May 11, 2026 • 35 mins
The Reds Snap their 8 game losing streak and gets a series win over the Houston Astros.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Give you some cash right now. What's up moegor ESPN
fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hope you had an awesome Mother's Day. Hope you had
a great weekend. You know Mother's Day. At our house,
mom wants one thing, my wife wants one thing, leave
me alone, and like every mom could use that. So
my daughter and I went to the zoom for a
few hours, which I think is on the Mount Rushmore
(00:28):
of Cincinnati. People watching anyway, regardless of how you spent
your weekend or how you spend your Mother's Day, hopefully
it was good and fun and relaxing, and you had
a chance to enjoy the weather, which, by the way,
today is spectacular. Yes, yes, yes, I wish we were
doing the show outside. Nonetheless, show preview is available right
now at mogar on Twitter. Thanks to shareffacts credit Union.
(00:52):
Becoming member today or tomorrow or anytime, but hopefully sooner
rather than later, get a sharefax dot org. The schedule
comes out on Thursday. If you're a Bengals fan, I
think you're crossing your fingers for two things. We'll get
to that a little bit later on this hour. Rads
win two out of three now on Friday night they
(01:13):
were clobberd an eighth consecutive loss. Jose Travino had to
come in. They win on Saturday, they win yesterday. We're
gonna get to the nuts and bolts of both games
and both victories and what it means the big picture.
A quarter of the way through the season, but Tito
Francona is making some changes. The Reds are making some changes,
(01:36):
and as much as he shot down on Saturday the
idea of line up Bingo or lineup Roulette, it is really, really,
really encouraging to see Tito Francona lean into some things
that we have been talking about needing to happen on
this show for quite a while. I will start, though,
with Chase Burns. Look man. The read starting staff this
(01:57):
season has not been the strength we've all hoped it
would be. Injuries are a major reason why this staff
has kind of been in tatters. No Rat Louder, no
Brandon Williamson for a while, no Hunter Green for a while,
lack of reliability up and down the rotation. A lot
of guys hurt. But it's hard to not be encouraged
by Chase Burns. Chase Burns was maybe not dominant On Saturday.
(02:21):
He only struck out two, but I loved, absolutely loved
how he reached back to strike out Cam Smith to
end the sixth inning on Saturday. Chase Burns twice within
the last week has delivered ace like performances for his team.
And when I say ace like performances, we're not talking
(02:42):
about striking out a bunch of dudes. We're not talking
about being completely and totally dominant. Because Chase wasn't on Saturday,
but a week ago yesterday in Pittsburgh, Chase Brown's a
Chase Burns, I should say, absolutely gave his team a
chance to win. Lost that ballgame, won nothing through no
of Chase Burns. That's what a staff as does. They
(03:03):
do everything in their power to end the streak a
week ago on Sunday, and it got lost in the
shuffle of all the bad things that were happening with
this team. They were clobbered last Friday in Pittsburgh, they
were embarrassed the previous day in Pittsburgh. Chase Burns did
everything he could to deliver a victory. Unfortunately, it wasn't
(03:23):
enough because the Reds didn't score any runs. They barely
scored on Saturday. They needed some awful Houston fielding to
score on Saturday, but Chase Burns, on a day where
he wasn't exactly dominant again did everything he could to
help his team get a victory and got some good
bullpen work, and they got good defense, and that matters too.
(03:46):
Dan Myers made a couple of really nice catches in
center field, and they got some good defense from the infield,
and that matters, including guys who were playing third that
aren't Key Brian Hayes. But amid all the reasons to
not necessary, we'd be stoked about the Reds right now,
and amid all the reasons for skepticism and fear that
(04:06):
maybe the hot start to the season isn't going to
result in this team getting to the playoffs, Chase Burns,
who has made all of twenty one big league starts,
establishing himself, as I'll say it on this staff right
now and ace, is easily the most encouraging. And then
Andrew Abbot followed up with Chase Burns that on Saturday
(04:28):
with the sort of start that we saw regularly in
the first half of the season last year, on the
heels of a really good start in Chicago, last week
in a game that the Reds ultimately lost. So those
are the really encouraging things. Andrew Abbot pitching more like
the Andrew Abbott of the first half of the season,
which this team desperately needs. And Chase Burns taking the
(04:51):
ball for the second consecutive start with a whole bunch
of bad stuff swirling around, long losing streaks and blowout losses.
Think out to Chase Burns. A week ago on Sunday,
took the ball the day after the Reds lost by
ten runs. This past Saturday, he took the ball yet again,
day after his team got beaten by ten runs, and
(05:16):
he delivered. And that dude is an absolute stud. Say
what you want about the direction of the team, what's
happened over the last couple of weeks. Maybe you're really optimistic.
Maybe you're bullish based on the fact that the Reds
have won their last two games. Maybe you think it's
too early to form any opinion. Either way, it is
not hard to form the opinion that Reds are really
(05:37):
lucky to have a guy like Chase Burns, and it
is so much fun to think about ultimately what he
could be.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Hopefully he stays healthy we will see.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Ten minutes after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Terry Francone over the weekend talked about, like, you know,
after they got crushed on Friday and scored zero runs
in that ten to nothing beat down by the Astros,
that he and Freddy Betavidas's bench coach sat down and
jotted down a bunch of different starting lineups and he
opted against, you know, doing this sort of thing where
(06:07):
it feels like managers put all the lineups in a
hat and pick them out or throw darts to that
sort of thing. But he has made changes, by the way.
Charlie Goldsmith has a really good outline of this today
in his Charlie's Chalkboard newsletter, which if you're not subscribing
to that, I don't know what you're doing. But he
had Will Benson lead off yesterday. He had Spencer Steer
bat second. They're using Sal Stewart more at second base
(06:29):
and at third base, and as Charlie points out, Matt
McClain and key Brian Hayes have been in the lineup
together in just four of the Red's last twelve games.
This is good. This matters now. No knock on Key
Brian Hayes and Matt McClain, both of whom we've we've
(06:51):
pointed out their struggles ad nauseum on this show, and
we have far from been the only one, but I
think this is the right approach here. You know, with
Keith Bryan Hayes, we've talked a lot about the fact
that it's it's hard to have a guy at third
base who's good Field no hit and I cannot emphasize
this enough.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
We all know how good of a field or he is.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
He made arguably his nicest play of the season at
third base yesterday. He is a terrific defensive third baseman,
I believe, and maybe this is just me, it is
fair to wonder does good Field no hit work at
third base? Where the ball is hit to you, but
it's not hit to you as much as a short stop.
It's not hit to you maybe as much as a
second baseman. You're not involved in as many plays as
(07:34):
you are you're playing first base or shortstop or second base,
like good Field no hit. We have, you know, premium
positions in football all the time, right we talk about
the positional value in football, where you know, quarterbacks are
more valuable than running backs, and cornerbacks are more valuable
(07:54):
than linebackers, and tackles are more valuable than guards. That
doesn't mean you don't want really good players at those positions,
of course you do, but certain positions matter more. Shortstop
defensively matters more than third base. But it's also about
the overall construction of the team and the overall performance
of a lot of guys on the team. Key Brian Hayes.
Who I know, it sounds like we have just done
(08:16):
nothing but pick on. All we do is talk about
the dude's performance. But on this team, the way it's built,
and with which players are having good seasons and which
players are having so so seasons and which players are
having awful seasons? Can you really afford to carry multiple
guys who give you next to nothing offensively, Key Brian Hayes.
(08:36):
It's well established is a below average big league hitter
Matt McClain. The hope still is that he is going
to prove to be an above average big league hitter.
But it's been a long time since he has big
been one. Right, You have to go back, obviously to
twenty twenty three. Matt McClain plays a position that is
maybe a little bit more valuable than third base, but
it's not regarded as a premium defensive spot either way.
