Cincy 360 w/ Tony Pike & Austin Elmore -- 7/9/25

Tony and Austin talk about a crippling Reds loss, chat with Dustin Grutza and Mo Egger, take your calls and TalkBacks, and more on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chile.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Sincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in part
by Skyline Chile. Stop by Skyline Chili for a three
way or cheese coney Today. Feeling good, It's Skyline Time.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Good afternoon, Happy Wednesday, Welcome in. It's the latest edition
of Cincy three to sixty. You are listening on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Thank you to our friends.
It's Skyline Chili. Or anytime you're feeling good and hungry,
it is Skyline Time. Skyline sounds great right about now.
I guess Skyline sounds great anytime, but no better time

(00:41):
than now. Uh to make it Skyline time. We have
a lot to get to today, and unfortunately we've got
to do something that we don't like to do. But
it seems like every time we do deliver any type
of eulogy for the Cincinnati Reds, things change. I don't
know if it's going to work this time, but the
ball that's being played right now by the local team

(01:02):
here in Cincinnati is not great. Red's walloped at home
last night. There it is, I said, walloped at home
last night. Twelve to two. Shout out to Jose Travino,

(01:30):
who I thought was phenomenal last night, not in his
work as a catcher.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
How do you think he's feeling about signing an extension here?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
It's his work as a pitcher last night. Gave up
four hits across two innings, allowed just one earned run.
His RA dips to three eighty six, which, oddly enough
Austin is the lowest DRA of anyone that pitched last
night for the Cincinnati Reds. Nick Martinez seemed to be
the proverbial sacrificial lamb. I believe I've Mowagar tweeted at

(02:00):
one point last night that the boat chair that Tito
sits in must be pretty comfortable, because Nick Martinez didn't
have his stuff last night, and he just kept on
running out there, to the tune of five innings, seven hits,
ten earned runs, all charged to him. Man started off positive,
Matt McLain homer in the bottom of the first, and

(02:22):
then the Miami Marlin scored the next twelve runs of
the game. Gavin lux Via an air late in the game,
scored but another night of minimal hits, minimal runs for
the Cincinnati Reds. They've now lost four in a row.
Another night with an air in the field, this time
for Matt McClain. We will dive into here now. Number one,

(02:45):
everything happening with the Cincinnati Reds and where things go
from here. We got some mid season grades being handed
out in Major League Baseball. We'll dive into that. From
an NBA standpoint, chet Holmgren signed his rookie max extension,
So congratulations to chet Holmgren. Coming off a NBA championship

(03:06):
now gets a bag as well. From an NBA standpoint,
how about tennis Austin the American Ben Shelton is trying
to join Tanner Fritz in the semifinals at Wimbledon. Fritz
has already threw. Shelton is playing right now, the number
one ranked player in the world in center. He trails

(03:26):
one set right now, they're in the second set. The
Joker Novak Djokovic is also playing right now. So more
things happening from a tennis standpoint. We'll look at edge
rusher rankings in the NFL. Who are the NFL's best
edge rushers? Executives, coaches and scouts all got together and

(03:47):
ranked with Jeremy Fowler. We'll get to that and we
have to give a special shout out, Austin, because I
know the game didn't go well last night, but did
you see the final tally from the Reds Community Fund.
I did see that a record year for the Reds
Community Fund, three hundred and forty four thousand dollars, just
north of three hundred and forty four thousand dollars. That

(04:08):
is an all time record. So, even with the game
getting out of hand, shout out to the Reds Community
Fund and shout out to all those who donated last
night in the tune of three hundred and forty four thousand,
three hundred and five dollars. That's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
That's really awesome.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
That's pretty cool despite the game being pad. How would
you describe the mood at the game last night, Austin.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
You know, I don't really know. I left. I did
something I've never done before, Tony. I've never left a
game that early. Really, I left after the fourth inning.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
I I said at the beginning of this season, I'm
not going to get mad at the Reds this year.
I'm just going to try to enjoy watching Hunter Green
and Ellie daily cruise. Well, Untergreen doesn't play anymore and
daily Cruz. It's been pretty cool. He's fun to watch.
He's been good. But then they do this thing where

(05:08):
they just cannot play consistently clean baseball, and I really
had no desire to sit there and watch them again
last night, to the point where I got up and
went home.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
We'll describe more of the of the game itself, but
there was a point last night and you and I
and Mo were all texting together, and it was right
after the Marlins had scored seven in the top of
the third, and I remember thinking, Okay, it's the third inning.
You've still got a lot of game to play. Maybe
you can chip away. It didn't seem like Yuri Perez

(05:45):
was dominant last night, so you think, okay, maybe this
team will chip away. And they came up in the
bottom of the third. Travigno grounded out to shortstop noelbe Marte.
Austin swung at three straight pitches and I don't think
he was within six inches of any pitch, not even close.
And then Matt McLean ended the ending on a strikeout.

(06:08):
It's just it didn't seem to me like there was
much fight from the team after they got punched in
the mouth. Yeah, that's an issue.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
The leadership is something we questioned yesterday. Joe Daniman asked,
you know when it when it comes to the leadership,
does that go to players or does it have to
go to players or are they got to be on
on Terry Francona. So we'll discuss more of that today.
There was a really cool moment last night outside of
what the Reds Community film was doing, and your Rabbit
was named to the All Star team during the game
last night.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, that was going crazy in the dugout for Andrew Rabbit.
That's something to be happy about that you had two
players play well enough this season to be worthy of
an All Star not Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
That's exciting. Yeah, I guess I'm happy about that. So
I had a buddy who just texted me, Austin was
that the game last night? And kudos to him because
he stayed for the whole game.

Speaker 4 (07:06):
God love him.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
He said. The most involved the crowd was all game,
was cheering when Travino was pitching. And I know that
those things happen. I know, blowouts happen in baseball. I
know you get position players, but when you're coming home
on a home stand before the All star break. It's
supposed to carry a little bit more weight when you
need to go on a run. Yeah, they have five left. Now.

(07:31):
The odd thing about this team, and we've talked about Austin,
could this team go win five in a row? Yes?
Does it feel like they're a team right now that's
gonna win five in a row? Absolutely not. Meanwhile, the
Marlins have won eleven straight road games. How about that?
That is pretty impressive. I mean, sometimes the team is
just hot, and it's not to say that the Marlins are,

(07:53):
you know. I mean they've kind of whooped the Reds
butt the last couple of days. Yes, so, you know,
I guess they're just playing good right now. But I
don't think that's an excuse for the way the Reds
have played. Nope, you got to show up.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah, Jansen Junk and what was the other guy's name,
Uri Perez.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Uri Perez last night threw more first and second pitch
fastballs right down the middle, and the Reds just sat
there and looked at I had no idea what was happening.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Well, it was kind of like the opposite of last
night or two nights ago, because you know, Jansen Junk
doesn't walk a lot of batters, and so the Reds
were like, We're gonna ambush the first pitch, and they
kept this pitch pitch count pretty low. And then last
night Euri Perez is like, well, they're gonna try to
be more patient tonight, so I'm gonna fill up the

(08:41):
zone early, and the Reds were behind all night long.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
They just sat and watched fastballs. Yeah, it's it's frustrating
to a large extent. But we have some Androi Abbat
audio that will get to today, maybe some Tito Francona
from after the game. We also heard from Scott's Souderfield
yesterday a Big twelve media day, we got some of
that audio. Former quarterback at u see and now it's
still deeply involved with the program and all things you see.

(09:07):
Dustin Grutza, who we've talked about on the show before,
is going to join us at two o'clock to talk
some happenings for the Cincinnati Bearcats and where things stand
with them and the NIL world and the team right
now and the Big twelve and and so much more
other baseball news that happened last night. Remember Dallas Kichel, Yeah,
remember him? He wont to cy Young Royals just signed
him to a minor league contract. Okay, Dallas two million

(09:28):
dollar salary, starting Triple A the Giants. Did you see
the scenes last night for the San Francisco Giants against
the Phillies.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
I didn't, Man, I went home and I stopped watching
baseball and I started watching quarterback.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Well, we're gonna get to that in a second.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
I had no interest in baseball. I'm at that point where,
like I start in a transition, I start getting mad
because it's like, gosh, they've ruined what I love about baseball,
so like I don't even want to watch other teams.
I didn't want to watch Otani. I didn't want to
watch like good teams play. They ruined my love for baseball.

(10:06):
Sometimes because I get so mad that I see other
teams that can actually play baseball the way they're supposed
to play baseball.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
I can see teams hit with runners in scoring position.
I can see guys hit the other way. I can
see a perfectly executed sacrifice fly. I can see a bunt.
I can see a ground ball hit to the third
basement and he throws it to the first basement without
it going over somebody's head, Like just watching other teams
play baseball and then watching the Reds, It's just it's maddening.

(10:36):
I don't even I love baseball. Yeah, I don't even
want to watch it anymore.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Well, there was there was two cool moments last night.
Jacob Mizerowski, who is a phenom for the Milwaukee Brewers
right now, he gave up a four hundred and thirty
one foot blast to show hey Otani last night. Do
you know how he responded? Struck out twelve. That's pretty good.
Brewers beat the Dodgers three to one. Dodgers have lost
five in a row. But how about this scene Austin

(11:02):
last night, bottom of the ninth in San Francisco. The
Giants were down three to one. Patrick Bailey comes to
the dish, runners on first and third. Patrick Bailey hits
a inside the park walk off home run with runners
on first and third. How about that?

Speaker 4 (11:20):
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
That's a pretty cool way to go out.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
I would guess that that ballpark has the most inside
the park home runs, would be my guest, Like, since
it's since it opened in what nineteen ninety eight.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Or was first time in nine years that a player
hit a walk off inside the park home run.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
That's pretty awesome. Ken Griffy Junior did that once.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Man and Patrick Bailey. That was his first game in
the big leagues and he hits a walk off three
run home run. Patrick Bailey, Yeah, what can good things
happen like the first game this year? I believe so
he said it said that he uh, he entered the
Major League Baseball record books on Tuesday night. So that's

(12:07):
pretty cool. Shout out to him, Man, good things happening
to other teams in baseball.

Speaker 4 (12:11):
I just looked it up and it says since two
thousand and one, this is now. This is according to
chat GPT. Okay, all right, since two thousand and one,
Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City has seen sixteen inside the
park home run Wow, the most of any current Major
League park in that span. It says the famous twenty

(12:32):
fifteen World Series inside the park home run by al
CDs Escabar is probably the most notable. So Kaufman Sadium's old,
But since two thousand and one, sixteen inside the parkers.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah, that's getting it done. That's fascinating. That is absolutely
getting it done. I don't think there's anything else happened
in the sports world that we didn't discuss.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
I don't know if that's true.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Except Quarterback on Netflix Now, I only got through episode
one last night. Okay, how far along are you? I
watched episode two last night. Joe Burrow is just really
likable man. Yeah, Like he's the type of leader you
want on your football team. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
He kind of goes a little bit into the leadership
part in the second episode as well. But yeah, I
mean I find all three of those dudes to be
really likable guys. But Burrow just kind of allowing people
to say, Hey, you know, like I'm kind of quirky,
I have my fun little interests.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
I'm going to lean into it.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
I'm just leaning into it, like this is just me.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
I also view him as a guy that is, and
I'm sure this will get talked about more once they
get into like the burglary of his home and everything.
But a dude that's a little bit conflicted and like
maybe not ready to share entirely who he is but
once too, but isn't quite sure how to do it.

(13:51):
So maybe this documentary was the best way, because you
see all sorts of things like playing the piano, his
relationship with his mom. The fashion At one point last
night watched an episode two He's or it might have
been at the end of episode one, I can't remember.
He says he doesn't really know how to use the
washing machine and dryer at his own house. Yeah, like

(14:14):
that little stuff like that, though it's really entertaining.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
But we've talked about it before, like his transformation from
not only having to be a quarterback, but to be
the leader of the team because some of those veterans
have moved on and you think of just a short
time ago, and I've talked about this before. He could
go anywhere he wanted, Yeah, when he was at a
Highley shop. Right now, he can't go anywhere without a

(14:36):
crowd coming around. He can't be the private guy that
he wants, and I think there's an internal struggle with
that and to be the more vocal guy. And I
just think if you look at last year compared to
years before, he has become that, and I think he
knows what's being asked of him, and that's not easy
for someone to change kind of who they are.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah, And he talks about that a little bit more
in the second episode, and they they include a snippet
of him having a conversation with the team prior to
the Panthers game, and it's it's really cool.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
It is a it's a great watch, and it's a
great view into the mind, not only just the physical side,
but the mental side of playing the quarterback position as well.

Speaker 4 (15:21):
We've talked a lot about like the leadership aspect of
the Reds. We talked about it earlier this week. Maybe
we're under uh what's the word here, undervaluing undervaluing the
idea of leadership with the Bengals that's out the door.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Well, we've we've we've mentioned a little bit before with
Hendrickson holding out. Sam Hubbard is gone. Sam Hubbard is
the big one. He was the guy. He was kind
of a heartbeat. Mike Hilton is gone.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
Mike Hilton is gone as another one. Jermaine Pratt, whether
you like him or not, had been there for a
long time and loved in that locker room.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
The keen.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
Davis Gather was a captain, Von Bell was a captain
year before.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
They lost Joe Mixon. Right, So is that guy.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
I just wonder, you know, who's going to be that
guy who could potentially step up and be that guy this.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Year, I'm more interested. I think the offensive side is
good with Burrow. I think Carris is that guy. Sure
on offense, I don't. I don't worry as much about offense.
The defensive side, though, is one hundred percent a good question.

Speaker 4 (16:22):
I feel like it's gotta be Bj Hill, Yeah, Logan Wilson,
and then after that Taylor Brett. You would hope, but
I don't. I mean, like Trey Trey said, I think
it was at the Super Bowl that like, yes, Sam's gone,
or whenever it was that he spoke, He's like, yees,
Sam's gone, and I want to fill that role. Okay,

(16:44):
that's cool.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yeah, Uh, football is is right around the corner, and
uh it just so happens that. That's part of our
poll question today, thanks to our guys at Revive Fitnessystems
dot com.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
Revive Fitness Systems dot com coach PJ. Street. Our pole
question today, Well, the Reds win another game the rest
of the season. Your options are yes, no, or is
it football yet? Forty six percent say is it football yet,
thirty percent say yes, the Reds will win at least
one more game, and twenty three percent say no, the

(17:19):
Reds will finish twenty twenty five win lists from here
on out.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Welcome to July ninth. Yeah, here we are. I forgot
to mention one thing before we get to a break.
And this is on me as the avid wrestling fan
that I am. The WW and the Big twelve a
partner together, Austin. That's right, the WW and the Big Twelve.
They are bringing Friday Nights SmackDown to different Big twelve
markets during the college football season. How about that.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
So it's a you said, it's sort of SmackDown the
night before a big football game.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yeah, so every every week there's Monday Night Raw and
there's Friday Night SmackDown.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Okay, I'm learning things.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
So it's it's not like they're adding a new program,
but they're just picking and choosing the destinations that they
go based on Big Twelve teams that are gonna have
home games the next day. For instance, Friday August twenty second,
they're going to Dublin, Ireland or Iowa State and Kansas
will be playing on the next day. Okay, interesting, On
Friday October third, they're coming here to Heritage Bank for

(18:21):
Iowa State at Cincinnati on the fourth. All right, on
the twenty fourth of October, they go to the they
go to Tempe, Arizona, Houston, Arizona's the next day. And
now on Halloween Night, Friday, October thirty, first you see
at Utah, they're gonna be at the Delta Center in
Salt Lake City. So how about that pairing up WW
with Big twelve because you and know anything about Big

(18:42):
twelve football Austin, it's gonna be a dogfight this year.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
Well, how exactly are these two gonna work?

Speaker 6 (18:47):
Like?

