2/2/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Win one thousand dollars just entered this nationwide keyword on
our website.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Bonus.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
That's bonus.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Enter it now.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
I'm playing with.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
My kid yesterday afternoon in a full day dance cop basketball.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
We're playing Uno.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm watching college hoops and I get a ding on
my phone and I see the Jeff Passing story that
the Rats are signing au Hanio Soarez, and I let
out an audible gasp. My daughter's like, what's up, Dad?
Like the era is over? The era is over. It's like,
the hell you talking about?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
She didn't say hell, She's like, what do you mean?

Speaker 4 (00:40):
I go?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
But you know, for the last few years the Rads
have decided home runs aren't good. Maybe that era is over.
Good afternoon on Mulleger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank
you so much for listening. It's awesome to have you.
Hope you had an awesome weekend. Full show preview is
available right now on Twitter at Mulleger. Thanks to SHRIFFACX

(01:02):
credit union. Your place to become a member of Shareffac's
credit union is shareffax dot org.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Go do that now.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
In fifteen minutes, our guy, Jeff Carr the Locked On
Reds podcast. We're gonna talk Gino, We're gonna talk about
an off season. You know, back when last year ended
four months ago, when the season ended with the Reds
losing to the Dodgers and we started to talk in
great detail about the offseason, I think we all agreed
there were two things that had to happen. One is

(01:32):
they've got to find some relief pitching. They've got to
go get some established big league relievers who represent upgrades
from what the Reds had this past season, give Terry
francona more late game options, and help fill out specific roles.
I think they've done that. Whatever skepticism you may have

(01:54):
about Nick Crawl about ownership about the team in twenty
twenty six, they said, Nick Krawl said, we're going to
prioritize and I'm paraphrasing him here, We're going to prioritize
the bullpen.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
They did. They did that. That is a thing that happened.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
And so no matter how the rest of the offseason unfolded,
whether it was go and get Kyle Schwarber, whether it
was don't do anything, whether it was a Euhanio Souarez,
whether it was somebody else. Whether it was nobody else,
it was inarguable the Reds have addressed their bullpen, and
I think it's fair to say they they've made the

(02:33):
bullpen better. The only other thing that we said they
had to do, and I feel like we kind of
all agreed on this. They need a guy who can
hit the ball out of the ballpark. I don't recall
there being a ton of qualifiers, not they need a
guy who could hit the ball out of the ballpark
and gets on base a lot, and is great with

(02:55):
the glove, and can play a bunch of different positions
and is in his twenties. It was they need a
guy who could hit the ball out of the ballpark. Well,
now they've done that, so to a degree, they've accomplished
the things most of us said they had to do
this offseason. Now I'll just speak from my perspective. I

(03:19):
wish the outfield was a little bit better, like the
Noelve Marte thing. I'm not sure, man like, I don't know.
It still feels like they've got a guy playing out
of position. And yes, he made the catch of the
season last year. Late in the season when the Reds
are trying to make the postseason against the Pirates on
that Thursday where they needed to win, and he makes
a great catch in right field. Is he going to

(03:40):
hit enough? I hope so. Is it going to be
okay in the outfield? Boy, you better hope so. I
wish the outfield was a little bit better. That's I
think a fair perspective, but I think it's it's hard
to deny that what we said they had to do
this offseason they've now done. So good for Nick Krawl,

(04:03):
good for the Reds, good for ownership. For all the
criticism that Reds ownership gets and deserves, they got a
Eugenio Suarez and there's been no indication that they're going
to have to clear payroll in order to make room
for him. There hasn't been a subsequent move.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Now.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
They did move on from Gavin Lux, which I think
for a lot of folks suggested they're going to go
get a bat. Now, maybe some of that money is
going to go toward that bat, but they have exceeded
what I think a lot of us expected. The player
payroll for twenty twenty six was going to be. Good
for them, Good for them for doing something that from
a value perspective, really works out a Eugenio Suarez felt

(04:47):
like the best bat left on the market as the
calendar flip from January to February. You know, in an
ideal world, which we clearly don't live in, but in
an ideal world, it's it is Kyle Schwarber or it
is Alonzo. Younger guys, dudes who are just better offensive forces.
So those dudes were always going to go first. And

(05:09):
then a whole bunch of other guys that were talked
about here. Ryan O'Hearn was discussed, and that we talked
about the possibility of maybe them trading for ktel Marte,
which no deal there ever materialized. Luis Robert was discussed
for about a week, and really, if you think about
the last couple of years, he's been talked about a lot,
but that really didn't materialize.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
And so, you know, let's be honest.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
The closer we have gotten to spring training, which starts
here this weekend, the pickens have been pretty slim. It
sort of felt like Eugenio Suarez or hmm, whatever's behind
door number two. Well, because of the market and the
way it worked out, because of at Ujano's age, because
of i'll call him Gino because Gino has some holes

(05:54):
in his game, like defense and Don Bay's percentage, and
you know, inability to avoid a lot of strikeouts. The
market felt kind of depressed for a Uhaneo Suarez. There
are reports out of Pittsburgh that the Pirates offered a
commensurate salary for this coming season, but Gino wanted to

(06:14):
play in a more hitter friendly ballpark. Maybe wanted to
play in an environment that he's comfortable in. We all
know that Gino used to play for the Reds, but
they got a dude who last year hit forty nine
home runs for fifteen million dollars. Now in the real world, yes,
fifteen million dollars is a lot of money, but that

(06:37):
salary in twenty twenty six will make him no better
than the one hundred and thirteenth highest paid player in baseball.
There are reasons why he's that low on the list.
We just went through some of them. He's not a
perfect solution. If he has to play a lot in
the field for you, that ain't good. The drop off
from what key Brian Hayes's defensive lead to what Gena

(07:00):
is defensively at this stage in his career is stark.
They could work him in at first base a little bit.
Let's be honest, there are far better options to play
first base who currently are employed by the Cincinnati Reds.
If you were looking for somebody who doesn't strike out
a lot, and chances are this offseason was not going
to be for you. Gino has always struck out a lot.

(07:23):
He's a guy who last season didn't get on base
more than thirty percent of the time. He's also a
guy who, yes, he did hit fourteen home runs in
the regular season once he got traded from Arizona back
to Seattle, and he had a huge home run for
the Mariners in the postseason in Game six. But his
production did drop off pretty precipitously from Arizona to Seattle.

(07:46):
And so lots of reasons why the asking price came down,
lots of reasons why maybe the market wasn't there, but
the market not being there played to the Reds favor,
And so I don't know if they deserve a ton
of credit for this, but the way it worked out
did work out in their favor where they kind of

(08:06):
slow played this, and we've made fun of these seriousness
with which they went or didn't go after Kyle Schwarber.
But they do address their biggest issue from last year.
They've made no long term commitment in order to address
their biggest issue from last year. It's a one year contract,

(08:27):
mutual option for twenty twenty seven. Feels like the smart
money would be on Geno not being a Red in
twenty twenty seven. So no long term commitment and no contract,
no even one year contract. That just looks awful because
of its overall financial value. It's going to be the
one hundred and thirteenth highest paid player in baseball. I

(08:49):
don't know if there are one hundred and twelve better
players in baseball th e Juhanio Suarez even acknowledging some
of the deficiencies that he will bring back with him
to Cincinnati, So pretty good bargain fills exactly what they needed.
And on top of all of that, and I think
this should be the sincere hope. Even if Gino doesn't

(09:13):
hit forty nine home runs this season, even if he
doesn't make their offense markedly better this season, hopefully that
a Juhanio Suarez coming home is an acknowledgement that the
era of not liking home runs for lack of a

(09:33):
better way of putting it is over because that's been
a thing. That's been a thing, Like even last year
at the deadline the Reds needed offense. Who did they
go get? Who is the big acquisition? A third baseman
who can't hit and a guy in Miguel Andrew Harr
who only solves one sort of niche issue. Ideally, here,

(10:01):
the lack of pop is solved internally, where maybe by
the end of this coming season, Sal Stewart's a thirty
home run guy, or Ellie Dela Cruz rediscovers his home
run stroke and I'm willing to bet that with better
health and maybe the manager telling him no if he
wants to play every single day, that we see the
return of Ellie being able to hit the ball out

(10:22):
of the ballpark.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
But it has felt like for a while.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
And you know, we played the audio a couple of
weeks ago, we made fun of Tito for talking about
how well you can't win games consistently ten to nine.
You're gonna have to win him two to one of
three to two. In my take was like, why don't
you win games nine to three? Why don't you win
games ten to one? Why don't you win games eleven
to two. That sort of thing. The Reds had no
offensive identity last year. They didn't have a lot of

(10:47):
guys who were good at getting on base. They have
slowed their role when it comes to being aggressive on
the base pass, they don't steal as many bags like.
There was nothing they did exceptionally well last year, and
so the lack of overall offensive identity was exacerbated by
the fact that they had no one in the batting

(11:08):
order who was a real, bonafide home run threat consistently
throughout the course of the season. Now, maybe they're going
back in a hitter friendly park to leaning into home runs.
And despite what others may tell you, yes, home runs

(11:29):
are a really good thing, and Gino hit forty nine
of them last year, your thoughts are more than welcome.
Five point three seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. We'll have
a poll question that I'll ask you here now, which
is I think if you would have asked most, if
I would have asked you last week this offseason, what
grade would you give the Reds. Most would have given

(11:51):
a passing grade, but not an overwhelmingly good grade. Has
that changed based on one offseason acquisition? Five three seven nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. Later on in the show,
UH five time NBA champion and Miami University legend Ron
Harper I interviewed him on Saturday. You'll hear it at

(12:11):
five thirty five. Jeff Carr locked on Red's scheduled to
join us next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
I'm at Ezelak with the traffic this report.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Jeff Carr is gonna join us in just a second.
Locked on Reds Podcast, Reds did something yesterday, did something?
Signed a guy who had forty nine bombs and the
fact that he played here and was a fan favorite.
All that stuff is great. All that stuff is nice.

(12:46):
E u haanos Horez when he was here became a
very very very popular player because as a from a
personality perspective, he's an easy guy to root for. This
was not and should not have been the primary motivation
behind wanting him. Forty nine home runs, a guy that
provides some legitimate pop, especially in this ballpark. That was it.

(13:07):
And the other stuff is great. The other stuff can
be beneficial. The other stuff can be helpful. If the
idea is to add somebody who has played in postseason
games before and kind of been through the grind, so
to speak, and brings his positivity to the table. Then
all of that is good. What matters more than anything

(13:27):
else is the home run potential. Jeff is with us
locked on Red's podcast and did like an emergency episode
after yesterday's news, So I know you've been busy, man,
It's good to have you. What's going on?

Speaker 5 (13:40):
Man? I am so excited Mo, because this was I
didn't expect this. I thought he was going to go
back to Seattle and we were gonna have to squint
really hard at Miguel and New Harvey and the DH
of this team.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
So this is much better than what I hadn't envisioned
yesterday morning.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
If I would have asked you, what how do you
grade the Reds offseason?

Speaker 3 (13:57):
What would you have said?

