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

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fifty.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Yeah, maybe the Reds will find a closer since you've
done that. What's up? Good afternoon on Moeger. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty, really the first and I get it.
It's today, just May fifth, first genuine gut punch lots
of the season. Last night, I have another gut punch
for you. Did I read in the Athletic it relates

(00:22):
to Sal Stewart. I'll give you that coming up in
the four o'clock hour. Speaking of the Athletic, it's Tuesday,
which means our guy, Paul Danner Junior is here covering
the Bengals for the Athletic dot Com and of course
the Growler podcast. How is it going?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
I was just worried what the surprise is going to be?
You said something you read in the Athletic and I do.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Here we go again. This is There's a lot going
on at the Athletic because you have a c trend
covering the Reds. He's made Cubs fans mad because he's
dumping on Wrigleyfield on Twitter. You've got Ken Rosenthal writing
about Sal Stewart. That's got me in a crappy mood.
But you're here and that puts me in a good mood.
So so everything's sort of lot's going on with the
athletic but everything sort of all us.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Hopefully I haven't written anything that's put you in no
crappy mood in recent weeks, but not at all. You know,
things are largely in a good place with the Bengals
right now. But I can change that if you'd like.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
I've not read the Genostone appreciation piece. There's no no,
there's we're good, We're good. It's we were just down there.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Uh, and it's very calm and very boring, be honest, Sen,
and you're kind of in that well one. Nothing's really happening.
They're just conditioning. I guess so. But uh, besides that,
though it's lots of good spirits, lots of good things happened.
Joe Burrow there he was not No. I think we

(01:41):
have photo evidence of him being in other places this week.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Didn't make it back for today's work out with his teammates,
did not appear to for good, very good. Speaking of
what you've written, I do want to I do want
to talk about the deep dive into how the Dexter
Lawrence trade came to be, which I thought was was
enlightening and very good, and it gave me some things
I want to ask you about good. So if you
read that at the Athletic dot com, yes, there's a

(02:05):
lot to it. I've printed a few passages good that
stood out to me from the piece. No, these are good.
These are good.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Now we're all on board.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
This is good stuff. This is the Bengals going forward,
this is training for Dexter Lawrence. This is good. But
there were a few things that stood out to me
that I thought we could ask you to elaborate on, sure,
without giving away all the content you wrote. This opportunity
seemed different potentially from the beginning. At the very least,
the immediate reaction didn't require as much selling to the
family ownership of Mike Brown and Troy and Katie Blackburn,

(02:36):
Paul Brown, as well as Caroline and Elizabeth Blackburn, because
I think a lot of has had in our mind's
eye this vision of like Duke Tobin Heaven to go
in and sell those folks on what he wanted to do,
and it's encouraging that that wasn't the case.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I yeah, I think that was kind of the idea
of it.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
You know, you've been doing a talk show at three
o'clock in the afternoon for that's my ringer. Yeah, for
nineteen years. And my mom is calling. Now it's on
me to have the phone ring her off. But been
on the I've been in this time slot for seventeen years.
Mom knows this. There's mom breaking off a phone call. Well,
we'll get to it during the break. Please continue.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
It's Mother's Day this weekend. You should be nicer.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I will be very nice on Sunday when I call
her at a time that's a little at a time
that's a little bit more for all of us. Yeah,
where were we talking about? Total didn't have to go
in and sell Mike and Katie and Carolyn and everybody
on the whole one.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
That was kind of my question and thought about it too.
It was like, is that what this was? Well, you
go in and say, hey, maybe we should try to
do this, or maybe there was resistance along the way,
and there didn't seem to be. But I think that
also came from a place of you know, early on
in the off season and acknowledgment of number ten can

(03:56):
be a weapon, and so I think when they're already
in that place, even after they had spent all the
money in free agency, there was a willingness to be
open to those ideas over the course of this offseason.
But yeah, I think it's good. You know, the answer
could have been, yeah, they were not so sure at first,

(04:16):
but eventually once X, Y and Z happened, they were
more open to it. But that no, that's at least
according to you know, everything that I was told, that's
how it went.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
The other one that stood out to me was you
wrote what was clear coming out of the Lawrence move
was that they now must re evaluate the previous assumptions
made about how they go forward. Tobin sounded more open
to the possibility of restructuring burrows contract than he was
when originally asked about it in February. And then you

(04:45):
also wrote about the ramifications and the structure and aggressiveness
of negotiations with players like DJ Turner, Dack Hill, and
Chase Brown, as well as the fifth year option decision
for Miles Murphy which they've made, which is a little
bit of a separate topic, but I think there's sort
of the big takeaway for me. It's like I was
thinking about this when we saw the viral clip this
week of DeAndre Hopkins saying he wants to play with

(05:06):
Joe Burrow and maybe that idea has no merit, but
now like it feels like there's nothing off the table
with this franchise.

Speaker 5 (05:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Normally you would say, well, that's not gonna happen, but
that's not what they do.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
That's what they do. Now it could happen.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Yeah, But I do think it was interesting, you know
because Steve Ardisovik when when he was talking about he
was like, I have never been in a place like
this with the cap here before, and he's been here
for a decade and a half.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Okay, so like this is new territory, and so.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
A lot of the presumptions about where a move like this,
or the approach from ownership in a situation like this
would be, I think are just they're they're gone after this,
because you're seeing them willingly put themselves in places they've
never willingly gone before, whether it be with financials or
how they've sort of dealt with everything this off season,

(06:00):
and so yeah, I think it's certainly been the perception changer,
and that's internally and externally.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Do you think a borrow restructure happens? Do you think
it happens soon. Do you think it has to happen.
I don't think it has to happen. I mean they're
in a good enough place. I just think, you know,
there are opportunities to do more things. That's not necessarily
even talking about external I just think they have to.
When they talk about making it fit, that was the
big thing. Everybody used that phrase, how do we make

(06:28):
it fit? Like they make this work?

Speaker 3 (06:31):
It was reimagining that because I think they had a
plan in mind before Dexter Lawrence of what all this
would look like. And I'm speaking of extensions, I'm speaking
of what was the fifth year option for Miles Murphy.
All of these things kind of in their own little
work left to do bucket. So now it's how does
that get done? Does a Burrow restructure need to get

(06:53):
done in order them to make the next few years
work right for whoever they want to extend or whatever
that is. They don't have to do it, but it
would seem that if they need to reconfigure the way
some things look, that's where you start, is how to
reconfigure some wasting some things look.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
So Duke is obviously much more meanable to doing it.
Do you think.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
I mean that was just based on his answer. Yeah,
I mean that's his answer in February was basically like,
we have a plan to do that without having to
restructure Burrow. Well, we'll open our minds to that if
we have to. And this time it was we're talking
about it, you know what I mean essentially, And so
that was it sounded like a guy who sounds much

(07:38):
more open to the concept of doing that and is
part of what they've got to figure out.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Can you comment on something else that I read in
the Athletic that wasn't in a piece that you wrote. Sure,
this is Mike Sando canvassing NFL executives on what teams
did in the draft. I read that and he he
wrote about how one executive suggested the Bengals could have
tried to involve a third team if there was one
that wanted to move up to number ten and perhaps

(08:05):
bring a mid round pick back to Cincinnati. I think
there are other folks who have sort of expressed this
belief that maybe they could have squeezed the Giants for
a little bit more. You believe that. I do believe.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
I believe that it felt like they should have gotten
more that there should have been some form of return.
I agree there Yeah, not massive, but no, no, that's you.
You would think a third or fourth or some some
sort of swap whatever that is would have felt right there.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
I would agree with that.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Involving A thirteen, there were there were just a lot
of problems with doing anything ahead of time, Like teams
with the draft were not gonna want to move around
with their position before that that night, They couldn't really
do that. So just by the nature of needing to
do the negotiation and physical and all other stuff. So
I just think they kind of resigned themselves to the
fact that it wasn't going to involve teams moving up

(08:57):
or additional and additional team being involved.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
It feels to me like had they tried to get
another team involved, that could have compromised the deal they
had done with the Giants yet potentially.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
And because I mean they kept a real tight circle
on that m I mean real tight. There was there
was not There was a lot of people that you
would think would know that were surprised. There was just generally,
I mean, they didn't want it to be something that
a lot of people knew about or that was really
out there because you don't want it to be another thing.
It kind of got out they were involved with Max Crosby,

(09:31):
and they didn't want to look like another swing and
miss in case it doesn't happen at the end, which
you know is always a possibility with those things, and
where it was going, So yeah, I think it was there.
It was purposely kept to a really tight, small, comfortable circle,
so involving more might have potentially jeopardized some of that,
or at least made it more complicated. And they were
really feeling the time and ticking a little faster there

(09:53):
by the time they got to the weekend before the draft.
They didn't want to push close to the wire. They
they felt like they were ready to make the move,
and they felt like the timing to do it was
right then so that they could get themselves fully prepared
for what was going to be a new setup for
them in the draft and get everything done.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Paul Danner Junior is here covering the Bengals for The
Athletic as well as the Growler podcast. Uh you could
read the inside story is How to the Dexter Lawrence
as to how the Dexter Lawrence trade went down. If
you read Paul's work at the Athletic dot com. If
you haven't ready yet, go check that out. And uh,
the latest Growler podcast is uh who they Like from

(10:30):
from Friday? From Friday is up there. We were into
a bunch of different times. Co host just dumps all
over local TV news. I mean temporarily he did. I
think he's a supporter of local TV news. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
The last time you were on you did you showed
up in a in a suit and tie.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
I were trying to class up our price, and I
think I did. I think you did too, I really do.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
I think you were on a something that I think
we should become the classy podcast, and we just were
suiting tie in our in our rooms.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
It just remoked a little too cable Newsy for me. Yeah,
because as I was watching it, as I was doing
and I thought, like I think I even said, like,
I feel like I should be talking about the straight
up horror moves, right yeah, So, and I trust me,
I don't want to have to talk about that, so
I don't. I have sort of revisited whether the next
time I appear on the podcast, if I'll be wearing

(11:20):
though also I only have one suit jacket. Yeah really
so yes, lets me come back with that.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
But maybe you're always wearing something surprising, kind of like
Joe Burrow at the Met Gala, Like maybe you maybe
you show up in something fancy like that, or maybe
you go with the like the T shirt combo that
he was wearing at the after party. And if you
saw those photos circulating.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, I'm mute in met gala on Twitter this morning.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
Oh good for you.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
I'm good for you. I don't care. I'm with you.
It's a sixteen minutes after three o'clock. Paul Danner Junior's
here till four. We have Amelio Pagan blowing a game
last night. We have to talk about a little bit
later on on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, Traffic.