Speaker 4 (18:47):
I mean, I obviously I get you want fans to
go to both. Sure, I get that part. I mean,
you're not gonna get players or anything, right, go to
the games.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
But I think fans are maybe trying to get fans
that are coming into town for a weekend, maybe something
else to do. Interesting, man, I don't think they need
help selling tickets. These things sell out everywhere. But does
this get you fired up? I'm so fired up, Like
for your trip to BYU, assuming you're going to be
doing sidelining. Yeah, well that that would be an assumption
at this point, so we don't know that. But it
would get me fired up for that trip to Cincinnati

(19:16):
before the Iowa.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
State game there's a lot of things we don't know. Man,
that ain't the truth. If that ain't the truth, there
you go, man, if that ain't the truth. A lot
of things to figure out around this place.

Speaker 5 (19:27):
I like them.

Speaker 4 (19:28):
I like most tweets. MO tweet is something today. I
like most tweets.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
I love them.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
I haven't checked his tweets today. You should check them
out anytime something's happening with the Reds, though. I think
the way Mo can think on the fly and construct
a tweet, the way he does.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
It's what makes like that. His ability to do that
is what makes him so good. On radio to.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Last night, I mentioned Martinez is just getting smoked. He's
getting smoked, and Mo tweets Tito's boat chair must be really,
really comfortable, alluding that he didn't want to get out
of his chair to go take Nick Martinez out of
the game.

Speaker 4 (20:03):
Yeah, save the bullpen though, So they'll be good for
this last little stretch here.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Well, you know they have not been swept in a
series all year.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
Well, let's hope not.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Let's talk more about the game last night.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
Two quick things we got to get to, all right,
and this whole thoughts pot is the claus roofing systems
thing Washington Commanders. They announced alternate uniforms today which are
basically an updated version of their old uniforms. They're calling
him the Super Bowl Era alternates that they're going to

(20:42):
wear three times this year. They look sharp. They look
like when you think of that football team, that's what
they look like, which is cool. And we've got to
give congrats to our friend of the show, Dan Orlovski,
on signing a new multi year agreement keeping him at
ESPN as an analyst for NFL Live, Monday Night Football,

(21:04):
Pat McAfee show and others. So congrats to Dan.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Maybe Dan wants to come on and talk about his extension. Okay, contracts.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Who would have thought think Dan orlovsky extension happened prior
to Trey Hendrickson A Trey Hendrickson unbelievable. But we'll start
with the Reds next on ESPN fifteen thirty. All by
the way, phone lines were up in five to one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. Have we heard from Mark in a while?
I was just about to say the same thing, where's
the floorist? All the flowers? Feel like he's got a

(21:31):
lot to complain about.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
This is the time. Yeah, five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty, give us a call. Plenty more still to
go since he three sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Now Patrick gets a high drive deep right center field.

Speaker 7 (21:46):
This one is on the top of the all and
it recachetes and it's rolling on the lording track.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
Two runs around Bailey, coming around third, Patrick Bailey HiT's
a inside the park walk off home run.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
Now we've seen everything, and Patrick Bailey gets tackled as
he crosses home playing amazing.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
How cool was that? What a moment.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
Patrick Bailey becomes the first catcher in ninety nine years
to hit a walk off inside the park home run.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
How about that? That's awesome man. Meanwhile, here in the
Queen City, the Reds lifeless again at the ballpark last night,
despite Austin the Sincy three sixty kurs working a little
bit in the first time.

Speaker 4 (22:48):
I thought we were onto something in the first.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yep, Matt McClain was actually one of the Reds early
in that game, as we talked about in the first segment,
to jump on an early fastball Muri Perez, and he
hits it out of the ballpark and the Reds led
one nothing and you thought, here we go. After that,

(23:12):
the Marlins scored the next twelve runs. The Marlins last
night extend their franchise record road winning streak to eleven.
It's the longest road winning streak in the Major since
the Phillies won thirteen away from home in twenty twenty three.
Uri Perez Austin, let's start with him. I believe it

(23:33):
was just his sixth start since returning from Tommy john
In his previous outings UM he'd given up three against
the Braves, three against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and just four
and a third and four and two thirds. He did
pitch well against Minnesota, and his last down he didn't
give up a run over six. But right now, if

(23:54):
you're an opposing pitcher and you're seeing the way the
Reds are swinging the bat, you are salivating to get
to the ballpark and pitch against his team. For sure,
just licking your chops to take on this Red's lineup,
which is continuing to spiral in the wrong direction. Tonight,
Sandy al Contra is gonna take the mound his he lray. Remember,

(24:15):
Sandy was one of the better pitchers in baseball. Yeah,
Cy young candidate. His era's now over seven. You think
he's excited to get to the mound tonight.

Speaker 4 (24:22):
You would think, especially because not just as it over
seven on the season, over his last three, it's at
seven and a half, man, which is abysmal, unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
This was a big homestand seven games at home before
the All Star break to put yourself in a position
to maybe make some noise, and the Reds have been
outscored seventeen to three in the first two games of
that homestand.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Anything less than five straight going into the break is
his complete and utter failure. It's already a failure, correct.
But I mean we said at the like at the
beginning of the week it was a bare minimum five
and two. You gotta win five straight.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Now. Lance had this scot last night. I even had
to double check. He said. It was their nineteenth loss
of the year in which they had a lead, including
their fourth straight. They've lost four in a row in
having a lead in the game. Yeah, I guess that's crazy, man. Yeah,
because Benson hit the home run.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah, in that game, it was a weird They and
Hayes went up on Zach Wheeler Yep.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
It was a weird night from a Reds pitching staff.
They only registered two strikeouts on the night, so Marlins
were putting the ball in play. They had twelve hits
from a Red standpoint. Friedel McLain cees all had a hit.
Jose Travino had two hits, but that wasn't his best
work last night. It was the two innings that he
pitched where he was nearly dominant Cincinnati reads.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
My favorite stat is that he has the lowest era
of anybody that pitched last night.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, all the sudden, Austin, when you look at this
Reds team, all of a sudden, We've talked a lot
about the pitching staff, and unfortunately we talked about the
setback for Hunter Green. All of a sudden, you look
at some of these eras and the pitching staff. Brady
singers now at four to three, Nick Martinez is just
under five. That again, and Nick Martinez wild a couple

(26:24):
of Fridays ago because he almost do a no hitter. Yeah,
but the consistency for Martinez there's been more bad than
good as of late, and you wonder how long that
can hold on. He has pitched the most innings of
any starter on this team. Lodolo is second in that category,
same with Lyon Richardson.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
Yes, yeah, he can't throw strikes now and gave up
a run, walked three last night after being at one
point one of the most reliable players on the pitchers
on the team.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah, it was a three strikeout night for Gavin Lux,
two for Willbents, and two for Austin Hayes. They struck
out thirteen times as a team. That never happens. The
seven yeah strike in a game that, I mean, that
just never happened. So like when something like that happens,
you just say, Okay, that's an off game for Gavin locks, right,
But I mean there are far too many other players
on this team that have more of those than not.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
In his last thirty games, he has only twenty six strikeouts. Yeah,
so for him to go three in a game just
it just never happens. What's your early return early take
on Noelve, Marte since returning to the team. I don't
really have one man. There are some at batsman. He
looks clueless, yeah at the plate. Yeah, it's tough because

(27:33):
we've seen a little bit of him like in the
past where it's like this dude could be an All Star.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, and then.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
There's been no stretches that we talked about. It's like,
does he need to go back to Triple A? Yeah, like,
which I guess is kind of the case for most
of the team players, you know, like kidn't have funny rees.
Siginns goes back down to Triple A and immediately hits
a home run mashes. Jake Frayley, by the way, had
a hit last night in They told Jake Frayley gets
the gap between Triple A and the big leagues right now,

(27:59):
I don't know that it's ever and wider.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, there's look washed last night away. Try to move on.
As Austin said, anything less than five in a row
to to run this out of the the All Star
break is a disappointment. Andrew Abbot's gonna take them mound tonight.
So when we come back, let's get some audio. We'll
see if we got a Terry Francona from the loss.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
But Andrew Abbot, that's worth watching, Yeah, worth listening to tonight.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Well, I was gonna say, when we get back, we'll
get a little Tito, but we'll get some Andrew Abbot,
who had a really cool moment in the dugout during
the game last night where he was added to the
All Star team. And since he pitches today, he'll be
available to pitch in the All Star Game as well.
You'll hear some Andrew Abbot audio when we come back
as well, and phone calls five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty. It's Cincy three sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station, Thing fifteen thirty. Welcome back. It is

(28:55):
since he three sixty thanks to Skyline Chilli. Thanks for
listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. If you're
listening to the iHeartRadio app, leave us a talkback. We'll
save the best ones as we get to them an hour.
Number two best talk back of the week gets the
Sinte Shirts gift card that coming up in our number
two before we get to this audio. Austin, I know
we were having a conversation last night. You said there

(29:16):
was a lot of different jerseys at the ballpark last night. Yeah,
I'm seen a lot of different representations from other teams.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
Yeah, I mean it's travel season. This is the time
of year a lot of people try to go and
see all the different ballparks. But yeah, I saw people
representing not only the Reds and the Marlins, but also
the Guardians, the Phillies, White Sox, Cubs, Tigers, Giants, Blue Jays, Nationals, Dodgers, Mariners.
They were all at Great American Ballpark last night. What

(29:45):
do you make about We've had the jersey conversation. What
about a different sport jersey coming to a ballpark now,
if it's a different sport altogether, I think that's kind
of silly. Which I did see someone wearing a football
jersey last night, okay, but blanking on who it was that.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
And then there was a I don't remember where I
saw the photo earlier today, but it was a group
of a couple of gentlemen who had red jerseys but
they were customized and one was a Luka Doncik. One
was a Nicola Jokic. Yeah, what do we make of that?
Kind of funny? The Luca was number seventy seven.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
Seems like a giant wasted money to me. But did
they lose a bet? It's not like a I don't
know what it was, but it was interesting to see. Nonetheless,
I mean they look cool. Yeah, honestly, sure, what.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
Terry Francona have to say after last night's twelve You
want to hear from the skip. I want to hear
what Terry the Magnificent, Tito the Magnificent. I want to
hear what he had to say about the twelve two drubbing.

Speaker 8 (30:48):
Nick was up three down.

Speaker 9 (30:50):
What did you see?

Speaker 10 (30:52):
Seemed like you're right, like when he was in the
his delivery good. When they got him out of the stretch,
things happened in a hurry, And I don't know if
there's significance to that or he just didn't make pitches,
but you're right, he was really good in most of
those innings, even after the damage. I mean, fortunately he

(31:15):
went back out so we didn't go through a whole bullpen.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Conversely, Uh, what was Perez doing that kind of limited
your all things to time?

Speaker 10 (31:26):
Well, I mean he's throwing ninety eight and he's got
a pretty good breaking ball. He doesn't necessarily always command,
but I think he threw enough strikes with really good stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Is there a a strain on her full ten over
the last week?

Speaker 9 (31:43):
Was a short started?

Speaker 11 (31:45):
Ah?

Speaker 10 (31:45):
Well, I mean that's why we pitched Trevino in the
cause we don't want to or we don't want to
send somebody down doesn't deserve two things like that. But
I think I think we're okay and we're trying to
manage it. But your point, if we can go a
little deep, it would certainly help.

Speaker 12 (32:02):
You can.

Speaker 10 (32:05):
Uh, Well, when McClain was hitting the home run, maybe we've.

Speaker 9 (32:14):
Talked about him in the past, but that was nice
to us to get him.

Speaker 10 (32:17):
For the year he's so far, it was actually wonderful.
He's very deserving, His teammates were thrilled for him, and
on a tough night, that was the one really bright
shining spot for us.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
All right, So that is uh, Terry francona. Uh, you
can imagine Austin as McClain hits a home run, you're
up one nothing and abbit gets selected the All Star Game.
That's a pretty good time in the dugout, Yeah, no doubt.
Followed up by a seven run third inning just takes
a life right out of the ballpark, you know. And again,
I know coach speak is a lot, but in talking
about like ury Perez is not seen as one of

(32:55):
the dominant pitchers in baseball, right and just say, well,
you know he was throwing ninety eight times Okay, we
robbed bible on Rob bibel On that that's normal. Now, Yeah,
ninety eight mile hour fastball should be taken care of.
You know.

Speaker 4 (33:08):
It was Chris Welsh was saying on Sunday when the
Reds were in Philly and Chase Burns gotten tagged up
a couple times on his fastball. He's like, ninety nine
miles an hour in the major leagues is hitting speed?
They they should be able to hit that. Yep, it's
just again he's not a dominant, dominant pitcher. The part
that's so frustrating is that they have shown you the

(33:33):
ability to hit like they've they've had these offensive outbursts,
and sometimes against pitchers that aren't that good, and sometimes
against pitchers who are solid pitchers. But why does it disappear?
And why has it disappeared as often as it has
this season? With games in which they score one or

(33:55):
fewer runs and I guess now, I'm sure it's probably
close to forty games or they've scored two or fewer runs, Like,
why does that happen? And why are we at this
stage about to go to the All Star break and
it continues to happen. This is the part that has
become concerning for me. If you can't figure it out

(34:16):
by now, right, how are you going to? And is
the answer simply they aren't very good. Well, not just that,
but like the talent because they were doing that when
Jake Frayley was here too, right, I know you're joking,
but still like it's just oh, you know what I mean,

(34:40):
like like, yes, you've seen them perform and you're like, wow,
that's cool, Like that's what they could be. You don't
expect them to perform like that all the time, but
can they at least be in the middle somewhere because
when there, when they're in the middle somewhere, they're pretty good.
It's kind of where they were for the last couple
of weeks. They're competitive, but they can't stay in the middle.

(35:02):
They're either scoring twelve runs scoring none and that's it.
And they'll have a stretch of a week where they'll
score six a game and they win five games.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Yeah, it's just a it's the consistency or the lock
thereof that continues to haunt this team. Now. From the
bad that was a twelve to two loss, we mentioned
the good and that is the recognition that Andrew Abbott
is deservedly getting for an All Star first half of
the season. Andrew Abbitt spoke after last night's game about
that as well. I talk to your parents briefly on

(35:34):
the hallway nine.

Speaker 9 (35:38):
Not only for you to be one of the All Star.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Game, but what it means for your f handy.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Means the world.

Speaker 12 (35:44):
I mean, you know, you grow up, you want to
be an MLB baseball player, and you know, to uh
get the recognition of being an All Star. Can't put
in the words, you know, just excited to represent them,
represent Cincinnati at the game and uh just go have
some fun. Yeah, we were sitting and dugout. We're just

(36:05):
you know, watching the game, what not, talking to the starting
pictures and Tito McLean hits the homer. Tito brings us
in and like a circle thought we were gonna get
yelled at because he was he was like doing his
like yelling but like not yelling voice. But uh, anyway,
he brought us all in and he was like, I'll
tell you guys one thing, you know, with some choice

(36:26):
language in there as well, but uh and he was
like Andre rabbits an All Star and then it just
erupted got showered with ice, bubble gum, everything that guys
should get their hands on. But he was fantastic, you know,
just being around the guys, it felt like I was
in triple A getting called up to the big leagues.
Uh So it was definitely a wholesome moment for sure.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
No.

Speaker 12 (36:50):
I came in and I you know, I texted my
my parents and I was like, hey, it's unofficial, but
I just found out, you know, don't go spreading it
around yet, like just wait until eight o'clock, which I
think they did.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
I have no idea, but.

Speaker 12 (37:04):
It just meant the world to send them that that
message after But yeah, I wouldn't be here without the
guys in that clubhouse, you know, my batroommate Steven Center,
Travino calling games, the staffs and everything. So you know,
more than more than happy for them to share the
moment with me.

Speaker 13 (37:18):
Once you didn't get Sunday, maybe.