Speaker 5 (14:00):
Because the bullpen's awesome, but they missed out on the
biggest thing they need.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Now, what's the grade Threads offseason?

Speaker 5 (14:09):
Give him a bee? Because I think that they addressed
their biggest need. They probably didn't do it with like
the best dude on the market, I mean best available
right now. Yes, but it's not as if they went
and they got Kylee Schwarber, although there are some things
to say that the deals that they got for the
guy that they have might be even better than what
they would have had to get for Kyle Schwarber. So
I give them a solid B because I still think

(14:31):
you look at the outfield and you're like, Okay, there's
a lot of hope out there. You got to you
gotta work with some things out there. But the lineup
is better than it was last year in my opinion.
The pitching staff is better than it was in last
year in my opinion. So I think that this team,
as currently constructed as a division contender.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Does this is this is my hope. My hope is
this ends the era of not leaning in the home runs.
Can I say that this signifies that they're going to
start leaning back into home runs?

Speaker 5 (15:03):
Yes, because they signed the guy that that is all
he is supposed to do. Like, he's not coming here
to be the third baseman. He's not coming here to
be the first baseman. He's coming here to hit dingers.
And that is exactly his role as currently constructed, because
he comes in with an isolated power for his career,
isolated power being slugging percentage minus batting average, trying to,

(15:27):
you know, set aside the extra base hit potential for
a guy his career number on that is two eighteen.
There was no regular player in the Reds lineup last
year over two hundred. The closest to that was Will Benson,
but do we call him a regular player in this lineup?
So he was he was at two h nine. Nobody
else was above two hundred. They immediately upgraded their extra

(15:48):
base hit potential.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Some will point out, and perhaps accurately so that, yes,
Gino hits a bunch of home runs, he also strikes
out a lot, and that while you have added more power,
or at least power potential, you're also adding a lot
more played appearances that end with no contact being made
for a team that already has a lot of guys
who at times make no contact.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
What would you say to.

Speaker 5 (16:11):
That, That's exactly what they would have added. How they
signed Kyle Schwarber because both guys have the same with percentage.
We're swinging this percentage from last season of thirty three percent,
and in fact, Kyle Schwarber actually struck out one more
time than Auhanio Suarez did.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
All right, there is there another move out there that
with spring training looming here now in less than a week,
is there another move out there that fans should jump
on the bandwagon and say, you know what, for the
right price, which at this stage in the game is
what you would be paying, adding this guy would make sense.

Speaker 5 (16:49):
In the free agent market. They don't think so, not
without a trade to open up a spot, because it
seems as though the Reds are going to enter camp
for better or for worse with a position battle for
the platoon of left field between JJ Bleda and Will Binson.
If they could upgrade it, that would be good, But
there isn't necessarily a just surefire upgrade that is available

(17:10):
on the market for the Reds at this point, and
then you'll be talking about are they going to make
a trade. There's a lot of rumors that have been
shut down, like rumors early on in the off season
of Catel Marte or Jared Duran that have since been
shut down by both the Diamondbacks and the Red Sox.
So I don't foresee any other move that really moves
the needle for them. There could be, you know, those

(17:31):
non roster invites, the spring training type deals, but nobody
that we're going to be doing another emergency podcast.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
For Jeff Carr locked on Red's podcast Emergency Podcast. Go
watch or to listen to it. Did it last night.
I think here's what I like most about the offseason.
And I do wish the outfield was better, I will
admit that. But they have addressed their biggest issue, and
yet Hunter Green is still a Red. Nick Lodolo is
still a Red, Andrew Abbot's still a Red, Chase Burn

(18:00):
still a Red.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Reat Louder still a Red.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
They did what I think a lot of folks did
not expect them to do or didn't think they could do.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
They have made the team better.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
And we could debate how much better they are going
to be, but they have made the team better and
they haven't.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Cut into their biggest strength. That is the biggest win.

Speaker 5 (18:19):
Of all, because that's what we heard at the beginning
of the off season they were going to have to
do right Like you heard it from Mark Sheldon, heard
it from multiple people as like, well, if they're going
to upgrade the line up, they have to trade one
of those starting pitchers.

Speaker 6 (18:32):
They have to.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
There's no two bones about it. And yet they didn't.
And they said the thing and at least in Charlie
Goldsmith's SUBSEAC article that he wrote about the signing of Suarez.
They said the thing that none of us would have
put money and that they said, They said that there
is no move that they have to make in order

(18:53):
to financially explain this signing, because they are going to
spend the necessary dollars to bring in Suarez without damaging
the rest of the roster, because they want to build
a winner. And while I think some of us might
snicker at that a little bit because they're like, well,
now now you're going to do that, at least they're
finally doing that, and it looks as if they're going

(19:13):
to commit to twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
You know what, I think I like beyond that more
than anything, that we're not talking about them giving something
up for Luise Robert. I was out on that from
the beginning. And look at May he may work out
in New York. We'll see. He's got to stay healthy.
That's obviously been an issue in Chicago. But I remember
having a conversation with somebody four or five weeks ago
where I'm like, look, Luis Robert or are u Haaneo Suarez,

(19:38):
I will take d one dimensional geno instead of the
perhaps zero dimensional Luise Robert.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
Do you agree? In fact, the moment that the news
was announced that Suarez was a Red Are Lockdown White
Sox host Todd Welter texted me and he said, eu
Haano Suarez is better than Luise Robert. So he even
admits that, And he was the guy that had to
watch the use Robert for the part of his career
that he was in Chicago now, So I am with

(20:04):
you one hundred percent, and I think that the biggest
is between that it could say that Luis Roberts a
five tool player, you cannot say that he is able.
You absolutely have no doubt about that with heu Haaneo
Suarez because he's got several seasons in a row now
of playing at least one hundred and fifty five ball games.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
You mentioned the left field battle.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Beyond that, what is your biggest question about this team
going into spring training?

Speaker 5 (20:31):
Who is Matt McClain. Is Matt McClain twenty twenty three,
Is Matt McLain twenty twenty five or is he somewhere
in between? What's that going to be because that's going
to raise the ceiling of this ball club even more
so than the addition of au Haaneo Suarez, because as
much as we talked about the lineup needs protection for
La de la Cruz, the lineup also got absolutely zilch

(20:54):
out of the number two spot in this lineup. And
while Noelfrey Marte is probably going to be your opening
day number to hit her, and he's got a shot
to really take control of that. I know what I
saw from Matt McClain in twenty twenty three, and I
know it wasn't what we saw from him in twenty
twenty five. So if he comes back with more of
twenty twenty five's version of Matt McClain, then I'm gonna

(21:16):
have a lot more questions about this team moving forward
than if the Reds had had gone and gotten you know,
Aujaneo Suarez Light instead of the man who we will
see named Gino and yelling Skala and goodbyes only.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
I like the fact that Tito acknowledged that Sal Stewart
is going to have to make the team first. But
I get excited over this possibility, and you know it
might not be the most likely outcome, but if I
could jot down in black magic marker, if he plays
the entire season thirty to thirty five home runs from
a Eugeneo Suarez, which would be down from forty nine

(21:52):
last year. If I could somehow get thirty from Sal Stewart,
which the dude did hit five in less than a
month last year, maybe that's a little bit pie in
the sky. But you could take a team that had
such a hard time getting any pop, that hasn't had
a guy hit thirty home runs in the season since
Gino did it. Uh, if I can, in the course
of one season have an offense that just with those

(22:15):
two guys, not to mention what you might be able
to get from a healthy Elie de la Cruz, suddenly
I've gone from a team that had no power threat
to one that now might have an overabundance of power
threat draft right, and I end up.

Speaker 5 (22:30):
That is just causing damage left and right. I felt
like the narrative and kind of like you said, You're
like they're finally committing to power because the narrative of
well that kind of Bill Browley's it got a string
hits together, which is explaining how a bad offense bes
less bad or it is less bad. So I really
like to see that jump forward and south Stewart to

(22:52):
your point, I mean, I think there's a lot of
folks around the country who evaluate minor league talent that
would say, we're not that far off the numbers that
we're expecting from him, because he was one of the
very few guys in all of minor league baseball the
last couple of years to average really high quality of
contact and really low strikeout rates to be called up

(23:13):
to the major leagues. I think that we'll see a
lot more from sal I think he's going to be
on this opening day roster. I appreciate it. Like you said,
they're not handing it to him, but I think it's
going to be clear that he earns it, especially given
the alternatives. I mean, are we really thinking that Cees
is going to take his seat back on this bench?

Speaker 6 (23:31):
I doubt that.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
I think that south Stewart's going to win this thing
clear and a far and away very quickly into spring trade.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Stringing hits together as inefficient. Three hits for one run
doesn't work. One hit for one run works, and so
I like home runs awesome stuff as always, Man, thanks so.

Speaker 5 (23:48):
Much, Oh thanks for having man go d there you go.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
That's our guy, Jeff Carr locked on Red's podcast emergency episode.
He recorded it like an hour after they Uhaneosuarez news
came out. Go watch it or listen to it if
you're a Reds fan or hell, even if you're not.
Five one three, seven, four nine fifteen thirty is our
phone number. Sports headlines are next and the weekend. That
was on the hardwood on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

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Speaker 9 (24:55):
Six seconds ago, change tied more of each and a
drive to baseline. He spends he shoots, he's got it,
hey hecks at times, Expire Xavier wins It sixty eight
sixty six and bor Visionist Bob by his teammates. Now
the officials are gonna walk over and review it to
make sure he got the shot off in time.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
It's Joe Sunderman Byron Larkin, Saturday afternoon on fifty five
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With the game winner. By the way, it wasn't close.

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chef dot com. There is no Richard Patino radio show tonight.
The Muskies en route to Connecticut. They'll take on yukon
tomorrow evening. If there is a Mark Pope radio show
tonight at six on ESPN fifteen thirty Kentucky coming off
that big road win over Arkansas eighty five to seventy seven,
Take it away, with a big game. The officials had

(26:12):
a big game calling technical fouls as well. The NKU
Coaches Show is tonight at seven o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Darren Horns team with call it what it is. A
disastrous trip to Michigan. Back to back losses to Detroit
Mercy on Friday and then Oakland yesterday. That's four consecutive
l's for the North. The Miami RedHawks move up a

(26:33):
spot in the AP Top twenty five Men's College Basketball poll.
The RedHawks are now twenty third. Ron Harper was there
to get his honorary doctorate degree. Ron Harper the all
time greatest Miami basketball player ever and a five time
NBA champion and I had a chance to talk with
him on Saturday, and we'll play that conversation for you

(26:56):
at five thirty five. He loses. Over the weekend, the
Bearcats get smoked by Houston in a game that was
never really in doubts. I know, folks get worked up
about what Wes says in the postgame show, and he
made a reference to UC got stuck in Arizona because

(27:19):
of the snowstorm that blanketed much of the country and
so instead of coming back on Saturday night after last
week's game to Arizona State. They didn't get back to
Cincinnati until Monday evening, and I'm sure that was a
pain in the neck.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
They had to come back and play one game and
then go right back to Texas to play a game.
First of all, this is what life in the Big
twelve is going to be like. Secondly, I don't know
that there's anything that anybody is going to say in
a postgame interview or a postgame press conference that is

(27:53):
either going to make anybody feel any better about how
the season has gone and is going to at least
I can only speak for myself deflect my attention away
from well, what's to me the biggest storyline right now?
They have played on the road two of the very

(28:13):
best teams in college basketball here in the last week, Arizona,
who's one of two unbeaten teams along with the RedHawks,
and Houston, who is up to an eighth in the
AP Top twenty five poll. For what it's worth, both
games were pretty non competitive. Cincinnati lost by twenty two

(28:38):
on Saturday. There were stretches in that game where I
thought it was going to be thirty five to forty
the final margin. Cincinnati was down only six against Arizona
in that game in Tucson. They ended up losing by
twenty six. Those are the programs that if you're a

(29:00):
Bearcat fan, you should be using as measuring sticks as barometers.
And that's the standard that whether it's Wes Miller as
the head coach or anybody who may take over for
him at the end of the season, that's that's the
standard right there. It's the best in the Big Twelve.