Speaker 6 (12:00):
WCKY Cincinnati and iHeartRadio Station Ginner and Ted Human ESPN
fifteen thirty I Hard.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Twenty three minutes after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty mo Edgar, thanks so much for listening today. Hopefully
you're having an awesome Tuesday afternoon. Paul Danner Junior is
with us until four o'clock on the Bengals follow him
at Paul Daanner Junior. Your level of surprise that the
Bengals didn't pick up Miles Murphy's fifth year option, Well,

(12:32):
it would have.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Been certainly a little more surprising one before the Dexter
Lawrence deal and definitely two before we heard Duke Tobin
talk about it last week. I mean he kind of
put the writing on the wall in that one that
the Lawrence deal changed the way their finance finances looked
for that it very much felt like they planned on

(12:55):
picking it up until that, and now it put it
into a different like we were talking about earlier allocation
and they're going to try to get a long term
deal done.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
I find this fascinating.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Because there's both sides have a real opportunity here to
figure out what they want this to be. Is Miles
Murphy gonna bet on himself because he if he ends
up having a season like I think they think he's
going to and like he thinks he should, even if

(13:28):
he just has a season that is a full season
of what he was the second half of last year, Yeah,
which would extrapolate out to like sixty plus pressures and
double digit sacks. You know what, his number is it's
like a Dafeoway boy off. We just saw these guys
get paid twenty plus million per year.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
It's a lot more than the fourteen and a half
he would have gone you would have gotten here.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
And then there's the other side for the Bengals of
is there an incentive to get in early on this
if this guy is a part of your future. Now
they have invested in a lot of other edges, but
this guy has shown the most promise out of any
of the buddy that they have picked now in terms
of proven promise. Do you go in early a little
bit on this and can you get the discount we've

(14:13):
talked how many times have we talked about yesterday's price
and today's price on here in recent years? This is
a good opportunity for that to try to maybe they
can where Okay, Miles gets a little bit more money
before he ever actually does any of it, and the
Bengals maybe end up with a bargain after this year.
Are they willing to do that? Is he willing to
do that? I think it's a kind of a fascinating

(14:34):
negotiation to see what each side wants to get out
of it. Otherwise, the Bengals jeopardize losing him next year,
And maybe that's just a part of that they're gonna
have to deal with. But I certainly have never gotten
the impression that they view him that way, that he
is one that they would want to see go. But
now throw him in the bucket with the rest of them.
DJ Turner and Dax Hill and Chase Brown and all

(14:57):
these guys. Now, not all these guys are getting paid.
I can tell you that much.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
What he should do is this sign an extension, Go
have a great year, and then complain about the extension
he just signed, and give me a two year long
soap opera. Yeah, this is perfect, can we, Miles, Miles,
I feel like it's possible. Miles, there's can we? There's
very much press Just follow follow the tail, pick your

(15:21):
pick the phone up, Trey, can your agent advise me? Here,
We're gonna sign this deal. But it's cool if I
have a good year and then complain about the deal,
like nine months after I sign it.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
When do I request a trade and then immediately rescind it?

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Right?

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Like?

Speaker 2 (15:34):
When do I do that part? Yes? You know, just
whenever I put so I'm looking for Yeah, this is
this is perfect. By the way, is Trey Hendrickson Is
he already threatening to hold out in Baltimore or any
rumblings about that that he's already unhappy with his new deal?

Speaker 3 (15:45):
What happened at the end of that video that was
going around at him in the Ravens Jersey. At the
end of that He's like, and I need a new deal?

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Was that ended?

Speaker 7 (15:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (15:53):
I do with the Miles Murphy thing. I see both
sides of it from a Bengals perspective. I do I
have all these other dudes Miles had, He's had one
half a season of productivity. I have addressed the position
with other guys like you know, prove it. If I
also understand the risk. If I'm Miles I am.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
It's if I and I know if I just go
out and play like I did last year, that I'm
gonna be. I'm gonna be like all those guys that
just got paid that huge amount of money, if not more.
If he even improves like I I have a hard
time signing anything that feels like a discount right now.

(16:34):
As somebody who if you believe in yourself and your
level of play, I mean, when you look at Boye MafA,
if you he never had a sixty pressure season, right,
like a lot of these guys have not that Da
Fayoe have never had a season even remotely, Like like
you're talking about if he a level that he's already

(16:55):
put on tape for half a year. If if he
does that, I don't know why you would want to
short yourself right now. The Bengals would have to make
that worth his while somehow. Which is it does that
common ground even exist? Especially when the Bengals are considering
that they're in a they're in a little bit of
a good problem to have. I would say it's better

(17:17):
than the previous problem they didn't have anyone to pay. Yeah,
so a good problem to have right now. But you know,
how are they going to hold on to?

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Guys?

Speaker 3 (17:24):
Who are they gonna hold on to? And then you
look at all the investments they've made at Edge and
they at least have backup plans there where I don't
think they have a backup plan at Corner, right. Yeah,
if we're talking about how you're ranking those which.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
So that's that's the thing, like Miles Murphy, Okay, Like
you know, the next order of business was to decide
what to do with him, but he now slides down
the pecking order of of just things they've got to
get done.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, I mean to me, DJ one maybe miles two
ahead of Docks. Yeah, probably, I mean, I probably, Okay,
I just think they're they're gonna lean more towards DJ
there and and but I mean somewhere in that.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Un clearly DJ Turner's won though. Yeah, and as you just.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Think Miles whoop, they I think inevitably will be worth
more than Dax would be. Okay, it'll be I mean,
I don't know. Maybe Dax has a huge breakout. You
We actually talked to him a little bit today and
he was really interesting on you know, wanting to stay
outside for Robby's reasons. Yeah, I think he prefers to
be outside. Sure could blame him. That's where the money
is money. And we started playing there, why do I

(18:29):
need to have to move around again?

Speaker 2 (18:31):
Well, I was gonna go there next because I did
see and I off the top of my head, I
don't know who I saw it from, but I saw
it on social media was scrum video of him at
his locker putting on a coat. He has the same
coat as my father in law. Which is cool, but
I felt bad for Dax. I feel bad for Dax
to a degree because it's like, you're finally you found
a home. It's taken a while, you have found a home.
And at that home, if if you continue to ascend,

(18:53):
whether it's here or somewhere else, you're gonna get paid.
That's where the money is, and now we may take
you and move you, which strikes me as a little unfair.
And maybe it is what's best for the team, but
a little unfair. And were they able to move you,
the money isn't quite what it is if you are
where you are right now.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Yeah, and I don't think they like I. He certainly
didn't make it sound like they were approaching him about
moving inside right now. But we can see where it
could end up being best for the team that he
has to move in. I mean, that's that's obvious. I
think they would like for him to excel as an
outside corner and have two top level outside corners. I

(19:30):
think they would like that. But if things start falling apart,
we know what can happen, and we know what the
direction could be there. He's you know, he probably deserves better,
like he deserves better but also he is. He's saying, look,
I want to do what the team needs. Sure, I

(19:52):
have stated my preference. I know what my preference is.
I'm also here to help the team. So it's it's
May fifth, you.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
And I think that's kind of where it's at right now.
But he hasn't been approached by any buddy from the
team in terms of specific of what his role might
change to.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Sorry, it's May fifth, But but like, is there somebody
I could be talking about on June fifth? Like that's
at the end of the day. But when we get
to a month from now and I need, like, you know,
I don't have Trey hendrickson anymore. And I know I've
joked about this with you, but is there somebody who's
gonna cause a stink about something? Joe Burrow gonna be
here by then?

Speaker 3 (20:30):
I mean, I hope, so for all of our sakes
except you, I guess you need that. I've gotten two
segments out of it. I believe that he I think
he'll be here by then. I yeah, I mean, you're
these extension people. How they handle it? Are they going
to handle it aggressively? I guess you know, Dax isn't

(20:50):
going to cause a problem that that's been apparent. I
think he wants to be around right now to show everybody, Hey,
I'm I'm good, sure, I'm on born here. Will will
DJ be one that he is like, you know, put
up the big year, became a guy. I want to
be paid like a guy. You're offering me like a
guy who I'm gonna wear a hat? Is that where
that goes? I don't know, like that might be the one,

(21:12):
but I guess there's going to be something. Hopefully it's
not over. Like you know, if you have to have
a first round pick to have to fight with over
language offset language.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
We don't, Thank goodness, I don't have a second round
pick to fight over language.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
There actually might be a secon round pick to fight
over language.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
That could be a thing. Oh got something for me?

Speaker 3 (21:33):
It could potentially, Yeah, the last year it was right
around the fortieth forty first pick was when when it
changed last year in the way some of his contracts
were structured.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
So potentially we could have some action for you. Great,
there you go. It'll be on my radar twenty eight
away from four o'clock. There is something I talked about
with you and Jay on the Growler last week that
I want to bring up here when we come back.
After sports headlines. Paul Danner Junior from the Athletic in
the Ground podcast, He's here till four. We I am
here Toll six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

(22:07):
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again tonight, Cincinnati trying to avoid equaling its longest losing
streak from last year. After last night's walk off Chicago win,
Andrew Abbott starts against Jamison tie on seven point forty

(23:04):
is tonight's first pitch on seven hundred WLW. Reds have
yet to release their starting lineup for tonight's game. College
Baseball UC's at Oral Roberts. The Xavier Michigan games scheduled
for Heightenfield today has been canceled. NBA Playoffs to night,
Game one between the Cavs and Pistons in Detroit, Game
one between the Lakers and Thunder in Oklahoma City. NHL

(23:26):
Stanley Cup Playoffs Wild and Avalanche in Denver, with a
Colorado leading that series one game to none. Paul Danner
Juniors here from The Athletic and the Growler podcast on
Bless You Got Now. Last week on your show, we
talked about the comments by Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight. Now,

(23:46):
many of us have spent a lot of time expressing
frustration disappointment of the fact that Bengals haven't upgraded or
at least added to that position, pointing to the struggles
of those players last year when they were atrocious. There's
no getting around it. Sorry, maybe they were better towards
the end of the season, but they weren't very good.
I appreciated the fact that both talked last week and

(24:08):
specifically with Barrett Carter. I appreciated the fact that I
did not take it as him making an excuse, but
he was pointing out something that I do think needs
to be acknowledged, and that's yes, they struggled as rookies.
They were also thrown to the wolves and set in
an environment that was not conducive to success. And then
this is me talking, not them, and didn't have the

(24:31):
safety net of another linebacker on the field to play
with because one guy was playing opposite another rookie, and
so they were experiencing things and going through things that
are hard for a rookie, but even more difficult in
the middle of a bad defense when you have no
other safety net at linebacker. And I appreciated the fact
that Barrett Carter said that, Yeah, I mean, because it's

(24:53):
not untrue.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
It's true, and I think, especially in retrospect, it's different
to talk about it during the season. It feels like
you're giving up or but when you look, if we're
gonna do an honest self scout, they were set up
to fail. And it's fine for him to say that,
you know, his version of that, he's not gonna you
know say it as explicitly as I am, but I'll

(25:16):
say it that way.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
He was set at to fail.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
He threw him in there next to another rookie, and
he's pointing out like, I'd never really seen a quarterback
under center before or a full back, and that's what
the league is. And now you're having to learn to
be instinctual and react to that and understand what you're
looking at. None of that means that Barrett Carter's gonna

(25:38):
be great. It also is understandable why they were so bad,
because you can't that. There's a reason why you don't
ever have two rookies next to each other out there.
You need somebody who's been around and seen it to
help mitigate the mistakes and keep you comfortable out there,
because it's a position based on comfort and instincts.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
That's what it is.

Speaker 5 (26:02):
Is.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
You got to know what you're seeing, know what you're
looking at, because the whole offense, especially once they recognize
that they didn't, was going to be based around distracting
you from knowing what you're looking at. And so, yeah,
I think it's great that he said that. I think
it's truthful. I think it's just so obvious. Yes, that
he's comfortable saying it. No one is going to deny that,

(26:24):
and I'm sure they've had a lot of conversations internally
about that.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Then I didn't take that as him making excuses for
the issues he had last year. I know they were
accepting of the challenge of year two, and I think
willing to acknowledge, especially Barrett, willing to acknowledge that his rookies,
they had issues, they struggled, and a lot of that
is on them. But I'm glad he provided the context
because I think the context is important.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
It is important, and I think it's part of why
they believe in him and why he believes in him.
You know, I think he looks at it and says,
I felt like once I started understanding what I was
looking at, I played better, and Demetrious Night can kind
of say the same thing, And that's fair because they
did play better, and we can talk about the nature

(27:08):
of the offenses they played down the stretch, and that's fair.
But like they did play better and they didn't look
as lost, and there wasn't that step and a half
of diagnosing that just was slow last year that you
saw so much in the early part of the season
that slow last year that you saw so much in

(27:30):
the early part of the season that was better.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
And so.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Also it's not just having I mean, you can't play
behind a bad defensive line and think it's just gonna
be great. Like you also help them with everything else
around them. And I just think they are as currently constructed,
exponentially more set up for success this year. And so

(27:55):
we'll see if that matters or if they're still just
not good enough. Are the Bengals signing Andre Hopkins?

