5/6/24 - The Mo Egger Show

What more can David Bell do with a Reds offense that STINKS?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Allright, there we go. WHOA that
was cloud. This is ESPN fifteenthirty. I'm Mogar. Thank you for
listening. I hope you had anawesome weekend. It was not an awesome
weekend for the Reds. And there'sfrustration, and there's anger, and there's
disappointment, and there's despair, andthere's heartbreak and there's I think I know

(00:24):
what there is more than anything else. We'll get to that in just a
second. I have a literally justhit post on X show preview available right
now at Mulgar thanks to our friendsat Emery Federal Credit Union, your credit
union with heart since nineteen thirty nine. That's that's eighty five years. For

(00:46):
eighty five years, you could dowhat I'd be a member. Join Emory
Federal Credit Union. You won't besorry. That is available on Twitter at
Moegar. We are broadcasting from theESPN fifteen thirty studios, powered by a
Greater Cincinnati's Room Think an exterior restorationexperts made well Restoration dot Com. Time
for maybe little spring spruce up.You work hard on your loan, work

(01:08):
hard on your landscaping. Don't neglectthe exterior of your home. Get a
Madewell restoration dot com. We gotto spend some time not on the necessary
necessarily, the the ins and outsof the Tom Brady Roast on Netflix last
night. But and I know notevery one in my audience watched The Tom

(01:29):
Brady Roast on Netflix last night.I would. I would encourage you to.
That was a great evening of televisionfor a handful of reasons. We
will explain why a little bit lateron. The details this weekend at GABP
were gory. This team's offense hastotally gone in the tank. This team

(01:49):
is struggling. They've lost eight outof ten. They're averaging two and a
half runs per game during that tengame stretch. Elie Dela Cruz has been
their best hitter all season long.During that run hasn't been very good.
This team's batting average Do what youwant with this statistic, look. The
reality is, say what you wantabout batting average as a stat it's usefulness.
If you are a last in baseballand team batting average, you don't

(02:12):
have a very good offense. Thisteam's team batting average is one of the
worst in baseball, the worst inbaseball. The schedule right now is unforgiving.
The Baltimore Orioles are really good.The Arizona Diamondbacks haven't played as well
as you might expect. They arethe defending National League champions. The Reds
have in front of them a wholebunch of teams out West, including a

(02:36):
ten game West Coast trip. Theyhave seven games coming up with the LA
Dodgers. This team's offense was futurethis weekend. It was hard to watch.
The pitching has been okay. Nobodyis hitting. There's way too many
non competitive at bats. They strikeout way too much. This team's calling
card last year. Tony and Austinwere talking about this last season, creating

(03:00):
havoc right putting pressure on the otherteams, stealing bases, taking the extra
base, taking advantage of their speed. All of that is mostly useless when
you can't make any contact, whenyou're not putting the ball in play.
You can't put pressure on the defenseif you don't put the ball in play.
This team does not put the ballin play at an alarmingly high rate.

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Back in February, when some weregetting mad at the relatively meager projections
that were out there for this team. I think the Pakoda projections had the
Reds winning seventy nine games this season. And this is during spring training.
It's right when spring training was startingand there was nothing more than there was

(03:51):
nothing but optimism, and people wereexcited and focused on how much better the
Reds might be this year, justbecause the same group of guys was coming
back from last year's team and therewas so much individual potential. And I
remember at the time saying, look, whether it's Pakoda or any other projection
model, ignore it, ignore it. Ignore it if it's good, ignore

(04:14):
it if it's underwhelming, because Ilike those projections. But a projection is
based on track record. This teamdoesn't have enough guys with a track record
for us to believe any projection model. I said often during spring training,
the Reds can win ninety games thisseason, and I think it would be

(04:35):
not that surprising. And they canlose ninety games this season and that would
be not that surprising. We don'tknow. There are a lot of teams,
the LA Dodgers, you know,you could sort of project what so
many of those guys are going tobe. You could do that with so
many teams across the sport, withthe Reds. You can't project enough of

(04:57):
these guys what they're going to doindividually, and A I have more guys
that I can't really project based onno track record individually, How in the
hell can I have any sense ofhow good or bad the team might be
this year. There's no track recordto go off of. Right, the
last time the Reds were good,they had some guys that had a track
record, and so they could startslow in a given season and you would

(05:17):
still feel pretty good about where theywould end up. So they have no
track record, and that's why wetalked about ignoring the projections back in February.
In March, our friend Paul Dohertyin his Morning Line newsletter, which
is worth your subscription, makes thepoint today. The thing about this team
here, we are thirty four gamesin. We're closing in on the quarter

(05:38):
pole. There's still plenty of time. It is still reasonably early. It's
worth pointing out this team's record throughthirty four games this season is better than
last year's teams record was thirty fourgames into the season. But there's no
track record. There's nothing you canhang your hat on. There's nothing you
could do to make yourself feel betterabout out. Hey, this is going

(06:00):
to turn around, and it's goingto turn around quickly, because who has
a track record on this team thatmakes you feel like, you know,
what what they are right now isnot what they're going to be over the
course of the season. It's likea lot of people are wondering, see,
well, why he could have broughtback Joey Vado, He could have
gotten at bats on this team,and maybe there's some validity to that.
But I'll just bring up Joey Vadoin his prime, he had seasons where

(06:25):
he started very poorly. I thinkwhat was a twenty fifteen or twenty sixteen
right around Memorial Day. The numberswere ghastly, but you could still say,
look, man, this guy he'sgoing to be his baseball reference page.
He's going to be the back ofhis baseball card, and at the
end of the season, we're goingto like what the numbers look like.
There's a track record that this guyhas established where you don't put so much

(06:46):
stock in a bad month or badtwo months, or a bad few games.
He's going to be okay. Icould say that because of the player's
track record, Joe Burrow is goingto talk tomorrow. Lot of conjecture about
Joe Burrow on the Internet today,much of which I'm going to ignore because
I'm not sure how much of it'sreal. But Joe Burrow has a bad

(07:09):
game. He's Joe Burrow. He'sgot a track record, He's going to
be okay. This team's going tobe okay. This team has no track
record, and so there's a realhelpless feeling. I think that's the word
that I could best use to describehow I feel. There's a real helpless
feeling. I think based on twothings. Number one is a year ago.

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At this time, the Reds werefourteen and twenty, and it was
kind of frustrating watching dudes like WillMyers out there. But you knew at
some point the cavalry was coming.Maybe it wasn't coming as soon as we
would have liked, but you kindof knew the cavalry is coming. And
so it's not going to be thatmuch longer that we're watching Will Myers.

(07:55):
I'm picking on Will Myers, orthat we're watching Kevin Newman or Jose Barrero
or Henry Ramos, Like the cavalryis coming now, some of the cavalry,
like we knew Matt mcclan was goingto get here, we were gonna
feel pretty good about his upside,and then eventually Ellie and eventually down the
road Cees and eventually Noelve Marte.He kind of expected those guys to be

(08:18):
a big part of what the teamdid last season. Maybe not so much
with a guy like Will Benson,who was a terrific contributor last year,
but you could at least hang yourhead on through thirty four, thirty five
forty games. Some dudes are comingthat are gonna be worthwhile. The guys
on the team a year ago thatwere getting a lot of playing time,
they were just placeholders right now,where's the cavalry coming from? But TJ.

(08:41):
Friedle's return could help, like TJ. Friedel potential to help this team
a little bit more at the topof the batting order, all right,
So TJ for and then who elsewhat else you got? Like that's the
thing about a year ago, right, Hey, Ellie's gonna be here soon,
and you know, by the earlypart of June he was here,

(09:03):
and Matt McLean's coming up soon,and you know, within a few weeks
from where we are right now inthe calendar a year ago, Matt McLain
was up, and there was justthis constant churn of guys who got here,
whose arrivals were anticipated and expected,and that we thought was going to
be at least gonna make the Redseasier to watch than they were through those

(09:24):
first thirty forty games last year.This season, we're the reinforcements. Like
you could look at that lineup theReds fielded yesterday or any of the lineups
the Reds have fielded in recent weeks, and you know, we could talk
about Santiago Espinal and his lack ofcompetitive at bats, or Nick Martini and

(09:46):
why he shouldn't be here and maybesomeone like Mike Ford should and we could
wonder why Will Benson's turned into apumpkin, and we can wonder if Christian
and Carnassi on strand is ever goingto turn things around here in the short
term. But like if you wantthe front office to do something, a
year ago, at this time,it was call up fill in the blank.
Last week we were openly debating whetherit made sense for the Reds to

(10:09):
sign Mike Ford. A year ago, at this time, we were wondering,
does it make sense for the Redsto call up arguably the top prospect
in baseball. Last week we werewondering if the red should call up Mike
Ford. So there's a helplessness tothat. Man. So you could look
at last year and go, yeah, at fourteen and twenty it wasn't good.
But they did turn it around,and they spend a good chunk of

(10:33):
the summer in first place, andthey made it to Game one sixty one
still in the playoff race. Muchof that occurred on the backs of guys
who at this time a year agowere not here. And by the way,
when they finally got here, itwasn't the middle of August. We
could talk all we want. Yes, this team is dramatically different without Mat
McClain and without Noelve Marte. They'redramatically different without those guys and TJ.

(10:56):
Friedel. There's only so much afront office can do when so many key
contributors are unavailable. But there isa helplessness to where we are right now
if you want to compare it towhere we were a year ago. So
on one hand, you could say, look, it is really early,
and it is. Man, it'sMay sixth. We haven't gotten a Mother's
Day yet it is early. Timeis on the red side now. It

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doesn't help that the Cubs and Brewerslook like they're pretty good teams despite the
Chicago Cubs injury issues. But okay, fine, it's early. It's not
worth really losing your mind over thestandings. There's plenty of time to make
up ground. But man, Igotta be honest with you. At fourteen
and twenty last year, there wasat least a sense of reinforcements are coming.

