7/30/24 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Cincinnati Bengals ESPN fifteen thirty. Therags are making trades, they're also asking
you to do something you've been askedto do many many, many, many,
many many times. Lucas Simms tradedto the Boston Red Sox, a

(00:20):
guy who had a good run inCincinnati. Austin said this to me at
the end of his show. Ididn't realize he was the last remaining dude
from that twenty twenty team that playedin the playoffs. Cincinnati getting an a
ball pitcher, Ovis Portez from theRed Sox. Farewell to Lucas Sims.
Lucas Simms is a good dude,did a nice job. We beat up
on him for pitching in that gameon Sunday. He never should have been

(00:41):
thrust into that role. Best ofluck to Lucas Simms. This after we
found out after the game last night. Opening day starter Frankie Montass traded gone.
He is off to the Milwaukee Brewers. Jody Weimer. Jody Weimer,
who played his college baseball at theUniversity of Cincinnati, is coming to Cincinnati

(01:03):
a homecoming of sorts. Good forhim. Jacob junis a righty pitcher who's
having a nice year for the Brewerscomes over. So the Red's making trades.
Reds are making trades. We'll discussthe ins and outs of the moves.
The trade deadline is just under threehours away. We'll see if anything
else happens. The Reds do havea game tonight. They do have a
starting lineup that's out, and sowe'll see if that changes between now and

(01:26):
six o'clock. I can promise youthey're trying to trade more guys. We'll
see if they're able to. Themoves themselves, for my money, are
fine. What the Reds are doingwith those moves, and the baseball part
of it is frankly less interesting thanthe message the Reds are sending by making

(01:47):
the moves. The message they're sendingis quite obvious. We're punting on twenty
twenty four. We're punting, perhapsunderstandably and justifiably so. Smart has not
for a while been on this teammaking the postseason, so we're punting on
twenty twenty four. The trade itself, look, Frankie Montas wasn't very good.

(02:10):
Strikes me as a good dude.Hunter Green and others have said a
lot of really nice things about hisrole in their development. He wasn't going
to pitch here next year. Hedidn't do the job on the mound.
Fine, no more. Frankie montasWeimer probably has some upside. He is
certainly going to be given a chanceto show what he can do, perhaps

(02:30):
immediately a triple A maybe not somuch. But he's got years of team
control. It wasn't that long agothat he was regarded as a pretty decent
prospect in the Brewer system. Andso we'll see. There's nothing wrong with
the move, no issue with thatat all. Lucas Simms whatever, they
get a guy from a ball,but they're waving the white flag. When

(02:53):
you trade your opening day starter toa division rival, you're waving the white
flag. And when you're waving thewhite flag, what you are doing is
you're telling an already exhausted fan baseto wait just a little bit longer.
And when you do that, youhave to deal with the consequences, right,

(03:15):
Gotta deal with the consequences. Theconsequences might mean fans spend the next
two months not paying attention, mightmean that they express, in whatever form
they choose, a renewed lack ofconfidence in what the Reds are doing.
The reality is they're probably gonna tryto trade some other guys. Jonathan India

(03:38):
has been talked about a bunch.I'm not sure there's a huge market for
Jonathan India out there, but maybethe Reds find a taker, and if
they don't, then Jonathan India ison the team next year, or maybe
he's traded this offseason, then eitherone of those scenarios are okay as well.
Chad Dotson, who writes a Redscolumn for Cincinnati Magazine and Very Good

(03:59):
News Letter, wrote the tweet lastnight that this trade on its own is
fine. And it is, andI'm referencing the Frankie Montas trade. The
trade on its own, merit isfine. Frankie Montas wasn't very good,
wasn't going to pitch here next year. Maybe there's some upside with the guys
that they have acquired. Maybe heequated what the Reds have acquired and returned

(04:24):
to a lottery ticket. Right,what's the worst that can happen by a
lottery ticket? You're not out allthat money. There's a lot of upside,
and I agree with that premise.I do. The problem is,
though, that this franchise feels likeit's becoming defined by moves that really don't

(04:44):
move the needle. Like this doesn'tmove the needle in either direction. It
doesn't really make the Reds appreciably betterin twenty twenty four. Not really sure
it makes them all that worse.It really doesn't make you feel like,
God, yes, twenty twenty fiveis going to be the year. It

(05:05):
feels like a move where they're justyou know what, let's try this and
see if it sticks in a vacuum. That's okay. But the problem is,
I think for I think for alot of us, it feels like
a disproportionate part of the overall organizationalstrategy is to just go through a series

(05:30):
of moves where we just throw stuffagainst the wall and hope that something sticks.
That's frankly not that much of astrategy, right, I mean,
it has felt like and I donot discount the fact that when the Reds
decided to basically start fresh prior tothe twenty twenty two season, they've done

(05:53):
a pretty decent job of acquiring someguys that at least have seemed like they
have some upside in various trades forguys who were established players and played here
in twenty twenty and twenty one inpart of twenty twenty two. But for
a while now it feels like andspecifically with the construction of this year's team,
And you could tell me if youdisagree that there have been a lot

(06:14):
of moves with the idea here aswell, we'll just see if this works.
If it doesn't, no big deal. And some of that, yes,
necessitated by injury this season, butalso this offseason, like Frankie Montas
himself, Well, here's a guythat was good a while ago, and
we're getting him for sixteen mil,which in this market of pitching, it's

(06:34):
certainly not inexpensive, but well,it's not a long term commitment, and
who knows, Let's see if it'ssticks. And it didn't, and it
kind of feels like there's a largepart of their strategy that for a while
has been let's well, let's trythis and maybe it'll work. You know
the Austin Remember the Reds traded acouple of weeks ago for Austin Slater.

(06:56):
Did you even remember that he's onthe team, And again, like,
okay, what's the worst that canhappen? But when a large part of
your strategy feels like it's guided bythat axiom. Oh, it's the worst
that can happen. Number one,it's not going to inspire a lot of
confidence. Number two, it's probablynot going to work if the idea is

(07:19):
to build a world championship team.Twelve minutes after three o'clock, show preview
video is up if you want tocheck it out on x at Muweger Thanks
to Emory Federal Credit Union, yourcredit Union with Heart since nineteen thirty nine.
By the way, August twelfth,thirteen days away, the most prestigious

(07:40):
golf event of the summer, theEmory Federal Credit Union Golf Outing benefiting Cincinnati's
Children's Hospital charities. I will beplaying in it. We want you to
play in it. Go to EmoryFCU. Dotter work the weird thing as
we sort of sift through what theReds are doing and watching them wave the
white flag on twenty twenty four,which they're not going to say they're doing.

(08:03):
But Jamar Chase also isn't telling youthat he's conducting a sit in or
a hold in. I should sayhe's, by the way, not practicing
today again day six. He's notgonna say I'm conducting a hold in.
But we know what he's doing,and the Reds aren't gonna say we're punting
on twenty twenty four. But again, you just traded your opening day starter

(08:24):
to a division rival that you playin a week and a half. That's
waving the white flag on twenty twentyfour. The weird thing is, you
know, this isn't twenty fifteen,sixteen, seventeen, eighteen terrible teams,
rudderless teams, teams that had noplayers that you thought were gonna be here

(08:46):
the next time the Reds were good. This team's not terrible. They're they're
just not good enough. They're notawful. They're probably not gonna lose ninety
games, and if they do,it's it's probably gonna be just kind of
adding out at the end of theseason because a whole bunch of stuff goes
wrong and some injured guys don't comeback. They're not terrible, they're starting
pitching is better than league average andin some cases really really good. They're

(09:11):
just not good enough, and sowhat's gonna happen between now and the end
of the season is that they're probablygonna hang around and be just at Arm's
length from contention. They may evenget a little bit closer and sniff contention,
And there might be some days whereyou look at the game's back column
and see where they are in relationto the wild card and try to talk

(09:33):
yourself into well, you know,maybe maybe, But the most pressing question
over the next two months isn't gonnabe about contention in twenty twenty four.
The most pressing question as of maybeSunday afternoon, or maybe last night,

(09:54):
maybe as of right now. What'sgoing to be done between now and the
the start of spring training next yearto better put the Reds in position to
win, to better put the Redsin a position to absorb bad stuff like
injury and individual players not performing upto their standards. How are they going

(10:18):
to have a better constructed roster,and how are they going to handle the
pushback that is going to come withtelling an already exasperated, exhausted fan base
that they've got to keep waiting justa little bit longer. Five point three

(10:41):
seven four nine fifteen thirty is myphone number eight six six seven oh two
three seven seven six works two.You could send me a tweet at Moeger
Thanks to Delta Dental, which isbuilding healthy, smart, vibrant communities for
all good at Delta Dental, Ohdot com. The moves themselves fine,
waving the white flag, throwing inthe towel, punting on twenty twenty four.

(11:07):
However you want to put it mathematically, it probably makes sense. Let's
be honest, but boy, thereare a lot of us who have sat
through rebuilds, retoolings and years whatthey went for and it didn't work,
and heard excuses and listened to allthe rationalizations as for why they had to

(11:28):
go in a certain direction, andat times we've nodded along. But there's
been a prevailing message, and there'sbeen a prevailing message from this franchise since
even before the current ownership structure,and that message has been just got to
wait a little bit longer. You'rea Reds fan. I guess how does

(11:48):
it feel to be told right nowafter years of being told to wait,
after years of them pleading for yourpatients, and guess what, man,
You're just gonna have to wait alittle bit longer. You tell me seventeen
minutes after three o'clock five point threeseven nine fifteen thirty is our phone number.

(12:09):
Scott Saderfield Talk. Today, youwill hear from the UC football coach.
Coming up in a bit. TonyPike is at the venue originally known
as Paul Brown Stadium. He iscovering the first Bengals padded practice. Jamar
Chase is not practicing today. NoSam Hubbard, I guess, no Trey
Hendrickson either. Cam Taylor Britt hisback. I guess he get us Tonsils

(12:30):
fixed. Uh, So, Tony'sgonna join us in less than thirty minutes,
right around three forty five and giveus the first of three updates live
from Bengals training camp. Looking forwardto Uh to that. Uh, the
trade deadline is two hours and fortytwo minutes away, and we'll count down
to that. Gets you set forReds and Cubs. See if there's any

(12:50):
baseball justice after what happened last nightwith Tyler Stevenson getting drilled in the head.
By the way, he is backin the Reds starting lineup tonight.
UH. This process that the Redsare engaged and feels like it just got
started. It really didn't. We'llexplain next ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
It is twenty three after three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

(13:13):
That sound in the background, youhear the siren that is not the that
is not alerting you to us,alerting to you to a trade. The
trade deadline is two hours and thirtysix minutes away. Reds have traded Lucas
Simms for a picture you've never heardof to the Boston Red Sox. They
could still get a deal done beforetonight's game, and if they do,

(13:37):
it's it's probably not gonna be forlike someone who's gonna make them much better
this year. So I need youknow, we're we have a lot of
moving parts. We have Bengals trainingcamp that we have to get to.
Scott Saderfield audio. I want tomake fun of the TBT after watching that
game in Louisville last night and someof the games that took place at fifth
third, there's a lot going onand so my monitoring all events is my

(14:01):
guy Tarren Bland in our control room. And uh, do we have this
is just a drill? Do youhave the theme ready that we're gonna use
in the event of a trade thattakes place while we're on the air,
Yes, all right, go aheadand play that. If you hear this
between now at six o'clock. Itried it from the TV show Emergency.

(14:30):
If you hear this song, itmeans pay attention. Actually, something of
importance is is taking place? Taran. I'm looking at the call screen on
the hotline. Is that a Isthat a telemarketer calling? Yes? Is
like a Rowboll call? Or areal person? That's a real person?
Hey, what's up? All?They hung up? When I look at

(14:50):
that line and I see an eightysix sixth number, I feel like we're
about to get telemarketed. Like,let's put those people on the air.
See what they got. Uh.Tony Pike at Angles padded practice. It
just to confirmed because I might haveI might have confused folks. Jamar Chase
is not practicing. He's doing hishold in Daner Who By the way,

(15:13):
it's gonna join us tomorrow. He'stypically here on Tuesdays, but he's got
to do his job, so he'sinstead gonna be with us in studio tomorrow
to go over a lot of differentBengals Stuff. Tweeted out a picture of
Jamar Chase signing autographs and needless tosay, there were a lot of folks
who wanted his John Hancock no TreyHendrickson, no Sam Hubbard. Both players

(15:33):
kind of dinged up obviously last week, so Zach Taylor said yesterday all healthy
players were gonna go. I guesswith the exception of Jamar Chase. I
have more thoughts on how Zach Tayloris handling this that we'll get to a
little bit later on. But likethis this dynamic with the Reds, there
are there are times where I feellike the reaction to something or how a

(15:58):
chain of events impacts the relationship thata team has with its fans is really
the bigger story, and I kindof feel like that's the case here.
Look, this, this process thatthe Reds are engaged in really started prior
to the twenty twenty one season.If you remember, twenty twenty was the

(16:22):
pandemic year. Reds made the playoffsas a seven seed, and who knows
what would have happened had they playeda normal season. Will never know,
unfortunately, but they came out ofthat year and did nothing to make the
team better, right or wrong,excusable, inexcusable, however you want to

(16:42):
frame it, but they really didn't. They traded away two relief pitchers,
basically gave them away and didn't makethe team better. The moment the season
ended, they started to unload moreguys, traded, gave away Tucker Barnhart
and again right, wrong, usable, inexcusable, however you want to put
it, that's what they did.And then there was a lockout and they

(17:04):
came out of the lockout, andthen they traded away Jesse Winker and Uhaneo
Suarez and more trades, and bythen it was abundantly clear. If you
weren't already paying attention to the directionthe Reds were taking the team. Again,
you may have been one hundred percenton board Sunny Gray was in that
mix. You might have been completelyopposed to what they were doing. You

(17:26):
might have found ways to excuse it, rationalize it, explain it, whatever,
that's what they chose to do.It continued that summer, traded away
Luis Castillo and Tyler Malley, andagain by then it was abundantly clear the
direction the Reds were going in.And it yielded some pretty good dividends in
twenty twenty three and this year it'syielded very limited dividends. But it is

(17:49):
a process that they have been engagedin now for parts of four seasons,
and in that timeframe, some reallygood stuff has happened, really good stuff.
You know, some of the playersthe Reds acquired via trade have been
okay. Some you know, MattMcClain, I think we all are really

(18:12):
excited to watch him play at somepoint, but you know, unfortunately we
have had a chance to watch himthis year. But that guy looks like
a part of the solution. AndI don't think anybody should give up totally
on Noelvee Marte who's still just twentytwo years old, Christian and Carnassi on
strand, and I think Spencer Steeris a good big league ball player.

(18:33):
They've they've they've acquired some guys wholook like they really could be a part
of the solution. And Hunter Greenhas gotten to the big leagues have become
an All Star. And Elie delaCruz has gotten to the big leagues and
he's become an All Star. AndNicolodolo has gotten to the big leagues and
has established himself as a pretty goodbig league starting pitcher. We get to
say the same for Andrew Abbott,and Alexis Diaz has gotten here and been

(18:57):
at times a really good closer forthe most part ay better than average ones.
All this good stuff, right,and yet and you could tell me
if I'm wrong, and we aregonna get to you here in a minute,
it still feels like they're really faraway from true, legitimate, bonafide

(19:22):
contention, bonafide contention where we don'ttalk about them sneaking into the playoffs as
the last wild card and being thebest of all the mediocre teams, but
we talked about them being one ofthe best two or three teams in the
National League, harboring legitimate World Seriesaspirations. And I don't know if that's

(19:52):
ever gonna change unless the moves theReds make to their roster involves something beyond
the strategy of why not, let'shope it sticks, or what's the worst
that can happen? Like for allthe good stuff, and I think operating

(20:14):
within a certain ownership mandate, thefront office, the baseball offs people have
done some really good things, andyet they're better. They're no longer in
that abyss of twenty fifteen to eighteenwhere you went into every season knowing they
were going to lose close to ninetyfive games. But it still feels like

(20:37):
they're a way away, a longway away from us going into the season
talking about how they could actually,maybe dare I say, win ninety five
games. That's deeply frustrating when theprocess has been going on for as long
as it has and it gets tackedonto the already built in a decade and

(21:00):
a half of waiting and being toldto wait in any phase of life,
in any situation. The longer you'retold to wait without any real results,
you're going to become more and moreimpatient, and eventually you're gonna stop trusting
the people who are telling you towait. And again, I have no

(21:23):
issue at all with what the Redshave done with the players they have traded
over the last couple of days.None that's based on a realistic assessment of
what this team is, what they'renot, where they are, how much
season is remaining. But there isa message that gets sent, and that

(21:47):
message is painfully familiar. Your callsare next on ESPN fifteen thirty Sincy three
sixty with Tony Pike. You willwant to move on. They have to
keep going and Bostin Elmore, Ithink you should continue to let me keep
going there Sincy three sixty tomorrow,which twelve noons on ESPN fifteen thirty minutes.

(22:08):
Tony Pike is at Bengals training camppractice. Bengals are wearing protective gear
today. Sports headlines a service ofKelsey Chevrolet home of lifetime power train protection
and guaranteed credit approval from their familyto yours for life, kelseyshev dot Com,
Reds and Cubs Tonight again trade deadlineat six o'clock. Tony Santian is

(22:30):
going to pitch. This was thegame Frankie Montas was supposed to pitch,
but he can't because he's now withthe Brewers, and so it's gonna be
a bullpen game. Santian is goingto be the first guy to pitch.
Lucas Simms will not pitch in thisgame because he's been traded to the Boston
Red Sox in exchange for an aball pitcher from Boston whose name I've already

(22:53):
forgotten. Ooth that's out prepared tobroadcast rhyme. Ovis Portes is coming here.
Luke Mainley starts a rehab assignment.Yas Vorzuela is up from Louisville.
SOA's Lyon Richardson starting lineup tonight.By the way, subject to change.
I guess India had second Elliott shortSteers on left field. Tyler Stevenson,

(23:17):
who took a high hard one offthe dome last night, is behind the
plate and betting Forth Candelario at first, TJ Friedel and center, Stewart Fairchild
and right, noelfe Martes at thirdbase. Santiago Espinal is a dhing and
betting ninth seven to ten this eveningon a seven hundred WLW. Florence Yaw's

(23:37):
take on the lake Erie Crushers.Bengals are practicing now. Jamar Chase isn't
he's healthy. Sam Hubbard is notpracticing. He hurt his knee Sunday night,
and Trey Hendrickson is still dealing withsomething physically. He is also not
practicing. All right, that wouldbe it for your local sports headlines.

(24:00):
Uh, it's a talk show.It's a call in show, so we
should take phone calls. So let'sdo that. Sell. You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. How's it going.It's going great. Mom. I don't
know who's given Castellini's relationship advice,but they might want to rethink it.
Yeah, I mean, because it'slike like they treat us like we're married

(24:23):
to them, like in a verylike nine like eighteen hundred spectorian like kind
of thing, right, and sohere we are, and I'm kind of
like, so they want us tospend our time and our resources with them,
and I'm kind of tired of puttingout money to go Dutch when the
best that they can do is anew pair of socks from the Dollar General

(24:45):
store. Yeah, I know you, I know you've got Macy's money.
Spend some Macy's money, like likelike you've got you've got to just you've
got some few good players. Yougot, you got good teeth and nice
smiling eyes, and your hair isstylish, but you're you're You're always scratching

(25:06):
your button. You're always burping andparting at the dinner table, and nah,
there's other things that I can do. And like, the saddest thing
is, I've got a good friendcoming in definately wants to see a ball
gain this Saturday, and we're gonnago. But I would much rather say,
hey, can I show you whatI love about the city? And

(25:26):
the Reds aren't on that list.We talk about that in terms of used
to be, We talk about thatin terms of could be, but we
don't talk about that in terms ofwhat is Yeah, it's fair, I
mean, those criticisms are valid init until the results are different. And
look, I mean I can Ican point out to you that you know

(25:48):
they did spend some money this offseason, you know, frank Frankie Martin
or Frankie Mantas, Nick Martinez,jam Or Candelario and Emilio Pagan, you
know, making together close to fiftymillion dollars this season. That's not nothing.
I'm less interested. I'm less interestedin what they spend, and I'm
more interested in the results achieved bywhat they spend. My issue has never

(26:10):
been where they are in relation tothe other teams, and in terms of
what they spend, I don't care. My concern and my interest has always
been where they are in relation tothe other teams in the standings. If
you could achieve, if you couldachieve better results spending less money by all
means do it great. But unlessuntil you do that, then what you

(26:30):
don't spend on your team overall,and some of the moves that you make
that seem to be guided by financesmore than anything else, end up leading
the conversation the way they are rightnow. But I mean it's like,
yeah, they spent money on MontageMarket, but it's kind of like like

(26:51):
when you go to Walmart and you'regetting stuff at the end of the season.
Yeah, and if you play oneor two more weeks, it'll be
Unclears and you can really save somemoney then. But it's just it's I
the Castelini's I'm back to sell theteam, boss. I fully am there.

(27:11):
Ably they make their money selling produce. You know what's cheap produce.
You know, it has an automaticdemand market produce because every grocery store and
needs it and every restaurant has tohave it. With Phil Castelini said,
where else are you gonna go?I always say, when they tell you
who you are, believe them.Yeah, And I wonder, Phil,

(27:33):
thank you very much. I appreciatethe phone call. I wonder you know,
last summer was awesome. And Isaid this often in June, July,
and August of last year that Iloved. What I loved most about
last year's team was, for thefirst time in a couple of years on

(27:55):
this show, at least when wetalked about base we actually talked about baseball,
which is why I got into thisto begin with when And what I
meant was we talk about the gamesand the lineups and the strategies and some
of the moves that didn't work andsome of the moves that did work,

(28:18):
and who should be called up andwhat should they do with the deadline.
And that's the fun part. Thefun part isn't banging on the table about
ownership and listening to folks perhaps justifiablytalk about why they're not watching or why
they're not going, or why they'renot why they're not interested anymore, or
screaming and yelling about selling the team, like the twenty twenty two season.

(28:41):
Like I'm a sports talk radio hostand you know, like I'm a fan
first. I do this show fromthe from the filter of being a fan.
But like that twenty twenty two seasonwas miserable because we didn't talk about
baseball at all. It was aseason full of an under standable just anger

(29:03):
and exasperation and frustration and people throwingup their hands saying I'm done. It
didn't matter what button David Bell pushedthe night before, because the night before
they were playing game thirty games underfive hundred. Didn't matter what the lineup
was that night because they were gonnalose anyway, and if they won,

(29:25):
big deal, they were gonna pullwithin what thirty two games of the first
place. And so last year wasawesome because we got away from everything else,
We got away from Phil and Boband sell the team and we actually
talked about baseball. Well, what'shappened this year? For a variety of
factors. The Reds have disappointed.Call it what it is. It's been

(29:48):
a disappointing season. I didn't believethe Reds were gonna win ninety games,
to be honest with you, Ididn't. I never said that they were.
I thought they'd be in the hunt. I thought they'd have a shot.
I thought it was quite possible thatthey would spend the summer with a
winning record. Certainly thought it waspossible that we would go into the trade

(30:10):
deadline talking about how they can maybemake the team better and put themselves in
a better position to make the playoffs. That's not happening here. And so,
as a result, where does theconversation drift back toward? And fairly
so, it drifts back toward thestuff that we used to talk about before
the Reds surprised us all last year. That's no fun. But that's what

(30:33):
comes when you tell people you gotto keep waiting. That's what comes when
the results are painfully familiar. That'swhat comes when the please from the team
sound the same because they are thesame. Just keep waiting. I think
a lot of the criticisms the Castellini'sget are really fair. I've had a

(30:59):
a number of shows where that's beenthe dominant theme from me into this microphone.
I think there are times where defaultingto ownership is unfair, sometimes even
lazy. But you are your trackrecord, and so when when you've you've
owned the club for close to twodecades, and yet again you're asking people

(31:23):
to wait, what do you thinkthe reaction is gonna be? And so
that's that's why I'm I think whatthe Reds are doing right now is really
interesting because, again, I fromNick Cras's perspective, I get it like
Big Deal traded Frankie Mantas, He'sstunk and he wasn't gonna be here anywhere,
and I Enjoey Weimer why not right, But it still just doesn't feel

(31:47):
like an organization that is willing togo to the end of the Earth to
do everything they can to win theWorld Series. It does feel like they're
constructed in a manner that has themas close to really contending, and it

(32:08):
sounds like a franchise that's been askingus to do the same thing they're asking
us to do. Right now,wait thirteen away from four o'clock, I'm
going to ask you to wait.Stay with me. Five point three seven
four nine fifteen thirty, We'll goto Tony Pike at Bengals practice. Next
is out of his boost is thetraining camp report brook to you by Kimba

(32:30):
credit you gim on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of the Angos.
See Bengals are practicing for the firsttime this training camp in pads. Tony
Pike is there giving us hourly trainingcamp reports. Are you Are you wearing
pads? Well, I'm not wearingpads to that. I spent a lot
of the practice just trying to refocusa lot of the members of the media

(32:52):
who are down here and trying tosit through the fallout of losing Lucas Sims
while also preparing for a added practice. It's it's tough. Well, it's
a lot of balancing down here,and I've got to think you each spend
considerable time sort of throwing at eachother your favorite Frankie Montass moments, Oh
the Montoss moments, and and justthe locker room guy that he was How

(33:15):
long the package will be when theRed Sea Lucas sims again for the scoreboard
practice. There's just there's a lotand and kind of lost in all the
shuffle mo is a padded practice hereat the practice field. All right,
So have we learned anything watching theBengals actually practicing pads today? You know,

(33:35):
I will say it's it was differentthe most the thing I was most
looking forward to is one on oneswith the offensive line and defensive line.
Got lost a little bit of theflare because both Sam Hubbard Andrey Hendrickson aren't
practicing today. But Marius Memes,in my opinion, you see right away
the upside of why he was drafted. Like he was beat a couple of
times today, So you never lookedlike, oh he was beat because he

(33:59):
was too slow, or you know, you don't look on him like guy,
he just kind of looks sloppy.The footwork is ridiculous. He moves
so well. He's put together sowell that everything you see with him,
it's like, you know what,technique wise, he's getting there, but
he checks every other box and youcan even see that on reps he gets
beat. And I think that's that'sa good sign for the Cincinnati Bengals and

(34:21):
hopefully that continues to develop under FrankPollock. I think Charlie Jones, a
guy we've barely talked about. CharlieJoneses had a really good practice today with
some key catches, and he doesso opposite of andre Yosi Bosh, who's
had a couple of nice catches butwent through a span over a couple periods
where he dropped three passes in arow. Te Higgins and Joe Burrow haven't
really hooked up much today. It'sbeen up and down. Defense has won

(34:45):
a little bit, offense has wona little bit, but overall it's much
more intense at today's practice than ithas been to the first couple. You
know, we've talked a lot aboutthe guys on the defensive line they don't
have right now in Hendrickson and Hubbard, and those players are obviously very very
important. This is a huge trainingcamp for Joseph Osai and I think it's

(35:05):
also a season of infinite possibilities forMiles Murphy. Yeah, Miles Murphy again
one of those guys that just physicallylooks the part, and now he's more
comfortable in the scheme, he's morecomfortable in where he needs to be,
and when you are that, youjust you play faster. It's interesting.
I was talking to James Pene downhere yesterday and he had Joseph Osaiah as

(35:27):
the one of the positions and playersto watch at the end of the roster.
That fifty three man actually thinks JosephOsai could be one of those casualties
if he doesn't have a better camp. So I agree with you. It
couldn't have started better for Osidon.I had the preseason sack against Brady,
and then it's been injuries, it'sbeen question marks, and it's just been
lack of production when he's been outthere. He is a guy in my

(35:50):
opinion, as you just alluded to, I think he's got to impress this
camp. I think he's got togo out and show why he deserves to
be in the mix for a defensiveline that has to get after the passer
because there are questions at number twocorner. That's an extremely important role in
position for lou Anaumo this year.Yeah, no question about him. All
right. I look forward to chattingwith you in about an hour. Thank

(36:13):
you so much, Tony. Allright, Tony Pike is at Bengals training
camp practice Bengals and Buccaneers a weekfrom Saturday night. That game is in
Cincinnati. It will kick off atseven o'clock and you'll hear it live on
ESPN fifteen to thirty. You know, some radio stations carry some of the
games. No, no, no, not this one. We carry all

(36:34):
of them. A week from Saturdaynight, Bengals at the venue originally known
as Paul Brown Stadium against the Bucks, the team that Joseph. This is
a huge cam for two guys who'vebeen here now for a while, Jackson
Carmen Joseph Osaide, Joseph Osaide's yearfour. Like at some point with Joseph
O'SAI, we have to stop referencingthe game in twenty twenty one in the

(36:57):
preseason against Tom Brady as a longdamn time ago, and so this is
year four. He's known for thepenalty on Patrick Mahomes in the ANFC Championship
game and having a good half ofa preseason games rookie season. Beyond that,
there hasn't been much. This isa big, big year for him,
and it's a big big year forJackson Carmen. You know, look,

(37:19):
I mean kind of a forgotten manlast year because the Bengals enjoyed wonderful
health on the offensive line. Whatis their death, Like Jackson Carman hold
onto a roster spot because that rosterspot, more likely than not, is
going to be needed this year.And it's you know, it's and it's
year four for him as well.So let's go. Let's go. All

(37:45):
right, I'm not gonna do whatthe Reds doing. Tight to wait any
longer. We'll get to the topof the hour. We'll take some phone
calls and update you on anything theReds may do between now and six o'clock
on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's SportsStation Engles training Camp since three six years
there bringing you the Orange and Blacklike never before from the Kettering Hope Practice

(38:07):
Field beginning Monday of note on ESPNfifteen thirty, the official home of the
Mingles. That is awesome. It'sfive at before. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty. M Oeger, thank youfor joining us. Thrilled that you're here.
We'll go back to training camp.Tony. Is there get an update

(38:28):
on padded practice? Also, Tarnand I were just talking about this off
air. If you're a Kentucky basketballfan or a Louisville basketball fan, I'm
sure you were more likely to watchthan others. But the TBT game,
I have fallen in love with theTBT. Maybe for all the wrong reasons,

(38:50):
but I think for all the rightreasons, and that was a really
it was not a good basketball game, but it was a really fun sporting
event. And that's okay, Andwe're going to spend a few minutes on
it. Joe Burrow the NFL Network, they're doing their annual list of the
top one hundred players. Joe Burrow'speers say he's the thirty ninth best player

(39:10):
in the NFL. We're going tospend some time on that. Brendanman and
Jones on baseball too. You know, we do a show every single day,
three hours, and it is talk. Shows like this are not designed
like they used to be to generatea lot of phone calls. And there

(39:34):
are plenty of days where we'll doa show, and we either don't have
time or we just for whatever reason, don't get many. And the reality
is, like, I think peopleare busier than they were when I first
got into this, and not asmany folks are using their phone when they're
behind the wheel, and that's probablya good thing. And people's consuming habits
have changed, and there's different waysto get a hold of the person on

(39:57):
the air, And so as timehas gone on, we have emphasized phone
calls less and less, because ifyou design a show around, hey,
we're gonna get phone calls, andyou don't, you're screwed. We love
them. I wish we had moreof them. I wish we had more
people who were willing to engage ina fun disagreement. But that's just not

(40:19):
the world that we live in anymore. And now there are certain days where
folks are triggered. Today is oneof those days. I'm looking at my
screen right now. I got fulllines. There are times when we have
full lines, but we've got interviewsand guests and different things, and I
will say, hey, if you'reon hold, wait just a second,

(40:44):
got to get to you. AndI'll read the names, and when I
say that the first time. UsuallyI'll look at the screen and no one
will have hung up. But thenwe'll do a segment and I'll bloviate about
something and at the end of it, I'll go, I got folks waiting
on hold. Hang tight, I'mgonna get to you, And like you
look at it and like one persondropped off, and then you do something

(41:08):
else and you come back and you, hey, I know you're on hold.
I'm gonna get to you. Andthen you look at it and you
keep doing it, and eventually,before you can get any phone calls,
your call screen's empty. Well that'swhat the Reds are doing. The more
you ask people to wait. AndI want to be very clear about this.

(41:29):
I have in a vacuum, noissue at all with what the Reds
have done in relation to the tradedeadline. I wish they would have been
more proactive in making the team bettermonths ago. We talked a lot about
that yesterday. But with every movethere's a message, Like the Reds made
moves in twenty twenty prior to thepandemic, and it was we're gonna try

(41:50):
to win this year. It's aguaranteed to work. Of course, not
we're gonna try to win this year. We're going for it. It's a
message. And then when you havethese teardowns like they've had and what the
Red's is doing right now, it'snot a teardown, But when you have
a teardown, it's we're starting over. Bear with us. The prevailing message
for three decades, regardless of ownership, regardless of GM, regardless of ballpark

(42:15):
they've played in, has been stickwith us, and wait. Well.
If I ran my radio show whenI and I'm this is a preamble to
finally get some phone calls, andI spent two and a half hours telling
people just wait, hey, wait, I'm gonna get to you. Just
wait, like at some point,like if you have a full waiting area
at a restaurant, it's like,all right, it's gonna be an hour

(42:36):
long wait, and an hour comesand goes, and you know, you
go to the hostess stand. Howfar, well, just stick hey,
stick with us. It's gonna befifteen more minutes. And then after fifteen
minutes, hey, how at somepoint you're gonna go screw this, Let's
go somewhere else. The Reds arekind of doing that. Just another year

(42:58):
just hey, just some will waitthrough it. Not everyone will, uh
Patrick, thank you for waiting.Go ahead. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.
What's up, hey, No,nice to talk to you. Nice
to be talking. I've been afan for long. Yeah, I've been
a fan for a long time,and most of the time I agree with

(43:20):
you. But I got to calland contest something I heard you say to
Paul Danner earlier today. This ideathat you know, this is not specifically
about Jamar Chase, but because he'sthe local player, he gets the name
drop. It applies to Ayu CanLamb and all the others. I don't
understand in what world Jamar can beconsidered in the right here. My point

(43:43):
is this, Jamar graduated, orwell, he finished school. He voluntarily
joined a union that collectively bargained forthe contract that he voluntarily signed. Now
he's still had as a minimum oftwo years ago on the contract that he
voluntarily signed, and now he sayshe's not going to play. He said

(44:07):
that. He doesn't say that,but that's the message that he's sending,
right, No, he's sending themessage that I'm not going to practice.
Well, you know, I'll getback to that, because I don't want
to get sidetracked on that. Butthe is the message that he is under
contract to play football games. Heis under contract to arrive at training camp

(44:30):
and go through a bare minimum numberof exercises in order to not get fined.
Not participating in a practice does notsubject him to a fine. He
is living up to that contract.Now, if we get to the season
and he doesn't play a game,that he's not living up to the contract
and he's not going to get paid. I'm sorry. When I have an

(44:50):
employer, an employer expects me tobe at work, and all my coworkers
who I claim the love, areat work, sweating and working hard getting
ready for this season. I wouldthink that it would be my moral obligation,
as being part of the team,as being under contract, to be
there and doing the things that weneed to do. The very thing that
we heard about Burrow the last what'sbeen wrong early in the season. Burrow

(45:14):
ain't been right. Boy here itlooks like he hasn't practiced, and so
now here we go again. Andthen and then on top of the deal,
some of the media, certainly notyou will want to sit there and
argue to me that these players thatare sitting out, what was it,
Jamar owns or should earn thirty milliondollars. Well, yeah, he should

(45:35):
the next time he has a newcontract. That right now, he's under
contract and he's in my mind he'sbreaching that contract. But he's not because
he's with private conversations he's had wellI don't know, I don't know what
private conversations. But he's not breachinghis contract. I mean, if he
was breaching his contract, there wouldbe repercussions. He's not facing any Breaching

(45:58):
the contract wouldn't mean he doesn't report. He's reported. He's with the Bengals
today, he's in meetings. Hecaught balls off the drugs machine yesterday.
He is not in breach of hiscontract. Now, you might believe,
and perhaps legitimately so, that he'sin breach of his obligation to his teammates,
his obligation to you know, dothe best he can to be ready

(46:19):
for the season. That's all welland good, but he is not breaching
any contract. Look, you signit in my world, when you put
your name on the line for fouryears, that's what you do. Yeah,
he's not even up. He's noteven up for the day pag Yet

(46:40):
you know he's worth thirty million dollars. He's a thirty million dollar a year
receiver. But that comes later downthe road. Right now, he needs
to be in pads and practicing,And we can parse the idea about the
very specific particulars, but it doesn'tchange the spirit of the thing. In
my view, somebody needs to bepracticing and honoring their contract, and to

(47:02):
me, that's being there with everybodyelse because that's the expectation. Yeah,
I think there's I think no,I think there's validity to what you say
in an ideal world. But thereality is that the way these the way
these players operate, the leverage theyhave is limited. And so a guy

(47:22):
like Jamar is going to do whatmany of us are going to do and
try to find whatever leverage we havethat's not going to come at my financial
expense. And so for Jamar,and you might not agree with it,
but for Jamarn's I'm not going topractice. And while this scenario is unlikely,
you might say, well, he'sgoing to be a thirty million dollar
player and they're going to sign him. What happens if he practices and blows

(47:44):
out his knee. What happens ifhe practicesn't justin and a risk mode.
Life is life has life is allright. Life is also for many of
us about mitigating risk. So soif I'm Jamar, or if you're Jamar
and you got to be look,man, I'm going to miss some of

(48:04):
these practices because I'm going to dowhat I can to minimize the risk while
not breaching contract and ultimately not jeopardizingmy ability to play on the field this
year. I can't argue with that. I can't take I don't story though
you know I don't buy that.That's his position. His position is he
wants to get paid, sure,and I and I's fine. You can

(48:28):
get paid when the time comes.It'll happen for you, and it will
happen if he has a bang upseason. Now, you might argue,
and time will tell that his unwillingnessto practice will jeopardize his ability to have
a bang up season. I thinkJamar is a good enough player, a
hard enough worker, and intune enoughteammate that he can still miss practice and

(48:50):
have the kind of season that putshim comfortably in the range where you would
want to pay him. Justin Jeffersontype money. You know I don't.
I will Okay, your points accepted, and I'll relent now because I don't
want to. You know, No, it's no wrong, no, no,
I mean look Patrick in the armyfor four years. I would have

(49:13):
liked to change my contract. YeahI couldn't, but I signed for four
years, no doubt about it,no doubt about it. But in many
professions, people will do whatever theycan to use whatever leverage they can to
get what they want. Jamar hasno leverage, right, He's under contract
for two more years. He cannotforce the Bengals players union, right,

(49:34):
Sure, I mean you are exactlyright, Like, if he has an
issue with the structure of his currentcontract, he should take it up with
his union. I don't think hisissue is with his current contract. I
think what he wants is the secondcontract, and he wants it now,
and I can't blame him for that, And I can't blame the Bengals for
asking, like, why do wehave to do it now? What's the
way. I don't think either sideis wrong, but I can't hold it

(49:54):
against anybody in any profession for usingwhatever leverage they can to make a point
to get what they want, ifit's not breaching a contract, and if
it's not coming at significant expense toeveryone else. And I trust Jamar Chase
the football player, to believe thatwhat he is doing is not going to
come at the expense of everybody else. Now, if we get to very

(50:16):
late August and the season opener islooming and this team's track record early in
the season being what it is,he hasn't been on the practice field yet,
a little bit of a different discussion. But I'm sorry when he's missing
practices in July and the season's happeningin September, I just I can't blame
him for taking the approach that he'staking. All right, Well, keep

(50:39):
up the good work now, Patrick, I enjoyed it. No, thank
you very much. We talked aboutthat on Paul's podcast today, The Growler,
and Paul's going to be with mein studio tomorrow at three o'clock,
Mark, Ron Keith, Mike Wait, we do have to get a break
in. Joe Burrow thirty ninth bestplayer in the NFL according to NFL Networks
Player's Poll. Uh. I havea hard time getting worked up about it,

(51:01):
but I'll make an admission coming upon ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
I got a swimming on in here. I have no idea. Jeremy
in Brazil, Germany and Brazil,Jeremy Swimming fifty eight forty nine, gotcha,
thank you. Swimming is uh.I don't want to say hard.

(51:28):
It's it's it's hard, like it'shard to focus on all eight swimmers at
a time for me. But Ienjoy it. I enjoy it normally because
Mainland, because we're good at it, right, We're like, we're never
bad at swimming this century. We'vehad Katie Ledecki and Michael Phelps. So
that's awesome. Some swimming commentary foryou, all right. I do like

(51:50):
waking up to the Olympics. Youknow, for a lot of us of
a certain age, the Olympics werelike a prime time event, and if
it was in a different part ofthe world, it was a tape delay
event. And now, because wellcan you imagine something being taped delayed in
twenty twenty four rolled out of bedthis morning. There are two things I
love. The show Good Morning Football, which is back. They moved into

(52:13):
Los Angeles. It's not quite thesame, I'll admit, but I have
loved that show since it went onthe air because it's one of the few
football based TV shows, NFL Livebeing another where they talk about football like
it's actually supposed to be fun.Like you watch some of these shows about
football and it's like football is thisgrim exercise that we're just supposed to be

(52:37):
constantly angry about and take really seriously, like NFL draft coverages. Sometimes it's
like they're discussing the Ukrainian War orsomething. It's like, we're talking about
football, dude, it's fun.Good morning football? Does that? So
that's back? And then I watchCocoa Golf unfortunately lose and you heard in

(52:58):
that update there through a little bitof a tempertansile the umpire. I like
like breakfast at Wimbledon. I likethe French Open, like the British Open.
I like the Olympics when they're whenthey're in Europe because I could roll
out of bed and watch live sports. Thank you? What are we doing
now? We're taking more phone calls? Mark, You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Good afternoon, Mark, How areyou? But I'm good? Can

(53:21):
you hear me? Okay? Ican hear you loud and clear? Can
you hear me? I do,Yes, I do. I was listening
to Austin today and listening to you, and I kind of not. I
think we should turn the heat downa little bit on the Reds background on

(53:42):
me. I grew up near Chicagoin northern Indiana, close enough to hear
the radio stations and they see theTV TV stations. And I grew up
a Cubs fan since the early seventies. And the Cubs, you know,
went about one hundred years without aWorld Series and yeah, so and when

(54:06):
what were the people what was thetemperature like in Chicago about the Cubs.
It was like they're they're they're laidback about it. They're like their nickname
was the Lovable Losers, and anduh, you know, every year they'd
be in first place in June andby August first there in next to last
place or last place in shading outof you year after years o' clock work.

(54:29):
You know, I moved to Cincinnatiin nineteen eighty five. Uh,
I get here. Pete Rose getsthe record breaking hit Whole Town's Crazy.
Well that's kind of fun. Andthen they win the World Series in the
early nineties as the longest fun andyou know, the Reds have won five
World Series in one hundred and somethingyears, and that's probably above average for

(54:49):
all the teams, So you know, it's not like they're not trying to
win. It's been a draft ofthirty years. But overall, I would
say, you know, you've gotyou've got a lot to like here as
far as you know, A lotof cities know, and I also think
you know, like today about Baltimore. Baltimore is a very struggling city,

(55:10):
not much going for it. They'vebeen losers for a very very very long
time and they got no money.And now they got a winning team by
what by continually building it up,trading away, They trade time, getting
more and more prospects, and nowthe tanks full and they're ready to win.
It's a lot. I don't knowhow long it's been for Baltimore,

(55:31):
but it's happening, and that's whatthe Reds are doing, and that I
really don't see trying to sell afarm to get a few more with people
hurt, this is not the yearto try to win it all. It's
just not going to happen. SoI don't I don't see why people are
mad about them winning and what arethey mad about them trading? Uh?
Yeah, maybe they're not getting greattrades right now. But you know this

(55:53):
guy from Single A, it's youknow, so I don't I don't think.
I think the view of of theownership, well, I think I
think this season in a vacuum ispretty easy to digest. I do.
I think when it gets lopped ontothe previous twenty eight, twenty nine years,

(56:17):
it becomes less easy to digest.And that's the faults of ownership,
you know. That's the Reds havenot only not won the World Series since
nineteen ninety, for the overwhelming majorityof those years, they haven't come close
to contending. The losing has outweighedthe winning, and it hasn't been very

(56:38):
close. And they've taken us throughyears where not in July or August,
but in March you knew they hadno chance. And so with that,
impatience builds and exasperation builds and angerbuilds, and then something like this season,

(57:00):
which I don't think is that difficultto explain? Is that difficult to
really take it? All? Itdoes? It's another log on the fire.
And it's not this year's team's faultthat they were bad ten years ago
or eight years ago, twenty yearsago. It's not this general manager's fault,
it's not even necessarily this owner's fault. But unfortunately, for a lot

(57:23):
of us were fans of the CincinnatiReds, this singular entity, this singular
entity continues to not win enough andask for us to continue to wait.
And that gets exhausting, as Iknow it did in Chicago at various points
when the Cubs were really bad,and as I know it did with the

(57:45):
Angelo's family in Baltimore for years,and as it's happened right now, and
that's not going to change until there'sa big time breakthrough and until they as
an organization win a championship or atleast have a run of sustained success where
they're constantly in the conversation. Andthat hasn't happened here in quite a while.

(58:09):
Okay, well, I understand youviewpoint. What would you do if
you were in Chicago right now ina radio station, what would you be
saying? I would wonder why theRicketts family, for all their worth,
decided to break up a team thatin the late twenty ten still had a
chance to be viable. I mean, on all seriousness, I would.

(58:30):
I mean, look, I wonderand I had a conversation about this with
a friend of mine who is abig Cubs fan. I go like,
how long do you live off thefumes of twenty sixteen? Like? How
long do you live off those fumes? And how long does the Ricketts family
get to cash in that equity?For quite a while, but like,

(58:52):
I watch what they did to thatteam pre pandemic in eighteen and nineteen when
they were crying poverty and they couldn'ttake some of the players who were still
left over and add to them.When they're the Chicago Cubs, when they've
bastardized the village around Wrigley Field andthey own all that land and have all
that revenue, and the Ricketts familyis worth four to five billion dollars and

(59:14):
the results over the last five yearshave been what they are. I would
be yelling and screaming about that,and it might be offset by someone who
says, well, come on,they at least one in twenty sixteen.
The thing is, Mark, wecan't do that here right at the very
least, if you're the Ricketts family, you can go. If you're the
Rickets family, you could say,well, hey, you know from fifteen,

(59:37):
what was it, fifteen to eighteen, we were in the playoffs every
year. We broke the curse,we won the World Series, we repaired
the brand, we gave you.This Rad's ownership can't do that, and
so the dynamic is well, Iwould be frustrated as hell as I if
I was a Cubs fan with howthey've operated the team. The dynamic in
that regard is a little bit different. Well, maybe it's because you're used

(01:00:00):
to seeing winners here in Chicago usedto lose. We're not like, but
Mark like, we're not. Ifyou're a forty year old Reds fan,
you don't remember the Reds winning innineteen ninety. You know, if you're
if you're a thirty year old Redsfan, you've never seen the Reds advance
in the postseason in your lifetime.Yeah, the city had the Big Red

(01:00:22):
Machine, the Big Red Machine,the last one World Series forty eight years
ago. Yeah, in my adultwife, I have not seen the Reds
advance in the postseason. I mean, no, no, I don't.
That's frustrating. But you know,I lived in this city since eighty five
watching the Bengals doing nothing for youknow, I grew up watching the Bears.

(01:00:45):
They lot horribly until eighty five whenI moved here. Then they win
the Super Bowl. Sure, thenyeah yeah. And then I get here
in the Bengals, I switched teams. I grew to love the Cincinnati teams
and I for them over any otherteam. And I'm watching them lose all
the time too. And I andI go to the ball game. My

(01:01:06):
wife and I go to the ballgame. Her family comes in town from
out of state, and we allgo to the ball game. And it's
like, we have a good time. To the atmosphere, it's a family
gathering, and it's it's it's anice atmosphere, and it's a nice ballpark.
It's nice downtown, nice time.Yes, and and and I don't
know, maybe it's that you liveand breathe this every day and everybody's all

(01:01:27):
hyped up. I'm more casual.I don't know the stats. I could
never win your games. You playevery day, you know, But but
I enjoy going to the game onceor twice a year. And if they
win, they win, I'm happy. If they don't, that's okay,
no doubt about it. But butbut I think they I think the the
the the key sort of the cruxof being a sports fan, whether you're

(01:01:51):
casual, die hard, or somewherein between, is you make an emotional
investment in in the fortunes of thatfor franchise, and I think there are
a lot of people, for yearswith the Bengals that would say I'm not
getting sufficient return on my emotional investment, not financial investment, emotional investment.
I think you would find a longline of Reds fans who would say I've

(01:02:15):
emotionally invested in this for a verylong time and I haven't gotten out of
it what I put in. Thatdoesn't mean you're a diehard, that doesn't
mean you're casual, because there's noone way to be a fan. I
know people who are hardcore Reds fans. I know people who casually check in
the feeling on their emotional investment inboth regards. For lack of a better

(01:02:37):
way of putting it, is I'mnot getting anything close out of it compared
to what I put in. Mark, I gotta hit my break. Good
to talk to you, Thank you, thank you. It is twenty eight
away from five o'clock five point threeseven four nine fifteen thirty sports Headlines.
Reds haven't made any more trades sincethey sent Lucas Sims to Boston, but
we have an hour and twenty eightminutes. They play the Cub tonight.

(01:03:00):
Joe Burrow's The Joe Burrows rank thirtynine in the NFL Top NFL Network Top
one hundred. I have a thoughton that and more of your phone calls
next. ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati SportsStation, Bengals training Camp, Friday sixteen
three six years there, bringing youthe Orange and Black like never before from
the gettering host practice field beginning Monday. A note on ESPN fifteen thirty,

(01:03:23):
the official home of the Bengals.ESPN fifteen to thirty, Cincinnati's sports Station,
sports headlines, A service of Kelsey'sChevrolet Home of lifetime powertrain protection and
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(01:03:45):
are conducting a practice in protective geartoday. Jamar Chase is not working out
either are Sam Hubbard or Trey Hendrickson. Two of those players are hurt.
Cam Taylor brit Is back after histonsil problem. Uh, don't forget Bengals
Bucks a week from Saturday at thevenue originally not as Paul Brown Stadium.

(01:04:05):
The game live on ESPN fifteen thirty. What else do we have? Red's
play the Cubs tonight? Tony Santianis going to start a bullpen game.
You will not see Lucas Simms tonightbecause he has been traded to the Boston
Red Sox for minor league righty OvisPortez. I don't know this for sure,

(01:04:27):
but I would be willing to bet. In the long and illustrious history
of the Cincinnati Reds, they havenever had a player with the first name
of Ovis, not Otis Ovius.Best of luck to Lucas Simms. Starting
lineup tonight, India at second,Dela Cruz at short, Dela Cruz didn't
need back to back nights off,Dela Cruz at short, Spencer Steer and

(01:04:47):
left, Tyler Stevenson catching Candelario atfirst, Freedom and center Fairchild and right
Noelve Martes at third base. SanDiego Espinal is dhing and batting night.
Luke Maley sent to Louisville in arehab assignment with that herniated disc problem,
and Lion Richardson is up from Louisville. So is Yas Verzueleta who I feel

(01:05:08):
like he has been called up andsent down a thousand times. What else
do we have? The Florence Yall'splay tonight. I have not jotted down
who they play again? Does itmatter? Like if you're gonna go out
and check out the Florence y'alls,which you should, It's it's a fun
experience. Does does anybody's decision hingeon who they play? Probably not?

(01:05:30):
I think that's all I got.Joe Burrow, do you have I do?
We're playing Serbia? Yes? Who'son our three on three team?
Uh? Kareem maddicskay a Jimmer fordat? Oh and Dylan Travis I gotta
tell you something. Oh and KenyonBarry. I can't stand Jimmer for debt?

(01:05:53):
Is that okay? And I don'tknow why because watching him in college
kind of fun at BYU, veryfun. Yeah, it was a blast.
It was like, you know,dude was shooting from Steph Curry range
when he was in college, reallybefore Steph Curry really blew up as an
NBA player. But like the hypearound Jim Er for Debt, I mean

(01:06:16):
probably still find people who think likeyou got screwed in the NBA, Like
guy couldn't get a shot off.Well, best of now, tell me
how three on three basketball works?Do we have only one team? Yes?
So this is the United States.We're playing Serbia. Great, let's
say you're on the US Men's OlympicBasketball you're Kevin Durant. Could you decide,

(01:06:40):
you know what, I want toplay some three on three? And
Jim Er Sorry, you're not goingto be playing Kareem Maddocks KD wants to
play? Would that be allowed?Probably not, I mean because the rules
are different. Yeah, there's likethere's no like taking it out, Like
as soon as somebody scores, youget the ball and you just go and
you've got a constant movement, right, Yeah, I don't mind that first

(01:07:04):
one. It's either the first onefirsteen to twenty one or the time runs
out, all right, they playhalves or just no, just just one
ten minute game. It's one tenminute game, that's it. Yep.
So whoever's winning after ten minutes isup, or whoever gets to twenty one
first. The official on the baselinelooks like he'd be problems to step up
to. That guy looks like abouncer, Like I've seen that dude work

(01:07:27):
in the door at a bar inMainstross. All right, well, we'll
keep you updated. So it's fiveto four. Why does it say five
four or twice? Well? Thething in the yellow or fouls? Oh?
I see? It would be niceif they would make that distinction.
Yeah, I learned that earlier watchingthe women's this morning. Got who's on
our women's three on three team?Caitlin Clark could make the three on three

(01:07:47):
team? That's fair, But Hayleyvan Liz is it okay? All right?
And then a couple of WNBA playerscouldn't get Page Beckers in the three
on three team? Got to bein the program though Hayley Beanliff was playing
through on three back in twenty sixteen, So okay, he's been in the

(01:08:08):
program for a while. Gotcha andPaige and Kitlin or not? Uh no,
okay, all right. Joe Burrowthirty ninth best player in the NFL
according to the NFL Networks player theydo the top one hundred and in trouble.
If we're still that audio of themlike talking about it, you have
it, I can pull it up, all right, I'll tell you what,
since we've we've got Tony to dohere, Brenneman and Jones, we're

(01:08:31):
a little crunched on time. We'lldo the Joe Burrow thing. We'll do
that in the five o'clock hour.You have the audio. I'll see a
fine All right, here's my myteas of that. Will have the audio.
I have no problem with Joe Burrow'sranking for one simple reason. By
the way, Joe said this wasgonna happen. We'll do that later on.

(01:08:53):
We'll take more phone calls, butwe we have to talk to Tony.
He's at football practice. He joinsus. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station. Are you justa training camp report? Grow up
to you bol Hollywood Casino, Lawrenceburghon the ESPN fifteen thirty, the official
home of the Bengals. First dayof padded practice. I'm all choked up.

(01:09:19):
This is a great segment the firstday. I'm sorry, I'm amused
by something happening off air, Thefirst day of Bengals padded practice happening at
the venue originally known as Paul BrownStadium. Tony Pike is is there?
That's a good intro. How's itgoing. No. I agree, it's

(01:09:42):
an emotional day anytime you throw thepads on for the first time. And
you know, the players got tobe emotional as well, because in those
new locker rooms, they have fansin each of their lockers and they can
now dry their pads overnight. Notthat they need it because they have an
off day tomorrow, but yes,an emotional day at the practice field.
Well all right, Well who stoodout? You know? I think Charlie

(01:10:03):
Jones had a really nice day.A guy that we haven't talked a ton
about. He kind of got justphased out a little bit by some of
the signings and draft picks that thisteam has made. And as much as
we've made know about andre Yosi Vashand Jermaine Burton, and this is not
a shot at either one of thoseplayers. One of the most consistent players

(01:10:24):
at CAM so far that we don'ttalk a lot about is Trent Irwin.
And you know, when it comesto his role in the past, Joe
Burrow clearly trusts Trent Irwin. Iwouldn't sleep on Trent Irwin getting a lot
of those reps from that wide receivernumber three role as well. I know
there's a lot of upside with Burton. I know Yosivosh had a great rookie
year. Trent Irwin has been consistent, and when you're talking about the slot

(01:10:45):
receiver, you need the consistency ofknowing what you're gonna get, and I
think that he's shown that really wellso far. If I were to make
you wager an amount of money thatmattered on who is going to finish third
on this team in receptions, assumingthat Chase and Higgins are one two in
no particular order, but most likelyChase one, Higgins two. So you
got the tight end room. MikeYASICKI we're expecting big things from him.

(01:11:10):
No more Tyler Boyd, but Burton, Yoshavas, Trent Irwin, all these
other guys. Who would you beton finishing third on this team in receptions?
I would probably say Gyseiki and thenprobably Trent Irwin. Right now,
I think they're gonna be a highvolume guys. And you know Gasiki is
He's wowed every day mo in asense of whether it be a one hitted

(01:11:31):
catch or be back shoulder. He'sa huge target going across the middle.
I think there's already a level ofcomfort there with Joe Burrow, with Mike
Kisiki. So I'll give me Yasiki, give me Trent Irwin. Is that
that number three role? All right? Very good defensively, did anybody matter
today? It's it's a little hardto tell. The secondary cam Taylor britt

(01:11:55):
was practicing, which is a goodstep in the right direction. Miles Murphy
actually had to leave practice, butit was confirmed after practice and it was
just good cramping. It was reallyhot out there today. Hendrickson didn't practice,
Hubbard didn't practice. Logan Wilson seemsto always be in the right place
at the right time. He was. He was in the right place,
right time in two different combinations againstt Higgins today, which on that side

(01:12:18):
of the ball, it felt likeHiggins and Burrow were not on the same
page multiple times today. But alot Ki kim Be said about the defense
in those roles, and while itwas a slower start for the defense,
I thought the defense had a muchbetter day today. A prott. You
know, you mentioned Logan Wilson,and if you go back to you know,
certainly the Super Bowl year and definitelytwenty twenty two, it felt like

(01:12:39):
Bengals had some really good linebacker play. And then last year, you know,
if you just look at Pro FootballMetrics, a Pro Football Focus metrics
logan, Wilson's play fell off.Jermaine Pratt's play fell off, and it
was noticeable to the untrained eye.As much as we've talked about the moving
parts in the secondary, the rundefense up front, and the need for
an improved pass us, that positionmust be better this year. Yeah,

(01:13:02):
and it's a position that really didn'tget addressed much. I would say it's
one of the it's one of theshallowest positions on the roster. I mean,
if it's not Wilson, if it'snot Pratt, a Keem Davis Gaither
I still think is a great athlete, but can he do it consistently?
They do use Mike Hilton a bunchas that nickel roll outside of a third

(01:13:24):
linebacker. But you're right, Imean there's a lot of trust this offseason.
It's gone rather quietly of just assumingokay, they're good at linebacker,
we don't need to address linebacker orgood there. But again, if those
players take another dip or you know, Godford, one of those players is
lost due to some type of injury, there's not a lot of depths built
into the linebacker room. Yeah.I think that's a fair way to put

(01:13:46):
it, Tony. We'll chat againat five forty five. Thank you so
much. Thanks Mom. All right, T minus one hour and eight minutes.
As we close in on the tradedeadline. Right now, it's time
for Brenneman and Jones on baseball Cincinnati'sYeah, fifteen thirty traffic from the UC
Health Traffic Center. No matter theinjury you see, health orthopedics and sports

(01:14:08):
medicine redefines recovery to get you backto doing what you love. Call five
one, three, four, seven, five eighty six nine zero. Watch
out for a disabled vehicle that's onsouthbound seventy one's off ramp to Red Bank
Road. And you should know thatthere's an accident that's blocking the left shoulder.
If you're on southbound seventy one atKennedy Avenue causing some hold up.
There's a fifteen minute delay on southboundseventy five at Glendale Milford Road. I'm

(01:14:31):
Nicole with traffic. This report issponsors. Guess what day it is?
Tuesday night. It's not Taco Tuesday. It's Trade deadline Tuesday. It's not
Taco Tuesday at my house at theEast because I grilled a lot of Hamburgers
on Sunday and I still have leftowners. We are fifty five minutes away

(01:14:57):
from the trade deadline. Almoeger.This is ESPN fifteen thirty. It's the
michelob Ultra five o'clock happy hour.Thanks to our friends at michelob Ultra.
One of those sounds amazing right now. Reds traded Lucas Simms. That is
what they have done today. LucasSimms traded to the Boston Red Sox.
Reds get in return an a ballpitcher by the name of Ovis Portez,

(01:15:23):
a right handed minor leaguer, OvisPortez, Lucas Simms. I guess the
last remaining tie. Tyler Stevenson didn'tplay in the playoffs in twenty twenty.
Austin said to me, I haveto look to make sure he's not giving
me false info. Lucas Simms wason the Reds in twenty twenty and appeared

(01:15:45):
in the playoffs, and my guy, Austin told me that, and he's
right, He's right. Tyler Stevensonwas on that team. He did not
appear in either postseason He's a lastcurrent Red. Two have appeared in the
postseason for the Reds. There yougo anyway, Lucas Sim's gone to Boston

(01:16:05):
this after we found out Frankie Montashas been traded. Taran, do me
a favor. Break out the sounder. We only have fifty almost now fifty
three minutes between now and the MLBtrade deadline. We are staying on top.
There's been a lot that has happened, been a ton that has happened.
If you hear this right being fromEmergency, that is a deep,

(01:16:33):
deep, deep, deep, deepdeep cut. If you know anything about
the history of this radio show,Tanner Scott's been traded, Padres gave up
like four of their top ten prospects. They continue to go for it the
Reds. You know, we'll see. I don't know that there's anybody that

(01:16:55):
has that much value. I mean, like I think the Frankie Montas thing.
You know, I don't know howgood Joey Weimer is going to be.
He's I think, got some upsidethat he's gonna get a chance to
show what he can do. Idon't know that you view him as like
a central figure and what the Redsare going to try to do moving forward,
but why not, right Frankie Montass. It is interesting. I read

(01:17:18):
Charlie Goldsmith, who does a terrificjob for the Inquiry, and Cincinna dot
com wrote about, you know,so that the clubhouse reaction to the trade,
and a lot of guys talked aboutemotionally it was tough to see him
go and he had had such animpact on guys like Hunter Green and I'm
not discounting any of that. Itreads like Frankie Montas had been here for
like four or five years. Dudewas here for four months and he wasn't

(01:17:40):
that good, And so that experimentdoesn't work. The Reds are not significantly
better today than they were forty eighthours ago. They're not significantly better positioned
for next year than they were fortyeight hours ago. They have spent I
think the last couple of days continuingto just sort of drift, drift rather

(01:18:02):
aimlessly. What's interesting about this yearis like they've sent a message, and
I've talked about this all afternoon,They've sent a message. We're punting on
twenty twenty four. Mathematically, let'sbe very honest about this. If you

(01:18:24):
look at where they are in thestandings. If you look at how much
of the season remains, if youlook at how many teams are ahead of
the Reds and the wild card standings, it's really hard to make a convincing
case that this team has a reallygood chance to play in the playoffs.

(01:18:49):
And so to a large degree,punting on the year and just trying to
get some value for some of theseguys who are not a part of your
future makes a lot of sense.This is not the Reds of twenty fifteen,
twenty sixteen, two thousand, somany years where around the trade deadline

(01:19:13):
they were a thousand games at afirst place and trending toward losing ninety five
games. This isn't the team oftwo years ago. I think what's kind
of interesting about the rest of theseason is they have fifty six games to
go, more than a third ofthe season. There are probably gonna be
stretches where the team plays well enoughto make you wonder what if. And

(01:19:39):
the what ifs don't aren't limited tothe trade deadline and what they've done with
Frankie Montas. But you know whathappens if so many guys don't get hurt,
What happens, and I'll always wonderthis, what if the front office
would have said we're gonna make sometrades and make the team better back in
May, like you are allowed tomake your team better earlier in the season.

(01:20:00):
Some will wonder, God, youknow what, what if they just
would have tried to make the teambetter. The team is just good enough
that they're probably always going to beat worst kind of where they are right
now. Like you look at themright now, they're five out of the
wildcard. The Padres and Mets arefrom a winning percentage standpoint tied. San

(01:20:27):
Diego has one more win but onemore loss. Between those teams and Cincinnati,
you have Arizona, Saint Louis,Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. It's
really hard to look at the standingsand feel like they're right there. But
they're not that far away, andso there are probably gonna be times in
the next two months where they playjust well enough and the crowd around them

(01:20:53):
continues to be croud. Where yougo, God, you know what,
did they really have to wave theflag on the season? Wave the white
flag on the season? Realistically?Yeah? Probably what they have done to
me is about a message and it'snot just limited to the last forty eight
hours or so. It's not justlimited to whatever may happen between now and

(01:21:15):
six o'clock. But right or wrong, when you wave the white flag,
when you send the message we're punting, you're continuing to tell people to wait.
And the more you tell someone towait without delivering significant results, the

(01:21:42):
more impatient they're going to become,the more exasperated they're going to become,
the less trustful they're going to become, the less interested they're going to become.
And I think that's a really toughdynamic if you run this ball club,
because from a baseball perspective, likethat Frankie Montas trade last night.

(01:22:03):
Fine, it doesn't move the meter, doesn't make them appreciably better for the
short term, and it doesn't makeyou feel like, God, you know
what, they're in a position togo win it next year. It's a
fine trade. Whatever. Maybe itsticks, maybe it doesn't. No harm,
no foul, Frankie Montash, You'renot gonna have to pay him for
the next two months. Whatever.The bigger issue is it signals the fact

(01:22:27):
that they realize we didn't get itdone this year. That in itself is
tough to take. It's even tougherto take when you're the franchise that never
gets it done. And it's eventougher if you go back a year ago.
Man, I mean, you knowso many of us and I think
me less than others, but we'veharped on like god, you know what

(01:22:48):
deadline last year. Maybe if there'sa lesson in all of this, maybe
go back to last year. TheReds were in first place at the trade
deadline. They finished two games outof the wildcard to the team that went
to the World Series. Maybe nexttime, when you have a legitimate chance,

(01:23:12):
and you cannot tell me that lastyear's team, in spite of its
flaws, didn't have a legitimate chance, Maybe next time, when you have
a legitimate chance, you seze onthe opportunity. And part of what makes
this year so hard to swallow,part of what makes this little stretch of

(01:23:34):
time here so hard to take,is that last year they were better positioned,
They had a massive deficiency that's nowa strength starting pitching, but they
didn't go for it. And soyou have the message of asking people to
continue to wait against the backdrop ofyou know what, last year you had

(01:23:59):
a chance to go for it.Do you chose not to? Those two
factors combined are going to be franklytoxic when it comes to how a lot
of people view their relationship with yourfranchise. If you're running one. Uh,

(01:24:21):
can we get to a phone callbefore the breaks? Heren, we
get to a phone call, Ronand Milford. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Ron Milford, ESPN fifteen thirty.Please say something? Yes, Hi?
Oh hey, Oh, gotta tellyou first, Patrick. I want

(01:24:44):
to talk about the Brads real quick. But Patrick was wrong. As we
know that the owners wanted to haveplayers practice. They put that in the
contract so that Jamar Chase would indeedbe breaching contracts. They didn't, So
therefore he's not like you said.The owners. The owners don't care about
practice for one simple reason. Youknow what. That reason is, right,

(01:25:05):
they don't want guys getting hurt.No, they don't monetize practice.
They don't sell tickets to practice.They don't make money off practice. The
owners don't care about anything that doesn'tmake them money, So don't practice.
Fine, whatever, Yeah, theydon't care. You're right, the let's
face it, me. Last yearwe had these buffoons, Nick carl and

(01:25:26):
I guess Brad Meeter going and gettinga Hunter Renfrow and Harrison batter Does that
work out for us? Not sogood? Yeah? And then in the
off season and we hit this schmuckMontoss and we don't miss him. Though
he had a five to twenty fourera, we don't miss him a bit.
Lucas Simms was better known for everytime he came in he didn't know

(01:25:46):
whether he was gonna walk the guyor strike out the side. It was
one or the other. I mean, so we don't miss him either.
These guys making the decisions mo oridiots. Yeah, I mean there is
this theme, right, and andyou know ty France yesterday sort of fit
that profile of you know, here'shere's a guy, Ty France, Austin
Slater, uh, Nick Martini,Harrison Bader, Hunter Renfro. Yeah.

(01:26:12):
Well, well well we'll try,we'll we'll see if it sticks. Well,
then what are they doing? That'sthe other thing. I mean,
we we're raising the white flag isbeing waived up high. But what is
where does ty France fit into that? Yeah? I don't know, just
another guy. Let's see if itsticks. And like the moves like that
feel like they're starting to define thisfranchise. A whole series of guys that

(01:26:35):
you just you know last year inthe thick of a pennant race, when
they do nothing, what do theydo? Understanding they need some help.
Well, let's take a chance onHarrison Bader. He used to be good.
Let's see if there's any usefulness leftin Hunter Renfro instead of let's go
get somebody that has a far betterchance of impacting a pennant race. Instead,

(01:26:56):
it's the the next it's the firstiteration of a whole bunch of guys,
Austin Slater, Ty France, etc. Well, these guys used to
be good, these guys used tobe useful. Maybe we can tap into
that. Maybe we can throw theseguys, these guys against the wall and
see if they stick. That's nota strategy, it's not. It's not.
And No, Mark from Chicago nowCincinnati, he's like all my friends

(01:27:19):
in their Cubs fans. They don'tcare about losing. I don't want to
go one hundred and eight years toone. The wolf is you and I
have already suffered enough. We barelyremember nineteen ninety five beating the Dodgers.
We barely remember that. Yeah,yeah, I mean you know, like
I think I understood. Thank youRon the overarching point he was trying to
make. But I mean again,you the essential critical piece in the relationship

(01:27:46):
that any fan has with his orher team is the emotional investment the fan
makes. And when that investment,oh what have we got here? We
go, Taran, what do yougot for me? De la Cruz is
on the move. De la Cruzto Pittsburgh. I repeat, de la

(01:28:08):
Cruz to Pittsburgh. The Pirates haveadded dey la Cruz. Yes, oh
man, this is enormous. ThePittsburgh Pirates, with a lot of really
good young players, have acquired Dela Cruz, Brian de la Cruz,
the outfielder for the Miami Marlins.Thank you, Tarran for bringing that into

(01:28:32):
my life. Brian Delacruz goes fromMiami to Pittsburgh, which had been rumored
for a day or two, justreally quickly. You're the quintessential most important
piece in the relationship that a fanhas with his or her team is the
emotional investment. For some it's it'sover the top, which is great,

(01:28:54):
and for some it's in passing.We all have teams we love more than
others. Some of us are hardcorefans and we eat it, sleep it,
breathe it. And for some ofus, okay, I watched the
games, there's that emotional investment.For every single one of us, there
are times where you go, Okay, is this am I getting out of
this what I put into it?And I think for a lot of us

(01:29:17):
who care about the Reds, unfortunately, the answer, more frequently than not
is no. It's twenty minutes afterfive o'clock. I'm Moegor morphone calls ahead
and the Joe Burrow thing. Wegot to play Scott Saderfield audio and we
got a chat with do we havea lot to do? In forty minutes
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. This is ESPN fifteen thirty thirty,

(01:29:42):
five minutes away from the trade deadline. Reds are gonna get to the deadline
with dudes like Buck Farmer and NickMartinez, aren't they? Yep? Kind
of feels like it. NFL Networkdoes their Top one hundred, which is
a player poll. They ranked thetop one hundred players in the NFL.
Is the show is airing tomorrow?Is that my understanding. Yes, Tomorrow
eight o'clock, Joe Burrow is rankedthirty ninth. Why do we have the

(01:30:04):
rankings before the show comes out.I don't know. It's backwards to me.
Yeah, uh so I have afew thoughts on this really quick.
Number one, I don't care thatmuch about outsiders rankings of things that that
I I'm trying to figure out thebest way to put this. If you

(01:30:25):
did a series of rankings, iflike, you took all the houses on
my street, which there's like twenty, and you're like, all right,
we ranked the houses. MO,you have the nineteenth best looking house,
I would go, that's fine.I like it. I'm comfortable with it.
I enjoy living there. I'm proudof it. Don't care about the
outsider's rankings, or if hey,we're gonna do a ranking of the attractiveness

(01:30:54):
of everyone's spouse who works at iHeartMO, yours came in last, which
would not happen, I would saywhatever. I think she's hot, I
like hanging out with her. Ithink it's fun being married to her,
So I don't care. Joe Burrowis thirty nine. Gotta be honest with
you, I don't care. I'mvery comfortable with him as the quarterback of

(01:31:15):
the Bengals, making the money he'smaking. Number Two, what I would
ask the players when they were rankingthe players and when they were deciding where
they fit Joe in is what Iwould ask is would you rather have Joe
Burrow or your quarterback? In mostinstances, the answer is yeah, I'd

(01:31:36):
rather have Joe. Not all ofcourse, but yeah, I'd rather have
Joe. That's more important to me. Number Three, these rankings are largely,
and I think predominantly influenced by recency. What just happened well last season
where they're thirty eight better NFL playersthan Joe Burrow. Yeah, in fact,

(01:32:00):
there we're probably more. Joe saidthis on that part of My Take
podcast. I think where he says, you know you're injured, you don't
play a lot, you tend toget forgotten. My guess is, if
Joe Burrow plays all the meaningful gamesthe Bengals play, next year's rankings will
have Joe significantly higher than thirty ninth. But based on last season, like

(01:32:25):
I get it, you factor inwhat he's done, you factor in how
good you know he is, andyou dock him for not being available.
And for a stretch when he wasavailable not being very good. Okay,
were there thirty eight better players lastyear in the NFL? Yeah, but
how many of those guys would tradetheir quarterback for Joe? And if you're

(01:32:47):
a Bengals fan, regardless of whetherhe's thirty, ninth, ninth, first,
one hundredth, you're comfortable with himbeing your quarterback? The answer is
yes, John and Findley, you'reon ESPN fifteen thirty. What's up?
Hey, Mom? What's going on? I'm sitting here doing a talk show.

(01:33:08):
How about yourself? Driving home?Real quick? About the Jamar case
hold in? I guess. Imean, so you think a lot of
this just have to do with andespecially it seemed like with receivers, they
just don't want to practice right now. I mean they can, they can
melt this for a couple of weeks, and then you'll be into the preseason.

(01:33:29):
They probably won't play anyway. Theseguys work out all year. It
takes them probably a week and ahalf to two weeks to get ready to
play. So I think a lotof these, especially depending upon the position,
I think a lot of it isjust don't want to practice right now.
Yeah, And also He's an eliteplayer at a position that has never
been more important, and when that'syour role on the team, you're afforded

(01:33:53):
a little extra leeway than maybe otherswould be. Absolutely, and now onto
the Reds. It's uh, it'sI think a couple of things from this
season, and I'm I'm in thecategory of the guy that follows the team
no matter what, no matter whatposition we're in, no matter what's the

(01:34:13):
time of the season. So yeah, I probably invest the heck of a
lot more than I have. I'mever ever going to get out of it
because they'd have to win the WorldSeries almost every year, and I know
that's not gonna happen. But anyway, I just think a couple of boxes
that we can check for this season. If you go back going into the
season, we were probably Okay,it's Hunter Green really going to be a

(01:34:39):
dominant, top of the rotation,number one kind of guy. I think
we can check that box now.Yeah, I think we're thinking, Okay,
Ellie was really really good last year. They're going to be a transcendent
type of player. Is he goingto be someone we can build a team
around. I would say we cancheck that box now. Too, So

(01:35:00):
regardless of what happens the rest ofthe way, I think we've got at
least a couple of pieces and thenI can throw also through. I think
Andrew Abbott I can put him categorythat, Hey, he's going to be
a top three type rotation guy forseveral years. Uncomfortable saying that, agree,
Nick Ldolo, I mean to helpis always going to be there.

(01:35:24):
But I think as long as he'sstanding on his feet. If he's not,
I think he can at least giveus twenty to twenty five starts a
year. So I think we've gotat least that foundation built right now.
And then after that, I mean, Spencer Steare, I'm comfortable with him
moving forward. Marte, it's hardtelling right now, but we've still got

(01:35:45):
a lot of guys we're trying tofigure things out on him. By at
least, I think we've got afew things that we've settled in this season
so far. Sure, And Istill would include Matt McClean. What you
hate for him and what you hatefor seat ees is they have been robbed
of, you know, whatever benefitto their individual game that they were gonna
get from playing a full season ofMajor League baseball. Cees got a chance

(01:36:10):
to play a little bit, andfrankly was was not very good. Those
are guys they're gonna give a longrope too. But but if you're talking
specifically about contending in twenty twenty five, legitimately contending, how many positions are
you really comfortable with and looking atit and going, you know what,
we don't need to be very aggressiveand looking for an upgrade there there aren't

(01:36:30):
that many. You know, youlook at the outfield, this is a
below league average performing outfield offensively.There are individual players that you like.
I like TJ. Friedl, Ilike Jake Fraley. I think they're they're
they're okay, could you do better? Hell, yeah you can? Will
they jam or Candelario and whatever rolehe's gonna play if he's the full time

(01:36:53):
DH, if he's gonna be usedon the corner, you're kind of stuck
with him. But can you dobetter? Whatever his role is? Yeah,
will they? Uh? Whatever therole of whoever's playing third base next
year? If it's noelve Marte,Okay, you're really comfortable with him taking
a major leap forward? Like Ithink what's gonna be interesting is to see

(01:37:15):
how we define twenty twenty five.What's the end goal going to be for
twenty twenty five. Is it goingto be another year where we're hoping guys
develop and then everything coalesces, orare we gonna build the sort of team
that is capable of withstanding some ofthose guys maybe not being quite as good
as we would like or better builtto a stand injury. Or are they

(01:37:36):
willing to make the painful decision tomove on from some of those guys in
certain cases because there are better optionsavailable and they're they're willing to go get
those options. Yeah, I'd sayon the surface, I mean you're saying,
Okay, we're probably We're probably goinginto twenty five, we're gonna be

(01:37:56):
ahead of what we are this yearbecause we had a lot of question mark
going into the season. But westill have a lot of question marks unfortunately
going in the next season. Asyou mentioned with Martin McClain out, I
mean, if there's any way thatwe can get a high impact, quality

(01:38:18):
outfield back to stick in the middleof our lineup, and I don't know
who that is, but there's gotto be somebody on some team, and
yeah, you're going to have togive up something for him. But I
think that part then at least givesyou a chance to say, Okay,
Marty McClain, we can live withsome of their development next season if we

(01:38:39):
have to, but we need Imean we need some we need to hit
the ground running next year. Yeah, I think that's well. Put John
drive home safely. I think youknow there are there are some players on
this team who I think Jonathan Indiais a really good example. We all
like Jonathan India plays his ass off. Has uh represented this team in a

(01:39:00):
very I think profound professional way,was a real fun bright spot in twenty
twenty one. Has handled, youknow, the Reds finding somebody different to
take his position in. Matt McLeanhas handled being involved in trade rumors with
utmost professionalism. Good player, goodguy, can you do better? And

(01:39:27):
I think sometimes in certain cases webecome so attached to certain players that we're
unwilling to ask, can you dobetter? I think the exercise that'll be
interesting this offseason for us as fansis to look at the roster and go,
okay, and how many places wouldyou consider them to be among the

(01:39:48):
top third in the National League.So that's five, top five in the
National league at each position, goaround the field or maybe group you know,
say the out Do they have atop five outfield offensively bottom five this
year? Or are we going tobe so attached Like I like TJ.

(01:40:15):
Friedel and Jake Fraley like those playersa lot. Certainly believe there's a role
for those guys moving forward. Butcan you do better? Jonathan India is
to me the case study in thisgood player, good guy? Can you
do better? Like the construction ofthe club right now, I do think

(01:40:41):
they have if Lodolo's health can canbe something we stop talking about. I'm
still not giving up on Graham Ashcraft. I think they can have a top
five starting rotation in the National Leaguenext year. It's a really good place
to start in. How many otherareas would you say they're in the upper

(01:41:05):
third of the NL the areas wereyou can't say that you should be looking
for upgrades and doing so might meanyou have to make some really hard decisions.
Is this club going to be willingto make those hard decisions between now
and the beginning of spring training nextyear? It's a really fascinating time to

(01:41:28):
be a fan of this team.I think, unfortunately it's a real uh
sobering time to be a fan ofthis team. At at the same time,
we do have our pole question we'vegot to get to thanks to United
at Heartland Insurance. Tarren, howare we on time? I've not played
the Scott sadderfield audio. We're gonnahave time for that, plus talk to
Tony and take more phone calls.We'll see. Can we just extend the

(01:41:51):
show to like eight o'clock tonight?And I found that burial audio? Oh
did you? I guess I'll explainedwhy they did it? Break twenty two
from six and the trade deadline onESPN fifteen thirty since an audience, Hey,
the microphone's on. We're a littlebit short on time. We have

(01:42:15):
the NFL Network audio. This isa montage of players talking about hang on,
I'm about to die? Are youokay? I made so. I
am dealing with the late remnants ofa cold that I acquired on the back

(01:42:40):
part of my vacation and late inthe day every day since Sunday, I'm
on antibiotics and a steroid. Igo through these coughing fits. It like
hit me at the same time yesterdayand then like after seven o'clock it goes
away. Maybe tomorrow will be theday that, like, I feel so
much better. Saturday I felt asbad as I have ever felt in my

(01:43:03):
life. That's not entirely true.And I felt better every single day,
and I took a COVID test Andit's just it's been this weird like upper
respiratory thing and it has sucked.But yeah, you just heard some of
it. All right, we're noweven shorter on time. Uh should we

(01:43:25):
play the Joe Burrow think we're we'renot gonna get to the Scott Sadderfield audio.
Yeah, well, there's always toowe get Scott on the show.
I went to the press conference todayand I don't think there was anything real
news breaking. Dante corleonis progressing nicely, said some good stuff about Brandon Soaresby
coordinators talked about all the new guys, lots of moving parts on defense.

(01:43:47):
Uh will it damage our relationship withmy fellow UC fans if we don't play
Scott Saderfield press conference audio? Wellagain, Scott to Borrow, Right,
we're gonna get him. I don'tknow if I don't think it's gonna be
tomorrow, but we're gonna We alwaysget him sometime during fall camp and I've
been told that's gonna happen. Itmake it up to him like that.
Yeah. Yeah. If you reallywant to go listen to Scott Saddlefield's press

(01:44:12):
conference, you can probably go findit. So let's play NFL players talking
about Joe Burrow as he's ranking numberthirty nine in the NFL Network Top one
hundred. Last year, he wasnumber six. Last year he was number
six. Thank you? So manyquestions like how did we get here?

(01:44:34):
Why are all these big guys huggingme? How on earth does Joe Burrow
barely crack the top forty in thetop one hundred. Easy answer, football
is hard? Uh hootball man?Football. In an injury plague twenty twenty

(01:44:58):
three season, Burrow showed flat shoesof why he was voted number six on
last year's Top one hundred quarterbacks.Can your top three for the year,
top three for the year, Let'ssee, I'd probably say Lamar Mahomes and
h plus say Joe before he gothurt, he's still up there with the
best beat the bangles. It dependson how you view the list. If

(01:45:34):
you say top one hundreds of guyswho played this year or just top one
hundred guys. We just have onehundred NFL players. Joe Burrow is definitely
on the list. In your plays. Sometimes you know they don't get many
bucks. The year didn't go hisway, but everyone knows he's still top
two quarterbacks in the league. Youknow what I'm saying. And that's a

(01:45:54):
fact. Everyone knows that Burrow crassureforces him to ramble left, just run
gros keep down field. Chase catchesit. He's at the ten. Touchdown
Burrow buy us downfield, touchdown Bengals. There's Joe John you said, the

(01:46:23):
Bengals on a four game win streakdeep downfield for Jamar Chase. He catches
it. Joe Burrow sliding toward theBengals sideline, moving well out of pocket,
including wins over the Niners and Bills. Touchdown Bengals where he reached peak
Borough Bengals where they're fourth and aroundbeating the Bills. Tonight told Jo's gunya

(01:46:48):
had a hole shot with that nickelplaying in the cloud. After a one
and three stars, the Cincinnati Bengalsare five and three. I would say
he's won right now. I wasas one San Francisco, so that was
the game he got back me wasone hundred percent and he got an opportunity
to show his legs and he showhis arm throwing into the up dun.

(01:47:12):
I hope we see me. Butlike Joe Burrow, if we be honest,
you look at that game and thatwas the first time we actually had
everybody playing and we dominated Magick hisback. Burrow and Tom Brady are the
only quarterbacks to ever beat Patrick Mahomesin the postseason, meaning a healthy Burrow
could be the biggest threat to KansasCity three beat all right, So so

(01:47:39):
there there's sort of an explanation.He's ranked thirty ninth because he got hurt,
but they include the very important partbecause I think this was easy to
do. It's easy to remember howthe season ended, which Joe didn't play
for a like a month for twomonths, and it's easy to remember how
the season started because he went verygood. But that stretch, with the

(01:47:59):
p of it being the San Franciscoperformance, he played like one of the
best two to three quarterbacks in thesport. And if the Bengals get sixteen
to seventeen games of that, heain't going to be thirty ninth next year.
Twelve away from six ESPN fifteen thirty. This baseball season, when it's

(01:48:23):
started. This is a training campreport. Brook to you by Skylight Chili.
Feeling good. It's Skylight time onESDN fifteen thirty, the official home
of the Bengals. One more checkyou with Tony Pike at Bengals training camp
practice, the first day of Patsplayers wearing protective gear at the venue originally

(01:48:43):
known as Paul Brown Stadium today,inching closer to the preseason opener a week
from Saturday night. We talked aboutthis at this time yesterday, the first
day of padded practice. So afocus on what's happening in the trenches.
Let's start in the offensive line.It's just day one. But who stood
out? Yeah, I mean justphysically. Marius MEM's stands out. Orlando
Brown Junior was solid, Terris wassolid. But Mims got beat a couple

(01:49:08):
of times. It's hard and oneon ones, especially this early in camp.
But for a guy that is stilllearning, it's different. Like when
Mims gets beat, it's not becauseof a hustle, it's not because of
bad footwork, it's just because ofthe technique. He's still not there from
a technique standpoint so limited in hisin his game tape, but every physical

(01:49:30):
attribute is there. It's the firsttime, really in watching one on ones
Moo, that I've walked away froma player that's been beat a couple times
and said, man, he's impressive. Well, he can impress you in
in many different ways. And Ithought that stood out on the offensive line
all right. Defensively up front,no Hubbard, no Hendrickson, who did
anything good? Miles Murphy looks explosive. He did leave practice early due to

(01:49:55):
cramping. I think the interior partof this defensive line is going to be
really solid. I think that theyhave a chance to stand out. Lou
Anoumo raved after practice today about GenoStone and Von Bell and said, it's
completely different tenfold at the back endfrom a communication standpoint, and you can
really see that there's not as manymissed assignments, there's not as many blown

(01:50:17):
coverages. Cam Taylor Britt got backon the practice field today. All those
things are positive for the Bengals.You've got to think if you're a lou
Anarroumo, you know, just fromthe standpoint of being able to help tutor
the younger guys have better communication andunderstanding. Now that you've got a piece
that, no matter what, isgoing to be in the right place.

(01:50:38):
Having von Bell back is an absolutegodsend, yep. And I think that
helps the quarters that were a littlebit of a question mark, and you
know, to surround this all intoform, this defense becomes where they need
to be if they can now getthe production up front because they're going to
be in the right position. Youwould think on the back end, do

(01:50:59):
they have to come for longer thanthey need to be covering? Can you
can you establish any type of passrush? Can you be better against the
run so you don't have to commitmore and be vulnerable in the play action
pass? But they they have thecommunication piece on the back end. Now
the front end needs to wreak somehavoc on on quarterbacks and opposing offensive lines.

(01:51:19):
All right, Cony, Cony,Tony, good stuff, awesome hour
for me here, good stuff fromTony Pikey is back at it tomorrow since
three sixty with Austin from noon tothree and of course checking in from a
Bengals training camp every hour with usthree forty five, four forty five and
five. Hopefully I don't get allchoked up by the way, Paul.

(01:51:43):
Question, thanks to United at HeartlandInsurance, go to Uchi and S dot
com. They will save you moremoney on your home insurance or car insurance,
or boat insurance or motorcycle insurance,whatever it is. How close are
the Reds to World Series contention?Real close? Sort of close? Knock
us at all? Are very faraway? Majority says not close at all.
Fifty three point six percent. Votenow at Moeder on X we have

(01:52:08):
to go. Thank you for listening. Paul daane Er Junior joins US in
the three o'clock hour Tomorrow. Tradedeadline is two minutes and thirty nine seconds
away. We'll talk about that aswell. Have an awesome night. Thank
you for listening. Thanks to Dearranfor producing. This is ZESPN fifteen thirty.

(01:52:29):
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