5/7/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show w/ Chad Brendel

Chad Brendel reacts to the Reds 7 game losing streak.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bingled like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Wow, must have spent a long time the Mullegar Show
since Nati e VESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Chad Brendle, not Molegar.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
What can you do?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you for choosing me.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
I was.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
In the middle of work last night and as we
were finishing, the Reds game was going into the ninth
inning at work.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
If you don't know, Bearcat journal.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Dot com the site the place for all Cincinnati Bearcat's coverage.
Watching the ninth inning, you could feel it coming. Even
as the Reds went up six to four, you kind
of had a feeling something was the damage wasn't done yet.
After two walkoffs on Monday and Tuesday, you just had

(01:27):
none easy feeling. And that manifested Petek grow Armstrong to
run home run, Reds go to extra innings, can't score
in the top of the tenth, Cubs score in the
bottom of the tenth on a they walked the bases
loaded and then walked in.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
The winning run. And a team that was.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Twenty and eleven and had everybody feeling pretty good first
place twenty and eleven now twenty and seventeen and on
the brink bottom of the third, Cubs leading one to
nothing right now, kind of get the feeling that this

(02:12):
is a team that is quickly trending in the wrong
direction for a lot of reasons, and we'll get to
many of those today, one of the main ones being
it's a team that.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Can't hit.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Can't hit, it doesn't matter. You've had a good stretch
from Ellie through most of the season. Elie's been pretty consistent.
South Stewart awesome April. Ever since the Auhaneo Suarez injury

(02:54):
and he lost his protection in the lineup, you have
seen him tail off pretty quick. But the rest it's
hard to watch. Matt McClain's hitting two oh six, Will
Benson two fourteen, TJ Friedel one ninety four, Cabrian Hayes

(03:18):
one thirty, Tyler Stevenson two o two. These are guys
that this roster is supposed to be counting on. And
when you have that many of your regulars that are

(03:40):
hitting right at or all the way to considerably blow
two hundred, your life is going to be extremely difficult
over the course of one hundred and sixty two game season.
And that's where we are, and as a you know,

(04:02):
as a someone the works in this industry, you try
to start digging why, what's the crux of this problem?
And really the only thing you can come up with
for me is development. You go back to twenty twenty three,
when when this group or what's left of this group now,

(04:25):
but when this group started to make their ascension to
the major league roster, and.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
They had a style of play.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
They were aggressive, They ran the bases, they stole bases,
they went first to third, they scored on you know,
singles that you probably hold the guy up, but they'd
send him a lot of times they'd scratch out a run.
And you played a style of baseball that fit a

(04:59):
roster that it really didn't have a whole lot of power.
There were some, but what they haven't had a guy
past twenty five thirty home runs in ages.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
A decade, So you knew you.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Didn't have a lot of pop, but you were playing
a style of baseball that fit your lineup that that
really felt like it gave a young team a lot
of energy and juice. And now you go look Christian

(05:36):
in Karnassi and Strand gone. Noel vi Marte played eleven games,
got sent back to the miners. Matt McClain looked like
he was gonna be okay coming out of Spring has
hit two six. Since then, Spencer Steer has been okay.

(05:59):
I don't have any issue you with Spencer Steeer, especially
as a guy that can move around and help you
in different places. But what else they haven't. I mean,
Ellie's been good. Ellie is also a generational talent. Like

(06:19):
when you hit on a generational talent, it's pretty hard
to screw that up. Teams have don't get me wrong,
but usually that talent shines through. It's pretty hard to
screw that up. It's the rest of the stuff. It's
the guys that are supposed to round out your core

(06:41):
and give you depth throughout your lineup. Remember that's what
we talked about in because I think I was the
first person really that's said I've had concerns, legitimate concerns
about this pitching staff. I think they're good, or have
the potential to be good, but there's there's not a
lot of depth, and one or two things go wrong

(07:04):
and this thing could get upside down fast, really fast,
And that's kind of what we've seen happen. We're not
going to see Hunter Green for a while, still Lodolo.
You hope when he comes back this weekend or tomorrow.
I guess he's back tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
You hope he can step right in. But Abbottszra's five
thirteen louds eras five oh six singers, Era's five sixty three.
Williamson was six eleven before he got bounced, and now
he's on the sixty day injured list, so we don't
know when he's going to be back. That's six starters

(07:52):
right there, that you know. I don't think you could
look at any of them and say, boy, outside of
case Burns, who has done a great job on this
starting rotation, really nobody. And the bullpen fine fine, But

(08:17):
when you're not hitting and you're starting pitching struggling, I mean,
what really is your bullpen going to do for you?
I don't think. And Pegan's out now for one to
two months. Maul's been good, Santioon's been good, Ashcraft's been good,

(08:42):
but it's been a bumpy ride. And that all equates
to a team that is probably going to be exactly
what we expect out of this franchise right now, which
is to hover around five hundred and you know, last
year they caught a break with the Matt falling apart,
snuck into the playoffs. But generally an eighty two, eighty three,

(09:04):
eighty four win team is not a playoff team. So
they'll keep it interesting all summer. They'll keep you tuned in,
they'll keep you looking and going. Man, if they can
get back, if they can recapture what they did in April,
is that. I don't think that's coming. I just don't.

(09:26):
They want a bunch. They won every close game. They
want every one run game. In that stretch, everything broke
their way, and a lot of those games, if you
go back and look in April, a majority of those
games had five, sometimes six guys batting two hundred or
below Mendoza line. Five to six guys in your nine

(09:52):
they couldn't hit above two hundred, and you somehow you
won twenty games. It's remarkable, but it's not sustainable. And
that's the frustration that I have with this franchise over
I couldn't even tell you how long. In some ways,
but nothing feels sustainable. And a lot of that is

(10:15):
because the guys that they're bringing up, they're mid major,
low market whatever team mid major. I haven't done this.
I've been talking about college sports way too much over
the past month since I've been here. But they're a
low market team. You have to develop from within, and

(10:36):
their development from within has stunk in most ways, and
that makes it hard to sustain success. You get into
the division. They get humbled by the Pirates, and then
they go to Chicago and they've lost a bunch of
close games. Going into the fourth, They've got three hits.

(11:02):
They haven't scratched across a run. It's frustrating. Get to
some other stuff today as well. Bengals topic for today
that we'll get to a little bit later in this hour.
I see a lot of There was a Bleacher Report
article had the Bengals as the twelfth best offense in

(11:24):
the NFL, which is insanity to me. Articles listing like
strengths and weaknesses, and I keep seeing depth as an
issue for the Bengals, And I know where that comes from.
That comes from Joe Burrow living with his injury history,
and because of his injury history, people are going to

(11:46):
look at it and without I don't think a lot
of people want to just come right out and say
we think Joe Burrow is broken or we don't trust
the durability of Joe Burrow, so we're going to dock
the Bengals for it.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
That's fair.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
I'd respect that more if instead of coming out and saying, well,
we don't like what the Bengals have behind Jamar Chase
and T Higgins, well, no crap, They've got two number
one wide receivers. One of them is every bit in
the conversation for the best wide receiver in the game.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
You don't like what they have behind them?

Speaker 4 (12:30):
What did?

Speaker 2 (12:31):
What do you expect to have behind them?

Speaker 3 (12:35):
What exactly do you think the Bengals are going to
have to just if an injury happens to one of
those two guys, like it go anywhere around the NFL,
and if an injury happens to one of their you know,
top two or three players, that team's not going to
be as good. The question isn't do they have depth

(12:59):
at wide receiver behind Jamar and T? The question is
is the defense able to hold up if the offense
isn't great on a particular Sunday. Are they going to
be able at times to lean on the running game

(13:19):
and the tight end when teams are trying to take
away Chase and Higgins because teams will try to do
that and the only way you make them stop is
to get it to the other guys. But injury you
can do that for in a hypothetical situation. You can

(13:41):
do that for every team in the NFL. And when
you're talking about their top three or four players on
the whole roster, if you take one of them out,
the team's not gonna be as good. So I don't
buy the Bengals like in injuries might derail this team. Yeah,

(14:02):
injuries might derail every team.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Guess what.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
The teams that stay healthy are generally the teams that
are still playing towards the end of the season and
in January and February. The teams that deal with a
lot of injuries are usually one, two, three cancun either
at the end of the regular season or very early
in the playoffs. That's the NFL. I just think it's lazy.

(14:31):
I don't think there's a whole lot of juice to it.
I think it's lazy. He's lazy, a lazy way to
try to cover for saying I don't trust that Joe
Burrow is going to be healthy if that's what you think. Fine,
just say that. I think Bengals fans would agree with you.
I don't have a ton of faith putting this team
in the top two or three teams in the AFC

(14:54):
because I don't have a lot of faith in Joe
Burrows staying healthy for seventeen games. Think everybody nod their head,
go yeah, yeah, I think you're right. We'll also get
some college sports. The NCAA Tournament is now officially seventy
six teams just went through passed unanimously. I don't care.

(15:21):
I'm still going to watch the games on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I'm still going to be dialed in on Thursday when
the sixty four teams are set and we begin the
real race to the national championship. I get why people
are upset. I get some of the traditions that are
going to go out the window. I really don't. It

(15:41):
doesn't bother me. I'm not outraged like a lot of
other folks in my profession. Just also on the heels
of the recommendation being made to expand the NCAA football
bracket to twenty four, this one I like less. So

(16:03):
we'll get to those plenty more. We got Richard Skinner
coming up at four o'clock Klay Snowden five thirty Reds game.
At the pace that it's on right now, should be
long over by then. We'll get some postgame commentary after
the Reds game, if if possible, Brennaman and Jones on Baseball.

(16:24):
A lot of stuff to come, So let's get this
show on the road. Let's take a break more after this.
The Moegger Show, Cincinnati's ESPN thirteen.

Speaker 6 (16:32):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the Jucy Health.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
The same old thing. It happened again today at Penn Station.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
I was, I was ordering, got done ordering in A
gentleman immediately said I'd recognize that voice anywhere. And then
the first thing they really said was thank you. Tell Tarran,
we love the bumper music. When Chad's on like five
percent of the time, when people talk to me about

(17:17):
being on this radio show, the first thing they say
is the bumper music. That's a it's a testament to us.
Our musical tastes are very good. But it's never hey, man,
you do a good job on the radio. It's hey,
that bumper music is fired. Tell Terran, good job. They're lucky.
I'm comfortable in my uh you know, I don't have

(17:40):
of confidence problems.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
Thank you all. Thank you to a whole all who listen.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Thank you. Yes, I appreciate it, but they do.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Man, everybody, almost everybody I talked to that mentions this
show talks about how much they love the bumper music.
So thank you, Darren. Without you, I would I would
just be another indescript radio fill in guy. Instead, you
guys get scarfaced my block right out the gate, bad news,

(18:08):
tearn Rhet Louder out of the game, left with Terry
Francona and a trainer. He'd walked four batters over the
last two innings. The bullpen is overworked, which is another
thing that I mentioned before the season. I was worried about.
Why did I mention that Chase Burns has started seven games.