(11:41):
Where are the reinforcements coming at sixteenand eighteen through thirty four games this
season, I ask that somewhat rhetorically, but I think it's a fair question.
If you're going, Okay, theygotta do something. You can't just
wait for Matt mclan to get here. If he does in August, and
I'm very skeptical that he plays gamefor the Reds this season. And we

(12:01):
could talk about how many more gamesNoel v Marte has remaining on his suspension.
He still has more than half ofhis suspension to serve, so he's
weeks away and TJ. Friedel's gonnacome back hopefully this week, maybe in
time for tomorrow, and that helps. That can really only accomplish so much
where the reinforcements supposed to come from. What would you do if you were

(12:24):
Nick Krawl, Like I'm legitimately askingfive one, three, seven, four,
nine, fifteen thirty. I'll behonest, I'd have added Mike Ford
to the team. Can he beany worse than uh? Nick Martini?
Probably not. Like That's where wewere last week, And I was having
a lot of fun with this onTwitter, and some people got mad at
me because that's what people that doon Twitter, And but the point was,

(12:45):
we're we're now, this is wherewe are. We're we're looking at
Mike Ford, uh now opted outof his Red's minor league deal twice,
Quinn essential journeyman. We're we're nowlooking at Mike Ford as as help.
A year ago, we're wondering ifMatt McClain, a former first round pick,
when's he gonna get here? Canhe help? Or Ellie Dela Cruz
perhaps the top prospect in the sport, when's he gonna get here? Can

(13:09):
he help? Last week it wasMike Ford. You have to laugh,
right, So for me, there'sjust with this team, I'm not giving
up by any stretch. I willview part of what they're doing as just
a part of the developmental process.Spencer Steer is not a finished product,

(13:30):
thank god, because he's been offof the last month. And Cees is
not a finished product, and WillBenson's not a finished product, and Ellie's
not a finished product. And so, you know, part of it is
you got some some young guys.But then there are some dudes that you
should be able to count a littlebit more like a Jonathan India. And
then there's just the state of theroster that now dictates the dudes like Nick

(13:52):
Martini and Santiago Espinol are getting regularplaying time. There's also the fact that
Jamer Candelario has been a disappointment.I really don't know what to do.
I don't know what to do otherthan to tell you I'm not sure what
to do and ask you what youwould do to fix this in the short
term. A year ago, atthis time, it was quite simple.

(14:13):
Call up the young guys, whatis it this year? U five point
three seven four nine fifteen thirty isour phone number? Eight sixty six seven
oh two three seven seven six worksas well? You could send me a
tweet Delta Dental Twitter feed at Moegerthanks to a Delta Dental building healthy,
smart, vibrant communities for all goodat Delta dentalh dot com. I am

(14:33):
starting the week by being five minuteslaid for a break. We have a
lot of red stuff to get totoday. They are off for some reason.
Sam Mall's been sent to Louisville.That doesn't make any sense. Diamondbacks
here tomorrow. Looks like Frankie Montossis gonna pitch, which is a good
thing. The Tom Brady roast onNetflix last night was just awesome television,

(14:54):
and frankly, I think it wasbadly needed. We'll get to that a
little bit later on on ESPN fifteenthirty Cincinnati Sports station. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty on Moeger Thrilled that you'relistening today. Your phone calls are coming
up. I guarantee it. Theother I guess source of frustration for a
lot of folks today and I getit. Sam Mall has been sent to

(15:15):
Louisville. They need a clearer spotto make room for Frankie Montas, who
is a scheduled to pitch tomorrow.And it really does feel like with Frankie
this had maybe not the best possibleoutcome, because the best possible outcome would
have meant he never had to goon the injury list. But I think
relative to what a lot of peoplethought was maybe going to happen when he

(15:35):
took that liner off his right elbow, him coming back and pitching tomorrow night
is pretty damn good, all thingsconsidered, they send Sam Mall down.
Sam Mall was a very good acquisitionlast season by the Reds during a summer
in which we spent a lot oftime wondering are they going to get starting

(15:58):
pitching help. They didn't, butthey got relief help, and Sam Maull
was terrific. He pitched in twentyfive games. He gave up a run
in one of them. Since hewas added to the active roster a short
while ago, he has pitched infive games this season and he has been
fine. He's been fine. Hehas not given up a run. Again,

(16:25):
it's a very small sample size,but he's pitched fine. So the
reason they're doing this I would makesense, I guess if you assumed that
he is being sent to Louisville becausehe's one of only a handful of guys
that still has remaining options and becausein this day and age, we have

(16:48):
to carry a set number of pitchersand then a set number of position players.
All that makes sense. At thesame time, it's hard to argue
right now that optioning Sam Mall toLouisville leaves the Reds with the best twenty

(17:10):
six possible guys. I'm not talkingabout players who are injured right like,
they're not as good without Matt McLeanand they're they're not as good without Noelve
Marte who's not hurt. But givenplayers that could be on the active roster
right now, could you really arguethey're carrying the twenty six best if Sam

(17:33):
Mall is not in the big leagueroster. I don't think you can.
I don't think you can. Whetherit's I don't know, Amelia Pegan.
I'm a big Brent Suter guy.He does have a track record. We'll
let him work some things out,but he has failed to keep the ball

(17:53):
in the ballpark at a pretty alarmingrate. Does it feel like without Sam
Maull you're keeping the twenty six guysfive point three, seven, four,
nine, fifteen thirty. Uh.We got a site for sore eyes today.
I'll explain on the Radio. Nexthe's in ESPN fifteen thirty. Stone

(18:18):
Statements. Meet your new Bengals.The Cincinnati Bengals select Stone Statements. Make
a statement with your county tops,presented by Riverside Electric. Never feel Powerless.
No, here's moeck. With theirfourth round pick in the twenty twenty
four NFL Draft, the Bengals wentlocal, taking fairfield product Eric All from

(18:38):
Iowa. All is a tight endwho started his college career at Michigan before
going to Iowa, where he ledthe Hawkeyes and receiving last year despite missing
the last seven games. All isa very good athlete and a smooth route
runner who has great ball tracking ability. He's also a willing blocker, but
scouts say he needs to be morephysical in that part of the game,

(18:59):
and he's had shoes dropping the football. All had a herniated disc that cuts
short his final season at Michigan anda knee injury that ended his season last
year in Iowa, but when hewas on the field at both schools,
he was productive and versatile. MeetBengals tight end Eric al Mo has more
on ESPN fifteen thirty, the officialhome of the Bengals. Natty's ESPN fifteen

(19:23):
thirty. For its headlines are aservice of a Kelsey chev laya home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approvalfrom their family to yours for life kelseyshev
dot com. I'm watching video ofJoe Burrow throwing a football on at Bengals.
Joe Burrow back throwing footballs. That'sall you need to know. Now.

(19:45):
The question is do you kind ofshelve them from here and just tell
them the show for the opener inSeptember? I don't know. Also,
when's the schedule coming out? Isit going to be next week? You
know we do a schedule Lee showdown the Hall. I need to know
these things. Joe is Joe's gonnatalk tomorrow too, which will be cool.
Joe Burrow throwing footballs today at Bengalspractice. Meanwhile, the Reds don't

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play today, so another day withoutscoring a run. To be fair,
they did play one in the ninthlast night or yesterday afternoon. The Arizona
Diamondbacks will be in town for thebeginning of a three game series tomorrow night.
Frankie Montas's schedule to make his returnto the rotation six forty tomorrow evening,
Zach Gallen will throw for Arizona andthat's on seven hundred WLW Reds have

(20:36):
sent Sam Maud to Louisville. Therewill be a corresponding twenty six man Rocks
transaction tomorrow. I wonder what it'sgoing to be. And after a third
consecutive win FC Cincinnati on the heelsof a Lucho Acosta goal seventeen seconds in
in Orlando on Saturday, get setfor the rematch of last year's Eastern Conference

(21:00):
Final FC Cincinnati versus Columbus hell Isreel Derby on Saturday. We will talk
about that as the week unfolds.There you go, I think that's all
I got for your local sports headlines? Uh? Are we do? We
consider the Indiana Pacers a local team, Taran can I include Pacers v.
Nicks and local sports headlines. Theyare the closest NBA two and because like

(21:22):
you said, McBride place with that'sright. So you got dues from Moler
playing for the next and you gotthe closest NBA team to Cincinnati and the
OBI Top and played a Dayton theObi Top and revenge game is happening in
this series. Indiana will win agame. I mean, I think they're
gonna win more than one game inthis series, but there will be a
game where the the central figure isObi Top and having the revenge game against

(21:48):
the team that drafted him in twentytwenty. It is happening. It's gonna
be a really fun series. Thatindie team, I think is they're not
very good defensively. I give upa lot of threes, a lot of
open local behind the arc. HHella Burton is not quite one. They're
going to be a tougher route thanlike I watched. I looked on ESPN

(22:10):
yesterday eleven experts picked the Knicks towin the series, which would make you
feel like this is going to beeasy. I don't know, Man,
They're deeper India is. Uh,They're not asking one guy to carry the
same low that Jalen Brunson is.I think it's going to be a fun
series, and I think I'm allowedto talk about it because INDI's are closest
team. All right, Uh,Nick, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(22:33):
Thank you for hanging on. Howare you? I'm good, I'm walking
the dog. Yeah. How dothe Reds not trade for Luisa Rias,
who was traded to the Padres acouple of days ago, Like, how
do you not send a couple ofour prospects because they gave nothing for Luisa
Rias? That guy's a hitting machine. Yeah, no he is. And

(22:55):
and also why doesn't Buddy Bell's songet criticized because I mean, he's been
here, what five six years,and all he does is get kicked out
of games. It's pretty ridiculous that. What would you he doesn't he doesn't
just get kicked out manager? Uhdoesn't know what to do with pitching.

