5/11/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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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. I don't know if there's anything better.
I don't know if there's anything better. 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

(13:36):
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 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

(13:56):
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, 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

(14:18):
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 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

(14:41):
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 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

(15:05):
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 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

(15:28):
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 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

(15:50):
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
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

(16:12):
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
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

(16:34):
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
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

(16:57):
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
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

(17:19):
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
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

(17:39):
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
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

(18:01):
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
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

(18:22):
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
constructed team, a guy you leave alone. But let's be honest,
there's probably gonna be multiple years beyond this one. Where

(18:42):
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,
who's making seven million dollars each of the next two
years and eight in twenty twenty eight. Now, relatively speaking,

(19:06):
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.
But it feels like that's very much on the back
burner because the Reds financial situation is unsettled. Think about, though,

(19:31):
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
a lot of money to pay a guy who's a
one dimensional player. It's a lot of money to pay

(19:51):
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
every year to a guy who is an offensive zero,

(20:13):
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
they build the team around keep and they're never going

(20:36):
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.
On Saturday twenty nine, away from four UH, I had

(20:59):
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
thought back in February about the current makeup of the Reds.
Plus will slobber over Chase Brown some more. Chase Burns.

(21:20):
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 5 (21:55):
Prom the facilitator, the hulp, whatever you want to call him.
He has turned into an excellent playmaker.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
McBride corner thread nails it. There's two, there's two.

Speaker 5 (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 5 (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 5 (22:24):
Offensive again, Duce mccride five for five.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
For three point.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
That's a stampede here on the first half.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
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 6 (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 7 (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. Mullagg or ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for
listening today. Hopefully you're having an awesome, awesome Monday, which

(36:00):
you are if you are outside. ESPN is doing power
rankings of rosters at the Bengals at number sixteen, which.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Feels right ish.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
More on that coming up in a bit, because there's
a big variable on this team that we have to
talk about and spend some time in the conversation I
had with a couple of dudes in Pittsburgh in in
just a few minutes. We started with the Reds and
the outstanding pitching they got this weekend or I guess
on Saturday and Sunday, starting with Chase Burns against Houston,

(36:37):
the second consecutive start he has made with his team
up against a wall. The previous day, the Astros beat
the Reds ten zip, the second consecutive start that Chase
Burns has made with his team having lost by ten
runs exactly ten runs the night before, and for the
second consecutive start, he was terrific. Now, Unfortunately, in the

(36:59):
first of those arts, the Reds didn't score any runs
and they lost the game. They scored just enough on Saturday.
That's got a really good pitching performance yesterday from Andrew Abban.
They've gotten some clean bullpen innings as well, which you know,
let's be honest, you talk about like X factors and variables.
The first four weeks of the season, it felt like
with the bullpen as a whole, Tito had a real

(37:20):
weapon at his disposal, and then for about two weeks
it felt like he had a ticking time bomb at
his disposal.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
The last couple of games it.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Has been a weapon, and they're sort of going closer
by committee, and I guess that's fine for now. But
if the performances we saw from that group over the
first four weeks become the performances we say we see.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
In the coming weeks. Then who knows? Who knows?

Speaker 1 (37:49):
I do think from an offensive perspective, and we talked
about this at the top of the show. Tito making
some lineup changes, showing some flexibility, not working as often
with both McLay and Haze in the starting lineup, which
is a decision that makes sense. One of the more
frustrating things in sports is when a problem becomes a problem,

(38:12):
or I should say it becomes a bigger problem because
it was already a problem. Like the Bengals last season
had terrible safety play. What was frustrating about that was,
on top of just watching the safeties, specifically, Genostone performed
poorly in real time. His play was problematic the year before,

(38:33):
and instead of just saying, you know what, we're gonna
find somebody different, find somebody better, find somebody who can
handle the basics of making a tackle, they doubled down
on him. They kind of acknowledged Geno's stone wasn't very
good in twenty twenty four by asking him to take
a pay raise in twenty twenty five. One of the
things that was frustrating about the season, and you could

(38:55):
make this about the defense as a whole. In twenty
twenty four, they were wretched. It got so frustrating last
year watching some of the same players who were part
of that wretched defense in twenty twenty four be a
part of an even more wretched defense in twenty twenty five.
Every team has weaknesses, every team has deficiencies, but it's

(39:17):
frustrating when deficiencies continue from one season to the next,
or when lingering offseason questions end up being answered. Unfortunately
in the affirmative, which for the Reds this offseason was
are they going to hit enough? Are they really really
good as good as they need to be? In center
field TJ Friedel, who had a tough second half of

(39:40):
the season last year.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
What about corner outfield? Have they done enough? Have they
done enough?

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Just by adding JJ Bleday, now JJ Bleday has really
helped this team. It will be interesting to see what
happens when he stops getting fastballs, because historically he's not
great at hitting breaking balls. But all right, beyond that,
about the corner roldfield spots this offseason have continued into
the season. They have continued into May of this season,

(40:08):
the Matt McClain thing like, we sure we're doing this
with Matt McLain again. We okay, is is this really
something we're gonna try? Or is there any chance he
goes back to being the guy he was in twenty
twenty three. Watching Matt McClain struggle this season is not
a surprise. Watching him go through what he has gone
offensively is frustrating, it's troubling, it's sad at times.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
And again, maybe.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
By the end of the year he proves that his
slow start was nothing more than just simply a slow start.
But has anybody stun that Matt McClain is struggling offensively.
Nobody who watched him last year said answer yes. Same
with Keey Brian Hayes. Keey Brian Hayes. You'd say, well,
he was unlucky early in the season, and there's statistically
some validity to that. But over the course of the

(40:54):
last few weeks, the home run at Wrigley Field last
week notwithstanding, when you watch keep Brian Hayes, when you
look at his numbers, they may be an extreme example
of a bad hitter going through a rough first six
seven weeks, But nobody is surprised by that. Nobody is
surprised when you look at the outfield and you see
the lack of overall production they've gotten from certain positions,

(41:14):
specifically in center one of the corner spots, and so
that's what's frustrating. And then you know, you come back
to the question we ask back in February, which was
are they sure they.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
Have done enough?

Speaker 1 (41:26):
Are we sure they have done enough to make this
team better? We were asking that in February, in March,
and right now from an offensive perspective, it feels like
we have an answer.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
The answer is no.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
The fact that we thought the answer might be no
in February and have reasonable confirmation in May that the
answer is no makes you wonder what they were doing
in the front office, makes you wonder what moves could
they have made that they didn't or why didn't they
make more eleven after four o'clock. I I'm rooting for

(41:58):
Brendan Sorosby, and maybe I am in the minority here
among UC fans. I'm rooting for Brendan Soresby if he
has gone as far to admit I have a gambling
addiction problem. I know what addiction can do to people.
I want Brendan to get the help that he needs,

(42:20):
and I want him to go on to have a
successful life. And I would say that if he was
here as the quarterback at you see, I say that
now that he's not, it does nobody any good for
him to not get his issues rectified. And because of
a human being, him jumping to Texas Tech as a

(42:42):
UC fan didn't bother me that much. He chased the coin,
he chased the green Okay, fine, but I would find
it extraordinarily sad to have a young man basically crap
away an opportunity to make the kind of coin he
could have gotten. And I guess I have to say
could conceivably. I guess still get by I'm playing quarterback

(43:04):
at Texas Tech, like.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
I am rooting for him when he was here.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
I didn't love him as a QB, but I thought
he was a good guy, fun to talk to, did
a lot of things behind the scenes to get players
to come to U see a lot of really good
leadership qualities there. Like I don't root against people, I
really don't root against really young people. You don't want
somebody to develop a pattern of behavior that destroys their

(43:29):
chances of having the most productive and happiest life they could.
So maybe I'm in the minority here.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
I hope I'm not.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
I'm rooting for Brendan Sorosby, and not so much as
a football player, just as a guy. If he's got
a gambling problem, it doesn't do anybody good for him
to not get that fixed, so I hope he does
as a quarterback. I keep asking this, what is everybody
else seeing that I am not? Earlier today, I was

(44:01):
asked to go on a Pittsburgh radio station, which was fun.
One of the co hosts is a buddy of mine,
Andrew Philippony, who appears on this show whenever the Bengals
play the Steelers, and he asked me to come on
to talk about Brendan Soorsby. And the reason is Pittsburgh
Steelers have some quarterback uncertainty, which they've had for a
very long time.

Speaker 4 (44:20):
Now.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
Now Aaron Rodgers has been in Pittsburgh, I guess, and
his agent and the Steelers are working with each other,
and it feels like the smart money is on Aaron
Rodgers being the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers in twenty
twenty six, which if you're a Bengals fan. I don't
know how that scares you at all. Is Aaron Rodgers
still capable of delivering great moments and winning some games?

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Can you win a championship with him? It doesn't feel
like the answer is yes. But they had me on
to talk about Brendan Soorsby from the perspective of maybe
the Steelers using a supplemental first round pick on the
former UC quarterback. And the reason they wanted to have
me on is like, all right, you watch the guy,
and you look. I'm not an expert. I'm not an evaluator.
I don't pretend to be an expert. All I could

(45:05):
do is tell you what I see and then try
to talk to as many experts as possible. But they
wanted me to come out and talk about Brendan Sorosby
because they are talking there about whether or not it
would make sense for the Steelers to use a supplemental
pick on Brendan Sorosby with the idea of possibly him
being the starting quarterback in twenty twenty six, which you

(45:27):
talk about something that is a Bengals fan you should
be rooting for.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
It's that.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
So they had me on to talk about this and
had me on using a quote from somebody that suggested
that Brendan Sorosby is viewed by some in the NFL
as an early first round talent. Now, when we found
out he's staying in college, and then when we found
out that he's going to Texas Tech, him staying in

(45:55):
college always made a lot of sense because he could
use more reps, more game experience, were coaching, more seasoning.
And then maybe if he gets those things and that
stuff is translated into him having a great year with
the Red Raiders, maybe he does go in the first round,
and maybe he ends up playing to the level of
first round draft choice and has a lot of success,

(46:16):
makes a lot of money, and wins a lot of
games in the NFL, and the team that drafts him
is so happy to have him that they give him
a long term contract. That possibility, I guess existed. But
if you've paid attention to the discussion around Brendan Sorosby,
and I'm focusing this on football here, not the gambling,
not who knew what the football here. I watched every

(46:38):
snap of that dude's college career, some of which were
really good in the first half of the season this
past year, He was terrific twenty seven touchdowns, five turnovers
that long stretch where he had a turnover Week one,
then didn't have another turnover until their ninth game of
the season. Did a great job protected the football, was
a reason why they jumped out to seven and one start.

(47:01):
He was also a reason why they lost their last
four games. He was the reason why they lost the
Nebraska I didn't watch Brendon Sorosby through the lens of God.
This guy's a bad player or a dude I don't
want back. I wish he was back, but I never
watched him from the perspective of Wow, here we have
a guy who could one day have his name called

(47:22):
on the Thursday of the NFL Draft. So these guys
had me on to ask me this, and I'm like, guys,
I gotta be honest with you. Like I like Brendan
Hoope gets his act together, Hooby gets his life straightened out.
If if the plan is for him to be the
quarterback in Pittsburgh, whether it's playing behind Aaron Rodgers and
waiting a year or him having to play like meaningful

(47:44):
snaps in twenty twenty six, guys, good luck and not
that he with more seasoning, even at the professional level,
can't be a really good player. But the more I
hear these evaluations of Brendan sorosby, the more outsize they seem,
and the more I wonder, is everybody talking about the

(48:06):
same guy that I watched play for two seasons that
you see And again, I cannot emphasize this enough. Nobody's
saying he was a bad player. Twenty seven tds, five turnovers,
helped him win some games, really tough, good with his legs,
but on a team that this past season had a
terrific offensive line and some really good skill players. I

(48:27):
saw him throw for sixty nine yards against Nebraska. Really
good quarterbacks were allowed to have bad games. And that
was Week one in Kansas City, and so you thought, Okay,
now the season is gonna unfold, and he's gonna have
even better games than that. And he had some had
a comeback against Kansas and Lawrence where they convert on
a fourth down play and ultimately end up winning the game.

(48:48):
He had a game where he threw five touchdown passes
against Northwestern State. But when the games got hard, I
didn't see a guy who I thought, one day is
going to be a really good NFL quarterback. So I
told those guys in Pittsburgh, like, I'm not sure what
I missed. I'm not sure what I'm missing when it
comes to Brendan Soresby. It's not the first time I've
asked it here, but I'll ask it again. What did

(49:11):
I miss when I watched Brendan Soorsby? Five point three
seven four nine fifteen thirty is our number? Eight six
six seven h two three seven seven six.

Speaker 6 (49:23):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
We spent some.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Time last week on on Sal Stewart. We spent a
lot of time this year on Sal Stuart. The Athletic
last week threw cold water over the suggestion that the
Reds should get a deal done with Sal Stuart. Not
so much the suggestion, but the possibility or likelihood of
been happening. And I don't know that everybody is looking

(49:48):
at this from the same perspective or the correct perspective.
So I'll try to steer everybody's sight to the right place.
Coming up a little bit later on Plus Brennanan and
Jones on baseball and are the Bengals sixteenth one publication
says yes. We'll get to that next. On ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the.

Speaker 7 (50:12):
UC Health Traffic Center. Get moved.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
This is ESPN fifteen to thirty five minute. Johnston Baseball
is coming up, and just about thirty minutes. I think
I have babbled long enough. Let's talk to other folks. Mike,
go ahead, and you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (50:33):
Well, thank you so much for the leadoff spot. Real quick,
where where do you think we honestly stand with these
two linebackers who've got mo or? Is it just too
early to tell?

Speaker 1 (50:51):
I think you have to acknowledge that neither guy was
thrust into a very good situation. I think you have
to acknowledge that players do improve because of experience. And
I think you have to acknowledge that there is a
great amount of peril in a season like this in
trusting two players at a position where you acquired and

(51:11):
nobody else who can help them.

Speaker 6 (51:15):
That sounds pretty damn empty to me.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Yeah, it's very iffy, right, it's very effy.

Speaker 6 (51:23):
The only thing is, I mean, I understood this year.
You're not going to revamp the entire defense in one year.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
I don't Why not?

Speaker 6 (51:30):
Well, I don't know because they always cried poor.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Right, yeah, I mean, I don't think there's been any
crying of poverty. Like I mean, adding all linebacker isn't
revamping your entire defense. It's it's adding players at positions
where you were deficient last year. And by the way,
they also haven't added a slot corner, a veteran's slock corner.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
You could.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
You could talk about, you know, Nickel needing one of
those guys too, but with linebacker in particular, Like when
when this offseason started, we went through the list of
players who would make sense and pretty much all of them.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Did you know you were you were? You were?

Speaker 1 (52:07):
You were not looking for the most expensive linebacker. You
were looking for somebody, and you also weren't looking to
cut Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter. You were looking to
give someone to them in the room that could help
them bring out the most in them and give the
Bengals somebody who has proven at a position where the
lack of experience caught up to him last year.

Speaker 6 (52:27):
But what happened to Bobby Wagner, the Bobby Wagner.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Idea, He's still out there, I don't get I mean
that sounds ideal to go. Yeah, you know that I
read this weekend that there are rumors that he may
go back to Seattle. When I when I've talked with people,
they have shot down the possibility instantly, and what they
cite is the age and what I will bring back

(52:51):
at them is Bobby Wagner played at the level last
year at the age of thirty six that was far
superior to Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight. And I am
willing to put up with whatever loss of raw production
from Bobby Wagner that I would get if it can
bring out a little bit more and Carter and Knight
because they're learning from the dude.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
I would do it yesterday. I would bring in Bobby Wagner.

Speaker 6 (53:13):
So you would have been a proponent more towards bringing
in a season veteran than a rookie.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Well, of course, yeah, I mean I wanted a player
that Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight could attach themselves to
because they didn't have that last year. You can admit,
as frustrating as it was watching those two players, neither
guy was thrust into a very enviable situation right the
defense around him stunk on the field in the final

(53:42):
two thirds of the season. They had no one to
lean on but each other. Logan Wilson didn't you know,
make it to Halloween. I mean, there was a lot there,
and you certainly have to acknowledge that players often get
better from what they were as rookies. But to have
no safety net with a veteran guy and to not
give those guys someone that they can learn from and

(54:03):
what has otherwise been a pretty productive offseason, the absence
of that is doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Speaker 6 (54:11):
Switching subjects to the NBA. When he got his money's worth, buddy,
he's got his money, he's worth. Ricky ma'horne never used
to get money as tellers.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Very good.

Speaker 6 (54:26):
He he got him good too, And it was kind
of funny. He seemed to not know what the hell
was going on. Was he was just playing done with
the language barrier or something that somebody had to translate
to him that he was kicked out as a game Yeah,
did you catch that?

Speaker 2 (54:42):
I did.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
And he's not going to be suspended for Game five,
So he'll be on the floor for the Spurs when
they host Minnesota in the tiebreaking game of the series.

Speaker 6 (54:52):
Now, if that had happened in the fourth quarter with
four minutes left, I think they might have suspended him
the game.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Maybe. Yeah, that's a fair point.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
I think if that happens toward the end of a game,
especially had the game been decided, I think there's a
very real chance the league would have said, look, you
didn't miss anything of consequence, and now you will. You're
gonna have to miss the entire next game.

Speaker 6 (55:11):
All right, So who do you like them? I know
you're gonna go. Who do you like Cleveland? Detroit?

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Cleveland has not won a game on the road. They're
gonna have to win one on the road. I don't
believe they will. I don't trust James Harden showing up
the way he did in Game three three more times
in the series. I think Detroit wins, and I think
they close it out in five.

Speaker 6 (55:31):
Yeah, I mean the other day, right at the end
of the game, he just takes over and goes.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
He's entirely capable of doing that.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
He just doesn't do it in the postseason often enough.

Speaker 6 (55:41):
So he's got some kind of problem. I don't know
what it is.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
I don't I don't think that I don't think that
I don't think that Cavs team has enough toughness to win.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
A series like this.

Speaker 6 (55:51):
No, they probably don't. They probably don't. I who did
you like better back in the day, Pearl Monroe or
Walf Fraser.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
Well, I wasn't alive to watch either, but but you've
seen Walt. Walt Fraser's performance in the Willis Reid game
is iconic.

Speaker 6 (56:07):
Mm hmm. The pearl was smooth. This pearl was so smooth.
And a few two more guys. Did you remember Andrew
Tony with the Sixers.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
I remember him toward the end of his career when
he was befelled by bad feet.

Speaker 6 (56:23):
Yeah, with Southwest Louis, he had one of those. He
and Bernard King still to this day have the most
beautiful shots I've seen. And maybe Rick Berry those and
Rick Barry. I've told Austin and Tony the other day.
They didn't know Rick Barry shot underhanded.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
They didn't know Rick Berry shot his free throws granny style.

Speaker 6 (56:44):
No, they didn't, And they knew Wilt did, but they
didn't know Rick Barry. And Rick Barry's probably top five
all time free throw shoots.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
There is there's a documentary that came out maybe two
months ago about the A B A and Rick Berry
is a big part of it for obvious reasons, and
he talks at this age, at the age that he
is now, he still talks about the benefits of shooting
his free throws underhanded and how he wishes certainly like
Mitchell Robinson of the Knicks, who shoots at a forty
percent clip. He still talks about how players like that

(57:13):
could benefit from shooting granny style.

Speaker 6 (57:15):
So Shack should have tried it himself. Maybe because he
was horrible. I got it. I know you got to go.
Thanks them all.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
I appreciate you, but right I appreciate the phone call.
I think the question about the Bengals linebackers is a
fair one. ESPN says the Bengals have the sixteenth best
roster in the NFL. I have one question about the roster,
not so much the rankings, but one about the roster
that is this team's biggest variable. We'll do that after
sports headlines next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic, the EN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Sports headlines, Excuse me are a service to Kelsey chevro
Lalie home of lifetime power train protection and guarantee credit
approval from the family to yours life, kelseyshow dot Com.
Off day for the Reds Nationals here tomorrow, first of
a three games set against DC. Brady Singer is going
to pitch against Miles Michael Lists six forty tomorrow, six

(58:14):
on Wednesday, and then a day game on Thursday afternoon.
All of the action on seven hundred wl W.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
What else do we have?

Speaker 1 (58:25):
Off night for the Florence Yaws, No Big Bengals news
today and the NBA tonight. Two games you got the Cavs,
you got the Pistons, Game four in Cleveland, Calves won
Game three, it's two to one Detroit. And Game four
in LA between the Thunder and Lakers with OKC Up
three games to none.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
What else do we have? Hockey tonight?

Speaker 1 (58:47):
It is one playoff game NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Wild
and Avalanche in Minneapolis, with Colorado leading that series two
games to one. Anything you may have missed on this
show you can go find on the iHeartRadio app where
you could just go on my page but would like them.
When you go to the iHeartRadio app, which by the way,
you can also set us as a preset podcast of

(59:10):
this show are a service of Long Neck's Sports Grill.
I gave the wrong attribution to this before, I believe,
but Theathletic dot Com ranks all thirty two rosters following
the twenty twenty six NFL Draft, with the Los Angeles
Rams ranked number one and the Baltimore Ravens ranked number

(59:32):
one in the AFC North eighth overall, Cincinnati at number sixteen,
and then Pittsburgh at number twenty one, with the Browns
four up from the bottom. And I haven't done this
exercise where I've ranked every NFL roster, and I'm not
going to the explanation. The blurb about the Bengals reads

(59:56):
as following Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and T Higgins mag
for a pretty good starting point. The problem is you
can't win a Super Bowl with three players. The rest
of Cincinnati's offense grades out is below average, and its
defense isn't much better. Even after trading for defensive tackle
decks for Lawrence, the Bengals still have concerns that edge
rusher and linebacker. The secondary is actually better than most

(01:00:19):
would think, but the Bengals desperately need to find ways
to get after quarterbacks and to keep Burrow upright. There's
two large variables here. One is the pass rush. The
high end of the Bengals pass rush is insane, but
there's legitimate questions how much is Shamar Stewart gonna help
this year? You could easily convince me and most others

(01:00:40):
that there's a world where Shamar Stewart ends up having
a very good second NFL season, And there's a world
where Miles Murphy's ascension continues. And there's a world where
Boye Mafe is a better scheme fit in Cincinnati than
he was his last year in Seattle. And there's a
world where cash Is Hall ends up having a terrific
rookie season. And there's a world where Dexter lawrence Mere

(01:01:01):
presence in the middle of that defensive line, on top
of Jonathan Allen, on top of what they have at
that position, gives them a really formidable defensive front. There's
also a world where Dexter Lawrence the New York Giants
twenty twenty five version is what we see in twenty
twenty six, and maybe a slightly worse version, or Shamar

(01:01:21):
Stewart the light bulb doesn't come on, or the second
half of the season for Miles Murphy was an outlier,
or boy Mafe Seattle got out in front of moving
on from him because the lack of just sack production
in Seattle told a larger story that unfortunately Bengals fans
are going to become familiar with. And there's also different
versions of those stories that could play out. But the
upside of the Bengals pass rush is insane to think about,

(01:01:46):
but it's still very unproven. The largest variable on the
entire team, though, is the offensive line, isn't it. This
is easily and it's almost not even a fair Compatrison
easily the most stability the Bengals have enjoyed from one
year to the next on the offensive line in a decade,

(01:02:09):
like you'd probably have to go back twenty fifteen to
twenty sixteen. Twenty fifteen they had a great offensive line
pretty much brought back everybody. For twenty sixteen that unit
started to regress, But you have to go back a decade, right,
The most amount of stability they've had at the offensive
line group since Joe Burrow became the starting quarterback. The
most amount of stability they've had on the offensive line.

(01:02:31):
I believe since Zach Taylor became the head coach, they
did the easy thing and brought back Dalton Reisner, and
that was not just the easy thing, it was the
right thing. And beyond that, we haven't talked a lot
about the five starters, probably the best offensive line that
Joe Burrow has had. In fact, there's not even really
a probably with it. But is that as much of

(01:02:52):
a statement about what they have as it is a
statement about what they haven't had? Like is this a
legitimately good offensive line by reasonable NFL standards? It's a
good offensive line by recent and even not so recent
Bengals standards, Like we keep saying it because I believe it,

(01:03:12):
Like it's it's the best offensive line the Bengals have
had with Joe Burrow is the starting quarterback. But that's
not exactly the highest bar to clear one of the
best offensive lines in the NFL. That's a high bar
to clear. The variables here are are pretty pretty interesting.

(01:03:32):
And the variance I think is also pretty interesting because
Amrius Mems, if you believe he's trending towards stardom, and
many do, within year three is a huge season. It
would be totally unsurprising to find that by the end
of the season a Marius Mims is one of the
best players at his position in the sport. And it
would be unsurprising to see Dylan Fairchild have a big

(01:03:55):
year two leap, which is I think pretty important. And
it would be unsurprising if Dalton Reisner continued his steady play,
and if Orlando Brown continued his steady play, and if
at the age of thirty three, Ted Carris provided some
steady play on the inside at center. But it would
also be unsurprising if maybe Orlando Brown lost a notch

(01:04:20):
or two, maybe same for Ted Carris, perhaps maybe even
the same for Dalton Reisner. One of the things about
last year that was so frustrating, and there were obviously
a long list of things that were frustrating about last season,
is it kind of felt like they wasted really good
offensive line health. Like the top to bottom as NFL

(01:04:42):
offensive lines go, they really had great stability last year
and health was a big reason why from one year
to the next. Of times, it doesn't necessarily carry over
now they've addressed it. Connor Loo feels like he's going
to be a terrific player. Does really feel like the
Bengals got to steal and Brian Parker. You love the versatility,
You obviously love the fact that he's a local guy.

(01:05:04):
It's not that they did not address the offensive line,
but coming into the draft, offensive line depth it was
really thin. Have they done enough to address it? Like
that group to me is like the biggest X factor
of the entire team. A. You got to keep Joe
Burrow upright. B. You want to completely maximize what you

(01:05:26):
have on the offensive side of the ball, which, let's
be honest, as cool as it is that they've done
all the work they've done on defense, the meal ticket
for this franchise is still throwing the football, using Joe,
using Jamar, using t.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
That gets amplified.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
If they put the quarterback behind a great offensive line,
could this unit achieve?

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
That Might not be likely, but I do believe it's
in play.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
So is significant regression, either because of health, luck, or
certain players hitting a point in their career where they
start to decline and maybe even individually fall off a cliff.
Feels like there's a world where the Bengals have an
offensive line that's like legitimately pretty good, not league best,

(01:06:15):
not one of the best five units in the league,
but like a group that we maybe even never talk
about week to week. It also does feel like it's
realistic that we look back on how we talked about
this offensive line this offseason and kind of chuckle because
this group ends up regressing significantly. I think we all
feel like defensively, they're just bound to be better. It's

(01:06:36):
hard to imagine them being any worse. And the mere
fact that they've swapped out players at a lot of different
positions and invested heavily in that side of the ball
and used a bunch of draft choices, like there's going
to be a payoff there. How big is the payoff
is a fair question. Your guess is as good as mine.
But the biggest X factor on this team for me,
the one unit where the variance seems to be widest

(01:06:57):
is on the offensive line. Now, I don't know about you,
pretty encouraged by how that group played toward the end
of the season last year, Frill. They bought reisnerback and
it feels like, for the first time in quite a while,
like it's not gonna be just the abject weakness that
Bengals offensive line play has been for such a long time.

(01:07:18):
But there is a variance there. There's a wide gap
between what they could be on the good side and
what they could be on the not so good side.
We'll see if they come close to either extreme. Thirteen
away from five o'clock, Reds win two out of three
might not have felt like it. They got absolutely destroyed
on Friday. Bounce back because the Chase burns on Saturday.

(01:07:40):
Bounce back in large part because of Andrew Abbott yesterday,
a winning Reds weekend, and some real good things from
the manager's office coming up at the five o'clock hour
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
From the UC help which is just a few minutes away.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My Leger, we might have
one of the two stars of Brendaman and Jones on
Baseball in this show next week. And you know what,
we might as well just get the other while we're
at it, but we may do. We may have one
of the stars of that show on this show next week. Now,

(01:08:20):
speaking of shows, be there Thursday night at the annual
schedule release show. We're broadcasting from Dickman same place we
did the Draft show in fact, same place and same lineup.
We are on the air from six until midnight on Thursday.
The first two hours Lance and Rocky and then Tony
Pike and I together like a mini version of the
Tony Inmo Football Show. And then to put a stamp

(01:08:43):
on things, so to speak, Austin Elmore and the chickstart
Chick Ladwick. They'll do ten to midnight, six hours schedule release,
schedule's gonna come out. We'll talk about it from every
conceivable angle, a bunch of different Bengals related topics to
explore on Thursday. And it truly is. And I've said
this for years, it's very easy to get cynical about
making a big deal over the exact schedule for every.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
Team coming out. I understand it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
But if you're not the person who hates everything, then
I think you understand why it's such a fun night
for everybody involved. And so if you're that, like, you know,
just built in Cynic's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
If you're not.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
There, everybody else join us. Dickman's in Fort Wright. It's
going to be a blast. Show will air six to midnight,
seven hundred WLW, plenty of parking tons, of room. Don't
forget Dickman's is a twenty one and over establishment. I
want you to look at the Reds roster as constructed
right now, look at the forty man, and then I

(01:09:41):
want you to think about the year twenty twenty nine.
Let's get ahead of ourselves in the five o'clock hour.
But first let's do Brendiman and Jones on Baseball on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station. Hi, let's try to
win here five after five, ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm eager.
Thanks for listening today. Hopefully you had just an unbelievable

(01:10:04):
Monday so far. And if you weren't with us before,
hope you had a great weekend and an awesome Mother's
Day weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
And that had to include.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
A long post about your mom or your wife on
social media or else. You really didn't commemorate Mother's Day.
And you can't be that guy, right, Rad's had a
good Mother's Day. Rad's had a productive weekend. By the way,
can I just quickly hear Brennanman and Jones on baseball?
They were talking about Jose Travigno pitching. He pitched on

(01:10:35):
Friday night, and don't I don't have any record of this.
I don't know this to be fact. I've been wrong
about many things in my life. I've been wrong about
many things on this show. But Jose Travino came in
and got the final three outs on Friday evening in
a lobsided ten nothing Houston beat down of the Rads.

(01:10:59):
Now the good news as the Reds came back in
one on Saturday behind Chase Burns. They came back and
won yesterday behind Andrew Abbot and the two guys I
just mentioned there are very important.

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
But typically when the position player comes.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
In to kind of mop up in the ninth inning,
which is a frequent occurrence in Major League Baseball relative
to what it was like before we had limits to
pitching staff size and stuff like that, typically when the
position player comes in, it's at the start of an inning.
I don't recall there being many instances like Fridays. And

(01:11:34):
it's not to say that there aren't instances like this
where the position player is summoned after an actual pitcher
has already started and failed in the inning.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
Like that's gotta be.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
And Tony Santien recently has been throwing batting practice. He
threw batting practice on Friday. But usually it's like, all right,
end of the eighth, Now we're going to the ninth,
or if it's it's a home team at the plate,
you've hit your half of the ninth and now, or
you're half of the eighth and now a position player
is going to come in and pitch the bottom of

(01:12:10):
the eighth inning.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
It's the start of an inning. It's starting clean.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
It feels like it's rare, or at least not that frequent,
that a relief pitcher will start the inning struggle and
then the manager will point to the dugout and choose
his designated position player to pitch. When Jose Travina was
lobbing the ball in there for a few minutes on Friday,
I thought we might be there till two o'clock in

(01:12:35):
the morning. The good news is the Reds bounce back.
But the one thing that I think has happened with
this being what teams do now whenever they're engaged in
lopsided affairs, and this is what they should do, like
why burn a pitcher in a hopeless cause? But there

(01:12:56):
used to be some novelty to it, Like I remember
being a kid seeing Davy concepts the own pitch, and
oftentimes a manager would do it not only to not
burn another reliever, but also bring some levity to the game,
where you know, all right, we're getting beat sixteen to two,
we're not gonna come back and win. Let's put a

(01:13:16):
position player out there so everybody could get a good
laugh at him, and it just it sort of breaks
the tension and adds some levity to you know, it
was a pretty miserable day, and the novelty is no
longer there. And now when a position player pitches, it's
it's it's more sad than anything. Like watching Jose Tremino.
And this is no knock on Jose, he's not a pitcher,

(01:13:37):
but watching him, he literally looked like you know, if
you've ever seen a coach pitch game, that's what it
looks like. He literally looked like a dad pitching to
a team full of seven year olds. The novelty from
that is gone in this day and age, by the way,
in my opinion, and I think I'm in the minority here.
I don't think there should be limits on how many

(01:13:59):
pitchers team can carry. I think a team should build it,
you know, its roster. However, it sees fit, but it's
not been that way for quite a while. Chase Burns
on Saturday was awesome, and give it up to this dude.
Reds have a lot of issues right now. They've been
very frustrating over the last couple of weeks. They just
broke an eight game losing streak. I don't know that

(01:14:19):
whatever amount of frustration or anxiety you felt on Friday
has been significantly reduced by the fact that they have
won their last two games. But the fact that they've
won their last two games the way they have is
encouraging because, first of all, the Andrew Abbott from the
first half of the season this year has not been
present all that much. He has been over his last

(01:14:43):
two starts. Good last week against Chicago, Bettery yesterday against Houston.
But Chase Burns, man, how do you not love this dude?
For the second consecutive start. He takes the ball with
his team kind of on the ropes last Sunday in Pittsburgh.
The day before the Reds had lost by ten runs

(01:15:03):
the day before that eight runs, and so your task
with providing some length also helping to end a losing
streak that the Reds didn't win that game wasn't Chase
Burns's fault. He pitched into the eighth. They lost one nothing.
Think of everything swirling around the team on Saturday. First

(01:15:23):
of all, it's not like they tore the cover off
the baseball. Offensively, They needed a Cam Smith air to
kind of open the floodgates to take the lead. In
the fifth, they scored three runs. Chase Burns takes the
ball and the bullpen has been taxed. The bullpen has
not been good. The bullpen is not whole because Amelio
Pagan is on the injured list. Rhet Louder has just

(01:15:46):
gone on the injured list. Brandon Williamson's stay on the
injured list has been extended by weeks. Nicko Lodolo's return
was not an abject failure, I suppose, but it wasn't
exactly a smashing success. They've got all sorts of issues
on defense. Coming into that game, they had lost eight straight.

(01:16:08):
Fans are getting restless. For what it's worth, they're in
danger of sinking back to five hundred on Saturday. Chase Burns,
on a day where it wasn't like he was striking
at a lot of guys, gives up a homer and
that's it. Six innings of one run baseball. He punctuates
the start. I think it would be a stretch to
say he didn't have his best stuff, but it wasn't

(01:16:31):
like he was dominant. But he puts a punctuation on
his start, one that the Reds badly needed, I mean
badly needed by getting a strikeout swinging of Cam Smith
in the top of the sixth inning, and from there
the Reds would go on to win the ballgame.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
We talk a lot about.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
Young pitchers who have come up in recent years and
made their big league debuts, and young pitchers who have
come up and rugged with injury. Young pictures who have
come up and become All stars. Young pictures who have
come up been really good then regressed a little bit.
We've talked about them all in very very flattering terms.
For lack of a better way of putting it, Chase Burns, Dude,

(01:17:17):
how could you not be impressed by this guy doing
what he is doing when he just not only just
got to the big leagues, he just got to pro baseball,
carrying the load for a staff when he is lacking
an experience, becoming the guy on a staff that ideally
has Hunter Green has had, Nick Lodolo has the all

(01:17:40):
star version of Andrew Abbott, doesn't have as many dudes
on the injured list. Chase Burns is just such an
impressive guy. He's an absolute stud. Can you imagine where
this team might have been on Saturday Night without him?
Then Andrew Rabbit yesterday? This team badly needs the Andrew
Rabbit of last year's first half to show up. He

(01:18:00):
has the last two starts. They've also badly needed lineup changes.
Tito can only work with what he's given. He's not
being given a guy who's great at leading off. He's
not being given a team that's just loaded with offensive potential.
It's not being given a team that has guys who
look like their long term big picture solutions biding their

(01:18:21):
times on the bench, who need to play more. He's
got a team of Will Benson's, Jay j Bldaz Key,
Brian Hayes, underperforming Matt McLain. But if you want to
give him credit for at least trying something, he's at
least trying something. Will Benson led off yesterday, Spencer Steer
Batten the two hole. Sal Stewart has gotten some run

(01:18:44):
at second base and at third base. As our friend
Charlie Goldsmith points out in his newsletter Charlie's Chalkboard, over
the last eight games and only four of them have
Matt McClain and Key Brian Hayes been in the lineup together.
Will Benson's getting more playing time. JJ Bleday very shortly,
in a very short amount of time, has become a fixture.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
They've used him in the two hole.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
On Saturday morning on Twitter, a lot of folks were
getting mad at Tito for saying, like, look, we're not
gonna play lineup bingo, We're not gonna play lineup roulette.
Nobody wanted him to play lineup bingo or a line
up roulette, but it was time to sort of rethink
some things. Matt McClain's struggles have been so long lasting
that you had no choice but to rethink, how often

(01:19:30):
can we have in the lineup two guys who are
a good field no hit right now. You can't have
both Kee Brian Hayes and Matt McLain in the lineup
at the same time. You had to try somebody else
in the leadoff spot. Spencer Steer has been bad at
getting on base since before the All Star break last year.
I'm sorry, TJ. Friedel has been bad at getting on
base since before the All Star break last year. There's

(01:19:51):
a lot of things about TJ Toike, but defensively he's
not as good as Dane Myers. And offensively he's on
the team and he's batting leadoff because he's supposed.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
To be getting on.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
He has been atroc is at getting on. So some
changes were due and some changes were made. I guess
the question is are the changes enough and are you
basically reshuffling the deck a little bit because your roster
is not whole and your roster is not complete, and
because you don't have enough guys who are having offensively
good seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:20:20):
Very fair questions.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
We're going to be talking a lot about the Reds
of the trade deadline as we get closer to that,
and who they can add and what they can get
and what it would cost and what the Reds should
be willing to give up and can they only address
one area of the team. But in the short term,
some changes had to be made, at least with the
lineup Tito has made them.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
Now, is he going to be given Edwin Royo? Is
he going to get a shot. Is he going to
deserve a chance?

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
Noel a Marte has been getting some run in center
field and Louisville. Could that be a possible long term
solution or is the ship sailed on Noel A Marte
being somebody you can legitimately count on all very fair questions,
but at least as much as many on social on Saturday,
we're accusing the manager of sitting on his hands and
not doing anything that actually hasn't been the case. What

(01:21:06):
the long term payoff is going to be. Your guess
is as good as mine. But for the short term,
they needed to do something different. And if you look
at the lineup and if you look at how players
are being used, they're doing some things differently. We'll see
if that yields results. Sixteen minutes after five o'clock, I

(01:21:27):
am going to talk about the next topic one more time,
because after today, why talk about something that's not going
to happen. I'll tell you what that topic is next
on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
I was talking, or attempting to. I bit my tongue,
and when you talk for a living and you bite
your tongue that's than ideal. Follow on social media at Mulger.
Twitter Feed is a service of Delta Dental. Delta Dental
is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all good at

(01:22:09):
Delta dentaloage dot Com, also Instagram and Facebook to I
did a video on Instagram last week about Sal Stewart.
It's interesting the topic of Sal Stewart and a contract
extension came up very early in the season, and it
was a reaction to two different things. The first one

(01:22:30):
was sal Stewart got off to a great start this year.
The second thing that happened is around baseball, a lot
of teams signed players like sal Stewart to long term contracts,
in some cases players who had been in the big
leagues for a handful of days. It's a little bit

(01:22:51):
of an industry trend, and it's not exclusive the twenty
twenty six, but it's something that has proliferated across the
sport to the degree that it's almost surprising when a
team has a promising young player, like a high rated prospect,

(01:23:11):
and they don't sign them long term. And it was
interesting because it came up again last week because of
the Ken Rosenthal piece in the Athletic where he made
the point, and you can go read it for yourself
if you want, but he made the point. You know,
the Reds financial outlook is a little bit different than
it was about a year ago when they were trying
to make La de la Cruz the highest paid player

(01:23:32):
in Red's history. And it's even a little bit different
than it was back during the winter when they were
going after Kyle Schwarber. And the reason is the TV
situation is unsettled, and I if you want to make
this a conversation about Red's finances, by all means, go ahead.
But what's interesting to me is when the suggestion was made,

(01:23:54):
I made it. I know Tony and Austin talked about
this pretty extensively, that it would make sense for the
Reds to sign sal Stewart long term. There was some pushback,
and so I think it's interesting. And you had folks
who are like, well, you know, once upon a time
we thought Jonathan India was gonna be really good. I
don't recall anybody saying that Jonathan India, ish you're get
a long term contract or point out the risk and

(01:24:18):
like there's risk with everything. There are trades that teams
make where what they get ends up not being anything
of any value. That doesn't preclude you from making future trades.
You may acquire players in free agency that don't work,
don't help you, They just don't pan out for whatever reason.

(01:24:38):
Does that mean you go, you know what, We're never
gonna sign another free agent again?

Speaker 2 (01:24:41):
Of course not so.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
Yeah, there's some risk here, and not all of these
teams will get what they're looking for from the player
they are signing long term.

Speaker 2 (01:24:51):
But like, to me, this is what this is about.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
It's about an assessment of the roster as it stands
at the moment. Look at the forty man if you want,
make it about the twenty six man player roster, if
you want, look at the guys who are you're most
likely to want to have here in three or four years.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
Who are the.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
Guys on the team right now that you're you think
are the best bets to be to not only be here,
but like be the best players on the team. Let's
make it about twenty twenty nine, Like, look look at
the team right now, who are the players that you're
most likely to want to be here in twenty twenty nine?

(01:25:37):
Salth Stewart is on that list. I don't think he's
on it by himself, but it ain't like there's, you know,
eighteen guys on that list. So okay acknowledging that he
is among the players that you're most likely to want
to be here in twenty twenty nine, which is when
Sal Stewart would be eligible for arbitration for the first time.

(01:26:01):
Why then, would anybody object to trying to control what
that cost for him is going to be In twenty
twenty nine, and in twenty thirty and in twenty thirty one.
Those are the arbitration years. Ellie Dela Cruz is eligible
for arbitration in twenty twenty seven, and if he continues
to have the season that he's having like that, the

(01:26:25):
pay increased he is going to get like that is
a thing that is going to happen. The pay increase
that he is going to get next year is going
to be exponentially higher than the pay increase he would
have gotten had the Red signed him long term a
few years ago. We say long term, we're not talking
like fifteen years. We're talking about buying out the arbitration
years and maybe getting a year or two of when

(01:26:46):
the player is a free agent, right, So forget about
free agency for a second. Like Ellie dela Cruz on
a team that has a seven million dollar third baseman
who's more whose better cast is a as a defensive replacement.
Next year, Ellie's gonna get a pay raise that's gonna
dwarf what pay raise he would have gotten had the

(01:27:07):
Reds found a way to get a long term deal
done with him. It's cost control, like it's controlling the
costs of your best performing employees. And if you kind
of cling to the notion that small market teams need
to be really smart with their finances, then having some

(01:27:29):
form of cost control with your highest performing employees is
pretty important. There's no guarantee that Sal Stewart will continue
to be among their highest performing employees, but would you
be more likely to bet on him or pretty much
anybody else. And yet it's also about free agency. Ellie

(01:27:50):
de la Cruz has probably gone at the end of
the twenty twenty nine season, and maybe even before them,
because there's a long list of players who the Reds
have traded away before they ever hit free agency. We'll
see where the team is and how competitive they are.
I know we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. Right now,
the short term consideration is play better this season, leap
frog teams in the division, hit more, get healthier, all

(01:28:12):
that stuff. But Ellie dela Cruz, it feels like is
as good as gone in free agency when he hits
free agency at the end of the twenty twenty nine season.
And frankly, there's not a very long line of players
who have come through the Red system, played their first
six seasons and then with free agency available to them, decided, hey,
I'm staying in Cincinnati. If the Reds are ever going

(01:28:35):
to have a chance to keep players beyond those six seasons,
they're best performing players beyond those six seasons, they can't
wait until they get close to free agency. Like right now,
signing Ellie dela Cruz long term is out the window,
and the reds current finances might have something to do
with that. But if they were ever going to keep
Ellie de la Cruz into the next decade, that was

(01:28:56):
going to happen in twenty twenty three, maybe twenty two four.
And now you just acknowledge like he's he's gonna be
He's gonna cost so much. Threads either aren't or can't
resign them depending on your perspective. If you understand that
about Ellie, why would you put yourself in a position
to maybe be that way with Sal Stewart Again, And

(01:29:18):
we're getting way ahead of ourselves.

Speaker 2 (01:29:20):
But this is what front offices have to do.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
They have to balance the short term and the long term,
and they have to make some short term decisions with
an eye on what's happening down the road. And so like,
if you go man salth Stewart's got a chance to
be a really, really good player. And I'm not even
talking about like one of the best or a perennial
All Star. Like if for a dude who's still just
twenty two years old, he's going to hit free agency

(01:29:43):
when he's twenty eight. If you want to have any
chance of keeping him, any chance of keeping him or
players like him, you got to get long term deals
done before they blow up. It's about cost control. It's
about identifying like, you're not doing this with every guy
on the team. I'm not doing this with you know,

(01:30:06):
Matt McClain. You're not doing this with anybody else. You're
not doing this with anybody else on the team. Look
at the guys that you're going, Okay, these are the
dudes who most likely are going to be the guys
that I not only want here, but are going to
get paid a lot more by the time you know,
twenty twenty nine or twenty thirty rolls around. So control

(01:30:26):
their costs now and give yourself a shot long term
with them down the road, because now you have no
shot with Ellie, and nobody wants to hear that. I
get it, But now you have like no shot with Ellie,
and by the time we get to the end of
that game, maybe you don't want a shot with Ellie.
But if you ever want to have any chance of
like keeping your guys forever. Not forever, that's not what

(01:30:48):
this is about, but keeping your guys beyond those six
seasons of immediate and automatic team control, assuming that's going
to stay in the place, stay in place in the
next CBA. You've got to get out of it in
front of such things. And there's risk involved, like anything
you identify, like where are the places where I'm willing
to take on some risk. You do that in life,

(01:31:08):
You do that with your finances, You do that with
regard to decisions you make, like you acknowledge risk with
almost everything, like where are the calculated risks? And sALS Stewart,
in my opinion, is a guy worth taking a calculator
risk on.

Speaker 2 (01:31:23):
That's all this is about.

Speaker 1 (01:31:24):
It's not about believing Sal's gonna be the best first, second,
or third basement in the sport. It's not about making
him a red for life or anything like that. It's
about making smart, prudent financial decisions that can cost you
a lot less in the long term. You sign Sal
Stewart now, and let's just say, bake in the cost
for years four, five, and six, and he does blow up,

(01:31:47):
he'll turn into one of baseball's great bargains. Let's say
he really blows up and it's an f it's not
a guarantee. You're seven and eight when you're like, man,
I don't want to jump off this train. I want
to keep salth Stuart. You're not going to be able
to do that if he's got free agency staring him
in the face over the final few years of team control.

(01:32:07):
So do what you can to dealay, do what you
can to pay him in the short term. Long term
twenty seven away from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:32:16):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 7 (01:32:22):
From the UC Health Traffic Center ten fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's
sports station.

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
Sports headlines are a service to Kelsey Chevrolet, home of
lifetime powertrain protection and a guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours for life kelseyshev dot Com.

Speaker 2 (01:32:41):
Off day for the Reds.

Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
Nationals here tomorrow three two, one night, a GABP and
the first of a three game series six forty tomorrow
and Wednesday and UH twelve thirty five Thursday afternoon. All
the action this week on seven hundred WLW. Reds will
be trying to extend their current two game winning streak Cincinnati.
The two wins against the Astros coincided with consecutive losses

(01:33:05):
by the Chicago Cubs, and so Cincinnati even up with
the Pirates five back in the National League Central. The
NL Central is dark. Nobody in the division plays today,
so everybody gets a break. The standings will look exactly
the same tomorrow morning as they do right now. Florence
y'all is enjoying a day off as well. No major

(01:33:26):
Bengals news to report. The schedule comes out on Saturday.
I did see a few minutes ago. Adam Schefter is
reporting that the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving game opponent will be
the Philadelphia Eagles. We also found out earlier today the
Cowboys and Giants will play on the first Sunday night
football broadcast of twenty twenty six schedule, Lee Show on Thursday.

(01:33:49):
We're broadcasting from Dickman's six until midnight on Thursday evening.
Looking forward to that two NBA playoff games tonight, you
got the Calves, you got the Pistons. Cleveland win Game
three at home. They have yet to win a game
on the road in the postseason. Can that change? Will
that change? It's gonna have to for the Caves at
some point. Game four tonight in Cleveland not gonna happen

(01:34:12):
tonight because the Calves are at home, trying to even
up the series at two games each, Lakers trying to
keep their season alive. Could it be Lebron James final game?
Could it be his last game as an LA Laker
before he goes back and plays for the Calves again
or goes in place for the Golden State Warriors.

Speaker 2 (01:34:27):
Don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:34:28):
First Thing's first Game four tonight, Oka se up three
games to nine. Game four in Los Angeles and hockey
This evening, the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs continue. You've got
a tilt between the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche, with
Colorado leading that series two games to one game four
tonight in Minneapolis.

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
You missed something? What did I miss? Local product Duce McBride.

Speaker 1 (01:34:54):
Local product Deuce McBride nailed seven threes in his team's
game for close out, blowout victory over the Philadelphia seventy
six ers.

Speaker 2 (01:35:03):
You're like, you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:35:06):
Just for me and me alone, I guess, give me,
Give me Duce mcbrides give me his first five threes
during his first half, three point onslaught from friend of
the show Miles Deuce McBride.

Speaker 5 (01:35:17):
Here's Josh Hart, good transition defense. Mccride pulls up three
pointers hand and you can hear the due.

Speaker 1 (01:35:24):
Listen to that crown that's in Philadelilitator.

Speaker 5 (01:35:27):
Mhope, whatever you want to call him. He has turned
into an excellent playmaker.

Speaker 2 (01:35:30):
Nigride corner great and nails it. Nick.

Speaker 5 (01:35:34):
We're going to push at every opportunity. McBride try another,
puts it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:38):
Up, pucks up. This is local contents, This is local content.

Speaker 5 (01:35:43):
Three consecutive three pointers for Douce McBride. Yeah, Brunson back
to mcride, wide open three. He's four from four from
long distance, and he hasn't hit the rim yet. Robinson
offensive rebound. McBride tries again, hits again. Duce mccride five
for three point range. He's a stampede here on the

(01:36:05):
first half of.

Speaker 1 (01:36:06):
Twenty seven point Lee the second best working basketball broadcaster
in the United States after Dan Horde, the Great Mike Breen.
On ABC yesterday, Moehler's Duce McBride nailed seven threes. You
just heard five of them. They were all swishes, they
were all daggers, putting an end to Philadelphia season as
the New York Knicks blowout Philadelphia in Game four of

(01:36:28):
their series, advancing to the Eastern Finals, winning four games
to none. Good for Deuce. Friend of the show. Love
Duce McBride, and maybe we can get him on this week.
Who knows. He did say he joined us in He
joined us in September. It was right before they started
training camp, and he was in town to sign his

(01:36:49):
children's book, and I said, like, it's awesome to have you,
but the next time you join us, it needs to
be from the Canyon of Heroes in Manhattan, where you
call in from the championship parade. Now, in my heart
of hearts, I don't actually believe that's gonna happen. First
of all, I think them versus Detroit would be a

(01:37:09):
fifty to fifty series. I think if they played Cleveland,
I'd give him about a sixty five percent chance of winning.
I would give him about a five percent chance of
beating OKAC. But if it does happen, we're gonna hold
Deuce to that and have him call in from the
if we can't have a championship parade here, which maybe
the Bengals will give us one, Maybe the Reds will
give us one. Maybe you've seen Cincinnati will give us one.

(01:37:31):
Although I was more dismayed than others at them not
hanging on to get three points after having a two
to nothing lead on the road on Saturday night. But
if we can't have a championship parade here, maybe a
Cincinnati product can call a show in Cincinnati from one.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
What do you mean you'll be there?

Speaker 5 (01:37:51):
Yeah, first Championships nineteen seventy three and you.

Speaker 1 (01:37:55):
Won't be there. So here's the thing. Okay, because I've
thought about this a lot. If they play in the
NBA Finals, I would have to sell my house in
order to buy a ticket to the game. If Detroit

(01:38:16):
and Cleveland I could make. I can make either one
of those. Now it's worth mentioning. I went saw him
playing Indie last year a Game four and they lost
and kind of got blown out. So I'm zero to
one seeing them in the Eastern Conference Finals. I don't know,
man Like, yeah, I probably would go, but it's like,
if I'm gonna spend you know, a championship parade would

(01:38:37):
be free, Like all you'd have to do is get there.
So I'd have to do is pay for the airfare
in New York and then find a place to stay.
But if I'm gonna go to New York's not an
easy place to travel too. It's an easy place to
travel too, it's not an easy place to travel in.
If I'm gonna do that, why not then just say
screw it and my my kid's not gonna go to

(01:38:58):
college and I'm just gonna go see an NBA Finals
game in New York City. I don't know, but yeah,
you know, if if there, if there's a parade, we
we could because you could broadcast now from anywhere. I mean,
the thing is like the pushback guy would get like
why I wouldn't actually do the show. Let's just say
that like that, the audience doesn't really care about the

(01:39:19):
conversation I'm having right now, but the the I just
I'm not even gonna just bother people with Hey, can
I broadcast from New York City? Can we find an
ice chest to New York City for me to broadcast
next to a La La so.

Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
I could be there for the championship parade. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:39:35):
I have thought about this, and you know, I see
if I can get a ticket in Cleveland or Detroit,
Like I'm there's a lot going on, but we'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:39:47):
Let's get there first.

Speaker 1 (01:39:49):
They gotta they're gonna win the next series and then
find a way to beat OKAC or Minnesota or San
Antonio or Tearing.

Speaker 2 (01:39:57):
The Lakers won't be the Lakers, truss me. Probably not, but.

Speaker 1 (01:40:02):
I had to at least account for the possibility. You know,
no team has ever come back from down three in
an NBA playoff series, and that got extended because the
Sixers had no chance of winning yesterday, and I made
the joke on social media that you feel bad for
that team. They make the Eastern Conference semifinals and they
don't even get a chance to play a home game

(01:40:25):
because their arena was taken over.

Speaker 2 (01:40:27):
I guess now our friend Pat Brendan probably will never
join the show ever again. Yeah, you know what it's funny.

Speaker 1 (01:40:31):
I I was at the ballpark on Saturday, and I
went in a working capacity, and I thought, like, I'll
go down to the press box where the writers sit,
and I will go see Pat Brennan.

Speaker 2 (01:40:48):
But like, I'm not that guy.

Speaker 1 (01:40:52):
Like I know, I personally know three seventy six ers
fans and they did not hear from me because I'm
not that guy. So now if Pack comes on and
joins us to talk about the reds of the Bengals
or something, and you know, then I might make some
sort of offhanded comment about it. But that's just all
in good fun. But like it would be, there's a

(01:41:12):
handful of moves that I think invite bad karma. Like
I think when you win, you should talk your trash.
I think when you win, when your team wins, you
should be allowed to go on social media and say
whatever you want. And if you take some shots, if
you make a few jokes like this is the fun
in games department. Man, do what you gotta do. But
when you know somebody who's a huge fan of a team,

(01:41:35):
and especially somebody like you don't see every single day,
and you seek them out to get in their face
to tell them about how bad your team is beating theirs,
you deserve bad karma. And so I was not going
to do that to Pat. But you know, we should
get Pat On at some point and just maybe get

(01:41:57):
his thoughts on the Reds, the Bengals, the teams that
he covered, and then you know there's I will usually
toss in a Philadelphia dig in there. And by the way,
when the Eagles win the super Bowl, we had Pat
On and talked about his Eagles winning the super Bowl.
The Phillies have been postseason mainstays for a while and
we always talk about them. God knows the Reds aren't

(01:42:18):
so but I I for about three minutes, I thought,
I'm gonna go down there and see Pat and just
ask him, you know, is he going to get a
chance to watch Game four? Because the Reds play at
one forty and he's got postgame duties. Is going to
be able to watch the second I didn't. I'm too
I have too much class to do that, so I'd

(01:42:39):
rather just make jokes on social media. Twelve away from
six o'clock. Thank you for indulging me with that segment.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:42:46):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 1 (01:42:52):
The UC help for stix away from US six tomorrow.
On the show, we have our friend Paul Dayner Junior
who at the Athletic dot Com is were leaked as
mock schedule. Mock schedule up now at the Athletic dot
Com and a few other things we are working on
as we speak. We will see schedule lease show is Thursday.

(01:43:14):
The Bengals on their schedule this year have the Steelers,
the Ravens, the Browns, the Falcons, the Titans, and the Dolphins.
And I just did that off the top of my head.
I may be leaving out one who have new coaches.
So last year the AFC North games for the Bengals

(01:43:37):
were backloaded. They got Cleveland week one, then they didn't
play another AFC North team for weeks. If there is
a scheduling wish list this year, it should be to
have as many games against AFC North opponents as is
possible early in the year. Last year, they played the

(01:43:59):
Browns week one on Pittsburgh week seven, then they played
him again week eleven. They didn't play the Ravens until
November the twenty seventh, which was obviously Thanksgiving.

Speaker 4 (01:44:12):
One.

Speaker 1 (01:44:12):
As many of those games as you can get early
in the season. Want to play the Falcons early. Wanna
play the Dolphins early, Want to play the Titans early.
Want to play teams with unsettled quarterback situations early. Yes,
would love to have the Ravens on a Thursday night
here because they always end up having to go to
Baltimore in a short week. But man, more than anything,

(01:44:34):
load up the schedule with AFC North teams early because you.

Speaker 2 (01:44:38):
Gotta play him anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:44:40):
Rather play as many as possible early as opposed to late.
What an incredible Bengals NFL schedule related take.

Speaker 2 (01:44:49):
Gotta go back at it tomorrow at three oh five.

Speaker 1 (01:44:51):
Have a great night. Thanks to Aran for producing, Thanks
to you for listening. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:45:01):
At some point

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