(18:32):
He started forty one innings, so that's just under six
innings per start. Andrew Abbott is right at five innings
per start. Rehet Louder below five innings per start, Brady
Singer below five innings per start, and Brandon Williamson, sorry

(19:01):
doing quick matham, I had under five innings per start.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
They're getting no.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Depth from their starting pitching outside of Chase Burns. What
was my concern in the preseason that you're gonna get
to the end of April, especially when you didn't have
Lodolo and you didn't have Green. You have a bunch
of young guys, and you know you were gonna need
Abbott and Singer to be innings eaters, to be guys.

(19:29):
I didn't think either of them was gonna be dominant,
but I did think, Man, these guys are gonna need
to get you most nights six innings.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
And they haven't.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
And what that does is it just ramps up your
inning counts in the bullpens, bullpen, across the bullpen, because
you're scrambling to fill innings, you're scrambling to get through games.
And then you have a situation like today where now

(20:18):
you've got Connor Phillips in the game in the fourth inning,
you've got five innings to cover from here, there's no out,
so really six innings to cover on a getaway day,

(20:42):
there's just and it looks some of it is out
of your control. But if it's so obvious, for example,
that the outfield stinks to pretty much everybody that's watching
and you don't do anything to address it. You go

(21:03):
get a DH instead and a couple of utility guys there.
You know, a couple guys you found off the clearance
track that. Yeah, a couple of them are playing pretty
well so far and taking advantage of the opportunity, but
they're not really making much difference.

Speaker 5 (21:27):
Now.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Your pitching staff is taxed, your rookie is in a
stretch that a lot of rookies go through, and you're
facing a tougher portion of your schedule, and they're getting
burned right now by another thing I wanted to talk
about today, Taren, Where do you think the Reds are

(21:53):
in walks allowed? What position in the National League do
you think the Reds are in terms of walks allowed?

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Number one, you're correct.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
One hundred and seventy nine walks allowed going into today,
and today they've already allowed four. The Houston Astros are
the only team that have allowed more walks than the Reds.
The Astros are eight games under five hundred. That's crazy,

(22:35):
one hundred and seventy nine walks in three hundred and
thirty four innings. They're eras four forty seven. They're allowing
their opponents to average, hitting two point fifty three. The
pitching staff is supposed to be the strength you're built

(22:55):
for the position, for the pitching staff to carry what
is an average to below average offense, and they're not
doing it. Where do you think the Reds aren't batting
average in Major League Baseball?

Speaker 4 (23:16):
Terran number three? I mean, no, no, no, no, no,
number three like last.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Uh, they would have to be ten points better to
be third to last. They are hitting two nineteen. The
next worst team is two twenty nine. The White Sox
and the Mariners tied at two twenty nine OPS. Fourth

(23:48):
last six eighty six OPS. The Giants, the Mets, the
Red Sox are the only three teams with the worse
OPS than the Reds. So when everybody's says, look twenty
and eleven, like this team's got some potential if you
look at the underlying numbers and in what would you say?

(24:11):
Maybe basketball is the NBA. Basketball is the only other
real sport where like the season is so long that
that stuff matters. Over one hundred and sixty two, what
I just talked about matters. Your walks are up, your
ERA is up, your batting averages down, your OPS is down.

(24:35):
You can't win over one hundred and sixty two games
if that's what it looks like. And that's what makes
this all, on one part frustrating. In another part, I
really don't enjoy watching this team play. Just gonna be honest.
I'm gonna say it honestly. Even when they were twenty

(24:56):
and eleven, there were so many things that you looked
at and that's not sustainable.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
Did you just see what just happened?

Speaker 2 (25:02):
No Grand Slam?

Speaker 1 (25:04):
No, So they gave him another ruin because Steveson didn't
pay attention next to keep Brian Hayes tag third before
doing it throwing at home, so.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
He didn't tag the runner at home because they got
the out of third. Yep, little stuff. Let's take a break.
Theren this team makes me, it makes me angry. Let's
take a break. We'll be back after this. Phone lines
are open if you want to vent as well. Five one, three, seven, four, nine,

(25:35):
fifteen thirty. Since that he's ESPN fifty.

Speaker 6 (25:38):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC Health Trip.
This is a ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati sports station.

Speaker 7 (26:06):
We don't get we.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
Came, might not bring but the bottom of the fourth,
still going tarantel like, was it the bottom of the

(26:31):
fourth and the show started forty minutes ago?

Speaker 4 (26:33):
Brother seems like.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
I love listening to mystical scream of people.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Uh what anything that can go wrong has gone wrong
here in the bottom of the fourth. Ret Louder exits
with an injury. We get a couple of walks, Uh,
get a couple of you know, a boneheaded play where
basses loaded ground ball Cabri and Hayes steps on third
and throws home, which means it's not a force out situation.

(27:05):
The catcher's got to catch it and tag the runner.
Tyler Stevenson doesn't pay attention whatever it, maybe catches it
like he h's a force out and the run just
scores right by him. Then we we just had a
situation where by a Staros hits a a ball into

(27:30):
the outfield or no, that was Horner hits a double
and there's a relay play at the plate. Tyler Stevenson
drops the ball. Miguelmia scores that made it seven to nothing,
and then they get a sack fly because Horner went
to third on the throw home that Stevenson dropped and

(27:53):
couldn't handle. So Horner advanced to third. Then he scores
on a sack fly. They didn't Cincinnati and error in
that inning. But it's fundamental baseball. It's doing the little
things when you're in a game against another good team,

(28:14):
you can't give them free runs, and it's this is
the stuff we didn't see much of in April.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Like that.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
That was a lot of the difference in April. I
will give them credit for that. For that month we
saw generally sound, fundamental baseball, which allowed them to stay
in games and allowed them to win a bunch of
close games because they weren't making mistakes. The mistakes are
now starting to pile up, and when you add that

(28:46):
to pitching that's not performing well. Bats that can't consistently
get the job done. I mean, just look they didn't.
They took Freedom out for Dane May. She's sitting two fifty.
That's fine. Freedol's under two hundred, Stevenson at two hundred,

(29:09):
Hayes at one thirty, and Steer has brought his average
up to two fifty eight, but he started slow. McLean
is at two o five. Again, there's just there's not
enough to mask the holes and the flaws in this
roster and what's gonna happen. I mean, it's starting to

(29:29):
I was pretty confident at twenty and eleven, like all right,
I didn't think it would come crashing back down near
five hundred so fast. But maybe they've built enough of
a cushion to get through, you know, into June, into
around the All Star break, where there's still above five
hundred and there's legitimately some hope heading to the trade deadline.

(29:52):
That's pretty much gone in a week because the flaws
in the weakness as we're exposed quickly. Let's got to
Ron and Milford. Ron, what's going on? You want to
talk some rads?

Speaker 2 (30:08):
I'm sorry, No, don't be sorry.

Speaker 8 (30:13):
It's sorry to be a Red Chad. This is embarrassing.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
I mean it is.

Speaker 9 (30:19):
I mean you I Taren, even though we can all
get on base against the Reds pitching staff because we
don't have to move our back from our shoulders and
we'll just go on the first base after four pitches.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
Last in thean Allen walks for a team that has
a small margin for error.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, make it makes sense.

Speaker 9 (30:36):
Chad, Chad, when they were twenty and eleven, like you said,
you know, I told all my friends from not mind You.

Speaker 8 (30:42):
Before the season starts, we always place a bat.

Speaker 9 (30:44):
I got these schmucks, and I will call them schmucks
because I don't listen to the show, so that makes
some schmuck.

Speaker 8 (30:49):
That makes some schmucks to begin with.

Speaker 9 (30:51):
But uh, they said, uh, you know, they're always at
ninety to ninety four wins, and I'm like, no, I says,
give me like eighty wins again, or eighty two.

Speaker 8 (31:01):
I said, because you know what, we got no offense.

Speaker 9 (31:05):
We added Suarez, but you know obviously he's not ever
gonna play for a while still, so we got that,
and we got a pitching staff that, uh you know
is made up of no veterans, a bullpen that's overused,
and uh, mental mistakes galore.

Speaker 8 (31:24):
I mean I saw that.

Speaker 9 (31:25):
I saw Hayes step on third and then throw to
the plate with like, you know, ten years for Stevenson
to think about it, and he clearly has no mind
there because he just was.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Like the ball was low.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
He was right at the plate in position to tag
the guy. Wouldn't you tag him.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Just to make sure? Wouldn't you tag him just to
make sure?

Speaker 9 (31:49):
Yeah, I know I learned that Little League Chad, when
you're unsure place the tag.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Now, he just got up down Salantley like all right,
two outs, guys, two.

Speaker 10 (31:59):
Outsan I mean, and there and then he drops the
Two plays later he drops the ball at home, which
would have been an easy out at the plate.

Speaker 11 (32:12):
Exactly.

Speaker 9 (32:13):
It's so, I mean, but here's the thing, Chad, at
twenty to eleven, you know, the I forget what the
theorem is, but based on their negative twenty run differential
at that time, they should have been like fifteen and like, uh,
fifteen and six, fifteen and seven, I don't know, fifteen
and sixteen or something ridiculous like that. You know, they
should have been below five hundred. And I mean, the

(32:36):
negative run differential is just outstanding because the fact is
that when they win, they skate by, but when they
lose most of this series against the Cubs, they're getting destroyed.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
That just look at some of the stuff.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
I was so the fourth worst in ops Giants, Matt's
Red Sox. Those street teams are terrible this year, last
in average. Right behind find them an average White Sox, Mariners, Mets, Guardians,
Phillies like bad teams, bad teams, e RA. What do

(33:10):
we say they were an era second to last or no,
that team era is only eighth to last, so that
you know they're they're doing great, but their second worst
in walks. The they're allowing opponents to bat two fifty something,
which if you can back two fifty in this lineup,
they might put you in the Reds Hall of.

Speaker 8 (33:29):
Fame like the probably would.

Speaker 9 (33:32):
Chad, and I was telling Taren when I was holding
I'm sure you agree with this the way things have
been going here.

Speaker 8 (33:37):
Lately for the Reds.

Speaker 9 (33:38):
Had the rest came up in that situation with the
bases loaded in no out, whoever the batter first batter was,
he would have struck out and then bounced into a
week double play.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
I joked about that last night when they had the
bases loaded in the top of the ninth. They did
get the two runs home, but it was like, they're
still going to find a way to.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Blow this and they did.

Speaker 8 (33:58):
And wow, yeah, there was no doubt about that.

Speaker 9 (34:00):
I mean, because I mean these guys, it goes back
to last year, Ashcraft and Santition and even Pegan. They
were rolled out there basically every other day, you know,
rolled out there every other day.

Speaker 8 (34:15):
I mean, you're going to be tired, and the.

Speaker 9 (34:17):
Same thing this year, rolling them out there every other day,
because and that's I mean, if our starters could actually
go six innings, well, I guess at this point we
have to settle for five innings, right, I mean.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
We get him out, get him out of the fourth.

Speaker 11 (34:30):
Yeah, I mean, and I.

Speaker 9 (34:32):
Hate to be you know, looking back at this, you know,
as almost like a Monday quarterback. But you know I
would have kept in mind, you see you to say,
based on how while he's pitched so far for the Rays,
But I think I would have kept Martinez over Brady Singer.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
I don't, I don't.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
I mean, actually, Singer is the one guy I wouldn't
have wanted to get rid of. I might have kept.
I might have traded Abbot and capt Martinez. Sing there
was the one guy I actually felt was necessary, just
because he was the one guy that could that has
up to this point in his career proven he could
eat innings.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
And when you got a young pitching staff.