Speaker 2 (28:02):
I mean I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
I mean I saw he's interested in doing he wants
to play with Joe Burrow.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Sure are we getting the twenty twenty nine NFL.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Draft appears that there's a good chance to that. I mean,
at a certain point, how many you know, everybody gets
to turn the right there's the list is getting smaller
here and the teams that can do it. And I
think now that they've got a little bit more of
the hotel situation and all that stuff is starting to

(28:31):
sort itself out. I think that was always one of
the biggest things. And says that starts to sort itself out,
it feels like it makes more sense and you can
see it, So, I mean, I think that's it's possible
for sure.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Well, they have auditions to be the paid actors who
dress up as football fans that exuberantly cheer every sixth
and seventh round pick, And can I be one of them?

Speaker 3 (28:54):
No, I'm not here to tell you what you can
and can't do with your life if.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
That's what you want to do. But I sort of
wish you would. I mean I want this for you.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Yeah, Now can you each like round switch to a
different team? And so you're like, wait, didn't I see
him in pack?

Speaker 10 (29:15):
Lost of the.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Folks that they have face paint, they have apparatus on
that sort of reveals who or hides who some of
these people are.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
So yeah, like, I don't I can I say this.
I don't want to. If if you have a thing,
do your thing, be passionate, Okay, go for it. I
feel like face painting to go to the drafts too far?

Speaker 2 (29:34):
But you, I mean you're busy. You're covering the team
and you're interviewing the people who are in charge of
picking players. When you watch the draft on television, it's
always interesting to me that, especially on Saturday, there will
be people there and by the way, if the draft
is in Cincinnati, I'll go, looks fun, right. I don't
know that I'm going all three days, but you know,
for a few hours, looks like a good time. Looks crowded,

(29:56):
looks crowded, looks like a good time. Looks like a
really cool advertisement for the city. I bad you want this,
but you're getting into like round six. And let's just say,
for the sake of example, the Arizona Cardinals draft a
running back that nobody has heard of in the sixth round.
They'll announce the pick and then they'll pan to the
cluster of Cardinals fans and they're not just like that's cool.

(30:18):
They're losing their mind. Yeah, I mean they are cheering
like their team just won the Super Bowl, right, and
it's like all right. First of all, a lot of
Arizona Cardinal fans in Pittsburgh or Cincinnati or Nashville or
Green Bay, the places they typically have the draft.

Speaker 11 (30:31):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Secondly, are you really that excited over this dude? Like
when the Bengals draft the Taj Brooks, I'm like, that's cool.
I watched him play in college, man, he was awesome.
Wondering how he fits in Bengals have a cool running
back room. I wasn't having an orgasm. I wasn't losing
my mind. I wasn't bro hugging people. Like, but you
watch the draft. There is no way in hell those
are real fans. Those are paid actors by the NFL.

(30:54):
I'm not a tenfoil hat guy. Those are paid actors
by the NFL. Hey, we'll pay you, We'll give you
some gear, show up and act like you are so
elated that your team took this guy that you really
have never heard of.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
It's possible. Also, have you ever watched people react anytime
they get on camera, like whether there's like even at
a game when it's halftime or whenever all of a
sudden camera ever seen the video board at a Reds game,
Like the moment you're on TV? What happens all the
things that you said that I don't want to happen,

(31:26):
and so.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Anything bad, he use any foul language?

Speaker 3 (31:28):
This was uncomfortable.

Speaker 12 (31:29):
Okay, fine, I'm just saying I feel like that is
a the camera's on me not Hey, look they took
John Smith from USC Upstate, right, Like, I don't think
I just think it's I want to be on camera
and if I go, I'm gonna go nuts at the
moment I'm on camera, the same way everybody seems to

(31:50):
go nuts whenever they're on camera.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
You know, you make a good point. When I was
twenty years old, I was in Dayton, Ohio going to school.
The Cleveland Indians were in the World Series and I
was underage consuming at a bar and Dayton and Channel
two sent a camera crew in there to like grab
Indians fans cheering their team in the World Series, and
they were the Indians at the time, and it had
been a very quiet night. Everybody's just hanging out and

(32:12):
suddenly this camera crew walks in and for about ninety seconds,
people lost their mind and the camera crew left, and
then folks just got back to having dinner talking to
the people they were with, and so I yeah, you're right, Okay,
It's just it's just a natural thing that people do.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
I watched My Conspiracy. I always used to laugh when
you know, if you've ever gone around them. In our
our local news sports folks says, we ever go into
any gym, high school, basketball game, whatever. It could be
the most boring game ever, but you put turn the
camera over to the fans right behind you. You're gonna
get a big reaction. It's it's just what it is.
When do you come out with what were you doing?

(32:47):
Drink underage? By the way, I was coerced. Yeah, yeah,
I was against your will. I was twenty beyond me.
I was twenty October of ninety seven.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I just I just view you in a better way.
I ran with the wrong crowd. I just got caught
up with some people that I shouldn't have been associated with, who.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
You're still friends with to this day.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
One of them. Yeah, Uh, when when is your mock
schedule coming out? When is the real schedule? Why is
this taking so long to just announce when the date is?
We have a schedule release show that like, we're ready
to talk about, but we can't schedule until the schedule
release date comes out.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, well, the announcement of the announcement is what I
keep waiting for, Yes, is when that's But they did
at the draft last year. I think there's still work
to be done. I mean I think not all the
pack not all the the TV packages are are even
the five games streaming package.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
That thing just came out, So I don't know, I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
I don't know like when that's gonna come out or whatever,
but we it does seem to be a trend that
you're hearing now that it could be a week later.
Now this the season starts a week later, like everything's
pushed back, like the openers September thirteen.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
So cam's going to be a little bit later. They
could probably theories, but they're just drawing it out, you know.
I mean, I'm sure there's reasons internally that they're that
they need to try to, you know, get whatever they
needed to get together. But yeah, it looks possible that
it won't be next week, that it could be the
week after the Bengals are going to play in one
of those international games, I hope. So yeah, I mean,
what are you rooting for? I'm personally rooting for Madrid, okay,

(34:22):
because I want to go to Madrid. I've been to London.
I've never been to Madrid. Is that a possibility. It's
a possibility. It's part of the too.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
I mean, the the Commanders and the Falcons games both
are available, and the Bengals are on both their schedules.
It feels like they're being funneled potentially towards it. But
you know, as these last second schedule changes happen, you
can get things, things can change, but it seems like
they probably end.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Up in one of those too. So when we know
when the schedule release date is, is when you'll come
out with the mock schedule.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
I mean, I could do the mock schedule right now, right,
but I like to wait for it to be I
like to get a little Well, you got to get
ahead of it now because they turn into a week
long experience. Right so every day on every morning show,
we got to hear about the new Oh we're gonna
release this game in that game. So I got to
get ahead of that now. So maybe I'm gonna be
maybe I'll do it. Sometimes I enjoy the mock schedule.
Why did I enjoy the mock draft?

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah, well, thank you. I enjoy doing it. Everybody does
a mock draft. Well you're the only one who does
a mock schedule, thank you. Because I like to dive
into the road trip possibility of where we could match up,
whether it's concerts or college games or reds or whoever,
where could we possibly cross over each year. I'll tell
you what I'm rooting for. Okay, So I haven't been

(35:36):
to a Bengals game in Pittsburgh since nineteen ninety five.
Jeff Blake threw three touchdown passes and the Bengals beat
the eventual AFC champion Steelers twenty seven to nine. I've
decided I want to go back. Okay, you see as
at West Virginia Saturday, October seventeenth. Could I get a
ten eighteen Bengals game at whatever they call that stadium?

(35:59):
The Steelers plan on the mock schedule, and I'll call
it the Moeger Special. I've already got one down, Okay,
sixteen more to go. I love that the Bengals play
at the Texans this year. Yeah, you see is at
Houston's Saturday November seventh? Could I get an early November
Texans twin Bill? Yes, got two down? Uh, It's it's

(36:21):
the beauty of the mock schedule. Mo. You can do
anything you want to do playing the Cardinals, right, I
know are not going to Phoenix. No Phoenix, no NFL
team and Ames PROFI well, again, this is just about me,
This is about you. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
You know, I'm gonna look, I'm gonna look a little
bit more into some of the road places and some
of the concerts that are going on. Maybe, uh, check
the red schedules, eat it. That's always a hard one, yeah,
but sometimes you can catch a red schedule that will
that will match up with with one if you get
really lucky.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Yeah. I think that was the case a couple of
years ago. I think the Reds finished the season in
Pittsburgh and the Bengals played there the next day and no,
folks who did that remember? One year?

Speaker 5 (36:59):
What?

Speaker 2 (37:00):
But I know now you're sending me. I'm gonna spoil.
You're sending me to Reds dot com September. Amelia Pagan
will still be the closer.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
This is the beauty of the mock schedule. There's so many,
so many possibilities anything. None of it really matters at
Toronto and at Milwaukee.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
The key this year in the uh in the layout though,
is going to be how many of those first year
head coaches and how many division games end up early
Where the Bengals biggest advantage in the north right is
their continuity, So if they can how many front loaded
division games, whether it be or will this be one
of those years, like you know, we've seen years where
all the division games are in the back half of

(37:38):
the season. Uh, if they can get a few of
those frontloaded, specifically the Ravens game would be an advantage
for that.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
I was going to say, is it an iron clad
lock that the Ravens game here will be in primetime
and they won't have to go to Baltimore on a
Thursday coming here?

Speaker 3 (37:51):
I never call that an ironclad lock when we've seen
what we've seen with how that game has been scheduled.
But I can say this with one hundred percent fact
the league is very aware.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yes, yes, the Bengals had a legitimate gripe, so now
you owe them a home game plus Trey's coming back.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Tray's coming back.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
I have I have ear marked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday topics
for that week. Should you boo them? Should you share them?
I mean, I just I'm ready to go for that week.
I just need to know which week it is.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Yeah, that feels like us A Sunday Night, a Sunday
Night special.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Yes, should be at pay Corp.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
But so knowing that, certainly probably back to Baltimore on
Thanksgiving or something.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Thank you as always, this was fun. Paul Danner Junior,
The Growlar Podcast and the Athletic dot Com and follow
Paul on Twitter at Paul Danner Junior. Five away from
four o'clock. Now we have talked about Amelia Pagan. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
From their media. Guess what day is it? Guess what
day it is? You know that's not exactly true. In
my house, it is Sinko demayo. We didn't plan this
very well. I think we're having meat loaf tonight. I

(39:15):
haven't consulted with my other half, but I think tonight's
meat loaf Tuesday the like exact opposite meal that you
want to have on Sinco Demayo. We might have to
change things up. I don't know. Good afternoon on Moeger.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks so much for listening,
and hopefully you're having an awesome, awesome, awesome Tuesday. Monday
night if you're a Reds fan. Was promising and then

(39:37):
miserable because Amelio Pagan coughed a game up and I've
been told I'm overreacting to this. We'll get to that
here in just a second. We do have a pole
question about Amelio Pagan on Twitter at Moeger thanks to
United Heartland Insurance. You know, the REDS closer might not
be reliable, but my friends that United Heartland Insurance are
when it comes to looking for somebody who can help

(39:58):
you save money on insurance, So go to U H
I N S dot com. Basically, should Emiliopagan be the
closer or literally anyone else? Vote now at mogar before
we expand on that, let's grab a let's grab Terrell downtown.
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for hanging on, sir.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
How are you are yourself?

Speaker 2 (40:18):
I'm well man, what's going on?

Speaker 5 (40:21):
I want to.

Speaker 10 (40:22):
Make a quick coming about the live Barkers and away.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Games please, So going back, it's going.

Speaker 10 (40:27):
Back to back in the day with thee Keio spices.
Last things was rapping. They were two rookies. They first yew,
wasn't that good? But look how they turned out.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
Yes, no, you're you're exactly right. You're exactly right.

Speaker 10 (40:41):
And uh my thing based on the way games to
mention only been a one away game and it was
it was a Pittsburgh and it was January. It was
actually January last year with Joe Burrow Woner.

Speaker 7 (40:52):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 10 (40:53):
You can you can hear you can hear Pans rock
when we had this, when we had this storm.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Uhre you talking about the last the last game of
the season twenty twenty four when they had to win
to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Speaker 10 (41:04):
Yes, there was the only away game I woked been
through and you can hear pins rocking. There ain't nothing
like going to Pittsburgh and win it. Hit a pis movies.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Well, here's the thing. You're one to zero road games,
so now you have to go to another one.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
I know.

Speaker 10 (41:19):
My next nation is Baltimore.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
The Cleveland h I've I've been lucky enough to do both.
I would and this is no knock on Cleveland, but
the Baltimore experience is better. Okay, Yeah, there's my recommendation.
You gotta do Baltimore. There's my recommendation not to ry.
You make a fair point, and the linebacker play has
changed since Takio Spikes and Brian Simmons were rookies. But

(41:42):
you're right they they had their struggle. I don't know
that their struggles were as pronounced as those of Barret
Carter and Demetrius Knight, but there is, there is there's
a reasonable expectation of improvement just from the accumulation of experience.
We are on the same page there. It's all good
to hear from me. Man, thanks so much.

Speaker 10 (41:58):
You you do this.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yeah, my first Bengals rode, my first Bengals road game
was actually in New Jersey, so I'm lose to the
Jets when I was in high school. But my freshman
year of college, they went to Pittsburgh on a Thursday night.
Thursday night games used to be on TNT and Jeff Blake,
I remember the moonball. Jeff Blake is my second favorite

(42:20):
Bengals player of all time. And the Steelers at that
time were at three River Stadium. They were in the
mid nineties. They were really good. They went to the
Super Bowl that year. Bengals go there on a Thursday
night and smoked them twenty seven and nine. And that's
a Pittsburgh team that went to the Super Bowl. And
I will never forget watching Darnay Scott and Carl Pickens

(42:42):
catch I could look it up, but you know, like
fifty yard touchdown passes from Jeff Blake and just shutting
that crowd up. It was awesome. And then I believe
the Bengals maybe won three or four more games the
rest of the season. That would have been like late
October nineteen ninety five. That's a pleasant memory. It is
not a pleasant memory is last night in the ninth inning,

(43:03):
Emelio Pagan giving up the tying and winning run, And
that was I think the first real gut punch loss
of twenty twenty six. Number one, it was a walk
off loss. Number two. It was the fourth consecutive loss.
Number three. It's obviously Reds had come out of Pittsburgh

(43:24):
that felt like when they had to lead in the
ninth inning, like, all right, this is exactly what the
doctor ordered. Coming off of what happened in Pittsburgh. You
ran Chase Petty out there last night. Chase Petty was
obviously not great, but he was good enough on the
road with the wind blowing out against a good offensive lineup.
Saya Suzuki had wanted nearly Wisconsin, but beyond that, Chase

(43:48):
Petty gave your team a chance to win and stood
in line to be one of the reasons why the
Reds broke their three game losing streak get to gain
a game in the standings against the Cubs. You get
an where key Brian Hayes. It's a home run that
felt like it was gonna be a significant win. And
I know they all count the same mathematically, but that

(44:09):
that felt like it was maybe gonna count for a
little bit more, and instead it felt like a loss
that counted for a little bit more. Amelio Pagan blew
the game. Emelio Pagan is a good major league pitcher.
I know nobody wants to say that right now, but
Emelio Pagan is a good major league pitcher. He probably

(44:34):
just shouldn't close. I don't know about you. My thinking
has evolved about closers because I used to hear like
you gotta have that ninth inning mentality, or it's just
different pitching in the ninth than it is even in
a really high leverage situation in the seventh or eighth.

(44:54):
But nearly every person whose opinion about pitching I respect
has stated publicly it is different, whether it's the mentality,
whatever it is, Pitching in the ninth inning is different.
Melio Pagan, I think would be fine in the seventh,
eighth and the seventh inning or the eighth inning. I

(45:15):
think he would be fine if he occasionally had to
pitch the ninth It doesn't feel like on a really
good team, like he's the best option for the ninth inning. Now,
the obvious counter to that is, well, then who should
it be? I don't know. Here's what I do know.
The Reds have been lauded for the way that they

(45:36):
have built up a nice accumulation of relief pitchers. Is
there not someone in their worth at least trying in
the ninth because, let's admit this, when you're winning in
the ninth inning, chances are the picture on the mount
is going to get the last three outs before the
other team takes the lead. So you're operating with a

(45:58):
pretty built in large margin for error. Why not try
somebody else? It feels like there are two types of
closers in baseball. Every closer blows a save. Obviously, some
blow them more infrequently than others. But there are closers who,
when they blow a save, it's surprising, think of the

(46:22):
best to do it, Think of the best the Reds
have had to do it. When they blow a save,
it's pretty surprising. Didn't see that coming. Then there are
closers who, when they blow a save, you just kind
of go yep, about what I expected. Most of the time.
Emilio Pegan gets the last three outs most of the time.

(46:45):
Most closers get the last three outs. What you should
be looking for as a closer who when he does
blow a save, it's a shock or it's at least
a mild surprise because he's that damn reliable. It sounds
like we're picking on it because of one bad outing,
And maybe there's something to that, because emotionally, last night

(47:06):
felt like more of a gut punch than any other
game the Reds have lost this season. But be honest
with me, man okay, and I like himily O Amelia
Pagan has been in this studio with me. He is
a wonderful dude, like one of my favorite contemporary Reds
that we've ever had on the show. Self effacing and
funny and reflective and honest and engaging, like as a dude.

(47:28):
Love him, love him. We've had him on this show
each of the last two winters in studio for like
a half hour. Fun guy to talk to, easy guy
to root for, a guy that you should want to
be a part of the team. But do you want
him pitching in a ninth inning? When the Reds have
a lead, a tight lead, not a four run lead held,

(47:49):
not a three run lead, one run game, Amelia Pegan
comes out, he may get the last three outs and
the odds are in his favor because it's baseball that
he's going to get the last three outs and he's
gonna pick up the save. Which is mostly a meaningless statistic.
But do you feel confident if the answer is yes,
by all means, make the case that he should continue

(48:11):
to be the closer. If the answer is no, and
you acknowledge they have some good relievers, is there any
harm in letting somebody else be the guy, at least temporarily.
I know I don't feel the way Terry Francona does.
You're gonna hear him on a number of different topics

(48:33):
in just a few minutes, and he may pitch the night,
he may get the save, he may get the three
outs before the Cubs tie the game. All is well,
and Emilio keeps his job and we don't talk about him.
I can't speak for anybody else. I can't speak to
anybody else who does a talk show or a podcast
or has an outlet. But in the year plus that

(48:56):
he has been the closer. This is the first time
we've made him a topic. Because unreliability accumulates over time.
If you're late to work once, you're not unreliable. If
you're late to work like four times in a month
and a half, you're unreliable. Emilio Pagan feels unreliable. And
when he blew the save last night, you may have

(49:17):
been angry, You may have been pissed, you may have
been frustrated. Chances are you weren't stunned, were you. Five
point three seven four nine fifteen thirty is our phone number.
Brenniman and Jones and Baseball coming up later on this hour.
Do you remember the twenty twenty one Bengals. Of course
you do. They went to the Super Bowl? Do you

(49:39):
remember about this time in twenty twenty one? Because I do,
I'll jog your memory if you don't. Coming up in
the five o'clock hour, five point three seven four nine
fifteen thirty is our phone number. You could send me
a tweet at Moeger thanks to Delta Dental. Delta Dental
is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all good adultad

(50:00):
oh dot com. Quarter after four This is ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Cincinnati's ESPN by.

Speaker 6 (50:09):
Cincinnati and iHeartRadio station Gearing Ted Human ESPN fifteen thirty
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Speaker 2 (50:17):
We got some Tito Francona here for you. But first
I got to tell you about the Mayor Lawn Contest,
which is happening right now, and we announced the winner
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two weeks from today. The Mayor Lawn Contest is the
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(50:39):
if you've already signed up, indulge me because I have
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(50:59):
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I'll deliver the prizes to you. And you can't be
I mean, I could understand you not wanting me on
your property. That's fair, but I'll drop off the mower
and I'll give you the tickets and then I'll leave.
Promise we'll take a picture or two. This is thanks
to backs of the Tractor and Riverbend Music Center. And
the way to sign up is you could do two

(51:20):
different things. You can go to my social media because
I've got links all over my social media, and my
social media for me is I got Twitter, I got Instagram,
I got Facebook. I don't do blue Sky or threads
though I have accounts. I've got a LinkedIn page. I
posted it on LinkedIn with special verbiage for the LinkedIn family,

(51:41):
the LinkedIn people people LinkedIn they don't talk like normal folks.
Or you could just go straight to the contest page
of ESPN fifteen thirty dot com and again we announced
the winner on Thursday, May twenty first, at four thirty five.
You will not win if you do not enter. About
once a year, I will hear from somebody who's like, well,
I wanted a new mower, and it's like, did you
enter the contest? No, well, how do I enter it?

(52:03):
Contest is over? Good news is this year. Contest is
not over. It's happening now, So enter and good luck
Earlier today, Buster Rolie had on his podcast, the Baseball
Tonight podcast Reds manager Terry Francona. Some call him Tito.
Tito and Buster are talking ball. That's really what this name,

(52:25):
the name of this podcast should have been. So here
is Tito answering the question about what he has seen
from Elie de la Cruz so far this season.

Speaker 11 (52:35):
You know, like young, good players with repetition, you know,
with the five six hundred that bats, they get better.
And his game is maturing, and he's been really consistent.
You know, like defensively, he's moving his feet every play,
not just most of the time. You know, he has
the ability to make the spectacular play that we see

(52:59):
a bunch, but he's making the routine play. His throws
have been on the money so consistently this year, and
that's been really good because we have to be good defensively.
We have to play clean baseball. Our starting pitchers. We
don't strike guys out like you know, like maybe some
of these other teams. Doesn't mean they're not good pitchers,

(53:21):
just we pitched the contact so we better catch the ball.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
And so far, for the most part, Dan Myers kind
of stepped weirdly on the warning track last night, and
that ball hit to right field, and some blame the
IVY balls hit really hard. I think you could argue
the play could have been made. Dan Myers is typically
very good in the outfield. He was not on that

(53:45):
play last night. So there are exceptions to the rule.
But the rule for much of the season has been
that the Reds have done a good job of catching
and throwing the baseball. We have folks waiting five, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty Phil. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty Phil, Good afternoon.
How are you.

Speaker 4 (54:06):
I'm great.

Speaker 13 (54:07):
No, I just got through sitting in northern Kentucky's biggest
parking love coast of training.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Oh, congratula, congratulations, I've I've I've sat in that parking
lot many times.

Speaker 13 (54:18):
Indeed, indeed, first of all, I feel better about mele
O Pagan if his backless baseball card didn't show you
that every other year he's pretty good and then the
other years he's and so like he's kind of due
for Russian this year. So I think you should have
a short lease.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Yes, it's it's interesting. True, even at his best last season,
hey had good year. He had a good year. Last year,
but even at his best, you sort of thought he's
best cast as something that's not a closer, even when
he was at his best. I think if you ask
most folks who follow this team, they would have said, man,
it would be awesome if they had Amelia Pagan on

(54:58):
the twenty twenty sixteen, but not as the closer that
was when he was having a good year. Now he's not.
So you can't help but say the exact same thing.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (55:07):
The real reason I called no is I understand that
you think that you have a dilemma, which is his
Taco Tuesday. Yeah, but it's meat loaf night.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Yes, it is meat loaf. It's left over meatloaf night.
My my wife last night made a great meat loaf.
And there's either good meat loaf or bad meat loaf.
There's nothing in the middle. Last night's meat loaf really good?

