5/4/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You have played Little League or sand lot baseball, if
you have been a parent of a kid who plays
Little League or sand lot baseball.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
If you are currently a Little League or sand Lot's
baseball player, then you know exactly what Saturday was like
in Pittsburgh. Or the Reds tied a Major League record
with seven consecutive walks, We've all been there. If you
have spent any time around youth baseball, and I will
be painfully honest, it's been a while since I spent

(00:35):
any time around youth baseball, because well, I have a daughter,
she's almost nine years old. She doesn't play baseball, and
so I have no compelling reason to go to a
lot of youth baseball games. But I played in a
bunch when I was a kid, and watching Rhet Louder
and Connor Phillips on Saturday made me remember when a
kid by the name of Brian Dettweiler when I was

(00:56):
in the fifth grade, Brian Dettweiler wanted to pick and
they finally let him pitch, and on the day that
he pitched, everybody made a big deal about it. When
he finally got to pitch, he could not throw a strike.
I remember standing in center field, just like imploring him,
watching the body language of my teammates, and more than anything,
with each non strike, which with each ball that didn't

(01:20):
come close to the strike zone, just hearing the groans
in the crowd. That was in nineteen eighty eight. Thirty
eight years later, two major league pitchers, two major league
Reds pitchers, made me think of what it was like
to watch Brian Dettwiler not throw strikes. Good afternoon, Al Muheger,
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening today. Hope
you had a great weekend. Lots went down this weekend.

(01:42):
We had an incredible Kentucky Derby. We had a fun
flying Pig race weekend. We had an iconic performance from
Evander three points for FC Cincinnati, and we had the
Reds getting swept in Pittsburgh. Remember Friday's show. It was fun.
We were at Belterra Park and we spent a lot
of time talking about the Reds and their chances of

(02:05):
getting to ninety wins. Like that was the thing we
did on this show, discussing their bona fides, discussing their
staying power, discussing the chances of getting to ninety victories.
That was just three days ago. We're not really doing
that today now, are we. Unfortunately the answer is no. Look,
even when the Reds were playing well, and I guess

(02:27):
this is what we're gonna get to today. A few
different things. One is simply this question with the Reds
in Chicago tonight, by the way, if if you're paying
attention to this evening and what time the game's gonna
start or maybe for not, I guess they've moved up
the first pitch. It was going to be a seven
to forty Eastern time game. I guess they're expecting storms
later tonight in Chicago, so they'll play this evening at

(02:50):
sevent ten. Was this weekend no big deal? Or was
this weekend the sign of the wheels starting to fall off?
Time will tell, And I'm interested in what you think
in five point three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty, because
even when the Reds were winning, even when the Reds
were winning twenty of their first thirty one games, you

(03:10):
had to acknowledge some stuff that might be a little
bit easier to talk about now. And that's the fact
that this team has shaky starting pitching. Shaky starting pitching
because of injury. Nico Lodolo is scheduled to come back
this week, which is good, but shaky starting pitching. There's
an experience, there's youth, there's some guys who this season

(03:34):
just haven't been that reliable at shaky starting pitching. This
was true on Friday, it's true today and offensively they
have issues. That was a true statement autopening day. It's
a true statement ten days into the season. It was
a true statement. Three weeks into the season. It's a

(03:56):
true statement late last week. It's a true statement today. Offensively,
this team has issues. And so here's another question. Where
is the offense going to come from? Sal Stewart, the
National League Rookie of the Month for the month of April.
Now for weeks the answer has been Sal, Stuart and

(04:16):
Elie Dela Cruz putting up good numbers carrying this offense. Inevitably,
there was going to be a dip in production with
Sal specifically. Maybe the league was going to catch up
to him. Maybe it's just a bad stretch, a bad series.
But you know what has made his season to date
so impressive, and we have talked about this, but what

(04:38):
has made his season to date so impressive has been
the fact that not only has he been statistically very good.
Not only does he not look like he's in over
his head, but he is doing what he is doing
and he's carried the team. And that's not meant to
discredit anybody because Ellie Dela Cruz is also having a
good season. But it was fair to wonder what happened

(05:00):
when Sal Stewart cools off. Where is the offense going
to come from? Who is the offense going to come from?
Are the answers limited to what they currently have on
the roster right now? Could the answers include some guys
who are in Louisville? Could the answers include some guys
who are currently playing for other teams? Where's the offense

(05:22):
going to come from? And when they're winning? Like, I
know how this works, right when they're winning, and we'll
worry about that later. They're winning, Hey, they're okay, cool?
What happens when they're not? And it's just three games.
It's a very good chance this team was not going
to go through the entire season without getting swept. But
there's a few different issues that manifested themselves this week

(05:43):
in Pittsburgh. One is that the starting pitching is shaky,
Brady Singer is shaky. Ratt Lauder, who on Saturday made
his thirteenth big league start in large part because of inexperience,
is shaky game to game. This is true with an
Andrew Abbott. This is true with Rat Louder. This has
been true with Brandon Williamson, who unfortunately is on the

(06:06):
injured list. It's been true with Brady Singer. It's maybe
less true with Chase Burns, who was terrific yesterday, but
game in, game out, like, you have no idea what
you're gonna get from the Red starting pitcher. That's not
a thing that we can say in June and July
and August and have realistic expectations that this team is
going to compete for something meaningful. It's also fair to

(06:28):
wonder where is the offense going to come from? This
team is twenty third in leadoff hitter ops. That's ops
from hitters in the top spot in the batting order,
twenty third in all of baseball, and leadoff hitter ops
the two hole there twentieth. The Reds are right now.
Red's third base is the least least productive position. Least productive,

(06:51):
I'm men do this again. Red's third basemen our least
productive are there. Red's third base production is worse than
the league. I'm as good at talking as the Reds
are good at doing everything right now. Red's third base
production is worst in the league. The ops among Red's
third basemen worst in the league. The ops among Red's

(07:13):
right fielders worst in the league. We're now trying JJ
bleda out there. The non ending, never ending spinning wheel
of options the Reds could use in the outfield continued
this week. Reese shigns. We spent about two days hoping
he could be the savior. That's not going to be
the case. Blake done his back for either cup of coffee,

(07:36):
god knows what number, or maybe that guy could stick
for a while. Your guess is as good as mine.
But the Reds are getting league worst production from two positions,
two positions that you typically associate with some level of offense.
Dead last at third, dead last in right field, by
the way, for what it's worth, twenty fifth at second base,
that's primarily Matt McClain catcher, twenty sixth. So like there's

(08:03):
a whole lot of areas on the team, and like
in like Matt McClain's case, I mentioned two whole production
just twenty if best I mentioned second base production twenty
fifth best. So that's one guy that you can you
could point at twice. But there's a lot of areas
on this team where this where they're just getting well
below league average offensive production and in two cases right

(08:24):
field in third base worst in all of baseball production.
These things are not sustainable. These things are not sustainable
if the idea is to genuinely compete in the National
League Central and Man, look, this team has been terrific
in one run games, in extra inning games, in two
run games. They haven't lost a game decided by two

(08:46):
runs or less. That's terrific. Right now, I guess they
lost yesterday, so I'm coming into yesterday. They were undefeated
in games decided by two runs less. Finally, lose one
nothing yesterday. Chase Burns was terrific. Red still lose the ballgame.
Where's the offense going to come from? Where is the
offense going to come from? And where's the offense going

(09:08):
to come from? If salth Stewart's not batting, salth Stewart's
allowed a batting slump, salth Stewart is allowed to go
through what a lot of rookies go through, which is
a wide swing of ups and downs. Right now, it
feels like the league is calling up to him a
little bit. How does he adjust to that? Salth Stewart
still has every chance to be the National League Rookie

(09:29):
of the Year. Salth Stewart has every chance to still
be a very, very good hitter. But they've asked him
to do a lot right now he seems incapable of
doing what he has been doing. So where does the
offense come from? Does it come from within? Does it
come from the big league roster is currently constructed right now?

(09:52):
And if the answer is yes, then well from who specifically,
because there are a lot of players on this team
who's poor to twenty twenty six production mirrors either what
we saw from them all of last year, or what
we saw for them in the second half of last season,

(10:12):
or in kee Brian Hayes's case, what we've come to
expect from that player. Where's the offense going to come from?
Five point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is our
phone number? Eight six six seven h two three seven
seven six works as well. The shakiness of the starting
pitching gets rectified by better health and the accumulation of experience,

(10:37):
and maybe there's a time later this year, maybe it's
by the time he makes his next start where we
talked about Ret Louder and how poorly he pitched on Saturday,
and we all just go, you know what, just one
of those days. That is my hope, and frankly, that's
my assumption that we're going to do that. But in
what is supposed to be a playoff or bust year

(10:59):
or NL sent Division title or bust year, boy, there's
still a lot of unknowns, still a lot of variables
that you can't wrap your brain around, still a lot
of inexperience, and still a lot of guys that are
starting to develop ah track record of not being very productive.
None of this is intended to sound like an overreaction
to a three games series in Pittsburgh that just went awry.

(11:24):
At the same time, a lot of the themes that
have come out of that series were there when they
were winning. I think they're just easier to confront now
that they're not. Sixteen after three o'clock at moeg or
on Twitter hit me up there. Thanks to a Delta Dental,
Delta Dental is building healthy smart, vibrant communities for all
good at deltadloh dot com. You can also how we'll

(11:44):
do messages. I've never looked at my messages on Instagram.
Do that if you want. Ad Moleger Facebook two sixteen
after three o'clock. We've got to have ce Cincinnati's three
points from Saturday night to talk about the terrific performance
from Evander. We'll get to that a little bit later on.
Some Bengal stuff later on in the show, an AFC
North team that is being held hostage, and so much more.

(12:06):
There's a lot of ground to cover. Glad you're here
for it. My name is Maleger. Sixteen after three o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Minador two
work and then we draw the winner two weeks from
Thursday at four thirty five, right here on ESPN fifteen
thirty mo year Long, twenty twenty six. It is up

(12:26):
and running right now. Good luck, twenty two minutes away
from four o'clock. I've been offered bribes, and by the way,
I have nothing to do with who wins. They have
a promotions department that randomly selects the winner. So I'll
take whatever you want to give me, but it ain't
gonna help you win the contest. Five point three seven

(12:49):
four nine fifteen thirty is our phone number. The Brendan
Sorosby story, so he has retained attorney Jeff Kessler to
try to regain his college eligibility. This according to ESPN's
Pete Damil and Adam Scheffer. As you know, Soarsby currently
owner NCBA Investigation for Sports Gambling. The school announced on
Monday Texas Tech did that Soorsby is checking into a

(13:11):
residential treatment program for a gambling addiction. Kessler is a
prominent anti trust attorney, was strong with a strong record
of success against the nci DOUBLEA. He was one of
the lead attorneys for the Planets in the House versus
NCAA case. He has also represented the National Football League
Players Association on behalf of, among others, Tom Brady, Ray,

(13:32):
Rice Ezekiel Elliott, Adrian Peterson, and the New Orleans Saints
bounty gate players. That's Brendan Sorosby's attorney. We have our
legal guy on, attorney Store W. Penrose from Manila Law
Group tomorrow and we're going to talk in greater detail
about this right now. Obviously, here the angle that most

(13:54):
care about, myself included is the UC angle. What could
this mean for the University of Cincinnati, And maybe I'm
on an island here I find it. I find it
hard to believe that if you are worried about this story,
the knowledge that Brendan Soresby was potentially or allegedly violating

(14:16):
NCUBA rules, if that knowledge got to John Cunningham's office,
I find it hard to believe. And you could say
what you want about him as an administrator, and many
will find it hard to believe that somebody whose career
is tied to ensuring that the school doesn't get an
NCUBA hot water is going to sit on that knowledge

(14:37):
and not do anything about it. That just strains credibility.
As far as I'm concerned. If time proves that I'm wrong,
then I'll certainly acknowledge that I am would not be
the first time, probably won't be the last, but just
worth where this sits right now. And I had two
conversations with people who I would say are close to
the situation, and I said, like, I don't know, man,

(14:58):
I find it hard to believe that John Cunningham, knowing
what the possible ramifications would be for sitting on it
and then having it come out that he was sitting
on this knowledge that Brendan Sorosby was violating in CAA rules.
I finder harder believe that he would sit on that
and not do anything about it, knowing what he would
have to lose, And both folks that I talk to
who are close to the situation concurred. Then there is

(15:22):
the Soresby part of this Number one. He has not
yet been declared and eligible lawyering up would certainly suggest
that he understands that that possibility exists, and it certainly
feels like that is as of right now, the most
likely outcome that he has declared permanently ineligible to play
college football, and then what he does with the supplemental
draft or what he does in relation to the NFL.

(15:42):
Your guess is as good as mine. I am not
a legal scholar. I'm not a scholar of anything, but
this does seem like it's going to be relatively open
and shut. Was he gambling? Feels like the answer is yes.
Was he gambling on things that he has prohibited by
the NCAA rules to gamble on? The answer is either

(16:04):
yes or no. If the answer is yes, then his
he's not eligible anymore. It gets there's sometimes when it
comes to NCAA cases, there's there's gray area and there's ambiguity,
and then there doesn't feel like there's a lot here.
Now there's a difference between was he gambling and was
he gambling on things that would be in violation of

(16:26):
the NCAA rules. For instance, he's allowed to bet on NASCAR,
he's allowed to bet on UFC. My understanding is he's
allowed to bet on horses because those are things that
are not n CUBA sanctioned championship events. But the NCAA
has sanction championship events in baseball. So can he bet
on Major League Baseball?

Speaker 3 (16:45):
No?

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Football? So can he bet on college football? No? So
there is a difference, But just common sense would dictate
that if he's betting, and he's betting on NASCAR, and
he's betting on UFC, the chances are that's at some
point in a seep into areas that he's not allowed.
And it's been reported that he was betting on pitch
outcomes in Cincinnati Reds games, all at Great American Ballpark,

(17:06):
And again none of us know specifically to what extent
he was gambling. I'm not going to say anything that's irresponsible,
but it does feel like this is pretty cut and dry.
Was he gambling, yes, by his own admission, what was
he gambling on? And then there's a whole bunch of
things that if he says I was gambling on them,

(17:28):
he's not eligible anymore. I'm again, I'm not a lawyer.
That won't surprise anybody to hear, not a legal scholar.
I certainly understand the reputation and accomplishment of the lawyer
that he has retained. But there's my sort of dumb
guy from the couch question. Okay, did he bet on
something that he shouldn't have? Did he bet on something

(17:50):
that the NCAA says he's not allowed to bet on it?
The answer is yes, okay, cool, but not eligible to
play college football anymore? And then going to what's next, Well,
see if it turns out to be that cut and dry,
this story is not going anywhere. Seventeen minutes away from
four o'clock, we got a pull a question we got
to get to here on Twitter coming up in just

(18:11):
a second at moegar. Thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Whatever
you're paying for insurance, you can pay a lot less.
My friends that United Heartland Insurance can help at uh
i NS dot com. How much longer do we wait
before acknowledging that what we're waiting for is not going
to happen. That is coming up at four oh five

(18:31):
on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
And Hunter Green not the disabled list anymore. But that's
that's all right, It's cool, all good time. You asked
who's out to give you? Who's out? Five point three
seven four nine, fifteen thirty is our number? Eight sixty
six seven oh two three seven seven six? Uh, why not, Mike? Mike,

(19:02):
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Mike, How are you?

Speaker 4 (19:06):
My God in heaven? That was the fastest response in
the history of the Molleger.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, I I have a slight bone to pick with you.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Well, yesterday I was running errands, that's rue, go to
the grocery store, and I was listening to Sunday Morning
Sports Talk Down the Hall with Mike Petralia. Mike Petralia
was talking about his ramp in Philadelphia seventy six ers fandom,
which is fine, And I heard you tell him you
hope the Sixers advance and beat the New York.

Speaker 4 (19:37):
Next Yeah, I do.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
It hurts. I do it hurts.

Speaker 4 (19:44):
Oh well, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
But you know all that we've been through together, it hurts.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
The Sixers haven't been haven't even snipped him. At least
you've been.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
Somewhat close over the last few years.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Close to what So how you gonna handle MB? How
are you going to do it?

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Nobody's gonna handle him. No, nobody's nobody's gonna handle him.
What's going to handle him? As the calendar? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (20:15):
And hurt again?

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah? I mean like, look when when when fully healthy,
they can't stop him? When when fully healthy, there's nobody
who can. But he doesn't play back to back.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
Games, Wendy might be able to.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, a lot would have to happen for that matchup
to happen. Philly m B doesn't play him back to backs,
so he's gonna play. If this series gets to a
six game, they will have played eleven games in twenty
one days. He will have played personally in nine games
in two weeks. I I am skeptical that his body

(20:52):
could hold up. Now what I'm not skeptical of is
how great Tyrese Maxey is. And he's a problem as well.
If this was simply about starting fives, I would pick Philadelphia,
but it's not, and so I will take the team
that is deeper. I will take the team that is
playing very well, and I'll take the team that doesn't
have a large injury question mark covering over it's arguably

(21:15):
its best player.

Speaker 5 (21:16):
And you do have the home court advantage.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
So that they do, and that hasn't met nearly as
much the would Knicks have been weird at home in
the postseason, They've been really good on the road. That
to me isn't as much of a factor. But yeah, man,
if MB gets through this series healthy, nobody's stopping them.
But no team in the league leans on its starters more.
They're gonna play tonight, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday before an

(21:39):
extra day between Games four and five. I believe that
schedule will catch up to them. I think the Knicks
win the series in six.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
What worries me about the Knicks, to tell you the truth,
is their defense on their card play.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yes, no, no, Tyrese Maxie will abuse them and they
played in the playoffs two years ago, I scored forty
five in Game five and won the game by himself, Like,
there's nobody on that team that can get in front
of him. Now, I would also say this, I'm not
sure how Philly defends the Knicks when Karl Anthony Towns
is being used the way he is. I'm not sure

(22:15):
how Philly defends the Knicks if the Michel bridges at
the last two games of the series against Atlanta shows up.
I mean, and again, like, if if you make it
about starting five versus starting five, it's hard to pick
against Philadelphia. But when you incorporate the bench decided advantage
New York, yeah, that can.

Speaker 5 (22:34):
Become a big deal. You know, I was kind of
patronizing Mike.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
No, all right, that's okay. No, man, Look you're you're
you're you're rooting for the Sixers. That's all right.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
Well he brought up. You know, as much as I hated,
I love the Sixers until I can't move to after
Vietnam and got that.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
So I thought I thought we were boys. I thought
we were tight. But now you tell Mike Patchell you're
in for his team, it's okay.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Well, you know what he said. He said his favorite
sixer of all time was Andrew Tony from Southwest Louisiana State.
And I have to admit Andrew Tony had one of
the He and Bernard King had two of the most
beautiful jump shots I have ever seen in my life.

Speaker 5 (23:17):
Other than other than.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Kurt, Andrew Tony was the heck of a player who
unfortunately was befelled by having bad feet. You are correct, Yeah,
he was.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
He was something else.

Speaker 5 (23:27):
And I'll never forget that team with Bobby Jones and
Doctor Jay and chopped with Thunder and Calwell Jones come
off the bench and we can go on and.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Mo Cheeks, my boy, Mo Cheeks, little Mo. I love
that name. You ought to love that guy, Mo Cheeks,
I do.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
I absolutely love Maurice Cheeks. Do you know which team
Maurice Cheeks is on the staff of No, he's a
New York next assistant coach. That's all right, Go go
go root for your sixers. That's okay, Mike, Yeah, I
better here comes a point. I'd better put my phone
down right now before we're boring everybody with this NBA conversation.

(24:05):
There's anything else you'd like to talk about?

Speaker 4 (24:07):
Yes? Do you think that the Reds lack of interaction
with the Central Division other than that initial series with
Pittsburgh open here. Do you think that that's going to
end up working against him? Because right now I'm telling you,
Oliver Garmel or whatever, Marmel, Yes, they did the Manager

(24:30):
of the Year.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
He's going to win it well if they did it
now without it, without a doubt, Yes, without a doubt.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
Where did the Cardinals come from? What is going on here?
I'm breaking out?

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, I mean they just took that Pittsburgh team to
beat the Reds three straight. Saint Louis went to Pittsburgh
and won four consecutive and then did a number up
until yesterday on your Dodgers, and I mean the out
of them. Yeah. So you know, JJ Weatherholt is getting

(25:04):
Rookie of the Year buzz, even though these numbers don't
look like Sal Stewart's, Alec Burlerson's having a terrific year,
Jordan Walker's having a terrific year, like I give him
a lot of credit. I will believe until there's enough
of a sample size to convince me otherwise that the
Saint Louis Cardinals still finish in last place in this division?

Speaker 4 (25:24):
Do you have a certain amount of animosity for them,
or do you have respect for that?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
An immense amount of respect, an immense amount of respect
for not that they do everything right. I thought a
couple of years ago they escaped good to Mike Schildt unfairly.
But they're never truly awful. You know, I would say
this about the Reds ten years ago. You can't drag
fans through just you know, season after season after season

(25:48):
of losing ninety plus games when the Cardinals are bad.
They don't do that. I mean, there's a constant turn
of quality big leaguers that come through that system. They
have been relevant for most of my life. If it
pains me to say, yeah, I have an immense amount
of respect for the Saint Louis Cardinals.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
I do too.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
And and to end the call, because I know you
gotta go my two favorite sportscasters of all time Sports
talk Radio.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
You know you're number one, Mike Petrelia. Mike Petrellia is
number one.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
You were telling them, telling him, how was I don't
know how much? As he fills in here and he's.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Here we go. Mike Petrelli is awesome at what he does,
and so is Ken.

Speaker 5 (26:32):
Brew and I can do without the music on Condre
But anyway, Uh, I just lost I was gonna sell
you and Romey those are the two best ever ever.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Well that's not, that's Rackham, that's not that's not remotely true.
Mike throwing shade at our guy ken Brew. Uh just
got in the car yesterday morning there was Mike Petrellia
talking about his beloved seventy six Ers and I'd forgotten
he's such a big Sixers fan. So he and I
will be on opposite ends of things for the next

(27:08):
week or so. Twenty twenty six and twenty twenty three
are on the opposite ends of things when it comes
to Matt McClain, and this guy's very important to this team,
or at least he's supposed to be, but he can't
be if he continues to hit the way he has been.
And we'll spend more time on that next on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station Tea Mobile has any So

(27:30):
we were doing about a year ago, not like specifically
like May fourth, twenty twenty five, what were you doing,
but about this time last year, remember what we were doing.
We were asking like, are you worried about Matt McClain,
he's off to a slow start, And there was this
knee jerk response to that question. Of course not. He's

(27:51):
Matt McClain. He'll be fine. It's taken him a little
time maybe to get going because he just had surgery.
He missed an entire it was a complicated surgery. But
just give it some time and he'll be back to
his twenty twenty three form. We were doing that a
year ago. Quite literally there it is, believe it or not,

(28:13):
as disorganized as I am. I keep stuff from every
show there. It is May sixth of last year. Time
to worry about McLain question mark, So almost a year ago,
time to worry about Matt McClain. Question mark still a thing.
Matt McClain is not in the red starting lineup tonight.

(28:34):
Sal Stewart is starting at second base for the fourth
time this season, and for the second time in three days.
Reds and Cubs. By the way, the games a half
hour earlier than originally scheduled, so seven to ten tonight.
Chase Petty is going to make his first big league
start of the season for the Reds. A guy who
was either really good or really awful in the starts
he was making for Louisville. But anyway, Low Is Dhing,

(28:56):
Spencer Steer, gold Glove finalist at first base, is playing
first base. Sal Stewart is going to start at second.
JJ Bleday isn't left I guess I could just give
you the whole starting lineup, Fried ol Blaedet de la Cruz,
Stuart second base, Low, Dhing, Steers at first, Stevenson Benson, Hayes,

(29:18):
JJ Bleday and left field. A year later, we're still
talking about Matt McClain's lack of production three for thirty
one since the two home run game. We talked about
what the Reds are getting from their second baseman close
to league average I'm sorry, close to league worst production
twenty fifth from the two hole hitter twentieth. That's using ops.

(29:43):
It sounds like we're picking on Matt McClain. We don't
mean to, but we've we've talked about what the Reds
are doing at third base, which is good field, no hit, right,
it's not even glove first, it's glove only. And I
stole that from Redreporter dot com. And I've asked this
question a bunch and others have as well. Can you

(30:04):
really afford to have good field, no hit at third base,
and I'm not convinced the answer is yes, but the
answer is definitively not yes. If you have good field,
no hit at second base, you can only have so
many of those guys. And with Keith Ryan Hayes, all right,
you acknowledge what he's not. He's not a good hitter,
but he's great with the glove. Matt McLain has been

(30:26):
steady and reliable with the glove. Also not hitting. That's
a problem because this team is built around him hitting. Now,
maybe not the way they're built around Elie Dela Cruz
being a star and Sal Stewart doing what he has
done for most of the season. Obviously he's hit a
little bit of a speedbump here, but they have had
Matt McClain penned in black magic marker in the two

(30:47):
hole playing second base for a long time. Now. That's
what he was an opening day last year. It's what
he was for a while last season before they finally
moved him down to the batting order this offseason. And
it was all right for a variety of reasons. He's
going to be better. He's our second baseman. He's hitting second.
Matt McClain was our best player in twenty twenty three,

(31:09):
and yet here we are twelve months later, twelve months
since we first started asking is it time to worry
about Matt McLain. Should we be worried about Matt McLain,
we're still talking about the guy not hitting, and tonight
he's not even in the starting lineup. He has gone
from batting second to being moved down in the batting
order tonight to tonight not even playing, or at least

(31:29):
not even starting. Maybe it's a bad start. Players have
bad starts. Maybe by the end of the season, in
whatever role they have him in, Matt McClain's going to
put up numbers that make us look back and laugh
at the period of time that we were talking about
how much we should or shouldn't be worried about him.
But come on, dude, First of all, twenty twenty three

(31:49):
was forever ago. Second, it ain't like we've just been
talking about Matt McClain's offensive issues for the last four
or five weeks. These discussions go back a year. Also,
Matt McClain is closing in on his twenty seventh birthday.
He turns twenty seven, in early August. This is not
a twenty two year old guy. This isn't the guy

(32:11):
who played in twenty twenty three and was among that
long list of dudes who got to the big leagues
and were electrifying. Helped this team almost immediately. So in
the short term, especially because we have decided you can't
do anything but play key Brian Hayes, certainly, while Auhanio
Suarez is on the injured list, You've got to find
offense from somewhere. Unfortunately, the next place you look his

(32:35):
second base. In the short term, Sal Stewart obviously has
experience playing second base. Sal Stewart might not be Matt
McLain at first base, but Spencer Stewart first base is
better than sal Stewart. But like, that's so in the
short termament's we're trying to find offense from somewhere. We're
not taking our goal glove winning third basement out of

(32:57):
the lineup. Our options in the outfield are limited, and
let's face it, they are. You know, they called Blake
done up yesterday, and Blake done It's it's I did
this on social media. It's it's spin the wheel Man.
It's like Will Benson Blake Done resigns, Jacob Herd to Bees.
I mean, just this endless churn of like these randos

(33:18):
they try in the outfield, They're not gonna get very
good production from the outfield this season. Maybe TJ. Friedel
hits a little bit more, maybe JJ Bldey hits a bunch.
Chances are this team's outfield production, which right field this
year worst in the sport, left field kind of middle
of the pack, center field kind of middle of the pack.
Gotta find offense from somewhere. We're not moving the third

(33:40):
baseman now it's the second baseman. Big picture, you wonder
moving forward. And this is not so much a response
to Matt McClain not being in tonight's starting lineup. It's
a response to the fact that since twenty twenty three
he's done one of two things. He's either not played
at all or he's not hit at all. If the
Reds get pretty much the same offensive production for Matt

(34:03):
McLain when he does play, as they did for an
entire year when he didn't, big picture of what's this
going to mean for him? Red's having the farm system
Edwin Arroyo. Edwin Arroyo as has been pointed out, like
Matt McClain two years ago season ending injury, didn't play
at all. Yet he's performing now, he's performing a triple A.
A little bit of a difference between performing a triple

(34:24):
A and the major leagues. But still, how much longer
are you going to do with this guy? Plus Matt McLain,
this is his last non arbitration year, so there's some
very legitimate questions, not just about the short term, and
it feels like it makes sense to not have too
all field, no hit guys in the lineup, and especially
again without au haaneos Morrez. You're not moving the third baseman,

(34:49):
gonna have to move the second baseman and play the
first basement at second and play the left field or
at first base, which, to be fair, is his best position.
Hope he gets something out of the outfield. Hope you
gets something from your newly constructed infield. What they are
doing tonight should be what they do in the short term,
big picture, how many more shots is Matt McLain gonna

(35:14):
get from the Cincinnati Reds. A year later, we're still
talking about a lack of production. This is not a
five or six week thing. A year later, when you
heard folks say he look, he was their best player
in twenty twenty three. We're a year removed from that,
and a year ago we were a year and a

(35:35):
half removed from that. Been two and a half years
since Matt McClain was the best player on the team.
Big picture, what's Matt McLain's role in this organization. It's
not that there's no conceivable role for him. He is
good with the glove. He has some positional versatility because
he obviously has a background playing shortstop too. But with

(35:57):
each passing day, and with each passing slump, and the
further we get from twenty twenty three, the more you
wonder could a position that seemed to be reasonably settled
for most of the rest of the decade a couple
of years ago now be up for grabs. They have

(36:17):
been largely built around Matt McClain now for a while,
and you don't pin all of their offensive issues on him,
but you pin a lot of them on him. Two
whole production last year was close to the bottom of
the barrel in the league. Combine that with the fact
that Friedel doesn't get on base nearly enough, they're not
getting anything from the top two spots in the batting order.
JJ Bleda is batting second tonight. Question I started the

(36:39):
show with was and is where is the offense going
to come from? And unfortunately, like Matt McLain is supposed
to be able to help you answer that question. By now,
you got a third base who you know is not
gonna hit. You got dudes in the outfield. Let's be honest, man,
we know what those guys are. The wild card in

(37:00):
the whole thing was gonna be Matt McClain. And if
the twenty twenty three version showed up, this offense was
gonna benefit. But it hasn't. He hasn't, and we're getting
with each passing day further and further away from twenty
twenty three. So you know, I think Tito's hand has
been forced. And how much of this is him versus

(37:22):
others in the organization who weigh in on who should
play and who should bat Why? Man, your guess is
as good as mine, But I don't know how you
put him out there. And this, this, this does not
this isn't meant to come across as picking on him,
because I know what it sounds like. Now we're picking
on Matt McLain. Now it's Matt McLain's fault. Like you're
kind of hamstrong with the dudes you have out there

(37:43):
in the outfield. You're hamstrong because you've got a guy
at third base that you don't want to move because
you love his glove. You're hamstrong because your catching position
isn't giving you much offensively. There's not a lot you
could do there. Really, the only place you could do
something is second base. So maybe this marks the end
of wondering when's the old Matt McClain going to show up?
And now the question becomes what is his role in

(38:04):
the organization long term and big picture? And then the
other question is where's the offense come from if this
doesn't work, Because really it's as much about like adding
JJ Bleday and subtracting Matt McClain than anything else. JJ

(38:25):
Bleday had a very good spring, but the Reds loved
him so much after signing him this offseason, they didn't
make him a part of the opening day roster, So
you know it's it's and then you know when JJ
Bleday got signed this offseason, not a terrible signing by
any stretch, Not a guy you don't want on your team.
But you know, for a while that was kind of
the centerpiece offseason move until they acquired a Uhaneusuarez and

(38:47):
he didn't gather that when JJ Bleday was signed by
the Reds and he was gonna solve this you know,
long lasting offensive issue the Reds have had with their outfielders.
So I don't know, there's something limiting about this. There's
something frustrating about this. Matt McClain, not that long ago,
viewed as a centerpiece, viewed as like one of the

(39:08):
foundational pieces the Reds have, and he's being swapped out
for JJ Bleday. You were not getting much production from
Matt McLain. Are you gonna get that much more from
JJ Bleday because that's effectively the move they're making, at
least for tonight. Maybe it's big picture, Maybe it's long term.

(39:28):
I haven't seen or heard any quotes from Tito from Wrigleyfield,
but the McClain thing a year ago, that was the question, like,
all right, it is it time to worry? And you
got patted on the head a lot last year around
this time of year. Oh he'll be fine, Oh okay, cool.
Here we are a year later, So maybe this works,

(39:48):
and maybe jj blday is exactly what they need, and
there's this infusion of offense that this team badly needs,
and maybe Sal Stewart starts to hit again, which would
be awesome. But it does feel like they're choosing from
a whole series of flawed choices, and it certainly does

(40:10):
feel like Matt McLean's long term future with the organization
is tenuous at best. Seventeen after four, more of your
phone calls are welcome at five point three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty on Twitter, that works too. At moegar. We
have to get to our poll question on Twitter coming
up here in a bit. And when I said we

(40:30):
get to it, I've got to post it.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
By the way we've done this, we did this like
two weeks ago. We did this with a red who
I don't know if he's getting another shot. We'll talk
about him next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yobad, what are you doing? Where were you? Also? Damn important?
It's all available on the iHeartRadio app. We talked with
landon Robinson's position coach in Navy, which was a lot
of fun. That might have been my favorite thing we
did last week. That and so much more as it
relates to the Bengals and the draft, all in one place,

(41:13):
actually two places. You can go to my page at
ESPN fifteen to thirty dot com, but better yet, get
the iHeartRadio app. And by the way, while you're there
listening to our stuff, make sure you set us as
a preset. You could set this show as a preset.
You could set Tony Pike since three sixty as a preset.
You could select ESPN fifteen thirty as a preset, And

(41:34):
that's like less work for you when you try to
find our shows. Podcasts of this show are a service
of Long Neck Sports Grill, which is an awesome place
to go if you want to watch the Reds game
tonight or tomorrow, or Wednesday, or really anytime. Wilder, Hebern
and Richwood long Neck Sports Grill. We love long necks.

(41:54):
Kind of a quiet time for the Bengals, I guess.
The two big stories from over the weekend were DeAndre
Hopkins telling an interview at the Kentucky Derby that he
wants to play with Joe Burrow. What that might mean
your guess? Is as good as mine. I do agree
with something that I read. I believe it's Sincyjungle dot
com that in the Dexter Lawrence era, nothing seems far fetched,

(42:15):
nothing seems out of bounds. For the Bengals, we are,
at least for a while, we're out of we're out
of the game, saying like, you know, that's not what
they do, that's just not what they do. Things that
used to seem far fetched now seem fetched, even if
this still doesn't seem that fetched. And the other story

(42:35):
was that Joe Burrow went to the Kentucky Derby and
people on the internet did not like his outfit. I
don't know that if you are looking for validation of
what you are wearing, that going to the internet, and
not that Joe was going to the internet. He was photographed,
he was on video, and folks had something to say

(42:57):
about the fit. Because when you go to the Kentucky
Dirty there's a dress code. You have this specific sort
of a tire that you're expected to wear, which is
why I will never go to a Kentucky Derby, although
I love Derby Day. But it's rare that anybody says
like on the internet, like oh, so and so's outfit
was awesome. The consensus is, boy, what a great outfit. Also,

(43:21):
I never want to have to go to a place
where I am expected to wear an outfit anyway, The
Internet didn't like Joe's outfit, said it was too casual.
There are your two Bengals nuggets from over the weekend.
Not a ton going on twenty six after four o'clock
Brendan Mian and Jones on Baseball is about twenty five

(43:41):
minutes away on ESPN fifteen thirty five point three seven
four nine fifteen thirty is our number and eight six
six seven oh two three seven seven six. When Sal
Stewart was on a roll, which he has spent much
of the season on a roll, there was so much
that was impressive about that. There was the raw production.

(44:03):
There was the ease with which he hit the ball
out of the ballpark at times. The fact that this
guy was I think we expected him to make the team,
but he wasn't guaranteed a spot on the team, and
he had to have a great spring to earn it.
The fact that he took on the responsibility of batting forth,
the fact that he took on the responsibility of batting forth,
without a lot of pressure, without a lot of guys

(44:25):
getting on in front of him, or without a lot
of protection behind him. All those things combined to make
salth stewart start to the season extraordinarily impressive. And he
is the Rookie of the Month for April. Last I checked,
he is still the betting favorite to be the National
League Rookie of the Year. But the thing that stood
out most about salth Stewart was he was doing what

(44:47):
he was doing on a team that basically demanded it.
He was carrying the offense and that's awesome, and I'm
willing to bet that there will be other times during
this season where sal Stewart is asked to carry the offense.
That's the responsibility that comes with hitting clean up. The

(45:10):
questions have always been about what this offense looks like
when sal Stewart's production dries up a little bit, maybe
just goes through a batting slump, maybe just has a
series where he doesn't hit. And by the way, they
lost games this weekend, this is not so much of
a reaction to, you know, losing three games. It's a
statement about what they have been and what they haven't
been all season long. So, like you know, sALS two

(45:35):
for his last twenty eight it might be his first
real bit of statistical adversity that he has gone through.
Completely reasonable to expect, especially during his first full season,
there to be rough patches. But when he goes through
a rough patch, who picks up the slack? Now, when

(45:58):
Sal was hitting and the Reds were winning, I know
how it works a whole lot of folks. He didn't
want to talk about what it was going to look
like when Sal wasn't hitting, But if you assume that
there was going to be invariably some sort of production
dip even when he was at his best, you couldn't
help but wonder, like, all right, who's going to make

(46:19):
up for it? Who's going to pick up the slack?
And that's a question we're dealing with now with So
and the throws, as we say, have a little bit
of a batting slump, the team going through its first
real collective rough stretch of the season, and the team
offensively gasping for more sports headlines are next twenty nine,

(46:40):
atter four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
UC Health Traffic thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. Sports headlines are
a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home Up High power Train
Protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to Yours
for Life, Kelsey chev dot Com, Reds and Cubs square

(47:11):
all Tonight, first to four at Wrigley Field. Chase Petty
will make his first big league start of twenty twenty
six against Edward Cabrera. Tonight's first pitch moved up thirty
minutes to sevent to ten because of storms expected in
Chicago later on tonight, seven to ten, first pitch on
seven hundred WLW Yours starting lineup for Cincinnati tonight standby,

(47:32):
Are you ready? I know you are get excited here?
It comes whatever I do that it's me trying to
find the correct tab because I've given up on writing
stuff down. My handwriting is so unforgivably bad. TJ. Friedel's
leading off in centerfield JJ Blay and leftfield, hitting second,
Eli de la Cruise is at shortstop. Sal Stewart's at
second base. The current National League Rookie of the Month

(47:54):
for April. He is playing second base tonight and batting forth.
Nathaniel low DH's Spencer Steer plays first, Stevenson catches, Will
Benson and Wright Key Brian Hayes playing third base and
betting night. They mentioned Sal Stewart, the National League Rookie
of the Month for the month of April. Chase Petty
up to make tonight start. Zach Maxwell sent out to
TRIPAA Louisville. One other NL Central game tonight, Brewers and

(48:18):
Cardinals hooking up in Saint Louis. The UC baseball team
up to twentieth in Baseball America's national rankings. NBA tonight,
Sixers and Knicks in New York Eastern Conference Finals game
Eastern Conference Semifinals Game one, Cavs and Magic in the other,
and San Antonio hosting Minnesota Game one of that Western

(48:39):
Conference Semifinal series. Hockey tonight, NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Philly
and Carolina, with the Hurricanes up one game the non
game two game one tonight between Anaheim and Las Vegas.
Former UC quarterback Brendan Soorsby has hired an attorney to
regain his NCAA eligibility. Now, unless there is something that

(49:01):
I have missed, and that possibility does always exist, I
don't know that Brendan Soresby has been declared ineligible yet
he maybe certainly feels like that'll be the outcome here,
but I don't think that has actually happened yet.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Evander, who had a hat trick NFC Cincinnati three come
three two comeback win on the road against Chicago on Saturday,
has been named to the MLS Team of the Match
Day for match Day number eleven. Roman Celentano, who had
a career high eight saves, including his most vital one
that occurred on a penalty kick just prior to a
Vanders game winning goal, has been named to the Team

(49:40):
of the Match Day bench for a second consecutive week.
That's Roman Celentano, friend, friend of the show. Five point
three seven four nine, fifteen thirty eight six six seven
oh two three seven seven six, lots of room for you.
We have the Reds getting swat over the weekend in Pittsburgh,

(50:01):
a series against the Chicago Cubs that begins tonight, and
it'll be interesting, I think, from a few different perspectives
to see how tonight's lineup fairs. Also will be interesting
to see if the Pirates series. The three consecutive losses
sort of set us up for, you know, a stretch

(50:21):
where the Reds. They've already come back to the pack
two games out of first place. But do the three
games against Pittsburgh prove to be just a little speed
bump or are they the start of something opposite of
what we saw when the Reds won twenty of their
first thirty one games. We will see one more thing

(50:45):
on the Brendan Soaresby thing, which we talked about. He
obviously under NCAA investigation. We first found out about this
story last week Texas Tech Today announced that Brendan is
checking into a residential rehab program for a gambling addiction,
and so Brendan Soresby is lawyered up. He has hired
this prominent antitrust attorney who's got a strong record of

(51:07):
success against the nc double A as one of the
attorneys in the plaintiffs for the plaintiffs in the House
versus NCAA case. That's Brendan Sorosby's lawyer. If he's declared ineligible,
he could obviously jump to the NFL by putting his
name into the supplemental draft. Of all of the different

(51:28):
outcomes here, that's the most interesting. I read the thing
from Albert Breer last week. SI Dot com who quoted
a couple of different assistant coaches who make Brendan Soresby
out to be a generational quarterback talent, used Brendan Soresby's
name and the same paragraph as the name of Patrick Mahomes.

(51:52):
Another used the name Matthew Stafford and not making direct comparisons,
not saying that one is as good as the other,
one is going to accomplish as much as the other,
but in terms of raw skill set, those are the
sorts of dudes that Brendan Soresby is a listening comparisons to.
For what it's worth, you didn't hear a ton of
that With Fernando Mendozo, the number one overall pick in

(52:15):
the draft. There's favorable comparisons to other quarterbacks in the league,
but nobody was putting him in the same breadth or
same sentence as Patrick Mahomes. If this ends up with
Brendan Soresby going into the NFL via the supplemental Draft,
it will be fascinating to see what the NFL's real

(52:36):
opinion of him is, because it's easy to say nice
things about the guy when he's still in college and
we are ways away from even having a chance to
draft him something else entirely. If okay, you teams have
said that you have a high opinion of the dude
here he is, you could take him, do you. I
like Brendan. I hope his demons, if you will, off

(52:58):
the field, get rectified. I hope he gets the help
that he needs. Takes it seriously. I have no reason
to root against that guy as a human being. I
just it makes sense why this story is getting a
lot of run. He's high profile, he's going to a
high profile school. It's sports wagering, which is obviously a
hot topic right now, like it's an interesting discussion. But

(53:22):
watching Brendan Sorosby play every snap of his UC career,
I can't tell you that. And I'm no quarterback evaluator,
but I can't tell you that. I thought, Man, I'm
watching a surefire NFL star. I'm watching a guy that
could lead a team for four or five years. I'm
watching the guy who should have his name called in
Round one. That player never consistently materialized. We'll see if

(53:47):
NFL teams really do feel the same way, if he
ends up putting his name into the supplemental draft, and
the more and more you see about this, and the
more and more you know about it, it feels unlikely
that he is going to be eligible to play college
football with out going to court. In twenty twenty six,
Red's get swept, a frustrating weekend, a long Saturday, a

(54:09):
painful loss yesterday, and now some lingering questions that really
are the same as the lingering questions we had when
the team was winning that Coming up at five oh
five on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic A.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Chase Petty, did he's up going to pitch for the
Reds tonight? Brendaman and Jones on Baseball is a couple
of minutes away. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening.
Take a phone call or two. It is a call
in show after all. John in Finley, Ohio, You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. John, Good afternoon. How are you doing?

Speaker 6 (54:48):
Wonderful? Mo Hey, Rare is the day that I get
a chance to talk about NBA basketball. And I am
like Mike, like Mike, like Mike in California. I am
also a sixer sayer.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Oh no, oh no, yeah.

Speaker 6 (55:03):
I grew up in the I grew up in the
late seventies, early eighties, so I'm Doctor Day, Moses Malone,
Charles Barkley, all those guys. So yeah, I honestly I
would have bet. I don't I'm not a betting person,
but if I was, I would have bet a significant

(55:23):
amount of money that the Sixers would have got swept
in the Boston series. The first didn't give them a chance.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
I was gonna say. Tarn and I were talking about
that before the show today. The first quarter and a
half of Game one of Philly versus Boston made any
objective or even non objective viewer believe that series had
no chance to go beyond five games.

Speaker 6 (55:49):
And the weird part is is, not only did the
Sixers win the series, they won they won three games
in Boston. Yes, And I mean, you remember back in
those six or Celvics days, it's like the garden mystique
and all that. You just you just didn't win there.
I mean, if if if you won one game there

(56:10):
you were you were very very fortunate. And to win
to win three games there is just blowing.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Yeah. To win to win three games there, to win
games five, in game seven, Game five, Boston had a
double digit lead in the second half. I thought, okay,
like Embiid was terrific in that game, He's not gonna
come back and play that well in game six. Comes
back and he plays, you know, very well. In game six,
they got thirty from Tyreek Maxi or Tyrese Maxey and

(56:39):
then you know, the way the way that the game
seven unfolded, it kind of felt like from the jump,
Philly had some juice early in that game, and I'm thinking,
it's gonna be surprising if Boston comes back. Boston led
for like thirty one seconds in the entire game. Philly
led pretty much wire to wire right that there wasn't
like a fluky you know, Boston let him hang around,

(57:01):
and Philly won in the final three or four minutes.
They were really good from the opening tip, and yeah, man,
I'm with you. After game one, I thought, there's no
way that that thing goes past five. And yet here
we are Philly in the.

Speaker 6 (57:15):
Next well and even winning game two. It was kind
of one of those games. Okay, in the NBA, every
once in a while, one team just didn't. Philly just
scorched the nets from three point lay in that game,
and that happens, and but a year ye're thinking at
that point, Okay, this is gonna be a gentleman suite.
That's gonna be four to one and that'll be it.
But the even that game seven, the Sixers had two

(57:39):
different eighteen point leads in that game, and you just you,
I mean, you know how NBA games go. Every game's
close at the end, so you're just thinking, Okay, we're
gonna get set up and our hearts are gonna get
ripped out in the last minute. And Boston had every
I mean, they had what in the last I think
with me two minutes to go, I think Peyton Pritchard,

(58:01):
who's a great shooter, had a wide open three from
the corner he missed. Derek White had a couple of
wide oh, I mean, and that whole series when you
will and it's funny how with NBA basketball we can
make sports really complicated, but really in NBA basketball, it's
really come down to if you make your three point shots,

(58:22):
you're gonna win, and that's really what the game's boiled
down to. And the Celtics, for some reason, they just
couldn't shoot in that series. They were awful from three
point land in that series.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Everybody lives and dies by the three but I feel
like Boston takes into extreme lengths and you're right in
that series. The three games they won, I think they
shot over forty percent from behind the arc, and the
four games they lost, including on Saturday when they shot
twenty seven percent, they shot less than forty percent. It just,
you know, the three point ball dries up. I just thought,

(58:53):
with a coach who was who is regarded to be
really imaginative offensively, that Joe Mazzuol would have come up
with something and that did not happen in the final
three games of the series. I wish your team limited
luck starting tonight.

Speaker 6 (59:08):
Obviously on Sunday when Tatum couldn't go, that was huge.
I mean that just kind of at least opened the
door on Sunday. Okay, we might have.

Speaker 5 (59:16):
A chance today.

Speaker 6 (59:18):
Yeah, thanks Mo, Good luck to your.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Next Likewise, should be should be a lot of fun.
Nine away from five o'clock fun NBA conversation five point
three seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty is our number. Uh
Reds did not have fun over the weekend in Pittsburgh,
and we'll talk about it after Brendanman and Jones on
Baseball on ESPN fifteen thirty Fun, he said, what's up?
This is fun on Moegger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

(59:42):
Hope and having an awesome Monday afternoon. A great weekend
behind you, lots going on today. Thank you so much
for making our show a part of your Monday afternoon.
Some good stuff that happened this weekend. FC Cincinnati. FC
Cincinnati is on the rise. If Vanders playing like a star,
a Roman Celentano playing like a star. Big three points

(01:00:05):
on the road in Chicago on Sunday, excuse me. On Saturday,
Kentucky Derby was awesome. The Reds in Pittsburgh not awesome.
Three straight losses. Vote now on Twitter thanks to United
Heartland Insurance and tell me what it was, either no
big deal or the wheels starting to fall off. You
can look at run differential, and I think this time

(01:00:26):
of year in particular, maybe not so much when we
get to July, August and September. Excuse me, but you
look at the Reds run differential. They have twenty wins
and fourteen losses in their first thirty four games. Their
run differential is minus twenty two. They have given up
twenty two more runs than they have scored, and that's
a little skewed. It's a little skewed because they lost

(01:00:48):
two games this weekend by lopsided margins lost nine to
one on Friday, lost seventeen to seven yesterday. If you
add in the one nothing loss yesterday, that's being outscored
by twenty seven to eight margin. That's minus nineteen. So
when that minus twenty two, it's nineteen. There's nineteen a

(01:01:09):
run differential of nineteen to the other side just in
these last three games. But it's also a reflection of
the fact that the Reds haven't scored a ton of runs.
Only three teams in the National League have scored fewer
than one hundred and forty one runs, which is what
the Reds have scored, and only six teams in all
of baseball have scored fewer than one hundred and forty
one runs, which is what the Reds have scored this year.

(01:01:31):
By the way, for what it's worth, Matt McClain is
not in the starting lineup tonight. Matt McClain has been
moved down in the batting order. He's not playing tonight.
Who knows if that's long lasting. At some point the
next step is going to be Matt McClain playing in Louisville.
And I don't know why that should ever be off
the table because it was off the table often last year.

(01:01:51):
Where is the offense going to come from? So the
headline of the weekend was what happened on Saturday. Rhett
Louder and Connor Phillips can bind to walk seven consecutive batters.
It was like watching a bad little league game. And
we've all been there for bad little league or sandlock
games or middle school games, whatever they are, where there's

(01:02:11):
a kid on the mound who just can't throw a
strike and the body language of the players on the
field is awful, and you can hear the groans from
the people in the stands and you feel bad for
the kid, but it's like, buddy, just throw it over
the plate. That's what it was like watching Rhet Louder

(01:02:33):
and Connor Phillips. Rhet Louder made his fortieth professional start
on Saturday, his thirteenth big league start on Saturday. It
was his first real clunker of a major league start.
I'm not worried about Rhet Louder. Rhet Louder is inexperienced.

(01:02:57):
The Reds are using a lot of inexperience in the
starting rotation. Sometimes one of those experienced pitchers pitches very well.
Chase Burns yesterday was awesome, like absolute staff a sort
of stuff. Sometimes an experience shows up when a guy
like Rhet Ladder takes the mound the way he did
on Saturday. The takeaway though, for the first thirty four

(01:03:20):
games of the season, the question is the same now
as it was when the Reds were cranking out winning series.
You know, we could have done this on Friday. Friday
we were talking about whether or not the Reds could
win ninety games, which maybe want to tap the brakes
on that, But even coming off a good homestand coming
off a stretch where the Reds were playing pretty well,

(01:03:41):
completely fair to ask, where's the offense gonna come from?
Big picture when we get to the dog days, when
a guy like Sal Stewart starts to slump. By the way,
Sal Stewart, for what it's worth, National League Rookie of
the Month for the month of April, Like, you talk
about these things when the team is winning, and okay,
why are you bringing that up? Why are you going

(01:04:02):
to be negative. Okay, well, they lose three games, which
in a vacuum is not worth losing your mind over.
But okay, maybe it makes a little bit more sense
to talk about some of this team's issues, some of
their flaws, and how they can be fixed, because that's
what the Reds have to wrestle with right now. How
can we fix our offense? Chances are that's not gonna

(01:04:23):
come via trade in May, although that would be invigorating.
Chances are it's not gonna come via anybody from the
outside until late July. And by the way, for what
it's worth, if you use last year as a guide,
just because the Reds struggle to score runs doesn't mean
their primary focus of the trade deadline is going to
be a guy who can help with his bat. Otherwise

(01:04:44):
they wouldn't have traded for Kee Brian Hayes last year.
Where's the offense gonna come from? You can start with
tonight Matt McClain headed to the bench. Now, the Reds
offensive issues don't rest with one dude. It's not one
guy's fault. The Reds are getting league worst production from
third base. You kind of expected something like that coming

(01:05:06):
into the season. They're getting league worst production from right field.
Let's be honest, not a huge surprise. They're getting the
twenty fifth highest OPS from their second basement. Red second
basement twenty fifth in OPS comparing all the other teams
at second base. It doesn't help that their second basement

(01:05:29):
usually bat second. So like, there's a couple of areas
on the team that you kind of knew coming into
the season probably not going to be great offensively. Over
there in right field, you've got a guy who's never
really played the position, Noel ve Marte, toward the very
end of the season last year did not hit at all.
The decent chance, maybe the Reds weren't going to have
the worst outfield production or worst production from the right fielder,

(01:05:52):
but it probably wasn't going to be above league average.
And you knew the third baseman's and offensive zero. You
can't afford to have deficiencies elsewhere, not offensively. You can't
afford to have your second baseman not hitting. You can't
afford to have your catcher not hitting. Can't afford to
have your leadoff guy consistently not hitting. Red's leadoff hitters

(01:06:14):
have the twenty third highest on base percentage in baseball
that is mainly TJ. Friedel in center field, so there's
lots of issues, some of them baked in, like third base,
arguably like right field. Question is can this team win
as currently constructed if there's not a significant uptick and

(01:06:35):
offensive output from some of these positions, whether they be
positions in the batting order or positions in the field.
If the answer is no, where the fix is gonna
come from. Let's start with moving Matt McLain out of
the starting lineup, which the Reds are doing tonight. Sal
Stewart's gonna play second base. This is fine. It's his
fourth start at second base this season. Nathaniel Lows dhing

(01:06:59):
which he's off a little bit after he was just
on fire for about a week. Spencer Steer is playing first.
Now we're trying J. J. Ble Day and left again.
All of this is cool, but there's a couple of
different things here. One like, look at the options the
Reds are sorting through to find offensive help. They just

(01:07:19):
caught up. Blake Dunn. Doesn't feel like Blake Dunn was
called up to start every day. He's not starting today,
but just it's like with resigns, and I will try
this again with resigns and hope that it sticks. And
they've done it with Will Benson trying him and hoping
that it sticks, and let's try it with Blake Dunn
and hope that it sticks. And JJ bl Day is
maybe it'd be unfair to lump him in with some

(01:07:40):
of those guys I just talked about, but kind of
has that profile. In fact, I joked during the offseason
the J. J. Bleday if he went to his baseball
reference page, the guy that he was most familiar or
most similar to is Will Benson. So now we're trying
the JJ Bliday thing, a guy who didn't make the
club out of spring training, though he did have a

(01:08:02):
good spring. I don't know. It feels like whatever uptick
in production you're gonna get from JJ Bleday is going
to be limited or not long lasting. Where are they
gonna get it from? Where are they going to get
it from? And are we nearing the end of Matt
McClain as a as a foundational piece of the Reds.

(01:08:24):
It sounds far fetched to even suggest, but you know,
the one thing you could cling to with Matt McClain
was how good he was in twenty twenty three. In
May of twenty twenty six, does it matter who was
good in twenty twenty three? Forever ago? Brought this up
last hour, but a year ago at this time. One

(01:08:45):
of the things we talked about on this show and
others like it, is, Hey, how worried are you about
Matt McClain or is it time to worry about Matt
McClain was twelve months ago because he was off to
a slow start, And then you were being fair if
you said, look, he's he is coming off shoulder surgery,
it's going to take a while, and okay, But as
the season went on, the production never showed up, and

(01:09:06):
eventually he got moved down the batting order. We're already
doing that again. We're now not using him at all.
So there's a few things here. One, In the short term,
what's Matt McClain's role in this team going to be? Two?
Does it make sense to send him to Louisville? Three?
Are we getting close to there being a period of
time where Matt McLain, who's going to be twenty seven

(01:09:27):
years old by August is are we getting close to
Matt McClain no longer being one of those core guys
that you are not only building around, but that you
had earmarked to bat second and play second. I don't
know how you bot him second right now. I don't
know how you play him every day right now, because
I'm looking for offense from somewhere. Part of this is

(01:09:48):
not Matt McClain's fault. The Reds have two infielders right
now who are good field no hit players. It's hard
to have one. The Reds have two. But because you've
baked in oh, you're not gonna get much from your
third baseman. You also have it baked in you know
you're probably not going to get a ton from right field. Also,
your big off season acquisition at Juhanio Suarez is on

(01:10:11):
the injured list. Your guess is as good as mine
as to when he's gonna come back. The offensive help
has to come from somewhere. Can it come from jj bledeh?
If it doesn't come from him, then who's it going
to come from? And have we reached the point where
we no longer believe it's going to come from Matt McClain. And,
by the way, you may have been at that point

(01:10:31):
a while ago, maybe even during last season. Where is
the offense gonna come from? Where? Is the offense going
to come from? On a team that has gotten a
terrific rookie season so far from Sal Stewart, a good
year so far from Elie dela Cruz. I believe Elie
Delacruz is making a leap. But as good as those
guys have been, the offense has been extraordinarily limited. Again,

(01:10:53):
six teams have scored more runs. So what happens when
Sal Stewart's production drops? He's going through a bit of
a mini slump. It happens, but on this team, when
it happens, the onus falls elsewhere. They have a lot
of positions where they're getting nothing from the player playing
that position or player is playing that position. Where's the

(01:11:14):
offense going to come from? Where's the uptickt offensive production
going to come from? Can it come from within? Does
it have to come from outside? Because if it has
to come from outside, then that's hard to swallow when
it's just May fourth suggestions ideas answers welcome. Five point three, seven, four, nine,

(01:11:38):
fifteen thirty at Muleger on Twitter. The Reds lose three
straight in Pittsburgh is either a no is either no
big deal or a sign that the wheels are falling off.
Vote now thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Learn about United
Heartland Insurance go to uhis dot com. On top of
all this is the shaky starting pitching, which will get

(01:12:00):
to next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
From the UC Health Traffic Centers. A playoff team last
year was the fact that they never had a losing
streak longer than five games. Sounds like a small thing,
I guess, and you could lose nine out of ten
and not have a losing streak longer than five games.

(01:12:31):
But you know, last year we had fun with those
who kept reminding us that, well, the Reds haven't been
swept in a series. They were the last team to
finally get swept in a series, and that went deep
into the summer. But there was something to that, right.
It's hard to have a long losing streak if you
don't lose series mathematically, if you never lose two out
of three, then you're never gonna lose five or six

(01:12:52):
consecutive games. And while it was I guess a little
frustrating that their longest winning streak was no longer than
five games last year. It said something about last year's
team that they never lost five consecutive games. They avoided
the law, They avoided these long stretches where they had
a hard time just grabbing wins. They didn't have a

(01:13:13):
stretch that totally cratered their season. They didn't have a
month that totally torpedoed their playoff chances. So kind of
curious coming into this series against the Chicago Cubs, where
you are starting tonight a pitcher in Chase Petty who
is making his first major league start of the season.
You can go online and find it, but there's a
pretty good breakdown of the stark differences between Chase Petty's

(01:13:37):
best starts in Louisville this year and his worst starts
in Louisville this year. But okay, losing three straight to
the Pirates. Big picture, they were probably gonna get swept
in a series this year, and more likely to happen
on the road than home, And they'll probably get swept
in another series at some point this season. It happens

(01:13:58):
weekends like this one in Pittsburgh where nothing goes right.
Brady Singer is not good. R At Louder is not good.
The offense doesn't do anything in a game where your
starting pitcher is excellent. Bullpenn doesn't give you what you're
looking for. Connor Phillips couldn't stop the bleeding, Tony Santion
couldn't stop the bleeding in the eighth inning yesterday. These

(01:14:18):
series happened. But there's the question, right, the first real
adversity of the season, and they've had some stuff happened
to it. They've had, you know, injuries and no Hunter Green,
no Nickelodolo and stuff that they have found a way
to overcome. But this feels like a little bit of
a pivot point, right, and it's you're not trying to

(01:14:39):
make too big a deal out of any series in May,
or too big deal out of any three game sweep
that you just suffered. But let's see if this team
is better than last year. Let's see if this team
has the staying power of last year's team. And this
year's squad has to be better than last year, because
it doesn't feel like eighty three wins is going to
be good enough to get into the postse But there

(01:15:01):
was something about that team a year ago, whether you
call it resilience when you want to chalk it up
to the debt they had on the starting staff. Whatever
it was, never lost more than five games in a row.
Does the three games sleep in Pittsburgh turn into a
bad week, a bad road trip, a losing streak, or
is it a small blip. If it's a small blip,

(01:15:23):
this team's gonna be fine. We'll see the starting staff.
Like I talked about this on social media a little
bit yesterday, Rhet Louder is going to have bad starts.
I don't know why, of all days, Saturday, with the coldness,
he just couldn't find a way, apparently to get a

(01:15:43):
good grip on the ball to throw strikes. But whatever
it happens, whenever Rhet Louder struggles, I think back to
Brady Singer and Andrew Appin, and we can apply this
to Nicko Lodolo as well when he comes back. He
scheduled a pitch against the Astros on Saturday. If you
chalk up Rhet Lauder's struggles on Saturday to inexperience, which

(01:16:07):
I think we should all be willing to do. What
about the general lack of reliability from Brady Singer, from
Andrew Abbott whose last start was good like we could
wonder where the offense is gonna come from. But the
foundation of this team, what is supposed to genuinely make
this team a bona fide contender, is the quality and

(01:16:30):
depth of the starting pitching, And frankly, on a game
in a game out basis, your guess is as good
as mine as to what they're gonna get. You could
obviously apply that tonight with Jay's petty. If that doesn't change,
what happens to this team ceiling? If that doesn't change,

(01:16:51):
can this team really accomplish what we all hope it can.
If that doesn't change, doesn't matter if they get some
sort of uptick in all offensive production. But it's got change.
It's supposed to be the the and it's easy to
say it's the strength of the team when they have
Hunter Green and have Nickelodolo healthy, and unfortunately Hunter it's

(01:17:14):
still gonna be a very long time before we see
him on a big league mound. But the shakiness of
the starting staff, the just top to bottom lack of
offense they're getting from almost everywhere, those two things mesh
together do not add up to a team that's capable

(01:17:37):
of winning more than ninety games. And I still believe,
and I think most would agree. It's gonna take ninety
wins to win this division. It might take ninety to
get to the postseason. We will see. And I know
there was a lot of excitement last week and I
tried to channel it, and trust me, I'm holding out

(01:17:57):
hope that this week in Chicago they can get the
season on track. But what they're not getting offensively and
the overall shakiness of the starting staff combined don't seem sustainable.
They were winning games while the starting staff was shaky.
They were winning games while the offense was not producing.

(01:18:22):
But it's not sustainable. So where does the offense come from? Well,
they get a jolt on the mound from Nicolo Dolo
on Friday. God you better hope so. And it does
stink because Chase Burns yesterday was terrific and they just
no answers offensively. I would have hit Dane Myers for TJ.

(01:18:44):
Friedl in the seventh inning yesterday, but TJ. Friedel's careers,
the splits against lefties are better than those against righties.
I still would have used Dane Myers. We'll see. Can
they avoid doing what they avoided doing so well last year.
Sports headlines are next. This is ESPN fifteen thirty cents
NATI Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:19:00):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
From the uc hele mivisions.

Speaker 3 (01:19:07):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:19:11):
Station sports headlines. Thank you very much, Sports headlines. Our
service to Kelsey Chevrolet, excuse me, home of lifetime powertrain
protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to yours
for life, kelseyshev dot com. Red's in Chicago tonight first
to four. Tonight's game moved up thirty minutes because of
expected bad weather in Chicago. Chase Petty will start tonight

(01:19:35):
for Cincinnati, his twenty twenty six Big League debut against
Edward Cabrera. Sevent to ten is tonight's first pitch on
seven excuse me on seven hundred WLW your starting lineup
for Cincinnati tonight. Here we go. Matt McClain is not
in it. Freedols in center of Blede and left, Ellie

(01:19:56):
Delacruz in short salth Stewart's at second base, low DH
Spencer's here at first base. Stevenson catches Will Benson in
right field. Key Brian Hayes plays third base and Bat's ninth.
Congratulations go out to Sal Stewart, named the National League
Rookie of the Month for the month of April.

Speaker 6 (01:20:17):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:20:17):
I got a very very long email from somebody mad
at me for insisting that Sal Stewart is a rookie.
I don't know why, because he is so the fact
that he was given National League Rookie of the Month
honors would suggest yes, despite the fact that he was
up for a month last season. He maintains his rookie

(01:20:38):
eligibility in the National League Central the Brewers and Cardinals
play against each other in Saint Louis. The Pirates are
off you See Baseball up to twentieth in the Baseball
America Top twenty five national rankings. Cincinnati, coming off a
weekend sweep of Houston, you see, will take on Oral
Roberts tomorrow. FC Cincinnati New is a vander named to

(01:21:02):
MLS Team of the Match Day for Match Dight number eleven,
a three goal hat trick performance at Soldier Field on
Saturday night at FC Cincinnati's come from behind win three
to two over Chicago, a game that featured a terrific
save on a penalty kick by Roman Celentano. That and
a career high eight saves earned him a spot on
the Team of the match day bench for a second

(01:21:25):
consecutive week. Playoffs. Tonight, NBA, you got a pair of
conference semifinal Game one's Madison Square Garden hosting Game one
between the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia seventy six ers,
and San Antonio hosting Game one of the Spurs series
against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Anthony Edwards, I just read the
expectation is he will play hockey tonight, Carolina hosting Philly

(01:21:50):
Game two of that series. Flyers Trail won Zip Vegas
and Anaheim game one of their series in Vegas tonight
twenty three from six o'clock. I've also I mentioned Brendan Sorosby,
and I did not mention this here during the sports headlines.
Brendan Sorosby, the former UC quarterback, has lawyered up. Jeffrey
Kessler is the attorney that Sorsby has retained to regain

(01:22:13):
his college eligibility. This according to ESPN's Pete Themol and
Adam Schefter. Now, Soresby has not yet officially been declared ineligible,
but he's under NCAA investigation for sports gambling and Texas
Tech Today announced that he is checking into a residential
treatment program for a gambling addiction. Whenever one of these

(01:22:34):
stories comes up, you'll hear about the ills of legalized
sports wagering, and there have been some who have taken
shots at people in the media for the hypocrisy of
Like ESPN is covering the Brendan Sorosby story, ESPN will
also talk about and demonstrate game lines on their broadcasts.
There's gambling segments on college game Day. I don't see

(01:22:58):
the hypocrisy, first of all, in my opinion, if a
college football player wants to bet on a major League
baseball game, he should be allowed. I do understand the
argument that, well, wait a minute, now, if he opens
the app to bet on a baseball game, at some point,
isn't he going to bet on the sport he knows
most about, and that, in Brendan Sorosby's case, would be football. Okay, Well,

(01:23:22):
there's some personal accountability here, there's personal decision making that
I'm a big believer in. But the whole argument about, well,
there's hypocrisy because gambling is such a huge part of
how we talk about sports, and you might argue for
all the worst reasons, but gambling is such a huge reason,
huge part of how we talk about sports. It's omnipres
and it's everywhere. You see it on ESPN, you see

(01:23:43):
it on game day, you see game lines used on
the bottom line during game broadcast. So how is a
guy like Brendan Soresby to avoid it? I don't know, man.
There are basic rules here, and that's why this, to
me is likely to be very cut and dry. You're
allowed to bet on these sports and if you do,

(01:24:05):
there's gonna be consequences. Somebody else is allowed to bet
on those sports without consequence like me. It's just it's
that way in baseball too, you know many of and
it always comes up when Pete Rose's name is brought
into the conversation. But hey, you know, at GABP they're
doing gambling advertising. And the Reds for a few years

(01:24:27):
were on a regional sports network that carried with it
the name of a sports book. First it was Bally's.
Recently it's been FanDuel. Obviously that's no longer the case
because they're on Red's TV. But there are gambling ads
on Reds games. But baseball players can't be bet on sports.
There's hypocrisy there and others not, like you're not allowed
to bet on things in which you could somehow affect

(01:24:49):
the outcome. There's basic, cut and dry rules, and by
the way, they're posted everywhere, so it's not hard to
figure out. Some will make bad decisions, like those Cleveland
Guardian pitchers who allegedly, you know, made the wrong decision
about doing something that they weren't allowed to do and
will now suffer the consequences for it. And Brendan Soresby's
the same thing. I like Brendan a lot and got

(01:25:14):
to you know, I enjoyed his being around him and
talking with him while he was the quarterback at U SEE.
But dude, like I, I do believe that you see
like most other schools, and I will apply Texas Tech
to this as well. In Indiana, for what it's worth,
because Soresby started his college football career in Indiana, it

(01:25:35):
is very clearly and effectively communicated. Here's what you are
not allowed to do, Here's what will jeopardize your eligibility.
If you choose to engage in activity that jeopardizes your eligibility,
then that's on you. There's no hypocrisy, and like I saw,
ESPN was criticized for I think it was es. You

(01:25:56):
might have been a sporting news come to think of it. Anyway,
national outlet was criticised for including in the story about
Sorsby having to step away from football, the updated odds
for Texas Tech to win the Big twelve. You know,

(01:26:16):
the reader of that piece, in all likelihood is allowed
to make that wager. Brendan Soorsby is not. Sorry, Pretty
clear distinction, pretty clear delineation. So we'll see. Eighteen away
from six o'clock. I had something Bengals related and it
was not related to Joe Burrow's outfit at the Kentucky Derby.

(01:26:38):
I had something Bengals related and I misplaced it. We'll
see if I can find it. Could perhaps squeeze a
phone caller two in at five point three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty, eighteen from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:26:52):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC Health Traffics.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Tomorrow. In the show, our
friend Paul Danner Junior is gonna join us, as he
does every single Tuesday from The Athletic and the Growlar
Podcast on a whole bunch of different Bengals related issues.
All sort of quiet on the Bengals front right now,
which I think once you get post draft and pre
training camp is good. It means nobody's yelling and screaming

(01:27:24):
about contract holdouts any of that sort of stuff. So
we'll see, we'll see if something pops up between now
and late July. But anyway, Paul's gonna be with us
in the three o'clock hour tomorrow. Our legal expert our
sports legal experts, Stewart Tebothy Penrose from Manila Law Group
at four to thirty five, and obviously lots on the
Reds and Cubs, who begin a four game series tonight

(01:27:47):
at Wrigley Field. Red's gonna have to play well against
NL Central teams. We've made a big deal about, you know,
sort of the splits between the first month of the
season when they weren't playing a whole bunch of quote
really good teams and then you know what they're gonna
have later in the season. Good news is this, right?
You lose three straight games against Pittsburgh and we're not
used to this. Maybe we're used to watching them get

(01:28:11):
swept in road series. But you lose three straight games
to Pittsburgh and you're still six over five hundred, and
granted you've lost ground in the National League Central, a
division that you have led for much of the way
so far. It's obviously still very very early, but you've
lost three straight games. You played about as poorly as

(01:28:31):
you can. There were issues with the pitching staff, there
were issues with the offense. They're six over five hundred.
They built a little bit of a cushion. Now how
much will that cushion be cut into further moving into
this series against the Chicago Cubs. We will see, but

(01:28:52):
they did at least build a cushion. I know it
sounds like we pick on Matt McClain. It's not picking
on Matt McClain. Last year, it felt like Matt McClain
got a little bit of a pass relative to many
of his Reds teammates. There were players who got much
less of a leash, much shorter of a rope than

(01:29:14):
Matt McLain, and it just it felt like it was
totally off the table to talk about demoting him, and
folks who didn't like it when he got moved from
the second spot in the batting order. But we're watching
other dudes get sent down Christian and Cronassion Train and
by the way, but the guys who got sent down,
you could argue you all deserved it. And meanwhile, Matt

(01:29:37):
McClain was authoring a very substandard, not very good twenty
twenty five one thing that you could not help. But
wonder if this offseason was first of all, what kind
of season will they get from Matt mcclan. Second, if
twenty twenty six looks a lot like twenty twenty five,

(01:29:59):
how much longer are they going to wait to pull
the trigger on doing something else. Matt McClain is not
in the starting lineup tonight, but it's been a year,
it's been a calendar year of us talking about his
relative lack of production, and he'll have moments he had
the two home run game week ago, and you go, Okay,
maybe maybe this is it, Maybe this is where he

(01:30:21):
kind of takes off, and it just doesn't take and
it just doesn't happen, And it's worth mentioning like this
isn't the twenty three year old player from three years ago.
This is a guy who in about three months is
going to turn twenty seven years old. This is a
guy who's going to be arbitration eligible at the end
of this season. This is a dude whose last good
season was forever ago. I can in baseball years, twenty

(01:30:46):
twenty three was forever ago. Think of all the things
that have changed with this team, and so what happens
next is going to be really interesting and worth paying
attention to. And it's worth mentioning that Edwin Arroyo, who
also missed all of twenty twenty four, is productive and
it's out Louisville, but he's productive. Could there be a
swap out of Arroyo for McLain in the offing, But

(01:31:09):
there's been at least a willingness to not just keep
doing the same thing with Matt again and again and again.
And I appreciate the willingness to deviate from using sal
Stewart exclusively at first base, which he's played a little third.
This is his fourth start at second base. My guess
is he's up to the task no matter where they
put him. The question about sal Stewart is when's that

(01:31:33):
bat that earned him Rookie of the Month honors for
the month of April. Gonna come back. And that's no
knock on sal Stewart. He's allowed to have a slump,
he's allowed to have the league catch up to him,
he's allowed to have the league figure him out. But
part of what made sal Stewart's month so impressive was
he was carrying the reds. And this ignores, not intentionally,

(01:31:55):
Elie de la Cruz, who was also very productive. But
basically the office in the first thirty four games has
been Ellie and Sal and nobody else. And that can
work to a slight degree. But what happens when there's
no Ellie or no Sal, either because one player or
the other is not available, or because one player or

(01:32:16):
the other is not hitting. Also, I can't help but
ask this. As good as Ellie Delacruz has been, and
we talked last week about him maybe making the leap.
Remember last year when Ellie Delacruz played every single day,
sometimes to the detriment of him and the team. And
this year in spring training, Tito Francona talked about the

(01:32:38):
fact that they were going to rest Ellie Delacruz occasionally
give him the occasional day off. When's that going to start?
And I guess bigger picture than that. Can there reads
a fod to do that with the lack of offense
they're getting from pretty much everywhere else we will see anyway,
Red's Cubs recap tomorrow, reaction from Wrigley Field, and so

(01:32:59):
much more. Think you might have missed. Go listen to
it right now or later tonight on the iHeartRadio app.
Podcasts of this show are a service of long Nex
Sports Grill. If you're thinking, man, I'm want to go
out and watch the Red tonight. I want to go
out and do something tonight. I want to go out
and do something this coming weekend. Three Long Next locations,
each one of them four KTVs all over the place.

(01:33:19):
Great beer selection, awesome wings, great menu and more. Long
Next Sports Grill Wilder, Hebren and rich Wood Stay long,
come often, We got to go. Thanks to a. Tarren
Bland for producing, Thanks to you for listening, and have
an awesome night this Go Next. This is ESPN fifteen
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5/4/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

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