7/8/24 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

Elly De La Cruz is officially an All Star which means I take my victory lap. Plus hear from Bengals QB Joe Burrow.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Cincinnati's sports station. On Saturday night. I saw a team to what great
teams do, pummeling a weekend shorthandedopponent in front of an awesome crowd in
their stadium. FC Cincinnati moves inthe first place. They destroyed Miami on

(00:23):
Saturday night. Terrific atmosphere, outstandingperformance. And here we are. And
I guess entering the second week ofJuly, that club, which has had
a lot maybe not go quite soright as atop the table in the Eastern
Conference. Good afternoon on Moegar.This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you
for listening. Hope you had anawesome weekend. Hope you had a great

(00:45):
fourth of July. Hope your weekis off to a terrific start. Joe
Burrow was on a podcast. We'llspend some time on that. I'm going
to take my Ellidayler cruise All StarGame victory lap, which you know is
coming. But it amid what wasa really bad weekend for the Reds,
and it was. This weekend wasawful. There's no getting around it.
An awful weekend. Ellie getting tothe All Star Game being named a National

(01:08):
League All Star was not that surprising. It was very well deserved. It's
exciting, But there was also somethingelse. I held out hope for it
yesterday that didn't happen. But thefact that I was holding out hope for
it is a really good thing.Plus Red's made a trade, which is
fine. Folks on X today arearguing about Austin Slater coming to the Reds

(01:30):
and whether it was a good moveor a bad move. Chances are it
was just a move. I haveanother question that's coming up a little bit
later on and one of the hostsof the show you hear every morning on
ESPN fifteen thirty says, Joe Burrow'sunder a lot of pressure. And I
don't know if this was said withthe intention of it being a hot take
or not, but I have aresponse that and so much more between now

(01:53):
and six o'clock. Full show previewvideo is available at Moeger on X thanks
to Emory Federal Credit Union very quicklyhere. Let me just tell you this
today, I had a banking question. Have you ever tried to call one
of those big banks? Good luckgetting a hold of someone. I called
Emory Federal Credit Union today to answermy banking question because I've been a member

(02:16):
now for a while, and withinthree minutes the phone call was over.
I had talked to a human beingand my question was answered to my satisfaction,
you do not get that at BiggerBanks. It's gonna EMORYFCU dot Org
FC Cincinnati on Saturday night. We'restarting with them. We're starting with the
first place team. Look, man, I wanted to do this with the

(02:36):
Reds, and we are going totalk about them a ton today and we're
probably gonna have to relitigate the contactplay from Friday night. But to the
winners go the spoils. FC Cincinnatikeeps winning three more points after a dominant
six' one win over Miami onSaturday. You know what that game made
me think of? Know who itmade me think of? Made me think
of Joe Burrow because coming into thatgame, even I was going on Saturday

(03:00):
and my wife says to me,well, Messi's not playing right, and
I go, no, he's not. This game would have been I had
a lot a little bit more punchedto it had he been playing. But
he wasn't playing, and Miami's withoutsome key guys. Remember when Joe Burrow
played against the Baltimore Ravens twenty twentyone here and late in the season,

(03:20):
the Ravens because of injury and becauseof COVID, they were like getting dudes
off the street to play corner forthem. They were terrible, like you
know, and a lot was madeabout who they don't have and who's not
available, and the circumstances surrounding theteam and the game, and boy,

(03:44):
they're not gonna have much of achance against a Cincinnati offense that had well
all the familiar names like Jamar Chaseand like Joe Burrow and like t Higgins.
Now what's worth mentioning is if youremember that game the week before.
Offensively, they were not very good. Joe Burrow was not very good.
They scored fifteen points against the DenverBroncos, but still Baltimore comes to town.

(04:06):
Their defensive coordinator that Don Wink Martindaleclown makes a crack about Joe not
being in the Hall of Fame quiteyet. And then Joe Burrow against a
depleted, short handed secondary filled witha bunch of dudes. So I'm sure
have never played in the NFL sinceit goes out and throws for five hundred
and twenty five yards. Bengals winthe game forty one to twenty one,

(04:27):
and it wasn't that close. Annihilatedhim, annihilated him five twenty five in
the air, four touchdowns, andthe Bengals kept throwing deep and people got
all butt hurt about that, whichwhatever, That's what great quarterbacks do.
They take an opponent that is shorthanded, that is dealing with adversity, that

(04:50):
is beliegue heard if you will,that doesn't have all its key guys,
and he torches it. He torchesit, and he's unre and he's unforgiving,
and he might even pile some unnecessaryyards or even touchdowns on at the
end. If you remember, inthat game, Bengals scored a touchdown in

(05:10):
the fourth quarter on a ten yardpast Joe Burrows see Higgins, and people
got mad about it. If youremember, at that point it was just
a two score game, so itwas a totally necessary touchdown. But even
after that, they were heaving itdownfield, and so you know, you
know, people made excuses instead ofthe Bengals, if you remember, they
got really excited, they were reallyexcited about themselves, and people were writing
columns about how they should just actlike they've been there before. I didn't

(05:32):
care about any of that. WhatI cared about was here's a quarterback that
took a weakened opponent and did whatyou were supposed to do against a weakened
opponent. On Saturday night. FCCincinnati did exactly that. They put on
a show. I'm very, verywilling to admit. I'm a casual soccer
fan. Lucho Acosta's worth the priceof admission. Lucho Acostas must watch TV.

(05:58):
It's hard because you have to haveApple TV to watch the games,
and I know not everybody does.Uh. They had a goal taken away.
The game was six to one,and this is cliche. The game
was six to one. It didn'tfeel that close. So FC Cincinnati vaults
Inner Miami in the Eastern Conference standingsor table if you will. And you
might say, well, look,they were supposed to do that, right

(06:19):
or yeah, big deal. Miamididn't have Messy Miami was shorthanded good teams,
really good teams, Championship caliber teams. For my money, that's what
they do. You come limping in. They're unrelenting. You come in shorthanded.
They exposed who you don't have.You come in sort of not at

(06:40):
full strength. They expose your weakness. That's what a great team does.
That's what I expected on Saturday night. That's what FC Cincinnati delivered. It
reminded me of Joe Burrow. That'swhat you were supposed to do. Look,
man, I'm a big New YorkKnicks fan. The Indiana Pacers beat
the New York Knicks in Game sevenof their series. Indiana is not great.

(07:00):
They have a very bright future,but they did what a team that's
ascending should do. You're without likefive key guys, you're without starters,
your best player gets hurt during thegame, We're gonna pounce. We're gonna
blow you out. We're gonna beunrelenting. We're gonna make sure this game
is not in question late. That'swhat a really, really good team does.

(07:21):
By the way, FC Cincinnati hasdealt with injury and adversity and a
start of the season that was kindof uneven, and injuries and not having
Miles Robinson, who is going tobe in the Olympics for the US men's
national team, and yet they're infirst place. They're in first place in
what feels like it's still gonna bea two team race in the Eastern Conference.

(07:42):
Maybe that's not the case. They'vegot an awesome in game experience that's
as good as anything we have herelocally. They've got a player who's must
watch. They've got a really,really, really good team, and that
was proven on Saturday when they tooka team they should have beaten, have
gotten three points against, and bummeledthem. That's Joe Burrow type stuff.

(08:07):
Twelve minutes after three o'clock on Moeger. You can call the show anytime.
Five point three seven four nine fifteenthirty and eight six six seven oh two
three seven seven six You could shootover a tweet or an x or whatever
we call it now at moegar.Thanks to our friends at Delta Dental.
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all good at Delta
Dental, oh dot com. Thenthere are the Reds who this weekend,

(08:33):
if you're gonna get swept in athree game series, they checked almost every
box, almost every box because thestarting pitching was fine. The Graham Ashcraft
yesterday was fine. David Bell pulledhim early. David Bell managed that game
very aggressively. Hunter Green was tremendouson Saturday. The question about whether or

(08:54):
not he should have been pulled afterseven innings is a fair one. I
had no issue with David Bell takinghim out of the game, and Carson
Spiers was Carson Spiers on Friday.Every other box, though, was checked.
Bullpen implosion check, questionable decision makingby the manager. Not so much
with Hunter Green, but the contactplay check, offensive ineptitude check. It

(09:18):
was one nothing yesterday in the fifthinning, it felt like it was twelve
nothing. Poor defense. Suddenly Noelve Marte can't throw the ball to first
base or anywhere else for that matter. If it could go wrong, it
did. And so this team seemsto do this. Frankly, this franchise
seems to do this. They takea step forward, which is what the

(09:41):
series in the Bronx felt like,right a step forward. They take three
straight against the Yankees, who arenot very good right now. But that's
fine, right, you're supposed totake advantage of a team that's not very
good. The Reds did, andthey played very well. You talk about
checking every box, They checked everysingle box you had to check if you're
gonna the three game series and sweepit. But then what do they do?

(10:03):
They did something that was almost predictable. Let's be honest, somewhere in
your friend group, or among yourcoworkers, or as you're hanging out with
people on the fourth of July,someone somewhere in your life said something to
the effect of this. Now,watch they'll get swept by the Tigers,

(10:24):
because that's what they do. Theytake a step forward, they take a
step back. Now, I knowwhat we're gonna do this week. The
Colorado Rockies are here, They're twentysix games under five hundred. Then the
Miami Marlins come here this weekend.They're also twenty six games under five hundred.
So I know what we're gonna do. We're now a big critical stretch

(10:45):
here, huge next two series,season defining stretch. We're gonna do all
that. I just I want toknow this. The team that owns the
last wildcard spot right now is theSan Diego Padres. You know where I'm
going with this. Right they're onpace to win eighty four point four games.
Let's round that down to eighty four. They're on pace to win eighty
four games. Can the Reds getto eighty five? In order to do

(11:09):
so, they have to go fortythree and twenty nine the rest of the
way forty three and twenty nine.They've got to play fourteen over the final
seventy two games. Can they dothat? Will they do that? Now?
You might say, well, they'llget back on track by you know,
winning these two series, maybe sweepingthe next seven games, and maybe

(11:33):
they will. They should win atminimum five the next seven. But what
if they don't? Like That's myissue here, right, we keep compartmentalizing
certain chunks of the season. Well, here's a stretch that's gonna be really
hard, But here's a stretch wherethey should take advantage of the schedule.
And they should. I'm the firstto admit that they should. But what

(11:56):
if they don't. They continue toback themself against the wall. They continue
to put pressure on themselves to wina lot of games in a short amount
of time. And so now,yes the Rockies are awful, and yes
the Marlins are awful, and yes, that's a team that has given up
on the season. It did sowhen they traded Luis Arayas months ago,

(12:18):
a derby that I'm not sure theReds ever entered. What they do,
though, is they place with thelonger this goes, they place more and
more importance and significance on series likethis that they should win. And yes,
they should win, but they've builtin no wiggle room that if they
have a bad week, or ifthere are more injuries, or if they
just played poorly and don't than whatthis was a deeply frustrating weekend at GABPH.

