Cincy 360 w/ Tony Pike & Austin Elmore -- 5/27/25

Tony and Austin take your calls and TalkBacks, recap a busy Memorial Day weekend, chat with Joe Danneman and Mo Egger, and more on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in part
by Skyline Chile. Stop by Skyline Chili for a three
way or cheeze Cony today. Feeling good, It's Skyline Time.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good afternoon, Welcome in, Welcome to the latest edition of
Cincy three to sixty, coming to you live here on
a Tuesday afternoon, right here on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station, the service of our good friends at Skyline Chili.
Anytime you're feeling good and hungry, it's Skyline Time. Also,
thank you if you listening on the iHeartRadio app. That
means whenever, wherever you're listening, it is certainly and greatly

(00:42):
appreciated here. If you are listening via the iHeartRadio app,
you can go ahead and leave us at talkback. We'll
get to those talkbacks in our number two this afternoon.
Our number three this afternoon. We'll kick off with our
guy from Fox nineteen, Joe Daniman, who's ready to join
us to talk all things cincinnat Reds and OTAs today

(01:03):
for the Cincinnati Bengals. One hundred days away from the
NFL football season, we are at the one hundred day mark,
so we will spend time today looking ahead to the
NFL season, some storyline, some predictions, players to know from
here in Cincinnati and across the National Football League as well.

(01:25):
We also have to talk unfortunately some Reds baseball today.
Didn't get the chance yesterday with the holiday for Austin
and I to get together and talk about the cub Series.
Also what the Reds were able to do yesterday against
the Kansas City Royals. Will do all of that today.
Speaking of the holiday weekend, hopefully everyone was able to
have a great holiday weekend, the weather certainly cooperated and

(01:48):
awesome opportunity to use Memorial Day as a time to
obviously give thanks to the sacrifices that so many have
made so that we are able to freely enjoy the
weekend that so many were able to enjoy. Now coming
out of that, so we'll spend time on the Cincinnati Reds,
look ahead to the OTAs, and what else the Bengals

(02:11):
obviously need to accomplish from a storyline standpoint. The top
sports stories that have happened you see baseball? How about
the Bearcats on the diamond another thirty plus win, season
back to back years, and this year they are rewarded
Austin with the Knoxville Regional. Let's go the fourteenth overall

(02:35):
team in the country in The one seed in the
Knoxville Region obviously is the Tennessee Volunteers. The two seed
out of the acc A perennial contender when it comes
to college baseball is the wake Forest Demon Deacons. We
all know about that. Here in Cincinnati, Reht Louder and
Chase Burns both wore Wake Forest Demon Deakins. Yes, the
three seed in that region or the Cincinnati Bearcats and

(02:56):
the four seed the RedHawks out of Miami of Ohio.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Let's go to Saddle for the victory wow in the
NCAA Tournament.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Alive Shout out Tom interested in this shout out to
the folks that run the NCAA Baseball account as well,
with all four hundred and seventy one thousand followers who
took the social media uh to lay it out there
on who was going to be in the Knoxville Regional
and they were nice enough to spell Cincinnati cinn ci Nati.
It's not that hard, especially when you're running the NCAA

(03:27):
Baseball account to make sure that you're spelling the team
name correctly.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
It is pretty hard for a lot of people. Apparently
it's tough. I mean, it happens almost every single day.
It's incredible people with these accounts. I don't know how.
When you really put your brain to it and like
think about it and sound it out, it's pretty easy
to get to Cincinnati the way Y's correctly spelled.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
And there are normally like these things called like autocorrect
features that I'll tell you, like, hey, that's not right.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
And you know, even when I type on my computer
at work, if I spell something wrong, it'll give me
that little red squiggly line underneath.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well that are normally like it will just auto correct it,
and then you got to like go through the process
of actually deleting that and then spelling it again the
incorrect way. Not a great look. What also is not
an ideal look for the Xavier Musketeers a unbelievable run

(04:28):
throughout the season. They scheduled extremely, extremely hard, so you
can't really make the argument that the strength of schedule
didn't help them. But Xavier finished thirty two and twenty
seven on the season. We had Paul Richmand on the
show last week and Paul tweeted yesterday as well. Teams

(04:50):
are asked to challenge themselves. No one did that more
this year than Xavier baseball Quad one wins. RPI didn't
have a ton of Quad three, Quad four losses. They
won head to head games with other Bubble teams. You
would think that that team checks the box. So, you know,
I don't know how Xavier was left out. They were,

(05:13):
but I do think that the Musketeers should have been
playing in the NCAA tournament as well. For what it's worth,
NBA playoff action over the weekend, how about coming back
from the dead Austin the New York Knicks and what
they were able to do on Sunday night coming from
a twenty point deficit. It's a third time this playoffs

(05:34):
that a team has come from down twenty or more
to win a game, and they did so on the
road at Indy, staring a three to zero deficit right
in the face Karl Anthony Townsend Company. They make a
lot of their comeback in the fourth quarter with Jalen
Brunson on the bench and set themselves up for Game four,
which is tonight. Have we head correspondence from our guy, Moeger.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yet I am told, and I was told early less
than a minute prior to us coming on the air,
that Moegar will be broadcasting the Moegar Radio Show from Indianapolis, Indiana,
this afternoon as he prepares for Game four between the
Surs and the Knicks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
How about that?

Speaker 4 (06:20):
So mo will be in Indy?

Speaker 2 (06:23):
How about that? Good for mo Man?

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, I'm excited happy for that, especially because his whole
idea that the Knicks were gonna get swept, that's not
gonna happen now, So.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
I didn't have to worry about the trophy.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's not something he's gonna have to worry about.
Like I came home Sunday, I had an interesting Sunday evening.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
I told you about it.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
And I'm laying down on the couch and like watching
this game and I just fall asleep and I wake up.
However many hours later, it was to see the Knicks
had stormed back, and I thought I was dreaming because
of the score. Yeah, there's no way that's I had
a hard time, Like you don't how that in between

(07:05):
like reality and sleep. I couldn't believe the Knicks actually
came back and won and I missed the entire thing.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Unbelievable. Yeah, I was watching it and you're thinking, like, man,
can they get it to ten going into the fourth
and they did and then absolutely ran away with it
in the fourth quarter last night Game four of the
Western Conference Finals, Game three, Anthony Edwards was a one
man wrecking crew last night. Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall

(07:32):
Austin combined to go six of twenty from the field
in the game, one of ten from the three point line.
They combined to score twenty one points, and yet the
Timberwolves only lost the game by two, but Anthony Edwards
had sixteen, Julius Randall only had five points, and the
Timberwolves fall at home. They now fall down in the

(07:55):
series three to one to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who
were led by breakout star j Alan Williams who had
thirty four shake Guildris Alexander, the MVP of the National
Basketball Association had forty forty with ten assists last night,
and the Thunder go on the road and win. They
should look to close things out here, I would believe

(08:15):
in Game five, that is the latest from an NBA standpoint,
from a college basketball standpoint, Big twelve news huge news
for the Houston Cougars, perceived to be one of the
top returning teams coming back in the country. They get
their point guard back, Johnny Uzan, who has withdrew his
name from the NBA Draft. He is returning to Houston,

(08:36):
a huge jolt for Kelvin Samson and the Cougars, who
will probably be top two, top three when all is
said and done starting up next year. As well mentioned,
we'll talk about the Reds and what they were able
to do or not do over the course of the
weekend from the holiday weekend atself. Austin, and I believe
that you tied today's poll question into it because I

(08:59):
don't remember a Memorial Day weekend in recent years where
the weather has been more perfect.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Now I know that I've I can remember like a
month of May where the weather has been so weird.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, like, I don't know. I remember a lot of
moral days in the past, like sitting by the pool,
and obviously it was too cold to do that, but
I thought Friday and especially Sunday Saturday was kind of
overcast and windy. It got a little chilly, but I
thought Sunday was one of the nicest days I can remember,
and I know it leads into today's poll question as well.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, and it's pretty simple, presented by Revivefitnessystems dot com
and coach PJ.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Street.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
What is your ideal outdoor temperature range? Is it fifty
to sixty five degrees? I think that's where I fall.
I love it when it's like that, Okay. Is it
sixty six to seventy six, which is about where we
were at over the weekend. That's where I fall and
I loved it. Is it seventy seven to eighty five?

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Nope?

Speaker 4 (09:59):
Or is it eighty six plus? Right now?

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Forty seven percent say seventy seven to eighty five degrees,
forty two percent say sixty six to seventy six degrees,
and seven point one percent of you people are sick
and say eighty six plus.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
How dare you?

Speaker 3 (10:16):
And then I get a little bit seen with a
two point four percent saying fifty to sixty five degrees.
I love like a sweatshirt. You know, I could go
like a crew neck in shorts, hoodie and shorts, that
sort of deal with the fifty to sixty five I love.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
That sort of stuff.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Yeah, but let me you're right, this weekend was, as
far as I'm concerned, absolutely perfect.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
When you dive into anything with the temperature that starts
with an eight, I start to think about humidity with that. Yeah, no,
I'm not sixty six to seventy six.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
And that sweet spot I love it too, because it's
not humid for all the bugs, so like the bugs
aren't out and being a complete nuisance to you. Speaking
of bugs, I went to a gathering on Sunday evening
in Loveland, Ohio, and at this person's home there were

(11:03):
a ton of cicadas. Oh, the like brood x cicadas
that we had like four years ago. Yep, the ones
that are supposed to come every seventeen years or whatever
it is.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
I'm no cicada expert. I don't know why these these
ones are here right now. And maybe they're here every
year and I just don't live in an area where
I see you all the time. But the ones from
years ago that were everywhere throughout the summer, there was
a ton of them at this person's house and they
were just everywhere, and it brought me back to those

(11:35):
times four years ago. Hard to believe that it was
already that long ago. But have you do you have
cicadas up in Sharonville. Yeah, we got them in the backyard,
the little ones with the orange.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Okay, see you know those big green ones that show
up every year. I hate those. Yeah, those are disgusting
any but the little cicadas with the orange, those guys
are kind of cool.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, there's a couple for one, and they're nice. You know,
I don't do anything to you. They are prevalent. The
noise has become overwhelming at times, but we used you
mentioned the weather. I thought this weekend for me, it's
perfect because during the day it's comfortable and at night
perfect for a fire. Oh yeah, you have a nice

(12:14):
little fire. We did some some s'mores last night at
the Pike Hows to recap the weekend. Fantastic. But was
thinking of this because on the west side of Cincinnati, Austin,
which is a completely different area. It's like a different country,
a different country. We went over there to visit my
brother and sisters place last week. They have lizards. Oh yeah,
on the west side. No, they have lizards here. I've

(12:36):
never seen a lizard in Charonville, really, never where I live.
There's lizards everywhere. Yeah, I've never seen one in Charonville.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
I'm not on the west side.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
And he had things like on the west side. I
mean they were crawling on the house. They were everywhere
I was in Florida. Oh yeah, it's unbelievable. It's the
I forget the name. Somebody will tell us. But do
you know that story. I feel like we talked about
this a couple weeks ago. No, the story of how
lizards came to Cincinna. And somebody can correct me if
I'm wrong. I think they're called Lazarus lizards. And the

(13:07):
reason was there was somebody, a kid or somebody with
the last named Lazarus, who their family came from overseas
or whatever it was to live in Cincinnati. And this
kid stuffed a bunch of lizards in a sock on
the way over here and like got them through the
plane or what. I forget exactly the details, but they're

(13:28):
called Lazarus lizards, and I mean there was a bunch
of lizards in this sock. They move here, he lets
them out, and then next thing you know, these lizards
have made Cincinnati home and they've obviously you know that
you had the real Adam and Eve of lizards that
he brought over here. And next thing, you know, the
lizards are everywhere. And I saw a recent study that

(13:49):
says they're getting bigger, like bigger than they originally were.
And I can attest to that just from seeing them
around where I live. I mean, there's some good sized lizards.
They're cool, they don't heard anything. Okay, yeah, they're nice.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Okay, Yeah, I don't probably eats, which I'm all in favorite.

Speaker 7 (14:07):
Yea.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Honestly, I've never seen one in Share, but they were
all over the West Side.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
I can't believe that you haven't seen one in Sharing.
That's actually pretty surprising.

Speaker 6 (14:15):
No.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Also, I have to do this because I ran with
this last year. I've got to congratulate my my younger
brother Devin and his team made up of Tony Rack
and Tyler Step and Trevor Step on their Memorial Day
tournament three on three teas. Oh, they knocked us off
in the finals twenty to seventeen. We just didn't have

(14:36):
enough down the stretch. Yep, our championship.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
You are a loser.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
We lost. Now, I think they're my favorite Pike brother, Devin.
I think there are different stages to losing. There is
losing in the finals, and then for a third straight year,
there's losing multiple games to the same team. Like our guy,
Balling ain't easy.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
Okay, tell me what happened with Ballin.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Ball In another bad showing a Memorial Day tournament. I
don't like to hear that they opened They opened up
pool play on Saturday with our squad and they took
a beating in that and then you know, Ballin gave
it everything he could Sunday.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Well, that's not a surprise. We's a high motor high Africa.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
We played Balling in the first round of the tournament,
the uh the one and done stage of things, and uh,
Ballin came out Austin and hit three straight contested twos,
which are three pointers, but outdoors on a double rim
with windy conditions, that's not easy to do. And they
were contested threes.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
I mean, that's a shot. That's a sign of one
of the great shooters of all time.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yeah, it was six to one before we could blink,
and all of a sudden it's like, well we might
be in trouble.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Yeah, and uh we.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Had a player on Kevin Johnson played with us, and
he checked the ball. He checked the ball to Ballin
the next time in he said, you're not going to
score again. And I took that as Kevin was like
going back to his Big East basketball and you clamps.
From that point on, it was clamps, and I think
Balin's legs started. I mean, Balin had to work hard,

(16:05):
and he just didn't have a lot of support from his.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
Team, like Anthony Edwards last night.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
His uh his posse that that showed up with him.
I don't think they were prevalent in a way that
you want the support. And yeah, they stay kind of
quiet about it.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
It was interesting that all of a sudden, you know,
there was a all of a sudden, I gotta get
better at that. I'm sorry, all of a sudden, the
updates from Balin's posse just stopped. Yeah, they stopped, like
there was no more photos, there was no more trash talk.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
I took that to be a bad sign.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah. It was another year Austin where Ballin teased a
uh a fourth and lo and behold he shows up
Saturday with three on the roster again, so he got
no showed by his fourth. But it was I felt
it was tough scenes for ballin this year, because yeah,
I had that image of last year of him with
the Stefan Diggs role of sitting there watching the finals,

(16:57):
thinking it not again. Right, I'm to get to the
mountaintop and uh, man, there's another early exit. That's just
I don't know if we'll hear from him today. I
don't know how he's recovering.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Of power integrity like I expect him to be. Then
I would imagine he will stand up and face the music.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Today we'll see but shout out to again the tournament
champs and uh, we'll see what next year brings. But
right now, a lot of reflection and as I can
barely get up out of a of a seat right now,
I got to figure out what to do with my body.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Dude, you and I are both hurting. Yeah, I hurt
myself this morning at the gym and then again putting
my shoes on. Yep, and I can barely walk. I
did something that's what it's going to be like in
my thirties.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yes, your damn it's downhill.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
Damn it.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I did something Saturday night I've never done before. We
were asked as now coaches of in VYO we were asked,
you know, all the coaches, you're supposed to volunteer some
of your time at the festival because it's for the
kids and so our coaching staff. Austin was tasked with
working the grill at the park on Saturday night of

(18:06):
Memorial Day weekend. I don't know if you know, and
we've talked about this. You couldn't ask for better weather
Saturday night. It was unbelievable and we had a couple
folks that couldn't show up, So we had four people
working the whole food booth. Two were working the front,
two were working the back. For one reason or another,
they put me on the grill, Austin. I don't grill

(18:27):
much at all, really, and if I do, I like
to throw something on the grill, have a drink, put
some music on, and like relax with it. Sure, I
bet you we went through six or seven hundred hot
dogs and cheeseburgers Saturday night. I grilled more collectively on
Saturday night than I've done in thirty nine years on
this earth. And it wasn't great. I've never been that

(18:51):
close to a grill. We worked a six hour shift.
I went home. I couldn't close my eyes because they
were burning so bad. I had to like wash my
eyes in the shower for ten minutes, even go to bed,
and I think I was more sore from just standing
at a grill for six hours than anything else over
the weekend. And then got to walk in the parade
yesterday with the kids and mister Red Legs came out,
which was cool. But all in all, it was an

(19:14):
awesome weekend. Hope you had a great weekend as well.
You can give us a call today five to one
to three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty Joe Danaman at
two o'clock Talkbacks at one twenty five, we'll talk about
a one hundred days out the NFL football season. When
we get back Austin. We'll give our thoughts on what
happened with the Reds over the weekend and what the
Reds were able to do in Game one at Kansas

(19:35):
City yesterday. That when we get back. Just getting started
here on Cincy three to sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station, thanks to Skyline Chile.