Speaker 12 (37:22):
This would come right your way, you know, I always
held hope that it would. I don't I didn't really
understand the process or anything that went into it, so
I didn't know what to fully expect, so I didn't
like focus on it, you know fully, But you know,
I thought I deserved it the first go around, but
you know there's a lot of other deserving guys. So
I get that process, and you know, you just had

(37:44):
to wait until your name's called. It's kind of like
draft day. You just kind of sit there and tweele
your thumbs until your name's on the board.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
So how many people are going to.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
I have no idea.

Speaker 12 (37:56):
It'll be a majority family, maybe some close friends. But
it's on the East coast. There should be a short
drive for those guys.

Speaker 9 (38:02):
When this season, did you think, like, you know what talent?

Speaker 12 (38:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (38:07):
I really didn't focus on it.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (38:09):
I just tried to focus on going out and pitching
as best I could. I know, I had a good
month of May and then kind of rolled into June
some good starts, So you know, I, like I said before,
I think it was just culmination all those things going right.
The team was playing well behind me, and we're just
kind of righting the momentum start to start.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
You could your teammates celebrating on the TV broadcast.

Speaker 9 (38:31):
Like it was loud, Like what that mean.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
When the day were so excited?

Speaker 4 (38:36):
I guess they liked me somewhat.

Speaker 12 (38:39):
No, But you know, I it doesn't matter who it's for.
It could be anybody else in that team, Like, we're
all going to be super pumped, super proud of them
just for you know, the work I mean Ellie, right,
I mean we're all gonna be super proud of Eli
just for his work, ethic and who he is as
a person in the teammates. So any one of those
guys other than myself that would we would have had
the same reaction. So you know, it's just as special.
It means the world to get it from those guys.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
All right, So there is obviously a very happy Andrew
Abbit and very well deserving Andrew abb It forgetting the
nod to be an All Star in the upcoming All
Star Game. The Reds still have five to go before
that All Star Game, and that who you just heard
from the All Star will take them ound tonight for
the Cincinnati Reds as he looks to stop a four
game skid against the Miami Marlins. And we'll talk more

(39:27):
about that as we go. For now, let's grab a break.
It is since he three p sixty thanks to Skyline Chilly.
Thank you for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
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pre set on your car radio and on the free
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ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
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Speaker 14 (40:47):
Here's in fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
Welcome back since he three sixty. It's CSBN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station, a service of Skyline Chili. We will
talk a little NFL. Let's talk some edge rushers and
obviously that relates to Trey Hendrickson to kick off our
number two. We'll get to that and we'll get to
talkbacks right after that as well.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
Tone you mentioned earlier that it's been nine years since
there was a walk off inside the park home run,
sure like Patrick Bailey did last night. Do you know
who it was that hit that home run August nineteenth
of twenty sixteen. Probably Billy Hamilton, No, but it is
a former Red Oh who Tyler Naquin?

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Really? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (41:44):
Did it while playing for the then Indians in Cleveland.
That magical twenty sixteen season that they had he did
it against. I believe the Blue Jays. Blue Jays are
the Royals one of the two. Okay, how about that?
Very nice, big time about that.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
Do we have a update on our Revivefitnessystems dot com poll? Question?

Speaker 4 (42:04):
We sure do.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Toning.

Speaker 4 (42:05):
The question is, well the Reds win another game the
rest of the season. Fifty two percent say is it
football yet? Twenty eight percent say yes they will, eighteen
percent say no, Okay, if the Reds go win list
the rest of the year, Terry Francona get fired.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
Yes, okay, Yes, Tonight's match, as we stated earlier at
Sandy al Contra, I was gonna take on Andrew Abbott
in game three of the four game set that gets
underway at seven to ten at Great American Ballpark. That
is Andrew Abbott and his seven and one record with
a two to one five elray, plenty more still to come.

(42:44):
We'll get started with our two and talk a little
NFL next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, a
service of Skyline Chileti.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
You see ky Cincinnati. Make us the number one pre
set on your car radio and on the free new
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Speaker 1 (42:58):
Sounded so good.

Speaker 14 (42:59):
ESPN fifteen thirty Our daughter Jesse loves play.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
About Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in part by Cinci Shirts.
Cincy Shirts, All Cincy, all Day. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
Welcome back our two, Thanks to Cincy Shirts, and thank
you for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaking of Sinci shirts, they will help us give away
Sincy Shirts gift card each and every Friday. There the
best talkbacker. We'll get to those in our number two
and Austin. We got a big drop coming up from

(43:41):
Cincy Shirts ahead of the Bristol game coming up, right,
We're gonna drop that by the end of the week. Yeah.
They also have a God Blessed Texas T shirt that
is going to be donating proceeds to the Kerry County
Flood Relief Fund, something we talked about earlier in the week.
What else to the head of.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
News, just keeps getting worse from Texas. Yeah, and that's
that's awful. Everything about that. I I hate, hate, hate reading.
So I'm glad that these shirts is doing something to
try to help. And uh, hopefully you will be a
part of that effort as well. But yeah, I mean
everything you can imagine. I think I'm gonna have to
get one of the whatever they're doing for Bristol. I'm

(44:17):
gonna have to get one. I might have to turn
it into a cutoff. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, Like,
maybe do a cut off. Yeah, you might even turn
some jeans into jean shorts. You gotta go, George, do
you think so? Yeah, you've got to go, George. I've
been thinking about doing that because I'm going to a
country concert this weekend and I've been thinking about. You know,

(44:39):
I've got a couple pairs of jeans. I could probably sure, Yeah,
I don't know if that. I don't think I could
pull that look off, though, be honest, you think I could?
Your lion, Absolutely, you hear your voice go up to octaves.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
You can do that. Yeah, you can do that. They
got to uh they got a new Bengals T shirt
out as well to sin T shirts. That one's awesome. Yeah,
I don't know have they is that officially on this.
I'm always nervous to Yeah, to do I know I
know that they sent and said this is new too.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
But yes, that's on the site. It's a smells like
team spirit favorite if you know the famous Nirvana cover
from UH smells like teen Spirit. They have a Bengal
Tiger maybe Bengal Tiger floating in the water, chasing after
a silver football. Of course, like the trophy, smells like

(45:36):
team spirit. Gosh, it's so good, awesome, it's so good.
Speaking Austin, they also got your hell Is Real t
shirts this weekend. Yeah, yeah, speaking of kind of what's
going on with UH, with the Cincinnati Bengals, there was
a Bengal that made ESPN's list this week. Remember we've

(45:56):
been we've been talking about these UH these lists that
Jeremy Fowler is helping put together where he collects inside
intel from executives and scouts and players and everything coaches
across the league. And they did running backs, they've done
interior defensive lineman today Austin. Today they did edge rushers.

(46:18):
Let's go.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
According to executives, coaches, scouts across the National Football League,
Miles Garrett is the highest ranked edge rusher in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
Second year in a row, second year for Miles at
that ranking.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
Number two and number three are both interesting because they
both are wanting new contracts.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
They've also ranked in the same spot for two years
in a row. In Micah Parsons. Number four on the
list is one Maxwell Crosby okay, of the Raiders, he's
number four. Nick Bosa comes in at number five and
then at number six, also in a contract disputist Trey

(46:59):
Hendricksonto the since Bengals, so not top five, he's not
top five. Last year he was ranked number nine.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Okay. Now what's odd is they give a high and
low ranking for each player. The highest ranking Trey Hendrickson
received was third, The lowest ranking was unranked huh Aiden
Hutchinson's seven, Will Anderson Junior eight, Daniel Hunter nine, and
Jared Verse is number ten. Obviously, no other Bengals were
receiving votes are on the Honorable Mention list. When you

(47:24):
think of that list and you think of how Max
Crosby has been paid, we assume Parsons and Watt will
be paid, and Miles Garrett will be paid. Do you
think that a list like this, and I know that
coaches and agents don't care about it, does something like
this help or hurt Trey Hendrickson's hope to get more money.

(47:44):
I think it has no impact.

Speaker 4 (47:46):
Yeah, I think it's just further confirmation of what we
already knew about Trey. He's in the top ten of
edge rushers in the NFL. Nobody would dispute that, sure,
but they're there's a gap between I think a gap
between those guys in the top five and maybe the
guys on the rest of the list. You know, Daniel Hunter.

(48:08):
I think Texans have maybe overpaid for him a little bit.
I think Jared Verse is going to be a guy
in this league moving forward, like one of those dudes
Aiden Hutchinson coming off injury. But yeah, I think everybody
knows Trey is among the best in the NFL, but
he's not the best in the NFL. And there's a

(48:29):
I think a sizeable gap between the top four and
everybody else. Yeah, how different would it be with Trey
Hendrickson if the Bengals had one other dude that could
get to the quarterback? Sure do we praise Trey the
way we do now if there was just some sort

(48:50):
of other person on the team that could get after
the quarterback.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
Yeah, if there was interior pass rush, it changes a
lot of that. Yeah, it's not to say Trey hasn't
been very good, But would his impact then be felt
in a different way, or would we look at him
in a different way. You know, we've focused a lot
on the last two years when he's gotten seventeen and
a half sacks because there's been nobody else on the

(49:21):
defensive line to help him. Right, So, to his credit,
he's still getting to the quarterback. But also are those
numbers skewed a little bit? I think they are. It's
not to say he's not a great player, but there's
nobody else that's a viable threat on the defense.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
Yeah, and I think if you're Trey Hendrickson, that's obviously
where you're at. You know that, if you're Trey Hendrickson,
you have a clear, clear understanding that there's not anyone
else next to you at this point. Yeah, And I mean,

(50:00):
to be quite honest, you have to use that if
you're Trey Hendrickson and trying to get what you want.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
Here's the quote quote his ability, this is from the story.
His ability to get to the quarterback by any means
necessary is truly impressive. An AFC scouts said, he can
beat you with technique and relentless Motor also says some
voters believe Hendrickson does not possess the same high end
traits as the top tier, but he is so wildly

(50:27):
productive that they can't hate on him. Quote He's probably
taken for granted a little bit. An NFL personnel evaluator said,
elite player all the way.

Speaker 6 (50:37):
End.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Quote.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
Yeah, Trey accounted for thirty two point two percent of
the team's total pressures, making him the only defender to
have recorded a pressure share above thirty. That to me
is a stat that is indicative of the fact that
nobody else can rush the passer. Yeah, and again, I
don't say this to hate on Trey, and I got

(50:58):
killed for this because I said today, imagine that Trey's
not in the top five. That's because the league has
showed him and the Bengals and everybody else they don't
view him that way this offseason. My point that I'm
getting hated on it. People are hating on me for
this and calling me a Trey hater. The point has
always been the same. He's not in the top top,
top top tier. He doesn't deserve to be paid that way,

(51:20):
in my opinion. His impact on the defense. Yeah, sure,
you could look at it that way and say, well,
he's having top tier production in this defense. Yeah, of course,
because there's nobody else that can get to the passer.
The other thing with me is I also don't think
Trey's asking for that type of money, which is the
frustrating part. If he's just asking for an extra year,

(51:42):
if you're the Bengals at this point, dude, what the
hell why not?

Speaker 3 (51:44):
So my question is give extra year? Follows up to
that in the assumption that Parsons and Watt are going
to be paid somewhere similar to Miles Garrett. The two
players ahead of Trey Hendrickson outside of that are Max
Crosby and Nick Bosa. Bosa makes thirty four a year,
Crosby makes thirty five and a half a year. Now

(52:06):
Crosby's twenty eight, Bosa's twenty eight. If you are Trey Hendrickson,
because this is where I think that the ultimate question lies, Austin,
what is your average per year goal in mind? Because
you do have a case if you're saying, hey, I
want thirty two a year, I want thirty three a year,
then the way the chips fall, then you're probably in

(52:29):
the in the ballpark. Now, if you're saying I want
thirty five thirty six a year, you're not going to
get that. But I also think he's worth more than
maybe twenty eight a year.

Speaker 11 (52:36):
Yea.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
Like the ultimate question is can the Bengals between now
and the start of the season come to an agreement
with Trey Hendrickson that is fair for both parties because
the Bengals are never going to pay thirty four to
thirty five a year.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
To me, the number that makes sense is thirty million.
It makes sense for both sides, and with escalators or
incentives that can get him up to thirty two thirty
two and a half, That to me is what makes
the most sense. Or maybe the Bengals are trying to
do it the other way where it's like, hey, we'll
give you twenty eight, but if you do this, you
can get up to thirty thirty one. I think that

(53:12):
makes sense for both sides. I really do. But again,
I think it comes down to the length Trey is
fair and asking. It makes sense for Trey to ask
for thirty two at at least thirty two just because
of what the market has done, it's still fair. Yeah,
it's totally exploded. It's becoming like this third most or

(53:35):
second most important position outside of quarterback and wide receiver.
Like it's I get it. So him asking for that
is not unfair by any stretch. I don't necessarily think
the Bengals should give him that. I think there's got
to be some middle ground here and is Trey willing
to come down on the number if the Bengals will
add an extra year?

Speaker 5 (53:54):
Right?

Speaker 4 (53:55):
That's what it still feels like. This is all about.
If you're the Bengals, why do you not add on.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
The extra year? Correct? Like do you This is the
part that is confusing to me. Well, this is the
part that gets into the contract structure. If you're the
Bengals and Trey wants multiple years, couldn't you build in
incentives in year two and pay the majority in year one?
And that way you can kind of get out and
save yourself a little bit if he struggles this year,

(54:24):
if he takes a major step back this year, Because
there has to be a way for the Bengals to
come in and say, look, your age works against you.
We know you want a multi year deal. We'll give
you the multi year deal, but we got to build
some incentives in that cover our end as well.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Right, That's what I'm saying. Man, It's got to be
two sides.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
It's got to be give and take on both sides.
And then the problem is the Bengals are usually stubborn
in that sense, and it sounds like Trey Hendrickson is
stubborn in that sense. So who gives that? I just
don't know.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
I still think I don't want this to be the case,
but I still think comes down to two o'clock the
Saturday afternoon before they play the Browns. Does he get
on the plane or not? That's that's what we're gonna
be waiting on. Yeah, is Trey Hendrickson on the plane?

Speaker 3 (55:18):
I've I've found.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
Myself and am I getting on a plane to go
to the Daker deck?

Speaker 3 (55:23):
That's the thing I've found myself in recent weeks, Austin
asking a lot of those questions, and more so in
the recent days, because, as you mentioned earlier, when when
the red season starts to fall and fade like it
is right now, your eyes start to go on to, okay,
how many days till it Bengals training camp? What's going on?
And then when you get to training camp, you start

(55:44):
thinking about week one and the more I think about it,
the more, Yes, Chamar signed, Trey signed, that's great. The
more I think about it, the more you start to
immediately think about okay sharp football Nowlys PFF ranks the
Bengals offensive line thirty first. The Browns drafted Mason Graham

(56:06):
on the defensive line, and oh, by the way, they
got a deal done with Miles Garrett. Yeah, like that
to me, because if you're the Bengals, one, yes, you're
focused on getting these guys on the defense signed. Two
you better make sure that those guys can't recavoc on
not only a game, but on your season. Like that
to me. And I know we're jumping the gun talking

(56:27):
about storylines and talking about keys to victory, but if
you're going to Cleveland week one, you better make darn
sure that you're ready to protect Joe Burrow. I would
imagine that because it's early in the season, they're not
eliminated yet. You're gonna get obviously a feisty Cleveland Browns team.

