Episode Transcript
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Twenty minutes after three, I'm blogESPN fifteen thirty on moggor By the way,
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just a bit. Also Pat Brandanone hour from now on FC Cincinnati and
another team wearing orange and blue.But first, Sam look here is with
us big part of Red's TV andradio Valley Sports Tonight, Red's Live before
the Reds take on the Los AngelesAngels. They've played note, they've played
eighteen games. They've won nine,they've lost nine there's been some good,
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there's been some bad. In youropinion, what has been the most pleasant
development? But I think that thefact that they're nine and nine and there's
more, you know. I they'reobviously they're a little shorthanded without TJ McClain,
But I mean the guys that areout there, you know, the
Will Benson, the Stuart fairch liketheir the depth has shown itself, and
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there's guys who aren't playing well thatare gonna that are gonna play better.
So I guess the what I likethe most is that they're hanging in there
and they have played well, Iguess. I mean they've played well,
you know what I mean. Imean they've played well. Sure, there's
just I can see more. Ican see that there's you know, with
some of the rotational stuff, likeyou know, they've been okay. I
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mean I thought, I think andrewravit'sbeen great. Obviously, it's a nice
to have Nicolodolo. But you know, there's some of these little bumps in
the road that are not they're notcrazy blow ups, I guess, you
know, to where it just lookslike the world's ending. But I can
just see so much more potential inwhat they're doing. So I think,
I guess short answer long that there'sthere's a room to grow. Yeah,
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I mean they've they have found away to get through it. You could
see the potential. They have survivedwithout McLean, freedom, et cetera.
Those guys aren't coming back anytime soon, but they've Yeah, they've survived.
Yeah, sure, you know,Canbellaria is not playing well, Incarnacian Strand
had right in the middle of theorder, not really playing well. So
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there's I just feel like there's somuch more upside for a lot of these
guys. So yes, and thenI'll interrupt you again in the middle side.
Yeah, sure, I think there'smore upside. I want to ask
about Lodolo. I think one thingthat that maybe revealed itself in the Seattle
series and has been a bit ofa problem, but I don't think is
going to last all season long.Is the bullpen. So that this group
of relievers is averaging nearly five walksper nine innings. I think that corrects
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itself, doesn't it, im Boy, I sure hope so, because I
mean it was just so evident inthat series. I mean, I think
they it was nineteen or twenty walksover the three games something like that.
And I mean, I get toan offense that while the pass potential you
know, was not was not clicking. I mean, you're they're not that
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nobody is that good of an offensewithout getting six walks a game, you
know. I mean, just itfeels now whether they were going to win
the games or not, because Seattlethrough the ball. I mean, they
got some studs of that road stationdidn't even see Luis Castillo and those three
guys were amazing. But so Idon't know if they won the games anyway,
but it just it's it's ugly baseballto go out there walk and just
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kind of drags the life out ofeverybody out there. You know, either
position players are staying out there kickingdirt because you know, and then don't
have momentum when they're going into fortheir offensive ending. Yes, I think
it corrects itself. I think.I mean the guy that's really kind of
that I'm worried about, and notthat he's kind of the focal piece of
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the bullpen like Buck Farmer a littlebit, because he can be some kind
of kind of a lynch pin downthere and throw multiple innings are come in
and dominate for an inning and hejust doesn't look sharp. He looks like
the ball's kind of flat out ofhis hand. And then, I mean,
Lucas Simms is always going to walkpeople. But geez stop, I
mean, your stuff's that good,like you know what I mean, it's
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like just be like so cocky abouthow good your stuff is that you just
throw strike after strike after strike.And that's some of the problems with being
max effort is that it's hard toget to your release point at the same
time all the time. You know, so he's just moving in and out
a release point because he's powering uphis body all the way up to one
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hundred and five percent, you know, when if he's operating at you know,
ninety to ninety five percent, which, yeah, that's going to take
some of your VLO off, butnot necessarily because then you're being more efficient
with your action. I mean,I'll take it back to golf since that
was the last time where we didthis, and you know, think about
when you just take that nice andeasy swing and square up the club face,
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the ball goes just as far asif you you know, try to
juice it out there. Three hundredand fifty yards. I feel like taking
a nice easy stroke with your youknow, with your pitch. You're just
everything's just working more efficiently together soyou can do more while kind of actually
trying less so you have something toget back to the walks. It's just
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you know, finding a comfortable maximum. That's why I will tell kids when
I'm talking to them, you know, high school, whatever, anybody.
You know, I've talked to youguys about this in the big leagues.
You know, right when I gotdone playing and you know, felt like
I still have some skin in thegame. What's your comfortable maximum? How
hard can you throw effect and hitwhere your spot is? Is that ninety
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percent? Is that a guys cando it, you know, to locate
the ball at a max effort.But what percentage of max is your maximum
to be able to consistently land strikes? And so I think that's some of
what these guys are still trying tofigure out. And I think, like
I said, Lucas is always goingto walk people because that's just his style.
And when he's on, he's aboutas tough to hit as anybody.
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But I like the bullpen and Ithink they're key just because they've got such
diversity down there as far as multipleguys who can throw multiple innings from multiple
arm angles and right and left handed, you know. So they've got such
a really nice mix down there,and I think they're going to be important.
We'll see how the starting rotation continueto go. Hunter is still not
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for a while. I don't thinkgoing to figure out how to throw six
innings consistently, but I mean therest of the guys can do it,
you know, and especially with Lodola, who I'm pretty pumped up to see.
Yeah, and I want to askyou about some of the starters in
the bullpen. You hear people talkall the time about specific roles. Do
relievers need specified roles? I thinkmaybe in yester year, I think that
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was kind of important because it wasI mean, it was real defined at
that time, right, I mean, for us, it was going to
be you know, Seawn Marshall,Jonathan Broxton in a role as Chapman,
or you know Bill Bray, NickMassett, Francisco Cordero, you know,
like so you knew. I thinkthose guys wanted to know so they could
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kind of prepare their mind and bodyas best they could to throw that in,
you know, because I was youknow, from pitch one, I
was kind of ready to go.But as I moved into a more defined
role, which is going to bearound the sixth seventh, maybe slide into
some eighth inning about what inning wouldI start doing all my warm stuff to
get my body prepared. So Ionly needed twenty throws to be ready to
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go in the game type deal.I think that is obviously changed. You
know, guys are kind of movingall over the map a little bit,
and nobody wants said to define acloser, but I think it's I mean,
the Reds have one, you know, but a lot of there said,
oh, we'll use other people onthat spot too, And so the
uncertainty of it, I don't know. I can't speak to them because I
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mean, I guess my whole careerwas uncertain, But I don't think that
they needed to find I like theidea of it because it's what I grew
up with, you know, seeingguys who you know, knew they had
their any but I can't speak toif it affects to them. It didn't
affect me because I was just happyto have a jersey, you know.
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But I'm sure that as the game'sevolved and these guys are moving around in
different spots, it's just become morethan norm you know. It's kind of
the expectation to always be ready,which you know, I think, I
think should make it easier because youcan always turn it off. It's hard
to turn it on. Yeah,No, that's that's well put. We
we talked about nicko Lodolo, who'sgonna throw tonight his his outing last Saturday
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against Chicago. You could not haveasked for anything more. I go back
to two years ago and tell meif this is an off base assessment.
I thought when we watched Hunter Green, Graham Ashcraft, and Nick Lodola in
twenty twenty two that Nick's best wasbetter than anybody else's best. Now,
we saw Hunter Green do some reallygood things, we saw Graham Ashcraft do
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some really good things. But Ifelt like that year, when Nick Loodola
was at the top of his game, he was the most impressive of the
three. Is that is that fair? Unfair? Off base assess that for
him? Well, it's probably offbase because I completely agree with it.
Pretty off base. So, Imean, I'm kind of after I got
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to know them and watch them alittle bit, and you're riot once all
three at the very top of theirgame based on what you want. I
I feel like I've been saying sincepretty early that Nick, if I had
to win one game, game onestarter of the playoffs, blah blah blah,
he's my pick and has been justhe has got more experience than those
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are the guys who went to amajor college program. He's gotten just he's
such a unique style. I mean, they're anytime I see somebody the first
thing I'm trying to think of asa comparable who does that remind me of?
Who? Oh, what's he looklike? You know? Kind of
right handed guys that throw ninety sixmiles an hour diamond does. Left handed
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guys that those sliders are Chris Saleand Nick Ladolo, Like that's who he
reminds me of. And they fillup the strike zone and they and they
throw change ups, and they havefeel to ease in a breaking ball at
seventy six for strike one and thenthe very one at eighty two, the
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same pitch that they're throwing at differentspeed, Like there's a feel for pitching.
There's the uniqueness of the arm angleand the lankiness. There's the curve
ball, which is I mean,you just don't see a lot that look
like that. So I because again, and it's nothing against the other two
guys, because I think you know, Gams ahead, you know, Hunter
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is a part of this behind becauseyou just haven't pitched as many innings as
anybody. But yeah, Nick,Nick for me is the guy who he'll
be starting opening days, you know, for the next several years running,
in my opinion. But I thinkso, I think you are completely off
base, and I couldn't agree more. Yeah, I was gonna say,
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if you're if you if you're startingto think like me, but you may
want to think about the choices you'vebeen making. Oh boy, Yeah,
and you want to go play golftogether, I'd be out now, sign
me up for that. So soHunter Green Tuesday night, right, he
makes some great pitches to get outof the third and fourth inning, but
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he still only pitches four innings nowonly one run, so he minimizes the
damage. There's something to be saidabout that. But ninety eight pitches four
innings. We just it was theproverbial mixed bag. It was quintessential Hunter.
I see flashes of really goodness,and then these moments that just frustrate.
I know, we're look, hemade his fiftieth big league start,
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so we're still very early in this, but I just feel like, you
know, two years ago, ona given start, I had no idea
what Hunter Green was going to do, and I still feel that way,
and that's frustrating to me. Itis, well, well, I guess
I agree with that, but there'sa little caveat to that, and I
didn't think I know what that wordmeans. But I do kind of feel
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like I know when I'm going toget out a Hunter and I don't love
it. I hate to say that, because I do see those flashes that
you talk about and what he couldbe, but it's gonna take work to
get there because he throws ninety eightpitches and strikes out eight. Because there's
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when I kind of talked about Nickand that feel for letting off the gas
at times, you know, throwinga ninety one mile on our fastball when
he has ninety six just to getin the count, and it's a it's
the same pitch, but it's different, Like you don't have to do anything
different but try a little bit lessand it's gonna get off the barrel.
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They're gonna be a fraction of asecond early, which is a big deal
when you're talking about zero point zerofour seconds. It takes the hitter's reaction
time you don't see the ball inthe first place, So a fraction of
a second is a big deal inthis so disrupting timing. And I punter
only really has a fastball and sliderright now. They have a fifty chance
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to guess right. So the fileit's the bow balls kill him because he's
making good pitches that they normally shouldn'tbe able to get ahold of, but
they the timing is too close togetherthat they're not off of anything. They're
not on it necessarily, but they'renot off of it based on timing.
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So he's making good close pitches andgetting to three to two every batter,
and they file off two balls,and so it's a eight pitch a bat
every hitter. That's how you throwninety eight pitches important by being really good
and predictable. If he had ifhe had the Frankie Montas mix, you've
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got more room for air. AndI know Frankie didn't throw the ball well
up and seat leave, but youknow he might throw the pitch over here.
That's not quite as good. Hemissed location, but it was his
fourth pitch, which means they havea twenty five percent chance of guessing right
on it. So he misses thebarrel or they swing and miss, because
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it's not one or the other.What thought? What say you? Well?
Is that you know you're an interestingperspective or you don't like about what?
No, it is it's sort ofcaps no, no, it encapsulates
my frustration. It's just yeah,I it's one thing to watch a guy
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throw a whole bunch of pitches andhe's getting his brains beaten in, or
he's given up a thousand runs,or he's not competitive. There are like
even if you go back to hisfirst start, he walks the first battery
of the game and then the nextsix outs, he looked as locked in
as I've ever seen him. Butthen the like the wheels don't fall off
suddenly, it's just like, allof a sudden, he's done after four
and a third, and you're like, God, the guy who just twenty
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five minutes ago was mowing through theorder is done already. Like it's just
it's one of the weirdest. It'sone of the weirdest things I've ever watched.
It is, And so I was, you know, when they started
talking to the spring training about himlearning and those other pitches, and I
was like, man, he justneeds to find tune these you know what
I mean, because he can getby and I did use that term get
by and say it thrive. Hecan get by with the fastball slider because
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their power, right. And thenso kind of after this last start,
when I was kind of dissecting apost game and get a little pissed off,
I decided I was wrong, Likehe does need to implement these other
pitches for that reason. They mightnot be which number one, the split
has a chance to be quality,but if you're mixing in, it just
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gives him a little bit more roomfor error. And it might be you
hope it is earlier in the count. He gets somebody to swinging his fastball,
but it's but it's the splitter andhe hits the groundball second second base
versus two pitch out rather than aneight pitch shikeout. You know, you
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just something, which is why Isay the thing about like, let I
know you got one hundred, brothrow a ninety three mile an hour fastball
that might have a little bit ofmovement to it, and get them off
out in front of it, offthe barrel a little bit, and get
your ground ball early in the count. And that's comfortable maximum. That's being
able to make that throw for astrike and get it out early. And
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then they've seen ninety three, they'veseen your slider and they used to.
They still haven't even your O twoand they still haven't seen the one hundred
you're about to blow by them.So you've effectively turned two pitches or one
pitch into two. And if youdo that with your kind of turn your
slider into that, I know he'scalling it a curveball. Whatever, throw
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your break slower breaking ball early toget into the count, and then your
power put away one later in thecount. So it's two pitches in one
and that it broadens your your repertoireright there without even without even including a
split or something. So it's justthe nuance of pitching, which he hasn't
learned because he just hasn't pitched aton. And I you know, I
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mean, I I almost feel likei'd like to go down there and slap
him in the back of the headand tell him that. But you know,
I don't have the rapport with him. I don't have like he doesn't
he knows I did it, butdoes he trust me? Can he put
that into effect? If I couldthrow a hundred, would I throw a
ninety three mile mater fastball that mightget hit out of the park, And
to be like I can throw ahundred, why did I do that?
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So I get that part of ittoo, but he is kind of it
is frustrating if you can't you can'ttell it is you. You you sound
you're putting it in a more articulateway, but you I feel the frustration.
I share the frustration. I justagain, there are these moments where
you're like, that's it, that'sthe guy, And then there are these
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moments where it's like, buddy,I need the light bulb to come on,
and we all want it to happennow, and it just it hasn't
happened. I know you have togo put it like a nice sport code
on to be on TV. Man'sjust I just I just looked at what
time, was like, man,I'm gonna I'm gonna finish, finish my
show here and I gotta give toit. I'll let you get to it,
man. Thank you as always,I appreciate yep, Hey, there
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you go. Sam Lequre, alwaysawesome, always insightful, and uh always
lengthy. So we're way late,twenty one away from four o'clock. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sportsstation