5/21/24 - The Mo Egger Show w/ Chad Brendel

Chad fills in for Mo talks Reds hitting struggles, the latest news in the college sports world and UC.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Are listening ESPN fifteen thirty, andaway we go. It's the Moegger Show,

(00:20):
brought to you by Sense that He'sESPN fifteen thirty. I'm Chad Brendle,
not my eger Mo. It lookslike Moses a pull today looking about
the great It does look a littlelike it's getting at a little iffy out
there. Thank you for choosing me. You'll have to bear with me today

(00:46):
a tiny bit. It is.Uh. It's that time of the year,
little little allergies sinus type situation.It started yesterday when I was in
for Tony and it has carried overinto today. But we're gonna work our
through, our way through it,Arren. We're gonna be okay. Hi,

(01:07):
buddy, it's good to see you. It's been a while. Yes
life, we did. We didsee each other in passing yesterday. There's
a little Taco Tuesday action here atthe station. There's there's nachos, yes,
Skyline nachos in the in the kitchenas well. We have a war

(01:30):
going on out there. Yeah.They told me to go get some of
that before, right before the showstarted. And I'm like, well,
the show starts in three minutes.How am I and I know by the
time we get done here, they'regonna be gone, aren't they? Yeah,
in part due to one person here. Yeah, I know. Nachos

(01:53):
are back, though It's Skyline notjust any nachos. These are Skyline nachos,
krispy tortilla chips, topped with awarm Quiesso blanco and that amazing Skyline
chili and shreaded cheese. You can'tget nachos like these anywhere else, teren
They make a great side to sharewith your Coney's and ways. Order them
straight up or buy or try SkylinesDeluxe Nachos. Deluxe includes shredded lettuce,

(02:15):
dice tomatoes, diced onions, andsour cream. It's timed up your nacho
game. Try Skyline Nachos today atparticipating Skyland restaurants for unlimited time. I've
had them before. They are delicious. I like nacho variations. I like
barbecue nachos, chili nachos. Lookat me, I like food. Let's

(02:39):
not get ourselves here. Basically whatI'm doing right now, Teraran, is
anything possible not to talk about theReds? I understand, and this lineup
they have out today, Who cares? Who cares. Does it really matter
another guy hurt? Spencer's tears out. We were told on Sunday David Bell

(03:02):
said with authority, Spencer Steer wouldbe one hundred percent by Tuesday. It
is Tuesday, Spencer Steer is notin the lineup. So I assume at
some point today he will have anotherlook taken at that ankle and they will
tell us that it's dislocated and fracturedin four places. Oh, we just
missed it the first time. Nothingto see here. These are not the

(03:23):
droids you're looking for. I waspretty mellow on the Red yesterday, Terran.
I got more maybe it's the colder, whatever is going on with me.
I got more irritated as the daywore on. And this is going
to be a primary topic today andI want to hear from you. And

(03:45):
I got a little bit annoyed today, Terran. I'm not gonna lie,
okay, because mainly because I wasdriving into the station and I was listening
to since He three sixty, afine radio program, and they basically stole
my whole show. Like I youknow, I like to line my show

(04:06):
up the night before the guess thetopics and that way, like you know
you're not rushing and you don't feelhurried. The next day, they talked
about most of everything that I wantedto talk about today on Sincy three sixty.
But that's okay because you know,it's the end of May and the

(04:27):
Red stink and there's not a lotof things to choose from. So I'm
going to come at this from alittle a little bit of a different angle.
But the point remains, what isthe answer? We have a problem?
How do you problem solve? Youcome up with an answer, You
solve the problem. You come upwith a solution to what is wrong.

(04:54):
And I've heard throughout you know,social media and radio airwaves and podcast airwaves,
and the general consensus seems to bejust got to ride it out.
She's got to ride out the storm. A couple guys are hurt. What's
David Bell supposed to do? Acouple guys are hurt, Tarran, we're

(05:18):
raising the white flag. Couple guysare hurt. Like the Reds are the
only team in baseball that has acouple guys hurt. And I give him
some leeway. I'm not coming onhere. I've said this over the past
couple of weeks. You heard mesay a week and a half ago or
so, tarn fire David Bell,don't fire David Bell whatever. I'm indifferent,

(05:46):
but that can't be it. Yes, one of the reasons that this
team is struggling is because they havedealt with some injuries. You know what,
Taran Matt McLain has not been availablesince the start of spring training.
Noel v Marte has not been availablesince spring training. TJ friedl has played

(06:11):
six games. You have had almostfifty games to figure something else out.
Does that mean that they should beat the top of the National league in
hitting? No, you know whatit does mean They shouldn't be last.

(06:33):
Shouldn't be last. I mean EliDataccurs is hitting two fifty six, Tyler
Stevenson is hitting two seventy three.Let's do the rest. Will Benson one
ninety one, Jamier Candelario two twenty, Spencer Steer two twenty four, Stuart

(07:01):
Fairchild to twenty six, Nick Martinione seventy seven, Christian and Carnassier and
Strand is out. But he playedtwenty nine games. He hit one ninety,
Espinal two hundred, India two nineteen, Fraley two seventy two. But
he's a slap hitter. Right now, it's all singles. His twenty eight

(07:28):
hits, five of them for extrabass six sorry six, Luke Mayley one
fifty eight. Those guys are allbad because there's guys on the disabled list

(07:49):
or the injured list, or whateverthe heck they call it. Now,
can you watch a lot of thesegames? Right? No, you don't
my mental health? You know?Well, I guess I can't ask you.
Then I'll tell you my observation.More often than not, these guys

(08:09):
look like they don't have a clueat the plate. There's no approach,
there's no confidence, there's no aggression. It's just meekly trying to put the
bat on the ball. I don'tknow this number. If somebody can find

(08:31):
it, shoot it to me onTwitter. Their contact rate has to be
one of the lowest, like thevelocity with which the ball exits the bat
on balls in play has to beone of the lowest in baseball. They
don't hit the ball hard, theydon't hit the ball consistently. They don't

(08:52):
have any power. They're a teamthat's supposed to be great at stealing bases.
You know, it's really hard todo tern for this team, it's
really hard to steal first The onlyguy that's stealing bases is Ellie. Ellie
has thirty, Steer has eleven.Nobody else has more than ten. That's

(09:20):
supposed to be the identity of thisteam, isn't it supposedly? And I
have to question, And you know, I had a lot of fun with
uh, what's his name, Alan'senter back when he was here and the

(09:41):
team had everybody hitting around two hundredand two twenty. Remember that this feels
a lot like it Joel McKeithen,What what benefit is Joel McKeithen, because

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you know what a hitting coach's strengthshould be. In twenty twenty four,
Tearn watching the tape, going overthe tape with the players, sending cutups
to your hitters and saying, thisis what this guy has. These are
his strengths, This is his outpitch. This is where he likes to set
guys up, like they go tothe plate, and it doesn't look like

(10:26):
they have any of that knowledge.It looks like that knowledge is just completely
lost on them. So the questionbecomes, if you can't fire David Bell
whatever I mean, Like I said, I'm indifferent on David Bell. I

(10:48):
think he's okay. I don't thinkhe's great. I don't think he's terrible.
I don't think a baseball manager makesa whole ton of difference by the
end of the season. But youknow what you can't do. Can't get
rid of these guys. They're allyoung, they're all under team control.

(11:09):
So that's not the answer. You'renot gonna get rid of David Bell.
I guess apparently I got. Ifhe was gonna be gone, it probably
would have been yesterday, right dayoff, coming off a disastrous West Coast
road trip. So that's clearly notsomething that they are are heavily considering.

(11:31):
What's the answer. Just three guysgot hurt and we throw up the white
flag. That's it, Season's over. Get them next time, kids.
That can't be the answer. Itcan't be. I have to believe there's
something better than that. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. Tell me what itis, Give me ideas, new

(11:54):
hitting coach. This one clearly isnot worth Am I wrong? Like I
know, we got a lot ofbunch of smart baseball people out here,
so not so much, but Iknow we got there are a bunch of
you that know what you're talking about. Does this look like a team with
a great approach at the plate?I don't see it. The pitching coach

(12:22):
is good, you know how.I know that because the pitchers look like
they go up there with the planand they know what they're doing. Frustrated,
frustrated, Tarn. We're gonna talkabout that a lot today. We
do have some guests with Justin Williamsfrom The Athletic. He was on with

(12:45):
Tony and Austin. He gave kindof a one oh one level discussion about
what's happening in college sports right now. I want him to hit us with
like the two oh three class,a little bit more advanced on what's going
on the courts UH and how itis shaping the future of college athletics.

(13:05):
That'll be a three thirty je Ff F car our guy from UH locked
on Reds. We'll be here fourthirty Kegan Nicholson. We'll be here at
five thirty. Tarren and I aregoing to talk some NBA. You excited
about that team a lot. It'sit's an interesting conference finals, a lot

(13:28):
of new storylines. Let's take abreak. We'll talk some Reds when we
get back since n he's ESPN fifteenthirty terror and I haven't answered, and
I can't sleek and it's worse thanI thought. Sinci fan on Twitter.

(14:00):
According to Baseball Savant, the Redsare tied with the Blue Jays for the
lowest average exit velocity in the majors. You want to take a guess at
how low it is? No eightyseven point eight average average average exit velocity.