(56:50):
It's a rivalry game. We know how Miles Garrett has
played against the Cincinnati Bengals throughout his career. We talked
about the secondary of the Cleveland I'm not worried about
the Browns offense. I am certainly concerned about what that
defense can pose to the Bengals, especially that front against
an offensive line that, regardless of how things go between

(57:13):
now and the start of the season, that offensive line
is gonna have to answer a lot of questions. And
it starts right out of the gate in Week one.
That's a little bit of an an uneasy feeling if
you think about it. What do the Bengals do to
slow down Miles Garrett? Who will not just line up
over Orlando Brown or Amrius Mimms. You know, Miles Garrett's

(57:33):
gonna test out these interior offensive linemen as well.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
I mean if if Dylan Fairchild is starting Week one,
and lord I hope he is, where do you think
Miles is gonna line up on the first play of
the game? Yep, welcome to the NFL, big boy, See
what you got.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
And he's gonna let his presence be known early and often.
And we have seen the individual way Miles Garrett can
recav it on games. And the last thing you can
do Austin has come out of Game one and win
or lose. Here was Joe Burrow sacked five times, hit
eleven times, and you just think, here it goes again. Yep. Man,

(58:12):
it's not an easy ask for the offensive line. But
if this team is hoping or expecting to do what
a lot of people are expecting them to do, or
competing in the AFC, competing in the AFC North, competing
for a super Bowl, well then you got to go
and you got to take care of the Cleveland Browns.
But you have to make sure that the one thing
that they can do to disrupt all of this doesn't happen,

(58:35):
and that is obviously, do something to disrupt Joe Burrow.
I mean, what is it a five four and a
half five and a half point spread right now? I think, yeah,
somewhere around here. Yeah, I believe that's around what it
opened that. Yeah, you should go win the game. If not,
can you imagine those next couple of days after all
this offseason. But by that it'll be good news because

(58:56):
the Reds will be in the thick of a playoff
line mid September. It's not funny. Here comes the wild
card right down the stretch. It's not funny, right, We'll
take a break. It's not funny, man, We'll take a break.
Your talkbacks are next. It's Cincy three sixty on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Thanks to Cinci Shirts.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
Now your chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter this nationwide.
Qward on our website. Craan, that's cran Enter it now.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
He's on on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (59:34):
Top.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
Talkbos Tony had to bring something up here. Okay, uh,
we were talking about Cincy shirts. Has the Speedway Bristol
collection coming up? I just saw here that your buddy
Brad Keselowski will be ceremonial first pitch tonight at GABP.

Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
Is he really?

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
Now, you guys used to be tight back in the day.
If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, So I didn't know that
so Kez has and since he didn't let me know,
I once caught his first pitch, he hasn't given you
a call or anything.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
Now, this was back when the Speedway was still you know,
up and running in Kentucky and Kentucky and they were
coming into old Robins racing. Yeah. I caught his first
pitch last time he was in town.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
How did you end up being the guy that caught
his ceremonial first pitch. Uh, probably no one else that
would do it, sure, And I knew him from that
the circle that I would hang around with at times
in Charlotte when I was living down there. Who were
some of the names in that circle?

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
Well, Dale Erhardt Junior, Brad Keselowski me was pretty much
the And I wouldn't put myself on their category. Dale's
got a lot of buddies that you would find a
like uh, Augiest, you know, August has like a Budman.
They'd have like a Sonny Chip. Those type of guys

(01:01:17):
would be in the circle. Just one name guys, all right, Sonny.

Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
You know Dale Junior has become one of my favorite
people in this business. Yeah, his podcast is awesome. You
don't have to be a NASCAR fan.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
So like his pie, all the content he does like
he is legit. He's such in his wife now he
has a pie. Got his wife now, that's really interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
He's such a die hard and big time football fan. Yeah,
he's a big Washington fan, but he loves loves the
game of football.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
Man used to be hanging out with them boys. I
wonder you didn't complete a lot of passes? No, shout out, Brad,
thanks for the thinking of me here when you're in town.
Unbelievable our fall from the top man.

Speaker 15 (01:02:00):
Hello, this is former President Ronald Well. The Reds are
trying their best to bring about a new talkback election.
If they can just hold on and stay semi relevant
for the next two weeks and get us to Bengals training.

Speaker 5 (01:02:15):
Camp, that would be great.

Speaker 15 (01:02:17):
However, I feel that the next couple of weeks are
going to go by about as fast as a Jose
Travino curveball.

Speaker 4 (01:02:23):
Oh, he's an impressive cardball. Last I sure hope not.
I sure hope not. Hey, Greg Sharonville.

Speaker 16 (01:02:33):
Last night's box score Jose Trevino our backup catcher at
two eighty three, the highest of anybody that played last night,
and also is e R at three point eighty six,
lower than anybody that pitched last night.

Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
This team is an embarrassment. He should be in the
All Star Game. I mean, I mean clearly, when you
think of guys, it can do both.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
You think of and then you think Babe Ruth show Heyo, Tani,
Jose Travine.

Speaker 17 (01:03:08):
It's the Lord, your savior in the sky. Start bench
cut Tony mastering the English language, the red Dumpster fire
of a season, or the Bengals drama with Trey Hendrickson
and Shamar Stewart.

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
I'll start the Reds right now. I'll bench my English
language talking. Okay, I'll cut the Bengals. That's gonna get
figured out. I'll start Tony mastering the English language. At
some point it has to happen. I'm gonna cut the
I'm gonna bench Trey Hendrickson Shamar Stewart drama, and I'm
gonna cut the Reds Dumpster keep waiting.

Speaker 11 (01:03:49):
Should be number one, Number two should be Burrow and Higgins.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
What what was this for?

Speaker 4 (01:03:59):
I think this this must have been in response to
Clinton Yates. They were doing the top ten or the
top five quarterback wide receiver duos in the NFL, and
our guy here was trying to say that Burrow and
Chase is one, Burrow and Higgins is two.

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
Gotcha?

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
Which I believe Clinton had Jared Goff and Amen Ross
Saint Brown as number one and Burrow and Chase as
number two. Thoughts, I think Burl and Chase would be
the top spot. I just saw there was a dude.
There was a guy on NFL Network today. He plays
in the league. Somebody I forget who it was, but

(01:04:35):
he had the top wide receiver duos in the NFL
as Amen Ross, Saint Brown and Jamis and Williams number one,
Chase and Higgins number two.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Everyone's got to try to make a name for themselves.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
Beware if you're listening to this, it is ranking season
these next two weeks, when people are gone and the
cupboard is bear and there's no baseball, it is ranking season.

Speaker 13 (01:05:02):
Rancom Tony and Austin Ken from the left year Ken
on my way up to Cincy for the game tonight
with my daughter who just wanted to send out an
invitation if any talkbackers are going to be there, I'll
be in section one thirty four sech a tree if
you want to come by.

Speaker 4 (01:05:21):
And say, hey, you can't hide money.

Speaker 5 (01:05:23):
You can't miss me.

Speaker 13 (01:05:24):
I'll be wearing red and I'll be holding a transistor
radio updex to my ear so I can hear the game.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
Go red. Can you're the man that was fantastic?

Speaker 4 (01:05:34):
Every once in a while, I'll bring the radio they
gave away at the Marty game. Yeah, because yeah, man,
that's just the best. You listen to the game like
that I mean, that's that I use it radio almost
every day. Ken rarely misses on talkbacks anymore. In the best.

Speaker 18 (01:05:48):
The Cincinnati Reds performance last night, or lack thereof, was disgusting, absolute.

Speaker 3 (01:05:58):
Disgusting, pure filth.

Speaker 18 (01:06:02):
Austin, please rank for me the top five most disgusting
sporting events you've ever witnessed, and please rank them worst to.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
Last, worst to last. The first one that comes to
mind was I was at the Brandon Stokely Tip game
season opener two thousand and nine. I think the Bengals
lost like twelve to sevens. That's the biggest gut punch
I think I've ever been to. I have to try

(01:06:36):
to think of some other ones.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
Did you rank that worst to last?

Speaker 4 (01:06:39):
I was at Ohio Stadium when Ohio State beat Cincinnati
forty two to nothing. That was a gut punch. Felt
bad for the Bearcats. Worst to last, felt bad for
the Bearcat fan.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Got to question you for you with all this so
called talent, the Red tab suston Ashers had a whole
bunch of talent, young talent.

Speaker 5 (01:07:06):
They won the World Series.

Speaker 19 (01:07:08):
Other teams had had a whole bunch of young talent
and won the World series.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
Why can't the.

Speaker 12 (01:07:13):
Reds develop young talent and win the freaking World Series?

Speaker 4 (01:07:16):
What is going on here?

Speaker 9 (01:07:18):
Boys?

Speaker 20 (01:07:19):
This is frustrating watching this team.

Speaker 4 (01:07:21):
God, the Iceman is all of us. We think we
can all agree with the Ice.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
There's a frustration setting in with the Icemen.

Speaker 21 (01:07:30):
Haven't heard from Mark for a minute. Yeah, the Flowers
are wel teing w A L l O p e
Ed Hodgepodge. One man's junk is another man. Jerry Perez
always like fran ConA from a distance.

Speaker 12 (01:07:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 21 (01:07:50):
I thought this team would have more structure. They seem
kind of lifeless.

Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
Last can they do one of those team like teap
players only meetings again?

Speaker 5 (01:08:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:08:02):
That worked like a team bonding exercise where they go somewhere.
Maybe West Miller taking go do some dodgeballs.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Up guys, big kahunahun back last night, you know the Marlins,
I think three maybe four times they had a sacrifice
fly to the outfield that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
Got to run in the Reds just ain't doing that.

Speaker 12 (01:08:20):
And I tell you what.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Loud Talkback guy, I don't think he was on here yesterday.

Speaker 5 (01:08:24):
Man, he had such an unbelievable voice.

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
He's my favorite talkbacker. I'd like I would give us
some years off my life to have his voice.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
He's got a true Cincinnati voice.

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
I don't know if I know what that means. Do
we have an accent?

Speaker 3 (01:08:39):
I don't know what that is.

Speaker 22 (01:08:42):
A very good Wednesday, gentlemen. Yes, I just had one question.
How many other cities are like our city. We're halfway
through the season of one sport you're anticipating in the
beginning of the next sport that might be in here
in the town. It's really unfortunately we haven't got a
pro basketball team. We could really fill in some voys.

(01:09:06):
You guys have a good one dealing, all right.

Speaker 4 (01:09:09):
I mean they've been talking about the Broncos in Denver
since April.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
Yeah, so I said, it's not that different elsewhere. Yeah,
there's a few cities.

Speaker 11 (01:09:20):
Austin to Tje had to hear you, guys, sad Stoke
Rabbit though.

Speaker 5 (01:09:26):
Highlight of the day.

Speaker 11 (01:09:27):
Hey, the Reds are gonna make a run in September.

Speaker 3 (01:09:29):
Take us set from the Cubs and the Cars. Red
One announced twenty twenty six bottle headlineup and Hunter Green
will be healthy next season. We'll be right back to Willie.

Speaker 23 (01:09:37):
Towns have a Rede, fight like the Patriots, A lected
the concord and battle like you a GiMA Red's on repeat.

Speaker 5 (01:09:43):
Also, you guys must be too young for sein call references.

Speaker 6 (01:09:46):
Speaking of young Happy eighteenth birthday to my son track
you make your dad proud.

Speaker 4 (01:09:50):
Wow, Happy birthday eighteen. He's officially a man. Happy birthday.
He's got to grow into his skull.

Speaker 3 (01:09:59):
Now, which is it?

Speaker 4 (01:10:02):
Do you think Tito got his black Reds T shirt
from Stephen Berries or Walmart?

Speaker 10 (01:10:08):
I think it's hideous.

Speaker 15 (01:10:09):
You think you can get something better to wear during
the game.

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
That's this is this point of the season with we've
reached yep, this is what happens when you don't win
enough ball games.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
Ladies and gentlemen start making you're wearing this.

Speaker 24 (01:10:23):
Steeler fans would show up to a polo match of
Wimbledon wearing a Steelers jersey.

Speaker 5 (01:10:27):
You can't get rid of those fools.

Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
Sick sick sick people.

Speaker 4 (01:10:32):
Now, is there a dress code for the parishioners at
Wimbledon like there is for.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
The I don't see many jerseys at Wimbledon.

Speaker 15 (01:10:39):
Man.

Speaker 25 (01:10:39):
I'll tell you this, Cincinnati Reds Ball Club, It's just
you know what forget it.

Speaker 23 (01:10:44):
How do you guys like your eggs? I'm an over
easy guy. Sausage patties, not linxch toast and butter. Nothing
better than that, nothing better, and nothing better than breakfast
for dinner.

Speaker 4 (01:10:55):
Wrong and beat that.

Speaker 25 (01:10:57):
You guys like waffle house, uh I, cracker barrel whatever.
I get your food and your entertainment at the same time.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
Great question, great lead in waffle House one thousand, respectfully,
I am anti breakfast for dinner. I love breakfast for dinner.
But the only way my eggs are going to scrambled.
Of course, that's sausage sausage. Surprising news that you put
ketchup on your scrambled eggs, Josh, No, okay, sausage links,
sausage links.

Speaker 3 (01:11:27):
But but but they've got to be Bob Evans. I
will not eat any of that other crap. It's better
be a Bob Evans sausage. Lincoln, I can tell the difference.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
Well are you are you flying on vacation next week?

Speaker 15 (01:11:42):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
Dan, No, Well you should go. I'm serious about this.
Try the Skyline breakfast with their sausage, their breakfast sausage.
It's fantastic. You would like it.

Speaker 26 (01:11:56):
Hey, guys, how you doing what you answer your Jay
Henderson question. Okay, Jay did a thing at the sacks
that he had. He only had one sack on third
down or vetter as far as a passing situation, one sack.

Speaker 4 (01:12:17):
Yeah, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
We've talked about some of the sack numbers and how
they could have been skewed a little bit based on
the competition.

Speaker 4 (01:12:26):
He's a pretty good player at times, an elite player.
He is not a empty the bank account for the
next three years player. You pay people for what they
will do, not what they have done.

Speaker 24 (01:12:41):
Wimbletony Jeortsman, Wimbletony, you know, I'm less concerned by the
reds losing streak than I am by how they're losing.
They look like they couldn't hit a baseball with a
mask from Captain Keto. The magnificence boat starting pitching, depth
and quality is run out. Doesn't look like they're going
to hang on for the rest of the season. Guys,
let's not get two worked up by ranking systems. Trey Hendrickson,

(01:13:04):
we know what he is, we know how good he is.
Same with the MLS rankings. FC Cincinnati should be at
the top, but they're not. Who cares let's move on.

Speaker 3 (01:13:12):
Okay. You know that that quote you used there before
that talk back, Austin, What was it again about what
you may have to do or what you don't do.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
You pay people for what they will do, not what
they have done.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
There was a good family friend of ours who's a policeman,
was a policeman. He's retired now, okay, but we always
used to kind of give him grief back and forth
because we'd see him at you know, events, and you know,
we'd see him doing some different stuff and it didn't
look like the most taxing things. I'd say, what did
they even pay you to do? And his response was
always they don't pay me for what I do. They
pay me for what I may have to do.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
It's true.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
And I was like, you're.

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
Right, yeah, there you go quite a way to look
at life. There you go, Seth, do me a favor,
no more God, talk back. Don't let him on.

Speaker 20 (01:14:01):
It's disrespectful, it's an abomination, it's sinful. Tony.

Speaker 4 (01:14:07):
I know you're a Christian.

Speaker 20 (01:14:09):
You should not listen to that blasphemer, false prophet. Tony
stand up for once, make melt proud or whatever her
name is.

Speaker 3 (01:14:21):
Jes O feats.

Speaker 6 (01:14:25):
Yeah, I'll cut God, I understand that guy don't hear
all the time. If he sounds like that in real life.

Speaker 5 (01:14:33):
I'll take a pass.

Speaker 6 (01:14:35):
I'll start Austin and Bristol, Janie Shorts painted chest backwards,
flat Bill, and I'll bench multi personality Mike and that
one guy who always hits the high at the end
of his talkbacks.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
Okay, it's a good one. Okay, it's not bad. Ye
forgetting list season. I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:59):
That it was like a start bench cut of things,
you know, just shows his own whatever rushmore of random
things at.

Speaker 9 (01:15:07):
The Brandon Stokely Chip game as well.

Speaker 5 (01:15:13):
Hey, Austin, that game was awful.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
But do you remember what was.

Speaker 9 (01:15:20):
The following week?

