Cincy 360 w/ Tony Pike & Austin Elmore -- 7/15/24

Tony and Austin recap the weekend, assess the Reds at the All Star Break, talk Bengals, chat with Mo, and more on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Is sky About Cincinnati from Cincinnati,sponsored in part by Skyline Chile. Stop
by Skyline Chili for a three wayor cheeze coney today. Feeling good,
It's Skyline Time. This is ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. All right,
good afternoon, Happy Monday. Welcomeinto the start of a new week

(00:24):
right here on cinty three to sixESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, a
service of our good friends at SkylineChili. Do you know what this week
signifies. It is the last weekthat we will have without some sort of
football on this show. Training campfor the Cincinnati Bengals gets underway next Wednesday.

(00:48):
There it is, thank you,very appropriately timed God Bless Football.
Yes, training camp a week fromWednesday, which leans the seasons right around
the corner. Very fitting considering theReds wrapped up a very mediocre five and

(01:11):
five home stand yesterday, God WestFootball, thank you five and five Homestand
remember we talked about winnable games badteams Tigers, Rockies, Marlins. When
at least seven or eight of thoseReds went five and five, they go
into the break at forty seven andfifty and a break was needed for all
of us from the Cincinnati Reds rightnow, because it is absolutely maddening watching

(01:34):
this team on a day in,day out basis, because one day this
team looks like they're putting on theirown personal home run derby at Great American
Ballpark, and the next day itlooks like they've never seen a fastball before
oo day. So up and downthrough ninety seven games are the Cincinnati Reds.

(01:55):
The All Star break is here.Let's spend some time today looking at
the good, the bad, andthe ugly from the first half of the
red season. Will recap the gamesthat were over the course of this weekend.
We have to talk about Chase Burnsbecause Austin last night, I had
no idea that I follow on socialmedia hundreds hundreds of MLB draft experts because

(02:21):
the amount of people last night thatimmediately said Chase Burns is not the guy.
Condon was the guy. And lookeverything I read and looked on Charlie
Condon I was a fan of.But the Reds went and got the best
pitcher available in the draft, andyou would have thought that this was the
biggest miss of the century based onall the experts I saw from last night.

(02:45):
Yeah, what are we doing?It's my favorite thing, you know.
I think this is this happens alot, especially in the NFL Draft,
the way that all of a sudden, everybody knows exactly what the GM
is thinking or is supposed to bethinking, or what exactly is the best
fit. You know. I thinkthere's a bit of a track record and

(03:07):
a trend when it comes to theBengals and to a lot of teams when
drafting in the NFL Draft. Younever really know what's going to happen in
baseball, my goodness, And let'snot pretend like we are watching every pitch
of every college game and every conferenceor cross the country, because listen,
my job is to get on hereand produce sports talk radio and co host

(03:29):
this show with you. I don'thave a clue about any of the top
ten guys drafted. I know acouple of the names, I know a
couple of the stats. I don'tknow how they fit into any organization or
what the plan is or what theirevaluations are. I haven't watched them play.
We need to quit pretending that wedo. I need to do this

(03:50):
though. I often hand out flowerson this show, and I will hand
flowers out to my cousin. Okay, now we call them a coward most
of the time. But here's thedeal lost in. Reds received the number
two pick in the draft in December. On December fifth, at three point
fifteen pm. That's not Pike deBen's day, is it? No?

(04:12):
Okay, it's close, right close. It might be it's fourth. It's
the fourth, December fifth. Itext Connor, who will the Reds draft?
This is after I saw they gotthe number two pick. By the
way, this December fifth is PikeBen? Yeah, sure, that's why
I was so confusing for me.Right, sorry, go ahead. But

(04:32):
on the fifth I said, whoare the Reds gonna take? He said,
without hesitation, Chase Burns if he'sthere. Oh okay, Connor,
So obviously he has thought highly ofI saw different conversation yes day. We'll
hear more about Chase Burns today.But I did hear that he's got the

(04:53):
type of stuff that he could helpthe bullpen this year if they needed it.
Oh, he's dood all right.So we'll talk about all the draft
experts. Maybe we can hear fromsome of those experts. Five one,
three, seven, fifteen thirty.Uh if you have a Chase Burn scouting
report that you have compiled, ormaybe Charlie Condon, who we missed out

(05:13):
on you could let us know aboutthat today five one, three, seven
thirty home Run Derby is tonight inMajor League Baseball. We'll look around the
rest of MLB as well. Arewe going to make our picks for the
home run Derby time? Absolutely?By the way, you will be able
to hear the home Run Derby righthere on ESPN fifteen thirty tonight. I'll
just tune in iHeartRadio app, dialit up on your on your radio.

(05:34):
ESPN fifteen thirty we are live forthe home Run Derby and ESPN radios coverage
now. Austin is out Friday ofthis week Friday through Wednesday next week.
But this show we're talking about live, This show will be live at rhein
Geist on Friday. Yes, soif you don't have any Friday plans yet,

(05:58):
you're itching to get out based onthe all Star break Ryan Geist noon
to three Friday, since He threeto sixty will be there celebrating one year
of since He Light and so muchmore so coming out to ryan Geist on
Friday. They're doing like a wholeday, like starting with like a college
football like starting with three sixty andthen going to like seven or eight o'clock

(06:18):
at night. They're doing like awhole big party, and I know a
bunch of players are gonna come by. They're gonna play the new video game.
If you've never been to Ryan Geist, highly recommend it is an awesome
place. Which, by the way, I guess I'm gonna have to say
this, Apparently I'm going to bethe only guy in the US today that
will not be playing college football today, Tony. I have rearranged my entire

(06:41):
schedule today yep, to be ableto get home sooner so that I can
go play the game. It's incredible. All my hinting and what I've tried
to do over the last couple ofweeks with my wife has gone and fallen
on deaf ears. I think thereare some people today that are just now
understanding that you can't like play thegame on an Xbox one. No,

(07:03):
you can't play it on a PSfour no, like you would have to
get a new console. Yep.So that's a sobering moment for a lot
of folks. I've seen more.I don't know if I saw more last
night, more draft experts or morepeople talking about playing NCAA twenty five.
I am so fired up to doit. It's gonna be good. It
officially becomes available to those of uswith early early access at four pm today.

(07:29):
Uh so I'm fired up to gocheck it out. I'm going to
be trying to build an ultimate teamwith Tony Pike as the quarterback. Are
you in the game? Do youknow? No idea? And I guess
I won't know because I won't beable to check it out. Yeah,
I mean, because there's a bunchof former players in the game. Yeah,
I mean, Lamar Jackson's in thegame. Why can't you be in
the game? Good point? Imean you were a better quarterback than him
in college, just in my opinion. But like, you know, as

(07:50):
are you, like, do youbelong to some sort of like, uh
you know, association or union orsomething that allows you to be put in
the game, Not that I know. Do you think you see could maybe
vouch for you? I think it'sit's they start at each school's Ring of
honor and they go there. SoI think I missed. So Greg Cook,
I've to start with Greg Cook Cookedyou know, Gooduli. Yeah,
probably pump with Kevin Huber Shaq Washingtoncould catch him past this. Oh,

(08:13):
Marty will be there right, Nope, Marty's not in it either. Also,
you can't play with the Kelsey's orSauce Gardner anyway. Actually, I
did see Sauce is in the gameas a bad guy. Sorry, all
right, it's an NFL thing,you'll be all right. Yeah, let's
uh, let's look back to uhto yesterday and the weekend real quick to
uh review the top sports stories.That's brought to you by our friends at

(08:33):
Klaus Roofing System of Cincinnati, thetrusted local roofing and gutter company visit k
r S since he with the ydot com k r s c I n
c Y dot com thanks to UH, thanks to Klaus Roofing and UH as
we look, I'm very grateful forroofing companies, man, especially after this
weekend. Yeah, those storms,that heat. Yeah, well I thought

(08:54):
you're gonna say the roof at thethe Trump rally as well, which was
a bad lead in to our countryfalling in another I don't know where you're
going with that, but you knowit was. It was an insane weekend.
We had to get to it becauseyou were asked earlier. You went
on Wow earlier and you were asked, are you gonna talk about what happened

(09:16):
at the Trump rally? And onthis show we don't do politics correct,
we do at least call the lightthings that have happened. And this weekend
at the Trump rally, there wasa shot made at Trump which missed,
grazed his ear. Unfortunately, therewas a bystander that got shot and killed
that was at the rally. SoI'll say the same thing we say anytime

(09:39):
that something like this happens, whetherit's a shooting at a rally, a
scooting at a school, a mall, whatever it's it's I'd like for us
to be better at some point.I'd prefer people stop shooting each other,
stop shooting at each other, finddifferent ways to get over problems that you
have with each other or other people. But there's really nothing to just be
better. There's nothing we're going tosay that. I just I wish people

(10:01):
would would really take that in andtry to be better. I did see
Austin I read earlier today during thatspeech. Crazy enough. During that speech,
Trump was like he was giving hisnormal speech, and he like just
randomly was like, you know what, this teleprompter's boring, I'm going to
go off script a little bit.Can you throw up the stats on the
screen that he was talking about someother thing, because he was literally like,

(10:24):
I'm kind of bored with the teleprompter. Throw these stats up on the
screen. And at that time hehad turned his head to look if he
had been put on the screen yet, and that's when the shot came crazy,
which if he's not looking at thescreen, it's probably a different story
that we're having today. So crazyhow things happen and go in that setting.
But unfortunately, another black eye inthe world over the course of this

