4/18/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show w/ Mike Petraglia

4/18/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show w/ Mike Petraglia

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, everybody, my name is Mike Petralia. You know me
on social media as trags. Maybe you know me period
as trags. Certainly if you grew up with me at
Indian Hell, that was where the nickname emanated from from
One Dan Kremchek and I am happy to host the

(00:29):
Moegger Radio Show here on this Friday, this good Friday
here in Cincinnati. We're on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. We
have an abundance of topics to talk about on this
Friday afternoon, the Friday before Easter. I want your reaction.
I want this show to be as interactive as possible.

(00:52):
We're gonna have tons of guests. I promise you that
we're gonna be talking Red's. What the heck happened yesterday
at Great American Ball Park with the Reds going up
the mountain of momentum and enthusiasm, with the grand slam
from Jake Frayley seven to five, lead to the back
to back homers given up by Emilio Pagan, who's had

(01:12):
a great start to the year, to the four run
tenth inning, all of the runs unearned. What the heck
happened there?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
What do you want the Bengals to do next Thursday
through Saturday? Where should their focus be and what should
they do in the first round? How critical is it
that the Bengals do not miss on their picks on
the first two days of this twenty twenty five NFL Draft.
We want to hear all of your opinions on said
topics at five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.

(01:43):
It's five to one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.
What do you think of Elie daily Cruz and his
start to the twenty twenty five season. Is there a
little bit too much pressure on him? Sometimes when I
watch him down at Great American Ballpark, I get the
same vent that he has the world on his shoulders.
And some athletes in this city, like Joe Burrow, they've

(02:05):
been through it. They can they've certainly demonstrated that they
can handle it. But others, and Ellie is still young. Yes,
he made his debut in twenty twenty three. Yes he
had a full season in twenty twenty four, but he's
still adjusting and baseball is a different animal. It's one
hundred and sixty two games. Are we expecting too much
too soon from Ellie Daily Cruise. I want to hear

(02:27):
all of your comments. If you have issues with me
on social media, I want to hear it. Five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty. We are going to sprint out
of the starting gates this afternoon and talk with somebody
who can certainly speak with authority on said Ellie Daily
Cruz subject matter, as well as all things Cincinnati Reds

(02:50):
and even something Cincinnati Bengals. That is Pat Brennan of
the Cincinnati Inquirer. He joins me right now on the
phone lines, Pat, how are you doing, my friend, Trags?

Speaker 4 (03:02):
It's a beautiful Friday. It is great to be on
with you, buddy.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
It is. It was actually a beautiful end weatherwise to
the day yesterday. Maybe not the result any Redspan would
want to see. You had a terrific capsulization a summary
of what happened yesterday at Great American Ballpark on Cincinnati
dot com. And you know, I thought it was very

(03:27):
interesting the way different players and Terry Francona handled the
results of yesterday. And I just want to get your impression.
What did you make of Terry Francona saying and I
know you wrote about this at Cincinnati dot Com. We
didn't play well enough to win. You can't make that

(03:48):
many errors, both physically and mentally and expect to win
that game.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yeah, well, I mean, obviously, I think he was dead
on correct. It was a really, really sloppy day for
the Reds in terms of the glove work and the field.
And it goes quite a bit beyond even the four
errors that you know are accounted for in a box score.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
There were two.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
I don't know, routine, might be a stretch, but two
ballop ups and a fly ball.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, that Blake duns down the left field line, and
that was a running play, and there was a degree
of difficulty to that because any outfielder will tell you
when you're running straight in on a baseball, your eyes
are bouncing around and it's very difficult to keep your
eyes focused on that ball. I can't can't kill Blake
done for that. It would have been nice to have
that out. And what has to happen that foul pop

(04:53):
off to the third base side of home plate that
has to be caught. Neither were errors, okay, no oh
runs scored as a result, But as Terry Francona pointed
out after the game. What that did do is it
cost the starter, Brady Singer, without question, an extra inning
in that game, and lengthened your bullpen, shortened the time

(05:15):
that your starter was on the mound. And those are
the little nuanced things that and Francona said this early
in spring training. Our margin of error is not like
clubs with bigger pay rolls or certainly you know, more
established stars. Our margin of error is smaller, and we
have to play like that.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, and they didn't play like that. Yes, No, you
know five.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Of the only five of the eleven runs that Seattle
played it in yesterday's game were earth runs. He stacked
that up against the eight runs Cincinnati scored. You know this,
even with you know, half as many errors in this game.
Cincinnati should have won this game. They should have won

(05:59):
this and they should have had the wing in their
sales going into Baltimore to face an Orioles team that
only just yesterday Drags won on one consecutive games for
the first time in twenty twenty five. And it's a
series that I think you would say, you would otherwise
say looks favorable for the Reds, but for the fact

(06:22):
that they have.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
They suffered yesterday another deflating loss.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
That's becoming a trend too that I'm seeing pop up
with some regularity, some of these losses.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Opening day.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
Mike Yastremsky's walk off in the serious scenale in San Francisco.
Certainly yesterday was a little bit more of a slow
drip when they went into extra innings and the Mariners
really dragged out there.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
They're they're at bat and the tenth inning.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
But these are really deflating losses, and I think over
time that you know, we're only nineteen games into this thing,
but over time that can eat away at confidence and
become really detrimental. So just a slop game from the
Reds yesterday and you know, kind of a sour note

(07:13):
to end an otherwise really promising homestand on.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
We have to address the La daily Cruise issue. Yesterday,
two more errors. He leads the majors in fielding errors
with six. And we're not here to pick on La
Dela Cruz. Lord knows that I heard from it on
social media yesterday during the game. You know you hate
La when I point out the fact that you know,

(07:37):
he took strike three not once, but twice in late
game situations. He made a couple of costly errors in
the field. There was another play where there was a
grounder up the middle. He probably should have charged it,
taken command of that play and thrown on the first
place you know, the groundball I'm talking about. Instead. Oh yeah,
Gavin Lux crossed him and tried to make the play

(07:58):
across and that was never going to happen. So, you know,
you add all of these things up, and really, what
it to me demonstrates is that there's a ton of
growth left in Elie daily Cruz's game. And sometimes I think,
whether it's fans, whether it's us in the media, I
don't think necessarily it's so much the organization or Terry Francona.

(08:19):
But you have to give Ellie time and space to
grow into hit not just a Major League Baseball players role,
but a star role, a leading role on a team,
a young team that hopes to contend this season.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
I want to give Ellie credit too, because he stood
up in the clubhouse and faced the.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Heat from reporters after the game.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
So you know, there's there's maturity there and there's accountability
there is What that told me after the game. But
you know, there's a bottom line business, obviously, and yeah,
yesterday was not a game for his career highlight reel
or any highlight reel. He clearly he looked lost at

(09:07):
the plate. You know, one of the called strike threes.
I think it was in the seventh inning he came
up to bat with the bases loaded, and I think
you pointed out on Twitter tracks it was ninety five
right down the middle of the plate and the bat
stayed on Ellie's shoulders. So that wasn't good. And yeah, look,

(09:29):
I don't we're not here to pick on him. I
don't want to belabor all these points, but I think
your point is very salient. Ellie, just for as spectacular
as he can be, and you know, for all the
special moments that he is wont to create, like the
Grand Slam on the Towering Grand Slam on his own

(09:52):
bobblehead nights. You know, he's full of those special moments
and full of potential. But it is still potential in
some cases. And I think the Mariners series as a
whole was a really good example of that because it
wasn't just yesterday. You know, he had an error on
a routine fielding play in Wednesday's game, it was I

(10:16):
think for.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
What you expect from Elliott the plate, it was.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
The bare minimum of contributions throughout that series. And yeah,
I think we're looking.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
At the growing pains here this guy.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
You know, some people talking right about, you know, the
potential for a billion dollar contract in Ellie's future. You know,
we got a ways to go before we get there,
you know, we Ellie can You know, he does some
really really special things with his glove too, but it's

(10:56):
at the moment it's not super consistent, and you never
want to see him leading Major League Baseball and errors,
which he is right now with six.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
That's a big.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
Number for nineteen games into the season. It's a little
over you know, one error every six games, if.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
My horrible math is right.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
Yeah, Ellie is you know, maybe Ellie needs to uh
you know, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing him take
a seat on the bench against the ball against the O's.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
This weekend and just watch, just watch.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
You know, everyone needs a day off anyway, and he
seems to be going through it right now.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
In terms of his personal end.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Product, I wouldn't I wouldn't there Terry Francona, just to
be clear, gave no indication he was gonna sit Elli
or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Right to your point, I'm jumping, I would, yeah, please
let me jump in here. I think the candidate and
Terry Francona loves to do this day game after a
night game, if a guy is struggling, that is when
he likes to sit a player. And I said, you
know previously, the other thing about Terry Francona, he loves
to sit a player the day before and off day

(12:07):
to give them two straight days off. And that's a
possibility with Ellie. But in this particular case. And I've
got the lineups here for tonight in Baltimore. Matt McClain
leading off second base, Santiago Espinal right field, batting second,
Ellie is batting third, playing shortstop again. Austin Hayes and
left Spencer Steer the DH jam Or Candelario at first base.

(12:31):
Noelve Marte again in the starting lineup. He is at
third base, Jose Travino the catcher, and Blake Dunn in
center field.

Speaker 6 (12:39):
No.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
TJ. Friedel tonight for the Cincinnati Reds at least in
the starting lineup. Your thoughts, Yeah, well, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Do you have a thought.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Well, I will tell you. I think you jumps I
that there's no TJ. Friedel at the top of the
the order, and that Matt McClane's being given a chance
here and he's only hitting two hundred. He's being given
a chance to jump start this lineup, and maybe he

(13:12):
can do that as a leadoff hitter. His ops is
eight nineteen, which is very very good. I like eSPI
batting second, the way he makes contact and the way
he can work walks. I think that's an interesting lineup
change for the Reds, and then keeping Ella batting third.
I think Francona wants to keep everything around Ellie as

(13:35):
stable as possible and not have so many moving parts,
because Ellie's got it up on his mind and he
doesn't want him thinking about, well, now I've been moved
around in the order. So I think Francona is trying
to give him every possibility to work his way.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Out of it.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
I also thought Terry had an interesting comment when he
was asked about Ellie's shielding errors yesterday.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, he's I don't think.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Terry is one to air out his player's dirty laundry.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
To us in the media.

Speaker 4 (14:06):
I don't think we'll see as much, if any, of
that while he's here, Well, Tito's here in Cincinnati, but
you know, he he he made an interesting comment that
didn't forgive it, didn't pardon Ellie from the fielding errors,
but you know.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
He said each error is different. So you know, to me,
that was.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
Terry Frankcona speak for circumstantial evidence, maybe to suggest there
were reasons that Ellie made the errors he did. He
played for not all of the game, but most of
the game with Gavin Lux and not Matt McClean to
his left at second base. I wonder if you know,
I think stability in the field is going to be
a key factor for Ellie as well. And obviously you

(14:45):
know things are going to change on a day to
day injuries happened and so on. But you know, I
Terry Francona didn't seem too too concerned yesterday, and I
think that as long is Ellie takes a look at
the what went wrong yesterday, learns from it, moves forward

(15:06):
in the right way, I think Terry Francona will be
content with that. And if he's content with it, we
can all be confident.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
I think that Ellie's in a good place.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Before we let you go. Pat Brennan of the Cincinnati
Inquirer covering or all things Cincinnati Reds and the Bengals,
I want to get your prediction on the first round
pick number seventeen overall that the Bengals are going to
go with. And why we got about a minute.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
Pat, Oh, yeah, sure. I think.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
Look, this is still a passing league in the NFL,
but I think it's also a copycat league. And the
Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles had Saquon Barkley as maybe
their most dangerous offensive weapon. It's not surprising to see
any you know, in the last few years, it's not
been surprising to see high profile running backs out of

(15:59):
college did early in the first round, whereas maybe that
hasn't been you know, that fell out of fashion this
century at different points. But I think that the Bengals
need to look at the interior defensive line for that reason,
because I could see a trend back toward kind of

(16:21):
the old fashioned feature power running back, and you know,
they already have problems tackling on defense. I like Derek
Harmon out of Oregon Eggs Okay, I like that. I
think that would be a great I think that would
be a great pick for it.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
All right, are you in Baltimore, by the way, I
am not. You have the Easter weekend off. That is good.
I'm glad to hear that.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Thank you, Treggs.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
And you're going to gear up for a busy week
next week. I assume I will see you down at court.
Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (16:51):
I think there's a very good chance that happens.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Okay. I don't want to give away war plans here,
so they don't keep that.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
These aren't exactly the nuclear codes either.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
No, no, I understood. But he is Pat Brennan. He
does a tremendous job covering all things Cincinnati Reds and
the Bengals as well for the Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com. Pat,
I really appreciate you taking time out and joining me trags.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
I always appreciate it, buddy, anytime.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
All right, he is Pat Brennan. We are coming back
here on the Mowager Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen
thirty and just a bit. We'll take some calls. I
see Jeff out there wants to talk some Bengals and
some drafts, so we'll get to him, and we'll also
talk about some other things going on around the National
Football League. Where's Aaron What is Aaron Rodgers going to

(17:45):
wind up doing? And could it impact the AFC North
that and much more after this break. My name is
Mike Petralia Trags and this is the Moeger Radio Show
on Cincinnatis ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (18:00):
He's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 8 (18:04):
UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (18:06):
The UC Cancer Center offers the latest research based and
holistic approaches to head and net cancer. Called five A
five UCCC northbound seventy one. A disabled vehicle blocking off
the left lane after US sixty eight on Mitchell Avenue.
It's an injury accident at Vine and northbound Paddock Rode.