Speaker 8 (19:43):
Hey Alexa, who's on the DL Getting ESPN is fifteen
thirty from iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
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(20:10):
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Speaker 9 (20:41):
Com The Riveting Podcast What happened to Talina czar.

Speaker 10 (20:48):
All in two? Here we go the pitch way and
I missed strike three one oh three. He rings up
the radar gun. He claps on the mound. Here come
the Tigers from the outfield and infield. And a big
hug from Tylon Dingler on the first ever complete game

(21:08):
shutout for Tarrek Scoobawl, the ace of the Tigers, the
Triple Crown winner last year. Five nothing, the final score
that Tigers win behind sheer dominance from school Bawl.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Hard to believe, Austin. That's his first complete game and.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
It was a maddox did it in only ninety four pitches.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Unbelievable with that.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Last bit being one oh three. Come on with it, BigGAN,
That's unbelievable. Tarrek Scuball.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
That was the call on w x y T Tigers
TV or.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
This welcome back since he three to sixty thanks to
Skyline Chile. We didn't get a chance, obviously to do
this yesterday Austin, so we will uh will not spend
as much time on it because I know Chad talked
about it yesterday, but a brief overview of what happened
over the weekend. Obviously, Friday Night was the return of
Hunter Green, and Hunter Green lasted four innings. He did

(22:06):
give up three hits and two runs, struck out two.
I believe it was a thirty three to thirty four
pitch inning in the fourth that pretty much did him in.
But at times Friday Night, the Reds led four nothing,
four to two, six to two, and then the Chicago
Cubs scored eleven eleven unanswered runs against the Reds. In

(22:31):
a game where you can argue, not the best defense
from the Reds, not the best base running from the Reds.
It was the exclamation mark of a Pete Crow Armstrong
seventh inning grand slam off the foul pole, and it
just felt like the gut punch of all gut punches.

(22:51):
In a game where Elie Da la Cruz became the
fastest player since nineteen hundred to reach three hundred hits
one hundred fifty rbi is one hundred stolen bases, the
Reds fall and brutal, brutal fashion, thirteen to six, and
it felt at that time like it was one of
those games that you're just not going to be able

(23:11):
to come back from, especially in a game where you
bust out thirteen hits and the offense felt like it
was starting to click, and things got started early and
you got hits and RBIs from Stevenson and Steerhead three hits,
and Austin Hayes and Ellie and Espinall and TJ. Friedel
continues being on base machine. Will Benson came in and

(23:33):
worked I think a seven or eight pitch walk. A
lot of good things happened, and you had zero to
show for it from a scoreboard standpoint. Ian Jabo got
rouffed up, Tony Santion got rouffed up. Brent Souter got
rouffed up. All three of those Reds pitchers combined to
give up nine earned runs. Luis May gave up two

(23:54):
as well. The Reds lose Friday Night thirteen to six.
They did find their footing, which I thought was impressive
after giving up what they did Friday. They came back
behind a strong outing from Andrew Abbot five and two
thirds of one hit baseball. Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santion, Emilio
Pagan all gave up one run in their inning of work,

(24:16):
but Ellie got things started with a home run in
the first. Will Benson hit a sac fly, another Elie
de la Cruz RBI single, Spencer Steer had an RBS
single one. At one point Austin, it was six to one,
and then all of a sudden, it's six to four
and the ninth. But the Reds do hold on and
they get an impressive bounce back win, and you start

(24:37):
to think, Okay, man, if they can lose game one
in that fashion and they can find a way to
turn it around and win a series, Wait, what a
what a jumpstart that would be. Instead, it was much
of the same on Sunday, when the Reds build up

(24:59):
again multiple leads. They led the game four to two,
they led the game eight to three, they led eight
to four before ultimately the Cubs scored the final eight
runs of the game between the sixth and the eighth inning,
and the Reds fell eleven to eight. It was another
disaster from the bullpen. Lodola went five, gave up three runs,

(25:22):
but Barlow gave up a run, Ashcraft gave up three,
Taylor Rogers gave up three, Luis May gave up a run.
More good hitting from the Cincinnati Reds, Austin Hayes, Elie
de la Cruz, Jose Travino, Will Benson, all RBIs in
the game. But unfortunately the weekend series with the Cubs Austin,

(25:43):
you finally get some offense and then the pitching, which
had been so solid, becomes an achilles heel. What do
you make just as a whole, because it felt as
a series of much more than just a three game series.
It feels like one of those series that hangs with
you because of the fashion in which you lost the

(26:04):
games against a team that you're chasing in your division.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
Yeah, it felt like the Reds were just the better
team in all three games, but they couldn't finish that.
They continue to get in their own way, and that
led to the Cubs, to their credit, taking advantage of
that and being able to smell blood in the water
an attack, I mean, the way that the Cubs had

(26:28):
going into that series and then continuing it throughout the
series dominated innings seven, eight, and nine. I saw a
stat at one point that over their last four games
in the middle of this series, the Cubs were outscoring
opponents fifty three to three. In the final three innings
of games, and it made me think back to the
conversation we had last week where Charlie Goldsmith was asking

(26:51):
Terry Francona about the fact that the Reds are like
zero to twenty one when trailing after six innings and
thinking to myself, man, the Cubs seem to have something
that works.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Francona said, there's no magic potion. Maybe there isn't, but
the Cubs have done something that works, and maybe they
just have better players. I think we all agree that
they do.

Speaker 7 (27:13):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
I didn't get that upset about it because I think
it was a little bit of all the work the
bullpen and had to do over the last couple weeks
kind of caught up to them, and the Cubs have
really good hitters and they made the Reds pay. And
it hurts because that's the series that you felt like
could swing the season, especially with another three coming up

(27:35):
against them this weekend, and maybe instill a little bit
of energy. The positives are they keep scoring runs. The
Reds have scored six or more runs in each of
their last four games. That is a positive compared to
the team that we saw against Cleveland, against the White
Sox and against Pittsburgh in the previous three series, so

(27:56):
maybe there's something there, maybe a little bit of development
there as to what they're doing at the plate. But overall, man,
just a frustrating weekend that makes you think like it's
just one of those they're never all on the same
page at the same time. You know, sometimes they'll play

(28:16):
really clean baseball, but they won't get more than two hits.
Sometimes they'll pitch really really well, and you know, the
bullpen will blow it at the end. Or sometimes they'll
hit it for a bunch of runs, but then they'll
give up nine. It's just they're never consistent on a
nightly basis, and that's what drives a lot of people crazy.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Losing a series in the fashion of giving up eleven
unanswered runs and eight unanswered runs in the same series
as devastating. You mentioned yet to win after trailing after
six innings. How about the stat I saw Joe Danaman
tweet this out on Sunday. The Reds have now lost
thirty eight straight series when they lose game one. How
is that possible? In thirty eight straight series they haven't

(28:57):
had and when losing game one, they can't go on
a two game winning Yeah, that's unbelievable. It is unbelievable
for the Reds, and here lost five of their last
six series. Yeah. And here's a more sobering fact. The Reds,
going into yesterday's game against Kansas City, had had the
easiest schedule in baseball. Yep, going forward, they have the

(29:20):
hardest schedule in baseball.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
Yeah, we talked about.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
The hardest schedule in baseball coming up.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
We talked about that, you know, going into the beginning
of this month. If you remember, towards the beginning of
the season, we're like, where are the Reds at going
into May? Because they have an opportunity to pick up
some ground Pittsburgh, the Chicago White Sox, the Nationals, the
Braves are down, the Astros are down. Like, there's an
opportunity for the Reds to pick up some ground in

(29:45):
the month of May, and they've done the exact opposite,
losing five of the six series so far. So yeah,
I mean, and we talked touched a little bit on
it briefly last week too. Where last year against playoff
teams they were kind of a mix bag. Yeah, they
won playoff, They won series against the Dodgers and the Phillies,
but they only won those by one game. They also

(30:08):
got swept a few times by playoff teams, so again,
you just never know which team is.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
Going to show up on a nightly basis and frustrating.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
I guess that's interesting and worthy of tuning in to
an extent, but also maddening because you would like to
feel like they have a chance to win every time
they take the field, and you can tell early on
sometimes that they just don't have it and they're not
going to find it.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, let's uh, let's do this. Let's take a break.
We've recapped the CUB series. They did get off to
a better start against the Royals yesterday, but not without
some questions and and one of those major questions centers
around Elie de la Cruz. Let's do that when we
get back, and then we'll have time for your phone
calls going forward as well. Five one, three, seven, four,
fifteen thirty at Cincy three to sixty Ony SBN fifteen

(30:55):
thirty cent a NATI.

Speaker 11 (30:56):
Sports Station, Loegar. We've talked about this a lot. What
you want, like, who's the go to guy gonna be the.

Speaker 8 (31:02):
Interviews, his views and your palls.

Speaker 11 (31:05):
Go to guy isn't the team's leading.

Speaker 8 (31:07):
School Muegger Today at three on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 12 (31:12):
Hey, you run a small business? Are you unsure where
to even start when it comes to advertising?

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Welcome back? Since he three to six. Do you hope
you're having a fantastic Tuesday afternoon? Thanks for listening on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, or via the iHeartRadio app.
A little bit more on the Cincinnati Reds here. We'll
get some phone calls in the next segment. But yesterday Austin,
despite a brutal, brutal series loss at home against the
Chicago Cubs, the Reds start off this road trip with

(31:44):
a nice win against the Kansas City Royals. The game
itself saw a Tyler Stevenson home run that's very welcome,
three knock sport, three hits and three RBIs Nick Martinez
I thought was solid seven innings, six hits, three runs,
did strike out two, only seventy nine pitches as well.

(32:07):
I saw he was through three inning, two through twenty
eight pitches yesterday.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
Yeah, he was efficient.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
They needed length out of the bullpen for all the
stuff we just talked about in the last segment, and
he delivered.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Now the bullpen got dicey because a six nothing lead.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
I think the ghost of Ricky Karcher was visiting Amelia
Pagan on the mountain.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Oh my goodness. Last night, the bases loaded in the ninth,
Pegan balked in a run.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
It was just he was fighting with that mound because
of all the rain. It just did not look comfortable.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Lorenzan fought with it as well. During the day. He
was the pitcher on record for the Kansas City Royals.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
I mean, the way they were talking about the weather,
I kind of surprised that it didn't get delayed at endpoint,
I guess, you know, credit to Kansas City for just
playing through it, but it was seemed to be an
issue on the mountain.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yes, the Red scoring came off if a sack fly
from Austin Hayes, Gavin lux RBI single, Tyler Stevenson RBI,
Will Benson had a sackfly mentioned the Stevenson two run
home run, and Santiago Espinal had an RBI double as
well for the Reds, who did collect fourteen hits. We
talked about that offense that was happening in the CUB

(33:19):
Series that carried over to Game one, multiple hits from TJ. Friedel,
Santiago Espinal Tyler Stevenson had three hits on the day.
But I think what is interesting and I don't want
to bury the lead here, Austin. It was also a
two hit day for Garrett Hampson. That's right, yesterday, playing

(33:40):
a short stop two for five on the day.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
You know my favorite part of yesterday what Spencer Steer
batting second.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
You know, he's been the best hitter on the team
for like the last three weeks. You look over his
last fifteen games, he's hitting over three hundred. He's on
base at three point fifty, his slugging is four to fifty.
Those numbers aren't great. He has it a lot singles,
but he's putting the ball in play, he's not striking
out as much. And you know, he's walked a few times.
I mean, if you go back to the last thirty,

(34:10):
the last thirty games, so I would say thirty is
about roughly the amount of games he's been fully healthy.
He's hitting two sixty five, he's got three homers, nine runs,
batted in, a couple of stolen bases. He's walked eight times.
Like he's been their most consistent hitter for the last
three weeks or so.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah, and I hope that that is.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
I hope that stays that way, not just because Espinol
and a right hander or whatever it is. I hope
that Francona is open minded to keeping Steer at that spot.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
I just think it makes more sense than Espinall.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
It doesn't make sense altogether because the Reds seem to
be behind in the way that they build lineups, and
specifically looking at Terry Francona there because he's the one
who builds this lineup. But you know, if you're gonna
have somebody there, I feel better about Steer being there
than I do about Espinall.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah. For me, outside of the wind which does bring
this team back to one game under five hundred, what's
interesting to me is what's going on with Elie de
la Cruz. And we've seen some good at bats from
Elie de la Cruz, but yesterday we saw Ellie de
la Cruz the designated hitter, and to me, it looked

(35:25):
like a guy that looks hobbled. Right now, Austin, and
we've talked about this for a while. I know you've
brought it up of is there something there, does he
does he feel or is he at one hundred percent
at this point? But if you're looking at something to
watch carefully going forward, it's the status of Ellie de
la Cruz, who again plays and hits yesterday. But I thought,

(35:47):
does does look a little hobbled.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Yeah, he just looks a little tired.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
And you know, I've mentioned it a couple of times
how down his sprint speed is right now. I mean
every year of his career, it's been in the ninety
ninth percentime in Major League Baseball. Right now it's at
in the ninetieth percentile. He just hasn't been at full
speed at any point throughout this season. So that's a
little bit of a concern. Now some of the other

