4/21/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He has to win one thousand dollars entered this nationwide
qward on our website. Bills, Yeah, bills, bills, bills it
now bills, what's up? Bull egg or esp and fifteen
thirty Thanks for listening. I hope you had an awesome weekend.
I took a four day I took a four day weekend.
I was off Thursday and Friday. So first of all,
my thanks to Chad Brendle for filling in on Thursday

(00:22):
and Trags Mike Petrelia for filling in on Friday. I
heard about ninety minutes of both shows and thought to myself,
you know what, I don't think anybody's gonna mind if
I don't come to work on Monday. But yet here
I am. My apologies, Sam Leck, here is gonna join us.
In twenty five minutes. I'm gonna ask for the Bengals
to do something that I have never wanted them to
do in my life as a Bengals fan, in all

(00:46):
the years I've been hosting this show, all the draft
content we have done, I want them to do something
that I've never wanted them to do. I will explain.
We've got some good portal news for UC basketball. There's
a lot of ground cover show preview video is available
right now on Twitter at mullegar. I got an email

(01:06):
on Friday from a guy mad at me that I
still call it Twitter. You know, old habits die hard.
By the way, if that's your biggest problem, If your
biggest issue in life is guy on radio calls social
media platform name, I don't want it called pretty good man,
your life is okay at Mullgar Thanks to Emory Federal
Credit Union your credit Union with heart since nineteen thirty nine.

(01:29):
Go to EMORYFCU dot org. Have you enjoyed as much
as I have reading all of the postgame notes following
yesterday's twenty four to two Reds beatdown of the Baltimore Orioles.
Whether it's the Gamer in the Inquirer or Sea Trent
rose Pants, Sea Trunt rose Pants, c Trent Rosecrant's piece

(01:50):
in the Athletic, or Mark Sheldon MLB dot com. All
of them and a lot of national stories as well,
and some out of Baltimore too, have included the very
notes from the Elias Sports Bureau about how unprecedented yesterday's
Reds offensive explosion was. Twenty four runs in a game

(02:11):
is extreme rights. It's happened no other time this century.
Last time for the Reds nineteen ninety nine, twenty four
runs in a game, and so that's an outlier. That's
not gonna happen again. But here's what's not an outlier.
And this is why I think we should feel pretty
good about this club right now. This team scored twenty

(02:33):
four runs yesterday, which is great obviously, and it throws
off the run differential. The Reds right now have a
run differential of plus thirty two, which is incredible for
a team that has as many losses as wins. Twenty
four runs as an outlier. Here's what's not. The nine
games prior to yesterday, they had scored fifty one runs.

(02:54):
That's five and a half runs a game. That's good.
That's good. Yesterday throws it off. Seventy five runs in
ten games. That's simple math. Here, seven and a half
runs a game. Forget that for a second. Twenty four runs.
You know, I mean, some crazy stuff happened in that game.
Austin wins maybe the game of his life. Noelve, Martine,

(03:16):
maybe the game of his life. You also had Red
shortstop Ellie Dela Cruz. Making one of the best plays
by a shortstop you'll ever see, which is appropriate because
Ellie Dela Cruz ready for it is a shortstop. But
that's a different discussion. I think the thing that's encouraging
is as they've gotten healthier, as Matt McClain has come back,
even though Matt McLain hasn't exactly lit opposing pitching on fire,

(03:37):
Austin Hayes has, Austin Hayes has, the Reds catchers have.
By the way, Nick Krawl made some offseason acquisitions. Gavin
lux has turned out to be pretty good. Austin Hayes
has turned out to be pretty good. Ose Travino's turned
out to be really good both offensively and on defense.
But the thing that's encouraging, I think is it's not
the twenty four to one game that's an extreme example

(03:59):
of well, what has been a pretty good recent trend.
This team in the nine games leading up to yesterday
averaging five and a half per and now you know,
they have really put behind them a couple of things.
First of all, the three and seven start feels like
a distant memory. They also did a nice job of

(04:20):
bouncing back those two losses to Seattle last week, the
game on Thursday, or the game you know, Thursday, Thursday afternoon.
I went to that game, went with my family. Defensively atrocious,
bullpen was bad, had a two run lead in the
ninth inning, and lose like just a bad fun day
at the Paul Park with the family. But a bad
game and ugly game, a tough loss, a really really
tough loss, and one of those much like the game

(04:42):
in San Francisco a couple of Wednesdays ago, where you thought, yeah,
let's hope that doesn't linger. It did not. It did
not because of Andrew Abbott, who was terrific yesterday. It
did not because this team takes two out of three
in Baltimore. They lose the one game more one hundred
green pitches. I'll just dismiss that as his first clunker
in ten months. This team is starting to hit. This
team is starting to hit. How sustainable is it? Fair question?

(05:07):
But what they do have in front of them is
a long stretch of games against teams that so far
this season haven't been very good, starting with Miami tonight,
first of three with the Marlins. This weekend, they go
to Colorado. The Rockies have won four games this season.
The Cardinals. I'll say it, the Cardinals are bad. Nobody

(05:29):
here as willing to say the Cardinals are bad. Red's
play some games against the Cardinals here next week. The
Nationals aren't very good. Atlanta is better than their record
would indicate. You remember, they lost their first what's seven games,
still still mathematically more losses than wins. Houston has more
losses than wins. That might not be the case by
the end of the season. And then I play the

(05:51):
White Sox, who have won five games this year. This
is when they make a move. This is when they
make a move. I'll go ahead and call my shot.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Man.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
If the Reds find themselves in the playoffs, these next
three weeks, these next four to three and a half
four weeks are going to be a major reason why.
And if they don't, I think we look back at
this stretch and go this is where they couldn't take
advantage of the schedule. The team two years ago that
hung in the race until Game one sixty one did

(06:20):
so in part because they played, for the most part
well against non winning teams. The Reds were eight games
over five hundred and twenty twenty three against opponents with
records below five hundred. Now, that team two years ago
not exactly the gold standard. They won eighty two games,
so they probably have to do even better. But one
of the reasons why that team overachieved two years ago

(06:43):
is it took care of business against crappy opponents. Well,
right now the Reds are in the middle of a
stretch where they're playing crappy opponents and the good news
is they're hitting. Here's what I want to know. We
do have room today. Five point three seven four nine
fifteen thirty is our phone number? Eight six six seven

(07:04):
oh two three seven seven six works as well. I
think there's two types of people in this world, at
least two different types of baseball fans. Right there's two
different types of baseball fans. There's one type of baseball
fan which watches his or her team hang twenty four

(07:24):
runs on the opponent on a gorgeous easter Sunday. By
the way, yesterday was awesome, and twenty four runs is
almost not enough. Like I watched yesterday thinking like I
don't think I've ever seen a team score thirty? Can
they get to thirty? Like how much of a blowout
could this be? Could they get to at least twenty five,

(07:47):
and you sit back and you just enjoy it, and
you put it in cruise control. That was me yesterday,
steaks on the grill, cold beer in hand, watching the game,
having a great Sunday, not thinking any about anything other
than how many runs the Reds are scoring and how
awesome it is to watch and win a game by
more than three touchdowns. That's me. But then there's the

(08:08):
other type of person who, as that game is unfolding,
right around the time the Reds crossed into double digits,
or maybe around the time the Reds got to twelve,
you're instantly filled with anxiety and nervousness and jittery, and
before the game even ends, you're wondering, is this gonna

(08:30):
be one of those deals where they score like one
run the next day. We've seen that happen obviously this
year already. That's gonna be my poll question today. Maybe
I'll have more than one. I don't know at moegar
thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Which baseball fan are you now?
I'm I'm I'm. I'll say Group A, which is, Dude,

(08:51):
twenty four is not enough. Let's go keep scoring. Forget
about tomorrow. I'll worry about that later. I think I'm
in the minority because every person that I have talked to,
literally every person that I have talked to about yesterday's game,
either while it was happening or in its aftermath, has
said something to the effect of, yeah, watch tonight, they'll

(09:11):
score like two runs. Oh yeah, watch tonight against a
pitcher who's off to a good start in Max Meyer.
Watch them tonight, they'll get shut out. Maybe they will,
I don't know. Uh So, I'm kind of curious who
makes up more of my audience today, who makes up
more of my audience in general, because there's two types

(09:32):
of baseball fans there. Sit back and enjoy it, hope
they score a three dozen, and just laugh your ass
off as they're scoring again and again and again and
again and taking a game that we thought was going
to be competitive early and made it a laugher after
just a handful of innings, or as it's unfolding, you're
almost rooting for the Reds to not score anymore because

(09:53):
need to save some runs for the next day, as
if that's physically possible. Five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. We're just three days away from the Draft,
which I can't wait for. This is I think this
is the painful week because there's a lot of misinformation
out there as it relates to the draft, and we're
gonna get some folks on. Paul Danner's going to join

(10:15):
us tomorrow. We're doing our show Thursday afternoon from Long
Necks and Wilder, which is always a lot of fun
on the day of the draft, first day of the Draft.
A little bit later on, we'll hear a little bit
from Duke Tobin, we'll hear a little bit from Zach Taylor.
I don't know how you are if you're a Bengals fan.
I have never asked them to do what I'm okay

(10:36):
with them doing this year. I'll explain that coming up
in the four o'clock hour. Sam Lucia is going to
join us in about fifteen minutes. It's seventeen minutes after
three o'clock. I'm owger glad you're with us today on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
From the UNC Health Traffic Center at UC Health. I
feel find comprehensive. That's so personal. Make sure best tomorrow possible.
That's boundless care for better outcome is expect more. You
see health dot com seventy five southbound a town accident
down their shoulder got delays. The Shepherd northbound seventy five
retel to Paddock is sluggish. Now we're saying the de
lanes through seventy five at the Carrol Cropper Bridge, both

(11:19):
in the southbound and westbound with the ongoing roadwork there,
brick shred.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
That's all I can do is tell you how I feel,
and I give you an opportunity to respond. Five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty On Molegger twenty three. After three, the Reds
are eleven and eleven. They have not played yet one
quarter of their season, but by the time they get
through these next twenty games, they will have played a
quarter of their season. My take on the Reds before

(11:44):
the season was they're gonna win eighty three games. Now
for some that sounded like a cop out because I
didn't go crazy and predicted win ninety games because I
don't think they will, and I didn't go nuts and
say they're gonna lose ninety games. I think they're about
an eighty three win team. I have not I've seen
anything over the first twenty two games that has compelled
me to change my mind. That said, I think, first

(12:06):
of all, you got to give him credit for putting
the three and seven start behind him. I think it's
reasonable to be excited about the way this team is
hitting right now. How long is it going to last?
Very fair question. It still strikes me as a low
offensive ceiling team. But you've got to take advantage of

(12:31):
a couple of different things the Reds have going for
them right now. One is health. Now you might go, well,
wait a minute, now Ces is on the injured list.
Cees was not producing, let's be honest, not a huge loss.
I don't know how good Ces is. I think I
might have gotten my very amateur assessment of Cees wrong
because I think I included him among the guys who

