7/10/26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
ESPN fifteen to thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. What's up, Mulleger,
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thanks for listening, hook, You're having an awesome Friday afternoon,
maybe with your weekend already off to a great start.
So the Bengals have one of the worst five offensive
lines in football. I have not ranked all the NFL
offensive lines. But there's an analyst, pretty good, well respected
analyst who says, yes, I don't think I agree, but

(00:32):
there's a butt and I'll give you the butt coming
up at about fifteen minutes. I bet you can't wait
for that show. Preview is available. You can watch it
right now on Twitter. I'm gonna go on vacation next week.
Here's my promise to you. Ok, I'm going to go
on vacation next week, and when I come back, I
promise I will start to call it X.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
But right now it's Twitter.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
And you can watch it thanks to a share Facts
credit Union Share Facts credit Union, there is there was
no greater financial institution in the United States of America,
and certainly no greater financial institution in the greater Cincinnati area.
So what you should do is learn about shareff Facts.
I'm become a member, learn about share Facts at share

(01:14):
facts dot org, or swing by any share branch. I
swung by my share Fax branch today. I made a
very small deposit and I got a free soft drink Cateemy.
So can't beat that. Does your financial institution give you
a free soft drink?

Speaker 1 (01:30):
No? No, no, I'm guessing the answer is no.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
We're gonna get an in studio visit from the Lockdown
Reds guys looking forward to that coming up in just
about one hour. It's a lot of fun to talk
about baseball. It's a lot of fun to talk about sports.
And I don't mean, you know, professional, although it's a
lot of fun to have this job. But it's it's
fun to talk about baseball. It's fun to talk about strategies,

(01:56):
and baseball I think lends itself to that a little
bit more than some of the other sports. Strategies in
baseball I think are relatively simple, even if some of
the data that we use to determine what sound strategy
can be kind of complex. But it's fun to debate
strategy with your friends. It's fun to set at a
ballpark perhaps and while you're having a cold one, you know,

(02:18):
talk about what the manager is doing, pitching changes, leaving
a starter in, bunting, lineup construction.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
It's fun to do that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
I badly wish that when we talk baseball that we
actually talk about baseball, because last night, last night would
have been a fun opportunity to do so. Because last
night's game, last night's game was quick moving, very fun
to watch, tremendous pitching duel. Brady Singer amplified his trade

(02:52):
value with a really good start. Unfortunately for the Reds,
Jesus LIZARDA was even better. And you, unfortunately you and
I know the past, and they score a bunch of
runs one night, they score next to none or none
the next, and that's exactly what happened last night. But
last night, in the ninth inning, was was a situation
where I think you could have a good discussion about

(03:12):
baseball strategy. First and second, nobody out, tying run and
scoring position winning run at first base, a Euhanio Suarez
at the plate. So do you leave Geno in to hit,
try to see if he could hit a three run
homer to end the ballgame? Do you have him bunt?
Do you call somebody off the bench, do you have
a pitcher try to bunt. Do you ask Matt McLain,

(03:33):
who's gone on the injured list today, do you have
him try to bunt like it's I am as a
general rule with exceptions, with exceptions. I'm sort of anti
bunt because I'm pro math, and there's nearly a century
and a half of data to suggest that bunting is
mathematically a bad strategy. It can work. Lots of things

(03:56):
that the odds don't favor can work, and last night
it would have been one of those situations where it
would have been fun, maybe if you're at the ballpark
or texting with your buddies or hosting a call in
show after the game to discuss the merits of what
Tito decided to do, which was to have Geno swing away,
versus what Tito didn't do, which is ask Geno to bunt,

(04:19):
or replace him with another player on the bench who
might be better at laying down a bun. As it
turns out, Gino strikes out, rest of the inning unfolds
rather predictably, and the Reds lose a one nothing game.
Here's the problem. It doesn't matter they lost last night.

(04:40):
They're forty two and fifty. The careening towards their relevance continues.
The careening toward the trade deadline and the sell off
or the fire sale or the next rebuild or whatever
you want to call it, is continuing. It doesn't matter.
I used to say this about the Bengals, and this
is not the case this offseason. But back in the
day the Bengals didn't really do anything in free agency

(05:02):
when they kind of sat out most of the offseason.
You know, we used to say, like, the Bengals don't
give us a chance to really enjoy the fun part
of the offseason, the transactions, free agency, thinking about players
who may fit. That has changed, and it's certainly not
the case this year this offseason because they've done a
lot of stuff. The Reds, with exceptions, the Reds don't

(05:25):
let us enjoy the fun parts of the actual season.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
The fun parts of the actual season are the.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Actual baseball games and what comes with the baseball games
are supposed to be fun discussions about, you know, roster
construction and who should hit war who should playwear, managerial decisions.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Those are things that.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Matter a lot more and that we have a lot
more fun discussing when the team matters. But when you
have seasons like this, and unfortunately, over the last quarter century,
thirty years, whatever it's been, unfortunately, seasons like this are
the rule and not the exception. In the middle of
the summer, right when baseball occupies all the real estate,

(06:09):
it really doesn't make much sense to dwell on whether
or not the Red should have had their hitter bunt
with a two on and nobody out in a one
run game, because there are a billion games at a
first place, there are a thousand games outside of the wildcard.
They're going nowhere. And so when that's the case, the minutia,

(06:32):
the micro the fun stuff unfortunately doesn't matter. You know,
in twenty twenty three, which was an uber fun season,
it was an uber fun season until the trade deadline,
when Nick Crawl and company basically said at.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Work, don't not look at a try. We just worked.
We got a fun team.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
It just don't care if we build a better team
than when we have the twenty twenty three it was
a fun summer.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
It was fun year. Man, this time three years ago
the Red were in first place.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Then I said often that what I loved so much
about that team is they enabled us to talk about
baseball when we talked about baseball, because the year before
had been abjectly miserable, and most of the years leading
up to it, with exceptions, objectly miserable. You know, when

(07:22):
the Reds were just you know, dragging us through those
seasons fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen nineteen, right the last decade.
You know, I would say all the time, like, regardless
of who the manager was, Brian Price or David Beller, whoever,
if the manager decides to leave his pitcher in too
long and they lose the game and they go from

(07:46):
twenty one games at a first place to twenty two
games at a first place, doesn't really matter. Then in
twenty twenty three, for the first time in a very
long time, we talked about baseball when we talked about baseball,
because the year before it was all about why folks
aren't going to games, why you hate Phil Castellini, why
they should sell the team, how much longer you're going

(08:09):
to tolerate sitting through a rebuild. We didn't get into
the ins and outs of the games themselves, and this
season is taking on a similar feel. No, this team
is not as bad as that one In twenty twenty two.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
But like last night was a fun a fun situation.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I'm listening to Lance last night extra innings, and he
led his show by talking about the ninth inning and
did so in a way that was entertaining and compelling.
And I could hear the angst in his voice, and
I could hear the disappointment that continued frustration that he
has to feel as a fan who has to talk
about that team immediately after the game every single night.
And he launched into this thing about why it would

(08:52):
have been a bad decision to bunt, and he took
some phone calls, including from a guy who was angry
that Lance doesn't like onions and mustard on his conies.
And he took a phone call from a guy who
suggested they should bunt. And if Gino can't lay down
a bunt, ask a pictuer to bunt. Even though pitchers
don't hit anymore, they're probably less equipped a bunt than
at any point in baseball history. And I'm listening to

(09:12):
this and this is no knock on Lance at all.
Who is the best at what he does. But I
said to myself out loud as I'm driving, who cares?
Who cares. If they bunt and they score two runs
and they win the game, yippie, then they're only six
hunder five hundred. They chose to do what they chose

(09:35):
to do and three consecutive outs were made against a
terrific closer, and they're eight games under five hundred. Yeah,
maybe a frustrating loss, but let's be honest not it
can't be at this point that emotionally impactful of a
loss didn't do any real damage to their postseason hopes.

(09:55):
I'm not sure anybody feels any different about the Reds
today than they did yesterday based on the result, and
had they won the game, I'm not sure anybody would
feel that much better about the Reds than they do
right now. If you love the Reds, if you love
the sport, I would have to imagine that part of

(10:16):
the fun part of being a fan for you is
discussing the team, discussing the things that the manager decides
to do, and having fun and the key there is fun,
disagreements about strategy and personnel decisions, who should play where,
who should bat wear, whether or not. Last night, Brady

(10:40):
Singer was left in too long spoiler alert. He was
not who the first guy out of the bullpen should be,
what the deployment of relievers should be? None of those
things seem to matter because the Reds have ruined baseball.
Here yet again, another summer where it seems to make

(11:02):
really no sense, as fun as it is to discuss
actual baseball, and what takes the place of talking about
actual baseball when we do talk about baseball is the
same tire drumbeat of who should get fired, who should
be blamed, who should be held accountable?

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Why did this go wrong? Why should we believe.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
This franchise when they say things are going to be
better down the road, And it's just so tired and frustrating.
If you listen to two shows in other markets, and
I do, And I was in Milwaukee early last week
and I listened to the Brewers postgame shows, and man,
that's the stuff they're talking about actual baseball because their

(11:45):
baseball team actually matters. They do that in a lot
of places. We've had a chance to do that here occasionally,
but we don't get a chance to do it enough.
So I don't know, Man, Maybe you feel strongly about
bunting or not bunting, and maybe if feel like last
night's ninth inning, the season hinged on that, and had
they successfully executed the ninth inning in whichever way you wish,

(12:06):
they scored two runs, win the ballgame, and the season
takes off from here. Maybe maybe, But I think for
most of us there's this real sense of who cares.
It's an empty feeling, and I don't know man as
a fan of a sport, it's sort of frustrating when
it makes no sense to actually talk about the games

(12:28):
themselves because the games themselves seem largely irrelevant because of
the team's placement in the standings. It would be one
thing if that was the exception here. Unfortunately, for a
very long time, that's become the rule. Sixteen after three o'clock.
Your perspective on any number of things has always welcome

(12:50):
at five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty eight
six six seven h two three seven seven six works
as well. You could also send me a tweet or
an X at moegar thanks to Delta Dental. Delta Dental
is building healthy and smart and vibrant communities for all

(13:13):
of the Delta Dental oh dot com. Do the Bengals
have one of the worst five offensive lines in the NFL.
That's that's that's what we're going to talk about during
baseball season. Next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Then you see how traffic lock.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Moeger. Anything you may have
missed on this show, you could listen to anywhere anytime
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Next Sports Grill. You know a cold one sounds good

(13:54):
right now? You know a good place to get a
cold One's Long Next Sports Grill. You got to three locations.
You got the one in One, you get the one
in Hebron which is brand new, and you get the
one in Richwood. And you know what goes great with
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the wings at Long Next, what are you waiting for?
Four k TVs all over the place, great plays to watch.
Whatever you want to watch. Could be the Reds this weekend,

(14:16):
could be the World Cup, could be could be really
whatever you want. Long Necks Sports Grow. I guess you
know just one of those places. Just go to the
bartender and say give me the remote I mean, you
can watch gun Smoke if you want to, doesn't matter.
Twenty three after three o'clock, we have the guys from

(14:38):
the Lockdown Reds podcast going to join us in studio,
Jeff and Steve. Steve in town, so they'll visit us
in studio, will go through a whole slew of Reds
related issues. By the way, we are now nineteen days
away from our first training camp broadcast of the year
on ESPN fifteen thirty, so stoked for it. Mentioned this yesterday.

(14:59):
We he started doing this last year and it had
been a wish of mine since basically the first year
I hosted this show to get a chance to broadcast
from Bengals training camp. And we started last year and
we'll continue this year starting on July the twenty ninth.
We'll have all the practices that you could attend, and
then we'll have some of the practices that nobody could attend.

(15:21):
It will be your eyes and ears speaking of the Bengals.
Was a very good website. Warren Sharp Sharp football Analysis,
somebody that we've never had the pleasure of actually talking
to on this show, and maybe we should change that.
But it's less season, it's ranking season. There's not a
lot going on, and so people who cover and write

(15:43):
and talk about football come up with lists. Warren released
his rankings of the thirty two NFL offensive lines, and
he has the Bengals twenty eighth.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Here's what he writes.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Cincinnati decided to run it back with the CENTI the
same offensive line as a season ago, only adding rookies
Brian Parker and Connor Loo. When the primary five starters
were on the field together, Bengals running backs average one
point four yards before contact per attempt, which ranked thirtieth
out of forty eight qualified offensive line combinations.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
You can go read.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
More at Warren's website sharp footballanalysis dot com. That doesn't
necessarily take into account that the offensive line was good
at keeping Joe Flacco and then when he came back
Joe Burrow upright. I think anyone who watched and I
don't claim to be an offensive line play expert, but

(16:41):
I've watched enough football that I could tell you, and
I've watched enough Bengals offensive lines that were terrible. I'm
experienced enough to be able to tell you when an
offensive line is good or when it's not. Last year's
offensive line toward the end of the season. Wait, pretty well,
top five offensive line, no top ten offensive line, probably
not bottom five. The unit that I watched at the

(17:02):
end of the season last year is not a bottom
five offensive line. So going into this season, I'm gonna
go ahead and say they're not a bottom five offensive line.
They will benefit from continuity. I think a Marius Mims
has a chance to be one of the very best
players at his position. Dylan Fairchild can make a year
two leap. You know, we'll see if Parker and Lou

(17:23):
if they're ready to play. And one thing I do
worry about relative to last year is last season the
Bengals enjoyed relatively good health on the O line one
year to the next. That often doesn't carry over, and
so maybe their depth is a little bit more tested
this year. And can they pass the depth test with
two offensive linemen that they took in the draft this

(17:45):
year and Lou and Parker.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
We will see.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
I think, though we have to acknowledge this, maybe it's
not a bottom five offensive line. Maybe it won't play
like a bottom five offensive line. I would put it
somewhere middle of the pack. And maybe if we're being
totally honest toward the lower part of the middle of
the pack, but not bottom five. There is, however, a

(18:13):
pretty low floor for this offensive line. Look, there were
times even last season when the rest of the guys
upfront were playing pretty well. There were moments last year
where Orlando Brown looked like a player whose age had
kind of caught up to him. He may have a

(18:35):
terrific year this season, but I don't know if it
would be a major shock if, like Orlando Brown, wasn't
very good this year. He is thirty years old. Ted
Carris a beloved player and deservedly so, and maybe still
a very good player. And one of the interesting things
will be to see how the team eventually transitions from

(18:56):
Ted Carris to Connor Loo. But Harris is thirty three
years old. He got two starting offensive linemen who are
in their thirties.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Now.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
The flip to that is a Marius Mims. I said
the other day, I think Amrius Mims is a candidate
to be a not just a Pro Bowl player, but
an All Pro player this year. And we'll see, but
I think there's every reason for excitement for a Marius Mims.
And you know, Dylan Fairchild. We're looking for a year
or two leap Dalton Reisner. The easiest move of the

(19:32):
offseason was one of the first ones they made, which
was just go ahead and ensure that that guy is
still here. There is continuity. There's a unit that played
well toward the end of the season last year.

Speaker 4 (19:42):
It is.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
The best offensive line that Joe Burrow has played behind
as an NFL player. That is as much of a
statement about the offensive lines that he used to play
behind as much as it's a statement about the one
they have now. But still it's a statement. But I
don't know that it would be stunning. You look at
position groups through this lens. High ceiling, high floor. The

(20:05):
ceiling for the Bengals quarterback is through the roof. The
ceiling for the Bengals wide receivers is through the roof.
The ceiling for the skill guys is through the roof.
Maybe the ceiling for the offensive line is still really good.
But I don't believe it's a bottom five offensive line.
I do think though, that the variance the spread between

(20:28):
its best and its worst pretty wide. I think the
floor is pretty low. And by the way you look
at these rankings and they're folding into it like backups,
depth and so there's you know, maybe a question about
Cody Ford, who was not in shape at training camp
last year, a little bit of a question about him.
There are two rookies who seem like pretty good bets

(20:50):
to make the team, but they are rookies. We're all,
you know, pretty excited about what the unit could be,
and there's continuity, which is certainly, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
In their favor.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
But I do believe relative to some of the other
position groups that it is fair to say that while
they might not be the twenty eighth best offensive line
right now, that it is still a unit that there's
at least more questions about it than some of the others.
We'll see, but I do think the floor is pretty low.

(21:25):
Floor is always not the most likely outcome. Three point thirty,
ESPN fifteen thirty five, one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen
thirty Sports headlines are coming up. We mentioned yesterday the
college basketball exhibition event that is coming to the Lindner
Family Tennis Center, the care Source Classic, which I.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Think is really cool.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
I guess there's pushback to it, and I don't really
understand it. Maybe somebody can help me understand it. Next
on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (22:00):
From the UC Health Traffic Center, a.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Service of Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime powertrain protection and
guaranteed credit approval from their family, the Yours for Life
Kelsey Show dot Com. First of three tonight at GABP.
It's the Reds and Cubs and for losing the opening
series of this homestand to the Phillies final three games

(22:23):
before the All Star Break, Hunter Green will throw against
Shota Inman. August seven to ten is tonight's first pitch
on seven hundred WLW. Matt McClain headed to the IL
with a calf injury. Key Brian Hayes is back and
he is in the starting lineup tonight. Your starting lineup
for Cincinnati this evening. Eli Dela Cruz at short Soule
started first base, Spencer Steers in center field, JJ Bledean left,

(22:48):
Uhaneo Suarez is dhing. Tyler Stevenson catches Noelve, Martes and Wright.
Edwin Arroyo plays second base, and Hayes is at third
base and he is batting ninth. Florence Yawl's on the
road against Joliette FC. Cincinnati plays a friendly against against
English side Burnley FC World Cup quarterfinal happening right now

(23:13):
in La Spain and Belgium, and Spain has a one
nothing lead there in the thirty seventh minute. Unlike the
American team, the Spanish team doesn't stand around and watch
in awe of Belgium like they're kicking the ball to
each other. They're moving, looks like they have a plan
of attack. They're being somewhat aggressive. Unlike the United States

(23:37):
when we played Belgium, we just stood there and watched
and hey, we know, like an international incident almost unfolded
over this guy over here, but we're not gonna kick
him the ball. One nil Spain in front of Belgium.
We will keep you up to date as that game unfolds.
We mentioned this yesterday and our friend Rick Boring was

(23:57):
the first that I saw to report. The exhibition event
happening at the Elender Tennis Center on October seventh, the
care Source Class at College Basketball event, which is gonna
be a doubleheader, an exhibition doubleheader, a preseason doubleheader that
features two tilts, one featuring Xavier taking on Dayton and

(24:19):
the other being Cincinnati battling Ohio State. These are preseason
games and I'm guessing I don't need to remind you
what preseason means, but they're games that don't count. And
my general takeaway was, man, it would be great if
we were in a world were those schools played against
each other in games that count. Now, for what it's worth,

(24:42):
you see does play two of the other three schools involved,
and obviously Xavier plays in the regular season.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
One of the other schools involved.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
You see in Xavier play against each other Skyline Chili
Crosstown shootout, which I believe is December fifth, and you
see in Dayton play against each other. That game is
going to be a the arena that is, I believe, Saturday,
November the fourteenth. But sure, man like, ideally those schools
would play, and they would play on a regular basis,
and they would play in games that counted, and they

(25:12):
would play in the other team's home floor, or maybe
there would be a four team event like this that
you know, sort of rotated around the region. And yes,
we have beaten that into the ground for decades, all
the area schools that you could have in some sort
of make believe MTE, but those things never come to
fruition in the absence of regular season games being played.

(25:38):
Give me some exhibition games like college basketball is needless
to say, it's it's different. But you know, I'm old
enough to remember from a UC perspective when they would
play athletes in action. I'm old enough to remember watching
them lose to athletes in action and then might play,
you know, another traveling team or play a Division two team,

(26:00):
something like that. I think it's great that D one
teams are allowed to play other D one teams to
prepare for the season. And sure you watch those games thinking, man,
it would be cool if these were regular season games.
Ohio State came to Cincinnati a couple of years ago,
they played an exhibition game.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Cincinnati won.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
You see, played at Michigan last year, won that game,
played at Arkansas last year, and got boat raced. To
what degree those games helped coaches get their teams ready
for the regular season, I'm sure the answer to that
is anecdotal. I'm sure some coaches get great, you know,

(26:41):
value out of those games and others do not. As
a fan, yes, we all wish there are regular season games.
But I'm gonna go ahead and play some audio because
I saw this last night. This is Rick Browing of
Musketeerreport dot com and The Skinny Podcast, which unfortunately they
put out the final episode of the Skinny Podcast earlier

(27:02):
this week, and we'll get to that a little bit
later on. But here's Rick, who, again was the first
that I saw on the internet. This was on his
message board at musketeer Report dot com, the first that
I saw kind of putting this out there that this
event was gonna happen. I guess there's pushback. I guess
it's loud in some corners. Here's what Rick had to

(27:22):
say about the pushback to this event taking place that
is an exhibition event, not a regular season event.

Speaker 6 (27:30):
Here's my thing. I know there's a big push now.
This has become a really InVogue thing. National media members
are really pushing it. So then the fans push it
as like when something like this gets announced that they
immediately poop poo in and go oh an exhibition gross,
make these games matter. You guys are cowards for not
making these games matter. And I get that to an extent,
like they are using this new exhibition rule where you're

(27:52):
allowed to play exhibition against D one's to make them
public as a way to play rivalry games that they're
otherwise not playing, or regional games that they're otherwise not
playing during the regular season.

Speaker 7 (28:01):
But my thing is this.

Speaker 6 (28:02):
You haven't been getting these games during the regular season regardless.
It's not like they're going You guys are acting like
these are replacing the regular season matchups. They're not that
toothpases out of the tube. They scheduled the way they
schedule because they want to give themselves their best chance
of making the Ansully Tournament. You're not going to change that.
It's big money at this point for them. They're doing
what they feel is best for them. But this is

(28:24):
still better than the alternative. Never seen them play a
dating or you see playing in Ohio State and them
not doing some cool double header event that's outdoors.

Speaker 7 (28:31):
Like, I get it.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Fans love to complain.

Speaker 8 (28:33):
Now.

Speaker 6 (28:34):
That's kind of become part of sports fandom in our
country for some reasons, like you gotta act like you're
miserable at all times, but complaining about a cool exhibition
event that's unlike anything we've really seen involving a bunch
of teams that we've all been clamoring for these teams
to play each other in an event like this. Getting
upset about that is just stupid, Like this is a
cool event. Be happy about it.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yes, yes, yes, it is cool event. Would it be
better if it was regular season? And then, of course,
of course it would be Who disagree with that? Nobody
who would would? But it's it's not gonna be And
there's a lot of reasons for that. I mean, one
of like the the go to a night you know
is a sports talk radio nerd growing up, One of

(29:13):
the go to topics in the nineties was exactly this, like,
wouldn't it be cool if you can get all these
schools together to play a regular season event? And uh,
you know, wouldn't it wouldn't it be wouldn't it be
neat if if instead of playing some of the by
games that these schools are involved in, they played more
regional teams? Of course, yes, in an ideal world there

(29:33):
would be no by games at all, and all the
really big time schools would play a whole bunch of
other big time schools.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Like that's who disagrees with that?

Speaker 2 (29:41):
And yeah, man, it's more fun to play regional schools
because you know, fans of those schools versus some of
the schools they play. You see, is gonna play a
home and home against Minnesota, which is fine, it's a
Big ten school.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
But would it be more fun.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
To play Ohio State now, given what happened the last
time they played a home and home from avera perspective,
maybe the answer is no. But sure, right, more interest,
more eyeballs, you know, more Ohio State fans. I'm sure
if you're a UC fan, then you know Minnesota fans.
But in the absence of that, which these things weren't happening,
or at least weren't happening on a regular basis.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Anyway, if this.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Is like a cool secondary option, awesome, and yeah it's
you know, there's a little novelty to it. They're gonna
play in a tennis venue. You know, I'm curious as
to how that's gonna work. But it's different and unique
and at least gives us a taste of a traditional

(30:37):
rivalry like Xavier and Dayton, which look, man, I wish
those teams played every single years at UDLM. I loved
those games. I loved the games more when they would
be played at ud Arena. But I love those games,
and I wish Ohio State would play some of the
schools in Southwest Ohio in the absence of it, like
it's as Rick said, it's not replacing games that were
already happening. If the options are these schools are never

(31:01):
going to play, or they will play, but they're only
going to play. And when it doesn't count. In an
environment where you're allowed to play preseason games, cool, play
some preseason games and you could.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Do what you want with them.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
You could do what you want with the results of them.
And you know, if playing against competition the caliber of
Xavier for Dayton, or Ohio State for UC, or vice versa,
helps them get ready for the season a little bit
better than playing the sort of you know, hidden exhibition
games or hidden scrimmages, secret scrimmages or exhibitions against D

(31:34):
two schools they were playing, then even better. And by
the way, you don't have to watch and you don't
have to go. So if you don't want to watch
or if you don't want to go, and I would
assume there's gonna be radio coverage, I certainly hope. So
if there is radio, don't listen, don't watch, don't go, Like, okay,
pick up the season when it begins with the games
that actually counts. But you know it, if I have

(31:58):
a choice, Yes, if I was in charge, if I
was sports zar, which I should be named sports Zar,
absolutely these schools would play against each other and other
area schools would be folded into the conversation into an
event like this in the absence of it. Great play
some preseason games. It'll be unique, it'll be fun, it

(32:20):
will benefit an amazing organization. There'll be some novelty to it.
If it goes poorly, it'll never happen again. And if
it goes well, maybe we'll get another version of it.
If you don't want to watch, don't watch fourteen away
from four o'clock. By the way, speaking of college athletics,
NK used new ad Mike Odom was on our show yesterday.

(32:44):
If you missed that conversation, go listen to it on
the iHeartRadio app thirteen from four o'clock. He locked on
Red's podcast, Guys will join Us excuse me in studio
in the four o'clock hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Then fifteen thirty on Olegar The Lockdown, Reds Guys are
with Me in studio and we'll chat with them at
four five. They brought beer, which I'm excited about. As
you can tell, I got like two and a half minutes. Mike,
go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (33:27):
Oh, thank you mom, very time. Hey. The reason I
called today was I'm really excited about what Mick Cronin
is doing with the UCLA basketball For a rip, he
got the number one international recruit Nicole of Costa Rica
out of Serbia, and this guy is proposed now to

(33:49):
possibly be the number one pick in the.

Speaker 10 (33:51):
Twenty eight NBA draft.

Speaker 8 (33:53):
He's seventeen, so next starting.

Speaker 9 (33:54):
For two years for sure. And he got another guy
out of the International League named Gunner Gris something but
he's highly acclaimed too. But this Nicole guy and he's
got he hammered the Francefurt Portal did a great job.
Their outlook is tremendous. And also this young guy was

(34:18):
voted the best defensive player in the Tiva seventeen year
old tournament where the Serbian defeat the hell out of
the United States.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Yeah, no, they you're You're exactly right. They've added Trent Perry,
They've kept a lot of guys. They have continuity. But
I've noticed this and I don't know when I looked
at this CBS Sports, they're way too early conference projections.
And the Big Ten is awesome, we know that, But
CBS Sports still had UCLA middle of the pack in

(34:50):
the in the Big Ten.

Speaker 9 (34:53):
Yeah, that surprises me.

Speaker 8 (34:54):
So we'll see.

Speaker 9 (34:55):
But you know, it's a couple of guys that he
got through the portal. The main stress, the real strengths
that a couple of them have are the typical Cincinnati defense,
A tough minded guy. So I'm really excited for Mick
because he's he's had a you know, he walked into
such a big time job there low with such big

(35:18):
as you know, I got to give him credit. Man,
he went in with a lot of pressure and he's
had eight good seasons there, and I think the best
is yet the coach.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Yes, I just hope he spends last time this season
complaining about stuff because unfortunately, and I'm a big fan
of his. I'm a big fan of his and so
I hope u ce La does well. But I but
I feel like what sort of undermines his success and
what dominates the conversation are the things that he complains
about almost endlessly, whether it's travel, whether it's being in

(35:50):
the league that he's in, whatever it is. It felt
like every game last year in the post mortem, instead
of talking about what was happening on the floor, it
was something he was complaining about. And like we all
complain about stuff, but when you complain about something every
single time there's a microphone in front of you, he
it sort of obscures what your team is accomplishing or
in some cases not accomplishing, and b it eventually starts

(36:12):
to ring hollow.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
I'm a huge fan of Mick.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
I'm not a fan of the almost NonStop complaining, and
I hope we get less of that, and maybe we
will with a better team this year. Mike, I have
to run, Man, I lost you. I'm sorry. Well, have
a great weekend. I don't know, not the first time
I've been lost, Mike, Have a great weekend. The Locked
on Reds guys in studio with me coming up next

(36:38):
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 11 (36:41):
Keep your golf game Sharp fifteen thirty one, Cincinnati's Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
All right, that is a four oh four. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty more. Eggert 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 Keey Brian Hayes is back.

(37:08):
Macatt mclan goes to the intern 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

(37:31):
Locked On Reds 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.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Both of you.

Speaker 7 (37:49):
Appreciate him, glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
What is up?

Speaker 11 (37:51):
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 red should
acknowledge it.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
If the Reds are ever good, you'll be that guy
that we're like, Dude, this guy used to flying from Hawaii.

Speaker 7 (38:04):
To watch that fly That's right. I will have all
the cred.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
You'll have all the also have you guys?

Speaker 2 (38:08):
It really really picked a good time to visit Cincinnati
with all the overflowing enthusiasm and optimism for this team.

Speaker 12 (38:14):
Buddy, I called this one wrong. I should have been
here in April. Well you get the return of Key
Brian Hayes. Sure, I mean you would not have been
here otherwise to see this, and you have the second
start with Hunter Green where he might throw somewhere between
eighty and eighty five pitches.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
This is a really good time.

Speaker 7 (38:29):
I am here for the start of the Spencer Steer
era in centerfield. That's the whole reason I flew in.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I wondered on social media if Key Brian Hayes will
take some fly balls in centerfield because it feels like
everybody now has to.

Speaker 7 (38:42):
Why not?

Speaker 13 (38:43):
We came up with something on the way over for you.
I'm going to do a start Bencher cut. Okay, are
you going to start Bencher cut, Tyler Stevenson in left field,
Spencer Steer in centerfield.

Speaker 7 (38:53):
Or Santiago Westpana in right field?

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Oh? Man, all starred Spencer.

Speaker 7 (39:00):
That's where I had to land to because.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
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.

Speaker 11 (39:15):
Own is going to be better than Jesse Winker in
centerfield defense?

Speaker 7 (39:19):
Oh yeah, man, See, this franchise has a long history
of this.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
They do. There's there's that's that speaks to the frustration.

Speaker 8 (39:26):
Right.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
So they put Mat McLain 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

(39:47):
is what's 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 just
it feels like that they're always doing something like that.

Speaker 13 (40:00):
Yeah, you look at Terry Francona'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 (40:17):
Oh boy, that's just one of my frustrations. What I
throw this out and you could each answer. I'll start
with you, Steven, 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.

Speaker 13 (40:31):
The total 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

(40:51):
fell backwards, landed on their head and haven't been able
to get back up. And it's the 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 11 (41:12):
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. 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 draft so it's not if it's that big of

(41:34):
a deal. The biggest surprise that you might have seen
is like 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 Ree Signs

(41:55):
and Christian Carnaci and Strand and the list goes on
and on and on, and no body has really stepped up.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
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 fools Golden it was
the starting pitching was bad that year. There was this

(42:22):
real sense of we're on the ground floor of 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 to.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
It, But.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
Four hundred and eighty eight games since they reached the
high water mark of 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.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
That to me is the issue. Like it's disappointing seasons happened.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
There are years where it's like, you know what, best
laid plans didn't work out, certain players underperform, Guys got
hurt that 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

(43:24):
it's it's hard 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 there's there's
that element, I think for a lot of fans, and
that's frustrating.

Speaker 13 (43:39):
Yeah, and all the fans right now are looking to well,
what are the red Is gonna do with the trade deadline?
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 Kroc can
take what they've got and train it and trade it
to be something valuable in twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty.
I don't think anybody has faith that he can accomplish

(43:59):
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 yea. So you know,
it's very hard to find a way to be positive,
to find a silver lining, to find a way to
move forward with this team when that's the case.

Speaker 11 (44:17):
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.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Start to perk up a little bit.

Speaker 11 (44:35):
I'm not saying that that's going to immediately fix the team,
because whoever you bring 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 wild card race and they could be buyers and
go get somebody the same guys in charge.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Yeah, you know. I keep asking what are they good at?

Speaker 8 (45:01):
Right?

Speaker 2 (45:02):
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. I am watching
the Reds Community Fun telethon last night awesome, I mean
just ten out of ten, just awesome. And the ballparking
experience and promotions and giveaways and Hall of Fame and
alumni in the broadcast like great across the board. The

(45:24):
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?

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Are they awesome at drafting?

Speaker 13 (45:36):
No?

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Are they great at player development? Baseball America says their
farm systems the twenty fifth best and it's got all
the baseball 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 13 (45:53):
No?

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Are they great at exploiting market and efficiencies?

Speaker 12 (45:56):
No?

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Are they great at finding you know, hidden gems. No
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. JJ 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

(46:16):
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 8 (46:26):
I think.

Speaker 11 (46:27):
I think the most distressing part about this was all
the quotes that came out about from Kyle Schwarter whenever
he got here before 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 la Cruz around? And

(46:49):
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 13 (47:06):
And sadly, what they've become good at is being, you know,
like that old high school athlete that live 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.

(47:29):
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 (47:39):
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 single biggest frustration, more than anything in all of sports,
is you demand people be patient, You beg people to
be patient.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Bear with us.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
This goes back so many years. This is not just
necessarily a recent thing.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Hang with us.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
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.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
God knows.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
The Cardinals do this, the Yankees do this, Like you
can celebrate and honor your past and integrate your past
with your present. They they should absolutely celebrate iconic players, teams,
and moments, but those things, those things are watered down
when you are as bad as you are consistently, and

(48:32):
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 7 (48:42):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 13 (48:42):
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 Elli played one sixty two, and you know this
year is gonna be Joey gave us a clock that's
gonna be the bandaria that you hang at.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Great American ball Park.

Speaker 11 (48:57):
I was gonna say south Stewart finished his second and
in a Rookie of the Year or something like that.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
By the way, the guy that's.

Speaker 11 (49:03):
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 ones that you do hit on,
keep those guys. Do what you can to keep them.

(49:23):
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 anything.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
So I'm glad you.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
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,

(49:51):
no need to do it now, it's early. And I say, look, man,
this is this is about asking yourself two things. One
in in five for 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

(50:12):
to get a significant raise 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.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
And I just I can't get as many people to
be on board with that as I would like.

Speaker 13 (50:31):
Now you look at Trek Scoople'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.
Nick Kral has 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,

(50:52):
now we can't afford them.

Speaker 7 (50:53):
They're just too much money. We can't do it.

Speaker 13 (50:54):
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 the other guys, but they
can make up for that right now.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
I figured it out.

Speaker 11 (51:10):
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 the contract extensions.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
Lord, that's what we have to do.

Speaker 11 (51:20):
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 Reds 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. Yeah, early,
They've signed guys super early. The Pirates signed Connor Griffin early.
They made sure that they're locking these guys in. Why

(51:40):
are we still sitting around, we being the Reds and
looking like, yeah, no, we don't need to do all that.

Speaker 7 (51:46):
Gotta get everybody healthy first.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
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, 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.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Oh more bad news.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Baseball America 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

(52:31):
Milwaukee right now?

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Right?

Speaker 2 (52:33):
And then hire him, right yeah? Or go to the
Tampa Bay Rays. You 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 11 (52:47):
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 Mats.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
That's a different situation.

Speaker 11 (52:56):
Dude had the wrong size of foot trying to put
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. 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

(53:18):
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 get that.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Guy back, and like, I got to break here in
a second. But if you believe, as many do, that
the season next year is gonna 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 time we're

(53:45):
given by a workstoppage to sort of reorganize and put
people in places that aren't currently working for this franchise
and the then here we are, here's the newly reimagined,
newly rebranded Cincinnati.

Speaker 13 (53:57):
Redzyeah, you're absolutely right. There's not enough time to fix
all the things that need to be fixed. They should
be starting right now.

Speaker 5 (54:03):
All right.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
Locked on Reds Podcast, Jeff and Steve with me for
the hour. Were you guys planning on doing something more
fun than this.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
So this is the best.

Speaker 7 (54:10):
What are you talking about? We've got beer, We're going
to the ball park.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Okay, but pretty good, Pretty good afternoon, as far as
I'm concerned. Twenty one after four o'clock, I'm Oweger. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (54:27):
Traffic from the UC helped trap u CKY Cincinnati and
iHeartRadio Station Garan t Human ESPN fifteen thirty, I Hard Rady.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Twenty six after four. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Moeger
visiting in studio with me. Are the guys from the
Locked On Rets podcast, Steve Offenbaker and Jeff Carr. Jeff
lives like ten minutes from here.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Steve lives. How along is that flight from Hawaii?

Speaker 12 (54:55):
That's about twelve good direct depending on the director.

Speaker 7 (55:01):
Change planes in Seattle and Okay, then hop on.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Are there lots of Reds fans on Hawaii?

Speaker 13 (55:05):
There's a couple. 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 nice. 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 (55:21):
But being a sports fan in Hawaii is awesome, especially
NFL Sundays.

Speaker 13 (55:25):
Oh yeah, Brolly Mary's for breakfast up at seven am,
and you got your whole day after.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
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.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
The game ended at two. I went to the beach.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
It's great, love it, It's good day, all right. You
mentioned the trade deadline before. Obviously the approach is likely
to be sell, 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 13 (55:58):
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.

Speaker 7 (56:03):
One more of those. He's really going to be, you know, not.

Speaker 13 (56:05):
Top tier because you know the Tigers are potentially shopping
their guy. You know, there's top tier guys, but the
next rung 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 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.

(56:28):
He's not going to 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, to get ready for twenty twenty seven,
whenever that might start, you'll have some more pieces in place.

Speaker 11 (56:45):
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
on an expiring deal, who's not going to be here.
How good hitting is hey, He's been hitting two ninety
six the last thirty days slugging for forward. But he's

(57:07):
interesting to me because I can't imagine there's that many
catchers on the market. No, And actually Adam On of
VIMO said it on the national broadcast the other night,
saying that, boy, the Yankees could really use a guy
like Tyler Stevens. I'm like, Nick Krawk, get on the
phone right now, on speed dial, right now, because they've
got a backup catcher that's been hurt.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
They've got whoever.

Speaker 11 (57:26):
I think they asked 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.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
And so ultimately they would love to have Tyler Stevens
in there.

Speaker 11 (57:36):
But you've got to take advantage of the seller's market
that this is going to be because the Reds are
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
going to jump them all to get to the wild cards, right, Yeah,
you have to be realistic. What about Nick Lodolo. I

(57:57):
would trade him if you get the right off, 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 would probably be the next level,

(58:21):
next tier of pitcher, below Trek Skuble and whoever doesn't
get Schooble. They're going to be looking for a couple
of different guys, or 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 (58:36):
Hang Tight Locked on Reds podcast Jeff car Steve Offenbaker
with me. While sports headlines are next four to thirty
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (58:48):
Traffic from the uc Health Traffic Center at the uc
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Speaker 2 (59:06):
Ol Chevrola 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 Inmanaga on the Hill seven ten
on seven hundred WLW. Spencer Steer is going to make
his first career start in center field tonight. He is

(59:27):
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 play second base. Ke Brian Hayes is back
from the injured list. He is playing third base and
batting ninth. Matt McClain to the injured list with that
CAF issue. Florence Yall's on the road tonight against Joliet

(59:49):
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 Watt in town to watch his team play The
Orange and Blue. Brendanman and Jones on Baseball's about fifteen

(01:00:10):
minutes away on Moegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. We
are pleased to be joined in studio by the Lockdown
Reds hosts Steve Offfenbaker and Jeff Carr. And it's awesome
to have you guys. And I ask you guys before the
break about the trade deadline. Where are you on the
Elle Deller cruise untouchable, not untouchable discussion?

Speaker 13 (01:00:29):
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

(01:00:49):
think anybody is untouchable. I don't think I would be
actively shopping him.

Speaker 11 (01:00:53):
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 is going to
offer it. And that's where I think that it's not
gonna 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

(01:01:15):
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
training them to the padres, which that should be the
target for any Li Delacruise trade here in the future.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
I just don't think they're getting that right now. Yeah,
what are the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Odds in your opinion that Hunter Green has dealt this
off season?

Speaker 11 (01:01:37):
I would say I'd say fifty to fifty based on
how he pitches the rest of the year. If there's
another injury, I'd say zero. 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.

(01:01:59):
Here we go, this is what I deal with all
the time, but when it 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 13 (01:02:12):
And I think you got to be careful. You know,
we're already talking about Brady Singers or for sure trade piece.
We're talking about Nicolodolo's a 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 I would

(01:02:34):
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 the once.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
I don't know that between now and the end of
the season he will have established enough of a pattern
of good health, yeah, 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 get any better. And so man, I'm I've always

(01:03:03):
been a big Hunter Green fan, but I understand and
share everybody's exasperation with how this injury was handled, and
it just it. 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

(01:03:24):
go their separate ways.

Speaker 13 (01:03:25):
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 (01:03:46):
Mark Sheldon's 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 likes, there's
few who are as well sourced and connected as as Mark.
And so that was easily and clearly coming from from
people in the organization and perhaps very understandably so again,

(01:04:08):
like Honnor 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 11 (01:04:22):
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 gonna is reht 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 someon but when he gets to two

(01:04:43):
strikes you can see he kind of reminds you of
Taller 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
Burns reht Louder, We're going to be the next version
of Hunter Green Nickelodola. If you decided to move on
from those guys, if you don't have rht Louder to

(01:05:06):
that point, I don't know that you should be in.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
A hurry to trade.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
It starts reasonably on time.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Like I think there's a lot of us who go
it's really hard to imagine them going from what they
are now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
To being serious contenders in twenty seven.

Speaker 11 (01:05:34):
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 Nikolotele. 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 Ret Louder becomes,

(01:05:55):
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 13 (01:06:16):
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 1 (01:06:23):
Okay.

Speaker 13 (01:06:24):
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

(01:06:44):
that all in one off season. It's going to take
at least two so to compete in the National League Central,
at least.

Speaker 7 (01:06:49):
Two years to be a wildcard team. They can stumble
into that.

Speaker 11 (01:06:52):
How invested in this weekend's draft, are you, guys? I'm
looking forward to it. There's two guys that I have circled.
One is a college pitcher. One is a high school outfielder.
In 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.

(01:07:13):
He's coming out of Coastal Carolina six six, two ten
and he's you know, 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

(01:07:34):
when it comes to this red system, one of the
big reasons Baseball America knocked it down is because they
have experienced a myriad of injury.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
With their pitching prospects.

Speaker 11 (01:07:43):
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
microcosmo what's going on on. They need to repair that
pitching depth as well as get better in pretty much

(01:08:04):
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, and 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,

(01:08:27):
we could do some help with.

Speaker 13 (01:08:28):
Yeah, I'm looking for them to not draft another 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, just anything else.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
And that'll be a successful draft for Yeah, you know,
I it wasn't all that long ago that folks will like,
you know, they have too many shortstops, and I'm thinking, well,
they could have him play other positions.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
I'm good with that. I'm I'm I'm I'm ready to.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
Draft actual center fielders who plays 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.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Sign me up for that.

Speaker 11 (01:08:57):
The other thing too, about like the drafting shortstops and
we can move them when we want to move him.
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 (01:09:17):
I'm like, can we just find.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
Out you always read all he's getting in some work
at filling the plank. But the McClain 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

(01:09:41):
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 is making a case for promotion. If so,
if you're gonna play, you might have to take some
fly balls out there, right, Like, there were many reasons

(01:10:03):
weeks ago to go dude, it's you probably have to
go there.

Speaker 13 (01:10:06):
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.

Speaker 7 (01:10:13):
Right, So this tool was always in the box, right.

Speaker 13 (01:10:15):
They have just failed to ever try and pull it out,
which is a failure on front office's part and coaching.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
Right, So, weeks ago, if they would have said, hey, man,
it makes sense for you to go take some fly
balls 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, Dame 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 gonna

(01:10:42):
need another 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 fly balls
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.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Just it's ridiculous.

Speaker 11 (01:10:58):
And Matt is the second player in the last month
for this to have happened to because Noel vi Marte
also played centerfield, right, Yeah, the gamer ballplayer.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
He's really gritty. I just want somebody to have a position.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
What are the fair and maybe unfair criticisms of Tito
this year from where you guys sit.

Speaker 11 (01:11:19):
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 Bledeh has more career games in centerfield,
and probably if you're going to play somebody there, maybe
it's JJ Bleda. But I think at the same token,
he's flipping a coin on most of these guys.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
There's 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 advanced their whole station to station in philosophy where

(01:12:04):
they really 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 13 (01:12:19):
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

(01:12:39):
also sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and
he has been very reluctant. We saw it last year
with the amount of time Matt McLean's spent in the
two hole. You've seen it this year until he finally
was willing to try la and laid off and try
and move some guys around and do some different things.

Speaker 7 (01:12:53):
But it was really too little, too late at that point.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
I hope you enjoy your stay in town, and I
love it here, so yeah, do you love it as
much as Hawaii?

Speaker 13 (01:13:02):
Well in the summers they can go ahead to head
back as soon as it gets a little knitpy Buddy,
I'm on Monkey of each other, big island.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
That sounds amazing. That sounds amazing. All right, tell folks
where they can get the podcast.

Speaker 11 (01:13:14):
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 7 (01:13:21):
Can't miss that.

Speaker 11 (01:13:21):
And then you can follow us on social media. You
follow me at Jeff car 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.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
Not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
Yeah, I don't blame me there, gentlemen, thanks so much,
Thanks for the I appreciate this studio visit. You've got
a Brendiman and Jones on Baseball next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty, Traffic from the UC Health
tripics PN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Well you sure have what's up sixactly five ESPN fifteen
thirty Moigor, Thank you for listening. Hopefully a weekend that's
off to a great start. Appreciate you spending the start
of your weekend or the end of your work week
or both with US.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Spain beats Belgium. He just heard it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
In the top of the hour sports update from ESPN
two to one. That was a fun game to watch.
So Spain and France will play in a semi final
next Tuesday, and that strikes me as must watch. We
will see, but the Belgium team that beat the US
has been eliminated. Something very strange happened to me during
the break, and I wanted to pass this along, if

(01:14:35):
for no other reason to point out that the last
hour we just did was quite good and by the way,
that fell together almost by accident, because last night Steve
Oftenbaker from the Lockdown Reds podcast texted me and asked
if I was at the game, and I was not,
and I wrote back like, wish I was. Have a
great time, and then I wrote, like, how long in

(01:14:57):
for tells me he's in for the weekend. I'm like, dude,
come up in studio and visit and we'll do some stuff.
And so we just did an hour. So I'm sitting
here during the break and I'm actually kind of working
on something that's Bengals related, and I get a notification
for a team's call, right, which is big in the

(01:15:18):
corporate world, teams meetings, that sort of thing. Unless it's scheduled.
I have never gotten a random team's call, so I'm
thinking this must be a big deal. It's during a break,
something's going on, and so I'll answer a team's call.
And I answer this team's call and I don't recognize

(01:15:40):
the number, and I should have gotten the guy's name.
He was very nice. But he made a team's call.
I answer it, and he says, is this the Moegger Show?
And I said, yeah, kinda. And he goes, who are
those guys who were just on? And I said, well,
Jeff Carr and Steve often Baker locked on Red's podcast.

(01:16:02):
And he says those guys were outstanding, which they were,
and then he says, is this mo And I go yeah,
and he said, you know, appreciate the show, thanks, you
know whatever. And that was very, very, very very nice,
And I appreciate the interest in those guys and the
kind words about the show. I appreciate. I appreciate anybody
who listens to this, But that's the first time I've

(01:16:22):
ever gotten a team's call from someone in the audience,
and that was kind of different. So I should have
gotten the guy's name and I didn't. But my apologies
for that. But thank you for the team's call. I
thought I was about to be engaged in some sort
of important work meeting. And let's be honest, when you
get a team's call right before five o'clock on Friday

(01:16:43):
in the corporate world, that is typically, or I guess,
oftentimes not a good thing. So I thought something bad
was about to happen. Instead, it was a guy listening
who said nice things about me again, always appreciated, but
more than anything, said really nice things about Jeff and Steve.
And so if those guys are listening on their way
to the ballpark, this gentleman loved you guys, and so

(01:17:04):
we might have to do that with more regularity. We
will see Reds and Cubs tonight. That GABP and I
talked about this at the top of the show. One
of the reasons why I got into this, and many
many years ago as a kid, one of the reasons

(01:17:27):
I got another team's call. Can't answer it, but as
a general rule, if you want to, if you want
to get ahold of the show call seven four nine,
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
I can't do teams calls. Wait, I don't know, I
know how you make it. Teams. I don't know how
is somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
I don't know how you're making teams call and I
don't know how you get my infota to jump on.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
I don't know. I know nothing about that.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
I will get an invite occasionally from people I work
with because we have a team's call for some reason,
and I'll click on the thing and there I am
so please. As as it was fun, it was interesting.
We don't need to be making teams calls on this show.

Speaker 1 (01:18:04):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
We have a phone number five one three seven, fifteen thirty.
When I was a kid, I decided I wanted to
be in radio, and then soon thereafter I decided I
wanted to have a sports talk radio show. And one
of the reasons why I wanted a sports talk radio
show is I thought it would be fun to talk
about baseball. I thought it'd be fun to talk about
Red's baseball, and I thought it'd be a lot of

(01:18:26):
fun to talk about Red's baseball games, because it is.
Baseball's a fun sport to discuss. Relatively speaking, compared to
some of the other sports, strategies are a little bit
simpler to understand, right. That's That's no knock on baseball,
nor is it a knock on the other sports, But
I got into this there were things I thought it
would be really fun to talk about and do professionally,

(01:18:49):
to make a living sitting in front of a microphone,
having a blast talking about teams I care about, talking
about sports I love, and I thought it would be
fun to discuss baseball games and baseball strategies and discuss
lineup construction.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
That appealed to me, and you know, so did other sports.

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
Thought it'd be a blast to talk about Area college
basketball and the Bengals. But the games, because that's the
fun part of sports, right, the games, And sometimes it
feels like the only fun part of sports the games themselves,
Like you might put up with all the difficulties and
being a sports fan because you love the games. If

(01:19:32):
you don't love the games, I'm not sure. I'm not
sure why you're listening to this or making teams calls
to me or anything like that. But the games are
supposed to be the best part. The games are supposed
to be the most fun. The games are supposed to
be the most entertaining, The games are supposed to be
the most interesting, And the games are the things that
are supposed to compel fun interesting discussions. Now, one could

(01:19:55):
argue successfully I'm not the best at making those discussions
fun or interesting, but I try.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
But that was it for me, right.

Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
I was thinking about that last night because I'm listening
to my colleague and my friend Lance McCallister, somebody who,
as I decided, I wanted to do this, like when
I was in college. Like Lance came to Cincinnati and
was on the air, and I'm like, well, I love
to do what that guy is doing. Probably never do
it as well as him, which has turned out to

(01:20:23):
be the case. But I'm listening to him last night
and he's talking about the ninth inning of last night's game.
First and second, nobody out a Euhanio Suarez at the plate.
A Euhaneo Suarez this season, unfortunately, has been a massive disappointment,
massive disappointment. I don't know what they can get at
the trade deadline for a Uhaneo Suarez, but that's a

(01:20:45):
topic for later on. I'm listening to Lance on extra
innings and he's he's kind of outlining the ninth inning
and the decision that Tito had in front of him,
and I guess maybe he was hearing from folks on
social media who thought it was a good idea to
instead of having a Uhaneo Suarez bat, have him laid
down a bun, and I think there are some fun

(01:21:06):
and interesting discussions there now as a general rule, with exceptions,
there are exceptions, but as a general rule, I don't
love bunting as a strategy. I don't like giving up outs,
and there's nearly one hundred and fifty years of data
to support my way of thinking. Mathematically, you decrease your

(01:21:31):
odds of scoring, you decrease the number of runs you're
likely to score in an inning, the more outs you make,
even if you've moved the runners up, you're giving away outs.
There are exceptions, but like there was a discussion to
be had last night, like what do you do there?
Do you have Gino bunn a guy who was brought

(01:21:52):
to the team because he hits home runs, a guy
who hasn't laid down a bunt in a Major league game,
a successful sacrifice bunt in like eleven years. Do you
bring somebody off the bench now? Last night the discussion
was about Matt McClain. For what it's worth, Matt McClain's
on the injured list, he's down, keep Brian hayeses up
McLain with the calf. So maybe that wasn't an option,
and his lance is making the case why it didn't

(01:22:14):
make sense to bunt. But I'm thinking like there's a
kind of a fun discussion there, and I'm sure in
the stands at the ballpark last night there were at
least some who were discussing the merits of having Geno
swing versus lay one down versus have a pinchin or
lay down a bun. But as I'm listening to this,
and this is no knock on the host by any

(01:22:35):
stretch of the imagination, I couldn't help but feel like
who cares? Like who cares? What's the point? It doesn't
matter who cares? And that, to me is the most
frustrating thing about this Red season. Frankly, it's the most
frustrating thing about the Cincinnati Reds as a general rule,

(01:23:00):
because those of us who love baseball, the thing we
love most about baseball is baseball. But when your baseball
team is bad, you know what, we don't talk nearly
as much about baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
That was an interesting game last night.

Speaker 2 (01:23:18):
Because of how good Brady Singer was, how good Jesus
Lozardo was I'm not sure why he was yelling at
the Reds in there, dugout that was kind of stupid,
and it was a game for right, for second guessing,
and that stuff is fun to do, Like it's fun
to second guess the manager, it's fun to first guess
the manager. It's fun to be an armchair manager. But

(01:23:39):
you don't really do those things when your team is
playing out the string. And here in early to mid July,
the Reds are playing out the string, or at least
so it seems. That is agonizingly frustrating. If you love
this sport and love the team in town that plays
this sport. I said this three year ago. The Reds

(01:24:01):
like overnight, flip the page from what they were in
twenty twenty two, a one hundred lost team to a
team that as late as early August was in first place.
And I said it often that year. I love this
team because this team has re energized the fan base.
It's made people re engage with the product. And now
when we talk about baseball, we talk about baseball, not

(01:24:22):
why you're not going to games or who should be
fired or are they going to sell the team or
how good they used to be, or how hopeless you are.
We're actually discussing strategies, personnel decisions, roster construction, lineup construction,
in game decision making, possible trades that they can make

(01:24:42):
that make the team better. Fun stuff. That's fun stuff
to talk about. When your team stinks, you don't talk
nearly as much about the fun stuff. The same thing
applies in football too. At the end of the season,
second half of the season last year, we weren't discussing
Zach Taylor going forward or not going forward on fourth down,
or some of the things that defensively the Bengals could

(01:25:02):
do to enhance their chances of winning. It was Oh's
NonStop yelling and screaming about Duke Tobin, the team, distrust
firing people. We didn't talk about football. When we talked
about football, we talk about not shoveling off the seats
when it snows and stuff like that. It's aggravating, it's maddening,

(01:25:25):
it sucks, and that's what happens when the losing is unending.
Won't talk about baseball anymore, because like last night, all right,
let's go back and forth and kick around whether or
not Gino should have bunted, which he shouldn't have, or
if they should have used somebody else. Lance took a
caller last night, a guy who said use a picture

(01:25:45):
to bunt. Now, there might have been a time when
that maybe made sense, But pitchers don't bat anymore, so
they're probably the worst guys on the team at bunting.
But whatever. But when you're fifty, I'm sorry, when you're
forty two and fifty, who cares? And Like, if they

(01:26:08):
win the game last night, which many of us still watched,
or many of us still listen to, or many of
us still attended, which speaks to the fact that they're
still interested in this team. If they successfully execute the
ninth inning, cool, then they're forty three and forty nine.

(01:26:28):
They pulled within six of five hundred, yeppie, they did
not successfully execute the ninth inning, and so they're forty
two and fifty. The difference is negligible. We're not going
to look back at last night's game, in all likelihood
is the game that kept him out of the wild card.
We're not going to look at the ninth inning of

(01:26:48):
last night is a moment where Tito's decision making may
have negatively impacted their playoff chances. It was just another
game you checked off that gets us closer to the
end of the season. And as a fan, that's not fun.
As a fan, you're you're not as engaged with the

(01:27:12):
games themselves and the stuff that goes into the games,
the decisions, the strategies, the pros and cons of every
individual move. Instead, it's fire, Nick fire, Tito fire, whoever
sell the team, have a rebuild, have a fire sale,

(01:27:35):
and the unending discussions about the patience that's never paid off.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
This is killing baseball. Like this, this kills baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
Not that the Reds are gonna die or go away
or be extinct because of it, but like the fun
part of being a baseball fan is talking about the games. Well,
when the games don't matter, you don't talk about them.
When the games don't matter, you don't engage with them.
And then, as a talk show host has tried to
build a career around a deep appreciation for and love

(01:28:08):
for talking about games and players and strategies, it's extraordinarily
frustrating and so like, I don't have a question for
you or a topic for you. It's just a statement
about what Having just years of seasons like this does

(01:28:30):
to you as a fan, as a consumer of the product,
to somebody who loves the team, and for what it's worth,
folks who do what I do for a living. If
this team is a game at a first place, if
they lead the wild card race, if they have a
two and a half game lead in the National League
Central and they lose that game last night, chances are

(01:28:54):
we're talking about the game itself and what went into
it and why Tito did what he did and some
of the alternate to the strategy that he chose to employ,
the upside to what they tried to do. And we're
doing that with every single game. We're doing that with
every single game, taking a picture out how tonight's lineup

(01:29:15):
looks like even today, the pros and cons of Spencer
Steer playing center field, his first major league start in
center field, it's a thing. We'll all recognize it, but
doesn't matter that much. If Spencer Steer drops two fly
balls tonight and the Reds lose, they're forty two and
fifty one. Is that that different from Spencer Steer making

(01:29:37):
two miraculous catches in centerfield and preserving a win that
improves their record.

Speaker 1 (01:29:41):
To forty three and fifty.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
That's part of the frustration, and I would imagine you
would agree that's part of the frustration. The thing that
matters least when you have just repetitive see seasons that
go nowhere are the actual games themselves and the stuff
that goes.

Speaker 1 (01:30:06):
Into determining who wins them.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
Twenty two after five, our lines are open at five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty eight sixty six, seven oh two, three, seven,
seven six. I'll make an admission about the Bengals offensive
line coming up in twelve minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:30:25):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic o'clock.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Maegger, and
I appreciate listening. And now we'll talk to folks who
have called the show using more traditional means. The dude
on the team's call could not have been nicer, and
it kills me because I'm a moron that I did

(01:30:53):
not get his name. And uh so, I first of all,
anybody who listens, I don't say this in I can't
whether it's two minutes, three hours, whether you're listening out
of hate, whether you're hate listening or whether you just
really love this show, it means a lot to me.
And then anybody who reaches out and offers any sort

(01:31:14):
of correspondence even more so. And then anybody who offers
to participate in the show, well even more than that. Uh.
And so I appreciate anybody who offers feedback, who wants
to engage with the show like it's I do not
express that as often as I should. This guy could
not have been nicer. I just I was taken aback

(01:31:34):
by the fact that it was a team's call. So
we have folks waiting who have used the more traditional
way of reaching out. Five when three seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty, let's see here Bob in cold Spring. You're
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Hi Bob, all right, mar How
are you wonderful yourself?

Speaker 14 (01:31:53):
I'm great. I've been listening to you guys for many, many,
many many years.

Speaker 1 (01:31:58):
Thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:31:59):
You do it of a job you do.

Speaker 14 (01:32:01):
I don't always agree with you. I don't always agree
with everybody. I've called everybody going back to Bob Trump, Wow,
but just walked out of the office and you touched
a chord when I turned on the radio and you're
talking about the Reds and how as a professional dealing
with this and doing all the things you've got to do,

(01:32:22):
it's tough to talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:32:24):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (01:32:24):
I've talked to a couple of coworkers and they're more
worried about the tarps off tonight than they are the game.

Speaker 10 (01:32:34):
And I'm an older guy, but I love my Reds.
It's hard.

Speaker 14 (01:32:39):
Wife brought me the subscription for the year and I
turn it on and listened to Sayda and Barry and
and and my wife's like, how soon A You're gonna
get mad tonight?

Speaker 10 (01:32:49):
Because I care. I love my Reds.

Speaker 14 (01:32:53):
But that's why I listen to you guys every day,
to give me a little sanity because we're all going
through this together.

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
Yes, I'm a fan.

Speaker 10 (01:33:00):
I'm not gonna complain. I love Keto.

Speaker 14 (01:33:04):
Here's the point I'm trying to make, and I don't
want to go all.

Speaker 1 (01:33:06):
Day on it good.

Speaker 14 (01:33:08):
I truly as a guy that's been watching the red
since my uncle took me to the seventy whatever World
Series against Boston. I've been a die hard since then,
and I adore all of the local teams. But when
Phil came out a couple of years ago on opening

(01:33:31):
Day and said, if you don't like it, go somewhere else.
I swore that day I.

Speaker 10 (01:33:34):
Would never go to pay for a game again, and
I won't.

Speaker 14 (01:33:38):
And I can't believe more people don't talk about that
because that was one of the worst PR blunders in
the history of any successful business. And as a long
term sixty year fan since I was a baby and
went to crosley Field, that was a slap in my face.
And all of this goes back to Phil and his people.

(01:34:01):
I don't even necessarily hold Kroll to it. Tito's a
Hall of Fame manager. What's he do well when he
doesn't have a bat off the bench that that cannot
strike out, when he doesn't have a reliever that can't
throw strikes. It's organizationally something that needs to change, and

(01:34:22):
it starts at the top. And if you don't want
to do it, and you don't want, I love your
saying about the Brewers. You are one thousand spot on.
Let's compete with the Brewers. Want I sign of the show?
Hey to a seven hundred million dollar contract? If you
can tell my voice about.

Speaker 10 (01:34:41):
This cause I look forward to the summer for.

Speaker 14 (01:34:44):
The rags and I think Phil and his family. If
you're listening, you blew it. Let's go give us something
to root for. Do you know the numbers? And I
know you do. What is art salary compared to the Brewery?
I think they're like one or two million above us.

Speaker 2 (01:35:06):
I think the Reds payroll this year is higher than
that of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Speaker 10 (01:35:10):
Oh wow, okay, so much for that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
Yeah, and I will I'm going to look that up.
It's so the Reds of the joint. Okay, yeah, Milwaukee
has I was wrong about that. Milwaukee has the nineteenth
highest payroll. Cincinnati is twenty. It's four million dollar difference.

Speaker 8 (01:35:26):
Yes, yeah, so I was close.

Speaker 10 (01:35:29):
Yeah, that's what I know. I know the stats.

Speaker 14 (01:35:32):
I know I know Ellie's right handed versus left hand
because I love watching that. I used to play a
game called Strata Maatic that talked about the statistics of baseball,
and ever since then, it's just been ingrained in me.
And I listened to you guys.

Speaker 8 (01:35:46):
I want to pick something up new because I'm.

Speaker 14 (01:35:48):
A fan, and it's just this year is hard and
it's not Tito.

Speaker 1 (01:35:53):
Yeah, I mean, look, I I.

Speaker 2 (01:35:56):
Don't totally absolve Tito because I think, and you know,
it kind of goes to what I was talking about before.
No manager presses every correct button. But you know, there
have been times this year we've quibbled with Tito's strategy
and some decisions he's made. That is that is going
to happen. But on the macro level, is he the
biggest reason why this team is stuck in the mud?

(01:36:17):
Absolutely not. No, and and and and and and and
part of that is is independent of Nick Krawl, because
there were guys that we all felt like they were
gonna be able to count on that have.

Speaker 1 (01:36:26):
Just not performed.

Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
Nobody was opposed to Euhaneo Suarez coming back. He hasn't
gotten the job done. Nobody was opposed to. Nobody was opposed. Yeah,
just unfortunately he's maybe the worst offensive player in baseball
this year.

Speaker 1 (01:36:42):
Uh, nobody was.

Speaker 2 (01:36:43):
Nobody was opposed to the moves that Nick Krawl made
with the bullpen this offseason, and unfortunately those moves haven't
paid off. And so are Is player performance from guys
that we thought were going to be better than they
have been an issue?

Speaker 1 (01:36:56):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
Is that somewhat independent of the front off and Nick
Krawl and Brad Metta and others. Sure, but I think
when you kind of take a step back and you
look at the overall body of work. Nick Krawl has
been in his position now for six years, the results
have been very, very limited. Ownership has been in control
of the team for twenty years. For the first fifteen years,

(01:37:18):
nobody said a negative word about them. But when you've
gone twenty years and you haven't done as much as
advanced once in the postseason, at some point that becomes
what defines your your reign, to define your ownership tenure,
and that's inescapable. And so it's the problem is it's
when you never win. It's never just one thing. When

(01:37:39):
you have a season that has gone sideways, it's never
just one thing.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
And I think that's the issue here.

Speaker 2 (01:37:45):
You could focus on Tito's performance and point to some
things you wish you would have done better. Okay, fine.
You could point to some things that Nick Krawl has
maybe done poorly. Okay, that's fair, that's fine. You could
point to some players. It's not just one thing. If
it was, I think the fixes would be easy. And
I think that's part of what's so frustrating is it
feels like the fixes aren't that easy?

Speaker 14 (01:38:07):
Then let me ask you one more thing and then
I'll hang up and let somebody else call. But do
you remember the quote bobcastleen Mate when he bought.

Speaker 1 (01:38:15):
The TV, we will bring championship baseball to Cincinnati.

Speaker 14 (01:38:19):
Fingo, you nailed it. It's quote unquote dead on. Okay,
So where is any resemblance of that?

Speaker 1 (01:38:29):
None doesn't exist? Doesn't exist?

Speaker 10 (01:38:31):
And then if that's the case, sell it. I hate
to say that because the.

Speaker 14 (01:38:38):
Casteleenis are good people in Cincinnati, and they've done a
lot for the city. But come on, don't tell me
you can't compete because look at Tampa Vayan the Wolf.

Speaker 2 (01:38:49):
Yeah, I mean, Bob, I appreciate you calling in and
the nice words, and I hope this isn't your last time.
I hope you have a great weekend as well. It's
you know, you hear it all the time. Look at
up versus the Dodgers or the met and the Mets
aren't a great example because they're terrible too. And again,
it's it's the Brewers, it's the Rays, it's the Cleveland Guardians,

(01:39:10):
It's it's teams that find ways to stay relevant and competitive.

Speaker 1 (01:39:15):
And you know, it gets thrown back at me all
the time.

Speaker 2 (01:39:17):
Well, the Brewers have an advance of the World Series,
even during this long run where they've been a postseason
team every year.

Speaker 1 (01:39:23):
I don't know, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:39:24):
I'll take what they've had in Milwaukee for the better
part of the last nine years ahead of what we
have here. If you told me the Reds will make
the postseason eight of the next nine seasons, I'll take
it eight of the next nine years. But you have
no idea if they're going to make the World Series,
I'll take it right now.

Speaker 1 (01:39:38):
I'll take it right now. And my guess is if
they go to the.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
Postseason eight of the next nine years, they will find
themselves in one World Series. But they are so far
away from that that it's it's staggering. We are way
late twenty four from six ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:39:52):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:39:57):
From the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
Very quickly.

Speaker 2 (01:40:02):
Sports Headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrola home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval for their family
to yours for life, kelseyshow dot Com, Reds and Cubs
first of three tonight at GABP Hunter Green looks to
improve upon his first start of the season, which was gnarly.
He gets ball tonight against the Cubbies seven to ten.

(01:40:23):
Tonight's first pitch seven hundred WLW. Shoda Amanaga throws for Chicago.
Starting line for the Reds Elie de la Cruz, Al
Stewart and Spencer Steer. Steer making his first Big league
start in center field, Pladas and lefts Warrez dhs Stevenson
catches Martesan right field. A Royal play second base, Kepe
Ryan Hayes back off the injur list, is playing third

(01:40:43):
base and batting ninth. Hayes up off the DL. Matt
McClain to the eye, ol it's the eel now it
has been for ten years. He heads to the IL
with a CAF issue. Florence y All's on the road
against Joliet. Spain beats Belgium two to one of the
World Cup quarterfinals. Spain will take on France in the
Semis or Semis on Tuesday, and FC Cincinnati plays tonight

(01:41:07):
and exhibition a friendly against jj Watt's Burnley.

Speaker 1 (01:41:10):
FC.

Speaker 2 (01:41:12):
Jj wat owns part of that team, went on social
media and said he's gonna come eat at Montgomery in
and eat at Greaters, which is awesome, But then he
said he wasn't going to Skyline, so he lost me.
And then Austin tweeted him and asked him to come
on the show. And JJ Watt, who's mister social media friendly?

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
Like ignore them.

Speaker 2 (01:41:32):
I would have asked JJ Watt, how much were you
laughing at Andy Dalton when you caught that pass from
him in the twenty eleven Wildcard game and ran it
back for a touchdown. But we didn't get a chance
because he's too busy. And honestly, would you rather call
this radio station and answer questions from us or go

(01:41:54):
to the Montgomery in pretty simple answer for me? Or Greaters?

Speaker 8 (01:42:02):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:42:03):
I love Greaters is awesome. Greaters refuses to be the
official ice cream of the show. So we have a
lot of folks waiting, and we have like, how much
time is left in the show? Taren, how are we
doing on time?

Speaker 4 (01:42:18):
All?

Speaker 14 (01:42:18):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:42:18):
Well, apparently an unending amount of time, an infinite amount
of time. We could just go till midnight tonight. Uh
let's see here, I got a lot of folks waiting.
Let's see who's been waiting the longest?

Speaker 4 (01:42:28):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:42:29):
Nick and Fairfield. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (01:42:33):
Yes, sir, First of all, thank you for the show today.

Speaker 1 (01:42:36):
Thank you.

Speaker 8 (01:42:37):
I appreciate it. Totally's interesting. Wow, first of all, can
you hear me?

Speaker 1 (01:42:43):
Okay, you sound like a million dollars?

Speaker 8 (01:42:45):
Okay, just pitching coach that the ha that's not there
the story on him.

Speaker 2 (01:42:53):
Uh, it's a personal issue that he is dealing with,
or he's still a pitching he is still employed as
the team's pitching coach and director of pitching.

Speaker 8 (01:43:04):
Okay, I'm just curious. I hadn't spoken a whole I
kind of figured it must be a family thing that
they eat or an injury thing that they really can't
talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:43:15):
Now, yeah, it could be family, could be family, could
be health. I am a big believer in respecting people's
privacy when it comes to a personal issue, and so
I haven't feeled it felt the need to pry. I
don't suspect that it's baseball related.

Speaker 8 (01:43:31):
That is. That's good because there's some things that media
gets just a little bit too much in. Guy, Yeah,
what you're doing, it's the right thing. Now. The guy
that was on ahead of me, he kind of briefly said,
this is all Terry, Well, Harry's been given this pile
of chicken fethers to make chicken salad out us. This

(01:43:53):
was here when he took over the job. I'm kind
of wondering if Terry might be saying to himself because
he he looks a little ragged these days that these
post post game interviews with Jim Day. I'm wondering, I
said to himself, why did I listen to front of him?

(01:44:14):
It just doesn't have the people. And I can kind
of see why because and I said this before. You
may have heard me say, may have read this. I
kind of think the Red in a possion, all things considered,
what's gonna take place in December? That may have a

(01:44:36):
little bit to do with with what's going on. But
then again, they may turn around here after the break
and you know what, we might not have baseball next year. Yeah,
let's put some money in it. Get to work.

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:44:49):
Maybe, I think if they do that, you know, for
this year, it's probably gonna be a little bit too little,
too late.

Speaker 4 (01:44:55):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:44:55):
The Francona thing is what I know. How he looks after.

Speaker 2 (01:45:05):
It depends on how much enjoyment he's having, you know,
And look, there's a I guess there's two different ways
of looking at it. One would be like, for a
guy whose legacy is secure and Terry Francona's place in
this game is secure, is is this something he needs?
On the flip side of it is, Hey, I don't
want to go out like this. I don't want my

(01:45:25):
final chapter to be one where I went to Cincinnati
and it ended poorly. And for what it's worth, like
he helped get him to the postseason last year, I
don't know. I do think it's fair to wonder given
his age, he is sixty seven years old, given the
fact that he has had you know, you talk about
personal issues, health issues, and you know, you do wonder.

(01:45:46):
I wonder when I watch him sometimes where he just
looks a little bit beaten down, is this something that
he's going to want to continue to do long term?
When the Reds hired him, I don't think he was
ever hired with the expectation that he was going to
be the manager the team for an extraordinarily long time.
But you know, if if he's really getting a lot

(01:46:06):
of satisfaction and enjoyment out of the job, that I
would imagine he'll stay with it, and and if he says,
you know what, it's uh, it's not worth the time,
effort and energy that I have to put into this.
And I've accomplished everything I want in baseball, and so
I'll move on. Maybe he'll do that. I that I
I have no idea. I listened to and I hear
people speculate on that, and and frankly, I don't know

(01:46:27):
that any of us necessarily are really prepared or equipped
to be able.

Speaker 1 (01:46:30):
To do that.

Speaker 8 (01:46:32):
I hope he's stays. I like the guy. I like
when he played for the Rest, and that slide in
the home plate that looks like that scene out of
Major League.

Speaker 6 (01:46:45):
Didn't take a singer.

Speaker 8 (01:46:47):
And say come here.

Speaker 1 (01:46:48):
You know I've seen the Yeah, well one.

Speaker 8 (01:46:52):
Thing and get out of here. The scenes are going
to have to prepare themselves for big changes wants. This
contract is up in December because it really looks like
there's not going to be baseball next year, or at
least it's couldn't start off off rabbit late. That's the
issues they're dealing with. Financel and also adding the teams

(01:47:15):
and changing the divisions. No fortun so much. I think
there's a lot that's gonna happen. That's gonna be gonna
make us happy or make us sick or too.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
Thanks what well, thank you, Nick. I appreciate the phone call.

Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
All I'll say about the lockout right now, and I'm
short on time, is this, whatever the sport looks like
coming out of the lockout, can we get a long
term CBA? Because there was a lockout at the end
of the twenty twenty one season and spring training got delayed.
The season began, I think on April the fourteenth. They

(01:47:50):
played a full season, but it messed with the schedule
a little bit. But we had a lockout. No games
were missed. When the lockout ended and they reached a
new collective bargaining agreement, everybody who covers the sport said
almost instantly, cool, the lockout is over. We're gonna have
another one in four years. Whatever the sport looks like

(01:48:12):
economically or otherwise, on field rules, division realignment, the financial
structure of the sport, expansion, television deal, how they share money,
whatever it looks like. I just want there to be
a long term CBA. That this is what it's going
to look like.

Speaker 8 (01:48:32):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:48:32):
The NFL's most recent collective bargaining agreement was struck. I
think after the twenty twenty season now there are the
potential for opt outs, but it basically was a decade
long CBA. Can I get something like that so that
we could stop talking about baseball labor for just once.
We'll see music means the show is over. If you're

(01:48:55):
on hold, my apologies we did not get to you.
What you can do is you could wait on hold
until a week from Monday and I'll take your call
to start.

Speaker 1 (01:49:02):
The show, or call you on teams. Oh yeah, call
me on teams.

Speaker 2 (01:49:06):
By the way, I don't know what The most bizarre
thing that happened to me in the last hour was
Taran because outside my window is a drone the size
of a helicopter that's cleaning our windows.

Speaker 1 (01:49:17):
You didn't get that email either, No.

Speaker 2 (01:49:20):
I thought for a second a helicopter was going to
come crashing through the window here at the iHeartMedia building.

Speaker 1 (01:49:25):
It almost gave MS Kim a heart attack. I hope
Kim's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:49:29):
I mean, I'm sitting here and it was when the
second and last callers started talking and I thought, there's
a helicopter flying towards the building. And then I realized
it's a large drone that's cleaning our windows. So anyway,
that was fun. We have to go. I am off
next week, Chad. Chad's doing the show next week, right correct?

(01:49:50):
All right, Chad's here all week next week, All Star Week,
so you can complain about the All Star Game to him.
And then I am back a week from Monday, and
uh we'll be almost set to start Trainycam, so looking
forward to that. My thanks to Taran Bland for producing,
and as always, thanks to you for listening. Have a
great weekend. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:50:17):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the UC Health Traffic

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