
a Marius Mems. Maybe Jermaine Burton will get up on
time this season and give us a reason to feel
bullish about him. But they've got to start drafting better,

(32:22):
and they've got to start drafting players who make an
immediate impact. There's never been more of a premium on
cheap labor in the NFL, and there's really never been
more of a premium on cheap labor with the Bengals,
given the money they're paying a handful of players. If
this draft class makes an immediate impact, the Bengals can
win a title this year. If this draft class doesn't

(32:43):
make an immediate impact, I don't think the Bengals can
win the title this year. If this draft class can
make a long term impact, meaning years two, three, and four,
then the Bengals can win a title in those years
and maybe even multiple we will see. But what's interesting
is if you look at where the Bengals are selecting
in round one, there's obviously a lot of players that

(33:06):
have been mocked to them that fit obvious needs. You
can find people who are doing mock drafts who have
them taking safety. You can find people who are doing
mock drafts who have them taking a guard. You can
find people who are doing mock drafts who have them
taking a defensive tackle and edge rusher. And we are
going to talk extensively about some of the individual players
later in the week.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
But what the Bengals have done this.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Offseason is they've made the draft even more important because
they haven't done that much to their team.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
They really haven't.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
They really didn't use free agency to make a significant
upgrade at guard. Lucas Patrick is going to be in
the mix. I don't think anybody've used him right now
as like a major solution at guard. They've acquired some
players on defense who can maybe help, but there's still
I think, you know, there's still room for overall roster
improvements that now are gonna come via the draft. So

(33:58):
you have a lot of different needs. You have an
uber important draft. You also have a draft where a
lot of observers believe the value is in Day two,
rounds two and three, and not so much in the
middle of the first round, which is where the Bengals are.
So to me, the question of this entire draft for
the Bengals is can they find a partner that will

(34:22):
allow them to trade down. I guess I could also
make it about trading up and getting an elite talent.
By trading up, then you're probably sacrificing some draft capital.
They have six picks in a draft that they have
chosen to make the centerpiece of the offseason, like the
big thing the Bengals have done this offseason was extend

(34:45):
the contracts of two players who are going to play
here this coming season. Anyway they have right now, they
largely look the same as they did last year. I
think most would agree with.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
So by not.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Making larger changes to their roster and free agency, they've
put the onus on the draft, something they haven't been
that good at. If you're going to put the onus
on the draft and it's something you haven't been that
good at recently, and you have a lot of needs
you need as many picks as possible, and right now,
the only way to do that, aside from trading Trey Hendrickson,

(35:26):
which they kind of can't do because you need him,
because you didn't go get an edge rusher anywhere right now,
the only way to do that is to trade down
from seventeen, with whom man I have no idea Repeena
and I were talking about this last week and a
conversation that we put on the iHeartRadio app about how like,
there's a whole lot of teams in the middle part
of the first round and certainly toward the bottom of

(35:46):
the first round that I think would also love to
trade down. But that to me, from a Bengals perspective,
there's two major storylines. One we're not really going to
get closure to until I'm past because you know, in
two three years we'll know how good this draft class is.
And I genuinely believe that this year's draft class largely

(36:08):
holds the key to winning a Super Bowl. With Joe Burrow,
you've got to nail it when it comes to cheap labor,
like cheap labor has never mattered more in this league's history,
and it's never mattered more in Bengals history. But they've
got a lot of positions to address, like that defense.
Al Golden might be able to, I don't know, figure
out a way to get better results from pretty much

(36:30):
the same group of guys. But that secondary right now
is a whole bunch of guys who underperformed last year.
Some guys got benched, other players got hurt. Haven't done
anything with that group. Gino Stone is back this year. Linebacker,
I know, Aaron Burks was brought in from the Philadelphia Eagles.
They can use helping linebacker and obviously everywhere on the
defensive line plus offensive line.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Help boy.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
They can use an extra pick, they can use more
draft capital, they can find a trade partner to trade down.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
That's the play, that's the move. We'll see if it happens.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
And again, there's lots of teams that I'm sure are
looking at this draft from exactly the same standpoint. But
they they really have put their fortunes on this year's draft,
and I you know, you might believe, well Burrow is
going to be good enough to deliver a championship no
matter what happens. Well, he didn't last year. As great

(37:24):
as he was, as productive as he was and he
was awesome.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Last year.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
This wasn't a team that came close to winning a championship,
in large part because their drafts in recent years simply
haven't been all that good. That has to change. We'll
see if it can change without them trading down. I
would like to see them trade down. We will see
a couple of minutes away from four o'clock. Five win, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty is our number on Twitter at moegar thanks

(37:52):
to Delta Dental. Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant
communities for all good adulta dental.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
Dot com.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
I think one of the most played out topics every
spring is Red's attendance. So opening day is a big crowd.
The day after opening Day this year, which was kids
Opening Day, big crowd. Since then, you know, some weeknight
games last week with bad weather, nobody at the ballpark,

(38:24):
and invariably somebody weighs in on why aren't people going
to games? And I think number one, the answers are anecdotal.
Number two, we've beaten that topic to death. But do
you have to go to the game and order for
the Reds to get help at the deadline, We'll dive
into that coming up after the top of the hour.
It's a couple of minutes away from four o'clock. We're

(38:45):
at Twin Peaks in Florence on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Cincinnati Sports Station. Now see what we can do for you.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
See if you want to sponsor a watch of the night,
help bring it back, be a hero the entire college
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Speaker 3 (39:04):
How you doing moegor ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
We are broadcasting from Twin Peaks in Florence today. We
thank the staff you here for having us. It is
gorgeous outside, and you know this this weekend. I don't
love to complain about with because you're complaining about something
that literally nobody.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
Can do anything about.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
But like I got to like the middle of the
afternoon on Saturday, and I just looked at my wife
and I'm like, this is depressing. This is this is awful.
It's awful for it to be this way in April.
Today looks gorgeous out. It's maybe not as warm as
I would like, but I'll take it. I'll take some
sunshine brightens my mood. So does coming to Twin Peaks.

(39:48):
We are here till six o'clock. If you haven't been
to Twin Peaks. First of all, if you haven't been
to Twin Peaks, that means that you have not come
to any Tony and Mo football show. During the football season,
we broadcast from Twin Peaks here in Florence, also the
Twin Peaks in Westchester, so you need to right that
wrong by joining us. And if you can't get here
before six o'clock, well, I would recommend this place for

(40:11):
dinner tonight. I would recommend this place for happy hour
after work. I would recommend this place for the Reds
game tonight. Reds are in San Francisco to take on
an eight to one Giants team. I would recommend this
place for the NCAA Tournament title game tonight between Florida
and Houston. That game starts at eight to fifty. I
would just recommend Twin Peaks, which by the way, is

(40:31):
just minutes off I seventy five. Get off with the
Turfway Road exit and you'll be here Twin Peaks in Florence.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
Again, we thank them for having us out.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
Brendan Miana Jones on baseball coming up in just about
forty five minutes. We are looking forward to that. The
baseball over the weekend was not was not good for
the Reds. They lose three out of four to the
Milwaukee Brewers. You know, we say this all the time.
At least I do. People complain about the economic disparity
in baseball. The Dodgers and there's the Reds. There's the Mets,

(41:02):
and then there's the Reds. And I say it all
the time. I don't care about being the Dodgers. They
can't be the Dodgers. You can be the Milwaukee Brewers.
And we'll see if the Brewers this year are as
good as they have been. They lost another starting pitcher
this weekend, Nester Cortez, who was great against the Reds
the other night, has gone on the injured list. But

(41:25):
Milwaukee has now won eleven consecutive series against Cincinnati, including
this weekend Yesterday's game. Games like yesterday's happened. You gotta
win the game on Friday night, which they lose three
to two. You gotta win the game on Thursday, which
they lose.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
Won nothing. One of the frustrating things I.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Think about the start to the red season has been
that offensively, it's not shocking that they've been as bad
as they've been because it was a low ceiling offensive
team to begin with, and then there were injuries Tyler Stevenson,
Spencer Steer, Austin Hayes. Obviously, Steer has tried to cut

(42:09):
through his shoulder issue over the first week and a
half of the season. So already a pretty low ceiling
offensive team. You take away some key contributors, you take
away two of their best four hitters from a year ago,
you take away their their biggest offensively at least off
season acquisition in Austin Hayes, and it drops the floor