(10:50):
weekend. And we can add this, Austin to how many times we've had
to probably start this show just sinceits inception to three hours about an unfortunate
event that card over the weekend inour country. Yeah, because we're not
numb to it, like we experienceit just like each one of you,
and we have different thoughts and feelingsabout it. We understand our show and
our outlet is not necessarily meant forthat. But who are we to just

(11:11):
ignore what we're thinking and feeling andtalking about just like everyone else. So
obviously glad that that Trump is okay. Don't ever wish harm or violence on
anybody, especially not through through wayof weapons like that. So it was
it was a scary moment for me. I was at this country music festival.
It's just a real day. Iwas at this country music festival in
Fort Laramie and you know, don'thave a don't have a ton of service,

(11:35):
and you know, a place likethat, there's a lot of support
for a guy like Donald Trump,and as the news is kind of trickling,
you know, matriculating through the crowdand people looking at their phones,
it was just kind of a surrealmoment of like where people weren't necessarily paying
attention to the concert as much aswhat was going on in Pennsylvania. So
just one of those insane where wereyou days? And hopefully we can all

(11:58):
be better moving forward. And speakingof as we move into what happened in
the sports world over the weekend,you could tie that in with what was
seen last night at the COPA AmericaFinals. Oh my gosh, the scene
at hard Rock Stadium in Miami,Florida. One, It immediately took me
back. I was like, man, that looks like people that were trying

(12:18):
to get into the Orange Bowl intwo thousand and eight. Originally that's what
I thought. I was like,man, that looks like the fans that
we're trying to get in to seethe Bearcats and the Hokies in two thousand
and eight. But in all honesty, what an absolute swing and miss from
Copa the stadium. I don't knowwhere the blame falls, but the scenes

(12:39):
last night, the final had tobe delayed, Fans rushed into the gates,
there were the videos I saw Austin. You want to talk about lucky
Luckily no one was major, majorlyinjured last night. The stadium was overfilled.
There were people like crawling in theair, ducks to try to get
in, people jumping over fences.Just a dangerous setting overall, and a

(13:00):
moment that caused a final of theCopa America to be delayed, and in
a game you want to talk aboutdifferent implications, A game that saw Lionel
Messi have to leave the match andthey flashed him on the sidelines and he
is unable to control his emotions.He's in tears, crying. Argentina ends
up winning Copa feels like the lastprobably COPA that MESSI will play in.

(13:22):
But you also carry that over towhat implications does that have for interer Miami
right now? In FC Cincinnati,who, by the way, a weekend
to forget for f C Cincinnati,they were beaten like the proverbial Grand Canyon
Mule at TQR Stadium three to oneat the hands of Charlotte, but just
overall completely mismanaged in Miami for theCOPA Finals. Yeah, and this is

(13:46):
a venue that has hosted multiple SuperBowls, just hosted one in twenty twenty
when the Chiefs and Niners played there. This is a venue that's going to
host a World Cup match in justa couple of years, in twenty twenty
six. It's hard to say exactlywhere the blame goes. You know,
Conny Bull, who puts on thistournament. I would start with them not

(14:09):
maybe having adequate security. I don'tknow exactly how the ticketing worked. I
mean I saw videos of people tryingto get in, showing their tickets who
couldn't get in, and people payingthousands of dollars for those tickets weren't able
to get into the stadium. Isaw an escalator completely destroyed with shards of
glass everywhere. You mentioned people comingin through the events. I've seen a

(14:31):
lot of people try to blame specificallythe Colombian fans. I've tried. I've
seen people try to blame the Argentinians. I mean, I don't know how
exactly to you know, or whoexactly to blame and point the most of
the finger to. But either way, that's got to be cleaned up.
And maybe it's just that in Americanvenues, with the security that we're used
to for big events like the NFLand like you know, Super Bowls and

(14:54):
All Star Games and stuff, maybewe're not adequately prepared to deal with the
type of people and the passion thatcomes with soccer fans, especially international soccer
fans, and so that certainly isgoing to have to be looked at.
So out of a excuse me,out of a safety precaution. Before the
World Cup, did you know Austinthat the cheapest ticket available to get into

(15:15):
the COPA final yesterday was nineteen hundredand thirty two dollars insane? And maybe
that led to some of it,Maybe people just losing their mind to get
in, and people like hey,I'm not paying that. I'm just going
to go force my way into thestate. Yeah, regardless, just absolute,
absolute mismanagement at the highest level fromthe Euros. Spain topped England to
win the Euros as well. Youmentioned earlier, big weekend for Spain.

(15:39):
Weekend for Spain they win the Euros. Alcarez completely dominated the Joker at Wimbledon
in three sets and Sergio Garcia wantto live event, how about that?
How about the Spaniards. I didn'tknow liv was planned the trifecta. Yeah,
for live golf. That's a bigday for Spain and crowd. I

(16:00):
think they set a record too.They've won like three out of the last
five or like four total euro Championshipssomething like that. They want a World
Cup like ten years ago. PoorEngland. Yeah, man, all right,
Yes, there's the FC Cincinnati lost. We'll talk more about that.
In today's show. We talked aboutcollege football twenty five. We'll get to
the top rank. Top ranked quarterbacks. Come on. According to espon dot

(16:22):
COM's list today, speaking of quarterbacks, Oh have you seen there are rumors
circulating tone oh that the Bengals quarterbackgoes by the name Joe Burrow. Don't
know if you've heard of it.Oh, man out there that Joe Burrow
has shaved his head. What arewe gonna do that he is potentially a
man walking around with a buzz cut. I don't know what to do because

(16:45):
I'm been letting my hair grow out, huh, trying to be like Joe.
Well, what I was thinking is, you know, when training camp
starts, we'll do another intro video. And I was gonna have my hair
like Joe, and I was gonnawear a backless suit. Now I have
no idea what to do because I'mnot shaving my hair. I'll give you
one thousand dollars if you show upto your first training camp report with your
hair like that in a backless suit. On man, But there's this it's

(17:08):
it's going around on social media thatone of his friends tagged it. It's
like a group of guys they're ata lake, they're looking at the sunset
and someone tagged Joe Burrow and itfrom behind it kind of looks like him.
Man, Could you imagine can youimagine good luck to the rest of

(17:29):
the NFL if this man shaved hishead, you know, getting ready for
training camp? He said when hewas with, pardon my take that he
had done the Paris Fashion Week andcome back to Cincinnati because it was time
to lock in. I couldn't Imean, one other way to say it.
And you know, a lot hasbeen made about his hair in the
past. It makes me wonder maybethis is an attempt to put the focus

(17:52):
on football man, not the focuson his hair, not what he looks
like, not what he's wearing.He's just gonna say, say, you
know what, screw this, let'stalk ball. I love it. What
if that's what the that's what ifthat's going through his head about a statement?
Man? If that's going through hisuh buzz cutted head? Man.
Now for at this point, wewait and see. We have to wait

(18:14):
and see. Uh your phone callsreactions to the Reds weekend all still coming
up. Talkbacks. It's five one, three seven, fifteen thirty or Sincy
three sixty, home of the CincinnatiBengals on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports
Station and the service of Skyline Chile. Now your chance to win a thousand
dollars one ball wants right the dailycruise swung on a high fly ball center

(18:37):
field isn't enough Here goes Chisel,looking up God La daylight Cruise. He
joins a home run derby party.Here a great American ballpark this afternoon.
Man, that'll tie this baby up. At three to three, there was

(19:00):
Chris Wels on the call. It'sEllie de la Cruz hitting a home run.
I guess that's good enough Austin tomake Ellie our power player of yesterday's
game. That was a great callby Chriss. And really Ellie should be
the power player of the first halfof the season for the Cincinnati Reds.
Yes, that brought to you byCincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by our good

(19:21):
friend Tofe Sheldon. That is Elliede la Cruz. Do we all live
in fear tof is here? Don'tlive in fear toaf is here? Ellie
goes into the All Star break hittingtwo fifty six on base percentage at three
forty six, he's slugging four eightythree. He's got a three point two
wins above replacement, forty six steals, forty three RBI, seventeen home runs,

(19:48):
six triples, nineteen doubles for Elliede la Cruz. Not bad for
the first half of his season.It's pretty good. We'll get to the
good, the bad, and theugly and the rest of the first half
of the season. But let's,uh, let's just take a moment here.
Let's let's go through quickly the weekendthat was for the Cincinnati Reds,
and it started off Austin. Youwant to talk about fireworks on a Friday.