(12:52):
had pretty high ceilings. He wasn't hitting at all. I
don't know how good he's going to be. I don't
know how much he should factor in their long term plan.
But Austin Hayes is back, Matt McClain is back, Tyler
Stevenson is getting closer to being back, and he will
give the Reds three good catching options and they should
keep three catchers. That might be another poll question. We

(13:14):
will see. You got to take advantage of these stretches
where you are healthy. And yeah, it'd be nice to
have Carson Spyers available, and I guess be nice to
have Cees available. But man, like the guys that you
know a lot of us were counting on, they're healthy.
Like I think you acquired Austin Hayes because you thought
this guy can give a certain level of production. Same
for Gavin luck Ces, I think was a wild card,

(13:37):
even if I didn't want to admit it. You got
to take advantage of health. This team is reasonably healthy
right now. You've also got to take advantage of holes
in the schedule that do not put in front of
you that many really good teams. That's what the Reds
have in front of them right now. You're not going
to sweep every series, but like the next few they

(13:58):
have these next two. They should win this series against
the Miami Marlins, and they should win this series this
weekend on the road against Colorado. You might argue they
should sweep that one, and then they come home and
they play I think that's going to be a four
gamer against Saint Louis. Well, take three out of four
in that one, and then win two out of three

(14:18):
against the Washington Nationals. And if you do that, and
you could stack series wins, which they just stacked one.
If that's the right way to put it against the
Baltimore Orioles, then you build in some cushion for when
you start to play the better teams. And we talk
every year about the Reds get off to a slow start,
and I go, you know, it'd be cool to watch

(14:39):
Reds play from ahead. There are obviously two games behind Chicago.
The Cubs have a really good offensive team, and Milwaukee
is a game in front of them at twelve and ten.
But if you could take advantage of health and take
advantage of some holes in the schedule, you can go
into you know, late May, maybe playing from ahead, and

(15:00):
you might have a really good chance to win a
division that nobody seems capable of running away with. We'll see.
This is a huge opportunity for this team, if if,
if they if they were ever gonna prove a lot
of us wrong who thought this team was gonna finish
close to five hundred. Here's what they could start to
do that they're healthy, right, now and they're playing some

(15:24):
really we'll say beatable opponents. They certainly did this weekend.
They took advantage of health. What you are seeing them
do offensively right now, not exactly saying anything profound here
is a huge reflection of having a lot of their
best players available. One of the pole questions is out
there at Moegger. Which one are you? One who watches

(15:45):
his or her team score twenty four runs, sits backs,
six sits back, laughs, and roots for as many runs
as possible, or one who wants them to stop scoring
after a while because you're worried that you're not gonna
They're not gonna save any four tomorrow. Vote now at
Moeger on Twitter. Thanks to United Heartland Insurance, sports headlines
are coming up and Sam Mcurr joins us next on

(16:08):
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center at UC Health
f you'l find comprehensive here. That's so personal. Make sure
best tomorrow possible. That's boundless care for better outcome is
expect more U seehealth dot com. Seventy five southbound a
town accident down their shoulder got Delane's the Shepherd northbound
seventy five metro, but Paddock is thuggish. Now we're saying

(16:35):
that the Lanies two seventy five at the Carrol Cropper Bridge,
both southbound and westbound. The ongoing roadwork there by Rick Shrepp.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
With Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their family.
The yours for Live kelseyshow dot com, Reds and Marlins.
First of three to night. Nicolotolo back off the paternity list.
He will start tonight for Cincinnati. Randy Winn picked out
the picked up the three innings save yesterday has been
sent to Louisville. Your unsponsored Red starting lineup? Are you ready?

(17:07):
Freedom and center McLean at second, Eli de la Cruz
playing shortstop because he's a shortstop. The shortstop is batting third.
Hazen left, Lucks' dhing Steers at first base, Frelien right,
Marte at third base, and Jose Travigno is behind the ditch.
Seven hundred. WLW has it first pitch at six forty.
A couple of transfer portal commitments to uc basketball. Jalen Sellenstein,

(17:31):
who was a good three point shooter, shot thirty eight
percent last season with the Baylor Bears. He has played
in one hundred and nine games at this level Austa
Also Mustafa Gian, who is a seven foot two comes
from UCF where he averaged more than ten and a
half points and nearly six and a half boards. A
top fifty recruit for UCF going into last season, he

(17:53):
is now a Bearcat. Xavier news Richard Patino announces the
Musketeers have got the commitment from Isaiah Walker, who played
at Wyoming, started his college basketball career at Belmont, where
he was the only Bruin who started all thirty three
games this past season, averaging ten point eight points and
five point eight boards. And Evander named to a Team

(18:15):
of the Match Day match Day number nine in MLS
for his role scoring two goals in FC Cincinnati's road
victory over Chicago three to two of the final score.
The Orange and Blue now tied for the most points
in the Eastern Conference. Sam Leciras with us, the former
red A fixer obviously on the FanDuel Sports Network and
someone we always love talking baseball with the Reds win

(18:36):
yesterday twenty four to two. I've heard pitchers say that
it's hard to pitch when you have a lead like that.
Is that true?

Speaker 5 (18:45):
Yes, I have a baseball in that. I didn't keep
a whole lot of artifacts from the playing days, but
I kept one specific two up. I got one from
Chicago and one from a game in Saint Louis, which
there's a little extra side story on that one, but
it was with a big lead. At that time that year,

(19:06):
I was used to being in some leverage situations, you know,
I mean, not like the highest. I mean it was
Marshall and Broxton and Chapman or whoever. But you know,
I snuck my way into the seventh and eighth here
every once in a while when shit got really out
of hand and Tommy fam hit a home run off
of me, and I think it was might have been
like an eight to one lead, and I'm kind of like,

(19:27):
you know, you know, there was a little bit of
a letdown, like a closer going in to pitch the
sixth inning, like there's just not the same intensity of it.
And I went out there and I was hoping to
throw my hat on the field and I got my
butt whipped. And I'll never forget those two games. Specifically,
it was probably the only two times I ever walked
onto the field and lacked the competitive fire because of
the score of the game. You know, So it does

(19:50):
get tough, and so I thought I was really good
at being able to state mentally focus, but it is
really tough to go out there. I thought, for win
Randy Winn yesterday, it's your day. You're not going to
throw your hat on a field like You're gonna go
out there and you're gonna pick your tailoffs. So for him,
good Scott Barlow's trying to find that, you know, I
think that, uh, but typically I'd say overall, yes, it

(20:11):
is hard to maintain the same competitive fire when a
lead gets too big.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
So twenty four runs is an outlier, right that that
we might not ever see that again. What's what doesn't
feel like an outlier, though, is with Austin Hayes healthy
and back and Matt McClean healthy and back, you're getting
good at bats. The nine games prior to yesterday, they
had scored fifty one runs, which you know is not
lighting the world on fire. But that's five and a
half runs a game with this staff. That's that's a

(20:36):
pitching staff. Yeah, that's good enough to win. And so
did we. You know, they lost a bunch of games
early where they lost one nothing, They were shut out,
the offense was feeble, they were missing guys. Did folks
like myself underrate this offense coming into the season.

Speaker 5 (20:50):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm not and I don't think I'm
saying I mean, that's why I don't really try to
rate it too much ahead of time. So so I
don't blame you for underrating it, but especially because last
year was pretty terrible and spring training that didn't really
give you any idea of what the offense I thought
could be. But I wanted to see the games. I

(21:10):
wanted to see Austin Hayes. What a difference he's made.
Gavin Lux. I didn't love them getting him just because
I didn't know where he was going to play. I
love him like he takes the best at bats on
the team. I think Jake Fraley has turned a corner
from kind of the guy that I thought he was
when he got here to Obviously last year went through
some things, but he looks like the guy that I

(21:31):
believe him to be so. I think it's everybody just
kind of if everybody plays to their potential and nothing more,
if everybody has their solid one hundred and sixty two
game average. I think the offense is really good. I
do think it's a five plus runs a game offense.
And I think if you put five plus runs up
a game with what I believe this pitching staff to be,
which has regressed some after the amazing start, I mean

(21:53):
that was just bound to happen. I think you're gonna
win a ton of I think you won the division.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
I agree with you, and you know you talk about
the pitching staff, and I do want to ask you
about Hunter Green, who had his first clunker in nearly
a year on Saturday, but Andrew Abbott did not. And
you know, he's a guy. We all saw what he
did two years ago when he when he got to
the big leagues and he was awesome immediately, and you
know he's had injury issues. He's still I think when
he gets the ball and he's healthy, is a picture

(22:19):
of consistency. I'm not sure though I have seen him
be as dominant as he was on Friday.

Speaker 5 (22:25):
He was pretty dominant, and I mean part of that
is I think last year and you're I think you're
seeing it a little bit with Nick Ldolo this year.
I mean that that's the highest strikeout game Abbot had him.
I mean, I don't think he struck out ten batters
in the game last year, and if he did it,
you know, maybe once or twice. But when he came
up in his rookiear, he was blowing everybody away. I

(22:45):
think that there's a maturity level for some of these guys.
And I think if you listen to him talk post
game and you know whatever, it is the way they
talk about pitching Hunter to put Hunter in this group too,
I think there's a maturity factor that's coming into play
where and maybe it's Terry, maybe it's Derek Johnson, but
they want to pitch innings like that. I think that

(23:08):
there's they're recognizing the value of bulk innings versus five
and dive with two run. I mean, I don't know.
I think that there's a kind of a shift in
the focus. And I've always thought that you know what
what Crash Davis saying Bull Durham about strikeouts or you
know some of their fastest I get, yeah, exactly. I
just thought I think that they're understanding that the strikeouts

(23:30):
are fascist and if you can pitch six and seven
innings a game and keep your bullpen fresh, like that's
the recipe for winning games, and the strikeout is as
awesome right when you need it, I would, oh my god,
give me twenty seven first pitchouts versus twenty seven strikeouts
in a row. Uh yeah, I just I think I

(23:50):
think there's a shift in focus, Like, Okay, they realize
they have the stuff to strike guys out. So you
were asking about Andrew Abbott, he was just grooving the
other night. I think he couldn't help but strike people out.
He still has that strikeout gene in him. He knows
how to do it, but it's more important when it's
second and third, two or one out. If it's second
and third and one out, you want a strikeout, like

(24:12):
you're going to go for the strikeout and so being
able to get it then versus just being able to
rack him up because they look cool. I think that
I believe that's an actual focus of THEIRS. I can't
confirm that, but the way they pitch, the way they're
going about it, that's what I see.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
I think the biggest and most important start that the
Reds have had this season, which is obviously still very young,
was that Monday night in San Francisco when Hunter Green
got into the ninth inning. They were three and seven.
They're playing a good team that had lost just once,
and you know, they weren't scoring all that much, and
so every inning was a high leverage inning. And then
he followed that up with a dominant performance against the Pirates.

(24:48):
When he gave up the leadoff homer on Saturday, I
said to myself, and this is before he threw another
pitch and gave up another homer, I believe you. I
just I felt like he was due for one. I
just felt like he was due for one and he
wasn't sharp, and I just I just disregarded to go,
you know what, he's gonna have two or three clunkers
like that. Is that the approach? Or did you see
something or anything on Saturday that should give folks like

(25:11):
myself pause?