(42:31):
even further. When you're a low ceiling offensive team, chances
are you're a pretty low floor offensive team.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
But also, like during spring training, and you know, I
saw some.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Folks on social media who got mad at me for
saying this, You know you were you were already or
at least I was already seeing people wonder or talk
about who the Reds might acquire at the trade deadline,
and that could be a topic that we discuss for
the next two and a half months. I hope the

(43:00):
Reds are in it, and if they are, we're gonna
spend some time wondering what are they gonna get to
the deadline? Well, who are they gonna get at the deadline?
What are they going to be willing to give up?
What would it cost to go get what they need
at the deadline. But when you're talking about that before
the season even begins, you're acknowledging this is not a
complete team. You're acknowledging there's still room to go get

(43:24):
a guy, and yet they didn't. The reason I bring
this up is Gordon Wittmeier in The Inquirer Today has
a column about how the poor April for the Reds
could impact what they do in July. I don't want
to read the whole thing because I don't want to

(43:45):
give away Gordon's content because that's not what I do.
But Gordon does write this blurb in the piece, which
you should go read.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
At Cincinnati dot com.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Because Red's ownership leaves the door open to flex the
budget when in season revenue parentheses read attendance rises, strong
starts or poor ones have the potential for disproportionate impact
on competitive resources over the course of the season. And
he writes, in other words, if the Reds are in

(44:16):
the market for reinforcements, as the July thirty first deadline approaches,
how they arrive in that position could impact how flexible
they are in being able to add salary to the
payroll at that point. And he goes on to write
about how like a really good first couple of months
drives excitement, drives ticket sales, which is exactly what happened

(44:39):
two years ago, right like the Reds kind of turned
things on in the middle of May. Suddenly there was
an uptick in attendance, and to a large degree, and
uptick and revenue. So the point is like what they
do at the deadline could be largely driven by their
ability to take on more salary because they added revenue

(45:02):
early in the season, which a slow start is gonna
limit attendance, which is gonna limit revenue, which, if you
connect the dots in Gordon's piece, could limit their ability
to go get what they will probably need at the
trade deadline. How do you feel when you hear that

(45:27):
or read that that they are gonna have to go
get someone at the deadline, But they're only gonna be
able to do it if you go to the ballpark,
like I understand, Like I understand, their revenues are very
very very closely tied to ticket sales. And I understand,
the more tickets you sell, the more revenue you make,
the more you're gonna be able to throw it into
the ball club. Like I do understand that, But can

(45:48):
you just imagine here for a second, you know, first
of all, again them being in a position to add
help at the deadline and not which they didn't last
or two years ago when they were actually in it.
Can you imagine that after years of being told we
gotta wait, we're pointing toward the future, and now you're
at twenty twenty five and the team is in it

(46:10):
and it remains to be seen if they will be
in it. They get to the deadline and they do nothing.
And why do they do nothing because not enough people
went to the ballpark in April and May of this year.
Really like that that's what's gonna preclude them from going
and getting a piece like aout. How about this part
of it? How about you know, if they're in the hunt,

(46:32):
if they're in the mix, and they go and get
a piece at the deadline, could that create some excitement
and then maybe sell some tickets. Like it is, it
is exhausting, It is exhausting constantly hearing about the perceived
inability or unwillingness to make the team better because of

(46:54):
financial restrictions, and it is really exhausting to hear that
it's actually on you and I to go to the
ball And look, I love going. I would go to
a Reds game every single night if I could, Like
I love going. I'm a twenty game season ticket holder. Man,
I'd go every single night if I could. But how
does that make you feel? Team's off to a bad start?

(47:16):
And if you read that, I'm not blaming Gordon. Gordon's
a terrific writer, and I understand the perspective. He's writting
from a place of knowledge. He's running from a place
of being sourced. And he's also writing including quotes from
Nick Krawl, which suggests the same thing that revenues are
going to be tied to attendance, and so the more
people go to the ballpark, the more they could pay players.
And if they could pay players more, then they can

(47:38):
go add someone from the outside of the deadline. But
if the team stinks and no one goes to the ballpark,
well then sorry. Five point three seven four nine fifteen
thirty I've beat.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
This drum now for years.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
There is going to be a time, and it could
be this summer, it could be this offseason, but there
is going to be time, hopefully sooner rather than later,
where they are gonna have to go for it no
matter what I mean.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
I's to ask you this as.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
We talk about like Ellie Dela Cruz and those who
want to see the Reds, pay Elie Dela Cruz and
figure out a way to keep him here past his
free agency year or maybe even extend. Matt McClain, can
you really do those things if a couple of bad
weeks in April and May are gonna keep you from
adding the piece you need to add to the deadline,

(48:31):
Like I've said this about Ellie all along, Like if
you want to keep Eli Dela Cruz, number one, you
can pay him the most money. Number two, you can
also show a willingness and a desire to win that
makes him feel like, you know what, I can win
here if you have a shot to win this season,
and Ellie Dela Cruz is one of the reasons why.
And you don't do anything of the deadline because not
enough people went to the ballpark in April and May.

(48:53):
How do you think Elie de la Cruz is gonna
respond to that by rushing to sign his contract extension?

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Not look man.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
More than anything, they've got to figure out a way
to dig themselves out of a hole. Not even dig
themselves out of a hole. Three and seven is not
the biggest hole ever to dig out of. They're gotta
figure out a way to keep the three and seven
start from turning into a start that is really hard
to dig out of. Like, you know, I remember years
Brian Prices, last year where they start the season three
and fifteen they fired the manager. Season was over by

(49:24):
the time they fired the manager, or two years ago. Now,
you know, they're obviously probably not gonna start three and
twenty two, But on their way to three and twenty
two was a three and something that you looked at
and said, mathematically, there's just no way they can.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Dig out of this.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Like if we're talking this week about another series loss
and they come home and you know, the Pirates might
not be very good, but another series loss after that,
like you can only keep doing this before you go,
you know what, this is gonna be too much for
any of us to escape from. We'll see. But if
they dig out of it and get to July thirty first,

(49:59):
and they don't add what many of us are going
to say they should add because they struggled with attendance
this year. Well, that's not on you and I. It's
on the team, and we'll see, we'll see. But I
don't think it's what you want to read in early April,
even if what you're reading is coming from a place
of information.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Sixteen minutes after.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Four o'clock, we're at Twin Peaks in Florence today here
till six o'clock. We'll take some phone calls when we
come back on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (50:31):

Speaker 5 (50:36):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center April is Donate Life.
Want the register to become an Oregon donor or explore
living donation at UCHealth dot com. Slash transplant getting reports
of an accident northbound on seventy five at Town Street,
northbound two seventy five after State Route thirty two. Still
got that crash there, that one off on to the

(50:57):
right shoulder Lynton Street. It's an excident at Liberty North Bend.
Still got that crash between Chevy at Road and clover
Leaf Lane. I'm at Ezelik with traffic.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
This report is sponsored by Miamia.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
Thirty minutes away from Brandovan at Jones on baseball.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
I don't know how to read o' clock because I'm
a twin Peaks in Florence and there are other things
to do besides looking of fun here till six o'clock
to night. I have babbled long enough. Five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number, Eddie and
Green Township.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Eddie. What's up?

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (51:35):
Not much?

Speaker 5 (51:36):
Mo?

Speaker 6 (51:36):
How you doing this?

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Lovely Monday?

Speaker 3 (51:39):
Great man? Where you been? What's up that?

Speaker 6 (51:42):
That's the same thing? Hi at CD and Kroger's for
a while.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
It has been a little while. It has been a little.