(20:11):
Yes, it was fireworks Friday atthe ballpark. More fireworks from Resigns.
Yes. His first career Grand Slamhappened on Friday night, India Homeward
Candelaria Homward. Before you could evenfind your seats. In the first inning,
Benson had an RBI double, Resignshad a Grand Slam. Reds built

(20:33):
a seven to nothing lead. Theyend up winning seven to four. In
in that guy in that game,cars Inspires gets the win. Five inning,
six hits, three run baseball.Nick Martinez went three. Alexis Diez
did go an inning, allowed twohits with one earned run for the Cincinnati
Reds, but an eleven hit outpouring on Friday night, India de la

(20:56):
Cruz had three hits spent. JakeFrailey, Marte Hines, and Will Benson
all register hits on Friday night.Saturday Reds followed up what they did Friday
night with arguably even more of animpressive day on Saturday. It felled Austin

(21:18):
like a home run Derby on Saturdayat the ballpark, and in the same
sense that we talked about it onFriday. It was led by Reese Hines,
who Austin not homered once. Hehomered twice on Saturday, one four
hundred and fifty four feet, theother four hundred and thirty feet. So

(21:38):
in the game, Spencer Steer Homeward, Reese Hines homer twice, Ellie homered,
Candelario homered, espinall homwred. Itwas home run Derby had great American
ballpark. It was a back andforth affair all the way up until really
Reese Hines hit a two run homerun to make it nine. They hold

(22:00):
on to win ten to six.Andrew Abbott was not sharp on Saturday.
He went just three and a thirdseven hits, five earned runs, not
his normal self. And then itwas Buck Farmer. Good to see Tony
Santion back this week. Tony Santiongot back with the club. Sam mall
is the one who picked up towin Fernando Cruz, even though he gave

(22:21):
up a run on Saturday, doesget the hold? Justin Wilcoms, Lucas
Sims, and Brent Souter all combineto go nine innings for the Cincinnati Reds
And what it did Austin. Bythe way, Jonathan India left that game
with an injury he'd received when aplayer was sliding into him at second base.
But Saturdays win Austin. It allowedthe conversation to creep back in of

(22:47):
what find a way to win Sundayand you go into the All Star Break.
One game under five hundred just wouldbe a complete steal for a Reds
team with all they've dealt with thefirst half of the year. If they
would have won yesterday, they wouldhave been forty eight and forty nine at

(23:07):
the deadline, and we could havestarted talking guys getting healthy. Where do
they sit from an injury standpoint?Instead? I mentioned this earlier. I
know it's just a one game swing. Forty seven and fifty and a five
and five home stand against those tenteams feels light years different than forty eight

(23:29):
and forty nine, does it not? Yep? Just it was right there
for the taking for the second straightouting. Nick Lodolo started strong and then
the wheels fell off rather fast.He goes four and two thirds, three
hits, two runs. He didhave four walks, so the control was
a little bit of an issue.Trevor Rodgers for the Marlins think he had

(23:52):
a no hitter through the first threeor four innings. Marlins did enough.
They built a two nothing lead inthe filth Ellie ties it in the sixth,
and then in the eighth inning offFernando Cruz, who again has struggled
down the stretch of the first halfof the season. Fernando Cruz gets the
first two outs and then gives upa double and a single. That run

(24:12):
proved to be the winning run asthe Reds fall to the Marlins three to
two. The chance that the sweepgoes out the window. The chance at
a winning homestand goes out the window. They finished the home stand at five
and five. They finished the firsthalf of the season at forty seven and
fifty and Austin, I know we'llget to the good and the bad around
the Reds. I don't think youcan highlight more of the frustration around the

(24:37):
first half of this year than youcan in the bottom of the fourth.
Yesterday, Rogers has a no hitter, going six nine up, nine down.
First time through or the second timethrough the order. He walks Jonathan
India to lead off the fourth.It was a good at bat, a
six pitch at bat. After that, on just five pitches, he walks

(24:59):
Ellie de la crue So Austin,imagine this a zero zero game, still
right, first and second, noouts, and you've got Candelario, Steer,
and Stevenson coming up. Ellie dayla Cruz got picked off first base
picked off first, with Jonathan Indyon second, Where's he going? Where's

(25:21):
he gonna go? Candelaria then fliesout, Spencer, Steer, walks Stevenson,
strikes out inning threat over top ofthe fifth Marlin strike for two runs.
The momentum completely shifts first and second, no outs. How does the
runner on first get picked off?No explanation for that at all. And
it is so much of what isso frustrating about the first half of this

(25:47):
season for the Cincinnati Reds is theyjust they do dumb stuff during the game.
There's no other way to put it. Base, running, fielding,
throwing, hitting. They do dumbstuff more than it feels like any team
in Major League Baseball. Yep.And for it, they're forty seven and
fifty at the break. Yeah,you know, it's just I don't I'm

(26:11):
not going to move the goalpost anymore. First I said, by the end
of June, get to five hundred, and then I said, well,
by the time the All Star breakcomes around, get to five hundred.
I'm not going to do that anymore. Like I'm done with Like, Okay,
if this happens, then they havea chance. Sure who they are.
They've shown you through like one hundredgames now ninety eight games or whatever

(26:36):
it is. They've showed you whothey are. This homestand they showed you
who they are. This baseball teamis not that good. Are they competitive?
Yes? Are they interesting mildly?Are they maddening? Yes? Because
they have not been able to stopthe bleeding when it comes to the little

(26:56):
stuff, the base running blunders,the defensive price yep. And we've talked
about, Yeah, it puts somuch pressure on your pitching staff, Like
maybe Fernando Cruz is just tired fromworking so many high leverage moments in so
many games. Maybe Andrew Abbott hasbeen called upon to pitch in big moments

(27:18):
and must win games over and overand over again, and he's just a
little tired. Maybe that's what thatis. For a couple of those guys
coming down the stretch. It's justbeen awesome. I get all the issues
that they've had, but like,I'm done making excuses or trying to find
my way out of what this teamis and how they're supposed to go through

(27:40):
the last sixty five games of theyear. I could I could take it
one stuff for and just and noteven questioned. I could confirm what you
just said. Friday night, I'mat the ballpark and I got a chance
to meet the Nasty boys, NormCharlton, Randy Meers, Rob Dibble,
and we were literally talking about justwhat you said. The idea that a
pitcher throwing one hundred pitches in agame where the team is leading five to

(28:06):
one is completely different than those onehundred pitches in a zero zero game.
Stress and the moments for the CincinnatiReds at which they're playing weighs on the
pitchers. They literally talked about thaton Friday night, about pitching in high
stress situations when it's zero zero ora one run game, verse when you

(28:29):
got a nice lead Throwing one hundredand ten pitches when you're up five is
different than throwing one hundred pitches whenyou're tied zero zero. And because of
the offensive woes or because of thetimes this season that the base runners have
put this team in a bad situationor the hitters have put the pitchers in
a bad situation, how many timesAustin in the first half of this year

(28:49):
has Fernando Cruz had to pitch inextremely high stress situations? How many times
this year has Sam mal or AndrewRabbott or Nickelodolo or Hunter Green or Montas
or Graham Ashcoff had to pitch inhigh stress situations because the offense has not
helped him, or they've made baserunning blunders, they've made fielding airs that

(29:11):
have extended an inning, and allof a sudden, it's the sixth inning
and it's a one run game ora tie game, and the pitcher's got
ninety eight pitches, but he startsto wear down. For the same reason
Fernando Cruz has struggled down the firsthalf of the year. I think he's
been used in so many high stresssituations. And again, talking to Rob
Dibble, I'm talking to Randy Myers, I'm talking to Norm Charlton, three

(29:33):
of the best to ever do itfor the Cincinnati Reds. Pitching in high
stress situations is so much different onthe arm, fatigue, and so many
other things than just pitching when yougot a nice little cushion. And how
many times has an error kept theinning alive? How many times have pitcher's
been forced to throw ten or twelvemore pitches because of something along those lines?

(29:56):
And it's just in general harder topitch in those high leverage situations.
How many times this year as HunterGreen pitched in those types of games,
Yeah, every time he starts.It wasn't until what like a week ago
that he actually got run support ina game. Over the course of not
just this season, but his entirecareer. And I just think that through
these ninety eight games or whatever itis, they've showed you exactly who they

(30:18):
are. I don't know, whyshould I believe that when they come out
of the All Star break on Fridaysomething is going to be different? What
should What have I seen that wouldmake me think that I want them to
be better? I would love forthere to be a point of emphasis on
base running and defense and small stuffthat they haven't been able to fix.
But they haven't been able to fixit, so why should I believe they

(30:40):
will? Listen to some of thesenumbers from the first half of the season.
I gave you Ellie earlier. Seventeenhome runs, six triples, nineteen
doubles, he stole forty six bases. How about Spencer stee Austin fifteen home
runs and sixty RBI's already, JamberCandelario sixteen home runs, forty five RBIs.
Jonathan India is hitting two seven tventyfive at the break, Tyler Stevenson

(31:02):
has been great. How many reallygood, really good first half performances have
the Reds put together this year?From a hitting standpoint, there's still forty
seven and fifty Look at the pitchingstaff. We talked last week about this
Reds. From a pitching standpoint,go through Hunter Green right now three three
four, Era, abb At threethree nine, Montas four to three eight,

(31:23):
Lodolo three to three three. Thisstarting rotation has been good enough for
this to be a team competing forfirst place. So individually, they've gotten
good hitting, pitching, starting hasbeen really good, and there's still three
games under five hundred. They don'tdo the small things. And these pitchers,
starters, relievers have had to pitchin so many high stress, high

(31:44):
leverage situations that you do Austin startto worry about the wear and tear as
the season goes on, Like wesaw last year with Alexis Diez before the
break, and like we saw thisyear with the Fernando Cruz before the break.
Just something to watch and the frustratingpart with the Since Reds is all
they have to show for it isa five and five homestand and the first

(32:04):
half of the year, let's takea break. Let's get to some of
these phone calls. We got plentymore in hour number one. More of
the good, bad, and theugly from the first half of the season.
There's a home run derby tonight.We'll look around the rest of Major
League Baseball, and uh, ChaseBurns is a Cincinnati Red. A lot
of experts out there talking about ChaseBurns today. Well, we'll do more
of that conversation after your phone callswhen we get back. Five one,

(32:27):
three, seven thirty. This isCincy three sixty, brought to you by
Skyline Chili. Hey, fans,Tony Pike here joined me ESPN fifteen thirty.

(32:50):
One of these days you'll hit that. I don't know if you will,
but one of these days you willwelcome back Cincy. Sorry, I
was just retweeting the video we didover the break. Yeah, I was
just retweeting that. So I missedmy mark on the un characteristic of you
to me, especially on a Monday. I'm usually firing on all cylinders here
on a Monday, regardless. Ican tell you this is sinty three sixty.