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
I was there.

Speaker 16 (01:15:25):
The Bengals beat the Packers lambeau Field, so it kind
of offset what happened Week one.

Speaker 4 (01:15:34):
Yeah, that was Antoine Odam had five sacks in that game,
and that was you know, Iron Eagles coming out party
when he said Antoine Odam is not human man. Yeah,
Bengals smoked the Packers there deadI Hey Roger and Virginia
sub Roger.

Speaker 6 (01:15:49):
You know, I'm traveling to Boston with my wife for
a quick trip.

Speaker 3 (01:15:53):
I'll be heading to a Boston Red Sox Tampa Bay
Rays game wearing my red skar.

Speaker 11 (01:15:57):
I know that was a point of.

Speaker 4 (01:15:58):
Contention last week for Tony, not me.

Speaker 21 (01:16:03):
In Boston.

Speaker 4 (01:16:05):
Is not playing good Roger as you should. It's right
for you to wear your team at those games.

Speaker 27 (01:16:12):
Jersey chime in on the skyline breakfast sauce, as you
just mentioned, you are right on point. Yes, I had
one the other day. It was delicious, that dipping sauce.

Speaker 4 (01:16:26):
Yep, he gets it, he knows, man. I just got
a tweet too. I would have never guessed. Will tweeted
and said that there's no dress code at Wimbledon. Interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
I would have thought the way that they're buttoned up
over there, you'd had to have like suit and tie.

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
Yeah, because I I he.

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
Said his brother camped down and sat court side for
a Serena match wearing a tank top and straw fishing
fishing hat.

Speaker 5 (01:16:46):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
Now I don't see I'm watching it. It's on on
the TV in here. I don't I see shirts and ties.
I see suits. I don't see any tank tops or
straw hats.

Speaker 5 (01:16:54):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:16:55):
The other thing, too, is if you, if you compete,
you have to wear all white. Yeah, if do you
have to wear all white if you're on their like
coaching status subtics, because I see a lot of those
people wearing all white as well.

Speaker 3 (01:17:08):
I don't see any tank tops right now. All right,
something to keep it now.

Speaker 19 (01:17:12):
It was biblically hot there for a while. Dude, how
are we losing? Listen to a Triple A team. Get
it together. I'm sick of watching this team. It's been embarrassing.

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
Get it together. At least the Warblers are there, and
that sounded fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
They're not.

Speaker 4 (01:17:33):
The Marlins are not a Triple A team. No, they've
they've played really good baseball as of late.

Speaker 3 (01:17:40):
Right. They were terrible to start the season. They dug
themselves a brutal hole, but they have been much better lately. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
I mean they have an All Star in Kyle Stowers
who's got sixteen homers and forty eight RBI. They have
a great leadoff hitter in Xavier Edwards, who's one of
the fastest hitters in baseball. He's hitting almost three hundred,
has almost one hundred hits already this season.

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
Yeah, they were atrocious in April, they were bad in May,
they were great in June and they've been good in July.

Speaker 4 (01:18:07):
Their young catcher, Augustine Ramirez. He's terriblest like behind the plate,
but offensively no, because you got to get runners on
to test them. But he's a monster. So I mean,
they're they's far from being a contender, but they're not
a Triple eighteen any stretch. And I'm not even trying
to make excuses for the Reds. All right, that was it?

Speaker 3 (01:18:27):
Speaking of making excuses, did you see that the baseball
game I think it was a double air triple a
game last night where the pitcher got called for a
ball while the lightning the lightning straw? Did see that?

Speaker 4 (01:18:38):
That's a bad way to get called for a ball?
That would Uh, there's got to be a rule about that. Yeah,
not a huge thing.

Speaker 3 (01:18:45):
Hey do we have tickets to give away?

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
We do?

Speaker 3 (01:18:47):
You bet your bottom dollar we do. If Austin's going.

Speaker 4 (01:18:51):
To question, I do. Five one, three, seven, nine, fifteen thirty.
Speaking of that, did you see that League Baseball is
going to use the automated ball strike Challenge system in
the All Star Game next week?

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
I didn't see that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:05):
How about that? Huh about that? That's kind of exciting.
I like this five one three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:19:14):
I never know what.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
Station, fifteen thirty. It's upper deck at the ballpark.

Speaker 4 (01:19:19):
Per deck golf, and it's not just hitting a few
shots off the field. You're playing nine holes at Great
American Ballpark and you've got a chance to win tickets.
It's coming up July seventeenth through the nineteenth, and if
you can correctly answer a Reds related trivia question, you

(01:19:39):
could win tickets to go, seats to go play those holes,
those nine holes at the ballpark, upper deck golf.

Speaker 3 (01:19:49):
You can't just answer the question. You got to answer correctly.

Speaker 4 (01:19:52):
Yeah, come out.

Speaker 3 (01:19:52):
You have to answer correctly five one, three, correct, seven, nine,
fifteen thirty. That and so much more still to go
on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. Thanks to Cinti shirts.

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
Until you see sixty continues on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:20:11):
Come on, welcome back since three sixty. ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station, Thanks to Penn Station. Thank you for listening.
This afternoon, Dustin Grootz is going to join us to
talk from UC football. Pg DG got a start our
number three. We'll take some phone calls after that. Five, one, three, seven, four,

(01:20:34):
fifteen thirty Mosen Studio. Today, we'll talk to him for
quick hits. All of that has yet to come. Before
we get to any of that, we have a trivia
question today and I think it's probably one of the
easier questions you've ever asked Austin Uh. And it also
UH is going to come. If you not only answer
the question, but answer it correctly, you can win tickets

(01:20:54):
to go play golf at the ballpark. Is that? What?

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
This is?

Speaker 4 (01:20:59):
Upper Deck inside Great American Ballpark July seventeenth through the
nineteen three day event. It will sell out exclusive clubs
from PXG, golf, Balls, Berdie Rings, everything you can imagine
a nine whole round of golf in a foursome around
Great American Ballpark. For more information, check out upperdeckgolf dot

(01:21:20):
com or go to Reds dot com. We're gonna give
away a chance for you or we're gonna give away
two tickets for you. Got to play Upper Deck Golf.
We start in Lexington with Brian. Hello, Brian, how are
you hi?

Speaker 6 (01:21:36):
Guys?

Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
Uh doing well? Terry Francona hit his first career Red's
home run off of what pitcher good Tom Seaver incorrect,
but good. Guess we go to Andrew in Liberty Township. Andrew,
do you know.

Speaker 15 (01:21:58):
Wow?

Speaker 26 (01:22:01):
Play one year with the.

Speaker 4 (01:22:02):
Red five four, three two one.

Speaker 21 (01:22:17):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:22:19):
Andrew at the buzzer nails it. Terry Francona, his first
game as a Red opening Day nineteen eighty seven, went
deep off of Floyd Yeomans in the fourth inning, a
two run shot, and the Reds smoked the Montreal Expos
eleven to five at Riverfront Stadium in Francona's first game.

(01:22:41):
He started at first base that day, collected two knocks wow,
and the home run off of one Floyd Yeomans was
one of them. Andrew, Congratulations, you're gonna go play upper
deck off at GABP.

Speaker 15 (01:22:54):
You can't wait.

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:22:56):
Hold on for me, hold on.

Speaker 3 (01:22:58):
No, I think we gave him a little bit too
much time.

Speaker 5 (01:23:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:23:01):
I think moving forward, I'm gonna have to do like
a three second clock.

Speaker 3 (01:23:04):
Yeah, because I there might have been a little something. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:23:08):
I mean we had the conversation during the break. This
is going to get us to yeah, one fifty five
for you know us to break.

Speaker 3 (01:23:15):
Floyd pitched five good years in Major League Baseball. Old
yeomans career era of just three point seven four. He
did yeomens work. He did yeomans work. Did yeomens work
in the leagues? Man? Yeah, I mean in nineteen eighty
six he had a three point seven war thirteen win

(01:23:37):
season for Floyd.

Speaker 4 (01:23:38):
That's pretty good, man. Terry Francona stunk for the Reds
in nineteen eighty seven. Or his overall stats. He played
in one hundred and two games. He hit two sixty six,
which would make him an All Star in this year's team.
Excuse me, he had two twenty seven would still make
him an All Star All Star in this year's team.
He had three homers, twelve RBI, two stolen bases. His

(01:23:58):
war was get a zero point nine.

Speaker 3 (01:24:01):
You ever think he goes to the players like man,
you wouldn't even know if I was on this team
right now.

Speaker 4 (01:24:05):
Five doubles though, it's only fifty short of Matt Carpenter
in twenty thirteen, Oh my goodness, the only Now how
about this though? This is this is what's amazing. And
two hundred and nineteen played appearances in nineteen eighty seven,
Terry Francona struck out twelve times. Wow, do you know
the most times he struck out.

Speaker 5 (01:24:24):
In a season?

Speaker 4 (01:24:27):
How many twenty in nineteen eighty three? How many at
bats he had two hundred and thirty eight at bats
that year. Wow, that's just an entirely different sport.

Speaker 3 (01:24:37):
Yeah, thirty forty years ago. Yeah, forty years ago. Now
that's fine. Yeah, but Floyd yemans Man.

Speaker 4 (01:24:46):
Best year of Tito's career came in nineteen eighty four,
when playing for Montreal. He played in fifty eight games
and he hit three forty six with a three sixty
on base percentage, slugged one homer, but had eighteen runs
batted in, collected seventy four hits, nineteen doubles, tripled twice

(01:25:06):
and at a one point three war old Tito the
Magnificent Chito in Montreal in nineteen eighty four.

Speaker 3 (01:25:14):
Unbelievable, believe it.

Speaker 4 (01:25:16):
A quick update on our Revived Fitnessystems dot Com poll
question presented by Revivefitness Systems dot Com and coach PJ. Street.
Will the Reds win another game this season?

Speaker 3 (01:25:27):
Yes?

Speaker 12 (01:25:27):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:25:28):
Or is it football yet? Fifty five percent say is
it football yet? Twenty six percent say yes, seventeen percent
say no. The Reds will not win another game.

Speaker 3 (01:25:39):
That's the best. How about our Postman long injury report.
Let's do it. You're injured, call Postman. Postman delivers eight
four to four. Postman is the number you need to
call if you are injured. Now. I was a little
surprised based on the update we had seen the day
before Austin. But according to Charlie Goldsmith, yesterday Hunter Green
was in four uniform at the ballpark throwing a bullpen session.

Speaker 4 (01:26:04):
Yeah. After hearing that, maybe Hunter just needed the peace
of mind about the MRI. He'd threw a bullpen at
the ballpark. I think again, the timing thing, all right,
let's just wait till after the All Star break, blah
blah blah. Maybe he just needed the peace of mind
if knowing the MRI I was clean.

Speaker 3 (01:26:19):
Yeah, And I guess at this point because Terry Francona
did talk about the confidence give yourself in the back
of your mind, the understanding that you're not expected to
do anything until post All Star break, do it on
your time, build up in that sense, so you can
get that confidence back.

Speaker 4 (01:26:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:26:37):
Other news, Jake Frayley Rake Frayley went one for three
with a run scored for triple A louvill on Tuesday night.
Let's go Carson Spires. Also, how'd Carson do? I don't know.
I just know that he was moved to Triple A Louisville.

Speaker 4 (01:26:52):
He was supposed to pitch last night?

Speaker 3 (01:26:54):
Oh really? Yeah? What do he do?

Speaker 12 (01:26:56):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:26:56):
Let me check it. I'm pulling it up right now.
Carson Spires was supposed to go four innings in last
night's game in Columbus against the Bats, oh or against
the Clippers for the Bats. Let me pull this up here.
Carson Spires went two three and two thirds innings.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
Okay, that was almost four.

Speaker 4 (01:27:14):
Gave up four hits, three runs, they were all earned.
He walked two and struck out one, Okay, so not great.
Would you rather have Nick Martinez or Carson Spires? I
would rather have Carson Spires right now. I don't know
if that's true. How's Rhet Louder doing move Carson Spires
to How the rotation moved Nick Martinez to the bullpen?

Speaker 3 (01:27:38):
Question mark? I'm good with that.

Speaker 4 (01:27:39):
Everybody that pitched for Louisville last night has been in
the big leagues at some point this season. Reavers, San Martin,
Joe Losorsa, Josefer Zulawaita and Ben ben Scooter or Sam
Ben Scooter all pitched last night.

Speaker 3 (01:27:54):
Is anything gonna happen with RT Louder this year?

Speaker 11 (01:27:56):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:27:56):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
The last update I saw was like May twenty fourth,
where it said Tito Francona said he's going to be
a while.

Speaker 4 (01:28:03):
Yeah, I would expect him to pitch in August. Okay,
that's my guess, all right. I think he's just in
Arizona rehabbing.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
All right, what do you think that those days are? Like,
they're probably hard, dude, in Arizona. I bet they're hard,
do you think so? Yeah, there's only so much rehab
you can do. It's coming from a guy who lived
in the rehab room. Yeah, only so much you can
do for a.

Speaker 4 (01:28:24):
Surgically repaired elbow, Yeah, for like an oblique and stuff
like that. I feel like there's probably a little bit
more you can do. Okay, I bet they're difficult.

Speaker 3 (01:28:32):
Though. You don't think it's a walk in the park, No,
I don't. You don't think they have them.

Speaker 4 (01:28:36):
You know, the Reds have built like an entire complex
out there. Yeah, peters to live. That's a bad sign, though,
you got players living out there that long well, I
mean they own and operate a huge complex. They have
one in the Dominican too. It's amazing. They invest in
all these young players and don't have any good ones.
It's got to develop one or two of them. And
you're in a good spot. Did you see this stat? Okay,
you know we'll save it for the third hour because

(01:28:57):
I know DG is waiting on.

Speaker 3 (01:28:59):
Yeah, we gotta get to Dustin Grootz is going to
join us to kick off the third hour, and there
you've got to get to Andrew who's on hold.

Speaker 4 (01:29:04):
There's a stat that I want to get to in
the third hour.

Speaker 3 (01:29:06):
Ez Nido stat of the day makes fun of Nick Krawl.
I like to do that, So let me just write
down here on my notes. Get crawled in our three Yeah,
all right, More next onny ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Thanks to Cinci shirts.

Speaker 1 (01:29:22):
This baseball season, Don't let an Injury.

Speaker 2 (01:29:24):
Three to sixty of About Cincinnati from Cincinnati spontered in
part by Pennstation East Coast Subs. Handcrafted hot grilled subs,
fresh cut fries, and lemonade. It's all about good taste.
Pennstation East Coast Subs order online today. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:29:45):
Welcome back Cincy three sixty ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
as we embark on our number three thanks to our
friends and our number three at Penn Station. Thank you
for listening. Big twelve Media Day was yesterday for the
Cincinnati Bearcats, and side of hearing what Scott Sadderfield and
a couple of players had to say, there is a
lot of intrigue around not only this football program, but

(01:30:07):
the university itself as they have embarked into year two
in the Big twelve, the indoor facility which is literally
second to none right now with what they have at
their disposal. It is a huge year and a lot
of folks look at what's happening now, what's happening next?
So I wanted to bring in someone today who's literally
got his tentacles in about eighteen different things going on

(01:30:28):
in the world right now, but one of those is
tied to the University of Cincinnati. A former teammate of mine,
former quarterback at the University of Cincinnati, Dustin Grutze, kind
enough to join us in studio today. What's going on?

Speaker 5 (01:30:40):
Thanks saving me and Tony, what do you.

Speaker 3 (01:30:43):
Usually go with if someone is introducing you? Because you
do wear so many hats? What's your lead hat most
of the time? Still, yeah, I.

Speaker 5 (01:30:53):
Probably just entrepreneur. You know.

Speaker 8 (01:30:55):
It's staying active and being a leader in some different
things in the community or means the different businesses I'm
in and trying to kind of corporate that across different avenues.