(36:12):
advanced metrics are starting to come back a little bit,
the barrel percentage, the hard hit percentage, his exit velocity,
that stuff starting to creep up. His bat speed has
still been really, really good, like, so there's still like
some belief they're okay, like there's still something there for Ellie,
But he just doesn't look like a player who is
one hundred percent. You know, even though he's twenty three
years old, he's played a lot of games. He plays hard,

(36:37):
which is part of the reason why fans love him
so much. So I thought it was interesting he gets
scratched from shortstop and moved to DH yesterday. I would
expect him to play tonight if they're able to win
this game. I think tomorrow makes a lot of sense
for giving Ellie a day off. Sure, he may not
want it, but you have another off day on Thursday.
If you can sneak in two days off in a

(36:59):
row for Ellie, I think that.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Would be big. Yeah, but you know, gotta win. No,
it's a good point. You need to wins at this point.
And again, you did yourself no favors with the easiest
schedule in baseball. Now you embark on the hardest schedule
in baseball, and with that you need your best players
playing to give you an opportunity to win.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
By the way, I just want to make note, Ellie's
strikeout percentage continues to go down. This is a good thing. Obviously,
in previous years. His rookie season he had a thirty
three point seven percent strikeout rate. That is absurd. In
twenty twenty four, he had a thirty one point three
strikeout rate, So it dropped two percentage right now. So

(37:39):
far in twenty twenty five, it's dropped down to twenty
eight point seven percent. Yea, it's still high, but it
continues to go in the right direction. Couple that with
the fact that his walk percentage is just over nine
point two percent. That's just above league average. He may
not be hitting for power, but he's not striking out
as much. He is walking, he is getting on base
a little bit. It's not been a perfect season for

(38:02):
Elie by any stretch of the imagination. But I do
think we sometimes think because he's not hitting as many
home runs or maybe not stealing as many bases and
he's having a bad season, he's fine. He's not great,
He's fine for what it's worth.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Speaking of not hitting for power, Jonathan India to twenty
seven right now for the Royals, just one home run
on the season, but he continues to bout out of
that leadof spot playing a lot of third base.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
The worst defender in Major League.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Baseball playing a lot of third base too.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
Have you noticed how much better the Reds have gotten
a turning double plays this year?

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, yep. Tonight it's a bullpen night for the Royals.
Come on, and it's the return of Brady Singer to
Kansas City. Let's go so big opportunity here for Brady Singer,
big opportunity for the Reds to get a series win
in Game two and see what they can do with
the maybe the chance of a sweep before heading to Chicago,
and much more of that tough schedule that we've talked about.

(38:55):
Let's grab a break when we come back your phone
calls to finish up our number one on three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty Thanks to Skyline Chili. Thank you
for listening. On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Miss an episode of Since He three to Sixty. Here
every show at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Welcome back. It's since He three to sixty on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati's sports station UH Big News Austin. Ahead
of UH Tonight's Game four in the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Finals, Moeggar is going to be on the floor.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Not only will Moeger be in attendance, but Tyrese Haliburtn's
father has been granted permission to be back in attendance
as well.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
That makes sense they're putting him in a suite. Keep
them away from the floor. That that I can that
I'm cool with.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, he uh, he should not touch.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
The hardwood the rest of the way as long as
they're charging Tyrese a pretty punny penny to make that happen.

Speaker 13 (39:55):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Sure they're losing money off that deal, whatever it. But
I'm sure Mo at some point we'll run into him tonight.
I hope so, and I hope it's after a Knick's victory.
That would be fantastic. Boy, what a series that would
turn into four straight road losses or four straight road
wins for road teams would be uh, pretty pretty interesting.
There's also this and and we're gonna get to this

(40:16):
Austin in uh our number two and our number three
as well. I just saw this from from Charlie Clifford
and others have it as well. There is this just
odd photo from OTA's today where you just see the
sidelines and there's Shamar Stewart and he's just standing there
with his hands in his pocket. He's by himself. No

(40:38):
one is within you know, five or ten yards of him.
Obviously he's there for OTAs, but he is not participating,
and he won't participate until his deal is signed. I
am surprised that it's still not signed. With everything we've
learned at this point, I'm shocked by that. Yeah, I mean,
but it's just an odd photo and it's odd.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
Look, we'll get into it more, but we actually got
the details about the language. I believe Mike Florio had it,
which again, this is a Bengals thing. The Bengals are
trying to do something different and uh, you know, on
on the side of Shamar Stewart and his agent.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
That makes sense. Yeah, I wouldn't want to do it either.
It is uh you said, it's just a weird. Look,
Charlie Clifford has the photo on his uh, on his
ex as well, So go check that out. Let's take
a phone call, Johnny. What's up, Johnny.

Speaker 6 (41:29):
Happy Tuesday, Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Happy Tuesday for you, Johnny, john.

Speaker 6 (41:38):
You know, uh, do you ever like just want to
be a fly in the wall in like the Blackburn's
office or something.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
Every day?

Speaker 6 (41:46):
I wonder what do they talk about, you know, Like
I know they're on Twitter, I know they see this stuff.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Right, It's it's such a weird, weird thing in my opinion,
because the like Austin said this isn't a Shamar Stewart
thing at this point. It's something the Bengals are trying
to do, and obviously no other team in the NFL
is doing it because their first round guys are getting signed,
they're slotted in. You make the deal and you move
on from it. For a deal like legit, it's just

(42:17):
a bad look for a defense that has a lot
of holes and that doesn't have Trey Hendrickson and they
have a new decordinator and your first round draft pick
is not actively participating in practices and missing meaningful reps.

Speaker 6 (42:31):
I think this is going to make me appreciate Zach
Taylor more with all that he has to deal with.
And that's that's saying something, because you know, there's a
lot of things I don't appreciate about Zach Taylor. But
what here's what I here's what I'm trying to understand.
As a Bengals fan, all I care about is winning
the Super Bowl, right right? So if the Bengals right

(42:52):
now are telling me, hey, we switched our defensive coordinator,
who's going to get a little bit more on these
young people. We lost every game last year by one score,
game except the Eagles game. Everything to one score and
our offense is going to be that the same. To them,
I think they just think, Hey, the luck will go
our way here or there will be in the playoffs

(43:12):
and we have a shot at the super Bowl. Is
that a convincing argument to YouTube? Or do you, as
fans say Nope, I don't feel good about this season.
I'm worried, sick to my summer.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
I think it's a fair argument because I do think
they were close and if listen, if one or two
of those games does go their way, then then we're
probably going into this offseason on a completely different path.
But the fact is is that they had some bad
losses and the defense was just not good enough. And
I don't feel as comfortable going into an offseason saying well,

(43:45):
if only this had happened, and that it happened and
they got some help here. That to me is putting
your eggs in the wrong basket. And I want known commodities,
I want actual things. But I can also see the
side of it that you're talking about, that that they
weren't really that far off last year, and maybe a
scheme change and a personnel change here or there can
change that.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
I mostly agree with with kind of what they're saying.
If they can get a little bit better in the margins,
if they can get a little bit luckier like they
are making the playoffs and potentially going through going for
a run last year. My problem with it is that
they still have thirty million dollars in cap space that's
on spent. You can better improve your football team, to

(44:29):
be more prepared for those moments that go wrong, when
you have an injury, or when a player gets something
happened throughout the course of the game, or player needs
to be sat down. I don't know any number of
things that you can spend that money to make your
team better, and they haven't maximized their resources doing that,
and so I fear that the depth of the team

(44:50):
will lead to them not really being able to capitalize
on some of the luck that they might have or
some of the differences overall. I just don't know about
their depths. I think they're gonna be good. I think
they're gonna win ten games, but I don't know if
it's going to be enough for them to go on
a run deep into the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (45:12):
I guess the most perplexing thing for me is if
I have a job like owning the Bengals that is
so public facing, right, Everything I do is scrutinize. Everything
is on you know, magnifying glass, watching every move I make.
If my argument is very thin like the one we're
talking about, eh, I can kind of see what they're saying,
but it's that thin. And then stuff like Trey Henderson,

(45:34):
stuff like Shamar Stewart, stuff like all that is going on.
Do they just not care what people think?

Speaker 4 (45:39):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (45:39):
Is that where it comes down to, Because if I
missed the playoffs two years in a row and the
way that I did very thin, I would care so
much about my public perception to get people on seats.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
They just feel like they they just don't They don't
care what people think. And the way that they have
approached this offseason, they truly think that this is the
right path, Like they think that last year was a
bit of a fluke, and if they're a little bit
better protecting Joe and a little bit better on defense,
they'll be right back where they want to be. That
is their honest to God thoughts, right, wrong or indifferent.

(46:13):
That's how they operate.

Speaker 6 (46:17):
Well, I'm I'm gonna be drunk, so they know their audience.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
I guess awesome, thank you.

Speaker 6 (46:27):
I hope the weather cheers them absolutely. You guys have
a great day.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yes, sir, the weather has lightened up enough that they've
moved outside to the practice fields of pay Corse Stadiums.
Go so uh, you know, to finish off Johnny's conversation
there Austin, and then we'll do Bengals and NFL when
we get back. I still contend, and I know that
a lot happened. I know they weren't good enough in

(46:52):
a lot of areas. Had they got in over Denver
last year and they went to Buffalo in Round one,
you'd have still felt like they had more than a
fighting chance to win that game in advance.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
Correct, mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
I would have because of the offense, because of Joe
Burrow slightly. It wouldn't have been because of the defense.
But the defense did play better down the stretch.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
But my biggest fear in that game would have been
the Bills running for three hundred yards on the Bengal.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Sure, but again, if they had snuck in, they would
have posed a threat defensively to any team they played
up front opponent's defense. Let's let's take a break we
are one hundred days out from the start of the
NFL season. List, so let's talk to NFL to kick
off our number two. Since he three to sixty, there

(47:38):
it is. I'm getting thanks Kyline Chile on Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Wise, Cincinnati, make us the number one pre set on
your car radio and on the free knew it improved,
iHeartRadio add free never sounded so good. ESPN fifteen thirty.
That here out Cincinnati from Cincinnati anonsored in part by
Cincy Shirts. Cincy Shirts all Cincy all day. This is

(48:06):
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
All right, welcome back our two. Since he three sixty.
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. As we embark here
on our two and day one of OTA's for the
Cincinnati Bengals, OTAs are now happening outside at the practice
field at pay Corp Stadium. They stretched inside, they moved

(48:33):
it outside and we were able to see Austin that
Shamar Stewart is there. But he as a photo we
talked about from Charlie Clifford in the last segment. He's
kind of sitting on the sideline's hands in the pocket
right over there by himself. It's not the ideal situation
you want for your first round pick, who you invested
in on the defensive side of the ball. That has
so many questions. But we're starting the OTA conversation, and

(48:58):
we're also now one hundred days out from the NFL
season getting underway. How much, if you had to place
a percentage on it, how much of this roster or
how much of this team is where they need to
be now versus over these next hundred days. Obviously you're
going to continue to learn the scheme, but the pieces
that are in place, the coaches that are now entrenched

(49:21):
into their system and getting the players ready, it feels
like again borrowing a move or two. I feel like
we're pretty close to what we're going to be seeing
mid to late July when they hit training camp.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
Yeah, I mean, i'd say ninety percent of it is done.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Yeah, still questions to be answered, still situations to be
hashed out. That Jamar Stewart piece. Obviously, what's going with
Trey Hendricks and yes he's going to play. How much
of the offseason he misses is the only question.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
But like you still know pretty confidently pretty much everybody
who's going to be on that defensive line group. Yeah,
and if Trey doesn't play, then Trey doesn't play. But
he's not going to play elsewhere. I think the biggest
question is do they add another safety at any point,
if nothing else, to compete during training camp and see
if they can feel a little bit better. I mean,

(50:13):
I don't look at Dejon Anthony and think this dude's gonna,
you know, take a huge step forward. He had a
couple of nice moments last year. He also had a
couple of bad moments. That's what happens when you're a rookie.
I don't know that he who I believe was a
six or seventh round pick, is going to be You
guys gonna come in and challenge Geno Stone right away
for that job. So I want to know if they
add another piece to that room. But offensive line is done.

(50:37):
Running back done, wide receiver done, tight end done, quarterback done.
I mean ninety five percent of the rosters is pretty
much finished as far as I'm concerned. The other part
that I now find interesting, and we have now entered
once again tone cryptic tweet season. I don't know if
you've seen this yet, Oh, Jermaine Pratt Okay, so that

(51:00):
that's one of the unresolved parts of this Jermaine Pratt.
After they just signed a couple of linebackers, or they
just drafted a couple of linebackers, where does Jermaine Pratt fitness?
Because it's May twenty seventh and he still hasn't been cut. Right,
that's five and a half five point six million dollars
that the Bengals can save now they've been restructuring some
deals and given some pay cuts. The Cordell Volsen news

(51:23):
came out, and I think it saved him like five
hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 (51:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
We talked about Geno Stone. So there was a tweet
out there by Matt Minich, who is one of the
Bengals influencers on Twitter, who said, I get the funny
feeling that Pratt will be a restructure and not a
cut really, which I was like, you know, I never
really considered that. It just felt like that was the
end of the marriage there. Yeah, but with the way

(51:49):
they're moving, maybe that's a possibility. Jermaine Pratt saw this
tweet and he replied to it. He replied the ZZZ
sleeping emoji. Oh so I would imagine that means he
ain't hurt anything. It's not gonna happen, But I guess
you still make space for that possibility.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
Yeah, it's just a I guess For me, the weirdest
part is that he's still here. Like you said, he
doesn't want to be here. He's requested out, and they
used multiple picks to address that position, right, Why would
he be on the roster still?

Speaker 3 (52:28):
So, I mean, you can cut a guy and have
a post June first designation on him, so you can
cut him at any time. It didn't have to be
right after June first. I don't know if the Bengals
would just go buy the book here and wait to
cut him after June first and get the money there.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
I do think the possibility that Jay Morrison brought up
when we had him on last week might be the
most likely, which is the Bengals just going to hold
on to him and they can cut him prior to
the season any point and save their money and if
a team gets hurt or if a player gets hurt here,
then they have that insurance policy. Or they could flip
Jermaine for a six round pick or whatever it might be. Say,

(53:08):
I have no idea. Yeah, that to me seems like
the most likely scenario at this point, which is just
hold on to him as long as you can see
if he has any value, if he does trade him
to a team that might be desperate, or if not
Cut ties with him at the end of camp. Is
Jermaine Pratt not going to show up the training camp?

Speaker 2 (53:26):
I mean, he he's not done anything so far this offseason.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
Correct, correct, But he's making good money for him and
his position like he's making good money. Would he forfeit that?