(33:12):
We're a service of Skyline Chile,and it's the home of the Bengals.
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. Other Uh, I didn't mention
this earlier. We're gonna get theircall in just a minute, Austin,
I mentioned, uh, what we'regetting to in today's show. I didn't
even mention the t Higgins conversation becauseI really didn't see as a conversation.
Yeah, but it's a conversation.Now everyone else is having the conversation.

(33:32):
I just this is kind of whatwe've always viewed was gonna happen. We
also did miss one note on Xavier, and I don't want to miss because
I know Xavier fans. You know, they have their beliefs about you.
You're right and you're bias. ButJerome Hunter good news. He has been
cleared for non contact workay and hopesto be cleared for full contact in the
fall. According to Sean Miller,he was obviously a DMP because of his

(33:55):
achilles last year averaged seven and ahalf and four and a half two years
ago when the Muskies went to theSweet sixteen. John Rostein reporting that again
via Sean Miller, Jerome Hunter clearedfor non contact work with the Muskies.
Maybe a couple fully cleared, uhin the fall. Maybe a couple send
it in Jeromes this year for theMuskies coming up. Can I ask a

(34:19):
question to the Xavier listeners? Yeah? Are they excited? As a Xavier
fan? Are you excited about NCAAtwenty five today? I'm sure they are
all right? I love. Imean, most Xavier fans are fans of
some college football team. Who wouldyou think most Xavier fans root for from
a college football standpoint? Ohio State. I was gonna say that too,
Yeah, and that makes me evenmore pissed. What do you up said

(34:42):
about? Dude? Well, yougot just a mile or two away.
There's a there's a great Yeah,but they college footballosphere, they can't well
you're talking about Mount Saint Joe.They can't be UC football fans. Have
you seen your basketball fans on NCAAtwenty five of Nippert's Day, Saw dude
looks sick. Boy. Yeah,now we're down. I'm just on a
different TANGI I kind of want to, like first game when I go home

(35:06):
tonight. I want to let upOhio State at UC NIP at night.
Yeah, you want me to streamthat for you? Sure, you're one
of the most frustrating things I've alwayshated. My brother played there, Wake
Forest does that slow mesh run game. I thought it was the dumbest thing
ever. Now I've seen different clipsof it on nc A twenty five,
and I'm like, that might bethe offense I run. Yeah, that

(35:28):
might be it. Maybe that's howI can counter to my wife to get
both a PlayStation five and yes CollegeFootball twenty five. Maybe I say I'm
gonna stream and find a way to, you know, create some different income.
There you go, people will watchhow long you think before you get
a little ROI That would probably bethe question for her right away. All

(35:52):
right, Mark, what's happening man? How are you hey? I saw
the game yesterday, and it wasa collective effort on not doing fundamentals right
as a reason why they lost.It was fromwhat I think, Yeah,
Martin, felt like a culmination ofthe first half of the season in the

(36:14):
game right before the All Star break, showing why this team is where they're
at. Yeah, But let memake a couple of points about it.
The pressure was on to win thatgame yesterday because of what happened in the
Detroit series. If they win agame or two out of that Detroit series,
then the pressure ain't on to reallywin that game yesterday. But what

(36:36):
stood out to me in that gamewas Spencer Steer throwing to third base instead
of throwing the second base to keepthat guy on first base, and then
they would have only scored an onerun in that and in instead of two.
Ellie Deta Cruz getting picked off forfirst base. I'm not sold on
him because I see too many airsthat shortstop and I keep seeing this getting

(36:59):
picked off for Dallas first base.First, he was just getting picked off
a second base. Yeah, gettingpicked off first base. The getting picked
off first when there's a runner aheadof you on second is completely inexcusable.
Okay, And here's what the biggestthing that stood out yesterday. I think
if David Beale has been doing thisevery since he's been the manager, I

(37:22):
think he pinched hits for guys tooearly in the game. Because at the
end of the game he had WillBenson and that other left handed guy against
the other teams left handed pitcher atthe end of the game. So I
think he plays that matchup thing tooearly in the game. I think you
got to wait till the seventh afor the ninth inning to start doing that.

(37:44):
He does it in a in themiddle of the game. He does
it way too early, So Ithink that came back to bite him yesterday.
Let me make a point about thedraft pick. I guess I'm okay
with him picking up another pitcher becauseyou can't, you know, the old
say, you can't never have toomany arms. But my thing is,
let's get that hit, and let'sget that I would have liked to see

(38:07):
him get that outfielder that projects tobe a good power hitter that could also
play third base, because if youget your line up in that hitting right
you can let the pitch and kindof catch up to that. Yeah.
So so that that's my theory onthat, because if you can't hit,
I don't care what kind of greatpitching you get, you can't score an

(38:28):
no runs, you still can't win. So I'll get off. I'll get
off and listen to the rest ofthe show. Thank you, Mark.
Uh Yeah, Austin. A coupleof things on I mean, one,
he's not wrong and the mistakes inyesterday's game. David Bell essentially burned through
the d H yesterday, which didn'thelp them late in the game. Like
everything we saw yesterday is nothing newthan what we've seen for the first ninety

(38:52):
seven games. Yeah. Oh,how many times have we heard the exact
same funk called from Mark? Yeah, he's not wrong. Yeah, the
the Burns versus Condon conversation. That'sand we'll get into this in a little
bit. That's my only pushback onnot taking Condon is we've seen this year

(39:12):
this team put together really good pitchingperformances and lose because the offense is not
consistent enough. And yet a chanceto get what some are calling a generational
talent type of bat who also playsin the outfield and you pass on that
for a pitcher. Again, you'regonna be hard pressed to find an argument
going against taking the top starting pitcherin the draft. But if Condon plays

(39:37):
out to what some think he could, Austin, will the Reds look back
on yesterday and regret what they didbecause of the holes this team has offensively?
We'll still have to. I mean, that's something to watch going forward,
but certainly something to keep on theradar, as is with any draft
right. This would have been thesame thing with Penney Sewell and Jamar Chase.

(39:59):
You were always gonna be to that. The Bengals just got it right
with Jamar Chase. So it alwayshappens in drafts and will continue to happen
in drafts as well. Jeff iscalling in as well. What's up,
Jeff? Happy Monday, gents.Back from a one hundred and seventeen degree
weekend in Vegas to one hundred degreeweekend. See yeah, enjoy. If

(40:21):
if any musical act you like evergoes to Spear, make sure you go
out and see it, no matterwhat it costs. That's That's That's all
I'm gonna say. Austin, yourphotos you post over the weekend look great,
keep working hard, brother, definitely, thank you. And I'm not
a gamer, Austin. Can youmake Ohio State play every game at home

(40:42):
with this new video game? Hey, it's all Righty, it really just
already it's really you know, realistic. So yeah, you know, eight
games at home something something alongo line. Only eight. Hey, I think
the thing from Friday or where areyou and what are you doing? Should
be a feature every Friday. Ilike that. I like that. Yeah,

(41:02):
I like that. Last week wasgreat. You know, I think
you guys hit everything, Tony.I was just about to say yesterday it
was just a microcosm of the wholeseason. Yes, uh, I think
one of the highlights of the weekendmight have been the Marlins guy breaking his
ankle on Saturday. Kicking the doorafter that. Yeah, I'm like,

(41:23):
man, that must be one sturdydoor in that clubhouse. Good thing you
didn't punch it or anything, Iguess, but and I was just you
know, who knows with the draft, it's a total crap shoot in baseball.
But man, Charlie Commons, agent'sgot to be sitting there Great American
Ballpark or Corsefield. We're not goingwrong. With either one of these two.
Yeah, or Corsfield may be moreto his liking. And again,

(41:47):
who knows what these guys. Youknow, they have to switch back to
wood bats. There's a lot ofstuff going on between college and pro.
You know, double a trip,double, single, a double, a
triple, a terrible lighting, bedpitching. Let's see how every red progresses
through the whole sequence. I wouldsay, yeah, Jeff, thank you,
man, you too, you know, by the way, I just

(42:09):
I want to say this to ourcallers. I just discovered when I try
to speak to you off the air, you may not be able to hear
me or I can't hear you.I do have a workaround for this.
Uh so, uh please feel freeto call in. I know a couple
of people have dropped off because Ijust now figured out what was going on.
But five three, seven, fifteenthirty you can call in. Yes,

(42:31):
it might take me a minute,but I can get your name and
information. I just have a littlework around. I got it. More
phone calls callback. We'll wrap upthe first hour, starting hour two.
We've still got to get to thederby. Tonight we'll look around baseball.
We got to recap the first halfof the red season. We've got to
hear more about Chase Burns and ourthree. We'll get the more on the

(42:51):
Cincinnati Bengals and wherever else to showmy lead. It's a Monday at Sincy
three sixty right here on ESPN fifteenthirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, servis of
Skyline Chile, ESPN fifteen thirty andIheartradios. What's going on in the NFL
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio.Welcome back, finishing up our number one

(43:17):
of Cincy three sixty Radio on ESPNfifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, a
service of our friends at Skyline Chili. Here, here we go. Our
number two is going to start likethis. The first half is done.
It's not really the first half becausethe season is more than halfway done,
but we are at the all Starbreak. So let us allow ourselves a

(43:37):
segment today to recap what was Iguess, Austin. I don't want to
say they're good. I don't wantto say they're terrible. Let's just call
it a very interesting first half ofthe season. The injuries, the storylines,
the highs, the lows. Wewill recap everything to start our number

