July 10, 2026 • 37 mins
The Locked on Reds Power Hour! Jeff Carr and Steven Offenbaker from The Locked On Reds Podcast joined Mo for an hour in-studio.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fifteen thirty one, Cincinnati's sports seas All.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Right, that is four four This is ESPN fifteen thirty
more Eggerts appreciate you listening today. Brenneman and Jones on
baseball just about forty five minutes away. More on the
Bengals a little bit later on, and perhaps one more
thought on the care Source exhibition event Reds and Cubs
tonight at GABP keep Brian Hayes is back, Macmatt mcclan
(00:26):
goes to the injury list with CAF issue. See if
the Reds can win a series against a team that
had their way with them at Wrigley Field earlier this season.
See if they can win a series right before the
All Star break. We have on our show on a
on a regular basis. I feel bad bothering him because
he's so busy. Jeff Carr from the Locked On Reds
(00:49):
podcast always kind enough to join us. But we get
a rare treat in studio visit, not just from Jeff
but from his co host Cohort. These guys are running
around town this week. He's in from Hawaii. Stephen Offenbaker
is with us. Gentlemen, It's nice to have an in studio.
Visit from both of you.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Appreciate it. Glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What is up?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
It's crazy to getting him in from Hawaii. The lengths
that he has to go to get here. Yeah, it's
quite a commute. I really feel like the Reds should
acknowledge him.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
If the Reds are ever good, you'll be that guy
that were like, dude, this guy used to flying from
Hawaii to watch that fly.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
That's right. I will have all the cred.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
You'll have all the CROs. Awesome to have you guys.
It really really picked a good time to visit Cincinnati
with all the overflowing enthusiasm and optimism for this team.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Buddy, I called this one wrong. I should have been
here in April. Well you got the return of key
Brian Hayes. I mean you would not have been here
otherwise to see this, and you had the second start
with Hunter Green where he might throw somewhere between eighty
and eighty five pitches.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
This is a really good time.
Speaker 6 (01:47):
I am here for the start of the Spencer Steer
era in centerfield.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
That's the whole reason I flew in.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I wondered on social media if Kee Brian Hayes will
take some fly balls in centerfield because it feels like
everybody now has to.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Why not we came up with something on the way
over for you. I'm going to do a start Bencher cut. Okay,
are you gonna start Bencher cut? Tyler Stevenson in left field,
Spencer Steer in centerfield?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Or Santiago westpen On in right field?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh? Man, all starred Spencer Steer.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
That's where I had to land to because.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I feel like he'll be he won't embarrass himself, right,
I mean, he's a capable defensive player as is right,
so he is miscast as a center fielder, but like
he'll hold his own.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Is going to be better than Jesse Winker in centerfield?
Oh yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Man, See, this franchise has a long history of this.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
They do.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
There's there's that's that speaks to the frustration.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So they put Mat mcclaan out there a week and
a half or so ago, and and he made some
nice plays in the field, but like the ball found
him when the game was hanging in the balance, and
I felt bad for him, and I just it just
it felt like not so much an exception out of desperation.
It felt like just one of the most Cincinnati Reds things. Ever.
Here we have a guy who his defense is what's
(03:05):
keeping him in the big leagues at one position, and
then in recent weeks obviously at another position. Let's take
this round peg, try to jam it in a square
hole and see if it works and it it feels
like they're always doing something like that.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Yeah, you look at Terry Francone's quotes just hot off
the press, maybe thirty forty minutes ago, talking about Spencer
Steer in centerfield. You know, he used all the magic words.
He's a ballplayer. He's gonna make the plays he's supposed
to make. Well, how many plays is he's supposed to
make in centerfield? Like, there's gonna be a lot of
balls in the gap tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Oh boy, that's just one of my frustrations. What throw
this out and you could eat answer. I'll start with you, Stephen, Like,
what is among all the disappointing things, among all the
frustrations that have built up this year, which one stands
out more than the others The total.
Speaker 6 (03:49):
Lack of offense, The way that this lineup has just
fallen on its face from very early, unable to hit
with runners in scoring position. It all comes to a
head when you start this season with the front office,
with the manager, with everybody looking in cameras and telling
anybody that will listen, this is the year we compete
for the division, this is the year we take the
next step. And instead of doing that, they fell backwards,
(04:09):
landed on their head and haven't been able to get
back up.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And it's the.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
Most frustrating thing for me, for a team that was
supposed to finally after all these years of patiently waiting
for rebuilds and waiting through the false starts and waiting
through the problems to finally give us a product to
cheer for, and for it to be this bad, this
fast is just so frustrating.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Yeah, it's the fact that if you named an X
factor in February, that X factor has failed. There have
been no positive surprises. I think if you were to
say the biggest surprise, South Stewart's not a surprise. No,
Ellie de la Cruz having a nice season outside of
the injury is not a surprise. Chase Burns might be
a little bit of a surprise, but he was a
really high draftic. So it's if it's that big of
(04:51):
a deal. The biggest surprise that you might have seen
is done. But we weren't even counting him on the
roster in February. Like at this point, we're throwing darts
at a board to see what sticks, and now Spencer
steers darts up there. We'll see if it stays. But
it just doesn't seem like McLain Marte. I mean, we've
already gotten rid of Will Benson and resigns and Christian
(05:13):
Karnacion Strand and the list goes on and on and on,
and nobody has really stepped up.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I think for me the biggest disappointment on a just
macro level. And you sort of alluded to this, Steven, Like,
I go back to three years ago and I thought, Man,
twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven are going to be awesome.
And you know, even if twenty three in the short
term felt a little bit like Fool's Golden it was
the starting pitching was bad that year. There was this
(05:39):
real sense of we're on the ground floor or something
that's that's our patience is finally going to be rewarded.
The running in place of this franchise. You know, I
put on social media the other night and you could
add two games.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
To it, but.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Four hundred and eighty eight games since they reached the
high water market the twenty twenty twenty three season, they're
twenty under five hundred, and it just it feels the same.
It looks the same, fans sound the same with an
extra sort of punch to their anger. That to me
is the issue. Like it's disappointing seasons happen, right, there
(06:18):
are years where it's like, you know what, best laid
plans didn't work out, certain players underperform, Guys got hurt,
they got some some bad breaks. You shrug your shoulders
and go, all right, you know what, try again next year.
This this feels like, what's what's the point when you
just drag us through these rebuilds and just drag us
through these you know, long stretches, telling us be patient
without ever delivering a payoff. Man, it's it's it's hard
(06:42):
to you know, sit in and go okay, well, okay,
whatever whatever's next, we're gonna be there for it. There's
gonna be when there's never a payoff, you know, at
some point you kind of stop caring and and there's
there's that element. I think for a lot of fans,
and that's frustrating.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Yeah, and all the fans right now are looking to well,
what are the rights is gonna do with the trade headline?
Obviously they have to be sellers, right And I don't
think there's anybody left in this city, anybody left that
follows this organization that has faith that Nick krac can
take what they've got and train it and trade it
to be something valuable in twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight.
I don't think anybody has faith that he can accomplish
(07:16):
that at this point. And yet there's no urgency from
the ownership group, there's no urgency from anybody else in
the front office. You can't blame Terry Francona. He has
to deal with what he's handed. So, you know, it's
very hard to find a way to be positive, to
find a silver line, and to find a way to
move forward with this team when that's the case.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
And for me, that's kind of where everybody's like questioning
ownership because that's the favorite thing to do right at
this point. If they were to come out and say
that they're not happy with what's going on, that's all
nice and good. But if they had the actions of
changing the front office, that's where everybody would start to
perk up a little bit. I'm not saying that that's
going to immediately fix the team, because whoever you bring
(07:56):
in has to be from the outside, has to make
the right decisions moving forward. But if they hit a
reset button on the front office, I think more people
would be looking at this team and saying, I can
take it seriously, because right now, no matter what you say,
if you still say that they're in the wildcard race
and they could be buyers and go get somebody the
same guys in charge.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, you know. I keep asking this, what are they
good at? Right? Like I label them and I'm not
the only one to do this, labor them the baseball
team that's good at everything but baseball, because they are
like I am watching the Reds Community Fun telethon last
night awesome, I mean just ten out of ten, just awesome.
And that the ballpark experience and promotions and giveaways and
(08:37):
Hall of Fame and alumni in the broadcast like great
across the board. The baseball part stinks and so but
from a baseball perspective, I keep asking, like, what are
they good at? Like what is the franchise's identity is it.
Are they awesome at drafting? No? Are they great at
player development? Baseball America says their farm systems the twenty
(08:58):
fifth best and it's got all the baseball at the beginning. Yeah.
Do they have this constant turn of guys who come
through the system and get to the big leagues and
you don't have to send them back and they find
roles almost immediately?
Speaker 6 (09:10):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Are they great at exploiting market inefficiencies.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Are they great at finding you know, hidden gems.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Are they great at like tapping into that second third
tier of free agents and consistently getting guys? There have
been some of those players.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
J J.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Bleda was a nice pickup, But no, So what are
they good at? Baseball organization? What are you good at?
Then the person at the top of the depth chart
or the flow chart is Nick Krawl So then I
make it about him, Well, Nick, what are you good at?
Like you're you're in charge of baseball operations? You have
been now this is your sixth season. What are you
good at? And I don't have an answer.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I think I think the most distressing part about this
was all the quotes that came out about from Kyle
Schwarter whenever he got here before the Philly series and
they asked them about the negotiations and what those were
like behind the scenes, and he said that he asked them,
outside of the contract negotiation part, what are your plans
for the trade deadline? What are your plans to contend?
What are your plans to keep guys like Elie de
(10:04):
la Cruz around? And then whenever he followed that up,
he was just like, hey, you know, some teams just
they don't have that plan yet. And it's like what
he didn't say there was he didn't like the answer
that he received, And that's just another insight into the
inner workings of what Nickkral's got going on that's got
us also work.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
And sadly, what they've become good at is being, you know,
like that old high school athlete that lived their glory
days and then just spends the rest of their years
talking about how good they used to be, talking about
the Big Red machine, talking about the nineteen ninety team.
You know, they don't have any new information, so they
just dwell on that past, and that's only going to
carry you so far. And those people, those people that
experience the big red machine. They're getting a lot older,
(10:46):
they've lost generations of fans, and they're not doing anything
to keep themselves relevant in the city. They're not building
they're not building that brand. So the only thing they've
gotten good at is talking about the past.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I actually think along with that, they've gotten really good
at telling you, hey, it's going to be better later on,
but then never delivering on that. And again, like, that's
my my single biggest frustration, more than anything in all
of sports, is you demand people be patient. You beg
people to be patient. Bear with us. This goes back
so many years. This is not just necessarily a recent thing.
(11:18):
Hang with us. It's gonna be rough, but we're gonna
be better. There's gonna be a pay it never comes,
I mean just and so like what they've you're right,
what they've gotten good at. And look, there's you can
do both. You can celebrate your past, God knows the
Cardinals do this, the Yankees do this, like you can
celebrate and honor your past and integrate your past with
your present. They should absolutely celebrate iconic players, teams, and moments.
(11:43):
But those things, those things are watered down when you
are as bad as you are consistently and so like that,
along with just constantly telling people how good you're going
to be later on and then never actually delivering on that,
That to me is the franchise's identity.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Absolutely, I mean, you know, you you look around at
the end of this season. You know, we're always we
have a running joke about you know, what kind of
banner are they going to be able to hang at
Great American Ballpark each year? And you know last year
was the Ellie played one sixty two. You know this
year is going to be Joey gave us a clock.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
That's going to be the Bandinaria that you hang at
Great American Ballack.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
I was going to say South Stewart finishes second in
n L Rookie of the Year or something like that, which,
by the way, the guy that's leading that just got
his contract Cardinals. Yeah, that's another thing that it's like, Okay,
if you're not going to trade for guys that are
going to be crazy good, if you're not going to
pony up and sign the guys that are crazy good,
if you're not going to be good at drafting the
(12:36):
ones that you do hit on, keep those guys.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Do what you can to keep them.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
And all that we've heard from the south Stewart angle
of this is that he's open to it, and he
hasn't heard any So.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I'm glad you mentioned that, because this is a conversation
that I've had and I get a lot of pushback
to it when I say, like, go ahead and do
what so many teams have done. And there's now a
very very long line of examples, including the one you
just gave, which is what the Cardinals did with JJ Weatherhold,
and that's lock him in long term while he's very
short on experience. And what I get with Sal Stewart
is ah, come on, no need to do it now,
(13:09):
it's early. And I say, look, man, this is about
asking yourself two things. One, in five or six years,
who are the players who you are most likely to
want to be on the team who are here? Now
there's two because Ellie's not going to be here, so
there's two. And then like, all right, who are the
guys who are most likely to get a significant raise
(13:32):
when they hit their first year of arbitration eligibility? And
it's Sal Stewart and Chase Burns is also there, So like,
don't you value cost control. If you value cost control,
go ahead, lock it in now. And I just I
can't get as many people to be on board with
that as I would like.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Now, you look at Terrek Scooble's contract and arbitration, and
you look at Chase Burns and what he's doing. If
you don't lock him up now, if you don't take
that risk, you're never going to be able to afford him.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Nick Kral has.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
Many many times said that, you know, we want to
make sure that the we're sure of these guys, we
want to make sure they're you know, major leaguers, that
they're going to deliver. But if you wait till then
this is the same franchise that says, well, now we
can't afford them.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
They're just too much money. We can't do it.
Speaker 6 (14:12):
You can't have it both ways, and you can't talk
out of both sides of your mouth. You have to
take that risk. You are absolutely right. South Stuart should
be getting an offer right now. Chase Burns should be
getting an offer right now. They missed their window on Ellie,
they missed their window on other guys, but they can
make up for that right now.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I figured it out.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Joey Vado won the twenty ten MVP, so South Stewart's
gonna win MVP and Chase Burns has to be the
cy young then they'll get.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
The contract extensions.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Lord, that's what we have to do, all right, Let's
let's see if we can get that going. But no,
like even the Brewers, if the Brewers are doing something, honestly,
the Red should just cheat off of their test. The
Brewers signed Jackson Cherio early. They signed Luis Lara, who
they haven't even called up yet.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Early.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
They've signed guys super early. The Pirates signed Connor Griffin early.
They made sure that they're locking these guys in. Why
are we still sitting around we being Reds and looking like, yeah, no,
we don't need to do all that.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Got to get everybody healthy first.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Jeff Well and I talked about this yesterday. I go,
you know, because I do this all the time, where
I go, you know, you complain about the Dodgers, Cool, fine, whatever,
you can't spend with them, can't spend with the Mets, whatever,
beat the Brewers. Yeah, right, And then so I'm going, okay,
look at the standings they are what they are. Look
at the head and head results well documented how much
Milwaukee's have their way. Oh more bad news. Baseball America
(15:27):
Farm System rankings Milwaukee number one, Cincinnati twenty five. And
so I've done this topic so many times where I,
if I'm Phil Castellini, I go to Nick Crawl and
go like, why can't we beat them? And why can't
we beat them? And then I go, you know what,
maybe I should hire whoever Nick Krawl was ten years
ago in the red system, who that guy is with
(15:48):
Milwaukee right now, right? And then hire him, right yeah?
Or go to the Tampa Bay Rays, go to the
Cleveland Guardians. These teams with limited resources, I guess that
seem to be always decent and never drag their fans
through seemingly unending rebuilds.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Right, It'd be the perfect situation for one of those guys,
because that's I'm hearing counterpoints from people where they're well,
look at David Searn's going to the Mets. That's a
different situation. Dude had the wrong size of foot trying
to pit into a bigger shoe and it just wasn't
quite the same because he's used to the way that
the Brewers run and then they hand him an unlimited budget,
and he's kind of lost his mind a little bit.
(16:25):
He'll probably reassess, and that's why Steve Cohen has put
his confidence back in him. But there's so many guys
out there that the Reds should be looking at, especially
like advanced scouting guys from the Brewers. It feels like
the Brewers know exactly what the Reds are gonna do
before they do it every single game that they play
them go.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Get that guy, And like, I got to break here
in a second. But if you believe, as many do
that the season next year is going to start late,
then start now and then you have a little extra time,
like you could say, okay, cool, the season might not
start next year till June first. Hopefully that doesn't happen.
But we're gonna spend We're gonna spend the remainder of
this year. We're gonna spend this offseason and whatever extra
(17:02):
time we're given by a workstopage to sort of reorganize
and put people in places that aren't currently working for
this franchise. And then then then here we are, here's
the newly reimagined, newly rebranded Cincinnati Redsyeah.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
You're absolutely right, there's there's not enough time to fix
all the things that need to be fixed.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
They should be starting right now.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
All right, Locked On Reds Podcast, Jeff and Steve with
me for the hour. Were you guys planning on doing
something more fun than this? So this is the best?
Are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
We've got beer, We're going.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
To the ball mark.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Okay, but pretty good. Pretty good afternoon as far as
I'm concerned. Twenty one after four o'clock, I'm Oeger. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 7 (17:44):
Traffic from the UC Health Trap u CKY, Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
And iheard radio station Garan teed Human ESPN fifteen thirty.
I Hard Rady.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Twenty six after four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moeger
visiting in studio with me. Are the guys from the
Locked On Reds podcast, Steve Offenbaker and Jeff Carr. Jeff
lives like ten minutes from here, Steve lives How long
is that flight from Hawaii?
Speaker 5 (18:12):
That's about twelve to direct depending on the director.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Planes in Seattle and Okay. Then hop on.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Are there lots of Reds fans on Hawaii?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
There's a couple.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Actually, I had a good buddy named Chris Slooter that
grew up here. I went to Saint X. I met
him in Hilo randomly, so he's a good friend. Now
there's a couple of us out there.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
One year, we were the number one search team in
Hawaii on Baseball Reference, and I believe that was just
me researching shows.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
But being a sports fan in Hawaii is awesome, especially
NFL Sundays.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
Oh yeah, Brolly Mary's for breakfast up at seven am,
and you got your whole day after.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
When UC was there for the Hawaii Bowl, I watched
a Bengals forty nine ers game that kicked off at
eleven am local time, four o'clock in Cincinnati. The game
ended at two. I went to the beach. It's great,
love it, It's good day all. You mentioned the trade
deadline before. Obviously the approach is likely to be sell,
(19:08):
But like, how deep does that go and can they
get anything in return for the guys they're most likely
to want to move on from?
Speaker 6 (19:15):
Ye? I think so we talked about this on our
show today. Brady Singer did a lot to raise his
stock value in that last start. One more of those
he's really going to be, you know, not top tier
because you know the Tigers are potentially shopping their guy.
You know there's top tier guys, but the next run.
Brady Singer is one of the guys in that next rung.
I think the Reds can get a return on him.
They've got some bullpen pieces they can trade away. Pierce
(19:36):
Johnson's a guy you could get something for. Caleb Ferguson's
a guy you could get something for. JJ Bude. I'm
trading him. His stock is as high as it's probably
gonna get right now, trade him, get whatever you can.
He's not gonna be much help the rest of the way,
so get something for him. These are guys that I
think will bring a return and that can bring some value,
maybe not this year, not somebody that's going to make
an immediate impact, but to your point in the earlier segment,
(19:58):
to get ready for twenty twenty seven, whenever that might start.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You'll have some more pieces in place.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And I think the macro, too, is that there are
so many teams that believe themselves to be buyers that
this is definitely a seller's market. You've got something to offer,
you can sort of name your price a little bit.
And the Reds even have a good hitting catcher who's
on an expiring deal who's not going to be here.
How good hitting is hey, he's been hitting two ninety
six last thirty days, Okay, slugging for Ford.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
But he's interesting to me because I can't imagine there's
that many catchers on the market.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
No, And actually Adam On of Emo said it on
the National broadcast the other night, saying that, boy, the
Yankees could really use a guy like Tyler Stevens.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I'm like, Nick kra Get on the phone right now.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Cash on speed dial, right now, right because they've got
a backup catcher that's been hurt. They've got whoever, I
think they ask Kyle Farmer to see if he could
catch for him, and then they've got Austin Wells who
hits somewhere close to key Brian Hayes level. And so
ultimately they would love to have Tyler Stevens in there.
But you've got to take advantage of the seller's market
that this is going to be, because the Reds are
(20:58):
not jumping the just absolute ridiculous group of teams that
are in front of them, that most of them have
the season series advantage over them already, and they're not
gonna jump them all to get.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
To the wild Cards, right, Yeah, you have to be realistic.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
What about Nicolodolo, I would trade him if you get
the right offer. You can be picky with him. You
can be picky with Spencer Steeer. It's all old friend
Jim Bowden say that the Toronto Blue Jays should go
trade for Spencer Steelers, Like, all right, once you got
to offer, and it better not be Alec Manoa. But
I think that there are a couple of guys that
they can be kind of judicious with like that. Nickelodolo
(21:36):
would probably be the next level, next tier of pitcher
below Trek Scuoble, and whoever doesn't get Schooble. They're gonna
be looking for a couple of different guys. There might
be Joe Ryan from Minnesota, but Nickelodolo compares with Joe
Ryan or that next level of pitcher, and he's got
an extra year team control.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Hang Tight Locked on Reds podcast Jeff car Steve Offenbaker
with me Well. Sports headlines are next four thirty ESPN
fifteenth aty Cincinnati Sports.
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Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
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Com Reds and Cubs first of three tonight at GABP
Hunter Green and showed at Emanaga on the Hill seven
ten on seven hundred WLW. Spencer Steer is going to
make his first career start in center field tonight. He
(22:44):
is batting third. Your starting lineup this evening, Dela Cruz
at short, Stewarts at first, then Steer, Bleday in left,
Uhaneo Suarez DHS, Tyler Stevenson behind the plate, Marte and
Wright a royal place second base. K Brian Hayes is
back from the injured list. He playing third base and
batting ninth. Matt McClain to the injured list with that
CAF issue. Florence y'all's on the road tonight against Joliet
(23:06):
World Cup quarterfinal in La Spain and Belgium. Deadlocked at
one apiece. They are in the seventy fourth minute. FC
Cincinnati plays tonight at home against English side Burnley. FC
JJ wadden Town to watch his team play The Orange
and Blue. Brendanman and Jones on Baseball's about fifteen minutes
(23:27):
away on Moegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. We are
pleased to be joined in studio by the Locked on
Red's hosts, Steve Offfenbaker and Jeff Carr. And it's awesome
to have you guys aswer you guys before the breakup.
Aout the trade deadline, where are you on the Elle
Deller cruise untouchable? Not untouchable discussion?
Speaker 6 (23:47):
Maybe untouchable right now based on the CBA. I don't
think it's a good time to trade him. Nobody's untouchable
as far as I'm concerned, outside of Chase Burns and
South Stuart. Really, Ellie's agent has already made it clear
he's not signing an extension here under the current rules.
So if you want to wait it out and see
what the new rules are, cool. If the Dodgers coming
knock in with the package you can't resist. I don't
(24:07):
think anybody is untouchable. I don't think I would be
actively shopping him.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I think that it's interesting because the absolute moniker of
untouchable means no matter what, there's certainly an offer out there.
I don't know if any other team's going to offer it.
And that's where I think that it's not going to
happen this year. Maybe after the CBA and you have
a little sit down with Scott Boris and you're like,
what's this look like for you? If he is still
(24:32):
doing his Scott Boris dance, then all right, then you
start thinking about it because you could probably get a
Wan Soto type haul. And I'm talking about the Nationals
trading them to the Padres, which that should be the
target for any Elie Dela Cruz trade here in the future.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I just don't think they're getting that right now.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
What are the odds in your opinion that Hunter Green
has dealt this all season?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
I would say I'd say fifty to fifty based on
how he pitches the the year. If there's another injury,
I'd say zero, right, But if he can prove for
the rest of the season that he is healthy, Nitcross
should entertain offers because the Reds have their ace. His
name is Chase Burns, last not petty Chase Burns.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
This is what I deal with all the time.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Comes when it comes to this offseason, I think you
should entertain all offers on everybody, but especially Hunter Green,
where it kind of feels like we know who he
is at this point, and when he's healthy, you got
to take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
And I think you got to be careful.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
You know, we're already talking about Brady Singers or for
sure trade piece, we're talking about Nicolodolo's probable trade piece.
If now you get into Hunter Green as well. They
don't have the depth to reprice all of those starters,
and they certainly don't have the money to go out
and get more starters, so you gotta taper it a
little bit. I think Hunter needs a really good second
half to get his trade value back up, and then
(25:51):
I would hang on to him and look to him
to be the next trade deadline deal. The next guy
that you trade away wouldn't do that all at once.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I don't know that between now the end of the
season he will have established enough of a pattern of
good health for you to really I just I guess
I look at it from this perspective as well. It
just it feels like there's a fracture in the relationship
between the player and the team that we hoped this
past offseason would fix, and then with the way things
unfolded with the injury, I don't think it certainly didn't
(26:18):
get any better. And so man, I'm I've always been
a big Hunter Green fan, but I understand and share
everybody's exasperation with how this injury was handled.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
And it just it.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I don't know if it's it's if it's broken to
the point that it can't be repaired, but it certainly
does seem like it's not what it needs to be.
And when that's the case, then there eventually, in any relationship,
there's you know that the two sides go their separate ways.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
I think, well, you know, you've got an MLB hired
beat writer with an organization that is notorious for holding
things close to the vest, and that guy's doing off
season stories about this picture's work ethic being questioned and
his desire to pitch yes being questioned. That didn't come
from nowhere, that came from somewhere, and I agree with
you that relationship is probably Frank.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Mark Sheldons, who you're talking about, who I think is
awesome about what he does, and he took a beating
on social media, and I said, if you think this
is Mark just popping off on his own, like, there's
few who are as well sourced and connected as Mark.
And so that was easily and clearly coming from from
people in the organization and perhaps very understandably so again,
(27:25):
like Honor Green, I've been a fan of his since
the Reds drafted him, and there's always been so much
about him that's so impressive. But I don't know how
at the end of the off season this year he
didn't throw your hands up and go dude, like, yeah,
come on, man.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
And I think there's another factor to his possibility being
traded that the Reds need to evaluate correctly, which we
know they're really good at. Is Red Louder Who is
he moving forward? Because I have a question about what
is his outpitch. It feels like he has a myriad
of pitches he can command and throw wherever he wants
to win the strike some and he gets the two strikes.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You can see he.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Kind of reminds you of Tyler Malley, where it's like
he doesn't have that pitch that puts somebody away. And
so because of that, at bats get prolonged and we
don't see the results that we've thought we would see
from Rhet Louder to this point. And it was kind
of the next way like Chase Burn's Reht Louder, We're
gonna be the next version of Hunter Green Nickelodola. If
you decided to move on from those guys, if you
don't have Rhet Louder to that point, I don't know
(28:25):
that you should be in a hurry to trade.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Can this get turned around and have them like in
a dramatically different place a year from now than they
are right now? Yes, if there's a let's assume for
a second, let's play make believe there's a full season.
It starts reasonably on time. Like I think there's a
lot of us who go, it's really hard to imagine
(28:48):
them going from what they are now to being serious
contenders in twenty seven.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Yes, because you have two of your middle of the
lineup guys and Ellie and sal that you can build
around in the lineup. In the pitching staff, You've got Chase,
You've also got Hunter Green. You've got Nicko Little if
you don't trade him this year, if you hang on
to him a little bit, so you've got three fists
of a good starting rotation. Andrew Abbot's still going to
be here next year as well, and whatever Louder becomes,
(29:12):
or if Chase Petty takes that next step, whatever that
might be, you might already have your starting rotation. And
in my opinion, you could rebuild a bullpen overnight. And
so I think that that could happen in the offseason.
And ultimately, as long as you find yourself a leadoff
hitter that you trust him, maybe that is Ellie and
he stays there, and then you have somebody else that
you add to the lineup. You got three guys you
can trust. I think you can build out.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
There, and I think it depends on your definition of
turning it around what is success. I think next year
they could be a legitimate wildcard team.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
OK.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
I think that all of the reasons that Jeff just
said could get you back to an above five hundred
or at five hundred team that would be in the
wildcard hunt to compete for this division, to go head
to head with the Milwaukee Brewers. To get back to
where that rhetoric was in February. They've got to replace
the outfield. They got to get a new catcher. They
got to overhaul the bullpen. They got to replace at
least two fifths of the starting rotation. They cannot do
(30:01):
that all in one offseason. It's going to take at
least two so to compete in the National League Central
at least.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Two years to be a wildcard team they can stumble
into that.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
How invested in this weekend's drafted, you guys, I'm looking
forward to it.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
There's two guys that I have circled. One is a
college pitcher, one is a high school outfielder. And the
college pitcher there's a little bit that yes, he is
a talented guy and I think he will add to
the system. There's another I just want a guy with
this name on the team. His name is Cameron Fluky. Okay,
you have a pitcher named Cameron Fluky. He's coming out
of Coastal Carolina six six, two ten and he's you know,
(30:35):
from the right side. He's got four different pitches with
a fastball that touches ninety nine mid ninety five, and
he's also got a curve, a slider. Slider's not quite
a sweeper like we all like to talk about sweepers now.
It's more of a tight break to it. So it's
definitely a slider and then a change that he has
as a show me pitch. But when it comes to
this red system, one of the big reasons Baseball America
knocked it down is because they have experienced a myriad
(30:58):
of injury with.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Their pitching prospects.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Right like Ty Floyd, a third round pick from twenty
twenty three from LSU, has gone through two different major
arm injuries and so he's been knocked off of any
top thirty. A guy that was a third round pick
three years ago from college, and so you kind of
wonder what he's gonna end up being. But he's a
microcosm of what's going on. They need to repair that
pitching depth as well as get better in pretty much
(31:21):
every other area of the farm system. But I think
that Fluky is my pick if I could make it,
and assuming that he's there, But then also because at
number eighteen, that's kind of hard to predict. But then
also if he's not there. I'm looking at a high
school outfit again in Trevor Condon, who makes a lot
of great contact, already has a great grasp of the
strike zone. Any play center field, which, as we know,
(31:44):
we could do some help with.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Yeah, I'm looking.
Speaker 6 (31:46):
For them to not draft an another high school prep guy,
and for the love of guy, just don't draft another
shortstop that we got to move to another right, Yeah,
like just anything else, and that'll be a successful draft
for you.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, you know, I wasn't all that long ago that
folks will like, you know, they have too many shorts
and I'm thinking, well, they can have him play other positions.
I'm good with that. I'm I'm I'm I'm ready to
draft actual centerfielders who play center field and have guys
come up in the system playing center field and then
at the big leagues they're they're playing center field. Sign
me up for that.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
The other thing too, about like the drafting shortstops and
we can move them when we want to move them.
They procrastinate the moving part like you get the triple A,
and then they decide, oh wait, we already have a
short stop, so we got to move this guy. I
mean Edwin Arroyo played three different positions in Triple A.
Right here, I thought I heard somebody say, yeah, maybe
he could even play corner outfield.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I'm like, can we just find Yah?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
You always read all he's getting in some work at
fill in the plank. But the mcclaim thing, for me,
here's what bothered me about it. Okay, so if you
want to say, look, he has the athletic capability to
go and play center field in the big leagues, fine, awesome.
Did you just stumble upon that or did anybody think
(32:58):
that months ago or a few weeks ago? Because my
thing is like, all right, man, your bat is not
going to be the reason you stick, So maybe there's
some versatility that you're gonna have to develop. Matt, go
take fly balls. Should have been done weeks ago. Hey,
Matt Edwin Arroyo was making a case for promotion. If so,
if you're gonna play, you might have to go take
some flyballs out there, right Like, there were many reasons
(33:21):
weeks ago to go dude, it's you probably have to
go there.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
Better than that is they played him in left field
in the Arizona Fall League. He was coming back from
his injury and they knew that he played center field
at UCLA, right, So this.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Tool was always in the box, right.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
They have just failed to ever try and pull it out,
which is a failure on front office's part and coaching.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
So, weeks ago, if they would have said, hey, man,
it makes sense for you to go take some flyballs
out there, go do it, I think everyone would have
said yes. And then if you get to a point
where we're desperate because guys get hurt, day Meyers Blake done.
You knew weeks ago TJ. Friedel was struggling, his second
half performance from last year was being repeated. There were
lots of signs pointing to maybe you're going to another
(34:00):
guy who could play center field. It would have made
sense weeks ago to say to Matt, develop that tool
instead of hey, go take some flyballs out there. We'll
play an inning and then the next day you're gonna
play the full nine and the ball's gonna find you.
Just it's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
And Matt is the second player in the last month
for this to have happened to because noelvi Marte also
played centerfield.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Right, Yeah, the ballplayer.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Gamer ballplayer's he's really gritty. I just want somebody to
have a position.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
What are the fair and maybe unfair criticisms of Tito
this year? From where you guys sit.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I would say I would say an unfair criticism is
how he has played some of these guys because he's
playing in the hand he's been given. Mm hmm, while
I laugh at the Spencer steer in centerfield, and you
could say JJ Bledah has more career games in centerfield,
and probably if you're going to play somebody there, maybe
it's JJ Bledah. But I think at the same token,
he's flipping a coin on most of these guys. There's
(34:59):
just been so many dudes underperform with the bat in
their hands that at this point you just kind of
hope that you put him in a spot out there
and they go crazy, and so I kind of give
him a pass on that I don't necessarily know that.
I give him too many of the passes on the
game to game strategy, some of the ways that they
advance their whole station to station philosophy where they really
(35:21):
don't steal no until they absolutely have to, and then
it's far far too late to do that. I don't
love how those seem to move because it feels like
the team has stepped back from where it was strategically
in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6 (35:36):
Yeah, And I think a fair criticism for Tito is
just that he is too loyal, sticks with things for
too long, and is reluctant to make a move when
it needs to be made. And we've seen that with
lineup construction. We've seen that since he came here, that
you know, he is very loyal to these players, and
he's never going to say anything bad about these players,
and he's going to do his best to not put
them in a negative light. And I get that, but
(35:57):
also sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and
he has been very luck nant. We saw it last
year with the amount of time Matt McClain's spent in
the two hole. You've seen it this year until he
finally was willing to try la and lead off and
try and move some guys around and do some different things.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
But it was really too little, too late at that point.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I hope you enjoy your stay in town, and uh,
I love it here, so yeah, do you love it
as much as Hawaii?
Speaker 6 (36:20):
Well, in the summers, they can go head to head
back as soon as it gets a little nippy buddy.
I'm on Monica Beach, other big island.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
That sounds amazing. That sounds amazing. All right, tell folks
word they can get the podcast.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
You can catch the podcast everywhere you get your podcasts,
including the iHeartRadio app. You can also watch us on
YouTube if you want to see our faces as we
say words.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Can't miss that.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
And then you can follow us on social media. You
follow me at Jeff Carr with three f's over on
X and on TikTok too, and you can follow Steve
at s Offenbaker with two f's on X. We haven't
got a TikTok for him yet, not gonna happen. Yeah,
I don't blame me there.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Gentlemen, thanks so much, Thanks for the appreciate this studio visit.
You got a Brendman and Jones a baseball next on
ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 8 (37:02):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health
Traffics
Fifteen thirty one, Cincinnati's sports seas All.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Right, that is four four This is ESPN fifteen thirty
more Eggerts appreciate you listening today. Brenneman and Jones on
baseball just about forty five minutes away. More on the
Bengals a little bit later on, and perhaps one more
thought on the care Source exhibition event Reds and Cubs
tonight at GABP keep Brian Hayes is back, Macmatt mcclan
(00:26):
goes to the injury list with CAF issue. See if
the Reds can win a series against a team that
had their way with them at Wrigley Field earlier this season.
See if they can win a series right before the
All Star break. We have on our show on a
on a regular basis. I feel bad bothering him because
he's so busy. Jeff Carr from the Locked On Reds
(00:49):
podcast always kind enough to join us. But we get
a rare treat in studio visit, not just from Jeff
but from his co host Cohort. These guys are running
around town this week. He's in from Hawaii. Stephen Offenbaker
is with us. Gentlemen, It's nice to have an in studio.
Visit from both of you.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Appreciate it. Glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What is up?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
It's crazy to getting him in from Hawaii. The lengths
that he has to go to get here. Yeah, it's
quite a commute. I really feel like the Reds should
acknowledge him.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
If the Reds are ever good, you'll be that guy
that were like, dude, this guy used to flying from
Hawaii to watch that fly.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
That's right. I will have all the cred.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
You'll have all the CROs. Awesome to have you guys.
It really really picked a good time to visit Cincinnati
with all the overflowing enthusiasm and optimism for this team.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Buddy, I called this one wrong. I should have been
here in April. Well you got the return of key
Brian Hayes. I mean you would not have been here
otherwise to see this, and you had the second start
with Hunter Green where he might throw somewhere between eighty
and eighty five pitches.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
This is a really good time.
Speaker 6 (01:47):
I am here for the start of the Spencer Steer
era in centerfield.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
That's the whole reason I flew in.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I wondered on social media if Kee Brian Hayes will
take some fly balls in centerfield because it feels like
everybody now has to.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
Why not we came up with something on the way
over for you. I'm going to do a start Bencher cut. Okay,
are you gonna start Bencher cut? Tyler Stevenson in left field,
Spencer Steer in centerfield?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Or Santiago westpen On in right field?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh? Man, all starred Spencer Steer.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
That's where I had to land to because.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I feel like he'll be he won't embarrass himself, right,
I mean, he's a capable defensive player as is right,
so he is miscast as a center fielder, but like
he'll hold his own.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Is going to be better than Jesse Winker in centerfield?
Oh yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Man, See, this franchise has a long history of this.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
They do.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
There's there's that's that speaks to the frustration.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So they put Mat mcclaan out there a week and
a half or so ago, and and he made some
nice plays in the field, but like the ball found
him when the game was hanging in the balance, and
I felt bad for him, and I just it just
it felt like not so much an exception out of desperation.
It felt like just one of the most Cincinnati Reds things. Ever.
Here we have a guy who his defense is what's
(03:05):
keeping him in the big leagues at one position, and
then in recent weeks obviously at another position. Let's take
this round peg, try to jam it in a square
hole and see if it works and it it feels
like they're always doing something like that.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Yeah, you look at Terry Francone's quotes just hot off
the press, maybe thirty forty minutes ago, talking about Spencer
Steer in centerfield. You know, he used all the magic words.
He's a ballplayer. He's gonna make the plays he's supposed
to make. Well, how many plays is he's supposed to
make in centerfield? Like, there's gonna be a lot of
balls in the gap tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Oh boy, that's just one of my frustrations. What throw
this out and you could eat answer. I'll start with you, Stephen, Like,
what is among all the disappointing things, among all the
frustrations that have built up this year, which one stands
out more than the others The total.
Speaker 6 (03:49):
Lack of offense, The way that this lineup has just
fallen on its face from very early, unable to hit
with runners in scoring position. It all comes to a
head when you start this season with the front office,
with the manager, with everybody looking in cameras and telling
anybody that will listen, this is the year we compete
for the division, this is the year we take the
next step. And instead of doing that, they fell backwards,
(04:09):
landed on their head and haven't been able to get
back up.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And it's the.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
Most frustrating thing for me, for a team that was
supposed to finally after all these years of patiently waiting
for rebuilds and waiting through the false starts and waiting
through the problems to finally give us a product to
cheer for, and for it to be this bad, this
fast is just so frustrating.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Yeah, it's the fact that if you named an X
factor in February, that X factor has failed. There have
been no positive surprises. I think if you were to
say the biggest surprise, South Stewart's not a surprise. No,
Ellie de la Cruz having a nice season outside of
the injury is not a surprise. Chase Burns might be
a little bit of a surprise, but he was a
really high draftic. So it's if it's that big of
(04:51):
a deal. The biggest surprise that you might have seen
is done. But we weren't even counting him on the
roster in February. Like at this point, we're throwing darts
at a board to see what sticks, and now Spencer
steers darts up there. We'll see if it stays. But
it just doesn't seem like McLain Marte. I mean, we've
already gotten rid of Will Benson and resigns and Christian
(05:13):
Karnacion Strand and the list goes on and on and on,
and nobody has really stepped up.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I think for me the biggest disappointment on a just
macro level. And you sort of alluded to this, Steven, Like,
I go back to three years ago and I thought, Man,
twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven are going to be awesome.
And you know, even if twenty three in the short
term felt a little bit like Fool's Golden it was
the starting pitching was bad that year. There was this
(05:39):
real sense of we're on the ground floor or something
that's that's our patience is finally going to be rewarded.
The running in place of this franchise. You know, I
put on social media the other night and you could
add two games.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
To it, but.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Four hundred and eighty eight games since they reached the
high water market the twenty twenty twenty three season, they're
twenty under five hundred, and it just it feels the same.
It looks the same, fans sound the same with an
extra sort of punch to their anger. That to me
is the issue. Like it's disappointing seasons happen, right, there
(06:18):
are years where it's like, you know what, best laid
plans didn't work out, certain players underperform, Guys got hurt,
they got some some bad breaks. You shrug your shoulders
and go, all right, you know what, try again next year.
This this feels like, what's what's the point when you
just drag us through these rebuilds and just drag us
through these you know, long stretches, telling us be patient
without ever delivering a payoff. Man, it's it's it's hard
(06:42):
to you know, sit in and go okay, well, okay,
whatever whatever's next, we're gonna be there for it. There's
gonna be when there's never a payoff, you know, at
some point you kind of stop caring and and there's
there's that element. I think for a lot of fans,
and that's frustrating.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Yeah, and all the fans right now are looking to well,
what are the rights is gonna do with the trade headline?
Obviously they have to be sellers, right And I don't
think there's anybody left in this city, anybody left that
follows this organization that has faith that Nick krac can
take what they've got and train it and trade it
to be something valuable in twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight.
I don't think anybody has faith that he can accomplish
(07:16):
that at this point. And yet there's no urgency from
the ownership group, there's no urgency from anybody else in
the front office. You can't blame Terry Francona. He has
to deal with what he's handed. So, you know, it's
very hard to find a way to be positive, to
find a silver line, and to find a way to
move forward with this team when that's the case.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
And for me, that's kind of where everybody's like questioning
ownership because that's the favorite thing to do right at
this point. If they were to come out and say
that they're not happy with what's going on, that's all
nice and good. But if they had the actions of
changing the front office, that's where everybody would start to
perk up a little bit. I'm not saying that that's
going to immediately fix the team, because whoever you bring
(07:56):
in has to be from the outside, has to make
the right decisions moving forward. But if they hit a
reset button on the front office, I think more people
would be looking at this team and saying, I can
take it seriously, because right now, no matter what you say,
if you still say that they're in the wildcard race
and they could be buyers and go get somebody the
same guys in charge.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, you know. I keep asking this, what are they
good at? Right? Like I label them and I'm not
the only one to do this, labor them the baseball
team that's good at everything but baseball, because they are
like I am watching the Reds Community Fun telethon last
night awesome, I mean just ten out of ten, just awesome.
And that the ballpark experience and promotions and giveaways and
(08:37):
Hall of Fame and alumni in the broadcast like great
across the board. The baseball part stinks and so but
from a baseball perspective, I keep asking, like, what are
they good at? Like what is the franchise's identity is it.
Are they awesome at drafting? No? Are they great at
player development? Baseball America says their farm systems the twenty
(08:58):
fifth best and it's got all the baseball at the beginning. Yeah.
Do they have this constant turn of guys who come
through the system and get to the big leagues and
you don't have to send them back and they find
roles almost immediately?
Speaker 6 (09:10):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Are they great at exploiting market inefficiencies.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Are they great at finding you know, hidden gems.
Speaker 7 (09:16):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Are they great at like tapping into that second third
tier of free agents and consistently getting guys? There have
been some of those players.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
J J.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Bleda was a nice pickup, But no, So what are
they good at? Baseball organization? What are you good at?
Then the person at the top of the depth chart
or the flow chart is Nick Krawl So then I
make it about him, Well, Nick, what are you good at?
Like you're you're in charge of baseball operations? You have
been now this is your sixth season. What are you
good at? And I don't have an answer.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I think I think the most distressing part about this
was all the quotes that came out about from Kyle
Schwarter whenever he got here before the Philly series and
they asked them about the negotiations and what those were
like behind the scenes, and he said that he asked them,
outside of the contract negotiation part, what are your plans
for the trade deadline? What are your plans to contend?
What are your plans to keep guys like Elie de
(10:04):
la Cruz around? And then whenever he followed that up,
he was just like, hey, you know, some teams just
they don't have that plan yet. And it's like what
he didn't say there was he didn't like the answer
that he received, And that's just another insight into the
inner workings of what Nickkral's got going on that's got
us also work.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
And sadly, what they've become good at is being, you know,
like that old high school athlete that lived their glory
days and then just spends the rest of their years
talking about how good they used to be, talking about
the Big Red machine, talking about the nineteen ninety team.
You know, they don't have any new information, so they
just dwell on that past, and that's only going to
carry you so far. And those people, those people that
experience the big red machine. They're getting a lot older,
(10:46):
they've lost generations of fans, and they're not doing anything
to keep themselves relevant in the city. They're not building
they're not building that brand. So the only thing they've
gotten good at is talking about the past.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I actually think along with that, they've gotten really good
at telling you, hey, it's going to be better later on,
but then never delivering on that. And again, like, that's
my my single biggest frustration, more than anything in all
of sports, is you demand people be patient. You beg
people to be patient. Bear with us. This goes back
so many years. This is not just necessarily a recent thing.
(11:18):
Hang with us. It's gonna be rough, but we're gonna
be better. There's gonna be a pay it never comes,
I mean just and so like what they've you're right,
what they've gotten good at. And look, there's you can
do both. You can celebrate your past, God knows the
Cardinals do this, the Yankees do this, like you can
celebrate and honor your past and integrate your past with
your present. They should absolutely celebrate iconic players, teams, and moments.
(11:43):
But those things, those things are watered down when you
are as bad as you are consistently and so like that,
along with just constantly telling people how good you're going
to be later on and then never actually delivering on that,
That to me is the franchise's identity.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Absolutely, I mean, you know, you you look around at
the end of this season. You know, we're always we
have a running joke about you know, what kind of
banner are they going to be able to hang at
Great American Ballpark each year? And you know last year
was the Ellie played one sixty two. You know this
year is going to be Joey gave us a clock.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
That's going to be the Bandinaria that you hang at
Great American Ballack.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
I was going to say South Stewart finishes second in
n L Rookie of the Year or something like that, which,
by the way, the guy that's leading that just got
his contract Cardinals. Yeah, that's another thing that it's like, Okay,
if you're not going to trade for guys that are
going to be crazy good, if you're not going to
pony up and sign the guys that are crazy good,
if you're not going to be good at drafting the
(12:36):
ones that you do hit on, keep those guys.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Do what you can to keep them.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
And all that we've heard from the south Stewart angle
of this is that he's open to it, and he
hasn't heard any So.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I'm glad you mentioned that, because this is a conversation
that I've had and I get a lot of pushback
to it when I say, like, go ahead and do
what so many teams have done. And there's now a
very very long line of examples, including the one you
just gave, which is what the Cardinals did with JJ Weatherhold,
and that's lock him in long term while he's very
short on experience. And what I get with Sal Stewart
is ah, come on, no need to do it now,
(13:09):
it's early. And I say, look, man, this is about
asking yourself two things. One, in five or six years,
who are the players who you are most likely to
want to be on the team who are here? Now
there's two because Ellie's not going to be here, so
there's two. And then like, all right, who are the
guys who are most likely to get a significant raise
(13:32):
when they hit their first year of arbitration eligibility? And
it's Sal Stewart and Chase Burns is also there, So like,
don't you value cost control. If you value cost control,
go ahead, lock it in now. And I just I
can't get as many people to be on board with
that as I would like.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Now, you look at Terrek Scooble's contract and arbitration, and
you look at Chase Burns and what he's doing. If
you don't lock him up now, if you don't take
that risk, you're never going to be able to afford him.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Nick Kral has.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
Many many times said that, you know, we want to
make sure that the we're sure of these guys, we
want to make sure they're you know, major leaguers, that
they're going to deliver. But if you wait till then
this is the same franchise that says, well, now we
can't afford them.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
They're just too much money. We can't do it.
Speaker 6 (14:12):
You can't have it both ways, and you can't talk
out of both sides of your mouth. You have to
take that risk. You are absolutely right. South Stuart should
be getting an offer right now. Chase Burns should be
getting an offer right now. They missed their window on Ellie,
they missed their window on other guys, but they can
make up for that right now.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I figured it out.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Joey Vado won the twenty ten MVP, so South Stewart's
gonna win MVP and Chase Burns has to be the
cy young then they'll get.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
The contract extensions.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Lord, that's what we have to do, all right, Let's
let's see if we can get that going. But no,
like even the Brewers, if the Brewers are doing something, honestly,
the Red should just cheat off of their test. The
Brewers signed Jackson Cherio early. They signed Luis Lara, who
they haven't even called up yet.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Early.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
They've signed guys super early. The Pirates signed Connor Griffin early.
They made sure that they're locking these guys in. Why
are we still sitting around we being Reds and looking like, yeah, no,
we don't need to do all that.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Got to get everybody healthy first.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Jeff Well and I talked about this yesterday. I go,
you know, because I do this all the time, where
I go, you know, you complain about the Dodgers, Cool, fine, whatever,
you can't spend with them, can't spend with the Mets, whatever,
beat the Brewers. Yeah, right, And then so I'm going, okay,
look at the standings they are what they are. Look
at the head and head results well documented how much
Milwaukee's have their way. Oh more bad news. Baseball America
(15:27):
Farm System rankings Milwaukee number one, Cincinnati twenty five. And
so I've done this topic so many times where I,
if I'm Phil Castellini, I go to Nick Crawl and
go like, why can't we beat them? And why can't
we beat them? And then I go, you know what,
maybe I should hire whoever Nick Krawl was ten years
ago in the red system, who that guy is with
(15:48):
Milwaukee right now, right? And then hire him, right yeah?
Or go to the Tampa Bay Rays, go to the
Cleveland Guardians. These teams with limited resources, I guess that
seem to be always decent and never drag their fans
through seemingly unending rebuilds.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Right, It'd be the perfect situation for one of those guys,
because that's I'm hearing counterpoints from people where they're well,
look at David Searn's going to the Mets. That's a
different situation. Dude had the wrong size of foot trying
to pit into a bigger shoe and it just wasn't
quite the same because he's used to the way that
the Brewers run and then they hand him an unlimited budget,
and he's kind of lost his mind a little bit.
(16:25):
He'll probably reassess, and that's why Steve Cohen has put
his confidence back in him. But there's so many guys
out there that the Reds should be looking at, especially
like advanced scouting guys from the Brewers. It feels like
the Brewers know exactly what the Reds are gonna do
before they do it every single game that they play
them go.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Get that guy, And like, I got to break here
in a second. But if you believe, as many do
that the season next year is going to start late,
then start now and then you have a little extra time,
like you could say, okay, cool, the season might not
start next year till June first. Hopefully that doesn't happen.
But we're gonna spend We're gonna spend the remainder of
this year. We're gonna spend this offseason and whatever extra
(17:02):
time we're given by a workstopage to sort of reorganize
and put people in places that aren't currently working for
this franchise. And then then then here we are, here's
the newly reimagined, newly rebranded Cincinnati Redsyeah.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
You're absolutely right, there's there's not enough time to fix
all the things that need to be fixed.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
They should be starting right now.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
All right, Locked On Reds Podcast, Jeff and Steve with
me for the hour. Were you guys planning on doing
something more fun than this? So this is the best?
Are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
We've got beer, We're going.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
To the ball mark.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Okay, but pretty good. Pretty good afternoon as far as
I'm concerned. Twenty one after four o'clock, I'm Oeger. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 7 (17:44):
Traffic from the UC Health Trap u CKY, Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
And iheard radio station Garan teed Human ESPN fifteen thirty.
I Hard Rady.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Twenty six after four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moeger
visiting in studio with me. Are the guys from the
Locked On Reds podcast, Steve Offenbaker and Jeff Carr. Jeff
lives like ten minutes from here, Steve lives How long
is that flight from Hawaii?
Speaker 5 (18:12):
That's about twelve to direct depending on the director.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Planes in Seattle and Okay. Then hop on.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Are there lots of Reds fans on Hawaii?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
There's a couple.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
Actually, I had a good buddy named Chris Slooter that
grew up here. I went to Saint X. I met
him in Hilo randomly, so he's a good friend. Now
there's a couple of us out there.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Nice.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
One year, we were the number one search team in
Hawaii on Baseball Reference, and I believe that was just
me researching shows.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
But being a sports fan in Hawaii is awesome, especially
NFL Sundays.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
Oh yeah, Brolly Mary's for breakfast up at seven am,
and you got your whole day after.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
When UC was there for the Hawaii Bowl, I watched
a Bengals forty nine ers game that kicked off at
eleven am local time, four o'clock in Cincinnati. The game
ended at two. I went to the beach. It's great,
love it, It's good day all. You mentioned the trade
deadline before. Obviously the approach is likely to be sell,
(19:08):
But like, how deep does that go and can they
get anything in return for the guys they're most likely
to want to move on from?
Speaker 6 (19:15):
Ye? I think so we talked about this on our
show today. Brady Singer did a lot to raise his
stock value in that last start. One more of those
he's really going to be, you know, not top tier
because you know the Tigers are potentially shopping their guy.
You know there's top tier guys, but the next run.
Brady Singer is one of the guys in that next rung.
I think the Reds can get a return on him.
They've got some bullpen pieces they can trade away. Pierce
(19:36):
Johnson's a guy you could get something for. Caleb Ferguson's
a guy you could get something for. JJ Bude. I'm
trading him. His stock is as high as it's probably
gonna get right now, trade him, get whatever you can.
He's not gonna be much help the rest of the way,
so get something for him. These are guys that I
think will bring a return and that can bring some value,
maybe not this year, not somebody that's going to make
an immediate impact, but to your point in the earlier segment,
(19:58):
to get ready for twenty twenty seven, whenever that might start.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You'll have some more pieces in place.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And I think the macro, too, is that there are
so many teams that believe themselves to be buyers that
this is definitely a seller's market. You've got something to offer,
you can sort of name your price a little bit.
And the Reds even have a good hitting catcher who's
on an expiring deal who's not going to be here.
How good hitting is hey, he's been hitting two ninety
six last thirty days, Okay, slugging for Ford.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
But he's interesting to me because I can't imagine there's
that many catchers on the market.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
No, And actually Adam On of Emo said it on
the National broadcast the other night, saying that, boy, the
Yankees could really use a guy like Tyler Stevens.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I'm like, Nick kra Get on the phone right now.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Cash on speed dial, right now, right because they've got
a backup catcher that's been hurt. They've got whoever, I
think they ask Kyle Farmer to see if he could
catch for him, and then they've got Austin Wells who
hits somewhere close to key Brian Hayes level. And so
ultimately they would love to have Tyler Stevens in there.
But you've got to take advantage of the seller's market
that this is going to be, because the Reds are
(20:58):
not jumping the just absolute ridiculous group of teams that
are in front of them, that most of them have
the season series advantage over them already, and they're not
gonna jump them all to get.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
To the wild Cards, right, Yeah, you have to be realistic.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
What about Nicolodolo, I would trade him if you get
the right offer. You can be picky with him. You
can be picky with Spencer Steeer. It's all old friend
Jim Bowden say that the Toronto Blue Jays should go
trade for Spencer Steelers, Like, all right, once you got
to offer, and it better not be Alec Manoa. But
I think that there are a couple of guys that
they can be kind of judicious with like that. Nickelodolo
(21:36):
would probably be the next level, next tier of pitcher
below Trek Scuoble, and whoever doesn't get Schooble. They're gonna
be looking for a couple of different guys. There might
be Joe Ryan from Minnesota, but Nickelodolo compares with Joe
Ryan or that next level of pitcher, and he's got
an extra year team control.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Hang Tight Locked on Reds podcast Jeff car Steve Offenbaker
with me Well. Sports headlines are next four thirty ESPN
fifteenth aty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 8 (22:01):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 7 (22:06):
From the UC Health Traffic Center at the uc Health
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They've mastered what's best for you. Learn more at UCHealth
dot com Westbound two seventy five in.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
L Chevrol Home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit
approval from their Family of Yours for Life kelseyshev dot
Com Reds and Cubs first of three tonight at GABP
Hunter Green and showed at Emanaga on the Hill seven
ten on seven hundred WLW. Spencer Steer is going to
make his first career start in center field tonight. He
(22:44):
is batting third. Your starting lineup this evening, Dela Cruz
at short, Stewarts at first, then Steer, Bleday in left,
Uhaneo Suarez DHS, Tyler Stevenson behind the plate, Marte and
Wright a royal place second base. K Brian Hayes is
back from the injured list. He playing third base and
batting ninth. Matt McClain to the injured list with that
CAF issue. Florence y'all's on the road tonight against Joliet
(23:06):
World Cup quarterfinal in La Spain and Belgium. Deadlocked at
one apiece. They are in the seventy fourth minute. FC
Cincinnati plays tonight at home against English side Burnley. FC
JJ wadden Town to watch his team play The Orange
and Blue. Brendanman and Jones on Baseball's about fifteen minutes
(23:27):
away on Moegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. We are
pleased to be joined in studio by the Locked on
Red's hosts, Steve Offfenbaker and Jeff Carr. And it's awesome
to have you guys aswer you guys before the breakup.
Aout the trade deadline, where are you on the Elle
Deller cruise untouchable? Not untouchable discussion?
Speaker 6 (23:47):
Maybe untouchable right now based on the CBA. I don't
think it's a good time to trade him. Nobody's untouchable
as far as I'm concerned, outside of Chase Burns and
South Stuart. Really, Ellie's agent has already made it clear
he's not signing an extension here under the current rules.
So if you want to wait it out and see
what the new rules are, cool. If the Dodgers coming
knock in with the package you can't resist. I don't
(24:07):
think anybody is untouchable. I don't think I would be
actively shopping him.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I think that it's interesting because the absolute moniker of
untouchable means no matter what, there's certainly an offer out there.
I don't know if any other team's going to offer it.
And that's where I think that it's not going to
happen this year. Maybe after the CBA and you have
a little sit down with Scott Boris and you're like,
what's this look like for you? If he is still
(24:32):
doing his Scott Boris dance, then all right, then you
start thinking about it because you could probably get a
Wan Soto type haul. And I'm talking about the Nationals
trading them to the Padres, which that should be the
target for any Elie Dela Cruz trade here in the future.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I just don't think they're getting that right now.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
What are the odds in your opinion that Hunter Green
has dealt this all season?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
I would say I'd say fifty to fifty based on
how he pitches the the year. If there's another injury,
I'd say zero, right, But if he can prove for
the rest of the season that he is healthy, Nitcross
should entertain offers because the Reds have their ace. His
name is Chase Burns, last not petty Chase Burns.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
This is what I deal with all the time.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Comes when it comes to this offseason, I think you
should entertain all offers on everybody, but especially Hunter Green,
where it kind of feels like we know who he
is at this point, and when he's healthy, you got
to take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
And I think you got to be careful.
Speaker 6 (25:31):
You know, we're already talking about Brady Singers or for
sure trade piece, we're talking about Nicolodolo's probable trade piece.
If now you get into Hunter Green as well. They
don't have the depth to reprice all of those starters,
and they certainly don't have the money to go out
and get more starters, so you gotta taper it a
little bit. I think Hunter needs a really good second
half to get his trade value back up, and then
(25:51):
I would hang on to him and look to him
to be the next trade deadline deal. The next guy
that you trade away wouldn't do that all at once.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I don't know that between now the end of the
season he will have established enough of a pattern of
good health for you to really I just I guess
I look at it from this perspective as well. It
just it feels like there's a fracture in the relationship
between the player and the team that we hoped this
past offseason would fix, and then with the way things
unfolded with the injury, I don't think it certainly didn't
(26:18):
get any better. And so man, I'm I've always been
a big Hunter Green fan, but I understand and share
everybody's exasperation with how this injury was handled.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
And it just it.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I don't know if it's it's if it's broken to
the point that it can't be repaired, but it certainly
does seem like it's not what it needs to be.
And when that's the case, then there eventually, in any relationship,
there's you know that the two sides go their separate ways.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
I think, well, you know, you've got an MLB hired
beat writer with an organization that is notorious for holding
things close to the vest, and that guy's doing off
season stories about this picture's work ethic being questioned and
his desire to pitch yes being questioned. That didn't come
from nowhere, that came from somewhere, and I agree with
you that relationship is probably Frank.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Mark Sheldons, who you're talking about, who I think is
awesome about what he does, and he took a beating
on social media, and I said, if you think this
is Mark just popping off on his own, like, there's
few who are as well sourced and connected as Mark.
And so that was easily and clearly coming from from
people in the organization and perhaps very understandably so again,
(27:25):
like Honor Green, I've been a fan of his since
the Reds drafted him, and there's always been so much
about him that's so impressive. But I don't know how
at the end of the off season this year he
didn't throw your hands up and go dude, like, yeah,
come on, man.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
And I think there's another factor to his possibility being
traded that the Reds need to evaluate correctly, which we
know they're really good at. Is Red Louder Who is
he moving forward? Because I have a question about what
is his outpitch. It feels like he has a myriad
of pitches he can command and throw wherever he wants
to win the strike some and he gets the two strikes.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You can see he.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Kind of reminds you of Tyler Malley, where it's like
he doesn't have that pitch that puts somebody away. And
so because of that, at bats get prolonged and we
don't see the results that we've thought we would see
from Rhet Louder to this point. And it was kind
of the next way like Chase Burn's Reht Louder, We're
gonna be the next version of Hunter Green Nickelodola. If
you decided to move on from those guys, if you
don't have Rhet Louder to that point, I don't know
(28:25):
that you should be in a hurry to trade.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Can this get turned around and have them like in
a dramatically different place a year from now than they
are right now? Yes, if there's a let's assume for
a second, let's play make believe there's a full season.
It starts reasonably on time. Like I think there's a
lot of us who go, it's really hard to imagine
(28:48):
them going from what they are now to being serious
contenders in twenty seven.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Yes, because you have two of your middle of the
lineup guys and Ellie and sal that you can build
around in the lineup. In the pitching staff, You've got Chase,
You've also got Hunter Green. You've got Nicko Little if
you don't trade him this year, if you hang on
to him a little bit, so you've got three fists
of a good starting rotation. Andrew Abbot's still going to
be here next year as well, and whatever Louder becomes,
(29:12):
or if Chase Petty takes that next step, whatever that
might be, you might already have your starting rotation. And
in my opinion, you could rebuild a bullpen overnight. And
so I think that that could happen in the offseason.
And ultimately, as long as you find yourself a leadoff
hitter that you trust him, maybe that is Ellie and
he stays there, and then you have somebody else that
you add to the lineup. You got three guys you
can trust. I think you can build out.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
There, and I think it depends on your definition of
turning it around what is success. I think next year
they could be a legitimate wildcard team.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
OK.
Speaker 6 (29:41):
I think that all of the reasons that Jeff just
said could get you back to an above five hundred
or at five hundred team that would be in the
wildcard hunt to compete for this division, to go head
to head with the Milwaukee Brewers. To get back to
where that rhetoric was in February. They've got to replace
the outfield. They got to get a new catcher. They
got to overhaul the bullpen. They got to replace at
least two fifths of the starting rotation. They cannot do
(30:01):
that all in one offseason. It's going to take at
least two so to compete in the National League Central
at least.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Two years to be a wildcard team they can stumble
into that.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
How invested in this weekend's drafted, you guys, I'm looking
forward to it.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
There's two guys that I have circled. One is a
college pitcher, one is a high school outfielder. And the
college pitcher there's a little bit that yes, he is
a talented guy and I think he will add to
the system. There's another I just want a guy with
this name on the team. His name is Cameron Fluky. Okay,
you have a pitcher named Cameron Fluky. He's coming out
of Coastal Carolina six six, two ten and he's you know,
(30:35):
from the right side. He's got four different pitches with
a fastball that touches ninety nine mid ninety five, and
he's also got a curve, a slider. Slider's not quite
a sweeper like we all like to talk about sweepers now.
It's more of a tight break to it. So it's
definitely a slider and then a change that he has
as a show me pitch. But when it comes to
this red system, one of the big reasons Baseball America
knocked it down is because they have experienced a myriad
(30:58):
of injury with.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Their pitching prospects.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Right like Ty Floyd, a third round pick from twenty
twenty three from LSU, has gone through two different major
arm injuries and so he's been knocked off of any
top thirty. A guy that was a third round pick
three years ago from college, and so you kind of
wonder what he's gonna end up being. But he's a
microcosm of what's going on. They need to repair that
pitching depth as well as get better in pretty much
(31:21):
every other area of the farm system. But I think
that Fluky is my pick if I could make it,
and assuming that he's there, But then also because at
number eighteen, that's kind of hard to predict. But then
also if he's not there. I'm looking at a high
school outfit again in Trevor Condon, who makes a lot
of great contact, already has a great grasp of the
strike zone. Any play center field, which, as we know,
(31:44):
we could do some help with.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Yeah, I'm looking.
Speaker 6 (31:46):
For them to not draft an another high school prep guy,
and for the love of guy, just don't draft another
shortstop that we got to move to another right, Yeah,
like just anything else, and that'll be a successful draft
for you.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, you know, I wasn't all that long ago that
folks will like, you know, they have too many shorts
and I'm thinking, well, they can have him play other positions.
I'm good with that. I'm I'm I'm I'm ready to
draft actual centerfielders who play center field and have guys
come up in the system playing center field and then
at the big leagues they're they're playing center field. Sign
me up for that.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
The other thing too, about like the drafting shortstops and
we can move them when we want to move them.
They procrastinate the moving part like you get the triple A,
and then they decide, oh wait, we already have a
short stop, so we got to move this guy. I
mean Edwin Arroyo played three different positions in Triple A.
Right here, I thought I heard somebody say, yeah, maybe
he could even play corner outfield.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I'm like, can we just find Yah?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
You always read all he's getting in some work at
fill in the plank. But the mcclaim thing, for me,
here's what bothered me about it. Okay, so if you
want to say, look, he has the athletic capability to
go and play center field in the big leagues, fine, awesome.
Did you just stumble upon that or did anybody think
(32:58):
that months ago or a few weeks ago? Because my
thing is like, all right, man, your bat is not
going to be the reason you stick, So maybe there's
some versatility that you're gonna have to develop. Matt, go
take fly balls. Should have been done weeks ago. Hey,
Matt Edwin Arroyo was making a case for promotion. If so,
if you're gonna play, you might have to go take
some flyballs out there, right Like, there were many reasons
(33:21):
weeks ago to go dude, it's you probably have to
go there.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
Better than that is they played him in left field
in the Arizona Fall League. He was coming back from
his injury and they knew that he played center field
at UCLA, right, So this.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Tool was always in the box, right.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
They have just failed to ever try and pull it out,
which is a failure on front office's part and coaching.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
So, weeks ago, if they would have said, hey, man,
it makes sense for you to go take some flyballs
out there, go do it, I think everyone would have
said yes. And then if you get to a point
where we're desperate because guys get hurt, day Meyers Blake done.
You knew weeks ago TJ. Friedel was struggling, his second
half performance from last year was being repeated. There were
lots of signs pointing to maybe you're going to another
(34:00):
guy who could play center field. It would have made
sense weeks ago to say to Matt, develop that tool
instead of hey, go take some flyballs out there. We'll
play an inning and then the next day you're gonna
play the full nine and the ball's gonna find you.
Just it's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
And Matt is the second player in the last month
for this to have happened to because noelvi Marte also
played centerfield.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Right, Yeah, the ballplayer.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Gamer ballplayer's he's really gritty. I just want somebody to
have a position.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
What are the fair and maybe unfair criticisms of Tito
this year? From where you guys sit.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I would say I would say an unfair criticism is
how he has played some of these guys because he's
playing in the hand he's been given. Mm hmm, while
I laugh at the Spencer steer in centerfield, and you
could say JJ Bledah has more career games in centerfield,
and probably if you're going to play somebody there, maybe
it's JJ Bledah. But I think at the same token,
he's flipping a coin on most of these guys. There's
(34:59):
just been so many dudes underperform with the bat in
their hands that at this point you just kind of
hope that you put him in a spot out there
and they go crazy, and so I kind of give
him a pass on that I don't necessarily know that.
I give him too many of the passes on the
game to game strategy, some of the ways that they
advance their whole station to station philosophy where they really
(35:21):
don't steal no until they absolutely have to, and then
it's far far too late to do that. I don't
love how those seem to move because it feels like
the team has stepped back from where it was strategically
in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6 (35:36):
Yeah, And I think a fair criticism for Tito is
just that he is too loyal, sticks with things for
too long, and is reluctant to make a move when
it needs to be made. And we've seen that with
lineup construction. We've seen that since he came here, that
you know, he is very loyal to these players, and
he's never going to say anything bad about these players,
and he's going to do his best to not put
them in a negative light. And I get that, but
(35:57):
also sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and
he has been very luck nant. We saw it last
year with the amount of time Matt McClain's spent in
the two hole. You've seen it this year until he
finally was willing to try la and lead off and
try and move some guys around and do some different things.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
But it was really too little, too late at that point.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I hope you enjoy your stay in town, and uh,
I love it here, so yeah, do you love it
as much as Hawaii?
Speaker 6 (36:20):
Well, in the summers, they can go head to head
back as soon as it gets a little nippy buddy.
I'm on Monica Beach, other big island.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
That sounds amazing. That sounds amazing. All right, tell folks
word they can get the podcast.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
You can catch the podcast everywhere you get your podcasts,
including the iHeartRadio app. You can also watch us on
YouTube if you want to see our faces as we
say words.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Can't miss that.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
And then you can follow us on social media. You
follow me at Jeff Carr with three f's over on
X and on TikTok too, and you can follow Steve
at s Offenbaker with two f's on X. We haven't
got a TikTok for him yet, not gonna happen. Yeah,
I don't blame me there.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Gentlemen, thanks so much, Thanks for the appreciate this studio visit.
You got a Brendman and Jones a baseball next on
ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 8 (37:02):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health
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