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Yeah? I guess, I mean, I guess ultimately that's that's
his decision to make.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
I also wouldn't be surprised if the Bengals came to
him and said, hey, we want to do what we
did to Gino Stone with you, and he probably told
them to pound sand that WHI. I don't know Jermaine Pratt,
but I think I know him well enough to know
that's probably what he would say. I had taken Opay
cut right, So maybe that's what happened.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
I don't know. It's just again, it's weird that that
that's still out there. I would have thought that would
have been one of the things done early in the offseason.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Same and.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
If they do do that, then that's more money. You
mentioned the money they still have available, they would save
even more money to that situation.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
I'll see if I can pull it up here real quick,
but I think it would be close to close to
thirty two to thirty three million dollars.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
It is worth noting Joe Burrow has also brought in
another award. He is the twenty twenty five George Hollis
Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America. The
Hollice Award is presented annually to an NFL player or
coach or staff member who has overcome the most adversity
to succeed. Burrow has won not a.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
If the Bengals were to cut Jermaine Pratt, they would
be at thirty two point nine million dollars in cap
space for twenty twenty five. You go, I mean that
is a lot of space.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
By the way, that that George Hollis Award winner for
overcoming the most is that become Is that because he's
overcome injuries, or he overcame the defense of the Bengals
last year. He overcame a lot of things. Yeah, just
all wrapped up into one.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
He overcame a training camp distraction, He overcame a wrist injury,
He overcame a bad defense.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
Defense. Congrats Joe, Grats Joe.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Another award that'll probably go to the the house in
Athens on the floor with the rest of them.

Speaker 6 (55:48):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Ben Solac today highlighted a one hundred days to the
NFL season with things to know and predictions Ten names
to Know.

Speaker 4 (55:56):
I read that whole thing from Ben Solac. Yeah, that's hilarious.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Ten things to know of ten Al Golden, he said,
imagine last season's Bengals with a league average defense.

Speaker 4 (56:07):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Might not be a playoff team. Could have been a
team that beat the Ravens, Bills, Chiefs, or any other
AFC contender. Bengals could have won a Super Bowl. The
Bengals defensive depth trot remains a substantial impediment to their
ascension to league average, but with Al Golden coming in,
see what he can do with the defense. Al Golden

(56:30):
worked worked magic with young players from a defense at
Notre Dame, and you start to think of Dox Hill,
Miles Murphy, some of the young players on the defensive
side of the ball. Maybe he can get more out
of them. Can the Bengals take a small jump defensively

(56:50):
next year? Some other spots eleven jobs with question marks.
This is Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel,
who's the wide receiver? Number two with the Texans, who's
the Saints quarterback? Bengals right guard is on this list.
Staying in the theme of AFC contenders and key offensive

(57:12):
line positions, The Bengals are filling the shoes of Alex
Kappa with either incumbent Cody Ford or free agent Lucas Patrick,
neither a thrilling option, which leaves the door open for
rookie third rounder Dylan Fairchild to win the spot. Guard
play was a big issue for the team last year,
and Joe Burrow's injury history makes poor pass protection feel
all the more concerning. I don't think there's anything new

(57:33):
there or anything to be surprised by. You agree, there're
gon We're gonna continue to watch that team as as
we go.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
I don't know that Cody Ford is going to play
right guard.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Though, Yeah, I don't know where do you slot Cody Ford.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
In left guard?

Speaker 3 (57:53):
I mean, I guess he could play right guard and
Dylan Fairchild I guess in a little more reps at
left guard. We'll see how it goes over training camp,
but I would assume Cody would play left unless it's
gonna be a true competition at both, so Patrick can
ford it right and then Volson and Fairchild at left.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Okay. A couple of the players on this sixteen players
were turning from injoy.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
That's gonna be fun. Yeah, at least you have something
to talk about during your report. Plenty of camp should
bring a pair of binoculars this year. Oh, I like that.
That's a good idea for you. Yeah, just just so
you get in on those trenches a little bit more.
You're right, You're right. Uh would you be the only
media member there with binoculars? I think Ben Baby brings

(58:39):
him out something.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
Okay, all right, I was gonna say it seems like
something skinny with.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
No no Skinny's got the talkback recorder still, but nothing
out of the ordinary. Dax Hill is one of the
sixteen players on injured reserve to watch for this season.
They picked up his fifth year option, all guaranteed at
twelve point seven million. You don't have clarity on how
he's going to be used in al Golden system. But
Dax Hill is still one of those people with the

(59:03):
Bengals Austin and I still think the jury is still out.
I think you're still trying to figure out who he is.
I think.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
Bengals think he's a corner man and he's gonna be
like cornerback number one week one. I mean, I think
it's gonna be him lighting across up across from Jerry
Judy in Cleveland. Yeah, I really believe that. And it's
probably gonna be Cam Taylor Britt on the other side.
We'll see where DJ Turner shakes out and all this.

(59:31):
He was a guy a down season last year, one
of those question marks when you look at the depth
of the team altogether. He had some moments, but other
head scratching moments. And if you remember, it was what
a week or two ago, probably longer than that, that
we heard the Bengals say Josh Newton is going to
get the first crack and being the nickel guy. I

(59:51):
think there's a lot of people that think Dax in
his skill set, fits better at nickel than Josh Newton,
especially with the eyes and speed, athleticism, of camp Taylor
Britt and DJ Turner on the outside. I think that
is another thing to watch as training can't evolve evolves.
I mean, Duke Tobin spoke so highly of Dax at

(01:00:12):
the combine and how they really believe he's a number
one corner. Can he be that year one coming off
of an ACL Yeah, that's a big question.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Yeah, I mean there are It's not just the newcomers,
it's players that are coming back from injury and players
that maybe our Golden views were out of position last year.
And again a new scheme, a new system, change in
scenery and a new opportunity for players who maybe felt
they were buried on the depth chart. It does bring
how a sense of optimist How different can a scheme

(01:00:45):
be though for a corner, Yeah, I mean not a
ton okay, I mean coverages on the back end. It
can't be for safeties and how they're used right and
how they're used Nordan the other line of scrimmage or
where they're inserting from a run stop standpoint. But for corners,
a lot of it's the same. It might just be
maybe some some teaching methods that Al Golden is used
to and again, for a lot of guys. You you

(01:01:07):
can feel like if a coach is in place and
you're not in the favor of that coach, and no
matter what you do, you're gonna be bearing on the
depth chart. And then a new coach comes in and
you feel like you got an opportunity at a fresh
start to show who you can be. And I think
that poses a great opportunity for some of these players
as well, and a reason for some optimism on the
defensive side of the ball. We'll pick back up on

(01:01:29):
some of the NFL talk as we get into our three.
Before we get to talk back, let's take a phone
called Mike is calling him.

Speaker 11 (01:01:36):
What's up?

Speaker 6 (01:01:36):
Mike?

Speaker 5 (01:01:38):
Hey, guys, you were talking about the lizards, right?

Speaker 14 (01:01:41):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
I hope you guys have a good weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Absolutely, thank you, Mike.

Speaker 5 (01:01:47):
Yeah, it sounded like this'ores was a good deal. I'm sorry, Well,
I had to get this toobe out of my mouth.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
No worries.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
H Then you guys are talking about the lizards. I'll
tell you what. When I got to Vietnam, I never
seen stuff like this.

Speaker 6 (01:02:07):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:02:07):
Being from Cincinnati, Yes, there were I woke up a
couple of times with a leech on my forehead. I
still got a scar there they had. My buddy had
to cry it off with a band at because you
can't get them off. They're hard to get off once
they attached and then it bleeds. They sucked there. They
have stucktion cups on both ends. They're creepy dudes, man.

(01:02:29):
And then they had centipedes that were about twelve inches long,
very venomous, almost like a snake bite. Yeah, and then
they had to go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
That stuff is usually what keeps me away from Australia
is just knowing that the types of animals that reside
in Australia. And I'm good where. I feel safe here
in Cincinnati. From an animal standpoint, I was just surprised
to see an abundance of lizards on the west side
of Cincinnati.

Speaker 5 (01:02:56):
Yeah. I mean, you get drafted, you go where they
send your ass. But uh, yeah, the jungle is I
don't know about Australia, but I know that's southeast days.
At jungle, they had there were tigers in there.

Speaker 15 (01:03:07):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:03:07):
There were a couple of guys that died from these
tree snakes. Got a couple of our guys ended up dying. Yeah,
and then your feet were always wet all the time
because it's you always walking around in the water. So
if you could get clean socks, guys would give a
lot of their commissary for a dry clean paras. It
was crazy. It's a little memorial base. So I was

(01:03:31):
getting a kick out of this yesterday with the well
game four tonight Pacers and yes, of course everybody. Uh
Tibbs finally woke up and started playing eight, nine and
ten off that bench and that's why they won the game.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
Yeah. I was having the conversation watching the game with
a couple of people, you know, how long do you
go with Jalen Brunson out because he's been such a
great player. But at the same time, the defensive lineup
that they had on the floor made things extremely difficult
for Indy and you got to give credit to Tibbs
for sticking with that so late. I don't think they

(01:04:04):
brought Brunton back until about the two minute mark of
the fourth quarter because the defense had done so well
up to that point at slowing down an Indie offense,
that's been great.

Speaker 5 (01:04:13):
It's like, hey, Tip, did you hear what Kenny jet
Smith said? It was hilarious. He said they asked him
about Tibbs not using his bench, and he said, you know,
I'll tell you what TIBs is like this. If he
was managing a baseball team, he played eight guys. I
thought that was funnier than AGB. I've been kind of

(01:04:37):
looking under the rookie of the year stuff here lately,
and I'll tell you what this. Jacob Wilson from the
A's is a stud. This kid is a flat out stud.
Let me give you a quick, quick, some quick stats
on this young man. He's he's hitting like three point
fifty seven, number one. He's got an OPS of let

(01:05:03):
me see what is it. You've got an on base
percentage of almost four. He's got an ops of almost nine.
He leads the league in doubles. He's got twenty six RBIs,
sixty two hits. You've seen this guy play, Jacob Wilson's he's.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
An I've not seen him yet. And and the Athletics
for a large part of the season were one of
the feel good stories. They've unfortunately lost nine of their
last ten and they've fallen back in the Al West.
But for a long time that was a really good
storyline of a team that you're kind of linking. Okay,
a lot of young talent, you're not really sure the
direction they're going. When you have players that play at

(01:05:46):
that level, you can become a contender in a lot
shorter amount of time, especially if you've got money to
spend going forward in the future. So I do think
it's interesting to watch how a team like the Athletics,
or you know, even a team like we're seeing how
how good the Tigers have been up to this point.
How do they handle, you know, parentally, being a team

(01:06:07):
that maybe doesn't go all in or doesn't buy into
the roster. But if you get a couple of those
key pieces in place, does that change who you are
from an organizational spending standpoint. I'm always fascinated to see
the teams that decide to change up who they've been.

Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
Yeah, he's got the Tiger's got the best best starter
in the Eiser League in my opinion, the lefty he's special, man,
that guy's special. What about you know what the Cubs?
You think about this? The Cubs lost their ace, that'd
be like saying, hey, the Reds don't have grain this year.
That would change everything. Yep, and that makes it even
more impressive. What the Cubs are doing, and that you

(01:06:43):
talk I never that team is dangerous, man. Yeah, they
they don't even care what the score is.

Speaker 14 (01:06:49):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
I do think that that as much as talked about
some of the stars in this game, Pete crow Armstrong
at just twenty three years old, has not talked about enough.
Fourteen home runs, he's hitting two eighty. He's just going
to continue to get better. He's a guy that can
literally do it all for that offense. It's fourteen stolen bases,
three triples, two doubles. He's had two hundred and fourteen

(01:07:11):
at bats this year. He struck out only fifty five times.
He is I think he's one of the most underrated
players that is on that star player trajectory that doesn't
get talked about in baseball.

Speaker 5 (01:07:23):
Plus he's a great defensive center field or outstandy yep
with the Globe and I was, but the guy was
happiest with the most Yesterday, I was so happy for
Singer going back to his KC there and pitching a gym.
I was so happy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
No, that was Martinez yesterday. Good Singer goes today, so
Singer goes tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:07:41):
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Martinez. Yesterday. I love Martinez because
he you never hear him say much about anything, but
boy he goes out and gives it as all isn't.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Mean yep, just kind of plays the same way each time.

Speaker 5 (01:07:56):
I'm sorry, I got my pitchers messed up.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
All good, All good.

Speaker 5 (01:08:00):
Thanks you guys. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Have a good one, Mike, Thank you a break talkbacks
next for you, HONYESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station, and
a service of our good friends at Sinti Shirts.

Speaker 16 (01:08:15):
Hey, Google backs, press the microphone, handy coad your message
for ustain and tone, please keep it clean and don't
be mean.

Speaker 4 (01:08:25):
And a sprinkle, sprinkled drip drip.

Speaker 7 (01:08:28):
It's that time for talkbacks. It's our favorite.

Speaker 14 (01:08:31):
Part of Sincy three sixties.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Austin, Buddy, play that talk back on your screen, and
please try.

Speaker 4 (01:08:39):
Not to Saba Taja.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
All right, we got talkbacks. We've got an opportunity to
sinty Shirts gift card to be voted on at the
end of the week. One quick update Austin Kelsey Conway
just updated from eleven on eleven right now at OTA's
Dylan Fairchild at left guard, Lucas Patrick at right guard
were the first two yards up in eleven on air

(01:09:03):
sessions today, So obviously a lot can happen.

Speaker 4 (01:09:05):
Looks like you're gonna have to watch the game from
the dakery deck.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
You would have to tell me twice today's talkbacks. I
also would like to say I just got some good news.
Oh for our next segment, Oh, okay, Tony, we're going
to be giving away a pair of tickets to see
Dwight yoakumlcom coming up in September. I believe it's the
twenty sixth of September at the PNC Pavilion. Okay, he said, stuttering.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
Dwight Yoakum tickets lcome being given away next segment. I've
already prepared a question and I've double checked the answer. Okay,
So be prepared for that, a couple of tickets to
see Dwight Yoakum. Also, over the weekend, somebody came up
to me and tried to pitch me, you know, their business,
T shirts, T shirt company. Okay, I said, pal, I'm taken. Yeah,

(01:09:58):
Sincy Shirts, Yeah, get it right to say, unbelievable rocks.

Speaker 17 (01:10:03):
Audi, you never told us what you had at the precinct.
My personal favorite is the steak Collinsworth with crab beat
on it.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
Yeah, that's awesome life hack.

Speaker 17 (01:10:13):
On Black Friday, they sold twenty percent off gift cards
for all the Ruby restaurants.

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
So gather them up then and save some money. Go Reds. Okay,
that's that is a good life hack right there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
I like it.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
I had the New York strip. I went with the
New York strip, had a Caesar salad. Also went with
the garlic mashed potatoes and god it was good.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
All right.

Speaker 15 (01:10:38):
Yeah it's Greg. It's Friday Nights, gut punch loss. The
Cubs and the Reds both get thirteen hits. The difference
the Cubs hit four home runs, the Reds zero. The
Reds leave twenty three men on in a nine inning game.

(01:10:59):
That's a lot believable.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Yeah, yep, that's a lot, as Terry Francona said over
the weekend, and I have the audio for us to play.