(08:58):
I think Tito's gotten to a point, and good good
for him for getting to this point where you look
at what key Brian Hayes gives you and what he
doesn't give you, and you look at Matt McClain and
what he gives you and what he doesn't give you.
His glove is fine, the way he plays the game
is terrific. Him scoring from second base on that sacrifice
(09:20):
fly on Saturday is exactly the kind of play that
you've come to expect from from Matt McClain. But you
can't carry so much offensive dead weight and you might
have to sacrifice some defense in order to do so.
And frankly, I don't know that moving sal Stewart to
second or third is a huge drop off in terms
(09:41):
of what he brings to the table defensively. It's obviously
a drop off from key Brian Hayes a sal Stewart
at third base, although I thought on Saturday him playing
at third there were a couple of hard hit balls
hit right to him and he handled himself very very well,
and by the way Key Brian Hayes came into the
game in the ninth inning and the ball immediately found him.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It was perfect, It was perfect.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So good for Tito for I hate to say, recognizing
it wasn't hard to recognize. You know, he has a
team that's not very good offensively, but at least changing
things up and acknowledging by what he is doing. He's
not going to come out and say it, but acknowledging
by what he's doing that we can't have more than
one guy who brings value with the glove and none
(10:21):
with the bat, and so you know, you have to
rearrange some pieces and maybe at some point this is
going to, you know, involve talking about Edwin Arroyo being
a part of the equation. But at least there have
been some changes and at least there is a recognition
that we can't have, especially in the infield, multiple spots
(10:42):
where you're getting nothing from the guy offensively. Now completely
fair to wonder Will Benson, who has hit the ball
pretty well recently. They used him at lead off yesterday.
That's obviously not ideally what you're looking for. Ideally, TJ.
Friedel's good at getting on base, but he hasn't been
good at getting on base since the first half of
last season. When does Will Benson turn into a pumpkin?
(11:04):
Fair to wonder how much longer can they do this
and try to juggle positions and figure out who best
fits where before it catches up to them. Will they
acquire about at the deadline. But at the very least
there is an acknowledgment that what we have been doing,
which is deploying a lineup where you have multiple guys
who don't bring much to the table on offense are
(11:25):
in it on a regular basis. Five point three seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty is our number. Eight six six
seven two three seven seven six will get you in
as well. The NFL schedule comes out on Thursday. We
are broadcasting Thursday Night from Dickman's from six until midnight.
(11:45):
Our annual schedule released spectacular starring Lance McAllister and Rocky
Boyman and Me and Tony Pike and Austin Elmore and
Chick Ludwig. Six hours breaking down the schedule. I cannot wait.
Hopefully the Bengals get some good news, and I'll tell
you what that good news could be. Coming up in
just about twenty minutes, a wasted opportunity for FC Cincinnati
(12:07):
to get three points on the road on Saturday, and
again they led to Zip ultimately had to settle for
a tie. I believe in the in the soccer and
in what used to be the hockey world, because they
don't have ties anymore. That would be referred to as
a bad tie, a bad draw. More on that coming
up here in just a bit. I also just had
(12:27):
a conversation with a couple of Pittsburgh sports talk radio
hosts that I simply cannot believe that I just had.
I'll share details on that coming up a little bit
later on at Mullager on Twitter. Thanks to Delta Dental,
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all
good at Delta dentalh dot com. I'm gonna sound like
(12:50):
I'm picking on him again. I don't mean to, but
let's spend a few more minutes on my guy, key
Brian Hayes.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Next on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Thirty, cincinnati'ses PM fifteen thirty Traffic from.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
The Sorry, sorry, look man, give me give me thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
The Bass Reds win yesterday, which is.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Great, but watching your team win a close out playoff
game without any stress.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I don't know if there's anything better. I don't know
if there's anything better.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I mean, it's it's fun to watch your team advance,
and like you know, I would I would kill to
watch UC play in the NCAA tournament, and I mean,
like the real tournament after that that Tuesday Wednesday crap,
they're gonna shove down our throats were like they play
in the second round of the Sweet sixteen, and they're
playing like a real team, maybe a team seated higher
than them, and they just absolutely torched them on a
(13:47):
neutral floor to the degree that you could just post up.
And I know some are gonna say the game against
Nevada seven years ago was trending in that direction and
then it stops trending in that direction. But boy, there's
there's nothing better, nothing better than watching your team cruise
put it in cruise control. It's like the Red scoring
sixteen runs in the first inning of an elimination game,
(14:10):
a closeout game because it was not an elimination game
for the Knicks was terrific, just awesome. And we're gonna
hitch up here in about ten minutes with a barrage
of Duce McBride threes because there's the local connection, the
molar product and his team advancing to the Eastern Conference
Finals for a second consecutive year. And I intentionally don't
talk about him a ton because I know beyond me
(14:33):
nobody cares. But you had to give me at least
a moment to bask in it. And they'll play either
Detroit or Cleveland. Still guessing it's going to be Detroit,
which is going to be extraordinarily difficult to Pistons wipe
the floor with the Knicks in the regular season. But boy,
that team in New York is playing at such a
high level, and fans invaded Philadelphia and it very much
(14:54):
felt like MSG South. So Taram played the music for me.
I had boast. I had to get excited for just
a second. I've always vowed to never be overly obnoxious
to the degree that I spend multiple radio segments on
my favorite NBA team. But it was a lot of fun,
a lot of fun watching the series, a lot of
(15:15):
fun watching the playoffs so far, and an extraordinary amount
of fun posting up on my patio getting set to
grill out gorgeous day outside, cold one in the hand
cigar and watching the Knicks just crush the hopes and
dreams of the I don't know two or three hundred
actual seventy six ers fans who were in attendance yesterday
(15:38):
in Philadelphia twenty six minutes after three o'clock five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty phone calls. A little bit later on and
on Twitter at moeger I, we talked about Tito and
making some of the lineup changes. I would love to
see them try Elli Dela Cruz hitting lead off, and
(15:59):
I think it's at this stage, if it hasn't happened yet,
it's probably never going to happen. But when I read
the stories that came out of Friday Night's game with
you know, Tito basically saying we're we're not gonna make
dramatic changes to what we're doing offensively, and by the way,
hitting Will Benson leadoff is a dramatic change, my thought
was like, why not just try Ellie in the top
(16:21):
spot in the batting order, which he hid in in
a handful of games his rookie season and frankly without
a lot of success. I still would love to see
what that would look like on more than just a
one or two game basis and probably never gonna actually happen.
But if you want to best and take advantage of
his ability to impact games positively with his bat and
(16:45):
with his legs, then I think the best way to
do that is to hit him lead off, especially while
you have a team where there aren't a lot of
guys who are really good at getting on base on
a regular basis. Kee Brian Hayes is still a regular
member of this team, and it's not like Dave benched him,
but it does feel like they've used him a little
bit more sparingly, and they've used Matt McClain a little
(17:06):
bit more sparingly. Now, your guess is as good as
mine as to what's gonna happen big picture and long
term with Matt McClain. Maybe he ends up over the
final four and a half months of the season playing
at a level that makes you start to think about
him again in the terms we have used to think
about him in the past, which is foundational peace. He's
(17:28):
the everyday second baseman. Hell, maybe he's the everyday two
hole hitter again. Maybe that happens you and I hope so.
Matt McClain hopes, so I can assure you the Rats
hope so. But if that doesn't happen, there's at least
no hard commitment to Matt McClain like there is to
keep Brian Hayes. And we talk about his value to
(17:51):
this team a lot and sometimes, and I will make
this admission sometimes to the degree that the way we
talk about him in the the frequency with which we
talk about him is outsized relative to his importance to
this team. And that's not to say that he's not important.
It's just this team's got a lot of other things
(18:11):
going on right now, Like why are you so worried
about your nine hole hitter when you're not getting any
production from your leadoff guy, from your two hole hitter.
It's very fair to say that. It's also very fair
to look at keep Brian Hayes and wonder how is
he going to fit in long term? And to me,
like with him, that's always where the conversation really begins.
He is under contract for this team for the next
three seasons after this one. He is on a better
(18:36):
constructed team, a guy you leave alone. But let's be honest,
there's probably gonna be multiple years beyond this one. Where
the red slack offense in a certain area. Maybe it's
a corner olefield, maybe it's a catcher, maybe it continues
to be at second base. And you're yet still gonna
have a guy who at best is a defensive replacement,
(18:58):
who's making seven million dollars each of the next two
years and eight in twenty twenty eight. Now, relatively speaking,
that might not be the most exorbitant chunk of dough,
but think about it like this. Last week, the topic
of a long term extension for Sal Stewart came up,
which I'm a proponent of, I believe most are proponents of.
(19:21):
But it feels like that's very much on the back
burner because the Reds financial situation is unsettled. Think about, though,
what maybe you could do with whether it's Sal or
anybody else, if you didn't have hard, guaranteed financial commitments
to key Brian Hayes over the next three seasons. It's
(19:46):
a lot of money to pay a guy who's a
one dimensional player. It's a lot of money to pay
a guy who is going to be thirty here soon.
So you're getting a guy who's never been a great hitter,
perhaps lightly past his prime at Bat's not going to
get any better. It's one of the most interesting things
about this franchise right now. Building in a hard cost
(20:10):
every year to a guy who is an offensive zero,
that's what you're going to have to build around, and
so in the short term play him less at least
don't have him in the line at the same time
as Matt McLain. Neither guys are helping you offensively, and
Key Brian Hayes is a better defensive player than Matt McLain.
But as we move forward for the rest of this decade,
it is going to be really fascinating to see how
(20:32):
they build the team around keep and they're never going
to build the team around Key Brian Hayes. But when
they do roster building, when they make financial decisions, doing
so with a fair chunk of doe in the books
for a guy who on a more ideally constructed team
is a late inning defensive replacement, which is what he was.
(20:53):
On Saturday twenty nine, away from four UH, I had
a conversation about Brendan Sooresby today that continues. I've had
a few of these conversations. They continue to blow my mind.
We'll spend some time on that coming up in the
four o'clock hour, And let me ask you what you
(21:13):
thought back in February about the current makeup of the Reds.
Plus will slobber over Chase Brown some more. Chase Burns.
I should say I've now screwed up Chase Burns's name
in this show.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Twice.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I've called him Chase Brown, Chase burn Chase Burns. Make
them plural. Good God, it's time for a break. Sports
headlines are next. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC Health Traffics.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Then fifteen thirty Cincinnati's Sports Station.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah, play him, give me to me, let's go, Josh Park, Yes,
transition defense, the cry pulls up, three punters has on
and you can hear the one chamo sound too.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Prom the facilitator, the hulp, whatever you want to call him.
He has turned into an excellent playmaker. McBride corner thread
nails it. There's two, there's two.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Produce with every opportunity, McBride try another, puts.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It up, bucks it up. That's that's three.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
That's three, three consecutive three pottos.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Duce McBride. This is local content.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
McBride wide open three, he's first for four smaller high schools.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Dum Ram yet Robinson.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Offensive again, Duce mccride five for five.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
For three point. That's a stampede here on the first
half of twenty seven point lead.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
That's Mike Breen on ABC. He would go on to
not Mike Breen. Duce McBride, Cincinnati's own. Duce McBride makes
seven threes in nine attempts. He scored twenty five points
as his team advances to the Eastern Conference finals. Duce McBride,
friend of the show. When you have been on this
show three times or more, you are officially a friend
(22:59):
of the show. Deuce McBride. Congratulations to him, and what
the hell the Moler community for uh uh shining on
the big stage yesterday in Philadelphia. He's got a ton
of time off, right because, like you know, they won
(23:19):
their series and for all these other teams just taken forever. Yeah,
and maybe OKC sweeps LA tonight. I don't know, but
you know that the Cavs and Pistons, they neither team
good enough to sweep their series. And so we should
see if we can get duce On. He's got some downtime.
I mean, they're gonna have like a little version of
training camp to get ready for the Eastern Conference finals.
(23:39):
So maybe maybe we can get duce On to talk
about his iconic postseason performance that puts him in the
pantheon of all time greats to play pro sports. From
the City of Cincinnati. Sports headlines are a service of
a Kelsey Chevrolet Home of Lifetime power train protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family the Yours for Life
kelseyshow dot com speak A day's off. Reds have a
(24:01):
day off today after winning two out of three over
the Houston Astros. Tomorrow, they begin a three game set
at GABP against the Washington Nationals. Brady Singer is going
to pitch against Miles Michaelis. Miles Michaelis I think started
pitching in the big leagues for the Cardinals when I
was like twelve years old. Six forty Tomorrow and Wednesday,
twelve thirty five game on Thursday afternoon. All of the
(24:24):
action on seven hundred WLW the NL Central is dark today.
No games involving teams from the division. Cincinnati's brief two
game winning streak coinciding with the Cubs actually losing two
games in a row. So Cincinnati is currently five games
at a first place, tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates for
(24:44):
the seller in the National League Central. Florence Yaws also
off tonight. In the NBA, you've got the Pistons and
Calvs in Cleveland, game four of their series with Detroit
up two games to one, Lakers trying to avoid elimination
and trying to avoid getting swept.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
What happened? You don't think it's going to happen. It's
over tonight.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I'm looking on ESPN right now. Tickets for that game
in Los Angeles, an NBA playoff game in LA what
some are wondering could be and I don't think will be,
but could be Lebron James last game. Tickets as low
as twelve bucks. What it says right here. You know,
when you go to the scoreboard on ESPN dot com,
(25:23):
list the teams where the game is going to be,
players to watch, there's always a little link. Tickets as lowest,
like tonight in Cleveland for Detroit, and we're you know,
we're not talking about court side, like if you buy
a ticket in Los Angeles You're not going to be
sitting next to Diane Cannon. But if you want to
get in in Cleveland tonight's sixty five bucks. If you
want to get in La tonight, tickets as low as twelve.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Dollars see you.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
You can get there in time the game starts. You
could be there in seven hours. Tip offs a little
bit less than seven hours away. You can get to
La right. You can make that happen. I've got some
places you can visit based on Mike trip out there hockey.
This evening, there's one game the Minnesota Wild and Colorado
Avalanche playing in their Western Conference second round series. Colorado
(26:09):
up to one game four. Is this evening fun time
in the city of Minneapolis with the t Wolves and
Spurs tied it to and the Wild taking on the
Colorado Avalanche. Are annual and I think this is going
to be the fourth year we've done this. Our annual
NFL Slash Bengals schedule release show is going to be
(26:30):
on Thursday, which is when the schedule comes out. We
found out today the NFL announced that the Giants and
Cowboys are going to play in the first Sunday night
football game. Because the NFL insists on we have to
watch every Giants Cowboys game in prime time, although I
think the Giants are pretty interesting. So if you're wondering,
are the Bengals going to be this Sunday Night Football
(26:51):
game Week one? No, And let's be honest, why would
they Because as excited as we are here for the
very large pivot to be have made toward twenty twenty
six this offseason, I would I think we would all
be pretty surprised if the NFL were to put a
team on Sunday Night Football Week one that hasn't made
(27:13):
the postseason in each of the last three years and
finished last season with just six wins. So I'm not
sure that was a major surprise or disappointment to anybody.
But we do have Thursday Night, and I know I
say this every year. Schedule Lease Night is one of
the great night in sports because football takes center stage,
especially because the Knicks aren't playing, Football take center stage,
(27:33):
and there's there's only optimism, like nobody loses, there's no
big losers. On Schedule Release Night, you start thinking about
the season and make maybe planning which games you're gonna
go to or maybe which road trip you're gonna take
and it's always a lot of fun. So anyway, we're
gonna be at Dickman's in fortright on Thursday night, and we.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Do it on seven hundred wow.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Weld do a six hour schedule lease show the first
two hours Lance and Rocky and then Me and Tony
from eight to ten, and then Audie and the Chickster
from ten to midnight.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
And so we hope to see you there.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
It's going to be a blast, and if you can't
be there, you can catch it on seven hundred WOW.
I think there's two things that should be on your
wish list. One is, and you would like to think
that the Bengals rather justified and public gripes about having
to go to Baltimore on a Thursday night every year
(28:27):
for years now, I think four straight years will result
in the league at least not sending them to Baltimore
on Thursday, and ideally maybe sending Baltimore here on a Thursday.
And I do believe, and I could be dead wrong
about this. Pittsburgh may have something to say about it,
(28:48):
and maybe Cleveland will have something to say about it.
I do believe if the AFC North is a two
team race, then Cincinnati and Baltimore are most likely to
be the two teams. Cincinnati and Baltimore have played in
some really fun regular season games. Hell, they played in
a really fun postseason game a couple of years ago.
Those two teams together have been good television. It is Burrow,
(29:11):
it is Lamar, two of the league's biggest stars. And
the Trey Hendrickson storyline, which is it's more played out
in full him coming back here than the Bengals going
to Baltimore. And so could they get the Ravens here
on a Thursday that would be nice. And also, and
Dana and I are going to talk about this tomorrow.
(29:33):
He has his mock draft, mocked his mock schedule up
at the Athletic dot com, looking for a lot of
teams early in the season that have either new coaches
or new quarterbacks. So what would be awesome would be
you have to play him anyway, if you could overload
the early portion of the schedule with games against Cleveland,
(29:55):
Pittsburgh and Baltimore, that's better than making them wait. And
we've seen it before where like the Bengals have played
the Steelers, I think a couple of years ago they
played them twice within three weeks, and I think both
games were either late November and December.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Maybe both were in December.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
But one of the reasons for optimism around the Bengals,
and one of the reasons why it made sense to
go for it with Dexter Lawrence, is there's been transition
in this division that you could take advantage of. And
this is not to say that Jesse Minner isn't going
to be a really good head coach. And it's not
to say that the Ravens aren't going to be really good,
because they certainly have a very good chance to. And
(30:31):
it's not to say that Mike McCarthy isn't going to
work out in Pittsburgh or Todd Munkin in Cleveland. But
you'd rather play teams early when they have new coaches
than late. You'd rather play teams like Tennessee with a
new head coach, Atlanta with a new head coach with
the way familiar one in Kevin Stefanski, Miami with a
new head coach. Give me new head coaches and new
quarterbacks or new quarterback situations as early as possible. We'll
(30:56):
see what that means for Pittsburgh. We'll see what that
means for Cleveland, We'll see what it means for Miami.
In Atlanta, Tennessee's going to have the same starting quarterback
with a new head coach. So the wish list, to me,
I think should include two things beyond if you're looking
to go to a road game or if you're excited
about them playing an international game. Like everybody has their
personal preferences. I go to one road game a year.
(31:20):
Now they play in Indy, which is I kind of
don't count that. I'd love to go see them play
at Houston. You see place at Houston in November, So
if you could do both in the same weekend, that
would be awesome. Like a lot of us have preferences
for certain scheduling quirks or road trips, or maybe there's
a specific home game that you want to want to see,
whatever it is. But I think competitively those two things.
(31:43):
Could I get Baltimore here on a Thursday, which it
feels like the NFL kind of ozum a Ravens game
at home on a Thursday? And can they front load
the schedule with the uncertainty of new coaches and new quarterbacks.
And that's to me what drives the conversation about the
AFC North this year. Lots of newness, lots of transition,
(32:04):
and so better to play some of those teams early,
at least once before some of those situations get settled,
before the coach kind of has the lay of the
land understood, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
So we'll see.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
But Thursday night is really, I think one of the
great nights in all the sports. There's optimism, it's fun,
it's fun to it's like the last sort of mile
post of the offseason before football gets here, right, Like
you have the Combine, you have the draft, you have
a free agency, and then like that last sort of
(32:38):
thing is schedule release and there's many camp and OTAs
and stuff like that. But then what's next is training camp,
and what's next after that is the season. So Thursday
Night's going to be a lot of fun, and we
hope you join us at Dickman's Inn.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
For it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Right, I was stunned what I was asked what I
was asked today on a Pittsburgh radio station that's coming
up in the four o'clock hour and more on the
Reds as well. Go back to this offseason and let's
play a game of what if I would have told you.
(33:13):
On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Get moving with Cincy
Swet's powered by u see health. One week of free
fitness classes at local studios. Find a class at sincysweats
dot u seehealth dot com. Broadways once again our accident freek.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Louder, Brandon Williamson, a Juhanio Soarez, Amilio, Pagan, Hunter Green,
Who am I forgetting? It's not the Dlamore. Haven't been
a dl in like a decade.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
But that's cool. If you don't care, I don't care.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Uh you know we are what about a week and
a half away from a big day here when we
announced the winner of this year's Mow Your Long.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Contest, the Mow Your Contest.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
If you if you sort of underwhelmed mom on Mother's Day,
if you underwhelmed your wife on Mother's Day and you're thinking, man,
I gotta make up for it.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
How about this?
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Why not enter her in the moyor lawn contest and
she'll have a chance to win. First of all, she'll
win tickets to every River Bend show. Now if you
bricked on Mother's Day, especially for your wife, don't be
mad if she doesn't take you to any of the
concerts you have that coming. But on top of that,
she'll want a brand new lawnmower from Baxla Tractor and
so she can go to Riverbend and you could stay
(34:31):
home and cut the grass. I think I've I've helped
you here if you screwed up Mother's Day. Even if
you didn't screw up Mother's Day, you should still sign
up for the Moor Lawn Contest because it's a great prize.
Can you think of a better prize? And radio right now?
Brand new lawnmower, tickets to every River Bend show on
the twenty twenty sixth calendar. We fill the lawnmower up
(34:54):
with gas, and I've made enough references to the high
gas prices, then I don't think I need to make
another one, although it is interesting when I do reference
the high gas prices, some people get mad about that. Also,
I will deliver the prizes to your house, which that
might be the least cool part of the entire package,
(35:16):
but we'll be there delivering the mower, delivering the tickets,
and taking a photo for social media of course. Sign
up now you can do a couple of different things.
You can go right to the contest page at ESPN
fifteen thirty dot com, or if you go to any
of my social media platforms, there's links there too. Thanks
to Backsli Tractor and Riverbend Music Center, this year's mowyur
(35:37):
Along contest, we announced the winner one week from this Thursday,
on May the twenty first, So you have about ten
days more on the reds from this weekend and we'll
finally take a phone call or too. Coming up on
ESPN fifteen thirty
Give you some cash right now. What's up moegor ESPN
fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hope you had an awesome Mother's Day. Hope you had
a great weekend. You know Mother's Day. At our house,
mom wants one thing, my wife wants one thing, leave
me alone, and like every mom could use that. So
my daughter and I went to the zoom for a
few hours, which I think is on the Mount Rushmore
(00:28):
of Cincinnati. People watching anyway, regardless of how you spent
your weekend or how you spend your Mother's Day, hopefully
it was good and fun and relaxing, and you had
a chance to enjoy the weather, which, by the way,
today is spectacular. Yes, yes, yes, I wish we were
doing the show outside. Nonetheless, show preview is available right
now at mogar on Twitter. Thanks to shareffacts credit Union.
(00:52):
Becoming member today or tomorrow or anytime, but hopefully sooner
rather than later, get a sharefax dot org. The schedule
comes out on Thursday. If you're a Bengals fan, I
think you're crossing your fingers for two things. We'll get
to that a little bit later on this hour. Rads
win two out of three now on Friday night they
(01:13):
were clobberd an eighth consecutive loss. Jose Travino had to
come in. They win on Saturday, they win yesterday. We're
gonna get to the nuts and bolts of both games
and both victories and what it means the big picture.
A quarter of the way through the season, but Tito
Francona is making some changes. The Reds are making some changes,
(01:36):
and as much as he shot down on Saturday the
idea of line up Bingo or lineup Roulette, it is really, really,
really encouraging to see Tito Francona lean into some things
that we have been talking about needing to happen on
this show for quite a while. I will start, though,
with Chase Burns. Look man. The read starting staff this
(01:57):
season has not been the strength we've all hoped it
would be. Injuries are a major reason why this staff
has kind of been in tatters. No Rat Louder, no
Brandon Williamson for a while, no Hunter Green for a while,
lack of reliability up and down the rotation. A lot
of guys hurt. But it's hard to not be encouraged
by Chase Burns. Chase Burns was maybe not dominant On Saturday.
(02:21):
He only struck out two, but I loved, absolutely loved
how he reached back to strike out Cam Smith to
end the sixth inning on Saturday. Chase Burns twice within
the last week has delivered ace like performances for his team.
And when I say ace like performances, we're not talking
(02:42):
about striking out a bunch of dudes. We're not talking
about being completely and totally dominant. Because Chase wasn't on Saturday,
but a week ago yesterday in Pittsburgh, Chase Brown's a
Chase Burns, I should say, absolutely gave his team a
chance to win. Lost that ballgame, won nothing through no
of Chase Burns. That's what a staff as does. They
(03:03):
do everything in their power to end the streak a
week ago on Sunday, and it got lost in the
shuffle of all the bad things that were happening with
this team. They were clobbered last Friday in Pittsburgh, they
were embarrassed the previous day in Pittsburgh. Chase Burns did
everything he could to deliver a victory. Unfortunately, it wasn't
(03:23):
enough because the Reds didn't score any runs. They barely
scored on Saturday. They needed some awful Houston fielding to
score on Saturday, but Chase Burns, on a day where
he wasn't exactly dominant again did everything he could to
help his team get a victory and got some good
bullpen work, and they got good defense, and that matters too.
(03:46):
Dan Myers made a couple of really nice catches in
center field, and they got some good defense from the infield,
and that matters, including guys who were playing third that
aren't Key Brian Hayes. But amid all the reasons to
not necessary, we'd be stoked about the Reds right now,
and amid all the reasons for skepticism and fear that
(04:06):
maybe the hot start to the season isn't going to
result in this team getting to the playoffs, Chase Burns,
who has made all of twenty one big league starts,
establishing himself, as I'll say it on this staff right
now and ace, is easily the most encouraging. And then
Andrew Abbot followed up with Chase Burns that on Saturday
(04:28):
with the sort of start that we saw regularly in
the first half of the season last year, on the
heels of a really good start in Chicago, last week
in a game that the Reds ultimately lost. So those
are the really encouraging things. Andrew Abbot pitching more like
the Andrew Abbott of the first half of the season,
which this team desperately needs. And Chase Burns taking the
(04:51):
ball for the second consecutive start with a whole bunch
of bad stuff swirling around, long losing streaks and blowout losses.
Think out to Chase Burns. A week ago on Sunday,
took the ball the day after the Reds lost by
ten runs. This past Saturday, he took the ball yet again,
day after his team got beaten by ten runs, and
(05:16):
he delivered. And that dude is an absolute stud. Say
what you want about the direction of the team, what's
happened over the last couple of weeks. Maybe you're really optimistic.
Maybe you're bullish based on the fact that the Reds
have won their last two games. Maybe you think it's
too early to form any opinion. Either way, it is
not hard to form the opinion that Reds are really
(05:37):
lucky to have a guy like Chase Burns, and it
is so much fun to think about ultimately what he
could be.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Hopefully he stays healthy we will see.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Ten minutes after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Terry Francone over the weekend talked about, like, you know,
after they got crushed on Friday and scored zero runs
in that ten to nothing beat down by the Astros,
that he and Freddy Betavidas's bench coach sat down and
jotted down a bunch of different starting lineups and he
opted against, you know, doing this sort of thing where
(06:07):
it feels like managers put all the lineups in a
hat and pick them out or throw darts to that
sort of thing. But he has made changes, by the way.
Charlie Goldsmith has a really good outline of this today
in his Charlie's Chalkboard newsletter, which if you're not subscribing
to that, I don't know what you're doing. But he
had Will Benson lead off yesterday. He had Spencer Steer
bat second. They're using Sal Stewart more at second base
(06:29):
and at third base, and as Charlie points out, Matt
McClain and key Brian Hayes have been in the lineup
together in just four of the Red's last twelve games.
This is good. This matters now. No knock on Key
Brian Hayes and Matt McClain, both of whom we've we've
(06:51):
pointed out their struggles ad nauseum on this show, and
we have far from been the only one, but I
think this is the right approach here. You know, with
Keith Bryan Hayes, we've talked a lot about the fact
that it's it's hard to have a guy at third
base who's good Field no hit and I cannot emphasize
this enough.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
We all know how good of a field or he is.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
He made arguably his nicest play of the season at
third base yesterday. He is a terrific defensive third baseman,
I believe, and maybe this is just me, it is
fair to wonder does good Field no hit work at
third base? Where the ball is hit to you, but
it's not hit to you as much as a short stop.
It's not hit to you maybe as much as a
second baseman. You're not involved in as many plays as
(07:34):
you are you're playing first base or shortstop or second base,
like good Field no hit. We have, you know, premium
positions in football all the time, right we talk about
the positional value in football, where you know, quarterbacks are
more valuable than running backs, and cornerbacks are more valuable
(07:54):
than linebackers, and tackles are more valuable than guards. That
doesn't mean you don't want really good players at those positions,
of course you do, but certain positions matter more. Shortstop
defensively matters more than third base. But it's also about
the overall construction of the team and the overall performance
of a lot of guys on the team. Key Brian Hayes.
Who I know, it sounds like we have just done
(08:16):
nothing but pick on. All we do is talk about
the dude's performance. But on this team, the way it's built,
and with which players are having good seasons and which
players are having so so seasons and which players are
having awful seasons? Can you really afford to carry multiple
guys who give you next to nothing offensively, Key Brian Hayes.
(08:36):
It's well established is a below average big league hitter
Matt McClain. The hope still is that he is going
to prove to be an above average big league hitter.
But it's been a long time since he has big
been one. Right, You have to go back, obviously to
twenty twenty three. Matt McClain plays a position that is
maybe a little bit more valuable than third base, but
it's not regarded as a premium defensive spot either way.
(08:58):
I think Tito's gotten to a point, and good good
for him for getting to this point where you look
at what key Brian Hayes gives you and what he
doesn't give you, and you look at Matt McClain and
what he gives you and what he doesn't give you.
His glove is fine, the way he plays the game
is terrific. Him scoring from second base on that sacrifice
(09:20):
fly on Saturday is exactly the kind of play that
you've come to expect from from Matt McClain. But you
can't carry so much offensive dead weight and you might
have to sacrifice some defense in order to do so.
And frankly, I don't know that moving sal Stewart to
second or third is a huge drop off in terms
(09:41):
of what he brings to the table defensively. It's obviously
a drop off from key Brian Hayes a sal Stewart
at third base, although I thought on Saturday him playing
at third there were a couple of hard hit balls
hit right to him and he handled himself very very well,
and by the way Key Brian Hayes came into the
game in the ninth inning and the ball immediately found him.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It was perfect, It was perfect.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So good for Tito for I hate to say, recognizing
it wasn't hard to recognize. You know, he has a
team that's not very good offensively, but at least changing
things up and acknowledging by what he is doing. He's
not going to come out and say it, but acknowledging
by what he's doing that we can't have more than
one guy who brings value with the glove and none
(10:21):
with the bat, and so you know, you have to
rearrange some pieces and maybe at some point this is
going to, you know, involve talking about Edwin Arroyo being
a part of the equation. But at least there have
been some changes and at least there is a recognition
that we can't have, especially in the infield, multiple spots
(10:42):
where you're getting nothing from the guy offensively. Now completely
fair to wonder Will Benson, who has hit the ball
pretty well recently. They used him at lead off yesterday.
That's obviously not ideally what you're looking for. Ideally, TJ.
Friedel's good at getting on base, but he hasn't been
good at getting on base since the first half of
last season. When does Will Benson turn into a pumpkin?
(11:04):
Fair to wonder how much longer can they do this
and try to juggle positions and figure out who best
fits where before it catches up to them. Will they
acquire about at the deadline. But at the very least
there is an acknowledgment that what we have been doing,
which is deploying a lineup where you have multiple guys
who don't bring much to the table on offense are
(11:25):
in it on a regular basis. Five point three seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty is our number. Eight six six
seven two three seven seven six will get you in
as well. The NFL schedule comes out on Thursday. We
are broadcasting Thursday Night from Dickman's from six until midnight.
(11:45):
Our annual schedule released spectacular starring Lance McAllister and Rocky
Boyman and Me and Tony Pike and Austin Elmore and
Chick Ludwig. Six hours breaking down the schedule. I cannot wait.
Hopefully the Bengals get some good news, and I'll tell
you what that good news could be. Coming up in
just about twenty minutes, a wasted opportunity for FC Cincinnati
(12:07):
to get three points on the road on Saturday, and
again they led to Zip ultimately had to settle for
a tie. I believe in the in the soccer and
in what used to be the hockey world, because they
don't have ties anymore. That would be referred to as
a bad tie, a bad draw. More on that coming
up here in just a bit. I also just had
(12:27):
a conversation with a couple of Pittsburgh sports talk radio
hosts that I simply cannot believe that I just had.
I'll share details on that coming up a little bit
later on at Mullager on Twitter. Thanks to Delta Dental,
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all
good at Delta dentalh dot com. I'm gonna sound like
(12:50):
I'm picking on him again. I don't mean to, but
let's spend a few more minutes on my guy, key
Brian Hayes.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Next on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Thirty, cincinnati'ses PM fifteen thirty Traffic from.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
The Sorry, sorry, look man, give me give me thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
The Bass Reds win yesterday, which is.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Great, but watching your team win a close out playoff
game without any stress.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I don't know if there's anything better. I don't know
if there's anything better.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I mean, it's it's fun to watch your team advance,
and like you know, I would I would kill to
watch UC play in the NCAA tournament, and I mean,
like the real tournament after that that Tuesday Wednesday crap,
they're gonna shove down our throats were like they play
in the second round of the Sweet sixteen, and they're
playing like a real team, maybe a team seated higher
than them, and they just absolutely torched them on a
(13:47):
neutral floor to the degree that you could just post up.
And I know some are gonna say the game against
Nevada seven years ago was trending in that direction and
then it stops trending in that direction. But boy, there's
there's nothing better, nothing better than watching your team cruise
put it in cruise control. It's like the Red scoring
sixteen runs in the first inning of an elimination game,
(14:10):
a closeout game because it was not an elimination game
for the Knicks was terrific, just awesome. And we're gonna
hitch up here in about ten minutes with a barrage
of Duce McBride threes because there's the local connection, the
molar product and his team advancing to the Eastern Conference
Finals for a second consecutive year. And I intentionally don't
talk about him a ton because I know beyond me
(14:33):
nobody cares. But you had to give me at least
a moment to bask in it. And they'll play either
Detroit or Cleveland. Still guessing it's going to be Detroit,
which is going to be extraordinarily difficult to Pistons wipe
the floor with the Knicks in the regular season. But boy,
that team in New York is playing at such a
high level, and fans invaded Philadelphia and it very much
(14:54):
felt like MSG South. So Taram played the music for me.
I had boast. I had to get excited for just
a second. I've always vowed to never be overly obnoxious
to the degree that I spend multiple radio segments on
my favorite NBA team. But it was a lot of fun,
a lot of fun watching the series, a lot of
(15:15):
fun watching the playoffs so far, and an extraordinary amount
of fun posting up on my patio getting set to
grill out gorgeous day outside, cold one in the hand
cigar and watching the Knicks just crush the hopes and
dreams of the I don't know two or three hundred
actual seventy six ers fans who were in attendance yesterday
(15:38):
in Philadelphia twenty six minutes after three o'clock five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty phone calls. A little bit later on and
on Twitter at moeger I, we talked about Tito and
making some of the lineup changes. I would love to
see them try Elli Dela Cruz hitting lead off, and
(15:59):
I think it's at this stage, if it hasn't happened yet,
it's probably never going to happen. But when I read
the stories that came out of Friday Night's game with
you know, Tito basically saying we're we're not gonna make
dramatic changes to what we're doing offensively, and by the way,
hitting Will Benson leadoff is a dramatic change, my thought
was like, why not just try Ellie in the top
(16:21):
spot in the batting order, which he hid in in
a handful of games his rookie season and frankly without
a lot of success. I still would love to see
what that would look like on more than just a
one or two game basis and probably never gonna actually happen.
But if you want to best and take advantage of
his ability to impact games positively with his bat and
(16:45):
with his legs, then I think the best way to
do that is to hit him lead off, especially while
you have a team where there aren't a lot of
guys who are really good at getting on base on
a regular basis. Kee Brian Hayes is still a regular
member of this team, and it's not like Dave benched him,
but it does feel like they've used him a little
bit more sparingly, and they've used Matt McClain a little
(17:06):
bit more sparingly. Now, your guess is as good as
mine as to what's gonna happen big picture and long
term with Matt McClain. Maybe he ends up over the
final four and a half months of the season playing
at a level that makes you start to think about
him again in the terms we have used to think
about him in the past, which is foundational peace. He's
(17:28):
the everyday second baseman. Hell, maybe he's the everyday two
hole hitter again. Maybe that happens you and I hope so.
Matt McClain hopes, so I can assure you the Rats
hope so. But if that doesn't happen, there's at least
no hard commitment to Matt McClain like there is to
keep Brian Hayes. And we talk about his value to
(17:51):
this team a lot and sometimes, and I will make
this admission sometimes to the degree that the way we
talk about him in the the frequency with which we
talk about him is outsized relative to his importance to
this team. And that's not to say that he's not important.
It's just this team's got a lot of other things
(18:11):
going on right now, Like why are you so worried
about your nine hole hitter when you're not getting any
production from your leadoff guy, from your two hole hitter.
It's very fair to say that. It's also very fair
to look at keep Brian Hayes and wonder how is
he going to fit in long term? And to me,
like with him, that's always where the conversation really begins.
He is under contract for this team for the next
three seasons after this one. He is on a better
(18:36):
constructed team, a guy you leave alone. But let's be honest,
there's probably gonna be multiple years beyond this one. Where
the red slack offense in a certain area. Maybe it's
a corner olefield, maybe it's a catcher, maybe it continues
to be at second base. And you're yet still gonna
have a guy who at best is a defensive replacement,
(18:58):
who's making seven million dollars each of the next two
years and eight in twenty twenty eight. Now, relatively speaking,
that might not be the most exorbitant chunk of dough,
but think about it like this. Last week, the topic
of a long term extension for Sal Stewart came up,
which I'm a proponent of, I believe most are proponents of.
(19:21):
But it feels like that's very much on the back
burner because the Reds financial situation is unsettled. Think about, though,
what maybe you could do with whether it's Sal or
anybody else, if you didn't have hard, guaranteed financial commitments
to key Brian Hayes over the next three seasons. It's
(19:46):
a lot of money to pay a guy who's a
one dimensional player. It's a lot of money to pay
a guy who is going to be thirty here soon.
So you're getting a guy who's never been a great hitter,
perhaps lightly past his prime at Bat's not going to
get any better. It's one of the most interesting things
about this franchise right now. Building in a hard cost
(20:10):
every year to a guy who is an offensive zero,
that's what you're going to have to build around, and
so in the short term play him less at least
don't have him in the line at the same time
as Matt McLain. Neither guys are helping you offensively, and
Key Brian Hayes is a better defensive player than Matt McLain.
But as we move forward for the rest of this decade,
it is going to be really fascinating to see how
(20:32):
they build the team around keep and they're never going
to build the team around Key Brian Hayes. But when
they do roster building, when they make financial decisions, doing
so with a fair chunk of doe in the books
for a guy who on a more ideally constructed team
is a late inning defensive replacement, which is what he was.
(20:53):
On Saturday twenty nine, away from four UH, I had
a conversation about Brendan Sooresby today that continues. I've had
a few of these conversations. They continue to blow my mind.
We'll spend some time on that coming up in the
four o'clock hour, And let me ask you what you
(21:13):
thought back in February about the current makeup of the Reds.
Plus will slobber over Chase Brown some more. Chase Burns.
I should say I've now screwed up Chase Burns's name
in this show.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Twice.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I've called him Chase Brown, Chase burn Chase Burns. Make
them plural. Good God, it's time for a break. Sports
headlines are next. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC Health Traffics.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Then fifteen thirty Cincinnati's Sports Station.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah, play him, give me to me, let's go, Josh Park, Yes,
transition defense, the cry pulls up, three punters has on
and you can hear the one chamo sound too.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Prom the facilitator, the hulp, whatever you want to call him.
He has turned into an excellent playmaker. McBride corner thread
nails it. There's two, there's two.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Produce with every opportunity, McBride try another, puts.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
It up, bucks it up. That's that's three.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
That's three, three consecutive three pottos.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Duce McBride. This is local content.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
McBride wide open three, he's first for four smaller high schools.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Dum Ram yet Robinson.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Offensive again, Duce mccride five for five.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
For three point. That's a stampede here on the first
half of twenty seven point lead.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
That's Mike Breen on ABC. He would go on to
not Mike Breen. Duce McBride, Cincinnati's own. Duce McBride makes
seven threes in nine attempts. He scored twenty five points
as his team advances to the Eastern Conference finals. Duce McBride,
friend of the show. When you have been on this
show three times or more, you are officially a friend
(22:59):
of the show. Deuce McBride. Congratulations to him, and what
the hell the Moler community for uh uh shining on
the big stage yesterday in Philadelphia. He's got a ton
of time off, right because, like you know, they won
(23:19):
their series and for all these other teams just taken forever. Yeah,
and maybe OKC sweeps LA tonight. I don't know, but
you know that the Cavs and Pistons, they neither team
good enough to sweep their series. And so we should
see if we can get duce On. He's got some downtime.
I mean, they're gonna have like a little version of
training camp to get ready for the Eastern Conference finals.
(23:39):
So maybe maybe we can get duce On to talk
about his iconic postseason performance that puts him in the
pantheon of all time greats to play pro sports. From
the City of Cincinnati. Sports headlines are a service of
a Kelsey Chevrolet Home of Lifetime power train protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family the Yours for Life
kelseyshow dot com speak A day's off. Reds have a
(24:01):
day off today after winning two out of three over
the Houston Astros. Tomorrow, they begin a three game set
at GABP against the Washington Nationals. Brady Singer is going
to pitch against Miles Michaelis. Miles Michaelis I think started
pitching in the big leagues for the Cardinals when I
was like twelve years old. Six forty Tomorrow and Wednesday,
twelve thirty five game on Thursday afternoon. All of the
(24:24):
action on seven hundred WLW the NL Central is dark today.
No games involving teams from the division. Cincinnati's brief two
game winning streak coinciding with the Cubs actually losing two
games in a row. So Cincinnati is currently five games
at a first place, tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates for
(24:44):
the seller in the National League Central. Florence Yaws also
off tonight. In the NBA, you've got the Pistons and
Calvs in Cleveland, game four of their series with Detroit
up two games to one, Lakers trying to avoid elimination
and trying to avoid getting swept.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
What happened? You don't think it's going to happen. It's
over tonight.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I'm looking on ESPN right now. Tickets for that game
in Los Angeles, an NBA playoff game in LA what
some are wondering could be and I don't think will be,
but could be Lebron James last game. Tickets as low
as twelve bucks. What it says right here. You know,
when you go to the scoreboard on ESPN dot com,
(25:23):
list the teams where the game is going to be,
players to watch, there's always a little link. Tickets as lowest,
like tonight in Cleveland for Detroit, and we're you know,
we're not talking about court side, like if you buy
a ticket in Los Angeles You're not going to be
sitting next to Diane Cannon. But if you want to
get in in Cleveland tonight's sixty five bucks. If you
want to get in La tonight, tickets as low as twelve.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Dollars see you.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
You can get there in time the game starts. You
could be there in seven hours. Tip offs a little
bit less than seven hours away. You can get to
La right. You can make that happen. I've got some
places you can visit based on Mike trip out there hockey.
This evening, there's one game the Minnesota Wild and Colorado
Avalanche playing in their Western Conference second round series. Colorado
(26:09):
up to one game four. Is this evening fun time
in the city of Minneapolis with the t Wolves and
Spurs tied it to and the Wild taking on the
Colorado Avalanche. Are annual and I think this is going
to be the fourth year we've done this. Our annual
NFL Slash Bengals schedule release show is going to be
(26:30):
on Thursday, which is when the schedule comes out. We
found out today the NFL announced that the Giants and
Cowboys are going to play in the first Sunday night
football game. Because the NFL insists on we have to
watch every Giants Cowboys game in prime time, although I
think the Giants are pretty interesting. So if you're wondering,
are the Bengals going to be this Sunday Night Football
(26:51):
game Week one? No, And let's be honest, why would
they Because as excited as we are here for the
very large pivot to be have made toward twenty twenty
six this offseason, I would I think we would all
be pretty surprised if the NFL were to put a
team on Sunday Night Football Week one that hasn't made
(27:13):
the postseason in each of the last three years and
finished last season with just six wins. So I'm not
sure that was a major surprise or disappointment to anybody.
But we do have Thursday Night, and I know I
say this every year. Schedule Lease Night is one of
the great night in sports because football takes center stage,
especially because the Knicks aren't playing, Football take center stage,
(27:33):
and there's there's only optimism, like nobody loses, there's no
big losers. On Schedule Release Night, you start thinking about
the season and make maybe planning which games you're gonna
go to or maybe which road trip you're gonna take
and it's always a lot of fun. So anyway, we're
gonna be at Dickman's in fortright on Thursday night, and we.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Do it on seven hundred wow.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Weld do a six hour schedule lease show the first
two hours Lance and Rocky and then Me and Tony
from eight to ten, and then Audie and the Chickster
from ten to midnight.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
And so we hope to see you there.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
It's going to be a blast, and if you can't
be there, you can catch it on seven hundred WOW.
I think there's two things that should be on your
wish list. One is, and you would like to think
that the Bengals rather justified and public gripes about having
to go to Baltimore on a Thursday night every year
(28:27):
for years now, I think four straight years will result
in the league at least not sending them to Baltimore
on Thursday, and ideally maybe sending Baltimore here on a Thursday.
And I do believe, and I could be dead wrong
about this. Pittsburgh may have something to say about it,
(28:48):
and maybe Cleveland will have something to say about it.
I do believe if the AFC North is a two
team race, then Cincinnati and Baltimore are most likely to
be the two teams. Cincinnati and Baltimore have played in
some really fun regular season games. Hell, they played in
a really fun postseason game a couple of years ago.
Those two teams together have been good television. It is Burrow,
(29:11):
it is Lamar, two of the league's biggest stars. And
the Trey Hendrickson storyline, which is it's more played out
in full him coming back here than the Bengals going
to Baltimore. And so could they get the Ravens here
on a Thursday that would be nice. And also, and
Dana and I are going to talk about this tomorrow.
(29:33):
He has his mock draft, mocked his mock schedule up
at the Athletic dot com, looking for a lot of
teams early in the season that have either new coaches
or new quarterbacks. So what would be awesome would be
you have to play him anyway, if you could overload
the early portion of the schedule with games against Cleveland,
(29:55):
Pittsburgh and Baltimore, that's better than making them wait. And
we've seen it before where like the Bengals have played
the Steelers, I think a couple of years ago they
played them twice within three weeks, and I think both
games were either late November and December.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Maybe both were in December.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
But one of the reasons for optimism around the Bengals,
and one of the reasons why it made sense to
go for it with Dexter Lawrence, is there's been transition
in this division that you could take advantage of. And
this is not to say that Jesse Minner isn't going
to be a really good head coach. And it's not
to say that the Ravens aren't going to be really good,
because they certainly have a very good chance to. And
(30:31):
it's not to say that Mike McCarthy isn't going to
work out in Pittsburgh or Todd Munkin in Cleveland. But
you'd rather play teams early when they have new coaches
than late. You'd rather play teams like Tennessee with a
new head coach, Atlanta with a new head coach with
the way familiar one in Kevin Stefanski, Miami with a
new head coach. Give me new head coaches and new
quarterbacks or new quarterback situations as early as possible. We'll
(30:56):
see what that means for Pittsburgh. We'll see what that
means for Cleveland, We'll see what it means for Miami.
In Atlanta, Tennessee's going to have the same starting quarterback
with a new head coach. So the wish list, to me,
I think should include two things beyond if you're looking
to go to a road game or if you're excited
about them playing an international game. Like everybody has their
personal preferences. I go to one road game a year.
(31:20):
Now they play in Indy, which is I kind of
don't count that. I'd love to go see them play
at Houston. You see place at Houston in November, So
if you could do both in the same weekend, that
would be awesome. Like a lot of us have preferences
for certain scheduling quirks or road trips, or maybe there's
a specific home game that you want to want to see,
whatever it is. But I think competitively those two things.
(31:43):
Could I get Baltimore here on a Thursday, which it
feels like the NFL kind of ozum a Ravens game
at home on a Thursday? And can they front load
the schedule with the uncertainty of new coaches and new quarterbacks.
And that's to me what drives the conversation about the
AFC North this year. Lots of newness, lots of transition,
(32:04):
and so better to play some of those teams early,
at least once before some of those situations get settled,
before the coach kind of has the lay of the
land understood, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
So we'll see.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
But Thursday night is really, I think one of the
great nights in all the sports. There's optimism, it's fun,
it's fun to it's like the last sort of mile
post of the offseason before football gets here, right, Like
you have the Combine, you have the draft, you have
a free agency, and then like that last sort of
(32:38):
thing is schedule release and there's many camp and OTAs
and stuff like that. But then what's next is training camp,
and what's next after that is the season. So Thursday
Night's going to be a lot of fun, and we
hope you join us at Dickman's Inn.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
For it.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Right, I was stunned what I was asked what I
was asked today on a Pittsburgh radio station that's coming
up in the four o'clock hour and more on the
Reds as well. Go back to this offseason and let's
play a game of what if I would have told you.
(33:13):
On ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Get moving with Cincy
Swet's powered by u see health. One week of free
fitness classes at local studios. Find a class at sincysweats
dot u seehealth dot com. Broadways once again our accident freek.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Louder, Brandon Williamson, a Juhanio Soarez, Amilio, Pagan, Hunter Green,
Who am I forgetting? It's not the Dlamore. Haven't been
a dl in like a decade.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
But that's cool. If you don't care, I don't care.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Uh you know we are what about a week and
a half away from a big day here when we
announced the winner of this year's Mow Your Long.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Contest, the Mow Your Contest.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
If you if you sort of underwhelmed mom on Mother's Day,
if you underwhelmed your wife on Mother's Day and you're thinking, man,
I gotta make up for it.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
How about this?
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Why not enter her in the moyor lawn contest and
she'll have a chance to win. First of all, she'll
win tickets to every River Bend show. Now if you
bricked on Mother's Day, especially for your wife, don't be
mad if she doesn't take you to any of the
concerts you have that coming. But on top of that,
she'll want a brand new lawnmower from Baxla Tractor and
so she can go to Riverbend and you could stay
(34:31):
home and cut the grass. I think I've I've helped
you here if you screwed up Mother's Day. Even if
you didn't screw up Mother's Day, you should still sign
up for the Moor Lawn Contest because it's a great prize.
Can you think of a better prize? And radio right now?
Brand new lawnmower, tickets to every River Bend show on
the twenty twenty sixth calendar. We fill the lawnmower up
(34:54):
with gas, and I've made enough references to the high
gas prices, then I don't think I need to make
another one, although it is interesting when I do reference
the high gas prices, some people get mad about that. Also,
I will deliver the prizes to your house, which that
might be the least cool part of the entire package,
(35:16):
but we'll be there delivering the mower, delivering the tickets,
and taking a photo for social media of course. Sign
up now you can do a couple of different things.
You can go right to the contest page at ESPN
fifteen thirty dot com, or if you go to any
of my social media platforms, there's links there too. Thanks
to Backsli Tractor and Riverbend Music Center, this year's mowyur
(35:37):
Along contest, we announced the winner one week from this Thursday,
on May the twenty first, So you have about ten
days more on the reds from this weekend and we'll
finally take a phone call or too. Coming up on
ESPN fifteen thirty
Mo Egger News
Popular Podcasts
Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb
Joy is essential. And it's also elusive. You can't order it, borrow it, or simply hope it into life. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence: The Joy 101 Podcast with Hoda! Best known for her Emmy-winning work and co-anchoring Today, Hoda Kotb infuses her authenticity, curiosity, and warmth into conversations with the world’s most fascinating people. Entertainment legends, sport icons, wellness experts, and everyday folks will share how they find, allow, and experience joy. Hoda will offer her own tips and takes on seeking a more balanced, harmonious life. If you're craving inspiration, support, and useful tools to maximize your joy, tune in to these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Joy after a breakup, joy as an empty-nester, joy after loss, joy as a caretaker — Hoda's new podcast will speak to you. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb, an iHeartPodcast.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com