Speaker 6 (51:47):
While, Yeah have been. Yeah. So I just want to,
you know, discuss the rags, which I know is not
fun to do right now, that's right, But I just
want to know it, like like you, I want to
know when when is Nick Crawl and you know, go
and Bobbing Company gonna like go all in, Like I
feel like they haven't done that since like twenty twelve,

(52:09):
where you could argue twenty twenty they tried that with
the COVID year. But if you go out and get
Terry Francona, Okay, that was the first movie I thought
they were gonna start with. Okay, we got the manager,
that's the first thing. Now we need to upgrade the roster.
The roster was horrible last year. As far as offense goes,
they have failed to go get a bat for the

(52:30):
outfield for the last two or three seasons. The last
bat they went out and got I think legitimately was
probably Nick Cassianus a few years ago. But if you're
not going to try to win and go all in
right now when you're a window begins this year, I
think with Hunter Green, Nick Ladolo, Elide La Cruz, Matt
McLain and Terry Francona then and the division being so

(52:52):
window right now, then when are you gonna go for it? Like,
if you're not gonna try right now to win then
and they're not gonna win right now in the next
two to three window, than I feel like they're never
going to And it's still frustrating the same thing this
year that was seen last year.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
Yeah, I could agree more.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
I mean The idea behind a rebuild is to get
to a point that you build a core that's worth
going all in with. And I would argue with their
starting pitching, which which includes a guy they brought in
from the outside and Brady Singer, I would argue, when
you have that kind of starting pitching, and by the way,
that's sort of starting pitching that includes farm system depth,
that's worth going all in with. And instead they went

(53:33):
north with a club that offensively looked and felt very incomplete.
It's not that they left the roster alone. You know,
I was on board with acquiring Gavin Lux. I still
think Austin Hayes can do some really good things. But
I think even most objective assessments of this team during
spring training looked at the roster and said they they

(53:55):
could still use a guy. We said that in February.
It has come back to haunt them and April. And
what I think most Reds fans would find deeply insulting
is if we got to late July and the starting
pitching keeps them alive and they still don't go get
a guy because they didn't draw well enough in April
and may can you even imagine that? I hope we

(54:15):
don't get to that point. But the mere fact Thatddy,
that we were talking about what they needed at the
deadline before the season even started, I think was a
damning and diamond against the work the front office did
this offseason.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (54:28):
Absolutely, I mean, and you have the pitching right now,
you have a good staring rotation, you have a good
Woopin's in pretty decent so far other than San Loul.
But you have the hitting just I mean the pitching,
go get the hitting now. It's one thing when you're
just rebuilding completely like they were in twenty fifteen and
you're just tearing it all down starting over, But like,
what are we going to see the results? Like it's
been ten eleven years and the team won a division.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
I mean, you will be righted?

Speaker 6 (54:52):
So long how much long do we have to wait?
I mean, if you're not going to do it now,
we have your young prime players in their prime, you know,
ready to compete, and I just I have a hard
time the leading that's ever ever gonna happen with this,
with this organization. Yeah, and I hope you're right, Bough,
I hope you're right. I hope they get it back.
But if they didn't do it last year, they didn't
do it in this past offseason, then what makes the

(55:13):
sense they're gonna do it this this trade deadline coming up.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
And when I when I when I read the piece
that I read in the Inquiry today.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
And again this is no knock on Gordon.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
I'm rolling my eyes, going, wait a minute, you mean
to tell me that, after you've you've told fans to
wait for so many years to go find a winner,
that it could we could spend this summer wondering, well,
had people gone to more games, could they have gone
and gotten a guy that would have helped Like I,
I really struggle with that. I really deeply struggle with that.

(55:43):
I keep coming back and Eddie I talked about this
last week. They had a good starting pitching staff last year,
like a better than league average starting pitching staff last year.
Hunter Green was an All Star, and yeah, man, some
of those guys got to stay healthy. Hunter Green has
gone through a full season without getting hurt. Same from
the Lodolo, But there was a lot of promise there.
You added to it with Brady Singer. You did add

(56:05):
some pieces to the offense, right, I mean, Jose Travino
and then by the way, he swung the bat pretty well,
and Austin Hayes who hasn't played yet, and Gavin Lux
but you're still you're trotting out Jake Frayley. Jake Frayley's
numbers have plummeted every single year. The outfield depth or
lack thereof, includes Blake Dunn and Jacob Hrdebies. Like there's

(56:27):
I keep using the word incomplete when you have this
sort of starting staff and as you mentioned, a division
that's there for the taking. You don't go north with
an incomplete team, and they did that willingly.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
And by the way, when you have an.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Incomplete team, you are less capable of being able to
withstand injury. And they've obviously had the Tyler Stevenson situation
and the Austin Hayes situation, and those have been exacerbated
by the team's overall lack of depth exactly.

Speaker 6 (56:55):
And they had the prospects and players and I'm sure
money to actually get a BA in the offseason. For
some reason, they're nick crawling them and company are afraid
to trade away prospect to get a good bat. I mean,
that's a process of air force, not just to develop
and bring up in already, but they're often there to
use as trading chips to get your need what you
need to. I mean, the Cubs went out and traded

(57:17):
for Kyle Tucker and he's making a difference in their team.
The Giants went out and got William Domis. I mean,
I just don't get it. You have a hitting a
long time ago with the not the picky. Now you
have the pitching, not the hitting. It's it's funny how
the Bengals problem last season was a defense and the
rest problem this year is the whole fense.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
MO.

Speaker 6 (57:33):
It's like, hey, they just like reverse just to each
other's the other need and just you know, you can
ever be fully complete. You know, it's just frustrating. And
your DH has been Spencer Steer, God love him. He's
not even playing one hundred percent. That's how they had
this team's roster construction is they don't have anybody else
to use to bring up. It's like we're stuck with
guys like like I said, Jacob hurtab Blake done often wins.

(57:56):
I mean an eighty percent Spencer's year. I mean more
thinking well Benson is up and save us. That's bad.
That's that's your plan.

Speaker 5 (58:03):
I know.

Speaker 6 (58:04):
Hey, listen at Will Best. He didn't work on him.
That's not good.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
Yeah, no, that this the Spencer Steer thing.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
If I'm him, I'm going, wait a minute, I got
to go out there and swing about with one arm
because you need me with one arm, Like I'm I'm
better with one arm than anything else you have. Or
you've got to keep me on the roster and you
gotta have me in the lineup every day with one
arm because your roster is this incomplete.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
It is. It is deeply frustrating. Any good to hear
your voice.

Speaker 6 (58:30):
Man, thank you, thanks, Ma, have a good one.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
Terrence said that to me today that the Reds and
Bengals kind of mirror each other.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
With the Reds, you know, you're.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Asking your starting pitching in one or two position players
to take on a a very very heavy heavy burden
because of the deficiencies elsewhere, and your big offseason move
was a manager. And with the Bengals, you know, for
a couple of years we have said they're asking Joe
Burrow to take on a very heavy burden. In so
far this offseason, they really haven't fixed the defense. They

(58:59):
haven't been that proactive with the offensive line, and they're
putting a lot on a newly hired coach and now
golden on defense. I said this last week, this team
starting pitching was worth going all in with it, from
my opinion, was worth going all in with.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
You.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
You know, in any build or any rebuild, what you're
looking for is we've got a Before we go for it,
we have to develop or acquire a core, a group,
a foundational unit around which we can build. And we
would say that a lot in the dark years of
twenty sixteen and seventeen and eighteen, when people will complain

(59:40):
about the Reds not doing anything in free agency. My
take was, you have to build a core first, you
have to establish who are the guys.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Who are going to build around.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
And they kind of got to that point in twenty
nineteen and then they you know, what they did in
twenty twenty didn't work out, unfortunately.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
Because of COVID.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Since then, in twenty twenty five, they spent the off
season adding Brady Singer to what was already a pretty
promising starting pitching rotation that thus far has been great.
That was a group worth building around. And again it's
not that they sat there and did nothing. But it

(01:00:18):
sounds like we're picking on him. Jake Fraanley is getting
regular abs and they still have a very low ceiling
offensive team. Then you add some can you even imagine
if we get to July thirty first, this team is
kind of in it and they don't do anything. And
the explanation as to why they didn't do anything is well,
because we didn't draw a lot of fans in April.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
And may you kidding me? I hope that's not the case.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Sports headlines are next four thirty. We're at Twin Peaks
in Florence on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

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Speaker 6 (01:01:25):
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Live kelmyshev dot Com Redsden Giants first and three Tonight
in San Francisco, a rematch of the opening day pitching
match up Hunter Green by Guy against Logan Web nine Tonight,
seven hundred WLW Reds are off to a one in
three start on their road trip after Lucy three out
of four. In Milwaukee College basketball tonight, it's the National

(01:02:04):
Championship game between Houston and Florida that will tip off
at eight fifty. You can listen to it on Fox
Sports thirteen sixty. Josh Reed, Ray, Von Griffith, and Dan
Skillings entering the transfer portal leaving the Bearcats Xavier announcing
the signings of Anthony Robinson, a six to ten forward

(01:02:25):
center from Virginia, and six nine six nine forward Philip Borovichinen,
who played for Richard Patino at New Mexico last year.
What else do we have I got one other note here,
Oh FC Cincinnati. I f C Cincinnati with a good
win over New England over the weekend and as a result,
Lucas Engel named to the MLS Team of the Match

(01:02:46):
Day for match Day number seven. There you go has
helped secure a clean sheet for FC Cincinnati in their one.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
Nil win over the Revs.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Brendanvan of Jones coming up in just about fifteen minutes, Mike,
go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (01:03:04):
Thank you all, appreciate you making my call. Well, just
so you know, I'm real quick. I'm back in Cincinnati
for good now good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:03:15):
I had to come back and try to be close
to family and friends and stuff in light of what's
going on. So I'm staying down at the Thanks at
the BA Hospital and Clifton and the PLC Wing, which
is like the hospice thing down there in Clifton for

(01:03:35):
guys with various problems. But anyway, as usual, your show
is the life saver. Helps distract me from my problems.
But you were is that You've already talked about it.
But were those two of the best final four games
back to back you've ever seen?

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Uh yeah, yeah, it's interesting, and there have obviously been
some real good Final Four games, Right the San Diego
State buzzer beater two years ago. I don't know that
we've had two games like that though, Right the Florida.
What Florida did in the second half against Auburn, especially
on the last was very impressive. And then as much

(01:04:18):
as Duke is getting hammered for their collapse, I think
you have to give Houston a lot of credit for
what they were able to do defensively because the game
plan that Kelvin Sampson employed, I thought it was pretty
obvious what he was trying to do. Right, We're not
gonna stop Cooper Flag. We're gonna make it difficult for
him to make others involved or to get others involved,

(01:04:40):
and it paid dividends down the stretch. Those were two
really entertaining, really good college basketball games, and I suspect
we're gonna get another good entertaining game tonight.

Speaker 7 (01:04:54):
It's one thing to keep Cooper Flagg from scoring. It's
another thing. This is what impressed. It's another thing to
keeping from being instrumental in all other passes to the game.
I mean, that is a tremendous defensive utpoot by Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
It was yeah, you know, And and one of the
things people have wondered about the Cougars is can they
get to the free throw line? And will they make
free throws? And on Saturday night, the answers were yes, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:05:23):
And the guy that nails it is a sixty two percent.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
I want who missed some big ones?

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Miss some big ones against Duke in their tournament game
last year?

Speaker 7 (01:05:35):
Yeah, I do. Somebody refreshed my memory on that. But
how ironic. So I think there's a little destiny going
right here. But again, even though we've got two different
kinds of teams, it should be a dance. I just
hope it's a good one, don't you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
At the end of the day, I just want really
good games, and I think we have a chance for
a really good one tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
And I'm rooting for Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
But I you know, I games that I remember because
of their quality, and hopefully we get one of those
this seasons.

Speaker 7 (01:06:06):
Now, well, look, I want to talk about the Reds
will quick, but that Dodgers Phillies game was unbelievable yesterday.
Dodgers go up two to nothing, Philly's hit the Grand
Slam Patton. Net Castianos is the eighth Grand Slam in history.
They take the league to the next thing. You know,
Oh well, look at this. The Dodgers are up seven
at what a great game and the Philly's going to win.

(01:06:26):
That is baseball at its finess.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Two likely playoff teams going back and forth against each
other in Philadelphia, and two teams that are each off
to a great start. And Philly won the ball game
eight to seven at home, just the second loss for
your Dodgers and the seventh win in nine games for
the fighting Phills. And Nick Castianos hits a home run

(01:06:50):
on the day that Alex Ovechkin becomes the leading goal
scorer in NHL history.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
Because that's what Nick Castianos does.

Speaker 7 (01:06:58):
That is what Nick does. He can grab a headline
here and there. The other thing that's amazing or the Padres,
they say they come back and win that game against
the Cubs. That was an amazing comeback that they put together.
But as far as the Reds.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
And how about the National League West, Mike, it's like,
you know, we've seen this before.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
The National League West.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
The San Diego Padres are eight and two and mathematically
at least in third place.

Speaker 7 (01:07:24):
Yeah, talk about parody. I don't know, maybe parody is
taking a step backwards here. It might affect my freaking
home dogs theory. But they got to play each other,
so the home dog theory may play out there, just
in those guys going ahead to head. But the Reds no,
you are so tired of talking about it, and everybody's

(01:07:46):
tired of hearing about it. But I'm glad you keep
bringing up the fact of what they should have done
and what they still need to do. And here's my question.
Do you have to wait till the deadline the the
time period that encompasses the deadline to make deals or
can you make deals right now?

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Make trades right now? Milwaukee Brewers made one day required
to picture from the Red Sox.

Speaker 7 (01:08:10):
Yeah, yeah, I saw Matt Patrick pitched a hell of
a game for them yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
Yeah, you're you're you're allowed to make trades.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
And you know Milwaukee's starting pitching is all messed up,
so they traded for a guy by the name of
Quinn Priester. The Red Sox have decided to be good
now and so you know he was expendable. But yeah,
I mean, you know, the Brewers a couple of years
ago made a trade for Willia Domas, like in late April,
early May. You're you're you're allowed to make trades early

(01:08:41):
in the season. You don't have to wait until the
trade deadline. But you know, it sounds like an overreaction
to the three and seven start. It is frustrating, and
I think you would agree with this. It is frustrating
when you see small examples of things you thought we're
gonna be big picture issues Like I was. I held

(01:09:03):
out hope that I would be pleasantly surprised in the
first week and a half of the season where a
team that I thought was gonna struggle offensively put up
a bunch of runs early in the year. And by
the way, the frustration, the frustrating thing isn't that they're,
you know, not scoring seven runs a game. It's when
they can't score two runs in a game where they
give up just one. Like part of this conversation to

(01:09:26):
me reflects how good the starting pitching has been and
how good I think a lot of us believe it
can be. But there is you get tired of hearing
about how well this is what we're gonna do with
this club, and then we'll see if we can get
help at the deadline. Why not get the help now?
And then you read Today and again it sounds like
I'm going after Gordon Wittmyer, the inquirer. He's just writing

(01:09:47):
what he's hearing. And then you hear today, Well, you
know what, maybe they're not gonna be able to get
help at the deadline because the team's not very good
and that may affect attendance. And if attendance isn't good,
well then we're not gonna be able to go get
the guy we needed. Like it just you know our
caller before Eddie brought it up. If you can't, if
you don't go for it with this starting pitching, when
will you? If you don't go for when your division

(01:10:08):
is as up for grabs as the National League Central is,
then when will you?

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
You won't.

Speaker 7 (01:10:14):
I don't believe you will, And you can't tell me that. Inwardly,
those pitchers are not getting frustrated.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
They have to be.

Speaker 7 (01:10:24):
They have They're only human beings. They have to be
getting frustrated. Sure they can't, and I don't know the clubhouse.

Speaker 2 (01:10:33):
I don't I'm sure it's not unlike when Joe Burrow
goes out there and hangs, you know, thirty eight points
on an opponent.

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
And the team loses.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
It's the same thing, right, I mean, it's my best
efforts go to waste. These guys they want to win,
you know, and it's I'm sure it's I'm sure it's
frustrating for anybody on that team who is holding up
their end of the bargain when the roster deficiencies that
we acknowledged before the season torpedo those efforts.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Are you Are you comfortable?

Speaker 7 (01:11:05):
Not really?

Speaker 1 (01:11:06):
No, I'm not.

Speaker 7 (01:11:07):
I got a lot, I got a lot of pain
going on. It's uh, it's pretty incessant. It's hard to sleep,
and so I'm I'm exhausted, big big ton.

Speaker 4 (01:11:16):
But I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:11:19):
I just keep hoping and praying it'll get better. Well
that's all you can do, you know. But I wanted
to be home if something crazy goes down. I didn't
want to be out in California just with the two
of my buddies. I wanted to be home or some
family and a lot of my friends and you guys
and stuff like that. So I I, uh, the weather
becomes secondary when you're thinking of you in a mortality

(01:11:42):
so that's right. That's where I'm not, brother.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
It's I know you're going through a lot. It's always
nice to hear your voice and glad you're back in
town and hanging there and let us know if we
can do anything.

Speaker 7 (01:11:55):
Okay, Hey, how's that little girl treating you?

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
Uh, we're closing in on the end of second grade,
and we're getting ready for her eighth birthday, which you
would think we are going to be planning for like
the Queen's jubilee with as much as she wants to do.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
For her eighth birthday, So we're really were.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
Her basketball team lost twenty two to eight on Saturday,
so we've got some work to do there. But she's
she's good and I appreciate asking.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
Man. I'll talk to you soon, Mike, see.

Speaker 7 (01:12:27):
You, Okay, thank you, moll All right.

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
Fourteen away from five o'clock, we're a twin Peaks in
Florence on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):

Speaker 5 (01:12:41):
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(01:13:04):
poll southbound State Route one thirty two. Another accident that
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with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:13:12):
This report is s.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
Been a Jones on baseball just a couple of minutes
away on ESPN fifteen thirty. Anything you might have missed
on this show, you can go get on the iHeartRadio
at We had a lot of good Bengal stuff last
week with Paul Dayner Junior and James Rapine.

Speaker 3 (01:13:28):
Also Richard Pattino was on the show. Tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:13:30):
Danner's back with us in studio. We got to start
focusing in on the draft. Scott Sadafield is going to
be on our show tomorrow and professional golfer Will Grimmer
from Marymont from Ohio State and is going to join us.
He was supposed to be an augusted today. I don't
know if if he was able to get there because
of the rain and everything, but he is going to

(01:13:51):
tell us who to wager on this weekend with the
Masters getting underway on Thursday. We look forward to that
later on of the week. Cory Evans, the UC general manager,
is gonna join us. Joe Goodberry as well on Wednesday.
We have a lot of good stuff coming up as
the week unfold. You and I between now and six
o'clock and five win three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty

(01:14:12):
and eight sixty six, seven oh two three seven seven six.
The Reds are three and seven, and I think it's
fair to say they have not avoided a slow start
that The question isn't so much can they dig out
of it? It's can you point to something besides the
calendar to explain to.

Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
Others why they're gonna dig out of it? Right? Like
that's you get it every year?

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
Whatever the wellther it's early, there's one hundred and fifty
two or how many games? Laugh like, okay, are they
gonna be good enough? And what's wrong with bringing back
Will Benson? We could laugh at that, we we can
we can laugh at the idea that Will Benson is
is you know, an intriguing option after he wasn't good

(01:15:04):
enough to make the team during spring training.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
But remember the word that was used most often this offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
I do. I'll remind you of what that word was
when we come back. We're at Twin Peaks in Florence.
Time for Brenneman and Jones on Baseball on ESPN fifteen thirty.
So it's four minutes sac or five o'clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon on the leg. Or we
are broadcaster today from Twin Peaks in Florence. It is

(01:15:33):
the Niccola Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
Thanks to our friends at nick Ultra.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
You grab up one of those while you're here at
Twin Peaks, home of the Tony and Mo Football Show
during football season. This location in Westchester as well.

Speaker 3 (01:15:47):
We thank the.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
Folks here at the Florence store for having us out.
A great place for dinner or to watch hoops tonight,
or to watch baseball tonight, or to watch both. The
bourbon selection is awesome. They've got ice Mick Ultra on
tap as well. The wings are good, burgers are good.
Everything is good, and the staff is even better than that.
Here at Twin Peaks in Florence. We are here until

(01:16:12):
six o'clock. We've been kind of putting a bow on
the Reds weekend in Milwaukee, which was not good. Yesterday
blown out eight two. This after a pair of close
losses on Thursday and Friday, won nothing and three to
two yesterday, all sandwiched around their brief offensive explosion on
Saturday night.

Speaker 3 (01:16:32):
They have.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
Not avoided the slow start. Now, you could argue that
they have dug themselves a hole that's not impossible to
be dug out of. But they have dug themselves a hole.
And so there's a couple of different questions here. Number one,
how bad does it get before it gets good. It's
easy to say, well, you know, Tyler Stevenson's gonna come back,

(01:16:55):
and I have not seen anything regarding them that he
was supposed to have today. I know there's been increasing
optimism that he is going to be able to come
back within the expected time frame that they tried to
outline toward the end of spring training. But you might
believe that Tyler Stevenson is going to come back and
this is going to be a different looking team, and

(01:17:17):
same for Austin Hayes, that when he comes back, this
is going to be a different looking team.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
And maybe that is the case.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
I guess what I want to know is by the
time those guys come back, by the time they achieve
better health, how much more of.

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
A hole will they have? Duck, I am not bothered.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
I don't think you should be bothered by yesterday's blowout loss.
But you know, one of the differences between last year
and this year was supposed to be that they're going
to be better in close games. And again, it's only
ten it's only ten games, it's only a week and
a half. But they had the three consecutive one nothing
games they had opening Day, which was not a game
decided by one run, but it was a one run

(01:17:54):
game in the ninth inning. They had the game a
week ago on Sunday, the last win against the Giants,
where it was a one run game going into the
eighth inning. They gave up a couple of runs in
the eighth inning, and so they haven't been very good
in close games.

Speaker 3 (01:18:08):
The offense is obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
The main reason why the starting pitching itself has been fined.
The starting pitching should continue to be a strength of
this team, especially given the fact that it looks like
Andrew Abbott's going to be able to make his first
start here during this turn in the rotation.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
But offensively, there's just a lot of dead weight. And
I heard a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
This offseason about accountability, That Terry Francona was gonna hold
players accountable.

Speaker 3 (01:18:36):
All right, it was, I.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Think the buzzword of the offseason accountability. Now, accountability doesn't
just mean that the manager pops off if the guy
gets picked off first pace, or that the manager loses
his mind if somebody makes a defensive mistake, that sort
of thing. It doesn't necessarily have to be about playing time.
Accountability can also be about your stay on the roster.

(01:18:59):
And I would admit, man, the options from outside to
make this better right now, barring some sort of major trade,
are limited. But how do you look at this team
as currently constructed and not start to think about making
some changes, even if they involve players who were not
good enough this spring to make the team just a

(01:19:20):
couple of weeks ago. Like the accountability thing, it's a
word we use a lot. I'm not sure. I'm not
sure we've defined what it is with this team in
and of itself. Accountability, to me is a guy who
has been given a lot of opportunities, doesn't make much

(01:19:45):
of an impact early, and then we talk about his
roster spot a guy like Jake Frankley, or accountability to
me is looking at the bottom end of that roster
or seeing some guys who barely made the team, neither
doing all that much to help the team.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
Accountability to me means those guys have their roster status
looked at very very closely. I certainly understand any skepticism
that calling up Will Benson means this gets changed for
the better, or adding Tyler Callahan of the roster changes
this for the better, or noelve Marte changes this for

(01:20:26):
the better. But you know Will Benson in particular as
a guy who has it's a limited track record, but
has had major league success before. He was a big
part of that team two years ago that won eighty
two games. Last year, he was a strikeout machine. He
didn't do enough this spring to make the team, but
he has responded well at Louisville. I don't know what

(01:20:48):
the harm is in adding him to the team.

Speaker 7 (01:20:51):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
Some are gonna say, well, you can't do things out
of panic, and he can't do things out of desperation. Well,
first of all, what's wrong with doing things out of
desperate the Cincinnati Red should be desperate, like a franchise
that hasn't won in forever should be desperate. A team
that is wasting really good starting pitching should be desperate.

(01:21:11):
I think there is a marked difference between doing something
because you're panicking and doing something because you're acting with urgency,
or doing something because you're desperate, which I would argue
they should be, and doing something because you're acting out
of urgency. And I know we're talking about relatively low

(01:21:33):
ceiling guys. It wouldn't surprise anybody if Will Benson got
promoted and didn't hit, And if that was the case,
you're probably looking at the end of the time of
Will Benson in Cincinnati. But in the absence of trying
out some things involving players in Louisville, I don't know
what else to do.

Speaker 3 (01:21:53):
I don't know. I don't know what else to do.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
If the idea is to get this thing turned around
here very very quickly, there's also something here. And this
is gonna sound deeply skeptical and it's not meant to be.
But I'm sure you have people in your life who
if you express frustration or despair or disappointment in how

(01:22:19):
the Reds have played to this point. They will pull
out a schedule, pull out a calendar, show you where
we are on the calendar or on the schedule, and
then show you where the end of the schedule is.

Speaker 3 (01:22:31):
Show you how many games for me, show you how
much time there is. And that's all well and good.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
But if you're gonna tell me that, well, hey, don't panic,
because there's time and they have one hundred and fifty
two games, I believe you are giving the Reds the
benefit of the doubt that they have yet to earn.

Speaker 3 (01:22:53):
Like there's if Joe Burrow.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
Gets off to a slow start, which let's be honest,
he does, excuse me pretty much every single year. He's
Joe Burrow. He's got a track record. He's got a
track record of success. You know, I would say this
all the time about Mick Cronin at you see when
he would have some teams that in November didn't look
all that good. Like there's if there's somebody that I
can hang my hat on, it's him. He'll get this

(01:23:16):
thing fixed, at least get it fixed in time to
get his team to the NCAA tournament. He's a great
coach with a good track record. Belief in the Reds
is kind of blind.

Speaker 3 (01:23:29):
That sounds it sounds harsh, but it's kind of blind, right.

Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
I mean, they haven't earned the benefit of the doll
they haven't earned the ability to say it's only ten games,
We're going to be fine because we have a track
record of winning, and we have a track record of
turning things around after a slow start. And so i'm I'm,

(01:23:56):
I am kind of curious as to what or not
the Reds front office does anything with the roster as
currently constructed, or if they just ride it out over
the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:24:09):
And if they just ride it out over.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
The next couple of weeks, how much time would have
to pass and how many more games would they have
to lose before they would do something something? Is it
another series? Is it another ten games? Is it getting
to the twenty game mark or the end of April?
And when does the accountability begin again? Like you know,

(01:24:35):
I heard that word. Oh, I use that word a
lot this offseason. Accountability suggests using that word saying that
this manager is going to hold players accountable tells me
the organization is gonna hold players accountable. And when the
organizations holding players accountable, Guys who have been given repeated opportunities,
or guys who are wasting their opportunity or not taking

(01:24:57):
the most advantage of it they get re placed. How
much longer watching some of these guys perform for the
Reds and not produce until they get replaced. It's the
question that jumps to the top of the page, among
many others involving this team right now. Five point three

(01:25:20):
seven four nine fifteen thirty is our phone number in
eight sixty six, seven oh two three seven seven six. Yeah,
the Reds and Brewers. Over the weekend, you had very
little Bengals news over the weekend. We are inching closer
to the draft, which obviously begins starting a week from Thursday.
We had an awesome Final four. Those were two really
good games. I think Duke is being hammered more for

(01:25:44):
their collapse than Houston is getting credit for their comeback.
I think we have a chance for a really good
game tonight. I know, in the grand scheme of things,
no sports fan really cares that much about TV ratings,
but I I I bring the up whenever I hear
that college basketball is being ruined, or then any.

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
Other sport is being ruined, right.

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
I think people speak with their mouths, but they really
really they act with their time and with their eyeballs,
and what people do matters more than what they say.
I hear a lot about how college basketball is being
ruined because of the transfer portal, and by the way,
you see has had three players and counting that have

(01:26:29):
announced that they are hitting the portal.

Speaker 3 (01:26:32):
I hear it's being.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
Ruined because of nil and I hear that the tournament
is doomed because we don't have as many upsets. But
then I see the TV ratings most watched Final four
semi final weekend since twenty seventeen. I have no idea
what number of the game is going to do tonight.
It's a little bit earlier than the national title game
usually is at a fifty, but it's still kind of late.

Speaker 3 (01:26:53):
We will see.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
But I saw that last night, and I as a
college basketball fan, I certainly acknowledge the sport has major imperfections,
big problems that need to be fixed, rectified, addressed. But
I also think the on court product right now is
in a really good place. I think the on court

(01:27:17):
product has been awesome and the best on court product
in any sport are when the best teams are playing
with a lot riding on those games. This year, in
the NCAA Tournament, we've had the best teams playing in
the most high profile games against each other. We had
four number one seeds, and we had the most watched
final four since twenty seventeen.

Speaker 3 (01:27:40):
Are we ready to admit.

Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
That maybe college basketball isn't as doomed as many would
make you think.

Speaker 3 (01:27:46):
I think the ratings tell me what.

Speaker 2 (01:27:52):
Conversations with fellow college basketball fans tell me is while
there are issues that a lot of us have with
the sport, number one, the on court product is really good.

Speaker 3 (01:28:02):
Number Two, people don't want to watch cinderellas.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
I think it's one of the most biggest fallacies in
all of sports that people love the tournament because of centerellas.
I think they love the tournament because of their bracket, now,
because of wagering, maybe because their school is in it.
Because college basketball is an awesome sport doesn't have as
much to do with cinderellas as much as it has
to do with having a really good on court product.

Speaker 3 (01:28:24):
College basketball. This year, the encore product has been awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:28:27):
And certainly has been here in the Final four Houston
and Florida tonight on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. I'm rooting
for Houston. I'm leaning Houston. Neither team winning would be
that much of a surprise. Seventeen minutes after five o'clock,
five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty and eight six, six,
seven oh two, three, seven, seven six are our phone

(01:28:49):
numbers up. Matt McClain dealt with hamstring soreness in Milwaukee.
Pinch hit on Friday, didn't start Saturday, was scratched yesterday.
All of that happened against the backdrop of a story
about Matt McClain and a contract extension.

Speaker 3 (01:29:10):
And there's one thing I want to know.

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
If I'm Matt McClain, I'll tell you what that is
and what to be looking for as u se hits
the portal coming up as well. It is eighteen minutes
after five o'clock. I'm a twin Peaks in Florence. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 4 (01:29:27):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:29:30):
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The accident on the shoulder. I'm at Ezelk with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
Fifteen thirty broadcasting from Twin Peaks and Florence is the
michaelob Ultra at five o'clock Happy Hour.

Speaker 3 (01:30:08):
We are back in the studio tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:30:11):
Paulatine or Junior joins us for an hour on the
Bengals draft, obviously, recap tonight's Reds Giants game, talk some
college hoops. Scott Saderfield is going to be on the show,
as is our friend Will Grimmer, the pro golfer, to
preview the Masters.

Speaker 3 (01:30:26):
Right now, I believe we're going to talk with Linda. Linda.
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Hello, Linda, how are you?

Speaker 8 (01:30:33):
Hi?

Speaker 7 (01:30:34):
How are you?

Speaker 3 (01:30:36):
What's up with you?

Speaker 8 (01:30:38):
I one theory I have because we don't have cable
and Saturday's game and tonight's game are on CBS. I
don't think that I could be wrong. I might be confusing.
It was college football, by don't I know? Last year
I had to get Max to watch the final game.

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
They were on TV. Yes, last.

Speaker 8 (01:31:02):
They were on TBS, or they were on CBS, TVs,
t T is right, right, right, that's what I thought.

Speaker 6 (01:31:11):
She said.

Speaker 8 (01:31:12):
So, yeah, so that that might have a reason to
a small boost, yeah, to why there were more people
watching it. And I totally agree with you. I mean,
eight thirty. We just got back and visiting our son
out in LA. But come on, they could do eight
thirty at least.

Speaker 2 (01:31:30):
Yeah, you know, it's they've at least moved it thirty
minutes earlier. Okay, so yeah, but I mean for years,
I'm I'm rarely one of these people that complains about
the time of supporting events. I acknowledged in the western
part of the United States, you know, nine puts it

(01:31:51):
at six twenty nine. In the eastern part of the
United States is just not doable for a large chunk
of the population. I've never understood. And look, college basketball
is different than college football.

Speaker 3 (01:32:03):
It's a two hour game as opposed to three and
a half or four hours.

Speaker 2 (01:32:07):
But there's no other sporting event the World Series, NFL
playoff games, NBA Finals games, there is no other championship
sporting event that starts that late. Now they've moved it
to eight to fifty, which is better, but why can't
it be at seven to fifty?

Speaker 8 (01:32:25):
I think the most important go ahead, I'm sorry, the
most important right by.

Speaker 2 (01:32:30):
Yes, the last couple of minutes and the best part
of any national title broadcast is one shining moment, which
now airs close to eleven thirty or.

Speaker 8 (01:32:39):
Midnight, right absolutely, absolutely, Well, thank you, thanks for doing
a great job, and enjoy the sunshine.

Speaker 7 (01:32:46):
I've got it, no.

Speaker 2 (01:32:48):
No doubt about that, Linda. Nice to hear your voice.
Thank you, thank you very much. No doubt that the tournament,
the final four being on CBS as opposed to TBS
is a major difference. Now that said, the tournament has
been read across in the first two rounds, has been
spread across TBS and True TV and TVs and TNT
for over a decade now, and the first weekend of

(01:33:11):
the tournament was the most watched since the NCAA tournament
went to that format. Where it's on four different networks.
I just I think there are I think there are
two overrated things I hear when it comes to college basketball.
One is that we want a bunch of Cinderellas. I

(01:33:31):
think it's a general rule. We do not now if
your teams of Cinderella, you do if as a UC fan,
if they were a thirteen seed, yeah, man, count me
in for Cinderella.

Speaker 7 (01:33:43):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:33:44):
I think upsets, especially in college basketball, where the upsets
are being authored by schools that people are not at
all familiar with, I think that hurts interest down the road.
The final four two years ago we had in San
Diego State and Florida Atlantic. Nobody watched this go around.

(01:34:05):
We had four to one seeds, we had the top
two Player of the year candidates, we had big name coaches,
we had some cool storylines. The rating was really really good.
The other one that I hear all the time is that, like,
the sport's really in trouble. Like, I think a sport
is in trouble if people stop watching, and if people

(01:34:27):
stop watching, it's typically because the on screen product is
not very good. Remember a couple of years ago, there
were people who talked about like the NFL product in
September is a little bit stale, and nobody stopped watching
the NFL, but the numbers did dip a little bit,
and I could promise you though that dip was noticed
in New York. The NBA ratings are down a little

(01:34:50):
bit this year. I'm an NBA fan. I think the
NBA product has often at times this year been stale.
Now I think there's some really fun team to watch.
I talked about this a little bit last week. If
you haven't watched the OKAC Thunder, you've missed out. If
you haven't watched the Cleveland Cavaliers this year, you've missed out.
If you haven't watched the Detroit Pistons this year, you've

(01:35:10):
missed out. As much as you might call me a
homer for saying this, the Knicks play as exciting a
brand of basketball is as you'll find. But I think
the overall and the Warriors recently have been awesome. But
the overall product this year I think has gotten a
little stale, and the rating has reflected as much. I
think college basketball's on court product this season has been really,

(01:35:34):
really good. And you know, I remember I put this
on social media in November because we had some great
games early.

Speaker 3 (01:35:42):
I'm starting with.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
The the the Champions Classic where Duke played Kentucky, and
continuing through all those pre conference played tournaments like the
Mallley Invitational. Like I think, at the end of the day,
as long as the as long as the encore product
is high quality, very few people care about the external

(01:36:04):
things like nil and the portal.

Speaker 3 (01:36:06):
Like most sports fans have been following free.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
Agency for a very long time, and I have been
following professional athletes and trying to figure out the best
way to construct a roster around the kind of money
the athletes are getting for a very long time. That
when college basketball becomes professionalized for most of us, it's
not that shocking as long as we're getting a good

(01:36:32):
on court product. I just don't think that many people care.
I just like baseball in recent years, for as much
as you know, you hear people grumble about, well, the
salary cap and you need one and is there going
to be a lockout? Most baseball fans I know, I've
talked about how good the games have been, in part
because of the pitch clock, in part because of some

(01:36:52):
of the rule changes. Also, there's a lot of really good.
You know, young talented players in Major League Baseball right now.
College basketball's encore product this year has been terrific. And
by the way, there have been years where it hasn't
been and we've talked about it, and I think the
ratings have shown as much.

Speaker 3 (01:37:09):
And that was with the old way of doing things.
So we'll see, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
I know, I don't think most people care about TV ratings,
but I'm always I'm always amused when I hear that
something's dying and something's you know, not good anymore, and
that becomes the talking point. But then when push comes
to shove, what are people doing on Saturday? They were
watching the Final four? And over the last couple of

(01:37:33):
weeks they've been watching the NCAA tournament. That said an
eight to fifty tip off, And I'm an afternoon drive guy,
so I stay up late. I remember doing this topic,
and this is an entirely different sort of tangent. I
remember talking about this in twenty fourteen. It was like

(01:37:55):
the first year I got into the World Cup. And
I don't remember where the World Cup was, but I
remember there were like watch parties downtown at noon and
at two in the afternoon and My takeaway was like,
as as long as you've got an interesting story to

(01:38:15):
tell and a compelling product for people to watch, folks
will find it even if it's earlier in the day.
Like the concept of primetime television, especially now with the
way consumer habits have changed, is kind of antiquated. So
put it on at a time where the most amount
of people can watch. Put it on before eight thirty

(01:38:38):
at night on the eastern part of the United States
twenty eight away from six o'clock. Sports headlines are next
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 (01:38:46):
Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 5 (01:38:52):
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Speaker 3 (01:39:22):
This reporting is sponsored by Rapid Radio. Lines are a service.

Speaker 2 (01:39:30):
At Kelsey chevl home on live time, purgery and protection
and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours for life,
kelseychev dot Com, Reds and Giants first of three tonight
in San Francisco. Nine five is Tonight's first pitch Hunter
Green and Logan Webb on the Hill. The game is

(01:39:50):
live on seven hundred WLW. San Francisco has lost one
game this season one I've lost one game all year long.
It's only nine games, small sample size, but so far
the best division in baseball has been the National League West.
That one game the Giants lost came against the Reds.
They haven't lost since, swept the Astros in Houston, then

(01:40:13):
came home for their first home series and swept the
Seattle Mariners.

Speaker 3 (01:40:19):
So there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:40:20):
Good pitching matchup tonight, Web versus Hunter Green, Dan Skillings,
Josh Reid, and ray Von Griffith each entering the transfer portal,
and in Raven's case, he is leaving open the possibility
that he could come back and play for the Bearcats.
Over the weekend, we did see that Cincinnati is going

(01:40:41):
to have Kirk Crisa next year. Who started his career
as well traveled as a lot of these guys are.
Started his career at Arizona and then went to West
Virginia and then went to Kentucky and dealt with injuries
and barely played for the Wildcats last year. He is
a guy who is going.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
To bring some confidence to the table.

Speaker 2 (01:41:06):
I remember, you see played against Arizona and the Valley
Invitational and I was lucky enough to fill in for
Dan Horde those games out there, And I said on
the air, if Kirkrisa played for.

Speaker 3 (01:41:16):
You, you would love him.

Speaker 2 (01:41:20):
Him playing against you, I don't love him, and that's
not what I said.

Speaker 3 (01:41:26):
So there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:41:29):
Also a sincere Harris who started his career at Illinois
then went to West Virginia. Good defensive player is coming
to Cincinnati. Xavier made it official Richard Patino bringing in
a couple of players via the transfer portal, including one
who is following him from New Mexico. That'd be Philip
borovichinin who is from Georgia.

Speaker 3 (01:41:54):
No he's not. That's Anthony Robinson is from Georgia. What
am I doing?

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
Bort of Vigen is from Serbia. You know what I
could do is highlight the important parts of the press release. Anyway,
Robinson played in Virginia twenty six games last year with
the Cavaliers, averaging just over three and a half points
a game. Board of eachen In averaged just under six
a game for New Mexico last year. Obviously, the NCAA

(01:42:22):
Tournament comes to an n tonight Houston and Florida games
in San Antonio, and you could listen to it on
Fox Sports thirteen to sixty. It's a good segment. Oh
one other note, FC Cincinnati. FC Cincinnati won over the weekend,
beat the New England Revolution and Lucas Engel, who was
terrific on defense for the Orange and Blue name to

(01:42:45):
the MLS Team of the Match day for Match.

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
Day number seven. There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:42:51):
Phillip Is on ESPN fifteen thirty. Philip Good, afternoon.

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
He left. Yeah, he just thirty seconds ago, thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:42:57):
Seconds ago, decided he didn't want to win. He heard
me mangle that Xavier press release and said, I'm done
with this guy. Well, we're not going to talk to
Philip then, but we could talk to you at five
when three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty. Matt McClain, We'll
see if he's able to play tonight. There was a,
I think a sense of optimism that he is going

(01:43:19):
to be okay when we saw on Friday that Matt
wasn't going to be in the starting lineup because of
that hamstring tightness. You know, let's be honest, I think
all of our minds went to the same place. He's
been injury prone. Oblique issued two years ago, shoulder problem
last year. Matt obviously is very important to this team.

(01:43:40):
I think there are I would still include Stevenson in
this mix, and we'll see how long he's out for.
But they can't afford to lose Matt McClain. They cannot
afford to lose Elidela Cruse. Those are two high ceiling players.
And hopefully Matt can get through a full season without
any sort of injury issue that a long term puts

(01:44:01):
them on the inter list, that sort of thing, and
then you know, we go from there. But it was
a piece last week about why Matt McClain and the
Reds really didn't talk in any great detail about a
contract extension during a time where you've seen a lot
of players well before they hit free agency signing long
term contract extensions. We all like Matt McClain number one

(01:44:26):
from a Reds perspective, as much as you have kind
of been burned by and this isn't gonna sound fair,
but in this franchise is.

Speaker 3 (01:44:43):
Kind of recent history. Are deals they.

Speaker 2 (01:44:49):
Did with guys before they hit free agency, for players
like Homer Bailey and Devin Mezeraco that just didn't work
because those guys got.

Speaker 3 (01:45:01):
Hurt a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:45:02):
Now, Homer Bailey's a pitcher, Devin Mezerako is a catcher,
but Matt McClain hasn't yet played in one hundred big
league games.

Speaker 3 (01:45:12):
They obviously think highly of them.

Speaker 2 (01:45:15):
Took him in the first round, and they should think
highly of him because he was their best player two
years ago and we've seen this year his importance to
the team has you know, it's we've seen it play
out right. Before you do anything long ish term with him,

(01:45:36):
and I know the principle of buying low and selling high.
Don't you want to see if he can get through
a full season. Don't you want to see if this
is a player who has put some of those earlier
injury issues behind him, not unlike Tyler Stephenson and Tyler Stevenson,
for a couple of years, you know, kind of wore

(01:45:57):
the title of you know, injury prom guy, and unfortunately
he's dealing with one this year. But the last two
years has stayed healthy, played full seasons, been good, been reliable,
helped the club out. I love Matt McClain, we all do.
But before and you know, when we talk about like
contract extensions and pay raises for Matt McClain, we're mostly

(01:46:19):
talking about the years that he's already under team control.
Chicano want to make sure that he's a little bit
more sound of an investment physically, even if that costs
you a little bit more money than paying him right
now when there is a legitimate injury question hovering over him,
I think it's a fair question. Seventeen away from six

(01:46:40):
o'clock five point three, seven four nine, fifteen thirty is
our phone number. We're at Twin Peaks in Florence for
about another seventeen minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty since an I.

Speaker 4 (01:46:48):
Sports station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:46:54):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. April is Donate lifeloth,
Register to become an Oregon donor or explore a living
donation at U seehelp dot com. Slash Transplant. Broadway is
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sixth Street southbound seventy one left two lanes are blocked
from an accident approaching Red Bank Road. Traffic is stopping

(01:47:17):
go from Montgomery Road northbound seventy one near Feiffer Road.
It's another accident. Police onseene on at eazelic with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:47:25):
Florida for.

Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
Taking the boogs uh eleven away from six o'clock final
few minutes here to Twin Peaks in Florence. I believe
we have Chris from bond Hill. Chris, you're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Chris.

Speaker 3 (01:47:43):
How are you? Also?

Speaker 1 (01:47:46):
This is Chris from bon Hugh Man. We've got ten
games into this ray seating right yeah, and is not
looking man?

Speaker 9 (01:48:00):
I mean they didn't acquire a bat many They just
playing with a triple eight offensive team and a playoff
kitching team.

Speaker 1 (01:48:11):
Man. I mean it's I mean, what's going on.

Speaker 9 (01:48:15):
They can't get nobody to find, they can't feel nobody
in there.

Speaker 3 (01:48:21):
I mean I.

Speaker 1 (01:48:22):
Can't even listen to the games no more.

Speaker 2 (01:48:24):
Man as well, they I think the frustrating thing, you know,
it's It's one thing if you went into the season
thinking this is going to be a good offensive team
and they struggle out of the gate, and you go,
you know what, I'm not going to change what I
thought coming into the season. This team will eventually hit.

(01:48:45):
I think what's frustrating is we knew coming into the
season this team's offensive potential right was not exactly through
the roof. In the first ten games have kind of
been confirmation of that, and that's that's an indictment on
the run office.

Speaker 9 (01:49:02):
And then they need to right the right handed back.
Look at the San Diego. What did San Diego do
last year? They knew they got that guy from Florida,
Miami Risa.

Speaker 1 (01:49:15):
They went and got the.

Speaker 3 (01:49:17):
Ear and yeah, I did it early. That's the thing
they acquired him like in May.

Speaker 1 (01:49:22):
Right, Why can't Karree do something like that. Get somebody
in here.

Speaker 9 (01:49:26):
That can protect Dayla Cruz because all these pictures they
ain't got worried about nobody by him.

Speaker 3 (01:49:32):
No, you're you're You're exactly right. Jump to the front
of the line.

Speaker 2 (01:49:36):
Now if if you want to do that, you're going
to have to give up a lot, which the Padres
did with Louise, but you know, do it.

Speaker 7 (01:49:43):
We could give him some pitching because we voted, but
they have to do that.

Speaker 9 (01:49:49):
Hitting man, I cannot I cannot watch. I cannot watch
the same nine I mean, fourteen runs and then almost
no hit. M man it Yeah, I don't know, Hey, Mode, Well, how.

Speaker 1 (01:50:06):
Many games you really think this team's can win this year?

Speaker 3 (01:50:09):
Like this?

Speaker 7 (01:50:10):
Sixty three?

Speaker 2 (01:50:13):
I think to win more than sixty three if the
starting pitching is as good as it has been. But
if they don't win enough to make the postseason, it
doesn't matter. And this is not a postseason offense. This
is not a division title winning offense.

Speaker 9 (01:50:27):
This is a college team offense. Almost want to go there.

Speaker 2 (01:50:33):
There are college teams right now who are a lot
more productive than than the Reds are. It's just, yeah,
it's just a very They're asking a lot out of
a handful of guys offensively, and that that is just
not sustainable. And I'll acknowledge. They acquired Austin Hayes and
he's been hurt and that hurts.

Speaker 1 (01:50:52):
And right I thought he was okay what happened to him? Now?
I thought he was good to go for Austin, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:51:04):
Yeah, he is a calf strain, And the issue with
that is he had a calf strain last year, and
so you know, maybe the two things are unrelated.

Speaker 3 (01:51:13):
But now you wonder all year long, like, is is
the calf he pop popping up?

Speaker 1 (01:51:18):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:51:19):
But they have a lot of guys like.

Speaker 2 (01:51:21):
Is jam Or Candelario getting six hundred played appearances on
a really good team? Is Jake Fraley getting six hundred
played appearances on on a really good team? The answers
are no, I know, I mean, and then you extended
to like Christian and Carnassi on strand has left a
lot to be desired.

Speaker 3 (01:51:39):
Spencer's tear fair right.

Speaker 1 (01:51:43):
I don't even know about Christian. I don't even know
about him. Man, Yeah, I mean they got a lot
of holes.

Speaker 9 (01:51:51):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:51:53):
Man, do you think they should just like maybe tank
this year or whatever?

Speaker 9 (01:51:58):
I mean, I mean, I'm and it's only ten games
in the year, but it's not looking good.

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
No, I mean, I think they should have They should
have done and there's still time to do the opposite,
which is take what you have, which is a really
good pitching staff and build around it. And they haven't
done that, and it doesn't feel like they will here anytime. Soon, Chris,
I have to go because the show is over. But
good to hear from you.

Speaker 3 (01:52:23):
Man, Thanks somebody, okay?

Speaker 1 (01:52:24):
Thanks?

Speaker 4 (01:52:25):
Mo?

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
Yeah, you look at you know, there are players who
you're willing to give some leash to, like cees like
Matt McClain, like Ellie TJ.

Speaker 3 (01:52:37):
Friedel has been pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:52:38):
But then there's dudes who it's like, is the jam
or Candelario thing going to work out? Is Jake Freley
really going to reverse course what has been a multiple
year trend right now? Is Spencer Steer's shoulder ever going
to be okay? U? Is anybody at the back end
of that roster going to be capable of contributing?

Speaker 3 (01:52:58):
Doesn't feel like the answers are yet.

Speaker 2 (01:53:00):
So it's it's frustrating. And you can point to the
calendar and go, well, they've got one hundred and fifty
two games to go, and I'm here for that. But man,
how much further of how much more of a whole
wild a dig before it becomes maybe a little bit
too late, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:53:19):
Hopefully things change tonight. One hundred greens on the mountain.
So that's good. We are done. Got to go.

Speaker 2 (01:53:26):
Paul Danner Junior Scott Saderfield and pro golfer Will Grimmer
from Georgia. Anything you might have missed to go find
on the iHeartRadio app. Thanks to our friends at Twin
Peaks and Florence for having us out, Thanks to Mike
Mills for producing on site.

Speaker 3 (01:53:40):
And thanks to you for listening. Thanks to my guy,
Tarren Bland for producing back in Kenwood.

Speaker 2 (01:53:45):
We are done. Show is over. Have a great night.
Back tomorrow at three oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports station. Hey, do you run a small business

(01:54:10):
but you're kind of unsure where to

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