Speaker 4 (01:11:09):
We're just not built like that. No, to hit home runs. Nope,
that's another fireable offense for Nick Krawl.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
We might have to dive into that conversation.

Speaker 16 (01:11:20):
I ain't that many act The other day that bar
maskcot to hit the target. I already had a tag
in Tony Pike, bearcat legend, and he showed him how
to hit the mark and you know, donate that was
Nobel Prize material. Yeah, sure, noble, you can take that
maskot on over to pri men have where they may
have the men every day to hit the almost.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
It almost felt like to me that that was more
of a hindrance in the mascots hall of fame hopes
that he couldn't hit from distance.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Well, you know, anything that he needed your help, anything
that would include me in the phrase hall of fame
probably hurts the mascot and it's true in itself.

Speaker 18 (01:11:58):
Tony Austin. Aw, So we're look, Tony, we got to
talk about this in Moorial Tournament, our boy ballin.

Speaker 19 (01:12:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 18 (01:12:05):
I mean, you know, part of me, you know, I
am a friend of him, but I think I'm more
of a hater and so I have to hate. So
over the next couple of days, I'll be leaving a
lot of hateful top cks towards bone and easy and
his inability to get it done on the court. But
come on, another first round exit to the hands of

(01:12:26):
Tony Pike.

Speaker 4 (01:12:27):
I mean, what are we doing.

Speaker 3 (01:12:28):
I mean, you're basically Bill O'Brien and he's Marvin Lewis.

Speaker 2 (01:12:32):
Yeah, here with the double dips.

Speaker 4 (01:12:35):
So that was that.

Speaker 18 (01:12:37):
Tony Pike owns bone a.

Speaker 6 (01:12:39):
Easy on the court.

Speaker 18 (01:12:41):
So what we're gonna do is Mount Rushmore, a father
son duo is in sports, and so my mount work
will be Lebron and Browny, the Griffies, the Earnharts, and
then Tony Pike and balling ain't easy. I mean there's
a couple guaranteed one eye boys, there's death taxes, and
he's again bounce on the first round.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
I think I don't even think I need to respond
with the Mount Rushmore. I think you got him.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
Yeah, I mean he pretty much cleared the air there
by the way. I started watching the new Earnhardt documentary
on Prime Video Racing.

Speaker 4 (01:13:15):
Really good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:13:17):
It seems like larger people and don't be mean, like
the cooler weather.

Speaker 4 (01:13:25):
Folks like myself, like the warmer weather. Every joint in
my body feels better. Yeah, there's no offense taken. I've
said that before.

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
For me, you know, seventy five degrees for most people
is eighty five degrees for me. Eighty five degrees for
most people ninety five for me. So I think there's
merit to that argument.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
I love the fact that he mixed in the jingle
and don't be mean.

Speaker 4 (01:13:48):
Yeah, he was clear in the air for he was going.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
That was a smart play, good professional, untaken professional.

Speaker 5 (01:13:54):
Man.

Speaker 7 (01:13:56):
Have I just been missing him?

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
He is the best? What huh? What are you talking about?
College Jack?

Speaker 20 (01:14:06):
I was trying to think of the balling a and
easy Memorial Day tournament situation. I think a lot of
what it's like is Laurie marking in with the Utah jash.
He's sitting there, he's getting his numbers, he's playing hard,
but at the end of the day, he just needs
to get traded to Golden State.

Speaker 3 (01:14:21):
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it
would be one of those you know, yeah, he had
a pretty good career.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:14:26):
We're always there. Who's the Hall of Good Yep.

Speaker 21 (01:14:29):
I may have the ultimate all time pet peeve for you.
In line at Starbucks at the Beach on Sunday, woman
in front of me on her phone, leaving five car
links between her and the car in front of her.

Speaker 4 (01:14:41):
I did think about going.

Speaker 21 (01:14:42):
Around her, but didn't.

Speaker 7 (01:14:43):
She gets to the.

Speaker 21 (01:14:44):
Window, pulls out a bag of coins, and pays with
a bag of coins and makes the lady at the
cash register count out all the coins.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
While we're all waiting. Oh my gosh, oh we actually
we had someone on Saturday night that bought a cheeseburger
from the grill four dollars, yeah, and asked for the
cheese slice to be melted and the bun toasted while
we're thirty people deep in line. Yeah, and then give

(01:15:12):
customer service, dude, and then gives four dollars in dimes
as payment.

Speaker 4 (01:15:17):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
Did not count the dimes?

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
Did you see? We are we're getting rid of the penny?
Really about that?

Speaker 5 (01:15:24):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:15:24):
Yeah, the penny's about to be extinct.

Speaker 19 (01:15:28):
This is an old man take Soviet. I was at
the game Saturday. I know this situation was the same
Friday and Sunday. It was at minimum fifty to fifty
Cubs the Reds fan.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
I hate it.

Speaker 19 (01:15:38):
A real owner that cared about his team would be
embarrassed to have half of the stadium be filled with
your opposing teams fans. I understand the economics of Chicago
and WGN and how many people are really Cufs fans,
but Bob should be embarrassed, and he's not he's happy
he made a bunch of money this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:15:56):
I'm gonna say, do you know what, Well, fifty Reds
fans and fifty percent thus means.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
The ballpark, and that means we can buy a bat
at the dead one. Don't forget if we come to
the ballpark, that means the Reds will get good player.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
That's going to the rough. Last we're going to the
rough lawsuit.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
Now we're paying for that, paying the legal fees. But
don't forget the red said if we come to the ballpark,
they'll buy get they'll get more good players.

Speaker 19 (01:16:24):
Yeah, Tony, what do you think Adam chef Pler thinks
about the way they spelled Cincinnati.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
Oh that's good.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
You know the other thing about the Cubs, they do
that pretty much everywhere they go. They're like the Steelers.
They're like the pack or made it. It's a plague
of cockroaches.

Speaker 22 (01:16:47):
Master over the Hill had a great holiday weekend, got
through charge a little bit. Reds just continue to tread.

Speaker 4 (01:16:56):
On a grill sponsor.

Speaker 22 (01:16:57):
They don't expect nothing more, nothing less. This is at
best of five hundred.

Speaker 23 (01:17:01):
Ball club See cincinn I took one to the chinep
My goodness, to latte fouls and speaking of prayers out
to Nick Haglin, looked like he was doing a little
bit better.

Speaker 22 (01:17:13):
We got to get back to it tomorrow night on
the West End with those Lazarus lizards.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
See of that, Yeah, man, Nick Hagland, broken ribs collapsed.

Speaker 4 (01:17:22):
Long dude just had some tough injury left Yep.

Speaker 24 (01:17:26):
Hello, this is former President Ronald Breagan and Wal I've
been crying a lot. I was crying so hard after
hearing the Tony's team didn't win this weekend. I was
really bawling. I guess it's true. Balling ain't easy.

Speaker 5 (01:17:40):
No.

Speaker 9 (01:17:41):
Oh, and after what happened last week to that pigeon
during batting practice, it became obvious that the Rids' biggest
need is relief pigeon. Oh when lastly, I dreamt last
night that Audie left us to start a new radio
show back home called Sydney three sixty.

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
Oh no, yeah, I know you'll talk about in this
radio station. Man, Sydney three sixty would do numbies. What
do you mean I met a gentleman? Where was it?

Speaker 5 (01:18:07):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
Was it at fifty West last week?

Speaker 6 (01:18:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
When I was I was doing the bearcat thing. He
was from Reading married a Sydney woman. Oh yeah, so
they enjoy the Redding Sydney dynamic good more than anyone.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
That's basically us. We're kind of like an old married
couple that's yelling on the lawn. I had a dream
last night. Do you know who the Wrizzler is? Yes,
that chubby little kid that goes all the Knicks games.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:18:34):
I had a dream last night that I had to
deliver door dash to the Wrizzler. Oh man, big water, yeah,
Mexican food.

Speaker 11 (01:18:42):
It was.

Speaker 4 (01:18:44):
I remember like waking up like what hey.

Speaker 25 (01:18:48):
Ton, awesome weekend, the three on three basketball comes. I
appreciate you coming down. You're a needle mover. Unfortunately for you,
a little bro Devin got his title back. But on
a positive note, as a lifelong Bearcat fan, do you
know how to deal with losing?

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
Oh gosh, you outside of the needle moving? It was,
I mean that raid from Scott There were folks out
there with with chairs set up an hour before the
tournament started. I mean that the the line to get
in just to watch the basketball. They should start making
that a ticketed event.

Speaker 6 (01:19:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19:18):
I was gonna say, you guys, don't charge for that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:20):
Nope, really no. I figured there was some sort of
should be collection. There should be uh you know, like
the little collection plate to gout.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
I'm gonna need to start collecting to find someone that
can win.

Speaker 11 (01:19:34):
Sorry for the late double dip.

Speaker 21 (01:19:35):
I just saw today might be Ken Griffy Junior Independence
Day for the Reds. Can you guys confirm that by
a chance.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
I've not seen that yet. I don't think I thought
that was last year. I thought that was Bobby Benia.

Speaker 3 (01:19:50):
July first. Every year is Bobby Benia. Have to look
into that. But I'm I thought that Griffies deal with
the Reds ended last year, but I could be wrong.

Speaker 11 (01:20:00):
I'm still repping the Natty out here in Sonny hots up?

Speaker 7 (01:20:03):
Oh the what up?

Speaker 4 (01:20:04):
Tony we up?

Speaker 26 (01:20:04):
Buddy man that ran the Cup series was a banger.
The crowd was beautiful. But I'm down to the one
right now. I got a bet going on with a
Cup feeling like I said, need my boys to go
out the KC handle biz, sweep them and go up
to Chicago, get the tranquilizer and put them cubbies to
sleep and get some ground up on them. And Bengals, Yo,

(01:20:25):
get this contract right, I don't understand why Stewart's standing there.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
Get it right, I'd love it. I'd appreciate all those things.

Speaker 13 (01:20:35):
Hey guys, Jeff and m rich Man, Happy Tuesday to ay.
As far as the pole question goes today, I would
say sixty six to seventy six would be my ideal range. However,
if I'm at a beach, it's got to be seventy
seven to eighty six, especially if we're on that dack

(01:20:57):
Ory deck.

Speaker 6 (01:20:57):
Oh man.

Speaker 7 (01:20:59):
Anyways, first Reds go.

Speaker 13 (01:21:00):
I think we're gonna have a lot of frustrating Monday
and tuesdays after uneven weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
Yeah, if I'm on the beach or I'm on vacation,
I'll deal with it being a little warmer. I'm talking
day in, day out. Yeah, just a friendly reminder of
Olks Reds or what one game under five hundred right now?

Speaker 6 (01:21:22):
Again, if that's still the case on July fourth at eleven,
fine pm. You're stuck with me and it's.

Speaker 11 (01:21:31):
Gonna be one heck of a Bengal season.

Speaker 6 (01:21:33):
I'll pay you that with me. But if they get
their act together or.

Speaker 3 (01:21:37):
Win at that time, I'll reside get rid of me
no more having a drunk issued president.

Speaker 6 (01:21:43):
Maybe you vote that talkback matter guy.

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
I feel good about Johnny remaining in office based on
that bet.

Speaker 27 (01:21:53):
I think the Red's got a good chance tonight. I
never heard of the other the picture for Kansas City either.
Brady Singer likes pitching in Kansas City. We're gonna get
back to five hundred. I'm tired of hearing about Trey
Hendrickson every day. But what can we do be an

(01:22:15):
interesting game between next and Pacers tonight?

Speaker 2 (01:22:18):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (01:22:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22:20):
By the way, last July first was the final payment
from the Reds to Ken Griffy Junior was three point
five almost three point six million dollars. It concluded a
sixteen year, fifty seven and a half million dollar deal
at the doc.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
Wow DP, what a duck.

Speaker 11 (01:22:42):
Ah shout out. You see Bear Cap Baseball.

Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
It's Knoxville.

Speaker 11 (01:22:54):
Let's go Bear Cays well dead baby.

Speaker 4 (01:22:59):
I mean good to hear from him.

Speaker 3 (01:23:01):
Yeah, and on a Tuesday, no less.

Speaker 14 (01:23:07):
I missed the show up until this point. The weekend
was was fine. You know, we didn't get the job done.
My super sub never showed. You know, I tried to
do my best. I tried to make tough shots. I
think I did. Tony brought Kevin Johnson. I mean I
hit four buckets in a row in their face. Tony

(01:23:28):
subbed himself out, put Kevin Johnson on me.

Speaker 4 (01:23:32):
Didn't go well after that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:33):
So you know what chess pieces to move. Yes, I
mean that was brilliant. That's that's part of growing motor hold.
On a second, you didn't say that the contested threes
were in your face.

Speaker 2 (01:23:43):
Well, we were switching everything. They weren't always in my face. Okay,
we just didn't handle the screen well. And then Kevin
said I'll guard him. And then Kevin fought through every screen.
Just stay with him.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
So Big Hen is leaving a talkback, but Big Hen
it appears it's a silent talkback.

Speaker 4 (01:23:59):
I'm sorry. He never forget Bonne loves Dick from Dayton.
We all loved Dick from Dayton.

Speaker 14 (01:24:07):
Wow, Tony didn't do a dang thing on the court,
and Tony just curious, when did you guys lose?

Speaker 7 (01:24:14):
Did you lose in the semis of the finals?

Speaker 4 (01:24:16):
I know your brothers team.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
Won it finals. Fine, Wow, I was curious about that.

Speaker 4 (01:24:19):
But Tony subs himself out. He said he wanted no
part of this.

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
They had to put they had to put Kevin Johnson
and my under my shooting pocket. Unbelievable. Not all the
way true.

Speaker 4 (01:24:30):
It seems like you're leaving outside of the details.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
Not all the way true. I had I had three
quick points as well, and then took myself out because
I saw one going from the outside and I knew
I had a long day ahead. Get the defensive lineup
in there.

Speaker 28 (01:24:41):
Dallas, Hank Hill here, Bob, I'm sorry. I was on
load and management. I went up to New York for
an extended weekend. And why I'm back in town now
and I'm rooting for the Pacers. And I'll tell you
what else I'm rooting for is one und days until.

Speaker 2 (01:25:01):
Football, oh, Well said, one hundred days. There are certain
things that are certain in life, death taxes, the sun
arise and will be bright, water is always.

Speaker 6 (01:25:13):
Going to be wet, and balling, in fact, is not easy.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
No rip to another first round extra well said.

Speaker 29 (01:25:22):
Well said, Hey, guys, I'm curious of how off do
the Reds win on Sunday. It seems like they lose
every game on Sunday afternoon. And I don't I don't
mind the ninety degree radiation weather, No raise baby Good Reds.

Speaker 3 (01:25:40):
The Reds last year were nine and eighteen on Sundays.
This year they're four and five. I think they're better
this year. They're four and five this year.

Speaker 4 (01:25:49):
Yeah, but last year they were stinky.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
Pooh pooh, stinky stinky.