(23:18):
If the statistics say that, thenhe does it like he has no feel
for the game at all. Itseems like, well, I disagreed with
one of the moves he made onFriday. I mean I didn't like him
taking Fernando Cruz out in favor ofAmelia Pagan in the scoreless game. I
didn't like that at all on Friday. I think he does more than just
kick kicked out of games. Whatwould you prefer he do differently? On
a macro level? What would youprefer he do differently? Uh, manage

(23:41):
his dad steakhouse like Dave Shula did. Okay, well as the manager of
the Reds. Is the manager ofthe Reds. What would you prefer him
do differently? Bring Barry Larkin downand have him manage all Right, Well,
first of all, that's not that'snot David. David Bell can't replace
himself and he's not going to Whatwould you like this concerence? What would

(24:04):
you like David Bell to? I'masking you for the third time, what
would you like? Okay, he'she's nick. That's not the answer.
He is the manager of the team. What would you like him to do
differently? I would like him.I'm not going to have to I'm asking
you a serious question here. Youwant to talk like an adult. You
want to talk like we're a pairof eleven year olds. What in his

(24:26):
capacity is the manager of the Redswould you like for him to do differently?
Uh? I'm sorry, dude.Like if if you want to talk
about the role of the manager,I asked her five times, if you
want to talk about the role ofthe manager and the team not living up
to expectations to this point, I'mhere. But when I ask you what

(24:49):
you you would like for him todo differently? Give me an answer beyond
go manage his dad's Steakhouse. Thereare times where I feel like David bell
criticism is deserved. I put iton social media, and by the way,
I got yelled at for it.Didn't think taking Fernando Cruz after he
got one out in the front inthe in the sixth inning on Friday was

(25:11):
necessary, especially in favor of AmeliaPegan. Fernando Cruz has a pitch that's
really hard to hit, that splitter. So are there moments where I disagree
with a certain move sure? Beyondthat, though, I thought David Bell
last season handled the bullpen brilliantly,or as I should say, brilliantly did

(25:36):
me and every movement according to plan. But given the limitations of the starting
staff last year, given the lackof track record of some of those relievers,
I thought he handled the bullpen lastseason brilliantly. I don't know what
he is supposed to do with thislineup. I don't I don't know.
I'm all ears, And if youwant to have like a legitimate conversation about

(26:00):
it, I mean, I don'tknow what the manager of the team is
supposed to do. When there isright now literally nobody hitting. You can
bang on them for using dudes likeNick Martini, manager is gonna use the
players to give him. And let'sface it, circumstances have given David Bell
some of the players that he hasbeen given, Like look, look,

(26:22):
look at that. Look Is therea guy not getting playing time that you
could argue right now should be gettingmore? Is moving the guys around up
and down the batting order? Doesthat look like it's gonna uncover some sort
of hidden solution? So when's DavidBell gonna get criticism? He's gotten a
bunch since day one, and whenit's warranted, man, I'll give it

(26:45):
to him. You want the managerof a team to do when none of
the guys are hitting. Again,if he's a bad manager because he makes
one move with the bullpen on Fridaythat doesn't work, well, we're not
going to see eye to eye there. Good managers hit the wrong button all
the time. But if the team'sinability to perform at a very high level

(27:11):
right now, in your opinion,is most directly attributed to the poor work
of the manager, You're watching adifferent team than I am. I don't
whoever, you think the best managerin the game is right now? Bruce
Bochi is Bruce Bochi achieving significantly betterresults with this team when nobody is hitting.

(27:32):
How is the answer? Yes?Five point three seven, fifteen thirty.
And look the Barry Larkins, myall time favorite player. Uh Are
are we we certain that that's justinstantly going to make Nick Martini into a
big league hitter, or get SantiagoEspinal to hit the ball with a little

(27:57):
bit more authority or help Will Bensonor Jonathan India or Spencer Steer or Cees
or right now, Ellie or anyof these guys who aren't hitting. I'm
not led to believe the answer isyes. And you know whether you whether
you agree or not with David Bellgetting the contract extension that he got,

(28:22):
And I'll be honest with you,there's a part of me that didn't understand
why it had to necessarily be forthe number of years that it was for.
He's not going anywhere. He's gota three year contract extension through twenty
twenty six. Now, I don'tknow that I would have done that.
I would have had and did haveno issue with him managing the team of

(28:44):
twenty twenty four. I didn't reallysee the need to give him a three
year deal, but understanding he hasthat deal. He's not going anywhere.
So whatever the solutions are for takingthis team and making it better, it
probably should be within the parameters ofDavid Bell being the manager, because that's
not changing. If you're going totry to suggest solutions for something that's not

(29:11):
working, understand there are certain thingsthat are immovable. David Bell as the
manager of the Reds is whether youlike it or not, and it's okay
to not like it is immovable.Five point three seven four nine, fifteen
thirty and eighty six six seven ohtwo three seven seven six. I hope
your dog enjoys a walk. It'sthirteen away from four o'clock. On a

(29:33):
lighter note, we are going tospend time talking about the Netflix Tom Brady
Roast, even if it's just fora segment, cause there are multiple things
I loved about that last night.We'll do that a little bit later on
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, even though it's not the d O
anymore. Frankie Montos, but he'sgonna come back and pitching the game tomorrow.

(29:59):
Can I I just spend a secondon the the Netflix Tom Brady Roast.
I'm gonna do that here because wedon't have a lot of time and
a handful of you who want totalk, and I want to give you
ample time. Hopefully we're better inthe first call, Tom Brady Roast.
If you did not watch it onNetflix, if you didn't watch it and
you have Netflix, you still can. If you don't have Netflix and you

(30:21):
want to watch it, I'm sure. I'm sure you can access it somehow
on the internet. If you didwatch it last night, I did,
you know what, There's a fewthings I loved about that event last night,
which number one was it was aroast that was actually treated like a

(30:41):
roast, where okay, it's aroast, We're gonna lobby insults at each
other. That's what a roast is. And everybody involved, maybe with the
exception of Rob Gronkowski, he seemedto understand that I was. I've been
in one roast in my life forsome reason. I was asked like nine

(31:04):
years ago to participate in a roastof Pete Rose before a Florence Freedom Game.
I was asked to participate in theroast. I wasn't paid for it,
because that's how the Freedom used todo stuff. Uh, and so
I was one of four or fivepeople. I ended up being last because
the roast started at six, ourshow ends at six, and so I

(31:27):
was the last person there. ButI got there in time to hear like
two of the three people before me, none of them roasted Pete. None
of them told any jokes. Theyjust talked about how great Pete is.
I showed up to roast them.I was proud of my efforts. I

(31:47):
got booed by the crowd because theywere there for a toast of Pete Rose.
As I understood the assignment it wasto roast Pete Rose. That event
last night, it was undeniable.Everybody understood what the night was all about,
roasting Tom Brady and each other onthe dais. I also love that

(32:15):
event last night. It really helpedthat there was this tension in the air
because you might not care about thePatriots. I really don't care about the
Patriots, but the Brady Belichick Craftdynamic, there's obvious tension there. I've
watched four parts of that ten partApple Robert Craft infomercial. I don't know

(32:36):
that I really care to watch theother six, but there's there's some I
don't want to say bad blood,but there's some animosity there. And yet
all three where they were last nightin an environment where people are going to
be insulting each other. That certainlyhelped. It was helped tremendously by the
fact because I kind of watched thatand I'm like, Man, are these

(32:57):
folks really gonna let it loose?Are they really gonna be willing to say
stuff that could quote get them canceled? And people were willing to say whatever
they felt like. And I kindof half expected today to see that a
certain company was going to distance itselffrom one of the roasters, or this
person was no longer going to havetheir broadcasting gig because of something off color

(33:19):
that was said during a roast.But you know what I loved most about
that. I think in this dayand age, we have a severe problem
with people being completely unwilling to makefun of themselves, too cool to make
fun of themselves. Tom Brady mightbe the most accomplished North American sportsperson of

(33:42):
the last twenty five to thirty yearsfor my money, and most would agree
the greatest quarterback of all time.A guy who has seemingly the perfect life,
and yet he sat up there forthree and a half hours and allowed
everybody to make fun of him likethat. Event only works if you have
people willing to make fun of themselves. Last night, those people were willing

(34:07):
to make fun of themselves. Weneed more of that. A couple of
minutes away from four o'clock, I'mgonna help you help me as it relates
to a sixteen and eighteen Reds team. We'll get to our poll question as
well. It's four from four ESPNfifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports station. It's
hey, what's up. My nameIsabelle Ecker. You're listening to our show.

(34:29):
It's kind of you. Thank you. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Just watching Joe Burrow flitting that footballon at Bengals. Danner's here tomorrow.
He's gonna watch Joe Burrow practice.Joe is wearing a compression sleeve for what
it's worth. There you go.There's your Joe Burrow update, and it's

(34:51):
a good one. It's a goodone. Brendan minute Jones on baseball.
A little bit later on, we'lladdress our poll question. There's lots of
frustration. The stution is, I'mI will admit to being stuck, to
being kind of conflicted when it comesto where the Reds are right now,

(35:15):
what their record is at the moment, the amount of time left in the
season, what they're trying to accomplish, and what the Reds haven't done in
three decades. I'm I'm kind ofat the the confluence, if you will,
of all those things. I'll elaboratehere in just a few minutes.

(35:35):
But first, because we have folkswaiting patiently, I want to reward their
patients. Eddie, you're on ESPNfifteen thirty. What's going on? Hey?
No, not much same, allthe same, all you know.
I kind of want to jump jumpinto your Red conversation here, like always
please, I have a couple ofsolutions. I don't don't think they're going

(35:58):
to do them, or I'd justlike to hear if you have, if
you agree, and if you're withmy you know my options here. Well,
for stars, I don't see whythey sent down Sam Mall. He
was like, your best reliever hasagain given him a run since all get
the last year. But they're gonnablame it on options, which I think
is the stupidest rule in baseball.I think it's just so I don't know

(36:19):
that's the aspect of the game Idon't like. Is like a picture to
be playing pitching really well, butbecause he has options, he can get
sent down, where the picture who'snot pitching so well lately, has no
options up You're gonna keep him therosters, but you want to lose them.
So I think that's kind of asilly rule. But well whatever,
I understand. I understand the intentof the rule, which is to keep
a team from sending a guy upand back forty times a year. I

(36:43):
get that, But I mean,are we are we really that sad?
If Amelio Pegan gets shipped out becauseyou're keeping you're either keeping your best twenty
six or you're not. And it'shard to say right now that the Reds
are right as now as far asthe lineup goes, the starting nine go,
that's not hitting right now. Ithink the only two options the Reds

(37:06):
have right now is I don't knowif they have anybody down in the minor
league system that they could send upthat would be better than once they've been
getting the last week or two,Like, is there Reese Hines, A,
Jacob Purbertus Blake Dunn of just anybodyis there anybody that could bring up
I mean, I don't see whyBoba Thompson is still on this roster.
He doesn't even play, it doesn'tstart, he can't hit. He's basically

(37:28):
a Billy Hamilton. He basically justcomes into late the game, you know,
defensive purposes or to pinch run.That's basically it. He's wasting the
roster's But now I know when teacherField comes back soon, which is probably
just this week, he's most likelygonna take Baba Thompson the spot, So
that problem will solve itself. Right. The fact he's being this this roster,
you know, all season so far, I think is mind boggling because