Speaker 8 (35:12):
He he does typically stay healthy.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, he stays healthy, and he'll throw. His era is
probably going to be four and a half or five,
but he'll get you into the sixth or at least
get you to the sixth more often than not. Ron,
but he hasn't been good. Abbitt hasn't been good. Louder
has been average.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
I passed Dad.

Speaker 9 (35:36):
If the other team, if the rest had an eight
nothing lead right now, I would still be concerned with
our pitching of the other team coming back.

Speaker 8 (35:44):
But now the.

Speaker 9 (35:44):
Cubs can just scroll the victory lane.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
Yeah, go to go.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
As mentioned this with Tony, go up and down the
Cubs lineup, and like at every spot they've had somebody
making important play. Over these four games. They've gotten contributions
up and down the bottom of the lineup, and the
Reds good luck, Like you get to six and you're not.
You don't have a competent hitter again until two. It's frustrating.

Speaker 8 (36:12):
I mean, it's ridiculous. Chat, I don't know, do we
have any hope?

Speaker 3 (36:18):
I don't because I just look and I mentioned this
at the top of the show.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Who's developed?

Speaker 3 (36:25):
Let's look at this entire crop that has come up
since twenty twenty three. You can even go back to
what in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty one that Stevenson
came up with India. Who's developed outside of Eli, who
can you look at and say, and that guy has
come a long way since his rookie year. The problem
most of them have really good rookie years and three

(36:47):
years later you're going, what the hell happened to that guy?

Speaker 11 (36:52):
And that's the truth.

Speaker 8 (36:53):
I mean, it goes back to you.

Speaker 9 (36:55):
I tell my friends, I said, you know, the problem
is we never have guys with established baseball cards. I mean,
you use a book and Joey Hando he hadn't established
baseball cards. You know, you look at these guys and
they have one year ron they.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Got established, they got established baseball cards, they got established
baseball cards. It's just not established in the way you
want it to be. It's established in the fact that
you know they're going to hit two twelve.

Speaker 8 (37:22):
Well that would be.

Speaker 9 (37:23):
Well considering how some of these guys are, that would
be good.

Speaker 8 (37:26):
I mean.

Speaker 9 (37:27):
And the fact is they go to reach down the
Triple A. They bring guys up because you know, Triple
A pitching must I mean, for ree Hines and uh,
some of these guys will benson to go down to
Triple A and just mash. I mean, man, that Triple
A pitching must be really god awful.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Yeah, with a lot of four A guys. Man, I've
seen so many four A guys.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, huh. Do you remember Brandon Lysons all all too well?

Speaker 3 (37:56):
I remember Brandon Lawson. I'd like to I've been trying
to forget it.

Speaker 8 (37:59):
It was gonna be he was gonna be our next yo,
Don Mike Schmidt.

Speaker 3 (38:03):
Yeah, I've been trying to forget him for most of
my life. All Right, I got to take a break
before Tarn tiles at me around, yells at me.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Good call. Appreciate it man, Alight he buy it?

Speaker 8 (38:11):
My friend?

Speaker 4 (38:12):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
I know a lot of you feel my pain. Ron
feels it, all right? Is that it for the hour? Tearan, Yes,
we're done for hour number one? All right, let's come back.
Richard Skinner at the top of hour number two. Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (38:29):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 12 (38:34):
From the UC Hill to trap.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Here we go, hour number two.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
Since that, He's ESPN fifteen thirty, The Moeggar Show. I
am I'm still not Moeger Chad Brendle, Faircat Journal dot Com.
I'm filling in today. What will be back tomorrow? Moe
was hoping that his day off would get things going

(39:14):
back in the Reds direction. That is undecidedly not the case,
although they will not be shut out. Today, south Stewart
led off the top of the six with a home run.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
So it's eight to one Cubs. Hooray.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Let's get out to our first guest of the day,
Local twelve digital content editor my guy, Richard Skinner, Skinny,
it's not going great for the home team here over
the last week, wolf So, I.

Speaker 7 (39:47):
Did an interview this mori with Tom Leash, the voice
of the Kentucky wildcasts of the Lexington, and he asked
me a couple of days ago to come on. I
come on every couple of months, I said, Tom, if
you'd have brought me on last week at this time,
I've been talking all kinds of flowers and nice.

Speaker 13 (39:58):
Things about the Red I simply.

Speaker 7 (40:00):
Can't do that. I mean, what a what a week
difference this has made?

Speaker 8 (40:03):
Right?

Speaker 3 (40:05):
Yes, and no, Skinny, I still like, look, April was
Here's what I fear. I fear April was terrible because
it was proof of concept to the front office that
this might work.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
They still had every day.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
They had like five guys batting two hundred or below
in the starting lineup, and there the starting pitchers can't
get through the fifth inning. It's just Yes, it worked
for a month, but then the competition ramped up and
they get exposed.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
It's a team with too many holes, is it not?

Speaker 8 (40:39):
It is?

Speaker 7 (40:40):
And listen, I was a believer Matt McClain when the
season started, not just sure spring, but the spring combinedent
I wanted to be when he came up, and I
really thought he was turning the corner back to being
that Matt McClaine. Marty hit at the end of last year,
and I thought, listen, he's taking the right sield more
reps out there. That's another good bat in the lineup.
They're gonna be Okay. I didn't have my doubts about

(41:01):
TJ Friedel, but now you have your doubts about TJ Fiel.
I really have my doubts about Tyler Stevenson and I
still don't because I think he has ways a two
sixty five h or with fifteen to eighteen home run
powered and that's probably where he's gonna wind up. But
you know, you thought you could carry the key Brian
Hayes back at the bottom of the lineup because the
rest of the lineup was gonna be better, and now
you realize you can't carry that bat. And you know,

(41:23):
I still think Cal Stewart's gonna be great, but there's
been an evening out process there too. Like the first
month it was really him and Ellie carrying the load,
and uh, you know, and to your point, I mean
they won some games in weird ways. The Friday night
Detroit game after the rain delay, to come back and
win that one, I thought that was more plucky than
anything else. But now you're seeing a little bit of

(41:45):
eating out process, right, Like, you win a bunch of
one run games, chances are pretty good you're gonna start
to lose some one run games too, And that's where
we're at. And some cases you're getting blown out too.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
What do you think is the issue with development here?
Because if you go back to twenty twenty three and
and all these promising names, all these guys that you thought, man,
there's gonna be there's gonna be some pop here in Cincinnati.
Over the next couple of years, Steer has been okay. Like,
I don't have any problem with Spencer Steeer. I love
his versatility, He's you know, he's probably more of a

(42:16):
six or seven hitter, and that's fine. You need those guys,
guys that can do a lot of different things for you.
He's done that, but McLain hasn't worked out. Cees is gone. Marte.
I don't know what the deal was at the beginning
of this year with him, but he he hasn't worked out.
You just look up and down at all these names.
Tyler Stevenson, I don't know what happened there for a

(42:39):
guy that was what second the National League Rookie of
the Year voting.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
He's never developed.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Why what is the development issue that this this franchise
continues to face.

Speaker 7 (42:49):
That's a great question to say. Their credit, they don't
rush guys through. Primarily they rusht Lauder through. They rush
Chase Ferns through. But those were both college pitchers, and
you usually do try to rush those guys through, So
that part I'll give you. I mean, maybe it's not development.
Maybe it's just misevaluation of guys like you think they
are something and more or less. A bunch of these
guys are four a dude. I mean, like Reece Hines.

(43:10):
The Kimes is a high draft pick. These kids is
raked in Triple A. He's done all good things there
and then he comes to the big leagues and he
can't hit anything. And so is it misevaluation or is
it development? I don't know the answer that, but it's
one or the other, maybe even both in a lot
of cases, because you're right. I mean, there's a lot
of high draft picks that you're missing on at the moment.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Is there a solution for the pitching staff, because I
don't think the pitching staff is bad, but I think
they're obviously hurt right now because Abbott and Singer really
aren't giving them a whole lot. You don't know when
Hunter Green's gonna come back. You hope you get Lodolo
for an extended stretch, because I do think he's at
least a number two or number three starter that gives

(43:50):
you some leverage at the top. But they're taxing the bullpen.
They have one guy averaging over five innings of start,
and that's Burns, who we think is excellent. But I
worry because the pitching staff is supposed to be the strength,
and right now they lead the National League and walks aloud,
they're they're they're hurting themselves in a million different ways.

Speaker 7 (44:13):
Yeah, No, I'm still bullish on the starting group. I
think a lot of Red Louder. I can't figure out
how he can't get out of first innings. I really
don't understand that, because sometimes when he gets out of
the first inning, it's finally really good the rest of
the work. Not today, wasn't today, wasn't that wasn't that case.
But for the most part he's been fine, you know,
any rabbits, I think kind of shaking out of whatever
slump he was in. I think he's pitched well last
at least the most recent start. Brady Singer's the one

(44:35):
that's disappointing, because all you want Brady Singer to be
is an innings either. Yeah, you know what, he's a
four point five r A guy. You know what, that
guy is, right, but you got to have meat innings
and he hasn't done that. And then I hate to
say this, and I don't know if I would pay
him the price that even the Ray's paid for Nick
Martinez at thirteen MILI. But they don't have a long reliever,

(44:56):
and that's a problem, especially when your starters aren't going deep.
Suddenly you're you're pitching four different guys and ending a
piece and trying to get through, and then you look
up the next day and well, you've used four of
your seven guys in the bullpen. And it's nobody's faults
other than those guys that can't go to the innings
to not have that happen. But they have a long
relief problem at the moment. They don't have that guy
that come in in the third with you know, in

(45:18):
a four to two game with two guys on get
you out of that. You know, he keep the score
at bay for three or four innings and then turn
over to the back of the bullpen. You don't have
that guy, and I think that's a big time problem.
And listen, I wrote this before before the year started,
and I had egg on my face for about a
month because I didn't like this bullpen at all. And
they pitched well for a stretch, right, I mean that's

(45:38):
stretch they were winning games. Bullpen was great. But they're
starting to not be great. And you know, Emily Pugan
is really not a closer. He's done it a couple
of times in his career and then the year after
he's closed. It's just not the same guy. And that's
that's kind of how a chunk of baseball is. There's
a handful of elite closers that have done it for
you know, eight, ten, twelve and a Earld Chapman's case,
thirty seven years, but there's just not a lot of

(46:00):
those guys. So it's usually kind of year to year
if somebody just emerges from the bullpen to be the closer.
And he did that last year, to his credit, but
you didn't have that guy this year. You thought you did,
you didn't. The hamstring things a weird circumstance, you know,
the era since he's initially hurt the handstrings at over ten,
so he's obviously been pitching in some kind of distress.
I do believe in Tony Santion. I don't think he's

(46:20):
a closer. I think Connor Phillips could be a closer,
but he walks too many people. So you really don't
have that. And so you look up and you go, Wow,
you don't have a wrong guy. You don't have a closer,
your setup guy, and Fantia is really struggling at the moment.
I don't think that will happen long term. It's it
happens in the game. So yeah, you look up in
that bullpen. He goes, Man, this is a mess, and
it is.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
There's really I don't really see a fix, Like I
don't really see like a shaking him the lineup up,
I don't see. I don't see an easy way to get.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Out of this.