Speaker 4 (01:25:54):
All right, pooh pooh. We're done.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
Uh, we've got tickets to give away.

Speaker 4 (01:25:57):
Dwight Yoakum ticketslcome coming.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
Up, Yoakam Sincy three sixty thanks to Cinti shirts. Thanks
for listening.

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
You got to call the number right now, five seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty. Call, I'll take your name, I'll
put you on hold, and you've got to answer a
trivia question correctly to take home two tickets to see
Dwight Yoakam at PNC Pavilion on Friday, September the twenty six.

Speaker 2 (01:26:25):
You said, Yoakam Yoakam five one three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty. Call in now. You got a chance to
win when we come back Cincy three sixty thanks to
Cinty shirts on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:26:35):
Station WCKY Cincinnati, make us the number one pre set
on your car radio and on the free new and
improved iHeartRadio ad free never sounded so good.

Speaker 11 (01:26:44):
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:26:46):
Oh no, the roof is leaking.

Speaker 1 (01:26:47):
Dutenstation Eastco Subs since e three sixty of Bout Cincinnati
from Cincinnati sponsored in part five. Pennstation East Co Subs handcrafted,
hot grilled subs, fresh cut fries and lemonade. It's all
about good taste. Penn Station East Coast Subs order online today.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
Welcome back. It's our three thanks to Cincy three sixty.
Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen Penn Station. Shout
out to Penn Station. It's a natty sports station. Thanks
to our friends at Penn Station.

Speaker 6 (01:27:24):
We go.

Speaker 2 (01:27:25):
We get to. We get to start hour three here
by talking to someone here Austin that wouldn't tell us
and unless his friend Jeremy Row has told us that
more awards coming for the Humble Champ Joe Danaman.

Speaker 4 (01:27:39):
Him and Joe Burrow, they just keep racking them up.

Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
Excellence in writing, his ability to tell stories is second
to none, and he continues to rack up the awards.
He joins us right now, Joe Daniman, Joe, how are you?

Speaker 6 (01:27:54):
I'm good and let me say this about that award.
The coolest part about this was I was nominated for
it by coworkers of mine. I had no idea I
was even nominated until they called to inform me that
I had been selected. So at least somebody at work
likes me. And that's the biggest win of all, is

(01:28:16):
that I have coworkers, at least two or three who
can stand enough to work with me that they would
go out of their way to make this submission. It's
not an easy thing to do because you have to
go through all the stories I did last year, pick
out a handful they like the best, find the scripts,
edit the video, send it all in, pay the fee,

(01:28:38):
and then for me to be chosen because of them
is quite the honor, quite humbling. It's been a really
cool thing. And I told Jeremy this because I know
you guys mentioned him. I said, Jeremy, once you get
to a certain age, they start just giving you lifetime
awards because you're old. So I think I've reached that
stage of my career where they just start giving you

(01:28:59):
things because you've been working in the business for twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:29:02):
Jeremy Row's gonna start getting some Modeling Awards. From some
of these pictures. I saw him post from Churchill Downs.
It looks like he's going to go in the racing
books here going forward, Cigar in hand racing booklen in hand.
Fox nineteen's doing big things. I see coverage from Indianapolis now,
coverage heading up to the memorial Fox nineteen is never ending.

(01:29:23):
I know you're coming off the practice field from pay
Course Stadium. Can you, with your excellence in storytelling here,
can you give us a little bit of a transcript
of what transpired? Is it a wet day, dry day?
How are you feeling coming off the practice field.

Speaker 6 (01:29:36):
I think the word is soggy. Yeah, I think that's
the best word. You're not drenched, but it's been just
this constant drizzle and at some point that starts to
seep into your clothes and seep into your skin, and
you just feel like you want to go inside and
get warm. But hey, you don't get to do that
when you go on with Tony and Austin. You're hot
back on the phone and you get here and describe

(01:29:57):
a day. It what's interesting those guys because today was
supposed to be outside. Then we get a message from
the Bengals that they're moving it to the practice bubble,
and then we get to the practice bubble and they
say no, we're taking it outside. And I think there
is a bigger picture to this because Zach Taylor has
always said he wants to get these guys reps in
any kind of weather environment they can get that's at

(01:30:19):
least a little bit different, and today was different. And
we've talked so much about the Bengals in the rain,
and specifically Joe Burrow in the rain, so for them
to get a good hour plus out here today, and
I will say this because we're all aware of Joe
Burrow and what happened to him in the rain at
least what has happened to him before man was spinning
it today. Look good in the rain. I'll tell you

(01:30:42):
that now. I know this isn't the Cleveland style rain
he had Week one a couple of years ago when
he had that miserable game against the Browns. But he
looked good out there today in the rain. And I
certainly think this was planned by Zach Taylor to try
to take advantage of a bad weather day to get
these guys from work outside.

Speaker 2 (01:31:00):
It's always different because it's OTA, so you don't want
to look too far into things, but at least on
the offensive side of the ball, we know what the
weapons look like, we know what the talent is there
from an offensive line standpoint. I know it's still early.
Did anything jump out at you today seeing some of
those guys out there with some team reps.

Speaker 6 (01:31:19):
Yeah, Lucas Patrick is being the guy that they're putting
in on the opposite side of Dylan Fairchild right now.
So there's this question what they're going to do at guard.
We know what they're doing at tackle, we know who
plays center, but the question is who will be the guard.
And we all assume that Dylan Fairchild is going to
be a day one starter as a rookie, and it

(01:31:40):
looks at least as of now during OTAs that Lucas
Patrick is getting a long look as the other guard
opposite of Dylan Fairchild. And they did some seven on
seven work today. That was probably the highlight of what
we've seen so far in the off season. Helmets were
on seven on seven work, so you don't get to
see the offensive lineman work at the rest of the offense,

(01:32:01):
but the times that they are lining up and they
are doing some kind of install and running through plays.
Right now, you're seeing Lucas Patrick as the other guard
opposite of Dylan Fairchild, which I think is interesting, which
I think I thought would happen, But to see it
now and to see it here as we approach June
and we get later into the offseason and start looking

(01:32:23):
towards training camp, I think he might get first crack
to be one of the starters on the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (01:32:29):
Defensively, I have this lasting image and I saw a
picture today of it as well, Shamar Stewart just kind
of hanging on the sidelines, hands in the pocket. As
this continues to go on, It's never and we talked
about today, it's not a question of will he play
this year. We know he's going to play this year.
We know this is going to get done. But it
does seem like continued, meaningful opportunities are being missed the

(01:32:51):
longer he's not out there practicing in these drills.

Speaker 6 (01:32:55):
And I think it's important too that when you go
back to draft day with Shamar Stewart, what was the
takeaway we all had for the Bengals to make this
draft pick that they were betting on themselves, that they
could coach the best out of this guy that they
could the final whatever percent it is, what the final
five percent, the final two percent that he needs in
his game to finish off pressures and get quarterback sacks,

(01:33:19):
He's gonna have to be coached up. And look, now
that process has been slowed down a bit because while
you can go out and you can watch your teammates
and you can be right there as they're going through drills.
I mentioned it last week and again today, where you
see Miles Murphy and you see Joseph Osai and they
get snaps, they get reps, and then they get coached

(01:33:40):
by what they're doing wrong or could do better on
each of those reps. That's not happening with Shamar right now.
And I don't think it's an alarming thing. I don't
think it's a concern, but it's certainly an opportunity mysed
not only for him but for this coaching staff to
get to work with him. Because when you talk about
a guy who has the ability, the talent, the measurables

(01:34:01):
and all those things that jump off the page when
it comes to you know, the kind of the combine skills,
the production is what everybody wants to see in production
at his position is sacking the quarterback and he needs
more coaching with that, and so for him not to
get it now, yeah, it's it's a missed opportunity.

Speaker 11 (01:34:19):
It'll all be.

Speaker 6 (01:34:20):
Moot once he gets done and he'll have a chance
to go out there and prove himself. But you do
have to wonder all these reps that he could have banked.
You know, how much more ahead of the curve could
he have been when they get to training camp. So yeah,
I think that's the right phrasing and that it's not concerning,
it's not alarming, but it is an opportunity lost, not
only for him but for the coaches to help this

(01:34:40):
guy get that extra five to whatever percent it is
he needs to be more productive when it comes to
getting to the quarterback and sacking the quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:34:50):
Speaking of phrasing, Mike Florio said that it's a phrase
that's kind of the sticking point right now, a phrase
that the Bengals are trying to put in Stuart's contract
that wasn't included in memes or Murphy's contract, wasn't included
in Higgins and Chase's contract. Apparently they want to include
a phrase that causes a default in the current year

(01:35:10):
to trigger a default in all remaining years. What exactly
does that mean? And why is that a sticking point?

Speaker 4 (01:35:18):
Do you know?

Speaker 6 (01:35:18):
I was gonna ask you the same question. Are there
are there series out there that that can help explain
what that is?

Speaker 4 (01:35:30):
I know, I have no idea that's I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:35:32):
It's just unique to me, and it's puzzling to me
and Joe, I think you hit the nail and head
the talk around Shamar Stewart was the importance of getting
him out there early, getting him with a new defensive
coordinator now Golden. And to add on top of that,
you don't have Trey Hendrickson who can kind of put
his arm around Shamar Stewart and move him along in

(01:35:53):
a certain way. You don't have Sam Hubbard who can
put his arm around Shamar Stewart. That that seems a again,
whatever the holding point may be, that seems one of
those things that can derail things early if he's not
ready to go from a mental standpoint, because he doesn't
have those others around him as well.

Speaker 6 (01:36:10):
Yeah, and you're talking about a team right now who
wants what more than anything is to start fast. Yep,
they want to start fast, and these opportunities missed. Mike
Lenyard to thinking, here, here's a guy who's going to
show up a training camp and have to play catch
up for a little bit. And we know the Bengals
might want to play some of their starters more in
the preseason. Certainly they might want to play some of

(01:36:32):
the rookies more in the preseason if it gets allowed here.
The Bengals are moving some of their equipment off the
practice field, and it's going to be really allowed here
the next like ten seconds. Can you hear that? Go
to the tackling dummy's in a golf cart.

Speaker 4 (01:36:44):
No, I didn't hear that at all.

Speaker 6 (01:36:47):
Hey, by the way, you didn't hear it at all. Okay,
by the way, Joe Burrow walked to practice today, which
is different. He didn't drive his nice golf cart to
keep himself the elements. So Joe Burrow, I'm telling you, man,
he wants to be out there with the elements.

Speaker 4 (01:37:03):
That what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (01:37:04):
Yes, all the way, don't tell Pat McAfee about the
cardio a.

Speaker 5 (01:37:10):
It's his decision, you know, the top of that golf
guard or he could take the bus today.

Speaker 6 (01:37:15):
He wanted to walk. But to finish the thought there. Yeah,
you're you're talking about a fast start, Shamar Stewart, not
not having veterans around right now, not not getting the
coaching on the field. Uh yeah, I think it has
to be something that goes back to that phrasing of
opportunities lost here that he might be a little bit
behind the curve. We're counting on this guy, and that's

(01:37:35):
the most important part of this, right And I mentioned
it last week when you walked out there and Trey's
not here, and BJ's in a boot and Sam Hubbard's retired,
and you see this defensive line that has Osai and
Chris Jenkins and TJ. Slayton and Miles Murphy and that
that's a lot of question marks around that line, especially
about guys who can get to and get the quarterback

(01:37:57):
on the ground. So when you don't have Trey Hendrickson
and Shamar Stewart's in the middle of whatever phrasing in
that contract that you were talking about, Austin, Yeah, it's
a bit. It takes you back a little bit to
see what this defensive line looks right now without their horses.
And I fully expect that Trey Henderson is going to
be at Bengal, and I fully expect that Shamar Stewart

(01:38:19):
will have this thing taken care of here in the
coming weeks or maybe months, and it'll look different. But
for now, it is a little bit concerning to see
what it looks like without two guys they're counting on
to be difference makers.

Speaker 2 (01:38:31):
I am interested we know at least what the back
end of the defense currently looks like. You mentioned some
seven on seven happened during OTA's today. I still think
linebacker's unique because I'm not quite sure why Jermaine Praud
is still on this roster. But yeah, from at least
a seven on seven standpoint, defensively, any surprises to you.

Speaker 6 (01:38:50):
No surprises. I'm still so curious to see what they're
going to do with Dak Hill once he's fully cleared
and ready to go back out there and compete in
things like that. That'll likely be a training camp, and
he's still someone that I'm not sure they fully know
exactly how they're going to deploy him. I think they

(01:39:11):
have to look at him as as a weapon defensively,
certainly can play outside, can play inside, was drafted as
a safety. What's the best spot for him and what's
the best spot for this football team. Is it gonna
be as an outside corner? Is it someone you can
move in the slot? I think his profile athletically as

(01:39:35):
someone who covers the slot would be awesome as a
nickel quarter. Could it be when you go against really
athletic and good tight ends. Could that be something that
he morsed his role into. I think I think he
has to be a guy that can be multiple, can
be versatile, because I think if you put it down,
as you know, one to fifty three the best athletes
on the team, I think he's a top five athlete

(01:39:58):
on this team and that leticism needs to be used
in a versatile way. So I'm still so curious what
it looks like once he gets back. How does that
affect Josh Newton? Where does Josh Newton go once Dak
Hill gets back? Dj Turner certainly has to have a
better season this coming year. Can cam Killer Britt get
back to what he looked like his first season in Cincinnati?

(01:40:19):
So many questions in the secondary, and I don't think
we can fully actually answer them until we see what
Dak Hill looks like. When he's fully cleared and started
to be weaponized by this new defensive staff under Al Golden.
I think that's fascinating, and we just don't know that
answer just yet until he's fully clear and back out

(01:40:41):
on the practice field.

Speaker 2 (01:40:42):
Let's switch gears real quick. Cincinnati reads over the weekend,
it was eleven unanswered runs. It was eight unanswered runs.
It was another series loss at hands to the Chicago
Cubs and for this Reds team overall. But more importantly
and astonishingly, Joe, the stat continues. Thirty eight can setive
series that this team has lost when losing game one.

(01:41:03):
I don't even understand how to fathom a statistic like
that for a major league baseball team.

Speaker 6 (01:41:09):
So it's interesting. I was talking to Jeremy Rowl about this.
Jeremy played golf recently in an outing with Billy Hatcher,
and Billy Hatcher told him a story, and Jeremy said
this on the air on Sunday Night during our show,
so I'll share it here. Billy Hatcher, when he joined
the Reds in nineteen ninety, you think back to those
late eighties teams that just couldn't get over the hump.