(37:49):
he doesn't he doesn't bring anything tothe team, to the table. He
doesn't hit, can't doesn't do anything. He's exist on the bench waiting.
He brought in to pinch run likeasan nine finning. I don't get that
zero. He's he's an offensive zero. The at bats are non competitive,
and yeah, I would I wouldlike to think that it's all but a
certainty that once Freedom is up,which could happen as soon as tomorrow,

(38:10):
that that's going to mark the endof Bubba Thompson in terms of who's in
Louisville right now. I mean,you know, again, like Mike Ford
was tearing it up right, andwould would adding Mike Ford to the team
have made sense on some level?Sure? Right? I mean he was
it was a guy who was puttingup good numbers in Louisville. But if
you're looking at Mike Ford soon tobe thirty two year old, Mike Ford

(38:32):
is the savior boy that feels likeit's awfully flimsy. And you know,
there are some guys you could youcan maybe call up Blake. You mentioned
Blake Done, Blake Dun's batting twotwenty two, You mentioned Reese Hines,
A lot of people who like reSigns. Re Signs is batting two twenty
three. You know there's nobody thatright now. You look at what they're

(38:53):
doing at Louisville who is just demandinga roster spot that the cavalry is not
coming from Triple A. And evenif you want to say, well it
did last year, okay, buthow short was that shelf life? Because
many of the guys who came uplast year from Triple A are not performing
right now. Cees isn't performing,Will Benson's not performing that even over the

(39:15):
last week or so, Elie DelaCruz himself hasn't been performing. So I
don't look at Louisville the same wayas I did last year. Where I
go, there's a bunch of shortterm solutions and some guys who long term
are going to be a part ofwhat they're doing moving forward. Right and
at least think to my other option, and my second last option would be

(39:36):
just unfortunately, you just have toride this this team out right now what
you have. And I think DavidBell, when Tyr Friel comes back,
I think when he he needs tomaybe just try and leaving the line up
a loan for like a week,a week or two, just to make
a lot of the same. Youknow, they ridn't lefty Roddy matches just
for a week or two, justlit a lot of the same. Guy's
got the same spot. You know, you got Tyr Friel pi lead off.

(40:00):
That's this year. Surprisingly, Iwas yelling for him a bad third
all year long. When he's gota sabbath, now he's not hitting,
he's maybe put him back in theseventh spot. If you start hitting again,
you know, to try something.But I think maybe they just leads
a lot alone the same one,two, nine, the same order,
just like a week and just seeif that does anything. And guys from
the ballpark knowing where they're playing atthe same position, that in the same

(40:21):
spot of line, maybe that wouldtake a little bit of pressure off them
to say, hey, I knowwhere I'm playing at, I know I'm
going Maybe that'll maybe let him relaxa little bit. I don't know,
I'm just I'm just trying. I'mtrying to pick of something though. No,
we're all really we're all doing thesethe same thing, And I don't
know that there's I don't know thatinternally there's a bad idea, whether it's
lead the line up the same,or take the guy's names and pick him

(40:43):
out of a hat, or goextreme lefty righty. Anything is that could
even achieve remotely better results is betterthan what's happening right now. But I
think those answers are harder to comeby than a lot of people would be
willing to acknowledge. And the scheduleof about to get really, really,
really tough in the next three weeks, and I'm hoping you're not going to

(41:04):
show Monday and make twenty seventh,and this team is not our taking games
out. They're facing a lot ofgood teams, yeph and good teams have
what they have metal. Good teamshave good pitching, and the Red struggle
just have struggled lately against even averagepitchers. Right now, the amateurdges of
like saw Young Award. So Ijust hope he Trude is only one guy.
I don't know. He's not goingto fix the eight guys in the

(41:27):
lineup, but you will help alittle bit. But let's just hope,
hope for the best. Hope isjust a bad, bad swamp, not
a trend, and keep our fingersscross that they can just hang around there
and you know, come my twentyseventh, I'm not ten games out.
You know that would just pretty muchput background the season. It kind of
feels like twenty twenty two all overagain right now. No, it does,
I mean right now. And youknow they're not nearly that bad any

(41:47):
thank you, But there's there isa there's a sense of helplessness. It's
really weird right now. And youknow you'll find you'll find extremes if you
took I don't know, a samplingof reds fans. Let's say one hundred.
You will find people who all theway over here will tell you season's

(42:12):
over, they're cooked. Nick Crawlsit over his head, David Bell's a
terrible manager. Hit the reset button. What they're doing isn't going to work,
not only in the short term,but in the long term. You
will find people who say that.Then you'll find people who all the way
over here will say, look,they've played thirty four games. It's a

(42:34):
young team. We knew that therewere gonna be some ups and downs.
It's also a team that's dealing withguys they haven't had since the beginning of
the season. Let's watch the nextfew weeks unfold. And then there's me
in the middle where I feel theimpatience that comes with I mean, it's

(42:57):
the longest drought in professional sports withoutdancing in the postseason. That's not this
team's fault for the most part.It's not this general manager or this president
of baseball operations. It's not BradMeter's fault. It's not Nick Crawl's fault,
it's not David Bell's fault. Butthat's what we have. We have

(43:20):
the baggage as fans. We havethe baggage of decades without advancing in the
postseason, constantly being told to bepatient. Again, that's not this team's
fault. With this particular team,you probably do need to be patient,
right, whether it be for youngerplayers to perform better, whether it be

(43:45):
for the team itself to sort ofcoalesce, whether it be for the guys
who are in the Angel list rightnow to come back. Probably need some
patience with this team. Those twothings don't don't jibe right. You're fed
up with waiting because for decades we'vebeen told to be patient. Yet with

(44:07):
this team, you're being reasonable ifyou say, look, you got to
be patient with it. It's tough, and so it's kind of I can't
speak for anybody else. I'm exasperatedwith the not winning, and I'm exasperated
with being told, hey, it'scoming, the future is kind, it's

(44:28):
kind, it's going to be greatonce again, because we've we've heard it
for years, for years. Imean, if I would have said to
you ten years ago, right whenwe knew the Reds were about to start
a rebuild twenty fourteen, if Iwould have said to you ten years later,
we'll still be waiting for this teamto advance in the postseason, you
would have said, there's no way, like really, yet here we are

(44:51):
add that to the previous ten.I mean, I was a freshman in
college the last time the Reds advancedin the postseason, and so we have
that baggage, we have that history, we have that exasperation. Yet over
here, you have a team thatis young, a roster that is is

(45:12):
not what anybody hoped it would be. You've got some younger players who are
underperforming. You've got some maybe slightlymore established players who are underperforming, jam
Or Candelario, Jonathan India. You'vegot some some players we thought would be
a big part of this team whoare not available. You still have basically
five months of a season. You'vegot the sort of implied understanding that because

(45:37):
of the team's overall youth, therewas going to be an unpredictability to this
season. By the way, thisapplies to the pitching as well, that
there's there's still in very much adevelopmental mode, and and it's it's it's
really hard to reconcile these things overhere. The exasperation with the franchise,
the exasperation with the decades of waitingand then over a kind of the understanding

(46:01):
that there are some mitigating circumstances withthis year's team and you do kind of
have to be patient and they aretrying to win while at the same time
developing players, and those two thingsare hard to do simultaneously. It puts
me at least and you can tellme if you feel the same. You
could tell me if you feel entirelydifferent. It's a weird place to be

(46:23):
as a fan. It is notthis team's fault that for the past nearly
three decades the Reds have underwhelmed.It's not this team's fault that with this
current ownership group, winning has beenin short supply. It's not this team's
fault that the every other time we'retold to be patient through a rebuild,
it doesn't there's no payoff. That'snot this team's fault. At the same

(46:47):
time, this team does have todeal with the fact that we as fans
are ready to watch the Reds winon a consistent basis, Tired of being
told to wait, tired of Xexpectations not being met. It's a really
weird dynamic right now. It is, and it's it's not it's not a

(47:08):
very enviable dynamic either. It's it'sand to a degree, it's not fair,
is it? Is it fair tothis team? Is it fair to
this manager? Many are gonna sayyes to hold against it. With so
many prior reds, teams couldn't accomplish. So if on you know, one
side, I have somebody telling me, Mo, with this team, you're

(47:30):
gonna have to be kind of patient. They've got starting pitchers who are still
building experience. They've got position playerswho are still building experience. They've got
some guys who are injured. You'rejust you're gonna have to be patient with
this team. I get it,I agree, I can relate to that.
But if over here I have someonewho's like, dude, I'm tired

(47:52):
of being told to be patient,tired of hearing about how the payoff to
another process of rebuilding is coming.This franchise has just made me wait long
enough. Like I'm done. I'mtired of of just hearing about how the
future is almost here and it's gonnabe bright. And I could not along
with that person as well. Icannot along and listening to somebody talk about

(48:15):
how this individual team needs patience,and I cannot along if I'm listening to
somebody yell and screen that they're tiredof being told to be patient, because
the rights have asked that of usfor almost three decades, regardless of who
the owner has been, regardless ofwho the general manager has been, regardless
of what the player composition the rostercomposition has been, regardless of which ballpark

(48:37):
they've been playing in. I understandboth guys. Both guys are right.
The guy who's tired of waiting andwill tell you as much is right.
And the guy who's look, man, with this team, it's they're not
there yet. You're just gonna haveto sort of let them work through this

(48:58):
and deal with this, and yeah, be patient. That person is also
right. Nobody wants to acknowledge thatthe other side is right. Of course,
that's how things work. But Ireally and I feel it. I
dealt with it this weekend, justwatching all three games and talking with people
in the different groups I'm running aroundwith this weekend. People were like,

(49:21):
man, it's tough schedule. They'rejust gonna have to figure out a way
to work through this and tread waterfor a while, and you know,
just just let some of these guysfigure out, you know it, what
it takes to succeed as a bigleaguer, figure out how to adjust to
the league. And I met peopleand hung out with people this weekend who
are like, dude, here wego again, another year being told I

(49:42):
just got to wait a little bitlonger. Neither side is wrong, Neither
side is remotely wrong. And Icould tell you that because I can relate
to both. Twenty minutes after fouro'clock five point three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number.The good news is Joe Burrow is throwing
a football on at Bengals. I'vepromoted at Bengals a lot today at Bengals

(50:08):
doesn't follow me. Neither is thatrats. Twenty minutes at four o'clock ESPN
fifteen to thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,Cincinnati's espports station. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty twenty five after four, Thisis ESPN fifteen thirty. Last hour.