Speaker 6 (25:12):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (25:13):
No, I don't think, and I don't want to say,
because the Baltimore lineup was kind of built to hit
right handers, and I think that's why you saw Abbotts
so dominant. You know, Brent Suter cut through him for
four innings. I mean, and nothing against Brent Suter, right,
I mean, I love Brentley did a great job. They're
built to hit right handed pitching, that's part of it.
But I was almost expecting a clunker two. But I

(25:37):
had to write my ship. And I think this is
a big credit to Hunter that I've been expecting greatness
every time out, and so even after the first home run,
I kind of just told myself. I was like, no,
he's going to write the ship because I think I
think it might have been against Pittsburgh, No Seattle, or

(25:59):
it was somebody at home. Just now like he kind
of had a rough first inning and it looked like
it was going to go haywire and it will looked
like it was going to be the clunker that it
was against Baltimore, but he rided the ship and went
seven innings. I can't remember who was against, but it's
kind of that same feeling. I just felt like he
was so lucky. Obviously, as the game wore on, they
really grind them at baths out. The location wasn't that

(26:21):
on anything. The slider was real flat, and some of
that is you know, potentially early season workload, Like Hunter hasn't,
you know, throw this many innings in the month of
April in his career. I bet you know, Like it's
a lot early. And he's a big guy, he's built different,
but it you know, nobody's immune to that. I don't
care how big you are. A rold As Chapman has

(26:41):
dead arm every once in a while, you know, where
the stuff looks the same, but it doesn't feel the
same way coming out of your hand. It's unless you've
gone through it. It's kind of inexplicable. But I think
a little bit of that. I think just kind of
balls elevated in his zone shows me a little bit
of fatigue because the stuff was still ninety nine. But
it just location is what we've been talking about that's

(27:04):
made Hunter turn the corner this year. The stuff's always
been one hundred and a ninety mine hours, that's always
been that. But what we've been talking about most is
the location of that stuff, and it just wasn't there.
And those days are going to happen, And usually the
first thing that comes to my mind is fatigue, not mechanic.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Give me a snapshot of what you've seen when you
watch Brady Singer and Nick Martinez.

Speaker 5 (27:26):
Uh snapshot with Brady, I think kind of as advertised.
I think that's maybe even a little bit better than
what I had expected. But he's a year older, he's
been around this league. He was kind of trending in
this direction, in a direction that he was going to
get better this year anyway. So I've loved what I've
seen from him. He's been great with Nick. I want

(27:48):
to I'd like to worry, but it's you know, recent history,
aka last season when he started off getting his brains
beat out and then comes the best pitcher on the team.
Now there's difference, obviously, because he's not going back and forth.
I am a little worried about him only to the

(28:08):
because the command just hasn't been there. I mean, he's
walked almost as many people this year as he walked
all of last year, which I was a ridiculous walk
rate that he had last year. I think he walked
nineteen and one hundred and thirty innings or something crazy.
But he's almost there in thirty innings this year, So
that gives me some pause. Yeah, the numbers, first, second,
third time through the lineup, they've gone up drastically, drastically,

(28:34):
so there is some worry there, but the stuff still
looks crisp. I still know the guy. I still see
the back of the baseball card. So, I mean, of
all the guys on the team, I don't want to
worry about, I want him to be the one I
don't want to worry about because he's just done it
for longer and the stuff still remains the same. So
but he's needs a kicking into gear here pretty quick

(28:54):
or there's going to start to be discussions flying around
about well is it time to move Martinez to the bullpen?
Then it's well do you pay somebody twenty one million
dollars to be in the bullpen? You know what I mean.
So there's those questions that I'm not going to answer.
Somebody else is gonna have to.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
One more because I know you have to work tonight,
put on a nice sport coat and all that sort
of stuff.

Speaker 5 (29:12):
No, no, no, this is good. This is a good
thought provoking stuff. I needed that because I was pretty
much brain dead today because I mean, after look, man,
I don't care if I'm playing the game or not.
Watch an offense for the twenty four runs gives me
PPSD brothers. Okay, I've been I've been there.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
I've been there.

Speaker 5 (29:27):
I've been the whipping boy that head on the mound
for as long as possible. But I've had to be
Carson Spires, which that was awesome of him. The other day.
I loved that everybody kind of went out of their
way to you know, Hunter did on TV. Who else
said it? Brent said it yesterday for them to go
out of the way man, because that's that's not an
easy place to be. So I had been out there,

(29:48):
and I respect him a lot of fords, and I
heard the story. I don't know, did you watch that
Maddox documentary. I did, Yeah, yes, so talking about like
he was up and he was getting his butt whipped
for a few starts, and they come up to him
before the game said if you don't win this game,
you're going down. And through four and two thirds they
had the win, but somebody came up and he plunked him.

(30:10):
So he didn't qualify for the but he got the
respect to everybody in the clubhouse, and that was more
important to him than getting to win and staying in
the big league and different set of circumstances. Obviously, Carson
didn't have to hit anybody, but you earn the respect
of the guys in the clubhouse and then you start
to feel that. And Carson talked about kind of feeling

(30:31):
that comfortability coming into this year because he had time
to spend with the guys last year, and that's an
important thing for him, is the camaraderie portion of it
that makes him feel like he can perform better. So
I think he'll be able to feel that respect a
lot when he comes back through. And I really like
Carson Spires and I was having to just sorry to
go off on the tangent, but I appreciated that those
guys going out of their way to do it, and

(30:53):
I appreciate what Carson did as well. But yeah, the
twenty four runs so brain dead. We're back.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
What's what's the most you've ever had to wear? Where
you're out there, the team has gotten its breens beat in,
and whoever your skipper is says, dude, you're gonna go
as long as you can, like, what's what's the most
lost cause inning you've ever pitched?

Speaker 5 (31:12):
So this will be It's gonna be a different circumstance,
but I think by the end of it, you'll agree
with me. So I mentioned the twenty inning game that
was a real deal. That was a Friday night and
oh boy, I think it's Manhattan, Kansas where Kansas State is.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yes, yes, yep.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
So we're into the ninth inning. I think we're winning,
and I'm the Saturday starter. So it's Friday. You know,
they have the Friday Saturday Sunday starter. So I'm the
Saturday starter. But our closer are all world closer gets
in a pinch and for some odd reason, manager brings
me in to put out the fire. Turns out that

(31:48):
was a foreshadowing, but got out of a base of
loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth is one
out and I did two thirds of an inning and
that was it. And we played twenty and I mean
they used that everybody we had. And then so he's like,
all right, we're pushing you back to Sunday since you
just pitched went through it on set. I feel one
hundred and forty nine pitches in a complete game on

(32:10):
Sunday because nobody else could pitch.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
WHOA.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
So we won the game. I mean I think we
won four to one or something like that. But that's
the most pitches I ever remember throwing and again, like
you said, different circumstances and nobody was getting their ass whipped.
But boy, my arm, I still have trouble wiping.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
That's a little more than I needed to know.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
Well. I mean, look, you call for the you call
for the good stuff, you.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Get some good stuff. That's that's why we have you on.
Not as much as I would like, but that's that's
why we have you on. Give me that.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
I'm not gonna call it. I'm not gonna call him
back to gain come on the show. I mean I
will love it too.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
I would. I would love it if you would give me.
We've seen some really good and then we've seen some,
you know, not so great. I still think the bullpen
top to bottom has been his strength. Give me a
snapshot of that of that collective group the bullpen.

Speaker 7 (33:02):
Yes, uh, I love I think the team is the
best team with I still think with Alexis closing, I
don't think he's their best pitcher.

Speaker 5 (33:14):
That's not why. There's other things. But I love Emilia
Pagan and Tony Santion And now it looks like Graham
Ashcraft a little bit being able to float and put
out fires. In the sixth seventh eighth to get the
ball there. Because Alexis Diaz does not hold runners. Well
that's and and he walks people, but so I wouldn't

(33:36):
trust him to go in and put out a fire,
so I give him the clean inning, you know, does
that make any sense? But I like the other guys.
I think like I think if Sam Maul, I think
Sam Maul is important because Taylor Rogers hasn't looked great
to me this year so far. But I mean Taylor
obviously has a great track record and can pitch. It
is a kind a great career. Barlow I have been

(34:00):
in love with, but I'm falling. I'm getting there. But yeah,
I think the best teams with Alexis as the closer
for those reasons, because he walks before and he can't
hold runners, but he can strike you out probably as
good as anybody in that bullpen. So those are the things.
So that's why it's always like, hell, it was Francisco Cordero,
they're calling Cardiac Cordero, and it seems like those are

(34:20):
the guys that you know, there's the ninth inning is
a different animal, but I think Alexis has a great
temperament for it, and I just like him better in
one set role than floating around because I haven't seen
him be able to do it. And I like Emilou
and I like Tony doing and putting out those big
fires early. So I think the bullpen if Alexis can

(34:41):
get back to and I think he's looking better. But
I've liked the bullpen. Yeah, I think they're strength, and
they're a strength, you know, with all piggybacks off each other.
If you've got your starters going, like I said, six
and seven innings, and when you run guys out there,
they're fresh all the time, but they're always working a
little bit. Especially if an offense goes out there and
puts up you know, gives you a six run leading,

(35:03):
you can go and you can run r Z out
there to get them some work. And then they come
back and they stay sharp, but they stay fresh. It's
a good spot to be and I feel like it's coming.
I feel like the last you know, ten or twelve
games has been pretty indicative of the type of team
that I think they can be. So that's that's been
a lot of wins and I think many more to come,

(35:26):
I hope.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
So there is no one I enjoy talking about the
Reds with more. I can't thank you enough for doing this.
I'll bother you again soon. Thank you so much. Please
do buddy most definitely. That's our guy Sam. Look here,
it went way long. It was way worth at six
way from four on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
From the UC Health Traffic Center at U see health
feel find comprehensive here. That's so personal. Make sure best
tomorrow possible. That's Bombinus Care for better outcomes. Expect more
you seehealth dot com Well traffic on seventy five Oil
Sugish Southbounded Town. His cruise worked to clear an accident.
This is off on the right shoulder right now and
we're watching some towns. Back to Redron Shepherd in seventy

(36:09):
five northbound Mitchell to Paddick is about a five minute
drive and we do have two seventy five sewing at
the Carrol Cropper Bridge. I'm going roadwork here through the summer.
I'm Rick Shrunt with traffic.

Speaker 5 (36:19):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Rapid radios are instant pushed as I play sorry, I
jumped the gun. This station white keyword on Jump the Gun.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Fun.