(01:41:30):
He talked about this he told this group in nineteen
ninety He said, look, guys, when we played you the Reds,
when he was playing for other teams, if we beat
you in the first game of the series, we knew
we had the series because there just wasn't a killer instinct.
You can see we took it from you, and you
guys just couldn't rebound the rest of the series. And
Billy kind of equated that to what's going on with

(01:41:52):
this team and why that is he doesn't have an
answer for. But I also think it's interesting too, And
we go back to the franch ConA effect, and I
think back to our conversations when we were at spring
training and talking about how many wins is Terry Francona worth,
what will be the difference under Terry Francona. I think
what we saw this weekend was a perfect example of

(01:42:14):
why I don't want to take all of this off
Terry Francona. Baseball games seasons, NL Central's playoff spots. Those
are one in the off season by what you do
and who you acquire. Now you think back to last
year and I looked this up that the Cubs finished
last season with six more wins than the Reds. So

(01:42:36):
you could argue, just off of that number that the
Reds had further to go than the Cubs to get
to where they want to go this year. So what
are the Cubs doing the off season? And understand this,
This is the reality of the way baseball's played, and
the way baseball played is through money and big markets.
They got Kyle Tucker, right, they saw someone we need

(01:42:58):
an outfield bad, we need difference maker. We went out.
They got Kyle Tucker, a top five to ten hitter
in the National League, maybe even in the major leagues.
And what do the Reds get? The Red's got role
players because the Reds are built around their young stars
having to be the guys that produce at a certain
level for this team to be competitive enough to win

(01:43:21):
a division. And all the Red Stars doing that, what
kind of a jumps? Elie made. Ellie's pacing right about
where he was last year, maybe maybe even a little
bit off. Matt McClain certainly isn't what we expected. Spencer
Steer isn't pacing like we expected him too. Tyler Stevenson
finally showed some lives yesterday. And then you have Hunter Green,
who I think has taken that step. But if you

(01:43:43):
if your young core is supposed to be these stars,
these should be stars. If they don't play like stars,
the Reds aren't going to win enough games for this
team to be a playoff team because what they did
in the offseason was supplement with role players, and I
would argue all the Reds role play right. The guys
they brought in it played at or above expectations so

(01:44:04):
far this year. The problem is is they're just not
getting it from the guys they have to get it from.
If they want to take the kind of step they
wanted to take this year, it hasn't happened. And what
you're seeing is is too much of what it looked
like last year. And that's just too much mediocrity for
this team to sustain any kind of a run for
them to be a difference maker. I think right now

(01:44:26):
in the Nlcentral.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
They've yet to find a win when trailing after the
sixth inning They had going into yesterday, the easiest strength
of schedule that they already played. Now they have the
toughest remaining strength of schedule remaining in baseball. How concerned
do you become now with this team because of the
issues that you just brought up. It's a team that
does not hit the long ball, and they struggle at
times to produce runs. They've ran into defensive problems, They've

(01:44:50):
ran into base running problems. How concerned do you become now?
Is this calendar gets ready to turn into June. We
know what the schedule looks like. How do you concern
yourself with him keeping pace?

Speaker 6 (01:45:00):
Now? I will say this, and I want you guys
to ask Charlie Goldsmith about this when you talk to him.
On Friday, after Sunday's gut punch loss against the Cubs,
Charlie and I were talking to Austin Hayes. You know
about the series, about the killer instinct, about trailing after
the sixth inning, about you know that stat of thirty

(01:45:22):
eighth straight series of losing the first game and then
not rebounding to win a series. Why that happens. He
doesn't have a lot of great answers for it, right,
the guy's only been here for a few months. But
he also mentioned, and I thought it was very interesting
that they had a hitters meeting on Friday and something
came out of that hitters meeting that he felt good

(01:45:43):
enough about that he didn't give us specifics, and I'm
curious if Charlie went back to him and asked him
about specifics about what they're changing with their approach going forward,
because they have hit the ball well ever since Friday.
I believe that's four straight games, but at least six
runs scored for the Red So you're seeing signs. And

(01:46:06):
this isn't against bad pitching. I wouldn't say it's been
great pitching that they face, but it's it's been kind
of average pitching and they've they've been better the last
four days hitting And you know, even mentioned it to
Spencer Steer and he kind of nodded his head, uh,
kind of intimating that something happened on Friday last week
before the CUB Series where they as a group got

(01:46:29):
together and talked about this and and and changed something.
What the specifics were he wouldn't address. I am curious
if Charlie was able to get that out, but I
do think there's certainly there's there's the ability. There there
are signs that that they've strung some hits together. It
just came with the bad timing of the bullpen being
gassed and melting down both on Friday and on Sunday.

Speaker 18 (01:46:51):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:46:52):
But but here's the stretch, right, We're gonna find out
what this team is. They do have the reprieve that
the final week before the All Star Game of getting
the Rockies, and so if they can just and I
know we do this all the time, they can just
just treadwater, keep the head above water here for this
next month of these these hard games, and even like
the six games that are against teams without winning record,

(01:47:14):
that's against the Brewers and the Red Sox, you know,
organizations that are used to winning. So there's no breather
for this team the next thirty five games. And I
think this is going to be the stretch when we
look back on it in the first week of July saying, Okay,
we found out that this team's either a a pretender
or be a contender, and we're going to find out

(01:47:35):
here in the next thirty five games.

Speaker 2 (01:47:37):
We also found out yesterday, Joe, that the Cincinnati Bearcats
are going to play in the postseason. Xavier, unfortunately is
not a lot of people would look at the resumes
and argue they should have. But you look at that
Knoxville Regional, the defending champs in Tennessee, and I've heard
Tennessee's one of the greatest atmospheres to watch a college

(01:47:58):
baseball game. Get wake Forest, who has produced some very
high draft picks for the Cincinnati Reds in recent years.
And then the Bearcats and Miami all bunched in there together.
How exciting is this for two local programs to be
able to punch their ticket in advance in postseason baseball

(01:48:18):
from a collegiate standpoint.

Speaker 6 (01:48:20):
Here, really exciting And I was so we split up yesterday.
I sent my coworker Regan, she did you see? And
then I went to Zaber for their watch party. And
it was interesting because Billy O'Connor, Zaber's head coach, was
talking to his team before it got started, and he
was trying to tell the guys some of some of

(01:48:40):
the resume stuff that he liked about their team and
thought they had a chance, but the fact that he
didn't really know how that day was going to work out.
But when he was done talking, they popped up on
the screen on ESPN twos coverage of the Top sixteen
seeds who were hosting this weekend. And I don't know
if you saw that, it's this conglomeration of team logos

(01:49:00):
in the South, the team teams in the South, and
then you have UCLA in Oregon State. Look, it's it's
a southern sport we get in college baseball. So to
have two Cincinnati area teams go crash the party of
the South here and the SEC, I think is awesome
that that we have two teams heading down there. And

(01:49:22):
the other point billing mate too, when he was talking
to his team, is that there's not a team this
year that's a super team. It feels like for people
who follow the sport closely than we do, that that's
a pretty wide open tournament this year. And then and
that someone could get hot and someone could get upset,
and Tennessee has certainly been a team that's shown some

(01:49:44):
vulnerabilities this year. And you see, I think has a
chance here. I know Wakes a great program. Tennessee's obviously
a great program, But to get out of this regional
and find their way to a super regional, I think
that that would be the really cool thing. If you see,
he can make some noise this weekend and after playing
a Big twelve schedule and having a Big Twelve Player

(01:50:06):
of the year, find a way to get hot and
make a Super Regional. I think you can see this
baseball team really start to pick up some traction locally.
A lot of people would start to throw their support
behind U see baseball if they can make some noise
this weekend. But I think it's a really cool thing
that we have two Cincinnati area teams who are who
are heading to Knoxville and trying to crash this Southern

(01:50:30):
party of college baseball. This weekend in Knoxville all going.

Speaker 2 (01:50:33):
To be super fun. Have you ever been to the
Super Regional? Have you made it to omahall before?

Speaker 6 (01:50:37):
I've been to Omaha. That's been That was a bucket list.
My oldest brother played college baseball and so for his
fortieth birthday we kind of did like a bachelor trip
out to Omaha for for four or five days, and
it was one of the absolute coolest things I've ever done.
Was go watch it, you know, tailgate and watch the
games and do all of it. The whole city shuts

(01:51:01):
down for College World Series weekend, So anybody who hasn't
done it, it's absolutely a bucket listing to do. But
I have not been to a super Regional, and I
think that would be exciting because because once you get
to the College World Series, right you did it, It's
like getting to the Final Four. In college basketball, they
always say the hardest game to win is the Elite
eight because you just want to get there. So the

(01:51:21):
Super Regional has to be super full of tension and
exciting and nerve wracking, all those emotions just to get
to the College World Series and kind of have that
banner forever for your program. So to see you see
in what they can do this weekend is exciting for me,
and I think an exciting for for anybody who watches

(01:51:43):
sports here locally, because I've always wanted the Cincinnati area
to have somebody and a team who's competitive in college baseball,
and we've seen that in recent years with UC and
Xavier that they feel like they're yearly players now at
least in the conversation to make the NCAA tournament. And
I think that's a great addition to the Cincinnati sports.

Speaker 4 (01:52:03):
Is your older brother the best athlete in the family easily?

Speaker 6 (01:52:07):
Not even close. I would argue my second older brother
was probably born more talented, but no one outworked my
oldest brother, and he got a he got rewarded for
it by playing college baseball, which is a really cool thing.

Speaker 4 (01:52:20):
What was your best sport growing up?

Speaker 6 (01:52:23):
Basketball? But I wasn't big enough.

Speaker 4 (01:52:27):
You can fill it.

Speaker 6 (01:52:31):
Hey, next time you guys talk to Richard Skinner. Okay,
next time you talk to Skinny ask him, ask him
about my ability in the local media basketball games. He'll
shoot you straight, basketball coach.

Speaker 4 (01:52:45):
He just rolls the balls out there.

Speaker 2 (01:52:48):
Go play. He's in the barn, dan im, and you're
the best. Get dried up, Enjoy, Enjoy the rest of
your day. We always appreciate this. We'll talk again next week.

Speaker 6 (01:52:57):
By the way, Charlie Goldsmith, I just saw him ask
me to say hello. So Charlie says hello, and also Hi,
Charlie's cubicle here at the stadium now, says Charlie Goldsmith.
Fox nineteen.

Speaker 2 (01:53:11):
Man is amazing, unbelievable. I think we wrapped up. Let's
cut the show here. Yep, we'll go dead air for
the last thirty four. Daniman, you're the best man.

Speaker 4 (01:53:20):
Thank you boys.

Speaker 2 (01:53:22):
There he is Joe Daniman. Now we could just cut
the show here often. But how about this. Joe's partner
in crime, Jeremy Row just had about two minutes. He
posted with Jamar Chase from the locker room today mar
Mar chasey talking about these slow starts, talking about playing
in the preseason. Let's get some of that audio and
share with what Jamar Chase had to say when we

(01:53:44):
come back since he three sixty Thanks to Penn Station.
Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 8 (01:53:52):
Low Egger, there was some booing of the team last
night when sports. He's got something to say for just
natural byproducts of plenty of it of poor play. Loeger
Today at three on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:54:06):
Sincy three sixty is back on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's
Sports station.

Speaker 2 (01:54:18):
Welcome back Sincy three to sixty. Thanks to Penn Station.
Thanks for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty or via the
iHeartRadio app. It is certainly appreciated. Thanks to Joe Daniman
for kicking us off there Nour number three. While Joe
was outside in the mist and steady light rain, Jeremy
Row was inside. He was in the locker room Austin

(01:54:40):
and he was catching up with some Bengal players, including
Jamar Chase, and the topic of the conversation in the
offseason is going to be about preseason camp and starting faster,
and the ability to avoid distractions, and how much or
how many guys should play in the preseason and how
much how many reps should they have? Uh, Jamar Chase

(01:55:03):
in front of his locker, talked a little bit about
that for a couple of minutes this afternoon.

Speaker 7 (01:55:08):
It was up to me. Now, you asked, do I
want to play? Not really? I think we do the.

Speaker 30 (01:55:17):
That's on my mind like a series. But that's what
you'll literally all we do, you know, yeah, And that's
not so you don't really feel mentally ready for a
game like that. For me, I don't think I do.

Speaker 7 (01:55:29):
It might just be fair like that.

Speaker 22 (01:55:30):
So in your opinion, playing in the preseason is not
a game changer for how you guys start.

Speaker 7 (01:55:38):
I don't know how do we start my rookie year?

Speaker 4 (01:55:41):
Three?

Speaker 2 (01:55:41):
More we're playing in pre season one three one?

Speaker 30 (01:55:44):
We played about the next year until we play preseason
about the following year.

Speaker 2 (01:55:53):
That pre season like we need.

Speaker 7 (01:55:55):
To play preseason free y'all found y'all own as was
actually question told me that it was one series your
rookie year. Okay, it's Miamiami, Miami.

Speaker 4 (01:56:08):
She runs in a scream to your.

Speaker 13 (01:56:12):
Right.

Speaker 7 (01:56:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't a great.

Speaker 6 (01:56:17):
Just what happened. Disappointed though last year in Week one,
your offense was so prolific.

Speaker 11 (01:56:24):
Last year Jamorrow Week one was the only really.

Speaker 31 (01:56:27):
True outright outside the Giant scheme where it felt disjointing.

Speaker 30 (01:56:33):
I could say I wasn't mentally ready to.

Speaker 7 (01:56:38):
Be on the field.

Speaker 30 (01:56:39):
I was in my own head, you know what I'm saying.
I wanted to play, but I was in my own head.

Speaker 11 (01:56:43):
And I'm like, you know, is that part of the
by party from now?

Speaker 4 (01:56:46):
The contract young you don't got to worry about any
of that.

Speaker 7 (01:56:48):
Yeah, yeah, that's what it was.

Speaker 31 (01:56:51):
There is there now that you know y'all have been paid,
Joe's paid, is there any added pressure for y'all to
be a top five, top three, you know, top one,
the passing offensive the league, given that no one's spending
the money that they have.

Speaker 7 (01:57:04):
This money, because that's what they expect us to do.

Speaker 11 (01:57:07):
Is that what you'll expect is that.

Speaker 7 (01:57:08):
They expect we all expected.

Speaker 2 (01:57:13):
All right? So I love that ar talks, man, It's fantastic.
Do you remember one of the big sticking points his
rookie training camp was the amount of drops and I
specifically remember that one series they played, it was getting
him a screen just to see him, like let him
make a catch in the preseason, make sure he catches it,

(01:57:35):
like I remember that, And then the conversation around like
this year, like he's very honest, like I don't want
to play in the preseason. I'm good, Yeah, I don't.
I don't want to do it. And I think some
real honesty of just physically yes, but mentally he was
not ready to go last year week one, and I
think you saw that on the field.

Speaker 3 (01:57:56):
I also think wide receiver is a position that they
really don't need to play in the season, Like getting
more reps for an offensive lineman makes sense, even a
quarterback makes sense. Other guys on the field, Like, I
don't know that. I think wide receiver might be the
least important when it comes to preseason reps, if nothing else,

(01:58:19):
just because of what they do in training camp every
day is just as influential as being on the field, yes,
during a preseason game, but yeah, like when you it's
a little bit different. If you're an offensive lineman, you're
going over protections in a scheme and a look that
you haven't seen before. Yeah, and if you're a quarterback,

(01:58:40):
you're getting it radioed in and you're in the huddle
and the stadium is louder and you are watching guys
across the field, you know that it makes more sense.
But wide receivers like their reps on a daily basis. Yeah,
especially with a freak like Jamar, he doesn't need from.