(14:26):
They are struggling to hit the ballfaster than it's thrown. Taran struggling
to hit the ball faster than it'sthrown. Yeah, that's the problem,
more often than not, not hittingthe ball faster than it's thrown. Hell,
in baseball today, eighty seven pointeight is a change up. That's

(14:52):
the slow pitch. If that's notapproach, what is. These guys did
not get to major League baseball byhitting the ball eighty seven point eight miles
an hour. Now I'm even moreman, Jacob, Hi, how are
you? I'm doing well? Man? How are you today? I was

(15:15):
better until I heard that stat.Well, I'm gonna try to come about
it in a different angle. Obviously, this is not the start that everybody
was expecting. But something I thinkthat's kind of interesting. Is have you
followed the Mets at all this year? Yeah, I think Diaz brothers,
I think are the biggest the key. I think something's going on there with

(15:37):
Alexis Diez and I think his brother'snot Edwin's not doing too hot out there
in New York. But comparing it, obviously we have nobody's hitting the ball.
But kind of last year, Ithink David played the you know,
the whole bullpen cards as perfect ashe could, and a lot of the
guys, a lot of the opponentsthat we went up against, when it
got to that eighth inning or later, it was pretty much, you know,

(16:00):
game over. And now we areone in eleven in one run games.
You expected win loss record or whateverwe're supposed to be twenty three and
twenty four. But I honestly don't. I don't. I don't know how
to fix the bats. But thatexit velocity stat that that does, that
doesn't make anybody feel better given ourcircumstances. But eighty seven, that's that's

(16:26):
tough. Maybe that's kind of whereI think maybe we need to go and
try to implement that. That funtwe'll again have throw somebody throw a butt
down because we got to get ourspeed. We have all this talent.
But like you were saying, untilyour on first base, it's irrelevant,
it doesn't matter. But like youwere saying, I think that the biggest

(16:47):
thing right now if we did it. So, I know you mentioned a
few of the injuries. The oneguy I think would be the biggest X
factor in the Royal given the springtraining that he had, he would have
been a possibility to come men andkind of sure, but that's exactly right
though, this should not even havebeen the situation. We should have had
these options behind. You know,yeah, you never have enough depth.

(17:10):
Well we've spent money, Well themoney that's been spend has not been you
know, at this time, wehaven't really seen a lot of the fruits
of the labor yet. But thisis a different, different season so far,
and I definitely hope that when westart the serious tonight, we can
ride the ship. But Hunter GreenAndrew Rabbit, those two are some you
know, they're they're fun to watch. Yeah, they're exciting to you know,

(17:33):
get behind. But the other injury, what's the Nicolodolo's saga? I
mean, he's going to be astud but I never know what's going on
with him. You know, he'sI'm confident this isn't going to be a
big issue. Okay, think we'veheard that before. But David Bell also
said he was one hun sure thatSpencer Steele could play on Tuesday. He

(17:56):
said that Sunday and Spencer Steel isnot in the lineup today. I will
say this. We were talking abouthow they compare bank you are since three
sixty was talking about how you knowthe Bangles and comparing it to the Reds
and then having to be having thechange of change of face the big thing.
I think also that changed the Brownfamily changed. You know, he

(18:18):
went yeah, the longest time hewas he went away, he stepped back.
It'd be great if our ownership groupin the Cincinnati Reds could possibly do
the same thing, because, frankly, I think that's where the issue starts.
David Bell is basically becoming a talkingmouth to what have we got?
What do I have to go sayto the to the media now, because

(18:41):
you don't ever hear anything from you, nobody's going to make them accountable.
Like you said before, You're goingto move the team clown. Sorry,
here's the problem, Jacob if if, if the old man is going to
give over control of the team,he's going to do it till the sun
and everybody hates the sun. Wecan't win the chat. No, not

(19:03):
at all. Thanks man, Iappreciate the good day man, Thank you.
Eighty seven point eight. I thinkJustin Williams could could could get bat
on ball more aggressively than that.We're gonna take a break when we come
back. We're gonna talk to JustinWilliams about what is going on in college
athletics because it is a lot seismic, more active. This this is the

(19:27):
Moegger Show, the Moegger Radio Show. Is that what the official title?
I see it on the TV screenin front of me, tarn either with
the Muiga Radio Show or the MoyerShow. Either wore okay, that's what
it is. I'm not Moeger.I'm Chad Brendle and I can't breathe.
We'll be back right here on Cincinnat'sESPN fifteen thirty Sincy three sixty with Tony

(19:49):
Pike. Do we want to moveon or doctor keep goring and Bustin L.
Moore? I think you should continue. Let me keep going there,
Sincy three sixty tomorrow, which twelvenoons on ke ESPN fifteen thirty. This

(20:11):
is mad, I get more buttonedass trees the fear one to get mine
in the fast way ski meta way. Don't want to listen to this or
talk to Justin comes the roses?Your choice. I guess we'll talk to
Justin like them. Justin, areyou there? I'm here? Okay,

(20:34):
Yeah, I thought you. Ithought you were listening to You were enjoying
the music as well. I waslistening to all Right, can you hit
a baseball harder than eighty seven pointeight miles an hour? It would have
to be like where I hold thebat out and someone throws the ball hard
enough that it ricochetes at that.That is the Reds average exit velocity.

(20:59):
Justin eighty seven veno point eight islast in Major League Baseball. All it
makes me think about is the Seinfeldepisode where George figured out the math and
was just hitting bombs out a Yankee. Why does everything remind you of a
Seinfeld episode? That's all. That'sall I know my only cultural reference.
Look, I spent like five sixyears working with Justin every day pretty much,

(21:25):
and everything reminds him of a Seinfeldepisode this is this is true?
It does? It's real life.What is easier explaining or what is tougher?
Explaining what is happening in college sports? Or watching the Reds play baseball?

(21:47):
I guess people can opt out ofboth if they choose. Sure,
for me, I've I will admitI've been much more trying to explain the
illegal battles of the NCAA and thanwatching the lately. But I'm sure they're
both just as awesome. We useddifferent adject does that's okay? Uh?
When you got your degree from OhioUniversity, did you expect to be a

(22:12):
sports law expert when you beat whenyou grew up? No, I'm not
sure what I expected, but Icertainly didn't. You know, expect to
be this familiar with case law andyou know briefings and you know court dockets
and all that kind of stuff.But this is you know, you never

(22:32):
know where where the exciting world ofsports journalism is going to take you.
Uh. So Tony and Austin hadyou on earlier. They pretty much stole
my entire show. Uh, notthat I'm angry about it. Uh,
they did like a one oh onelike entry level discussion about this. I
decided we were going to do likea two oh three level discussion about what's

(22:53):
going on in college sports right now. Sophomore year, yeah, sophomore year.
Uh, you know, probably probablyfirst semester, sophomore year. But
if everybody listen, they've got alittle bit better understanding of where things are
at now. Essentially, what ishappening is there is a lawsuit against the

(23:15):
NC double A House versus NC doubleA uh, and it is addressing the
past basically the past president future ofname, image and likeness uld. Would
that be a fair representation of whatis happening, Yeah, it's I think
you're right in the sense that partof the lawsuit is would be like retroactive

(23:38):
pay to former college athletes that didn'thave a chance to cash in on nil.
And then the future part would belike revenue sharing basically from the money
that the power conferences get from thesebig TV deals. Right. So this
is just the natural progression, andI don't think this is going to be

(24:00):
the end of it. I collectivebargaining is coming. These athletes are going
to look and say twenty two percent, there's fifty percent in the NBA and
the NHL and the NFL and MajorLeague Baseball? Why why are we getting
twenty two percent? I think that'sthat's coming down the road. But essentially,
the NC double A is working againsta very strict clock here because if

(24:22):
they do not settle this case justinthe NC double A is likely not going
to be with us for long.Yeah. I think you're right on both
those counts. You know, ifpeople are wondering, like why would the
NCAA agree to you know what isreally a significant change and obviously a significant
dollar figure. It's because if theygo to trial and lose, which,
as you and I have talked abouta lot, all they do when they

(24:45):
go to trial, all they dois lose, lose, lose, no
matter what. That's the right.So if that would happen, yeah,
like the nca would basically it wouldhave to file for bankruptcy. It would
cease to exist. You have topay as much as twenty billion dollars instantly,
there be no nil regulation rules.So you know, honestly like the
terms of this one as kind ofbig, as monumental as they are,

(25:08):
it's a win for the NCAA.But I also agree with you that it's
while it's a significant kind of halfmeasure stop the gap. It is just
a half measure stop gap. Like, this is not going to be the
end of the NCAA's legal battles.This is not going to be the end
of kind of the changing of collegesports. But basically, the NCAA was
like, we can fight this andrisk just kind of complete destruction, or

(25:30):
we can settle and maybe kind ofprolong the inevitable a little bit. And
that feels like what this is goingto do, which is going to change
things a lot. It's going toget some money directly from schools to athletes,
which is what the NCAA had foughtagainst for decades and decades. But
it also means that the NCAA getsto exist a little bit longer, which
might not happen otherwise. Uh,did you mentioned this more in your article

(25:53):
than yesterday that I think just aboutanybody I've ever seen when I'm talking about
this subject, it seems like peopleavoid it more often than not, Collective
bargaining is coming right Like, youcan't, it's not going to work.
We're already seeing players dot org andthere are places that players are starting to

(26:15):
unionize. I think it'll be interestingto see if it ends up being like
a conference by conference thing, orhowever it may work down the road.
But if you're dealing with large,large, large amounts of money and revenue
sharing and things like that, theside that's not represented at that table,

(26:37):
at some point in time is goingto say, hey, you don't get
to make the rules. We alsoare part of this process, right,
So you know you mentioned earlier thatin most of the professional leagues it's basically
fifty to fifty. Yeah, youknow, the players get fifty percent of
the revenue, most of which comesin for like the TV contracts, and
yeah, the terms of this settleand are believed to be basically a twenty

(27:02):
two percent average of all of thePower conference revenue. So you're exactly right
that, you know, I thinkthere's this sense among certain people in the
industry that athletes will be happy,like, hey, I'm getting whatever,
you know, a certain amount ofmoney I am from this revenue sharing,
and I'm sure there will be adegree of that. But when you just
look, you know, so muchof the changes that are happening are based
around the financials of college sports andhow they've grown, and then how they

(27:26):
don't really match up with the restof the American free market economy, and
it's gonna be the same thing.Someone's gonna, you know, organize and
say, why are NFL and NBAand nhlmob athletes getting fifty percent of the
money they bring in while college athletesare getting twenty two percent when other than
the NFL, college football is thekind of most watch most popular sport from

(27:48):
a TV perspective in America, andthese you know, TV deals keep going
up and up, and so yeah, I think you're right that that's that's
kind of the big next step,that the next legal fight that I think
the NCAA is going to have.And I also, you know, I
understand why fans of college sports fora long time see all this and maybe
it makes them kind of like rolltheir eyes or sick to their stomach.
I get it's a huge change,but I think what people need to remember

(28:11):
is twenty thirty years ago, youknow, they weren't getting billions of dollars
to put these games on TV.And that's kind of, you know,
been a change. And so far, the players have not really seen any
of this. So the the interestingthing that I think, and another thing
I haven't seen mentioned. You caninclude this in your next article if you'd
like, well do when you startdoing the math and you start breaking it

(28:33):
down, take take a look atNCAA football and the amount of money that
that game is going to bring in. Okay, the players got like eight
dollars and forty three cents for givingtheir name, image, and likeness to
that game. When you start breakingthis down, like, that's where the
problem is going to come in.I think where players are going to look

(28:55):
at this and say I want moremoney is I don't think they're going to
get a lot because you have hundredsand hundreds and hundreds of schools and that
money has got to be divided betweenhundreds and hundreds of athletes. Of course,
that doesn't get us to the pointwhere the Olympic sport's probably in trouble
as this continues to evolve. Butit's not I know when we look at

(29:18):
it and say, oh, well, you know twenty two percent, Well
that that's going to get thin realfast when you're talking about the number of
athletes we are. Yeah, andthat's why they're gonna have to figure out,
you know, does is this somethingwhere Title nine comes into play?
Because there's going to be some schoolsthat want to say, well, we
want to give fifteen million dollars tothis hot shot quarterback to bring them in.