(29:25):
Like we've we've kind of changed the conversation here over
the last couple of years where it's you know what,
just make the tournament.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
And yeah, like I get it.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Before you can talk about like having a team that's
a top four seed or a top five seed, or
capable of making a deep march run or winning a
conference title, like just be team number sixty eight. Just
have your your your school's name pomp up on the
screen on Selection Sunday. I understand that, But it wasn't
that long ago that we were taugh talking about a

(30:00):
fan base that I am a part of that was
exasperated with having the season end during the first weekend
of the NCAA Tournament. Now, it was during the American
Athletic Conference stay, but they were winning or competing for
conference championships. They were a top two seed in the

(30:21):
tournament in twenty eighteen, which was their second to last
most recent NCAA tournament appearance. So back then, you know,
it was kind of decided by a lot of fans,
like making the tournament every year is not good enough.
Here we are seven years later, and all we want
to do is see the team make the tournament, which,
let's be honest, is not going to happen this year.

(30:44):
If you're members of the Big Twelve, then you should
be compared to the teams that are at the top
of the Big Twelve. And while yes, they did beat
a very good Iowa State team and they still have
to play Kansas, Who's I think no longer right now
viewed as the current standard center in the Big Twelve,
but historically speaking, has been in a game against Texas

(31:07):
Tech here in a few weeks. But like it looks
and feels like Arizona and Houston are the two like
barometers in this league. Cincinnati has played him twice on
the road and got bludge in both times.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
And it just feels like they're so far away from that.

Speaker 6 (31:27):
And I get it.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
It's dude, forget about that make the tournament first. I'm
more interested in what are they going to be back
to competing for league championships? What are they going to
be back to being talked about as a team that
can make a run in March. Well, if you were
to judge them against those two barometers in this league,

(31:49):
a team in Arizona that I was the best in
the country, and a team in Houston that Calvin Sampson
has been winning Big twelve titles with and advancing deep
into the tournament with and competing for final fours and
national championships with a long damn way, long damn way.

(32:10):
And so there's there's nothing in any postgame setting. There's
no news conference, there's there's nothing, nothing that is gonna
make anybody feel any better about watching UC playing these
games where they have next to no chance to win.

(32:32):
Quarter to four are Juhaneosuarez though, is back. You know
I'm gonna make I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna I'm
gonna bet something that cannot be disproven because it's not
gonna happen. But I wish it would next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 7 (32:45):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 8 (32:51):
See Health Traffic Center. Trust the experts that you see
help for innovative and personalized heartcare. They never miss a beat.
Your heart shouldn't either. Schedule online at ucehealth dot com.
Seventy five at northbound at the Western Hills Viaduct to
write two lanes blocked off from an accident.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
Traffic backed up from Ezer Charles Drive.

Speaker 8 (33:10):
Minute or two worth of delays right now southbound col
Ring right lane blocked from an accident at two seventy
five westbound Burlington Pike accident at Carlton Drive.

Speaker 10 (33:20):
On that he's like with traffic, this report, that's the
next championship that's going to be decided.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Lots of good things about the Reds acquiring Hey o Henneosarez,
not the least of which is it's fun to say,
hey Heneosarez. But on the very very top of the
list is this one thing. And we'll get to that
coming up at four oh five. You know, we we

(33:48):
were kind of making fun I think it was two
weeks ago of the guy from the Regional Chamber, Brendan Cole,
who wrote the letter to the editor condemning fans at
the Xavier game a few weeks ago for booing Phil Castellini,
and you know, pointing out that the Reds mean a
lot to this region, mean a lot to this community.

(34:08):
The Xavier Reds partnership is one that's going to be
very beneficial. By the way, all of which is really
really true, highlighting that opening Day is something that should
bring about unity and togetherness, which it does and it will.
It does every single year. But beyond all that, what
matters most is the baseball part of it is the

(34:31):
winning and losing part of it is the championship part
of it is the attempt to winning a championship part
of it, and it might take on Phil when it's
come to the booing of him or fan resentment aimed
at at him has been that this guy, for fifteen
years was celebrated. I when I say this guy, I

(34:51):
think by extension, the entire Castellini family owned the team
for fifteen years before anybody really set a peep about him,
before they took any real heat from Reds fans, before
anybody ever would have booed ownership like fifteen years happened.
This has been a community and a fan base that

(35:12):
has wanted to not boo Reds ownership but celebrate it.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
And so I don't know if you took.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
That event at the Cintas Center, whatever it was, two
weeks ago, if it happened tonight, I would be willing
to bet the overall tone of it would have been
a little bit different. Yes, many fans may have still booed.
I'm gonna bet, though, And when I say bet, there's

(35:43):
no way of me actually making this bet because such
a thing isn't gonna happen. So it's an imaginary scenario.
I can't get a payoff from an imaginary scenario. But
I guess that if that same event took place tonight
or tomorrow, Let's say Xavier was playing at home. Tomorrow,
they're playing Connecticut on the road and Phil Castellini is introduced,

(36:08):
at least some of those booze would have been cheers
because the part that people care about the most was
directly addressed. The Red's fortunes for this coming season seem better.
I still would not pick them to win the division.

(36:29):
It gets a stretch to say that they're a bona
fide World Series championship team. But they're a better club.
They've addressed and I don't think you should get a
ton of credit for addressing the obvious, but they've addressed
an obvious weakness. They've done it by spending some money.
They've done it by not spending any player capital. That's

(36:52):
a pretty good baseball move. It's made the team better.
It addresses what people care about the most. It may
not address their standing in the community. It may not
address what the Reds are as a corporate citizen because
no one cares. That sounds harsh and is maybe an
over exaggeration, like you don't want the booing to continue. Cool,

(37:16):
show a genuine commitment to winning, and then have that
commitment pay off with, you know, actual winning, and if
that happens, those booze will turn into cheers. This is
a fan base that is dying to rapids, armed around
every facet of the organization. I would promise you this

(37:40):
that if the red spent the next decade rattling off
a long streak of playoff appearances, division titles, if they
go deep into the postseason on a regular basis, if
they win a World Series, every other facet of these
organizations will benefit. There will be more people engaged with

(38:00):
and donating to the Reds Community Fund. There will be
more people buying season tickets. Television ratings will be higher.
More folks will care about Reds initiatives. Reds Fast attendance
will go up, Reds Hall of Fame admissions will go up,
the community initiatives. Folks will wrap their arms around them.

(38:23):
This city is dying for the Reds to be better.
The twenty twenty three team re energized this city. It
won eighty two games dying too. So yeah, all right,
you could tell fans they should get over it. I
hear fans who yesterday were like excited that they added

(38:46):
one guy, one dude, a flawed player, but added one guy.
The extent to which people want to embrace this team
and the people who own it cannot be over the
best part of this move. I'll tell you what it
is next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Here's your chance to win one thousand dollars. Just enter
this nationwide keyword on our website.

Speaker 5 (39:12):
Credit.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
That's credit.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
Enter it now.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
You know there's something you've got to remember about last
year's Red's offense.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
When we talk about a Eumenio Suarez and the entire.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Offseason that's coming up in about fifteen minutes. There's also
one thing the Bengals could do, just like the two
Super Bowl teams that in thirty minutes later on, Ron
Harper is going to be on the show more college
basketball as well. This is the best part of the
Auhenio Suarez thing to me. The Reds have addressed their

(39:46):
biggest need.

Speaker 6 (39:48):
Now.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
I think it's completely fair to look at the team
and go, is that really gonna be the outfield? Completely fair?
Like you're hearing JJ bleday and Will Benson. I like
a lot of things about Will Benson, but this guy
hasn't been able to stick as a regular for the
entirety of his big league career. Last year there were
times where he got sent down. Last year, there was

(40:11):
also a week where he was named National League Player
of the Week. Like the high end and low end
of Will Benson, there's a stark difference between the two,
so you never know what you're gonna get with that guy.
JJ bledet eh like really the most offseason acquisition there
is noelve Marte Man we will see, but I think

(40:31):
it's inarguable they have addressed their biggest offensive weakness, which
the home runs dried up last year and there was
no real long ball threat. E Uhaneosuarez is a long
ball threat.

Speaker 5 (40:49):
Now.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Remember, though, when last season came to an end, it
felt like, if not an inevitability, at least a distinct
possibility that if the Reds addressed their biggest weakness, it
was gonna come at the expense of their starting pitching depth.
I think the most overrated thing in this sport is

(41:12):
starting pitching depth. Not because you don't want it, of
course you do, but I every time I hear somebody
talking about the starting pitching depth, they immediately start talking
about trading away one of the starting pitchers. And like, yes,
when you're gonna trade for an established player, you're gonna
look at a place where you're well stocked. You're gonna

(41:35):
look at a place where you've got a lot of options,
where you have depth, where you have one might say
even a surplus. But it's interesting for all of the
Reds starting pitching depth, they still had to acquire a
starting pitcher last year at the trade deadline. For all
of their starting pitching depth, it felt like it kind
of dried up. They're down the stretch when they were

(41:55):
scratching and clawing to find their way into the postseason.
So I don't know about you, but to me, the
best approach for this team this year was to find
a way to address the biggest weakness, but have it
come at not the expense, or not have it come
at the expense. I should say of their biggest strength,

(42:16):
which is starting pitching. And this is what I love
most about au Haanio Suarez. All he cost him were
fifteen million dollars. By the way, that's not my money,
it's not your money. I don't care. I don't care
what they spend on players. I want them to spend
as much as possible. If they sign a guy to
a bad contract, you know it's it's bad, it's not good.
You can dig out from underneath it. You could overcome it.

