6/2/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yelling at us in that commercial. Yeah, I'll go to
the Big Three. Just stop yelling at me. For the
love of God, why are you yelling at me? The
best way to get me to buy tickets isn't to
scream at me for sixty seconds. Hey, how you doing.
My name is Mullegar. This is ESPN. Can I do
the show like that? Yeah, it's esp I'm fifteen thirty.

(00:21):
Love of God, how you doing. I hope your week's
off to a fantastic start. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
and my name is Mullgar. Thank you so much for listening.
I hope you had a great weekend. My thanks to
a Chad for filling in on Friday. I was not here.
I took the day off load management season. I was
at Wrigley Field. I saw the Reds win on Friday.

(00:42):
I did not see them win on Saturday or Sunday,
although to be fair, I didn't even go to the
game yesterday. We have a lot to get to show.
Previews available on Twitter at mullegar. Thanks to Emery Federal
Credit Union, your credit union with heart since nineteen thirty nine.
Go to Emory FCU dot org. A three hour extravaganza

(01:04):
of sports that will enable you and I to have
a chance to discuss with each other a number of
issues affecting our area teams. This is what I want
to do. First, I want to go back to two
years ago. The Reds over the weekend obviously lose two
out of three in Chicago. This after they lost two
out of three to the Cubs here, So you know
so much for that whole, Like, hey, here are these

(01:24):
two big series against the team you're chasing in the division.
They were big series, but they were series in which
the Reds lost a total of two games. In the
standings in the division, they are currently closer to last
place than first place. Oh and by the way, there
are two teams between them that are playing well right
now between Cincinnati and first place. One of them, the
Milwaukee Brewers, has won seven straight and they are here tonight.

(01:49):
You know, about two years ago, at this time, it
really felt like things were starting to turn. You know,
it was the first week of June twenty twenty three,
or Elie de la Cruz got called up. And by
the way, our thoughts are with Ellie after the passing
of his sister. But Ellie Delacruz got called up. That
was just a few weeks after Matt McClean had gotten
called up, Andrew Abbott was about to get called up,

(02:11):
and this summer of fun in twenty twenty three was
about to take hold two years ago. Now, it hadn't
yet started, but by the end of June in twenty
twenty three, the Reds were playing well, had thrust themselves
into the thick of a playoff chase, had thrust themselves

(02:31):
into the thick of a division championship race, and it
felt like twenty twenty three, at least for a while,
that the Reds were just starting something special two years ago.
That doesn't mean that the summer of twenty twenty three
wasn't at times very frustrating. It was because the starting
pitching stunk and the team really didn't do all that

(02:56):
much of the trade deadline to make itself better. And then,
of course, if you remember when the Reds did nothing
at the deadline in twenty twenty three, all the reporting
from the ballpark was, well, you know that the players
are actually pretty happy that the front office didn't go
and make the team better. It's like, yeah, that's a lie,
but whatever, Okay, fine, But two years ago, about twenty three,
let's say, twenty two and a half months ago, it

(03:17):
felt like the Reds were starting something, didn't it? Didn't
it two years ago at this time all Star Break
twenty twenty three. Somewhere in that timeframe Midsummer felt like
the Reds were starting something special. You know, they had
put some distance between themselves in the one hundred lost

(03:39):
twenty twenty two season. Really wouldn't anybody complaining about ownership anymore.
Folks had stopped talking about Phil cast A leading on
opening Day where else you're gonna go? Twenty twenty two?
About twenty three months ago, it felt like the Reds
were on the verge of something special. And that doesn't
mean for the twenty twenty three season. I mean, god knows,
we spent a lot of time that summer debaiting the

(04:00):
merits of going for it at the trade deadline, which
I wanted them to do, and not going for it
at the trade deadline. And the argument by those folks was, well,
the Reds are ahead of schedule, No no need to
do anything now, because you know the Reds are ahead
of schedule. You remember those conversations, right trade deadline twenty

(04:22):
twenty three. Reds were in first place as late as
August second, and you know, they had bad starting pitching,
and so the question then was should they go get
a starting pitcher? Should they upgrade the starting pitching in
an effort to go to the postseason? Now again, for me,
the answer was yes. Like sometimes contention picks you, you

(04:44):
don't pick when to contend, Contention picked the Reds that year.
They basically stood pat and they paid for it because
they didn't make the playoffs, although they barely missed, and
you know, who knows what would have happened had they
gotten in. But at the very least, the one the
thing we could all agree on was, all right, the
Cincinnati Reds have a very bright future and what they're

(05:08):
doing is the start of something sustainable and the start
of something special. We all agreed on that. So here's
my question for you today, June second, twenty twenty five.
Does it feel like the Reds are doing anything uh special?

(05:30):
Does it feel like the Reds are in the middle
of a special season. Does it feel like the Reds
are on the verge of doing something special? Does this
team to you feel special? I think I know what

(05:52):
the answers are, but I'll ask anyway. At five point three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty, two years nearly two after the Reds lit
the city, excuse me, lit the city on fire, during
the summer of twenty twenty three, re energize the fan base,
got more people to come to the ballpark than anybody

(06:13):
ever would have expected, got people to move on from
the failures of the previous year and their frustrations with ownership.
Two years after that baseball team did that, this year's
team is two under five hundred as we start the
month of June. They're eight and a half games at
a first place. They have not been more than three

(06:35):
games over five hundred at any point during the season.
They continued to lose games by doing some of the
same things that killed last year's team. They still can't
make the big play on defense when needed, like Will
Benson on Saturday. They continue to make mistakes in the
field that just feel like there are reoccurrences of previous mistakes.

(06:56):
They continue to not do the little things. They continue
to trot out players that ordinarily wouldn't be starting for
other teams. They continue to field a roster that feels
woefully incomplete. They continue to erase the good vibes and
goodwill from two summers ago. Two years later, here we

(07:17):
are if I would have said to you or anybody
else Midsummer twenty twenty three, and again like, I don't
think you have to have a very good memory to
go back and have some sort of recall for what
the summer of twenty twenty three was like, quite frankly,
one of my favorite baseball seasons ever, because it was
the first time in quite a while that people were,

(07:38):
you know, energized about the team and paying attention to
the games and engaging with the product. And I think
that's that's awesome. It's certainly awesome if you do what
I do for a living, but just awesome as a fan.
Two years later, here we are. Last year did not
go well. This year is not going well. And the
remarkable thing about this year, compared to two season to go,

(08:01):
two seasons ago, they had some of the worst starting
pitching in the entire sport. This year they have good
starting pitching, really good starting pitching, and yet it feels
like the franchise has still moved backwards. Does it feel
to you like the Reds are in the middle of
doing something special. Now, I know there will be some

(08:23):
who hear this and you know, want to tap the brakes.
Come on, mo, they've had injuries, okay, fine, or heym,
It's only been sixty games. Still got plenty of time
where we're not even to Father's Day yet, Like, okay, fine,
I guess you want to give the Reds the benefit
of the doubt that they don't deserve. But it certainly

(08:44):
does feel like the most likely outcome for the Cincinnati
Reds in twenty twenty five is to not win the division.
They're eight and a half back, to not make the playoffs.
Couldn't even tell you where they are in relation to
the Walker, because it doesn't matter. It certainly feels like
the most likely outcome is they end the season with
more law than wins. And so again, let's go back
Midsummer of twenty twenty three. If I would have said

(09:06):
at that point that by now the conclusion of the
twenty twenty three season will have happened, the entire twenty
twenty four season will have happened, and we'll be sixty
or so games into the twenty twenty five season, and
this is going to be where we are. I think
either you would have said there's no way, or you
would have said, if that's the case, that's a major

(09:29):
disappointment and there's gonna have to be consequences for that. Well,
here we are. We're two years removed from that summer
fun of twenty twenty three, where it felt like the
Reds were on the verge, felt like the future was bright. Well,

(09:50):
the future is now. When we were doing the silly
debate about well do you buy or sell at the
trade deadline two years ago, those who want to the
Reds to not do anything, nobody really wanted them to sell,
I guess. But those who didn't want the Reds to
be too aggressive, who didn't want the Reds to mortgage
their future, I think had an eye aimed at and

(10:13):
an arrow pointed at twenty twenty five. Twenty twenty five
is going to be the year that's really worth going
for it. How do we feel about that today? How
do we feel about that today? Does anything about what
we have watched now for more than two months make

(10:34):
you feel like the Reds are on the verge of
doing something special? Anything about what the Reds have done
the first sixty games make you feel like the Reds
are delivering upon the promise of a brighter future from
two years ago. My phone numbers are five point three,
seven four nine, fifteen thirty and eight sixty six, seven
oh two, three seven seven six. There's other ways of

(10:57):
asking questions about this team. One is, how does this
get any better? I know a lot of folks online
are excited about Christian and Carnassian Straan. He's tearing the
cover off the ball in his rehab assignment, which is nice.
Jam Er Candelario now took a step toward coming back
because he's going to start a rehab assignment at the
Arizona Complex League. And the longer this season goes, and

(11:23):
again we're now more than one third of the way through.
The longer this season goes, the more it feels like
so many that came before it. And as you and
I both know, all these seasons that came before it
resulted in the Reds either not making the playoffs or
not advancing in them. And most of those seasons involved

(11:44):
the Reds not even coming close. So there's the other
way we could ask it. Do the Reds feel like
they are anything close to a playoff team right now?
And if I would have asked two years ago, what's
gonna happen in twenty twenty five at the end of
twenty twenty five, If the twenty three season has happened,
the twenty four season has happened, the twenty five season
has happened, and we're still waiting to get back to

(12:06):
the postseason, you would have said that A doesn't seem likely. B.
It seems like if that happens, there are going to
be consequences. We'll see seventeen minutes after three o'clock five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number? Eight six
six seven oh two three seven seven six works as well.
You can send me a tweet on the Delta Dental

(12:29):
Twitter feed. Delta Dental is building healthy and smart and
vibrant communities for all good at Delta dentaloage dot com.
We can dissect uh these series against these games this
week and in Chicago against the Cubs, if you will,
We can dissect the two series as a whole. It's
just it's it's been a season for me at least
and maybe for you too, of wondering when do things

(12:53):
get better and when does what the Reds put on
the field seem and feel and look and sound dramatically
different than so many of the teams the Reds that
put on the field before them. We'll discuss that throughout
the course of the afternoon. Five point three seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty, UH is our phone number. We'll tip our

(13:13):
cap to the Pacers here in just a few minutes.
I do have. I got a Trey Hendrickson thing I
gotta do. I wasn't gonna do it, but then I
was asked about Trey Hendrickson and Milwaukee this morning on
a radio show, So I gotta we gotta talk. Yeah,
talk about Trey Hendrickson maybe caving, which Connor ORFSI predicts
is going to happen. Uh. We also have to talk

(13:39):
about the Francona effect. Remember the question of the offseason?
I do. Let's reask it coming up in fifteen minutes
on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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This report is sponsored by Rapping. This is ESPN fifteen
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Neck Sports Grill, which is look, it's a good time
anytime a year to go to Long Next, in particular
this time of year when it's warmouth and maybe getting
a slight dash of summertime today. Outdoor patios, four KTVs

(14:47):
all over the place, an awesome beer selection, a great menu,
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last week, I got an email this morning suggesting you
guys should have Seth Water on the show because of
their FPI projections. They're out and came out last week.

(15:11):
And I wrote the guy back and said, well for once,
for once, we were ahead of you because we had
Seth on the show last Thursday. So here it is.
Listen and the guy did and semi a nice note back.
If you missed that conversation, go listen to it and
so much more on the iHeartRadio app. Also my page
at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Speaking of nice notes,

(15:33):
I got a few of them from Pacers stands over
the weekend. A congrats to the Pacers. Sometimes in sports,
you like your team, the team they play is just better.
And that's how the Eastern Conference Finals win. Great teams
and look, Indy is a very long shot, very much.

(15:55):
I don't want to say a long shot, but they're
heavy underdogs against OKAC. So the value is on the Pacers.
But great basketball teams, and I think this is true
about all sports, but great basketball teams, if you make mistakes,
they make you pay for them. And the Knicks made
a lot of mistakes in Game six, made a lot
of mistakes in this series. It's one thing to play

(16:18):
a team that makes a lot of mistakes. It's something
else to make them pay for it almost every single time.
And the Pacers did top to bottom. A more complete
roster top to bottom, a better roster. They had the
best two best players on the floor of this series.
Haliburton is awesome. Pascal Siaka was terrific. He was a
deserving Eastern Conference Finals MVP, for whatever that's worth. Quite frankly,

(16:42):
they have a better coach. And you know, I think
sometimes in sports you got to admit those things. You
might like your team. No real need for cosmetic changes.
They need some stuff to happen this offseason, but can
return the core of a team that won fifty games
and made the conference finals for the first time in
a quarter century. Indiana was just bat And you know, look, man,

(17:03):
I'm a big Knicks fan. I make no bones about
that Indiana beat them. If I had no dog in
that fight, I like. I was drawn to the Golden
State Warriors in twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen, and this
is the twenty fifteen is the year they finally won
a title, beat the Calves and six. And what I

(17:25):
loved about those teams were how they played, they shared
the ball, their ball movement, the way they space the
floor like just really fun, not even like hyper nerdy
sort of stuff. Just I love how they played and
was drawn to them. I joke all the time that
I don't root for franchises that moved, but you know,
the Warriors moved, and I didn't care because of how

(17:47):
they played, how they were coached, and that goes back
to before Steve Kerr was the coach. I'm a big
Steph Curry guy. And even when they became villainized when
they acquired Kevin Durant, to me, watching them play, they
do a lot of things that basketball fans say they
want to see teams how they want to see teams play,
and the Indiana Pacers are a version of them. Maybe
not quite as good, but they're a version of that.

(18:09):
Like for all the pub and for as much as
you know you hear from all the people on ESPN
talking NonStop about the Knicks, the story of the playoffs
here has been not just the next series. The story
of the playoffs has been I think how a lot
of people have stumbled into and discovered the Indiana Pacers
and did so before they played the Knicks because of

(18:30):
how they how well they played against the Cleveland Cavaliers
as well. So congrats to the Pacers. I hope we
get a great series. We're gonna get the number one
defensive efficiency team in the league against the team that
was number two in offensive efficiency so far in the postseason.
That's really hard to guard two championship star franchises. You know,
I am rooting for Indiana. I'm rooting for Indiana because

(18:52):
I an't rooting for a team that left Seattle. But
you know, I sometimes in sports, I've never hated the Pacers,
have no real reason to a lot of Knicks fans
are different. Maybe it's because I live closer to Indianapolis.
But good luck to the Pacers. Genuinely hope they win
the NBA title. I've bet on them, so that's a

(19:12):
big reason why. But you know this is you're gonna
hear and read a lot about how well the ratings
aren't going to be very good, which I'm not sure
why anybody cares. And you're gonna hear people who can
only talk about basketball through the filter of goats who
don't like this series. I think if if you like
really well constructed rosters, kind of quote organically put together

(19:33):
teams and teams that played distinct styles, teams that were
quote put together the right way, and I think to
a degree, teams that quote play the right way to
be a fun series, and if nobody else wants to watch,
then you know, let them not watch. But I think
it's going to be I get o case he's gonna
win in five or six. But I think we get fun, interesting,
entertaining basketball with a whole bunch of new characters relative

(19:55):
to recent NBA finals. So I'm here for. And then,
from my perspective, sometimes the the team's just better and
you didn't get screwed by the officials, and it wasn't conspiratorial,
and you know they choked away game one, but again,
you make mistakes. Good teams make you pay in the
animat and pay. So congratulations three thirty ESPN fifteen thirty

(20:18):
Sports headlines are coming up. Remember what we were all
asking ourselves back in February. Let's ask it here in
early June on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

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Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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This reporting sponsor. Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey
Chevrolet Home of Lifetime, Howard Trained protection and guarantee credit
approval from their family to yours for life, Kelsey chef
dot Com. Red Start a homestand tonight, first of three
against the Milwaukee Brewers at gabb Brady Singer and Aaron
Savali on the Hill Tonight. Milwaukee comes in having won

(21:27):
seven straight. Don't forget. Tonight's first pitch is at sevent ten.
School is out, and so as the Reds have done
for a number of years, now first couple of months
they play weeknight games at six forty. Now that school
is out, weeknight game start at seven ten. So keep
that in mind if you're headed to the ballpark tonight,
or I guess even if you're not starting line at

(21:49):
this evening, are you ready? Here we go? Freedles and
Center Red Hot TJ Friedels and center, Gavin Lux at
second base. Eli Della Cruz is playing tonight at shortstop
and batting third. Tyler Stevenson d H Spencer Steer is
at first base. Will Benson's in left field tonight. Jose
Travigno is behind the plate, Jake Fraley in right field,
and Garrett Hampson at third base, batting ninth. Also one

(22:10):
other note, Jamer Candelario is set to begin a rehab
assignment in the Arizona Complex League. There you go, Florence
Yawl's are off tonight. Congratulations to UC and Miami for
their appearances in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Miami lost a
thrilling game to a Wake Forest on Saturday, and then

(22:31):
the Bearcats lost to Wake yesterday. Nonetheless, awesome seasons for both.
The Cincinnati Bengals have announced additions to the player personnel department.
I will read the bios for all three of these dudes.
Coming up at four thirty five. How does that sound?

Speaker 5 (22:51):
Wait?

Speaker 1 (22:51):
Cal, I know you're excited. Taran, I could you could.
I could see everybody in our audience right now, going Okay,
four thirty five, tell you what that end of day
meeting we have, which by the way, if you work
in a place in four thirty five, they start calling meetings.
Come on, really, any place that has a lot of meetings.
My goal in life has always been, and professionally has

(23:11):
been number one, never have to wear a tie to work.
Number two. Uh, never have a job where I have
to go to a lot of meetings. Anyway I could.
I could see people now though, like putting off their
plans in an hour to hear me read the bios
of the three people the Bengals have added to their
player personnel departments. It's gonna be huge. We've got some
Bengal stuff coming up in the four o'clock hour. Five one, three, seven,

(23:35):
four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number. If I
sound frustrated, it's because I am, and quite frankly, if
you're a Reds fan, I don't know. If I don't
know how you're not. I know there are people who
watch this team through a different type of filter, and
that filter is the Reds can do no wrong. So

(23:55):
minus those folks, I don't know how if you're at
all emotionally invested in the Cincinnati Reds, what their season
has been to this point and what their season has been.
I'm just making it about the last two seasons. I'm
not even gonna talk about twenty twenty two or any

(24:17):
number of years where the Reds lost many, many, many
more games than they won. Like we a lot of
us looked at like twenty two when they bottomed out,
and then you know, all right, twenty three they win
more than they lose. That was the start, right, that
was that was going to be the beginning. That was
going to be all right, clean slates start from here.
A lot of good stuff did happen two years ago.

(24:39):
Since then, last year was not good, This year not good.
I've asked before when does the twenty twenty four season end?
And when does the twenty twenty five season begin? And
to a degree that applied this weekend because we saw
a lot of the same sort of slop in the field,
right Will Benson, Well Benson yesterday and Saturday Santiago Espinal

(25:02):
Elliet had to play in this series that you would
like to have back, Like, there's still so much about
how this team plays that looks familiar to anybody who
watched last year's team. That's interesting, And I know there
are some who couldn't wait to do this, couldn't wait
for things to go wrong so they could yell and

(25:24):
scream about Terry Francona because they didn't like the fact
that this offseason, it felt like for many folks all
the Reds did was hire Terry Francona. That is factually
not accurate. In fact, the Reds actually did acquire some
guys this offseason who have turned out to be assets
to this year's team. But I do remember often listening

(25:46):
to people wonder and at times spending time on this
show wondering how many wins will Terry Francona be worth?
Just always kind of a hard to put your finger
on thing. But how many times did you either engage
in a conversation about that topic, or hear others engaging

(26:08):
in a conversation, or maybe watch other people engage in
the conversation on that topic. How many wins is the
Hall of Fame manager going to be worth? We're sixty
games in again, kind of an arbitrary number, but nonetheless,
we've passed Memorial Day, We've cleared May, we're now into June.
We're kind of in the heart of the season. It's

(26:30):
you might argue, still early ish but it's not early.
They've played more than a third of their games. Number One,
how many wins since Terry Francona been worth? Number Two?
What's the Francona effect? Ben? I was on the radio
this morning in Milwaukee, and I don't know why they
called me, but they wanted to talk a little Red's

(26:52):
Brewers with Milwaukee in town this weekend, and I was asked,
what's the Francona effect? Ben? And that's not to say
there hasn't been moments of or haven't been moments of accountability?
Gordon Wittmeyer, I think a piece that came out two
weeks ago did a really good job of kind of
outlining just behind the season spring training how the new

(27:15):
manager was bringing a level to a level of accountability
that was perhaps missing from last year. But as you
and I have watched the Reds every day or listened
to the Reds every day for sixty games for the
better part of what ten weeks. Number One, how many
wins has the manager been worth? Number Two? What's the

(27:36):
Francona effect been?

Speaker 6 (27:39):
Now?

Speaker 1 (27:39):
I asked these questions not to blame Terry Francona for
where the team is. I don't think there's a manager
on earth who would have done significantly better than twenty
nine to thirty one, which is what the Reds record
is right now. But they did hire the Hall of
Fame manager for a reason. They spent all off season

(28:01):
hyping their manager for a reason. Yes, it was his
track record, but it was also I would think that
they thought he could achieve better results, achieve better results
with mostly the same team, with some other outside editions.
What's the Francona effect? Pin, I didn't have an answer today,

(28:24):
By the way, like I was asked that question, I
was also asked the question about Tray Drickson, which we'll
get to in the four o'clock hour, I didn't have
an answer because I don't know what the answer is.
There might be things happening behind the scenes that make
the Reds a more well run, more smoothly operated baseball team.
I'm sure he has the respect of, if not all

(28:46):
of his players, at least most of them. But in
terms of the part that matters the most, which is
the on field product and whether or not it yields
more wins than losses, I don't know what the answer is.
Number one, I don't know how many wins he has
been worth. I don't know, with this team is currently constructed,

(29:07):
how many wins he is supposed to be worth. And
I certainly have a hard time articulating specifically what the
Francona effect has been. I could tay what the Matt
McClain effect has been. A guy who asked to fill
the two hole in the batting order failed, who is

(29:28):
not in the starting line of tonight. I can answer
what the injury effect has been. This team has been
affected by injuries. Those injuries do not provide an excuse,
They just fill in some details as to why the
season has gone the way it has. I could talk
about the effect of the Reds starting pitching being good

(29:48):
and keeping them in most games and giving Tito more
options out of the bullpen later in games. We can
discuss and I know what the effect is of Elie
de la Cruz having an up and down first half.
But a lot of optimism for this season this year

(30:08):
was based on the Francona effect. That's not to say
that the Francona effects still can't take a stranglehold on
this team, still can't be a positive asset for the
Cincinnati Reds. Doesn't feel like it has been yet, and
it certainly doesn't feel like he's been worth any wins,

(30:30):
which maybe he was never going to be to begin with.
Maybe he was never going to be to begin with,
as long as the team was as inherently flawed as
this one was back in March and is on June
the second five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty.
But it was almost like the messaging was well. Last

(30:52):
season was an aberration, and we expect twenty twenty five
to kind of be the pickoff point where the twenty
twenty three season left off. The twenty twenty five Reds
feel a lot more like the twenty twenty four Reds
than they do the team that was in first place
as recently as August second, two years ago. Five one

(31:14):
three seven four nine, fifteen thirty. Is our phone, Your
phone calls are welcome and coming up here in uh
just a bit. Connor Orr is an outstanding writer for
Sports Illustrated, and, in a series of predictions as we
get closer and closer to the upcoming season, predicts that
Trey Hendrickson will k will discuss coming up in four

(31:36):
oh five on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station prologists.
Now Jennifer wants to not be here on the days
that I'm done here, That's okay, But but I'm I
am here today. Where are the official meteorologists of our
show's done here? Nothing against kJ? Sure, Kj's a very
nice guy. Where's Jennifer Ketchmark? What we need her? Tell

(31:57):
us how hot it's going to be tomorrow? Which signed
me up? Hell up for that? Five point three seven
four nine, fifteen thirty. It's you know, tomorrow would be
a very nice do the show outside day, especially because
I guess it's gonna rain later in the week. There
is gonna be a day this summer where I go
ahead and for the first time since I started joking

(32:17):
about wanting to do the show outside, actually do it outside.
Today would be a good day for it. Alas here
we are sitting inside in a studio that, by the way,
feels like it's as hot in here as it probably
is out I don't know how how it is out there.

Speaker 7 (32:30):
You know, we just need to pick a day and
just plan for that day where you're outside.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
We do, regardless of what happens with the weather, regardless
of anything else. The show outside day I was thinking
about that. I was at Wrigularly Field this weekend. When
I was a kid, Harry Carey and Steve Stone would
broadcast from the bleachers. Now, I don't know that there
are any bleachers the week could broadcast from, but they
just planned it and weeks in advance they would say, well,

(32:54):
we're gonna be broadcasting from the bleachers at Wrigley on
you know, Friday, July ninth. Show outside day. I'm sure
has almost no value to the audience as a whole,
But I would enjoy it. I would enjoy it h
much more than I enjoyed watching the Reds play defense
over the last couple of days. I mean, there's a

(33:15):
part of this team for me that there's a real
twenty twenty four Bengals field to it. This is not
a great apples to apples comparison, but still I'll make
it anyway. The twenty twenty four Cincinnati Bengals go down,
for my money at least as one of the greatest
organizational failures in Cincinnati sports history, because the most important

(33:39):
part of the sport, you had a guy who was
awesome at the most important position. You had a guy
who would have a fair claim to best in the
league and yet you missed the playoffs. That is a
tremendous organizational failure. The Reds this year have starting pitching

(34:03):
that is a legitimate ass asset. There are contending teams
who would like to have some of the red starting pitchers.
They're twenty nine to thirty one, they look likely, will
be fair likely to miss the postseason. That is a

(34:25):
tremendous organizational failure. If this thing, which let's be honest,
even in the Reds' best years, you don't exactly associate
the Reds with great starting pitching. You have from where
we were two years ago when the starting pitching was
awful to what they have now. To go from awful

(34:46):
starting pitching. Yet a team that won eighty three games
two years ago to two years later having well above
average starting pitching and a team that just continues to
tread water is is hard to take. And if we're
sitting here in October, we're talking about the Reds being
on the outside looking in despite they're really good starting pitching,

(35:10):
inn that front office will deserve every piece of criticism,
every bit of heat that comes its way. To a degree,
it's you can't waste good quarterback play. You also can't
waste really good starting pitching. The Bengals wasted the quarterback
play this year. The Reds are doing the same with
their starting pitching. Speaking of the Bengals, let's talk about

(35:32):
a Trey Hendrickson prediction that came out last week. Next,
my name is Maegar. Phone numbers are five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty eight six six, seven two three
seven seven six works as well. You could always send
a tweet at Moeger. Delta Dental sponsors our Twitter feed
thanks to Adulta Dental building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for

(35:52):
all good Adulta Dental oh dot com plus Brendaman and
Jones on baseball, Coming up in one hour. It has
mostly been about baseball this season. We'll find out if
that continues. Coming up at four to fifty. It's coming
up on four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
iHeartRadio with ESPN fifteen back on the show, Cincinnati's sports
station ook.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Man on four four ESPN fifteen thirty. Monager, thank you
for listening and spending part of your Monday afternoon with us.
I hope you've had an awesome day and a very
good weekend. We'll jump back into the most team in
Major League Baseball coming up in just about fifteen minutes.
A Major League baseball team is a talk show host nightmare.

(36:42):
But you know what is a talk show host dream?
A standoff between an NFL team and a popular and
productive and successful player. That is gold. That's what Trey
Hendrickson has been for US offseason, and I'm sure it
will only continue as we get into a mini camp

(37:05):
and obviously training camp coming up in less than two months.
Connor Or of SI predicts in a series of predictions
for the upcoming season that Trey Hendrickson will cave now.
It's worth mentioning and worth pointing out, and Connor does
this in his piece that Trey Hendrickson caving probably doesn't

(37:26):
mean that he plays on the existing contract that he
is currently obligated to play under. It probably means he
accepts the offer the Bengals have out there, which according
to a bunch of different reports is roughly twenty eight
million dollars per which would represent about a seventy five
percent pay raise. Connor Or says his prediction is that

(37:50):
Trey Hendrickson caves now. A couple of things about this.
Number one, I think it would be great if neither
side had to cave. I could be being very unreasonable,
and maybe I am, but I think given the fact
that the Bengals have an offer out there to him,

(38:14):
that there's got to be there should be for reasonable
people somewhere in that sweet spot, somewhere between what the
guys at the absolute top of the market are getting
and what they've offered Trey, like, there's room there. There's

(38:36):
room in that, you know, let's just make it simple
about Miles Garrett's forty mil and what the Bengals have
offered Trey, which is a portally twenty. There's a lot
of room there. And I think given the fact that
we are still a long ways away from training camp,
I think it is completely reasonable to believe that this
can be resolved if the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson go

(38:59):
into negotiations with an open mind, go in understanding what
the other side, what their stance has been to this point.
Like I've said all along, I don't think the basic
premise of either side's point is invalid. Trey's basic premise
is I've been awesome for this team. I was awesome

(39:20):
last year, I was a Defensive Player of the Year finalist.
I led the league in sacks. I was the only
good player on this defense last year. I want to
be one of the very highest paid guys at my position.
The market has changed. I want to be one of
the very highest paid guys at my position. You may
not like how Trey has gone about getting what he's
trying to get, but the premise that he's operating under

(39:43):
here is completely valid, and the premise the Bengals have
been operating under here, I think is also completely valid.
We love you, want you to stay on the team.
We just we're not going to give you upper tier
at your position money because you know, why do we
want to pay for twenty twenty three and twenty twenty

(40:04):
four performance in twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six.
It's a very fair premise, So, you know, I think
if if both sides are being reasonable and understand the
other side's premise, that there's room for negotiation here. The
one thing I will say about the Bengals, and I've
been accused at least as it relates to this story

(40:26):
of well, you're just taking the Bengals side here, like
I'm not really I'm taking the side if I want
the team to win this season. I think Trey Hendrickson
being on the team this season enhances their ability to
win this year. But I do understand their basic premise here.
I also think, though it's it's fair and reasonable to
be frustrated by the apparent lack of negotiation. And where

(40:50):
I broke what the Bengals was when Katie Blackburn made
it sound like we've made our final offer. Trey's just
going to have to be happy. Number one? Why would
you say that back in early April? Number two? Why
have that point of view? If you really want the
guy to play for you, and if you really want

(41:12):
to get rid of distractions, if you really want to
get rid of training camp controversies, if you really want
to get rid of the questions about whether or not
the guy's actually going to decide to miss games, why
not come to the negotiating table and hope that the
other side is as reasonable as you're willing to be.

(41:33):
And I know this is something we have talked about before.
I think if both sides are being reasonable, they say
to the other, all right, you know, Trey says, fine,
I'm not going to get the absolute you know, highest
end of the market money. Uh, but I need more
than twenty eight And if you're the Bengals, like, the
market has changed, and so isn't there an offer out

(41:56):
there that you can make that maybe doesn't push you
into the financial tear you don't want to go in,
but that does give the guy you're trying to keep
a pay raise and make him more willing to sign.
So ideally, nobody is caving here. Caving means one side
calls the other after a long stretch of their being

(42:17):
no negotiation and says, okay, fine, we'll do it your
way now. Understanding everything you have come to know about
the Cincinnati Bengals, are they the side that's most likely
to cave? If that's what it's gonna take to get
the deal done? Somebody caving.

Speaker 6 (42:39):
Again?

Speaker 1 (42:40):
I cannot be Try to be more, try to be
as clear about this as possible. I think ideally neither
side has to cave and negotiations can keep going because
there is still a lot of time. I mean, how
the regular season doesn't start for more than three months.
There's lots of time to sit down, lots of time
to exchange figures, lots of time to be reasonable. But

(43:03):
if this is about caving based on what we know
about how the Cincinnati Bengals do things held to a
degree based on the words that have come out of
Katie Blackburn's mouth, and based on the fact that to
a large degree, they hold all the cards here. If

(43:24):
one side's gonna cave, it's more likely to be Trey
Hendrickson and not the Bengals. And maybe to a large degree,
that's what the Bengals are betting on. Right like, you
could not sign the contract you could play for seventy
five percent less. If you decide to go ahead and

(43:45):
play in the deal you have right now, you could
say no to our offer. You can hit free agency
at the end of this year, and if you have
a down season, or if you suffer an injury, then
who knows what the market's going to be for you?
Or do you can go ahead and suck it up
and decide to play on twenty eight this season. Maybe
Trade doesn't cave, Maybe he does indeed hold out. Maybe

(44:07):
he holds out and the Bengals suffer because of it,
and maybe that suffering causes Cincinnati to go back to
the drawing board and they come back to the negotiating
table and they've got a different offer, and it's done
out of somewhat desperation. But if one side is gonna cave,
chances are it ain't gonna be the Bengals. My question
is why do why does one side or the other

(44:29):
have to cave? Like the frustrating part for me, and
I know there have been different nuggets out there here
and there over the last couple of months suggesting while
the two sides are closed and there's optimism, a deal
could get done. And maybe that's the case. The Bengals
certainly do not negotiate publicly, so if they have a
sit down with Trey and his agent or do a

(44:49):
zoom call or something like that, they're not gonna cent
a press release announcing as much. But it certainly does
feel like there's silence between the two parties, and I
don't know why that has to be the case. We
will see. I was also I mentioned before, I was
on a radio station in Milwaukee today mainly to talk
Red's Brewers, and I got a question about the Francona effect.

(45:13):
One of the hosts asked me about the Packers trading
for Trey Hendrickson, and like I hated to throw cold
water on his hopes to add the reigning NFL sack champion.
But it certainly doesn't feel like there's anybody connected to
this who believes that a trade even has a chance

(45:34):
of happening, probably because it doesn't. Probably because it doesn't,
but it is. You know, there was driving up to
Chicago on Friday, chatter in Chicago about, well, you know
what Cincinnati could still trade Trey Hendrickson. I guess in
Milwaukee slash Green Bay this week they've been talking about
sort of the same thing. I feel comfortable in making

(45:56):
the assertion that neither of those things are going to happen.
We'll see five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty
and eight six six seven oh two three seven seven six.
You know there's an expiration date for excitement. We'll get
to that next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (46:13):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
experts at u see health. Learn more at u sehealth
dot com northbound seventy five. Accident has the left lane
blocked off at Galbreth Road. Traffic stop and go back
to Mitchell northbound seventy five. After Mitchell, it's an accident

(46:42):
that is off onto the right shoulder and on Kilby Road.
It reports of a fuel spill at Suspension Bridge Road.
I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Jen all right, thank you. Nineteen after four of this
is ESPN fifteen thirty Brenman and Jones on Baseball is
just about thirty minutes away. It was interesting we used
the reference point to two years ago, and it was
early June twenty twenty three. It's hard to believe given

(47:12):
how sort of uninspiring let's go with that uninspiring last
year's team was also lost more games than they won,
and how largely uninspiring this year's team has been. You know,
the season of twenty twenty three, in the middle of
the summer was it felt like out of nowhere, out
of left field, and it was a blast to watch

(47:34):
so many young players get to the big leagues and
have almost instant success and take the Reds who look
like they were en route for another losing season, and
thrust them into the heart of things. I mean, it's
as recently as early August two years ago. The Reds
were in first place. Two years ago, in first place

(47:56):
because they were this team that was just defined by
exciting young talent. And part of it was the talent.
Part of it was also how the Reds played. Two
years ago. You know, there were new rules and so
they really forced the issue on the bases. They stole
a lot of bags, they had a lot of speed,
but they forced defenses to make plays and played a

(48:17):
really fun brand of baseball. But more than anything, it
was they've got this great collection of fun young players,
and they've got a burgeoning superstar in Ellie Dela Cruz.
There is nothing worse in baseball, by the way, than
a bad team with a superstar who never gets seen.
It was kind of remarkable. Man like Ellie Dela Cruz
is a popular player, understandably, so he's a guy who

(48:40):
sells a lot of jerseys and a whole lot of
people who get a chance to actually watch him play,
because well, the Reds are never in big stage games
because they're constantly spinning their tires. But there's an expiration
date on fun team with lots of young talent, but

(49:00):
that really only goes so far. Last time, the Reds
were a fun team that had lots of young talents.
They got things turned around pretty quickly and went from
that in twenty eight or two thousand and eight, in
two thousand and nine to a team that in twenty
ten won ninety plus games. They haven't showed any indication
this year's team that they're capable of doing that. So, yeah, man,

(49:22):
there's lots of young talents, and there's lots of players
that look like neat building blocks. Although when we say lots,
think back to two years ago Matt McClain looked like
a building block. This year, No Christian and carnassion Strand
by the end of twenty twenty three look like a

(49:43):
building block, maybe even a foundational piece. Now we're certainly
all hoping that he gets back here soon and that
his recent run of hot hitting at Triple A is
going to translate into him being able to hit the
way he did toward the end of twenty twenty three,
but there's gonna be a lot of skepticism that that's
actually gonna happen. Maybe Noelve Marte is somebody you can

(50:06):
throw into the mix. I don't know. I just I
was thinking about it this weekend because I went to Chicago.
And if you remember, two years ago, the Reds were
in Chicago right before things started to turn, right before
Ellie got called up, right before the Reds wanted a
winning streak, right before the Reds spent June and July

(50:27):
thrusting themselves into the thick of things. And that felt
like the start of something big. It felt like the
start of something sustainable. It felt like the Reds were
so far ahead of schedule. It also felt like that
by now that collection of players would be competing for

(50:48):
something more than third place. It felt that by now
we would be talking about the Reds being serious tenders,
legitimately more than just competitive. And I gotta keep harping
on this, but two years ago we said all they

(51:09):
gotta do is fix the starting pitching and this team
is gonna be okay. I mean kind of reminds me
of like the Bengals defense. You know, we always say, like,
as long as they have like a league average defense,
they're gonna be fine. The team two years ago if
they had league average starting pitching as a playoff team,
and we did the topic We talked about it often
before last season. If the Reds could just have, you know,
sort of league average starting pitching, this team is gonna

(51:29):
be okay. Well, they ended up last year they had
better than league average starting pitching in this year, even
better than that, and yet the team still spins its tires.
And by the way, like what got people so excited
two years ago was not just that they were winning,
but that there was an attitude about this team, that

(51:50):
there was a newness to it, there was a cockiness
to them, there was a refreshing energy that this team
had two years ago. Anybody saying any of those things
about this year's team, like the season two years ago,
feels like it was forever go By the way, it's
an eighty two win season. It's not like that team
two years ago won ninety five games and barely missed

(52:12):
out of the playoffs. They won eighty two games and
barely missed out of the playoffs. But I remember at
the end of that season being asked, it was asked
on this show, are the Reds in twenty twenty three,
are they of a failure or success? My answer was
asked me. By twenty twenty five, are the Reds in
the postseason. If the answer is no, then it's going

(52:33):
to feel like the twenty twenty three season didn't lead
up to anything, didn't set the stage for something bigger,
and so failure well and again, like folks will get
mad at me. It's not like they're the Pirates. It's
not like they're the Reds team from three years ago
that lost one hundred games. My take on the team
before this season was they'll finish eighty three and seventy nine.

(52:55):
I still think they're not going to finish too far
away from that. Like they're not awful, they're also pretty
damn nondescript, very much kind of meh and unequivocally, at
least to this point, disappointing. And the tune will change
if over the next forty games fifty games they play
so dramatically better that number one they should be buying

(53:18):
at the deadline, and number two you could look at
the standings and conclude that they're in serious consideration or
consiious contention. Right now, such a thing happening seems unlikely,
and they'll have little bursts in them. Heck, they played
they played well in Kansas City last week and won
two out of three, and they'll have these little starts
where it feels like, all right, you know, now, maybe

(53:40):
a run is about to take hold. But every single
time that that is the case, they go in the
total opposite direction. And that was the case this week
in Chicago. Win the game on Friday, and offensively or
non competitive the next two and you make errors in
the fields. If you're a Reds fan, thing is I

(54:04):
could say, if you're a Reds fan, I don't know
how you're not frustrated, but I just I gather and
I can be dead wrong about this, and maybe it
should inform how much I spend talking about them over
the course of the next few days. I feel like
there was a sense of hope, maybe not even optimism,

(54:26):
but just hope or a sense of Let's see what
happens these next two series against the Cubs. Let's see
if the Reds can win four out of six, an
inch closer to first place. Let's see if they can
sort of serve notice that they are a team to
be reckoned with as we get to the heart of
the season. Let's see if they can take a step
towards getting comfortably above five hundred. Let's see if they

(54:48):
can do more than just hold their own against the
current barometer measuring stick in the NL Central and instead
two games again that comes last weekend that they blow
one where they had two different four run leads. Another
way they had a five run lead the game on
Saturday where they offensively, it felt like from the third

(55:11):
inning they were screwed. And yesterday just played an that
right sloppy game. And I just you know, we talk
about attendance and interest in this team all the time.
I feel like there are a lot of folks who
after yesterday kind of put the Reds away for twenty
twenty five, we'll see five point three seven four nine.
Fifteen thirty is our phone number. Brenemant and Jones on

(55:32):
Baseball is next on ESPN.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
Fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
experts at you see Help learn more at u seehealth
dot com. Northbound seventy five at Galbreth Road accident now
off onto the right shoulders. Still got some heavy delays
for Mitchell Avenue twenty two minutes at the moment. Also

(56:04):
reports of a fuel spill on Kilby Road over at
Suspension Bridge Road. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
Sports headlines are a service at Kelsey Chevro Life, home
of lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their
family to yours for less kelseyshev dot com and for
life kelseyshev dot Com, Rats and Brewers. Tonight, Cincinnati opening
up a homestand first of three against the brew Crew.

(56:36):
Milwaukee just swept the Phillies over the weekend. They have
won seventh straight. Brady Singer throws against Aaron Sovali tonight
seven ten. Remember seven ten tonight on seven hundred wlwweatnight
games now seven ten. Your starting line at this evening,
are you ready? I'm sure you are.

Speaker 6 (56:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Freedol is in center, Gavin Locks is at second base,
Elie Dela Cruz is playing shortstop. Tyler Stevenson is dhing,
Spencer Steers at first. Will Benson is in left field.
Jose Travino is catching and batting seventh, Jake Frehley and
right field. Garrett Hampson the immortal. Garrett Hampson is playing
third base and batting ninth. It is time for today's

(57:20):
Postman Law injury Report. It is delivered by Postman Law.
If you're injured, Postman delivers so Christian and Carnassi on
Strand has been hitting well at Louisville on a rehabit signment.
He has hits, hicks, hits, hi ts. He has hits
in six of his seven games, nine for twenty four,
including a pair of home runs. He is getting closer

(57:43):
and closer to coming back, which is a good thing.
Jamber Candelario is going to start his rehabit signment today
in the Arizona Complex League. On top of that, no
real update on Austin Hayes, went on the injured list
after foling a ball off his foot last Wednesday in
Kansas City. That would be today's Postman Law injury report.
It is delivered by Postman Law. If you're injured, call

(58:05):
eight for for Postman. That's eight for four Postman. On
top of that, the Cincinnati Bengals have added to their
personnel department. And I promised I would read about these
guys coming up at four thirty five, and guess what
it's four thirty five. Yes, yes, I know you've been
waiting for this. This is the most exciting part of

(58:28):
the show. The Bengals today announced three additions to the
team's player personnel department, with the hiring of Josh Hinch
and Tyler Ramsey as scouts and Trey Labounty as a
scouting research analyst. Now. Hinch comes to Cincinnati from New England.
He spent the last couple of years with the Patriots

(58:48):
as a Southeast Area scout. He was a pro scout
for the two years prior to that. Prior to that,
he was the director of player personnel for the Tampa
Bay Vipers of the XFL.

Speaker 7 (59:03):
Quick question, Yeah, what we us hear the Patriots got
called for cheating?

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Well, Spygate was two thousand and seven.

Speaker 7 (59:12):
Not that one that the last one?

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Would he the flate gate?

Speaker 5 (59:14):
No?

Speaker 2 (59:15):
The other one?

Speaker 7 (59:15):
Whuld he got caught record in the Bengals like, oh,
week before they played or something.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
When was that.

Speaker 7 (59:23):
I'm trying to think, is this is that that guy?

Speaker 1 (59:25):
I don't think that's that guy. I think that goes
back aways. I don't think Josh Hinch was involved in that.
But uh, well we could find out uh. He was
a former running back at Mid American Nazarene University. Nobody
cares about that. Ramsey brings sixteen years of scouting experience.
Most recently, he was on the scouting staff for the

(59:46):
twenty twenty five Senior Bowl. Started his career with the Seahawks,
where he spent three seasons as a scouting assistant and
nine is an area scout with a focus on the
West Coast region. Was on the Seattle staff when the
Seahawks won the Super Bowl. Following the twenty thirteen seats,
he joined the Carolina Panthers organization in twenty twenty one,
spent that season as a national scout, and then served

(01:00:07):
as an assistant director of Pro Personnel for the Panthers
in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. Trey la
Bounty began his career in NFL player personnel last season
as a football analytics in turn with the Bills. Played
four seasons at Stanford as a walk on defensive end,
and then earned his master's degree in sport analytics from

(01:00:27):
Miami University. There is everything you wanted to know about
three people that you had never heard of until about
four minutes ago.

Speaker 7 (01:00:36):
And he's cleared. I was twenty nineteen.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Twenty nineteen is when the pay they had They had
a guy in the press box filming filming the Bengals.
Is that what happened? This was Zach Taylor's first year.

Speaker 7 (01:00:49):
Yeah, he was. He was called in the Cleveland press box.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
That's right. He was in the Cleveland press box, like
videotaping the Bengals for the Patriots. I think I think
that's I totally forgot about that. All right, Well, I
don't think this guy was involved, but if so, maybe
he can bring some of those cheating techniques with him
to Cincinnati. Uh, we will see, we will see. Could

(01:01:20):
help the defense. You never know, You never know. I
spent a few minutes last hour talking about the Indiana Pacers,
the NBA team closest to Cincinnati. They play in the
NBA Finals Game one in Oklahoma City on Thursday night.
They beat my Knicks. I you are going to hear

(01:01:41):
no shortage of people who complain. They don't complain. I've
always found it interesting when folks who are not television
executives suddenly care about TV ratings Like this will happen often,
especially like during the World Series where We've had some
World series where the ratings haven't been all that good,
and baseball fans will fret or the ratings will be good,

(01:02:02):
and now look, I as a proponent of this modern
era of college basketball, I will use TV ratings for
the NCAA Tournament as evidence that the sport is not dying.
I think a sport is dying when people stop consuming it.
Folks have not stopped consuming college basketball. But you're gonna

(01:02:23):
have a lot of folks who wonder about the ratings
for the NBA Finals between Indiana and Oklahoma City. And
I don't know why they care. I don't know why
they care. Brendanman and Jones on Baseball is coming up
in ten minutes. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
are living with Alzheimer's or other dementias. Find answers from
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(01:03:05):
minute delay, got an injury accident. He's found on Harrison
between Baker Avenue and Sarvice Court. Police or they are
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Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
This report is sponsored by Austin. Alexis Diaz got traded
last week to the Dodgers for gay, a guy whose
name I've already forgotten. I've won three seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. If you miss anything on this show, you
could always find it. Or if there's anything you heard

(01:03:38):
on this show and you're like, holy crap, kind of
like today, I want to hear that again. Go get
on the app, the iHeartRadio app, which is new and
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and so go check it out. Or you can do
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this show are a service of a long neck sports

(01:03:59):
grew Seth Walter from ESPN was terrific. By the way.
FC Cincinnati lost on Saturday, which stinks. The Orange and
Blue have hit a little bit of a rut, a
little bit of a dry spell. If you want to
go down and down that road on a weekly basis,
we get one of the MLS commentators for Apple TV,

(01:04:23):
and they're all terrific. We had Taylor Twelman, probably the
most well known. He was with us two weeks ago
because he had FC Cincinnati versus Atlanta. I actually texted
the dude with Major League Soccer who helps us get
these guests. We had Miguel Guyardo on this show, former
goalkeeper across a few different Major League Soccer teams. He

(01:04:44):
was on our show on Thursday, I was off on Friday.
Probably the best soccer analyst we've ever had. Analyst. I'm
not talking to beat writer, but analyst. So even though
FC Cincinnati has already played, because let's face it, for
most of the season, they've been pretty good, and we've
had a lot of analysts talking about, you know, like
why the team is playing well or how the team

(01:05:05):
is surviving despite not playing well. If you're an FC
Cincinnati fan, I thought Miguel Gierdo was particularly insightful when
it comes to talking about the need for more offense,
integrating some of the newer players. FC Cincinnati kind of
rectifying some of its recent issues, and taking the team's

(01:05:26):
overall game to a different level. So If you missed
that a were worry you b go listen to it
now again on the iHeartRadio app or my page at
ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. It's been a very long
time since the Reds won the National League central thirteen years.
It's been a very long time since the Reds have

(01:05:49):
advanced in the postseason. For most of the last thirty years,
and certainly for most of the last couple of decades,
the Reds have fielded losing teams, some teams just terrible,
many of them. In the mid to late twenty tens.
Off the top of my head, what they lost ninety
eight in twenty fifteen, ninety four, twenty sixteen, and twenty seventeen,

(01:06:12):
ninety five and twenty eighteen, And since then, they've had
some years where they actually found ways to win more
games than lose. Last year was not one of those,
But last year was also not twenty fifteen or twenty seventeen.
This year's team is not twenty fifteen or twenty seventeen
or one of those years where they lost ninety five
plus games. I have a hard time believing that the

(01:06:34):
Reds are going to lose ninety five games. A lot
of us thought that twenty twenty two and twenty twenty
three were a clean slate. So let's pretend that twenty
twenty two and twenty twenty three started the clean slate.
The slate's not clean anymore, now, is that? Coming up?

(01:06:55):
At five oh five? First, Brendanman and Jones on Baseball
on ESPN fifteen thirty. If you're like so many Americans
these days, you're focusing on your health, and you're all right,
it's five h five. This is ESPN fifteen to thirty.
M O Edgar, Thank you so much for listening today.
I hope you've had an awesome Monday. I hope you've

(01:07:16):
gotten outside. Weather is turning, at least until rain some
more on Wednesday. It is signed for the mikelob Ultra
five o'clock Happy Hour on ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks to
our friends and yours at michelob Ultra, I might have
had one or two of those this weekend in Shytown.
Mikelob Ultra, superior taste, superior light beer. Let's see phone

(01:07:40):
calls coming up this hour and will not monopolize the
rest of the show. Phone calls coming up this hour,
reds you know, just a couple of weeks ago, we
made a big deal of these games against the Chicago Cubs, right,
got three with the Cubs here and then three this weekend,
and not if they won those series that it was

(01:08:01):
going to be time to break out the champagne or
start counting down magic numbers. But if you're gonna be
serious contenders, you got to make a dent against the
team that you're chasing. The Reds went into those series
against the Cubs, two of them in consecutive weekends, six
and a half games back. They come out of the
series this weekend eight and a half games back. More

(01:08:23):
bad defense, more sloppy play, more wasted goods starting pitching,
more ground lost to the team they're chasing. Meanwhile, the
Cardinals have been playing well. Milwaukee's here tonight. The Brewers
have won seven consecutive games. We've played a substantial chunk
of the season sixty games. Sixty games. It's still I

(01:08:46):
guess if you look at early versus late as a
matter of before the All Star breaker, after the All
Star Break, well, there's still plenty of time for it
to still be early, but it's not that early anymore.
In the Division, that matters. Apologies to Pirates fans has
had a stretch where they've played very well. The Cubs

(01:09:08):
have been good all season long, fifteen over five hundred
right now, they've got the second tide for the second
best winning percentage in baseball, tied for the best winning
percentage or not tie, yeah, tide for the best winning
percentage in the National League. Cardinals have had a good stretch.
The Brewers have won seven consecutive games. The Reds continue

(01:09:31):
to spin their wheels. Meanwhile, many try to convince themselves
that it's just a matter of time we will see
I go back to two years ago. Two years ago
is when the Reds turn things around dramatically and quickly.
The twenty twenty two season was miserable for a thousand

(01:09:52):
different reasons, not the least of which was they lost
one hundred games and twenty twenty three. Many of us
went into the season going, you know what, just avoid
losing one hundred times and it's okay. But twenty twenty
three felt like the start of something. We started to
get introduced to a lot of new characters, a lot
of new characters whose arrivals we couldn't wait for, and

(01:10:13):
some new characters that we weren't that familiar with to
begin with. Twenty twenty three Reds were in first place
as late as early August, got eliminated from postseason contention
after the one hundred and sixty first game. I don't
know that I would call that season a successful one,
but it was one that most definitely re energized many

(01:10:37):
Reds fans most of the city. After the misery of
twenty twenty two, where no one went to games, people
started to rediscover the Reds and Great American Ballpark again.
I did not get a phone call that summer about ownership,
about Phil Castellini and where else You're gonna go. It

(01:10:58):
was one of the most refrain rushing baseball seasons I
can remember, personally and professionally. I'll always hold it in
high regard. It was fun to watch people re engage
with baseball games. We weren't talking about people buying planes
to fly over the ballpark, or boycotting or any of

(01:11:19):
that stuff. We talked baseball and the team. That season
gave us a good reason to because it felt like
what the Reds were doing two years ago was the
start of something. It was just the beginning the start
of something and folks who were saying, like the Reds are,
you know, they get a clean slate with me right
now because they finally are sticking to a plan. They

(01:11:42):
finally have a plan that's yielding results. And so you
know what, with a little bit more work, some tweaks
to the roster, continued good additions by the front office
for some maybe a better manager, it'll be a matter
of time before what we're seeing in twenty twenty three
trans leads to something substantial in the not so distant future.

(01:12:05):
Twenty twenty three felt like the start of something special.
Two years later, does it feel like the Reds are
in the middle of something special two years later. It's
amazing to me. They have fixed the starting pitching two
years ago. Granted I don't have as much depth as

(01:12:27):
they did maybe a couple of months ago, but starting
pitching for this year's team has been an asset. It's
one of the most remarkable things. Two years ago, the
Reds playoff chances were sunk because of awful starting pitching.
This year, they have better starting pitching. They don't have
a better team, they have a team that has spent
the first sixty games of this season spinning its tires.
They have a team that has played a lot like

(01:12:51):
the team that last year cost its manager his job.
This is something we've done on this show before, kind
of tongue in cheek, wondering when will the twenty fourteen
I'm sorry, when will the twenty twenty four season end?
When will the twenty twenty five season begin? When will
the promise be delivered? The promise of future contention, a

(01:13:15):
brighter future, A team that, with that core they had
in place two years ago, felt like it was not
that far away from contending. They may turn it around
this year. I guess I have to acknowledge that possibility.
Maybe all they're missing is Christian and Carnacion Strand, who
hasn't been productive at the big league level since the

(01:13:35):
end of the twenty twenty three season. Or maybe they'll
get Jamer Candelario back and he'll hold the key that
will unlock this otherwise pedestrian that best offense. Good luck
on that happening. So there's my question for you. That's
why there have been a lot of disappointing red seasons.
That goes without saying there have been a lot of

(01:13:57):
really frustrating red seasons. There have been a lot of
seasons where you knew going in they were gonna be terrible.
Let's be honest, a whole lot of those years after
twenty thirteen, we knew in March they were gonna be terrible.
Maybe this past March we didn't think they were gonna
be really good, but it was reasonable to expect that
at some point in the not so distant future they

(01:14:20):
could go from a team that was starting something special
to a team that is either continuing to start something
special or is special. Neither seemed to apply right now.
There's obviously no one reason for this. There's obviously no
one person at fault for this. That doesn't make it
any less painful, doesn't make I think, if you're a

(01:14:43):
Reds fan, any less impatient. Yeah, man, it it might
sound like I'm throwing in the towel in this season,
but I mean, let's they've played sixty games. They have
done nothing but just run in place for over two months,
while they have dug a huge hole in their division.

(01:15:05):
The team two years ago was defined by excitement. Team
two years ago felt like it was defined by having
a sort of energy that was hard to not find intoxicating.
If you're a fan, you can't apply the same things
to this year's club. So I guess I have a

(01:15:26):
couple of questions for you. If I've went three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty in phone calls are coming up two years later,
it was early June two years ago that it felt
like things started to turn. Two years later, doesn't feel
like the Reds are doing something special. Two years ago,
if I would have said that the twenty twenty three

(01:15:48):
season will come and go, regardless of how it unfolds,
make the playoffs or not make the playoffs, twenty twenty fourth,
I'll take a step backwards, lose more than they win,
and in twenty twenty five, by early June there'll be
two under five hundred through sixty games. I think you
would have said that's either not going to be good enough.

(01:16:10):
You might have said there's no way that's the case,
and yet here we are. And the other part is
there's an obvious answer for how this gets fixed. It's
certain individual players just performing better. I'm not sure how
many of these guys you could reasonably expect that from

(01:16:32):
Beyond that, I don't know what a manager is supposed
to do you know, we could discuss who should or
shouldn't be batting second. That's been a topic now for weeks.
It's you'll be happy to hear this. It's not gonna
be Santiago Espin all tonight. I don't know, just I
thought about that a lot on the way back yesterday,

(01:16:55):
Like two years ago, it kind of felt like this
was this was just getting started. And the last two
seasons have felt like an engine that just can't get going,
have felt like a car it doesn't stay on, have
felt like disappointing, frustrate, whatever adjective you want to use.

(01:17:18):
Certainly doesn't feel like anything special. Certainly doesn't feel like
the continuation of what we thought we were starting to
see in twenty twenty three. And maybe you disagree five
point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty. The thing is
about this team. I'm gonna be willing about you. We
still spend any enormous chunk of time this summer. Do

(01:17:39):
are they buyers or sellers? I'm gonna be honest with you.
I'm probably the minority here. I don't care. I want
them to achieve clarity. I think if you're a Reds fan,
you want them to achieve clarity where you don't have
to wonder if they're buyers or sellers. But the kind
of clarity you're really hoping for is the kind of
clarity that you get when you look at the standings
and see that the Reds have a good enough record

(01:18:02):
to be clearly well above five hundred, and that they're
within at least a whisk or a first place or
a playoff spot. I don't think this team is good
enough to accomplish that. You could obviously also argue that
it would be better than treading water or being stuck

(01:18:24):
there in the mud, or being close to first place
but not close enough to first place, kind of being
in no man's land. It would be better to clearly
be sellers and move on from a handful of the
pieces they have, namely in the bullpen, but also other
places too. Maybe I think this team is too good
to do that. I think that I could be dead

(01:18:50):
wrong about this, that over the course of the next
six seven weeks, they'll continue to do what they have
done all season long. When a series lose a series,
when the first game of a series, lose, the next two,
win three out of four, then drop four out of five,
starting pitching is too good for this team to totally
tank offense, and the defense is not good enough for

(01:19:11):
this team to actually make this season a special one.
And I thought the idea two years ago was for
this team this year to be a special one, because
the team two years ago, remember, was just starting something special.
UH seventeen minutes after five o'clock five one three, seven,

(01:19:32):
four nine, fifteen thirty and UH eight sixty six, seven
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fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:19:46):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the.

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About a ten minute delay right now on Central Avenue.
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This report said on your car radio and on the
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ESPN three thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:20:31):
Free, twenty two after five, ESPN fifteen thirty free. Let's
see five one fifteen thirty is our phone number, Tyler.
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Tyler. As I
try to figure out what I'm doing in here, how
are you?

Speaker 8 (01:20:53):
I'm doing good now?

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
How are you? I'm awesome? What's up?

Speaker 6 (01:20:58):
So?

Speaker 8 (01:20:58):
Uh well, I'm on my way home. I'm I'm racing
in so I can get home in time for this
lovely start for the Brewers game.

Speaker 6 (01:21:05):
Wait to watch.

Speaker 8 (01:21:07):
I wanted to call just because I'm seeing.

Speaker 6 (01:21:09):
A lot of this. I see a lot of Terry Francona.

Speaker 8 (01:21:13):
The lineup needs changed. Terry Francona has done a bad job,
and I'm not here to defend Terry Francona. He was
brought in here. The team is definitely underwhelming. I also
see a lot of David Bell. You know, he should
be sitting on his back porch with to drink. I
hope he's smiling right now.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:21:29):
David Bell was bad at his job.

Speaker 8 (01:21:30):
I don't understand why people feel the need to defend
David Bell. He was here for six years. The team
was mediocre for six years. He made the playoffs once
in a shortened season. He had three top twenty payroll teams.
They were bad. I don't know why David Bell, for
some reason now is like thought of in a higher light.

Speaker 7 (01:21:46):
He was a bad coach.

Speaker 8 (01:21:48):
Maybe tape Terry Francona isn't the answer. I know David
Bell wasn't the answer. So sorry, just needed to get off.

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
I'll say this. I'll say this, I don't think David
Bell was as bad as as you do. But Terry
Francona certainly represents an upgrade.

Speaker 8 (01:22:05):
Okay exactly. Yeah, maybe not as bad. He just was mediocre,
I would say. But the real reason I think the
concern I think there's this overwhelming part of the fan
base that thinks this team is underachieving, and I just
don't think that to necessarily be the case. I actually
think they're playing to exactly who they are, and a

(01:22:27):
lot of guys are playing better. Abbott and Lodolo are
pitching at all star rates. Amelia Kagan's having a resurgence,
one of the best years of his career. Gavin Luxe,
Jose Travino, Austin Hayes all have their highest average and
ops of their career.

Speaker 1 (01:22:40):
TJ.

Speaker 8 (01:22:40):
Bridle has the best average he's ever had, one of
the highest ops's he has ever had. Mart's came up
and hit, Will Benson's came up and hit. Austin wins
his hitting four hundred. The problem is this team just
isn't very good. The players that they have aren't good.
Other than Matt McClain and I guess if you want
to say Jamber Crandelario and maybe the first part of

(01:23:00):
Spencer's year, there's not many underachievers. In fact, there's overachievers.
The problem is the overachieving just isn't good enough. This
is a roster that is not good enough. And I
liked what you said where they're gonna the starting pitching
is gonna keep a minute, They're gonna float around and
be in this buyer seller range. But the essence of it,
wholl is this the end of the day, is the
team's going to win seventy eight to eighty three games,

(01:23:22):
and it's gonna be annoying. And they're gonna stay right
in the thick of it. But I just think that's
who they are.

Speaker 1 (01:23:28):
It is. It is who they are. That doesn't make
it any less frustrating. And I think for a lot
of us, it's not that they've underachieved this year. It's
that the franchise as a whole, for a long period
of time, has underachieved. This year's team has played essentially
the way we thought, right We thought they were going
to be a bad offensive team and maybe a bad
offensive team with some players having a nice season. But

(01:23:49):
they're a bad offensive team with really good starting pitching.
The starting pitching has saved the bad offensive team from
causing the club as a hold to crater the bad
offensive The bad offense they have has kept the starting
pitching from being a major part of a legitimate playoff
contending team. I think where the frustration comes it should
not be aimed at Terry Francona. It should not be

(01:24:11):
aimed at any of the new additions, because you just
outlined all of them, from lux to Travigno to Hayes,
at least when he's been healthy. The guys they acquired
from outside, for the most part, have been pretty good.
It's a meh season at the end of a long
stretch of time where the Reds have been at best meh.

(01:24:31):
I think there's a lot of frustration over the fact
that I referenced two years ago it felt like in
twenty twenty three that by the middle of the decade
the Reds would be ready to contend for something. Sitting
in fourth place eight and a half games at at
first place, I think you would agree as not representative
of a team that's legitimately contending for something.

Speaker 8 (01:24:50):
Well, I totally agree, it's been I'm just as frustrated
as everybody. I'm just I'm pointing my frustrations more in
the roster building thing. I'll leave you with this. I
would say most successful resurgence part of the Reds we've
seen since the teardown in twenty fifteen. And I think
you would agree as to starting pitching they or just
pitching overall in general, the development of it. They seem

(01:25:10):
to like they have that figured out, and I kind
of was thinking about this last week of pitching is
really the only place where they've gone outside the family.
They hired Derek Johnson away from the Brewers and Kyle
Body and they kind of went through that drive line
and that whole process and revamped how they developed pitching.

(01:25:32):
And now you look at the hitters and it's bleak
out of nowhere. We thought we won all of these trades,
and you start looking back and it's like, did we
win any of these trades? Did any of them work out?
Or any of these guys being developed? And it's because
this is just the same succession line from Walt Jockety.
I mean, all these guys are the same guys that

(01:25:54):
have been here for the last fifteen to twenty years.
At some point they have to look inward and make
a total wholesale change on how they developed. It's worked
for the pitching, maybe it'll work for the position players.
I'm not sure. It just feels like what we're kind
of running in circles here.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
Yeah, I mean, I think to a large degree, what's
frustrating about where they are right now? They have, you know,
Camp Colliers unfortunately injured right now. They you know, they
have a handful of players that I think look like
they're gonna be decent additions to the roster one day.
There's nobody in the offing right now. There's always these

(01:26:31):
gaps in the pipeline. You know that the pipeline kind
of emptied out in twenty twenty three because all those
players got here. It is since emptied again, and we're
kind of waiting for that next wave. I think until
that gets rectified, until you have an organization where there's
always next, there's always someone next, I think the franchise

(01:26:52):
to a large degree is going to spend its tires
and I don't know how in a short amount of
time they fix that. But it feels like, you know,
they went through this in the early twenty tens, where
a long line of players got here and then there
was no one else, And it felt like in twenty
twenty three, a long line of players got here, some
of whom worked out, others were still waiting, and now

(01:27:16):
I don't know, I don't know who's supposed to be
next to help this team this year.

Speaker 8 (01:27:22):
Yeah, I'm going agree with it feels like they're in
a bit of a lost situation and then they're unwilling
to go all in and add in the other avenues
to make that fill those gaps. To go trade for
a Kyle Tucker to go trade for I mean, he's
having a bad year, but a Luis Robert or sign
Taylor Ward, someone who could bolster this team, they just

(01:27:45):
they feel unwilling to make those decisions. So we float
in the middle.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
Yes, yes we do. Tyler. Good to hear from you.
Thank you very much too, mel One. I think that
you know this year's team. It's not shocking that they're
twenty nine to thirty one. It's not shocking that they
have flirted with a game over five hundred, a game
under five hundred right at They've been in that general range,
you know, ever since they bounced back from the three

(01:28:10):
and seven start. That in itself is not surprising, But
I I think the frustration for me, I can only
speak for myself. If I would have said in mid
July twenty twenty three that in two years we'll be
talking about a team that's in fourth place, you would

(01:28:33):
have wondered what went wrong? You would have wondered why
why did the upward trajectory stop? And there's I guess
a lot of different reasons for that, but it has
seemingly stopped. And then so how do they how do
they jump start this franchise? How do they jump start

(01:28:56):
what they have and what they are to to do
something special, which felt like was in the offing two
years ago. I don't know that I have the answer. Look,
at the end of the day, some of the players
that you decided we're going to be foundational pieces have
to be better. Unfortunately this year Matt McLain has been terrible.

(01:29:20):
Tyler Stevenson for the most part, and yeah, he's dealt
with injuries. Despite a nice recent surge as top to bottom,
not had a very good season. The money you did
spend on a free agent acquisition has not gone that
well with Jamer Candelario, and they did acquire some good
players from outside Spencer Steer twenty seven years old and
having a terrible season. I mentioned Matt McClain cees when

(01:29:44):
he was healthy, wasn't hitting, can't stay healthy. Noel Marte
when he got caught up hit, but he's been hurt.
Even like my guy Will Benson, as likable of a
guy as he is and as awesome as his one

(01:30:05):
week run as the best player in the National League was,
Will Benson is starting cornerilfielder on a team that's going
to win ninety plus games, and even his production has
slowed dramatically, frustrating as hell twenty eight away from six
sports headlines next to ESPN fifteen to thirty Cincinnati Sports.

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Brady Singer gets the ball Tonight, Reds and Brewers started
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for Milwaukee again Tonight's first pitch. Remember schools out to

(01:31:24):
the game start later seven to ten Tonight on seven
hundred w al I I do like the six forty starts.
Not gonna lie to you. Do you like the six
forty starts starting line up this evening? Freedom and Center
Lux at second, Eli's at shortstop. He is playing tonight.
A lot of folks obviously, yesterday the story of the game,
beyond the fact that the Reds lost, and frankly far

(01:31:46):
more important was the death of Ellie Deyla Cruz's sistern.
He played in the game yesterday.

Speaker 5 (01:31:51):
It was very.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
Emotional homeward and and you your heart bleeds for Ellie
and his family. Many wondered if he would go in
the bereave. I guess he's still may but he is
playing tonight. Stevenson is dhing Spencer Steer at first base.
Will Benson had left hopefully can catch a fly ball tonight.
Travino is catching Frehley isn't right, and Garrett Hampson it's

(01:32:14):
a third base seven tonight, first pitch on seven hundred
WLW Mike Gough, You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Mike, How.

Speaker 5 (01:32:27):
Are you.

Speaker 6 (01:32:30):
Ah rough day, pal real rough? Did you have a
good weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:32:34):
A very good weekend? I hate to hear that you're
having a rough day, But I know you call this
show to not talk about your rough day. So beyond that,
what's on your mind.

Speaker 6 (01:32:42):
Just came out of the mouth because it's so overwhelming. Anyway,
you were talking about twenty twenty three and all the optimism,
and you know they knew they needed power. Then okay,
there they go ahead this year and okay, lux has
turned out nice, please, and Batty and Air were just good.
He's in a decent and they picked up Hayes and

(01:33:05):
we know why because Baltimore and now he has a
terrible injury history. And they still didn't address the fricking
power issue. So, like you said, what in the hell
is going on with this team?

Speaker 1 (01:33:18):
Though they're they're not constructed well enough to compete seriously
for a championship. And if you want to blame baseball's
economics for it, blaming baseball's economics for it, if you
want to blame the fact that certain players haven't performed
up to us not then blamed the fact that certain
established players haven't performed well enough. But you're right, I mean,

(01:33:40):
if you go back to that team two years ago
and the numbers are skewed a little bit, because you know,
McClain got called up during the season. Ellie got called
up during the season. They had one player two years
ago who hit more than twenty home runs one and
it was Spencer's teer. One player hit more than twenty
home runs. Since then, they've not really added any power.

(01:34:03):
No solution has come from within. Ellis still has a
pretty damn good chance to hit at least thirty. But
you're right, so they don't have a ton of power.
But then they don't have a ton of guys who
are good at getting on base consistently. They don't have
a lot of guys who you can count on to
hit for a high average. It's just a flawed offensive team.
Part of that is construction of the roster. Part of

(01:34:24):
that is players that you thought were going to be
better just simply not being very good.

Speaker 6 (01:34:29):
Now I'm not so sure that Alexis Diaz. I think
out to the l to the Dodgers and Mark Pryor
is a hell of a great pitching coach. He was
one of the most clever Cagy pitchers I've seen in
years before all of his injuries came to getting with
the Cups. Very good pitcher, very good pitching coach. And

(01:34:51):
I bet you a dollar to a donut he'll turn
Diaz around. I'm just I hope so, and I bet
it's gonna happen. I bet it's gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:35:01):
Well, yeah, I don't know that with Alexis d As,
the problem was the caliber of the coaching. I think
it was the quality of the effort by Alexis Das.
If he goes to LA with a better frame of
mind and decides to show effort and work and care
and take care of his body and do the things
that the coaching staff asks him to do, my guess

(01:35:22):
is he has a chance to pitch in the big
leagues again and maybe even have success. I don't put
Alexis d As being given away. To me, that is
a very very clear indictment of Alexis and the things
that he did and didn't do that made the red
sour on him. I don't put that on coaching. I
put that on him. And so on a human level,

(01:35:43):
you hope that maybe the kluephone goes off and he
realizes I've got to be a pro. And if he
does that, he's a talented dude. He's got a good arm,
and he's going to a place with a great pitching coach.
Then my bet would be on Alexis having a chance
to succeed in the big leagues. Again, if the effort
an attitude are similar to what they were over the
last year and a half here, then I don't think

(01:36:05):
it matters who is pitching coaches.

Speaker 6 (01:36:07):
Okay, here, here's the other thing too. The Dodgers wouldn't
have even entertained getting him. But they've just been, like
you've mentioned on the air many times, they've been some
the pitching staff's been so decimated, whether it's starters or
relievers or whatever it is. And so people in Los Angeles,
do you think people here talking about training staff and
who's doing what and what the heck's going on? They're

(01:36:29):
out of their minds out there about it, of their mind.
Oh it's terrible. And then Willie Benson, the guy I
love that playing left field. The other day, I'm watching
FREEO going I got it, I got it.

Speaker 5 (01:36:43):
I got it.

Speaker 6 (01:36:44):
Here's the center filler and we'll just boxes to play.
And these are the kind of reasons we lose games, right.

Speaker 1 (01:36:51):
Yes, they have to win games in the margins.

Speaker 6 (01:36:54):
And don't uh that one made me mad, mo, That
one made me, mad.

Speaker 1 (01:37:00):
I mean the ball in a scoreless game on Saturday,
the ball that Benson makes his way over toward down
the right field line. Now it's Wrigley Field, and so
once you get kind of past the cutout there legitimately
is no foul territory. The wall is right there. He
looked like he had no idea where he was. And
I know wind is a factor, and I make the catch, Dude,

(01:37:23):
make the catch. He and a spit all make two
errors consecutively yesterday, which takes a game that the Reds
at least had a puncher's chance to come back in
and puts it out of reach. You're just not seeing
some of that stuff get cleaned up.

Speaker 6 (01:37:36):
Yeah, And so my buddy over days going, well, the
Cardinals really still hard that good? I said, no, not
on the things that maybe are demonstrable. But they are
the best defensive league team in Major League Baseball. And
like you're saying, they're a margin team too, just like
the Reds. So that's one way they make up for
with their defense. One quickie on the Emma on the

(01:37:58):
NBA if you don't mind, I don't care who wins,
because we talked about it. I'm ecstatic about both these
small market teams standards, but I really prefer in the
bench a little bit more. When you go down to
numbers nine and ten, Miles Turner, in my opinion, is soft.

(01:38:22):
He's a very soft center. I think they are much
better teams when Obie's in the game. I wish they'd
start Obie.

Speaker 1 (01:38:32):
I don't know that I would call him soft. I
just think as a as a big man, he prefers offensively,
at least to catch the ball on the outside. I
don't know that I would go as soft. In the
Ena plays eleven guys, They're hard to prepare for it
because they have a lot of different offensive options. I mean,
you know, in that series against the Knicks, TJ McConnell
made a difference, you know, I mean they again aaron

(01:38:56):
Ne Smith wins effectively wins the at least helps them
mount the comeback in Game one. Now, Oklahoma City was
the best defensive team in the league, shake Gilgess Alexander
was a deserving MVP for a reason. They have a
bit of a big three on their own. But what's
interesting is, you know, people wondered about Indiana and the

(01:39:17):
KNICKT series. Can they play both styles. We know they
could play fast. Can they win to grind it out
type game? Oklahoma City can play both styles too, but
if you try to grind it out against him, they
could just tear you up in the half court. And
so I'm kind of curious against a better defensive team
than the one they have played so far in the postseason,
can Indiana execute in a half court against the Thunder?

Speaker 6 (01:39:40):
Don't you love Obee?

Speaker 1 (01:39:41):
Though?

Speaker 6 (01:39:41):
He runs ferocious? Love this guy is so good?

Speaker 5 (01:39:45):
Mo?

Speaker 1 (01:39:46):
Yeah, no, he runs the floor, he knows his role,
he's great on the offensive glass. You know in Game six,
he stepped out in May to three. I do love him,
but I would stop short of calling Myles Turners off.
I got a run man.

Speaker 6 (01:40:00):
Okay, thanks, Bell, appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:40:03):
You're very welcome. H Let's see here, Bob, go ahead.
Bob didn't fall asleep on a hold this time, did you?

Speaker 3 (01:40:10):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:40:10):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:40:10):
Mo?

Speaker 1 (01:40:11):
Right away? Good?

Speaker 5 (01:40:13):
Yes, sir?

Speaker 1 (01:40:14):
And uh.

Speaker 5 (01:40:16):
Yeah, hey uh, Mike, Mike has said something I was
going to talk to you about, is uh, the Cardinals
and their defense, which has just been incredible this year.
And you know what two years ago I think it
was and maybe it was three now Brendan Donovan won
a goal go out for being the utility guy and

(01:40:37):
he has played a great left field for him and
now has moved back into second base and him and
Win for the year have one air each, which is
just you know, shortstop and second base. That that's pretty incredible, uh,

(01:40:57):
for the for.

Speaker 1 (01:40:58):
The uninitiated, so jes passing the great baseball writer for ESPN.
This was maybe a week and a half ago. Two
weeks ago, he wrote a piece on ESPN dot com
about how the Cardinals went from a train wreck defensively
two years ago to a team that could ride defense
in the contention and so far has written defense in
the Contention in twenty twenty five. I meant to mention

(01:41:20):
that piece on this show two weeks ago, and hearing
you and Mike talk about that reminded me of it.

Speaker 5 (01:41:26):
Well, you know what, another change that they made this
year is Wilson at first base and he's been great.
M and you know you're replacing a gold glover in Goldschmid, right,
But I've not seen anything that told me that that
was a big mistake. I mean, the guy that has

(01:41:46):
been great over there.

Speaker 1 (01:41:48):
Yeah, Now you they're an interesting trade. They're an interesting
team as we get closer to the deadline, Bob, because
you know, they spent the offseason trying to trade Aeronado
and it kind of felt like they were punting on
twenty twenty five. And now, in large part, you know,
Brendan Donovan has been very good. The starting staff has
remained healthy. I think everybody in that in that rotation

(01:42:09):
has made every start. You can correct me if I'm wrong. Defensively,
they do all the little things. They are a great defense. Now,
you know, a season that kind of felt like they
were punting and might deal at the deadline, maybe they're
gonna be buyers.

Speaker 5 (01:42:23):
Well, yeah, it's possible. And I you know, going into
this year, I very much thought that this was going
to be a kind of it's kind of what the
Reds are going through right now. I thought it was
gonna be a lost season. But there are apparently guys
on that team that felt differently about it. And the
funny part is Gorman and and his name sliok up

(01:42:46):
my mind right now, Jordan Walker. Neither one of those
guys are going much of anything. You know, it's it's
without them.

Speaker 1 (01:42:56):
Uh, Starting pitching and defense can carry you a long way,
and I know you gotta win in the margins. Cardinals
have done it, the Reds have not.

Speaker 5 (01:43:07):
You don't sound like you really want to talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:43:10):
This now, Bob, I'm frustrated again. I'm no, no, don't
hold it all against the Cardinals. Good for them. I'm
thrilled your team is contending like it's awesome for you.
I would be happy as hell if I were you.
I would. You're absolutely right. It's frustrating as hell if
you're a Reds fan to hear that the Cardinals, a

(01:43:31):
team that felt like it was spending the winner not
trying to win, now have a chance because they do
one of the things well the Reds don't. That is
agonizingly frustrating.

Speaker 6 (01:43:41):
Bob.

Speaker 5 (01:43:43):
Well, I'm I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your pain right now.
But you know what, man, it's still early. I mean
that this whole thing could change her house in the
next fifty days.

Speaker 1 (01:43:53):
So who is your Stanley Cup final pick? Bob?

Speaker 5 (01:43:57):
Uh? You know what? I think? I have to go
with Florida?

Speaker 1 (01:44:02):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (01:44:04):
Yeah, and that man, you talk about a long long
ride between games Edmonton to Miami.

Speaker 1 (01:44:12):
Yeah, it's a hike.

Speaker 6 (01:44:14):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 5 (01:44:15):
It's it's crazy, but yeah, should should be a good series,
I would thank all.

Speaker 1 (01:44:20):
Right, So the Florida BA Edmonton last year? How many
games did the series go? H?

Speaker 6 (01:44:27):
You know what?

Speaker 5 (01:44:28):
A seven wouldn't surprise me. You know, Edmonton played very
well against Dallas. That would have surprised me. I really
was picking down so last last year.

Speaker 1 (01:44:37):
Last year went seven. So we so all right, if
it's as good as last year, we're in for a treat. Absolutely,
all right, That's what I'm rooting for. But I'm good
to talk to you.

Speaker 5 (01:44:47):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:44:48):
They did. They spent the off season, the Cardinals looking
like a team that was going to do anything but
try to win this year. Hey, but the red saved
like three million bucks out of Lexas toy As. They'll
go use that to their benefit around the deadline when
we're trying to figure out what they are tomorrow, Paul
Danner Junior joins us. I'm looking forward to that. Don't forget.

(01:45:10):
Since he three sixty is tomorrow at noon, we return
at three oh five. This has been the michelob Ultra
of five o'clock Happy Hour. Thanks to michelob Ultra, thanks
to you for listening. Thanks to a terror plan for
producing and we'll talk to you tomorrow on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:45:26):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:45:52):
are living with Alzheimer's or other dementias. Find it answers
from leading brain health experts at you See Health. Learn
more at u sehealth dot com. All earlier accidents out
on the roadways have been cleared away, but expect delays
on westbound two seventy five near the Kentucky Indiana line

(01:46:14):
that's down to one lane for repairs of the Carrol
Cropper Bridge. In slow traffic northbound seventy one between Dana
and Ronald Reagan Highway. I'm at Exelich with traffic this
report

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