(43:58):
two that will lead into your talkback. We'll look around Major League Baseball,
we'll talk about the home run derby. We've got to have a Chase
Burns conversation today, and we'll switchgears and talk a little. FC Cincinnati
talks to Cincinnati Bengals as well.All between now and three o'clock on CINCY
three sixty. Whether you're listening onESPN fifteen thirty or via the IEUT radio
app, we certainly appreciate you doingso, and we'll be back to kick

(44:22):
off the second hour of three onESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station,
ESPN fifteen thirty, Online at ESPNfifteen thirty dot com, on your phone
with the iHeartRadio app, and onhundreds of devices like Alexa, Google Home,
Xbox, and Sonos and iHeartRadio station. Tony Pike here with my friends

(44:43):
at Tricey. This is Cincy ShirtsCincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati,
sponsored in part by Cincy Shirts.Cincy Shirts all Cincy, all Day.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati SportsDation. All right, here we go.
It's our number two, Cincy threesixty ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports

(45:07):
Station and a service of our friendsat Cincy Shirts. Very thankful everything that
Cincy Shirts does. The listener AppreciationWeek last week awesome. They have a
great Cincy three sixty collection in store, online, download the app, all
thanks to Cinti Shirts and Cincy Shirtsdot Com. We we'll dive back in

(45:30):
or we'll dive into the Cincinnati Bengalsand some football related things in our number
three, but we still do havebecause of the day it is and the
it's not the first half again,the seasons far more than halfway over,
but it is the All Star Breakand it's a chance to at least for

(45:50):
a brief moment, sit back andlook at for this Reds team, some
of the good, some of thebad, and some of the ugly.
I think, Austin, I havea couple good and I'll throw it to
you. I would be hard pressedif you didn't throw those top three in
the rotation. And Montas has beenokay, Ashcraft has been okay. But

(46:14):
if you're a Reds fan going intothis year and sit at the All Star
Breaking, you say, okay,here's your three cornerstone pieces in the rotation,
all with Eras under three to fourLodolo Abbott Green the future is bright
from a starting pitcher standpoint with theCincinnati Reds, and I think a lot
of that conversation when you talk aboutthe future is bright, can be echoed

(46:37):
with the first half of Ellie dela Cruz, Spencer Steer, Tyler Stevenson
into a point, Jonathan India.Those the good you could say, Fernando
Cruz for much of the first half, but he did struggle down the stretch.
Sam Mal has been good at times, struggling in others. But those

(46:59):
three from a cornerstone standpoint, andsome of the young talent on offense,
those are the good for me inthe first half of the year. Yeah,
I mean, it's hard to goanywhere else, at least from my
perspective, I guess to be alittle bit more specific, I felt like
Hunter Green took the step. Hehas taken the step into now being an
ace. If you remember at thebeginning of the season, when the news

(47:22):
comes out that Frankie Muntas is startingon opening Day and we're thinking, wow,
I wonder if this is a messagesent to Hunter Green for him to
understand how he should prepare and whatthe veteran looks like and this, that
and the other. For a guythat had started a couple of opening days
and was expected and is expected tostart the next ten opening days, He's

(47:43):
not starting. What does that meanfor Hunter Green and his development his growth
as a professional pitcher? And Ijust think we have seen him take that
step in so many different ways.And you know, Charlie did a good
job talking about I think Charlie wroteabout this as well. Is the way
that he approaches pitching now, thesliders, the off speed, the split
fingers, the development of his pitchesto work off of that fastball has led

(48:06):
to Hunter Green taking a step forwardas a superstar. Guy's gonna pitch tomorrow
night in the All Star Game.That is huge for him. Ellie Day
La Cruz, same situation. Youknow, you, I think everyone's kind
of worried that, you know,is last year just a flash in the
pan? Can he do this fora one hundred and sixty two game season.
Can he reach an All Star level? He was absolutely deserving of being

(48:30):
an All Star And he's gonna playtomorrow night, And you know, yes,
there are things to clean up,certainly defensively, and the future of
him as a defender is interesting.You know, maybe they do try him
out in the outfield, maybe theydo move him back to third base.
Who knows ultimately what it looks like. But he is a bonafide superstar.
Yes, it is a serious,bonafide superstar, which I don't think you

(48:52):
could say the Reds have had sinceKen Griffy Junior. I mean maybe Vado
after he won the MVP in twentyten. But he is a true,
no doubt superstar across Major League Baseballand not just in the United States,
and him and his performance this yearhas led to taking that to another level.
I mean, we talked about aguy has a deal with Jordan Brand

(49:13):
that doesn't happen here very often,and to be just twenty two years old.
To me, We've talked a lotabout Joe Burrow in the progression of
him as a young man and growinginto a man. Elie de la Cruz
has been wildly impressive this year,learning the English and dealing with the fame.
And he just did his first youthcamp the other day. Now going

(49:37):
to an All Star game, sayshe's been working on his Japanese. He's
a twenty two year old superstar whodeclined the home run derby because he's trying
to focus on his team and focuson being a better baseball player. That
is a young man with a greathead on his shoulders, who continues to
improve and is somebody that this franchiseis going to build around. He's having
even better season than last year.Fired up for the future, Rellidker.

(50:00):
Those two that you mentioned, theHunter green side. If there is a
case that you're trying to make instrong regards to Chase Burns, isn't it
that the Hunter green side? Ifyou've got Green Lodolo Abbott, if you
think Rehet Louder is going to bethe guy and now Chase Burns, five

(50:22):
extremely young talented arms at the startof that rotation. By the way,
Rhet Louder pitched a nice inning inthe Futures Game. Cam Collier was named
the MVP of the Futures Game,hitting a home run two reds representing it
that game as well. That's agood sign. The Ellie side you mentioned
the stardom mentioned internationally, Where doeshe rank locally? If you take Burrow

(50:46):
Ellie Luciano Acosta. I think he'stwo. Yeah, I think I think
there's a significant gap between one andtwo, but I think Ellie's two.
It is insane. In going tomore games this year than I have in
years past. It is absolutely insaneseeing the amount of kids in Elie de

(51:07):
la Cruz Jerseys. He is astar. When he comes to the plate,
people take notice, and that staris seemingly just getting started here in
Cincinnati. Okay, for me,the bad side of this, I'll go
with the injuries. And I knowthat that a lot of teams get caught

(51:30):
with injuries, but this started inso many ways, feeling like the Bengals
with so much optimism, and thenthe McClain news, the Marte news,
the uniqueness at which the Cees injuryhad been handled throughout the season edwin.
Arroyo was lost early on. TJ. Antone, this great feel good story

(51:52):
lost early on, and it justdoesn't stop. Brandon Williamson hasn't been able
to get right, Ian Jabou hasable to get right, Graham Ashcraft up
and down. This team has beenabsolutely like TJ. Friedel the bad for
me, and I know sometimes youcan't control it, but the way in
which these injuries have happened, andthen the way that the club has communicated

(52:17):
to us or a fan base orthe media, how these injuries are playing
out, That to me has casta negative clouds and is my bad of
the first half of the season,because I have quite a few uglies.
Yeah, there's a lot of uglyto choose from. For me, the
bad would be the off season pitchingacquisitions. Nick Martinez did not really work

(52:39):
out as a starter, Emelio Paganhas barely pitched. Justin Wilson is just
okay, Brent Souter just okay.None of those guys have run. Frankie
Muntas just okay. Like, noneof those guys have really been difference makers
to take this team to a differentlevel. Now, the pitching as a

(53:01):
whole has been a strength. Idon't know that it's necessarily because of those
guys. I don't think they've beenable to take them to a different level
on the back end of the bullpen, And obviously there's always a lot of
movement with relievers, and I getit. So this is not necessarily to
say these guys are terrible, asmuch as to say one of the big

(53:22):
points of emphasis for this team wasimproving the bullpen, and yes it is
improved, but those guys for theamount of money paid altogether, not necessarily
impressed with their work as a wholeto this point in the season. Agree
on the ugly again. Take yourpick? Can I start? Yeah,
go ahead, Will Benson. Yeah, I said this over the weekend,

(53:44):
and I'll say it here. Oneof the biggest beneficiaries to the Reese Hines
stardom is Will Benson. Do youknow why? Why Because most of the
time Will Benson is hitting behind ReeseHines, and they are showing so many
replays of the Reese Hines home runthat you only get to see about one

(54:05):
pitch of the Will Benson at bat, and it's usually the pitch where he
strikes out. But Will Benson shouldbe thanking Reese Hines right now because his
at bats aren't being shown, andthey shouldn't be shown because it's been absolutely
brutal. Yeah, And I wantedso bad and want so bad Will Benson
to be good. I do too, because it feels like he's such a
good part of this team. Allright, we could throw some of these

(54:27):
back out. There's so many.Let's just keep throwing them back and forth.
H noelve Marte. You know,remember last year, from spring training
to now ugly. Yeah, andlast year he ends the year on the
arguably the best hitter for the teamdown the stretch. Last year he is
a hitter. Right now, he'shitting one seventy five at the dish.
He looks completely, completely low.He's striking out one third of his plate

(54:52):
appearances. He doesn't look like Rememberearly in the year, Tyler Stevenson was
struggling and we would talk to Charlie, and Charlie said, a lot of
it's bad luck. His exit Vlo'sgood. He's not swinging the balls out
of the zone. He's just goingthrough some bad luck. That's not the
case for Marte. He looks completelylost again. His defense might be worse
than his office, which is againinexplicable to me, all things considered the

(55:16):
ugly. How about another one beingDavid Bello. I mean number one,
we've been, you know, onthe edge of our seats waiting for you
to get tossed and past Sparky Anderson. Haven't seen that from you. David
lost the fire, but just screwingup constantly. The conversation around the injuries,

(55:36):
yep, that has led to evenmore heat on the organization, has
led to even more heat on him, and this is his ball club in
which he has a lot of controlover the actual baseball things that happen on
the field. And they are miserablybad on defense, miserably bad on the
bass pass, miserably bad with baseballlike you, and I point the finger

(55:59):
at David Bell for that, Ipoint the finger at his staff. I
mean the stupid decision by Jr.House to bring Tyler Stevenson too third base
the other day. Then they can'tmake up their mind on the bass pass
getting picked off in big situations.Situationally, they are poor. I point
the finger at the Reds manager forthat. I like David Bell. I
want him to be the manager.I'm very active. I'm actually quite fond

(56:22):
of him as a human being.I have no other choice but to point
to him as part of the uglyfor where this team is at right now
when it comes to clearly what theyare doing in trying to develop and prepare
on a night by night basis isnot working and they have not fixed it,
and so I think it's fair tothrow into the David Bell category.