(42:38):
They got a guy who had forty nine home runs
last year. It did not cost them. Nick Lodolo it
did not cost them. Chase Burns did not cost them.
Chase Petty it didn't cost him. Anybody named Chase didn't
cost him. Hunter Green didn't cost him, Andrew Abbott didn't
cost him. Rht Louder didn't cost him, Brandon Williamson, We're

(43:00):
going down the depth chart here. Didn't cost him. Anybody
in the bullpen is established either. This is the best part.
What the Reds have done this offseason is pretty good.
If we're grading, I don't know that any of us
would give them an A or an A plus. I
s Jeff Carr he had it at about a B
or a B minus, and it's kind of about where

(43:22):
I would have it.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
I think I'd have it at a B.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
B's a good grade, but I would be willing to
inflate it if you said, yeah, but the upgrades didn't
come at the expense of dudes you didn't want to
part with.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
This is what made this is.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
What's awesome about free agency. This is not the first
time we've talked about this. The last time the Reds
went forward in free agency was the offseason nineteen to twenty.
And what was awesome about that stretch. And you know,
unfortunately it was thwarted, so to speak, because of COVID.
But all those players the Reds got, some of them
worked out, some of whom are not so much. Shogaukayama

(43:59):
was not a good acquisition. The Mike Mustakas contract ended
up not being a favorable one, but they acquired talent
and it didn't cost them what is most important, the
most important currency in this sport, which is really good
starting pitching, which you cannot have too much of. If
there's a clicheade saying I buy into, it's you can

(44:22):
never have enough starting pitching.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
We saw it last year.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
You can never have enough starting pitching, which all these
good starting pitchers the Reds had last year. Thank god
for Brady Singer down there in the fourth or fifth
spot in the rotation. They don't make the postseason without
Brady's Singer in the month of August. This team falls
off a cliff in August if not for Brady Singer.
So you add that on top of some of the
starts that Hunter Green had in September and most of

(44:47):
the season that Andrew Abbott had, and most of the
season that Nick Lodolo had. You know, for a while
we were hearing about how the Reds were engaged with
the Chicago White Sox and discussions about Luis Robert man.
Louise Robert, when healthy a few years ago, was awesome
with the White Sox, and defensively he has few peers
and maybe a fully healthy Luise Roberts a really productive player.

(45:11):
If Luise Robert were a free agent and the Reds
signed him, how could anybody object to that? Right because
I don't know that it would be for what he
is going to be making this season with the Mets
taking over that contract from the White Sox. But adding
him to your team, if it just costs money, that's cool.
Where the Luise Robert thing became completely undesirable was when

(45:36):
you saw what the White Sox were asking for. Wait
a minute, I got to give up good starting pitchers
to get a guy who's never healthy and hasn't been
really productive now in years. So Souarez, Look, there are major,
major holes in his game. He's not going to get
on Baston. You and I know that he is going

(45:58):
to strike out a lot he always had, as you
and I know that if they have to put him
at third base, something has gone awry. If he has
to wear a glove, the Reds defensively aren't gonna be
as good as a different version of them. But he
can hit the ball out of the ballpark. He is
a one dimensional player. I think it was Charlie Goldsmith

(46:19):
who described him as such. And that's a fair that's
a fair description. He is a one dimensional player, but
he brings to Cincinnati the one dimension they didn't have
last year, home runs. The Reds got home runs. They
didn't have to sacrifice any run prevention to get them.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
This is how we should be talking about this team
moving forward. And by the way, that doesn't mean that
there's not room for trades. The Reds have benefited from trades.
But I would rather pay a bunch of money than
give up prized assets. I would rather go over budget.

(47:03):
I would rather sign somebody to a contract that maybe
isn't great then cut into the deepest part of my
team of I don't have to The good news is
to get at Uhaneusuirez, they didn't have to. So in
terms of player acquisition, I think you can give the

(47:23):
Reds a B. Three pretty good relievers address their biggest
issue on offense, added some bit players like Bidet or
Bladet and Dane Myers. Confusing bla Day and Bidet is unfortunate.
But where the offseason to me, really takes a positive

(47:45):
turn is when you look at who's still on the
team from last year. Because if the Reds do win
ninety to ninety five games, and that should be the goal.
And to go from eighty three wins to ninety to
ninety five is gonna have to require some things that
have to go dramatically different in twenty twenty six. But

(48:06):
if they're going to do that, still, the biggest reason
why is going to be the starting pitching. And it's
probably gonna be not just the quality of starting pitching,
it's going to be the depth of it. If you
can never have too much starting pitching. The Reds have
leaned into that this offseason. That is really really encouraging.
And look, there could have been guys available better than

(48:28):
Gino that would have cost the Reds some starting pitching,
and you know, I think you would have to treat
those on a case by case basis.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
But if you go back to.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Early October, it felt like a distinct possibility that, Okay,
to go get a slugger, you're gonna have to part
with something. I mean, you could find Reds fans who
talked actively about godd you trade Hunter Green and it's like, huh,
what what you want to do?

Speaker 8 (48:56):
What now.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
You want to trade away a cost controlled staff ace,
two time All Star a guy who was money in
September for you. You want to huh Nope, didn't have
to do it. Well, you might want to trade Nicolodola
what huh yeah, excuse me now? So uh reasonable cost
control there? And uh a guy a guy who was

(49:25):
a walking quality start for a stretch last season. You
know what, you might have to trade Andrew Abbit? Well, hey,
hang on anyway, So so like they're they're all star
starting pitcher. Last year franchise that hasn't been associated with
a ton of starting pitchers got a trade. Uh huh,
didn't have to do any The strength of last year's

(49:45):
team remains intact. They just addressed its biggest weakness. That's
the best type of off season. You don't cut into
your weakness to make a strength. I'm sorry, you don't
cut into a to fortify a weakness.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
That's the best. That to me is where they get
a really good grade.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
This part of the team that they are really good
at is still completely and totally intact. This part of
the team that was woeful last year, it's been addressed.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Five point three seven, fifteen thirty. I tell you what
else has to be good next? Now that if the
Cincinnati Reds are going to be markedly better in twenty
twenty six. It will largely be based on two things. One,
the starting pitching is going to have to be as
good and chances are, in many respects even better than

(50:48):
it was last year. Number Two, a whole lot of
dudes who are part of the organization last year are
going to have to contribute more at the big league
level this season. So, yes, they needed a bat from
the outside, They've gotten one. We know what Gino is
going to bring to the table. But Allie Deyla Cruz
must be a more productive player in twenty twenty six.

(51:12):
I'm sure. I'm sure everyone will tell you. While he's healthier,
he feels better, he's physically more capable of putting up
the sort of numbers that we expect from him. Regardless,
they need those numbers. They need Matt McClain to be
a substantially better offensive player in twenty twenty six than
he was last season. They need a full year of

(51:35):
production from Sal Stewart, they need a full year of
production from Noel ve Marte, and they could use some
more from the catching position as well. So this has always,
I think been the case what acquiring a u Haanio
Suarez does is it fills a need. It fills a gap,
may fill a spot in the middle of the order,

(51:55):
provides a tangible home run thread, an important home run
for at But I think what was true a week
ago is still true today. That what this team's success
this season hinges on is more all. It's just basic math, right.
All the guys who either last year underperformed or weren't

(52:20):
with the team for much of the season like Sal Stuart,
or had stretches where they were really good, but other
stretches where they were you know, non productive, like Ellie Delacruz.
A lot of that stuff has to be rectified for
the geno thing to really really work. Twenty three minutes
after four o'clock, Mike, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Mike, go ahead, boy.

Speaker 11 (52:42):
You are one gentleman. I'll have to say that, well,
it appears that you have the late lender goosebumps over
our Cincinnati read.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
I don't know if I'd go that far, but I'm
excited that they've addressed at their biggest issue from last year.

Speaker 11 (53:00):
Yeah, I agree, I was just you know, we can
wish away of course, it's always if that's this, But
I was wishing a month ago that they could get it.
Wasn't this Schward or whoever a left handed power hitter,
because l is the only left handed power hitter sort
of that we have. But you know, this will be
a good experiment and hopefully it works for the best

(53:23):
pitchings the name of the game. I just hope Hunter
can have a season where he's not hurt multiple times. Yes,
and that Lodolo because the Dodgers can get away with that.
Certain teams can't because they just have enough hitting. But
the Reds aren't able. And I pray to god Hunter
goes the whole year, don't you and Lodolo too, because
they would be outstanding if they could stay healthy.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
It's it's the one thing they haven't done right. It's
the one thing that if you talk about the strength
of the Reds team, that's sort of you know, hangs
out there that Hunter Green has yet to get through
a full season without having to go on the injured list.
And you know, nothing against anybody else on the team,

(54:05):
but he's the guy. He's the staff as he's the
guy they gave the ball to in Game one last year.
It obviously went very very poorly. Nickolodolo, who as a
general rule, had a very very good season last year,
but he still had to spend a little time I
think missed three starts last season on the injured list.

(54:27):
Chances are, somebody is gonna get hurt, right, I mean
it's you know, in twenty twelve, everybody, the entire staff
got through the season unhinged, unhurt. Nobody went on the DL,
and then Johnnyquato got hurt Game one. Chances are there's
going to be nothing like that. But yeah, man, you're
just you're hoping for better health for those guys individually

(54:47):
and for that group collectively, and if they get it,
then then the the strength of the team becomes an
even bigger strength. I would agree with that.

Speaker 11 (55:00):
Can I do a little before I want to get
to a couple of Super Bowl points? But quickly on
college basketball, this Peterson kid for Kansas is some He's
the best domestic player we have. I don't know about
the guys coming in from low reseas, but this guy
is special, mom, uh he is.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
And you know I watched the BYU game, which I
thought was going to be a much much better game.
Darren Peterson had a very quiet twenty in that game, right, yeah,
very very very quiet twenty In that game. Bryson Tiller
had twenty one for Kansas. Every NBA mock draft that
I have seen has Darren Peterson as the number one

(55:41):
overall pick. Cincinnati plays him on the twenty first. I'm
not looking forward to it, no, And.

Speaker 11 (55:48):
I really think I'm so happy for his age, because
I think they landed a real winner here with the
Tito Junior. I really do see that kid. The kid
that he brought from New Mexico with him was the
one that buried the game the other night. And that
guy can play well.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
He can out play again Philip Orovichen And you know,
the the very first time I watched him, he played
against UC for Arizona, and then it felt like, all right,
he's going to go down a level from the Pac
twelve at the time to the Mountain West and now
he's playing in the Big East and averaging ten of
game and made the game winning shot on Saturday.

Speaker 6 (56:25):
He sure did.

Speaker 11 (56:26):
And I loved Patino's whole attitude in the postgame. Was
so cool with the crediting the assistant coaches. You know,
all that, but it was pretty neat. Okay, super Bowl
real quickly. I think the real wild card in this
game for New England is Marcus Jones because of his
ability to play cornerback and on special teams. This guy

(56:47):
is dangerous. And I know, and I'm going I mean,
I never played props and parlays never, but I'm gonna
go out on a limb this this week. And I'm
taking Seattle, of course, but I'm gonna say, uh and
Jigba is gonna go under ninety and a half because

(57:08):
Bravel's gonna double him or bracket him the whole game.
And if it's garbage time at the end of Seattle
is winning, it's that's not going to be in jeopardy.
But I'm taking the under on that ninety four and
a half. Receiving yards from Jigba.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
Well, I think in Jigma versus Christian Gonzalez is maybe
going to be the matchup that defines this Super Bowl.
I think in Jigba, I think they're almost going to
force feed him the ball. There's a few that I
like that we'll talk about later in the week. I
think my favorite one is the Seattle defense. Anytime touchdown yeah,
I saw that.