Speaker 2 (01:58:58):
A quarterback standpoint too, Like don't we always were talking
about in preseason, like, you're not Defenses aren't running exotic looks,
they're not emptying the playbook. So it's not like by
not playing in a preseason game, you're gonna see this
like never before, seeing coverage or blitz that you have
to react to. For a quarterback, it's timing, it's depth
on your drop, it's that mental check mark of knowing

(01:59:22):
you're not protected when the ball is snapped, that you
can be hit on any snap. For receivers, you already
know that. So yeah, the point of receivers is different
than obviously Joe Burrow, who has ultimately openly said I
need to play more in the preseason. I think those
are two different aspects.

Speaker 3 (01:59:35):
Do you think there's anything to it of like, all right,
I walk out here for the coin toss, or I
do a drive and I go sit down, and I
get back up and I go do it again.

Speaker 4 (01:59:45):
Do you think that has anything to do with it.

Speaker 2 (01:59:47):
Yeah, there's a little bit of that because you're you're
locked in mentally different Physically, it's not, but mentally there
is something more to that of you know, drive doesn't
go well, come back out and run another one, give
up a pressure. How can you bounce back because so
much of sports in general is bouncing back from adversity
or bouncing back from something good. You know, you go

(02:00:07):
down in four plays and score, and next thing, you know,
you're all excited. The next time you come back out,
you know your juices are flowing a little bit more,
and you you overthrow a pass that gets intercepted, or
you get in your head because you're struggling. I just
I think mentally and physically, there is advantages to plane
in the preseason because you can control more of than narrative.
It's not like in the preseason on third and seven

(02:00:29):
you have to drop back and throw one. Sure right now,
you can still protect your guys and still get a
lot of work out of it, and I think that
as much as we just heard that Jamar Chase clearly
doesn't want to do much preseason work, we've heard the
opposite of Joe Burrow, who feels those reps for him
at least are necessary. I think that is definitely something
to watch out for. But good stuff. Nonetheless, let's take

(02:00:51):
a break, let's come back. We'll be quick, and we'll
get to Moeger who is in Indianapolis. Let's check our
poll question Indianapolis mo getting ready for Game four tonight.
His show comes up at three ZHO five. I don't
know if he's been able to get Halliburton's dad on
the show yet, but I do know his dad will
be an Indian. Moe's going to be an Indie as well,
So see what they can make happen. Plenty more still

(02:01:12):
to go. Since he three to sixty thanks to Penn
Station on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 11 (02:01:17):
This summer specter What's going on in the NFL.

Speaker 8 (02:01:20):
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (02:01:27):
Welcome back. Since he three sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati's sports station thanks to our friends at Penn Station.
Uh we are coming off a weekend of beautiful, beautiful weather,
and we have moved into now at a start of
a week, a short week here, and the weather has

(02:01:49):
just gone down the tube. It's raining, it's cloudy.

Speaker 4 (02:01:54):
There's nothing wrong with this one.

Speaker 2 (02:01:55):
It's colder and it was the lead for today poll
question Thanks to our guys, thanks for our got Pjstreet
Revivefitnessystems dot com. What are our results today? Final results?
What is your ideal outdoor temperature range? Is it fifty
to sixty five degrees, sixty six to seventy six, seventy

(02:02:16):
seven to eighty five or eighty six plus.

Speaker 4 (02:02:19):
We got some smart people that listen to this show.

Speaker 3 (02:02:21):
Forty nine and a half percent say sixty six to
seventy six, damn right. Thirty nine percent say seventy seven
to eighty five. You people are crazy, but not as
crazy as the five point three percent that said eighty
six plus. Also five point three percent say fifty to
sixty five degrees.

Speaker 2 (02:02:41):
Smart people. There was something I saw yesterday that alluded
to the fact that there's maybe an outside possibility that
Kirk Cousins finds his way to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He
was not in attendance for the Falcons first practice of
voluntary organized activity today, if it were Aaron Rodgers or

(02:03:03):
Kirk Cousins Austin, which quarterback at their current level could
help a team like Pittsburgh more. Aaron your opinion? So
you still think from a playing this dealers standpoint, it
would be harder to play them with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. Yes,
I agree either way.

Speaker 3 (02:03:22):
Bengal's not the only one dealing with contract issues. James
Cook not at Bill's OTAs, Terry McLaurin not at Commander's
OTAs you just mentioned, Kirk Cousins not at Falcons OTAs.
So there's a number of issues going on. Yeah, it is,
It's happening across the league. But I do think that
the importance of the position Shamar Stewart plays is is

(02:03:45):
certainly a part of that. We'll take a break when
we come back.

Speaker 2 (02:03:48):
Molagger for Quick Hits on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (02:03:52):
Station continues on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's Sports Station. It's
time since the three sixty quick hits on ESPN.

Speaker 2 (02:04:03):
Look at the low Mo's in Indianapolis. He's getting ready
for the mow Agers Show. On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports station. He has found a spot to broadcast thanks
to our friends at iHeart and he, alongside John Halliburton,
will be in the building tonight in Indianapolis when the

(02:04:23):
Knicks and Pacers take a part in game four mo.
What What's going on?

Speaker 12 (02:04:27):
John Halliburton will be in a suite tonight. I most
definitely will not be in a suite at whatever they
call the Pacers Arena, but maybe we'll run into each other.

Speaker 11 (02:04:34):
Perhaps he'll be out in and out before the game.

Speaker 2 (02:04:36):
This game takes on a whole different feel because I'm
assuming Sunday night twenty point deficit felt like the riding
would be on the wall. The Knicks make a run
now all of a sudden, If you can steal one tonight,
it's back to a series A lot going into this
game in Indianapolis tonight for your New York Knicks.

Speaker 12 (02:04:53):
Yeah, you know it's It sounds obvious from a PACER's perspective,
maybe a little bit less so from a New York perspective,
But I think the winner of tonight game wins the series.
I think if you're a Pacers fan and they win tonight,
it's three to one, you gotta feel really good, especially,
you know, given the fact that the Knicks haven't been
very good at home in the postseason. I think if
New York wins tonight, it's gonna feel like, all right.
They do have home court games five in Game seven.

(02:05:15):
If they win tonight, that tells me they've outplayed the Pacers,
which they did for most of Game one, which they
did in the second half the other night, they'll have
a measure of momentum. I don't I was not dreading
coming here, but like when I when I bought my ticket,
I made a commitment I'm coming, and it would have
been weak to not come down three to zero. But
there was a part of me that is looking at

(02:05:35):
a twenty point deficit on Sunday night, I'm going that's
that's not gonna be much fun. Everybody's gonna have their brooms.
That's gonna be miserable. And now we get a series
and I don't have to see the Bob Coosey Trophy
get presented tonight.

Speaker 2 (02:05:47):
Did they unlock something with the defense they were able
to play in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 12 (02:05:51):
I think they unlocked something with the defense they were
able to play in the fourth quarter. And I think
they also unlocked something with finding out that some of
the guys that Tom Thibodeau doesn't play could actually can tribute.
I think the interesting thing about tonight, and I've seen
some viral clips of some of the people screaming at
each other about sports on ESPN, but I think they're right.
I think they have to figure out ways to play

(02:06:11):
without Kat, Karl, Anthony Towns, and Jalen Brunson on the
floor at the same time. I think if Game three
showed us anything, it's that they can do that. Plus,
they made their run in the fourth quarter of Game
one without Jalen Brunson on the floor. By his own admission,
he has to stay out of foul trouble, Karl Anthony
Towns has to stay at a foul trouble. But they
were finally able to take a great Indiana offensive team

(02:06:35):
and make them uncomfortable. I am really interested in seeing
what adjustments Rick Carlisle has for that tonight.

Speaker 2 (02:06:41):
What else do you have coming up on the show
before the game tonight?

Speaker 12 (02:06:43):
And I just heard you guys play the cut of
Jamar Chase having fun with the idea of you know,
playing the games in the preseason, and I just want
to make sure that today we're two months away from
training camp. Today we all agree that the Bengals should
play their guys who matter during the preseason because if
something bad happens, you know they're gonna take heat for it.

(02:07:07):
Like that's the downside of this. So you know, I'll
be watching these games in the preseason and I fully
acknowledge they've got to try something different.

Speaker 11 (02:07:14):
But man, be careful what you wish for.

Speaker 12 (02:07:17):
Gordon Wittenmeyer of The Inquirer writes that the Reds need
to start planning to be sellers at the trade deadline.
I have a better idea. I'll tell you what that
idea is. Paul Danner Junior joins us in the first
hour of the show. We have an interesting regional in Knoxville.
The Bearcats are gonna play wake Forest on Friday at
one o'clock.

Speaker 11 (02:07:36):
I'm not sure who you're rooting for.

Speaker 12 (02:07:40):
So Jordan Bishell's gonna be on the show in the
five o'clock hour, but the RedHawks are also there. Miami
head coach Brian Smiley, kind of like Jordan Bischell second
year at the school, revived the program very quick turnaround,
Miami wins the MAC regular season title, wins the MAC
Postseason Championship.

Speaker 11 (02:07:56):
He will join us at three thirty five.

Speaker 2 (02:08:00):
Let me ask you something because obviously this happened over
the weekend and they have a win in Kansas City
already since then. But the comment from Terry Francone over
the weekend that you know, you see a lot of
other teams that hit home runs. That's not exactly how
we are built. Can you win in today's baseball if
you're not a team that can get runs with the

(02:08:21):
home run?

Speaker 11 (02:08:23):
I guess so.

Speaker 12 (02:08:24):
But the Reds don't have enough of those type guys.
Now they are as a team, they are hitting right,
they're hitting a little bit more, but you have to
have a lot of guys who are really good at
getting on base. To me, you have to have a
lot of guys who are really good at hitting doubles.
You have to have a lot of guys who are
are really good at running the bases. You know, It's

(02:08:44):
one thing to say, well, we don't have a team
that's built to hit a lot of home runs, we
don't have a lot of home run hitters, and there's fine, whatever,
But then you have to have a lineup full of
guys who could hit for average, who could hit to
all fields. And I don't know that the Reds, despite
their recent offensive surge, I don't know that the Reds
have that. I don't know that the construction of this team.

(02:09:07):
You could look at it and say, well, they don't
hit a lot of home runs, that's one thing, but
they also don't have a lot of guys who do
a lot of other stuff offensively. And what I would
tell you is this, just looking at it, that the
top seven teams last season in home runs made the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (02:09:22):
Yep.

Speaker 11 (02:09:22):
Now, is that the only thing they did well? Of
course not.

Speaker 12 (02:09:25):
But to me, a byproduct of having a lot of
good hitters is you're eventually going to have some good
home run hitters. I also don't know why the Reds
don't build their team around their ballpark.

Speaker 2 (02:09:34):
Yeah, it doesn't make sense.

Speaker 3 (02:09:35):
I think it's almost like they've built it thinking, oh,
at our ballpark, these dudes will accidentally hit twenty homers.

Speaker 12 (02:09:41):
Maybe maybe I just I just wish they had a guy,
and maybe Ellie will still be that guy this season.
I just wish they had a guy that's you feel
his presence in the lineup for the entire game, right, Yeah,
you know, we.

Speaker 2 (02:09:56):
Man, we don't want we don't want to let this
guy get on because then you're going to turn the
order up when you got to face him again.

Speaker 4 (02:10:01):
In that Hey, let's.

Speaker 12 (02:10:02):
Let's let's get out of this sitting and then we
can have that guy come up to lead off the
next inning. Or let's pitch very carefully around these guys
and Ellie may be there one day. I don't think
he's he's there now. If you're not going to build
around sluggers, then build around guys who are good to
really are really good at getting on base. And this team, again,

(02:10:22):
they've hit better over the last five or six games.
They've blown some of them. This team, I don't think
fits that description.

Speaker 2 (02:10:28):
Lastly, there was this picture from Charlie Clifford today of
Shamar Stewart in the bubble and he's just kind of
standing there by himself and he's got his hands in
his pockets. And I know that none of us are
like he's going to play this year, but he's also
missing meaningful time. He doesn't have a Sam Hubbard or
a Trey Hendrickson to kind of guide him along. Right now,
in the early stages of being in the NFL again.

(02:10:51):
The worries not will he play, it's when how impactful
do you believe him missing the start of OTAs now
becomes and and at some point when does this get
done from the Bengals.

Speaker 12 (02:11:04):
I don't know when it gets done, and I don't
know that I'm worried, But like, what they're doing now
has value, right If it doesn't have value, then why
is anybody doing it? And if the idea is to
have Shamar Stewart make an immediate impact, you can't tell
me he can't benefit from doing something beyond standing there

(02:11:26):
with his hands in his pockets.

Speaker 11 (02:11:28):
Now, it just it strikes me as unnecessary.

Speaker 12 (02:11:32):
And look, maybe this is on Shamar Stewart, maybe this
is his agent doing something weird. This just just feels
to me to be something that's wholly unnecessary.

Speaker 11 (02:11:39):
If you're the Bengals, is whatever your.

Speaker 12 (02:11:42):
Stance is not worth being flexible for to ensure that
a guy that you need to help week one is
on the field doing things that everybody else seems to
feel has value.

Speaker 11 (02:11:53):
It just I hope it's not something we're.

Speaker 12 (02:11:55):
Talking about by the middle of September My guess is
we're not, but it just feels wholly unnecessary. I would
also ask him, why is Demitrius Knight willing to sign
the injury waiver?

Speaker 11 (02:12:06):
Will he waits for his deal to get done and not?

Speaker 4 (02:12:09):
You sure?

Speaker 11 (02:12:09):
Like, what is it?

Speaker 12 (02:12:11):
I don't know that much about the waivers, but there's
a lot there are a lot of players who at
this stage they haven't signed their contracts, but they're still
doing stuff because they've they've signed a waiver, right, Why
does Schamar not want to sign the waiver?

Speaker 11 (02:12:23):
And I'm not I'm not saying that blaming him.

Speaker 12 (02:12:25):
I'm just kind of curious, like, what is it about
that waiver that some of your teammates will sign that
you want.

Speaker 2 (02:12:29):
It's a unique situation at a position of dire need
to be successful for the Cincinnati Bengals. Mo enjoy the
show more importantly, enjoy the game tonight and uh man,
I hope you. I hope by the end of the
night we're talking about a two.

Speaker 11 (02:12:41):
Two series you and me both see you guys.

Speaker 2 (02:12:44):
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (02:12:44):
Moe.

Speaker 2 (02:12:44):
That is Moager, who is doin his show from Indianapolis
this afternoon comes to you Live three oh five all
the way up until six, and then obviously Nicks Pacers
Brady Singer's return to Kansas City to night against the Royals,
as well as the Reds look to take that series
to kick off their road trip. We are done. Thanks
for listening, enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, have a

(02:13:07):
great Tuesday evening. We'll do it again tomorrow at SINCY
three sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station