Speaker 3 (01:31:05):
You've tried to incorporate the team aspect literally in your
professional life now, yes, of course, which is the easiest
transition to make, right, is.

Speaker 5 (01:31:13):
All I knew? Yeah? Yeah, just keep running that course.

Speaker 3 (01:31:17):
Uh, let's talk about let's start the landscape of college
football and if I think of the University of Cincinnati
in this nil world, now, who got a great boost
from what CINTI Light meant to the university? And I
don't know if they even thought how much CINTI Light
was going to explode. And the folks at Cincy rains
and kind of spearheading this initiative for for many reasons.

(01:31:41):
You see was and is competing at the NIL level
because of the work that's been done. When you see
the sport at the level it is now in the
NIL world, what what comes to mind for you. I
mean who.

Speaker 8 (01:31:57):
We played, of course that's number one, But I do
look at different ways of doing things in general, right,
I mean you look at you need to get this
money and you gotta pay players. Now, you still need
to upgrade facilities, which we're doing it. You see obviously
with this new indoor, we're seeing massive shifts and just
how all the operations of the athletics are. It's a

(01:32:18):
professional team. Now things are different. You still have the
school aspect and everything you have to do there, and
you're leading these young adults and to being better people
and what they need to do beyond sport, beyond the university.
But at the same time you go find ways to
pay them. And I think since the Light is a
great option that we created as being on Cincy Rains

(01:32:43):
and being part of that board. Yeah, working with Kim
Tracy and working with you know, Brian Fox and the
NIL group.

Speaker 5 (01:32:50):
You know that we were doing there.

Speaker 8 (01:32:51):
I had two of my really good friends, Bob Bonder
and Brian Golding at Brian Geist is like, Roy, can't
we mess this partnership? And you do something like that,
you create something like Sincy Light that I'm sure has
been just you know, it's been lightning for both Cinci
rains the unit and for Ryding guys. I mean it's
been a major win obviously, and the city supports it,

(01:33:12):
and the beer has gotten accolades across the country for
its taste. I mean, what better way to bring in
attention to Cincinnati as well as incoming and that thing
has brought in a lot of revenue that we want
to keep up. I think creating opportunities like that and
finding ways outside of the box of just asking donors
after year like, hey, we need some more money to
pay these athletes. It's like we have to find ways

(01:33:35):
as a community, as a university to bring it in
different way.

Speaker 3 (01:33:39):
Not only the amount of people and visitors from other
teams that come in and talk about liking SINCEI light
but what a great idea is to help the university.
And it goes to show I think in this city
in particular, they're gonna do whatever they need to do
from a fan base to support the teams in the
city of Cincinnati. There are two different aspects of the
NIL that I want to ask you about. One for

(01:34:00):
the athletes, you're now coming across a lot more money
than normally you would as an eighteen nineteen twenty year
old athlete. You know, I remember in our time just
hoping we could get swipes into the dining hall. Yeah,
and not having to have an NCAA violation if someone
wanted to get us a dinner or something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:34:18):
Well exercise the pizza. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:34:19):
How how much focus needs to be brought to the
athletes and making sure now that they're educated in a
way when they're getting a million dollars or five hundred
thousand dollars that for many of these kids, more money
than they've seen in their life, and now it's theirs.
How much of the education needs to be understood of
what these athletes are going through.

Speaker 5 (01:34:41):
Everything. I mean, I mean coming in you don't have
They don't have that knowledge.

Speaker 8 (01:34:43):
They haven't been taught those mess oh yeah yeah, and
been really easy to spend that money way too quickly
and not think of how to reinvest and do the
right things. I think they are being educated a lot more,
both by families.

Speaker 5 (01:34:59):
There's agent in the community.

Speaker 8 (01:35:00):
I mean, we couldn't talk to agents, let like a
manager or any of that. Like they have brand managers,
they have agents, they have people helping them figure out
how to utilize this money, how to save up and
allowing for those resources to be there is a big
part of this, and I think the university is doing
a good job. I think, you know, obviously there's rooms
to continuously get better to help them, and there's more

(01:35:21):
avenues that we can figure out as the university to
both help them and find, like we said, more ways
for money to come in and be more reoccurring and
do some different outside the box options.

Speaker 3 (01:35:32):
The other aspect I think of is the is a
term we use in sports often is culture. And I
wonder in today's football, where you don't have guys that
are there for three, four or five years together, how
important the culture becomes. Because every coach that I've talked
to around you see, they mentioned the word culture and
how strong it is. And it's great to have a
guy like Soresby and cor Leone and Royer who are

(01:35:53):
back saying that can help build that culture. But I mean,
let's be honest, if you're on the team and another
kids come in and he's making more money than you,
it might be harder to put your arm around that kid.
I might be saying, why am I not getting paid
what he is, or you might not understand the ins
and outs of Cincinnati football, the blue collar nature of
which has made Cincinnati what it is. Right how I

(01:36:15):
don't want to say worrisome, but how important is it
to have people in place to make sure the culture
at UC stays what it is, even when you don't
have guys that are spending three, four and five years
in the program.

Speaker 8 (01:36:27):
I think this is the importance of the alumni and
the alumni programs and kind of what we've been trying
to do outside of even the university, creating the CFL,
you know, the Cincinnati Football Letterman's Club and different things
to try to bring the alumni in make sure they're
there as a resource. But you know, it's a difficult
thing to navigate, especially as coaches come in. You have
changes in administration, the coaching, all the different parts of it.

(01:36:47):
So I really think touching base with the alumni and
bringing them in more is going to help that. But
you're exactly right, like Cincinnati has a culture, it has
a certain grid, there's a certain support element to it
that we've seen for years, and you know, things have
definitely changed, but trying to still keep that aspect of
that and I think it's all top down. You know,

(01:37:08):
Leadership is everything in this environment, yep, and everybody to
be leaders. You got to extend that to the players.
Those players have to be leaders, and we, like you said,
we've had some key players stay that. You don't see
a lot of that even in across the board in
all these universities, you don't see that very often now,
and so to have that and hopefully build off that
is going to help create a better culture. But I
agree that that's probably the most difficult thing. It's like

(01:37:29):
having an all star team every year for a lot
of these you saw. I think Caliperry do it. You
can for years, right.

Speaker 3 (01:37:35):
They're gonna come well and they're gonna implow.

Speaker 5 (01:37:37):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's a whole new team every year.

Speaker 3 (01:37:39):
And that I think that's the hard slipway slope about it.
You bring guys in, things don't go well midway through
the season, can you keep them together or is it well,
I'm gonna go to the next place, or I got
one foot out the door. From an alumni aspect, the
Cincinnati Football Letterman's Club, are you is that kind of
the one stop shop that you would recommend alumni that

(01:38:01):
are out there that hear this, that want to know
how can I be more involved? And I think it's
hard because as an alumni you go through top down
changes in the athletic director changers and coaches, and at times,
from an alumni standpoint, if you're not in the city
as well, you can kind of feel forgotten or you
can kind of feel like an out case. Or are
you directing those alumni to the Letterman's clubs as kind

(01:38:24):
of that area to get back involved. Yeah, I think
that that's one of the best areas.

Speaker 8 (01:38:28):
I think UCATS goes across all sports, but for the
CFLC for the on the football side, that's a great
way because they reach out, they talk to someone on
the board, me Alex, a bunch of the you know,
there's Randy, there's a bunch of people who are on
the board really pushing and we can get them in
touch with getting into the new end or facility. You're

(01:38:48):
doing some different things that they want to feel more connected.
And I think that's the hardest part of it. When
you walk in you don't know anybody sure, you know,
like there's nobody here, but you know right now you're
still walking you might see Bob Benji, you might see
someone who we had from our era. But as you
continue and as we get older and as you know,
generations before us or older alumni, it's a lot more

(01:39:09):
difficult when they go in and there's nobody there that
they recognize. So, yeah, that is the avenue that I
would recommend for our former football players.

Speaker 3 (01:39:16):
I saw you at the opening of the indoor facility,
and I kept thinking to myself when we were playing,
getting dressed for practice and walking up the hill to
the Edward Center and sitting in school desk to go
through meetings and then going back to practice, when when
you think about, you know, morning workouts on the game field,

(01:39:37):
and for a lot of it, it was a sense
of pride because hey, we're practicing, where we're playing and
everything they were I was buying it.

Speaker 5 (01:39:43):
Yeah, yeah, exactly good. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39:46):
But when you think about from just when we were there,
and I remember at the time getting the new facilities,
that getting the new locker room, getting the new meeting
rooms was such a big deal, and then you fast
forward to now and seeing the indoor facility and what
it is. I've tried on the show to put it
into words, what do you make as a former player
and someone that is still very invested in this university,

(01:40:08):
in this program. What kind of tool is this indoor
facility and how do you even describe it.

Speaker 8 (01:40:14):
I mean, it's, like you said, second to none in
the nation. It is the top level. It's going to
draw in the talent that we're looking for at Cincinnati.
I mean, I think our city attracts people. I think
there's a lot of great things about Cincinnati as an
overall city that are attractive, and people come here and
enjoy it more than maybe they would have expected.

Speaker 5 (01:40:31):
Right, We're not.

Speaker 8 (01:40:33):
We're a flyover city to a lot who are on
the coasts and different things. But Cincinnati does have you know,
amazing arts, amazing just I don't know a culture that
you were talking about, right, So I think that draws
in people. Then when you talk about the indoor facility
and kind of the advancements at the university before and
when what we came into it was about like we

(01:40:54):
want to play in the Big East, we want to
play in this conference, we want to compete at a
BCS level back when that was it and we wanted
all those things and that's what since I provided and
this grit and grind, and we did that.

Speaker 5 (01:41:04):
We performed, we played.

Speaker 8 (01:41:05):
Practiced in that same practice field was used for anamural
sports or sing game field. I'm sorry, number was used
for everything. Right, So you have the entire university. I
felt like that was part of that culture and vibe
that we created, of that blue collar mentality that you
also talked about. But now this this is its own thing.
It's I mean, I've been to fields across the country,

(01:41:28):
you know, been to the Notre Dames and inside of
the other facilities. Seeing these you know what draws in
the best talent, and we have that, so we can
bring in that talent and now we can perform at
that level. There's no excuse for why we can't be
a top program in this country.

Speaker 3 (01:41:43):
Well that that's kind of where I look to now
because before other schools can provide different avenues of why
you don't want to go to UC or what they
don't have, because you have to tie in the nils back,
which you see has been successful. Yes, in raising the money.
You mentioned the city, it's a great city to come.
You mentioned the university in itself, great university. Now you

(01:42:04):
talk about the history of the football program from BCS
appearances to the College Football Playoff appearance. They've brought championship
football to Cincinnati. So when you kind of start thinking, Okay,
how can other teams recruit against Cincinnati, Well, in years past,
it's the indoor facility, and now you don't have that.
So it does feel like from a recruiting standpoint, if

(01:42:25):
you've got all of those avenues covered now, you should
be able to go out and attract the talent that
you want to now compete as you get into year
two of the Big Twelve and to try to turn
this thing around as opposed to what the football program
has been in the last couple of years. So when
you think about that and you think about the team
this year, Big Twelve Media Day happens yesterday. They don't
even vote. Media doesn't even vote anymore on preseason polls

(01:42:48):
because no one in the media knows how good teams
are going to be because of the porter. They voted
at Arizona State dead last last year and they won
the Big Twelve. So it's never been easier in college
sports to turn it around quicker. But when you think
about this team this year, I do I start with Royer,
I start with Corleone, I start with Swersby. There are
not many programs in the country that can return to

(01:43:09):
NFL talented guys on each side of the ball and
return a dual threat quarterback. I know it's hard to
forecast because there's so much overturn, but what do you
think about this year's team at this point in the offseason.

Speaker 8 (01:43:22):
I think what we started talking about with the leadership
is the first thing that we need to that you're
addressing right there, is you have these players. You have
these guys who have come back who want to do
something big with U see, and I think we have
them in place. I do think Sowresby's, you know, a
great leader. I don't think everybody's seen his full talent, yeah,

(01:43:44):
which I'm excited about it. I think last year you
saw a lot of flash. You saw that he can
be the guy, and I think there's a lot. You know,
there's some hardships within the middle of the season for
the team, and like you said, you're having these guys
all try to come together and keeping them when some
bad things happening, and everybody on the same path and
believing like hey, we still have this. We have to
come back we have to fight harder, and I think

(01:44:05):
you're going to see that with this leadership coming back.
They've seen that, they've seen those struggles, and you know,
I feel like we saw that when when we were
playing Tony. I feel like we saw a lot of
guys who are who'd been there a few years when
we first went to the Big East.

Speaker 5 (01:44:17):
We were in.

Speaker 8 (01:44:18):
Those classes that started the Big East, you know, and
we're the new recruiting class. And sure in our way
up right, we're Big twelve this year or two. They're
obviously able to recruit at a different level now with
the portal and everything else. But I think we're going
to see from having those leaders there and then pushing
the team in all aspects and really taking ownership, that
that's where it's going to come from.

Speaker 5 (01:44:38):
It's not the coaches will do all they do, but
you have to.

Speaker 8 (01:44:40):
Have those players on the field who are the leaders
in order for it to really transition and to make
that type of a move.

Speaker 3 (01:44:46):
I think to have those cornerstone leaders at key positions
who are guys that could have went to the NFL. Yes,
who are guys that probably could have taken money elsewhere
and gone to a different school. But not only that,
I've heard Scott Sadderfield talk often about relying on those
guys in portal acquisitions, regardless of how good the player
can be. When that player came in, the coaching staff

(01:45:07):
would rely on the players to say, hey, is this
a good fit or not? And I think that ties
into the culture. And when you have players, especially in
Corleon and Royer who are local players, Cole, Raine and Elder,
and you think about the teams that had a lot
of success, you see, it was a lot of Northern Kentucky.
It was a lot of Cincinnati, and you you find

(01:45:27):
that success and you find that core in the hotbed
of recruiting, which is high school football around this area.
To be able to rely on guys who could have
went and made more money, could have went to the
next level, and chose to come back to you see,
that tells me that something is being built in the
right direction down there in Clifton.

Speaker 5 (01:45:44):
Yeah. I think you're making great points to that.

Speaker 8 (01:45:46):
I feel like when you know, I hate to always
keep relating back to us, but I remember us going
to you know, I'm remember Trevor Canfield came and he's
already already going to go somewhere else, and we're like, no,
going to be a part of our team.

Speaker 5 (01:45:56):
We're going to do this.

Speaker 8 (01:45:57):
We're going to make some big things happen, right, and
as the players to keep being a part of that
recruiting process and say, hey, no, we want you, we
need you, We're building something great here.

Speaker 3 (01:46:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:46:06):
Right, I didn't even know all that. And I love
that because I know that was happening when we were
trying to build something. Ye to see that happening again
and know that, you know, all these players are getting
so involved in care that that's gonna make a lot
of movement towards a better team.

Speaker 3 (01:46:20):
Year two in the Big twelve, and you start thinking, Okay,
you've got the facility, you've got the money that you've spent,
you've got the roster. You start thinking about what's next
and what's unique about what this team has an opportunity
to do, and what you and I had an opportunity
to do is we both came in at a time
where the program hadn't been winning as much. I remember

(01:46:42):
the lights essentially being turned out in a game against
West Virginia and like, I probably just don't even finish
this thing. I mean it was. It was tough years
for a couple of years, but we had an opportunity
to kind of be part of the turnaround to put
UC back to where it ultimately got to. You you
can speak on it as well being a part of that.

(01:47:05):
How important was that and and can you see the
correlation as you start to think, Okay, what's next for
this program would be the guys that are in place
to be a part of this turnaround that that gets
you see back to where we need to be.