Speaker 11 (57:41):
That's got me intrigued. I just every time I do this, mo,
I end up doing and I'm done it well, But
every time I do two or three props and you know,
I just don't let out a whole lot typically, So
that's why I.

Speaker 6 (57:54):
Try to stick to it.

Speaker 11 (57:55):
You taught me this a long time ago, my friend.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Yeah. I mean, well, I don't play parlays. I think
parlays are a sucker bet.

Speaker 6 (58:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
I feel like if you're gonna be not that I
haven't done them. And there are exceptions that I will make.
But it's like I'll hear somebody talk about, like I
lost my six teamer, Well, how made you get right five? Okay,
well he didn't win any Why don't you make six
individual bets and if you hit five and then you're

(58:26):
a winner. I think betting parlays is buying a raffle ticket.
Occasionally you'll win, more often than not, you'll lose. And
you might say that about wagering overall. But every time
I hear somebody tell me about their three teamer and
two of them hit, and I'm like, well, had you
made three individual bets if two of them hit, that
you win. That's that's more fun than losing all three

(58:49):
and then not winning any You got it.

Speaker 11 (58:52):
Teach him, teach him brother, and one last thing.

Speaker 6 (58:55):
I know, you got to go.

Speaker 11 (58:57):
You may be aware of this, but the listeners may
not be. This is the sixtieth Super Bowl and this
is only the fifth time that two teams are in
there that did not make the playoffs this year. The
one that really jumps out at me is Brady after
he won his first New England did not make the
playoffs the next year. That's how hard When I hear
guys and you different broadcasters say how hard it is

(59:20):
to make it to the super Bowl. That's a perfect example.
Five times in sixty years.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
I didn't know that, but it makes sense now that
you say it.

Speaker 5 (59:31):
Yep.

Speaker 11 (59:31):
Anyway, thanks pal, I appreciate the time.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
Okay, Mike, thank you, thanks very much. Yeah, man, Like,
that's like the red starting pitching last year was a
strength in order for it to be a bigger strength
this year than some of those dudes who haven't gotten
yet through full of a full big league season without
getting hurt are going to have to go the whole,
the whole six months. Make thirty two to thirty three
starts sports headlines next on ESPN fifteen to thirty.

Speaker 7 (59:57):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifty thirty. Traffic from the.

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Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
The Reds are reportedly signing a Johanneo Suarez to a
one year contract with a mutual option for twenty twenty seventies,
due to make roughly fifteen million bucks this year. You
know Gino used to play for the Reds, and then
last year he played for the Diamondbacks and the Mariners,
and between those two spots stops places, whatever, and the
postseason he had fifty two home runs. Reds neat home runs.

(01:01:15):
Gino hits home runs, and he'll be hitting his home
runs now in a Reds uniform, which is good.

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
College basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
The Miami RedHawks move up a spot to twenty second
in the latest AP Top twenty five men's college basketball poll.
Louisville slides four spots to twenty fourth. Kentucky got twenty
eight votes, which is good enough for thirtieth. More tonight
on the Wildcats on the Mark Pope Show that's at
six pm on ESPN fifteen thirty, followed up by the

(01:01:44):
NKU Coaches Show that is going to be at seven
on ESPN fifteen thirty. There is no Richard Patino radio show.
Tonight is the Musketeers are traveling today to Connecticut to
take on Yukon tomorrow tomorrow on the show Two Things
I'm Really excited about.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
One is on Friday, I.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Went to the Elder Sportstag Jeans Territor, a longtime NFL official,
college basketball official, current rules analyst, on CBS was the
guest speaker and I had a chance to conduct an
interview with him that I'm going to run tomorrow and
I'm looking forward to that. And then, obviously, because it's Tuesday,
our guy Paul Danner Junior, also our friend Stewart W.

(01:02:27):
Penrose from the Manilo Law Group. I did Danner's podcast
today and we talked about the Seahawks and the Patriots
and maybe some lessons that could be applied to those
two franchises.

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
And I want you to listen to the podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
But one thing to me, there's a few things that
stand out when you look at how those teams were built.
But both teams did something that I'm sure was difficult.
The Seattle Seahawks traded Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson is the
greatest Seattle Seahawks quarterback of all time. I Am not

(01:03:05):
going to dive into his Hall of Fame case because
I have no idea what makes a Hall of famer
in football anymore. But he took them the two Super
Bowls and had a lot of help a beloved Seattle
Seahawks for basically a decade, and with him still having
a desire to play and probably still having at least

(01:03:28):
some gas in the tank. The Seattle Seahawks made the
difficult decision to trade him. They got draft picks in
return that have turned out to be key players on
this year's Super Bowl team. They did something that I'm
sure was difficult. They did something that I'm sure on

(01:03:48):
some level hurt. They did something that, on some level,
because of the statue of the player involved, they got
some public pushback. But they did something and decided, we're
going to strip away the emotion. We're gonna strip away
what this player has done, and we're gonna do something
that's good for our future, good for us moving forward,

(01:04:10):
and maybe endorse and pushback and maybe endorse some short
term pain. It has worked out. It's not apples to apples,
but the New England Patriots last season twenty twenty four,
remember Gerrod Mayo coached the Patriots, won his head coaching
debut in Cincinnati against the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
A beloved member of.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
The New England Patriots, highly accomplished player, very very popular,
and with that franchise, I think it was clear well
before last season ended, this ain't the guy. It did
help that Mike Rabel, who obviously also played for the Patriots,

(01:04:55):
was available, but they did something that I'm sure emotionally
was not easy to.

Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
Do, cut ties with a beloved member of the franchise.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
I'm gonna be willing to bet there wasn't a ton
of public pushback, because as soon as you say, hey,
we can hire Mike Vrabel, it's like, yeah, let this
guy go. But I'm sure that wasn't easy. I think
there's something there about demonstrating the willingness to do things
that are difficult that you might get some some pushback
for that that might not be that popular popular I

(01:05:28):
can't talk today, that might might be difficult to do emotionally.
Don't you just kind of wonder how things would have
played out for this team had they hit the eject
button on Trey Hendrickson. Don't you wonder how this offseason
will be talked about had they hit the eject button

(01:05:50):
on Duke Tobin. Two entirely different figures. One guy plays,
one guy doesn't. With Trey hendricks in its guys meant
a lot to there's what he's done, but you don't
have plans for him down the road. So do something
that admittedly is kind of difficult. Trade away Trey Duke

(01:06:10):
Tobin has his share of successes here, but it does
feel like one of the reasons why they're keeping him
in place and leaning in on continuity is loyalty. It's
long been a word used to describe how the Bengals operate. Loyalty.
Sometimes you got to do things that are really hard,
really really difficult, and it feels like this franchise isn't

(01:06:32):
always willing.

Speaker 6 (01:06:33):
To do that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Now they've gotten in some public tussles with players that
fans love and that have proven to be valuable members
of this franchise, but there haven't been There haven't been
the sort of decisions that I'm sure we're very difficult
to make in Seattle and in New England, and so

(01:07:03):
I'm I'm kind of wondering if moving forward the Bengals
will be a little bit more willing to do those
sort of things, even if you want to go back
aways sort of before this current regime, you know, the
amount of players in the Lay twenty tens they would
bring back, just keep bringing back, keep running it back,
keep running twenty fifteen back, and it's like at some
point you got to go, you know what we're done here?

(01:07:27):
Two franchises playing in the Super Bowl have had a
willingness to do that. Seventeen away from uh five o'clock
five point three, seven four nine, fifteen thirty is our
number eight sixty six seven oh two three seven seven
six Aujano Souarez is back. Remember something about last year's offense.

(01:07:49):
If not, I'll remind you next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 7 (01:07:51):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:07:56):

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Trust the experts that you see help for innovative and
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crash at Montana northbound seventy one traffic slope from Data
Up towards Stuart five minute delay. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
This report is sponsored by I Answer for You There
twelve from five ESPN fifteen thirty. Last week, our friend
James Rapine joined us on Friday. We do this roughly
the same time a year, every single year where we
do sort of an off season overview and dive into
some of the key questions for the coming months. If

(01:08:48):
you miss James on Friday, go listen to that segment
right now. It's on the iHeartRadio app. It's also on
my page at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. We had
t Higgins and Chase Brown last week as well, a
very good interview with a smart guy, a guy by
the name of Sam Brookhouse from a summer sports.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
He joined us from the Senior Bowl, and we did
a very.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Preliminary sort of draft overview and didn't dive too deep
into the weeds because I don't know how you do
that in last week it was late January.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
I'm not sure how you do that in early February.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
But we did talk about some possibilities and position groups
and players to kind of keep an eye out for.
So if you miss that conversation, go listen to it
on the iHeartRadio app. Podcasts of this show are a
service of Long Neck Sports Grill. You got three locations.
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All we need is you great place for Sunday, there's
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(01:09:48):
in it. You could watch it at Long Necks. Tons
of great food, ice, cold beer, four KTVs all over
the place. We love Long Necks, eleven away from five o'clock.
You know, if you would listen to how we and
when I say we, I mean me, if you would

(01:10:11):
have spent the last four months listening to how we
talk about the Reds offense, you would think it was
one of the absolute worst in baseball last season. The
truth is, the Reds were fourteenth and run scored pretty
much league average. Now, there was no real offensive identity.

(01:10:37):
Like when you think of like last season's Reds offense,
you certainly don't think of power. You don't think of
high on base percentage. You don't think of being really
good at playing small ball, you don't think of being
really good situationally. It was remarkable how bad the Reds
were in extra innings last year. This is something that
we went over timing again right that they went on

(01:10:59):
this it's just statistically almost impossible stretch where they pretty
much never scored in extra innings. When the odds are
in your favor of scoring and extra innings because we
start with the dumb rule where the guys on second
base to start at the inning. So they were bad situationally,
they didn't do anything really well. They were sort of

(01:11:20):
a station to station string, a bunch of hits together
a team. They had no real offensive identity, but lack
of production wasn't as much of a problem as you
might think. Fourteenth in the league and run scored. So
this offseason, as we discussed, you know, back in November,

(01:11:40):
Kyle Schwerber and then after Kyle Schwarber, other alternatives and
why they weren't going after certain players who were then
like next on the list after Kyle Schwerber, and the
pros and cons of going after Luis Robert, and the
pros and cons of going after Ktel Marte, the pros
and cons of going after Luis Arayaz who's gonna sign

(01:12:01):
with the San Francisco Giants, and the pros and cons
of a Uhaneo Suarez. We've been talking about them adding
basically one guy. We haven't been talking about overhauling the offense.
This isn't the Bengals defense. Bengals defense. If it's like, hey,
sign this one guy, chances are that's gonna lead to

(01:12:24):
disastrous results.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
It's an overhaul.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
You're looking for better players everywhere on the defense with
the Rats offense. One guy, so that's worth keeping in mind, right,
one guy. They got that guy. They got a guy
who fills a need. And I don't think any of