Speaker 8 (36:28):
That's fun fun now fun fun fun, fun like the
fun we have on this show. Fun like the fun
most people have watching sports, most.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Most, not all. There are some people I wonder why
they watch sports most of us. Fun seven after four,
ESPN fifteen thirty on MO This is our show. And
I've had a great Easter weekend. How could you not
have had a good Easter weekend with the way the
weather was terrific, especially yesterday, Brenneman and Jones, maybe on

(37:07):
baseball usually this year, it's been on baseball. So far,
so good, very early. We're only a few weeks in
the season, is not yet a month old, but I
would say that the baseball to not baseball ratio has
been like three to one so far. We'll see if
that trend continues. Coming up in just about forty five minutes,
I'm looking forward to that. We've got some really exciting
Duke Tobin audio for you here in just a bit,

(37:28):
and Tyler Stevenson, I guess, is getting said to begin
a rehab assignment, so we have to do the incredible
sports talk radio topic of should the Reds carry three catchers?
I'll try to get an entire segment out of that.
I'll I'll do the best. I'll do the best I can.
Should the Reds carry three catchers? Wow, I cannot tell

(37:49):
you how many like happy Hour arguments we will trigger
with that sports talk radio topic. Good stuff from a
Last Hour from Sam Lee or more on the Reds
who play the Marlins tonight in Miami, because that's where
the Marlins play, and a real chance, I you know,

(38:11):
if this team most of us, most of us, not
all of us, most of us before the season began,
thought the Reds had a chance to be okay, I
think very few thought they were going to be really good. Well,
you could take a step toward that if you clean
up against the opponents they have in front of them
over the next couple of weeks, which you know, Baltimore

(38:33):
has been really good the last couple of years, getting
two out of three. There is certainly nothing this needs out,
especially when he scored twenty four runs in one game.
They play some of the absolute dregs of the league
coming up in the next few weeks. So here's a chance,
here's a shot we will we will see. We've had
on this show a lot of draft experts and a

(38:55):
lot of draft analysts, and we have the draft on
Thursday night. I'll be broadcasting with Tony Pike from the
Holy Grail down the Hall from eight to ten. Our
Draft show on seven hundred WLW goes from six to midnight.
There are lots of shows that are among my favorites.

(39:16):
This is my favorite on air show. Legitimately my favorite
on air show because it's the one show you do
that is you're talking about something that is happening in
real time. It's a blast. We've talked about the draft
from any number of angles most years. Most years, I

(39:41):
think most of us subscribe to the belief that just
take the best player available. You're not drafting positions, you're
drafting players. So even if a guy doesn't necessarily fill
a huge, immediate glaring need side with the talent. In

(40:01):
most years, I think that's worth subscribing to take the
best player, forget where he plays, forget the position, take
the best player, don't reach. I don't know if that
applies this year. I think this is a very unique
draft for the Bengals. It's a very unique and important

(40:24):
offseason for the Bengals. They just had a season like
this was one of the biggest failures in the history
of Cincinnati Pro Sports. You had an Offensive Player of
the Year finalist, a Defensive Player of the Year finalist,
and an MVP finalist, the guy who plays the most

(40:47):
important position on the team, who is among the very,
very very best in the sport. Was awesome, and you
had to win five games. Again, it's mostly bad opponents
at the end of the season, just to get to
above five hundred, and he didn't come really that close

(41:07):
to making the playoffs. And yet expectations for this year
haven't changed. I don't think anybody, based on last year
has said, well, you know, the Bengals can't win a
Super Bowl in twenty twenty five. I don't think anybody
has done that. I certainly haven't. And so but this
huge offseason, I mean, the moment the season ended, the

(41:28):
moment that we saw Kansas City laid down in that
last game against the Broncos, we sorted to shift our
attention to the offseason. I don't recall anybody who's like, oh,
you know what, this offseason is not that important. Like
everybody put a lot of emphasis on this offseason because
they've got to get some stuff fixed and they've got
to get some stuff fixed immediately, and then in free agency.
Let's be honest, what they did was pretty underwhelming. That's

(41:49):
no knock on the players they took, it's just I
think relative to what a lot of us thought that
they were going to do, boy, they didn't do all
that much. So now here's the draft. Hugely important raft,
Hugely important draft because they still have a whole lot
of needs. Man Like dude, if you look at their needs,
if you look at the Bengals list of team needs,

(42:09):
it looks like the team needs of a five win team,
not a nine win team. That looks like the team
needs for a team that's going through a regime change,
not bringing back the same coach and same GM and
same core group of players. Hugely important draft. I'm okay
in this draft with them reaching a little. What got

(42:31):
me thinking about this? God knows, we're probably all mock
drafted out at this point, but I guess one that
Tony and Austin were referencing had the Bengals taking a
tight end. Now, I know we all love tight ends,
and if they take a tight end, I'm sure we'll
all talk ourselves into it the way we talk ourselves
into every player the Bengals ever pick. But come on, man,

(42:55):
that is the ultimate luxury pick. And yes, maybe you're
picking the best player, but you're not addressing huge claring needs.
Nobody wants to reach in the draft, but it depends
on how much you're reaching. It's like we talked about,
like teams overpaying players. The Bengals got accused of this
in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. Oh, they're overpaying

(43:18):
DJ Reader. Yeah, because they have to. Sometimes it's okay
to overpay. I'll overpay for stuff. I'll overpay for stuff
that I need. Overpaying is not the same as reaching,
but there are some similar principles. I'll reach a little
if I'm addressing something that I've got to get fixed.

(43:41):
You know, we were even talking about the mock draft.
I guess I don't know if it was the same one.
I've reached my limit with mock drafts. Danner did his
full seven round mock today. I'm good, I've read them all.
I'm fine, I don't need any more. I'm ready to
go for Thursday. But I guess it had the Bengals
taking camps Kataboo from Arizona State, I know there's there's
a whole variety of opinions out there about him. I

(44:03):
don't know, man, and I think we all believe they're
gonna take a running back at some point. That feels
like it feels like a luxury pick, taking a tight
end in round one. I don't think any of us
believe they'll do that, But if they did, that's that's
a luxury pick. It's a luxury pick. I think there
are times where it makes sense to kind of go

(44:26):
position over player, And that doesn't mean that you take
a guard in round one. If like the next best
guard has like a fourth round grade, you don't do that.
And I do understand what you do in one round
is largely informed by who you might be able to
get in the next round, and also because they have
a thousand different team needs that. Whoever you take with

(44:49):
the seventeenth pick, assuming they use the seventeenth pick, although
I think most of us want them to trade down
to get more picks. Whoever you take, whichever position you address,
you're instantly gonna start thinking about the positions they didn't
address with that pick. Like that's just human nature to
a degree. But for the first time ever, I think

(45:11):
it's okay if the Bengals reach a little so long
as they're addressing a need with a player who could
help right away. I cannot emphasize this enough. This does
not mean with a seventeenth pick you take a player
that would otherwise come off the board at like fifty
two or hell even forty nine, which is when the
Bengals draft in round two. But I've said this a

(45:37):
bunch of different times, and history may prove me wrong.
I think this draft is gonna go a very, very,
very very long way toward determining what happens for the
remainder of Joe Burrow's prime years. If they win a
Super Bowl, we're gonna look at this draft as one
of the major reasons why. And if they don't, we're
gonna look at this draft is one of the major
reasons why. I can't. I can't be on I'm not

(45:59):
on board with taking luxury picks, even if that luxury
pick is the best player on your board when you're
up at seventeen. Most of year is sure this year,
uh ah man taking a position they've got covered and
kicking the can further down the road at another position.
After round one, you only have five picks. Free agency

(46:21):
has passed. No, I have five picks. There's like five
position groups on defense alone. You've got to fix or
at least address, or we're being kind in some areas
add depth to plus guard. You kidding me, So, I
don't know which mock draft it was. I get to

(46:44):
a point because I'm normal, I lose track. I start
to pay attention to one or two, and those are
my guides for the rest of this process. Like I
don't need any more. I don't think any of us do.
But they'll they'll, they'll keep coming. And you know, part
of the mock draft industry is like if everybody just
had the Bengals taking the same player, if everybody had
every team taking the same players, nobody would care much

(47:05):
about mock drafts. And if, especially if you're one of
these people who does, like, you know, eight mock drafts
over the course of three months, it doesn't make any
sense for you to continue to have every team take
the same player. So there's gonna be those out there
that have the Bengals doing something that right now is
not so much on our radar, But this is a
draft because of what they haven't done in free agency,

(47:26):
and because of what their needs are, I think you
have to streamline it a little bit and just address
positions it's okay to reach. Sometimes again, it depends on
how far you're reaching, depends on how much you're overpaying.
Sometimes not interested in luxury items at this point. Right like,

(47:49):
there's lots of things I would really like to do
with my house right now. My wife and I have
to get our driveway fixed. That is a have need,
That is not a want, That is not a dude.
If the next person who drives up our driveway if
we don't get it fixed, is gonna get a flat tire.
That's how messed up it is. So that's happening now.
There's lots of other stuff. I would like to take
that large chunk of money and throw it at my house.

(48:12):
Can't afford to right now. Got to address the need.
Got to address the need and maybe overpay, which maybe
overpay to do so. I view this very similarly. And again, man,
I don't pretend to be some draft nick who has
just scouted at every player. Oh I do is tell

(48:32):
you what I watched last season was a quarterback who
played under duress, an offense that played with fire as
he played under duress at a defense that couldn't stop anybody.
And suddenly we're using the seventeenth pick in the draft,
or a tight end or even their fourth round selection
for a running back at just I know it's just
a mock draft. Mock drafts are done to alicited response.

(48:57):
They got one from Tony and Austin and they got
one from me. I'm willing to reach. I think if
you're the Bengals, you gotta be willing to go. You
know what, We've got this guy at twenty two on
our board. Let's say it's a guard. He's a twenty
two or twenty three on our board. Right now, we
can't find anybody who's gonna trade up. We would like
to trade down. We can't, but you know, we gotta do.
We gotta fix our offensive line the interior. We gotta

(49:18):
get a guard, especially if it's a guard who could
also play tackle. And by the way, Duke Tobin kind
of talked about that today that you know, especially non
starters have to be able to play on the offensive
line multiple positions, any guards, the defensive ends, defensive tackles, linebackers, safety.
I would argue you probably could still use some corner depth.
I only get six picks. Free agency is basically done.

(49:42):
I'm not going anywhere else, even if I reach twenty
minutes after four o'clock. U five point three seven four
nine fifteen thirty is our phone. But you'll hear some
of that amazing Duke Tobin audio coming up in just
about fifteen minutes. I know you're excited, I know I am.
Or nothing on a Monday afternoon. That could just get

(50:03):
the juices flow in more than some Duke Tobina audio
plus Brenneman and Jones probably on baseball coming up in
just about thirty minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Support Station.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
UC Health Traffic Center. If you see health, you'll find
comprehensive here. That's so personal. Make sure best tomorrow possible.
That's bombless care for better outcomes. Expect more. U seehealth
dot com. Seventy one north at MLKA Landim reported in
the roadway trying to get that cleaned up. We now
we have a crash on their shoulder of seventy five

(50:43):
northbound before Union Center and police are there. Watch for
delays on seventy five southbound Freeman to the Brents Bence
Bridge a couple of minute delay. My Rick Shrimp with
Traffic list.