Speaker 8 (01:47:17):
I mean, I think they got to show the grit
and they got to they got to be willing to
tough all this out and keep pushing. But I think
you're exactly right, like there are going to be tough times.
There's going to be that. You know, we've had these
tough moments the last few years, and it's it's easy
to like as a community as well, to think like, oh,
bary Kants aren't really there, the programs kind of died out.
But that's not the case. We've seen that, we've seen

(01:47:38):
this story before this. You have leaders stick around, you
have them them grind and bring everybody together. And you're
talking even last year a field goal here a few
offsides not happening on this game, Like we're in a
whole different place midway through the season, yep.

Speaker 5 (01:47:55):
And so it's there's such little moments.

Speaker 8 (01:47:58):
That if you can stay this planned, stay after it,
and have the leadership to like we are not we're
gonna get through this job, we're gonna score on this
or we're gonna get that big stop, and you make
those moments happen, everything changes. The entire season can change
on one play like that. Yeah, and you know that
you've seen it, so you know, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:48:16):
I mean the twenty one point lead at home against
pitt last year completely changes the way the season is going.
You get to five five wins and then you lose
out there are moments in place, and there are players
in place, and you can speak to it as well,
because you are You're so deeply tied into so many
avenues in Cincinnati right now. But when things get moving
in the right direction, whether it's Nippert Stadium, whether it's

(01:48:38):
the crowd, whether it's just the buzz that's in the city.
I remember the college football playoff run and coinciding with
the Bangal success. There couldn't have been anywhere else better
to be no than the city of Cincinnati. And I
think I think that's one of the other key aspects
here as well from a listener standpoint, and fans of
football and fans of the universe or have Cincinnati the

(01:49:01):
support matters and coming out to games matters, and and
and showing that that you believe in the team, because
there is truly nothing better than a sold out Nippert Stadium,
and there's truly nothing better than the buzz around Cincinnati
when when you see football is.

Speaker 8 (01:49:15):
Winning, oh yeah, that feeling that buzz is amazing. And
even when there's hardship, when when the fans still show
up where something's going wrong in the game and you
hear the fans being like let's go and like trying
to rally the troops, it's that brings your energy all
the way up. You're like, you're doing this for more
than just you know, the name on your shirt. You're
doing it for them, You're doing for the whole city.

(01:49:36):
The city is behind you. And having that support around
the community. I think sometimes it gets lost where people
are like, oh, they're not so good this year and
they're kind of doing this and doing that. It's like,
don't do that. Show them the support because everything can
change in an instant, and you don't know. Sometimes we
don't realize the impact that we can have on others
just in general in life, right, we don't realize that impact.

(01:49:58):
And I think knowing that that the community can have
that on the team or on how they perform or
feel about what they can accomplish in a year, it
is really important.

Speaker 5 (01:50:08):
And you know, everybody out there supporting right right.

Speaker 3 (01:50:11):
I mean, as an entrepreneur and a businessman in Cincinnati,
it's unbelievable the amount of success that can can breathe
life back into the city. I think it's small businesses. Yeah,
you think it places around Clifton When things are going well,
those places are thriving as well. And it's just everything.
It's so much more than just a football schedule. It's

(01:50:35):
so it's it's a program, it's a university, and part
of what makes it so great is how it's deeply
tied right into the roots of the city of Cincinnati.
And again, I've been like you, I've been to a
lot of different universities. I've been to games and a
lot of places, and I've played with a lot of
folks that come into Cincinnati and say it was crazy.
There's nothing like Knippert Stadium and fans who come in
and say, like the game, the field is right here

(01:50:56):
in the middle of campus. It is. It's so much
the lifeblood of the city of Cincinnati, and from the
indoor facility to the NIL to the alumni that we
talked about this year's team and uh and what's next
it is it is certainly some some good times coming
for Cincinnati and something to be excited about.

Speaker 8 (01:51:13):
I agree wholeheartedly, Tony. So I mean, we'll see what
they can what they can do, but we'll keep pushing
on them. And I'm trying to stay involved as I can,
from bringing the alumni in doing different things around the
NIL and everything else. So we've just got to keep
supporting them and have a big year.

Speaker 3 (01:51:30):
It's awesome. This was awesome, man. Thank you for stopping by.
Good to catch up, Good to see everything that you
got going on and everything going on around the University
of Cincinnati. It's a good time to be a Bearcat.
I appreciate it. Thanks for having Antoni. That is Dustin Gruzza.
This is since he three sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports station more next here in our number.

Speaker 2 (01:51:48):
Three d is back on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:52:01):
Hey, welcome back Sincy three sixty. Thanks to Penn Station.
Thanks for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Appreciate Dustin stopping by today before we finished up our
number two. Austin, you mentioned something about getting crawled. Yeah,

(01:52:21):
and I wrote it down. Yeah, so you would an
hour three get crawled. Thank you? What happened?

Speaker 4 (01:52:27):
Well, you know, I saw a post the other day
from a Washington Nationals fan account thing okay, and it
was from a article in the Washington Post. It was
a graphic from an article in the Washington Post. And
it's primarily about the Washington Nationals who just fired their

(01:52:48):
GM Mike Rizzo and their manager Davey Martinez. And the
point is about how players that the Nationals have drafted
have underperformed. Position players that the Nationals have drafted have
underperformed at the plate since twenty twelve. And it lists
the best, the major league average and the worst. This

(01:53:13):
is wins above replacement offensive wins above replacement by position
players drafted by each major league team since twenty twelve. Okay,
they have on average combined, excuse me, they have, on
average combined to produce sixty three offensive wins above replacement.

Speaker 3 (01:53:36):
That's the average.

Speaker 4 (01:53:37):
That's pretty good. That's the major league average of position
players drafted since twenty twelve. Most teams, the average team
gets sixty three wins above replacement on those players. The
most wins above replacement on players they have drafted since
twenty twelve are the Houston Astros sixty two, second most

(01:53:59):
bab an entire season of wins based off hitters they've
drafted since twenty twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:54:06):
Third most or second most wins in baseball.

Speaker 4 (01:54:08):
Right behind them the Athletics, although we know they haven't
had a ton of success, but they've been to the
playoffs since twenty twelve. The Dodgers won twenty four, the
Orioles one eighteen. They've made playoff appearances. The Saint Louis
Cardinals ninety seven, the Padres ninety five, the Cubs ninety one.
Those teams have all been to World Series or appeared

(01:54:28):
in World Series, most of them again the major league
average sixty three. Now, the stunner in this story is
the Washington Nationals have won win remarkable one undrafted players
since twenty twelve. Now, if you go back just a
couple of years, Bryce Harper's in that equation, it's much different.
But still thirteen years there is plenty of time to

(01:54:49):
draft and develop players and get to the big leagues.
You would think the teams that are the worst in
baseball outside of the Nationals the Rockies with just twenty eight,
the Tigers with thirty, the Reds and Marlins at thirty four. Oh,
the Rangers at thirty five, the White Sox at thirty six.

(01:55:09):
So well under league average wins above replacement on hitters drafted,
position players drafted since twenty twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:55:17):
That's insane.

Speaker 4 (01:55:18):
Now, how many players have they drafted compared to pitchers,
compared to other teams. I think that's fair to look
at all, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that
the Reds are not developing hitters that get to the
big leagues and produce. Think about this, though, the teams
that are right there around the Reds the Marlins have

(01:55:39):
just as many playoff appearances since twenty twelve as the
Reds do. The Texas Rangers have won a World Series
in the last few years. In twenty twenty three, the
Tigers were in the World Series right around that time.
I don't know if they went back at twenty thirteen,
I can't remember exactly, but the Tigers are really good
around that time. The nass the Nationals won the World

(01:56:01):
Series in twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3 (01:56:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:56:04):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:56:04):
The Chicago White Sox have been flirting with the playoffs
at times, and they're better than the Reds the Marlins.
As I mentioned, the this goes back to the point
of some teams do more with less.

Speaker 3 (01:56:18):
Yep. And if you're not a team that's going to
be able to spend at that high level, you better
be able to develop and do more with less.

Speaker 4 (01:56:24):
The athletics notoriously cheap athletics and thirty wins above replacement,
Yeah likeable, That to me is amazing even how different
would the red story be if they were at league average?
Yeah right, thirty wins over the course of thirteen years. Okay, maybe,

(01:56:45):
but that could have got him in the playoffs in
twenty three, who knows what happens, could have got him
in the playoffs in twenty one? Who knows what happens?
So that that to me is just more indicative. And
maybe it's a cherry pick stat and maybe I'm reading
too much into it. But the fact of the matter
is the Reds to produce thirty four wins above replacement
on position players they've drafted since twenty twelve. Man, that's

(01:57:07):
not good. Brutal, brutal. The draft is next week. I
believe that's the uh. That's the definition of get crawled.
Thirty four wins in thirteen years not ideal. I mean
the Astros have an entire season of wins.

Speaker 3 (01:57:26):
That's crazy, unreal, unbelievable, Andy Mack. We'll get one more
break in if we got time, we'll squeeze in a
phone call five one, three, seven, four nine fifteen thirty
Mo Lagger will join us for quick hits and a
few as well on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station
thanks to Penn Station.

Speaker 2 (01:57:43):
Wise Cincinnati, make us the number one pre sidy is
back on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:57:57):
Hey, welcome back Sincy three sixty thanks to Penn Station.
Thanks for listening. On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Appreciate Dustin stopping by today before we finished up our
number two Austin, you mentioned something about getting crawled, Yeah,

(01:58:18):
and I wrote it down. Yeah. So you would an
hour three get crawled.

Speaker 4 (01:58:21):
Thank you?

Speaker 3 (01:58:22):
What happened?

Speaker 4 (01:58:23):
Well, you know, I saw a post the other day
from a Washington Nationals fan account thing okay, and it
was from a article in the Washington Post. It was
a graphic from an article in the Washington Post. And
it's primarily about the Washington Nationals who just fired their

(01:58:44):
GM Mike Rizzo and their manager Davey Martinez. And the
point is about how players that the Nationals have drafted
have underperformed positioned players that the Nationals have drafted have
underperformed at the plate since twenty twelve. And it lists
the best, the major league average, and the worst. This

(01:59:10):
is wins above replacement offensive wins above replacement by position
players drafted by each major league team since twenty twelve.
They have, on average, combined excuse me, they have, on
average combined to produce sixty three offensive wins above replacement.

Speaker 3 (01:59:33):
That's the average.

Speaker 4 (01:59:33):
That's pretty good. That's the major league average of position
players drafted since twenty twelve. Most teams. The average team
gets sixty three wins above replacement on those players. The
most wins above replacement on players they have drafted since
twenty twelve. Are the Houston Astros sixty two, second most

(01:59:56):
an entire season of wins based off hitters they've drafted
since twenty twelve.

Speaker 3 (02:00:02):
Third most or second most wins in baseball.

Speaker 4 (02:00:04):
Right behind them the Athletics, although we know they haven't
had a ton of success, but they've been to the
playoffs since twenty twelve. Yeah, the Dodgers won twenty four,
the Orioles one eighteen. They've made playoff appearances. The Saint
Louis Cardinals ninety seven, the Padres ninety five, the Cubs
ninety one. Those teams have all been to World Series
or appeared in World Series, most of them. Again, the

(02:00:27):
major league average sixty three. Now, the stunner in this
story is the Washington Nationals have won win remarkable one
undrafted players since twenty twelve. Now, if you go back
just a couple of years, Bryce Harper's in that equation,
it's much different, but still thirteen years there is plenty
of time to draft and develop players and get to
the big leagues. You would think the teams that are

(02:00:49):
the worst in baseball outside of the Nationals the Rockies
with just twenty eight, the Tigers with thirty, the Reds
and Marlins at thirty four, oh, the Rangers at thirty five,
the White Sox at thirty six, so well under league
average wins above replacement on hitters drafted position players drafted

(02:01:12):
since twenty twelve.

Speaker 3 (02:01:13):
That's insane.

Speaker 4 (02:01:14):
Now, how many players have they drafted compared to pitchers
compared to other teams. I think that's fair to look
at all, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that
the Reds are not developing hitters that get to the
big leagues and produce. Think about this, though, the teams
that are right there around the Reds the Marlins have

(02:01:36):
just as many playoff appearances since twenty twelve as the
Reds do. The Texas Rangers have won a World Series
in the last few years. In twenty twenty three, the
Tigers were in the World Series. Right around that time.
I don't know if they went back at twenty thirteen,
I can't remember exactly, but the Tigers are really good
around that time the Nationals. The Nationals won the World

(02:01:58):
Series in twenty nineteen.

Speaker 9 (02:02:00):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:02:00):
The Chicago White Socks have been flirting with the playoffs
at times, and they're better than the Reds the Marlins.
As I mentioned, the this goes back to the point
of some teams do more with less.

Speaker 3 (02:02:14):
Yep, And if you're not a team that's going to
be able to spend at that high level, you better
be able to develop and do more with less.

Speaker 4 (02:02:20):
The athletics notoriously cheap athletics and thirty wins above replacement, Yeah, like,
that to me is amazing. Even how different would the
red story be if they were at league average?

Speaker 3 (02:02:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:02:36):
Right, thirty wins over the course of thirteen years. Okay, maybe,
but that could have got him in the playoffs in
twenty three, who knows what happens, could have got him
in the playoffs in twenty one, who knows what happens.
So that that, to me is just more indicative. And
maybe it's a cherry pick stat and maybe I'm reading
too much into it, but the fact of the matter
is the Reds have produced thirty four wins above replacement

(02:02:58):
on position play they've drafted since twenty twelve. Man, that's
not good. Brutal, brutal. The draft is next week. I
believe that's the Uh, that's the definition of get crawled.
Thirty four wins in thirteen years, man, not ideal. I mean,

(02:03:19):
the Astros have an entire season of wins.

Speaker 3 (02:03:22):
That's crazy, unreal, unbelievable, Andy Mack. We'll get one more
break in if we got time, we'll squeeze in a
phone call five one, three, seven, four nine fifteen thirty
Mo Lagger will join us for quick hits and a
few as well on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station
thanks to Penn Station.

Speaker 2 (02:03:38):
Until you see Kwise Cincinnati, make us the number one
pre sient. Hey Alexa, what's going on in baseball?

Speaker 14 (02:03:44):
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio.

Speaker 3 (02:03:52):
Welcome back cinty three sixties thanks to Penn Station. You
know it just asks what's going on in baseball? I
got something for you here, Austin, did you hear about
what they're going to do in the All Star Game?

Speaker 10 (02:04:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:04:01):
I said that on the air to you.

Speaker 3 (02:04:03):
Oh you must have missed that. Must have just zoned out,
did the ABA system? Yeah? The challenge we do that
to each other so completely is a race from my memory? Great?
Uh yeah, robot humps in the All Star Game?

Speaker 6 (02:04:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:04:17):
Has heard from Austin earlier and me. Now, just in
case you missed it, I need a phone call. You
get the MO.

Speaker 11 (02:04:23):
What's up Mike, Hey, guys, did you have Did you
happen to catch any of Dan Patrick's show this morning?

Speaker 3 (02:04:32):
I did not.

Speaker 4 (02:04:32):
I heard a little bit of it, but not the
whole thing.

Speaker 11 (02:04:35):
It was excellent, man. We had First of all, they're
they're out in.

Speaker 3 (02:04:39):
Lake Tahoe, one most beautiful.

Speaker 11 (02:04:41):
Places you'll ever see in your entire life time. I
think I felt privileged to get to go there a
few times. And uh so they're doing that celebrity golf tournament.
So they were having a lot of cool guests and
Schmaltzy was on there. Schmaltz is dead. Asked serious about
winning this thing?

Speaker 1 (02:04:57):
Yeah, not playing.

Speaker 11 (02:04:58):
He wants to win this thing, bad, bad, bad. It
was pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (02:05:02):
There's no reason to show up if you're not going
to win it.

Speaker 4 (02:05:04):
He's like a really good golfer too, like he's won
some other tournaments in the past.

Speaker 11 (02:05:09):
Yeah. Then they got Davonte Adams on, so I had
my ears really perfect because I love that good guy.
I loved I love everything he's about. And no State
kid I believe.

Speaker 4 (02:05:20):
Isn't John Smoltz a member of Augusta National I think so.

Speaker 11 (02:05:25):
I'm not sure as I think he is. I'll have
to google that. But anyway, the interview with Davante, what
a cool dude, and he's evidently a various two golfer.
Tony's about a six handicap.

Speaker 3 (02:05:38):
That's getting after it.

Speaker 11 (02:05:40):
Well, that's getting answer him. Like like Dan was saying,
And when you get there, when you get to that
little area there are six, five, seven, eight, a lot
different than ten or eleven because general most guys get
stuck there and that's pretty much where you're going to
end up the rest of your life. It's really hard
to get over that. And I'm wanting to ask you

(02:06:01):
your opinion about that, because I think that's well put.

Speaker 3 (02:06:04):
Yeah, you it gets to a point where you don't
know how much further you can go. And I think
every athlete deals with that. And to me and I
think it's it's different because playing in the quarterback position
physically you might not fit mentally is I think the
harder part the mental blocks and the mental hurdles and

(02:06:25):
the mental avenue of knowing in the past how hard
you've worked to get to a certain point, or you've
gone through an injury and you know what the rehab
is like, and you know what the toll is physically
and mentally. I think the mental side, from from a
hurdle standpoints, creates so much more of a of an
issue other than the physical side as well.

Speaker 11 (02:06:44):
And then he was asking him also about if he's
had a chance to work out with Stafford, and he said, man,
that's all we've been doing since they fined me. He said,
Matt and I are working out every day. He said,
Matt looks like he's a rookie again, he said, he
actually looks like He said, this is the most fired
up I've ben since I played with Aaron and and.

Speaker 3 (02:07:03):
For a and for a quarterback too. You almost feel
renewed when you get a guy like Davonte Adams. And
I'm not that's nothing against how good Cooper Cup was,
but now you you pay Pooka nakua with Deavonte Adams,
that for Matthew Stafford is a a fresh start that
is feeling reinvigorated and refreshed. And I think you you'll

(02:07:24):
you're going to see that with the Rams. I've said
this before and we've talked about it. I think the
Rams should be and will be one of the favorites
in the NFC this year.

Speaker 11 (02:07:33):
Well, they should have beat the Eagles last year. They
had that game one and in the snow or whatever,
it was really cold conditions in Philadelphia, and they could
have won that game. Plus they've got that little too
two app well, who's just just better and better. And
then they got the kids. I guess his second year now,
David wood Whittington out of Texas. Pretty good slot guy. Yeah,
here's my other question. I keep hearing about the UC

(02:07:54):
tight end. I'm sorry, I can't remember Joe Roy. Yeah,
but I keep I've googled about ten different lists for
top ten tight ends for the upcoming season, and he's
not on any of them. List. They got the kids
from Vanderbilts pretty much ranked the first one. Him and
the kids from Michigan.

Speaker 3 (02:08:13):
Yeah, it's Crowell. The pre show, the preseason and off
season list are so hard, I do know. I mean,
he obviously broke Travis Kelce's reception record last year for
receptions for a year at a tight end. He is
as physically gifted from a height and strength standpoint as
he is with the ball in his hands and yards
after the catch. Todd mcshae back in May, Todd McShay

(02:08:36):
put him in as a first round pick in his
twenty twenty six mock draft. So every list is going
to be different, but I think he's a Day one,
day two type of NFL prospect if he can put
together another season like he did last year, and you
like his chances to do so because he brings back
the same quarterback. They got a good offensive line coming back,

(02:08:57):
and uh, they're supposed to be more talented at wide receivers,
which would give him some better matchups.

Speaker 11 (02:09:02):
And maybe some of those other schools the more a
little more name recognition, I guess, and you see still
suffers from that a little bit. Yeah, that's a shame,
but they do.

Speaker 17 (02:09:09):
Ye.

Speaker 11 (02:09:10):
Yeah, Okay, Tom, thank you.

Speaker 20 (02:09:11):
Guys.

Speaker 3 (02:09:11):
Have a great one. Mike, thank you.

Speaker 21 (02:09:14):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:09:14):
From Mike to Mo, Mo the Magnificent is next Quick
hits on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (02:09:22):
From the Toms, He continues on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's
Sports station.

Speaker 28 (02:09:29):
Yeah, MO was looking for Mo the Magnificent is with
us today, Magnificent You and Tito, Me and Tito.

Speaker 1 (02:09:39):
Tito what really comfortable on that Poo likes that chair.

Speaker 3 (02:09:43):
Better man, I don't know, like you and this studio
or Tito in the boat chair.

Speaker 1 (02:09:47):
My grandfather had this like recliner that once he sat
down at about seven o'clock, he was not getting up.
The house could be on fire, yep, and he was
sitting in that recliner. It didn't matter. Once seven o'clock
came bad luck. Until about midnight, my guy was smoking
his pipe sitting in his recliner. It did not matter. Yeah,
Tito Francota last night in that boat seat, as Nick

(02:10:10):
Martinez is getting rocked. Of course, you know what the
water carriers would then say is well, you know after
that he settled down and they didn't have to burn
the bullpens. So you know, team guy Nick Martine. Isn't
there some validity to that? But my guy, Tito was
not budging from that boat chair last night.

Speaker 3 (02:10:28):
When you thinking the patheon of people that can hit
and pitch, Babe Ruth Shoeo, Tani Jose Trevino two hits
last night. Yeah, pitched pretty solid two innings. I think
anyone that stayed in the ballpark was more interested in
that than anything else. How many days offul Trevino I
need now, is.

Speaker 1 (02:10:46):
It going to be able to make the throw down
to second base?

Speaker 3 (02:10:48):
No? No chance, I hate that they have to do that.
It's a sad reality, but it feels like a reality
we face far too often where this team gives you
a little bit and they dangle the hope there, and
then they go on a four game losing streak like this.
It feels like this has been the cycle since I
can remember being a redch But.

Speaker 1 (02:11:06):
The thing is like, because of that, is anybody surprised,
Like somebody just said to me, I'd here about an
hour ago. Well, you know, they almost got us to
training camp. I think this team is too good to
totally creter. I think the starting pitching at least is
too good for them to just totally fall off the
face of the earth. I think we are in for
at least another month of them teasing us. Okay, but

(02:11:28):
how about one year? This not be like you will
find folks who are like, well, you know, they're five hundred.
So I'm gonna talk about this today. When you have
a low ceiling, you typically have a low floor. We
do this with the Bengals all the time, right, Well,
you know, the defense, if they could just be in
middle of the pack and then what happened last year?
Low floor offensive line kind of the same thing. I

(02:11:51):
just want once once in my life as an adult,
to spend time in February talking about how, you know
what if they don't win the division, it's a disappointment.
You know what, the expectation is, win ninety five games,
or it's a disappointment. I think we have a lot
of people here and it's not their fault. It's the
fault of thirty years of basically mediocrity, where the expectation is, oh,

(02:12:13):
you know, making the alls number kind of advive hund
that's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (02:12:16):
No, it's not.

Speaker 1 (02:12:17):
It's not good enough. It's not good enough.

Speaker 3 (02:12:20):
What I was trying to figure out, and we asked
the question yesterday on the show. Are they a bad
team with a couple good pieces who is overachieved or
are they a good team that is underachieved.

Speaker 1 (02:12:30):
They haven't underachieved because I think they are what we
thought they were gonna be. What do we say they
were gonna be an opening day basically close to a
five team? Well, they're a five hundred team.

Speaker 4 (02:12:38):
I got this.

Speaker 1 (02:12:39):
I was gonna do this on my show, but I'll
do it here. Offensively and patting average twentieth home run
seventeenth on base percentage, nineteenth ops, fifteenth stolen bases, fourteenth
runs per game, tenth take away the twenty four against
the Baltimore Orioles in their fifteenth That's what we thought
they were going to be at the start of the season,
and that, to me is frustrating because every year we go,

(02:13:00):
you know what, they have to exceed expectations to qualify
for the postseason. So what I want to get into
today is what does that mean not on July thirty first,
but the day after the season ends. Because if I
would have said to anybody two years ago, two years
ago of twenty twenty three, that we would get to
the end of the twenty twenty five season and the

(02:13:20):
Reds would still be waiting to make the postseason in
a full season for the first time since twenty thirteen,
he would have said, well, then some changes are going
to have to be made. I want to know what's
going to be different next year. I'm already starting to
think about then, because yes, we can do trade deadline stuff.
This team has played ninety two games. This is what
they are.

Speaker 3 (02:13:37):
But don't bury the lead Hunter Green throw a bullpen yesterday.
He'll be back soon. And Jake Fraley went one for
three last weeks.

Speaker 1 (02:13:42):
Leaves the planet in bullpen sessions. If they charted like
wins and simulated games, he'd be challenging Pedro Martinez right now. Like, yeah, Grady, throwball,
what's it going to pitch in a big league mount?

Speaker 3 (02:13:53):
Just let him get healthy and see how things pan out.
I'd rather talk about quarterback nice. My favorite parts there
were two. Number one Joe Burrow and his stylist. Do
either of you guys have a stylist? No, in my head,
but not another person though. No, don't think I want
a stylist.

Speaker 11 (02:14:09):
No.

Speaker 1 (02:14:09):
I don't think I need a guy standing there with
a rack of clothes in my bedroom going you need
to wear this? No, I think I need one. Oh,
I think we all could use one. I think we
could all could benefit from one. I don't need somebody
telling me my taste of clothes is bad. I already
have somebody like that that I live with.

Speaker 3 (02:14:24):
Yep, I'm good with that.

Speaker 1 (02:14:27):
The other part was we know I've only watched three episodes.
I watched two LASS, and we got through one so far.
So I rewatched one because I skipped past the Kirk
Cousins and Jered go by the way we're talking about
like three likable dudes. I also I love the fact
that Jay Morrison is charting the amount of time that's
being devoted to each quarterback.

Speaker 3 (02:14:45):
Jay's got stats now as an episode three or is
at the episode four where they get into the mental
side of the game.

Speaker 1 (02:14:50):
The start of episode three you will love yeah as
a quarterback where it's all three guys talking about just
all the stuff you have to think about and process
pre snap. There's like some real foot Paul nerd stuff there.
But what I love is they go into the relationship
between Burrow and Chase and there's a moment where they're
in practice and they start talking about like a play

(02:15:10):
they ran while they were at LSU against Georgia, Like
we know they have great chemistry, but they kind of
take you into that. It's so well done, man, Like
it's so if we were still in the era where
you could share your Netflix password, I would give mine
away to people so they could watch.

Speaker 3 (02:15:25):
Where do you View? Because for years now, we've kind
of talked about the development of Joe Burrow from not
what he is on the field, but who he has
to be off the field. We've had conversations about well,
as the quarterback, you're viewed differently. You've got to to
answer a lot of the questions. You've got to kind
of be the guy up there in public. And I
don't think he's completely comfortable with it. But if you

(02:15:46):
think of where he was a couple of years ago
to where he was last year during the season of
trying to be that leader, because some have moved on
to what you see in this in the Quarterback series,
you can see the steps that he's taking from a
off the field standpoint to understand who he has to
be as the quarterback, and all the money he's getting.

Speaker 1 (02:16:03):
Paid, he's letting people in and he's letting people in
for failures. Like I said this on my show yesterday,
it's easy to do the last ants. If you're Michael Jordan,
you won. You know the ending, It's easy to do that.

Speaker 11 (02:16:13):
You won.

Speaker 1 (02:16:14):
And they show his playoff short comings early in his
career when he first came back, but for the most
it's a story of you being a champion, right, So
it's easy to do that. It's not as easy to
let you in when he's going through the season that
he went through last year. You're talking about leadership. There's
a scene they cover the first Ravens game. They cover
all of them again, I'm only through three episodes, but
the first Ravens game, they blow a ten point lead,

(02:16:36):
McPherson misses a huge kick and they show Burrow and
he says, like, leadership isn't me yelling at my teammates,
because what happens when I f up, Like, who's gonna
yell at me? I don't want to be yelled at.
And I think sometimes as fans we view like, well,
if the quarterback's yelling and screaming, that's leadership. It's not leadership.
Isn't you know, confrontational? It can't be, I guess, but

(02:16:59):
that's I thought it was cool that he said that.
I think it's cool that he did it.

Speaker 3 (02:17:03):
Man. We parlayed that today with a conversation about this
year's team, and I think on offense, you feel good
Burrow is a leader. Ted Carris is a leader. Who's
the guy on the defense right now? Because Trey Hendrickson
could be that, Sam Hubbard was that Mike Hilton was
that they're both gone and for a defense who's bringing
in a new coordinator and needs that On the field

(02:17:24):
as well as Austin named bj Hill. I think that's
a name that stands out. Logan Wilson stands out. Who
are the leaders on this defense? Because I don't I
think we.

Speaker 4 (02:17:34):
View lost three captains for the defense.

Speaker 3 (02:17:36):
We view losing Sam Hubbard and what he does on
the field, you don't really go into viewing it how
you replace Sam Hubbard off the field.

Speaker 1 (02:17:43):
First of all, you mentioned the nave. It's interesting Mike
Hilton is still does anybody do they have money to
do anything? Does anybody? Well, they just made Gino Stone
take a pay cut at Gordelle Wolson like Black Monster
could pay cut? Why not in a specific role like
Mike Mike Hilton plays a very specific role. He why not?

Speaker 4 (02:18:03):
He dabbled in safety with lou An Arumo right every
once in a while.

Speaker 1 (02:18:06):
Yeah, I think they're golden. I think Al Golden is
gonna make Logan Wilson be that guy. Yeah, we'll see
if Logan is up to it. Well, I think they're
gonna make Logan Wilson be that guy. You know. The
part of this team this year that I think is
flying under the radar in terms of questions about the season,

(02:18:27):
T Higgins gonna play all seventeen games. Yeah, health right,
Like that's why they originally balked. So we talk. Okay,
you know they're loaded at wide receiver, which they obviously are,
and they have great you know, have the potential for
great offense. I want to see if this is the
year where t Higgins, who we all love, can get
through a full season healthy, because he hasn't been able

(02:18:48):
to do that.

Speaker 4 (02:18:48):
Yeah, seems like they came up with some sort of
plan for him towards the end of last year. Yes,
playing that carry over for an entirey.

Speaker 3 (02:18:55):
Can they go talk to Hunter Green about a plan?

Speaker 1 (02:18:57):
Also, there's uh the they show last night is that
the Commander's Game where like Joe Burrow played great and
Jake Browning comes over and tells him like, hey man,
you were you were great. Don't get down on yourself.
That's like, that's like me telling a really good looking guy,
don't worry, you'll meet girls.

Speaker 3 (02:19:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:19:15):
I don't know if that's the right comparison. I just
thought that was funny. Most coming up to quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (02:19:20):
Like it's hard to be happy when you play perfect
and lose.

Speaker 3 (02:19:23):
This was this was like us during the last Dance
during COVID. We did like an hour long segment on
the Last Dance.

Speaker 5 (02:19:28):
Everything you have.

Speaker 1 (02:19:29):
Bought Netflix just for Quarterback. You owe it to yourself
to watch man Hunt, The Hunt for Osama Bit Love.

Speaker 3 (02:19:35):
Yes, quite literally, the best last episode was incredible. And
the first season of Quarterback and Receiver.

Speaker 1 (02:19:41):
Yes, I watched that thing like when I was on vacation.
That's literally the best thing I've ever watched.

Speaker 3 (02:19:47):
They found out it was him based on a shadow,
and don't forget as well, they're gonna use utilize the
ABS system during the All Star Game. That's why. That's it.
We're most next. ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Have
a great rest of your.

Speaker 29 (02:20:02):
Wednesday, WCKY Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (02:20:26):
Make us the number one preset on your car radio
and on the free, new and improved iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 17 (02:20:31):
Free.

Speaker 2 (02:20:31):
Never sounded so good. ESPN fifteen thirty