(18:27):
Another accident at Tennessee Avenue northbound seventy five. Solow traffic
Mitchell up the Paddock on that ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 9 (18:35):
This report is sponsored by Rapid.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Back on the Mowedger Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
My name is Mike Trallia. Here on this good Friday,
we have two calls lined up. We see Jeff mentioned
him right before the break. We also have Mike. He
wants to talk. I believe if my eyes are even
working right, NBA and some National League West talk first,

(19:02):
where we'll get to Jeff. Jeff, I've got sixty seconds.
You want to talk Bengals. What's on your mind?

Speaker 10 (19:09):
Two quick one trags? Happy Friday, you as well. I
asked Tony and Austin earlier. If Shador falls to seventeen,
would the Bengals trade with the Steelers.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
The question would be would the Steelers trade? Would the
Steelers want to move up and get him? I think
the Bengals would be more than happy to move back
down and get another pick if and I think there
are many different ways the Bengals could go at seventeen
if the right players are there, and I think they
will be. We'll talk with James Rapine Bengals Talk dot
Com and just a few moments about that exact subject.

(19:44):
But I think the Bengals could make a deal. But
would the Steelers want to make that deal with the
Bengals and give them an extra draft pick? You know,
I think the Bengals would be open to it. But again,
you don't often see It's like the Yankees and Red Sox.
You don't see two bitter rivals making a deal like

(20:04):
that unless it makes sense for both teams. So that's
the way I would couch that answer, if that makes
any sense.

Speaker 8 (20:10):
You got anything else on your mind?

Speaker 10 (20:12):
Yeah, just I know Mike North has made the rounds
and denied that. You know, he told Hobbes that the
Mayor of Madrid doesn't have any inside information.

Speaker 9 (20:20):
Yes, once the.

Speaker 10 (20:22):
Schedule comes out, well, the Bengals get a logistics heads
up before the release and could there be a leak
on that. I'm already booked to go, So I just
hope it comes true that you.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Are not alone in that subject, in that category, and
I will leave it at that. There are few people
who know me who know what I'm referring to. But anyway, yes,
the Bengals absolutely get a heads up on that for
logistical purposes. Obviously, there's a ton of planning that has
to be done in terms of booking hotels and logistics.
Once you get overseas to a foreign country wherever it

(20:55):
happens to be could be, and I would expect it
to be a Madrid where the Bengal wind up. But
you know, nothing is for sure. The NFL keeps those
secrets tightly, tightly guarded. So that's the best answer I
can give you on that is, Yes, the Bengals and
any participating teams get a heads up so they can
start planning. I really appreciate the call, Jeff. Let's move

(21:16):
on to Mike. Mike, I've got thirty seconds for you.
Don't mean it's short change it, but we're up against
the break.

Speaker 11 (21:22):
Thanks Mike, appreciate it, you say quickly. Then the uh
ok C, with all their youth, can they handle the
experience now that the Lakers have Golden State, They're too tired.
That's my number question Number one? Coming out of the West.
Can Oka see come out of the West? Number two?
The NL West unbelievable fourth through first team to have

(21:46):
a six hundred to eight Yes, incredible. Just comment on
those two things please.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
I'll take the last one first. I don't think that
the San Francisco Giants are going to be able to
keep up with the San Diego Padres and the LA
Dodgers in that division. I think they're good. I don't
think their ninety five wins good, if you know what
I mean, And I think they'll fall off a little bit.
I just don't see their offense keep Their pitching is tremendous,
but I don't see their offense keeping track with the

(22:14):
Padres and the Dodgers. As far as SGA and the
Oklahoma City Thunder. When you have the best player, I
like your chances. We're going very far. Sixty eight wins
is no fluke, and that's what the Oklahoma City Thunder
have done. And I think they have a lot of
options on that team, some unheralded if you haven't been

(22:36):
following the NBA closely, I like okac's chances to get
back to their second ever NBA Finals, but the Celtics
are going to repeat. I do not see a world
in which the Boston Celtics do not repeat as NBA champions.
That'll be it for this first half hour of the
Moegger Radio Show. I appreciate Mike calling in. We'll have

(22:57):
James Rapine, as I just mentioned, on the other side
of this break, and we'll talk all things Bengals, and
nobody does more to break down the upcoming NFL Draft
than mister Rappine, who we'll talk all about that. My
name is Mike Petralia Trags, and this is the Mowagger
Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (23:16):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (23:20):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (23:23):
The UC Cancer Center offers the latest research based and
holistic approaches to head and net cancer. Called five A
five UCCC northbound seventy one A disabled vehicle blocking off
the left lane after US sixty eight on Mitchell Avenue.
It's an injury accident at Vine and northbound. Paddock wrote

(23:44):
another accident at Tennessee Avenue northbound seventy five. Slow traffic,
Mitchell up the Paddock on that ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 12 (23:52):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radio.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Back here. They're on the Moegger Radio Show on Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty. I want your calls. I want to
fill up this phone bank with all of your opinions
on the upcoming NFL draft. I know everybody has a mock.
I get that, But the mock that I want to
hear from the most are the fans, because I find,
especially in a draft like this with the Bengals, where

(24:21):
so much is at stake and there's so much ability
to rebuild the defense, a desperate need to rebuild the defense.
There are so many different ways the Bengals can go.
I want to hear your opinions. Where should the Bengals go.
You don't have to give me a name, per se,
feel free to do that. Certainly, there's lots of resources
out there where you can get a name or two

(24:43):
that might be on the Bengals big board in the
first round. But I want your opinion on where the
Bengals should go with this five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty five one three seven four nine one five
three zero. We've got a cup of minutes here before
our next break break. We're trying to get on the

(25:04):
line one. James Rapine. He is a busy, busy man
for many different reasons. We'll leave it at that right now,
and certainly he is trying to catch up on all
his obligations. So hopefully we will get James Repine at
Bengals talk at SI dot Com on the line momentarily
and we can break it down with somebody who Uh,

(25:25):
nobody does it better I think, in my opinion, in
the city, uh than James Repine in terms of the
people he talks to.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
He doesn't just throw names out there. He actually talks
to his sources inside the organization, outside the organization around
the NFL and comes up with some interesting names. Last year,
he got a Marius Mims, dead on, accurate from the
get go, and that's where the Bengals decided to go
in the first round. And if you want to talk,

(25:53):
if you want to jump on those phone lines five, one, three, seven, nine,
fifteen thirty. The Bengals get a lot of grief about
the way they've handled the first round the last several years. Certainly,
there's no question Miles Murphy is not produced at first
round level. Yet there's no debating that. There's no argument
from that. I think people inside the Bengals organization would

(26:17):
tell you mostly off the record, but even some on
the record. As Zach Taylor has mentioned before, they expect
more from everyone on that defense, and that includes one
Miles Murphy. It'll be interesting to see if the new
defensive coordinator, Al Golden, coming over from Notre Dame, gets
back to his roots when he was a linebacker's coach
with the Bengals in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one.

(26:40):
Does he find a way, along with Jerry Montgomery, to
inspire Miles Murphy. Somebody has to light a fire under
Miles Murphy and get him angry. He's got all of
the he's got the physique, he's got the physical tools,
there's no question about that. But he's got to develop
secondary moves, third moves, fourth moves to get around professional

(27:04):
NFL level offensive tackles. And that's what he's really got
to focus on this offseason and carry it in to
the season. I'll tell you one player that really intrigues
me as a you know, would intrigue me as somebody
who follows the Bengals for a living, and that's Jehad Campbell,
a linebacker out of Alabama. And the reason he does

(27:25):
is you not only want a first round talent, you
want a first round player who's firstatile, who can play
many different positions and make a first round impact at
many positions on the defense. If you're talking about resurrecting
the quality of the Bengals defense, what you want is
a guy like Jahad Campbell who you could slot certainly

(27:46):
step in and slot him in with Logan Wilson. Jahad
Campbell could play off the edge, he could play a
little bit of a joker position closer to the line,
he could play. One guy that I recollect of my
days early in the Patriots dynasty was Willie McGinness. I
always thought Willie McGinnis was one of the best defensive

(28:07):
players in the National Football League. Didn't always play to
that potential. But you could play him on the ground.
You could play him as an edge, You could play
him as a you know, kind of a linebacker in coverage,
although he wasn't a linebacker he was at usc but
not later in his NFL career. But the point is,
you could play a guy like that all over Belichick's defense,

(28:30):
and that's what I think you know you're looking for
in a first round talent. I would say John Campbell
is certainly a possibility for the Bengals if he is
there at seventeen overall, and if the Bengals don't get
a trade partner and move down in the first round
or out of the first round altogether. It is not like,
by the way the Bengals to move out of the

(28:52):
first round. I think somehow they will find a way
to stay in the first round. Another name that intrigues me,
and I just wonder what the Bengals feel about drafting
this particular position, and that's safety. Nick M. M. Worry
out of South Carolina. He is an intriguing prospect because

(29:13):
some people have comped him to Kyle Hamilton of the
Baltimore Ravens, and I'm just curious to see whether or
not the Bengals view him the same way. There have
been reports, of course, that he was one of their
thirty visits. And you know, if they can get Em
and Worry, you know, at that spot, do they take

(29:33):
a chance and draft a safety when they clearly have
a need at sorry linebacker, defensive edge and tackle defensive tackle.
Would they go outside the box and draft to safety.
They've been looking for the next Jesse Bates for so long,
and I'm wondering if they might go in that direction

(29:55):
and go with nick Em and Worry. Of course, Derek Harmon,
defensive tackle out of Oregon, He's a possibility. I like
him because of the disruption that he could provide in
the middle of the defensive line. Pair him with a
guy like TJ. Slayton, which they signed in free agency.
You already have guys like BJ Hill, you have Chris

(30:15):
Jenkins from last year's draft, and you also have McKinley Jackson,
who came in from last year's draft. If you were
to take Derek Harmon, suddenly, the middle of your defensive line,
at least on paper, has a lot of talent stacked
up there to not only stop the run, which s
Bengles have been notoriously poor at the last couple of

(30:36):
years in this division especially, but maybe get more pass
rush out of the interior of their defensive line. All right,
coming up after the break, we're gonna get James Rapine
on the line. He has checked in with me via text,
so I know he's alive and well, we'll have him
on the other side of this break. For now. You're

(30:56):
listening to the Mowagger Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 9 (31:39):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Rating.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Mike Petralia trags back with you on this good Friday.
This is the Moegger Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
We want to hear your opinions on this good Friday,
all things Cincinnati Bengals in the twenty twenty five NFL Draft,
by the way, which begins next Thursday, runs through Saturday
in Green Bay, Oh Number here to dial in your

(32:06):
opinions five one, three, seven, four nine fifteen thirty five
one three seven, four nine one five three zero and
lo and behold my good friend. One of the best
reporters in the business, and I'll be charging you for
all these compliments is the one and only James Rapine
of Bengals Talk dot com and SI dot Com. He

(32:28):
is on the line. I don't know if you heard
all the raving I did about you hitting Amrius Mims
on the money last year. I'm just trying to build
up here you go just a little bit more because
you're so humble.

Speaker 9 (32:39):
How you doing, James, see track.

Speaker 13 (32:43):
I was going to say, I needed to pay you
for all the phrase and then the humble part of it.
I don't know. Maybe you need to send me a
Venmo at James or pine on Venmo. No, I'm doing well, Trackie,
how are you?

Speaker 2 (32:54):
I'm doing well? And uh I mean it when I
say no. One works harder before the NFL Draft to
get it all right and give your viewers, your readers
a good sense of where the Bengals might go. Last year,
it was indeed Amarus Mims, right tackle out of Georgia,
who the Bengals decided to take at It was eighteen

(33:15):
last year, right eighteen overall? Yep. So this year and
this year they move up one pick to seventeen. And
I'm reading your list of six players they should take
in the first round. Any one of them makes a
lot of sense. I can't get by number six. I
know you're in love with tight ends. I know you

(33:36):
love pass catchers for this offense. Tell us why you
think if he's there, Colston Lovelin out of Michigan makes
good sense for the Bengals.

Speaker 13 (33:45):
Well, let's just use your experience Trags. In fact, I'm
in my basement right now and I see a photo
of Thomas Edward Brady. And when you were in New England,
did Thomas Edward Brady throw to Aaron Hernandez and Rob GRONKOWSI.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
He did and did, but he did not have valuable
He did not have Jamar Chase and T Higgins.

Speaker 9 (34:07):
That would be no doubt about it.

Speaker 13 (34:09):
But tight ends are valuable. And when people, when people
see Colston Loveland, they think, oh my god, tight end,
they instantly go to the position. And to be honest
with you, it's silly because when I say, oh, well,
Coolston Lovely should be in consideration at seventeen, I hope
the Bengals hear that. And I talked with Lance about

(34:30):
this yesterday on seven hundred WLW. Obviously I wrote about it,
Bengals Talk dot com, talked about it on Cincinnati Bengals
Talk on YouTube. It's it's simple. It's well, he could
easily be the best player there. And if he's the
best player there in a past first offense where there's
a tight end that can be an elite pass catcher,

(34:51):
a quality blocker, someone that can can help, well, then
you take him. You don't look at the position and say, oh, well,
team doesn't need well, do they need a a one
trick pony on the edge because because half the talent
is going crazy over Mike Mike Green, I'm not sure
he can defend the run against the AFC North. I

(35:12):
think he could probably get washed out. Same thing goes
for James Pearce of Tennessee. And so I think that
that's what's interesting to me is looking at the draft,
looking at it without bias, and the bias being where's
the talent.

Speaker 11 (35:32):
Right you need.

Speaker 13 (35:39):
From Louisville. It's going to give them more than James
Pierce sooner will Okay?

Speaker 9 (35:43):
Can you repeat that?

Speaker 2 (35:44):
James? Your your phone dropped out a little bit. What
were you just saying? Again?

Speaker 9 (35:50):
Sorry about that.

Speaker 13 (35:51):
So Ashton Jelatti out of Louisville is a pass rusher
on day two and.

Speaker 9 (35:56):
Is a complete pass rusher.

Speaker 13 (35:58):
Is someone that can defend the run. Is someone that's
going to be athletic enough to get after the passer
and bolster your pass rush. And so that's what I
think is interesting is when people see Coast in Loveland,
they instantly think, oh, well, James is in love with weapons,
and it isn't that simple. I just know I'm in
love with the best I'm in love with the best player,
and Amarus Moons was the best player last year and

(36:20):
I think it'll probably be a trench player this year.
But there's a scenario where Coaston Loveland is the best guy,
and if he is, I'm gonna tell the Bengals to
take it.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
And I think that's wise. Stick to the board. How
many times do we hear that, James, And it's and
I think it's true. I think you know it's cliche,
But cliches are cliches for a reason because they're true.
You stick with the best player on the board, the
best talent on the board, especially in the first round.
And if you have a chance to get a tight end,

(36:49):
who projects I'm just gonna give you George Kittle because
I know Zach loves that guy as a three phase
tight end. To me, Travis Kelcey isn't the best tight end.
George Kittle is because he can pass block, he can
run block, and he can catch the ball. He can
do all three at a superior level. Is that what

(37:10):
Glston Loveland would do?

Speaker 13 (37:14):
I think so. And it's funny. I think a lot
of Bengals fans of you. Coaston Loveland is Mike Kisiki
because he's a little sinner the dudes in the high
two forties.

Speaker 9 (37:22):
And he can block in line.

Speaker 13 (37:24):
And that's what's interesting is he's a quality run blocker.
You can run, put him on the outside of the
tackle in line and use him on running downs. And
that's something that we saw a little bit of with
Eric Ball and Loveland is just so much smoother and
such a unique talent there. Now, that doesn't mean that

(37:45):
was the only one of the six. It was one
of the six, right, and people see that and and
don't realize that the other five are three of them
are trench guys. The two others that aren't trench guys
would help your pass rush because they're awesome blitz and
elite actors.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
I'll tell you the one that stands out to me,
not to interrupt you, Campbell of Alabama.

Speaker 13 (38:05):
Yes, he's my favorite. He's my favorite of the sixth.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
I would agree with that. I mocked him.

Speaker 13 (38:12):
Yeah, My concern with Jahad Campbell is the health. But
if his health is fine and you get the green light, there,
the green flag, whatever you want to say. Jo Hod
Campbell is a do it all type of linebacker that's
going to help the middle of your defense. I wrote
for bengalsal dot com, like a Logan Wilson to Hod
Campbell Combo might be the best linebacker duo in the NFL,

(38:35):
and I that's that that's a take, right, But but
I think what he does to your defense, he changes
the identity of your defense. He gives your defense and
identity and and and so if he somehow gets there
to seventeen and the Bengals have the thumbs up from
a health standpoint, there's no question to me to talk

(38:57):
about defensive tackles, are you want? I actually think there's
a decent amount of sensive tackles that you can look
at in this class. Maybe not the ones that the
Bengals are looking at, fine, but if they really were
that worried about defensive tackle, I think they would have
addressed that even more in free agency. You know what
they didn't address in free agency with a legitimate starter
is linebacker.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
That's a whole.

Speaker 13 (39:17):
That's a whole that they're going to address in this draft.
JAHI Campbell would be the best option for that and
just a complete game changer at linebacker if they can
get them.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Where can they get a starting right guard.

Speaker 13 (39:31):
So maybe seventeen. I would certainly be open to pick
seventeen and in the first round. I also think on
day two is really where you're looking is if we're
leaving Paid Course Stadium a week from now tracked, and
it'll be a little more than a week from now,
because right now we'll probably have just finished up interviewing

(39:52):
the first round pick, whether it's Jeha Camber or Colston
Loveland or one of the other six that I just mentioned.
I think it's an honorable mention, but I think it'll
be one of those six what wrapped up those interviews,
it will be going into day two. If they leave
day two and they still don't have a guard, five
of them nabbing a starting guard, well, it could happen

(40:12):
like Coryell Wilson was a fourth round pick and started.
But it's not just starting for the Bengals, it's starting caliber,
and I'm not sure you can do that after the
third round. And so there are guys throughout the first
three rounds that I like a lot. You know, Tate
ratt Ledge is going to be a really popular name
for Bengals fans on Day two.

Speaker 9 (40:33):
I think there's at least.

Speaker 13 (40:34):
Some scenarios where Tyler Booker is then play as early
as seventeen. Now I wouldn't pick him there, but he
could be in play at seventeen. Certainly at pick forty nine.
I think that that is the window rounds one through three,
or you have to get a starting guard, and honestly,
I'm open to double dipping their tries. You could get
two guards, maybe a guy that has guard tackle flex.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
YEP.

Speaker 13 (40:56):
I feel pretty darn good about that. So yeah, I
think that three we better be hearing an offensive lineman's
name called. If the Bengals are hoping to get a
starter that can be a plug and play type guy.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
I like Miles Frasier out of LSU, and based on
what I read about him, he seems like a really
good fit in about round three somewhere around there. Running back,
and we've got about a minute here, James running back
is to me kind of an underplayed aspect of this
draft for the Bengals. You see them taking a running
back here in this draft. If it's a game breaker, they.

Speaker 13 (41:33):
Better take a running back in this draft. Right now,
they have probably the worst running back room in the league.
I mean, and that's not a knock on Chiefs Brown
or some I JP Ronning, but that's it. I mean
when you talk about two guys that you're confident can
touch the football, well you need guys that can touch
the football at running back and be competent runners and

(41:53):
pass catchers and pass blockers. So yeah, they need to
address it. I think they will. I think you're talking
about one of their six draft picks being on a
running back, maybe as early as round two. I must
ask your gent falls. I really do think they'd consider him.
He's not going to FOLLO though, He'll be a top
seven packish in that range. But I think the sweet
spot guard is rounds two and three, or maybe one,

(42:17):
but certainly two and three. Sweet spot for running back
is rounds three through five. That's where you're looking at
where you could really get a talented guy that fits
with the value. So I think that's where they'll take one,
and then probably at a college free agent as well.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yes or no, they wind up with more than six
draft picks by the end of Saturday.

Speaker 13 (42:36):
I think they certainly want to, so I think the
answer would be yes. But a year ago we were
all saying how they would trade up, and they didn't,
and that's a reminder it's really hard. It's hard to
trade down. I think the whole lead from about fifteen
on would love the trade down in the first round,
and maybe they can pull it off. But until they do,

(42:57):
I'll say we'll see after that. So I think the
meat of the draft is in rounds two and three,
and I would not trade down because you don't want
to miss the value that's there. So I'll say no,
because I think most people would say s, I'll say no.
I say they stick with six picks.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
All right?

Speaker 3 (43:11):
He is.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
James Rapine does a fabulous job breaking down all things
Bengals for Bengals Talk dot com and si dot Com. Also,
j Morrison, who works with James, does a fabulous job
stat of the Jay great feature. By the way, James,
I think he does a great job with that. I'm
sure you do too, But anyway, be sure to check
out his material leading up to next Thursday's first round

(43:34):
of the twenty twenty five NFL Draft. On the other
side of the break, in the top of the hour,
we'll be talking more Bengals with Jeff Hobson of Bengals
dot Com. Be sure to call in get in on
those phone lines now five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty. My name is Mike Petralia Trags and this
is the Moegger Radio show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 14 (43:57):
Hey, it's Mullager during the NBA playoff NATI Bengals select this.

Speaker 15 (44:01):
He's an ESPN fifteen thirty. Donado's draft profile Ganados Got
More to Love crowd sponsor of the Cincinnati Bengals, criscented
by oxy or Gas and Bellow Windows and Doors up
Greater Cincinnati at Northern Kentucky.

Speaker 9 (44:16):
Now here's moe Egger with a name. You need to
know what we got.

Speaker 14 (44:21):
If you paid attention to the Bengals issues on the
offensive line last season, you know that guard is a
position they could address in Round one of this year's draft.
North Dakota State's Gray Zabel could be an option with
the seventeenth overall pick. Zabel has experienced at all five
offensive line positions. He is tall, standing at six feet
six inches, and he was excellent last season, giving up

(44:43):
just one sack and seven pressures in four hundred and
fifty three pass blocking snaps.

Speaker 9 (44:49):
He was also a reliable run blocker.

Speaker 14 (44:51):
Scouts have shown concern about his short arms, and some
have pointed out how much he struggles against quicker pass rushers.
But he's an athletic offensive lineman and he proved to
be reliable at whichever position he played in college. Keep
an eye on North Dakota State guard Gray's able.

Speaker 9 (45:08):
Oh yeah, Moe has more.

Speaker 15 (45:10):
Listen to the next Draft profile on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Hour number two of the Moegger Radio Show on Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Mike Dahlia. You may
know me better, especially on social media on the x
AS tracks, and I'm here to talk everything NFL draft.
What are the Cincinnati Bengals going to do with number seventeen,

(45:41):
maybe more importantly, how is their entire draft, all six
picks for now, going to shape up by the end
of Saturday evening? What will the Bengals roster of drafted
players look like for twenty twenty five. Here to help
in that discussion is the one and only Jeff Hobson.
We call them Butch on the beat, Butch Hobson of

(46:03):
Bengals dot Com. It is my pleasure to welcome you
to the Moweger Radio Show for this Friday.

Speaker 16 (46:09):
How you doing, Butch gag fine, Thanks very much for
having me on. Appreciate it to be.

Speaker 5 (46:15):
On in this hour with you guys.

Speaker 16 (46:18):
And I don't uh, I'm sure you guys can like
me problem because as we know, like any draft seasons,
there there's so many you know, it's always cloudy.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
You know, I'm going to start this conversation with the
final question I asked James Rapine of Bengals Talk dot
com just before the top of the hour, and that
is yes or no. And we have a little more
time because we're starting out the conversation with you, Butch,
yes or no? And why the Bengals end up with

(46:52):
six draft picks by the end of Saturday night? Will
they end up with six? Will they end up with more?
Will they end up with fewer? Where do you think
it goes? And why.

Speaker 16 (47:02):
I think they get more? I think because they want more,
so you know, motivation is a big thing. And you know,
can they find a dance partner? Well, no, it might
be easier in the second round, in the first round,
but you know, I think they want I think they
want more than six picks.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Okay. A caller in the first hour brought up a
fascinating scenario to me, and it involves a division rival,
the Pittsburgh Steelers. If Shadora Sanders is there at seventeen,
would the Steelers move up and make a deal with
the Cincinnati Bengals. How unusual would that be? I told
the caller it would be like the Red Sox and

(47:41):
Yankees making a trade, which it does happen, but it's
so rare and in this particular case, would be almost inconceivable.
But do you see a situation where the Steelers and
Bengals could make a deal and you know, the Bengals
would get an extra draft pick out of it and
still stay in the first round.

Speaker 16 (48:00):
You know, I think the Steelers'll probably prefer and the
Steelers and the Bengals will prefer to deal with anybody
but their own. So you know, I can see the
Steelers going going to sixteen or eighteen. I don't know
if they'd hop on the phone with the Bengals, you know,
because they can get shut or any number of places.
So you know, you hate, you hate to deal with

(48:21):
the division rival. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think
the Bengals and the Browns have ever made a trade
and it seems like fate sat in it because because
they had McCarran, the trades should have gone through, but
the Browns blew it up.

Speaker 13 (48:35):
Remember for aging mccarrens.

Speaker 16 (48:38):
If that Yeah, so if that doesn't go through, I'm
not sure anything will ever go through. But yeah, it's
an interesting scenario. I mean, that's where you know, we
can begin the discussion now because I did this a
little bit. I did it as an exercise in my
mock draft last week where I had you know, Green
Bay trading up at seventeen and they, you know, Pete
Doherty should be the beat. The beat writer in Green

(49:00):
Bay assured me that, you know, that's that's not going
to happen. But I need somebody to play ball with.
Maybe I should have played ball with Dulac with the Steelers,
who covers them for so long that the post is it.
But he insists he believes that they're going after a
defensive act, that they have the exact same needs as
the Bengals on the defensive line with Cam you know,
with Cam Hayward staring at retirement, so you know, maybe

(49:25):
you know, are they gonna are they going to take
either in the first round or I mean, I think
there's some debate there or are they going to wait
and get a quarterback later? I think, you know, go ahead, yeah,
go ahead, No, no, go ahead, you go now. I
was going to say, they got to be careful because
if they're looking for a defensive lineman, that's right about
where the where the run is going to go. Okay,

(49:46):
if you throw the Steelers in the mix for defensive linemen. Okay,
Because when I did it, and I traded out as
seventeen uh for the next six picks before the Bengals
picked the twenty three for defensive linemen, and there was
still edge rushers the there after all that when they
picked at twenty three. So it was a good it

(50:06):
was a good exercise in the fact that they could
maybe survive or run there. But how far do you
go down? You know, how far do you go down?
And if is that the guys that you want, are
they left in the bucket there? I don't know how
they're They're great in these guys, so I don't know,
you know, maybe maybe they think it would be that'd
be too far to go down, you know, maybe maybe

(50:27):
twenty one, twenty two, twenty three would be too far
to go down. If if if they feel like you know,
their bucket is three. But you know, I think my
sense is they're looking for anything and everything, and you know,
best player on the board there in their biggest needs
Linebacker ye.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Of Alabama.

Speaker 16 (50:50):
Yeah, I know you love them.

Speaker 13 (50:51):
Yeah, you sold me on them.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Traggs.

Speaker 16 (50:53):
I took him. He's the guy I picked and I
had when I picked Campbell, I still had Steward on
the board from A and m still had and still
had the to the two the guy from Boston College
and Pierce from Tennessee was.

Speaker 9 (51:10):
Still on the James Pearce who you know.

Speaker 16 (51:12):
Yeah, they're two light guys. So they were people there
even at twenty three. But you know, Anne Campbell, Uh,
so you know it's still a pretty There's still a
good bunch of names there.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
I'll tell you the one guy that well, a lot
of people have talked about Mike Green, and I hesitate
to say this because character issues. Nobody knows unless you
are literally the team with security people and doing deep,
deep dives on the backgrounds of these players. Those are
the people who know. Aside from that, we don't know

(51:46):
what his makeup is and we're not going to find
that out until probably after he's taken, and even then
we don't know the entire history. But on the field,
on paper, what I hear about Mike GREENMP is of course,
uh Dallas's star star edge rusher. And I'm just wondering

(52:09):
if you think there are some comps there between Mike
Green and trying to blank on the name for Michael Parsion.
Thank you, Michael.

Speaker 16 (52:21):
I think Parsons, I mean I think Parstins is bigger
than Green, right, yeah, he is, Yeah, I mean that
to me, that's.

Speaker 13 (52:28):
A big thing.

Speaker 16 (52:29):
I mean, I mean, in this division, what's Green two
hundred and fifty pounds maybe.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Fifty five?

Speaker 16 (52:37):
Yeah, and Parsons is what two seventy right, yeah, he's bigger. Yeah,
I mean that that, you know. So right there, I'm
a little bit, you know, right there, I'm pausing a
little bit because I think the cop also not only
has some clue production, that has to include you know,
you got to be close to close to the statue.

(53:00):
I think, you know, I think in this division, now
you know, Parsons obviously.

Speaker 13 (53:05):
Could play in the AFC Norse.

Speaker 16 (53:06):
I mean, you know, but I think that's going to
be something we don't know yet. Something else we don't
know yet, Trags is you know, we've got the defensive line,
uh tape, We've got the we've got the blueprint for
what they wanted the defensive line with lou Anna Rumbo
as the defensive coordinator. How does that change with lou
Ana Arumo. You got a new defensive coordinator, you get

(53:28):
a new defensive line coach. So do this sort of
the specifications to the measurements change. I mean that's something
we're not going.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
To know with defensive coordinator.

Speaker 16 (53:38):
Yeah, right, something we're not going to know until the
seventeenth pick.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
Maybe he wants it, you.

Speaker 16 (53:42):
Know, maybe maybe he won't bat an eye in taking
the kids from DC's two hundred and forty seven pounds.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
You know.

Speaker 16 (53:49):
But you know what always Lo's got lou Lou wanted
him to eighty right to to eighty to eighty five,
you know, to seventy five miles Murphy esque. Uh, Joseph
Osayes will now want to go that route. You know,
I think that's a big that's a big you know.
I mean, if he's if he's, if that's out the door,
you know, then guys like Pearson Green and kid from

(54:12):
BC or in the miss. If not, then you know,
all of a sudden you've cut the thing in half
because Stuart is more then Stuart is more your you know,
he's more like the guy that they've drafted in in
years past.

Speaker 10 (54:25):
More.

Speaker 5 (54:25):
Don't like Murphy more than anybody?

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Really, Do you think there's a chance, And we talked
to James Rapain about this, Colston Loveland, if the tight
end is there and you can get that value at
a tight end position, certainly one of the best tight
ends in the draft, if not the most highly rated
tight end, do you take him there and pare him
eventually with Eric Hall and obviously Mike Kasicki, who really

(54:49):
is a glorified slot receiver. But you would you take
a shot on Colston loving Loveland if he is the
highest rated player on the board.

Speaker 16 (54:59):
I may be wrong, but I just don't see that
at seventeen. You know, maybe if they traded down and
he was still there, but I doubt it'll still be there.
But that would kind of that would kind of shock
me given their needs. Now I shouldn't say that because
you know plenty of just you know.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Here's the thing, let me jump in here. But I don't.

Speaker 16 (55:17):
I don't think Love is, but I don't think he's
going to be there by the way, right they end
up in there don't possibility. I don't even think we
shaid a discussion because Warren is going to be gone
before the Colts picked, and the Colts had their worst
productive year at tight end since nineteen ninety four. Everybody's
got them taken, taken taking level, so I don't see him.

Speaker 13 (55:38):
Through the Bengals.

Speaker 16 (55:39):
So but it's an interesting I mean, obviously it's an
interesting discussion.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
But go ahead.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
To me, you will never draft Need in the first round.
You take the best player on the board, and I
don't think you draft Need until the second or third round.
That's when I think you get the best value because
you're starting to build depth and at in the first round,
I think you are drafting players who can play a lot.

(56:04):
I don't like the term starters because that can mean
different things to different schemes and different rosters, certainly, but
I do like the term impact players. Can you get
the best impact player possible in the first round. To me,
that's what you're shooting for.

Speaker 16 (56:23):
I don't think you takes you the best receiver on
the board.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
You know, there's a need for receive. You can make
the argument in terms of depth, which that there is
the need for receiver. I mean, obviously you've got two
great receivers, but there's no may.

Speaker 16 (56:38):
They got three solid they got three solid receivers, got account.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Receiver.

Speaker 16 (56:44):
But after that, you're right. After that, they're a little
thin there. But but I don't think you take care
But I don't think you take care of that in
the first round. Maybe you do, I don't know, maybe
you do.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
To me, the fascinating part of how different teams view
the first round versus the rest of the draft there
really is I mean.

Speaker 16 (57:04):
Also what what points of the what points of the
round as well? And we may be saying, yeah, you know,
loved one is dropped dead. We may be saying that.
Are they saying that, you.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Know that's true?

Speaker 13 (57:16):
You have to get you judge just.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
By what their board says, not what so mocked by
Dane Brugler of the Athletic who does a fabulous job.

Speaker 16 (57:25):
So right, But I think to me, given their needs,
I would think, you know, all the stuff that's been
talked about, I mean, uh, you know, the same people
that are saying, well, you know, they got to show,
you know, I mean, what about the defense. I mean,
let's let's you know, they've dumped all this money in
the offense, the defense has to get rebuilt. To me,

(57:47):
it's just be very high to see how they pick
an offensive guy in the first round.

Speaker 5 (57:52):
Just my just my.

Speaker 16 (57:53):
Personal opinion, just seeing just seeing what the SRA.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
What you say, No, I I absolutely agree with you
in terms of you know, they need to rebuild the.

Speaker 16 (58:03):
Defense, right yeah, I think I don't know. I mean,
and I didn't mean to tell you off there, but
I think that you know, given where this team is
and how it's built, and I think at seventeen or
twenty one or twenty three, I think the defensive players
are going to grade. I just don't think there's an

(58:23):
offensive player there that knocks you out of the box.
And I include love one there because he plays tight ends.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
All right, I want to switch gears real quick. I
think you have a couple of great features.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
Up.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
One is a republishing of your story when T Higgins
was drafted in the twenty twenty draft. The headline just
grab Me, which it says t Higgins embraces Bengals tradition
with AJ green style and Chad's endorsement. That is a
blockbuster what we call in the business SEO search change

(58:55):
and optimization SEO headline. I love that one, and I
loved your p on the selection of fifty year icon
how the Bengals drafted Dave Lapham. Which one did you
enjoy doing more?

Speaker 16 (59:08):
Well, I'll talk about a search engine. If I always
try to get Joe Barrow in there, so his name
must have cut off on the T. Higgins headline. But
if but I enjoyed doing them all, you know, I
think if that the T Higgins I think was a
throwback to twenty twenty, I think correct and look at
how it worked, you know, and look at how it worked,

(59:28):
and look at how it worked out with you know
what kind of you know, he he looked an awful
lot like AJ at many times during his career here,
you know. And but I, you know, I always enjoy
writing about lap How can you not enjoy writing about
lap And I really get a kick out of, you know,
the old days, which was nineteen seventy four when Lynn

(59:50):
Lap I'm kept calling the Boston Globe Sports doesn't find
out if her fiance at the draft, you know, is
that right kind of Well, that's why we have you on, Butch,
but that kind of stuff doesn't happen, now, you know
what I mean? So correct, But it's uh, you know,
it's just uh. And of course lap is uh. You know,
he's uh, he's one on one as they like to say.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Yes indeed, and as are you. And I'm going to
use that as the spot to cut this off and
let you get about your Easter weekend activities and get
on with your weekend period. I really appreciate you taking
time out to look ahead to what should be a
very fascinating Thursday through Saturday for the Bengals as uh
they restock their roster. Have a good one, Butch trag.

Speaker 16 (01:00:37):
I look forward to the draft and I'll be able
to see you and the boys being able to get
to see again and the best the best of you
and uh and you loved ones over the weekend and
can't wait to see him Unday.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
All right, that sounds good, Butch, he is. Jeff Hobson
of Bengals dot Com does a great great job covering
all things Cincinnati Bengals as it relates also to the
Nation Football League. There is a live phone lines open
at five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty five
one three seven, four nine one five three zero. Want

(01:01:09):
to hear all of your opinions about what the Bengals
should be doing heading up to the NFL Draft, or
do you have an opinion about Ellie Daily Cruz? Is
there too much pressure on Ellie right now? Are the
expectations too big for what we think Ellie Daily Cruz
should be producing for the Cincinnati Reds. Talk all Things
Cincinnati Sports, and you're listening. My name is Mike Petralia Trags,

(01:01:33):
and you're listening to the Moegger Radio Show on Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (01:01:43):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:01:46):
The UC Cancer Center offers the latest research based and
holistic approaches to head and net cancer. Called five A
five UCCC around dry Ridge, Kentucky northbound seventy five shutdown
due to an excident between Kentucky twenty two and four
ninety one. Please avoid the area. Traffic also starting to

(01:02:07):
get heavy on Dixie Highway your closest altered it and
Turkey Foot Road. Another accident near Colony Drive on that
ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 8 (01:02:16):
This report is sponsored.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Mike Petralia trags back with you on the Moegger Radio
Show on Cincinnati's fifteen thirty. I want to solicit your
phone calls for opinions on all things Bengals draft, La
de la Cruz. Matt McClain's back in the lineup tonight.
He's batting leadoff. TJ Friedel is not in the lineup.
We can talk all things Cincinnati Reds as they open

(01:02:42):
a ten game road trip, three game road series in
Baltimore followed by I believe it's four games in Miami
and then a series in Colorado to wrap it up.
They'll be back home with the Saint Louis Cardinals on
April twenty eighth. That's the next time there at GABP
five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty. Also, the

(01:03:06):
NBA playoffs continue tonight. The what do you think of
the play in games? I had to be sold on
them at first. I kind of liked them because it
gives a little more relevance to the NBA middle of
the Pac teams. Look, I on record is saying that
I think it's going to be okay. See in the
Celtics in the NBA Finals, but you never know. Obviously,

(01:03:28):
the Cleveland Cavaliers, they have a lot of fans in
this neck of the woods. They've had a phenomenal year,
obviously winning sixty four games. You know, sixty three games, Sorry,
sixty four games is right. Stick with your first inclination,
as my dad always told me, sixty four games three

(01:03:48):
head of the Boston Celtics sixty one games in the
Eastern Conference. I know the Cleveland Cavaliers had a historic
season for them, but I still like Jason Tatum and
if Jalen Brown's healthy. I like the Celtics reaching the
NBA Finals, and once they get there, I think they'll
find a way to handle OKC in the thunder and
I think they win the NBA Finals. But there are

(01:04:12):
two playing games tonight. Tonight is the win or go
home games in the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.
Seven o'clock. It's Miami at Atlanta. Miami beating Chicago to
get to this game. Atlanta lost their play in games,
so they have to play one more game to try

(01:04:32):
and make it in as the eighth seed in the
Eastern Conference. So that's Miami and Atlanta tonight at seven o'clock.
That game's on TNT, then over on ESPN at nine
to thirty. It is the number ten seed Dallas who really,
by my estimation, shocked number nine Sacramento, not with winning

(01:04:53):
the game, but how they manhandled him. And obviously there's
been so much fewer in Dallas with the trade of
Jokis out of Dallas to Los Angeles, and to see
how you Dallas has responded for at least one game,

(01:05:14):
it's fascinating. Dallas will take on the number eight seed
Memphis Grizzlies. They will have that play in game tonight
in the Western Conference over on ESPN Dallas and Memphis series.
We already know Milwaukee at Indiana that game one is
set for Saturday. Also Saturday, the LA Clippers at Denver.

(01:05:36):
That's a five against four. Number six Detroit will travel
to New York to take on the Nickerbockers. That will
be at six o'clock on Saturday. And then wrapping up
the first day, that will be number six Minnesota traveling
to Los Angeles to take on Lebron James and the
LA Lakers. On the other side of the break, I'll

(01:05:57):
be talking to Joe Danoman of Fox nineteen shorts director.
We'll talk, of course the Bengals in the draft, but
we'll talk some Cincinnati Reds and get his impression on
how he thinks. Ellie daily Cruz is playing in these
first seventeen or so eighteen games of the regular season
for the Cincinnati Reds. Are we expecting too much from

(01:06:20):
Ellie this early in the season and is it too
early to judge? I want to get you on the
phone lines five one, three, seven, four nine fifteen thirty
five one three seven four nine one five three zero.
On the other side of the break, Joe Daniman is waiting,
and my name is Mike Petralia, and this is the
Moegger Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (01:06:46):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:06:49):
The UC Cancer Center offers the latest research based and
holistic approaches to head and net cancer.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
Called five A five.

Speaker 6 (01:06:57):
UCCC around dry Ridge, Kentucky northbound seventy five shutdown due
to an accident between Kentucky twenty two and four ninety one.
Please avoid the area. Traffic also starting to get heavy
on Dixie Highway. Your closest altered it and Turkey Foot Road.
Another accident in near colony. Drive on that ezek with traffic.

Speaker 7 (01:07:19):
This report is sponsored advice.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. The phone number to
call five one three seven four nine, fifteen thirty five
one three seven four nine fifteen thirty Before I get
to Joe Daneman Fox nineteen, want to get to one
quick call. Greg. We've got about a minute here before
we get to Joe. You want to talk Bengals draft.
What is on your mind? Greg?

Speaker 17 (01:07:43):
Well, I've been pounding the table to go to guard
for the first round. You know, somebody we like is
gonna follow to the second.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
But you know, we get somebody to take. Burrow helped
the running game.

Speaker 17 (01:07:54):
You know, it's also going to help our defense, so
you know one of the guys we like. You know,
I kind of think either Book or Banks would be
who might be there. You know, I think we should
go that route first, and that helps us on so
many levels. You know, helps Burrow, helps our running game,
help our defense. You know we got one or two
more third one four from one place. You know, defense

(01:08:17):
wouldn't as a benefactor. So I think going at your
best offensive line and you can get right there would
help a lot of.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
Things, all right, Greg, thanks very much for the call.
I agree. I mean if they can get quality, a
first round quality much like they got into Marius Mimes
last year at right tackle, stepped in started right away
pretty much. You know, we forget that he had to
wait a little bit behind Brown, the other Brown on

(01:08:47):
the other side of the line, but he got injured
and in stepped to Marius Mims and he was off
to the races and ready to go. So great call
from Greg. I appreciate that. Let's go to Joe Daniman,
he has been patiently waiting bomb from Fox nineteen. Want
to talk NFL Draft? Want to talk about the Cincinnati Reds,
who are a hard team to figure out early on
in this season.

Speaker 9 (01:09:07):
How you doing, Joe, Hi drags them? Doing well yourself?

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
I'm doing well. Staying busy behind the microphone in for
Moe this afternoon. Let's get to the Bengals and where
you think. We just heard from Greg, one of our
loyal callers, and I see the Bengals taking a guard
in the first three rounds. I don't necessarily think given
their other needs and the level of quality that they

(01:09:33):
will certainly have rated on their big board. I don't
see them going offensive guard in the first round.

Speaker 17 (01:09:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:09:40):
I think Greg makes a point right that if the
Bengals were to pick guard in the first round, and
let's say it like this too, I doubt they pick
a guard specialist in the first round. I think they
would take an offensive tackle that they can move inside.

Speaker 9 (01:09:57):
Josh, Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 12 (01:10:01):
I think they would take somebody that they can play
multiple positions that if he does move out to tackle
in a few years, that would be more of what
I would think they would do in the first round.
And if they do that, drags to the callers point,
I think everybody in Cincinnati sleeps well at night. I
think the whole front office sleeps well knowing they're doing

(01:10:22):
their due diligence to protect Joe Burrow. But the bigger
question is can you find the same level kind of
player at that position in the next round. What's the
drop off from round one to round two at that
position as opposed to the many holes you got to
fill in on defense?

Speaker 9 (01:10:41):
Because let's be honest, we all know why.

Speaker 12 (01:10:43):
The Bengals didn't make the playoffs last year, and the
plan has always been ever since they've known. They've had
to pay Joe Burrow, Tomar Chase, and now that they've
also paid T.

Speaker 3 (01:10:52):
Higgins.

Speaker 12 (01:10:53):
The plan always was pay the offensive stars big and
then go big in the draft on defense. They started
that plan. The last couple of years. They haven't hit
on as many draft picks as they need to. They've
got to keep swinging at defense. The number one priority
for this offseason was taking care of in Jamar Chase.

Speaker 9 (01:11:12):
Number two with T Higgins.

Speaker 12 (01:11:14):
We don't know what's going on yet with Trey Hendrickson,
but when it comes to the draft, this team has
to fix the defense.

Speaker 9 (01:11:21):
That's why I.

Speaker 12 (01:11:22):
Would go defense in round one and most likely a
guy up front, although you can talk me into a
safety here, maybe even a linebacker. But I think they
have to use premium draft picks on defense to fix
this defense through the draft.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
Speaking with Joe Daniman of Fox nineteen, when I hear
disruptors in the middle of the defensive line, two names
Derek Harmon Walter Nolan of ole Miss, you agree that
those are the one? Yeah, those either one of those two,
and you put them in the middle of the defensive
line that already has TJ. Slayton and already has Chris
Jenkins Junior, obviously Jackson and BJ Hill we seem to

(01:12:03):
forget even though he was resigned to a three year contract.
The Bengals love what BJ Hill brings to the middle
of that defensive line. But you put a disruptor, a
great disruptor in the middle of that defensive line, I
think the Bengals feel like they can get to the
quarterback more and disrupt the opposing running game.

Speaker 12 (01:12:23):
Yeah, it feels like that room is in better shape
than we might give it credit for. They heavily invested
back in DJ Hill. Bringing in Slayton was a good
addition if you add another disruptor, and I think that's
the word you should you should land on and the
good word that you're using here for someone in the
middle to go with Jenkins and Jackson that they drafted

(01:12:44):
last year. All of a sudden, that position room goes
right to the top. Is one of the deepest, if
not deep deepest on the defensive side of the football
for the Bengals. And I look at edge and that's
the other part of the conversation. I'm sure Bengals fans
are having it. And I value edge as much or
more than anybody else, because we all know the value

(01:13:05):
positions in football, that's one of them. Guys who can
get to the quarterback are as valuable as anybody on defense,
and the Bengals have one of the best in the NFL.
But the question is what's after Trey? What's Trey's future
in Cincinnati. So that's why I think you have to
keep swinging at edge. I just don't know if there's
anybody in the first round that I would use the

(01:13:27):
number seventeenth overall pick on for that position. A lot
of people are saying James Pierce. I don't love James
Pierce's build for a guy that's going to have to
play seventeen games, including six in the AFC North. He's tall,
he's long, he's explosive, he's fast, but he's very narrow
and can he play run defense? And that's the big

(01:13:50):
question for me for James Pierce seventeen. So if they
were to add Nolan or add Harmon and put him
in the middle and with the deep, the deep that
is already defensive tackle, I think you're looking at a
really a position of strength of this team going forward.
And again it's finding guys on defense who can disrupt

(01:14:11):
at all three levels. And right now, the only guy
that I would say they have really as a disruptor
on defense is Trey Hendrickson. They've got to find playmakers.
They got to find disruptors, and that's why I think
they have to keep swinging for it as early as
round one.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
And that's Joe why I think they have to. They
absolutely positively have to find a way to get a
player in the first round that's going to come in
and produce right away. They cannot have another Miles Murphy miss.
Miles Murphy may come in this year and be a
different player under new defensive coordinator Al Golden. That very

(01:14:47):
well may be the case, but they have got to
retune that motor. They have got to put some high
powered octane in that motor of Miles Murphy to really
get him to produce more. They can't have a miss
like that. I think we all agree. I for my money,
from what I've read, only from what I've read and
seen on tape, I love Jahad Campbell. If he's healthy

(01:15:08):
and he passes all the physicals, the versatility he would
bring on the edge as a linebacker, who could play
maybe the star who could play all sorts of different
positions on that defense. He intrigues me a lot, and
I think he could be a big time playmaker. We
have to move on to the Cincinnati Reds Ellie Daily Cruz.

(01:15:30):
I cannot remember the last Cincinnati read who had as
much hub around him, as much hype, and I think
deservedly so, and so many expectations around him as Ellie
Daily Cruz has, And sometimes I think that impacts him.

(01:15:51):
We've seen it the last couple of days. He makes
errors on routine plays. He strikes out on ninety five
right down the middle, And I think to myself, as
you know, watching the game, tweeting about it yesterday, are
we expecting too much from Ellie right out of the
you know, in year number three, not even in completely
into year number three?

Speaker 12 (01:16:12):
Not only are we expecting maybe too much for Ellie
in his second full season. Is there too much internal
pressure in the organization on Ellie de la Cruz to
be playing shortstop, to be hitting third, to be the
face of the organization and so young. When what that
comes with is is expectation, that's that that's going to

(01:16:35):
get thrown out of whack and it is to this point.
And I think everybody who who watches this team, observes
this team, roost for this team, or even the people
who work for the team, I think they have to
understand that a guy like Ellie de la Cruz is
going to have growing pains. His game is not finished.
He still has areas of his game where he has

(01:16:55):
to improve, and we've seen him improve on the areas
before or that he has to, and so there's no
doubt that he's going to continue to iron out his game.
But I think everybody that watches him make mistakes, we
have to give him the grace to make those mistakes, because, look,
we know what tracks. When David Bell was fired, there

(01:17:17):
was this idea that Terry Francona was going to come
in with the word accountability and mistakes were not going.

Speaker 9 (01:17:24):
To be allowed to happen.

Speaker 12 (01:17:25):
That's not right, That's not the way anybody can manage.
Mistakes are going to happen, especially with young players who
play with the kind of game that Ellie de la
Cruz plays. Now, the question is is he making those
errors by lack of mental focus or is it just
a young player who still needs to figure it out.

(01:17:45):
Every time Terry Francona talks about Ellie de la Cruz,
he makes sure to make the point that he does
not believe it's for lack of effort, for lack of
mental focus. It's just the guy who just isn't all
the way there yet as a player, fight whatever expectation
we have. So I think everybody who watches Ellie de
la Cruz or cheers for Ellie de la Cruz has

(01:18:07):
to understand this guy's gonna make mistakes and we just
have to learn to live with the growing pains that
come with a young player becoming a superstar. We might
already think he's there. He fight at an All Star Game,
he has superstar moments, he has moments that nobody else
in baseball can do. But also he's young and he's
not a finished product. I think everybody has to understand

(01:18:31):
they have to go through the growing pains with Ellida
la Cruz. That's what comes with such a young player
in such a high profile position.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
So well, said Joe Daniman of Fox nineteen, the official
Bengals station here in town. Fox nineteen of the Cincinnati Bengals,
Joe Danoman, I'm gonna give you thirty seconds. I know
you're an NBA fan. I know you're a Steph Curry fan.

Speaker 9 (01:18:53):
Correct, right, yes, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
So what are your expectations for the NBA playoffs and
who wins?

Speaker 12 (01:19:02):
Okay, so expectations have changed here over the last three weeks.
I'll say this. I'll start with this. It's Boston's tournament
to lose.

Speaker 9 (01:19:10):
Ye.

Speaker 10 (01:19:10):
Boston's roster, as constructed in the way they shoot threes.
If they play well to the best team in the
NBA by a good enough.

Speaker 12 (01:19:19):
Margin, I don't think anybody can beat them. About three
to four weeks ago, I would have said Oklahoma City
deserves to be the one seed, and they've earned it.
But I don't think they're going to come out of
the West. I think the West is going to shock everybody.
I think almost as if what we looked at when
Luca took the MAVs to the finals that was a shocker.
So I think we're going to see something that surprises

(01:19:40):
us in the West. I don't know what that team's
going to be. I honestly think there are five or
six teams.

Speaker 9 (01:19:45):
In the West who can make it.

Speaker 12 (01:19:47):
But I think whoever gets there, this is Boston's tournament
to lose, and I think Boston wins it again.

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
All right, he is Joe Daniman does a great job
covering all things Cincinnati sports for Fox nineteen. Joe, thank
you very much. Have a wonderful weekend. My name is
Mike Petralia, trags Brenneman and Jones is next. You're listening
to the Mowagger Radio show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:20:18):
The UC Cancer Center offers the latest research based and
holistic approaches to head and net cancer. Called five A
five UCCC around dry Ridge, Kentucky northbound seventy five shutdown
due to an accident between Kentucky twenty two and four
ninety one. Please avoid the area. Traffic also starting to

(01:20:39):
get heavy on Dixie Highway, your closest alternate and Turkey
Foot Road. Another accident near Colony. Drive on that ezalk
with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
This report is sponsored by Loto That's.

Speaker 9 (01:20:50):
To win one thousand dollars. Enter this nationwide qyward on
our website. Green That's Green. Enter it now.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
Mike Petralia tracks back with you here on the road.
Try that again the Moegar Radio Show, he said on
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. We still have phone lines open.
We want to hear from you on all things Bengals draft, red,
start to the season, Ellie Da La Cruz, NBA playoffs

(01:21:22):
there in full swing. Hey, let's even talk to Stanley
Cup playoffs. I love talking Stanley Cup playoff hockey. It
is my favorite sport to watch. Actually in the postseason,
so much drama and I'll be all over the map.
I don't mind. It's kind of, as they like to
say in the business, a free form Friday. That's what
this is on the Moeger Radio Show for a good

(01:21:44):
Friday on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. And with that in mind,
I want to take the show in a different direction
for the next several minutes and talk with someone who
I think has a fascinating idea and a group that
actually is trying to expand the horizons of Cincinnati sports
for very very good reason. His name is David Landy's

(01:22:08):
a former rugby player and coach, and most importantly, he's
spearheading an effort to bring the Rugby World Cup to Cincinnati. David,
thank you so much for taking time out of your
Friday afternoon. How are you doing.

Speaker 9 (01:22:22):
Doing great?

Speaker 13 (01:22:23):
Mike, thanks very much so to meet you.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
Yeah. Likewise, I know we were talking earlier today, just
kind of shooting a breeze about what this effort is
all about and really why people in Cincinnati should really
be in tune with rugby and its growth and development
in not only this region but in this country. Certainly,

(01:22:48):
you are someone who has had an appreciation of this
sport for decades. You've played it, you've coached it. Why
should people in Cincinnati be paying more attention to the
sport of rugby?

Speaker 16 (01:23:01):
Yeah, great question.

Speaker 18 (01:23:03):
So rugby is the Rugby World Cup is a global event,
is the third largest global sporting event in the world.
You've got soccer, You've got the THEIFA World Cup, you've
got the Olympics, and then you've got rugby.

Speaker 13 (01:23:14):
So there's a huge.

Speaker 18 (01:23:16):
Audience all around the world that watch them play rugby.
And rugby is not new to the US. It's been
around for a long time. Even here in Cincinnati, rugby
has been going. The Wolfhounds Rugby has been going I
think for fifty years, since the seventies. It's a fantastic sport.
It's an alternative sport to American football. It's similar to
American football in many ways, but it's a great sport

(01:23:38):
for boys and girls, young men and young women to
get involved with.

Speaker 2 (01:23:42):
So what I think is interesting and we were having
this conversation off the air, and I think it's so
true David, that if you want to establish a popular
following of a sport, it needs to start with the youth.
That was the whole idea behind youth soccer back in
the seventies, even into the eighties here in the greater

(01:24:03):
Cincinnati area, in cities throughout our country. It was if
you're going to build soccer, you need to build it
grassroots literally and make sure that the kids are interested,
they're playing, and then perhaps give them an outlet to
follow it at that time back you know, for forty

(01:24:25):
five years ago, follow it on TV, so many other
ways now to follow sports worldwide. But back to my
point with rugby, it is trying to develop the grassroots
effort by developing rugby, improving the instruction at a youth
academy level. Why is forming a youth academy so essential

(01:24:51):
to growing the sport? Here locally.

Speaker 18 (01:24:54):
So for me, Mike, it's about growing the coaches. If
you want to grow grassroots rugby, you have to give
kids a reason to come and play. If the coaching
is good, the kids will come and play. If the
coaching is good, the kids will stay. And the coaching
is good, you'll develop players onto a pathway. It's all
about the coaches in the rest of the the more
formalized rugby playing world, England, Ireland, the Southern Hemisphere with

(01:25:18):
a huge amount of effort and money and time spent
into developing coach development pathways so that you're really investing
in coaches and how they coach the game. One part
of it is the tactics, if you like the technique
and all, if you like how you.

Speaker 13 (01:25:32):
Play the game.

Speaker 18 (01:25:32):
But more important again is how to coach, so the
relationships with the players, how to build the character, how
to share the values through the game. So investing in
academy for coaches really puts the infrastructure.

Speaker 13 (01:25:45):
Into developing the game went.

Speaker 18 (01:25:47):
I moved to Italy in nineteen ninety eight, married an
Italian and moved there and I was playing rugby in
Ireland and the first thing you do when you move
to a foreign country. If you played rugby that joined
the local rugby club, make your network, make your friends.
The coaching was was pretty poor, to be fair at
the time in Italy, and people played because they were

(01:26:07):
a little bit crazy. You want to do something different
over the course, over the course the next twenty years
the Italian Federation, I was very honored to be involved
with that team. We brought in coaches, coach developers from
England and from Ireland and help them help us build
the infrastructure of coach development. And today Italy is one
of the you know, it's in the top ten rugby
playing teams by performance in the world. So we need

(01:26:31):
to short circuit that and help the US get it's
like into being a top ten rugby nation for the
I'm talking for the men's game, for the women's game
in sevens. You noticed in the Olympics, they're already there.

Speaker 13 (01:26:43):
They came bronze medalists.

Speaker 18 (01:26:45):
In the Olympics, so we've already got the ladies sevens
game up there. But to get the grassroots moving, we
really need to put in infrastructure that allows coaches to
come in tap into a lot of work already done
by iterations across the seas who'll share that with us
and really build the development of the coach technique on

(01:27:06):
how to coach kids.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
Now, there's an event next Thursday between noon and for
a TQL stadium. I want you to tell us a
little bit about who you will be introducing and why.
That event is maybe an extension of the application process
that Cincinnati Rugby and the officials here locally have put

(01:27:30):
forward in terms of trying to draw a Rugby World
Cup match to Cincinnati in twenty thirty one.

Speaker 18 (01:27:38):
Absolutely, so, the Rugby World Cup's coming to the US,
that's a done deal. Twenty thirty one, the men's game,
twenty thirty three, the Ladies World Cup is coming to Cincinnati.

Speaker 13 (01:27:47):
So we would love.

Speaker 18 (01:27:48):
At the city to host some games for the Rugby
World Cup. Cincinnati. I've moved here in twenty twenty one,
Mike from Italy. It's a fantastic city, it breeds sport,
phenomenal place to host some games. So we're working together
try to make it happen, and we're on World Rugby's radar.
We have a lot of work to do to get
into the breeding process, but what we want to do

(01:28:09):
is we want to be able to communicate to the
city that we're going to invest in the grassroots so
that it's going to give something really solid to the city.
So when the work, when the World Cup comes here,
it will be a catalyst for growth. We look down
the hard work of developing the coaches and building the game,
so when the games come here, then they will be
you know, our rugby, our coaches and our players will be.

Speaker 13 (01:28:30):
Able to really grow.

Speaker 18 (01:28:31):
So we're having an event at Titroll Stadium noon until four.
As you said, we've got three fantastic speakers. The keynote speakers,
the gentlemen called Kevin Roberts.

Speaker 13 (01:28:41):
Kevin used to.

Speaker 18 (01:28:42):
Be chairman of World Rugby, of USA Rugby. He used
to be chairman also in CEO of Satchi and Sachi.
He's going to give a talk on peak performance and
winning in a crazy world. He's a very charismatic speaker,
very smart guy, and he's going to talk about you know,
building a business and and and billing a business, and
and and in very difficult, challenging times. We've got jump

(01:29:04):
called Bob Latham who's a trial lawyer from Texas. Bob
Latham is a very high member of World Rugby. The
the if you like, the officiating body of rugby globally.
He's the hoighest ranking US member of World Rugby. He's
coming to speak, He's going to be on our panel.
He's going to talk about the importance how investing in
the grassroots, why that really matches World Rugby's mission and

(01:29:26):
vision about developing the game. And we've got Bob Reeves
who's a former president of the governing body of rugby
in the UK and he's developed a lot of people
and players of rugby and Olympics talking about how to
develop leaders not just in sport but in business and
and to present the crossover. So we'd like to use
the event to demonstrate that by investing in rugby, you're

(01:29:49):
investing in people, in.

Speaker 13 (01:29:51):
Character and in in.

Speaker 18 (01:29:53):
The future population here in Cinceriti who learn all these
wonderful values and character building things through playing the sport
of rugby.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
David Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 18 (01:30:06):
Now it's going to add that the event's been hosted
by the since a regional council. They've been Chamber of Commersory.
They've done a great job pulling it together. Jeff Ferning's
been fantastic, giving us one of the conference rooms at TQL,
but a lot of people have come together. A sponsors
have jumped on board, asking us not just how they

(01:30:27):
can support this conference, but once the conference is over,
how they can support the academy. And that's what we
want to do if we want to get the business
community behind the rugby to understand the benefits will give
the huge benefits if we were to be selected as
a host city, would have phenomenal impact on the city
of Cincinnati. You know, we have direct flights to England,
direct flights to France, that's the biggest TV audience of

(01:30:49):
rugby in the world. You know we'd be It'd be
a fantastic thing. So the conference is just to is
to showcase what we're up to and let people get
a better understanding of rugby grass roots exactly what you
said in the beginning, where you need to invest if
you want to do a game.

Speaker 2 (01:31:04):
Speaking with David Lynd, he is spearheading an effort to
bring the Rugby World Cup to Cincinnati in twenty thirty one.
I want to finish up with this and I think
it's so critical and people who have brought teams to
Cincinnati most recently of course, and most famously FC Cincinnati
of Major League Soccer. You have to have good organization

(01:31:26):
at the grassroots. I keep using the terms grassroots, but
it's so true. And in this particular case, in trying
to really push that application forward, you have FCC or
FC Cincinnati co CEO Jeff Birding. You have Visit Cincinnati
CEO Julie Calvert, Cincinnati Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO A

(01:31:48):
Brendan call a US District Court judge and Michael Barrett,
and Foreign entertainment groups Bob Deck. Why is that team
put together so important in advancing this application.

Speaker 18 (01:32:02):
The wonderful thing about Cincinnati, Mike, is that it's an
really easy city to deal with. People are connected, It's
a village. Really Compare that to a place like Chicago,
New York, at l A or other cities that have Rugby.

Speaker 13 (01:32:15):
This group of people.

Speaker 18 (01:32:16):
Came together in a heartbeat and wanted this to happen,
wanted to get on World Rugby's radar, and are enthusiastic
and fully charged for it. So for World Rugby, if
you like the interesting thing about since it would be
a really easy city to work with. Everyone's connected, everyone
knows each other, The business community is connected to the infrastructure,

(01:32:39):
the chambers of commerce, the football. Everyone's connected, they know
each other, they socialize together. It's such an easy deal
for a governing body to come to come and work with.
So that's why we want to do that. World Rugby
are keen to have an easy city to work with
where they know that when they talk to somebody that
they don't have to get involved with political conversations and

(01:33:01):
have under currents running elsewhere. With Cincinnati, it's clean, it's easy,
and everyone's connected.

Speaker 2 (01:33:08):
All right, David, If people want to learn more about
not only this application and what's going on at the
higher level, but the lower level. We talked about developing
youth academy. And let's say a mother of a fourteen
year old high school student is interested in playing and

(01:33:28):
putting her son into rugby. How would they go forward
in trying to learn about opportunities in the greater Cincinnati area.

Speaker 18 (01:33:37):
So we're blessed to have a foundation in Cincinnati called
the Midwest Rugby Development Foundation, founded about three years ago.
Bob deck for Eg is the president. It's got a
great bunch of people, ex players, all enthusiasts who've played,
whether for Miami University. You see Xavier or the Bullfounds.
They've come through some of the high schools like Motor,

(01:34:00):
say next Walnut Hills. So the Midwest Rugby Development Foundation
would be a great place to start. They've got a website,
you look it up, look it up on Google. They've
they've got connections to all of the all of the clubs,
but of course check in with your high school. Many
of the schools are playing and as we developed the
coach Academy, then more and more schools hopefully we'll join in.

(01:34:24):
But that'd be a great place to start. Midwest Rugby Development.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
Foundation outstanding, David, thanks so much for taking time out.
I love talking about sports that are let's say, outside
the box a little bit but really riveting and obviously
a sport like this is so huge on the world,
on the global stage. If you will, it'd be nice
to expand that global stage to Cincinnati. And that's why

(01:34:48):
we're having you on. And I really appreciate you taking time.

Speaker 18 (01:34:51):
Out, appreciate you giving us time to talk about it.
Very excited for Thursday. Hope to see you there and
any of your listeners please come down. We're starting with
Launch and Todi Show for the Happy Hour. I think
be a great event and a great chance network with
people who are enthusiastic about performance, about leadership, about sport,
and about business.

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
All right, he is David Lynn. Thank you again, David
for taking time out. We have to hit this break.
My name is Mike Petralia Trags, and you're listening to
the Mowagger Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (01:35:23):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (01:35:27):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:35:30):
The UC Cancer Center offers the latest research based and
holistic approaches to head and net cancer called five A
five UCCC. On Bridgetown Road, there is an accident at
Ebenezer Road. Police responding to a crash Clifton Avenue south
of Ludlow vehicle they're striking a light pole southbound US

(01:35:51):
sixty eight. Is an accident at Orchard Road, that one
north of Route seventy three on that Ezelek with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:36:02):
Like the music, Tarren Bland doing it right in the
studio in the control booth here on a Friday, a
good Friday. My name is Mike Petralia Trags. This is
the Moegger Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. We've
been all over the map here on a Friday afternoon

(01:36:23):
before Easter Sunday, and I like it that way because
I like to touch on so many different subjects. It's
a popery, if you will, of sports subjects here on
ESPN fifteen thirty on this Friday afternoon. Next up, we're
back to the NFL Draft with one of the guys
I respect more as much as I should say anybody

(01:36:44):
out there in terms of evaluating the draft and trying
to apply which players make the sense most sense for
which NFL teams. Is my pleasure to welcome him. Welcome back,
my old colleague from CeAl Ands Media. He's in Boston,
does great work for ninety eight to five. The Sports
Hub was just on there about a half hour or

(01:37:06):
an hour ago. His name is Alex Barth. Barth, How
you doing, buddy, I'm good, Drags.

Speaker 10 (01:37:12):
How are we doing?

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
I cannot complain. I'm getting excited for next Thursday, but
I'm sure not nearly as excited as you are for
the NFL Draft Thursday through next Saturday. Up in Green Bay.
Who do you have the Patriots taking at number four overall?

Speaker 10 (01:37:31):
So assuming Abdul Carter and Travis Hunter go in the
top four, which I think they're in the top three,
which I think at this point is a safe assumption.
I think it's going to be Will Campbell. Sometimes the
simplest answer is the right one. I think he can
play left tackle. I think the concerns about his length
are over blown. It's not that it's it's irrelevant. But
when a player short arms, you don't necessarily eliminate them.

Speaker 5 (01:37:52):
You look at it and you say.

Speaker 10 (01:37:53):
All right, well does he do enough to compensate for that,
whether it be th your technique, through athleticism, what have you?

Speaker 5 (01:37:59):
And I think Campbell does. Is he going to be
Jonathan Ogden?

Speaker 10 (01:38:01):
Is he going to be one of the greatest tackles
of all time?

Speaker 6 (01:38:04):
No?

Speaker 9 (01:38:04):
Probably not.

Speaker 10 (01:38:05):
Do I think he can be a guy that can
play the position at his starting caliber level for a
decade plus? Yes, And when you consider that there aren't
thirty two people on the face of the planet they
can play left tackle at an NFL caliber, starting NFL caliber,
you can get one of those guys, especially in a
weaker draft. You have a young quarterback sitting back there
you need to protect as you all in Cincinnati know

(01:38:26):
how important it is to protect a young quarterback.

Speaker 5 (01:38:29):
I think it's a no brainer.

Speaker 13 (01:38:30):
I really do.

Speaker 5 (01:38:31):
I think it just makes all the sense in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:38:33):
So the Bengals hit, certainly in the first round last
year on a Marius Mimes. Certainly they had a chance
to shore up the tackle position last year. They went
out and sign signed Trent Brown to a free agent deal.
But he got hurt, of course, in the first month
of the season in step to Marius Mimes, and it

(01:38:55):
was off to the races. He was not replaced the
rest of the year. He had a terrific rook and
you know, you think a guy like Will Campbell could
do the same. For the Patriots, I want to ask you,
are they going to be tempted to take Ashton genty
simply because you know, there isn't a top level wide
receiver in this draft that anyway we would project to

(01:39:18):
be of value in the top five or six picks.
But there is a running back. And I'm just curious
whether or not Mike Rabel, who's done so much in
this offseason, especially in free agency, spending over two hundred
million dollars to rebuild that defense, some Bengal fans wish
Bengals would do that, But will he go outside the

(01:39:39):
box and take a running back there at number four?

Speaker 10 (01:39:42):
Well, first off, the Patriots would have gladly spent some
of that money I think at wide receiver if the Bengals.

Speaker 5 (01:39:46):
Didn't spend it on t Higgins, so they could have
had some of those defensive players available.

Speaker 10 (01:39:51):
Would they draft Ashton gent D The answer is not no.
You know, there is an argument to be made, which
is simply he is the best football player available. But
running back is a position that is heavily reliant on
his surroundings. If people compare to what the Eagles did
with Saquon last year, if the Patriots had the Eagles
offensive line right, if the Patriots had Aj Brown and

(01:40:14):
Devonte Smith on the outside, like, yeah, obviously he's the pick.
But they don't, And I just I think that they
would understand that it's not a pick you can maximize.
I do think they're gonna take a running back high.
I do think they're gonna take a running back higher.
And most people expect. That's the other thing about taking Genty,
Even if you want an impact back, Yes, ash and
Genty is unbelievable.

Speaker 5 (01:40:35):
This is such a good running back class.