(29:41):
And then there's going to be someschools that say, you know,
hey, we have a really goodbaseball team, or we have a really
good golf team or a really goodvolleyball team, and you know, we
want to give some money there,or some are going to make it equitable.
There's still a lot of things thatneed to be sorted out, you
know, in addition to the unionizingand employment debates. You're right that they're
gonna have to figure out where dothese dollars go. If you talk to
the lawyers and legal experts, theywould point to, well, in a

(30:04):
free market economy, the athletes,which in the kids would be football,
that you know, drive the mostrevenue, are the ones that make the
most money. And that's certainly true. But it's just a complete overhaul and
removal from you know, this wholeinfrastructure that has been built up around college
sports, which is why then youhear about well should football separate? And

(30:26):
you know, how do we handleOlympic sports? So there's just a lot
that needs to be figured out,and I think the biggest problem is,
you know, so many people arestill trying to fit it within this NCAA
box that has existed for a longtime, and the truth is, it
just doesn't really if you were tolook at it now, it doesn't make
sense to put Division one, youknow, cross country in the same box

(30:47):
as Alabama Michigan football and things likethat. And so I think whatever changes
end up coming is to be youknow, people kind of finally realizing that
we probably need to take these thingsa little bit differently than we have in
the past thirty forty years. Iwas going to make a duke lacrosse joke,
but I decided against it. It'sprobably smart, Probably smart on my

(31:07):
part that's just heard silence. Onthe other. I can get myself in
trouble. Yeah, Like you're ina different position now than than you used
to be. You can get yourselfin a lot of trouble now. Before
you know, nobody cared. Whenis all this going to be? When?
Wen we have answers on what thisround of everything looks like this week.

(31:30):
If everything goes to plan as peopleexpected, I think we'll have basically,
you know, an agreement of settlementterms by the end of this week
between the two parties meaning the NCAAand Power conferences, and then you know
the plaintiffs in the in the Housecase. But the legal process in terms
of like the settlement officially being youknow, put in the law that that's

(31:53):
going to take a few months.I do think again, if everything goes
to plan, we're talking, we'relooking at next year, the twenty six
you know season for football and basketballand all that. I think that's when
you just start seeing revenue that soon, revenue sharing that soon. All right,
man, I appreciate it. Hopefullythat uh continued the education of folks

(32:14):
after your appearance, your stellar appearancewith Austin and Tony earlier this afternoon.
Yeah, maybe we can circle backand do like a senior capstone or doctorate.
Yeah, you know, less thanlet this week or something like that.
Yeah, we're gonna have to We'regonna have to summarize everything when it's
all over. That's right. Howcan I find you? I met Williams

(32:35):
underscore justin on Twitter and if youhaven't subscribed to the Athletic, we got
a bunch of bunch of coverage anddetails there, all right, you should
give me a call some time.I'm miss hearing from you. I love
you, buddy, love you too. We'll talk so thanks Justin. All
right, there you go, JustinWilliams from the Athletic. Let's take a
break more after this since nat He'sESPN fifteen thirty neat inspiration shot Kroger.

(33:06):
It was a clear black knight,a clear white Welcome back to the Mowagger
radio show. Search here on Society'sESPN fifteen thirty. Uh, just hit
the side of the LBC. Seena corpull of girls. They don't need
to tweak? Or are you searchingon? What's something? One? Three?

(33:27):
For those that might be unaware.When Nate Dogg sings we don't Talk,
you caught me off guard there,Terry, and I was I was
headed in a direction, not reallythinking about the music that was playing,
and then Nate dog started singing andI had to shut up. Yes,
I heard it down. The nextverse came on DEVO telling me to be
quiet. I'm gonna be quiet whenhe leave, I'm gonna start talking again.

(33:52):
Uh. Terror in the NFL isuh seriously considering a possible international game
in Australia. Let's say the Vikings. Then you're a big Vikings fan.
Let's say the Vikings are are Iknow when when Justin Jefferson leaves, you're

(34:12):
out right if we lose Justin Jefferson? Yes? Yeah? Would would you
go to Australia to see your teamplay Ohio State? Ohio State's playing Alabama
and Australia. Mm hmm. ReallyI want to go. I want to
go to Australia. I think itwould maybe give me a reason. Well

(34:34):
yeah, oh well no, Igot to pay for it. No,
I mean, do you think you'regonna get the station to pay for it?
Right? Do you think I'm gonnabe able to afford it based on
Yeah? Yeah, I mean yougot some side hustles. I mean Australia
is probably pretty expensive. I wouldI would assume. Yeah. I mean
I own I'm a media mogul,tarn I own a multi media conglomerate,

(34:58):
so I could probably swing it.Uh, don't tell Kegan. Uh,
I don't know. I think Iwanted. The only thing that worries me
is like when people talk about Australia, like there's things living there that don't
live anywhere else, Like a kangaroowill come up and just punch you in

(35:19):
the face. In Australia. You'venever seen those videos. You've never gone
down Kangaroo TikTok. No, thosethings look mean, I know, like
they're ripped and they got they they'realready in boxing position. They mess people
up. But I do think Iwould I would like if the Bearcats had

(35:39):
a game in Australia, like theBig twelve announces, like you know you
see U s F is going togo to Australia. I would be tempted
to go. I would be moretempted to go there than I would like
London or Germany. At least it'snice in Australia. Yeah, I don't
been all the time it is.It gets real hot. You ever watch

(36:00):
the Australian Open, Yes, andthey're like it's nine o'clock at night and
we have to take a half hourbreak because these people are about to die,
they are about to melt into thecourt. They also have that one
night where it's like a holiday andthey stop everything for a fireworks show,
like as soon as the lights goout, as soon as the sun goes
down. I wouldn't mind going tothe Australian Open. I think that would

(36:22):
be fun. You know, i'onepay for me to go. I will
go, but I have to payfor everything. Are there black people in
Australia? Maybe a couple, justa couple. I don't know. I
think they have hip hop, likedon't they've got some some Australian rappers?

(36:42):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. All right, let's take a break.
Four o'clock hour coming up, we'lltalk to uh our our eternal optimist,
jefff car to try to inject somesunshine. Also, I'll probably do
this again in August, but I'mgonna do it now my annual. Who

(37:05):
do the Bengals have that are atthe top ten in their position in the
NFL? Right after this? Sincehe's ESPN fifteen thirty, this ree fourteen
thirty, Oh, guess what dayit is? Guess what day it is?
Due day? Here we go ournumber two. It's the Mullagger Radio

(37:45):
show says that he's ESPN fifteen thirty. I am chand Brindle filling in promote
today. Who is probably enjoying acocktail and a cigar? Is it?
Little mentionement? Seatson? Already?I mean we're almost there, but we

(38:07):
are what ten days away from June. June and July are heavy. Now
there's a week. Basically I hadto say no, tarn I got AAU
Nationals for my daughter, so Iwill be melting in the Orlando sun.

(38:29):
Although the gym, it's a greatway to get sick. The gym that
we play in the Convention Center islike four degrees and then you walk outside
and it's one hundred and thirty degrees. So it's a great way to get
sick. Our number two, herewe go. The Reds back in action

(38:54):
tonight. Yay. I know everybodyis very excited. They take on the
Padres, one of the hottest teamsin baseball right now, although record wise
only twenty five and twenty five,but they had a impressive series win over
the weekend. Joe Musgrove on thehill for San Diego three and three six

(39:16):
thirty seven ERA, Andrew Abbott onthe hill for Cincinnati two and four three
six ERA. The Reds have madea move. Nick Martini is up recalled
from the miners. Connor Cable isdown. Poor Connor Caple was was was

(39:37):
a part of five games. Hehad eight at bats, he had two
hits, He hit a brisk twofifty, which on this team is phenomenal.
He is replaced by Martini. Myfavorite part turn Kpoin had eight at
bats, he had two hits.Martini had seventy nine nine bats, and

(40:00):
he had fourteen hits. In hisfirst stent, he was hitting one seventy
seven with an ops of five twentynine. That's on base plus slugging.
If you don't know, uh,yikes. Basically, Nick Martinez didn't do
like he had a good opening dayand he didn't do anything after that.

(40:22):
We also have a lineup Terren.Oh, I need to get my announcement
voice like Austin Duo if you wantto. Yeah, no, I don't
feel like reading. I don't thinkI could do my announcer voice. If
I wanted to right now, Icould give it a shot, but I
think that might ruin me for therest of the show, and I don't
want to do that. Sorry,I'll play some Nate DOGG. We'll be

(40:45):
good, just Nate Dog for thenext hour and fifty two minutes. I'm
down leading off in left field asyou'd expect. Jacob Herdabes obviously batting second
at shortstop, Eli Dala Cruz atfirst hitting third, Jimmy or Candelario and

(41:10):
right batting clean up Jake Frayley,who hasn't had a home run since the
middle of April, so the perfectguy for the cleanup spot. Tyler Stevenson
hits fifth behind the plate. MikeFord. He's built Ford tough as a
designated hitter. He's built Ford tough, but I think his bat might have

(41:32):
a hole in it. He's hittingone fifty six since making the roster.
Jonathan India at second, batting seventh, Antigo Espinol at third, batting eighth,
and Will Benson in center field,batting ninth. Like I said,

(41:53):
Andrew Abbott on the mound. Asyou can tell, I am overflowing with
excitement. This seems three and fourteenin the month of May. There's a
banner up here arrean best thirty gamesstarts since twenty thirteen. It has not

(42:16):
gone well since that banner went upthree and fourteen in the month of May.
Premature celebration. I think that therewas the sarcasm of you know,
Austin likes to do the sarcasm thing. There's a lot of that going on

(42:37):
around this office. I'm I'm anexpert. I was born in the seventies.
Like that. We are fluent insarcasm. It's the only language we
speak, Arren. Let's get tosome Bengals again. This dates back to
uh it was either the year beforeJoe Burrow was drafted or the year that

(42:58):
Joe Burrow was drafted. And PaulDanner, junior, our friend from the
athletic who usually is here on Tuesdays. But I guess he had better and
maybe he's with me having a cocktailand a cigar. I didn't even think
about it until just now. UsuallyI like to at least try to have

(43:19):
him call in by phone, butI forgot. This would have been perfect.
I'm talking about his article from manyyears ago. It has always stuck
with me because it's you know,it's a good barometer of where your team
is at in terms of being achampionship level team. In fact, I
used it the other night when wewere talking about the UC basketball roster and

(43:44):
where you know, their roster ratesin relation to the Big Twelve, not
even college basketball, but just theconference itself. Looking at this Bengals roster,
how many players on this roster doyou believe are top ten at their
position in the NFL. And thatdoesn't like, that's what top one third.

(44:07):
That doesn't seem like a lot untilyou start doing the numbers, and
it is a lot. I havea would you agree that if you're a
top ten player at your position inthe NFL, you're pretty dang good.
Yes, Okay, let's let's takea jog down the roster. Quarterback Yes,

(44:29):
yes, top five and probably notfive or four, maybe not three,
went healthy, went healthy, absolutelyone of the best quarterbacks in the
NFL. Running back No, Maybeit works out, maybe he ends up
being that. No, but asof right now, they do not have

(44:51):
an elite running back. Tight endNo, Jamar Chase. Yes, top
ten wide receiver in the NFL.T Higgins, I would say no,
but he's not far off. He'sprobably like that twelve thirteen range, right
somewhere between ten and fifteen. Iwould be confident with T. Higgins.

(45:12):
The only thing that maybe you know, lowers his number is the injury stuff,
where he just has a lot oflike minor miss a game here,
miss two games there type stuff.In the slot Tyler Boyd has gone.
I think Burton can be really good, but it's got a lot to show
before we're gonna call him a topten player at his position in the NFL.

(45:35):
Ye, how about the offensive line, Teren, is there any of
those guys that you think are topten in their position in the NFL?
Maybe Orlando Brown. He's got someinjury issues again, so that might that

(45:57):
might be a mark against him.Trent Brown, left tackle is an elite
position. I think he would bejust on the outside. I don't think
he would be far off, butI think you can make an argument that
he would be top ten just sizeand sheer, will and power, and

(46:22):
he is a good pass blocker.I don't think i'd have any of the
inside guys in the top ten,but i'd probably have him all in the
top twenty. Maybe not Cordell Volsonyet hit hit a rough year two,
but Kerris and Cap. I'd havehim in the top twenty, not in
the top ten. Here's where theconcern comes in right defense. Hendrickson is

(46:52):
a top ten pass rushing and inthe NFL defensive tack know, I mean
not even close. Hubbard is probablyon outside. He may be fifteen.
Yeah, I think he's closer.I would say he's probably he's probably closer

(47:15):
to twenty than he is ten though, Yeah, nobody at linebacker, at
least not after last year that wasa disappointing group. Any of the DBS
Cam Taylor Britt has to show more. For me, I think he has

(47:37):
the talent to be there, buthe's not there yet. And at safety,
long way to go. At safety, long way to go. Obviously,
getting von Bell back helps. VonBell is no Jesse Bates, so
one one guy. So when youhear me say is this defense good enough

(48:06):
to win a Super Bowl? That'swhere I'm coming from. Again. Last
year they were thirty first, AndI'm not saying they have to be a
top ten defense. They're not goingto be a top ten defense, let's
be honest, but if you lookat past history, they do need to
be in that middle of the packfourteen fifteen, sixteen seventeen, somewhere in

(48:30):
there, because if they are asieve again, it puts a lot of
undue, unnecessary pressure on the offenseand it ends up with what Tarran teams
pinning their ears back and saying we'regoing to get Joe, and that has

(48:52):
not gone great for Joe. Itis a concern. It is a major
concern if you're a fan of thisteam. I know it's easy to look
at the two years prior and saylou Ana Rumo will get him there.
And I'm not saying he won't.I'm just saying when you look at the

(49:15):
personnel, it is tough to lookat the personnel right now and find a
way for them to get up intothat middle pack. And if they don't
getting through this schedule and getting throughthe playoffs, it's going to be incredibly

(49:36):
difficult for this franchise. What doyou think? Am I wrong? Am
I missing somebody? Do you havesomebody in the top ten that I don't
at their position? Five? One, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty Jeff ff car coming upin about fifteen minutes more after this,
it's the Moegger Radio program. Ilike to say pro I don't know

(50:00):
why sin Sidey's ESPN fifteen thirty CarolinaCaroline on the guy would say, she's
ding behind. But when they gotyou somewhere half the time, you know

(50:22):
what the other half gut the halfgot you just out of coming up short.
Yeah, that even though one ofone of their best radio songs and
videos. Yeah, the videos unbelievable. Real speaker love below. No no

(50:45):
love, no love below, there'sno love below. All right, let's
go on to the phones. Robin Northern Kentucky. Rob, how you
doing? I'm no good? Howyou doing today? Brother? You're no
good? No, I'm doing excellent? Oka good good. Yes. So
I just have nothing to contribute today'sshow. I just wanted to give you

(51:07):
a special shout out and say thankyou. Okay, so you were feeling
you were feeling in yesterday for theTony Pike. I'm a day behind because
I listened to the podcast. SoAddi and Tarn are very good producers.
I love all the music that theyplayed coming in from break, But yesterday
I heard a certain artist being playedcoming in from break, and I think

(51:29):
you had the same reaction that Idid. So you turn to Addie and
asked him, is that okay toplay him right now? And I guess
Oti was confused. Yes, you'reconfused and didn't understand. So I just
wanted to let you know, Chadand Otti p Jersey is not to be
played right now when the whole countryis cript walking to a minor week.

(51:50):
The culture does not mess with himright now. There are other things that
have lined up, so I justwant to give a shout out to you
and thank you for that. Ijust wanted to make sure, like,
I don't think, look, Ilove Audie, I don't think Audie is
very in tune with hip hop culture. Yeah, here comes Terry. Yeah.

(52:15):
So I just want to thank youfor pointing that out because I had
the same exact reaction. All right, I appreciate it. Thanks man,
I appreciation we I mean you man, Damn Temple the Lambs tell him please?
Brokes walking around like TiO, what'ssomeone? See? Here's the thing,

(52:36):
Terren. You have the knowledge tomake that choice whether you want to
play Drake or not. Austin doesnot. There's all like go on the
in the break that's coming up here, go ask Austin Austin if he knows
anything about the rap beef between Drakeand Kendrick No actually talked awesome about it.
He said he doesn't care about it, Okay, which is fair at

(52:57):
this point. That's fair. ButDrake is still Drake. Is still get
play right now? Though I meanhe lost he lost the beef of Drake
is still Drake. Yeah, Idon't know. He lost a pretty bad
and I'm with Rob like I'm definitelycrip walking. I feel like I'm a
game mam every time Not like Uscomes on. But he can still play
Drake right now. Though I'm notgonna lie felmin matters that steal fire,

(53:17):
but I would like Rob was inhis car or like wherever he was today
listening to Sincy three sixty and heheard Drake come on and his reaction was,
Oh, can we play that rightnow? Yeah? Yeah, I
don't know. Luckily I don't haveto make those decisions. I just sit
in this chair. I don't evenlike mo and Tony turned her own mic

(53:40):
on. I don't even turn myown mic on. Now you know you
were now you were old enough.You're old enough to remember I was infant
when when happened when Pop Drop hithim up? Was Biggie band? Uh?
Well, there really wasn't a wholelot of hip hop on the radio
at the point in time, LikeMTV was really one of the only places

(54:05):
you can find it. I mean, there was what one station in town,
and I think it was more Rand B focused about right, So
I'll be I'll be honest. Iwas. I was much much more of
a POC fan in my youth.We've talked about this, and I think
Big Biggie is uh, his musichas aged better. I don't think Biggie

(54:30):
has aged better. He's probably agingpoorly. Where Park is probably on an
island somewhere. But I don't know. I don't remember. I guess because
I don't remember there being a lotof hip hop on the radio at that
point mid nineties. It was stillthere's still work to be done, terren

(54:52):
Land. Not a lot of numberone hits yet at that point in time.
That's fair. And Kendrick does havea number one dissent. It's probably
the first this this record that's wentnumber one on Billboard. Yeah, how
did hit him up? Not goingnumber one? It's a little aggressive for
the mainstream. A lot of peoplehad a wife. Yeah, all right,

(55:14):
let's take a break. Jeff fivehalf Car coming up right after this,
The Mowagger Show. Since that's ESPNfifteen thirty. That's p N fifteen
thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. BigSo Booper ring the bag like what's upload
on Windows other frames? A partywin? Big So poopering the bag like
what's upload on Windows other frames?A party win? Big So Wooper bag

(55:38):
like what's the windows other frames buccomeback, Chad Brindle filling in forger.
You can find me at Chad Brindleor at Bearcat Journal. On those social
media you can also usually find melistening to E forty. You think Jeff

(55:59):
Carr is a big forty fan?Probably not. I think he knows who
E forty is. Oh, Ihope you heard of E forty before.
All right, let's check our guyfrom Lockdown Reds, Jeff ff Card.
Jeff, are you familiar with Eforty? I think he? I think
he was featured in a Jimmy Buffettsong. No legendary rapper from the Bay

(56:30):
Area, Jeff f f We're tryingto keep spirits up here. Uh,
that's why I reached out today.Things are tough right now in Red's Country,
and you are the most optimistic REDSmedia personality that I know. So

(56:50):
I'm gonna bring you on and I'mgoing to ask you the toughest question that
there is kind of right now?What is the path forward? Is it
stay the course, wait to geteverybody healthy again, knowing other guys are
gonna get hurt, knowing that sayyou're chasing the dragon there, that they're
they're always it's a long season,you're always going to do with something.

(57:12):
Are their moves to be made?Uh? And more importantly, did you
hear the stat that I I'm sureyou might know this. I'll ask you
in trivia form to see if youknow this. Okay, where do the
Reds rank in lowest average exit velocityin the majors? They are I think
no, fifth lowest, I meanlows. No, they are tied with

(57:36):
the Blue Jays for last. Whatdo you think their average exit velocity is?
Say, eighty three, eighty seveneighty seven point eight? Okay,
it's bad, Jeff, it's bad. Why is this team so bad at
the plate? They're they're not makinggood contact, they are not forcing the

(57:59):
defense to make like it just feelslike when they go up to the plate
they don't have much of a gameplan in their head, and they're not
aggressive, and they it's feeble alot of times. Jeff. Well,
unfortunately, Chad, the lineup isbeing fielded by sixty percent of players that

(58:21):
I don't think would be on thisroster if it were healthy. The hardest
part about this team is, yes, they the course wait for people to
get healthy. I mean, maybethey can make a move here or there,
but there's not going to be thatkind of trade that brings in somebody
big because quite frankly, when thisteam is healthy, they don't need extra

(58:42):
bats. I mean, the onething I would say, and this is
one thing that I would love NickCrawl to go get because I wanted him
to go get this in November andhe still hasn't done it. And that
is a right handed outfield back.I mean, there are so many options
out there, and there are somany options. I mean, Kanye Fan
was out there as late as justlike a couple of weeks ago, and
now he's killing it for the WhiteSox, who really don't need anybody to

(59:07):
kill anything. So that should havebeen something that they've gotten all along.
But to be honest with you,if they making move for an everyday player
at a specific position, then youare pushing out somebody who is healthy whenever
they're ready. You're pushing out,you know, a noelvi Marte after his

(59:27):
suspension is done. You're pushing outa Jamier Candelario after noelvi Marte returns.
You're pushing out a Matt McLain orsomething like that. So part of this
is stay the course and hope thatsome of these guys kind of get out
of this collective slump that they're in. But knowing that most of this lineup
should not be the one that weare trusting every day, I agree that

(59:51):
the injuries are a significant factor.There's no way around it. It's three
guys essentially that you were going tocount on to play basically every day.
But but well, Benson one ninetyone, Candelaria two, twenty, Steer
to twenty four, India to nineteen, Fraily to seventy two, but he's

(01:00:16):
not hitting with any power right now. I mean, these are guys that
were expected to be top of youknow, like starter, top of the
roster guys, and they are theones that we needed to see step up
to battle through this injury situation,and instead they've gone the other way.

(01:00:37):
Like that is a major concern.Correct on most of those guys. However,
I will point out Jamer Candelario isa guy to be excited about because
of the way that he has hitin the month of May. His months
so far, he's hit over threehundred and in fact, the two to
twenty batting average is sixty points higherthan it was for much of the month

(01:00:59):
of eight. That just shows right, right, right, and and then
there's a little bit of Man twotwenty is not good. I'm not advocating
for that, but I am sayingthat, you know, he is beginning
to turn things around. If wecan see Will Benson begin to turn things
around them, this is going tohelp so much because right now the lineup
is whatever Ellie does and we hopethat somebody else gets a hit, and

(01:01:22):
if Ellie doesn't do anything, thenthis lineup is not dangerous. And that's
the hard part because Ellie is nota season veteran. He still has yet
to play one hundred and sixty twototal games of his career. So as
as as awesome as he is andas talented as he is, that's why
whenever people like get too critical ofhim, I'm just like you, guys

(01:01:44):
got to remember where he's at inhis career. And that just says a
lot about where this lineup is currently. Like if we had Matt McClain,
you would see them be able torely on him on games that Ellie doesn't
hit. If we had a healthyNoelvie Marte and Jamer Candelero can be used
in situations and not necessarily be forcedto play every single day. And you

(01:02:07):
could see Cees kind of working throughsome stuff. But all of this is
just compounded by the different injuries thatare going on. And now, of
course Spencer Steeer is playing through aninjury and he's been out for a couple
of days, and we hear,well, he's possibly going to be back
on Wednesday. But I hate hearingthe yes, we expect him to be

(01:02:28):
back things whenever they're not on theinjured list, because we know how that
typically goes with this team. Well, I mean, they said he would
one hundred David Bell said he wouldone hundred percent be back on Tuesday,
and he's not right. And nowhe's saying he will be back tomorrow.
So I guess tune in here tomorrow. Uh. I'm interested in your thoughts

(01:02:49):
on Joel McKeithen because I I feelmaybe I'm wrong. I feel one of
the main responsibilities into day's game fora hitting coach is to have the guys
visually and mentally ready when they getto the plate against a starter. And

(01:03:14):
I don't see a great plan formost of these guys when they're going to
the plate. I mean, howmany times have we looked in the seventh
inning and the Reds have one ortwo hits lately, And yeah, they're
facing good starting pitching. But Idon't see guys fouling off a bunch of
balls driving up pitch counts. Infact, I usually see a guy in

(01:03:37):
the seventh inning with eighty two pitchesand has allowed one hit in one walk.
Like that is my I'm not afire the coach guy. I'm not
just like everybody has to go.But when I look at the results and
I look at what I see whenthese guys are at the plate, it

(01:03:57):
does not give me a warm andfuzzy feeling about the job the hitting coach
is doing. Is that there?Now, I do think that it's fair.
You're talking about the approach and stuff. I also wonder about the position
and some guys in the lineup.I e. Mike Ford that and third
and I get it there Bill foryeah, and the two extra base hits

(01:04:18):
that they There's something about the strategyof the game that it feels like I
don't know if the Reds coaches arepressing too much, but it feels like
they need to kind of readjust theirown strategies, and I think Joe mckeithon
is definitely a part of this.You're right, like you kind of see

(01:04:38):
the evolution of this lineup where earlyon in the season, when they were
above five hundred, when they weresuccessful, they were a patient team.
They were a team that forced theopposing pitcher to throw a lot of pitches.
And yeah, Cees was part ofthat because he would foul off a
lot of stuff. But for themost part, this team has struggled getting
on base all season, and Idon't know if that is just because opposing

(01:05:02):
pitchers are guessing perfectly every time atthe plate, where they're like, okay,
well they're going to be aggressive,so we'll throw them pitches outside of
the zone, and Okay, nowthey're going to be conservatives, so we'll
fill up the zone. Because itjust feels like every time you turn around,
the Reds are doing the exact oppositeof what the opposing starting pitcher has
planned for. And that definitely doescome back on a guy like Joel mckeithan.

(01:05:28):
But I will say this, likeI see the growth in Ellie de
la Cruz, and I feel likethat is something that is indicative of Joel
mckeithen's plan working because if you canturn Ellie de la Cruz into a patient
hitter. And I understand that hisstrikeout rate is still more than some folks
would like to stomach, but basedon his production, you know, apart

(01:05:51):
from that strikeout percentage, you dohave to look at that and say,
well, something that Joel mckeithan isdoing is working, so how can he
translate that to the rest of thelineup. It's working for Ellie, that's
not it the pitching on this team. Here's my fear, Jeff. My

(01:06:11):
fear is that the offense will eventually, maybe not, you know, be
a top ten offense in baseball,but the offense will eventually, especially as
the schedule lightens up in June,or at least compared to what it was
in May, the offense will startto get back on track. But they
have wasted so many outstanding starting pitchingperformances that I worry about the time the

(01:06:36):
offense gets going, you'll see adip in the starting pitching because that's just
the regular ebb and flow of aseason. I'm trying to get out of
it. Jeff. I'm very negativeright now, and I don't like it
well, and chat I'll say this. I think that there are a number
of things that we're seeing from HunterGreen and from Andrew Rabbit and from Graham

(01:06:58):
Ashcraft that are repeatable, not necessarilythings that are just going to be,
you know, flashes in a panand then they're gone. I think that
Hunter Green is here to stay.With the command that he has had his
last two starts, he has atotal of three walks, and we're starting
to see him be a lot morepitch efficient. Whenever he's getting deep into
counts with guys, he is nolonger trying to nibble and trying to get

(01:07:19):
that strike zone. Is that strikeout. He's trying to get the hitter to
you know, swing at a pitchand miss the barrel, get a ground
ball, get to the next guy. And I think that more so than
just you know, we harp onthe third pitch with him, I think
that it's all a mindset game withhim. It's just how do you pitch?
How do you trust your stuff?Is it trying to get the free

(01:07:43):
pizza for everybody at the ballparker?Is it just trying to get out of
the inny? And I feel likeearly on in his career, he was
pitching for Lo Roses, but nowwe see him pitching for the Reds,
and I think that when it comesto a guy like Graham Ashcraft, he
has started to nibble a little bitat the strike zone and started to shoot

(01:08:03):
for higher strikeout totals because let's faceit, the guys that get more strikeouts
get more money. But there isstill a focus that you see from different
pictures like Frankie Montas that whenever hispitches are odd, he's not worried about
how many strikeouts he has in andin And I think that that is really

(01:08:25):
how Graham Ashcraft can continue his successbecause we see that the bulldog mentality right
of just going out there and goingafter guys and trying to get out of
the ending as quickly as possible.It's not about trying to get that strike
out. It's about how he canhit the non barrel part of the opposing
in his bats. And with thebullpen too, it's something that you know,

(01:08:51):
obviously people are like really down onthe bullpen as a whole, but
it's because it's the main guy.It's Alexis Diaz just the control back,
you know, get the command back, and we're good because it as of
right now, every time he comesto a game, he walks somebody.
But when you get him back,you get the bulletpen back because everybody else

(01:09:12):
is pitching pretty well. Yeah.My My thing with the bullpen, I
think is it feels like and thenI mean, there's a couple guys that
are pitching. Well, there's acouple guys that are pitching. Okay,
it's not like they've been you know, dominant out of the ten, but
it feels like because of this offense, it's too you know, they give
up one run and you're like,oh, game's over, right, And

(01:09:35):
I think that from a fan perspective, like, well, this guy's a
bum because he gives up a run. Well, no, like you you
still like, you know, there'steams are gonna score four and a half
runs a game, right, that'susually about the average that's going to happen.
That's been the average, like foryou know, it's been in that
range for a long time. It'snot their fault that the all that has

(01:10:00):
been dreadful, right, And there'ssomething I was looking at, you know,
even speaking of Hunter Green, likehe is average his run support in
his starts so far this year isthree point one, so like they're just
not scoring at all for him,they're not scoring for anybody. And that's
something that it's got a way ona pitcher every time they step on the

(01:10:24):
mound of just like I've got tobe perfect and that could be the reason
why we see, you know,performances like for an end of Cruise that's
stick in my mind in the seriesagainst the Diamondbacks here in Cincinnati, you
know, before the whole just awfulWest Coast road trip where Cruise went six
pitches too strikeouts, the inning wasalmost over, then he goes walk walk

(01:10:46):
single. The league's given up,right. It's things like that where I
think it sticks in the back ofthe mind of a pitcher, where man,
you give up one walk, can'tdo that. Man got to make
sure you throw a perfect pick home. You want another guy, Oh no,
what are you going to do withthis to single? And that's what
happens with just about any appearance fromfernand New Cruizer. Alexis DZ right now

(01:11:11):
because they know that it's all onthem and if there is a lead,
if there is a tie, theycannot blink because if they blink, they
lose. It's over. I thinkthat they can't even get Ellie home from
second as a ghost runner with noouts. I unfortunately, Jeff, I
would sit here and talk to youall day, but Terren's making me lead
because Marty and Tracy are standing atthe door and they want to come into

(01:11:34):
the studio. That's but I'll saythis before we go, Chad. Everybody's
worried about the one run loss recordright now, one and eleven. That
is not predicted. That is justdescriptive. And when it comes to the
future, the ship's going to getright, I hope. So they better
start hitting or it's not. Wherecan they find you, Jeff. They

(01:11:58):
can find me at Jeff Carr withthree f's on X and you can follow
a podcast everywhere you get your podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app. Thank you
brother, much appreciated, and wewill talk soon. Have a great week
an Hilia. Thanks Chad Goad.Here you go, Jeff Carr to take
a break, Brennanman and Jones onbaseball right after this. Since that's ESPN
fifteen thirty, here we go ournumber three, The Moegger Radio Show.

(01:12:33):
I am Chad Brendle filling in todayform Moo will be back tomorrow. Load
management summer, I guess is underway. I thank you for choosing me as

(01:12:53):
always, Tarn. We're in ourthree. I think I'm gonna make it.
I hope I didn't just jink myself. I'm doing my best. I
know the voice sounds a little froggy. I did three hours of radio yesterday.
We did two and a half hoursof a podcast last night, three

(01:13:15):
hours today. I've got probably ahalf hour show to do tonight on all
the college sports news that is comingout throughout the day today, which we
talked to Justin Williams earlier about that. You can catch that in podcast format.
I think I'm gonna make it.This is your Jordan Flugay. It

(01:13:38):
might be. I don't feel thatbad. I just can't, like I
can't breathe, which makes it hardto talk. And in this business,
that's like, I don't think Ihave like a fever. I'm not contagious
like I don't, you know,just struggling a little bit. And then
we got us tacos today and Iordered steak tacos and they said they don't
have any steak. I'll say wherebecause it's usually a very good place.

(01:14:00):
They got some outpass door tacos instead, and they were delicious. Don't get
me wrong. I asked the lady, do you need me to go get
you a cow, because I willgo get one and bring it back.
She did not seem prepared to turnthat cow into a steak taco for me,
so I did not do it.You can't win them all, Daren,

(01:14:23):
You can't win them all. RedsOff Day yesterday. Those are always
the toughest shows as we get tothis time of year because we don't have
a game to talk about. Wejust have a three to fourteen record in
May to discuss. But they areback in action tonight. Nick Martini up,

(01:14:49):
Connor Cable down the lineup as peopleworked up a little bit. Jacob
heard it your your leadoff hitter.Ellie de la Cruz heard a beast is
in left. De la Cruz atshort batting second, Candelario at first,

(01:15:10):
batting, third, Franley and rightbatting clean up, Stevenson behind the dish,
batting fifth, Mike Ford the designatedhitter batting six, Jonathan India at
second, batting seventh, Santigo Espinalat third, and batting in the eight
hole, while Will Benson bats ninthin center field Andrew Abbott on the mound

(01:15:33):
for the reds Abbot two and fourwith a three to five e RA.
He has been very good so farthis year. He will face Joe Musgrove
who is three and three with asix thirty seven ERA. Martinez versus King
tomorrow Martinez one and two, Kingthree and four, and then the series

(01:15:56):
concludes on Thursday at one ten Montastwo and three for the reds Waldron two
and five for San Diego. Sothere you go. We do have some
news that's coming out today, Tarren. This obviously news that is good for

(01:16:17):
the long term health of the CincinnatiBengals relationship here in the city of Cincinnati
with the City of Cincinnati. Iknow, you know, we have we
have heard over the years when thisstadium deal was up the Bengals were gonna,
you know, play hardball, lookto get a new stadium, look
to move blah blah blah blah blah, all that stuff. The Bengals announced

(01:16:41):
today that they will be investing quitea bit of money, about one hundred
and one hundred to one hundred andtwenty million dollars to upgrade pay Corse Stadium
major improvements to pay Corpse Stadium,with construction running through twenty twenty six.
Projects will be in fame and facingareas that include updated video and audio systems,

(01:17:03):
renovations to suites and club lounges,concession upgrades, and beautification projects.
Is that because the stadium is ugly? I mean, I don't know that
it's ugly as much as it is. It's maybe the most boring stadium in

(01:17:25):
the NFL. Right, Like yousee a lot of these stadiums. They
show them on TV and look likefor a night game, Like the Bengals
have figured out how to make itlook good on TV. But the stadium
itself, eh, it needs work. So this is I think a very
good thing as the city has shownthat they will they will double back,

(01:17:53):
uh and they will invest in thestadium and and and make some some upgrades
one hundred and twenty million. Unfortunately, in this day and age, taran
like what they're gonna fix a coupleof seats at a video board and say
thank you? What are wrapp tothat nightclub? They won't put I don't

(01:18:15):
know that has not made it tofruition yet. I have a question though,
But when I've been around the BengalStadium and you know, you see
has played some games there, soI've been in and around the club area
is quite a bit going up tothe press box. Are those pat they

(01:18:36):
don't look they look fine to me? Like, I don't know. I'm
just saying if I was going tofocus my money on fixing something, maybe
the thought process is those are thepeople that are spending the most money,
so we want to spoil them alittle bit. But I don't know.
I'm sure you've seen those areas.They seem to look fine. Maybe they're

(01:19:01):
not the fanciest, but they lookfine from outside looking in. Yeah,
I've never sat there for a game. If anybody wants to take me,
uh, that's probably the one placeI would go to a game and sit.
Other than that, I do nothave a whole lot of interest in
NFL games. How about you onlyif my team's playing? Who's your team?

(01:19:25):
Mhm? Might be a free agent? Would would you have like a
would you put your fandom up onthe internet for like uh, like I
don't want to say for sale,but for like forbidding? Possibly possibly,
I know Uh don't you probably don'tknow Dana Beers from barstool. I heard

(01:19:48):
the name. Uh, he puthis up forbidding and he became a Cincinnati
fan of the bear Cats. Ohyeah, did he come to you see
a few years ago. Yeah,he's been. He's been a bunch of
times. He's he's been on theuh the Bearcat Journal podcast network several times.
Really funny dude, really good guy. I've I've hung out with him
down on the field at some gamesand uh and like I said, had

(01:20:09):
him on the show a couple oftimes. But uh yeah, maybe maybe
something like that. We're like theywoo you like he got to pull the
cannon for a touchdown. College gamesseem more fun than NFL games though for
sure, for sure a lot morepomping circumstance NFL. Like once the game
starts, it's the game. There'snot a lot of you know, they

(01:20:32):
have the running out onto the fieldthing and you know the Ed the Ed
Lewis or the Ray Lewis dance.Uh got people excited, But I don't
know. I kudos to the Bengalsas they announced some upgrades, so maybe

(01:20:53):
some of you get a summer Slamyeah. Maybe, Oh maybe this is
the start. Let's go to thephones real quick. Mike in Los Angeles,
Mike, cowboy, how are youdoing? Good? Was what was
wrong with my show with Austin yesterday? You said it was an interesting pairing
you guys stipp me. Oh,that was not on purpose by any stretch

(01:21:15):
of the imagination. That just wedidn't have time to get to you.
You hung up, and then youcalled back, and by the time you
called back, we didn't have anyspots. We didn't take any calls after
that. All right, Well,that wasn't on purpose by any stretch.
You know, I love talking toone your fault, I know whose fall
it was anyway, No, biggiepal, So how you doing? How

(01:21:36):
are you feeling? What's up?I've got a little bit of a sinus
deal, but other than that,I'm good. You got a ballbuster hot
one back there O today? Don'tit's a little steamy out there? Yeah,
but the good news is, uh, it's it's ninety outside. It's
probably only ninety six or ninety sevenin the studio. Aaron, what can

(01:22:00):
you do about that? You're thetechnician. You shuld be fixing that HVAC
making your boy have comfortable. Comeon. See damn, guys, I
know I'm just busting you. TheyUh, I love I took Indiana twenty
five to one to win the championship. I like it, and I'll tell

(01:22:23):
you why. Because they are threeguards are sensational. Haliburton can shoot the
lights out when he's hot. Oh, he's outstanding. He's outstanding. Memhart
is also a great shooter. Andthen you throw T. J. McConnell
in, who's an All Pro defensiveguard, and you've got you've got,

(01:22:48):
you've got something to deal with backyour Boston and you better be ready.
Well, Indiana is excellent defending thethree point line, and the Celtics shoot
a ton of threes, so fortheir shots forty seven, I don't get
it. But anyway, uh,Tarran and I actually, Mike, you're
gonna love this. In the nextsegment, Tarran and I are going to

(01:23:11):
talk NBA. Cool, dude.I love it. I know Taran loves
it too. I don't. Idon't know what to think about the MAVs
series. I think it's really even. But I am having a hard time
right now picking against Anthony Edwards.I am two, and then those three
big guys. I mean they're they'rethey're pretty stout and yeah, in their

(01:23:34):
deep, aren't they, Karen,They're pretty deep. Oh yeah teams and
their defense is incredible. I meannod Reed comes in there and he's a
beast. I love that team inMinnesota, and I'd love to see those
fans up there get them on.But not this year, not since I
got the Pacers at twenty five.That was I was real thrilled to get

(01:23:58):
to you like this one, Mike. I was many many years ago.
H when when Mick Cronin was stillthe head coach at Cincinnati, we were
we were watching an AAU game andhe saw nas read uh for the first
time and he said that dude's gonnagonna make a ton of money in the
NBA. And yeah, I thinkNick was his first offer. I'll be

(01:24:21):
damn well, Nick knows what he'stalking about. Dadney brother. He came
up with a good background from hisdaddy. His daddy that was all of
a coach, wasn't he He wasa hell of a coach. And and
did you know he has a WorldSeries right? Yes, I heard that.
I don't know it's you would havebeen the one to tell me.

(01:24:42):
Frankly, he was the lead scouton Chipper Jones and David Justice for the
Braves Dynasty. That's what it was. You're all over, Chad, You're
You're like omni president sometimes. I'vebeen doing this a long time now,
Mike, a long time. Hey, but I got to hit you with
this. I know Penn Stations agood place, and I like them myself,

(01:25:03):
but I'm sticking to this till theday. I got. The best
French fries you will ever have arefried in duck fat. It's not easy,
They're great. I love duck fatfries. I don't in town.
Does that duck pat fries have Itsprobably take a lot of research, probably

(01:25:24):
for me, Like huh, probablytoo bougie for me. Hey, and
real quick, if you'd let me. The Reds trying to figure out the
Reds dilemma. Uh hit and theend and the end they can't hit the
injuries. But listen, man,a lot of teams got guys busted up.

(01:25:44):
Look if Bueler didn't even start agame until about and a half ago,
Kershaw I hadn't pitched a pitch allyear. They've been just dipping into
the into their farm system and comingup with his to throw, and then
they got that dude, the bigmaple from whoever they got him from the
left hands. But in the months, he's been out for a couple of
weeks, so you know, everybody'sgot across there and you just got to

(01:26:08):
deal with it. But I stillthink she had they depleted that farm system
and now they got nothing to dipto. Yeah, I mean last year
wasn't supposed to have really happened likethat. It was supposed to happen in
kind of stages where these guys cameup kind of over time, and and
the way that last year played out, they all ended up in the big

(01:26:29):
leagues. And yeah, you're right. I mean I do think like Edwin
Arroyo would have been a guy thatwould have been nice to have ready to
come up here and maybe play thirdbase instead of Candelario at times. But
he's out for a while and thenext wave is coming. But to your
point on the injuries, yes,the injuries are a factor. Losing three

(01:26:53):
starters, you know, three guysthat really haven't played all season are a
factor. Also in fact there wellBenson hasn't hit Spencer Steeer hasn't hit,
India hasn't hit. Candelario has beenbetter lately, but but you know,
he was awful in the month ofin the month of April, Freiley is

(01:27:15):
not hitting with any power at all. So yes, it is a factor
that you have some injuries that haveimpacted you, but there are also five
regulars that are essentially giving you nothing. And that's just as big a reason
that this team is struggling as theguys that are out, because if those
guys were carrying their weight, thisteam would be in a better position.

(01:27:40):
Yeah. They you know, Tonyand Austin we're talking to about Milwaukee.
I started looking into Milwaukee a littlebit. They hit this not out of
first five guys in the order,hitting over three hundred. Yeah, yep.
And they lost two of their bestpictures with Woodruff and Corbyn Burns.
But they're still getting it done.So I don't know. But anyway,

(01:28:01):
thanks for the time, my friend. It's always good to hear your voice.
Appreciate you, Mike, and wewill talk soon. Thanks man,
Thanks Thanks Taron. There you go, Mike in l A. Let's take
a break. Tarn and I aregoing to talk to some NBA when we
come back. Since that's ESPN fifteenthirty, Here we go, Yo Yo

(01:28:33):
knows this photo No Jack because Bocan't raps in peace Dog No Boy very
timely at the time. The that'show old that song is is the bow
Nos commercials. We were popular.The best athlete I've ever seen in person,

(01:29:00):
Bo Jackson. I watched him hitone like three quarters of the way
up at the up the grass inKansas City at a game with my dad
when I was fourteen thirteen, fourteenyears old. Just incredible, incredible.
NBA Tern Conference Finals begin tonight Celticsand Pacers. I think it's gonna be

(01:29:25):
a good series. I'm not abeliever in the Celtics, No, I
want to be like, they havereally good players. Also part of this,
one of my worst like scouting misseswas probably Jason Tatum. I thought
he was gonna be good, like, you know, a third option for

(01:29:46):
a team, and he has beenmuch better than that. But I don't
think they're gonna win it all.I think they probably get by Indiana,
but I think this is gonna gosick and probably seven. Yeah Indian.
It could score with anybody, itjust matter. Can they defend Yeah?
And they do defend the three,which is what Boston relies on. Correct.

(01:30:11):
The other thing, Tarn Boston justtakes games off that they do like
they just they just look awful.They just it's like they just decide not
to show up at times. AndI think it is a healthy you need.
It's probably the the best team they'veplayed all playoffs. Yeah, and
and guess what, they have beenable to take games off because they've been

(01:30:33):
superior to their their opponents. Idon't know that they're that far ahead of
the Pacers. And then especially withno Porzingis, either that that really was
worthing me why I don't I won'tpick them because they need Porzingis to win
a championship. Are you gonna takethem over Indiana? That's all right now?

(01:30:55):
Yeah? No, No, you'regonna take the Pacers seven. Yeah,
I'm gonna go six. So let'sPorzingis comes back by he has to
come back by a game three six. Huh. Yeah, the Pacers get
it done at home in six,because I mean Boston won't come out on
fire tonight. But yeah, butgame two, I think that it's gonna
be one of them let down games, and Indiana can get one. Tarn.

(01:31:15):
Here's the thing. Somebody said thislast night. I kind of agree.
There's there hasn't been this much pressureon a team to win a championship
at this point since the second yearin Miami for Lebron and d Wade and
Bosh that one got handed to home. But that's another concestion. But but

(01:31:39):
I'm saying like the pressure was immenseat that point in time. They had
built a super team. The firstyear didn't work like they had to win
it in year two. For theCeltics, this is set up as well
as you could possibly. The defendingchamps are gone. You know, this
is set up for Boston to win. If they don't win it now,

(01:32:00):
Tarren, this group's never winning thetitle in Boston because there are teams that
are getting better where they are kindof at their peak. There are teams
that are rising up, and Idon't think they do it. Uh.
I'm fascinated by Dallas and in Minnesota, I'm not really. I may think

(01:32:21):
Minnesota runs. So with this,the health of Luca Is is too big
to overlook, and with Minnesota beingthe best defensive team in the NBA,
he's gonna it's gonna wear on Luca. You know they're gonna beat him up.
Yes, they're gonna be super physicalwith them. They're yeah, i'll
give you that, like they're gonnabut he's still so skilled. Yes,

(01:32:41):
Now, unless they get the sameproduction from PJ. Washington they got in
the last series. Yeah, that'sthe only hope they have. I think
I'm leaning I'm leaning Wolves in six. There, I'll go six, but
I and I can ease to seefive. You can see five and then
and then you got you got,you got ant raising the title. Yeah,

(01:33:06):
I too, I want to seeit so bad. Yeah, like
Chad Dollar, Who's Who's Cincinnati's oneof you know, associate head coach.
He recruited ant Man to Georgia.He was his lead recruiter and just hearing
him talk about the guy like,I love him. I love him.
I I am very upset that Idid not get to cover ant Man in

(01:33:30):
college. I'm just I just didn'tsee this coming out of Georgia. I
thought he would be good. Yeah, that team was so bad though.
That was part of it is hedidn't have any help around him at all.
They were bad. He had hehad flashes of this when he was
at Georgia. But it wasn't consistent, right, he had some games where

(01:33:53):
you're like, whoa. That's whyI thought it woul hurt, because I
think he was just gonna be tooinconsistent. Yeah. N he's twenty two.
Yeah, he's twenty two. Andselfishly, I hope the Pacers will
win because Minnesota Indiana NBA Finals.So I can make that drive to a
final game, and then if thePacers do get a championship, you can
hang out. There's nothing more funthan hanging out in the championship city the

(01:34:14):
night they win a championship. True, get together. Cincinnati. I don't
like Kentucky, but I've gone downtwice when they've won Lexington. Yeah,
when I was younger, it wasa lot of fun. The one time
I went, I went down whenthey lost to Arizona. Miles Simon maybe
no, I don't know. Theylost Arizona. That wasn't this fun.

(01:34:34):
That was a rough night anyhow.All right, let's take a break.
Kegan nickoson coming up next to talka little bit of bear Cats. Sincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati's esp That'show you put in a good mood,

(01:35:00):
you know that what do you thinkthe odds are? Kegan knows who Shaka
Khan is? Great? I thinkI think great those heard the name Chaka
Khan. Zero point four percent.She's got pikes pikes, Kegan, are

(01:35:27):
you familiar with Shaka Khan. It'sexactly what Karen said. I've heard the
name that I couldn't tell you ifa song they wrote, or if I
heard a song, I wouldn't beable to identify it. Did you say
they? I love being belittle everything. It's my favorite activity. It's a

(01:35:50):
it's a female singer, Shaka Khan. She was just singing in that song.
She's a legend, legendary Shaka Khan. It could be a group for
all I know. It is not. In fact, it is not.
How you doing, buddy, I'mdoing great. Long weekend in Indianapolis,

(01:36:11):
watching a lot of Uibo action withyou, and getting ready for Kansas City
this weekend. Even longer weekend thisweekend because two hour drives are a lot
better than nine hour drives. Butthat's true. Yeah, we'll have fun.
It'll be great. What's happening inOklahoma right now? That's right now.

(01:36:34):
They're in Texas. That's right,they're in Texas. It's happening in
Texas right now with the good baseballteam in town. They're taking on UCS
in the first round of the BigTwelve Tournament. I think I saw they
are five seed taken on eight seedUCS. Yeah, Society's the five seed

(01:36:55):
eight yeah. Yeah, and they'retrying to make a case for the tournament.
I know they're firmly on the bubbleright now, so they've got to
win a few games to try totry to get in the good graces of
the selection committee. But I thinkit's less important the Big Twelve Baseball Tournament.
If you're comparing it to like abasketball scenario, I think it's gonna

(01:37:18):
have to be a pretty deep runto kind of push them over the over
the edge. Yeah, I mean, I think I saw one of the
projections today had them in the firs. They were fourth in the first four
out. So yeah, you know, there's a lot of teams playing there,
some moving up there, some movingdown. Also, I am a

(01:37:39):
big believer. I don't know howtrue this is in baseball, but at
least in basketball, they don't reallycare all that much about NC Double A
or conference tournaments. Excuse me forNCUA a selection. So unless you do
something like you make it all theway to Saturday and you're and you're playing
for a chance to go to thechampionship game, it's going to be difficult.

(01:38:00):
Buttler Man. Jordan Bischell is oneof my favorite coaches in town after
getting to know him quite a bitthis year, he is outstanding. Yeah,
And if there's a team that canpull off the streak of wins just
hitting the crap into the ball andkind of shutting down the inputs the teams,
it's going to be Cincinnati. They'vejust caught lightning in the bottle at

(01:38:23):
the latter half of the season andwon a lot of games to be some
really good teams. TTU won aseries against TC, won a series against
West Virginia, took one and theocall almost told the last game of this
series. Josh Hagen and brand slamand then they carry some momentum into the
Big twelve tournament. You just think, if that Yukon game doesn't get rained

(01:38:46):
out, it could be a completelydifferent situation. And that's what's so tough
to swallower for this team. ButBischell's building something, and in year one
there was a lot of surprise.He wasn't, you know, the Big
twelve coach of the year. Buthe's setting up a lot of momentum.
Unfortunately, as I just refreshed socialmedia, UCF with a solo home run

(01:39:11):
in the top of the second,so they lead two to nothing. Top
two. So that's where that isat. The other big news that happened
on Friday. I talked about ita little bit on Friday on this station
with Mowegger, but I wanted yourthoughts. Cincinnati goes out and lands a
commitment from one of the best transferportal players in this cycle, Dylan Mitchell,

(01:39:36):
a former five star top ten recruit, started two years at Texas,
started seventy one games, averages overnine points, over eight rebounds a game.
It looks like Cincinnati's probably filled uptheir roster. I never say never,
because it's twenty twenty four and whothe hell knows. What is your

(01:40:00):
take on Mitchell and what he addsto Cincinnati. I think he adds a
lot of depth and talent to ateam that was already a candidate to make
the tournament before his additions. Ithink he's a veteran insa tournament player,
who's been there multiple times. AndI know you kind of talked about this

(01:40:20):
with Aaron, but you know,he didn't bolt out of Texas because of
a bad situation or anything like that. I think he's trying to take advantage
of his opportunities, and I thinkhe knows what he needs to do to
get better and kind of make thatjump into the NBA Draft. But he's
the perfect candidate to take over afterJohn Newman, kind of a different skill

(01:40:43):
set a little bit longer. Butif you take the starting lineup of Jesus
where Day Day and then Dan andSiemos and you kind of just put Kill
in Missill right where John Newman wouldhave been, and then kind of backed
that up with a Zase bendego tofive. It's a really complimentary lineup and
a lot of talent and a lotof experience. And you know, Les

(01:41:03):
Miller, he's not given himself anyexcuses this season. He's gonna a talent
pack roster that should make a tournamentand a team that should be ranked in
the top twenty five come this twentytwenty four, twenty five seasons. Yeah,
they're they're going to And I thinkthis is the other part that maybe
we haven't talked about as much aswe should have. They're going to a

(01:41:28):
twenty game Big twelve schedule that isgoing and there's no bye week, so
you're not gonna have like one weekoff where you you don't play from Saturday
to Saturday. Every week is goingto have two games and every game is
going to be a battle in thisleague and you're gonna have ten straight weeks
of it. Depth is going tobe massive the way that this is going

(01:41:53):
to be structured. And I meanwe saw with Kansas last year as Kansas
got to the end of those eighteengames, they didn't have depth, and
they were beat up and they andthey really had to play their starting five,
uh you know, thirty five minutesa night, and it cost them.
And I think Mitchell gives Cincinnati achance to hopefully absorb some of that

(01:42:14):
and keep minutes down while still beingable to be effective and talented. Yeah,
and I think that's where the additionsof Aaronson Page and Connor Hickman and
then guys off the bench like JoshReid whichever whichever point card is going to
come off the bench and Gigsel Jamesor David Thomas most likely. I think

(01:42:35):
that's where those guys are going tobe massive. And you brought in a
lot of talented guys, and theguys who have a year of experience in
the big tub. They know whatto expect from opposing fan bases. They
know what to expect from these teams, these these game plans and these schemes,
and they also have a hunger.They know what they could have done
last year if some of the coinfoot games went the other direction. And

(01:42:59):
it's such a deep roster that youknow, those guys like Anton Page and
Connor Hicklin, they might be thedifference in the game. And the depth
this Cincinnati team has is probably moretalented than the depth a lot of other
day twelve teams have. And Ithink Wes Miller saw what last year was
in the crunch time, buckets thatwere given up and the minutes that were

(01:43:21):
needed with more talent, and Ithink you just replaced that. There's a
lot of talk about roster construction.Last year. You had a lot of
big men. You have four centers, you know, three almost four seven
footers that were on your roster.You also had Odioguama. They were a

(01:43:42):
little they were very thin to guard. It didn't end up. They got
away with it with Gisel James andDayde Thomas staying healthy all the way to
the end when Thomas broke his foot. But when you look at this roster,
it looks more balanced, doesn't it. Yeah, it looks like more
of a big twelve roster. Iknow we talked about that right after Jill

(01:44:04):
and Mitchell committed. But a lotof the really good big twelve schools aren't
flooded with big men, and theydon't rely on big men to kind of
be a centerpiece of their offense.They're there to rebound, they're there to
block shots, and they're there toget alley oops. That's what you saw
a lot through the entire conference.They're there to watch all be thrown.

(01:44:27):
Sometimes they were catchable, sometimes theywere not. So yeah, most of
the times they were not. Iwas trying to be nice. That's when,
like, when a lot of peopletalk about UC needs a back to
the basket guy, I'm like,no, they need any wings that can
make mid rank shots, any guyswho can make threees. And then the

(01:44:48):
big guy that is in the offenseis a cherry on top, just a
reliable piece down there that can finisharound the rim, because I just think
the talented teams that you see rightnow, they can score by shooting,
and they can score by getting tothe ram. It's not necessarily you know,
the Kyle Washington and Gary Clark typeoffenses anymore. So I think Western

(01:45:10):
Moers saw that and he decided,you know, let's not go get another
just here, big man. Let'sget a guy who can play the stretch
three in the floor and then reboundhis eyes off basically, And I know,
yeah, I think it's it's interesting. Like if you tell me you're
gonna give me Zach Edy or DonovanKlinging, yeah, okay, I'll take

(01:45:31):
that scoring back to the basket bigthat dog will hunt. But in today's
game, they they won. Theyreally struggle a lot. Most of those
guys and Klingon and Edie were sobig that they could play drop coverage and
make up for it with the factthat they were seven to four what was
Eadie seven, seven thirteen. Buta lot of those bigger back to the

(01:45:56):
basket guys get drug out on thefloor on defense and teams go right at
them and in in in ball coverage, ball screen coverage. I prefer having
guys that can move. I preferhaving guys uh that that can move their
feet and stay uh kind of inthe vicinity and and not have the defense
break down. I think they're gonnahave a lot more of that this year,

(01:46:19):
uh and and especially a lot moreof it with guys that are in
their second or third year in thesystem, which, if you've paid attention,
a lot of the teams that thatreally came on the middle of the
season uh and through the NCAA tournamentwere teams that have been together for more

(01:46:40):
than just that one year. Andwith with Dada Thomas and Gisel James and
Dan Skillings and Simas Lukasis and asHe's Vandego and you know Josh Reid and
and you keep going up and downthe roster. Outside of the the five
new guys, you've got what eightguys that that have been here more than
a yeah, and you've got guysthat are consistently trending to give higher production

(01:47:06):
next season. This isn't a thingwhere they're coming back and they're expected to
produce around the same amount or thesame points for games saverybound, same assists.
These are guys that are probably goingto score more, they're going to
turn it all over less, They'regoing to know how to run the offense
and get assists to their teammates,and it's probably just going to be a
smoother game of basketball for the Cincinnatiteam. And I think that's what's key.

(01:47:30):
But you know, it's still gotto stay healthy. Dada Thomas's injury
is one that could have some effectsif that's not fully taken care before the
season. But I think it's goingto be an exciting year. I know
Davier is supposed to be pretty goodtoo, and that Fisher Arena crowd of
that Crosstown shootout is going to beelectric. I'm really looking forward to that

(01:47:55):
game. Gonna set the tone inthe non conference for Cincinnati if they can
get a win, break that streakof losses and then just go from there.
The confidence that you have, allright, man, I appreciate it.
Where can they find you real quick, quick, quick, quick fast
on a because it's Scorecord journal bythere you go, there's Kegan tearing them

(01:48:16):
out for a little while. Ithink I'm in in like a next Friday,
not this Friday, but next Friday, something like that. Some wrestler
user. I heard it, wemade it, we did it. That's
a wrap. We'll be back tomorrow. I'll see you next time. This
is The Moegger Show on ESPN fifteenthirty. I'm listening to what sad tirl

(01:48:36):
sang sang about us. Go toRoe. I just want my something that
too wrong. When you're alone,it gets mide. Don't act visit you
didn't know lett me play with her. I'm working late, I said,

(01:48:57):
I'll soon be home. All aboutthe girl. Hold, let me tell
you what she cried for? Why? Because I'm flying, super flying naked.
I'm flying, you know, thesuper fly for me, I'm super
duper and I'm super duper fly fly