Speaker 7 (46:50):
No, I don't either, other than getting all Doolo back,
eventually getting Hunter Green back, having Louder pitch the way
I think Louder is capable of, having a habit, continue
to pitch the way I think he's capable of, and
Chase Burns too. I still am very bullish on that rotation. Uh,
not so much on the bullpen. You know, maybe you
can throw one of those guys into being a bullpen
bullpen arm eventually. But then lineup wise, I mean, you're

(47:12):
you're trying to piecemeal those corner outfield spots with like
a bore day and left and he's done well for
the short period of time, but it's not gonna happen
a long term. And now Steers playing right. So you've
had a hole in right field all year, you've had
a whole up third base all year, you've had a
whole at second base all year. To be quite frank,
you've had a hole when TJ. Friedel's been the center fielder.
A lot of holes have them back of the baseball card.
That's a lot of holes, though, Yes, And so then

(47:34):
you're relying on Ellie and south Stewart to do everything.
And God loved Nathaniel Low because he's done a lot
of things, and and one year game in that Detroit
game and provide you some pop.

Speaker 8 (47:43):
But it's a mess.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Swiss Cheese looks at this lineup and goes, damn, it's
a lot of holes.

Speaker 8 (47:49):
That's a lot of holes.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Dad. Joke of the day. Let's let's talk some Bengals.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
Uh, I hear a lot of You're seeing a lot
of nationally people worrying about the Bengals depth. I look
at that, and I say, isn't that the same problem
for everybody, literally every team in the NFL. If one
of your best players gets hurt, you don't have enough
depth for that to be a non factor. Like is

(48:17):
it just a way to mask saying we don't think
Joe Burrow is gonna play a whole season? Like what
is this depth conversation? All of a sudden, for the
Bengals offense.

Speaker 7 (48:27):
Yeah, I think it's alone the offensive line, Like who
is your swing tackle? Is Toby Ford? Is it Brian Parker?
Who's your backup center? Is is it Connor Loo? Who
you drafted? Is it Brian Parker? You know, Jalen Rivers
is probably the backup guard. But there are some there's
some there's some holes there behind the starting group. Offensively,
it's just a bunch of unknowns. I mean, Jalen Rivers
is only go into the second year, and then you

(48:49):
count on a couple of rookies. And last year, let's
not forget Orlando Brown literally played every snap that left
tackle and Marius Mins played all seventeen games and all
but sixty snaps at right tackles, So you never really
saw it at Cody Ford be a lengthy swing tackle.
So I think that's a fair that's a fair point.
But no everywhere else. I mean, it's still it's a
deep offense. It's not deep at a couple of positions

(49:11):
on defense, like slot corner I think is still a
question mark. Linebacker depth is a question mark. If they
want to believe in those two kids, that's fine. I'm
good with that. But number three linebacker Warren Burks literally
ranked eighty eight to eighty eighth graded linebackers from Psflash.
So that is a depth issue. So there's a couple
of there's a couple of spots where death is an issue.
And I do think to your point, I mean, yeah,
you're never going to be deep enough on the offensive

(49:32):
line in the NFL.

Speaker 8 (49:34):
You're just not.

Speaker 7 (49:34):
You just hope to have somebody that can plug in
and be suitable.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's almost like, skinny, there's not a lot of six
foot based on what tackles look like now, there's not
a lot of six foot eight three and forty pound
guys that can move out there for you to pick from.

Speaker 7 (49:51):
That's correct, That is literally correct.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
It's crazy even at the college level, Skinny when you
see gets like an offensive line recruit. It used to
be if you've got a six y five guy, like
that's a tackle. Now if you get a six y
five guy, you're like, well, he's not big enough to
play outside.

Speaker 7 (50:06):
Who kick him in the guards? And he's got short
arms and he has he's not big enough.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
He's six five, three hundred and ten pounds as an
eighteen year old, and you're like, that guy can't play
tackle here.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
It's crazy. It's crazy.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Is there now enough? Because I always go back to
something Paul Daner wrote, I was probably I think it
was going into Joe Burrow's second year of teams that
win have more than a handful of guys that are
like top ten at their position in the NFL? Are
there enough top ten guys at their position in the

(50:41):
NFL are close on defense for there to be considerable
improvement on that level? Because I look and I go,
Dexter Lawrence is absolutely a top ten defensive tackle, maybe
number one.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Brian Cook I think is right.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
There are probably on that cuss, But like, is he
a top ten safety in the NFL? If he's not,
he's very close. Is DJ Turner a top ten corner
in the NFL? If he's not, he's really close. Now,
you know, that's three positions that you feel like you've
got one of the better guys in the league at
their position. Is that enough to make a considerable difference

(51:22):
and get this defense back to you know, the teams
at least?

Speaker 8 (51:28):
Yeah, No, that isn't enough.

Speaker 7 (51:29):
Coupled by the fact that at a lot of other
positions you don't have, you know, eighty eight guys I mean,
I don't. I mean, you do a linebacker at the moment,
But you're expecting those guys to take a step forward.
They certainly are.

Speaker 13 (51:41):
That's the big part.

Speaker 7 (51:41):
They want those two linebackers and they think they can
take a step forward. But you know, Jordan Battle, can
he elevate to a top forty safety, top thirty safety? Yes?
Can Miles Murphy elevate to a top thirty edge, top
twenty five edge? Yes? Is boy Mafy that guy at
an edge? Yes? Probably?

Speaker 14 (51:58):
So.

Speaker 7 (51:58):
Yeah, you just don't have a bunch of guys that
are while these are these guys are a mess. And
so to your point, then you add some guys at
our top tennish, top five ish maybe best like Lawrence,
then you got yourself a ball club.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
What did it say to you?

Speaker 3 (52:10):
I know this has been hit on ad nauseum, but
did it say that they were they were again sending
a message with the Lawrence trade that like we know,
we understand, ye, Joe Burrow's not in his first three
or four years in the NFL anymore, like we gotta go.

Speaker 11 (52:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (52:26):
Sense of urgency, there's no question they absolutely have that
sense of urgency.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
Is it enough?

Speaker 7 (52:33):
Yeah? I think it is.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
When you look at this division like the it feels
like the iron is hot to strike in the AFC North.
I expect Baltimore to be good, but I have no
idea about Pittsburgh under McCarthy. The Browns we keep talking about,
they've got this good roster, but they can they can
never get over the hump. Well, if they can find

(52:55):
a quarterback, that's a pretty damn big question. Can you
find a quarterback? Is this an iron is hot year
for them that.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
They can win?

Speaker 3 (53:04):
They have to go into the year thinking we're gonna
win the AFC North. He uh, oh, we lost Skinny.
We lost Skinny. Okay, we'll get him back here, and
that's this is a hopefully he's okay. Yeah, he's busy today.

(53:24):
He said he had a bunch of stuff going on
today and we could only squeeze him in at four o'clock.
So we're not gonna be able to get him back
any other time. Terrence efforting Richard Skinner. I know he
might be like, hit the dreaded dead zone on his phone.

(53:46):
I would think his phone is charged because he did.
He said he had a bunch of stuff going on today,
had stuff right up until four o'clock, and then he
had something else at like four thirty, so we something broke.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
He had to hop off and take a Oh.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Maybe maybe he's not answering.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
Yeah, And I called him back and nothing.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
All right, Well that's Richard Skinner, digital content editor, Local twelve.
I was hoping to get to a couple more things
with him, but I guess not. Phone lines are open
for the rest of the hour, So give us a
call if you want to talk some Reds, you want
to talk some Bengals, you want to talk seventy six
team NCAA tournament.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
A lot of people are mad.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
I'm not really one of them, but it's coming, it's approved,
it's official. They're talking about now moving the college football
playoff to twenty four. I bet Terren's got some opinions
on that.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
What are we doing?

Speaker 3 (54:48):
I think I saw something the other today that there
if this was like two years ago, there would have
been like six four loss teams in the playoff, and
the twenty fourth team would have been a five lost team,
seven and five, seven and five, And you make the
college football playoff tear.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
There's no point of regular season football no more.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Let's take a break we'll discuss as the show goes
on more after this. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 6 (55:17):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
There was a there's a TikTok going around Tarn. It's
like a teenager sitting in the car and it's like,
if your dad knows every word that the first verse
of this song, it's gonna be okay. And then it
cuts over to the dad and he's like, oh, I'm
doing dangerous. The longest intro in the history of music, I.

Speaker 15 (55:59):
Think got to the phones.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
Dick and Dayton, Dick, I hope you're not watching the
Reds game today. It's depressing.

Speaker 16 (56:11):
No, no, no, hey, I wanted to tell something to you.

Speaker 13 (56:15):
I don't know if you know, and Moe knows.

Speaker 7 (56:17):
But I'm a big fan of Spocks sports.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Have you ever heard of Ben Mallor, I know the name.

Speaker 16 (56:22):
Yeah, yeah, he's on sports, you know, he's you know,
Nashed on He I was talking about the Reds and
Bengals and stuff. So he decided to have a party
down in Cincinnati, you know, at Newport there, and it's
called meet and greet, and I was there. I went

(56:43):
down with some friends of mine, and there's pictures.

Speaker 8 (56:46):
So I wanted to tell you.

Speaker 16 (56:47):
And Tara and then everybody there that I'm on the
ben mallor it's meet and greet. Uh, let's see, it's
April twenty fifth and I'm playing down there and everybody
from Cincinnati where you know a lot of fifteen to
thirty fans. But I was playing a mandolining. The guy
was playing the guitar. How about that?

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Very cool? Good stuff?

Speaker 5 (57:08):
Dad?

Speaker 16 (57:09):
Yeah, I just wanted to come on, Chad, what's the
matter with these Reds?

Speaker 2 (57:15):
They stink good?

Speaker 8 (57:16):
They do?

Speaker 16 (57:17):
They started out well, oh.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
Come on, they won a bunch of games that they
give them credit. They won the games, but they were
they were games that It's just it wasn't sustainable. Like
the way that they were winning was not sustainable. And
when you do that to yourself, you put yourself in
danger of having stretches like this, and it's just not

(57:42):
a well constructed roster. And the reason for me, the
reason it's not a well constructed roster is because their
homegrown guys have not developed.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
They have not developed.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
Like if you go back and look the last time
this franchise was really good. Yeah, Jay Bruce Joey vad
So like all guys that that came through the system.
Brandon Phillips came from Cleveland but from a very young age,
and he developed and became a great player. Todd Frazier,
like their homegrown guys became the core and then they

(58:16):
supplemented around that. Well, you were supposed to have that. Yeah,
and the only guy that's developed is Ellie.

Speaker 5 (58:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (58:25):
Yeah, I just wonder too about uh you know it's
get well. Uh do the Bengals have with Burrow back
this year?

Speaker 2 (58:36):
They rate them very high this year, do you know.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
I mean they're gonna have to earn it. The defense
was so bad. Yeah, they improved. I think they definitely
went out and did the things they should have done
a year ago and gotten some actual difference. Boy A
Mafe I think is good. Dexter Lawrence is awesome. I
really like Brian Cook, like you went out and got
some guys that should raise the floor of your defense significantly.

(59:03):
I don't know that the ceiling is great because linebacker
is still a question and slot corner is still a question.
But they raised the floor to where they shouldn't for
you know what two and a half three months they
were the worst defense in the history of football. Yeah,
that's why people are are you know, you're not going
to get the benefit of the doubt when that's what

(59:24):
it looks like.

Speaker 16 (59:26):
I don't know much about it.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
I haven't read much in the paper.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
How did we do in the draft?

Speaker 4 (59:31):
Pick?

Speaker 13 (59:31):
Did we get some good, good people?

Speaker 6 (59:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (59:33):
I think they did some night.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
You know, they didn't have a first round pick, so
you know, it's it's not gonna You're not gonna see
that guy that immediately jumps off the page as a
guy that can come in and make a giant splash.
But I think they added pieces. I would like to
have seen a linebacker. I think everybody would like to
have seen a linebacker. I think they went more outside corner,

(59:55):
where they probably could have used if you were looking
long term, they need an outside corner, but short term
they needed a guy to play the slot. So I
think overall, you got some help along the offensive line,
you got some help at wide receiver, you got some
help in your pass rush. So I think the draft
is fine, but there there are still, you know, a

(01:00:17):
couple of holes that I didn't think that they addressed.

Speaker 16 (01:00:20):
Yeah, well, listen, have a good day.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Thanks, Dick, appreciate it. One more.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Haven't heard from him in a long time, So let's
let's let's talk to my guy Mike in La Mike,
how the heck are you? It's been a long time,
my friend.

Speaker 13 (01:00:36):
Yeah, yea, So give me a a grade on the
trip to Soco.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
That was a plus, A plus, awesome, awesome. You know
you know what?

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Uh, I found a place that is it instantly jumps
up there to one of the best things I've ever
eaten period. Mike hit the Duke's Burgers in San Diego.

Speaker 13 (01:01:03):
Yeah, Dukes, that's the famous Hodad They call it a
Hodad joint because surfers.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Right, Holy crap, was that amazing?

Speaker 13 (01:01:13):
Yeah, Duke's has been there forever.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Liz the girlfriend and Kelsey, I'll tell you the Kelsey thing.
Liz said, it's the best burger she's ever had ever
in any category. And it was so good. You know
how much I've talked about Kelsey loves in.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
And out right, Yeah, yeah, we.

Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
Didn't do in and out until after we did Dukes,
and Duke's was so good.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
She took one bite of in and Out and went, eh, sor.

Speaker 8 (01:01:40):
Right that is Hey, I got to speaking of a burger.

Speaker 13 (01:01:48):
I gotta ask you this. Have you ever been to
that that joint down there? I guess it's on behind
the Sacred Beast.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Yes, very good, very good.

Speaker 8 (01:01:59):
I saw I saw it on d Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:02:03):
It looked like an unbelievab They said that the the
sauce was almost like a French onion soup.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
That they it's very good.

Speaker 13 (01:02:13):
Okay, So whenever I come back, if I get to
come back, and I hope I do.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Just go to Dukes for me, Like Liz has actually
been like can I can we just like find a
way to like get out there, go to Dukes and
then we can come back.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
We don't even have to stay. I just want to
go get that burger again.

Speaker 13 (01:02:29):
Yeah, because if you tried to send it overnight, it
was probably not probably not.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
As good, but it was. It was. It was. We
had a great trip. Uh North Park.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Is that the the new area, like the area the
trendy area in San Diego.

Speaker 8 (01:02:42):
Yeah, ye, we went there.

Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
Had had a meal there that was that was outstanding.
She had a giant dish that had like two pounds
of mussels and cheriso and blue cheese and uh, it
was it was excellent. And then obviously no great time
in in la at uh at Venice Beach for a
couple of days.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
So it was a great, great trip.

Speaker 13 (01:03:08):
I'm glad to hear that. So I wanted to see
you guys, but just my health wouldn't let me, so
I was. I was very upset about it. Well, but anyway,
that's good news, Okay, what give me the rundown on?
I know we got to call him Richard Patino Junior
or Richard Patino, but I call him Ricky Jr.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
Is he really done the max?

Speaker 13 (01:03:31):
I heard he had the number one ranking for NIO
guys coming in and stuff. Is that true or a lot?

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
I mean, there's a lot of different rankings. I'd have
to see exactly which one you're talking about. I think
they did a good job. I think it's you See
and Xavier are very interesting to me because it's kind
of like the the two sides of the transfer portal coin.
Xavier acted pretty quick, got a like got a couple

(01:04:00):
absolute top of their roster guy or top of their
board guys. But they don't When I look at their roster,
I see a good five or six. I don't see
a lot of depth behind them. So that's one way
in the portal we're gonna spend it. Like, if you're
gonna win, you're gonna win with your best guys, and
we're gonna go spend the top two, three, four or

(01:04:21):
five guys on the roster. That's where the majority of
our money is gonna go. We'll fill in the best
rotational guys we can find, you know, kind of at
a at a lower price point, and then we're gonna
roll with that and try to win with you know,
as good a top of the roster as we can get.
Jared Calhoun has gone a little bit more balance a

(01:04:42):
little They maybe don't have, you know, uh a bona
fide like this guy is gonna be an all conference guy.
I think Xavier does have that a little bit more. Uh,
But Cincinnati I think one through nine, one through ten
has more depth than Xavier does. They balanced out their
spend a little bit more.

Speaker 8 (01:05:03):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
It's kind of the two sides of the nil coin.
And it's you know, it's always fascinating as these trends develop.
As this is new, right like four or five years
into it, trends are still developing. I don't think there's
one specific way, like this way works and this way don't.
So let let's see you've got both teams in town

(01:05:25):
kind of doing it a little bit different ways. I'm
fascinated to see, like how each of them perform.

Speaker 13 (01:05:33):
Do you think we'll be looking at it several years
of good back to the good crossdown shootouts?

Speaker 3 (01:05:39):
I think so. I think both of these guys can coach.
I joked about it a lot when you when Xavier
hired Richard Pattino, Like, I wasn't a big fan of
it because I do think he's a good coach. I
don't want them to have a good coach, So I
wasn't a big fan of the hire because I think
he's gonna do a good job there. And I thought

(01:06:00):
terms like their roster was not very good last year.
He made a lot out of he made he made
chicken salad out of chicken poop for the most part.

Speaker 13 (01:06:09):
Yeah, he truly did.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
I mean he didn't have a whole lot, so uh.
And I think Jared Calhoun's very good as well. I
think both of them. I think it's gonna be hard,
Like I don't know that you're going to see what
you saw in like sixteen seventeen, where Xavier is a
one seed, you see is a two seed. I think
we're pretty far from that. But I do think as
long as everything nothing crazy happens, I think we're going

(01:06:36):
to be back to an era where you see, you
see Xavier both as you know, mainstays in the NCAA tournament,
which elevates the status of the Crosstown Shootout.

Speaker 8 (01:06:47):
God, I hope so, Chip, I hope so and real
baseball real quick.

Speaker 13 (01:06:51):
Probably don't want I don't want to, of course, of course,
but do you I just keep thinking now, now we
played Tampa a month of the and did a great
job against Tampa. Tampa is a completely different team. Now
that's a story in baseball of the race. They are
something else. With the payroll of about you make more
than they pay and payroll.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
I don't. I wish I did.

Speaker 13 (01:07:15):
But but do you think now that the Reds are
playing stiffer competition? I know they're close games and what
have you, but that's that's what really separates the men
from the boys. You think that's making a difference.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
Mike, I think it's pretty easy. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
Like, if you've watched this CUB series, they've all been
close games. The Cubs have gotten production from every inch
of their.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
Lineup and key moments they.

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
You know, late, late innings, extra innings, whatever it may be.
Back of the bullpen starters, like they have had guys
when the chips were down that made plays that the
Reds didn't. And that that is roster construction. That is
a development. That is exactly what we're talking about. One

(01:08:05):
of the things Mike I think back to is I
think back to twenty twenty three again when this group
was first coming up and the division was kind of
in shambles a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
At that point in time.

Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
Cubs are way down, Cardinals were way down, Pirates stunk,
the Brewers were solid, but like it was unknown what
direction that was before it really took off. And you
looked at the Reds talent and you said, man, this
sets up great for Cincinnati over the next four or
five years.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
What have they gotten out of it?

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
An eighty three win wild card that only happened because
the Mets collapsed. And do you look at this red
roster right now, this Reds lineup right now, and really
think they can contend with any of those teams I
just mentioned. The Pirates are better, the Cardinals will probably
come back down to earth. I don't think they're great,
but they're playing better than the Reds right now. The

(01:08:56):
Cubs are built to win and win big in Milwaukee.
The story, he just keeps moving along like there's I
don't feel great. I feel like the Reds all of
a sudden went from they could be the best team
in this division over the long term to in real
time their last.

Speaker 8 (01:09:12):
Yeah, and you know what made me nervous from the jump.

Speaker 16 (01:09:15):
And I know.

Speaker 13 (01:09:16):
Everybody likes PEGANKI, but I gotta have a plane thrower
out of the wullpen. I can't have a hit hit
my pitch guy, right and.

Speaker 8 (01:09:25):
When you gotta when you got a closure with a
six six and a half, the ra that that's not good.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
We don't know how much of that. And I'm not
defending Pegan because I would not have gone it worked
last year. But I don't think you doubled down on
a you got it to work like that doesn't mean
you automatically go pay the guy twenty million dollars to
do it again, especially when it when he's like Pegan,
like you said, it's not a guy that's throwing one
oh one on the Black to get guys out like he.

(01:09:54):
I don't know how much because if you look when
the hamstring issue happened, ERA has shot up over twelve
since since that, So how much of that has been
the hamstring that he's not able to get guys out
right now? We won't find out for probably two months
until he gets back. But yeah, I wouldn't have gone
with Pegan as the closer. It just didn't didn't make

(01:10:17):
a lot of sense. But Mike, I gotta take a break.
I appreciate hearing from you, my friend, and I should
be back soon. Thanks Mike, thank you. Let's take a
break more after this. Since Nati's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 6 (01:10:29):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 12 (01:10:35):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Get moving with since
he sweats howered by uce Health one week of free
fitness classes at local studios. Find a class at since
the sweats dot ucehealth dot com in Ohio.

Speaker 4 (01:10:47):
There is.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
There We go, keeping it rolling Hour number two.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
Brenaman and Jones on Baseball coming up here in a
few minutes. Klay Snowden from Just Baseball joining us in
the five o'clock hour five twenty Hey Red's got another run.
Blake done first home run of the season on a

(01:11:26):
line drive to left center field. Reds should just get
to tearing just a grand slam and then a couple
more On top of that, Reds are back in it
eight to two. Cubs lead in the top of the eighth.
Red's on the brink of losing their seventh consecutive game,
going from twenty and eleven nine games up and in

(01:11:49):
first place in the NL Central to potentially twenty and eighteen,
two games over five hundred and last place.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
In the mL Central.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
NCAA tournament officially goes to seventy six teams. What that means,
It means there will be twelve play in games. There's
four play in games. Now there will be twelve. Dayton
will get half of them. There will be now instead

(01:12:23):
of there were two games on Tuesday and Wednesday leading
into the start of the NCAA tournament on Thursday. Now
there will be three games on Tuesday, three games on Wednesday.
One site will be in Dayton that will have those games,
and then there'll be a second site that is yet
to be selected. I would guess more West Coast oriented

(01:12:48):
that will get the other six games. There will be
six play in games at the back of the bracket,
so all of the sixteen seeds will be a play
in game, to the fifteen seeds will be a play
in game, and then I don't think this is completely
set in stone, but what it'll probably look like most
years is that all of the twelve seeds will be

(01:13:12):
a play in game, which I think is actually fascinating
because we have seen those teams that play on Tuesday
and Wednesday, especially in this middle part of the bracket,
have had success playing and then the quick turnaround and
playing again over a team that's been sitting out for

(01:13:34):
a week or so, because if you know, a five
seed generally isn't going to be a team that won
their conference tournament, so that team will have been out
for a week sitting. This other team gets a game
on Tuesday or Wednesday and then comes back on Thursday
or Friday and plays, So all of the twelve seeds
will likely be a play in game, and then two
of the eleven seeds as a play in game as well.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
It does screw up the bracket.

Speaker 3 (01:13:59):
I don't love that part because you're not really gonna
have what in a in a you know, a standard
bracket looks like to work with until Thursday morning, late
Wednesday night, Thursday morning, and then the tournament starts Thursday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Mo and I talked about this last.

Speaker 3 (01:14:20):
Week, like that's the one thing, more than anything that
I think could mess with the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
So I think people like.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, everybody's at work talking about it. Who
you got, what's your sleeper, who you got winning, what
upsets you got? Before you could just really kind of
ignore the playing games. There's two games on Tuesday, two
games on Wednesday, Like you just kind of looked over it.
With twelve playing games, I don't know, you know, there's

(01:14:54):
there's thirty two first round games, like forty percent of
them are playing games now. So I don't know how
exactly because a lot of people guess, what, if you're smart,
you've got a twelve seed or two going into the
sweet sixteen. Now that twelve seed is going to be
playing on Tuesday or Thursday and Tuesday or Wednesday, how

(01:15:18):
exactly do you pick that that's gonna be interesting? Other
than that it's more basketball, I really don't care. I'm
gonna watch. It's gonna you know, I'm gonna pay attention,
and then Thursday and Friday, I'm gonna be sitting right
here talking to you as the NCAA Tournament goes on.
It doesn't change a whole lot for me. Let's take

(01:15:40):
a break. Brenhaman and Jones on Baseball. Up next, Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:15:46):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:15:50):
Traffic from the UC helps like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:16:13):
There we go our number three, The Moeger Show, not Moegar,
Chad Brenda, Bearcat Journal dot Com. Filling in today, will
be back tomorrow. Thank you for choosing me. Probably tear normally,

(01:16:37):
you know, you anticipate like it's gonna be a little
bit of a lower volume day when we're opposite a
Reds game. But I'm guessing a lot of people are here.
Her Red's game has not been pretty for a long
time now.

Speaker 4 (01:16:53):
Oh they turned it off when they had that fourth.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
Inning, seven run fourth inning for the Cubs. Couple of
those runs, maybe even almost all of those runs at
the expense of Tyler Stevenson after he took what should
have been an easy double play and turned it into
a run and then missed on a throw at home

(01:17:17):
plate a couple batters later that allowed another runner to score.
Not a banner day for Tyler Stevenson on defense. But yeah,
seven runs in the fourth really the story here. The
Reds trail eight to two, top of the ninth to

(01:17:39):
out two on JJ Bleday at the plate with the
game on the line. Tarren game on the line. Rtt
Lauder went three innings, three runs, only gave up one hit,
but he walked four. The Reds again have given up

(01:18:05):
the most walks by a pitching staff in the National
League's second most in all of baseball. So it's pretty
much been an unmitigated disaster of a road trip. Just
ugly swept in Pittsburgh. They lost the first three. In Chicago,

(01:18:34):
they're trying to rally tarn trying to rally run scores.
It's now eight to three, second, third, two outs, So, uh,
don't do this, just get it, just get this over
with this.

Speaker 4 (01:18:53):
Don't don't don't even don't do this.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
They're down five.

Speaker 3 (01:18:58):
I mean, like I said, I we's all I called
this last night when they made their ninth inning rally.
They take the six to four lead, and it's like
you know they're going to give up two on the
top of the ninth, They're going to go into extra innings,
and they're going to lose an extra innings because.

Speaker 2 (01:19:13):
Just that's that's.

Speaker 3 (01:19:14):
Where things are at for this team right now and today,
at least, unless something absolutely insane happens, at least they're
not at risk of their fourth walk off defeat in
the last four days. That's the first time any team

(01:19:35):
has given up three walk off wins to the same
opponent since I believe twenty nineteen was the last time
that happened in all of Major League Baseball. I just
don't like watching this team play. What's MO always say, Taran,

(01:20:00):
be good or be interesting. I don't think they're good.
I think there's a couple guys in this lineup that
are consistently, day to day pretty darn good. I think
there's too many that are, you know, one for five,
and you can't have a bunch of guys that are
one for five every day. Just doesn't work out.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:20:26):
The pitching's kind of gone south. Bullpen's getting fatigued, starters
can't get into the sixth inning, and as a result,
they've gone from twenty and eleven to twenty and seventeen
and one strike away? Here a walk? How about that

(01:20:47):
base is loaded? Now tarran two outs.

Speaker 4 (01:20:49):
Let's not do this.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
Wow, Cabrian hayzes up. It's fine. Do you hit for
him here on the bench, you get you gotta hit
low here right.

Speaker 4 (01:21:08):
Is actually making a pitching change.

Speaker 3 (01:21:10):
It does seem like they're making a pitching change. I'm
I don't have it on in here. I've just got
the game cast up.

Speaker 4 (01:21:16):
Yeah, ne're taking them out.

Speaker 3 (01:21:18):
We'll get back to that momentarily. Cincinnati Football Terran Big
Cincinnati Football News. They have signed an agreement with Michigan
State for a home and home series starting in twenty thirty.
Michigan State will come to Nippert Stadium, and then in

(01:21:40):
twenty thirty one, Cincinnati will travel to East Lansing to
take on the Spartans. One of those that you'd like
to see, you know, like this year it's Boston College.
It seemed I really care about a home and home
with Boston College. Is there anybody that's really jumping out

(01:22:01):
of their skin to see Cincinnati host Boston College or
travel to Boston College to take on the Eagles. No,
I don't think there's anybody that is excited about that seat.
And you know, unless you're a UC fan that lives
in Boston or lives up in that area and the
team comes to you, which doesn't happen, you know, very often.

(01:22:25):
But I love these home and home you know, kind
of offshoot regional rivalries that that you don't get to
see very much. Unfortunately, because Louisville and Kentucky play each
other every year, you're probably not gonna see Louisville and
Kentucky in that rotation because most teams will play one

(01:22:52):
powerful opponent in the non conference. And then you know,
you've got nine I don't know if the ACC switched
to nine yet or not. I know the SEC did,
but like you see, has nine conference games, so you
want to get a couple games that you can win.
What you don't want to do is you schedule two

(01:23:14):
Power five games. Now, if you start zero and two,
then you're your season is a disaster. In September and
you've got nine conference games, nine Power four opponents coming.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
Back to back to back, so.

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
Highly matter because by that time we'll have a sixty
four college football playoff.

Speaker 3 (01:23:34):
Well, it's the other thing I was going to get
to in this segment, Aryan that there is increasing belief
for backing for a twenty four team college football playoff.
And I have a lot of questions. I mean, honestly,

(01:23:57):
if you're gonna have a twenty four team playoff, Tearan,
does that eliminate bowl games completely?

Speaker 4 (01:24:08):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:24:09):
Like, what's the point You're gonna have all these games
leading up to what twenty three games leading up to
the you know, twenty three games including the championship game?
What what good are bowl games gonna do? I don't

(01:24:32):
see it. I don't see it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
I don't know.

Speaker 11 (01:24:45):
It.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
Just it's it's what's the path here?

Speaker 3 (01:24:48):
And if you look like you get down and uh,
like Michigan was nine and four last year, they were
twenty first in the country. Was there anything about Michigan
that deserve to be in the College Football Playoff?

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
Last year?

Speaker 3 (01:25:06):
USC nine and four, Iowa nine and four, Oklahoma ten
and three, Vanderbilt ten and three, Virginia eleven and three,
Twulane eleven and three.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
Tulane was in.

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
But are there any of these teams that make the
college football Playoff more interesting? Like in college football, the
gap between the top usually the top four five, six
teams and everybody else is substantial, and hell, a lot

(01:25:43):
of the times the gap between one and six is substantial.
Are you gonna have anything compelling until the semi finals?
I guess maybe in that first round, Like you know,
you get some of those those games where teams are
fairly close, but like it is, Texas BYU and an

(01:26:07):
eleven twelve game gonna move the needle for you in
a twenty fourteen playoff, you're gonna be captivated by that. Now,
it does sound like they're using some sense in terms
of how they want to do this tearan in that
conference championship games would go away, which they should if

(01:26:28):
you're if you've got a twenty fourteen playoff, what is
the point of a conference championship game? Those two teams
are locked in in a twenty four team playoff, Indiana
and Oregon, we're one and two in the Big ten,
Ohio State right there behind them, that's one, two three.

(01:26:53):
What do you need a conference championship game?

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
Four?

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
Those guys are playing for protected seeds in the conference,
in the in the NCAA playoff, So at.

Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
Least they're looking at it.

Speaker 3 (01:27:04):
And I believe the other thing I saw is they
would want this thing to start essentially right away, like
one week off and then you get into the playoff,
like you'd have the Army Navy week off, Army Navy
would move to what is now Conference championship week, and
then that next week you would get into the playoff.
And they're talking about getting the playoff done by mid January,

(01:27:26):
which needs to happen. The regular season ended in December
in the National Championship, pushing almost all the way to February.
Did anybody really like did it feel like tarn that
there was a bunch of people captivated to find out

(01:27:46):
what happened in the championship game in the lead up
to the championship game other than the novelty of Indiana
potentially being you know, undefeated and taking their place atop
the sport, No, I mean, I remember talking about it
on our podcast, like this thing's still going, Why are

(01:28:08):
they still playing?

Speaker 2 (01:28:09):
Why is there ten twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:28:11):
Days between rounds of the college football Playoff? So there
are a couple things that at least it feels like
they're waking up on, but ultimately, there's not that many
good teams to produce a twenty four team playoff, the

(01:28:34):
twenty fourth team has no chance to beat the number
one team nine times out of ten. I don't know,
but if that's what the money wants, much like the
NCAA tournament expanding, Charlie Baker, the president of the NCUBA,
just said today, if it wasn't for the three hundred

(01:28:55):
additional million dollars that they're going to get over the
six year deal, they would not have expanded the NCAA tournament.
Money money, money, money, money, money, Welcome to life in
college sports in twenty twenty six, Let's take a break.
Lay Snowden from Just Baseball will join us. The Reds

(01:29:16):
have fallen nine to three. They are now twenty and
eighteen more after this Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:29:28):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic light in the base.

Speaker 7 (01:29:41):
On the boulevard landed.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
We used to kick routines in the presence was fitting.
It was off the abstract. I kicked the massows step
off the frankfoot. You'll fight. You remember that rute.

Speaker 3 (01:29:52):
Welcome back, Moegger Show. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. The Reds
are on a seven game losing streak, but klayce Noden
is always a winner. Klace, Notden, just baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:30:07):
Clay. I hope you picked that because that's one of
my favorites.

Speaker 5 (01:30:12):
I did not get asked today, but that is one
of my favorites as well. I was prepared though, if
Taren was going to ask.

Speaker 17 (01:30:19):
I was going to do.

Speaker 5 (01:30:19):
They this over you, Pete Rock cl Smooth.

Speaker 3 (01:30:24):
Do you know the backstory to that song? Do you
know the backstory to that song? They reminiss with their
friend that died. Yeah, he died in Dayton at a concert.
They were goofing around backstage and like rolling like cards
and stuff down the ramp and he was sitting on
a rail and one of the carts like got too

(01:30:46):
close and he leaned back and he fell over the
rail backwards, like thirty feet down and passed away.

Speaker 5 (01:30:55):
That's kind of how we all feel like for this
Red Stretch Trouble.

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
T Roy rest in Peace a long time ago. He's
actually like best friends with Tupac, who was also on
that tour. The tour was I believe Heavy D and
the Boys.

Speaker 5 (01:31:12):
Really, Yeah, this must have been after Tupac with when
he was on tour with Digital Underground.

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (01:31:19):
It was right at the beginning, Digital Underground was on
that tour. Tupac was out with them like the very
beginning of his career.

Speaker 5 (01:31:26):
And now we've lost all the listeners.

Speaker 3 (01:31:29):
No, I think Actually the funny thing is, Clay, when
people approach me about doing this show, the only thing
they ever talk about is the bumper music, and like
talking hip hop, they're never like, you do a great job,
but they're like, in the bumper music when you're on
is awesome. I hadn't happened today At Penn Station across
the street, I was ordering, I got done ordering. Guy

(01:31:51):
was like I know that voice anywhere, and then he
was like, I love the bumper music, man, thanks appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (01:31:59):
What do you do best?

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
It is ten second clips?

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):
I mean you know, we can go another like ten
twelve minutes on hip hop, or we can talk about
the Reds. I think most people would probably have us
talk hip hop.

Speaker 5 (01:32:11):
Not a lot of positive with the Reds right now.

Speaker 2 (01:32:14):
Clay, is this like was the was April and Mirage.

Speaker 3 (01:32:22):
Or is this just you know they had a bad
road trip and things got away from them and they
can pull back out of this. I'm I'm very down
on this team. Right now, and it's gonna take a
lot to get me back.

Speaker 5 (01:32:36):
Just like most things in the world, the extremes, the
answer is usually somewhere in between, right And when they
were super good in April, I kept saying, look at
all of these metrics twenty fourth and are on score
like this team is getting insanely lucky. That doesn't mean
that they're horrible. It just means they're not going to

(01:32:57):
win at that pace. Usually, course correction happened over a
longer period of time with more fluctuations, not a complete
nose guye not five days.

Speaker 2 (01:33:08):
Yes, I said that on Twitter the other day.

Speaker 5 (01:33:12):
Yeah, it's exactly what happened. Now, I will say, And
I know no one wants to be positive right now,
but you know, the Reds could have won any of
these three games the past couple of days, and wouldn't
we have a completely different discussion like they were there.
They did not lose eight to two, nine to one,

(01:33:32):
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:33:32):
What I mean, like they did that they did today. Unfortunately.

Speaker 5 (01:33:39):
Well, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm at the past three year.

Speaker 3 (01:33:42):
The last three days were much different than today. Today,
they got their butt kicked.

Speaker 5 (01:33:47):
Yeah, I was gonna work today, so I didn't even
get to watch today.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
Lucky you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:33:54):
Red Louder leaves with shoulder discomfort. Nick Lodolo is set
to come back Friday. What the heck else is there
if they have to replace Louder for any period of time,
because we hope that they were going to have some
depth when we talked in spring training. No Green, Lodolo's

(01:34:19):
been out, Williamson's moved to the sixty day disabled list,
Louder now questionable. Like they are running on fumes already,
and we haven't even gotten to mother's death.

Speaker 5 (01:34:33):
And this is a theme going around the entire league.
All of these teams are struggling. The Tigers have six,
six starting pitchers on the aisle. This is what's going
on right now, and it's why depth is so important
and why you shouldn't have been They didn't. Trey Brady
Singer like, you need eight nine arms that are at

(01:34:54):
least capable of going out there and giving you innings.
And I don't know if the Reds have that. Now
we'll see, you know, we saw the what Brandon Williamson
has looked like this year, and you know there's some
guys we're excited about. In spring training that just haven't
panned out. But that's part of it. You know, it's
a long season and unless they change something in the

(01:35:15):
CBA about you know, roster limits or whatnot, or expanding
rosters like this is part of the puzzle that is
the MLB season and why we cannot focus on having
five guys in, you know, saying trade to six guy.
This happens every single year. Every single year, these same

(01:35:35):
questions come up, and that's why death is so important.
And maybe someone like Chase Petty just gets a longer run,
you know. I say that was the best one of
the better outings we've seen from him since he turned pro.

Speaker 3 (01:35:49):
Why aren't position players developing play? I know that's a
very complicated answer, but I mean, if you look at it,
like there's a bunch of guys, If you look at
that core from three years ago, the only one that's
really hit is Ellie and Spencer Steeer has been okay,

(01:36:11):
and everybody else that they looked at and said, this
is part of our core for the next era of
when the Reds contend has been bad to awful to
like on a milk carton.

Speaker 2 (01:36:24):
Kids won't get that.

Speaker 5 (01:36:25):
I'm not even so much. Sure, it's you know, these
culture talented players that get drafted and then they fall apart.
Like how many of these type of players have gone
on and been successful elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:36:38):
None.

Speaker 5 (01:36:38):
I'd say it's probably more of an issue with drafting
than the actual development. But I think there's issues in
both areas. Now, of course, you're going to have some
players that just don't paint out. You know, that's probably
sixty percent of a farm system. You know, top prospects
don't paint out, and that that's okay, But you're right,

(01:36:59):
it's lining up in a way that's that's starting to
feel a little suspicious about kind of what they're doing.
I don't know what the answer is, Chad, but it's
definitely a trend and it's something that should be ultra concerning.

Speaker 3 (01:37:19):
I just I don't get it, Like I don't get
why the other I mean, I guess more thing, the
things will play. Some of these guys have had flashes,
especially when they first came up, like, Okay, there's something
to work with here, Matt McLean cees Noel V. Marte,
Like the flashes have been there, but we're dangerously close

(01:37:42):
to the back of the baseball card. Is what it says,
and the back of the baseball cards have not been good.

Speaker 5 (01:37:51):
And I think that's the reality is the past couple
of years, we get to live in a fantasy world
of what if, what if this player becomes X Y,
And well now we're at the point where we're learning
what these players are and it's disappointing compared to our expectations.
And that's the issue, and maybe it is when the
Reds made these trades to acquire some of these players.

(01:38:14):
You know, maybe a player like Cees wasn't graded very
highly in the Twin system, and maybe they picked the
wrong players in these types of trades. And we're starting
to line that now. I think that there's a few
fine bag team, but the Reds needed starters, they needed core,

(01:38:36):
they needed players that they could build around, and right
now it's looking like they have fewer and fewer of
those players, which is aligning up with Eli Dellaperize's clock
ticking and ticking. Sal Stewart, although he's in a slump,
I know, has the ability to be one of those
kind of plug and play middle of the lineup back,

(01:38:57):
so I would consider that a win there. But you know,
this is Chad if you don't hit on these young,
cheap players, you're not going to fix in free agency
or trades. So the margin for error issues so low.

Speaker 3 (01:39:13):
It is, and hitting is harder than ever. I get it,
But my goodness, Clay, we're looking at like even through April,
when they were winning on any given night, there were
five to six players in the starting lineup that were
hitting adder below the Mendoza line, hitting adder below two hundred.
They have the worst batting average in Major League Baseball.

(01:39:36):
They for some reason, have built teams. They have stated
clearly we are going away from relying on power because
we don't think that's sustainable. But when you look at
the results, the only way they're scoring runs is when
they hit home runs.

Speaker 11 (01:39:52):
Like it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:54):
The messaging doesn't match what I'm seeing, and ultimately from
a thirty thousand foot view, that's more trouble than anything.
When the front office is saying this is who we
want to be, and then you watch them on any
given night and they're never that, that's confusing.

Speaker 5 (01:40:17):
That's the thing is, I don't really know what their
identity is, and I think the home runs is not sustainable.
Thing is really translated to home runs are very expensive.
It's a lot cheaper to acquire a good defensive third
baseman who can't hit, or it's a lot cheaper to
keep around a player who you know, flirts with around

(01:40:40):
league average but doesn't have any power. That those players
are kind of a diamond dozen and that's what they've collected.
And I will give them some credit that Nate Lowe
and JJ Pladey pay you know, additions for starting off great.

Speaker 2 (01:40:57):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:40:58):
Both of those players have had success in their careers
and it's panned out to not be you know, true,
So we'll see what that looks like. But I think
the more and more and more we've become honest with this,
with the larger years and years of sample size, we
just see how slim the margins are for the Reds.
They're not going to spend in a you know, with

(01:41:20):
the elites of the league. Now, they don't really have
the best offensive identity. Last year it was pitching was phenomenal.
This year it's injured pitching and taking a step back.
And if the stars don't align, this team is going
to be difficult to watch and we're seeing that. But

(01:41:40):
when they do align, you can see, like, yeah, they
have some talent, but the issue is that they just
have to have so much go right for them that
it's hard to make that last over one sixty days.

Speaker 2 (01:41:54):
Is the answer?

Speaker 3 (01:41:55):
Maybe as simple as the schedule lightens up a little
bit here with the Astros, the Nationals, the Phillies, the Guardians, Like,
can they get back on track and stop this spiral?

Speaker 5 (01:42:10):
You know, we've all said that before in the past.
So look at the head schedule and whatnot, and then
you look back and go to any year and you'll
see quote unquote easy stretches that are not easy, and
those teams are saying the same thing. We're catching the
Reds on their losing streak. We're getting them at the
right time. We need to get back. This is, you know,
so to me, no, because I don't think that the

(01:42:32):
Reds have proven, not only this year but in prior
years that they get the benefit of the doubt of
an easy schedule or hey, here's our opportunity to capitalize.
They need to treat every single series as the same
amount of importance, because they just aren't good enough to
go into a series and think, all right, here's our chance.

(01:42:53):
You know, if the mentality is always well, let's beat
up on teams worse than us. That's not the best
mentality because you're just trying to get to five hundred
at that point. And I think it's it's time. It's
time to have higher aspirations and better teams than this.
We've all suffered for long enough. And you know, this

(01:43:13):
was supposed to kind of be the year of turning
it around and building off of the playoff birth. And
the year is far from over and they've stacked plenty
of wins, but they have to find a way to
correct this course.

Speaker 2 (01:43:26):
Right now, agreed, Clay. How can they find.

Speaker 5 (01:43:29):
You just baseball dot Com on x A, Twitter or
whatever it's called at play underscore.

Speaker 2 (01:43:38):
Snow, there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:43:39):
Appreciate it, brother, It's been great to hear from me.
It's been a little while. Hopefully we'll talk again here soon.

Speaker 5 (01:43:44):
All right, I appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (01:43:46):
There, you go play snode and just baseball. Just take
a break more after this. Since that, He's ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 6 (01:43:51):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, Traffic, ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's
forward station.

Speaker 8 (01:44:10):
Microphone check up, swing and swam let jump closing down
the sect, up the frame, neck protect up that I
want them, kid missed the.

Speaker 2 (01:44:16):
Stuff for You're gonna go see who tang the summer turn.

Speaker 4 (01:44:20):
You maybe want to be happy easy.

Speaker 3 (01:44:23):
Maybe maybe get Meth and Red back in here and
let Taran know that they're in the studio next time.
I can't believe John John did that to you, red
Man in the building and nobody notifies me or Arran.

Speaker 2 (01:44:37):
What are we doing?

Speaker 3 (01:44:39):
Put your lights out, Let's get down to uh the
locker room in the clubhouse in Chicago. Uh, Terry frank
Cone after the Reds eight to three loss.

Speaker 14 (01:44:51):
What's the level of severity on louder shoulders comfort?

Speaker 17 (01:44:56):
We'll know more tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:44:57):
We're gonna get him.

Speaker 17 (01:44:58):
I'm all right in the morning. I don't think it
was a terrible amount of discomfort. I think he fell
some clicking up there. He was having trouble getting into
a spot, and I get it. You know, you're you're
asking somebody to throw the ball mid nineties and get
major league hitters out, and if you don't feel like
you can get into a slot, That's why I didn't

(01:45:21):
leave men. He wanted to stay in I don't think.
I don't think that's right.

Speaker 14 (01:45:25):
Did you notice something is that what it brought you out.

Speaker 17 (01:45:28):
A couple of times he just was but he was
throwing them. Seems like he's throwing them all pretty good.
He just so we just went and checked and that's
when he kind of fessed up a little bit.

Speaker 14 (01:45:37):
And then it seemed like with Phillips, he's had a
couple of these on this trip and earlier in the season.
It doesn't speed up on him.

Speaker 17 (01:45:43):
I don't know about that. I just you know, he's
like at times he's he's walking people and then he'll
miss middle and so he's paying kind of a double
price for it.

Speaker 14 (01:45:57):
Obviously, you don't have much time to regroup it. That's
been a tough road trip.

Speaker 17 (01:46:00):
That would be the understatement of the year. I'm actually
glad we play tomorrow. I'd hate to go sit at
home for a whole day in pout. So I'm glad
we're playing.

Speaker 8 (01:46:10):
The fourth inning that the play where Keeping touches.

Speaker 7 (01:46:14):
Yeah, and there's no is that just a tough thing
for Tyler to see from that angle of lack of communication.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
Or well, I don't know how.

Speaker 17 (01:46:22):
I don't know about the communication part, because but but Tyler, Tyler,
think about it. Tyler jumps up and he's running to
the plate and the hitters running in front of him. Yeah,
it was he didn't see it, and I don't know that.
I don't know that. I mean, we're all screaming, but
that doesn't yet.

Speaker 16 (01:46:40):
Yeah, taking out the shoulder kind of what did you
think the letter today?

Speaker 17 (01:46:48):
I really haven't though, I mean I was more worried
about him, you know, like you know, there's a couple
of like a four pitch walk that's but then after
you talked to him, it's like we have trouble kind
of repeat that. So I certainly get.

Speaker 3 (01:47:04):
It, okay, but fine, Stevenson's got to complete the play.
That's a little league. Even if you think it's a
force out. You take one step forward and you tag
the guy. Come on, here's right louder, maybe kind of
grinding through some stuff, but we'll find out where and more.

(01:47:28):
It's good from there.

Speaker 14 (01:47:29):
How concerned are about where you're at?

Speaker 18 (01:47:33):
I don't know yet really honestly, obviously annoyed that I
can stay in there and help the team out and
help the bullpen, especially you know, coming off last start.
But then kind of where we're at, but we'll find
out more.

Speaker 16 (01:47:47):
That's just simples they came up today and you thought
we get a previous started hit.

Speaker 18 (01:47:54):
I've been working through it with some stuff. But we'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:48:00):
There you go again, somebody that's working through some stuff. Look,
I understand it's professional sports. You're dinged up, you're bagged
up like it.

Speaker 2 (01:48:12):
But this is.

Speaker 3 (01:48:14):
Two out of the last three days that somebody comes
out injured and their responses.

Speaker 2 (01:48:20):
Yeah, I've been working through some stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:48:26):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:48:26):
It's not working through some stuff. He might be working
through some stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:48:29):
Here's not working through some stuff, mister Ace, mister Ace,
it's been a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:48:34):
How the heck are you?

Speaker 4 (01:48:35):
It has it?

Speaker 11 (01:48:35):
Has?

Speaker 13 (01:48:36):
It?

Speaker 11 (01:48:36):
Has it?

Speaker 8 (01:48:37):
Has? I have my little Vegas vacation and missus Ace
will probably be shaking her head and finger of shame
at me because you've gone off a little bit of
this wonderful stuff from the great weather, from the pollen
and this state and several other states.

Speaker 3 (01:48:53):
And it's like, man, we did we did a Cali
trip last month. We did out San Diego and in
LA and it was wonderful. It's so wonderful outlasting.

Speaker 8 (01:49:06):
That was good, but sort of to distract us away
from this wonderful stuff with this Red team, in Cincinnati.
Let's talk about the expanded college football playoffs, and I've
got total college football KOs just to antagonize the listeners
until the next time you're on, or at least for

(01:49:28):
the last moments of time that you allow me to
be on today. What if they expanded to thirty two
teams like on the video game.

Speaker 2 (01:49:36):
There's not thirty two good teams, mister Ace.

Speaker 8 (01:49:39):
I mean, they don't have to be thirty two good teams.
But as long as they spend enough money, I know,
and Monothaza just right, because I ain't Nott.

Speaker 5 (01:49:46):
That's sixteen games.

Speaker 3 (01:49:47):
But at some point there are diminishing returns because because
what's gonna happen, people are gonna stop watching regular season games.

Speaker 8 (01:49:56):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:49:57):
You may have you may diminish it still.

Speaker 8 (01:49:58):
But some places, like I lived in Alabama, and I
saw these people, and I mean the local sports talk
guy down there with joke and say, you've got people
up here mortgaging the trailers so they can go watch
the National Championship there.

Speaker 2 (01:50:12):
But that's that's real.

Speaker 4 (01:50:15):
That's very real.

Speaker 8 (01:50:16):
That's very real. I'm not saying I saw the people,
but I'm pretty sure I worked with a couple of
Alabama fans. I mean between the wivalie and those guys,
Alabama and Auburn are probably I love Ohio State Michigan.
That's a rivalry Alabama Alburn something totally different. You ain't

(01:50:40):
seen nothing until you've seen an SBC in state rivalry
like that. I'm gonna leave that alone because that's that's
a left field grave that we're not going to dig up.
If you expand the playoffs the thirty two teams, you'll
have you some possible upsets. Do I think that team
numbers could end up winning the whole thing? No, I

(01:51:03):
really don't. I mean it would be as likely as
the lowest seeded team in the NCUBA tournament winning that.
You're not going to have that happen to set in
video games and in somebody's bad dring.

Speaker 3 (01:51:14):
Sure, I just don't know, Like the obvious benefit is
going to be money. I don't know outside of money,
what it makes, what it does to make the sport better.

(01:51:35):
And you could say the same for expanding the NCAA
basketball tournament as well.

Speaker 2 (01:51:39):
But are I just I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:51:44):
When you get into especially in the NIL portal era,
everything is moving towards the top. If I guess if
you could make the argument that if you open it
to twenty four, you open it to thirty two, that
there's gonna be more opportunity. Teams you know, are going
to be able to get better players because they're gonna say,

(01:52:06):
we're gonna have the opportunity to go play in the playoff.

Speaker 2 (01:52:09):
You can.

Speaker 3 (01:52:09):
You can win a championship here, just the same as
you can anywhere else. They'd be lying, but at least
there would be proof of concept that they would be
in the playoff. And if you're in the playoff, you
got a shot to win the championship.

Speaker 8 (01:52:20):
Maybe that, but I mean the chad you could have
automatic bids for all your conference champions So that cuts
a lot of that argument out. And then it just
comes down to make them the top twenty five slash
thirty two teams.

Speaker 3 (01:52:35):
But mister Ace, go go look at the bottom of
the top twenty five the past couple of years.

Speaker 14 (01:52:41):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:52:42):
It is not good, bro, It is not.

Speaker 11 (01:52:45):
Bottle Hey, but bottle feeters buy tickets too.

Speaker 8 (01:52:51):
Yeah, bottle theaters buy tickets.

Speaker 11 (01:52:53):
Too, Babies.

Speaker 2 (01:52:53):
You're right, you're right.

Speaker 11 (01:52:55):
I want to see the Saskatchewan State Junior College Mudd
Ducks participating in the playoffs sponsored by Chad Grendell and
sacat Journal dot Com.

Speaker 2 (01:53:08):
I like it, the Bearcat Journal dot Com Bowl.

Speaker 8 (01:53:11):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:53:12):
Appreciate dot Com Bowl. I appreciate you, mister Ace.

Speaker 4 (01:53:19):
You have a good one.

Speaker 16 (01:53:19):
Brother.

Speaker 3 (01:53:22):
All right, that's gonna do it. I think I'm I
think they tricked me, Taran. I think I'm back Friday
and Monday of Memorial Day weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:53:31):
Yeah, so I looked at the schedule. I'll be with
you Friday, but not the Monday.

Speaker 2 (01:53:36):
Ridiculous. I'm noon to three. Yeah, I'm all right.

Speaker 3 (01:53:42):
Well, that's gonna wrap it up. It was good to
be back. Thanks to everybody for tuning in. We'll see
on the flip side. So the Moagger show. Since that
he's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 15 (01:53:55):
And I'm listening to the radio. I'm listening to what
Sad saying say about us.

Speaker 2 (01:54:01):
He got a card thro.

Speaker 5 (01:54:03):
He will be to Tosto.

Speaker 15 (01:54:06):
I just want my something Matchro when you're on it
gets tidy.

Speaker 2 (01:54:12):
Don't act this if you did try to know.

Speaker 11 (01:54:15):
She let me play with her card.

Speaker 2 (01:54:18):
I'm working late, I said, I'll.

Speaker 5 (01:54:19):
Soon be home.

Speaker 2 (01:54:21):
All the while the girl was home.

Speaker 15 (01:54:24):
Let me tell you what she's crying for. Why Because
I'm flying, super flying, Nate. I'm flying, you know me,
super fly with me.

Speaker 2 (01:54:37):
I'm sitting with duper and I'm super duper flying flying.

Speaker 6 (01:54:40):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic