7/30/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
All right, here we go find that for three. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty Molleger. It is gonna be a
busy afternoon, lots of moving parts. Thank you for joining us.
Hopefully you're having an awesome Wednesday afternoon. If you woke
up this morning saying to yourself self, I hope the
Reds trade for Key Brian Hayes, well then I guess
you're having a really good Wednesday. My question is, why

(00:27):
did you wake up this morning saying to yourself, God,
I hope they sign or trade for I should say
Key Brian Hayes. We're gonna get to Key Brian Hayes,
who that is, what value he brings and if that's
the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Red's
trade deadline acquisitions, We'll get to that here in just
a few minutes. Show rundown, which I will admit is

(00:48):
brief because I don't know how to manage my time.
Maybe it's because I'm doing two shows today is at
Mulllegar on Twitter at Mullegar. Thanks to United Heartland Insurance
and Emory Federal Credit Union, your credit union with heart
since nineteen thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU dot org. That's
EMORYFCU dot org. Don't forget the Emory Emory Federal Credit

(01:10):
Union golf outings. Coming up on August the eighteenth. You'll
hear Trey Hendrickson coming up in a bit. Trey back
in Cincinnati. He was at practice. He was not practicing.
Tony Pike was at practice today. He and I watched
the defense get the better of the offense. We'll talk
about that coming up at three forty five. Sam Brookhouse
from Summer Sports it's going to join us at three

(01:31):
thirty three. Let's talk about Key Brian Hayes. Key Brian Hayes.
Let's start with this. He's he's a good defensive player,
good glove, good glove over there at third base.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
He's he's a guy who is a former first round pick.
That's kind of cool. I guess. Uh. He's a guy
who's I guess technically in his prime. He's twenty eight
years old, turns twenty nine in January. He's he's a

(02:06):
guy who's under contract. That's it. You get you get
a you get Key Brian Hayes. Now for the rest
of the decade, if that does anything for you. He's
also a guy who this season pick your stat. Let's
let's do that. Let's let's pick our key Brian Hayes stat.

(02:27):
Do you want? You want to go old school? You
want to do batting average? Cool? He's batting two thirty six.
You want to do uh? Pop? You want to do
home runs? Okay? This season he has two? You want
to do on base percentage key Brian Hayes this year
two seventy nine, lifetime three oh seven. You want to

(02:51):
do ops?

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
This year a career low five sixty nine, over one
hundred points below his career average of six seventy six.
Do you want me to keep going? You want me
to keep I can if you want? If you well,
you know, maybe maybe maybe he got off to a
slow start, but he's like he's trending in the right direction.
He's on fire right now. Those numbers aren't indicative of

(03:15):
how he is currently swinging the bat. Well. In July,
He's got an ops of four forty seven. He has
three extra base hits this month, none of them home runs.
This month, he has struck out nineteen times. He has
walked once. Key Brian Hayes Pittsburgh Pirates bought out his

(03:36):
arbitration years and all that signed him through the rest
of the decade, and so he has not an not
an eye popping salary, but not an insignificant salary either.
Seven million dollars is what his salary is for this year,
so you know, cut that. Let's divide that by three.

(03:56):
What we're talking like two point three three three million
dollars the rest of the year, seven, next year, seven,
the year after that, eight, in twenty twenty eight, eight,
in twenty twenty nine, Key Brian Hayes. UH Cincinnati is
sending Taylor Rogers, who's an okay bullpen arm to Pittsburgh
and Sammy stafferro Key Brian Hayes. According to Jeff Passon

(04:18):
coming to Cincinnati from the Pittsburgh Pirates Pole question at
mullegger on Twitter, our pole questions are a service of
United Heartland Insurance. Check out uhins dot com and UH
find out what they could do for you and your
insurance needs. The Reds have traded for Key Brian Hayes

(04:39):
LFG or WTF. Sixty five percent of you say WTF.
Key Brian Hayes is a less versatile version of Santiago Espinal.
Key Brian's a cool name, but uh a less versatile
version of Santiago Espinal. Defensively, he better than Noelve Marte.

(05:01):
I think anybody who's familiar with the two would say
that I cannot imagine that a team that is starved
for offense is gonna shove Key Brian Hayes into the
third base spot in bench. Noel A Marte, I mean
noelve Marte is going to be playing a lot more
in right field and more than anything else does. Acquiring

(05:23):
Key Brian Hayes completely dashed the dreams that you may
have had that the Reds are going to acquire a
euhaneus Warez who plays the same position as Key Brian Hayes.
They also including the deal Taylor Rodgers, which you know, fine,

(05:45):
but they needed a bullpen arm. They just traded one away.
So is a Key Brian Hayes and another bullpen arm?
Is it Key Brian Hayes? And then another trade for
a not only a reliever, but maybe a starting pitch
which the could then shove you know, Nick Martinez into
the bullpen or down the road, Chase Burns into the bullpen. Obviously,

(06:07):
one hundred Green's returned hovers over some of that key
Brian Hayes. Let's just take it at face value. The
Reds offense needs help. The Reds offense all season long
has been, you know, pretty much league average. This is
not a team that has no holes in its lineup.
This is a team that could use offensive help from

(06:29):
pretty much anywhere. Yeah, we've talked about the corner outfield spots,
but they're not getting great production from the corner infield spots.
They're getting league average or below league average production at
a lot of different places. Can a dude whose ops
is below six hundred this season dramatically help a team

(06:53):
that is already offensively challenged. It doesn't feel like the
answer is yes. I mean, if the key Brian Hayes
ends up being the big acquisition of this trade deadline period,
and the trade deadline is tomorrow so there's still some time,
then that's a big thud. That's a big dud. It

(07:15):
can keep Brian Hayes be n acquisition on top of
someone else, sure, but by the way, it's I'll do
this here at ESPN dot com grades all of these
trades that have been going down. They give the Reds
a C minus. I don't have in front of me
who it's Bradford Doolittle and David Schanfeld. So they're tagged

(07:38):
teaming these grades. I will read what was written? Are
you ready? The Reds have been One of the fifty
seven teams mentioned is having an interest in one time
Cincinnati third basement a uhaneos Warez, who certainly would have
been a more direct response to the reds acute need
for a middle of the order. Bat Hayes, whose sub
three hundred slugging percentage stirs fond memories of the seventies

(08:00):
era shorts tops, is not that. So that's the bad,
here's the good. He is, however, a Platinum Glove level
defender at the hot corner. As they say, a run
saved is as good as a run scored. Cincinnati has
been playing neuelve Martin at third base recently, and as well.
Marte is having his best season at the plate. His
defensive marks have been consistently below average, and he has

(08:21):
the positional versatility to rove around the field as do
most of the Red's other corner players. That is totally
fair and noelve Marte, there are upgrades from him at
third base key, Brian Hayes was maybe defensively the best one.
It continues, Hayes doesn't move around the field, but you
don't want him to. His value is as a defensive

(08:43):
vacuum on the left side of the infield, one who
will team with La de la Cruz to form one
of the more dynamic infield duos around. He's also had it.
It's pointed out here he's had some back issues too,
but uh, it's also mentioned here. Great American Ballpark is
the only park other than P and C Beautiful PNC

(09:05):
Park in which he has hit more than two career
home runs. If his bat doesn't pick up, though, the
Reds have likely acquired a long term underwater contract. That's fun.
For what it's worth, they give the Pirates a B.
Sammy Steffurra is I think the prize of the deal
there the Pirates are not in it. They acquire the
remainder of Taylor Rogers' contract for what it's worth. Samy

(09:27):
Stefurr was just on the outside looking in of Kylie
McDaniel's top ten Reds prospects recently. So there you go.
Keep Ryan Hayes. Uh, I guess you could cling to
the idea that at twenty eight years old and still
the rest of the decade under team control, that long term,
the Rats can get a lot more out of him

(09:49):
than the Pirates have been able to Offensively. Sure, I
don't care about twenty twenty six right now. I want
the Reds to get to the postseason this year. For
that to happen, they have to win games like last night,
which we haven't even talked about. Last night was a
thoroughly disappointing performance by the team by the manager, a
lead that they let get away, a lead that they
couldn't build on in the middle innings, and a game

(10:10):
that you just have to figure out how to win. Uh,
And so you got to win more games like that.
I'm concerned with what the Reds can do to make
their team better this year offensively. Key Brian Hayes doesn't
do anything to make your team better defensively. He is
going to be an upgrade, but is he gonna hit
enough at third base to justify putting him there every day?

(10:33):
Like third base five point three seven nine, fifteen thirty,
a position where the Reds we've talked about now for
a little while, Like needing more offense from corner spots.
Key Brian Hayes ain't doing that, or at least his
track record this year and for a while now would
not suggest that he is doing that. So we have

(10:54):
that for you. I have a buddy who does sports
talk radio in Pittsburgh. We're gonna try to get on
Andrew Philip, who has been on this show before, and
see if he could just give me like two minutes
on Key Brian Hayes will certainly monitor what else may happen.
Reds do have a game tonight against the LA Dodgers,
trying to avoid a sweep. Last night's loss thoroughly disappointing
Trey Hendricks in his back kind of He was at

(11:17):
practice today, he was not practicing, but he was doing
what if you're a Zach Taylor you hope for him
to do, which is he was. He was participating even
if he wasn't practicing, and he was engaged and he
was talking with his teammates and all that's well and good.
And he did talk today, and I am not that
caught up in what he has to say at this
point because I think Trey, I think unfortunately he is

(11:40):
either in or depending on your perspective, he has put
himself in a really tough spot. He is here because
he is here. Maybe I'm taking a leap of faith.
I am going to assume he is going to be
on the field on September the seventh, because if you
decided to come here in part, and I'm sure this

(12:01):
was a consideration, if you decided to come back because
you are getting fined fifty thousand dollars a day every
day while you weren't practicing, Why on earth then would
you forego a game check totaling more than eight hundred
and seventy five thousand dollars. Trey Hendrickson has been embroiled
in a year's long issue with the Bengals over money.

(12:24):
I am now going to assume that money will compel
Trey to play Game one even if a new deal
doesn't get done. But I'm gonna defer to what folks
like Paul Danner Junior said on this show yesterday. I
still think the deal's gonna get done. How it looks,
what the structure is. Does just Trey cave more? Do
the Bengals cave ah?

Speaker 5 (12:44):
No.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
July thirtieth, It's better for the Bengals if Trey is here,
especially if he is the guy he was today, which
is helping out try not to be a distraction, although
that's kind of hard, and so with the benefit of time,
it's what we got more than five weeks before the
first game. He's here, which he wasn't during OTA's I
know he says nothing has changed. I don't think he's

(13:06):
gonna leave. There is time to negotiate. And at the
end of the day, I believe, and you may think
I'm wrong, Trey Hendrickson would not be here today, would
not have been in practice today if his absence wasn't
accompanied by a fine. So if you are like me
and you're deferring to the time they have and you
still think there's room for the two sides to come

(13:28):
to some sort of agreement, and you understand that money
is the driving factor behind this entire thing, and you
believe as I do, that Trey Hendrickson showed up because
he got tired of getting fined. And you're like me,
and all you really care about is do the Bengals
win In twenty twenty five, I've never been more convinced
Trey Hendrickson will play football for the Cincinnati Bengals against

(13:50):
the Cleveland Browns in thirty nine days, maybe under a
new contract. Hopefully under a new contract, but even if
he doesn't have one, we'll see five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. You're gonna hear what
he had to say a little bit later on. I
think Trey, I think Trey is trying as best he
can to come off like a really good guy while

(14:12):
at the same time expressing his frustration and maybe even
his hurt with his current employment situation. And so I
think he that has him saying things that might not
make a lot of sense, and I'm trying to put
that in the most gentle way possible. We also had
a practice that was largely dominated by the defense. I'm

(14:34):
gonna remind you of something today that is very important.
We have a lot of ground to cover between now
and six o'clock. We have room for you at five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty and uh eight sixty six seven
oh two three seven seven six. It's twenty after three
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. So if
we're gonna talk Trey hendrickson the Bengals and more with

(14:55):
our guy Sam Brookhouse from the Summer Sports Show coming
up in just about eight minutes. You're not about to
get pulled over. The cops aren't chasing you. We're playing
a Bubba Spark song. Tony Pike with the latest from
training camp. Defense won the day today, by the way.
We're gonna have on a little bit later. Our friend
Robert Wintrob, who we have on every week during the

(15:16):
football season. He contributes to the FTN Football Almanac, and
you know, one of the things he points out what
we watched today was the defense getting the better of
the offense. Now, part of it was Cincinnati dominating at
the point of attack. You could do with that whatever
you want. It's a sobering reminder of what has been

(15:36):
a recurring theme in July and August. But the part
that stood out to me being there this morning was
how good the secondary was in red zone drills seven
on sevens and the confidence they played with not insignificant.
Like the defense last season twenty third and third down
conversion rate tied for thirtieth in allowing touchdowns in the

(15:58):
red zone. They were ferrocious in that area. We always
talk about, like if the Bengals have a league average defense.
If they have a league average red zone defense, this
team will win twelve games league average red zone defense. Today,
it's one practice. I saw a defense that was really
good in the red zone and playing with a lot

(16:19):
of confidence. More on that with Tony coming up in
just a bit. Look Key Brian Hayes, terrific defensive player,
terrific defensive player. And argument can be made and many
who are into advanced metrics will do this. Best defensive
third basement in the sport. That's terrific. That is terrific.
As you have watched the Reds over the first two

(16:42):
thirds of the season, have you thought to yourself, man,
what they really need more than anything is a better
gloved third base. No, it's nice to have. Of course,
you want plus defenders everywhere, and you know, not an
insignificant thing if you consider some of the issues that
Elie Delacruz has on defense at a big issue last night.

(17:05):
But chances are, as you've watched the Reds over the
past four months, what you thought more than anything is
they need offensive help. Today they acquired a guy who
has been among the worst position players offensively in baseball.
He may have value because of his defense, he doesn't
help them address what is we'll say, arguably their biggest need.

(17:29):
Somebody with some pop, somebody who can hit the ball
out of the ballpark, and somebody who could just help
upgrade the offense regardless of where they hit in the
batting order. Trade deadline hasn't come yet. There's still some time.
But we started talking about the trade deadline weeks ago

(17:49):
by discussing the guy who for most is the biggest prize,
at least among position players as the deadline approaches. That's
a uhaneos Waz who plays third base, to go from
a Eugenio Suarez who's on pace to hit fifty home
runs to keep Brian Hayes, that's a letdown. Sports headlines

(18:15):
and Sam brookals from the Summer Sports show who never
lets us down?

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 5 (18:25):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight Loss
Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise. Call
five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three on eastbound
two seventy five. An earlier accident cleared at Reed Hartman
Highway northbound seventy one seventy five traffic slowed through northern

(18:47):
Kentucky between US forty two and Florence and Twelfth Street.
You are up to a fifteen minute delay. I at
ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
This report. Hi, it is twenty five from four. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty. I'll do sports headlines in a
few minutes. I'll let you know the Reds and traded
for key Brian Hayes, who's good with the glove and
can hit. And also Trey Hendrickson was at practice, but
he wasn't practicing. Trey Hendrickson one of the topics of
discussion on the summer sports show. Our guy, Sam Brookhouse

(19:19):
is a part of that along with Lindsay Rhodes, and
they had a show today where they talked about the
Trey Hendrickson situation, the twenty twenty five Bengals, and so
much more. Sam is a i'll call him a pseudo
regular on our show, and he joins us, Now, Sam,
how's it going, man?

Speaker 6 (19:35):
I'm excited interesting that Trey was back at practice today
after you know, taking a little vacation on the Jacksonville
It seems like for a little while. The Bengals have
some interesting problems with him, but you know, it's good
that they have their offense together, and man, does it
still good to have some football to talk.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
About, No, no doubt about it. The Trey Hendrickson thing
has been interesting and got more interesting today. From where
you sit, what do you make of how the ben
as an organization have handled this.

Speaker 6 (20:03):
I think this is one of the most unique problems
and probably unique to the Bengals as well, that I've
seen in a very, very long time. Do you have
a defensive player of the Year caliber player who the
team really doesn't plan to build around long term because
despite his defensive player of the Year caliber season, they

(20:23):
weren't a very good defense. But then if you lose
that player, can you even you know, field a winning
team at that point? And so it becomes there's so
many things to think about here, the consistency of Trey Hendrickson,
and the consistency of the edge position more generally, the
ability to take over games of that position, the offense,
and how the money was spent. There's so many different

(20:45):
facets to this, but I think really what it's going
to come down to is if Trey Hendrickson and his
representation are able to either acquire a second year of
guarantees or, if they've been to the Cincinnati Bengals will
probably with a greater signing bonus in to and just
remain that single year of guarantees on the first year

(21:05):
of the of the contract.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, I mean, on my take all along in this,
and god knows we've talked about it for months on
end is I think the basic premise of both sides
is not incorrect. I understand the Bengals basic premise here,
which is guy's probably a depreciating asset. Don't want to
pay in twenty twenty six or twenty twenty seven for
twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four production. He is

(21:27):
going to be thirty one years old. You know, he's
a terrific pass rusher, lacks a little bit against the run.
We want to pay him more, you know, Well, we're
not totally willing to guarantee the full value of the contract.
And Tray's perspective is, Dude, look at what's happened with
the edge rusher market. Look at what's happening with guaranteed
money in this sport. Look at your defense last year
with me on it, I'm the only good player you have.

(21:48):
I think that's the thing to me that makes this
so unique is it's not that hard to see the
logic of either.

Speaker 6 (21:54):
Side and you you nailed it, And even from the
analytics perspective, you nailed it. Trey Hendrickson was one of
the most effective pass rushers, whether you're just looking at
core sacks and core pressures or whether you're getting down
into the tracking AI that we have at Summer Sports
and we talked about on the Suomer Sports show all

(22:15):
the time. He was just as effected there the I
met the AI. The question is is just does it
make sense for the Bengals team. I for one, think
that you know, if you're twenty eighth in expected points
added per play, you're one of the worst efficiency defenses
in the league. It really doesn't matter much how far
you bought them out at that point because you're going

(22:35):
to have to rely on the offense anyway. This is
kind of the opposite of what the Houston Texans did,
saying no opposite because the offense, their offensive line was
atrocious last year outside of Laramie Tunsel. They figured it
couldn't got worse, and they went ahead and traded Laramie
Tunsel in the offseason. I think it's kind of a
similar situation to that, other than the fact that at

(22:56):
least for this year and at least for his age
thirty one season, and typically we see that sacks and pressures.
Pressures in particular are a pretty sticky stat and that
we can, for the most part, assume that Trey Hendrickson
will be a top flight pass rusher in this league.
Like you said, I think both sides have a pretty
good argument. I think his age is probably the biggest

(23:18):
item here for the agent side, and obviously the guaranteed
money in future years is the biggest side for the Bengals.
I do think that there probably are some mechanisms, primarily
in scooping up that signing bonus, as they did for
both Joe Burrow and for Jamar Chase. I think that
could be an avenue that this can get solved. All
in all, I don't see him leaving the Bengals, but

(23:39):
I do think that this deal is going to be
a little interesting and probably a little shorter than Trey
Hendrickson would like.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Does it get more interesting to you because the Shamar
Stewart thing had a quicker resolution than I think a
lot of people were expecting.

Speaker 6 (23:54):
It's an excellent question. You look at the mold of
Shamar Stewart, at least how it pertains to his play
at Texas A and M, and it feels as if
he's there to fill in that Sam Hubbard role, to
be that run anchor, and that's what he was really
excellent at, filling gaps. Not necessarily the most productive guy,
as we've talked about Trey Hendrickson is in the pass rush,

(24:16):
but a guy who will do his job and be
able to be an excellent and versatile edge player. So
I think that maybe it makes a small bit of difference.
And when you're talking about first round rookies, typically the
expectation is a little bit less, is a little bit
more than the reality. You can't expect that he immediately

(24:36):
will go out there and be even a Sam Hubbard
style player who has been a part of multiple great defenses.
You have to temper yourself to the reality. I don't
know how much the Shamar Stewart item really affects Trey Hendrickson,
especially given he's on a rookie contract, but it definitely
gives you a degree of relief that you have at

(24:56):
least a top flight talent to kind of backside things
go awy top to bottom.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
You know, if you and I would have talked when
the season ended and all right, they're going to move
on from their defensive coordinator, hire Al Golden. I think
most of us expected there to be a little bit
more turnover on the defensive side of the ball. Not
that there weren't players that you're gonna, you know, give
another chance to with a new DC, not that they
haven't invested some early round draft choices and some guys

(25:24):
that they still feel have upside. But I do feel
like relative to how we were talking about, you know,
a defensive overhaul at the end of last year that
never really materialized. They did sign some free agents, they
obviously were pretty heavy on defense in the draft, but
I think for a lot of us, the amount of
turnover wasn't what we expected. What do you make of

(25:45):
their approach just top to bottom defensively this offseason.

Speaker 6 (25:50):
I think every year going into the season, you have
to identify who is available and how that makes you better.
And this year the Bengals needed help at the edge position,
where Sam Hubbard obviously outgoing Tray Hendrickson in a weird
contract situation, and then defensive backfield, particularly the cornerback position,
needed a lot of work. It's very difficult to get

(26:10):
those two positions settled in free agency. This typically isn't
a team that's gonna outlay a ton of draft capital
through trades. They really like to build through the draft.
I think that's why they settled on the draft and
when they really evaluated, you know how the history of
the league has gone. It's very difficult to completely rehab

(26:31):
a defense from the doldrums that they were in last
year into a top flight defense just by spending money.
I think that's why they looked at the scenario. They
looked at the offense, they looked at t Higgins, they
saw that they had kind of a one B tier
receiver just underneath kind of that, Jamar Chase, who they
also have and have also kept in a Bengals uniform.

(26:53):
Decided that reinvesting in t Higgins and some of the
pieces on that offense was the way to go and
put them in the best case to win, given that
they have frankly two MVP candidates. If it really gets
down to it and we see Jamar Chase have a
career year in Jamar Chase.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
And Joe burrow Well said, Sam. Always awesome to have you. Man,
We'll do it again soon. The Suomer Sports Show relaunched
awesome stuff as always.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
Yeah, please go subscribe to us on YouTube. We got
some beautiful new visuals up there. We talked to some
X gms, some X coaches about what you can really
take away from these early days of training camp and man,
I'm just excited for these early days of training camp.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah. It's great to have football back, no question, and
we love chatting with you periodically during the season. We'll
do We'll do it to man, Thanks so much, appreciate it.
It's Sam Brookhouse. The Suomer Sports Show is very, very good.
He did today's episode with Lindsay Rhodes, who used to
be with the NFL Network. They talked extensively about the
Bengals and Trey Hendricks and I very quickly Sports Headlines

(27:52):
and Service of Kelsey. Chevrolet Red's have reportedly acquired key
Brian Hayes from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for reliever
Taylor Rodgers and Sammy Stuffer. Stuffer sorry, uh, Meanwhile, the
Reds played the Dodgers tonight, final of a three games
finale of a three game series. Reds trying to avoid
getting swept. Nick Martinez will pitch show Hey Otani, who

(28:16):
went zero for five with five punchouts last night, and
the Dodgers win. He pitches or starts pitching for he
is the starting pitcher for the Dodgers. I should say
I am screwing all of this up seven to ten
tonight on seven hundred WLW. Trey Hendrickson has ended his holdouts.
He is now conducting a hold in. He was at
practice today, he wasn't practicing. You'll hear what he had

(28:38):
to say coming up in the next hour. Zach Moss
was released by the team today. That's worth noting because well,
we had wondered how are they going to keep four
running backs? And yesterday we talked about them keeping four
running backs with one who broke his neck last year.
Unfortunately for Zach, he was that guy. Best of luck
to him and his future endeavors. Bengals cut him today.

(28:59):
Practice Tomorrow am first preseason game against the Eagles a
week from tomorrow night. Tony Pike with a training camp update.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 5 (29:13):
five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three eastbound State
Route thirty two near Harold Road. It is an accident
right now. Up to a twenty five minute delay back
from Bauer Road two seventy five down to one lane

(29:36):
both directions due to repairs on the Carrol Cropper Bridge.
Traffic is slow on both sides on that Ezelic with
traffic report in.

Speaker 7 (29:44):
Fifes with the latest from Banks to question brought to
you by Ken Credit would like to lands your shoe
Hoolme of the Cincinnati Bengals ESPN fifteen thirty one.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
A very busy day Tony Pike has been but the
venue originally known as Paul Brown Stadium all day did
the Tony in Mote Training Camp show did since he
three to sixty and he is he is standing by
just in the event that maybe Trent Hendrickson saunters out
to talk to him. Hi Tony, Hi MO, how are you?

Speaker 8 (30:14):
I'm really trying my best to deal with, you know,
this chronic heat that's happening right now, and really the
only thing that I can do, mo Is is really
trying to manage my symptoms at this point, which is
for an athlete, all you want to do is just
be able to manage chronic, chronic issues. And if you
do so, you two can come become a member of

(30:34):
a Cincinnati sports organization.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
And and be locked into a contract for the rest
of the decade.

Speaker 8 (30:41):
Yeah, it's just sometimes the jukes just right themselves at times.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
I have not yet shared with our audience here what
Key Brian Hay said in spring training about his back injury.
We'll get to that. I tweeted it out. Let's let's
there a lot a lot to talk about today. We'll
discuss at four forty five some of the ins and
outs of what happen during practice, But the headline is
Trey Hendrickson is back. He is not practicing, but he

(31:06):
was at practice and he wasn't a non participant. Between
Trey's arrival, what you watched from him during today's workout,
and what you've heard from him subsequent to the workout,
what's your big trade takeaway?

Speaker 8 (31:21):
Well, the arrival and watching him at practice, I think
went pretty well. I could have done without him speaking
seven minutes at his locker and acting like he had
no idea that questions would even come about his status,
because it sounded like a guy who had no idea
what he was talking about, or trying to backpedal around it.
Sounds like he had no plan. But from what we

(31:41):
saw of Trey, he was out on the field, the
first box that he checked was he was actually wearing
team issued gear, So that checks the box that wasn't
checked the last time Trey was at a practice. He
didn't hold his own media session. He wasn't a distraction
for large portions of practice. He was talking to the
coaching staff. He spent time with players one on one

(32:02):
as they were getting ready to do reps or as
they were coming off the field from having reps. He
I thought, was everything you wanted from a veteran teammate
that wasn't practicing. His day was very similar to Logan
Wilson's day, who was having a vet day to day
but still being very connected to everything that was going
on on the field. So for that sense, you know,
I think it was a successful day. It was good

(32:24):
to have Trey Hendrickson back. I don't think it was
an egregious distraction that he was at training camp. So
you take this, I think, like many things, you take
this a day at a time, because who knows what
tomorrow brings with Trey Hendrickson. Who knows if he's happy,
who knows if they get a deal done, who knows
that they're farther apart. But for today, I thought it
was a good day for the Bengals of Trey Henderson.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
I'm going to operate out of the assumption that if
it's not a matter of time before the deal gets done,
and I do think it is, I'm going to operate
out of the assumption that money and not having to
pay more fines was a motivating factor behind him him
showing up today, and it's going to be a motivating
factor in determining whether or not he plays Game one
if the new deal doesn't get done.

Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yeah, like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, I don't
care how much money you've made. That's a large chunk
of chains to be sitting on a beach or in
Florida somewhere while things are getting going, which you know, again,
I don't understand that aspect of what he had to
say today, but I do know this, him being here
visually at least gives you indication that these two sides

(33:31):
are getting closer. Jeremy Faller reported yesterday on Get Up
that he does believe in many of these categories that
the two sides are close to getting the deal done. Now.
The guarantees are a question how long those guarantees go
into the contractor in question. But the more we hear,
the more it sounds like these two sides are getting closer.

(33:53):
And I think you take that with seeing what he
was able to do today as a positive.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Tony will talk again, coming up up at four forty five.

Speaker 8 (34:02):
All right, mol can't wait.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
Tony Pike with the latest from Bengals training camp every
hour and another edition of the Tonian Mode Training Camp
Show a E. Dorn Window Tonian Mode Training Camp Show
tomorrow without the mo part. Ten am right here on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Coming up. I'll play for you what
Trey Hendrickson had to say today, and I'll read for

(34:23):
you what the Newest Red had to say about his
back injury during spring training. We are really busy today
we'll try to grab some phone calls as well. On
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
FL, the official home of the Bengals, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen
to thirty.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
All right, here we go, four h four. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks thanks for listening today. Brendaman and
Jones on baseball. Coming up in forty five minutes, you're
gonna hear Trey Hendrickson. Who is he was? He was
there today, he was in Cincinnati, he was at practice.

(35:04):
He wasn't practicing, and that's okay, Daryl'll hear from Tray.
We also have to talk about today's training camp practice,
which this was. Let's see, this was the fifth one
that Tony and I were down there for. Today is
the day that I had the most definitive takeaways and
definitive takeaways in training camp. They're training camp takeaways. They're

(35:28):
they're worth taking with a grain of salt. But I
at least had some takeaways today. And there was a
familiar theme to today's practice. We'll get to that coming up
here in just a bit. I quickly, let's talk a
few minutes about key Brian Hayes, who the Reds have
reportedly traded for Key Brian Hayes with the Pittsburgh Pirates
this year, was having a terrible season offensively, Tarn, I

(35:51):
am hearing something in my ears. For what it's worth,
I don't know if that's going out of the air,
but if if you could work on that for me,
that would be a big help. Key Brian Hayes is
twenty eight years old and is you just heard the
top of the hour update there regarded it by many
and a lot of folks who could apply numbers and
metrics to this would concur regarded by many as the

(36:13):
best defensive third baseman in the sport. That is awesome,
Like that's great good. I don't know if if that's
something that addresses the Red's biggest need. Obviously you want
plus defenders everywhere. In the run up to the trade deadline,
I don't recall anybody saying that one of the bigger

(36:35):
needs is defense at third base, but you know, hey,
I guess we'll see Kimbrian Hayes, though, despite being very
good with the club this season, was putting up terrible numbers.
An ops of five sixty nine a batting average of
two thirty six, struck out eighty one times and walked

(36:55):
just eighteen times in three hundred and ninety two played appearances.
He has fourteen extra base hits in three hundred and
sixty nine at bats. He's hit the ball out of
the ballpark twice this season. Never a huge home run threat,
he has thirty nine in his big league career, which
dates back to twenty twenty. He is twenty eight years old.

(37:17):
He is also a guy who is under team control
through the rest of the decade, team option for twenty thirty.
The cost isn't absurd. In no season is Key Brian
Hayes due to make ten figures. I'm sorry, eight figures.
He's making the rest of his seven million dollar salary
this year, seven next year, seven and twenty twenty seven,

(37:39):
eight in twenty twenty eight, eight in twenty twenty nine.
Key Brian Hayes. Sammy Staffura, who's a shortstop. Remember when
we said the Reds had too many short stops, Well
now they have won less. And Taylor Rodgers lefty reliever
who was acquired this past year by the Giants. Taylor
Rodgers time in Cincinnati I think could be best categorized

(38:00):
as forgettable. He's not been atrocious. Reds have acquired plenty
of atrocious relievers. They've had plenty of atrocious relievers. But well,
I don't think anybody is necessarily losing their mind over
the fact that Taylor Rodgers is gone. It does make
you wonder what are their plans for relief help as
the deadline gets closer. I cannot help but mention this,

(38:24):
and you could do whatever you want with this. But
this is a story from sportsnet Pittsburgh dot com that
was written at the start of spring training this year.
Pittsburgh Pirates' third baseman, Key Brian Hayes, entered spring training
with good news and bad news. Let's start with the good.

(38:45):
Hayes told reporters Wednesday that quote, everything feels a lot
better after back issues limited him to just ninety six
games last season. The bad news is Hayes still isn't
feeling one hundred and doesn't know if he'll ever get
to that point for the rest of his career. Here's

(39:08):
the quote from Key Brian Hayes from back in February.
Quote the injury that I have, it's chronic. It's not
something that's ever going to go away. It's just how
good can I manage it to where my symptoms are
mostly non existent. That's the challenge I have, huh So

(39:36):
short term, the Reds have applired a third baseman who's
great defensively, like legitimately great defensively buried in Pittsburgh you
never pay attention, and who has a running list of
the best defensive third basement in the sport. He's great defensively.
He's having a miserable season. His month of July numbers

(39:57):
have been atrocious. You may attribute that to well back issue,
except he's acknowledging the back issue is probably not gonna
go away. That might not be a big deal, except
that Keep Brian Hayes is under team control for the

(40:19):
rest of the decade.

Speaker 6 (40:28):
Like you.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Almost you almost have to say it out loud. I
hope to how this works. I really do, man, I'm
sure Keey Brian Hayes is a fine fellow and again
he's awesome with the glove. You can go on YouTube
and find Keep Brian Hayes defensive highlights if you want.

(40:54):
But I don't know, man, I've really struggled with the
back back issues or a reason why I'm still struggling
with the bat oh By the way, those back issues
probably not gonna go away. By the way, I'm twenty
eight years old. I will turn thirty and then thirty
one and then thirty two during the life of this contract.

(41:24):
It's maybe not that funny, but come on, man, like,
how is there not some skepticism when it comes to that,
because you know, back back injuries just they just automatically
get better. So that's this is the player that Reds
have acquired today. Key Brian Hayes not having a good

(41:46):
year by his own admission, chronic back issue. Many attributing
his offensive freefall over the last few years to the
back issue that he says is probably never gonna go away.
I will let you do what you want with that information.

(42:07):
Five point three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty. Then there's
Trey Hendrickson. So Trey showed up. We found out last
night this was going to be the case. He's not
signed a new contract yet. Uh. His presence today means
that he doesn't get fined anymore, which is nice. Uh.

(42:29):
He did not participate in practice, but he was there
at practice and to his credit. You know, we talked
about this on the show this morning. If you're Zach
Taylor and Al Golden. I think you have a simple wish,
like Trey, show up and be professional. You're here, You're
a part of this team. It's your prerogative to not practice,

(42:51):
I guess, but while you're here, we expect you to
not be a side show, not be a distraction. And
you know we we think, as a guy who wants
to be a captain, it would be helpful if you
would assist your teammates, especially the younger ones, as they
get ready for the season and their NFL careers. Trey
did talk today, which on some level is fine. Here

(43:16):
is We've stole this from Jeremy Row of Fox nineteen,
who's awesome. Is as much as we have made fun
of his casual attire at practice is awesome. Here is
Trey Hendrickson answering questions at his locker earlier today.

Speaker 9 (43:31):
Well, prior to leaving to Florida, I was here thirty
days in Cincinnati, so the goal was always a bee
in Cincinnati. Some things transpired. It became public that I
left the other Florida, but it was never something that
I wasn't gonna be here to out the twenty twenty
five angles.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Why'd you said to come to practice.

Speaker 9 (43:53):
Like I said, it was. The plan was to be
here day one. Like I said, things transpired, Nothing's really changed.
Uh so being here just acclimating with the guys that
was a priority for my weapon here.

Speaker 10 (44:07):
How would you describe your current process with the front
office and have things progressed?

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Are you optimistic?

Speaker 9 (44:14):
I think I answered that like two questions ago, like A,
you know, things are exactly the same. What I'm not
going to do is as best as I can, like
avoid being a distraction. You know, I want to help
the guys, you know, the guys that have helped me
along the way, Tomorrio, Davis, Cam Jordan, even Sam Hubbard
helped me a lot when I was here. So to
be that right now, I think, is that's what's most important.

(44:35):
And this, this narrative will kind of iron itself out
as we continue to progress towards the season.

Speaker 11 (44:42):
And so you're working with shamor Stewart quite a bit.

Speaker 8 (44:44):
How valuable even the guy is for.

Speaker 9 (44:45):
Him right now to work with him? Well, I mean
cam Jordan was so valuable to me when I was,
you know, maturing in the NFL, and I feel like
he's in that state. So if I can help him
in any way. That's my goal for being here. And
like I said, you know, the plan was be here
day one. Things transpired, you know, news happened to me
and and you know, we just kind of make decisions

(45:07):
as we go. There's no blueprint on what to do
how to do it. We're just going to stand true
to what being Hendrickson's means to us and moving forward
from that. I think not only I've mentioned it multiple
times this offseason, but also I believe ownership has as

(45:30):
well that there there are plans on not having to
play under the current deal. So I think that's something
we have a common goal to get to. I think
that's that's the plan moving forward is like you know,
no distractions. I'm excited to be here. I think it's
great seeing the brotherhood that's been created here.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
So there's Trey Hendrickson. We lifted that from our friend
Jeremy Row at Fox nineteen. And there's some word salad there,
I guess, and some confusing statements. This is just me.
I think we should cut Trey hendricks In a little
slack when it comes to public statements like that. I

(46:15):
think he's I think he's trying to thread a really
hard needle to thread. I think he's genuinely hurt, genuinely upset,
genuinely frustrated. Maybe you don't believe he has any reason
to be, but that's how he feels. He wants to
come off as a good guy. I think he genuinely
doesn't want to be a distraction, but he is frustrated,

(46:40):
and he sees value in using the media to express
that frustration. But he's also trying to not come off
as a bad guy or spoiled or petulant. And I
think that adds up to maybe not entirely speaking with clarity,
saying some things that are confusing, and sounding like he's

(47:03):
making things up on the fly, which I think he is.
This is This isn't a criticism necessarily, It's just I
think I think there's a part of him that would
love to just absolutely pop off and throw the Bengals
under the bus. I think he's I think he's cognizant
of the downside and doing that. I think he also

(47:26):
like he wants to speak publicly, he wants his side told,
he wants to come off as a good teammate. Like
I haven't loved much of how he's handled this. I
thought him complaining about Zach Taylor's text to him back
in May, I thought that was the epitome of bush league.
I think how he's handling it now like he's trying
to be affable. He's trying to have a working relationship

(47:48):
with the media. He knows he's the story. He's trying
not to make it a bigger I think he's he's trying,
and he's trying to do something that I think is
really hard when he might not be and this is
coming for me, might not be the most eloquent speaker
to begin with, and that's coming from me, who is
at times a very ineloquent speaker, and the bad news
for me as I talk for a living, I think

(48:09):
we can all agree on this. Remove I'm gonna remove
what I do for a living from the equation here
for a second. It is probably best right now, Trey
is here, he's made his public statement, everybody knows where
he stands. It is probably for the best for Trey
to kind of shut it down until the deal gets done,

(48:29):
because I don't know at this point that there's anything
productive that can come from him making further comments. We'll see, uh,
let's see eighteen minutes after four o'clock. Five point three
seven four nine, fifteen thirty is our phone number. We're
gonna spend a few minutes on an opportunity for your

(48:51):
kid to learn from one of the best college basketball
players in the country.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Next thirty traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
U SE Help's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical
obesity care and expertise. Call five one three nine three
nine two two sixty three. That's nine three, nine two
two sixty three. There is an accident eastbound on State
Route thirty two between Harold and Batavia Road. Looking at
a twenty minute to lay back from Riverside Street southbound

(49:25):
seventy one approaching Stewart Accident on the left shoulder and
slow traffic seventy five north from Mitchell to Paddock. I'm
at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
This report is thirty twenty five after four. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. If you missed Paul Tanner Junior with
us yesterday, he was He was really good. We talked
about Zach Moss, who the Bengals let go today, a
conversation that I thought was based on a really interesting
story on Zach Moss that as you read it, you're like,

(49:56):
how the hell is this guy going to play football?
This year? We talked about Zach bosson So Much More
or Good Convo Training Camp Underway. If you missed it,
go listen to it on the iHeartRadio app, which, by
the way, when you're on the iHeartRadio app, make sure
you preset ESPN fifteen thirty podcasts. Excuse me of this show,
our service of long Neck Sports Grill. And if you're thinking, man,

(50:18):
I want to go watch the Reds and Dodgers tonight,
long Neck Sports Grill, that's your spot. You got Hebron,
you got Wilder, you got rich Wood, you got long necks,
Stay long, come often. Uh let's we have folks waiting
five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty on a
few different topics we haven't even talked about. We haven't

(50:41):
even talked about the uh the practice today which was
encouraging from a defensive perspective, very encouraging from a defensive perspective,
somewhat sobering from an offensive line perspective. We'll get to
that coming up in just a bit. Uh see here, tear,
our phone's working well. Okay, we take phone calls. You

(51:04):
want to take phone calls? Yeah? Tom, you're on ESPN
fifteen thirty high Tom. How are you?

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Mo?

Speaker 6 (51:11):
Hey, look glad to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Nice to be talked to. Hey.

Speaker 10 (51:16):
I was thinking on the Trey Hendrickson's deal. I think
the Bengals are missing a big opportunity. Okay, and well,
right now, Joe Burrow had said that he was willing
to renegotiate his contract. I mean, okay, so why not
renegotiate his contract like they did with Patrick Mahomes. You

(51:40):
got a ten year deal. You have an opportunity to
tie Joe Burrow up now for a long time, you know,
and then it frees up some money for maybe Trey
Hendrickson and maybe some other things. But at the very
least tie Joe up for ten years he mentioned it.

Speaker 6 (51:57):
Why not do it?

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Well, I would love to have Burrow for the rest
of his career. Number One, they can sign Trey Hendrickson
without renegotiating with Joe Burrow. There's money to sign Trey Hendrickson,
there's cap space to sign Trey Hendrickson. Those two things
can be mutually exclusive. I guess what I would wonder
is if if you come to Joe Burrow and go,

(52:18):
we want to sign you for the for the rest
of your career. We want to take that contract you
have now and extend it through twenty thirty seven, something
like that. Man, if I'm Joe Burrow, I'm looking around
and I'm going, Okay, I'm going into year six. Do
I really want to tether myself to this organization and
be in a place where in a few years we

(52:40):
still haven't won. I'm starting a second guess whether or
not this is the best place for me to win
long term. Like Joe Burrow has said all the right things,
he has talked about, you know, doing what needs to
get done, for instance, to get Tea Higgins signed. If
I was Joe Burrow, I would want to crack at
I want to leave my options open. I would want
to see how the next few years unfold and then

(53:01):
start to talk about a contract extension. You know, they
just wasted my talents last year. I put it up
an MVP caliber season. We didn't play in the playoffs.
I need to know that that's not going to be
the norm. And until I do, I'm not signing here
for longer than I'm already committed.

Speaker 10 (53:15):
For well, the one thing, that one thing about what
you're saying is fine. I totally agree with the Joe
Burrow aspect, except he just signed his two best friends
as wide receivers for the next five years.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (53:27):
So so I mean, right there, if you sign you,
I'm not saying ten years. I'm saying signing him out
three or four years beyond what he is if he's willing.

Speaker 6 (53:36):
To do that.

Speaker 10 (53:37):
Now they're missing a gold opportunity.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Maybe, And again if before.

Speaker 10 (53:42):
Joe even thinks that, before he even has a chance
to think, hey, I agree with Moe.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
You know this is but the thing is, but the
thing is, like the thing you just mentioned, they signed
Chase and Higgins and the duration of their contract is already.
They don't need to extend Joe Burrow. That Joe Burrow's
deal is gonna and when after those guys deal is expired,
jamar Chase.

Speaker 10 (54:06):
Higgs gold opportunity. He put it out there that he
would and it does free up money. And we know
that we know that that no matter what, they can
have plenty of money, you know, you know, they probably
have more than enough, but they'll always feel better if
they have a the the little reserve.

Speaker 8 (54:22):
They always want to do that.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Sure, But I mean, Tom, I appreciate the phone call.
I guess for me, it's like if I'm Joe Burrow,
I I just signed less than two years ago. I
I need to see what happens in the coming years
before I'm even thinking about committing to stay here a
long term. And I would imagine the Bengals are aware
of that. But you know, I, I don't know that

(54:46):
signing Chase and Higgins for when they did is going
to compel Joe Burrow to want to sign for even longer?
Is KK with us? I want to get a quick
break in. We're going to talk about a very cool
opportunity if you have a young basketball player.

Speaker 12 (54:57):
Next Nats ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (55:03):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight
Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise.
Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three, nine two two sixty three. Two left
lanes blocked off from an accident on eastbound Fort Washington
Way that between seventy five and seventy one on southbound

(55:25):
seventy one accident at Taffed Road onto the right shoulder
an eastbound State Route thirty two. An accident between Harold
and Batavia Road. I met exelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
This report is sponsored by a child who wants to
get better at basketball. They have a chance this weekend
on Saturday at Sycamore High School, an Ohio Legacy basketball
camp and uh one of the folks who's putting this
on as a young lady, if you know anything about
high school or college basketball in this town. KK Bransford,

(55:57):
who had an unbelievable career at Mountain Notre Dame, two
time Miss Ohio Basketball, goes to a Notre Dame in
South Bend All ACC is a freshman big part of
their twenty twenty four ACC Tournament championship. She is going
to be helping to conduct this camp on Saturday and
kind enough to join us. K, It's good to have you.
How are you, Hi, I'm doing great. How are you

(56:20):
I am? I'm doing really well. First of all, congratulations
on what has been a really fun career to watch
at Notre Dame. Tell us about what's going to be
happening on Saturday at Sycamore High School.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
Yes, thank you so Yes, it's Saturday at Sycamore High School.
We're having a third to eighth grade basketball clinic with
some really great people.

Speaker 6 (56:41):
The lead trainers they will be.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Myself, Chance Gray and Amber Gray. Chance Gray graduated the
same year that I've graduated. She's fa biling her senior
year at high State right now. So I'm really excited
to I've been playing with Chance since second grade. This
is kind of a will starts a moment for us
to be kind of, you know, coaching kids now. It's crazy.

(57:04):
We're like, oh, we're actually kind of old town. So yes.
And then Amber Gray is our older sister who played
at Tennessee and then transferred to Xavier and had an
amazing career. She came out of high school McDonald's All American.
All three of us were actually McDonald's All American. So I'm
super excited to just spend some time with kids. I mean,

(57:25):
we've all, like I've always looked up to Amber Gray,
even like Kelsey Mitchell throughout Cincinnati. So just being able
to have the opportunity to give back to these kids
is opportunity that I'm really excited for.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
And it's worth mentioning the camp. It's kind of split
in half among different age groups. Correct, No, it is.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
Actually it's started through eighth now and it's one camp
from nine to four point thirty. So yes, if you
want the details, it is on my Instagram page at
KK Bransford. You can also DM me. I have the
links to registration and those things for any questions or
things like that. But yeah, we're doing it all day,

(58:04):
nine to four things. So please, I'm excited to see
you guys as kids and you know, have some ties
away and have some time for them to place in
basketball and just kind of have fun with all of us.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Sycamore High School and it starts at nine o'clock in
the morning. It is boys and girls. Correct, Yes, all right,
very good. What does aside from conducting camps, what does
a college basketball off season involve for you?

Speaker 4 (58:33):
It actually involves the lot. I mean during the summer.
I just finished up in South day at the University
of Notre Dame playing doing summer stuff, workouts, conditioning back
on court, workout, so doing a little bit of everything.
This is kind of a really crucial time to kind
of get their bodies physically ready for the season. That

(58:55):
am a little wax until March, so hopefully April. So
this is really crucial to that stuff and just being
able to you know, get in there. We're also taking
some classes hope and suddenly have the opportunity to do that.
We have a fairly new team with a lot of
chances coming in. So it was a good bonding time
for the last we were there for six weeks. So

(59:17):
the off season has been good. Now we're just kind
of having some time home. I'm going to be in
Cincinnati so until school starts back up.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
All right, very good And a part of that is
the camp on Saturday, starts at nine am Boys and
Girls Ohio Legacy Basketball Camp at Sycamore High School. We
will put the information on social media. Hopefully there's a
great turnout. I know kids can learn a lot from you.
I do appreciate the time and best of luck this
coming season in South Bend.

Speaker 12 (59:45):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
I appreciate it anytime. Awesome to have you. That's one
of the best college basketball players to come out of Cincinnati.
KK Bransford. Again, the Ohio Legacy Basketball Camp is going
to be at Sycamore High School on August second. You
can find K. A. Bransford on social media and sign
up on the links she provides. Sports headlines are a
service of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of Lifetime powertrain protection, guaranteed

(01:00:10):
credit approval from their family to yours for life, Kelsey
chev dot com. All right, the Reds played the La
Dodgers tonight. They have reportedly traded for Key Brian Hayes.
By the way, if you didn't know this, Key Brian
Hayes dead. Charlie played for a long time in the
Big leagues, actually caught the final out if I recall

(01:00:32):
of the nineteen ninety six World Series with the New
York Yankees, spend time with the Phillies, spend time with
the San Francisco Giants, and was a member of the
New York Yankees when they won the World Series in
nineteen ninety six. Key Brian and trade for Charlie Hayes.
They traded for Key Brian Hayes, Who's got a great glove.

(01:00:53):
He's not hit at all this year. I'm sorry Cincinnati
sending to Pittsburgh Taylor Rogers and worst prospect Sammy Stefferra.
The Reds no longer have too many shortstops. I guess.

Speaker 9 (01:01:08):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Meanwhile, it's Nick Martinez versus show Hey Otani tonight, Reds
and Dodgers at GABP. The game last night, which we
have spent no time on. That's a game you gotta win.
That's a game you gotta win in the heart of
a playoff push. It's a game you gotta win when
you're trying to keep pace with the San Diego Padres.
It's a game you gotta win when you've got a
four to two lead in the late innings. It's a
game you gotta win instead of walking the ninth place

(01:01:32):
hitter in two reasonably high leverage situations. It's a game
you gotta win because your left fielder does a better
job getting to a ball that he's got to get to,
and your shortstop doesn't drop a cutoff throw. It's a
game you gotta win when you have the bases loaded
and a chance to break it open a little bit
in the fifth I've I've come back a little bit

(01:01:53):
on what Francona did in the fifth inning last night,
pinch hitting espinal for Freiley. I still think I would
have given Jake Frayley a chance to hit against a
lefty with less than two outs and the bases loaded.
Hoping batting fifth, he can get a fly ball of
the outfield, knowing you're gonna make another move because you're
gonna put Marte in right field and you're gonna replace

(01:02:14):
him with Connor Joe. Connor Joe doesn't do anything offensively.
As a tough loss last night, Red's trying to avoid
the sweep.

Speaker 5 (01:02:22):
UH.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
Luis May is up from Triple A Louisville and the
Reds have made it official. Key Brian Hayes has been acquired.
Pirates also getting cash considerations. Trey Hendrickson back. Bengals wrapped
up a practice today. Trey didn't practice, but he was there.
Zach Moss has been cut. Bengals back out of tomorrow.
Ten am. Today's workout, Uh, the good turnout was really

(01:02:47):
really good. It was really really hot. The defense got
the better of the offense. And to me, like you
can go glass half full, glass half empty, I'll go
glass half full. It's awesome to hear that. The Bengals
defensive front, which is a question mark, imposed itself today.
Our vantage point. From where we sit, you could see

(01:03:07):
a lot. You can't see everything, but the Tony often
talked about party in the backfield. The Bengals upfront on
defense one at the point of attack, and when they
were doing red zone drills, Josh Newton made some plays,
Cam Taylor Britt made a play. DJ Turner was on

(01:03:27):
third team, which is not encouraging. This team was really
bad in the red zone last year. Building a better
defense has to start somewhere. Let's start in the red zone.
Those are really good things. The problem, though, is when
a certain theme is a familiar one, and here's where

(01:03:48):
a lot of us can't help but default to. Oftentimes,
in recent years, one of the daily themes has been boy,
the Bengals offensive line is getting work going back years,
whether it's the tail end of the Marvin Lewis regime
or whether it's been any of the previous six training camps,

(01:04:10):
maybe twenty twenty being an exception, because training camp took
place really with no one there, and I'll just use
my own experience. For years, we do live training camp
reports once an hour. Tony Pike, who whose observations and
expertise I trust, has been down there for years, often

(01:04:33):
painting a picture where the offensive line is getting worked.
And yeah, when that happens, you could dwell on or
focus on how good. The Bengals are upfront on defense,
except when the real games actually begin, that theme of
the offensive line getting worked continues. So you might go, look,

(01:04:57):
it's one practice, no big deal. You might go, look
it's July thirtieth, no big deal, very very fair. But
when there are certain themes that get continued early into camp,
you cant help but wonder. And by the way, for
what it's worth, Joe Burrow is going to play a
week from tomorrow night behind an offensive line that got

(01:05:18):
worked today. I'm not so interested in how the offense
functions as I am. Let's make sure Joe gets through
the game. That doesn't count. That's an area of the
team that, even with a new offensive line coach and
even with some new players, doesn't deserve the benefit of
the doubt. So the troubling thing isn't for me at least,

(01:05:38):
isn't that the Bengals offensive line didn't have a good
day today. It's that we often hear during training camp
the offensive line didn't have a very good day, and
then when the games actually start, it turns out the
offensive line doesn't have a very good year. You cannot
help but have that in the back of your mind.
When you either watch the Bengals offensive line get where

(01:06:00):
or here that they did. Tony Pike will elaborate on
that next.

Speaker 12 (01:06:06):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:06:10):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center U see Help's
Weight Loss center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise.
Cull five one three nine three, nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three, nine two two sixty three. Northbound seventy
one approaching Norwood Lateral. Three right lanes all blocked off
from an accident right now. A twenty five minute delay

(01:06:31):
back from Dana Avenue on eastbound Fort Washington Way. Another
accident between seventy five and seventy one. The left two
lanes are blocked. I'm at exelic with traffic all right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Tony Pike is with us. Hourly training camp reports a
busy day for the Bengals. Trey Hendrickson was there, so
are other players. Trey wasn't practicing. Other guys were. Here's
what we're gonna do, Tony. We're gonna be positive here
in the the four o'clock hour update, let's talk about
the performance of the defense, and let's begin with what
we watched in the red zone drill today, which is

(01:07:03):
not insignificant given the fact that the Bengals defense last
year in the red zone was thirtieth in touchdown percentage.

Speaker 8 (01:07:12):
Yeah, you know, I think, and to prevace that, I
liked Joe Burrow's honesty speaking after practice and saying, look,
you know, in team drills, I'm treating things like a game.
In red zone, I might try to see what I
can get away with or push the envelope a little bit.
Regardless of that, Josh Newton had an interception, Cam Taylor
Britt had a pass breakup, Jordan Battle had a nice
play right in front of us against Jamar Chase in

(01:07:33):
the back of the end zone. And the group itself,
I feel like just looks confident. They are talking, they're communicating.
I think they look fast on the field when they're
playing and passing things off. Are there going to be breakdowns? Yes,
it's still early in this playbook and the scheme is
constantly changing. But if you're making mistakes and you're making

(01:07:55):
them aggressive or making them while you're playing fast as
a defensive court, you can get over that. We talked
about the value of al golden and being good in
the red zone that continued again today. I thought it
was a great red zone period. I thought it was
a great practice as a whole for the defense. But yeah,
we're seeing the emergence of some guys getting an opportunity

(01:08:16):
and making the most of it right now.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Yeah, no, no question about it. And then and we'll
talk about the offensive line a little bit later on.
But you talked often today watching practice about party in
the backfield. The Bengals D line one big at the
point of attack.

Speaker 8 (01:08:29):
Yeah, I thought it was a very good day for
the defensive line, you know. I think up front we
saw and a guy we haven't talked about a ton
McKinley Jackson made a couple splash plays today, which is
hard to do as a defensive tackle because you don't
get the notoriety much. Chris Jenkins was solid. We both
sat there and watched. From a running game standpoint, the
offense got nothing going with the ones or the twos today.

(01:08:52):
The edge pressure was there register the sack against Joe Burrow.
They would have certainly hit him on another pass if
Joe Burrow was able to get it off. But again,
a lot of the same we talked about the secondary
with the defensive line, plane fast, plane aggressive. It didn't
seem to me as we were watching that they were
rotating late or trying to hide a lot. I think

(01:09:13):
they were keeping it simple and just saying, hey, let's
go play confident, let's go play fast, and let's see
what happens, and that today led to success for the defense.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Now, see what we're gonna do here is we're going
to warn our audience. You're back for your last training
camp report of the day at five forty five, and
that's when we're going to talk about the performance of
the offensive line. And so if your thing is I
only want to hear good news during training camp, the
five forty five update might not be for you.

Speaker 8 (01:09:40):
Yeah, it just might be something that you know, you
take a couple of minutes and you know, much like
the team did yesterday. They had a rest day, they
had a mental day, there was a water break incorporated.
It hot outside. So maybe at the five forty five spot,
if you don't want to hear that, you make sure
you're hydrate during that time.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
You have been warned. Tony, we'll talk. Keep the radio on, yeah, yeah,
just maybe walk out of the room, all right, Tony, Thanks,
So much. He's got hourly training camp reports and he
is back. I won't be there tomorrow, but the Tonian
Mode Training Camp Show AIDRN Window Tonian Mode Training Camp
Show ten o'clock tomorrow. Tony joins us on the Ray
Saint Clair Roofing Hotline. Brendanman of Jones on Baseball.

Speaker 5 (01:10:17):
Is next, Hi, zoeys Aldana Cincinnati's sports station, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
Five oh five, ESPN fifteen thirty mon Legger, It's the
Michelo Vultra five o'clock Happy Hour on. It's been a busy,
kind of chaotic day. Red's have a new third baseman
who's really good at playing third base, Key Brian Hayes.
They traded Sammy Staffura shortstop prospect. They no longer have
too many shortstops, I guess, and Taylor Rodgers, who was

(01:10:47):
awesome when there was nobody on base, but terrible when
there were men on base. Those guys are off to Pittsburgh.
Key Brian Hayes is coming to Cincinnati. He'll join the
team tomorrow when they open up that series against the Braves.
Brian Hayes as awesome defensively, he has been way below
league average with the bat. You'll hear what Terry Francona
had to say about the new acquisition coming up here

(01:11:08):
in just a bit. Trey Hendrickson has ended his hold out.
He has kind of started his hold in. He was
at practice today, but he wasn't practicing. We've talked about Trey,
I was gonna say today. We've talked about Trey for
months on end. You'll hear again what he had to
say earlier today coming up in just a little bit.
I am confused by what the Reds did with Key

(01:11:29):
Brian Hayes, and we'll explain why in about thirty minutes.
But I'm never confused when we chat with our next guest.
We talk with him every week during the season because
he writes a Bengals column for Cincinnati Magazine. He is
also the best contributor to the FTN Preseason Almanac, which
this has been a publication that we have talked about

(01:11:51):
and referenced on this show for years, going back to
what it was published by Football Outsiders. I tweeted out
a link and you can get the almanac, which is
is incredibly thorough, very comprehensive, and most years the Bengals
chapter is authored by our buddy Robert wintrob who is
with us now? Long intro? How's it going?

Speaker 13 (01:12:12):
Yeah, it was a long intro, but our long regional
nightmare is over.

Speaker 10 (01:12:16):
Mo.

Speaker 13 (01:12:16):
We're back together once again after a long summer, particularly
long in terms of contract talk.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
I'm sure for you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
Yeah, you know we loved it. I mean, between Shamar
Stewart and Trey Hendrickson, we are going to put them
in the ESPN fifteen thirty Ring of Honor.

Speaker 3 (01:12:32):
It's better than talking.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
Reds every single day, right, I don't know, man, The
Reds are interesting. They just their big trade deadline acquisition
was a guy that can't hit, which doesn't make any sense.
But we'll get to that a little bit. Let's talk
about the Bengals. You're right about Al Golden and the
one thing we have heard about Al since they hired
him to be the defensive coordinator is he's going to

(01:12:54):
emphasize linebacker. You refer to his quote linebacker infatuation. They
draft a linebacker in the second round, which is something
you typically don't expect the Bengals to do. They've emphasized
a position this offseason that you typically don't see the
Bengals emphasize. So tell me how this is gonna work.
How does his emphasis of that position help shape what

(01:13:15):
the Al Golden defense is going to look like?

Speaker 6 (01:13:19):
Right?

Speaker 13 (01:13:19):
Well, maybe first I should to do a little promotion
and that the upcoming issue of Cincinnati Magazine, which should
hit the news stands in a couple of weeks. I
guess I actually do interview Al Go talk to him
a little bit, introduce him a little bit, you know,
not too in depth like we get on the football
talk necessarily, but just to get a kind of big
picture of what he's all about. And you're right, linebacker

(01:13:40):
play is both his specialty.

Speaker 3 (01:13:42):
And not particularly one that the Bengals have emphasized. But
I feel like that's partially.

Speaker 13 (01:13:47):
You know, a league trend, not just the Bengals. When
the league went to mostly base three wide receivers, the
defense has had to follow with five defensive backs. And
now that you know, the running the ball has become
maybe back in fashion a little bit more, and certainly
in the AFC North, it's always a priority. Right. I
think Golden's, as you say, linebacker infatuation. Maybe it's just

(01:14:08):
a crush. I'm not sure, but he's he's gonna play
three linebackers more up and then we've seen in a
long time, and he's gonna get some guys in here
who can actually both tackle and maybe cover some tight
ends for once and hit pretty hard, and the Bengals.

Speaker 3 (01:14:22):
Haven't had that in a while.

Speaker 13 (01:14:24):
They continue, he gets targeted by enemy passers at the
tight end position more than any other team, and you know,
I think you'll see the preset being if your linebackers
are fast.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
Your defense is fast.

Speaker 13 (01:14:37):
We saw that with the Ravens when they brought in
Rokwan Smith, and I'm not saying Demetrius he's gonna have
that same effect, but he definitely wanted.

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
To improve the speed at that position. It was a
place that was probably easiest.

Speaker 13 (01:14:48):
For him to conceive of making an immediate impact through
the draft in the middle rounds. And you know, listen,
I think it's fair to say that it's not necessarily
the guys we want to picked it where they were
picked necessarily, but time will tell, and they definitely feel
the need, so you can understand why.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
And he obviously feels.

Speaker 13 (01:15:08):
That's an important position. And you know, he certainly was
at Notre Dame where he had great success. So hopefully
we'll translate to the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
He's got to try, Al does. He's got to try
to achieve better results using a group of players in
the secondary that helped get last year's defensive coordinator fire No.
At the same time, there's a lot of guys, you know,
back there they've used early round draft choices on, or
have prioritized in free agency, like Geno Stone, and so
I think it's unsurprising that they're giving those players a

(01:15:37):
chance in this system. I do think it's at least
a little surprising that they did nothing in terms of
outside acquisition, either via the draft or free agency. And
so I can't help it ask like they couldn't have
added at least one more guy, even at safety. They
couldn't have added at least one guy to that mix,
which is still so unproven.

Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
Hey, you sound like my mother. They couldn't have added
another It would have been so hard.

Speaker 13 (01:16:03):
Yeah, Well, you know, like you say, First of all,
I think you know, we're still early. There's still time
they may do that. I don't especially if God forbid,
somebody gets hurt. I think that's certainly a possibility. And
I think again, going back to Al Golden is he's
looking around saying, well, there's probably not really that many
difference makers that they could have gotten. Certainly in free agency,
we've invested a lot in these guys, as you said,

(01:16:26):
you know, first and two seconds. I was trying to
think back, how many times in the last decade or
fifteen years as a team invested that kind of draft
capital in a single position and they all went bad
and none of them got a second contract. You know,
it's probably not that often, and I'd hate to see
this be a trendsetter. So you like to think that
they'll come back and achieve what they can.

Speaker 3 (01:16:46):
There there's a real variance.

Speaker 13 (01:16:47):
As I wrote in the Almanac, they could all sort
of come of age and be excellent together. They can
all fall apart like they did last year again, and
the defense and the whole team will suffer because of
it as well. Certainly they could have, you know, they
could have drafted one they I think we'll look at
Malachi Starks in Baltimore and compare him to Shamar Stewart
over the next few years.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
And wonder if maybe that was not the right pick.

Speaker 13 (01:17:09):
But you know, overall, I think the point is the
easiest thing, and the most kind of you know, straightforward
thing for Al Golden to do is to take what
he had prove himself different.

Speaker 3 (01:17:19):
Than the latimumo and you know, train up these guys.

Speaker 13 (01:17:22):
They're all young, they're all you know, have so have
shown they can play in this league, and it's just
a matter of getting them to the point where they
can be baseline good.

Speaker 3 (01:17:31):
You know, it's funny.

Speaker 13 (01:17:32):
The secondary actually in terms of yards per attempt given
up last year was.

Speaker 3 (01:17:36):
Middle of the league. Wasn't that bad.

Speaker 13 (01:17:38):
It was the big plays that killed them, the touchdown passes.
And so you know, as we always talk in the show,
the margins are really small. Get these guys to make
a handful more plays in big situations.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
Something.

Speaker 13 (01:17:48):
They look a lot better than you know, they looked
last year. And as we think of them, and we
won't be worrying about, you know, potentially adding it better
and to be the fifty B or the third safety
as much as we are right now.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
Robert Wintrump is with this author the Bengals chapter and
more in the FTN Football Aminac twenty twenty five, which
you could order now at Ftnfantasy dot Com. Same question,
different position group. They couldn't have added one more guard.

Speaker 3 (01:18:15):
Now you're my grandmother?

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
What's going on?

Speaker 6 (01:18:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (01:18:19):
Here, I feel it a little bit more legit than
I do, perhaps in the defensive backfield, you know. I mean,
you're going in with a rookie and the guy you
have a lot of faith in and potentially at least
in Dylan Fairchild at one side, and Lucas Patrick who
ring in who's you know, I feel that about him.

Speaker 3 (01:18:36):
It's sort of similarly as I did about Trent Brown
when we were doing this this particular hit a year ago.

Speaker 13 (01:18:42):
Lucas Patrick has missed what seventeen games over the last
three years.

Speaker 3 (01:18:45):
He's already a bit nicked up.

Speaker 13 (01:18:47):
He's not a guy who's you're gonna confuse with an
all guard at time soon, even at his best, and
going into the season relying on hims, particularly so heavily,
where the back up to him will just be a
melee of mediocrities like Cody Ford.

Speaker 3 (01:19:06):
It's just it's it's playing with fire. And again, there's
still time.

Speaker 13 (01:19:10):
They still might, you know, send up the bat signal
to a branded shair for something like that if they
need to.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
They certainly don't think they want to.

Speaker 13 (01:19:17):
However, but it's it's risking a lot at a position
where they just feel like they continually can get by
with sort of you know, a Mendoza line player, hopefully
Fairchild takes a step forward and gives them higher than that,
higher than.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
A sort of replacement level, you know, action at the
guard position.

Speaker 13 (01:19:36):
But it's you're asking a lot of a rookie and
a journeyman in that position, that's for sure.

Speaker 6 (01:19:40):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
One more, you're right that the Bengals are quote roughly
the same by DVA. That made me cringe? Should it
have made me cringe?

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
You're such a pessimist mode.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
No not, That's the thing. I open this thinking Robert's
gonna have them winning the AFC North and it's like, no, no, Well,
you have.

Speaker 13 (01:20:01):
To remember I wrote in there quite a bit about
how and we all know this to be true. The
Bengals season last year, the defining stat to me was
that they spend more time tied, yeah, than any other
team in the league. Everything was on such a coin flip,
and everything fell on the wrong side of the fence.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
Until late in the season.

Speaker 13 (01:20:19):
You know, you just flipped the results in two of
the three games against the Ravens and Kansas City, which
ended in such ridiculous and excruciating that ways, they win
eleven games, they probably win the division. Who knows what
they do in the playoffs, and we're thinking, oh, roughly
the same.

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
By DVAA, that's actually pretty good.

Speaker 13 (01:20:37):
You know, we think of last year in that sense
as the outlier. Okay Burrow played the whole season, he
was awesome, and they missed the playoffs. But if you
look at his career so far, kind of holistically threw
out his rookie year.

Speaker 3 (01:20:48):
Obviously, the outlier was.

Speaker 13 (01:20:50):
Really twenty twenty two, when they were really good and
very complete at every position, and obviously they fell one
game short of the super Bowl, and speaking of excruciating losses,
that's enough about that. But you know, every other year
they've sort of been in the same ballpark, roughly the
same as in.

Speaker 3 (01:21:04):
DVOA as they are now.

Speaker 13 (01:21:07):
And it just goes to show that, you know, dv
AWA doesn't always and necessarily exactly translate into wins and
into the narrative as to how we feel about the team.
Like I say, this very easy chance, with these exact
same numbers in efficiency, that the Bengals could win eleven
or twelve games, win the division, and we look at
it as an awesome year compared to last year's disaster,

(01:21:29):
But really it wasn't all that different under the hood.
So I don't think of it as as a particular
you know, dark Cloud to think that they're roughly the
same by DVA, I just think, you know, we need
to have some of the things that went against us
last year and so heavily against the team last year,
only a few of those.

Speaker 3 (01:21:48):
Fall on the opposite side of defense.

Speaker 13 (01:21:49):
We think about things much differently, and you know, listen,
if they don't, Zach Taylor's probably getting fired and have
a whole different team coming into twenty twenty six, and
who knows what we're looking at.

Speaker 3 (01:21:59):
But you know, I.

Speaker 13 (01:22:00):
Wouldn't take the fact that they have a similar outlook
for this year as they did last year.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
I think we all knew that anyway. You have the
same quarterback, most of the.

Speaker 13 (01:22:08):
Same people on the team, as we alluded to, the
main guy who's different as the defensive coordinator, which is
not heavily affected by our efficiency stats. So you know,
I don't look at it particularly as a negative. They
just have to win some of these close games, and
you can say that about a lot of teams in
the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
That's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
For the uninitiated. When it comes to the almanac, why
should folks get it?

Speaker 13 (01:22:29):
Well, you did a nice little introduction to give us
that it's really thorough writing. It seems like it's going
to be a lot about math, but really it's a
lot about funny. Takes a lot of film analysis that
back up the numbers. There's a lot of fantasy, a
ton of fantasy stuff. We break down pretty much every
skill player not only by you know, their statistics, but
also by their fantasy worth. And you know, it's just

(01:22:52):
a way to get yourself sorted for a season that
is a little bit different, a little bit more wry,
if you will wry for you uninitiated, and uh, you
know your devotee, I should ask you the same question.

Speaker 3 (01:23:06):
It's easy for me to promote it. I contribute it
to the thing. But you know, why do you like it?

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
I like it because I like it because it combines
smart analysis with writing that a dumb guy like me
can understand.

Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
Here you go, and I'm a dumb guy, so he
works out perfectly. I write for you, mo, that's rights
how to shape it.

Speaker 2 (01:23:25):
It's smart analysis, dumb down for an idiot like myself,
and that's that's a win in my book.

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
The Homer Simpson Football.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
Absolutely, you could order it now at Ftnfantasy dot Com.
We'll be looking for the al Golden Piece in Cincinnati
Magazine and we'll chat every week once the season gets here.
Cannot wait. Thank you as.

Speaker 3 (01:23:46):
Always, absolutely looking forward to it. We should be a
great year.

Speaker 2 (01:23:50):
Thanks so much. Likewise, that's our guy, Robert Winstrom again
Ftnfantasy dot Com. We'll take a look at FC Cincinnati's
competition in the League's Cup. We've got Key Brian Hayes
to discuss what Nick Crawl is doing, why this doesn't
make a ton of sense to me, Trey Hendrickson's return.
There's a lot to get to and some phone calls
between now and six on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:24:14):
five when three nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three. Clifton Avenue
closed off from an accident in both directions between Warner
and Lions Street westbound seventy four at two seventy five

(01:24:36):
the Coal rain split accident. They're blocking the right lane
right now, up to a ten minute delay back from Rybolt.
I'm at Ezelic with traffic on.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
The west side of Cincinnati. I FC Cincinnati begins played
in the League's Cup competition, hosting Monterey. That match is
going to start at seven o'clock and on the sideline
part of Apple TV's m LS season pass uh longtime
soccer comment Tanna Michela, a giannone who is going to
be on the call from the sideline tomorrow. It's awesome

(01:25:06):
to have you, Mikelay. How are you?

Speaker 11 (01:25:09):
Thank you, thank you for having me. Everything's great. Just
got to Cincinnati, very excited for tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
Welcome to town. Is this the first time you've been here?

Speaker 8 (01:25:17):
No, not at all.

Speaker 11 (01:25:18):
I've been here plenty of times with Major League Soccer
for Cincincinnati and also with the USN and TEA the
national team. So good time since Cincinnati before.

Speaker 2 (01:25:27):
Good times all right, well, hopefully a good time for
the Orange Blue tomorrow. Let's talk about the League's Cup
a different format this year.

Speaker 8 (01:25:32):
Do we like it?

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Teams like it.

Speaker 11 (01:25:36):
We just thought it yesterday, but on paper, teams like it,
especially the Mexican teams because for some of them it
involves less traveling. We got to remember the tournament. There's
a third edition of the tournament, and the first two editions,
the whole tournament it's been played on US soil, on
MLS being the host. So they changed the format this

(01:25:59):
year to first secure more matches between LEGAMX teams and
Major League Soccer teams. They are matches between the two
leagues guaranteed until the quarterfinals, so that's exciting. And the
second part is that they gave some of the top
teams in Mexico the opportunity to pick a city so
they can play as a host team to Major League

(01:26:22):
Soccer teams. For example, Monterey picked Cincinnati, so Monterrey's playing
older games quote unquote home at Cincinnati at TQL. So
the format on paper looks better.

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
We'll see.

Speaker 11 (01:26:35):
We just started yesterday, but for now, teams are happy
with it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
Yeah. I think it's going to be interesting to see
how this unfolds. It's interesting from an FC Cincinnati perspective.
It's a little bit of a break from MLS regular
season play. They have stormed to the top of the
supporter shield race, played very very well. How do you
break down their chances in this competition.

Speaker 11 (01:26:56):
I mean they're one of the favorites. The thing is
that on the new four map, you gotta win the
first game if you don't get the three points or
at least the two points. Now we gotta we gotta
tell people that there are no ties on this tournament.
There's there's always a winner on every match. So if
there's a tie after the ninety minutes, they're gonna there
go to pe ks. So normally in soccer, if you

(01:27:17):
win on the ninety minutes, you get three points. If
and similar to hockey and forget if FAMI mistaken, here
it's if there's a tie and they go to p ks,
each team gets a point and then the third point
gets a water to the team that wins on the
p K. That what happened for example last night between
Columbus and and Toluca. So given the format, so there's

(01:27:38):
eighteen MLST teams eighteen League m X teams, but only
four of eighteen advance to a quarterfinals of each league.
So winning the first game it's crucial. So it's very
important for Cincinnati to get the three points tomorrow night.
The thing is they're playing against one of the favorites
to win this tournament, which is Monterey, who is obviously

(01:28:00):
one of the biggest teams in Mexico.

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
So the match up in particular Monterey is very good.
Where do they present the biggest problem for f C Cincinnati.

Speaker 11 (01:28:10):
I mean up front their two teams that are very similar.
They play with three center backs with two players on
the wings. In Cincinnati the taste of Yerling on the
right side and look at Regiano on the left fi
Monterey has a very similar tactical system with a great

(01:28:30):
number ten like Sergio Canales, the players in Spain, like
Cincinnati has Evander now they have a great number nine
Isberrame who's now he's an Argentinian, but he's now doing
all the paperwork to switch to Mexico and play for
the Mexican national team. So that tells you the quality
of the players. Sadly, Cincinnati is still missing their number nine,
which is Kevin Denkey. And talking about talking with Pat

(01:28:53):
Nouna yesterday, he said, we know that Monterey is very offensive,
but given that offensive play, they ten to give space
in the backline, and we're gonna try to use our
speed and our quality with Evander with the Regiana, with
Serio Santos tomorrow, who's gonna start in place of k Camara.
They're gonna try to use se Jo Santo's speed and
Oregano on the left and Yell on the right to

(01:29:15):
try to occupy those spaces and hurt Monterey. But on
the other side, it's the same thing for Cincinnati. Monterey
is very good on the attacking system in Cincinnati. When
they attack, they're gonna leave spaces. So I think it's
a very even game, right.

Speaker 2 (01:29:29):
I can't wait. It should be a fun match tomorrow,
a great competition. I love everything I've heard about the
new format. I'm excited to see how it unfolds in practice.
And I can't take enough for the time. Man, thanks
so much, absolutely, thank you, And tomorrow there should be
a lot of fun Tomorrow night, seven o'clock. MICHAELA. Gierone
on the call on the sideline tomorrow MLS Season Pass,

(01:29:52):
Apple TV FC Cincinnati hosting Moderai tomorrow at seven o'clock,
and of course you could listen to the match on
ESPN fifteen thirty I got folks waiting on hold. I
have another poll question on Twitter. I may ask another.
We have keep Brian Hayes, what Tito said about him? Uh,

(01:30:14):
thoughts on Trey, thoughts on Key Brian, why I'm confused,
Sports headlines, and so much more. I wish we could
go till seven o'clock, especially because I'm not here tomorrow
and maybe something big is gonna happen to me. I'm
also not here Friday. You got Chad tomorrow and repeat
on Friday. I'm gonna go spend four days on a boat.
Sports headlines are next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 12 (01:30:34):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:30:39):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight
Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three. Clifton Avenue
closed off from an accident in both directions between Warner
and Lions Street westbound seven twenty four at two seventy

(01:31:01):
five the Cole Rain Split accident. They're blocking the right
lane right now, up to a ten minute delay back
from Rybolt. I'm at Ezelaic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:31:10):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Reay. Sammy Staffera and
Taylor Rodgers have been traded to the Pirates for Key
Brian Hayes. You can vote now new pole question at
Moeger thanks to United Heartland Insurance check out uhis dot com.
Who would you rather have? Are you Haneo Suarez for
two months or Key Brian Hayes for the rest of
the decade. Terry Francona says Keith Brian Hayes is going

(01:31:33):
to play third base will join the team tomorrow. Red's
open up that three game series against the Atlanta Braves.
This will move Noelve Marte to right field. Reds and Dodgers. Tonight,
Cincinnati trying to salvage the final game of the series.
Nick Martinez gets the ball for Cincinnati. Show Hey Otani
will start for La sevent to ten is tonight's first pitch. You,

(01:31:55):
of course, can hear it live on seven hundred WLW.
After last night loss, Red's trailed the Padres by three
games in the hunt for the last wild card spot.
San Diego is actually playing right now at home against
the Mets. Getaway day from New York and San Diego
leads that ball game by a score of four to nothing,
and patting in the bottom of the fifth inning, Trey

(01:32:17):
Hendrickson ended his holdout. He started his hold in reported
to Bengals training camp. Did not practice today. Zach Moss
has been let go. Bengals workout tomorrow at ten. It's
open to the public. It's covered for you on ESPN
fifteen thirty on the AE Door and Window Tony and
Moe Football Show. So two big topics today. Let me

(01:32:38):
just share some thoughts on both. The Key Brian Hayes thing.
This is what doesn't make sense to me. Key Brian
Hayes is a terrific defensive player. Some who dive deeper
into defensive metrics than I do, we'll tell you he's

(01:33:00):
maybe the best defensive player in baseball. There's obvious value there.
You want plus defenders at every position. The Reds are
prioritizing defense here. That's fine. They made the trade despite
the fact that Kee Brian Hayes hasn't been a good
offensive player in a long time. Below average this year,

(01:33:23):
below average last year. He's also not twenty two years old.
He's twenty eight. They prioritize defense at third base, which
is fine, But does it mesh with you that, all right,
we're going to trade for this guy. Maybe he's the
only guy they acquire at the deadline, although I certainly

(01:33:44):
do believe they're looking for pitching help. They acquire this guy,
who they now have under team control for the rest
of the decade. Acknowledging. You don't have to acknowledge it.
Actually you can look at the numbers average offense. But hey,
he's great defensively because we're prioritizing defense. Except we're gonna

(01:34:07):
take our third baseman and move him to right field,
where he has played eight professional innings. Like they moved
Noelve Martin to right field last night for two innings,
his second big league game in right field. They pulled
him after those two innings to make room for Connor Joe.
Now Connor Joe is an outfielder. They had the lead,

(01:34:29):
you know, a defensive upgrade, but Connor Joe can't hit.
Help me with this. We're gonna prioritize defense and acquire
this guy and pay him a decent amount of money
for the rest of the decade because we're prioritizing defense.
But we're gonna take a dude who's never played right field,

(01:34:51):
and in the middle of a playoff push, stick him
in right field. You're either valuing defense or you're not.

Speaker 6 (01:35:00):
Key.

Speaker 2 (01:35:00):
Brian Hayes may end up being a terrific player. He's
awesome defensively, I think, especially at third base. You have
to ask, though, how how amazing does the run prevention
at third base have to be to put up with

(01:35:21):
a below average big league bat? Go look at the numbers.
They're below average across the board at third base historically
a position you know, not that baseball hasn't evolved, but
you think of other positions. I think first before you
think of third When you're willing to put up with
a guy's bad offense because he's got an elite glove,

(01:35:44):
I don't know that I have that answer. I'm not
sure Nick Crawler, Terry Francona, or Brad Mead or anybody
else has those answers. But like, he's awesome with the glove,
but for the next couple of years, not to mention
the next couple of months in the thick of a
playoff push, can you really put up with below average

(01:36:04):
offense at third base just because the dude's awesome with
the glove, At what level would he have to hit
for you to go you know what? He might not
be great offensively. Look at what we're saving on defense,
look at the runs we're preventing. I don't know the
answer here, and I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical because I look

(01:36:28):
at the numbers at his best. We're not talking about
a guy who a couple of years ago was like,
you know, one of the best offensive performers at his position.
He was alright, then there was a back issue. His
last decent year was two years ago. He acknowledges the
back issue is chronic. He's also not twenty one years old.
He's twenty eight. Guy's gonna be twenty nine this winter.

(01:36:51):
At twenty eight, with the amount of Big league games
he has played in, you're kind of a finished product
in five hundred and seventy six Major League Baseball games
nearly twenty four hundred Big league played appearances. Even if
he improves offensively, we're not talking about a guy who's

(01:37:12):
ever gonna be that much better than average, because he
never really has been. So you might go, well, hey,
look he can get better change of scenery. Cool, I'll
buy that except by his own admission, chronic back problem.
And he is twenty eight and this guy is under

(01:37:34):
team control for the rest of the decade. I'm sorry.
Like I'm a very open minded person, I hope to
hell this works. I don't necessarily believe that Nick Krawl
has earned the benefit of the doubt that I'm sure

(01:37:54):
some want to give him and go, you know what,
Nick knows what he's doing. He's the same guy that
signed Jamerkandel and gave him money. The Reds are gonna
have to pay him through the end of next year
to play the exact same position. It's just it's underwhelming,
and I will absolutely acknowledge the dude is awesome at

(01:38:15):
third base, awesome at third base, But don't you have
to be at third base insanely awesome every single year
if the offense is non existent. Again, we're talking about
a guy who's offensive ceiling at third There are no

(01:38:36):
thirty home run seasons on his resume. There are no
years with an ops above eight hundred are in a
year on his resume where he got on base beyond
his first year, when he played in twenty four games
at above a three sixteen clip, not a very long
track record. The numbers look like Santiago Espinal's. Is this

(01:38:59):
really gonna be your third baseman moving forward? And at
what point are you gonna go, like, dude, you gotta
hit a little bit. He's not even He's not hitting
even a little bit right now. So it's a little puzzling. Again,
not that you don't value defense, because we talked about
it all off season, they've got to be better defensively,

(01:39:21):
but can his defense be so otherworldly that on a
team that already right now has a low offensive ceiling,
you could put up with him continuing to be a
below average hitter. And if you're really prioritizing defense in
the middle of a playoff push, you're cool with putting

(01:39:41):
a guy in right field who is a pro has
played eight innings more than me at the position. We'll
see the Trey Hendrickson thing. It's okay for money to
be a prime motivator. Totally okay. If someone says, well,

(01:40:03):
the primary motivation is money, that's okay. I believe that
Trey Hendrickson's primary motivation behind coming to training camp is
he didn't want to get fined anymore. If I was
Trey Hendrickson. I would have been there day one, because
while fifty thousand dollars a day might be a drop
in the bucket compared to my overall earnings, that's still

(01:40:25):
a significant chunk of dough. I'm not just giving it up.
I would have been there on day one. I might
not have practiced. I'd like to think I wouldn't be
a distraction. But wait a minute. I can show up
and not do a lot and not have to pay
a fifty thousand dollars or I cannot show up at
all and pay you fifty thousand dollars per day. Yeah,
I'll be there. So I think Trey showed up mainly

(01:40:48):
because he was tired of being fined. Also, he said
today nothing has really changed as it relates to the
back and forth between him and the Bengals and the contract.
I believe that too. I'm going to default to this.
Money is going to continue to be the primary motivator here,
and Trey Hendrickson will be on the field on September
the seventh, hopefully under a contract that both like. I

(01:41:14):
don't think any of us would have a major issue
with him being on the team next season. There's money
to get it done. You'd like to think the two
sides in the next let's see here thirty what thirty
eight days can find common ground when it comes to
the guarantees, the length how many years the Bengals are
willing to guarantee. There's time here. So ideally Trey Hendrickson

(01:41:37):
is happy with the money and the terms that the
Bengals present to him, and he'll sign the contract and
there are no questions about whether or not he'll play
on September the seventh, and he goes out and he
has a good year, and in the interim he might
not be practicing, but he's a helpful teammate. He's working
with the younger guys. He's bridging the gap between lou

(01:41:57):
Anrumo's defense and Al Golden's d defense, helping the new guy,
providing some guidance, acting like a captain. Hopefully that happens
in the short term, and at some point over the
next five and a half weeks, the deal gets done,
Trey plays on September the seventh, and maybe him being
here today tells us that that's really likely to happen.

(01:42:18):
We'll see in the absence of that. While Trey has
said he has no intention of playing under his current contract.
I don't believe him, or maybe I do believe that
that's his intention. I don't think that's what he's gonna do.
If money is the primary motivator here to getting a
deal done, to holding in, to holding out, and then

(01:42:40):
ending the holdout because you're getting fined, I can't help
but believe very emphatically that no matter what happens, dude
is not giving up nearly nine hundred thousand dollars that
he would be relinquishing if he didn't play the first game.
My guy's gonna want that game. Check. I don't blame him.
If you're not happy with getting fined and you come

(01:43:01):
to work because you don't like getting fined fifty k
a day, You mean to tell me you're gonna miss
a football game and bypass a chance to make close
to nine hundred k. Ain't buying that. Tony Pike next.

Speaker 12 (01:43:14):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:43:19):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. U SE Help's Weight
Call five one three, nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three, nine two two sixty three. Clifton Avenue
remains closed off from an accident between Warner and the
Lion Street. That is in both directions southbound seventy five

(01:43:40):
at seventh. It is the left lane blocked from an accident.
Police are there on scene. Expect delays in the area
on that Ezelic with Traffic.

Speaker 7 (01:43:49):
Fifteen thirty with the latest from Bengals training camp. Dot
you buy Skyline. Hillie feeling good. It's skyline time on
your official home of the Cincinnati Bengals. He has to
be in fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:44:06):
One more check in with Tony Pike, who has been
at Bengals training camp all day long. We talked last
hour about what a good day it was for the
defense and what we were watching from the secondary in
red zone, from the defensive line and eleven on Eleven's
problem is the success of the defensive line came at
the expense of the offensive line, and unfortunately, Tony, that

(01:44:27):
has been a recurring theme now for years.

Speaker 8 (01:44:31):
Yeah, and now a recurring theme for a couple of
straight padded practices that we've been down there for. And
I think it is fair to say there's a new
offensive line coach as well, So there's a new scheme
going in, there's a new playbook, there's a new style.
I thought you saw a little bit today. They're rotating
some guys in a Marius Mems didn't play the last
two or three team drill, so they could get other
guys work at at right tackle. But you know, for

(01:44:53):
the most part, it was unclean pockets for Joe Burrow
and Jake Browning today, and that is a theme we've
seen for years. It's something that Joe Burrow has obviously
had to navigate, and he's done a magnificent job in
navigating it. But at some point you cannot rely on
Joe Burrow just to be superman. You have to allow

(01:45:14):
him to get a clean pocket. You have to allow
him to utilize these weapons. They couldn't get anything going
and again, you're not tackling. I understand it's only sudd.
You weren't able to get much going with Chase brown
on the ground today, Jamar Chase was relatively quiet to
Higgins made a couple of good plays over the middle.
But this offense, it has all the weapons to be

(01:45:35):
the best offense in the game of football. They've got
to find different ways to protect and what I think
is interesting, and we discussed it a little bit earlier.
Is there a backup plan in place? Has this organization
gone into this camp and said, hey, here's our cutoff date.
If we don't think we have it, then we've got
to go find it by this date because they should

(01:45:58):
have a plan be in place if things don't improve,
you know, between now and the first preseason game next Thursday.

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
Very well said. And I think that's the problem, right.
It's it's not so much that they had a bad day.
It's that a unit that hasn't been good in years
had a bad day.

Speaker 8 (01:46:18):
Yep, it's more of the same. It's the unfortunate nature
of every training camp. I mean, we talked last year
Mo and we tried to spin it like, man, the
defense is wreaking havoc for lou An Arumo in training camp,
what's that mean for them? And then they went out
and they were one of the worst defenses in the
NFL today. Trey Hendrickson was there, but he's still not

(01:46:38):
rushing the passer. Logan Wilson took the day off. You've
got Orin Berks and Demetrius Knight. We're playing linebacker. You've
got young guys in on the defensive line, and for
the most part, the defense I thought had their way
with the Bengals up front. I think that's a problem,
all right.

Speaker 2 (01:46:53):
Tony Pike with a hourly training camp report on the
Ray Saint Clair Roofing Hotline. Tony is by himself tomorroworrow
at Bengals training camp. Chad is here for me tomorrow afternoon.
Rappines in on Friday. I am back on Monday. Have
an awesome weekend. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Hi is

(01:47:14):
always Ald

All Episodes

7/30/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Mo Egger News

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}7/30/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Episode Transcript

Mo Egger News .css-1q01m3q{margin:0 0 -2px 0;}

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

Crime Junkie

All Episodes