Speaker 7 (50:54):
To the fourth best radio show in Cincinnati, according to
the readers at City Beat Magazine. Show on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Twenty seven after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you for listening. Whole questions on this show are
a service of United Heartland Insurance. Whether it be your home,
your car, your boat, your motorcycle, your life, your business,
your commercial fleet, or anything else I didn't mention insurance

(51:24):
with a United Heartland Insurance, go to uh i NS
dot com. There are two types of baseball fans. One
who watches his or her team score twenty four runs
and they sit back and they laugh and they root
for as many runs as possible. And then there's the
baseball fan who, during a game like yesterdays, wants them

(51:46):
to stop scoring after a while because he or she
is worried that they're quote not going to save any
four tomorrow. Which one are you? Seventy six point nine
percent of you say you're a I'm surprised, I'm a
by the way, now tonight they'll score one time against

(52:07):
the Marlins, lose like two to one, and then that'll
be the default position that everybody see should have saved
some should have saved something, because that's what baseball teams do. Hey,
you know, we're scoring a lot of runs. Let's not
try to get any more hits. Let's just go up
there and see if we can make alese as quickly
as possible and get this ball game over with. It

(52:27):
is uncanny how often that happens, and happened to this
team earlier this season. The other I didn't have time.
A very busy man in here actually got a letter
in the mail that I was reading during the break,
a letter he sent me, a letter very old school,
but anyway, so I didn't have time to ask this one.
Should the Reds carry three catchers once Tyler Stevenson is back?

(52:50):
And I think the answer is yes. I think the
answer is yes because they have a d H right now.
By the way, I think there is a tendance and
I know I have done this to view a trade
through the lens of one team winning it and one
team losing it. That's frankly not how it should be

(53:11):
the Reds trade for Jose Travino. Both teams have won.
Fernando Cruz couldn't stop walking guys yesterday, but for the
most part has been a very valuable addition to the
Yankee bullpen. And Jose Travino has been awesome for this team.
Like he's been terrific behind the plate. He's given this

(53:31):
team one good at bad after the next, which Sam
Lekia talked about last hour. His OPS is up over
eight seventy like, and he's been fine behind the plate,
and it feels like the pitcher's like throwing to him
with the DH. I don't think Tyler Stevenson hits it
enough to be a first baseman. But as long as

(53:52):
they are dealing with what they're dealing with right now
at first base without Christian and Karnacion strain. As long
as you have a DH, and as long as you
a guy in Austin wins who certainly looks the part
when he's in there, what's the harmon carrying three catchers,
especially when you look at elsewhere on the roster. Nothing
against some of the production we've seen from some of
these guys recently. I think if we were to rank

(54:15):
of once Stevenson is back the best twenty six reds.
I think Wins and Travino and Stevenson would fit comfortably
in that number. We'll see your phone calls are coming up.
So is some exciting Duke tobinaudio and sports headlines on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
UC Health Traffic Center at uc Hell. Feel find comprehensive care.
That's so personal. Make sure best tomorrow possible. That's boundless
care for better outcomes. Expect more you Seehealth dot com
traffic so is on seventy five North Bomb before Union
Center with an accident. Also ken Wood in Milford is
a crash with police on the scene. Seventy five southbound

(55:02):
from the Brent Spence Bridge to twelfth the Street. It's
about a five minute the way Rich Shrimp with traffic this.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
Report teen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
An alarm in the background of that one. Sports headlines
are a service excuse me of a Kelsey Chevrolet home
of lifetime powertrain protection and a guaranteed credit approval from
their family to yours for life at Kelsey chev dot com.
Red's road trip continues tonight in Miami, first of three
against the Miami Marlins. Nick Lodolo comes off the paternity list.

(55:32):
I was thinking about this are we started doing this show.
I started doing the show in the middays in two
thousand and seven and then moved to afternoons in two
thousand and nine. And it was right during that time
where if you did what I did for a living,
you got more than a couple free segments revolving around

(55:55):
athletes taking time off to be with their significant other,
their wife, girlfriend, whoever went and they gave birth to
a baby. That was like a big late two thousands topic, right,
and now we just sort of accept Yeah, it's collectively bargain.
There is a paternity list, and players go and be
with their wives when they have a baby, which is awesome.

(56:15):
Congratulations to Nicolodolo. He and his wife have a baby.
And had I jotted down the specifics of the baby,
I would give them to you, but I hopefully unprepared
for that. Anyway, that was really fun, Like eighteen months.
That was like a sports talk radio mainstay in the
late should so and so be okay to miss the

(56:37):
big game? To be there for the birth of their child.
That was a big like late two thousands, and they,
like all sorts of meatheads weighing in, they was nothing
more important than the team. Fortunately we have evolved. We
have a starting lineup. Bread's taken on a writing tonight,
Max Meyer, who's off to a good start. Here is
the unsponsored Red starting lineup, Freedom and center. McLain at second,

(56:58):
Elliott short Shortstopela Cruz. How about the play he made yesterday?
If if every time I get like two dozen tweets
when he boots a ball at shortstop, which, by the way,
one of the balls he booted against Seattle. MLB has
changed that scoring decision that happened this afternoon. So now
instead of six eras he only has five. So it's
been a good day at shortstop for Elie Dela Cruz

(57:19):
and he hasn't even started playing yet. Ellie is playing
shortstop because that's his position. He's batting third, Hazen left,
Lucks's dhing Steers at first base, Freley and Wright Marte,
coming off a career day, is at third base, batting eighth,
not that there have been many contenders for that title.
And Jose Travino is catching I mentioned Nicko Lodolo is

(57:39):
off the the paternity list. There is a corresponding move.
It's Randy Wynn. He goes to Louisville after his three
inning save yesterday. Baylor's Jalen Celeestine is no longer Baylor's
Jalen Celeestine. He is now a Bearcat, a kid who
shot thirty eight percent from three last year for the Bears.

(58:00):
It's essentially a trade. Dan Skillings goes to Baylor, Jalen
Celestein comes to uc Bearricats are also going to get
seven foot two Mustafa Gion, who averaged over ten and
a half points and a shade under six and a
half boards for UCF last year. Xavier has announced Wyoming's
Isaiah Walker will play for Richard Patino. Spent the last

(58:22):
three years at Belmont, the son of former Xavior standout
Tyree Walker. A vander named to a Team of the
Match Day match Day number nine for his role scoring
two goals in FC Cincinnati's three to two road win
over the Chicago Fire, a game punctuated by Kevin Denkey's
celebration honoring the league Aaron Bupenzo. It's time now before

(58:45):
we hear some Duke Tobina audio for the Postman Law
Injury Report. It is delivered by Postman Law. If you're injured,
Postman delivers. So a couple of things here. Number one,
Carson Spires is going on the injured list with a
right shoulder impingement through ninety four pitches in kind of
mop up duty on a Saturday in relief of Hunter Green,

(59:06):
and the idea was that Spiers was going to start
in place of Lodolo. That didn't happen, so they had
to go to a bullpen game, and then on Sunday yesterday,
Terry Francona says that Spiers told him, well, it's actually
something that's been bothering me for a while, which he
probably should have come forward with what was bothering him.
Spiers dealt with a similar type injury last year. He

(59:27):
is expected to have an MRI in Cincinnati today. Christian
and karnasi on Strand went on the IL on Thursday.
He says he has dealt with lower back pain before.
It's inflammation in his lower back. They're giving him an epidural,
which sounds awesome. Tyler Stevenson worked out with Louisville this weekend.
He is expected to join the Bats on a rehab

(59:48):
assignment starting tomorrow, and Sam Mall doesn't expect his stint
on the injure list to last long. He is dealing
with a left shoulder impingement. He went on the IL
A week from today. There you go. There's your apost
Law injury report delivered by Postman Law. If you're injured,
call eight four to four Postman.

Speaker 5 (01:00:07):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
We are going to take some phone calls today, I promise.
We just we've been busy. We've had other stuff. We've
been busy. Just this this whole you know, snowball of
stuff we've had to sort through here, including all this
Duke Tobin audio that I'm required to play kind of
Duke Tobin player personnel director for the Bengals de facto GM.
Duke talked earlier today, Zach Taylor did as well, we'll

(01:00:30):
have some of that exciting audio for you later on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Here's Duke kind of encapsulating what the Bengals did in
free agency.

Speaker 9 (01:00:38):
Yeah, free agency. I thought it went well. You know,
we got with Al and his staff and really went
over what we're looking for and a lot of what
we had, and guys like BJ Hill and Josephosai. They
have real roles for and we were happy to get
them back. We were not the only bidders, believe me.
There were a lot of teams bidden, and so the

(01:00:59):
guy that produced for us, like those two that we
were able to get back, you can throw Mike Gaseki
in there on the other side of the ball, you know.
We we were real happy. And then then we were
able to add a nose tackle that we have history
with with our d line coach that we think is
a really good fit for us as starting level nose tackle,
so we were really happy there. We were able to

(01:01:20):
add a linebacker with a lot of starting experience. He
started their playoff run. He's a Super Bowl champ and
so he's been on big stages, so we were really
happy with that. We got an interior offensive lineman with
a lot of starting experience. We were we were happy
for that, Sam a JP Ryan. We know exactly how

(01:01:41):
he fits for us, and he can produce in our system,
So we were happy with that. And then the guys
we got back and the guys we extended. We feel
really good about it, and we still have the draft
ahead of us.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Wow, what an encapsulation from Duke tobinam what the Bengals
did in free agency. Now, he was asked, and this
is the preference that many of us have, you know,
wanting the Bengals to move, move down, trade down in
the draft. Here's Duke answering a question about that.

Speaker 9 (01:02:10):
We're always open to moving if it's right for us,
and it's it can be right for us. You don't
always get the opportunity people say, trade, trade, trade. Those
opportunities aren't, you know, always there. Actually they're not there
more than they are there if you're sitting on one
guy that you think is a perfect fit for you.

(01:02:30):
A lot of times we opt just to go go
that route. And if you're more open to your board
and you get that opportunity and the and the the
price is right, you do it. We're certainly open to
trading or we're open to trading down back left right.
I don't know what that looks like, but maybe that's
stay in put. I don't know, but it's we're we've

(01:02:54):
always been open to that, not only in the first
round but other rounds. We have six picks in this draft,
so we would like to have a few more, and
we'll see if we can make that happen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
I think right there, what you heard was Duke Tobin
taking a stab at being funny. And I feel like
the media in the room there down there at the
venue formerly known as Paul Brown Stadium, they were supposed
to laugh because in any even marginally light hearted moment
in a sports press conference, the assembled media supposed to

(01:03:27):
act like they're seeing Daniel Tosh in person or something right,
And that didn't happen, And I feel bad for Duke. Now,
one of the positions we've talked about a lot is
guard because the Bengals need better guards because the ones
they had last year not very good. If they were well,
then Alex Kappa would still be here, but he's not.
They need a guard. Here's Duke Tobin answering a question
about guards.

Speaker 9 (01:03:48):
You know, we take free agency with what's there and
what we're able to get, and what interest is there
and what the prices are, how we fit that with
the rest of our team and what we're doing at
other positions. There are guards available in this there are
every year. I've never been a part of a draft
that doesn't have guards. Now, if they go one through UH,

(01:04:10):
one through thirty five and they're all guards. There's probably
none left, but I don't anticipate that, and I think
there'll be guys that we talk about and consider thout
the draft.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
I mean, he's trying to be funny. Could the could
the writers humor him a little bit and chuckle like?
Duke's trying to be lighthearted. I know it's the draft
and you're supposed to act like you're covering a major
world event. I mean, Duke Toben, he talks publicly like
twice a year, three times a year at most. Guy's
trying to be a little funny. Can he help him out?
Can you give him a slight chuckle? I don't need

(01:04:42):
an out and out cafall slight chuckle? Baby.