Speaker 13 (55:28):
All right, no real quick question, what's better the first
on a meatloaf or a leftover meatloaft sandwich?

Speaker 2 (55:36):
And a meatloaf sandwich is pretty good.

Speaker 13 (55:40):
So here's the thing. Taco Knight's not done.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Oh you have also at home, we do meat loaft tacos.
What you're saying, we have cheese.

Speaker 13 (55:49):
Yeah, you got you got hot sauce.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
We got hots. We have taco seasoning. I just bought
some on Saturday.

Speaker 13 (55:56):
My gun, I give you some flour trtilla from the
way home. You're done, taco, they still alive.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Phil. I'm I'm jotting this down so I could text
my wife during the break to say, meat loaf, tacos,
question mark, exclamation mark. That's what I'm gonna do. Excellent, Phil,
Thank you very much. This is this is good. This
is this is the sort of hard hitting sports talk
that I like. Yeah. She reminded me last night after

(56:25):
I said, Man, this meat loaf is the best I've
ever had. There's a good meat loafer that my grandma
made the best meat loaf. And beyond that, like my
dad made a good meat loaf. A lot of people
like you go to a restaurant, get meat, get meat loaf.
You have you have no idea what you're getting. There's
good meat loaf there, there's no average meat loaf. Wife
makes it. It's killer. We could stuff that in the

(56:46):
taco shell tonight, so it could be taco Tuesday. Arren,
you might have had the correct premonition Josh and Tennessee,
you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 14 (56:58):
I'm out micall thunder a little bit.

Speaker 5 (57:01):
Uh, but Myers.

Speaker 14 (57:03):
Absolutely should cough that ball. And I know Fradle gets
beat up a lot, but there is no doubt in
my mind Fradle catches that ball. You know the player earlier.
I think he's in the seventh inning where Myers almost
screwed that up between him and the left fielder. I
really and I think if you asked Myers if he
was honestly say yeah, I absolutely should have caught that ball.

(57:24):
He catches that ball. It's a three up, three down inning,
and we're not even having this discussion.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
Maybe ball was still really well hit and you you
may be very very correct, And the sad thing is
we're never going to know. And I'm with you and
that I felt like it was a catchable ball. I
felt like it was a more catchable ball than when
I saw it in real time because you saw the
weird steps. And I think Tito even talked about this
after the game. He's he sort of stepped weird on
the warning track and didn't necessarily take the correct route

(57:50):
to the ball. And so I'm inclined to believe that
that play should be made. But fine, go ahead, are
you he catches that ball? I'm sorry our so our
phone service is stuck in the nineteen fifties. I didn't
hear what you said. Will you repeat that for me?

Speaker 14 (58:05):
Are you with me that that Freda absolutely catches that ball?

Speaker 2 (58:08):
Probably? Yeah, the Dave Meyer's a good defensive center fielder,
then you know, I mean, I'd guess that Friedol catches it. Sure.
By the way, it's worth mentioning on the the on
the Nico Herner sacrifice fly, JJ Blede made a hell
of a throw. But like all of that said, then recovering,

(58:29):
don't give up a walk off bomb to Michael Conforto.
Thank yeah, thank you. I mean, like multiple things can
be true. Ball, wasn't it really hard? Wasn't the easiest play.
I'll say that Friedol would have made the play. I
think Myers probably should have, but all right, it happened.
Don't give up the walkoff bomb. Like, don't give up

(58:52):
the walk off bomb. There is a lack of reliabilit
and Emeliopagon is not a bad pitcher. Meliopagon. If Threads
have success this season, Melily Opagon is going to have
something to say about it. I just you wish you
had a closer who you felt better about when he's

(59:15):
out there. You wish you had a closer who when
he does blow the game, you're surprised because he's otherwise
very reliable. I think Emeliopegan is that, let's be honest, man,
he had a good year last year, and he was
thrust into a role that many of us were not
sure he should be in. But when Emelio Pagon comes

(59:39):
out of the ninth inning, tell me you feel comfortable.
If you do, I don't, and I think most most
feel the way I do. When he comes out to
protect a one run lead in the ninth inning. And look,
if he gets an opportunity tonight, hope he gets done,

(01:00:01):
that'd be great. But if it's a four to three
game in the ninth inning tonight, Reds are trying to
put away a four game losing streak. If Amelio Pagan
is summoned to get the last three outs, there's always
some unease because the ninth inning is nerve wracking and
a one run lead is the smallest possible margin. But

(01:00:21):
you're gonna feel even more unease because it's Amelia Pagan. Uh,
Brendan Soresby is luring up, lawyering up, as they say
in the English language. Our lawyer, our sports legal expert,
attorney Stewart W. Penrose, will discuss the former UC Quarterbacks

(01:00:42):
legal options next.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic is ESPN fifteen to thirty.
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Brendenman and Jones on Baseball is about fifteen minutes away.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty on Moegar. Thank you for listening.
On Tuesdays, we talked with our sports legal expert from
the Manilo Law Group, attorney Stewart W. Penrose, and Uh.
He joined us last week and it was the day
after the Brendan Sorosby story had broken. Yesterday we found

(01:01:17):
out that Soresby has hired a high profile attorney in
an effort to, I guess, maintain his eligibility. And so
we had more questions and Stewart is here. Good afternoon, sir.

Speaker 5 (01:01:29):
How are you I'm doing about yourself?

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
I'm doing well. So let's talk Brendan Sowersby. He has
not yet been ruled ineligible. Now it's fair to it's
fair to conclude that there's at least a very good
chance that he is ultimately declared ineligible to play college football.
Would him hiring this high profile attorney suggest that he

(01:01:53):
expects to be to be declared ineligible.

Speaker 5 (01:01:56):
Yes, absolutely, very very high probabil and he's going to
be deemed and eligible. He's smart to get ahead of
it right now. You know, this attorney's very experienced and
working in these matters and you know, working for athletes,
and you know, we'll see what happens here, but certainly
he's trying to get ahead, if not to you know,
potentially beat the charge to stay eligible, at least to

(01:02:20):
have a mitigating factors that a lawyer present mid mitigating
factors him that could potentially lessen his punishments. But you know,
if the accusations you know that he bet on, you know,
certainly on college football games while he was a player Indiana,
if those are shown to be true, yeah, he's he's
going to be deemed eligible now.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
So like it seems like this would then be pretty
black and white, like he if he wagered on sports
that he's not allowed to weigh on, including games that
his team is participating in, he's ineligible so based on that,
what possibly could his case be.

Speaker 5 (01:02:53):
Well, at that point, it's about mitigation. It's about what,
you know, what factors can bring down his punishment and
you know, soften you know, some culpability. You know, it's
a line that I've used in Quart a million times more.
Judge is not an excuse, but it is an explanation,
you know, the fact that he's going to get treatment

(01:03:13):
right now for a gambling addiction. I have no idea
if this lawyer is going to contest some of the
ways that press the NC double A found evidence and
you know, see if there's any violations there. Who knows,
But certainly it seemed like this would be more for mitigation,
and you know, softening the aura around absorbs me.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Right now, there's the eligibility question. There's questions about whether
he would then jump to the supplemental draft that the
NFL has every summer that very few players are ever
involved in. And then I've read that possibly what he
has been doing, or what he's alleged perhaps to be doing,
is going to gain the attention of the FBI. Why
and how might this play out?

Speaker 5 (01:03:54):
Well, we'll see what happens there. I mean, it's not automatic.
I mean just just just because there's an NCAA ELGI,
it doesn't necessarily mean there's criminal elements. You know. That said,
the NCAA is going to look and see if there's
sort of you know, fraud. Is there a larger scale
gambling ring that he's a part of them. It is
about an accusation of just saying what the NCAA would
look for. You know, certainly if he indeed was a

(01:04:17):
player making bets on his own team's games, was he
using some sort of inside information there? I mean, it's
not just about impropriety mode, but the appearance of it.
You know, that's when the you know, that's when the
FBI would get involved.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
Attorney Steward W. Penrose from the Manila Lag Group is
our sports legal expert. I want to ask you about this.
The Big Twelve is entering an agreement. And I I
always sort of glaze over whenever I read about private
equity firms because I'm not exactly sure what they do.
But the Big Twelve is going to enter a private
equity agreement. So I understand, like there's the financial part

(01:04:56):
of this, but I also gather there's legal questions that
hover over them member institutions of the Big twelve, including
obviously the University of Cincinnati. What are some of the
legal questions for those schools?

Speaker 5 (01:05:09):
Sure? I mean the essentially what you have when you uh,
when you sign into equity private equity, is that you're
trading UH, you know, an influx of cash, a cash
infusion for control.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
UH.

Speaker 5 (01:05:21):
And and who is going to be making some of
these decisions on behalf of these conferences?

Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
UH?

Speaker 5 (01:05:25):
Is it going to be the conferences or is private
ec What are you going to have the bigger say,
you know, in terms of TV deals, in terms of scheduling, UH,
conference truss, you name it. You know you you've now
allowed private equity into the room. And you know certainly
there's pluses with that, you know, especially for a conference
like the Big twelve that you know is trying to
stay financially relevant with the UH, with the Big ten

(01:05:46):
and the SEC. But but yes, you've invited you know
a third parties in there that you know have the control,
have a state eight much control they.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Have all Right, one more to ask you about. So
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver dk Metcalf last year during a
game against the Lions at Ford field, there was this
altercation with a fan, and I had totally forgotten about
this until I saw that prosecutors have said that no
charges are going to be filed against DK Metcalf for

(01:06:18):
this altercation that ultimately led to him getting a two
game suspension. I understand why he got suspended. I think
most of us who have any common sense would agree
that he should face some action from the league if
he engages in something like this with a fan. But
the criminal case seemed flimsy. I kind of feel like
the fan involves civil case seems flimsy. What say you?

Speaker 5 (01:06:43):
It certainly appears appears to me when you look at
what happened. That's said. I mean, just because a criminal
case fails or is not brought forward, civil cases are
a lower burden to proof. You know, it's just the
ponderance of the evidence. If you as a plane iff,
you've got to preserve proof something is more likely than
not to have been the case instead of beyond a

(01:07:04):
reasonable doubt. But yet it doesn't seem like a whole
heck of a lot happened to the fan at the
you know, at the end of the day, here, mo,
what is the fan's actual damages who knows, And you know,
I understand what metcalf is saying in terms of what
this fan may have said to him. It sounds like
they're really there could have been a racial slur used,
and he's filed a counter plan against the fan. I mean,

(01:07:25):
my understanding is that he is that by having that
two game suspension, he lost out on you know, potential
bonuses worth millions as well. So so certainly he's had
a you know, a far reaching effect, you know, over
this ordeal. But yes, it seems the fan's got a
very upfill battle to prove his case.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Yeah, certainly seems like an attorney's store. Tubedy Penrose from
the Manila Law Group. I plan on not getting into
any altercations with any NFL players, but if I do,
and if I need an attorney, could the Manila Law
Group help me?

Speaker 5 (01:07:57):
Yes, you could speak to my my colleague, Rob Healing
could certainly help you if if you're try to assault
an NFL player, which I recommend that you don't do.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
All right, what else can you tell us about the
Manila Law Group?

Speaker 5 (01:08:10):
Yes, well, I can tell you right now. I'm looking
out the window in my office. Moment's rain the roads
are not particularly safe out there. You need to be
very careful when you're on the road and if somebody
hits you, I want you to call me at the
Minila Law Group at five one three seven. Be careful
on the road, and when others aren't and they cause
your injury, give us a call to the Manila Law Group.

(01:08:30):
We can help you out.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
That's my guy, Attorney Stewart W. Penrose, Manila Law Group,
five one three seven three sixteen hundred. Well we'll do
it again next week. Man, thanks so much, Thank you, Bob.
That's our guy. He's our legal expert sports legal expert,
Attorney Stewart W. Penrose from the Manilo Law Group.

Speaker 10 (01:08:47):
Tearing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
When our phone makes that weird like farting noise, is
that going out over the air? Unfortunately? Yes, in in
the year twenty twenty six. You we're using landlines? Correct? Yes?
Why do our phones sound like that? I was just

(01:09:08):
watching the the Artemis Mission crew on the Today Show
the other day and they were showing some of the
communication that they had with Earth millions of miles away.
Stewart's office is like ten minutes from here, and we
can't make a phone call without there being static on
the phone, and that's on our end because I heard
it with the caller we took before we had Stewart

(01:09:30):
on sports headlines are our service to Kelsey Chevalley, home
of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours for life. Kelseyshev dot com radio stations
have been been putting phone calls on the air for
like one hundred years now, one hundred years putting phone
calls on the air, and we somehow haven't quite figured

(01:09:53):
out how to do that without there being some complication.
Reds and Cubs again tonight at Wrigley Feel by the way,
Wrigley Field is awesome. Okay, want some sports journalists tay
that Wrigley Field stinks. Wrigley Field is awesome? Maybe not?
The press box have no idea Wrigley Field is awesome.
Would be awesome if the Reds could break their four

(01:10:15):
game losing streak tonight, Cincinnati will send to the Hill
Andrew Abbott against Jamison tie on seven to forty. Tonight's
first pitch on the seven hundred WLW. When me to
give you the Red starting lineup, I will I can
Fried ol bled Day de la Cruz, Stuart Lowe, Steer
Stevenson catches McLean is back in the lineup. He is

(01:10:37):
playing second base and betting eighth kee. Brian Hayes, who
homered last night, bets ninth. By the way, we need
to issue a congratulations to the Xavier men's golf team
win the Biggiest Championship yesterday afternoon. Freshman Case Morgan from
Elder eight hunder par sixty four in the final round,
tied for the lowest single round score in tournament history.

(01:10:59):
Congratulations to him. Congratulations to the Xavier golfing. Uh oh,
I got a couple of housekeeping items here.

Speaker 11 (01:11:06):
One.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
We don't have enough meat loaf for tacos, I'm told
so plan B. Also, my phone went off early in
the show. I usually the very first thing I do
when I come in for quick hits is I turned
my ringer off. Because I'm a broadcasting professional. Occasionally I

(01:11:31):
will forget at a few minutes after three o'clock when
the show began, I got a phone call from my mom.
And my mom lives in Nevada, so maybe she lost
track of time and didn't realize it was three o'clock
on the East coast and that you know, I was
going to be unavailable, but I've had three people reach

(01:11:51):
out that want to know what my ringtone is. So
my ringtone, that's that's the end of it. Hang on,
I'm gonna do this again. I will play because this
is a sports connection. Now there's bonus points if anybody

(01:12:12):
knows what that ringtone is. That is the CBS NBA
on CBS theme from the nineteen eighties. Dn't dun't du
dn't dun anyway one. Yeah, it's the it's the greatest
TV sports theme song of all time. Yes, better than

(01:12:33):
the NBA on NBC theme. Like every time my phone rings,
I could hear Brent Musburger like narrating the voiceover for
like Celtics Lakers or uh Lakers Pistons, that sort of thing.
So there's the ringtone. Yes, I'm that dorky. The NBA
on CBS theme is my ringtone. So there's a couple

(01:12:54):
of very important sports nuggets. We'll see if we can
fix the phones. And I've got really bad news as
it relates to sALS Stewart and I want to take
you back five years ago to right now, five years ago.
But we'll do all that out for Brendan, Mian and
Jones on Baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
The nine Pirates. That's right, Thank you is five Bopie.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Moegar, Thanks for listening today
and hope you're having like an awesome Tuesday. Is it
as gnarly where you are as where it appears that
I am at. It's kind of janky outside. Yes, you're
gonna hear more from Tito Francona, the Reds manager. You're

(01:13:42):
gonna hear him talking about Sal Stewart. And then I've
I've got some not so great news about the Reds
and Sal Stewart coming up in about fifteen minutes. More
of your phone calls. Of course, we've got our poll question.
We've got an update which is on Twitter right now,
so go do that at Moegaru. We've been today, lots
of good stuff, even if I spent about five minutes

(01:14:03):
talking about meat loaf. Joe Burrow attended the met gala
last night, and like you, I could not care less
and he wasn't at work yesterday, and work is voluntary
and okay, fine, that's cool. He missed practices last year, workouts,
whatever you want to call him. You would, I think,
be using the word practice very liberally if you called

(01:14:25):
what the Bengals are doing right now practice. But Joe
Burrow went to the met Gala, I've never and I
think I speak for the majority of you. I don't
even think I still know what the met Gala is.
I don't care that he went, don't care that he wore.
I don't care what he wore to the Kentucky Derby.
I don't believe that any of those things are of

(01:14:46):
any major consequence to you, or me, or the football
team that Joe Burrow plays for. But I have said,
and I know I'm in the minority here, that I
don't think that Joe Burrow not being at voluntary workouts
is a huge deal. I also don't think it's completely

(01:15:08):
and totally insignificant. Everything that Joe Burrow does, as it
relates to the football team that he plays for, as
it relates to the football team that he is the
face of, as it relates to the football team that
he is the meal ticket for. Everything he does as
it relates to the football team is significant not to

(01:15:34):
make it out to be that he doesn't like ball,
not to make it out that he wants to get traded,
that he doesn't want to be here. It would just
be cool if he was. It's remarkable the pushback you
get when you say that. So let me go back
five years twenty one. Twenty twenty one was a good time, right.
Twenty twenty one Bengals, you might recall, went to the
Super Bowl. That was neat, wasn't it? Remember that? Sorry

(01:15:58):
to believe it's it's been almost five Bengals went to
the Super Bowl that year. Lots of cool stuff happened.
They had a good team, good players had Joe Burrow.
Joe Burrow had a season that I think statistically, when
you look back, you kind of realize how good he
was during his first full season. It was the first
time he won the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year award.

(01:16:18):
They had this really opportunistic defense in the postseason, and
they found ways to get around an offensive line that
was just atrocious. Fun, fun year. Arguably the greatest year
in Bengals franchise history. We remember that, right, We remember
September October, November December. We certainly remember January, and even

(01:16:42):
if the Bengals didn't win the game, we remember the
first half of February when the Bengals were playing for
a championship. What you might not remember is remember OTA's
that year. I think remember OTA's the offseason workout program.
Remember that. Remember the Bengals had perfect attendance. Now, let's

(01:17:07):
acknowledge a couple of things. We were coming out of
the pandemic. You might remember that that twenty twenty one
season was still played with a lot of COVID protocols
and guys missing games because of COVID, at least until
the playoffs, when suddenly like COVID disappeared. But whatever u
and they were still trying to get all their players

(01:17:27):
to get vaccinated, and there were incentives based on attendance
at certain offseason programs as it related to the NFL
putting in protocols, and so there was there were good reasons,
maybe good not entirely football reasons to have as many
players as possible at offseason workouts and at OTAs. But

(01:17:51):
remember that the spring of twenty twenty one, in fact,
I do, and you might remember this. Remember Zach Taylor
canceled like the last day or the last two days
of Mini caamp, and that was a thing. That was
a thing. You might have to jog your memory a
little bit, but that was a thing. Wait a minute,

(01:18:14):
the Bengals won four games last year and the coaches
like having a one day mini camp. He's canceling it.
And that was a reward if you remember, for everybody
being there during the offseason program in OTAs. And if
you remember, as the Bengals went on to go ten

(01:18:34):
and seven in the regular season, win the AFC North
and advanced to the Super Bowl, there were many who
looked back and said, see, the seeds were planted when
everybody locked in and showed commitment during the spring and summer. Now,
to be fair, Joe Burrow at that point was rehabbing

(01:18:56):
an injury, so he kind of had to be there.
But like, that was a thing. I'm not making that up.
I remember that being a thing. We have the internet,
you can go back and look when they were having success.
There were no shortage of people connecting the dots between
the success the Bengals had that year and everybody being

(01:19:19):
on board. Even though it wasn't mandatory to be there
during the offseason program at OTAs, So wouldn't it be
cool if we had the same thing this year. Joe
Burrow is obviously not the only player who has been

(01:19:41):
absent from the early phases of the offseason workout program,
and your guess is as good as mine as to
when he shows up. Maybe he shows up tomorrow. The
earlier he's here, the better, And whenever Joe does get here,
we're all going to assume that Joe is going to
have a great year because he's a great player, and
he's got great players around him in a better offensive
line in front of him. But it's interesting to me.

(01:20:05):
The same folks who will tell you five years ago
that one of the reasons why the Bengals were so
successful is everybody was there even though they didn't need
to be, will go out of their way to tell
you the fact that not everybody's there not that big
of a deal. It might not be. It probably really isn't.

(01:20:27):
But if we're looking to channel the twenty twenty one
success and repeat it and do even better, I don't
know about you, man, but I think a good way
would be to start in uh May. There was something
to that, right, There was something to the fact that
the Cincinnati Bengals, who had been miserable the year before miserable,
the year before that, miserable with Marvin Lewis, the year

(01:20:49):
before that miserable, the year before that miserable. The year
before that, they had just gone through Joe Burrow's rookie
season that went poorly because Joe didn't finish the season.
Zach Taylor, the franchise has examined his future after that
second season. That is a thing that also happened, although
a lot of people are loath to admit it. And
so there was this sense in twenty twenty one, like, dude,
we gotta get going here, Like it was a year

(01:21:10):
two Joe Burrow rookie contract, no guarantee he's gonna be
here beyond five years. Like it's it's time to start,
it's time to start winning, it's time you kind of gather.
The organization is kind of about that right now, right
they just traded their first round pick for Dexter Lawrence.
So there's this sense of like, hey man, last year
was painful. Last year was miserable. We haven't been to

(01:21:31):
the playoffs now in three years, we have been one
of the most disappointing franchises in the sport. There's a
lot of people wondering, like, is this Burrow thing in
Cincinnati gonna gonna really work out huge year? Wouldn't that
be best represented by everybody being there? If the answer

(01:21:53):
is no, then okay, let's let's drop twenty twenty one,
the narrative being well, everybody was here? Ever, come on,
ever right? Bengals may still be really good this season.
I think they're a reasonable bet to win the AFC North.
I wouldn't make them favorites. Vegas hasn't made him favorites.
Baltimore deserves that. But I do think this team is

(01:22:17):
on the short list of bona fide AFC title contenders
because of the offense, because of the quarterback health, and
the defense. I think has a chance to be good ish.
That might be the high end of things, but I
don't know. Man Like, it's not just about Burrow. There's
lots of guys who aren't there. And I am never
going to criticize somebody for doing something that's not mandatory,

(01:22:40):
never individually. But you have to admit it was cool
as hell even before we saw the Bengals get good
in September. At October and November and December and January.
It was cool as hell to see everybody be there,
everybody show up. Zach rewarded them. He canceled the rest

(01:23:01):
of Mini Caamp after just one day. He got what
he wanted, and it was a real sense of like,
all right, these dudes are serious about this. Wouldn't it
be neat? Wouldn't it be cool? Wouldn't it be I
don't know, inspiring? If we saw something similar this spring

(01:23:25):
quarter after five five point three, seven four nine, fifteen thirty,
we'll get you in. Uh, we've done the thing where
we've beaten up on Amelio Pagan. Milio Pagan is a
good picture. Pagan is not reliable in the ninth inning.
He can change that. That's on him. We do have
Andrew Abbod pitching tonight, which we have to talk about.
And boy, I saw some seeds get planted today and

(01:23:49):
I didn't like it. You're not either. What's I tell
you what they are next? On ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (01:23:54):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty from.

Speaker 6 (01:24:00):
The UCA Health Trapper WCKY, Cincinnati and iHeartRadio station Gaitaran
teed human ESDN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
I Heard Radio twenty after five. This is ESPN fifteen
to thirty. Poll questions on this show are on Twitter
and they come your way thanks to United Heartland Insurance.
And I don't know, man, if you like paying a
lot for your insurance, don't reach out to United Heartland Insurance.
If you want bad insurance service, add customer service. Fine.

(01:24:34):
But if you want to pay LUs and you want
great customer service, go to uhis dot com. And then
when you're done with that, go to Twitter and vote
who should be the Reds closer, Ameliopagan or literally anyone else.
Nine point five percent of you say Ameliopagan. Maybe sALS
Stewart should be the Reds closer. I don't know. We
played a little audio from earlier on the show from

(01:24:55):
Buster Olney's Baseball Tonight podcast, which is a terrific podcast.
One day I'm gonna do my top fifteen favorite podcasts.
Buster oies Baseball Tonight podcast will be on that list. Tito.
Terry Francona was a guest on the show. This actually
dropped yesterday, but here's Terry Francona talking about the impact

(01:25:18):
of sal Stewart and his ability as a rookie hitter
to make such great adjustments at the plate.

Speaker 11 (01:25:25):
Sal's not a boring kid to be around. He's got
energy coming out of you know what. But I'll tell
you what. Buster, he's a good hitter, and I mean
he's a really good hitter. He hits the ball to
all fields. He'll file off tough pitches, he'll earn another
pitch and if you hang it, he'll do some damage
with it. He's worked really hard at first base with
Mike Napoli. He's going to play second base today. He's

(01:25:48):
been really fun to get to know it.

Speaker 15 (01:25:51):
So when I asked Jeff Brantley Cowboy about him, he
compared him to his old college teammate Will Clark and
his ability to make adjustments within it bats from played
parents to plate of parents.

Speaker 2 (01:26:03):
I mean, you're someone who saw Will Clark play. What
do you think about that ability of him to make adjustments?

Speaker 11 (01:26:08):
Well, I agree that he does. He's a smart kid.
Like he watches, he sees how they're pitching him. He'll
sit on pitches from time to time, and that's a
little rare for a guy with this little experience. He's
very confident. If I could hit like him, i'd be
confident too. But he's you know, he he I don't
think he thinks anybody should get him out, and that's

(01:26:29):
a pretty good quality for a hitter.

Speaker 2 (01:26:31):
There could agree, he could not agree with that. More
Tito talking about Sal Stuart, who's obviously having an excellent
rookie campaign, or as a real person would call it
rookie sees no real person says campaign. You and your
buddies aren't like man Sal Stewart's having a great campaign, though,
you would say that about a politician. And if we
weren't a conversation about politicians, I would leave the conversation,

(01:26:53):
But I would go to a conversation that included Sal
Stewart speaking of Sal Stewart. No, if I like this,
Ken Rosenthal, Theathletic dot Com rights, try to read this
whole thing. The Pittsburgh Pirates awarded shortstop Connor Griffin a
nine year, one hundred and forty million dollar extension. The

(01:27:15):
Detroit Tiger signed infielder Kevin McGonagall to an eight year,
one hundred and fifty million dollar extension. So where Cincinnati
RADS fan might ask is the long term contract for
their team's own standout rookie first baseman Sal Stewart right
now nowhere. That's me making noises. Uh, it's written here.

(01:27:48):
This is the Athletic dot com Ken Rosenthal. The Rats,
who offered Kyle Schwarber a five year free agent deal
in the one hundred and twenty five million dollar range
last December with heavy deferrals in the first year, are
not in the same financial position they were then, according
to people briefed on their situation. Nor are they in
the same position they were when they offered shortstop Elie

(01:28:10):
Dela Cruz the richest deal in franchise history in the
spring of twenty twenty five. So the financial picture for
the Reds has changed from just like five months ago.
I'll continue. The Reds were one of nine Major League
teams to terminate deals with main Street Sports. Main Street

(01:28:33):
offered Cincinnati forty two million dollars to stay down from
the fifty two million dollars they would have paid out
of the previous contract this is obviously their TV deal,
but ultimately could not come up with the money. The
Reds then shifted production and distribution of their telecast to
the league, which is selling direct to consumer subscription packages,
a less lucrative plan at least in the short term.

(01:28:54):
Around that time, owner Bob Castelini authorized the signing a
free agent infield er dhl Uhaneoswarez to a one year,
fifteen million dollar contract. The deal put the team over
its payroll budget, and with the lingering uncertainty over future revenues,
the Reds have yet to even make a formal offer
to Steward, according to people briefed on the matter. Not great.

(01:29:17):
Now you could add to this the very real possibility
that we're going to have a lockout. That lockout might
extend into the season. That lockout, that lockout could screw
up all sorts of things financially for the Reds. Maybe
I'm in the minority here, maybe I'm by myself, but

(01:29:39):
I read this as the seeds being planted for a
whole lot of bad news coming about the Reds and
what they're capable of spending or willing to spend on
the team. Like, if you're already making it known, Yeah,
we like sal and it would be hoove us to
join the industry trend. By the way, I hate using

(01:30:00):
the word industry when talking about baseball makes it sound
a lot less fun. But we would like to join
in the sports trend of like locking into our better
players long term and buying out the years of team
control and buying out the arbitration years and maybe buying
a year to a free agency and it would make sense.

(01:30:22):
Sally is just twenty two years old. There's so much
to like about him. He's exactly the kind of player
in person we want to invest in, but we can't
because money not good. Do you remember November of twenty twenty,
twenty twenty was obviously the COVID year. Red's played sixty

(01:30:45):
games and made the playoffs. It's a seventh seed. Whatever.
They didn't sell tickets, they didn't make money, didn't make
as much money, and that offseason they very quick moved
on from two relief pictures, including Rice e Iglesias, who
they basically gave away. And there were a lot of

(01:31:06):
folks me included, who were like, hey, uh, just FYI,
this probably this probably is foreshadowing here. This probably is
a pretty good sign that, well, there's gonna be a
whole lot of guys they don't sign or that they
trade away, and some dark times are coming. And man,
maybe I don't want to go down that road with
this team. That does feel like it has a nice

(01:31:27):
core of players intact, but like I remember, feeling like
seeds are being planted for more bad news down the road. Certainly,
hope I'm wrong about this, but you could argue this
feels like the seeds being planted for more bad news
down the road. By the way, And I don't say

(01:31:48):
this to be negative. I say this to be realistic.
Ellie deeler Cruz is probably gonna play for another team
in twenty thirty, so between now and then, you got
to try to win. That's why it's to me the
usure is really on this organization in the next few
years to try to win while you have a guy
like Ellie de la Cruz and a guy like Sal
Stewart and pictures like the ones the Reds have who

(01:32:08):
need to be healthier, and like it's it's kind of
time you got to deliver a real payoff to the
years of telling fans to wait. But as much as
we all love Ellie and I like him a lot
more when he's not getting picked off base, come on, man,
be honest here, Like Ellie Dela Cruz probably gonna play
for somebody else in twenty thirty and depending on how
the next few years unfold. Maybe he plays for somebody

(01:32:31):
else before then because they trade him. Why do we
say that, Well, he has got a chance to be
a billion dollar player. He's already turned down a chance
to be the highest paid player in franchise history, because
he probably wants to be the highest paid player in
Major League Baseball history. And those are two different things.
But also the ship sailed, Like if the Reds were
ever gonna sign Ellie de la Cruz to something long term,

(01:32:53):
the time to do that was probably two years ago.
The time to do what was Sal Stewart is now,
because even if you do sign something, let's say Sal
Stewart continues to do what we've seen him do in
his very brief big league career, those arbitration years will
only get more expensive. By the way Ellie de la
Cruz and arbitration this coming off season, Oh do you

(01:33:16):
even want to imagine what he's going to be looking for.
If you ever want to lock in these guys, you
gotta do it early. So it feels like there's a
chance that what I just said about Ellie de la
Cruz might say it about Sal Stewart. This might not

(01:33:38):
matter to you if you are singularly focused on this season,
which is fair. Tonight's game, which is fair, fixing some
of the immediate issues the Reds roster has again fair.
But if you have watched Sal Stewart and thought to yourself,
that's the sort of dude you want to pay. Now, well,

(01:34:01):
the Reds are kind of making it known ain't gonna happen.
And if this sort of thing ain't gonna happen, you
can't help. But wonder if they're already making it known
finances could be an issue or are an issue, you
can't help it. Wonder in what other areas are finance

(01:34:21):
is going to be an issue? Five thirty Sports headlines
are next. Take some phone calls to This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 9 (01:34:37):
From the UC Health Traffic Center getting coverst the Bengals.
Like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
Sports headlines are a service to Kelsey Chevrolet, home of
lifetime power train protection and guarantee credit approval from their
family to yours for life, kelseyshev dot Com, Reds and
comes again tonight at Wrigley Fields. Seven forty is tonight's
first pitch seven hundred wl W has it. Andrew Abbott,
Jamison ty On on the hill. Cincinnati trying to break

(01:35:04):
a four game losing streak. Their longest losing streak last
year was five. Try to not equal that tonight. Your
starting lineup this evening Freedol Blood Day, JJ Bleday, you
might argue should have been on the opening day roster.
Elie de la Cruz is at short, Souleth Stewart first,
Nathaniel o DH's Spencer Steers in right field, Tyler Stevenson catches.
Matt McLain is back in the starting lineup tonight, batting eighth,

(01:35:28):
and key Brian Hayes, coming off a night where he
homewered and walked, is hitting nine. You see baseball's on
the road against Oral Roberts. Xavier head a baseball game
at home scheduled today against Michigan. It's been canceled. Last
hour we mentioned Xavier men's golf winning the Big East Championship.

(01:35:48):
Miami men's golf, just a short while ago, wins the
MAC Championship. Congratulations the RedHawks first conference titled in eleven years. Tonight,
Calves and Pistons in Detroit Game one, Lakers and Thunder
in Oklahoma City Game one as well. And there's a

(01:36:09):
playoff game tonight in the NHL, the Avalanche hosting the
Wild Colorado leading that series one game tonight. We have
folks waiting. Let's talk to him. Uh, Jeff, you're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Jeff, Good afternoon. How are you.

Speaker 4 (01:36:25):
I'm okay, Moe? How are you? I? I'm uh, I'm
a little disappointed. I expected it, for sure, because ever
since last night, I've been thinking about your obsession with
rightew Agalaciers, and I've never been able to understand why

(01:36:45):
you're so upset that we gave him away.

Speaker 2 (01:36:49):
I'm not upset about it six years later. I do
think it's sort of foretold what they were going to do.

Speaker 4 (01:36:55):
Well, you've mentioned him a lot, a lot, a lot, Yeah,
And I never understood because you know his for his last.

Speaker 5 (01:37:01):
Full season with us, he had twelve losses.

Speaker 4 (01:37:07):
Now, I know you're feeling about wins and losses with
starting pitchers, but that can't possibly transla.

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
Do you know? How do you know how good he
has been since he left here?

Speaker 4 (01:37:18):
Well, we didn't know that was going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:37:21):
I mean the in the in the in the short
drive through season in twenty twenty, he was pretty good here.
He has gone on to have a lot of success
with the Atlanta Braves, like he's he's been very very good.