(50:29):
We took a phone call from aguy that was man at David Bell and
I asked him five different times whathe wants David Bell to do, and
he never gave me a serious answer. He did prior to that, though,
ask what I think is a fairquestion. So Luisa Rise was traded
last week by the Miami Marlins,the reigning National League batting champion, the

(50:51):
two time raiding National League batting champion, to the San Diego Padres. The
Marlins already punting on the season.A Rise gets traded twenty seven years old.
All he does in his first gamewith the Padres is go four for
six. And if you trade forLuis A. Rise, you get him
not just for this year, butfor next year as well. So it's

(51:13):
a it's a fair question. Whycouldn't the Reads do that? Why couldn't
the Reds seize on a team that, quite early in the season is basically
punting on twenty twenty four and addto a position of me, Now it's
worth mentioning. And this is nota for me at least, it's it's
not a criticism because I'll take aguy who gets on bass. Luisa Rise
is the quintessential singles hitter, thequintessential singles hitter, one hundred and forty

(51:42):
eight at bats this year, battingthree eleven, ten extra base hits.
That's okay. I take a singleshitter who's really good at hitting singles.
Lisa Rise last year hit three fiftyfour and when that's batting averager on base
percentage is going to be close tofour hundred, which is what it was
for Louise last year. I wouldlike him on the team. What's interesting
is there seems to be no clearconsensus on the hall that's worth mentioning.

(52:07):
The Marlins kicked in some money,threw some money to San Diego, which
is weird given the fact that theMarlins are always crying poor, but they
threw some money to San Diego inan effort to bolster the trade package.
And the trade package for what it'sworth, there seems to be no consensus

(52:28):
on how good the package is.Wusaku who's a reliever, and then three
prospects twenty fifth overall pick in lastyear's draft, which is Dylan Head,
Jacob Marscy, who was the MVPof the Arizona Fall League, and then
a first baseman Nathan Martarella. What'sinteresting is reading about the trade because my

(52:55):
first thought was were the Reds inon that? Should the Reds be on
that? Keith Love of The Athleticcalled the Marlins return quote an impressive haul.
Baseball trade values considers the trade quotea major overpay by the Padres,

(53:15):
and this is based on calculations ofeach player surplus value, or the excess
of value beyond what the players willbe paid. That said, as I'm
reading in the Athletic, many,if not most, in the industry disagree
with those opinions. The view ofthe people who didn't like the deal pointed

(53:36):
out the lack of a needle moveror of a guy who's got a really
high ceiling. The Marlins will say, well, we wanted quantity over quality,
So I guess what I'm interested inknowing here. Let's say the Reds
jumped into that derby, and ifI'm a Marlins fan, first of all,
it's a disorienting to see your teampunt the first weekend of May.

(54:00):
It's also, I think a littledisorienting to see your team trade away an
all star, pretty good piece,two time batting champion, a guy who
has another year of team control,who's just twenty seven years old, and
not really engage in a bidding warlike. There's the Padres offer, which

(54:20):
ultimately was accepted. The Kansas CityRoyals were also reportedly involved. I just
if I'm running the Miami Marlins,and I feel like I'm gonna trade this
piece, don't it? Doesn't itmake more sense to drag this out a
little bit and see if I canget competing offers and weigh them against each
other. So I guess what Iwould want to know, and we're not

(54:43):
going to have the answer here.Number one, what could the Reds have
offered that would have been competitive withthe Padres? Then? Number two,
what could the Reds have offered?What would they be willing to offer that
would supersede what the Padres sent toMiami. It's interesting we did last year

(55:04):
the whole trade deadline discussion, right, remember that should they upgrade the starting
pitching? And yet, like Iread a list of like fifteen names that
nobody wanted to trade. Would wehave been willing to take some names off
that list in an effort to acquireLuisa Rise. And when the acquisition of
Luisa Rise on its own have significantlychanged this team's offensive fortunes, now it

(55:30):
does beg another question. Are theregoing to be other teams who say we're
not gonna wait until late July.We're not gonna wait until the season is
two thirds old to start trading awayassets. There are some teams this season
that are just blatantly non competitive.The Colorado Rockies would be one, the

(55:51):
La Angels would be one. We'vealready talked about the Miami Marlins. Some
teams have done a good job ofholding their own. Some teams have non
competitive, but you would expect themto still be okay, like the Houston
Astros. Is there anybody who wouldbe willing to engage in trade discussions for
a deal in May and forego theopportunity to engage everybody else in a bidding

(56:16):
war? And could the Reds benefitfrom one of those teams being open to
trading what they have? But theArise thing is a very fair question.
Here you have a player who wastraded. Money was kicked in that boosted
the overall value of the package.There's no consensus on the package. What
could a package have looked like?Again, the Padres sent four dudes over

(56:39):
three prospects and a big leaguer.What would that package of players have looked
like. We're never going to knowthe answer, but I do think it's
going to be interesting moving forward.And there's actually a piece inquired today about
this being aggressive. Right We Ialways want teams to be aggressed, So

(57:00):
we in baseball, for the mostpart, we don't talk about end season
trades until, you know, reallyafter the All Star break, close to
the deadline, which is, youknow, when they're hoping to get Matt
McClain back, and that's a big, big hope, and around the time
that they will have got Noelve Marteback and that'll be a help. But
are they going to show a willingnessto make changes to the roster, make

(57:22):
upgrades to the roster early in theseason, And if you do that,
you're really going to have to makeit worth the team's while. Are the
Reds going to be willing to dothat? When last summer the answer was
no, they're not willing to dothat. Twenty eight away from five o'clock
five point three seven four nine,fifteen thirty is our phone number, Brendimant

(57:44):
and Jones on Baseball is coming up, so or more of your phone calls.
And I do want to go backand talk about last summer as much
as I kind of also don't wantto. We'll do that a little bit
later on on ESPN fifteen thirty CincinnaiSports Station. He's ESPN fifteen thirty sports
headlines. A service of Kelsey ChevroletHome Hum lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit

(58:09):
approval from their family to yours forlife at kelseyshev dot Com. Reds are
off as Sam Mall's off to Louisville. For some reason. He has been
optioned. They have a corresponding rostermoved tomorrow. The expectation is that'll be
Frankie Montass, who is penciled into start tomorrow night's game. Reds and
Diamondbacks first of three at GABP Bengalsat Bengals on X at Bengals. The

(58:35):
team's official social media account they haveBengals are practicing today. It's a what
phase is it of the voluntary offseasonworkout training camp practice? They're practicing today.
And Joe Burrow, they shot videoof him throwing a football only once,
but throwing a football. We don'tknow who was catching it. I've

(58:58):
heard it might be Justin Jefferson.I don't know, but there's video of
Joe chucking a football. I hadsomething else I forgot what it was.
Sorry, local sports headline that Iignored today. Tarren NBA Nicks Pacers Tonight
Game one, first time these twofranchises have met at the postseason in eleven

(59:19):
years. That did not go wellfor me. Perhaps this one will go
better. Thank God, there wouldbe a Bronco chase over this one.
Well that was Nick's was Nick Rocketsninety four, thirty years ago, June
seventeenth, after the Nicks dispatched ofthe Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals thanks
to an iconic Game seven performance byPatrick Ewing, and then the Bronco chase

(59:40):
about a week later during Game fiveof the NBA Finals. All right,
uh, let's see Mike. You'reon ESPN fifteen thirty. How are you?
Oh? Good, mo? Howare you doing to that? I'm
doing terrific, Mike. What's goingon? Excellent? Well, it's a
big night Los Angeles because mister Walkerdual were is finally starting a game since

(01:00:01):
June of twenty twenty two. Ina while. It's a big deal.
And then Kershall. I'll be backsoon. But Dave Roberts has done a
howl of a job with this makeshiftpitching staff because they're sixth in the er
and I can't put their pick.Their pitching coach, Mark Pryor is pretty

(01:00:22):
astute pitching coach from what I hearfrom other ballplayers on it talking about them
on MLB. Yeah, and alsoit also helps that they lead the sport
and run scored. Yeah, itdoes. It certainly does. And they
bring in they're pulling guys out oftheir heine from down the minors too.

(01:00:42):
So everybody thinks they're just loaded withthe superstars they are, but that's not
the whole team by a long shot. No. I mean, you and
I have talked about this for asmuch as as folks hold it against them,
the fact that they take advantage oftheir enormous financial advantage over most teams
in the sport. The Dodgers havespent years cranking out quality big league players,

(01:01:06):
There's no question about that. Butthey're also getting great you know,
the Shoheo Tani has been unbelievable,Mookie Betts is having a ridiculously good season.
For my money, he is thebest player in the sport. And
then just to line up with alot of depth, Freddie Freeman, you
know, really hasn't hit yet tothe extent that you would like. Will
Smith is having an unbelievable season.And so for all of the issues they've

(01:01:29):
had on the mound. Offensively,they have been as good as advertised,
and they still have some guys thatyou would expect to be better. Yep,
I'm going to run this buddy withwith our reds. Well first of
all, real quick. The roastlast night, I'm like you, I
had a lot of respect for TomBrady. He held He took that whole
thing with a lot of class andseemed to have some fun with it himself,

(01:01:52):
which tells me he's not narcissistic andhe's a pretty humble guy. It
came off as a human being lastnight, and I loved it, Like
I just we people don't like tomake fun of themselves anymore, like nobody.
I mean, we we have,we have fewer. We have more
people that don't have a sense ofhumor than at any point in my life.
But I think it is in shortsupport, especially people who have accomplished

(01:02:15):
stuff, but they don't like tobe made fun of and they can't can't
take a couple of jabs. I'veI've never run into anybody nearly as successful
as a Tom Brady, but inmy limited experience, UH, folks who
are up here, but they theydon't like to be knocked down or wrong,
and so for him to voluntarily allowhimself to be knocked down or wrong.