(56:43):
I'll throw in development as well.I want to see more development from a
hitter standpoint. And with that,as you alluded to the base running airs,
the fielding heirs airs that they makethat high travel baseball teams aren't making,
just low baseball IQ plays that thisteam has made all throughout the year.

(57:06):
Giving extra outs getting out, whetherit's whether it's running into an out,
getting picked off, or giving anotherteam extra outs, this team has
been awful at it. This teamhas been terrible in clutch situations from a
hitting standpoint, And it's ugly becausethrough ninety seven games, we've had this

(57:27):
conversation over and over and over andover and over again. I think you
could throw one more in there,Austin, And I think you could throw
kind of the last like two orthree weeks, just the lineup constructions and
the outfield as a whole. Andthat that's not to David Bell, but
this team has been so decimated byinjury. There's so few players on the

(57:49):
roster. There are nights where theteam that is being fielded on a nightly
basis feels like they have three orfour major league caliber players, and that
has just been hard to watch.In my opinion, it's been ugly.
Did we leave anything out? ReyesHines could be in the good what he's
done. It's just as a smallersample size, Yeah, but he's still

(58:10):
doing it. I do have oneminor thing to kind of get back to
from from Friday. You know,Mark called in and really didn't make sense
to me going at jam Or Candelarioand as our buddy Jeremy Row put it
over the weekend. Right now,Candelario on pace for twenty six homers,

(58:32):
seventy five RBI, one hundred andtwenty eight hits. All of those would
be career highs. Candelario I thinkfits into the good. He has been
consistent. He's been a veteran,he has played multiple positions, he's de
aged, He's played through an injuryand played well. He's had some big
home runs, some big hits.He is not an all star starter,

(58:53):
he is not going into the RedsHall of Fame. But he has been
a good player for this team thisyear. Nick Crawl deserves some credit for
that acquisition. He was never goingto be that. That's not what he
was signed to be, you know. He was. He was signed as
a guy that can fill a voidand maybe provide some pop. But what

(59:15):
the contract was? It a threeyear, forty five million yeah, so
they get a team option. They'renot breaking the bank on Candelario and what
he's on pace for. I thinkyou can say, okay, that that's
been a good signing. I agreewith that. That's the first half recap.
What's ahead in the second half wecan still get to We'll get more
on Chase Burns before we get totalkbacks though. Darien is calling in.

(59:37):
What's up, Darien? What's up? You guys doing good? How are
you? I'm all right. Ijust wanted to call about the Alley situation
and the Burnes pig. Yeah,everybody's well. I heard Mark say he's
not stolen on Ellie. I'm like, man, he's his first year as
a full time starter. He's theall Star. Like, dang, we

(59:57):
don't get guys, you know,make any mistakes or anything. It's like
we want the complete package right now. Maybe he does become the centerfielder or
the future or whatnot. But maybethe Reds felt like when they picked Burns
that you know, you have arotation, like you guys hit on,
he got Red, you have him, you have Hunter Green added every white

(01:00:17):
lidolo, you have all these picturesthat you can have a pretty stout start
in five. That's really really good. And you when you get McClain back
and see he has back, andthen now you got reads and hopefully he
keep that up. Maybe they feellike they had a good problem at the
end of the year last year,and that's why so many people were playing
different positions because they felt like theyhad the backs. Now that doesn't mean

(01:00:42):
I don't think that they just stilltry to make a move. But what's
your guys opinion on that? Doyou guys feel like they have the backs
and they feel like they're comfortable withit, they're just not healthy or what
would you guys have done if youwere in their position. That's all I
have. Thank you for the call. I think that's an interesting one.
I don't agree with Mark in thesense that I'm not sold on Ellie.

(01:01:04):
I don't agree with Mark almost ever. But yeah, the only thing I'm
not sold on is is Ellie theshortstop of the future? Yeah? Or
is that an outfield or anything likethat? I think truth be told.
I think I think the Burns pickis twofold. I think one they saw
the number one pitcher out there andthere are people out there Austin that that
cover Major League Baseball in prospects thatsay he's got a lot of Paul Skins

(01:01:27):
in him. M hm okay,I think anyone would take that. The
Reds. I could see them saying, you know what, between Freedol,
between McClain, between what rees Hinesis doing, the other players that have
been injured, Cees coming back.Maybe when this team is fully healthy,
hitting is not the problem. Andthey're saying, okay, so we can

(01:01:51):
go stockpile now and in a yearor two the starting rotation looks like that.
That becomes dangerous. What do wespend a lot of time this first
half talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates?What makes them dangerous? If you get
into a playoff series between Jones andKeller and Skens, good luck well the
REDI building that, Yeah, Idon't necessarily expect him to make any more

(01:02:15):
moves, to be honest with you, If they do, I would like
to see them get somebody, somesort of a power bat right handed that's
going to be here next year andcan make an impact, a guy with
team control for more than a year, maybe a veteran type of player,
that type of guy who is essentiallygoing to be there on Opening Day next

(01:02:36):
year. The problem is they don'thave a ton right now in which they
would probably get to trade for thattype of player. A guy with team
control is going to command a bigreturn. I don't know that they have
a ton right now that they're willingto allow to be traded. Edwin Arroyo
if they wanted to trade him,he's hurt. Brandon Williamson, if they

(01:02:59):
wanted to trade him, hurt.Connor Phillips has been awful. Ian Jabou
is hurt. Like guys that arepotential trade candidates at the lower levels of
the minor leagues are hurt right now. And aren't somebody that you know,
major league teams might be willing totake a chance on until they're fully healthy.
And if you do want more offensiveoutput, you probably might have to

(01:03:20):
to give up on somebody like aFernando Cruz, a Alexis Diaz. Trade
them Lucas Simms, who is goingto be a rental for a team this
year, if they trade him,Buck Farmer, who's pitched really well.
If you can get those guys outand get something in return, Okay,
it may not get much, butwe didn't get to it last week.
But night Sports Illustrated did a storyon the Yankees looking at multiple relievers for

(01:03:43):
the rest. Yeah, my guessis they won't make significant trades to get
offensive guys in return, and theywill bank on Freedo being back will be
a huge part. Maybe McClain.We know that in Karnasci and Strand is
not coming back, but they willlook at it as when they're healthy offensively,
they won't need they won't struggle thismuch. I'll say that's my guess

(01:04:04):
as to how they look at I'llsay by three o'clock on July twenty fourth,
we know because at three games under. If they come out and they
go four and two at Washington andat Atlanta, maybe you could make the
argument with guys that are going tobe coming back to push the chips in.
If they have a disastrous start tothe second half and they're one and

(01:04:26):
five out of the game and allof a sudden, you are, you
know, six seven games under fivehundred, then I think you pull the
plug. But I'm circling. Theyhave a day game series getaway day at
Atlanta on the twenty fourth. Ithink by three o'clock that day we know
pretty firmly what the Reds are goingto be at the deadline if anything.

(01:04:46):
Let's take a break. I knowwhat we are when we come back.
We're getting to your talkbacks. Talkthe Monday edition sincey three sixty a service
of Cinti shirts on ESPN fifteen thirtyCincinnati Sports Station. Now three sixty is
back on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati SportsStation. All right, now, let

(01:05:09):
me hear you good loud, ohwld oh too, oh free, Let's
listen to some talkbacks. Well,listen to the clouds. Get me a
budde Oft, Suprack Jones. Wehope those other two diver come back over

(01:05:35):
the rough foot totally. All Dolphingcomes close to the show. We got
hack right, Hello, the starsover talk back shut all right, all

(01:05:56):
right, thank you Harry, Thankyou, Harry. Get it started here.
You know, it's times like thisin this country when we've leaned on
sports. Look back, even afterthe Civil War, with everything that happened,
this country was just about to fallapart, and what happened the national
pastime was born baseball and it's stillI went to the damn game yesterday and

(01:06:20):
there was nothing like that just totake my mind off stuff. It was
great, and I appreciate what youfellas do for the community and everybody around
the country that does the job youguys do too. You know, sports
is always that, It's one thing. It is an outlet for so many
people, no matter what you're goingthrough from a physical, emotional ment,

(01:06:41):
whatever state, sports is always,always, always a great I guess kind
of a getaway for some to towatch a game or go to a game
and just kind of unwind for abit. Totally Austin Tatlauren it off.
I joined a bottle of Jameson rightdown. Very Irish goes good with orcs

(01:07:05):
juice. Did you guys know Ican Irish step dance? Did you know
that runs in the family? Uh? Can you guys dance? Do any
kind of dance in my life?Suggest? I would think Tony is too
rigid to dance? Why wrong?Can you dance? I cannot dance?

(01:07:27):
You are you are not wrong onthat at all. I guess rigid would
be a word I like. Ilike to move it and groove it a
little bit. I can do areally bad gritty Uh cotton eye Joe comes
around, okay, fair watch out. Other than that, I just kind
of awkwardly moved my body. Idon't know if i'd call it dancing.
Yeah, I'm not a pillow.This is former President Ronald Reagan and Will

(01:07:53):
Whoa. Yeah, enjoy listening tome. Get in your show. I'm
rushing to work big week. Andfor the Spaniards, I'll contraz the player,
not the prison. Never been toSpain. That's a really good song
by a three Dog Night. Itwas written by Horoyd Ackston. Died in

(01:08:16):
a quarter, Get you a bigcouple? There you go? Just happened
to anybody? Red legs Well,I thinks they got the series win.
Would like to see the sweep likehold on this somehow started half week?
Hey guys, Kevin in or here? Real quick? Prayers up for those
who lost loved ones this week atthe tragic events at the presidential rallies past

(01:08:39):
Saturday. Led the former President's Okay, don't want to see nothing like this
happen to anybody. Red legs Well, I thinks they got the series win.
Would like to see the sweep likeyou guys, but it is what
it is. Reese Hines just blastedbaseball to pieces. Maybe sent you shirts
can come up with something. Re'spieces related for him. There you go.
You know they're already gonna be onit, no doubt in my mind.

(01:09:01):
Hey, guys, Jeff and theRichmond miserable weekend starting with FC Cincinnati,
give Pat noon and his flowers whenhe deserves him. He got thoroughly
out coached on Saturday night. Itwas embarrassing to be there, really really
disappointed as far as the Reds.They did what we thought they would do,

(01:09:25):
and ownership will now give us themiddle finger and tell us they're not
going to do anything. They arewho we thought they are. Is he's
saying, there you go, Heyguys, it's Jeff back with the double
dere Yeah. I wanted to askyou guys, if you thought, maybe
at the end of the year,if they do clean house and make changes,

(01:09:45):
if we wouldn't be smart to goand get like an assistant GM from
Cleveland or from Baltimore or even KansasCity, somebody that's done it and built
from a small market it made itwork. Just want to get your thoughts.
Take care. I wouldn't be opposedto it, but I just don't
see that as something that this franchiseever does. No, they're not going

(01:10:08):
to clean house and make changes.No, I mean this is essentially year
two of their rebuild. They strippedit to the studs and lost one hundred
games, and then they built aeighty too and eighty team last year.
They've had a ton of injuries thisyear, and this is essentially year two
of what is supposed to be yourfour or five year stretch down towards building

(01:10:28):
this team to the next level.That's how they view it. So it's
not like this was a year amake or break year in which it's World
Series or bust. It was neverthat, So they're not going to clean
house. It can't help be disappointedafter a five and five home stand against
some blow average teams. Can't seemuch faith going into the second half.
Okay, yeah, that's one ofthe problems. Yeah, hey, it's

(01:10:53):
got your way to Heaven, wayto stand on business, Reds. That's
key positive talkback niche Yeah, yeah, all right, yeah, let's go,
come on go. Yeah. Hey, look, I'm getting real tired
of everyone almost seemingly just giving upon this Reds team. Like I didn't

(01:11:15):
start investing my time and money wayback in February on this team just to
give up during the All star break. Still sixty some games left. You
don't give up. I mean,Brett Farve used to say that all the
time. You don't give up.You just keep going. Three interceptions,
who cares throw four touchdowns? Yep, Brett Farr wouldn't give up. Neither
should we. So let's go.Let's go, Reds bring it home.

(01:11:36):
Starting to be worried for our guyman, Yeah, hey, it's David
Bell pointing the finger right back atyou, Austin. Don't you come down
here and try to do my jobfor a game or two. You have
the fastest man in Major League Baseball. You take chances. That's what you
do. It's what we've been doing, and we're not going to stop doing
it. Yeah, my problems reallyaren't with Ellie. David. I was

(01:12:00):
looking for Mo. Who's looking forMo? All of us was looking for
Mo. Thank you, Austin andTone. It's holding one. Boomer drew
himself on boom. Hey, guys, when it comes to Eli de la
Cruz, you know we have toall keep in mind he's only twenty three
years old. Look what he's doneit to this point, there's been nothing

(01:12:24):
short of amazing. Yeah, it'she's had his share of ugly moments,
but you're gonna have that. He'slearning, he's growing. You keep him
playing every day, he's gonna learnmore, he's gonna grow, and he's
gonna be great no matter where youplay him. Thanks, guys, have
a great deal. Yeah, It'sit's very simple. The good far far
out weighs the bad with Eli DaLa Cruz. All agreement there, but

(01:12:44):
there's still tone's going off all thisjewels coming from the can enterprise. As
far as this burns pick, youknow, I kind of think it's similar
to Men's don't really know, notgonna root on his downfall. But I
will say it's kind of concerning toa little bit a little degree that he
hasn't had Tommy John surgery. Ithink that's something that we as fans got

(01:13:08):
to look out for. Condone's rightthere. I don't know anymore. You
know, it's crazy that in today'sbaseball with pictures, you're looking to see
if they've had Tommy John already.Yeah, and there will be a lot
of guys coming out that will havealready had it, right. It's just
I mean, there's high school kidsgetting it all the time. Has Harry

(01:13:30):
ever defined who quote unquote the othertwo are. I think I'm missing something
here. That's a good question.Yeah, I think I think it's us.
I wonder they don't know if itis. I wonder that, but
think it's us. Settle a wagerfor me, guys, what's the best
Adam Sandler movie? Also? Doeither one of you guys play disc golf?

(01:13:51):
I don't. I've never played discgolf, and it's easy for me.
It's Happy Gilmore. Uh Okay,yeah, I would say, Gosh,
there's so many good ones. Uh, Waterboy is good. Deuce Bigelow
European nerd Bigelow. That's a greatmovie. Gosh, what's the grown ups

(01:14:14):
with all those guys? It's hilarious. Just go with it. Fifty first
dates. Anger Management used to makeme laugh my ass off. Okay,
I love Adam Sandler. If Ihad to pick my favorite, probably say
this is probably yeah, probably AngerManagement. Okay, that's probably not a
popular Okay, that movie is hilarious. Miami Marlins fans are very excited today,

(01:14:39):
and I'll tell you why. Originallythey only had Tanner Scott as their
designated all Star, but it wasannounced today that for your home run Derby
tonight, designated pitcher Edward Cabrera,we'll make an appearance. So congrats to
the Marlins on that, and goodluck to all the home run hitters.
Yeah, every day the Reds wouldbe in a good spot. Yeah,

(01:15:01):
no kidding. That was our lastone. Very good, well done.
Break time, let's come back.You want to talk about the draft a
little bit? Yeah, I wasgonna do some some Chase Burns when we
get back, all right, sinceythree sixty ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
A service of Cincy Shirts. Bookcontinues on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports

(01:15:25):
Station. Welcome back Cincy three tosixty. Moved along. Hour number two

(01:15:45):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, A service of Cincy Shirts. A
couple of minutes here, we'll getthe phone calls at the top of our
number two. I wanted to getthis Chase Burns conversation finished up here.
Look, we did a second andI believe on Friday Austin about Charlie Condon
and why if he was there,it felt like a can't miss prospect and

(01:16:09):
look leading up to the draft.Last night, there was moving right before
the draft because Condon passed Bazanna asthe number one prospect on the list.
So right before the draft, Condongoes to number one and I think I'm
sitting there like oh man, thatthey're not gonna get him. The Guardians
are going to take Charlie Condon andthen they take Bazanna and it's like,

(01:16:30):
oh, well, this is donedeal, this is Reds get Condon,
We're good to move on. Andthe Reds take Chase Burns. And I
think for a lot of people therewas that immediate wait what because I look
at conversations that were had. Look, last year, Paul Skeens was clear

(01:16:54):
cut number one. This year therethere wasn't that. There wasn't the clear
cut number one one. So alot of draft experts, as ESPN kind
of recaps their draft. One ofthe questions one what is the favorite pick
of the night, and one thatleft you scratching your head for one of
the for one of the insiders,I believe it was on Charlie Condon,

(01:17:23):
and it was Charlie Condon would havebeen a lot of guys number one pick.
So the Rockies claim getting him atnumber three, they need hitting,
they need power. Condon can playwherever. That I think echoed a lot
of people on the thought of whydidn't the Reds take Condon. But another

(01:17:43):
question that was asked was which playerdraft it has the best chance to win
an MVP or a Cy Young Now. One of those said in four years,
Charlie Compton has a chance to bean MVP. No one else has
ever won the Golden Spot Award,Rookie of the Year and MVP. From
minor league standpoint, Charlie Condon hascomparisons that are very real to Chris Bryant.

(01:18:14):
That's pretty good Charlie Condon for everythingwe talked, the Charlie Condon bandwagon
gross one of the greatest season inNCAA history, little more power. Everyone
made the Chris Brian comparison. Thereis also people talking about the power being
that of Shoho Tani, so fantastic, great, But the Reds did get

(01:18:39):
a little boost because there was aconversation of well, the hitters were more
Polish than the pitchers. But ifyou're talking about upside, it's Chase Burns
number two to the Reds drawn comparisonto Skemes ninety seven to ninety nine on
a fastball reached one oh two attimes hillatious slider. So there's a conversation

(01:19:00):
with with Chase Burns that he's thetype of player, he's good enough that
he could play with the Reds thisyear and help them out in the bullpen.
I asked around trying to figure out, Okay, what is the drawback,
what if any would be the conversationof why does does Condon not get
drafted? And there was a conversationthat he's never hit over two eighty six

(01:19:24):
with a wooden bat in the Northwoodsor the Cape Cod League. So there
are questions, at least from someout there. Reds went for the sure
thing, which was the best startingpitcher hands down in the draft the way
I look at it, and Iagain, I don't pretend to know these
guys inside and out, but Ihad read something that Charlie had written.

(01:19:44):
Goldsmith had written a couple of weeksago that there were questions around some of
the power hitters in the draft becauseof the questions around in the NCAA this
year, the difference in the metalbats and the difference in the balls,
because there were a lot of powerhitting and power and hitting records across college
baseball set for a lot of differentprograms, and people believe a good reason

(01:20:08):
for that was because of the differencein the metal bats, the difference in
the balls. I don't know thedetails behind that, but that was something
that some of the scouts, accordingto the reporting I've read, struggled with
when evaluating some of the power hitters, including Charlie Condon. And so when
you are in that environment in baseball, and you're in one of the best

(01:20:30):
conferences for baseball in the country andthe SEC and you're still getting a lot
of swing and miss, like ChaseBurns was, that stands out to some
scouts, and I think the Redslooked at it as if to say,
listen, we have questions about thisparticular player. There's a lot of swing
and miss in his game in CharlieCondon with a metal bat, with the
balls that are in Major League Baseball, do we think he can keep up

(01:20:55):
that level of power consistently throughout theminor leagues where you know he's a beast
and Colorado gets a great guy,but they have a profile. And again
I recommend reading what Charlie wrote aboutthis, because he interviewed the scouting staff
and the people in charge of this. Basically they start with athletic players up
the middle and starting pitching, andthey did not see enough from Charlie Condon

(01:21:21):
to say we're going to deviate fromwhat we value the most, and with
the expectation being that Rhet Louder willbe here sooner rather than later. And
I heard MO had a guy onFriday who said, right now Louder is
projecting as a three or fourth guyin the rotation. If you can bring
a Chase Burns up and he's evenat that same pace with the pitching that

(01:21:42):
you already have over the course ofmaybe this is a guy who's like Paul
Skeins and is here next year andhaving an impact that can really put you
over the top from a team withalready good pitching to elite pitching and put
you in a category to compete soonerrather than later, so long as you
fix the offensive an injury issues.I think that's how they were looking at
it. I don't pretend to knowor know exactly which prospect is the better

(01:22:05):
prospect, but I will say,in terms of drafting pictures high as of
late, the Reds have a prettygood track record, so I'll trust that
sure, let's take a break orI'm sorry before we break. We do
we have any Chase Burns? Wedo? Uh, this is a Chase
Burns when he met with the mediayesterday via zoom following being drafted by the

(01:22:27):
Reds number two overall. Yeah,you know, I was pretty surprised.
I don't really know what to think. It kind of got a quick claw
just really excited. Chase. Theextent of your conversations with the rise leading
up to the draft, Uh,you know, I talked to him multiple
times. I got to go toCincinnati, gone to a game and you

(01:22:50):
know, talk to them, soyou know, I just got to get
to know me better and got toget to know them better. What what
game was it, and what werekind of your impressions of the team and
everything else. I think there's beenthe Guardians impressions were like really impressive this
organization, and I just talked aboutdevelopment and pitching and you know, had

(01:23:14):
a good time with them. Whatdo you think you did this year in
particular that helped kind of elevate yourdraft stock. You obviously moved up very
quickly. You said you were surprised, and by the way, congratulations as
well. What what made you thinkyou kind of got you to where you
are right now this season, Justwhole becoming a better player, a better

(01:23:39):
person, working on the mental gameand you know, just working on mechanics
and just trying to come all aroundbetter picture. Chase wake Forest, of
course, has a stellar reputation theredst familiar with with ratt Lauer as well.
What what do you think you learnedor made you better from going to

(01:24:00):
Wake Force, specifically from a prettygood program at Tennessee. Yeah, that
bitch lap that haves no joke.Just being able to get in there and
work with all the new technology thatbaseball is becoming and get on the move
better and we'recome mental game and ithelps me EVI game. So that is
part of the conversation with Chase Burnsand you know, Austin with that,

(01:24:27):
you're you're talking about two elite collegebaseball programs that he's coming from in Tennessee
and Wake Force. Yeah, soyou're already well versed there. What stood
out to me and watching a lotof highlights, dude's got some fire and
passion on the mound. I meanhe is electric, both his stuff and
his mentality. And I'm eager tosee what the plan is and how quickly

(01:24:48):
Chase Burns becomes a Cincinnati read meetingon the Major League Baseball roster. We
have a couple of minutes before ournumber two is done. With that time,
let's take a phone. Mike iscalling in. What's up, Mike?
Hey, guys, do you havea good weekend? Not bad,
not bad? Mike. Yeah,it's pretty solid weekend. Good weekend,

(01:25:09):
Austin. Yeah, Mike, itwas great. I enjoyed it. Good.
Did you went to that country musicfestival? Where did you say that
was there? There's it Fort Larmie, Ohio over at the Hickory Hill Lakes
Campground. Just a big old field, it really is. Is that pretty
far north, they hear, Austin. Yeah, it's about two hours north.
Oh, I ain't there. Inever heard of that play. That's

(01:25:30):
why I'm intrigued me when you saidit. Hey, I'm sitting down on
this beautiful deck here overlooking the ocean. I just wish the circumstances were a
little bit better. But I calledFriday well, first of all, the
guy, I thought that I've beenfollowing the draft pretty close because I've had
the time, and uh, thiskid that the Cardinals took at number seven

(01:25:51):
is JJ Westerholt. He Harold Reynoldsand a couple of them couldn't go,
couldn't say enough wonderful things about it. And he's from West Virginia. First
guy I would pick that high fromWest Virginia. And uh, he's from
Mars, Pennsylvania, m A RSMars. That's got to be a tiny

(01:26:12):
little bird somewhere, wouldn't it,think, Yeah, it's just my my
thing. Like, I feel likeit's so hard, Mike, to to
assess baseball prospects more than any othersport football. I think if we get
a pretty good idea at the draft, Basketball you get a pretty good idea.
Although it's a little harder in basketballnow because there's so many overseas talents

(01:26:33):
that are getting drafted in the firstround. Baseball you're transitioning from a medal
to a wooden bat. You're talkingabout pitchers going up against completely different levels
of hitters. You're talking about uh, some high school prospects versus college picks.
I just think it's it's so hardto evaluate the major league process.

(01:26:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's gotta be, and you would you would know better
than me about that. I justwas intrigued because the kid can play all
the end positions. He ended upat shortstop. He got a cannon for
an arm. But like you said, we'll see it's so early to predict
and get really overly excited about it. But I did notice one of those
first ten picks, I believe heis the only one that was a short

(01:27:14):
stop though. Anyway, people,since I don't care about the Cardinals,
my man, I called Friday andtalked to Trags when he was throwing in
for Mollor Thursday. And he knowsa lot about sports. We know that,
right, Yes, absolutely. Igot him on that trivia question the
last switch hitter to win the MVPin the American League, and he said

(01:27:35):
Mickey Mantle And before I could hangup, before I kept give him the
answer, it was the end ofthe show and they had to hang up.
But it's light a blue. Youknow. He was the only guy
ever in seventy one. He's theonly pitcher to ever win the MVP in
the cy Young up until that pointin the same year, and he's just
forgotten about big old stud. Thatwas really something else with the Oakland.

(01:28:00):
Yeah, it's I I find thatmuch like much like the draft for me
baseball because of how many players haveplayed, and you have so many different
teams, so many different markets.It is it. I'm constantly wowed from
a baseball standpoint at records and statsand how many like seemingly great players we

(01:28:20):
go years without even noticing or recognizingbecause of the greatness, because the game
has changed so much and the landscapecontinues to change. Well, and I
really believe in my heart that thisSpencer Steer is the Red's most valuable player.
I mean, I know it.You almost got to say, Ellie,

(01:28:41):
but Steer is so solid and soversatile, and he seemed to be
irreplaceable to me. I'll let yougo, and Mike thank you. Yeah,
his his in Austin. We've we'vespent a lot of time on Steer.
His versatility makes him irreplaceable. Yeah, And the fact that he's willing
to play anywhere at any time isthe top. You can pick him up

(01:29:04):
and put him in the infield,in the outfield, and we talked about
this earlier. You look up atthe end of the first half, you
go into the All Star break andvery quietly Spencer Steer fifteen home runs,
and he's got sixty RBIs. Doyou know what the next closest RBI total

(01:29:26):
is for the Reds forty five.He's got sixty RBIs and fifteen home runs
in the first half, and he'sdoined so seemingly rather quiet, and he
can play any position for you completelyirreplaced by I agree one percent there on
that with Mike, let's break,let's come back. Our three still ahead,
since he three to sixty, we'vegot to give our home run derby

(01:29:47):
picks. We'll look around the restof baseball. We'll transition to football and
so much more between now and threeo'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports
Station, a service of Cincy shirtsESPN fifteen thirty, on at ESPN fifteen
thirty, dot com, on yourphone with the iHeartRadio app, and on
hundreds of devices like Alexa, GoogleHome, Xbox, and Sonos and iHeartRadio

(01:30:11):
station. Hey fans, Tony Pikehere,