Speaker 10 (01:40:37):
And you can get impact backs on Day three. Guys
like Quinn Shawn Judkins, Guys like Dylan Sampson, Guys like
Cam Scatibo. Some of these guys are gonna fall are
j Harvey so well, they're not that level that genty is, Like,
I think they can be impact players. So I'm not
ruling it out because if they're just sitting there and
they say, this guy's an unbelievable talent, we're gonna take

(01:40:57):
the best talent.

Speaker 5 (01:40:58):
Like, there is an argument for it.

Speaker 10 (01:41:00):
But I think Mike Rabel talked about when asked about
the fourth overall pick last week or earlier this week,
mentioned premium positions and the importance in weighing premium positions.
Running back for better or worse, is just not a
premium position in the NFL right now.

Speaker 2 (01:41:18):
I like that answer. Here in Cincinnati, there are two
defensive tackles that really get people excited. Derek Harmon out
of Oregon, Walter Nolan ole Miss. Why are those two
defensive tackles head and shoulders above the rest in this class,
at least in the first round.

Speaker 10 (01:41:38):
Ooh, I don't think they are Oh really, you're leaving
somebody off that list?

Speaker 13 (01:41:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (01:41:41):
Can we talk about Kenneth Grant for Michigan, who I
think is even projected at the first round pick, one
of the more underrated players in this draft.

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
We can. That's why I'm having you on, mister Barth.

Speaker 10 (01:41:52):
Kenneth Grant is the reason Mason Graham is going to
go top five. Nathan grahams very good. He does not
do what he did without playing next to big ten
Grant six foot four, three hundred and thirty pounds, unbelievable athlete,
is a pass rusher, can get to the quarterback place,
with a high motor, ton of violence, team leader, all
of that. To me, it's Kenneth Granton and Walter Nolan.

(01:42:16):
If you're the Bengals and you're choosing between, do you
want the more prototype nose tackle, now he's much more athletic,
but he's three hundred and thirty pounds, the more prototype
nose tackle who's going to be a more well rounded player,
can rush the passer but doesn't have like pass rush upside,
but can play the run. Or do you want Walter
Nolan who at two hundred and ninety pounds, he's a

(01:42:37):
pass rushing defensive tackle Braydon Fiskey, who the Rams took
last year. That would be my comp A guy that's
just gonna shoot gaps, penetrate, get after the quarterback, but
isn't going to give you as much in the rung game.
I like Derek Harmon, I do. I think he's a
good player. I think Kenneth Granted gives you more of
the same thing, similar kinds of players, but Kenneth Grant
will do it at a higher level than Derek Harmon does. Now,

(01:42:58):
if that's the kind of player you want, and let's
say Kenneth Grant goes fourteen fifteen sixteen, which could happen,
then I think Derek Harmon would be in the conversation.
But man, I think Kenneth Grant is a heck of
a player, and if.

Speaker 5 (01:43:10):
The Bengals can get him, that's a guy you.

Speaker 10 (01:43:11):
Talk about anchoring the defensive line. That's a guy that
can anchor a defensive line.

Speaker 2 (01:43:16):
Josh Connery or Kelvin Banks if you go offensive line,
offensive tackle. The reason I bring those two names up
is and I have Dan Brugler's beasts up in front
of me. Doesbviously an awesome job with the Athletic they're
both listed as tackles and guards. Gives would give a
team like the Bengals some versatility in that interior of

(01:43:37):
the offensive line, or you could push him outside if
you needed, you know, in a spots start. Let's say
one of them needs to start a tackle. You could
do that. But what about Connorly junior and Banks junior
out of Texas?

Speaker 10 (01:43:52):
So I like Banks, Banks has kind of suffered from
prospects the team. He's fallen down a little bit. I
don't know, it'd be something if he's there when the
Bangals ticket seventeen. Good player, really good blocker in space.

Speaker 5 (01:44:04):
It's weird.

Speaker 10 (01:44:04):
He's a good blocker, like he can get out on
the screen and make an impact, but he's not great
in terms of like blocking outside his frame.

Speaker 5 (01:44:14):
If that makes sense, Like he kind of lets the
defender come to him.

Speaker 3 (01:44:17):
But he can play.

Speaker 5 (01:44:18):
That's gonna be lesson if he plays guard. I think
he can play tackle.

Speaker 10 (01:44:22):
Connorly's I think a tackle. I haven't heard much of
Connorlly playing guard. He's just more raw. He only has
two seasons of starting experience. But six five, three ten
longer arms, really really good athlete, smart picks up line games.

Speaker 5 (01:44:36):
Well, it's just you.

Speaker 10 (01:44:38):
Know, how's that going to translate? We haven't seen that
much from him. I like Banks better because I think
there's more upside there. I think he's better in the
run game. I think he's a lot nastier, which you weigh,
but I think either of those guys have the upside
to be a starting tackle in the NFL. I think
you're short changing him a little bit. Maybe they end
up playing guard eventually, but I think you're start short
changing him a little bit if they if you move

(01:45:00):
him inside to guard right away.

Speaker 2 (01:45:01):
Speaking with Alex Barth of ninety eighty five the Sports
Hub in Boston and an NFL draft prospect expert, I
think he certainly qualifies as that. He does a great
job at ninety eight five the sports hub dot Com.
Jehad Campbell linebacker, We've got about thirty five forty seconds.
I like him a lot. I think he makes a

(01:45:22):
ton of sense for the Bengals defense. What can you
tell us about him?

Speaker 10 (01:45:26):
Yeah, super athletic, really instinctive player. He'd be a good get.
He's probably going to go around that range. He's not
getting as much attention as he should. That's another guy
that's going to go in the first round, but he's
being projected in the twenties right now. Seventeen at Cincinnati.
If they want that kind of middle of the defense linebacker,
that'd be a real nice spot for him.

Speaker 2 (01:45:45):
All right, thank you for wrapping that up in forty
five seconds. My producer terarreon Diks Everything, Tarren Bland will
appreciate that very much. So we can. As they say,
and you know this Barth stay on the clock all right, Hey,
he is Alex Barth. Follow his stuff at ninety eight
five the Sports Hub in Boston. We've got two as
I just mentioned, take a break. The phone lines are

(01:46:07):
open five to one three seven four nine, fifteen thirty
five one three seven four nine fifteen thirty. Want to
hear from you on Bengals Draft, Red's Talk La de
la Cruz, you name it. Phone banks are open. My
name is Mike Petralia Trags, and you're listening to the
Moegger Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:46:28):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:46:35):
The UC Cancer Center offers the latest, research based and
holistic approaches to head and net cancer called five A
five UCCC on Bridgetown Road. There is an accident at
Ebenezer Road. Police responding to a crash Clifton Avenue south
of Ludlow vehicle they're striking a light pole. South bound

(01:46:56):
US sixty eight is an accident at Orchard Road one
north of Route seventy three. On that e' zelik with traffic.
This report sponsors.

Speaker 2 (01:47:10):
Mike Petralia tracks back with you here on the Mowegger
Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty for a Friday afternoon.
Phone lines are still opened five to one three seven
four nine fifteen thirty five one three seven four nine
fifteen thirty. Better hurry up, though, if you want to
talk Bengals or rads, because I have a terrific guest

(01:47:31):
up now, a good friend of mine, Alex Frank from
colns Sincy dot com, as well as multiple outlets covering
the Bearcats and the University of Kentucky. And uh, let's
go to him right now, because this is our final segment.
We want to finish with a flourish Alex. Don't let
me down. How you doing, Bud, Mike?

Speaker 19 (01:47:50):
I'm a Yankees fan, So I'll shanter my inner Marianna
Rivera here I am.

Speaker 3 (01:47:54):
Well.

Speaker 19 (01:47:55):
It is great to be on with you.

Speaker 11 (01:47:56):
Happy Good Friday and Easter to.

Speaker 2 (01:47:58):
You and the family.

Speaker 19 (01:47:59):
It's a beautiful day here in Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (01:48:02):
It is. It's a great day to be indoors with
four walls to stare at and at least one TV
monitor that's working watching Reds pregame coming up tonight, the
Reds play open a three game series in Baltimore. As
Brennanman and Jones mentioned, Marty telling us that they have
three in Baltimore, they have three in Miami off Day,

(01:48:24):
and then they go for three in Colorado. They don't
come back and play at Great American Ballpark until the
let's see, let me do the math in my head,
twenty eighth of April against the Saint Louis Cardinals. So
they're going to be on the road a little while.
What have you been your impressions, Alex of Elie de
la Cruz and the Reds so far they are nine

(01:48:45):
to ten in their first nineteen games.

Speaker 19 (01:48:48):
Yeah, I think you said it best yesterday on Twitter,
Mike that La de la Cruz is a great player.
He's just going through a couple bad games, which it's
tough to see. And I mean yesterday in that tenth inning,
I think was the peak of that where he fields
the ball cleanly, but he doesn't get to throw off
the first base. Then he commits an error later in
the inning. So I agree with you on that. I

(01:49:09):
think for the Reds as a hole to be able
to bounce back from that two and six start and
three straight one nothing losses, I think it says a
lot about this team, and they do have some resilience
to them, and you combine that with the fact that
they had some players on the injured list when they
were digging out of that two and six start to
get back to five hundred and then even over five hundred,

(01:49:31):
it still feels like to me that their best baseball
is ahead of them. The problem is they have such
a thin margin for error. Yeah, and when the defense
commits four errors, you're not gonna win very many games.
The last time the Reds I was thinking about this
a lot on Wednesday. The last time the Reds won
the National League Central was in twenty twelve, and that

(01:49:52):
team was known for their great defense. I mean, you'd
be hard dressed and in a better middle infield than
shortstop Zach Cozard and second basement Brandon Phillips and what
those guys were able to do. And the Reds had
multiple players with the fielding percentage above nine to eighty five.
They were second in the National League and fielding percentage
that season. So the starting pitching, yes, is vital to

(01:50:14):
this team's success that they're going to happen in this season,
which I still think they can. But their defense holds
the key because if it's good, the Reds are gonna
win ball games. If it's not, they're gonna lose games
that they, quite honestly like yesterday, should win.

Speaker 2 (01:50:26):
They have to have their best players on the field
more often. To me, it's really no more complicated than
that when you're talking defense, when you're talking offense. Though
the pitching has certainly been stellar, and I don't think
yesterday's relief appearance by Emilia Pagan aside. They have to
have their best players playing every day. That means Matt McClain,

(01:50:48):
who's back in the lineup tonight, giving TJ. Friedel a
blow at the top of the order. Matt McLain is
batting lead off Santiago Espinol's second Elie Daily Cruz batting third.
They have to have got like Matt McClain back in
the lineup. They have to get Tyler Stevenson back. We
already saw this past series the difference of a projected

(01:51:08):
everyday player like Austin Hayes can have on the batting order.
He has two home runs in three games back, and
it gives you, in that cleanup spot in the order,
that threat that he could go deep on any swing
of the game, and that means a lot to this team.
You get Tyler Stevenson back, and if he's playing specially

(01:51:29):
offensively at the level that he showed over the second
half of last year, I think the Reds can have
a very potent offense.

Speaker 19 (01:51:37):
I like to think that that's a I mean, look,
Austin Hayes coming back provides a ton of protection for
guys like McLain and deal La Cruz at the top
of the lineup, because a forces pitchers to have to
be even more selective and it have to be even
more potentially aggressive, because if you don't get them out,
then you're dealing with a guy like Austin Hayes with

(01:51:58):
let's say the base is low it or two runners
on or something like that. So the more healthy this
lineup gets, the more protection guys like McClain and Friedel
and dey La Cruz are going to have. And that's
going to make life more difficult for opposing pitchers and
bullpens and things like that. So yeah, look, I mean

(01:52:19):
I don't think we can say, well, I guess you could.
I mean, eventually, we can't say well, it's still early. No,
We're now nineteen games in, We're more than one ninth
of the way.

Speaker 3 (01:52:28):
Through the season.

Speaker 2 (01:52:29):
I think still in April, Alex, not to cut you off,
you can say it's still early because over the history
of baseball, many teams and many players, many great players,
have struggled in the month of April. And I you know,
give the team, give any player the first thirty