Speaker 4 (01:37:33):
Well, but you know how demoralizing it is to a
team when your closer, you know, blows game very well.
When that happened, and when that happens twelve times in
a season, to me.

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
Do you do you do? You do you remember the
name of the guy, the Reds guy for Rice he Iglesias?

Speaker 4 (01:37:59):
Have no idea?

Speaker 2 (01:38:00):
Correct, because they didn't trade him to get anybody back.
They traded him to dump salary, which told you. My
point is when they let him go, that told you
that they weren't going to be investing in the team
for a while. So it wasn't so much about letting
him get away. Although he was quite good in the
mini season of twenty twenty, and he has been excellent since.
Giving him away told you that they were going to

(01:38:21):
spend the the here and now the next two years
not investing in the team. Would you agree that that
actually happened?

Speaker 1 (01:38:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:38:31):
Yeah, I mean you you were here, You were here
in twenty twenty two when they lost one hundred games.
You were you were here for that, right and you
watched him and you watched him trade away Sonny Gray
and Jesse Winker and Euhaneoswire and by the way, some
guys that you might not have wanted to stay here,
but you saw what happened. Correct, Yes, so would you would?

Speaker 5 (01:38:49):
So?

Speaker 2 (01:38:49):
Would you? Would you?

Speaker 5 (01:38:51):
Then?

Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
Would you then argue successfully that when they gave away
Rice e Iglesias, it sort of told you of that
financially here things are about to go in the direction
that most of us would not like. Yes, right, So
could you then also argue that when you're already hearing that,

(01:39:14):
you know what, we might not be able to lock
into Sala Stewart because finances could be a problem. That
it makes you wonder what level of investment there's going
to be in the team in the coming year or two.

Speaker 4 (01:39:25):
Yeah, but that's not really the point that I think
in the past you've made about Glad.

Speaker 2 (01:39:30):
It's one hundred percent the point that I've made in
the past about Race el Iglesias, one hundred percent. I
remember when they gave him away, and I remember saying,
this isn't so much about losing the pitcher, big deal.
It's it's a relief guy. It's about why they gave
him away. They gave away a reliever in the prime

(01:39:50):
of his career, coming off a season where they won
more than they lost, because this is a pure salary dump,
and when a team starts to dump salary with one
they typically don't stop. And they didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:40:07):
I get that.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
Like that. That That wasn't a big that was that
was not That was not that was not a baseball
driven move.

Speaker 4 (01:40:18):
I'm just saying at the point at that time, I
looked at it like, this guy's hittable. He's very hittable.
We didn't know what he was gonna do after. The
reason he became a reliever was because after the first
time around the order when he was when he wanted
to be a starter, he was very hittable.

Speaker 2 (01:40:38):
Yeah, that was that was That wasn't That was in
twenty fifteen. Do you know how good he was in sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen and nineteen, He wasn't very good in nineteen, How
good he was in sixteen, seventeen and eighteen, You know
how well? You know how well he bounced back in
twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (01:40:56):
He had thirty four saves in nineteen, but he also
had twelve low.

Speaker 2 (01:41:02):
Yeah, fine, he had had a bad year. Bad year,
we say had he had had a bad year. So
so because he had a bad year, just give the
guy away for non baseball reasons.

Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
No, you're gonna have to pay him more. Yeah, and
is it that what they needed to do when you
lose on her games? Yeah, you're gonna have a salary
dump and you gotta rebuild.

Speaker 2 (01:41:27):
Well, they didn't lose one hundred games, Rice Solaglaciers last year.
They actually won more than they lost, and they won
more than they lost the following year. And what did
they have to do the following year at the trade deadline?
Harold Jogging Memory, twenty twenty one. At the trade deadline,
what did the Reds have to do? Who did they
go get relief pitchers? They filled the role they vacated

(01:41:49):
by giving away Rice Iglesias. Put Rice Iglesias on that team.
Maybe they're a playoff team.

Speaker 4 (01:41:58):
Well, I just remember thinking having zero confidence in them
as a closer at that point.

Speaker 2 (01:42:06):
Yeah, one year in twenty in twenty nineteen, he was bad.
We have established that. That's inarguable. He was bad. They
he came back, and he bounced back nicely in twenty
twenty i'lbeit in a very short amount of time, But
it still didn't feel like that they traded him again.
You have no id. You can't even remember the name

(01:42:27):
of the guy they got for him, So dude by
the name of Noe Ramirez, who may have picked in
as many games as the Reds as you have. So
it wasn't like they took Ryce i Iglesias and turned
him into an asset to make the team better elsewhere.
They gave him away. When you're giving somebody away, you
know because of the salary, that tells you that, hey,

(01:42:47):
we're financers are going to be an issue here, there's
more to come. So six years later, when you are
reading with Sal Stewart that the Reds can't join a
lot of these other teams in locking into their guys
now because well, finance have changed, I don't know about you, man,
that doesn't exactly sound like good news. Does that sound

(01:43:09):
like good news? Does that sound like promising news that
you know what? No? Okay, Well, that's my point. It's
not about Rice i Iglesias different.

Speaker 4 (01:43:16):
It's no different because the Reds can't afford to play
pay many players a high power.

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
Sure they can.

Speaker 4 (01:43:29):
Think they can afford to pay four players twenty five dollars, Yes,
you have.

Speaker 2 (01:43:37):
Yes, there's a difference between what they've budgeted to play
to pay and what they're and what they're willing to pay.
But yeah, sure, yes, the franchise valuation has quintupled. They've
made money hand over fist in seventeen of the nineteen
years of team ownership. Are they taking a little bit

(01:43:58):
of a bath because they're not getting the regional sports
network money? Unequivocally, there's no doubt about that. What have
they been doing with the money they've made? I mean, like,
can they spend like the Dodgers? Maybe not? Can they
spend We're not even asking them to spend more on
the team, We're asking them to not spend less. Five
months ago, they just tried to make Elie Dela Cruz

(01:44:18):
the highest paid player in franchise history. Five months later,
they're telling you we can't afford to lock in sal
Stuart long term. Have things changed that much in five months?
Do you believe things have changed that much in five months?

Speaker 4 (01:44:31):
I don't understand what would have changed changed.

Speaker 2 (01:44:34):
Right, But Apparently their financial situation has changed so dramatically
that they've gone from trying to get Kyle Schwarber and
making Ellie Dela Cruz the highest paid player in franchise
history to now they can't do what a whole bunch
of other teams have done and bet early on one
of their main guys like Sal Stuart. Yeah, they so

(01:44:55):
so so this this doesn't we're.

Speaker 4 (01:44:57):
An agreement that the new ownership.

Speaker 2 (01:45:00):
I mean, you're you're hung up on Ricee la glacis.
All I'm doing is telling you when they gave away
that guy, it told you what they were then going
to do. Did it not? You may have agreed with it,
It sounded like you did. You may have agreed with it,
which is fine, But it told you what they were
going to do. Does this not kind of tell you that,
you know what you're gonna hear, You're gonna be hearing
about their bad financial situation for the short term.

Speaker 4 (01:45:25):
Well, I I just think they're scared, you know, they
you know, get a deal like Mussakas and you know,
Gasolini's kind of like he's wanted to cry, you know,
because of what happened with stuff like that. He was
moralized the whole you know, the COVID everything like that.

(01:45:45):
I remember listening to interview with I think it was
docrty and he just sounded so demoralized. I just think
they get scared with with making too much a commitment.
I mean, I have no idea how much money they
got to spend. It sounds like you think they got
a lot more money than I I.

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
Nobody is saying they should spend more. I think there's
a fear that they're going to spend less. Right five
months after they're trying to make l Dela Cruz the
highest paid player in the sport, now you're reading, actually
things have changed financially. The Sal Stewart thing's a non starter.
That that doesn't make you at least somewhat concerned that

(01:46:29):
they've kind of topped out and what they're going to
spend on the team.

Speaker 4 (01:46:35):
I just think I just think they worry about spending
that much money on it. And you look, you look
at McLean. I think they're scared to spend that much
money on a young player.

Speaker 2 (01:46:46):
Maybe Matt McLain's twenty seven years old, Sal Stewart's twenty two.
Matt McLean's always heard Sal Stewart hasn't suffered a major.

Speaker 4 (01:46:55):
Injury, right, I just mean a guy that's been in
the league the year.

Speaker 2 (01:47:00):
Yeah, well there, Look there's risk with it. There's there's
risk with that that's unquestionable, and and maybe that is
that is a risk they just don't want to take on.
But look at Elie Dela Cruz. Eli Dela Cruz has
his flaws. Elidela Cruz is probably unsignable because you didn't
do it a couple of years ago. If sal Stewart
ends up being as good as we all hope, he'll

(01:47:21):
be unsignable because you didn't do it now.

Speaker 4 (01:47:25):
Right, But I don't know what that means. That says
their financial situation has changed. I have no idea what
that could mean.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
Well again, and you know you wanted to come at
me about Rice i Iglesias. By the way, hitters in
twenty twenty hit or twenty nineteen hit two forty against him.
It wasn't like he was a human batting team. He
had like two bad months. But when I'm I'm reading
here that things have changed right here, it is don't
find it too. They're not in the same position they

(01:47:56):
were when they offered Elidela Cruz, the richest deal in
franchise history. A year ago was a year ago things
have changed that much. So you're you're you're starting to
read about things they can't do. When they gave away
Rice Illglacias, that was a sign of what they weren't
going to be able to do.

Speaker 4 (01:48:13):
I ain't paying Suazz. Does that change things that much
for them? Much?

Speaker 2 (01:48:17):
Shouldn't one year fifteen million dollars due?

Speaker 4 (01:48:20):
I know it shouldn't.

Speaker 2 (01:48:21):
Shouldn't what else?

Speaker 4 (01:48:22):
What else? What else?

Speaker 10 (01:48:23):
Is different?

Speaker 2 (01:48:24):
Well? And also like and also like, I mean, you
know I could I could understand, well, hey, we're not
making as much because of the TV situation. Well, I
think a year ago it was pretty obvious the TV
situation was going to blow up. It nearly did in
their face. A year ago, you kind of knew it
was going to happen. So I just my my, My
overall point is there is a time in the past

(01:48:45):
where you could see coming down the pike that they
were they were going to start telling you, you know what,
we've we we've got to hit the reset button, or
we've got some financial issues that we've got to deal
with here. And when that moment was was when they
gave away Rice i Iglesias for a dude that was
never going to be on the team. I think Noe
Ramirez pitching a handful of games wasn't about him. It

(01:49:05):
was about we're moving from this guy because of financial reasons.
So now here we are six years later, seven years later,
and I think you can wonder when you read this,
is this the beginning of them telling us, you know what, sorry,
the money just ain't there for any number of things.
I don't know for a fact that it is or
it isn't, but I do know that there was a

(01:49:26):
time where seven years ago they gave away a good
relief pitcher who, in the case of twenty nineteen, had
one bad season. They gave away a good relief pitcher
simply for finances, and nobody wanted to believe it at
the time until a year later they gave away their
entire team. Now have they rebounded nicely as a franchise since, yeah,
mid playoffs last year, But there was some real, real,

(01:49:48):
real big short term pain.

Speaker 4 (01:49:51):
Right they got They got pretty good players back and
that dump so it worked out okay the future. I
think they did a good job when they when they
traded those guys away. But you're right, it's it's not
it's not fun having a team that doesn't seem to

(01:50:13):
be able to.

Speaker 2 (01:50:14):
Yeah, by the way, which which players? Yeah, no, it's
we're on the same page there, Jeff. I've enjoyed it, man,
have a great night.

Speaker 4 (01:50:22):
Thank Moe Calculator.

Speaker 3 (01:50:23):
We have to go.

Speaker 2 (01:50:24):
It was fun. You have to go. Sorry, show's over.
Back at it tomorrow three oh five. Have an awesome night,
and thank you for listening. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:50:34):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health
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