(01:02:37):
I liked it. I liked here. You had a three and a
half hour show which was based onpeople allowing themselves to be made fun of
Tom Brady. Primarily, people donot like to be made fun of.
People have a not much of asense of humor when it comes to themselves.
They're not willing to take some jabs. Last night, Tom Brady and

(01:03:00):
everybody else on that Dais was willingto take some jabs. I turned that
on last night fearing this is gonnabe some sort of politically correct love fest
for Tom Brady. Early in theshow when they used Jeff Ross and Nicky
Glazer, I knew this wasn't goingto be that. It was gonna be
a legitimate roast. And yes,there were gonna be some very non PC

(01:03:22):
the non PC thing said, therewere gonna be some offensive remarks. Some
were gonna toe the line, otherswere gonna go over it. It was
all in good fun, and everybodyinvolved in that, including Tom Brady,
had a chance to come back ateverybody else who maybe took some shots at
them. It was an awesome televisionevent. I don't know that that could

(01:03:45):
ever be replicated. Tony and Austinwere talking about this. I don't think
there is an athlete of Tom Brady'sstature who would allow themselves for three and
a half hours to just be destroyedby peers, by outsiders. And then
you had the tension of Brady andBelichick and Robert Craft each being there together.

(01:04:06):
That was a tremendous television event lastnight, Mike. It was.
It took me back to the dayswhen Don Rickles, who was the greatest
that I've ever seen at just houndingpeople when they do the old Dean Martin
rows back in the day. Ittook me back to those days. God
blessed Don rickles soul. He's afunny dude. Yes, I got something

(01:04:30):
about the Reds I wanted to askyou about. So the staff is ranked
eighteen. We know the starters havebeen pitching pretty well. Yeah, so
I got a three point seventh.But I guess this gets back to gavp.
You tell me if I'm wrong,because at home were three point seven
five. Are on the road werevery respectable two point eight nine. Do

(01:04:56):
you put it all in the stadium. Well, I think if you look
at the twenty one year history ofGreat American Ballpark, that is a obviously
a much larger sample size that wouldtell you that it's a it's a hit
or friendly park, right, Butthat's not an excuse. It might be
a reason, but it's but it'snot an excuse. You've built the park,

(01:05:17):
you've signed off on its dimensions,you can build your team around it.
You got to figure out ways towin in it. Yep, And
no, no, it's it is. It is worth worth mentioning that they're
they're actually giving up You mentioned thee ra which is about three quarters of
a run higher at home, butthey're actually not giving up as many home

(01:05:41):
runs as they are on a perinning basis on the road. So they've
done a good job of keeping theball in the ballpark. Uh but yeah,
at home they've pitched more poorly thanthey have on the road. Do
you think the old is old cliche? It's early. It drives me crazy
though, because one or wounds.But what difference does it make when you

(01:06:02):
get the wounds right? I meanin April, if you win five more
games in April come August year,maybe not down the rabbit hole like you
would. It drives me nuts.While we always say it's early, well,
it's early. Thing would hold somewater for me if you thought,
Okay, reinforcements are coming, thatdoesn't appear to be the case, or

(01:06:23):
the team is trending in the rightdirection, and that's not the case either.
And then you look at lack ofreinforcements, you look at how the
team is performing, and you lookat the upcoming schedule. It's it might
be early, but it feels likeit's getting really really late in May.
Mike, I gotta run man,thank you, thank though it is twelve
away from five o'clock. Yeah,it's early, but I mean, you

(01:06:48):
know, again, I come backto lack of track record. If it's
early and you've got a team thatis won before, it's early carries a
lot more weight than it does whenyou have a team that hasn't accomplished anything.
And now again, like the Redsat this point last year had a
fourteen and twenty record. They werestill playing Kevin Newman and Will Myers and

(01:07:11):
Henry Ramos, but they were fourteenand twenty. Didn't that start catch up
to him? They missed the playoffsby two games. Had they had this
year's teams record through thirty four gamesand then spent the remaining one hundred and

(01:07:33):
twenty eight games playing exactly the waythey did, they would have made the
postseason. April and early May lastyear kept the Reds out of the playoffs
as much as losses in August andSeptember did. So, yeah, it's
early. They do have the benefitof time. I'll say the same thing

(01:07:57):
about this team that I said theday before opening Day. I still have
no idea how they're going to finish. I don't feel nearly as good because
you know it's McLain. My moneyis on Matt McClain not playing this year.
But even if he does come back, that's months from now, and
same for Noelve Marte and maybe beforethe season you really couldn't grasp the enormity

(01:08:18):
of their absences. But I mean, would you really be surprised if they
finished with eighty five wins? Iwould, And would you be astonished if
they finished with ninety losses? Ofcourse not. I don't think that has
really changed, But sure, it'searly. It's early. Carries a lot
more weight, a lot more weightwhen you're a team with the track record,

(01:08:39):
the Reds do not have one.Ten away from five o'clock. Brenneman
and Jones on Baseball next neat InspirationShop croaking. Hi, remember me on
my legger. This is ESPN fifteenthirty. There you go, me using
the cough button. Thank you somuch for listening. Hope you had a
great weekend. Hopefully you're having anunbelievable mon bet. You know what we're

(01:09:00):
gonna do is start the hour bytaking a phone call. I have good
phone calls today, had lots ofthem. Phil. You're on ESPN fifteen
thirty Get afternoon. What's going on? Phil? Oh? Wait? Where
is Phil? Is Philo? Okay, now we have another call though we
fell asleep at the wheel. Phil. Are you there? Phil is not

(01:09:24):
there? I really wanted to hearthis conversation about the Knicks. Is that
what he called about PACER's knicks?Yet? Well I took his call and
he wasn't there. Phil. CallbackReds gets swept over the weekend. You
know how this team isn't performing offensively? Yeah, it's interesting. We were
talking before about things the Reds couldhave done. Could they have traded for

(01:09:46):
Luisa Rise who was traded by Miamito San Diego Padres, who are great
at collecting assets. I'm not surehow good that team is at winning with
all those assets, but they're greatat collecting assets, collecting players, collecting
big bats. And there's there arehealthy debates out there about how good the
hall San Diego sent to Miami actuallyis. I don't love doing this,

(01:10:12):
but it's out there. So we'regonna spend a few minutes on this.
By the way, five o'clock HappyHour, a service of Michelobultrau tarn again.
I'm off this Friday, so Thursday, get ready, michelobultra We're gonna
drink some A year ago, theReds kind of come from nowhere and go

(01:10:36):
from where they were a year ago, which was sitting there at fourteen and
twenty to now suddenly in July we'redebating whether or not they should be buyers.
They were not going to be sellers, there was no one to sell.
But should they be buyers at thedeadline? And there were some really
good, healthy debates, some reallygood healthy points made by every particular side

(01:11:04):
of this conversation. Should the Redsbe aggressive at the deadline? What would
you be willing to give up now. I never got an answer to the
question that I asked last summer,which was in a realistic world where the
Reds give up something to get somethingin an effort to win in twenty twenty

(01:11:24):
three, what would derail the plan? Would making a trade derail the plan?
Would it throw off their plans ofwinning down the road? Would it
screw up twenty twenty four? Inever for a second believed that making a
trade would have thrown off course theplan. I never got an answer to

(01:11:48):
that. But what you often heardwas for those who were kind of opposed
to the idea of the Reds tryingto add a piece, specifically a starting
pitcher. Reds needed starting pitching helplast year that they never got. And
I think it's a pretty decent whatif, right, what if the Reds

(01:12:08):
what have What if Nick Crawl wouldhave added a piece, a starting pitching
piece, Could that have helped themget to the postseason. We're never going
to know. What we do knowis the don't make a move side would
often talk about how, hey,look they're ahead of schedule, or hey,

(01:12:30):
come on, they're just getting started. Don't want to derail the future.
The counter to that that. Thecounter that I often made was,
look, man, the future isnot guaranteed. It's unknown. You don't
know when you're going to be ina position to win again. Now we
could wonder, okay, how muchwould they have one had they gotten to

(01:12:54):
the postseason. But I saw valuein gaining postseason experience. I saw value
and sort of just taking a stabat winning in the postseason, advancing around
and shedding the narrative of the Redsnot having advanced in the playoffs in nearly
thirty years. But my thing waslike, there's no guarantee you're gonna be
this good next year. There's noguarantee that you're not going to deal with

(01:13:15):
injury. There's no guarantee that you'renot, you know, gonna deal with
guys who just they have poor seasonsnext year. You don't know. What
you do know is you're in itnow, so let's take a shot at
it. The Reds did not,and then there was this goofy narrative about
how well the players in the clubhouseare actually quite happy. No trades were
made. Okay, when you havea chance to go for it, be

(01:13:42):
open to going for it. Andwhen you have a chance to go for
it, find out what going forit means, and go for it without
totally screwing up your chances of winningdown the road. I don't love going
back and relitigating last summer. Whoknows what's going to happen this year.
The Reds could played great over thenext couple of weeks, and we're gonna
feel better about this team than wedid last year's team. And I know

(01:14:05):
it's an easy place to go.It's easy to bury this team because of
how they played recently and how they'renot hitting, and how there's no real
reinforcements aside from TJ. Friedl inthe offing. But man to me,
if there's one lesson like things kindof fell apart during spring because of all
the injuries and the suspension of Marte. These blows might have been easier to

(01:14:28):
take had this team done more lastyear, they chose not to. Can
we no longer default to hey?Next year? They have a chance to
be pretty good simply because they're decentthis year? Can we not default to
hey? We're ahead of schedule alsoquickly this It's very easy to look at
this team, which is giving atbats to dudes, like Nick Martini,

(01:14:50):
which has weighed whether or not toadd Mike Ford to the team, and
revisit one of the topics of thisoffseason, which was the Red's not bringing
back Joey Vado, and it's easyto do. Right, Wait a minute,
this team that had no at batsavailable for Joey Vado, this team,
this team couldn't bring him back.It's fair to do. I'll be

(01:15:15):
honest with you, man A,having watched Joey the last couple of years,
be understanding. He hasn't taken aswing in a game yet. I'm
nowhere close to convinced that the majordifference between this team being as anemic as
it is offensively and hitting at ahigh enough level to be winning more is

(01:15:40):
Joey Vado knew what was coming.It's inevitable. Right, here's this iconic
player they didn't bring back. Thebasic insinuation was we have no room for
him, We're fine without him.And then the team offensively, they have
the worst batting average in all ofbaseball. Wait a minute, he had
no room for joe would be onething. If Joey was in Toronto tearing

(01:16:01):
it up, he's not playing,it'd be something else, if Joey in
recent years had put up good numbers, he hadn't. Frankly, what Joey
has dealt with was more predictable thanever because of his age and recent track
record with injuries. Track record.Let's talk about that. So back in

(01:16:23):
February. In March, when Pakodaprojections, Baseball Perspectives, Perspectives, Fangraphs,
ESPN, they're doing their ZIPS projections. Everybody is projecting mathematically, using
certain statistical models, here's how manygames each team's going to win. And

(01:16:45):
for the most part, those projectionswere kind of underwhelming for the Reds.
The one that I think jumped outto most people was Baseball Perspectives. Their
Pakoda projections had the Reds winning seventynine games, And I remember sitting right
here trying to make the point thatwe should ignore those projections. Not that

(01:17:09):
they're not fun fodder, not thatthey don't generate interesting conversations, but ignore
them in other years with the Redsor with other teams. Now pay closer
attention to them. But projections arebased on track record. How do you
project how good a team is goingto be When it's hard to project how

(01:17:30):
good? So many of the individualplayers are going to be and you can't
because these guys and this team collectivelythere's not much of a track record.
So ignore those projections. And maybethat made you feel better, maybe it
made you roll your eyes. Idon't know. The frustrating thing about where
the Reds are right now, they'vehit a very low point right there's no

(01:17:53):
getting around that the schedule has nothelped. Baltimore Orioles are pretty damn good,
but this team has struggle to hitreally for most of the season.
There have been high points. SpencerSteeer got off to a great start.
He has cooled considerably. Eli DelaCruz is still statistically having a good season,
but last eight or ten games hasbeen well, not good. There's
nobody else who's having a quality year, with the exception of a Jake Freeley.