Speaker 9 (01:04:46):
The delivery.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
The delivery needs work, which but you know, look, he
never is made public like he Duke does that a
media availability, and he does the one like at the Combine,
and then he always shows up on the TV broadcast
of one of their preseason games, which I always think
is really good. It's Mike Watt and Anthony Munios and
then Duke Tobin stops by and he talked and that's it.

(01:05:09):
So he needs more reps so that people can understand.
Here's Duke trying to be funny. Give him the laughter.
He is seeking more of that incredible audio plus some
Zach Taylor coming up in the next hour. Tarren, how
are we on time?

Speaker 9 (01:05:23):
We are out of time for this hour.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Oh great, Brennan and Jones. Maybe on baseball it's time.
It's time for the Rats to make a move. That
incredible topic is coming up at five oh five on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
UC Health Traffic Center at Ucee. Hell feel find comprehensive care.
That's so personal. Make sure best tomorrow possible. That's bombless
care for better outcomes. Expect more. You seehealth dot com
now putings on the scene of an accident on seventy
five North boumb before Union Center. We're seeing so talents
to two seventy five right now on the left hand side,
Ken would at Glendale Milford a crash as well, and

(01:06:04):
heavier traffic southbound seventy five Western Aveator to the frend
Spence Bridge. Why Rick shrimp Worth traffic?

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Men?

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Is good enough? Really?

Speaker 5 (01:06:12):
What you want with your sex life? This is Jeff
for Tri State Men's Health and if a rectal dysfunction.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Now your chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter this
station wide keyword on our.

Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
Website happy, that's happy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Enter it in that happy like me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
It's the Mikelo Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour on ESPN
fifteen thirty. A service of our friends at michelob Ultra
Superior Life beer for superior people, just like people who
listen to this show. By the way, can we get
a memo to Steve Rawleigh that which radio station he's
doing forecast for. That'd be nice. It'd be cool if

(01:06:47):
we get the name of the radio station right. See
if you can do that for us, Thank you. Let's see.
Hopefully your Monday is going well. It's the michelob Ultra
five o'clock Happy Hour. There's a lot of moving parts.
We have more exciting Duke Tobina audio. We have some
really exciting Zach Taylor audio. We are going to take
some phone calls. We've had a lot of stuff. We
had a long interview with Sam Lequier. We've had audio.

(01:07:09):
We've had a lot of stuff. The Reds scored a
lot of runs yesterday it's easy to overreact to scoring
twenty four runs. I'm not going to do that. None
of us should do that. It was an outlier of
a day that was a really fun game to watch.
And it's been a lot of fun sifting through all
the things that the Reds did that they either had
never done before or hadn't done in like sixty years

(01:07:31):
in some of the personal milestone set and it was
fun to watch guys like Austin Wins and Noelve Marte
not only have big games but totally skew their numbers
because of how early it is in the season. Yesterday
was a blast. But yesterday was an extreme example of
something that's been going really well recently. What's been going
really well is this team is hitting now. Their offensive ceiling,

(01:07:56):
which is the term that I've used often here, is
still pretty low, right, But in the nine previous games
before yesterday, they had combined to score fifty one runs
on average. That's about five and a half runs a game.
That despite the recent issues, and when I say recent,
Nick Lodolo's last start wasn't very good. He pitches Tonight

(01:08:18):
Hunter Green start on Saturday wasn't very good. That certainly
has been an outlier. The starting pitching has still been
pretty good top to bottom. I think there's a lot
to like about the bullpen. If this team scores anywhere
close to five and a half runs a game, it's
going to be more than fine. They have over the
last ten games hit at a pretty good level. So
you have a couple of things working for you here.

(01:08:39):
Number One, they're hitting. Number two, they're healthy. By the way,
the offseason acquisitions of Austin Hayes, Gavin Lux and Jose
Travino have paid dividends, which is great. Austin Hayes has
been awesome this team offensively. We talked about it at
the beginning of the season. We talked about it a

(01:08:59):
little bit more when Matt McClain got hurt. They had
to tread water until guys came back. Well, guys have
come back. They're hitting more. They have in front of
them two things that they have to take advantage of.
You've got to take advantage of stretches where you're enjoying
reasonably good health. Now Christian and Carson Strand is not

(01:09:20):
healthy right now, lower back inflammation. I hate to say
this because I certainly hope he's okay. And you want
everybody to be given every chance they can get to
show what they can do. But Christian and karnasion Strand
was not helping this team with his bat. Hopefully he
comes back, and hopefully when he comes back, he does.

(01:09:41):
Tyler Stevenson is supposed to start a rehabit sim and
he worked out with the Louisville Bats over the weekend.
He is supposed to start playing in games. It's part
of his rehabit SIM at tomorrow, so he's inching closer.
They've gotten Hayes back, feels like they've dodged a bullet
with the Matt McClain thing. By the way, not having
Tyler steven Let's be honest, you would love to have them.

(01:10:02):
Tyler Stevenson, I believe, and maybe I'm the only one,
is an all Star caliber catcher. But the catching position
has been pretty good for this team, both offensively and defensively.
But you want Tyler Stevenson back. This team is healthy
ish as as baseball teams go throughout the course of
an entire season, this is pretty damn good. You've also

(01:10:25):
got a chunk of games in front of you that
are not that imposing. Their next twenty games are against
teams that are currently below five hundred. Now, the Atlanta
Braves are probably not as bad as their eight and
thirteen record, they got off to an zero to seven start,
but still the next twenty games or against teams that

(01:10:46):
have losing records, and included in there are a lot
of teams that we either knew we're going to be wretched,
like Colorado and the Chicago White Sox, or suspected might
be bad, like to say, Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals,
or we're still not sure to make of them like
the Miami Marlins. Still so, man, you got to take
advantage of certain gaps in the schedule, certain stretches in

(01:11:09):
the schedule, and you got to take advantage of when
you're reasonably healthy, and you've got to win games when
you're hitting, and right now this team is hitting. The
twenty four runs yesterday was a fun outlier. It was
an extreme example of something they've been pretty good at recently.
And what they've been pretty good at recently is offense.
Fifty one runs in the nine games prior to yesterday,
and if you add the twenty four to that, that's

(01:11:31):
seventy five runs across ten games. They're obviously not going
to average seven and a half runs per game, but
that ten represents pretty damn close to half of the
schedule so far. We'll see yesterday's game early. It was
all about Ellie de la Cruz, the play he made
a shortstop. I know how this works, which is why
I'm obnoxious about it. Elle boots a ball in the field,

(01:11:54):
which he's got to stop doing. And until he stops
booting balls in field in the fild, we're always going
to talk about maybe him playing center field, or we're
always gonna wonder when he's gonna stop and when he
can truly ascend to being among the best players in
the sport. But every time he boots the ball in
the field, we have to act like it's the biggest
crisis of all time and you got to move his
position immediately. And he's overrated. So if we're gonna do

(01:12:16):
that every time he boots the ball on the field,
when he makes a play like yesterday where he goes
to his left, goes across second base behind it and
makes the leaping play that he made a shortstop on
a pretty hard hit ball, I get to talk about
how he's a good shortstop or at least one day
will be or at least shouldn't be moved right now
to center field, like the way some watch Ellie Dela

(01:12:38):
Cruz and to a smaller degree, Hunter Green has to
be exhausting, like has to be. I believe there are
people and this is just sort of a little mini tangent.
I'm sorry. I believe there are people who consider themselves
Reds fans who secretly enjoy it when Ellie Yellow Cruise

(01:13:01):
makes a mistake in the field or has a bad
game at the plate, or they enjoy it when Hunter
Green has the start that he had on Saturday, which
was his first clunker, his first genuinely bad start since
last June. Hunter Green, or you know, Paul Skins or whoever,

(01:13:21):
Zach Wheeler, any one of those guys could have a
great year, they're still going to have four or five
bad starts. Hunter had a bad start on Saturday. You
could tell it from the get go. You could tell
I said this to same before, Like the first pitch
in I just thought to myself, like, he's due for
a bad one, and that was a bad one on Saturday.
I just it has to be exhausting with those two,

(01:13:43):
in particular, the two let's call them what they are,
faces of the team right now has to be exhausting.
Continually watching those two through the lens of well, if
they fail, I can take a minor victory lap. So
if that's how we're gonna do it, By the way,
Hunter Green is giving me a lot more victory laps
than the guy who's waiting for him to have a
bad start. If that's how we're gonna do it, that's fine.

(01:14:06):
But I was asked on Saturday, why are you so
obnoxious when Hunter Green has a great start? That's why.
If I don't, I don't, you know, spend much time
on internet trolls. I don't really you know, interact with
people who don't tell you anything about who they are.
But if if we're gonna do that, if we're gonna
do that, when Hunter Green has a bad outing or

(01:14:26):
Ellie has a you know, a rough game at short,
I will be over the top obnoxious. When Ellie has
the game like he had yesterday, which, by the way,
he ended up being a footnote because of noelve Marte
and Austin Wins and a whole bunch of other guys,
or when Hunter Green, you know, goes thirteen consecutive starts
and has an era of one. I'll be obnoxious about that.

(01:14:49):
Fourteen minutes after five o'clock. We gotta get to that.
Zach Taylor and Duke Tobin audio, we also have. I
love this college basketball way of doing things now because
we get an off season of stuff. Now. I certainly believe,
like most there should be guardrails and rules and regulations,
but we get an off season of stuff, and the

(01:15:11):
off season is paying dividends. And I'll specifically make this
about the Bearcats with two pretty good gets today. There's
something interesting about these two. There's something interesting about the
UC off season that we've got to get to here
in just a bit. But first, because I have done
nothing but hog the microphone and monopolize the show with

(01:15:31):
my own inane brand of commentary, we'll talk to some
other people like Chris and bond Hill. Hi, Chris, you're
on ESPN fifteen thirty. How's it going, Chris?

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
What's up? Mom?

Speaker 6 (01:15:44):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
How we doing?

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
I'm glad you give me giving me a chance to talk.

Speaker 5 (01:15:47):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
I want to talk about Ces. Yeah, he does nothing.
How come he's not in Louisville, right, now. I mean,
I know he's hurt, but yeah, why do they even
have a spot for him? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
Man, it's a fair question. They remember ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
Remember last year when they had ty France? Didn't did
ty France played first base?

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
He hit the back. I know he only hit like
two fifty, but every ball he hit was hard and
they wouldn't bring him back. And I just don't understand
why they want to keep playing this game with cees Man.
And I'm with you about the daily Cruz. He need
to move to the outfield. What's the guy that that

(01:16:32):
hurt his knees last year that's down in the minors,
the one they say.

Speaker 1 (01:16:36):
That he's accessed with and ed Edwin Arroyo.

Speaker 2 (01:16:41):
Yeah, what's he doing? I mean, how come he's not
being promoted or anything.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
Well, I mean, first of all, he missed all of
last season.

Speaker 9 (01:16:50):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Secondly, he has I think a whopping six games of
double A experience beyond this year, and so he's still
I think Edwin Royo just turned twenty one years old,
if if, if I'm not mistaken, he's still he still
got a ways to go. So there's a couple of
things you throw me there. Let's first of all, start

(01:17:11):
with Christian and Karnasi on stre and I think, look, they.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
I want to ask you one question about him. Say
he had an epidural? Is he pregnant or something? I
got my baby mama had an epidural when she had
my little girl.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
No, no, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:17:30):
And I almost almost dropped my plate of food. I ate.

Speaker 1 (01:17:33):
So epidural is not just something they give to pregnant women.
It's an injection that that causes you to stop feeling pain.
But I certainly understand that my wife had one as well.
So first of all, on on Cees, you know they
they thought highly enough of him to put him in
the trade for Tyler Maalley. They want to see what

(01:17:54):
they have now When they did that in twenty twenty three,
the dude did nothing but hit. He had fortunately didn't
hit before he got hurt. Last year, he unfortunately is
not hitting much when he's healthy this year, and at
the age of twenty five. I think he's only going
to be given so many opportunities. Ty France, I certainly
would not have been opposed to him coming back. Ty
France is not exactly lighting the world on fire for

(01:18:16):
the Minnesota Twins. And this and the Elks.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
I think his status is a little better than Cees,
though sure I'm not.

Speaker 1 (01:18:24):
Being hard to be any worse. Yeah, Ty France is
putting up bigger and better numbers than Christian and Carnassi
on strand, but that's the very low standard. I'm looking
for good numbers. I do think with Cees. I do
think with ces first of all, you gotta get him healthy. Secondly,
you are being very fair if you wonder in a
year where I think the Reds think that they're at

(01:18:45):
least going to try to contend, how much rope do
they give him? And I'm not sure they should give
him a ton because I don't see a hitter or
a player who is contributing anything. I don't see a
hitter or a player who is doing anything offensively to
make you think he is, you know, capable of digging
him out of this hole. Now he has fewer than
four hundred Big League at bats, and so you know,

(01:19:08):
you know, you do. For a guy that you decided
to trade for, you are going to give him some time.
But that doesn't mean uninterrupted time. That doesn't mean time
without being challenged, that doesn't mean time.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
I think they just let him sit down, and why
can't they let him just let him play down in
Louisville or or they double a why can't they just
let him play down there?

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
Well, I think number one, the answer is then what
they believe in him? Maybe they shouldn't. We'll see how
much they do. They believe in him, and they don't
think that the first three weeks of the season is
indicative of of how good he could be. Number two,
I don't think they like their other options at first base.
Spencer Steer has been playing some first base guy hadn't
played in the field all year long. I think they

(01:19:51):
preferred Jamber Candelario be at third base, and Tyler Stevenson,
who's played a little bit of the position, isn't healthy.
But yeah, I mean with some of these guys, you know,
it's not twenty twenty three anymore. They have to turn
the corner man. They have to be better than I
have been man, and it should be ticking for Cees.
But first he has to get.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
Healthy, right and then I'd like that quote you said
about Elie going in center field. I think he needs
to be a center field career.

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
Well, that arm he got, they're not going to do
that overnight. You know, he's never played in the outfield, but.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
Go ahead, Okay, didn't Pittsburgh didn't They put the other
Elie Cruz out there last year in the middle of
the season. They put him in the deft field or something.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
Oil Cruise.

Speaker 2 (01:20:36):
Yeah, they put him out there. Sure, I'm just saying sure.

Speaker 1 (01:20:41):
If I don't think they did that because they thought
he was a disaster at short stop.

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
Right, Well, Ellie, kind of looking back and what you said,
he's leading the net the major leagues and airs already.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
I don't know where he is in the pretty clothe.
I honestly don't know. He as of two weeks ago,
he was leading early in errors and he maybe now
and I haven't looked, and nor do I really care. Look,
I think if you're going to give him the best
possible chance to succeed in a year where the Reds
are trying to win, it's one thing if you're playing
a bunch of meaningless games, which the Pirates for the
most part last year were with O'Neill Cruz. If you're

(01:21:19):
if you're running him out there, and by the way
they used him, they gave him spring training. O'Neill Cruz
this year after he played over one hundred games at shortstop.
They worked him in center field last year late, they
put him in the outfield in spring training this year,
and now he's doing fine with Ellie de la Cruz.
If he makes a lot of errors at shortstop and
you're going to try him in center field, I don't
want to do that while these games matter. I don't

(01:21:41):
want to take a guy. I don't want to put
him out now. If it's September and there are a
thousand games out of first place and you want to
try it and it's time to experiment, do it then,
or if you want to try it during spring training,
do it then. I still believe he has the tools
or the overall athletic ability to play a position in
shortstop that is more important, I believe, than center field,

(01:22:02):
and so I'm going to give him ample opportunity. But
you mentioned a guy who could have something to say
about that, and that's Edwin Arroyo.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
Right, Okay, Okay, I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:13):
Chris, I gotta run man did to hear from you?

Speaker 5 (01:22:15):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:22:15):
Okay, you too?

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
You got it? Five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteenth.
The CS thing, I don't know yeah, I think because
he was one of many back in twenty twenty three
who got to the big leagues and helped almost immediately,
I think it's easy to forget what he did offensively
when he finally got here. And I certainly do understand

(01:22:41):
giving a guy a chance coming off of injury to
show what he can do, and I understand their belief
in him. But when you watch Elie Dela Cruz, or
when you watch Christian and Canassian Strand, I'm sorry it's
you can't help, but wonder how long should that rope
be and what other options do they have? And right
now he's her, so we'll see. Yes, men can have epidurals. Yes,

(01:23:06):
it is twenty two minutes after five o'clock five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number. Will update
the poll question and we'll hear from Zach Taylor and
more from Duke Tobin coming up in just about fifteen
minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:23:22):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (01:23:28):
From the UC Health Traffic Center at UC Health Field.
Find comprehensive care that's so personal. Make sure best tomorrow
possible that's boundless care for better outcomes. Expect more u
sehealth dot com clean up. Continuing to seve An accident
seventy five north bound before Union Center. I left playing
block so down to Glendale Milford accident taking up three
lanes Fort Washington Way eastbound before seventy one. Traffic is

(01:23:51):
sowing from seventy five seventy five south at seventh crash
northbound seventy five at Mitchell when accent on the left
hand side, my bricks rent with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
This year, You're not being pulled over right now twenty
seven after five o'clock, twenty eight now after five o'clock.
Because you know, when you listen to the show, you
listen to hear me tell you what time it is.
I'm oegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Paul Danner Junior
on the show tomorrow from three to four on a
million different Bengals related topics. The Bengals players, most of

(01:24:22):
them came back today for optional workouts. Trey Hendrickson not
among those who were back. I think one of the
draft storylines, as much as I think a lot of
us very much have. Trey Hendrickson fatigue number one last
year we found out he was requesting a trade on

(01:24:43):
the Thursday of the Draft. I will never forget it.
We were doing our show as we do every Thursday
of the Draft at Long Necks and Wilder, which will
be there on Thursday this week, and as we're nearing
the end of the show, we found out Trey Hendrickson
is requested a trade. And boy, that was something different,

(01:25:06):
And so do we get something similar to that? He
obviously has already explored trades, so I'm not sure he
could request another one. But is that when he comes
public with perhaps a holdout fret. My guess is no.
And then the other one is like, I don't believe.
I personally don't believe the Bengals should trade Trey Hendrickson.

(01:25:29):
Now there's there's exceptions, and those exceptions aren't offer that
you simply cannot refuse. Do the Bengals get one? I
don't know, but but you know there was a report
from Jason lockanfor in the Washington Post last week about
how teams are watching the Bengals very very closely to
see what they do if if they take one in

(01:25:53):
Round one. What does that say about the long term
future of Trey Hendrickson and the Bengal I don't know,
but it is a somewhat non draft draft storyline. We
will see five point thirty. Uh, you'll hear a little
bit more from Duke Tobin and a little bit from
Zach Taylor. I will be honest with you, I believe

(01:26:15):
in transparency. We'll play this audio because I think we're
supposed to. I don't know that you're going to hear
anything necessarily revealing. And that's nothing against Duke and it's
nothing against Zach. I think that's just a reflection of
nobody wanting to tip their hands, so to speak. But

(01:26:36):
we'll have the audio for you nonetheless. And a few
minutes on the college basketball offseason, which Ucte's had a
good day today. I think that's not just me the
Bearcat homer. I think the Bearcats have had a good
day today. I think they've had a decent portal period
and hopefully we have some time for that as well.

(01:26:56):
In a phone caller too. Sports headlines next ESPA fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:27:01):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 4 (01:27:07):
UC Health Traffic Center at UC Health, you'l find comprehensive care.
That's so personal. Make sure best tomorrow possible. That's boundless
care for better outcomes. Expect more U seehealth dot com.
Cleanum continues. Have an accident on seventy five north bound
before Union Center. The left lane taken up and so
bounce back to Glendale Milford left playing block Fort Washington

(01:27:27):
Way East bounded seventy one. We're happy from seventy five,
but that is in the clearing stages. Edward Road at
Madison a cred I'm rick Shramp with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
Sports Head Lives are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home
of lifetime powershran protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours life Kelseyshove dot Com, Reds and Marlins.
Tonight in Miami, first of three against the Fish six
forty Tonight seven hundred WLW. Nicolodolo off the paternity list
against righty Max Meyer. Randy Wynn has been to Triple

(01:28:00):
A to make room for Lodolo. The Red starting lineup.
I'll give it to you because I know you want it.
I know there's no other place to get the Red
starting lineup for a game that starts in an hour
and five minutes, So get your your score book or
scorecard ready. Here we go. Fredo's and center, mcclean's at second,
Elie is at shortstop, Hayes and left. Hayes has swung

(01:28:22):
a hot bat, so to speak, so is Gavin LuxI
is dhing Steers at first, Freleian right, Marte at third base,
and Travigno is behind the plate. Baylor's Jalen Celestein is
coming to UC has played one hundred and nine games
at this level, shot thirty eight percent from three last year.
And Mustafa Chian is coming to UC as well. Seven

(01:28:46):
to two kid average ten and a half points last year.
Was a top fifty recruit at his time of the
time he signed with UCF played last year for the Knights.
Those are two good gets for Wes Miller, and my
nunderstanding is two expensive gets for Wes Miller. There was
a piece in cbssports dot com for Matt Norlander, the

(01:29:06):
outstanding college basketball writer who dives into the money that
is being paid to college basketball players. And you know,
if you've listened to this show, I have very little
use for the cavetching so to speak about how Nil
is going to ruin college football and basketball because it

(01:29:29):
hasn't happened, And I roll my eyes when people talk
about how these things are they're driving away great coaches
from the sport. Who cares. I think it's given us
an off season. I certainly do understand that it's maybe
tilting things in favor of certain schools a little bit
too much, which is why there should be some regulations,

(01:29:50):
some guardrails. But in terms of the money the players
are getting paid. Like, I'm the anti salary cap guy,
so I can't have any issue with it. But in
reading this, you know, you're thinking about a school like
U See, wondering can they compete? And you know, are
they going to be able to pay what Kentucky is paying.
Probably not a whole bunch of other schools. But there

(01:30:10):
has been a significant financial commitment into some players this
offseason at u See that many would have told you
during last season was not possible.