(12:48):
The contact play on Friday. Look, we want aggressive, we want
aggressive. What they did on Friday, for my money, was not aggressive.
I'm interested in your thoughts on whatthey did on Friday. Well litigate
the contact play. Five point threeseven four nine, fifteen thirty is our
phone number. And hell, yesthis hour, I'm taking a victory lap

(13:11):
and we're gonna play Chris Canties notso hot. Take on, Joe Burrow.
We're here till six. Glad you'rewith us. Eighteen after three Moeger,
ESPN, fifteen thirty, Cincinnati SportsStation. I think one thing we
want teams built like the Reds tobe is to be aggressive. I want
them to be aggressive. You wantthem to be aggressive, right, especially
just kind of giving the overall makeupof the club right. Twenty three after

(13:33):
three, ESPN fifteen thirty on Moeger. And so if you're going to demand
aggression if you're if you're gonna demandthat your team plays aggressive baseball, in
particular on the base paths. Well, there are some there are some things
that you just have to accept.Right, not playing station the station,

(13:54):
wait for the three run homer baseballmeans they're gonna make some outs on the
bases. To have guys who getthrown out trying to steal. You accept
those things. You get frustrated bythem, maybe you certainly hope they don't
happen, but you understand that thosethings are going to come with aggressiveness.
It's like I was watching an NFLfilms thing once, and this was from

(14:18):
back in the eighties, and itwas Bill Parcells telling his quarterback Phil Simms,
I want to see you throw apick today because that means you're being
aggressive. Now. Did he reallywant his quarterback to throw a pick.
No, but he was making thepoint like, dude, let it all
hang out. Want you to beaggressive. If you're being aggressive, you're
taking some shots or throwing downfield.And the more aggressive you are, the
better the chance of there being somesort of mistake. And you just understand

(14:41):
that's gonna come with it. Wetalk about that with offensive football all the
time. I want coaches who aregoing to be aggressive. So hey,
man, we're not punting all thetime on fourth and three, but you're
not always gonna get it when yougo for it on fourth and three.
So we want aggressive and we understandthere are things that come with it.
But I'm sorry. Having your guyrun from third base when the ball is

(15:07):
hit to third and the third basementis in is not aggressive. It's stupid.
I know Blake Done is fast.I don't know if he's a good
baseball player, but I know he'sfast. I also know the play was
pretty close, so much so thatin real time I wasn't sure if he

(15:28):
was safer out. I know wewant them to be aggressive. I'm sorry.
I've watched people go back and forthon this, and people on both
sides make really good points. Butfor me, it comes down to this.
Look at where the fielders are.The contact play means the guy's breaking

(15:48):
on contact, the third basement isin. He's telling you. He's telling
you, hey, if he hitsit to me, I'm coming home with
it. I'm not nor I thinkmost of us we're not saying, hey,
never send the guy from third baseon a ground ball hit to the
infield if the infielder is back.He's also telling you, I'm giving you

(16:11):
the run. Go ahead and takeit, run home, crawl home,
walk home, do a dance betweenthird and home if you want. I'm
not throwing it there. I'm gonnathrow the ball to first base. You're
going to score. Go ahead whenthe third basement is in. He's telling
you, Yeah, if he hitsit to me, I'm gonna throw it
home. And as fast of aguy as Blake done is, he was

(16:37):
still out. I've seen this toowell. The play was close, awesome.
What do you get for that?Do they give you like a half
run for it being closed? Theonly charge you half an out? Like?
How does that work? I'm sorry, I know this has become a
cause celeb of mind, but therewe were talking about this on Sincy three

(17:00):
sixty. There was a list ofcoaching decisions or strategies in sports that just
have have kind of become the baneof my existence as a sports fan.
Sometimes they work, right, Thereare a lot of things you could do
that probably aren't that smart, thatwork. You can go out tonight drink

(17:22):
nine beers, Chase him with acouple of shots, get behind the wheel
of your car, not put yourseat belt on, and get home safely,
all in one piece. Well,that doesn't make the decision the right
decision, right outcome doesn't always excuseme justify the decision. There's a long

(17:45):
list of plays like this, thecontact play in the ninth inning of a
one run game. When the ballis hit the third and the third basement
standing right there, he might aswell say to Blake Dunne, Hey,
if you run home, I'm goingto throw you out. What I mean,

(18:06):
I'm watching that going Okay, what'sgonna happen if the ball is hit
here? What's gonna happen if theball is hit here? Hey, if
the ball is hit the third,chances are even with speedy Blake done,
he's coming home with it, andthen the odds are going to be in
favor of the third baseman. That'snot a very difficult play to make.
I'm all for, and I thinkmost of us are for putting pressure on

(18:27):
the defense right, make him makethrows, make him make plays, but
also make him make difficult plays.That's not a difficult play. It's pitch
and catch from the third basement tohome plate. Why are you doing They're
telling you, Hey, we hopehe hits it to the third baseman.
Why are you doing what the defensewants? I don't care if it's Blake

(18:51):
Done. I don't care if it'sAdam Dunn. I don't care it's Ellie
de la Cruz. And Ellie mightbe an exception, but only might be
because still the best that's going tobe a close play. The contact play,
the sacrifice bunt, the shovel pass. College basketball coaches who take out

(19:11):
players when they have two foulsand inthe first half for the rest of the
half, not fouling up three inthe closing seconds, the prevent defense,
not going for two when you pullwithin one point in the final thirty seconds
of a football game. And thecontact play is now on that list that
includes all those. I want toknow what we should expand it to.

(19:33):
I'm again I want aggressiveness. Ialso know the contact play can work.
Sometimes It worked for the Tigers onSaturday. This is also not a new
complaint. Brian Price, remember him, He used to love the contact play
as much as he loved yelling atreporters and f bombing them. I couldn't

(19:55):
stand it then, I can't standit now. I couldn't stand it with
those awful teams he was managing.I can't stand it with this one that
is not nearly as bad. Andoh he's fast and he nearly beat the
throw. That's not justification for it. He didn't beat the throw. And
even had he beaten the throw,I still wouldn't have loved the decision.

(20:18):
I would have loved the outcome.There's a difference in life between liking the
outcome and liking the decision. Fivepoint three seven four nine, fifteen thirty.
There was a little girl at myhouse yesterday and she at our pool
decided to dive in. We don'thave a deep end. I hated the
decision. I love the outcome.She was okay, and then we told

(20:40):
her, you can't do that again. We don't dive in this pool.
The decision was bad, the outcomewas good. I love the outcome.
I hated the decision. In lessreal life term, same thing applies to
the contact play. It They mightdo it tonight, it might work,
and you're gonna take a victory lap. And that's fine if you love the
contact play. And I am notsaying, never go home. When a

(21:06):
ball is hit in the infield,just look at the fielders. Look at
who's announcing their intentions. The thirdbaseman might as well hold a banner up
that says, if it's hit tome and you run home, that's where
I'm throwing it. Why would youdo what the defense want you to do?
Why would you do that? Fiveone, three, seven, four,

(21:32):
nine, fifteen thirty is my phonenumber. Did that cost them the
game? No, not necessarily.But among all the things that happened this
weekend, most of them not good. That's the one that sticks in my
crawl the most. It's one thingto have a relief pitcher come in who's

(21:52):
had a good year and caugh upthe lead. It's it's one thing to
have a guy just make a physicalmistake. Noelve, Marte made his fifth
and ten games. Yeah, yesterday. It's something else. I guess when
a bad offensive team has a badthree days, it's something else. Entirely
when you decide to play into theother team's hands. Her basement standing there,

(22:18):
anybody watching or paying attention would lookaround the diamond and go okay.
If the ball said to him,I know where he's going to go with
it. Why would you do that? It doesn't For the life of me,
it doesn't make any sense. Twentyeight away from four o'clock Chris Canty
on Joe, Chris Canty said somethingabout Joe Burrow. I think people on

(22:41):
the social media channels are mad aboutit. I think what he said was
accurate about Joe Burrow. By theway, Joe Burrow talked today or talked
on the part of My Take podcast, I think it was taped last week.
Good stuff from there. We'll havethat for you as well. Sports
headlines, we have to talk aboutthe trade the Reds made last night.
But first, speaking of victory dances, do I do a victory dance or

(23:02):
do I just take a victory lap? I know what I'm gonna do.
Don't dance? Please please don't dance? Why not? I like to dance.
I'm a good dancer. I don'tknow if I'm gonna do victory lap
or victory dance. Okay, well, maybe maybe I do know what I
am gonna do next. ESPN fifteenthirty Sports Headlines are a service of Kelsey

(23:25):
Chevrolet, Home of Lifetime power trainProtection and Guarantee credit approval from their family
to yours for life at kelseyshev dotcom, Red's and Colorado Rockies Tonight first
of four a GA BP, AndrewAbbott and Tyler Felter Feltner are gonna be
a tonight's starting pitchery. What amI doing? Starting pitches? They're gonna
pitch tonight? Seven to ten isfirst pitch. I'm speaking way too quickly.

(23:49):
The game is live on seven hundredWLW. Red's coming off a three
game series sweep at the hands ofthe Detroit Tigers. What else do we
have? Did I call him TylerFeldner? I think I know it,
Tyler Feldner. It's Ryan Filner.Sorry, sorry Ryan, and sorry Tyler.
Uh. The Reds made a tradelast night. They have acquired from

(24:11):
the San Francisco Giants outfielder Austin Slater, who, according to half of the
people on social media, is thisclose to being the next Barry Bonds and
according to others on social media,is this close to being Shogoakayama, which,
by the way, that's not agood thing. So I don't know.

(24:33):
In exchange, Cincinnati sends to SanFrancisco reliever Alex Young. It feels
like there's gonna be some stuff likeTransactionally, because it's a three forty in
the afternoon and the Reds have notannounced their starting lineup. Oftentimes, I'm

(24:55):
not gonna say typically, but oftentimeswhen that's the case, there's something brewing.
As we say. Uh, LuchuwaCosta and Pat Noonan both named to
the Team of the Match day formatch day twenty five. FC Cincinnati,
coming off a bludgeoning of Miami.Congratulations to A Miles Robinson. He is
going to play for the US Man'snational team in this year's Summer Olympics,

(25:17):
which, according to our promos,we're covering. I don't think we're like
getting to go, but somebody hereis covering, or at least somebody for
iHeart is covering. I have noidea. Also, I get to take
my victory lap. Elie Dela Cruzis an All Star and a deserving one.
By the way, remember back inApril when he had that bad game

(25:41):
against the Phillies, and uh,you know, we did the whole sports
talk radio thing where we talked aboutimaginary stock, which is one of my
favorite sports talk radio tropes, sellingthe stock, buying the stock, and
I you know, my take was, I if you're selling your Ellie stock.
Fine, I will buy it.Go ahead and sell it to me.

(26:03):
And then he do you have thataudio tearing? Yes, that day
where you wanted to buy the stockyet, Yeah, this is from do
we know what day? Yes,give me one second. It's from April
twenty second. I looked at itearlier, April twenty second. Go ahead
and play that audio tearing me buyingthe La Dela Cruze stock, which,
by the way, I'm not selling. Even though it's gone up, I'm

(26:26):
still not selling it. I've boughtthe La Dela Cruz stock I've held on.
What this weekend was about to mewas, first of all, you're
going to get swept in series.You're gonna lose three games in a row.
You're gonna lose four games in arow. You can't have those.
You can't have those just season torpedoingseven, eight, nine game losing streaks,
you can't. They avoided that thisweek. They avoided that because of

(26:48):
a very good start by Nick Lodoloon Friday, some unbelievably good bullpen work,
not just yesterday, but over thecourse of the weekend, fifteen shutout
innings by the bullpen, timely hittingTyler Stevenson with a Grand Slam, and
Ellie Delacruz all weekend long, justcontinuing to do Ellie Delacruze things, stealing
a run with his speed on Friday, hitting the home run, walking four

(27:12):
times on Saturday, which is somethingI never thought i'd see him do.
He's just a guy who's off toa very good start this season. It's
maybe too early to start talking aboutwho's going to be in the All Star
Game, but if you believed asmany did that the Reds most likely all
Star was Ellie Dela Cruz before theseason, you should feel pretty good right

(27:33):
now. That doesn't mean the Redsare only going to have one All Star,
but he's having an all Star caliberseason. I want to know,
you know, it's a fun thingto do on social media when Ellie does
something to help the team, orhe hits a home runner, has a
big game, or does something insaneon defense like he did in Seattle last
week when he traveled about a thousandfeet to go catch a ball on the
left field foul line. Folks willmention those who two weeks ago, three

(27:56):
weeks ago, wanted the Reds tosend Ellie Dela cruize to Louisville or to
a ball or bench him. Uh, And like, I'll admit, there's
there's kind of a short shelf lifefor such stuff. But there was this
like tiny stretch of time within thefirst Guess week of the season where Ellie

(28:17):
had the bad game in Philadelphia wherehe had a couple of defensive miscues,
one I think was clearly effort related. And then he had a few days
later the at bat against the Metswhere he struck out looking with the bases
loaded in the seventh inning of aclose game. And so you know,
then you know, the the proverbialstock, the imaginary stock that we always

(28:37):
talk about. I bought that stock. Like a lot of folks were selling
their Elie Delacruize stock. I keptmine. How many of you have called
your broker to try to buy itback? Oh that was like me who
never we never never never sold thestock, never sold stuff. Even said
I'll take your Elli Delacruze stock.And I took some load up on it.
I did. I will, I'llbuy as much as you'll sell.
I still will. Well, Ifeel pretty good about holding on to my

(29:00):
Ellie Delacruz stock. Have you reachedout to your broker to go buy back
your Ellie Delacruz stock. I hopeso. And have you deleted if you
went on Facebook or Twitter or somethingand I said some things about how Ellie
was overrated or boss or you weredone with Ellie. Have you deleted those
things or have you saved them forposterity? Oh so that's what April twenty

(29:25):
second. Now, since then,Ellie had a tough stretch. I think
it was in May, statistically wentvery good and so then you know,
folks throw it back at me,and my take was, look, this
guy's going to be an All Star. I didn't necessarily say what happened this
year, but I like the chancesof it happening more than I like the
chances of it not happening. Well, he's an All Star, and by
the way, he's not an AllStar simply because the Reds had to have

(29:48):
one. He leads all National Leagueshortstops in Fan Grafts wins above replacement.
He is behind only the Great MookieBets in Baseball Reference wins above replacement.
He leads all nationally shortstops in runsand triples, and he's tied for the
most home runs by a nationally shortstop. With fifteen, he's top four and

(30:11):
walks he's third in ops. Heis getting better and better. He is
one of the faces of this sport, and he leads all of baseball and
stolen bases. He is an AllStar. So look, man, I'll
tell you when I get it wrong, and I get it wrong often.
But because I do that, I'mentitled to a victory. Lab here it
is. I'm not dancing, tarn, Do not worry. I'm not dancing.

(30:34):
Look, here's the fun part aboutthis. Okay, aside from me
just being a jerk, here's thefun part about this. I've said this
often, and I know nobody wantsto say anything good about anybody with the
Reds right now because they stunk thisweekend. He's just getting started, like
we do the whole buy or sellstock. I would still buy it now

(30:56):
because I'm willing to bet you thatin a year he will be a better
baseball player with better numbers than heis right now, and that he has
right now. Hopefully he's on abetter team, which helps. I think
it's awesome, But you know what, there's something else that's also awesome,
and it has nothing to do withElie de la Cruz. We'll do that

(31:19):
coming up at four twenty. Uh, your phone calls are coming up,
I promise five P one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen
thirty. First Unsportsmanlike on Joe Burrowand Pressure. Next when you buy Kroger
bre I threw it out there onX and I'm starting to call it X

(31:42):
more because and folks who get madat me when I don't the contact play
of the shovel pass, the sackpunt, which I of course called the
cacpunt for some reason. Uh,punting on fourth and short and plus territory,
not going for two when you pullwithin one point on your final session
of regulation, not fouling up threewith just a few seconds to go,

(32:02):
running plays on second and ten,removing players who have two fouls for the
rest of the half. What dowe add to that list? What do
we remove from it? I'm nottaking off the contact play. I will
bring up the contact play a littlebit later on in a different context.

(32:22):
But first, this is from UnsportsmanlikeToday on ESPN fifteen thirty. That that
show, obviously you hear weekdays fromsix to ten. You got Evan Cohen
yeah, you got Michelle Smallman,and then in ninety percent of the time,
the person you hear talking is ChrisCanty. You're our residents super Bowl
champion. We have a guy whoworks here anyway, Chris Canty. So

(32:49):
I was sent this today by theproducers of that show because occasionally they'll send
me stuff when they discuss Cincinnati,and it's always very, very kind.
I actually heard this live, andas I heard it, I found myself
nodding along. I think there arethose who love the Bengals who maybe didn't
like this as much or view itas the national media kind of picking on

(33:09):
the Bengals or not giving them therespect. I think there's a lot of
validity to what you're about to hearfrom Chris Kanty today on ESPN Radio.
There is a ton of pressure onJoe Burrow, and I don't feel like
there are a lot of people thatI've been talking about it because number one,
you're starting to talk about the contractand the constraints that it puts on

(33:30):
the general manager in the front officefor the Bengals when it comes to overall
roster construction. This is when youneed your quarterback to elevate his play to
make everybody around him better within theorganization, and that's why Joe Burrow is
going to be in the bulls eyethis year. The Cincinnati Bengals only way,
only path to being able to competein the AFC North is with Joe

(33:52):
Burrow being fully healthy and being availablefor all seventeen regular season games. G
Right, we haven't talked a lotabout Joe Burrow on the pressure that faces
this season. We talk a lotabout Josh Allen needing to break through and
beat Mahomes. We talked about LamarJackson winning two MVPs, But where is
the super Bowl? We talked aboutJustin Herbert Now you have no excuses now
that Jim Harbaughs you're head coach.We've talked about Dak There's so many quarterbacks

(34:14):
that we've put in that pressure bucket. But it feels like Joe Burrow gets
a pass because he's been injured andwhen he's healthy, he is the guy
that's been able to beat Mahomes.He is the guy that's been able to
bring That's why he gets a passthough, because he was able to beat
Mahomes in Arrowhead. Remember they werecalling it Burrowhead. Now since the Borough
head come, it's things have goldleft for Joe Burrow in the Cincinnati Bengals.
But look, he's the only guythat's been able to go in there

(34:36):
in the postseason, win a game, and get to the super Bowl.
So I think that's why we givehim a pass. But you're talking about
two of his first four years inthe NFL ending an injury, and at
some point you start to look atthe history of it all and you think
the best indicator for future performance ispast performance. So even though Joe Burrow
went healthy, is one of thevery best quarterbacks the league has to offer

(34:58):
the fact that you have to putin that cab. Yeah, for the
most important position in all team sportsis what should have Cincinnati Bengals fans worry.
So there you go, And thenI saw folks not happy with that
take. There's nothing really inaccurate aboutit. But the reality is the spreadsheet
for the Bengals has changed and willcontinue to change, which will further put

(35:22):
emphasis on the play the quarterback.Now, the good news is the Bengals
have one of those guys that you'recomfortable paying. But when a team determines
that this is our franchise, tome, the franchise quarterback is the QB
that you either go get in freeagency or lock into with a second or
in some cases, a third contract. You do that because you believe they

(35:43):
are good enough and capable enough tohandle the inherent pressure that comes with the
role of franchise quarterback. And ifyou don't think he's capable of handling that
pressure, capable capable of handling therole, or good enough, then then
you don't make Then you got somebodyelse. Then you go draft the guy,
then you go get a guy intoa rookie contract. It's not that

(36:05):
hot of a take to suggest thattheir only path to being competitive in the
AFC North, which is, formy money, winning the division. Well,
yeah, the only path to doingthat is Joe plays. I've said
fifteen or more, but basically theentire schedule. How many quarterbacks could I
say that about of all the teamsthat have one of those A listers,

(36:30):
and the Bengals do, how manyof them still maintain bona fide championship hopes
if we take away their QB.Doesn't happen in Baltimore, doesn't happen in
Buffalo. It's certainly doesn't happen inKansas City. I'm not talking about taking
them out for a few series oreven a game or a week or two.
I'm talking about for a long stretchof time. So that's fair,

(36:52):
But you've also got to apply thatto a lot of other teams. The
hell thing is, as we say, is what it is. Inuntil it
changes, people are going to talkabout it. Until this franchise has proven
that it could build around Joe andin front of Joe, a team in
an offense that's capable of best keepinghim upright, that's going to dog this
team. But yeah, he's undera fair amount of pressure. The good

(37:15):
news is they signed him because theyknow he's good enough to handle it.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thisreport is sponsored by Staples Story Cincinnati Sports
Stations. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. A lot of sound effects there,
a lot of sound effects. Redsmade a trade late last night slashed early

(37:40):
this morning. They have acquired AustinSlater from the San Francisco Giants along with
cash considerations. I tried baby cashconsiderations in exchange, I'd send Alex Young
to San Francisco, a guy wholast year did a pretty decent job for

(38:07):
him. He had only appeared inthree games this season. He had been
stashed at Louisville. Austin Slater Redsare woefully shorthanded in the outfield because of
injury, because of just lack ofproductivity. But you know, Nick Martini
has gutten hurt. They haven't hadJake Freeley. Hopefully everything is moving in
the right direction with his daughter.That's obviously the most important thing. They've

(38:30):
been playing Santiago espen Hall, andso the Reds traded a guy they didn't
have room for, for a guythe San Francisco Giants didn't have room for
in Austin Slater. If you haven'tbeen pouring over Austin Slater's statistics this year,
in forty three games, was battingtwo hundred with a homer, had

(38:51):
an OPS of five seventy five.He has had some above league average OPS
plus seasons. He had a reallygood set of numbers during the COVID year
in twenty twenty, when everybody playedsixty games. He's thirty one years old.
He is next in line on what'sbeen a long line of just random

(39:13):
dudes that probably don't have much ofa future with the organization that have been
stop gaps. Maybe I'm in theminority here. I don't feel that there's
a real necessity to have a strong, huge take of this deal or opinion
on this deal. The Reds needoutfield help. They got in exchange for

(39:34):
a guy they didn't have room fora player who wasn't exactly having a great
season. They traded, as thekids say, mid for mid, which
is fine. Maybe he gives thema little bit more depth. Maybe he
can a change of scenery will allowAustin Slater to have an impact, positive

(39:59):
impact here in Cincinnati. They werein desperate need for outfield help. They
went and got outfield help with whatthey were willing to give up. Chances
are they were not going to goget an established starter who had bonified All
Star credentials. They went and gota guy Rando, a guy who's got

(40:20):
some versatility. He could play allthree outfield positions. And there's room on
every big league roster for guys likethat. If you're acquiring Austin Slater to
come off your bench and help buildsome depth, that's okay. The problem
is because of well, who's notperforming for this team and who they've had
to use. You might argue theyneed Austin Slater to be more than just

(40:43):
a guy, which at this stagein his career he's probably not capable of
being. So I don't think there'sa reason to have any dramatic, sort
of one side of the other opinionon this. If you loved Alex Young,
well, was anybody making the casethat he should be here? And
is Austin Slater really gonna be thatmuch of a difference maker for a team

(41:06):
that has any number of guys eithernot performing or not available right now?
Chances are the answer is no.So the Reds made a trade. That's
fine. I guess the question thatI have is is that the trade now?

(41:27):
Before we expand upon this, I'lllet you know that the Red's roster
moves today. They just announced thisa few minutes ago. Stuart Fairchild is
going on the ten day injured listwith a spine disc injury. That's right,
a spine disc injury for Stuart Fairchild. Graham Ashcraft sent to Louisville,
which I'm not sure anybody was surprisedabout. They have called back up Yas

(41:47):
Verzuelana, and they've called up outfielderReese Hines Levi Jordan has cleared waivers and
he has been outrighted to tria ALouisville. But anyway, the question that
I have is not so much aboutAustin Slater. I guess, aside from
how many times the broadcasters make asaved by the Bell reference, the question

(42:08):
that I have is is that thetrade deadline is twenty two days away.
Is that the move is that themove they make, this team is probably
more than one move away from beingin a position where they could start playing

(42:30):
dramatically better baseball. This move atface value, Again, there's something to
be said about having a little bitmore depth about having guys who are and
Austin Slater is an established big leagueplayer, There's something to be said about
any move that could slightly improve themin the short term. But as we

(42:52):
get closer to the deadline, Ithink the more important moves that you can
make, or that you should atleast be trying to make, are the
moves that give you players or thatget you players I should say, who
could help you for the rest ofthe season, but also provide help beyond.

(43:15):
I think I've talked about this here, and if I have not excused
me, and if I have excusedme, but I'm looking for Trevor Bauers.
Now I'm not looking for Trevor Bauer. I know. I'm looking for
players who fit that same profile thatTrevor had when he was acquired by the
Reds in twenty nineteen. And thatprofile is you get him for the rest

(43:38):
of the season, regardless of whathappens to you. And when the Reds
acquired Trevor Bauer, maybe nobody reallywanted to consider them out of contention,
but that team was really not goinganywhere. But you get him, you
get him for the rest of theyear, and if you do make a
move on the field, and ifyou do get better and vault yourself a

(43:59):
l e into the periphery of contention, he could be a reason why.
But you also acquired him because yougot him the next year. And I
remember the deal, and this saidnothing about some of the things that Trevor
would put himself through or go throughdepending on your perspective later on. But
from a puer baseball perspective, hewas the sort of guy that when they

(44:20):
acquired him on trade deadline day twentynineteen, you could look at it and
go, well, now I knowwhat they're going to start building around in
twenty twenty, which is what theytried to build around in twenty twenty,
which was good top end, solidstarting pitching. I'm looking for guys like
that. Austin Slater can be afree agent at the end of the season.
Maybe the Reds bring him back.What I want to know, though,

(44:45):
is for a team that took somecriticism and heard it loud and clear
for not making any major moves lastyear at the deadline, and they did
acquire Sam Mall, who has Iguess the implosion the other day, notwithstanding,
has done a pretty good job forthis club. That was the move
they made? Is this that?Is this the move? Is this the

(45:07):
move they make? Number one inthe short term, It really doesn't do
it all that much. Number twoin the long term. This guy's going
to be a free agent at theend of the season. I'm not opposed
to it by any stretch. Youneed outfielders, you need death. It's
okay. They dealt from a bitof a surplus. They didn't feel like

(45:28):
Alex Young was good enough to bein their mix. Maybe he would have
been, and obviously injuries a majorfactor. Oh problem with the move.
I want to know what else accompaniesit. We're going to talk a lot
about the trade deadline and pure buysell terms. Right are they buyers or
are they sellers? And over thenext couple of weeks are they going to

(45:50):
solidify themselves as one or the other. I don't know that the strategy is
really buy or sell. I thinkthe strategy should be how can we use
the deadline and the player that mightbe made available to continue to accumulate talent
that could help us both in thenext two months but also help us down
the road. And maybe there's noone available. There probably are going to

(46:12):
be more quote buyers than sellers.But I think regardless of where the Reds
are in the standings, whether it'sfive games out of the wildcard, eight
games out of the wildcard, orif they're in wildcard position, the strategy
should be to get players who canhelp you now and later. In the
absence of that, look, thisteam does have a bit of a track

(46:34):
record. Last year, they werein first place on deadline day, first
place, and they did nothing.Now, Nick Crawl, to his credit,
has made the distinction between last yearand this year and pointing out last
year. Look, we thought wewere going to get Hunter green back.
We thought we were going to getNicolodolo back. They got Hunter back.
They'd never gotten it backed. Butboth guys were rehabbing this year. It's

(46:57):
not quite the same Matt McClain.I've heard about a rehab happening anytime soon.
Same for Cees. But beyond that, there is a recent track record
of not using the deadline to makea big splash, but using the deadline
to make a relatively minor move.The difference between Sam Mall and Austin Slater

(47:20):
is Sam Mall is back and stillwith the Reds in twenty twenty four.
There's no guarantee that's gonna happen withAustin Slater. So I guess the question
that I have, and Nick Krawl'snot gonna say yes, and Brad Meter's
not gonna say yes, and itreally can't be answered by anybody definitively is
not so much about Alex Young forAustin Slater and cash considerations. My question

(47:45):
is is this the move they make? All right? We need some outfield
help. We're only willing to giveup so much. Here's a rental player
let's see if he could help alittle bit. Let's be totally honest about
whatever the Red decide to do,though, there is probably not a trade
that's going to significantly make this teambetter. If this team somehow, if

(48:09):
we're talking about them having a chance, and again, they gotta got forty
two and twenty nine, forty threeand twenty nine the rest of the way
to get to eighty five wins.If that happens, if they put themselves
in contention, it's gonna be becausea bunch of guys who are either not
performing well or aren't performing because they'renot available, suddenly are available and performing

(48:34):
better. Like there's a lot ofguys who just aren't performing all that well.
No one move is gonna make upfor a lot of guys not having
quality seasons and a lot of guysnot being available. And so again,
that sort of amplifies, at leastfor me, the need to go and
get players who can in the shortterm provide a little bit of a boost,

(48:58):
but in the long term could providesomething. Maybe it's just depth,
which this team did not have whenguys started getting hurt. Maybe it's an
option at a certain position where you'renot sure what you're gonna have. Maybe
it's a player who replaces somebody who'son the roster right now that you trade
away this offseason. I don't know, but that's kind of my first reaction

(49:21):
when I saw that late last night, was all right, fine, is
that gonna be it? Because ifthat's it, you just made a trade
that doesn't make you exceptionally better thisyear and probably has no impact on next
year's team. The moves I'm interestedin are the ones that could dramatically make
this team better, and let's behonest, chances are that trade does not

(49:42):
exist, or the ones that couldhelp you in the short term but also
give you somebody who can make theteam better in twenty twenty five. Now
you might say, well, youcan make a whole series of trades to
make the team better this season.Chances are that's not gonna happen, but
we will see. After four fivepoint three, seven, four nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number?Your phone calls are coming up. I've

(50:07):
said that for thirty minutes. Ipromise we'll get to them this hour.
Uh Red's had one All Star.Everybody has one All Star. You can
make the argument they should have too. I'm not quite gonna do that,
but I do think there's good newsthat coming up in just about fifteen minutes
and the one question I want toknow moving forward the next time the Reds
have a managerial opening. Plus Brendanmanand Jones on baseball and Joe Burrow on

(50:30):
a podcast on ESPN fifteen thirty CincinnatiSports station. I'm I get a lot
of folks I do this out thereon social media. We got to come
up with a pole question two thanksto a United Heartland Insurance. By the
way, we're broadcasting from the ESPNfifteen thirty studios powered by Maywell Restoration,

(50:51):
and a lot of you who likethe contact play. I think there's a
lot of you who are mistaking.You know, ball is hit to the
shortstop who's playing back, and therunner runs home because the shortstop is telling
you he's not throwing home, andhey, you hit it to this guy,
he's throwing home. Let's see ifwe could beat the throw. Chances
are you're not going to beat thethrow. Blake done is really fast.

(51:14):
Some have said behind Elie de laCruz, fastest player in baseball, he
didn't beat the throw as fast ashe is. He didn't beat the throw
from a guy who's standing right there, essentially announcing to anybody in the ballpark,
I'm throwing home. It will probablybe a while before the Reds have

(51:36):
a managerial opening, whether you likethat or not. Look, he's got
this year and two more years lefton his deal, David Bell. So
I find it hard to believe that, even if you are dissatisfied with his
performance, that they're going to payhim to not manage the team over the
next two years. When they whenthey interviewed a lot of guys, if
you remember that their their search wasreally comprehensive, because they let go of

(52:00):
Brian Price in April and they didn'thire David Bell till October. We had
Wrigglemania for most of the season intwenty eighteen, but they did a search,
and I remember, somewhat tongue incheeks saying, look, I have
won one question, and one questiononly, how do you feel about sacrifice
bunting? Now, back then westill had the picture batting, and so

(52:21):
I allowed for what a lot offans seem to pine for, which is
the starting pitcher laying down a bunWell, we don't have the picture batting
anymore, so there's no need tosacrifice bunt. So the next time they
have an opening, I still wantto know, how do you feel about
sack bunts? Number two? Howdo you feel about the contact play?
And if the answer is God,I love the contact play, we're shaking

(52:44):
hands, thank you for coming in, Good luck in your future endeavors.
And if they go, you knowwhat, I'm never going to run the
contact play. That's a good answer, and then we'll discuss it. Hey,
look, you don't I have tosay never. There might be an
instance where it works and we surprisethe opponent, or anecdotally it makes sense,

(53:07):
but as a general rule, let'snot try to run it every time
there's a guy on third base,which is what it feels like the Reds
do. I want to know thosetwo things. Nothing else matters to me.
Lineup construction, there's like eight peoplewho help with that. How do
you feel about sacrifice bunting? Howdo you feel about the contact play?

(53:28):
And if you answer those two questionscorrectly or hired Mike, You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty, Go ahead, time, lo, how you doing today,
Mike? I am well, whatis going on. I man La Jolla,
California, and my new residence hereis where is your new residence?

(53:52):
It's in La Joia, which isfifteen miles north of San Diego on the
coast, and got a beautiful viewand gratefuls the heck can be, you
know with that? So okay,that's all a good thing. I was
looking for my notes for to talkto you about and it disappeared you lost

(54:14):
You lost your notes. Well,you know what, that's fine. I
lose my notes all the time.You could just riff off the top of
your head. It just infuriates me. You're all long and they're freaking going.
Uh okay, let's talk about thered legs. Well, the Chris
Candy comments I agree with you,whether you like him or not, are

(54:37):
dead on the money. Yeah.From franchise quarterbacks, especially those who haven't
won big enough yet, have anamount of pressure on them that others don't
have. I do think there's anexception for Burrow because he has played in
the Super Bowl. Many of thoseother guys have not. He has beaten
Patrick Mahomes on a big stage.Those other guys can't say is much,

(55:00):
But sure there are there's a handfulof quarterbacks that aren't Patrick Mahomes that I
think carried with them into the seasona certain amount of pressure that Patrick Mahomes
doesn't, and that younger or lessexpensive or less heralded quarterbacks don't. Yeah,
and he's really not you know,Well, of course he's recognizing Joe's
success against Mahomes in Kansas City.But rush of his point is his fragility

(55:24):
at this point. So that's thatseems to be the question. Yeah,
I don't even know that it's Idon't know that it's fragility. I don't
think that's fair. Just the realityis he's been he's been hurt a lot.
That that's he's been hurt a lot, whether it's you know, straight
football type injuries or freaky sort ofstuff. I mean, over his four
years, that's been a thing.Fifty percent of his NFL seasons have ended

(55:45):
prematurely. Now the other fifty percentof ended with him playing in the AFC
Championship Game. It's it's the injurystuff has to change. Part of that
is on the team. One mightargue some of that is on Joe.
I think there's some validity to thatsuggestion, But look, the idea behind
paying Joe Burrow all that money andmaking him the face of the franchise is

(56:08):
you're going to win championships with him. Now, that doesn't mean if it
doesn't happen this year that you blowthe whole thing up and regret signing him.
But I think Joe would be thefirst to tell you that he is
in the position that he is inbecause he is equipped and the franchise thinks
he is equipped to deliver a title. And if that doesn't happen, that
doesn't make him an unmitigated failure.But it each year that it doesn't happen

(56:31):
is going to amplify the external andto a degree, maybe even internal pressure
on him to deliver a Lombardi Trophy. Yeah, and I liked what he
had to say about the fact thathe's been able to get stronger from his
added time in the weight room,So this could be a silver lining to
the whole deal and which would makehim tougher and maybe more resilient when it

(56:54):
comes to getting banged up with thatrisk thing was just a break thing.
Like you said, what else ison your mind? The notes were good
that Cincinnati read Lake. Thanks Cincinnatiread Okay, we're twenty seventh in batting
and we've been there for a longtime. We're twenty second home runs,
which is a problem. And I'mlooking at that and looking at teams that

(57:20):
have guys who can hit it outof the ballparks, especially and not in
a hitters ballpark, and that wouldbe Oakland. Now we got four guys
up there. We've got Brent Rookerwith seventeen, you know, eighteen,
their their center fielder Bladet has eleven, their catcher has seventeen Landeliers, and

(57:45):
their second basement has ten zelos.I'm hoping that, I'm hoping that Carl
is massaging that that potential situation.I would like to think so. I
mean, look, the reality isthere's only a handful of sellers, and
the Oakland A's soon to be Sacramentoa's, and then maybe one day Las

(58:05):
Vegas A's would be one of thosesellers. The thing is, the good
news is this, none of thoseguys you just mentioned. I think the
oldest player you mentioned was Rooker,who's correct me if I'm wrong, twenty
eight to twenty nine years old.All those other guys are in their mid
twenties, which means all of thoseguys are controllable and you get them for
years, and that's great. Butthose guys are probably maybe some more than

(58:28):
others, likely to cost a littlebit more than Alex Young. And so
are you willing to pay the freightfor any one of those guys? Yeah,
but that's what we've been saying thoughfor a long time. You gotta
pay some free. You just haveto. Yes, this is what's making
me nuts. And if Indy isnot well, you know, but these

(58:49):
mee tms and stuff mod They knowthat Indya has been on a hot streak
and typically in his career, he'snot just kind of hitter, and maybe
he will remain that kind of hitter, but they're not banking on it.
Probably. I still don't even knowhow much he can get. Pretty guy,
But are you still bullish on thempulling the trigger and doing something significant?
Well define significant? A power hitterthat's legit, not all star possibly,

(59:15):
but just a solid outfield right handedhitting powered. Do I think they
should? Absolutely? Do? Ithink they will. I My guess is
no, But look, if youwere, I'm sorry, we'll go ahead.
Their outfield is very unproductive, andso are we going to do the
whole thing next year where we talkabout Will Benson. I mean, I

(59:37):
like Will Benson, but Will Benson'sbeen bad this year. Can we find
better than Will Benson? There's alot to like about Jake Frayley, But
can we find better than Jake Frayley? Can? Can we Can we find
better than Stuart Fairchild? Can?Can we even find better than TJ?
Friedel Like? I don't know whyon a team that hasn't won anything of
any significance, that has sort ofdrifted aimlessly all season long, that we're

(59:59):
appos to replacing anybody, And soI want options in the outfield. I
start there. I'm looking for betterplayers in the outfield. Now you might
say, well, Austin Slater isbetter than some of those options, and
maybe, but you don't get himfor next year. I'm looking for short
term help and longer term solutions inthe outfield. Those are going to cost

(01:00:21):
a lot, but that's the sortof player that I'm looking for. They
need more productive guys in the outfield. Mike. I have a lot of
people. I have a lot ofpeople who want to know how you are.
How are you not too good?Really? Okay? You don't have
to elaborate here, stay away fromthat. But yeah, not too good.
But thank god you're there and Tony'sthere, and they get a lot
of joy and fun and laught fromyou guys, And you're a blessing to

(01:00:45):
me and I appreciate it. Arewe going to hear from you tomorrow?
Yes, sir, all right,take care of yourself. Thank you?
And Marte? What do you think? I don't know. I'll talk to
you later. I can't throw theball to first pass I mean, Mike,
thank you. You can't throw theball a first pace. And again,
like I'm nobody should be in thebusiness of just straight giving up on
Noelve Marte. But you know,Noelve Marte is twenty two years old.

(01:01:12):
You know, a year ago atthis time, we couldn't wait to see
him. I'm not souring on thekid, and this is independent of the
suspension. I'm not souring on himbecause he's had a bad ten games.
He looks awful in the field rightnow. Five errors and ten games.
Can't throw the ball to first base. Barry Larkin on the TV broadcast,
I guess made an allusion to himhaving poor throwing mechanics. The Reds have

(01:01:32):
a lot of people who should beable to work on that. They have
a manager who used to be athird baseman and was a pretty good one.
Like somebody ought to figure out howto get the kid to throw.
What it does do again, isit amplifies the uncertainty that comes with young
players. He has played ten games. He had you know, he was
coming off an injury during spring trainingand then got the PD suspension, and

(01:01:57):
so you could argue he's woefully behindwhere or he should be, relative to
where he would be ten games intothe season had he not been suspended.
But it heightens and you could applythis to so many guys on this team,
will Benson, Christian and Karnassi onstrand players without track records you cannot
count on. And so if theidea was noelve Marte is gonna come back

(01:02:19):
and he's going to be the guythat takes an otherwise bad offense and make
it better, that wasn't based onanything realistic. The way he's performed over
ten games offensively would confirm that.How he's performed defensively adds to how sobering
his start to the season has been. One guy who is season is not
sobering at all is Hunter Green.We're going to talk about him, and

(01:02:40):
you'll hear from Joe Burrow too onESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati Sports Stations are
a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home oflifetime Power trained protection and guarantee credit approval
from their family to yours for life, KELSEYSHEV dot Com, Reds and Rockies.
Tonight, first of four or atGABP Andrew Abbott gets the ball for

(01:03:04):
Cincinnati against Ryan Feltner. He hasalrighty seven to ten Tonight on seven hundred
w l W. Red's made atrade last night, Alex Young sent to
San Francisco in exchange for outfielder AustinSlater. Red's on top of that,
announced the following roster move. StuartFairchild goes on the ten day injured list
with a spine disc injury. GrahamAshcraft has been sent to Louisville rhes Hines.

(01:03:30):
Up from Louisville, he has setto make his big League debut.
Also up from Louisville, Righty,who threw well in his one outing for
the Reds, yaz Vzulena Levi Jordanhas cleared waivers and he has been outrighted
to Louisville. Now the starting lineuphopefully made well. Thanks for our friends
at Madewell Restoration. Go to MadwellRestoration dot com. India is leading off
at second Elliot short Candelario at thirdbase, Spencer Steers and left field batting

(01:03:52):
fourth, Tyler Stevenson behind the plate. Edwin Rios is at first base.
He is hitting six noelve, Martezdh Hines and right field Will bad eighth,
Will Benson in centerfield against seven toten this evening on a seven hundred
w l w Luco Acosta and PatNoonan named to the Team of the Match
Day for match Day twenty five.FC Cincinnati with a dominant performance over Miami

(01:04:15):
on Saturday night at home, asix to one victory, and they flip
flop places with Messi's team, eventhough Messi didn't play atop the Eastern Conference
table. Meanwhile, Miles Robinson,it's official, will play for the US
men's national team in this year's SummerOlympics. Congratulations to him. Elie de

(01:04:40):
la Cruz made an All Star Gameor made an All Star team. I
assume he'll play in an All StarGame. There's a really fun and good
and encouraging number of really young playerstwenty four. I think first time All
Stars this year and Ellie being anAll Star is awesome and the fun thing
about that, And I know thisweekend was not good, but amid all

(01:05:03):
the crud the Reds put on thefield this week, it is still fun
to talk about and fun to watchEllie de la Cruz. And the real
fun thing for me when it comesto Ellie is thinking about how good he
may be lost amid what happened onSaturday, and maybe to a lesser degree,

(01:05:24):
what happened this weekend as a wholewas how good Hunter Green was on
Saturday afternoon. And I'll be completelyhonest with you. As he came out
of the game after seven innings onSaturday, there was a part of me
that wanted to see him pitch theeighth because I trust Hunter Green, and

(01:05:44):
because the pitch count, which wasat one oh five, it felt to
me like he had had a ninepitch seventh inning. I know it was
stifling hot, but he's gonna beup to runs at worst if the Reds
don't score in the seventh. Isthere some thing about giving him a chance
to just get through or at leastinto the eighth inning. Shore, Let's

(01:06:06):
be honest, especially in this dayand age, most managers in that situation
are gonna do exactly what David Belldid. Let's pull the guy after seven
and then turn things over to FernandoCruz and Alexis Daz. By the way,
and I don't know where I sawthis this connection, but they did

(01:06:30):
this the other night in New York, and they get through the eighth and
ninth inning, and they keep JuanSoto and Aaron Judge from coming to the
plate, and the Reds win theballgame. And so David Bell is handing
Fernando Cruz and Alexis Diaz a tworun lead at worst and six outs in
the bottom of the Detroit order.It totally unraveled. And but look,

(01:06:50):
in that situation, is it fairto at least do some second guessing of
the manager. Sure, Hunter Green, though had an awesome start, get
wasted. The Reds are get reallygood starting pitching. I mean, I
know there's lots of different ways tolook at a starting pitcher's effectiveness, but

(01:07:11):
Nicolodola, before he got hurt,was having an outstanding year an era under
three. Andrew Abbott's at three totwo eight Hunter Green's at three four five
Hunter Green. If you go bythe the game score that Baseball Reference uses,
he has eight starts this year witha game score of sixty or better.

(01:07:36):
That's out of eighteen starts a onetwenty four ops plus less than one
homer allowed per nine innings while pitchinga great American ballpark. Those are great
numbers. He is number two inBaseball in war for pitchers. He is
eighth in baseball in strikeouts per nineinnings. Here, to me is maybe

(01:07:59):
the most import short part. He'stenth and innings pitched. Now. Part
of that is he hasn't gone onthe injured list, not gone Wood,
but he's also giving them a fairamount of length, including on Saturday.
He is also pretty remarkably eighth andBaseball and fewest homer's allowed per nine innings.
I hate to say this, Icare less about who makes the All

(01:08:21):
Star Team than ever because basically,for the last fifteen years or so,
the process has not been about selectingthe best guys. So for me,
it's about seeing the guys that Iwant to watch. I want to watch
Hunter Green. Do I think hegot snubbed? Do I think his exclusion
from the team is egregious. No, but I think you could have made

(01:08:42):
a case. The fact that youcan make a case is great. So
here's another guy, not entirely unlikeElie de la Cruz, that has really
been under a microscope that we've talkeda lot about that we've just calmbed through
every performance and wondered if the lightbulb is ever going to come on.
And some have said that he's overpaid, which is ridiculous. He's a huge
bargain. The fact that a yearafter having a dramatically disappointing season because of

(01:09:09):
injury mainly, you can make thecase for Hunter Green to be an All
Star is insane progress. He's stilljust twenty four years old. This tells
you the fact that you could sitdown and I did this exercise, The
fact that you could sit down andkind of go through some of the reasons
for his candidacy. You couldn't dothat a year ago. You can't do

(01:09:30):
that with many players on the team. You can do it with Hunter Green.
Him making the team or not makingthe team is mostly irrelevant. If
he makes it, you're obviously reallyhappy for him. But the fact that
you can make a case. Iknow, amid all the losing, nobody
wants to talk about anything positive.I get that the fact that Elie de
la Cruz is an All Star andclearly had an All Star case, and

(01:09:54):
the fact that Hunter Green has one. Those are really really good things from
two guys that seem to have thehighest ceiling, perhaps of anybody else in
the organization. Sixteen away from fiveo'clock. Good stuff from Joe Burrow next
Media Days this week we'll go toVegas tomorrow. Now we're not actually physically

(01:10:16):
going to Vegas, although I thinkthat would be fun. Well, people
I know tarn I lobbied, Ilobbied hard. Be fun to go to
Vegas where it's one hundred and eighteendegrees. They're going to have a Major
League Baseball team playing Vegas outdoors inthe summertime. Joe Burrow went on the
part in My Take podcast, whichwas cool of him. Here is Joe.

(01:10:41):
I like this podcast because they don'task the typical questions that athletes get
from boneheads like me. Here's JoeBurrow on perhaps playing Olympic football in twenty
twenty eight or doing what I wouldsuggest, and that's playing Olympic Handball saw
an interview of you where you saidthat you were thinking about maybe trying to
join the USA flag football stick.We need you because we just lost to

(01:11:02):
Japan. Who what the US lostto Japan? And what for black football
today? No, he didn't.I think it was real. It was
was it real football? It mighthave been real football. So the world's
catching up. So I think itwas like forty one to twenty. They
kicked our ass. Yeah, sothat's real. That's real. Yeah,
I think so. Okay, wealso could use it in handball if you
want to do that. I'll stickto hand football the football shaped, okay,

(01:11:24):
because handball you dominate. Yeah.I don't know the rules of handball,
but it's literally confident I could pickit up. Yeah. It's water
polo without yeah water. And wehave a long feud with the handball community
because they're like you, no chancecould us win and like, dude,
yes, Joe Burrow could be anawesome handball player. Yeah, if if
all the best athletes just trained handballfrom when they were five, exactly like

(01:11:47):
Lebron and Kad and Miles Garrett playinghandball. Yeah, they actually call traveling
in handball so Lebron maybe not,but yeah, Miles Garrett, I feel
like that dude could do just aboutany sports. I did notice that you
got a small look in your eyewhen you when you found out that we
lost to Japan, Like, Ithink you really want to play. I
really want to play for the Olympicsfootball team. Yeah. Yeah, it's
gonna be awesome. Like me,Jamar justin. Now you're just naming your

(01:12:13):
friends. Yeah, me and myfriends. If Joe's a guy, that
could be like, yeah, meand like my best friends could beat anybody
in the world in football. It'strue, which is a cool thing to
say. That's very cool. Ithink it would be really cool. Yeah,
I think you can do it.We can't lose. We can't lose
the gold medal the first time thatwe have that in the Olympics. You
just can't. Yeah, you thatwould be embarrassing, He went on in

(01:12:33):
this podcast. Not that to meis the important part, because I want
us to be better in handball.Big Cat and PFT comment or do as
well. Later on in the podcast, he was asked to project the AFC
North standings and the exact quote wasquote Bengals first and then I don't care,

(01:12:56):
because we're in the dead period oftime. My guess is that makes
headlines somewhere. What would you expecthim to say? By the way,
I expect Lamar Jackson to say Ravensfirst, then I don't care. I
don't know what I would expect SeanWatson to say, because I think he's
a deplorable human being, so Idon't care. I would expect Joe Burrow
to say, what's that massages first? Massages first, then I don't care.

(01:13:17):
That's right, rub downs then Idon't care. Bengals first, then
well, what's your expect You knowwhat I think we're If we have a
good year, we can maybe wecan maybe jump into second place. Brendanman
and Jones on baseball next Cincinnati's ESPNfifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Health

(01:13:38):
Traffic Center. The University of CincinnatiCancer Center is opening the most comprehensive blood
center in the nation. The futureof cancer is here called five one,
three, five eight five uc CC. Slow moving traffic is causing a few
minutes delay on northbound seventy one betweenRed Bank Road and Ronald Reagan Cross Country
Highway, and you'll hit another slowdown just to few minutes on northbound seventy

(01:14:00):
five between Norwood Lateral and Padak Road. Omnico with TRUP thirty, Cincinnati's sports
station. What's up. My name'sMoegor. This is ESPN thirteen thirty.
Thank you for listening today. It'sthe michelob Ultra five o'clock happy Hour.

(01:14:26):
But it's not just any michelob Ultrafive o'clock happy hour. No no,
no, no no no. Uh. If you if you live or work
in the Hoosier State, if you'reif you live in Indiana, I didn't
know this until this morning. Indianahas lifted its its law on happy hours.

(01:14:47):
I guess this started last week.Indiana had a decades old ban on
happy hours. UH. Bar ownersacross Indiana can now start offering drink special
during certain hours of the day.You can have a happy hour in Indiana.
So if you're listening to us inIndiana. I guess I should have
said this last Monday, but Ididn't realize until today that this was ever

(01:15:11):
a thing. I haven't been outin Indiana on happy hour, I guess.
But in Indiana you can now enjoylegally enjoy happy hour. Congratulations to
our listeners in places like lawrence Burgand Batesville. And I've got a guy
who emails me all the time inFort Wayne. Congratulations, you've joined the
rest of the country. This MichelobeHappy Hour is Mikeelobe Ultra happy Hour is

(01:15:33):
for you. There you go,there you go. All right, we
have been busy today. There's alot happening. We've got poll questions on
social media. Hey really, reallyquickly. I love it when I ask
you to follow me on x andI'm on Instagram as well, and I
got the Facebook too. I've gota professional page, I've got a personal

(01:15:57):
page. Most of the people onmy personal page I do not know.
And so I participate in threads.Is now on desktop, so maybe I'll
do threads. I'm not joining TikTok. That's not gonna happen. I'm not
gonna be on blue Sky. SoI would love it if you're on any
one of those apps to follow me. That would be really cool. And
I enjoy interacting with people and Ienjoy the back and forth. If you

(01:16:21):
follow me, though, on oneof those apps or one of those platforms,
let me just remind you you youdon't have to By the way,
Tarren, I'm hearing something in thebackground. I believe that's the ESPN radio.
Thank you so on on Twitter slashX, I've I've done a better
job of calling it X. Wehave three pole questions. They are thanks

(01:16:43):
to our friends that United Heartland Insurance. If you need insurance, could be
commercial insurance, could be personal insurance, could be car insurance. I was
talking with my wife yesterday about ourfriend who owns a boat. We don't
own a boat, but if Idid, I'd have to get it insured.
I'd go to United Heartland Insurance.Maybe one day I'll get a boat.
I don't know, but I dohave insurance. I just don't have

(01:17:03):
boat insurance. And if I doget a boat, I'll go to unit
At Heartland Insurance. Uhi ns dotcom The Help You Save More Money.
We've talked at length today about theContact play. The contact play on Friday
night. A lot of stuff happenedwith the Reds this weekend on the heels
of their sweep of the Yankees andthe Bronx. They they did what feels

(01:17:28):
like the most Cincinnati Reds thing ever, Like, let's be honest, if
you were hanging out with friends onFourth of July when the Reds polished off
the Yankees in New York, orif you had to go to work on
Friday after the Reds swept the Yankees. I'm willing to bet that's someone in
your life, friend, coworker,family members, someone maybe in a text

(01:17:51):
thread talked about the Reds sweeping theYankees and then said, dot dot dot,
now watch them get swept by theTigers because why well, A,
that's just sort of what it feelslike. The Reds fan experience involves.
Every time they do something good,then something bad happens. Every time they
take two steps forward, they taketwo steps backward, so to speak.

(01:18:15):
B that's been what has sort ofcome to define this particular team. Part
of that is youth. Part ofthat is that they're not very well constructed.
Right now, Let's be well,let's be honest. As as much
as I don't love harping on theinjury thing, because if you do it
too much, it becomes an excuse. In a game where David Bell managed
aggressively and he did yesterday, themoves I guess didn't necessarily work. I

(01:18:42):
mean, he's running out there,noelve Marte, who doesn't look like a
big league caliber player right now,not just big league caliber hitter, big
league caliber player. He had SantiagoEspinol batting in the sixth spot. He's
playing Austin Wins. He's got WillBenson still is the starting lineup, this
time against the lefty. Will Bensonis having a terrible season. He's starting

(01:19:05):
Blake Dunn, who doesn't look atall like a big league hitter, even
though he's really fast. So like, the construction of the team is not
great right now, but we've hada lot of fun with the contact play.
Reds use the contact play on Fridaynight, trailing by a run,
one out in the ninth inning,making a little bit of a comeback.

(01:19:26):
Here they have the winning the tyingrun ninety feet away in the person of
Blake Done and he gets chucked outat home. Close play, but chucked
out at home. The Reds haveused the contact play a lot. Now.
Look, I know how this works. I've done this for a while.
The Reds play a game tonight,they may use the contact play.

(01:19:46):
It has yet I think to betaken out of David Bell's playbook. And
if the contact play works, I'mgonna be flooded with messages from people who
look mo see contact play it willwork sometimes. And I understand we want
aggressiveness. You want aggressiveness. Wewant this team to be aggressive, and

(01:20:09):
because of how they're constructed, thereare times where you just have to figure
out a way to create offense.You just gotta figure out a way to
manufacture something like we want those things. We want it because of their makeup,
the positive parts of their makeup,but also the not so positive parts
of their makeup. And so ifyou want aggressiveness, there are certain things
you have to expect. You haveto accept. You're gonna make outs on

(01:20:31):
the basis maybe more often than otherteams. You're gonna have stolen based attempts
that go awry, You're gonna haveYou're gonna have that aggressiveness blow up in
your face it it happens. Butthere is a difference between aggressive and stupidity.
The particular instance we have focused onon Friday, for my money,
was stupid running from third when theball is hit to the third basement who's

(01:20:57):
playing in is not aggressive. It'sstupid even if the runner is fast,
which Blake done is. I've beenlooking for somebody to make that play make
sense. It has yet to happen, so we have asked on X thanks
to United Heartland Insurance, the nexttime the Reds have a managerial opening,

(01:21:20):
should a candidate be eliminated from considerationif he or she describes their affinity for
the contact play while being interviewed.Eighty three point three percent say yes,
I agree. Also, I mentionedon Pardon My Take, Joe Burrow says
the Bengals are going to win theAFC North. I didn't. I've only
heard a part of that podcast.I'll hear the whole thing because I like

(01:21:43):
that podcast, and obviously I likeJoe Burrow. But on the podcast,
Joe Burrow was asked who's gonna winthe AFC North and he said Bengals,
and I don't care about anybody else. Don't care about the order, nor
should he. I noticed this madea headline on cbssports dot com. Says
Bengals will win AFC North. Thequestion for you is that's what he's supposed

(01:22:05):
to say or is he providing bulletinboard material? Love bulletin board material?
Vote now at Muweger and something wedidn't spend a lot of time on.
Graham Ashcraft engaged along with Carson Spyersin a pregame national anthem standoff before Thursday

(01:22:27):
afternoon's game against the Yankees. CodyPotita and Ian Hamilton were the Yankee pitchers
who, once the anthem ended,stood outside the dugout waiting for the other
side to stand down, so tospeak. And we've seen this happen before,
and I thought it was mildly amusing. The home plate umpire did not,

(01:22:50):
because you can't have anything that getsin the way of the very serious
business of playing a baseball game.All were Michael Kay. Michael Kay is
the television voice of the New YorkYankees. He called it infantile. He
called it silly and stupid. Hedidn't like it. The radio voice of

(01:23:17):
the Mets, a dude by thename of how He Rose on social media,
also complained and said, no onecomes to a game to watch this.
I thought it was at best funny, at worst something not really worth
getting mad at. What say youfun not worth getting mad at? Or

(01:23:39):
an outrage vote? We take thesepoll questions very seriously. At Muwager,
Red's made a trade. More onthat, they've made some roster moves we'll
dive into here in just a bit. We've talked about Elie de la Cruz
being an All Star and Hunter Greenhaving an All Star resume, and he
does didn't make it, which isfine, but he does and his start

(01:24:01):
on Saturday punctuated it. Speaking ofSaturday, FC Cincinnati on Saturday Night did
what great teams are supposed to do. Look, injuries and availability are a
factor in every sport. In particular, they're in play in a sport like
Major League Soccer, where players leavefor other competitions. Miles Robinson has been
selected to the US men's national teamfor this year's Olympics, which is awesome,

(01:24:25):
and so FC Cincinnati has already playeda bunch of games without them.
They're gonna have to play even moreso. FC Cincinnati plays on Saturday Night.
And I will admit I did notgo to that US Open Cup game
against Miami last year when they hadMessi, and so when the schedule came
out, my first thought was,Hey, go see Messi and then I
was told that's probably not gonna happen, and it didn't happen. So Miami

(01:24:48):
played without some very very key players. That's worth mentioning. FC Cincinnati is
playing without some very key players,no Matt Miosga, no Nick Haglan,
for what it's worth, but theydid what a really good team is supposed
to do against an opponent that wasweakened, against an opponent that was compromised,
against an opponent that was diminished,against an opponent that was shorthanded.

(01:25:12):
FC Cincinnati kicked the ever living crapout of them six to won the final
score. The game wasn't that close. They had another goal taken away.
Awesome atmosphere, important win. Nowin first place in the Eastern Conference,
is that a six to one gameif Miami is whole? No, probably
not. But I thought often ofJoe Burrow against the Baltimore Ravens in twenty

(01:25:34):
twenty one, perhaps his best performance, five hundred and twenty yards in the
air, franchise record four touchdown passes. He torched that Baltimore secondary that was
dramatically diminished by injury COVID and JoeBurrow didn't care. The Bengals didn't care.
They destroyed that that defense. AndI remember at the time there were

(01:25:58):
a lot of folks making excuses forwhat'smore, didn't have on the field,
and you had some butt hurt columniststhat were mad. The Bengals were really
impressed themselves by how they played.My take was this, this is what
you want from a great quarterback,leave no doubt. When they play a
team that doesn't have certain guys thatis a little bit diminished, you pound
them into submission. That's what reallygood teams do. It's what really good

(01:26:20):
players do. It's what FC Cincinnatidid on Saturday. And look, man,
we talk a lot about what teamshave been able to overcome in certain
sports and unable to overcome in certainsports. FC Cincinnati has had some adversity,
right, They've had some adversity.They've had Matt Mioska's injury and Haglin
now and Aaron Bupenza deciding to gethis face in the way that boxer's fist,

(01:26:44):
and a real uneven series of performancesat the beginning of the season.
H And it just felt like fora while, not an avalanche, but
just a bunch of bad news happeningin close proximity to itself. This team
is in first place in the EasternConference. Well, it'll be a different
story the next time they play Miami, or if they play Miami in the
postseason. Maybe, But that wasa lot of fun on Saturday. And

(01:27:10):
you know, I've watched enough sports. I know what a really good team
is supposed to do. When ateam comes limping in, or when a
team doesn't have what you would ordinarilylike to see them have, or when
they're not at full strength, youare supposed to bludgeon them. FC Cincinnati
did eighteen minutes after five o'clock fivepoint three seven four nine, fifteen thirty

(01:27:32):
and eight six six seven two threeseven seven six. Uh. I've got
some additions to our contact playlist.We'll get to that and more on what
happened this weekend, and perhaps alittle bit more from Joe Burrow as well
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports StationNext getting excited about those Olympics here twenty

(01:27:59):
three, five o'clock. And bythe way, we're doing the show Friday
at the Holy Grail, so bethere for that before the Reds take on
the Marlins. That's gonna be ablast. Last time we did our show
from the Holy Grail before a FridayReds game, I heard from a few
of you that were like, man, if only I would have known in
advance, But I'll be there nexttime. Well, next time is Friday.

(01:28:23):
We'll see you there, and wehad a good crowd. Let's do
even better this Friday, and onemore time August sixteenth, and then yeah,
August, I have the piece ofpaper up here in studio. We
broadcast from the Grail on August sixteenth, three to six in the afternoon,
Friday, July twelfth. Friday Augustsixteenth, Be there, be there.

(01:28:45):
We started with the original list,the contact play, the shovel pass,
the sacrifice bunt. Look, man, I've been a bunting truther for a
while. It has been proven mathematicallyso that as a general rule, sacrifice
bunting as bad strategy. Punting onfourth and short and plus territory, not

(01:29:11):
going for two. This is maybemy biggest one, and it started the
Bengals Ravens game in twenty fourteen.If you remember, they were down by
seven. They threw a hail Maryaj Green caught it in the end zone.
They didn't go for two. Theykicked the pat They never touched the
ball again. From that point forward, I have believed that you're better off

(01:29:35):
winning the game with your offense onthe field right there, not fouling up
three with just a few seconds togo running plays on second and ten.
This is actually my biggest one becauseit's just it's long been accepted as good
college basketball strategy. Taking a playerout because he has two foulsan in the

(01:29:56):
first half, not for a coupleof minutes, but for the rest of
the half. You remember the firstgame at the newly renovated fifth third area.
They played Ohio State, you seedid and Jaron Cumberland got his second
foul with like sixteen minutes to goin the first half. I might be
wrong on this. I don't believehe saw the floor for the rest of

(01:30:19):
the half. You see dug themselvesa hole. They came back and made
it a game. Why just setthe guy out for sixteen minutes? Two
fouls is not five. So I'veasked what should we should add or remove
from the list? One guy heresays conceding a stolen base and calling it

(01:30:41):
intensive. No, conceding a stolenbase and calling it defensive indifference when that
runner almost always ends up scoring.That doesn't bother me that much because typically
why there's defensive indifference is the firstbasement isn't holding the runner on because the
first baseman wants to be in abetter defensive position, and so the guy
just takes off and he's gonna stealthe base. It doesn't necessarily warn a

(01:31:03):
throw, but there are times whereyou watch a guy and you're like,
you know what a decent throw mighthave gotten him, And I understand,
if you're up by a bunch ofruns, the run doesn't count, and
so you know, just hold theball. But if the run doesn't count,
go ahead and try to throw themout, giving up three points at

(01:31:24):
the end of the half because it'sless than seven. We have seen that
pitcher can face a lineup a thirdtime prevent defense. Only using your closer
in the ninth. Only using yourcloser in the ninth does drive me nuts,
not recognizing that at times the gameis really hanging in the balance,
and perhaps the seventh inning or perhapsthe eighth inning. Like I'll be honest

(01:31:46):
with you, yesterday Alexis DS camein jelve Marte didn't do him any favors.
Alexis DS came in the eighth inningyesterday. The job there is to
use your best guy and hold Detroitto a scoreless eighth, and then you
get two cracks at him down bya run. Starting in the bottom of
the eighth inning. I liked it. Uh. Someone here says there has
to be one of these about playingprevent defense. Yeah, I would.

(01:32:12):
I would. As a general rule, I would agree with that. How
about going for a quick two withfive seconds least down by three or more?
Basketball announcers, and I think moreso on the college level than the
pro level, like this, ifa team is down three, they would
like to sound really smart and say, you know what, you don't need
a three here now if there areyou know, ninety seconds to go or

(01:32:35):
fifty seconds to go. I guessthere's some truth to that, but you
even hear it in those situations wherethere's almost no guarantee they'll get the ball
back at all, or certainly downby one possession. If you're down by
three with five seconds to go,shoot a three. Somebody else says,

(01:32:56):
my tweet should be added to thatlist. There's certainly some validity to that
argument. Five fifteen thirty uh moreon our poll questions some stuff from Joe
Burrow we didn't play earlier. We'llhave that for you next on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Cincinnati's ESsports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet

(01:33:20):
Home of lifetime power train protection andguaranteed credit approval from their family to yours
for life, KELSEYSHEV dot Com,Reds and Rocks tonight first of four a
GABP homestand continues Red's loose three outof four over the weekend, but on
onto the Rockies seven to ten Tonighton seven hundred WLW Andrew Abbott will take

(01:33:43):
on righty Ryan Feltner. We'll giveyou the red starting lineup. Before we
do that, we'll talk about sometransactions we already know. The Reds have
traded for Austin Slater, who isnot with the team yet to the best
of my knowledge, Alex Young traderto San Francisco, And so the Reds
need to out of twenty six manroster in time for tonight's game. So
what have they done? Well?First, They've put Stuart Fairchild on the

(01:34:05):
ten day injured list with a spinedisc injury. Graham Ashcraft sent to Louisville.
Rhes Hines is up from Louisville,so is yaz Vzueleta, and Levi
Jordan has cleared waivers. He hasbeen outrighted to Triple A Louisville, so
Tonight's starting lineup thanks to Madewell Restoration. Freshen up your entire exterior with one
call to the guys at Madewell.Go to Madwell Restoration dot com. Jonathan

(01:34:29):
indiats second base, leading off Elliede la Cruz All Star, All Star.
Ellie de la Cruz is at shortstop. He is batting second, jam
Ercandelario at third, Spencer Steer andleft Tyler Stevenson catching. Edwin Rios is
playing first base in batting six.Noelve Martez dhing, which means he can't
make an error in the field.If he's dching, you might say I

(01:34:53):
know nothing about baseball. You mightsay I say a lot of really dumb
things, But I am right aboutthis. As long as he is the
designated hitter, he cannot make anair in the field. Noelvee Marte is
ching and batting seven three signs andright Will Benson in center field. Luchow
Acosta and Pat Noonan named to aTeam of the Match Day for match Day

(01:35:15):
twenty five. FC Cincinnati dominance inits performance over Miami on Saturday night,
and congratulations to Miles Robinson, whowe're trying to get on the show tomorrow.
He has officially been named to theUS men's national team and will represent
his country at this year's Paris Olympics. More from Joe Burrow from the Pardon

(01:35:36):
My Take podcast, including something thatis making the rounds that have has nothing
to do with him predicting that histeam is going to win the AFC North.
That coming up in just a bit, But first, Kevin, you're
on ESPN fifteen thirty. What's goingon? Hey, Mo, Hi,
I'm trying to call you as arepresentative from a uh a group of colleagues

(01:36:01):
of mine in my in my work. We we are We don't understand.
Are they all standing behind you?Are they all together right now? You're
just they're not because we're all weoff have fought. But anyway, I
don't understand why every seemingly move byDavid Bell seems to go the opposite way

(01:36:28):
in negative decision. I'm not gonnaI'm not gonna tell you Mo that bringing
in Cruise it was not the bestthing to do. But why is it
that that the norm goes the oppositeway? Tell me, Mo, please
explain why I'm going insane about theReds. Well, I'll well you're insane

(01:37:00):
because this team can drive you toinsanity. Some moves work. You know
that game the other night in NewYork they win three two where Abbott gives
him a really good start and thenhe gets through it with Cruz and Sims
and Wilson and Diaz. I willadmit to you in real time, I
didn't love some of that, butit worked, and so sometimes it works.
As so, if you're asking thisquestion just generally speaking, why do

(01:37:26):
the moves not work, it's becausehe doesn't have enough good players. Like
there's there's the main reason. Nowanecdotally, Did I think he did the
right thing with Fernando Cruz on Saturday? Sure? I do. Sometimes you
make the right decision. Sometimes sometimesin life, you make the right decision
and a bad result happens. Thatto me is not on the manager,
unfortunately, because all all the otherdeficiencies and of all the other things the

(01:37:50):
Reds either don't have or don't do. When that blows up in your face,
as it did on Saturday, whichhappens occasionally, it's a bigger deal
than it's would be. Thanks Moeagain, my colleagues, I are actually
going crazy. We we talked aboutthis. We start our day from seven

(01:38:15):
forty five to nine talking about whatwe can do to help the rest,
and we can't do anything or dummy, we're dummies. The work a bank
downtown. Yeah, and I'm adummy who doesn't work at a bank downtown.
But I do the same thing everyday. Now you know how I
feel? I will say I willI will say this that over the last

(01:38:39):
four or five weeks, I havefound myself questioning David Bell more than I
have at any other point during histenure. And I don't know if that's
just a byproduct of he's been herefor so long that at some point you
point the finger in him or oror it's feeling like the team this season
to a degree is underachieving, orunderstand that they don't have much of a

(01:39:00):
margin for error, and so themanager, the manager's decisions matter a little
bit more. I have found myselfover the last four and a half,
four or five weeks questioning some ofthe individual moves more than I have at
any point during his time in Cincinnati. Well, can I ask you something
like quickly, I will not endthis do whatever I want. But we

(01:39:24):
like my colleagues and I we havean ongoing text string during the game,
like it's inning by inning, likewe're texting each other. I'm sure you
have something going on with your buddies. But it's like when when we were
predicting the negative h like like,let's let's talk about like, oh,

(01:39:45):
I guess they're going to take outGreen here because he's pitching so well or
doing things like this during the game, and it always ends up being that
we're right, yeah, like whywhy is that mo so so? Like
Saturday's game for me, right takinga Hunter Green out after seven innings.
I will be very honest with you. Watching the game by myself, I

(01:40:09):
said to myself self, I'd kindof like to see if Hunter Green could
get at least one or two morehitters in the eighth because he was that
good. I also understand there area lot of managers, especially on a
hot day, that are going tosay, look, you did your job.
We've got a rested bullpen, We'vegot a decent bullpen at the back
end. We ought to be ableto get six more outs when we have

(01:40:30):
the lead against the Detroit Tigers.Why I felt bad going into the eighth
inning was on a Detroit Tigers bullpenday, the Reds to that point of
the game, I think had fivehits, right and so so to me,
right, So the reason why you'rewinning, go ahead on the tech
string, on the tech string,brand cruise, let's shut this thing down.

(01:40:55):
Let's win this game, right,But why does it go the opposite
way? Help? Unfortunately, luckis a bigger factor than you, and
I would like to admit, Likeagain, I don't think David Bell managed
that situation incorrectly. I think ifyou gave most managers the exact same personnel,
the exact same scenario, would say, we're taking our guy out after

(01:41:18):
seven innings and I'm gonna bring inFernando Cruz, and then based on matchups,
I have Sam all ready to goagainst lefties. And if I get
to the ninth inning and I'm leading, I've got Alexis Das. I think
why you feared that things were gonnago poorly or you weren't surprised that they
did, was because they they gotfive hits against Detroit's bullpen on a bullpen

(01:41:41):
day, you know, I meanthat's that to me? Is As the
middle innings unfolded, as they couldn'tplay ad on baseball, knowing, Okay,
Hunter's giving him a great start.At some point they're gonna have to
get out from the bullpen if thingsgo awry. They won't have built up
a lead on a day where youshould score a bunch of runs because you
the new offense was going to beat a premium on Sunday. So tack

(01:42:02):
on some runs or score early enoughthat you have enough of a lead that
if Cruz comes in and he's ineffective, you go to Sam Mall or you
go to Justin Wilson, and yougo to anybody else, you're still winning
the game. Unfortunately, that gameon Saturday, for me, was about
the Reds and ability to take advantageof a Detroit bullpen. De Yes,
No, we have four straight gameswhere we're facing three pitchers that have three

(01:42:29):
wins. The other pitcher is sixand six. We must win three or
four. What do you say aboutthat? Well, because of the opponent,
I would say yes, And becausethe red starting pitching is better,
I would say yes. I wouldalso say if I'm I don't know how

(01:42:53):
many Colorado fans are paying very closeattention at this point, I'm going wait
a minute, Ryan Felter, RyanFeltner tonight is going to face lineup that
includes Noel ve Marte, who's anoffensive non factor, Edwin Rios who is
playing a triple A five days ago, Rhese Hines making his major league debut,
Will Benson, who is almost thequintessential feast or famine guy. Like

(01:43:15):
who in that lineup right now legitimatelyscares you. Now. Granted, India
has been really good as of late. Elie is Ellie Candelario has been better
than he was in the last month. Cool, that's your top three?
Is Spencer Steer batting fourth for areally good team? No, he would
be on a good team. Hewould play for a good team. He
wouldn't be batting forth beyond that inthe bottom half of the batting order or

(01:43:36):
the lower two thirds. Who doyou go, God, you know what,
we can't let this guy beat us, or man, you know what,
We've got to pitch this guy carefully. The answer is no one,
And so at face value, you'reright, and the Reds should win these
series. They're playing the two worstteams in the National League this week.
They should go at minimum five andtwo. But what mitigates that advantage that
the Reds should have is the factthat they're running a lot of guys out

(01:43:59):
there right now now because of injuryor lack of performance, whatever it is,
who are just not quality big leaguehitters, and tonight's lineup is indicative
of that. Now, maybe EdwinRios has four hits, or maybe Will
Benson hits two homers, but anecdotallythat might happen. As a general rule,
the Reds offensive team is just notvery good. And I don't know.
I don't know what can be donebetween now and the trade deadline to

(01:44:23):
make it significantly better. Kevin,enjoy your day at work tomorrow. Tell
everybody I said, Hi, Hemo, thank you again for taking my call.
I hope we go into Thursday's gamewith low blisto first week you and
me. That'd be awesome. Thanks. Uh darn, do we have time
for the Joe Burrow audio? Now, let's get a break. Get a

(01:44:44):
break. In quarter to six ESPNfifteen thirty, we downloaded segments of our
show since we started putting podcasts upon the Internet and show segments interviews.
The two most downloaded ever one numberone when we had the guys from Pardon
My Take in studio, which waslike two eighteen. Maybe they were doing

(01:45:10):
their grit tour and because so manyof you on Twitter said you got to
swing by and go visit most show, they came up and spent I think
we did an hour together. Andup until that point, I wasn't a
huge listener of Pardon My Take.It's it's now entered my rotation. So
that's number one. Number two ison the Friday of the twenty twenty NFL

(01:45:31):
Draft when we had Joe Burrow onso to this day, that was four
four and almost four and a halfyears ago. The two most downloaded segments
in this show's history the Pardon MyTake guys and Joe Burrow appearing on our
show right after the draft. Thosetwo entities met Joe on the most recent

(01:45:53):
episode of that podcast, and someof the stuff has made the rounds,
including this one. Here's Joe,I think making a good point about kind
of feeling at least slightly forgotten becauseof how much he hasn't played. Do
you think people have forgotten about JoeBurrow? I believe that. Yeah,
that's what happens when you get hurtthough you don't play football, people forget
about you. Yeah, which Ilike the spot you're in right now,

(01:46:15):
because I feel like I love thespot. Yeah. Like AFC, everyone's
like, oh, well, youknow, you know Josh Lamar and Patrick
CJ. Stroud's like, you're forgettingone guy. Yeah, I agree.
Yeah, but again that's part ofthe game. You don't if you're not
out there and people aren't watching you, then there's nothing to talk about.
Yeah, so I'm gonna give peopleto talk about something to talk about this

(01:46:39):
year. Well, I'm excited aboutit. That is a really confident guy.
I think there's some validity to that. Right when somebody's inactive, and
this happens in all sports, youkind of forget how good they are now.
I think if anybody is running downthe list of high end quarterbacks that
you would want to build a teamaround in the NFL, though, those
conversations aren't happening without somebody including Joein the discourse and may mention, you

(01:47:02):
know, injuries and stuff like that. I'll say this, I do think
and I think even some of ushere are guilty of doing this. If
you want to talk about forgetting aboutJoe Burrow, we remember the helplessness watching
him come off the field against Baltimore. And we remember the really poor start

(01:47:25):
to the season when he was awfulagainst Cleveland, not so great against Baltimore,
okay against the Rams, and thenvery forgettable against the Titans in the
game they lost by twenty four pointsin the middle, and I think this
gets forgotten. We're the four gamesfrom Week five against Arizona through Week eight

(01:47:49):
against Buffalo. I'm not even includingthe Houston game when he made mistakes.
In that game, he also nearlybrought him back to an almost improbable victory.
But in the four games week fiveto Week eight, he completed seventy
six percent of his passes. Hehad ten touchdowns, two picks. His
quarterback rating was one to eleven pointtwo. He operated that offense flawlessly.

(01:48:15):
I think people forget in that stretchwas the San Francisco game. Now you
can look at that game and go, well, it made a big deal
about not having Christian McCaffrey, andthe Niners at that point were kind of
for That was a team that wonthe NFC. Bengals, good to Santa
Clara. Look at burrows numbers,go find the game. It ain't that
hard. Now. He was alittle bit less good in that game against

(01:48:35):
Seattle, but Arizona, who's bad, Buffalo who ended up being decent at
least book ended that four game stretch. I don't know how many quarterbacks were
better, and so that's if youremember. It's kind of what made that.
You know, early November we startedtalking about like a here they go,
here he is. Then they loseto Houston and it was really deflating.

(01:48:58):
But to me, that was reallymore about the tech than anything else.
Go to Baltimore and win, getthings back on track. And by
the way, Joe was playing finein that game against Baltimore before he got
hurt. But I think the partthat people do forget is not what he
was in twenty one and twenty two. I think what he was during a
one month stretch last year. It'seasy to remember at the start of the
season. I know, I do, I know you do. It's easy

(01:49:18):
to remember them not having him weekeleven and beyond. But there was a
time man all of October, basicallyin early November, where it felt like,
here we go, they were gettinghealthier. He was getting healthier,
he was getting better, and thenumbers would dictate as much. A lot
of talk on the NFL expanding toeighteen games, which is a matter of

(01:49:39):
when and not if. Here's JoeBurrow on that topic. What do you
think the perfect football schedule is interms of weeks and bye weeks? How
many games are we playing? Youtell me eighteen eighteen gotta have two by
weeks. And I think it'd becool to do I've said this before in
an interview, like six game orlike normal bye week schedule that it is

(01:50:01):
now, like have it spread out, but then like week thirteen, do
like the Pro Bowl break where you'redoing like the seven on seven and all
the skills challenges like the NBA does, because I think that would get more
ratings for the Pro Bowl. Andthen it would also give everybody that bye
week going into like the last sixgames. My big idea is, especially

(01:50:24):
now with the expanded college football playoff, you do the week before Christmas,
no NFL college football playoffs. Giveeveryone a break to go do their shopping.
Yeah, I'm with that. Yeah, And then you get everyone reset.
The whole league is on a levelplaying field for the Yeah. And
then you have guys that are injuredthat would be able to potentially come back,

(01:50:44):
and you want your best players outthere as a league. You want
them in the last six weeks ofthe season. You want your best players
on the field. So I thinkthat would be a smart idea. I
think makes total sense. That's almostprecisely what the NFL wants to do.
And if I'm Roger Goodell, Iam grabbing that audio. I'm sending it
to every owner. I'm sending itto every person of influence in the NFLPA.

(01:51:10):
You got Joe Burrow on board withprecisely the plan you want to essentially
be the next I'm trying to figureout the least clumsy way of putting it.
What Joe Burrow just said is whatthe commissioner on all the owners want
me. By the way, SotimesI got, he's one of Skyline shoes
in this interview. I like it. I like it. Uh, that's

(01:51:30):
big cat. I think that wasa big cat. I have to go.
We're done, Paul Danner tomorrow,we think, Miles Robinson, we
hope and definitely you right, Thanksto Terran, Thanks to you. Have
a great night. This is ESPNfifteen thirty. This report is sponsored by