(01:12:50):
us should overstate you know how good Gino is because
we you don't have to look too deep to find
the very significant warts and holes in his game. It's
probably more than one reason why this guy was still
available on February the first, but one of the reasons
has to be age an offensive profile that doesn't exactly

(01:13:13):
jump off the page if you look beyond the home
run column, and the fact that he's not a guy
you want on the field with a glove, but he
does solve this one individual need, and so like now,
I don't think it's that hard to look at things
from a more optimistic perspective. The production from the two

(01:13:35):
hole last season was close to the league worst. I
don't have them in front of me. It wouldn't take
that much to look. But I remember last year talking
about this in August and September, and Matt McClain was
the primary culprit but for much of the season the
Reds were like, you know, twenty ninth in ops from

(01:13:55):
the two spot, or twenty eighth in ops from the
two spot, like one of the very very worst in
the league. That was too whole production. Ellie de la
Cruz batted third much of the season last year. Now
there were times he got moved down in September in
the batting order, but he was, you know, the number
three hitter, and I think everybody right or wrong wants

(01:14:17):
him to bat third. In the second half of the season,
Ellie dela Cruz provided very little offensively, the long home
run drought, wasn't really getting on base aton. There were
obviously defensive issues, but the Reds didn't get a lot
from Ellie dela Cruz a relative to the way the

(01:14:40):
team was built. Because the team was built around Elle
being great and b the second half of the season
was was hard to watch. It was hard to watch,
and again might have been a good reason for it.
He wasn't one hundred percent. There's no good reason for
running him out there every single day. So you had
bad too whole production. You had Elie de la Cruz

(01:15:03):
not having a great year. You also had pretty poor
cleanup hitter production. You had a team, and I think
you would agree where it was really hard to identify
who the cleanup hitter should be. Like you look at
last year's team, I mean it was like Austin Hayes,
maybe the Spencer Steer.

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
Perhaps they didn't have a cleanup hitter.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
So like now, you could hold out hope realistically for
a couple of different things. Number One, you've got a
guy who, even if his production drops off from last year,
it's still a pretty decent bet if he plays every
day to hit thirty to thirty five home runs. Now,

(01:16:00):
can you get league average production from the two hole?
Can you get the Elie Dela Cruz that we have
all been waiting for in the three spot? Can you
get a breakout, full rookie season from Sal Stewart. You
could argue the answer to each of those questions can

(01:16:22):
be yes. It's not likely that the answer to all
of those questions will be yes. But I actually think
that the floor for this offense last year wasn't that
low again, fourteenth in the sport. They obviously went through
stretches where they were below average, but they scored the
fourteenth most amount of runs per game last season, I

(01:16:44):
think it's still fair to conclude that the ceiling is
pretty high. I might be a rose colored glasses Homer.
I'm sure I'll be accused of that, But I think
that's the fun part about what they've done. Not a
twenty haven't the best offense at the bottom of the
barrel offense. I took a league average offense and I

(01:17:05):
added like the one thing they didn't have, and I
know I keep coming back to that didn't feel like
the ceiling is still reasonably high. Reasonably so would you
be stunned if the two hole production was dramatically better,
whether it's Noelve Marte or Matt McClain. Would you be

(01:17:26):
floored if Elie de la Cruz had a bona fide
All Star season? Would you be floored if the Uhaneo
Suarez hid thirty five home runs? And would you be
just completely shocked if salth Stewart ended up hitting like
twenty five to thirty Like those are things that I
think are reasonable to maybe not expect but hope will happen.

(01:17:48):
And if they do, you're then trying to improve upon
a place that last year wasn't as awful as we
maybe have poor trade. We're not talking about the Reds
digging out from you know, being a league worst offense.
We're talking about the Reds improving upon a league average offense.

(01:18:10):
That is not an awful place to begin. Your phone
calls are coming up. It's coming up on five o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 1 (01:18:19):
Oh, here's your chance to win one thousand dollars. Just
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Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
Pay.

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That's pay entering.

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
Now you got a pull question right now on Twitter
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check out uagiants dot com find out what the folks
that United Heartland Insurance can do for you.

Speaker 3 (01:18:45):
See if they can help you pay less for.

Speaker 2 (01:18:46):
Your insurance no matter what you're getting insured. How would
you describe the Reds offseason amazing?

Speaker 11 (01:18:51):
Not bad?

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
Men or week? I'll go a not bad sixty percent agree?
Vote now at Mulegar. I think I think there's room
for multiple things. Phone calls coming up here in a bit.

Speaker 3 (01:19:03):
Plus.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
At Ron Harper, the greatest Miami Redskin because he was
a Redskin, the greatest Miami basketball player of all time,
is going to join us in just about thirty minutes.
He was on campus on Saturday to see Miami's twenty
second consecutive victory to open the season. Cut his honorary
degree as well. He also sells cigars, and you'll hear

(01:19:26):
me see if I could weasel some cigars out of him.
That's coming up in just about thirty minutes. There's room
for multiple truths. We say this all the time. I
keep saying that the Reds have addressed their biggest issue
last season. They had a lot of them, right, but
their biggest one, I think was striking lack of pop.
Here's where having the DH helps. Not that anybody wants

(01:19:48):
to have a DH conversation because you talk about water
under the bridge. But this is the beauty of having
the DH in the National League. You can address one
of your biggest weaknesses and not make yourself worse in
the in another area like this did happen last year.

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
As much as.

Speaker 2 (01:20:11):
The key Brian Hayes acquisition was a little bit puzzling,
and as much as watching him hit, especially in the
postseason last year was deeply frustrating, they did need to
get better. They needed to get overall better at run
prevention key Brian Hayes did that. I still am not
sure that you really want a guy playing a corner

(01:20:33):
infield position who's an offensive zero. But you're a little
bit more capable of withstanding a guy who can't hit
playing third base for you, if your offense is upgraded elsewhere,
having a guy who hit forty nine home runs upgrades
the offense. And you know what I was talking about

(01:20:54):
there before the top of the hour. It wasn't so
much a knock on last year's team like it's it's
a real election of maybe what one guy can possibly
do on top of other things happening that must happen.

Speaker 3 (01:21:07):
The success of.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
The Reds this season is going to largely hinge on
do players from last year's team before better? Are they
more available? Do they put up better numbers? Can they
stick in the big leagues. They can't have some of
the things that happened last year happened this season. They
can't earmark a guy to bat second and then have

(01:21:28):
him not perform. They can't say, you know, our guy
who's gonna play first base is and ends up being
somebody who they send down by the end of June
and has never heard from again, it can't be so
painfully obvious that the trade deadline what they need to add,
which was still offense, still a bat and with Miguel

(01:21:50):
and hard they sort of did so like it. It
feels like, well, just one guy, and just one guy
who's not a huge average hitter. He's not gonna get on.
Maybe there's some age concerns. I was just looking for
one dude who helped fill this one area and then
hopefully a lot of other cool stuff can happen around it,

(01:22:10):
including Ellie de la Cruz staying healthy, being told no, occasionally,
not dragging himself out there for one hundred and sixty
two games, having more competitive at bats, but maybe getting
you know, a few more days off, rediscovering his power stroke.
Red's getting some on base improvement in the two spot.
Like I think, there's reasons to be now a little

(01:22:33):
bit more bullish than we felt yesterday. At the end
of the day, this team's success will largely hinge on
the success of its starting pitching and whether or not
players who were here last year are better. But that
doesn't mean there wasn't need for a thumper. A Uhaneo
Soarez is still a thumper. Ten at for five ESPN

(01:22:55):
fifteen thirty. Let's take a phone call or to Bob
in Western Hills. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. High Bob,
how are you? Bob looks like sounds like he's in
the middle of something. Bob, good afternoon.

Speaker 5 (01:23:10):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
We try one more time, Bob, good afternoon, How are you.
I deeply deeply appreciate anybody who gives even a few
minutes of their time to this radio show, and deeply
deeply appreciate anybody who feels compelled to pick up the

(01:23:35):
phone and call it. We don't ask much, but when
you do call it, just act like any second we
could come to you. Five point three seven forty Bob
was doing something and making a sandwich on and I

(01:23:56):
cleaning out his car. I mean other guess wasn't doing that.
And the cold temperatures we're getting right now. But Bob,
just you know, you gotta gotta be ready. Could come
to you at any second, could come to you at
any moment. I also think, and this is a point
we will double down on from last hour. It's one

(01:24:17):
thing to address a weakness. It's one thing to to
do something to fix an area of your team. But
fixing an area of your team is even better when
it doesn't cost you. What's most important, The Red spent
fifteen million dollars for a Uhaneio Suarez to be on

(01:24:38):
this year's team. That'll make him probably by the time
things are said and done, right around the one hundred
and fifteenth highest paid player in the sport relative bargain,
and by the way, should not be one of the
top I don't know thirty to forty highest paid players
on the sport because of what he doesn't bring to

(01:24:59):
the table. But it's one thing to fix an area
of your team. It's something else entirely to be able
to fix an area of your team or address an
area of your team. Maybe fix isn't the right word.
Address an area of your team without making another area

(01:25:20):
of your team worse. This, I think is the most
important part of the Auhanio Suarez conversation. They could have
acquired Luis Robert that would have involved trading away assets,
probably good valuable assets. This is why free agency is awesome.

(01:25:43):
Free agency is awesome because you could add a player
to your team that doesn't require you to give up
on your one of your starting pitchers, a guy who
helped you get to the postseason last year. You don't
have to cut into your team's biggest strength in order
to fortify a weakness. There's lots of things to like

(01:26:06):
about this. Having a guy hit behind Elie Delacruz who
can hit the ball out of the ballpark. That's on
the list. Having a do that, you could say, Okay,
there's the dh and now we don't have to use
a guy at DAH who could really help the team
with the glove. But more than anything, why this is
awesome is all you had to spend was money, and

(01:26:29):
comparatively speaking, not a ton of it either. All you
had to spend was fifteen million dollars. If given a choice,
you can give up fifteen million dollars to get a
Eugenio Suarez or Nick Lodolo, to get someone else who's comparable,
I'll write the check for fifteen million bucks. That's the

(01:26:51):
best part of this. All you had to give up
was money to make a part of your team that
was severely lacking last year and better this year. That's great,
That is absolutely great. I mean as once the Schwarber
thing went down the way it did, I think there

(01:27:13):
were a lot of us who were sort of resigned
to the possibility or or maybe the likelihood that in
order to make the team better it was going to
cost something like how many times do we have that conversation?
Right like, what would you be okay trading Andrew Rabbit
after an All Star season? Would you be okay trading
Chase Burns, which be okay trading you know, absolutely not?
But Hunter Green, which be okay trading Nick Lodolo. They

(01:27:39):
still have this part of their team that is whole
and intact beyond Nick Martinez. Nobody has left from that
part of their team that was a bona fide strength
and they didn't have to cut into it to make
the weakest part of the team better. That is the
best part of this. In twenty minutes, my conversation with

(01:28:02):
Ron Harper five three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty will
work in you'll hear the reaction to our friend Jeff
Carr locked on REDS Podcast next after five o'clock, This
is ESPN fifteen thirty. You'll hear five time NBA champion
Ron Harper on this show in just about fifteen minutes.
Jeff Carr locked on Reds Podcast before yesterday or before

(01:28:24):
before the Euhanio Suarez move was announced. Yesterday morning, let's
say eight o'clock, you get out of bed and I
ask you what grade would you give the Reds this offseason?
You would have said, what.

Speaker 5 (01:28:36):
C minus? Because the bullpen's awesome, but they missed out
on the biggest thing they need.

Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
Now, what's the grade the Reds offseason?

Speaker 5 (01:28:46):
Give him a B because I think that they addressed
their biggest need. They probably didn't do it with like
the best dude on the market, I mean best available
right now. Yes, but it's not as if they went
and they got college Forber. Although there are some things
to say that a deal that they got for the
guy that they have might be even better than what
they would have had to get for Kyle Schwarber. So
I give him a solid B because I still think

(01:29:08):
you look at the outfield and you're like, Okay, there's
a lot of hope out there. You got to you
gotta work with some things out there. But the lineup
is better than it was last year in my opinion.
The pitching staff is better than it was in last
year in my opinion. So I think that this team
has currently constructed as a Division contender.

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
Does this is this is my hope? My hope is
this ends the era of not leaning in the home runs.
Can I say that this signifies that they're going to
start leaning back in the home runs?

Speaker 5 (01:29:40):
Yes, because they signed the guy that that is all
he is supposed to do. Like, he's not coming here
to be the third baseman. He's not coming here to
be the first baseman. He's coming here to hit dingers.
And that is exactly his role as currently constructed, because
he comes in with an isolated power for his career.
Isolated power being slugging percentage minus batting average, trying to

(01:30:04):
you know, set aside the extra base hit potential for
a guy his career number on that is two eighteen.
There was no regular player in the Reds Atlantup last
year over two hundred. The closest to that was Will Benson,
But do we call him a regular player in this Atlanta?
So he was. He was at two poh nine. Nobody
else was above two hundred. They immediately upgraded their extra

(01:30:25):
base hit potential.

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
Some will point out, and perhaps accurately so, that yes,
Gino hits a bunch of home runs, he also strikes
out a lot and that while you have added more power,
or at least power potential, you're also adding a lot
more plate appearances that end with no contact being made
for a team that already has a lot of guys
who at times make no contact.

Speaker 5 (01:30:48):
What would you say to that, That's exactly what they
would have added. How they signed Kyle Schwarber because both
guys have the same fifth percentage, were swinging this percentage
from last season of thirty three percent, and in fact,
Kyle Schuber actually struck out one more time than au
haane As farre As did.

Speaker 2 (01:31:06):
All right, there is there another move out there that
was spring training looming here now in less than a week.
Is there another move out there that fans should jump
on the bandwagon and say, you know what, for the
right price, which at this stage in the game is
what you would be paying, adding this guy would make sense.

Speaker 5 (01:31:26):
In any free agent market, They don't think so, not
without a trade to open up a spot, because it
seems as though the Reds are going to enter camp
for better or for worse with a position battle for
the platoon of left field between JJ Bleda and Will Binson.
If they could upgrade it, that would be good, But
there isn't necessarily a just sure fire upgrade that is

(01:31:46):
available on the market for the Reds at this point,
and then you'll be talking about are they going to
make a trade. There's a lot of rumors that have
been shut down, like rumors early on in the off
season of Catel Marte or Jared Duran that have since
been shut down by both the Diamondbacks and the Red Sox.

Speaker 8 (01:32:02):
So I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:32:03):
Foresee any other move that really moves the needle for them.
There could be, you know, those non roster invites, the
spring training type deals, but nobody that. We're going to
be doing another emergency podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
For Jeff Carr locked on Red's podcast Emergency Podcast. Go
watch or to listen to it. Did it last night.
I think here's what I like most about the offseason.
And I do wish the outfield was better, I will
admit that. But they have addressed their biggest issue, and
yet Hunter Green is still a Red, Nico Lodolo is
still a Red, Andrew Abbotts still a Red, Chase Burns

(01:32:37):
still a Red.

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
Reet Louder is still a Red.

Speaker 2 (01:32:41):
They did what I think a lot of folks did
not expect them to do, or didn't think they could do.
They have made the team better, and we could debate
how much better they're going to be, but they have
made the team better and they haven't cut into their
biggest strength.

Speaker 3 (01:32:55):
That is the biggest win of all, because that's what.

Speaker 5 (01:32:59):
We heard at the beginning the offseason. They were going
to have to do right. Like you heard it from
Mark Sheldon, heard it from multiple people as like, well,
if they're going to upgrade the lineup, they have to
trade one of those starting pitchers.

Speaker 6 (01:33:09):
They have to.

Speaker 5 (01:33:10):
There's no two bones about it. And yet they didn't.
And they said the thing, and at least in Charlie
Goldsmith's SUBSEAC article that he wrote about the signing of Suarez,
they said the thing that none of us would have
put money to. That they said. They said that there
is no move that they have to make in order

(01:33:30):
to financially explain this signing because they are going to
spend the necessary dollars to bring in Suarez without damaging
the rest of the roster, because they want to build
a winner. And while I think some of us might
snicker at that a little bit because they're like, well, now,
now you're going to do that at least they're finally
doing that, and it looks as if they're going to

(01:33:51):
commit to twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (01:33:54):
You know what, I think I like beyond that more
than anything, that we're not talking about them giving something
up for Luise Robert. I was out on that from
the beginning. And look at May. He may work out
in New York. We'll see. He's got to stay healthy.
That's obviously been an issue in Chicago. But I remember
having a conversation with somebody four or five weeks ago
where I'm like, look, Luis Robert or are u Haaneo Suarez.

(01:34:15):
I will take d one dimensional Geno instead of the
perhaps zero dimensional Luise Robert.

Speaker 5 (01:34:21):
Do you agree. In fact, the moment that the news
was announced that Suarez was a Red Are Lockdown, White
Sox host Todd Welter text to me and he said,
eu Haanio Suarez is better than Luise Robert. So he
even admits that, and he was the guy that had
to watch Luis Robert for the part of his career
that he was in Chicago. Now, so I am with

(01:34:42):
you one hundred percent, and I think that the biggest
it's between that could say that Luis Roberts a five
tool player, you cannot say that he is able. You
absolutely have no doubt about that with heu Haaneo Suarez
because he's got several seasons in a row now of
playing at least one hundred and fifty five ball games.

Speaker 3 (01:35:02):
You mentioned the left field battle.

Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
Beyond that, what is your biggest question about this team
going into spring training?

Speaker 5 (01:35:08):
Who is Matt McClain. Is Matt McClain twenty twenty three,
is Matt McLain twenty twenty five, or is he somewhere
in between? What's that gonna be because that's going to
raise the ceiling of this fall club even more so
than the addition of au Haano Suarez, Because as much
as we talked about the lineup needs protection for La
de la Cruz, the lineup also got absolutely zilch out

(01:35:31):
of the number two spot in this lineup. And while
noelfe Marte is probably gonna be your opening day number
two hitter and he's got a shot to really take
control of that, I know what I saw from Matt
McLain in twenty twenty three, and I know it wasn't
what we saw from him in twenty twenty five. So
if he comes back with more of twenty twenty five's

(01:35:52):
version of Matt McClain, then I'm gonna have a lot
more questions about this team moving forward than if the
Reds had had gone and gotten you know, a u
Haenio Suarez light instead of the man who we will
see named Gino and il and Skala and goodbyes only.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
I like the fact that Tito acknowledge that Sal Stewart
is going to have to make the team first. But
I get excited over this possibility, and you know it,
it might not be the most likely outcome. But if
I could jot down in black magic marker, if he
plays the entire season thirty to thirty five home runs
from a Eugeneo Suarez, which would be down from forty

(01:36:29):
nine last year. If I could somehow get thirty from
Sal Stewart, which the dude did hit five in less
than a month last year, maybe that's a little bit
pie in the sky, But you could take a team
that had such a hard time getting any pop, that
hasn't had a guy hit thirty home runs in the
season since Gino did it. If I can, in the
course of one season have an offense that just with

(01:36:52):
those two guys, not to mention what you might be
able to get from a healthy Elie de la Cruz.
Suddenly I've gone from a team that had no power
threat to one that now might have an overabundance of
power threast straft right end.

Speaker 5 (01:37:07):
Know that is just causing damage left and right. I
felt like the narrative and kind of like you said,
You're like, they're finally committing to power because the narrative
of well, they've got to bill rally, so they got
a string hits together, which is explaining how a bad
offense these less bad, or it is less bad. So
I really like to see that jump forward and south

(01:37:28):
Stewart to your point, I mean, I think there's a
lot of folks around the country who evaluate minor league
talent that would say, we're not that far off expecting
the numbers that we're expecting from him, because he was
one of the very few guys in all of minor
league baseball the last couple of years to average really
high quality of contact and really low strikeout rates to

(01:37:49):
be called up to the major leagues. I think that
we'll see a lot more from sal I think he's
going to be on this opening day roster. I appreciate it.
Like you said, they're not handing it to him, but
I think it's going to be Claire that he earns it,
especially given the alternative. I mean, are we really thinking
that Cees is going to take his seat back on
this bench? I doubt that. I think that South Stewart's

(01:38:10):
going to win this thing, clear and a far and
away very quickly into spring trading.

Speaker 2 (01:38:16):
Stringing hits together is inefficient. Three hits for one run
doesn't work. One hit for one run works, and so
I like home runs, awesome stuff as always, Man.

Speaker 5 (01:38:24):
Thanks so much, We thanks for having man go Rid,
you got it.

Speaker 3 (01:38:28):
There's our guy.

Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
Jeff Carr locked on Reds podcast, Reds Acquired are u
Haaneo Suarez?

Speaker 3 (01:38:32):
I go a bee? I go, I'll give him a bee.

Speaker 2 (01:38:36):
It's boosted, so to speak, because in order to get
Eugenio Suarez, in order to get a home run guy,
they didn't have to give up anything like that. Ain't
my fifteen million bucks? Could not care less. I'd rather
give up fifteen million bucks than Nicolodolo. I care more
about Nickolodolo than the Castellini's family. Castellini family is fifteen

(01:38:58):
million bucks. On Saturday, Miami won their twenty second consecutive game.
They had a sold out Mallett Hall blew out Northern Illinois,
and the all time leading scorer and Miami University was
in attendance to get an honorary degree. And in the
middle of all that, I had a chance to talk
to Ron Harper, the five time NBA champion.

Speaker 3 (01:39:20):
You'll hear my conversation with him next.

Speaker 7 (01:39:23):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:39:26):

Speaker 8 (01:39:29):
Trust the experts at u See Health for innovative and
in either schedule online at UCHealth dot com. Southbound seventy
one at Norwood Lateral, left lane blocked off from a
disabled vehicle. Ten minute to lay back from Montgomery Road.
Police in tow on the scene of a disabled vehicle.
Westbound two seventy five at col Rain a five minute

(01:39:52):
delay back from Hamilton. That one is off in the
right lane. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 7 (01:39:58):
This report is sponsored by This Is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station. Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:40:06):
Sports Headlines are a service to Kelsey Chevrolet home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family.
The Yours for Life kelseyshev dot Com areu Hadeo Suarez
and the Reds are set to reunite. According to a
number of reports, one year deal mutual option for twenty

(01:40:26):
twenty seven will make fifteen million bucks this year. Miami
RedHawks up to twenty thirty in the latest AP Top
twenty five Men's college basketball poll. The Mark Pope Radio
Show follows us in twenty minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty.
The Wildcats got enough votes for thirtieth. The NKU Coaches
Show is going to be tonight at seven pm on
ESPN fifteen thirty as well. Speaking of the RedHawks, they

(01:40:50):
beat Northern Illinois on Saturday at sold out Mallett Hall.
You might look at the score and go wow, the
RedHawks blow them out one by twenty four. They were
trailing with fifteen minutes to go, and then it was
like they flipped a switch and they went on this
like instantaneous thirty eight to nine run. That was something

(01:41:11):
to behold in attendance for it. The greatest Miami University
basketball player of all time who got an honorary degree
during ceremonies at Malett Hall, and this was really cool.
I'll pull back the curtain here briefly. Ron Harper obviously
had a legendary career at Miami went on to an
NBA career where he played parts of fifteen seasons and

(01:41:32):
won five championship rings. And so I had reached out
and said, like, hey, can we get Ron Harper on?
And I didn't have the ability to go to the
game in Oxford on Saturday, and the folks at Miami
figured out a way for us to talk to Ron.
So the interview you're about to listen to I recorded
it early Saturday afternoon, right before Ron went to the

(01:41:55):
Miami game, and I started by asking him and getting
him to talk about not just being honored by his
alma mater, but coming back to Oxford and being a
part of his ceremony. During what has been an unbelievable
season for the RedHawks.

Speaker 6 (01:42:11):
Miami basketball is back where it deserves to be back.
Travis Steel and his staff is doing a wonderful job
with the players that they have, and the players are
giving him everything, and he allowed them to play really
good basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:42:30):
I know from following you on Twitter. You tweet about
the Red Hawks a lot. How closely have you had
a chance to follow the program?

Speaker 6 (01:42:37):
I tend to watch the boys and the girls team play.
I'm you know, I'm always always got my you know, iPad,
got my ESPN Plus, So I try to watch as
little much as possible as long as my kids don't
have a ball game. And then my kids do have

(01:42:57):
a ball game. I got the iPad, she the heel phone,
I got everything on. I'm trying to watch all the games.

Speaker 2 (01:43:05):
Have you you mentioned Travis Steele, who obviously is doing
an awesome job in Oxford. Have you had a chance
to get to know him at all?

Speaker 6 (01:43:12):
Uh No, I know a little bit about his career.
I know he coached that behavior before he came here,
and he was doing a great job over there, and
we were very fortunate enough to him here.

Speaker 2 (01:43:27):
When you think back to your career right at Miami,
which is obviously legendary, you know, you guys were in
the tournament three years you lost. I remember when you
lost to Maryland and Len Bias as a kid, I
remember two overtime losses. When you think of your career
as a Miami Redskin back in the day, what things
come to mind?

Speaker 6 (01:43:48):
H I'm always gonna be a risk in Uh. I
was very I was very fortunate to come to a
great place who have a lot of great player like
Randy Emory's all the guys who play here before me,
And it was an honor to put on that ersen

(01:44:08):
to represent a small mid aser and I'm pretty sure
that I as far as some kids to be a
part of this, and I'm very happy to be a
part of it.

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
Obviously, coming from Dayton to Miami, right, That's that had
long been a pipeline to Miami University. When you came
to Oxford, the head coach was Daryl Hedrick. What do
you remember about your recruitment to Miami, Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:44:30):
Daryl Hendrick, Jerry Pearson's they was at my high school
more than me. Every time I down the hallway, they
was there. I'm like, what are y'all back for? I
just saw y'all like two days ago. We just want
to be sure you coming here. I'm like, Jesus, you
don't have to keep coming. The most important thing that
they ever did was the correct thing was there was

(01:44:52):
a big part of my mother. She she loved RL
and Jerry Neill and Joe Harry And Uh, it was
in her heart that I've come to my Emmy of Ohio.
And it was an awesome place because it gave her
a chance to come see every home game.

Speaker 8 (01:45:12):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:45:13):
Uh, and I'm a I'm a big fan of that.
See him seeing my other and them at the basketball games.

Speaker 2 (01:45:19):
Have you ever thought you did quite well for yourself
as a pro in life after basketball? But in this
day and age of n I L and revenue sharing,
have you ever thought about what Ron Harper is a
college basketball player?

Speaker 4 (01:45:31):
What kind of coin you could have brought in?

Speaker 2 (01:45:33):
Man?

Speaker 6 (01:45:33):
You know what, I have a young kid. I got
my oldest son. He made probably one point two or
three in his fresdman year. So if people have made
one point three, I think I would have been worth eight.
I couldn't I know.

Speaker 3 (01:45:53):
I think you're selling yourself short now, you know what?

Speaker 6 (01:45:57):
Do you know what though? You know it kind of
ruin the college experience for these kids, because it don't
it don't teach you how to survive, how to work hard,
how to stay humble. You know, we prayed for the
love of the ball game. We don't play for the cast,
don't I don't think I ever worry about the cast

(01:46:18):
I made in the NBA. I don't think I made
I made the cash, but I don't think I ever
worry about the cast aspect. I played for the lover
of the ball game and to have an opportunity to
play on some great basketball teams that really care about
trying to be the best basketball team, and that's all
we try to do.

Speaker 2 (01:46:38):
Yeah, I think you know, look that the players today
have options, and good for them, but I wonder, you know,
somebody like yourself, all the records you said, still Miami's
you know, all time leading scorer, iconic four year career,
a beloved member of the Miami University community. And I
just I wonder how many Ron Harper's that are going

(01:46:59):
to be moving forward or just because players and they
have the freedom to move in good for them, but
not gonna have guys sticking with one program the way
you did. And I think college basketball itself has lost
something because of that.

Speaker 6 (01:47:11):
Every sport has, because when you grow with one when
you grow with one program and you get a chance
to be a part of the environment, tend to be
a part of the community. It means more than the
cast that you can make. I had an opportunity play
at os Ohio, a small town, work with the kids

(01:47:31):
at the high school and elementary kids, and just to
be a part of the community.

Speaker 4 (01:47:37):
They don't have that these days.

Speaker 2 (01:47:40):
You mentioned watching your sons, which has to be awesome.
They're gonna be in the Rising Stars event on opposite teams,
but they're gonna both be a part of the same event.
Can you even imagine what it's going to be like
to watch To watch Dylan and Ron Junior playing that.

Speaker 6 (01:47:56):
It's gonna be all stilling to I want him to
guard him in the guard him. So it reminded me
back in the driveway when I did to tell Ron Jr.
When it'll get fourteen, he gonna be hard y'all cain't
gonna do the thing y'all did him when he was
a small kid. So it's gonna be a little revenge game.

Speaker 3 (01:48:16):
I think, Yeah, that's gonna be fun to watch. It's
gonna be fun to watch.

Speaker 2 (01:48:20):
I can't imagine how.

Speaker 6 (01:48:24):
It's gonna be awesome. Man, it's gonna be fun to see.

Speaker 2 (01:48:26):
One more question, because I do follow you on social media.
I want your cigars, but I click on the link
and says they're out of stock. How do I get
some underrated Ron Harper by Luciano cigars?

Speaker 6 (01:48:36):
You know what? You know what you gotta kick at
the right time, I can tell you that cigar. You
know what? You know I actually got involved two years
ago with him and Lucy Anold is a great guy.
He's a ciguard guy. He rollses all and he knows everything.
And uh, we just talked about doing a cigar. You know,

(01:48:58):
in the first day you tell me was I don't
want to do a celebrity cigar. I'm not a sublety.
I smoked cigars. So we talked about it, and you know,
I said, I said, I'm gonna give you a perfect
hey for this cigar. You're like, if you gave me
a great name, you canna be a part of I said,
we're gonna call it under Rated. I'm from day Nohow

(01:49:18):
with the Miami of Ohio, my all school it's supposed
to be in the NBA. Had a pretty good NBA career,
never made the All Star Team, never made it All
Defense of team. But I'm still here and everybody knows me.
So that's how we came up with that name.

Speaker 2 (01:49:35):
Yeah, well, you gotta you gotta read. First of all,
I had more than an okay NBA career, but you
you need to restock the cigars so so I can
get one, because I'm a huge cigar guy. So it
pequed my interest when I saw it on your social
media and then I clicked on it. It's like out
of stock, unavailable. So I wanted to talk to you
for a thousand different reasons. One of them was I
need you to reload so I can try these cigars.

Speaker 6 (01:50:00):
Hey, so do what I want to do. Go to
my go to my page and be heal me your
address and I'm making sure you've done this.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
Thuff Ron Heopper's gonna send me cigars, dude.

Speaker 5 (01:50:13):
Heck yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:50:15):
I can't thank you enough for doing this. Awesome that
you get your honorary degree and in the middle of
a great season for the RedHawks makes it even cooler.
I can't thank you enough for doing this. Thanks for
carving at some time. Enjoy the day, Ron, Thanks so much.

Speaker 6 (01:50:28):
Think very much. You got it. There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:50:29):
Ron Harper, five time NBA champion, all time leading scorer
at Miami University, and a guy is gonna send me
some of his own cigars.

Speaker 3 (01:50:37):
Like that's that's a win right there.

Speaker 2 (01:50:38):
That's that's why on a Saturday you do an interview
to talk to Ron Harper and get some some free
cigars out of it. I don't know that I'm gonna
slide into his DMS number one. I'm not a big
DM guy. Number two. Does Ron Harper really want me
to slide into his DMS? I don't know, but I
really want some of those cigars and do it.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
All right, I'll do it. I'll slide in.

Speaker 2 (01:51:01):
Tomorrow in the show, Paul Danner Junior is going to
join us, our buddy Stewart W. Penrose from the Manila
Law Group, and a whole bunch of sports legal issues
and my conversation with a gene sterotor that's going to
run in the five o'clock hour. We might have one
more pseudo big name guest as well. Anything you might

(01:51:22):
miss go find on the iHeartRadio app. Podcasts of this
show are a service of long Nex Sports Grill. Go
for a beer at long Next. Right now, have an
awesome night, Thank you for listening. Thanks to Tarn Bland
for producing. We will talk to you tomorrow at three
oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 7 (01:51:49):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:51:53):

Speaker 8 (01:51:56):
Trust the experts that you see health for innovative and
personalized heart care. They never miss a beat Your heart
shouldn't either. Schedule online at UCHealth dot com. Westbound Ronald
Reagan Highway, there is an accident on the off ramp
to southbound seventy five.

Speaker 4 (01:52:10):
Right shoulder blocked down the.

Speaker 8 (01:52:12):
Ramp westbound two seventy five approaching Taylor Mill Road. An
accident on the right shoulder in Montgomery Road. Accident between
Ivana and Williams Avenue. I'm at ezelic with trap

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