(01:18:15):
The rest of them. Just lookat the pure batting averages, they're
not very good. So we talkedbefore about it's early, being assured and
sort of reassured. I guess thisteam's got a chance to be okay because
it's early, and there's some validityto that because they have one hundred and
twenty eight games remaining. But it'sa little bit easier to be reassured that

(01:18:43):
there's still time if there's a trackrecord. You know, the last time
the Reds were quote good, youcould do a little bit of that.
If they got off to a slowstart, you could certainly do it.
With some individual players. I'll bringup Joey Vado again. Joey Vado Memorial
Day of two thousand, I thinkit was twenty sixteen, was hitting around
a buck ninety and my thought was, he's got a track record. I

(01:19:06):
trust him. By the end ofthe season, the numbers are going to
look really good, and they did. There's a track record. With the
twenty twenty four version of the Reds. There is none. And that's that's
why being told again that it's earlyis not that comforting. I genuinely don't

(01:19:30):
believe the Reds are going to finishwith a season batting average of two oh
nine, which is where they areright now. Even good teams, even
good offensive teams, teams that haveall star caliber players up and down the
roster, go through collective slumps.They're hard to predict, they're hard to
come out of. They happen.So I mean, I think, unfortunately,
you're in a bit of a lowpoint here, but it's it's hard

(01:19:56):
to wrap your brain around what thisteam is going to be and how they
could come out of it, andwhat it will look like if they do,
because there is just no real trackrecord to speak of. That was
the case back in February when certainstatistical models were suggesting, here's how many

(01:20:19):
games, how many games the Redsare going to win. That lack of
track record is also in play herewhen we talk about how much longer what
they're going through right now may continue. Christian and Carnacion. Strain is having
a poor season now at the endof last year, and once he got

(01:20:40):
caught up in September he was awesome. Do we really have any idea what
his final numbers will look like?Do we have any real idea what the
final numbers will look like for hellElie de la Cruz. Now, if
you look at the roster, ifyou look at who's been playing, it's
not that hard to figure out.Santiago Espinal is not a very good player
offensively, at least look Maley isnot a good offensive player. Nick Martini

(01:21:04):
is not a good offensive player.So there there's some track record there.
I mean, there's some guys whoyou just go okay, their ceilings are
not very high. But the dudeswho make up this team, even Jamer
Candelario, there's there's not a hugetrack record of him putting up extremely good
offensive numbers. And if you're notcapable of putting up extremely good offensive numbers,

(01:21:28):
that tells me you're a little bitmore susceptible to prolonged slumps. We've
seen him struggle with the bat,but just by and large, you know,
I remember in twenty fourteen. Twentyfourteen kind of went sideways. They
had a lot of injuries that year, but they started unevenly, and I
remember at the time going like,let's just look at this team's collective track
record. They won ninety games eachof the last two years. There really

(01:21:50):
haven't been that many subtractions. Itwas basically Billy Hamilton for Shinshu too,
which didn't work, and they letBronson Royal walk that off. But I
mean, for the most part,you looked at the team from the year
before and said this, this team'sgot a chance to be okay, and
then it never really materialized, andinjuries were a huge reason why. But
you could default to the track record. You can't do that with the Reds.

(01:22:13):
You couldn't do it before the season, which is why it was insane
for anybody to project they were gonnawin ninety games, and frankly, it
was insane to project that they weregonna lose ninety games. Both are still
within the realm of possibility. Butwhat gets frustrating is when you deal with
this sixteen and eighteen, which isnot a record that you can't recover from,

(01:22:33):
and a team that offensively is goingthrough an extreme valley right now,
it's it's hard to kind of easeyour unease by defaulting to the track record.
Maybe you're different, maybe you thinkthere is one, maybe you look
at it. And by the way, I'm also not suggesting that this team
can't take itself out of it.But if the solution is going to come,

(01:22:56):
it's gonna come from mostly the playerswho are here right now. Again
flinging it back to a year ago, they're fourteen and twenty and nobody felt
really good about how they had played, but we knew reinforcements were coming.
They were still playing Kevin Newman andWill Myers and Henry Ramos. A year
ago, we knew at some pointwe were going to see Matt McClain and

(01:23:18):
Elie de la Cruz and Noelve Marteand Christian and Carnassi on strand. We
knew that that was gonna happen.I don't think any of us were putting
much stock in Will Benson coming backand being a major contributor, but that
happened to You could at least watchlast year ago. The cavalry is coming,
reinforcements are gonna be here. Thisis gonna change, and it might
not change for the better, butit's gonna change just because they're gonna get

(01:23:42):
some players who have a higher ceiling, players that Moore is expected out of
players that the franchise is putting alot of stock in being really good one
day. Where the reinforcement's gonna comefrom this year? TJ Friedel's gonna come
back hopefully by tomorrow. And that'sgood. TJ's a good player. But
you could go, yeah, fourteenand twenty this is where they were a

(01:24:03):
season ago, and I could say, yeah, but some guys are gonna
come up. Who's coming up thisyear? Where are the reinforcement's coming from?
Twenty one? After five o'clock.Uh five one three seven four nine
fifteen thirty is our phone number eightsix six seven oh two three seven seven
six five o'clock Happy hours of serviceof Michelobultra. We're here Toll six on

(01:24:26):
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station LifeVote anything you can get insurance for my
friends at United Heartland Insurance can hookyou up. They're gonna help you save
MO money. Get it? Doyou get it MO money? Uhi ns
dot com? That's u h ins dot com. The Reds are sixteen

(01:24:49):
and eighteen A. They have onehundred and twenty eight games left. Relax,
b All hope is lost. Sixtyone percent of you say the they
have one hundred and twenty eight gamesleft. Relax. It's ry lean.
It's ry lean. But like thereis, whether it's fair or not,

(01:25:10):
there is a just sort of familiarfeeling to watching this team, and with
the understanding that they don't have whothey don't have, uh, that familiar
feeling watching the last week or so, and you know, let's be honest,
this team hasn't really been playing wellfor a while, right. They

(01:25:31):
mopped the floor with the Angels inWhite Sox beyond that, when they've played
anybody any good. They did splitthat four game series with the Philadelphia Phillies,
but when they've played anybody any good, the results they haven't been very
good. And so there is somethingthat just feels and seems and looks familiar
to what we've seen before when youwatch this team struggle the way it has.

(01:25:55):
And again it's not it's not alwaysfair, it's not fair at all
at a whole against this team whatprevious versions of the Reds couldn' accomplish.
But that anxiety or that sense offrustration watching this team unfortunately feels just a
little bit too familiar, just alittle bit too familiar. So I get

(01:26:18):
it, I get it. Tothat offense, anemik doesn't begin to cover
it, and like that's I usethe word helpless before. But because I
don't know what changes TJ. Friedelis going to come back, I don't
know what changes there are. LikeI have sought solutions all afternoon long,

(01:26:38):
and you know, I'll get folkswho complain about David Bell, I don't
know what David Bell is supposed todo, or some complaints about Nick Crawl,
and you know, we could,we could debate the merits of adding
Mike Ford to the roster. Butisn't that a statement about where things are
with this team, where Mike Fordwas being looked at as a potential solution

(01:26:59):
and sure, or should they havejumped into the Luis Raies sweepstakes? I
guess so if they're actually worse sweepsteaks. But that's in the past.
What do you do now? Yearago, at this time, you can
yell and scream till you were redin the face that they should call up
Elie Dela Cruz asap. By theway, you're being fair if you wonder
how would have things turned out differentlylast year had they called up some of

(01:27:23):
those guys earlier than they actually did. What do you do here? The
solutions are not coming from Triple A. The solutions are likely not coming via
trade anytime soon at least, andso the solutions have to come from within.
They're not going to come from guysoff the inter list, with the
exception of TJ. Friedel, andhe's just one guy. And so there

(01:27:47):
is a helplessness if you are lookingfor solutions, or even if you were
looking for someone to blame, youknow, like the people who will yell
and scream about David Bell or evenNick Crawl Like. There is a part
of me that goes, what doyou want this team to do when you
lose the contributors that were gone beforeopening day that we thought would be a

(01:28:10):
big part of the team on openingday, and then you're stuck using guys
like Santiago Espinal. He do thinkto be excuse me, I do think
it'd be interesting if you asked whatthe expectation statistically for Jamer Candelario was,
because I think sometimes we've done thisbefore. We'll confuse free agent signing with

(01:28:35):
free agent signing of a very goodplayer. Jamer Candelario is not a player
without value, but a look athis statistical profile would probably reveal for you
that his floor was actually pretty lowand his ceiling not that high. But
I don't know how this changes inthe absence of players who are playing a

(01:29:00):
lot right now simply playing better.Along with TJ. Friedel being healthy twenty
six minutes away from six o'clock,vote now at Moegar thanks to United Heartland
Insurance Limited Sports Headlines next to ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnatis e Sports Headlines, a

(01:29:21):
service of Kelsey Chevrolet home of lifetimepower train protection and guaranteed credit approval from
their family to yours for life kelseyshevdot com. Joe Burrow threw a football
today at Bengals practice. I knowthis because at Bengals put it out there
on social media. Who caught theball? We don't know. They didn't

(01:29:44):
show the ball being caught. Theyball might not have been caught by anybody.
Could have been like when you're playingfetch with your dog. But Joe
Burrow did throw a ball. Hewas wearing a compression sleeve and no headband.
That's what I could tell you.I can also tell you the Reds
don't play tonight. The Diamondbacks arehere tomorrow. Zach Allen's gonna throw for
Arizona. Frankie Montas is a scheduledtwo pitch for Cincinnati. That is a

(01:30:09):
good thing six forty tomor night ona seven hundred WLW. The corresponding roster
move, in so many words,I guess would be Sam Mall being sent
to Louisville. Look, the differencebetween the Reds making the postseason and not
making the postseason is probably not goingto be Sam Mall. But you are

(01:30:30):
being very very reasonable. If youlook at a guy who has done nothing
but get hitters out since he gothere, and you look at that demotion
as well an example of a teamnot using its best twenty six. There

(01:30:54):
are reasons for it. There arepitchers who are right now on the roster
because they don't have options remaining.And I understand the option system and why
it was put in place, butit's really hard. You were either keeping
the best possible roster or you're not. Like that was that was a little
bit of a thing a year ago, right before the Reds called up all

(01:31:15):
those guys? Are you really playingyour best twenty six? Sam Maul might
not be an upper echelon reliever,but he's done nothing but get hitters out
since he got here. Our friendDoug red redleg nation dot com, you
know, put on social media somethingthat I agree with. Can you imagine
looking him in the face and saying, you're the guy that has to be
the odd man out. You're eitherkeeping the best roster or you're not.

(01:31:41):
It's hard to feel right now likethe Reds are. Let's see Kenny go
ahead. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. What's up, hey, man.
Thanks. I was listening to youtalk about how to fix the Reds,
and I think maybe we were goingabout this wrong. Baseball is a very
superstitious sport, don't you agree?Sure? Yeah. So what I'm thinking

(01:32:05):
is the sixty offense they need togather up all their bats that they that
are gaining used, that they're gettingready to use against Arizona. Take them
out to the bathroom spots and GreatAmerican Ballpark, light them in a big
bonfire and burn them all down.Then bury those ashes outside by the Ohio
River and start with all new lumberin the next series. What do you
think just call the Hillarich and BradsbyCompany down there in Louisville and get a

(01:32:30):
whole new ship into bats. That'sright, start from scratch. Well that
would that would be a different wayof calling up reinforcements from Louisville. I
suppose there we go. That's whatI got for you, Kenny. I
I appreciate it. I don't knowthat it's the weapon. That's probably the
person using the weapon, so tospeak. But uh, you know,

(01:32:50):
I'm all for all solutions being puton the table, and well, uh,
that's one of them. Burn allthe bats and see where we go
from there. Like we as sportsfans, we love to tinker and we

(01:33:11):
love to put on our imaginary generalmanager had And I think baseball lends itself
to this sort of thing more thanany other sports because strategies are relatively simple,
relatively you know, easy to understand. I think it's a lot easier
for us to wrap our brain inbaseball round. What a good trade is
we follow minor league players. There'sa bona fide minor league system as opposed

(01:33:35):
to the other sports we're always wantingto fix. Mess with tinker. I
don't know what amount of tinkering youcould really do now that would take the
offense from what it is now,which is arguably the league's worst as of
right now, and turn it intosomething that's appreciably better. I don't think
this is a team that's going tofinish last in Baseball in batting average.

(01:33:58):
I don't think it's a team thatis offensively at least going to continue to
perform as poorly as it has.At the same time, if we're talking
about basically the same collection of playersgoing through this incredible gauntlet the Reds have
in front of them, which isgoing to continue with better than they've played

(01:34:21):
so far, Arizona team coming toGABP, Like, how far back are
they going to be before offensively thingsturn around? Like you might say,
with what they're doing right now statisticallyis not reflective of what they're going to
be over the course of the entireseason, and I would agree with that.

(01:34:44):
But by the time they start performingoffensively at the level that they need
to or at the level that weall expect, where is the team going
to be in relation to first placein the division the rest of the playoff
field? Where are they going tobe? And so you know, again
it sort of swings back to thehole. It's early thing. We can

(01:35:05):
talk about how early it is andhow everybody should relax and all that toward
blue in the face. And there'sagain the big part of me that wants
to side with that. But bythe time this team gets it going offensively,
where are they going to be?How much worse can it get?
Especially considering the teams they're playing rightnow? Like there are reasons why two

(01:35:30):
weeks ago a lot of folks lookedat this stretch of whatever was thirty six
thirty eight games against really good teamsand worried about what might unfold. Well,
so far those fears have proven tobe justified. Those concerns have proven
to be valid. The schedule hasgotten tougher and this team has lost a

(01:35:53):
lot. So sure it's early,but by the time they get going,
if this offensive slumber continues, let'sjust say for the next week, and
that costs you maybe two more series. And you know, you could say,
well, you're making two big adeal out of a handful of games,
and there's some validity to that.But I just I remember last September

(01:36:17):
when the Reds fell just short.As much as there was a combination of
optimism for the future and appreciation forkind of injecting so much energy in the
fan base all throughout the course ofthe summer, it was hard to watch
the Reds get eliminated and think aboutall the games early in the season that

(01:36:40):
they either gave away or didn't feeldtheir best roster in. You know,
again, you want to go,well, last year they were fourteen and
twenty and then look what they did. Sure, look what they did.
They finished two games out of thepostseason. So is it still early.

(01:37:00):
Yeah, these games that are beingplayed while it's early, still count and
yes it's early. It's one thingto say that it's early when reinforcements are
coming. I don't know which reinforcementsare coming that aren't named. TJ.
Friedel five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number fourteen
from six o'clock ESPN fifteen thirty CincinnatiSports Station. I mean from six tomorrow

(01:37:25):
in the show. Paul Danner Junior'shere on all the different Bengals things happened
since the Joe Burrow through today atpractice, so we'll have what's that?
That's the that's the main thing.Joe Burrow throwing, Joe Burrow throwing.
Uh, did anything else of significancehappened at Bengals practice today? Tomas practice,

(01:37:46):
I believe is open to the assembledprofessional football media, so uh,
Paul will be there and then cangive us a full practice report. Joe
Burrow also has a press availability tomy momorrow, so we'll hear from joeye,
so we'll hear from Joe. We'llhear from Joe on his practice in
his hand and maybe if he wasinvited to the Tom Brady Roast. I

(01:38:08):
have no idea, so that's tomorrow, and we'll look ahead of that Big
Red's Diamondback series that starts tomorrow night, and maybe Terror will let me talk
about tonight's basketball game. We willsee. Are you adopting the knick since
the Lakers are out? I'm adoptingyour happiness most thanks. I appreciate you

(01:38:30):
saying it's about It's about time somebodydid that. Uh, I need to
watch a game with you, guys. I see Austin, he witness you
watch the next game, So Iwant a Witnesstead he did. You should
Yeah. Uh, It's it's notlike watching a UC game. It's not
quite like that, but it's it'spretty damn close. It's it's pretty damn

(01:38:53):
close. What I have gotten alot in my social media feed is I've
gotten a lot of Reggie Miller,which is fine, right, Reggie Miller
sort of great player versus team rivalry. So many memorable games, Pacers actually
won some of them, and soyou know those for a lot of us,
those are just really fun, memorable, iconic times that we recall.

(01:39:15):
But what I wonder is everybody's sendingme a Reggie Miller me is, have
you watched a Pacers game? Sinceprobably not, is that your most like
they had they actually played in theplayoffs in twenty thirteen, and like I
loved those Pacers teams that always seemedto be the foil to the Miami Heat

(01:39:38):
when Lebron and Dwyane Wade were runningthe league together, where they had David
West and Roy Hibbert and Paul George, Like I loved, those teams were
throwbacks, legitimate throwbacks. And theKnicks played him in twenty thirteen. Indiana
won that series in six. Theylost. The Knicks did both games that

(01:39:58):
I went to in Indiana. Neithergame was necessarily close. There was a
Roy Hibbert block of Carmelo Anthony inGame six of that series. That is
one of the better individual plays ofthat era his career. Probably, Yeah,
probably the highlight of Roy's career thatin doing college games now on a
CBS Sports network. But yeah,that'll be I think it's gonna be a
really it'll be a really fun series. There's gonna be plenty of throwbacks because

(01:40:24):
the Nixon Pacers played in ninety three, ninety four, ninety five, ninety
eight, ninety nine, two thousand, so a lot of shared common history
with each other and The good newsis for the games that are on TNT,
Reggie Miller will not be on thecall, so I don't have to
listen to him, so that's evenbetter. I'm just hoping you're a kid

(01:40:45):
to make it the game six ifit goes six. Yeah, the scheduling
did not work in my favor.I have a plans on Friday. Sunday
is Mother's Day. I do notfeel like saying to my wife, fun
Mother's Day. Here's what we're gonnado. I'm gonna I'm gonna drive to
Indianapolis to go to a basketball game. Although that might be what she wants

(01:41:06):
for a Mother's Day, I reallyhaven't asked her. And then Dan,
she would like, you know,but yeah, I don't know, man,
I don't know. My wife givesme a very long rope when it
comes to being able to do stuff. I don't know that hitting her up
with hey, Mother's Day is comingup. Here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna go spend the day inIndia the basketball game. I don't know
that that would work. And thenGame six would be a week from Friday,

(01:41:30):
and uh, I am not supposedto be off that day. But
they do have radio studios in Indianapolis, so we'll see, and they may
have ice chest there too, couldhave an ice chest. I could broadcast
from outside whatever they call that arena. If there's an ice chest nearby,
that is a great place to watcha game. And in all seriousness,

(01:41:51):
like I've gone up there three timesfor playoff games. Two were Knicks games,
one was a Pacers may have beenone of those heat games. But
like the energy up there for theplayoffs is always a lot of fun.
It's a great arena. And maybenext maybe, next Friday, I can
partake. We will see, wewill see, but I do think it's

(01:42:11):
gonna be a fun series. Wehave to go. You can continue voting
on our poll question thanks to UnitedHeartland Insurance. Don't forget five o'clock happy
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Long Neck Sports Girl. We aredone finished, Thanks to Tarren Bland for

(01:42:34):
producing, Thanks to you for listening. Have a great night. Back at
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