Speaker 6 (01:30:21):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:30:21):
The difference in college sports versus pro sports, and this
is going to change a little bit with public schools
with the house settlement is you know, the money is rumored,
and in the case of pro sports, largely because of
the agent, the money is confirmed. Right, But I guess
My overall point being in this rambling Die tribe is
that often during last season you would hear folks say

(01:30:44):
that the reason why you see had a disappointing season,
and they had a disappointing season was well, they don't
have the nil resources. I don't know that that's true.
Now again, are they going to have the highest player
payroll in the Big Twelve?

Speaker 6 (01:31:02):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:31:03):
But I think if you see what's out there regarding
some of the possible dollars being thrown at some of
the players you see is acquiring this offseason, you would
laugh at anybody who is lamenting UC being beneath the
poverty line when it comes to money for college basketball players.

(01:31:28):
We'll see. I'm optimistic, but of course I always am.
FC Cincinnati's Evander named to the MLS Team of the
Match Day for Match Day number nine for his role
in the three to two victory over the Chicago Fire.
The Orange and Blue winning again, now coming home to
play on Saturday, and FC Cincinnati currently tied with Charlotte

(01:31:49):
for first place in the Eastern Conference. All right, let's
play some more audio. Duke Tobin and Zach Taylor, Are
you ready? I know I am? Here is Duke Tobin
talking about as he and his staff prepare for the draft,
offensive lineman and versatility.

Speaker 9 (01:32:06):
I think versatility is important if you're a starter, it's
less important. If you're a backup. It's paramount on the
offensive line. You have to as a backup be able
to cover two spots, whether it's tackle or guard, or
whether it's garden center, or whether it's both sides. But
you have to have position versatility as a backup offensive lineman.

(01:32:27):
As a starting offensive lineman, if you are good enough
to be the starter at left guard, you can be
left guard. It's beneficial if you could move down to
center and play that or move to tackle. But if
you are a good enough left guard, that's enough for us.
So it depends on kind of where you fall in
your career arc. But we cross train all of our

(01:32:48):
offensive lineman in some other position other than their natural spots.

Speaker 1 (01:32:53):
Yeah, and you know, we've talked a lot about the
Bengals need for a guard and a swing tackle, and
there seems to be a a very loud and we'll
save vluminous school of thought that suggests the Bengals could
address both with one pick one more. One of the
things that has been brought up a lot of a
lot of mock drafts have brought up the name Mike

(01:33:15):
Green from Marshall And there are off field character concerns
and if you're interested in them, go find them you
have internet access. But Duke Tobin was asked about how
much character concerns goes into, specifically this year, determining who
they're going to pick.

Speaker 9 (01:33:35):
Off field risk and character questions. It's completely independent study
for every player that we talk about, and we try
to put as much work into those guys as as
we humanly possibly can, and we talk to a lot
of people, We do a lot of background research and
then ultimately it's is this worth the risk? And every

(01:33:58):
player is a little different in that, and sometimes the
answer is yes. Sometimes the answers no.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
There's a Duke Tobin And you know, last year, Jermaine
Burton was talked about a lot as you know what,
maybe there's a better alternative out there somewhere because of
his maturity issues and then that came back to bite
both him and the team once they selected him with
their third round pick last season. Now, let's let's one

(01:34:26):
from Zach Taylor's that didn't talk extensively long today. Today
was sort of Duke's day. But obviously, I think you
could argue the key offseason acquisition for the Bengals is
Al Golden, the new defensive coordinator, And in large part
you could say that because he's going to be coaching
a lot of the same guys and obviously they're gonna
draft defensive players, but he's gonna be coaching a lot

(01:34:47):
of the same guys that lou and Arumo coached this
past season. And so here is Zach Taylor on Al
Golden and his familiarity with a lot of these prospects
because you know, last year he was coaching in college
at Notre Dame.

Speaker 10 (01:35:03):
Yeah, he's got great awareness of certainly the guys he's
played against. There's several Notre Dame guys in the draft, obviously,
so we value his opinion there. At the same time,
he's been focused on Notre Dame and maybe the opponent
that week and not really thinking is this guy canna
help me a year from now? So, but he certainly

(01:35:23):
has some awareness of some of the guys that are
in the draft.

Speaker 1 (01:35:26):
Wow, there you go, Zach Taylor. Earlier today. The draft
show that we do is going to be on Thursday.
It's down the hall on seven hundred W WELW. But
we're broadcasting from the Holy Grail, and the way we
do this is it's a lot of fun. You got
Lance and Rocky from six to eight, you got Tony
and Me from eight to ten, and Austin and Chuck
Ludwig from ten to midnight. Those two will be on

(01:35:49):
the air in all likelihood when the Bengals go on
the clock at seventeen. Overall, five point three, seven four nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number, Mike, after a weekend
that he spent sending me emails, You're on ESPN fifteen
thirty high Mike. How you doing?

Speaker 6 (01:36:06):
Yeah? I hope I didn't irritate the hell out of
you too much.

Speaker 1 (01:36:08):
Not in the week there, not in the least. How
are you.

Speaker 6 (01:36:12):
Did your daughter find some Easter eggs?

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
She's had a lot of Easter eggs? Yes, yes, a
lot of Easter eggs, two different Easter egg hunts, one
in the house by yourself and one outside with her cousins.
It was a very good weekend for you.

Speaker 6 (01:36:25):
You can't be it, man. I yearned for those days
when my little kiddies with that young because it's it's
a special time, man, it is. And then you get
older and you think, damn, I really didn't focus on
it as much as I should have. So I know
you're not like that. You're not stupid like me.

Speaker 1 (01:36:39):
Well I am. I am stupid, but I do cherish
these days. I wish that the the Easter basket. I
wish that we would not have gone downstairs to discover it. It's
six fifteen yesterday morning. I was sort of hoping for
a little bit of a later Easter start. But that's
how that's how things go.

Speaker 6 (01:36:54):
That's very excited, man, just like ho hoo coming you know,
same thing? Ye Can I do a quick lightening the round? Yeah,
Draft NBA, playoffs, baseball NBA or draft whatever whatever. Totn's
philosophy's man about is Okay, you take take a guy

(01:37:15):
that's not a starter, and you're make him a versat
to all around guy. The problem with it, that's obviously
a great idea. It logically makes a lot of sense,
but you're not gonna find really good guys that can
flip flop here and there and stuff, or if you do,
you got real lucky. So I don't know if that's
a really good philosophy.

Speaker 1 (01:37:33):
Well, it it implies a belief in the coaching staff.
You know, you don't just draft, you draft and develop.
And you know there's obviously a lot of new coaches
on staff this year, and so you know, it's it's
one thing to say, well, we're gonna draft, but we're
gonna we're gonna try to achieve versatility with a coaching
staff that hasn't been able to do that. It's something else,
I guess when you're talking about a slightly different coaching staff.

(01:37:55):
But you know, I think as it relates to this
year's class, I I I think we want to see
less screwing around with the players position because if you're
messing around with where they're going to play, I believe
they have less of a chance of helping you in
the short term and this team needs short term help.

Speaker 6 (01:38:13):
Yeah. I love the kid you've promoted on your Those
little segments you do on his drafts are really good.
I've wanted a lot. We thank you a lot of time. No,
they're really enlightening and people ought to latch onto those.
You don't have to look at us whole mock draft
stuff that'll make you go crazy after ten minutes. But
that kid from South Carolina, that's safety man. I'd love

(01:38:34):
to see them get him with that first pick.

Speaker 1 (01:38:37):
I really would emon worry. Yeah, you know, he's a
guy that Paul and I talked about a lot last week,
and there's there's a lot there. There's a lot there
with sort of the profile of type of player and
type of person the Bengals have, I think often looked for.
You know, obviously didn't come from a program the competer
for a national championship, and that's that's sort of where

(01:38:58):
you veer away from some of the guys the Bengals
taken early in recent years. But yeah, there is a
lot to like about NICKI Minmorry.

Speaker 2 (01:39:05):
For reiterating that.

Speaker 6 (01:39:09):
Last guy that really intrigued me in the draft, and
I'll drop this trip this camp Scattabo. I saw him
play a lot for Arizona State. No, he is a
horse and he does everything. He's five about five nine
to five pair and goes two twenty about a four
to six forty. But he does everything. He catches the ball,
he's a money player in money situations. I just love him.

(01:39:31):
Now they say Pittsburgh kind of take him with their
one hundred and twenty third or whatever. But if the
Bengals can get a chance for another running back, that's
the guy because he can be a horse down in
between the guards.

Speaker 1 (01:39:43):
Well, you know, led the nation and snaps. Was awesome
in the playoff loss to Texas, was even better in
the conference championship game against Iowa State. Coincidentally enough, one
of his less productive games came against Cincinnati in the
game that the Bearcats one camp. Scataby is going to
be terrific. I think with where he is likely to go,
if you're looking at him through a Bengals lens, he's luxury,

(01:40:06):
and I don't think the Bengals can afford luxury in
this draft.

Speaker 6 (01:40:09):
Yeah you're right, But anyway, yeah, I hope, I hope
you're you're right. That's common.

Speaker 1 (01:40:14):
Dares tell me we got one minute, Mike.

Speaker 6 (01:40:17):
NBA draft. The best, the best first weekend, the best
first games was was the Clippers and the and the whatever.
So tonight, tonight that'll be good. Yo, kich I don't
care what anybody says. He's the best player in the world.
Why did Westbrook make that three point shot? Because Jokis
made a cross FOURD pass when he was wide open.

Speaker 5 (01:40:39):
That's why that child.

Speaker 1 (01:40:40):
It's it's likely to be a great game too, but
it's the second most important game too. On the dock
of tonight, Mike, and my.

Speaker 6 (01:40:47):
Most disappointing thing and in pro sports and the history
of Cincinnati was the Cincinnati Royals with at that time
what was considered Michael Jordan Oscar Robertson and they could
not help him get to a final. That's the most disappointing.

Speaker 1 (01:41:04):
Not expecting a Cincinnati Royals take Mike, Thank you very much.
Usually with got in the way where the Boston Celtics
and awful Royals ownership, we are done. Danner joins us
tomorrow and more. Have a great night. Thank you for listening,
and thanks to Taran for producing. Have an awesome night.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:41:23):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.

Speaker 4 (01:41:36):
UC Health Traffic Center at UCE Health. Feel find comprehensive
care that's so personal. Make sure best tomorrow possible. That's
bombless care for better outcome is expect more. You seehealth
dot com. We still have the so downs. As you
make your way along seventy five. This is at northbound
before Union Center. The accident, though has cleared out of
the way and on Fort Washington Way eastbound before seventy one.

(01:42:00):
Shoulder is blacked left. Liane two with an accident Delays
is seventy five by Rick Shrump with traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:42:05):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios.

Speaker 1 (01:42:08):
Rapid radios are instant pushed to talk walkie talkies, offering
national LTE coverage and no subsc

All Episodes

4/21/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Mo Egger News

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}4/21/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Mo Egger News .css-1q01m3q{margin:0 0 -2px 0;}

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes