The Mo Egger Radio Show -- 4/29/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now your chance to win one thousand dollars. Entered this
nationwide qward on our website.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Bills, that's bill bills, enter it now, Bills.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (00:11):
I'll be honest with you, it's it's April twenty nine.
If you knew that it's April twenty nine, we have
two days left in April.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It is conceivable it could happen.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
It is possible that the Reds and April five games
over five hundred. They're guaranteed to get through April with
a winning record. Man, I'm not sure anybody would have
taken that be three weeks ago. Good afternoon on Mollegger.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening. I

(00:44):
hope you're having an awesome Tuesday. Hopefully you have stayed dry.
Hopefully you have a stayed safe. Our show previews available
on Twitter thanks to Emory Federal Credit Union, your credit
union with hard since nineteen thirty nine. Go to EMORYFCU
dot org. Paul Danner Junior joins us every Tuesday. He's
typically in studio. He is not in studio today, but

(01:04):
we are going to join him. He's gonna join us,
I should say, coming up in just about fifteen minutes,
and we have obviously a lot to get to as
it relates to the draft that coming up in just
about fifteen minutes, a great draft analyst from Sports Info
Solutions coming up at four twenty, and we've got we've
got to kind of ask what now as it relates

(01:25):
to the Bengals here post draft. We do have to
start though with the Reds. Man, Look, it's early. I
certainly don't think that if you believe the Reds are
gonna be terrible, that you should feel like, you know what,
I made a bad prediction. They've only played twenty nine games.
I certainly don't think that if you go, you know what,

(01:46):
I don't feel like putting this team in the playoffs
quite yet. You shouldn't feel like you have to. It's
been fewer than thirty games. But give him credit, man,
because when this thing was at three and seven, which
you know is very early, they're going to San Francisco
and they had come off losing three out of four Milwaukee,
there was a painfully familiar feel to where they were

(02:08):
and what they were doing, and it felt like three
and seven as a hole, you can dig out of,
but like six and fourteen becomes a lot more difficult
to dig out of. At some point, you got to
start winning baseball games, especially when you're playing bad teams. Well,
they have done just that. They have won a bunch
of games. They've won thirteen of their last nineteen, they've

(02:31):
won five in a row.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
They win last night.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Last night was I think one of the tidiest best
games the Reds have played, maybe in years, which you
might argue release in saying all that much. Really good
starting pitching from Nick Martinez. I think if you look
at Nick Martinez through the lens of he's making twenty
one million dollars, I think that's an unfair way of
doing it. I think if you look at Nick Martinez

(02:55):
through the lens of, he means to be a guy
that you feel like can give them five or six
good innings every time it gets the ball. That's something
he can attain. He certainly did it last night. The
bullpen work last night was terrific. Graham Ashcraft was awesome.
They got good defense. They got good defense. Now they
got the Travino play with his Bengals themed catcher's mask

(03:16):
on the bunt, which you never should bunt. So the
Cardinals got what they deserve. They got the double play
in the same inning, the fifth turn by McLain and Ellie.
They got a really nice slide and catch from TJ.
Friedol last night. Let's not lose sight of that man.
One of the off season storylines. One of the off
season storylines was is this team gonna be better defensively? Well,

(03:39):
they catch and throw the ball better. And sometimes you know,
you can measure defense by looking at the box scoring
you see a two or a three or a four
in the error column. Sometimes you could just tell by watching.
I think to judge a team defensively is the one
area that requires you to actually watch the games, because
you know a team could be good in terms of

(04:01):
not making errors, but still throw the ball to the
wrong base or give up the wrong give up an
extra ninety feet when they shouldn't, or not hit the
cutoff man, or have a ball cut off when it
shouldn't be cut off. You know what I'm talking about. Well,
there are other ways to measure defense. And I said
this maybe two weeks ago that when it comes to

(04:21):
defensive metrics, I am as pro analytics as anybody, but
that's where that's where I can get kind of bored.
That's where my eyes can start to glaze over. That said,
there is a metric defensive efficiency. This is not limited
to basketball defensive efficiency, which measures percentage of balls converted
into outs. Last year, the Reds were fourteenth in Major

(04:44):
League Baseball, middle of the pack, fourteenth, with a defensive
efficiency percentage of zero point seven two. It's kind of
calculated like batting average. I guess this year the Reds
point seven four to nine year year, they were fourteenth
this year so far number one in defensive efficiency. The

(05:08):
Reds are the best team in baseball. They have guys
who continued to rake. Gavin Lux continues to rake. La
de la Cruz extended his hitting streak last night. Matt
McClain put the ball in play, which was kind of nice.
Noel j Marte for a lot of folks, continues to
be a revelation. And Terry Francona continues to not play

(05:28):
jam Or Candelario. That is not insignificance because Jamie Candelario's
batting was it one thirteen and said yesterday, look his
playing time is gonna come and go.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
It's he He's not gonna play as much. I'm paraphrasing
him here, Henna.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
He's gonna have to take advantage of the opportunities that
he gets, but he's not gonna get as many opportunities
because the other guys are better. Noel v Marte is better.
The guys who play the same positions are better. Spencer
Steer is better. Jamer Candelario is not one of the
best nine. I would argue once Tyler Stevenson comes back,
it's not going to be one of the best twenty six.

(06:09):
Many have wondered, and the Reds are not the only
team that you can have this conversation with, But many
have wondered. Okay, with Jamer making the kind of coin
that he's making, he's owed. I think the rest of
his deal, if you count the money he would get
in the option year of twenty seven, I think he's
owed like thirty two million dollars. There are a lot

(06:29):
of folks who have assumed Jamer has the longest leash. Ever,
because of the money he's making. There are a lot
of teams that would run him out there no matter what.
Because of the money he's making. There are a lot
of managers that might not have the juice to say, look,
I know this guy's making a lot of money, and
I know we owe him a lot, but I'm not
playing him. Terry Francona has put Jamer Candelario on the bench,

(06:54):
which good for him. It shows you that it's possible
to not have finances be the only driving factor in
deciding who plays and who plays how much. The question
now it becomes what happens to Jamer Candelario when Tyler
Stevenson comes back? What happens to Jamer Candelario if in

(07:18):
his new limited role he continues to not be able
to help the team. We talked a lot before the
season started about the Francona effect, right, how many games
would he be worth? It's hard to answer that question,
but where would you see the Francona effect.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
One area I.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Do believe his defense, because it's been such a big
organizational emphasis. I think Terry Francona was hired for a
lot of different reasons, but one of the reasons was, buddy,
can you clean up our team defense?

Speaker 2 (07:48):
So far?

Speaker 4 (07:48):
They're not perfect. So far though so good. And the
other one was have a manager who either has the
stones or the gravitas to be able to say, yeah,
Candelario is making good money. Guess what, old boy ain't
playing with this one thirteen batting average. That's kind of
the Francona effect. You do not have to get too

(08:09):
excited about this. It's only April twenty ninth, and like,
I still think this is an eighty three win team.
But you know, we did this exercise back before the
season started, and we did it after they played the
Baltimore Orioles. They were going into this stretch where they
played a whole bunch of bad teams. And by bad
teams we mean teams that at the time had losing records.

(08:30):
And the Saint Louis Cardinals, sorry, are a bad team,
just twelve and seventeen. Twelve and seventeen's a bad record,
better though than the Colorado Rockies, who they played last week.
You gotta take care of business if you really, really,
really want to consider yourself a good team, much less
a contending one. You gotta beat teams when they're not
at their best. Right now, the Cardinals aren't at their best. Neither,

(08:52):
for that matter, are the Washington Nationals who come here
this weekend. Got to take care of business against teams
that aren't very good right now, they're playing a bunch
of them. The series in Miami a noteworthy exception. Right now,
they're taking care of teams that have bad records, and
they will go into May with a winning record, which
I'm not sure anybody would have bet on that being

(09:13):
the case just a few weeks ago. And if they
could somehow win tonight with Brady Singer pitching, and somehow
win tomorrow with Andrew Abbott pitching, they will go into
May five over five hundred with Hunter Green pitching. On Thursday,
not bad fourteen minutes after three o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(09:33):
My phone numbers five one, three, seven four nine fifteen
thirty and eight six six seven oh two three seven
seven six gets you in as well. You could send
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A lot more on the Reds throughout the afternoon. You'll

(09:55):
hear Nick Crawl a little bit later on talk about
something that we just discussed, which was the Reds improved defense.
Did the Bengals improve in the draft. Paul Danner Junior
is gonna join us. Well, we normally spend an hour
in studio with Paul. We're not gonna do that today,
but I will keep him on for multiple segments.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
He joins us.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
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Speaker 4 (10:54):
Edwards is a really good NFL draft analyst. He joins
us in one hour. Paul Danner Junior's a really good
beat writer and podcaster covering the Bengals, the Athletic dot Com,
and the Growler podcast, which tonight they've got a live
a live show at five o'clock, which is why Paul
is not here with me in studio. We'll get to
the draft, but tonight you're gonna be downtown at the

(11:16):
Banks at Nation Bar and Grill MGM Sportsbook. What's going
to be happening tonight starting at five o'clock.

Speaker 6 (11:21):
Yeah, So, as we do this every year, it's one
of my favorite shows. We'll have a Bengals Director of
college Scouting, Mike Potts, will be a nation taking questions
from us as we kind of talked through the picks,
some of the debates that happened in the background, the
process for the whole scouting team in terms of landing
these guys. It's all all kinds of really interesting information

(11:44):
and background, and Mike is fantastic to offer up his
time and we kind of throw a party around that.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
So we'll have a we'll be doing giveaways and.

Speaker 6 (11:53):
Our good friends and creators are going to be down
there with some free ice cream for people, which always.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Is a hit.

Speaker 6 (11:59):
They've got, you know, deals, were giving away some preseason tickets,
all that type of stuff. So it's gonna be a
great time down there.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
So it should be fun.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
So that'd be tonight at five o'clock and weather permitting,
there'll be a ball game across the street, so you
can kind of go do a two for here, Paul
talka Bengals.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
By the way, is your.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
First question going to be, Hey, I didn't realize they
don't have defensive tackles in college.

Speaker 6 (12:21):
Yeah, we might, It might come up. It might come up.
The idea about maybe maybe a pass rushing defensive tackle
would have been an option. It's it's really fascinating because
I was really interested in when the conversation on one
of the days that Al Golden was talking to us

(12:43):
last weekend, it was all a blur, but he he
kind of went off into the idea of, you know,
we really.

Speaker 7 (12:50):
Liked the idea of using these defensive ends inside on
passing downs and having a little bit more versatility in
terms of, you know, some of the linebackers, the off
ball linebackers being able to rush off the edge and
the edges being able to go into the middle and
a little bit more.

Speaker 6 (13:04):
Versatility in there. So you can start to see the
idea of maybe a plan of utilizing some of these
bigger edges to take some of the heat off the
defensive tackles to pass rush. But it still feels like
there should have been one, right like it there should
have been one. There should have and it feels like
it was just somehow came up missing. And the draft

(13:25):
can go that way. But yeah, I'm fascinated to hear
some of some of the background and how you end
up in this place right now where it feels like
that's the one thing that just you're just surprised because
if we were making a list MO at the beginning
of the year, yeah, and we said, okay, what's the
one thing, well, pass rushing, defensive tackle, and they signed
BJ Hill, But I.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Don't and we knew it.

Speaker 6 (13:47):
BJ Hill was they need another guy with that kind
of juice, And I just don't think you can really
bank on Chris Jenkins to become that when you consider
kind of what he was last year in terms of
win raid and and that kind of production. I mean,
that's a that's a crazy leap to think that he's
gonna suddenly become a really dynamic guy and for that

(14:07):
so I just, yeah, you would have thought that would
have been the number one thing that they would get
in free agency. They didn't, And here they didn't and
so they're gonna have to kind of alter figure out
what their plan is going to.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Be to make up for that.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
I guess, well, I can't imagine how many times I
don't know, I don't know how many years you've been
doing mock drafts, like in the in the various publications
you have covered the Bengals. How many mock drafts have
you done?

Speaker 6 (14:32):
Right?

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Well, yeah, I mean it is a lot.

Speaker 6 (14:35):
We're probably an uncomfortable number, I believe would.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
Be with I've got to think this year's exercise was
the first time that the position you had them addressing
in round one went totally unaddressed.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
That doesn't happen.

Speaker 6 (14:46):
Yeah, no, no, Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
I mean I feel like.

Speaker 6 (14:52):
It's also a thing where once you got reached a
certain level, I guess you just say, we're gonna there
are other holes. And this is all the needs. And
we talked about this in the lead up. There's so
many needs here and there's just not enough picks, and
it was you got to add more picks. And because
of that, I think you end up in this conversation

(15:14):
was there were just too many needs and and that's
where like the fourth round pick of Barrett Carter out
of Clemson. You know, I sort of circle as maybe
maybe the area where I would take the biggest issue
in that nothing about the player. It's strictly about the
process and the position of doubling up at linebacker when

(15:35):
finding someone to be a backup linebacker or whatever, or
do I feel like you can you can accomplish that.
There's other guys. You got your starter. You you aggressively
went after the position in round two, and you still
haven't touched pass rushing, defensive tackling, and throw somebody else
in that mix, Like that's a point in the draft
where you drafted Geno Atkins in the fourth round one year.

(15:57):
Like take the dart throw at that position right there.
Whether it's like there were guys out there, you can
pick whoever you liked and and let that player try
to get in there and try to bring you some
of that element that you don't have rather than double
up at linebacker. And I get it. They're like, we
have a big vision for these linebackers and what they
can be, and he's the great fit. So we go

(16:18):
with the player. And I'll be looked forward to Mike's
discussion about that and that decision there in the fourth
round tonight. But like that to me was the spot
where you could say, okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
There's the depth of this draft showing up.

Speaker 6 (16:30):
There's your value. You didn't get it in round one,
but you find it right there and they can come
in and maybe contribute and grow into something. I like that.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Surprised to see.

Speaker 6 (16:40):
That not happen in that particular spot.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
You wrote about how this draft was about the Bengals
bringing more adults into the room. In fact, they quite
literally drafted a guy who has a wife and two kids,
and Dimitrius Knight Junior. Like we always joke about that, right,
he's got a wife and two kids. He's twenty five
years old, and like, I understand it, and I value that.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Bengals value that.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
You want high character guys if their team captains, if
they're leaders. You know, Demetrius Knight was a one year
player at South Carolina and was instantly voted a team captain.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
That's not nothing.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
Yet there is the cynical part of me who when
I read that, I go cool, that's all well and good.
This is like talking about your date having a great personality, you.

Speaker 8 (17:23):
Know, and there's nothing wrong but that's what that's what
will be the lasting seat.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
This is this is a shadow for you, okay for me.
Do you know who you're talking to me?

Speaker 8 (17:36):
I respect that, but that's like, that's the thing that's
great at first, but what has longevity, but what actually
really matters, the personality is what keeps you around in.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
The long run.

Speaker 6 (17:48):
Personality wins in January.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
Okay, I mean, all right, I'm just saying I don't
it's not what I believe in it too.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
But it's not like, wait.

Speaker 6 (17:59):
I don't think they sacrifice character. I don't think they
sacrificed talent in that regard, you know what I mean.
I don't think it was I mean, I don't think
you're taking like some massive drop back in the level
of the player on the field just to like bring
in a bunch of really good dudes. I just think
there was value placed on that as being part of

(18:21):
this diet.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Your's site was also, by the way, voted.

Speaker 6 (18:24):
MVP of one of the best defenses in the SEC
last year, and so it's not like you're taking somebody
who was a scrub but a leader. I just think
having that theme across was about the mess of last
year and we heard Zach Taylor talk about this at
MULTIPLEA and Palm Beach. He talked about this a little

(18:44):
bit and some other times this year about in terms
of changing the offseason program and what they want to accomplish.
It's about finding way for this team to be closer together,
for this team to feel more united and not be
full of distractions and finger pointing and guys that aren't
doing their part and people getting evicted multiple times. And

(19:04):
like all the show Sheldon Rankin thing, all of what
happened last year, like it was just a constant state
of that. I think there's a real sense internally of
let's get our arms back around this thing.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
It went out of control.

Speaker 6 (19:20):
We tried to dabble in dropping people into our good culture,
and it poisoned the culture in a little bit where
it became too much of a show when you threw
it all together. And I think this and the way
they bet on very much known quantities even though the
guys they went outside for where guys that their coaches

(19:41):
knew directly with like really sure things in terms of
who they knew they were bringing in, and just trying
to bet on personalities and people they knew they could
count on, that would be reliable, that would be responsible,
and like I said, sort of adults in the room.
And so that theme, it's hard to I miss that.
It smacks show in the face when you look at

(20:02):
these six picks, because that is the one thing that
was consistent across.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
All of them.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
First time, I guess has called me shallow. So congratulations
on that.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Very good.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
I said, you're beating shallow oh oh every day for
three hours, and frankly even more so in my personal life.
You wrote about your favorite pick being Dylan Fairchild, and
I'm excited for this because I'm excited, and you wrote
about this separately, but I'm excited to see how the
marriage of what Scott Peters wants to do with his

(20:36):
offensive lineman and him getting this pick. I'm excited to
see what that looks like and really excited to see
what that looks like if this works moving forward in
subsequent traps when they hopefully keep drafting really good offensive linemen.

Speaker 6 (20:49):
Yeah, you know how everybody loves to complain about how
you can't just keep doing the same thing over and
over again and expect different results. Right, we get fed
the definition of it, Andy line All the time. This
is this is exactly what I think everybody has been
asking for from the organization for a while. Do things

(21:10):
differently in how you draft and develop offensive linemen. Do
things differently because what you're doing what has been done
here over the last decade, ain't it. And there this
is an example of that, a perfect example of that.
Both of these picks. Really Jalen Rivers as well. They
went to Scott Peters, who is very different. He's got this,

(21:33):
you know, he's got the background in jiu jitsu.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Do you hear about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and so.

Speaker 6 (21:39):
But he's different, he's different than the types of guys
that they necessarily had before, looking for a specific fit
for what he stresses a little bit and a little
bit more athleticism, not as much just give me the
biggest guy and let's push people around. They still have
that into some degree, but and then investing in it,

(21:59):
you know, they so rarely they hardly ever used those
second and third round picks on offensive linemen over the years.
And that's what they you, that's where you need to
make hay there and yeah, they've had misses in the past,
but invest a little heavier trust your offensive line coach
that you hired to do things differently, and believe in
him when he says like, this guy works for me,

(22:21):
this is this is the type of player that I
need and bet on a person that you that you
put some research and time into.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
And Lord knows they did.

Speaker 6 (22:27):
I mean they sent not just Scott Peters and Mike Potts,
but Dan Pitcher went to Georgia to specifically learn and
work with those three interior offensive linemen that were in
their group there and know about them. The moment I
heard that, I was like, well one of those three
is going to be a Bengal because that it was
clear that they saw this could be the answer. And
you hear about what happened when they went down there

(22:48):
in terms of how how Peter's worked with those guys
and found Okay, give it to him, then believe in
You've got at certain point you've got to believe what
your coach is telling you that he wants to do
things differently. Well, let him do things differently, investing it,
value it and see what turns out. I just it
may not work out. He may be the latest in

(23:08):
a long line of busts, and we'll put him in
the guard Graveyard with everybody else, But like I just
I love the idea of trying it from a different
point of view and a different type of player and
believing in what your new offensive line coach wants to
do and try to hope.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
That that will pay off for you a different way.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
All Right, Paul Hank Tyke, because there's one more draft prospect.
I want to ask you about it, and then we
have to talk about what this draft means for a
handful of players who are here for the twenty twenty
four Bengals experience. Will do that when we come back.
Sports headlines as well. Paul Danner Junior from the Athletic
dot Com and the Growler Podcast. It's twenty seven away
from four o'clock on oegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty

(23:50):
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Speaker 9 (23:52):
Cincy three sixty with Tony Pike. Do we want to
move on, doctor Keith Going and Austin Elmore.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I think you should can let me keep going there.

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(25:07):
getting scratched maybe thirty minutes before first.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Pitch last night.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
Paul Danner Junior's with this for another segment The Growler Podcast,
Live downtown at the Nation Bar and Grill at the
Banks MGM sportsbook, also obviously covering the Bengals for the
Athletic One more. One more player that the Bengals drafted
that I want to ask you about Taj Brooks. So
I know I mentioned on your podcast that we did

(25:31):
on Sunday Night with Charlie Goldsmith and Jay Morrison. I
watched Taj when Texas Tech played U SEE, and Taj
Brooks was awesome. One hundred and seventy two yards rushing
two touchdowns. The Bearcats could not tackle him, and so
I take what I saw from him, what I know
about him, the type of runner he is. Add that

(25:52):
to what the Bengals already have. I don't know, man,
I think the Bengals have a chance to have a
pretty awesome running back room.

Speaker 6 (25:59):
So you said that, I think I might have just
wrote that exact line in my fifty three man roster
preview is that I love that. It's hard not to
love the makeup of the room. Yeah, like you have
you have the veterans, you have guys that have excelled
in roles that you're gonna ask them to play in
this league. Samaji ty Ran, he has excelled in gaining

(26:20):
Joe Burrow's trust and this being the passing down two
minute guy. And you have Zach Moss, who has excelled
in multiple places as the complimentary back and if you
need him to take more snaps, he can, and he
did that in Indianapolis. And then you have Chase Brown
who has excelled as being the guy, the workhorse. He
has become an absolute catalyst for your entire offense. They

(26:43):
all have different roles that they're in right now they
can play. And now you sprinkle in somebody who has
tons of potential in terms of the production he put
forth in college and the type. He's also a little
different than everybody. I mean, he's built. He's like five
to nine, who fifteen or whatever he is. He's just
this this like load the ground block of granite that

(27:05):
just make that has insane lateral agility. Like you can
use him in short yardage to help so many of
that short yardage failure issues that we've seen in the past.
That could be a big part of that. Like, there's
a lot of different ways you can use him, but
it's a different young piece seats. See what happens a
mix of young players and veterans and guys that have
success and specific roles like that's what a good room

(27:27):
looks like, that's what a good So depending on the
game plan for each week, you can see which player
you maybe want to tap into a little bit more
or maybe one week. It's just what we saw the
second half of the last season, which is just keep
feed and Chase Brown at him. But in case anything happens,
you like and you're comfortable with what you have behind him.
I just they were just so uncomfortable with what they
had behind him in recent years. It just it almost

(27:50):
it's starkly different when you look at it now, because
it's just it's felt in there for a couple of
years now. And so yeah, I think it's easy to
love the makeup because it's good room.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
I have eleven am tomorrow in the When do we
get the press release about Jermaine Pratt being cut pool?

Speaker 2 (28:09):
What did you take?

Speaker 6 (28:11):
You know I would have taken I would have already lost.
I don't you know. It's it's been the writing on
the wall forever. Whatever is happening there, whether it's trying
to I don't know, I did trying to get a
get a pick still out of something, and we're still
trying to do the trade thing. I just you know,
maybe there's maybe paperwork cup lost, maybe there was a

(28:33):
fax machine error, yeahing stuff in. Yeah, I'm sure it's
probably a fax machine situation.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
I thought it was. It was hilarious.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
Zach was talking to you guys during the seventh round
and I'm like, I guess, I guess I'm not unloading
Jermaine Pratt for a seven.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
So, okay, draft is over? Yeah, No, I didn't. Yeah,
I didn't think that.

Speaker 6 (28:53):
I mean, I'm I'm in the impression that I don't
know who's taking on that salary when everybody on earth
no is that they're just letting him go. And so
you know, yeah, there's I'm not quite sure on the
exact timing. I don't mind your number, though, I think
that that could be.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
That could be an excellent number of it.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
All right, eleven, I am a couple of other things
really quickly. And you wrote about the players, Jermaine being
one of them that this draft class will impact, and
you wrote about Trey Hendrickson, and god knows you and
I have beaten this topic to death, but it did
feel to me once Friday came and went that his
his fate so to speak, and his fates go.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
It's not the worst fate ever.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
His faith so to speak as it relates to the
Bengals has been sealed.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Was that a good way of winning it? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (29:38):
I think so that that certainly for this year, they're
tied together. I mean in whatever way that he wants
to be tied. You know, they they have him under contract,
they have their future plan set. I'm not gonna say
that it. I don't want to say anything in this
regard because well, one, I don't want him to immediately

(29:59):
go on Pat McAfee and be talking about me. But
like but but I also it's also been an unpredictable
situation to this point a little bit, and so you
never quite know. But it certainly feels like the idea
of this long term, big money extension, if it ever
was on the table, certainly feels gone. Now when you

(30:20):
have Shamar Stewart, you have Miles Murphy, they have young
players the future in place, so to speak, and those
guys need to play. So that's gonna be part of this.
But I do think that they're gonna have to figure
out what that compromise is for this year or for
a year and two whatever he wants to do or

(30:43):
you know, as as Katie Blackburn sort of puts it, like,
you know there, it is like it's what makes you comfortable,
what makes you happy with this current situation, and what
might make him happy is just playing out this year
and hitting free agency. And I think that's certainly on
the table is something that can be chosen here. And
so it's not I don't feel like an end is near,

(31:05):
that's for sure. It feels like this conflict's going to
carry on. And isn't that great for you and me
and all of us to get to talk about this more?

Speaker 2 (31:13):
But the ratings, But the ratings bonanza continues.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
Exactly because beyond that, like what I always ask you
this after the draft, what what else is on the
to do list.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
For the pay?

Speaker 6 (31:25):
I mean, yeah, I mean that's figuring out Trey Hendrickson
feels like the last big thing safety I certainly think
you have to have a conversation about right now. There
are seven safeties that have not signed anywhere yet that
played at least fifty percent of the snaps on their
team last year. So if you look at that room

(31:48):
and you say, okay, you know Stone and Jordan Battle
and Tython Anderson, who who I think is low key
a really interesting guy to watching this, and Dejon Anthony
you say, it really feels like you could use a
veteran here right, like you could use something to bring
another body. There are guys that played a lot last year.
How much of them that you could choose from? Probably

(32:10):
not that one. There are a bunch of guys out
there that you could be choosing from and deciding if
you wanted to bring in as a veteran backup at
this point, that would make a lot of sense. So
that would be on the list to discuss and see
where it lands. But outside of that, you know, I
think they're they're in a decent place. I mean, the

(32:32):
defensive tackle situation, will see. I don't know anything that's
going to really move the needle in terms of what
could be added there at this point, but you know,
I think that they're in a pretty decent place in
terms of where they wanted to be coming out of
the draft from a personnel standpoint.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
You also mentioned that Jermaine Burton has been at the facility,
and maybe it's wrong of me, but I just assume
maybe he was living there.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Now, this was asked that.

Speaker 6 (33:01):
You know, I don't know how you don't go there
at that point, It's like it's been really tough to
kind of get somebody to let me live what I
would he it would make sense. No, I mean he
sees you know what I I I am not. I
am going to applaud anybody making an effort, and if
it lasts, then that's great for him in his career
and for the Bengals, and and you hope anybody that's

(33:24):
had hard times can turn them around, and and and
maybe maybe he can. And the Bengals have certainly left
open a path.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Sure, you know, I.

Speaker 6 (33:33):
Mean there are the kick return position is there, the
backup the backup wide receiver position is still just sitting there.
And and if if it can be making good on
some of his talent and and you know, being yes,
getting some trust back. It's just the hard part for
me is how much distrust comes out of last year,

(33:57):
Like how much does he have to do to make
you not think that you're still one surprising day away
from being back in some of the same spots. And
so it's going to take a lot. It's certainly going
to take a lot more than a couple of weekends
where you see him in the cafeteria, you know, saying
he's trying to be doing the right things. It's going
to take a lot more than that.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
The important part to me and I to me, this
is gonna be what's worth paying attention to. Is you
You mentioned that T Higgins has shown an interest in
Jermaine Burton, and I've always looked at this from like,
from his perspective, like, dude, you've got two guys who
are are where you want to be, Like, you've got
two guys who have figured it out, and maybe they're

(34:37):
you know, more athletically gifted, but still like, there are
two guys right there that are, you know, shining examples
of what you should be, that you could reach out
in touch and spend time with and learn from. And
I'm sure pick the brain of and I hope for
his sake, and as much as we joke about it,
I hope for his sake he takes advantage of that
sort of resource, and with Tea specifically, but because you

(35:00):
reference to him, but I'll assume Jamar as well being
willing to open themselves up to the guy. I hope
I hope he takes advantage of that, because those guys,
those guys are what Jermaine Burton to a large degree
can and I'm sure wants to be.

Speaker 6 (35:15):
And that was the idea behind taking the risk in
the first place on him.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Yeah, was that.

Speaker 6 (35:19):
You know, It's like when somebody who has some growing
up to do gets into a room and sees these
two guys and has a coach like Troy Walters and
you're surrounded by that. You can't foster a better environment
for someone to just follow the leader and just go, man,
I do what they do. I could be just like
them and it's that simple, and you don't have better
examples than those guys. So I think that was the

(35:41):
reason behind taking the risk in the first place. Maybe
it just took a year of growing pains to get
to that point. Maybe he'll never get to that point.
We'll probably find out soon. I will say, it's hard
to believe that the leash is going to be very long,
considering everything that happened last year.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
All Right, have a great show tonight, five o'clock. MGM,
Sports Book, Nation, Bar and Grill at the Banks starts
at five o'clock, and uh, you know, the the the
ballgame is dependent upon the weather. The show tonight, however,
at five o'clock is going to happen rain or shine.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
So go there and hang out rain shine.

Speaker 6 (36:13):
There's a roof. It's everything. It convenient, which starts rady.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, all right, thank you as always. We'll see you
back here next week. All right later, all right.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
Paul Danner junior at the Athletic dot Com and The
Growler Podcast. By the way, Sports Information Solutions has the
Bengals with the third best draft class. That's an outlier,
so I had to get on one of their draft analysts.
He joins us in thirty minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (36:45):
Traffic from the UC helped traffic center you see helps
weight loss center offers comprehensive ob city care and advanced
surgical expertise. Call five one three nine nine two two
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northbound seventy five. The right lane blocked off from an
accident after Town Street got a ten minute delay. There

(37:06):
back from Mitchell Avenue northbound seventy one accident off onto
the left shoulder before Montgomery. Traffic is slowed from Ridge
Avenue on at Ezelich with traffic.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
This report entered this nationwide keyword on our website. Check
that's check you enter it now ESPN ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
That is the name of the radio station, What's up
five that before ESPN fifteen thirty. Most people who have
great of the Bengals draft have it as sort of
a okay. I read yesterday eight different publications. Five gave
it a C wanna be minus wannab and the other
said it was a twenty ninth out of thirty two
On the flip side on the extreme end of its

(37:49):
Sports Info Solutions, which we have used their people in
the past. Jordan Edwards is one of their senior scouting analysts.
So to SIS has the Bengals with the third best
draft class. So yesterday I said, I was looking for
like extremes. I was looking for folks who either thought

(38:10):
this was a really good class or a really awful class.
And somebody last night pointed me in the direction of
Sports Info Solutions dot Com and there it is Draft
Grades Bengals. Their system is a little bit different, and
we'll have Jordan explain it. But at the Bengals with

(38:30):
the third best. So Jordan's going to join us coming
up in about fifteen minutes. We've got some Reds news
from a GABP Reds and Cardinals coming up tonight. Hopefully
weather is not a factor. Christian and Karnassi on Strand
is going to have another injection for his lower back issue.
Pat Brennan of The Inquirer points out that that was
always kind of an option. He had an epidural last week.

(38:52):
I would imagine the injection now is the same. I
have no idea, but this would seemingly push the timeline
back for ces. Jamer Candelario is gonna have an MRI
tonight for a lower back issue. He says he has
been dealing with. Terry Francona was asked, is this something
that has been impacting Jamer Candelario's play, and Tito said, well,

(39:15):
it's hard to know to what extends. Okay, fine, So
Jamer Candelario's got a back issue.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
This is the one that to me stands out.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
Austin Hayes came out of last night's game with a
hamstring issue and likely occurred during that first to home sprint.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
He then went for an MRI.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
There are no results of that MRI that are out yet,
so kind of playing a waiting game with Austin Hayes,
who has been terrific when he's been healthy, but remember
he started the season on the injured list because of
that calf issue, and he had a calf issue last
year and had to be fair, I have not seen
I've not seen specifically which leg he is dealing with

(39:58):
a hamstring issue on. The calf issue from last year
was his left leg. This year it's his left leg.
But it just feels like this guy, as good as
he has been and when he has been healthy, he
is raked. It does kind of feel like the lower
part of his body is always hurting. Hopefully this is
not that big of a deal. I have not seen

(40:21):
anything indicating that anybody is being put on the injured
list or anything like that, but certainly feels like they're
not going to have Austin Hayes and jam Or Candelario tonight,
which means likely playing shorthanded unless they make some sort
of roster move. Pay attention, they've been healthy ish now

(40:42):
for a little bit. Tyler Stevenson, for what it's worth,
is going to catch tonight for Louisville against Memphis, and
they're going to kind of see where things are with
him by the end of the week. But you would
kind of wonder with these two pieces of news, while
neither is a catcher, does this maybe accelerate the timeline
for Tyler Stevenson. We were talking earlier in the show

(41:05):
that when Jamer Candelario or when Tyler Stevenson is ready
to come off the injurlest, when he's ready to rejoin
the team, that Jamer Candelario and his one thirteen batting average,
and I know there are other better, more effective ways
of determining how good of a hitter a guy is.
He's batting one thirteen, that's not good, that the obvious

(41:27):
move is swap out Jamer Candelario for Tyler Stevenson. Maybe
this accelerates that we will see we'll see the Candelario thing.
You know, Nick Crawls off season moves, Brady Singer and
pitches tonight has been pretty good, and Jose Travino has
been a savior, and Austin Hayes when he's been healthy,

(41:49):
has been good, and Gavin Lux has been really good.
We could certainly argue and I think successfully that Nick
should have done a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
But the individual moves, some of the.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
Individual players the Reds acquired this offseason have have done
a nice job. Jamer Candelario was acquired prior to last year.
He was also given a three year, forty five million
dollar contract. How much does how much do the moves

(42:23):
of this past offseason not wipe away but at least
to a degree make up for the Jamber Candelario one,
especially considering the fact that we are openly talking about
the Reds eating close to thirty two million dollars by
cutting Jamber Candelario.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
By the way, there is somewhat recent precedent.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
They did this with Mike Mustakis and eight as I
recall about twenty two million dollars.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
They cut Loose a member show.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
Remember that Show Go Akaiyama guy, Yeah, Show Go Akiyama
Gold Glove finalists during the Drive through season in twenty twenty. Well,
they ate like the last year of his contract, which
was like seven million bucks.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
So they have eaten some money before.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
But if I was working for you and I came
to you and said, hey, this guy that we had
to pay forty five million dollars to Actually you still
have to pay him, but we don't need him anymore.
Wouldn't you kind of have questions now? Would you have
fewer questions if your team was playing pretty well, largely
on the shoulders of your most recent offseason acquisitions.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
We will see, we will see, like.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
The Jamber Candelario thing, and look, man, if if he sticks,
if he's still here, I hope he rakes, I hope
he hits.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
I hope he's healthy.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
I don't want to say that I was opposed to
the red signing Jamber Candelario, but just like, go to
his Baseball reference page.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Go go there.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
Now you're gonna see, well, that was cool that one
year he led the league in doubles. That was four
years ago. And uh, well one year he had more
than twenty two home runs. That was playing for two
different teams in twenty twenty three. Not that a player
who has never been an All Star can't bring value

(44:18):
to the table, Not everybody can be an All Star,
and not that forty five million dollars across three years
is the most absurd amount of money ever. But I
remember when they acquired jam Or Candelario, going, okay, all right,

(44:41):
it's a player that we've heard of. So that's kind
of cool that, Okay, like we're and I know I
use this term a lot. We're not talking about like
a high ceiling player on most cases, not all, but
in most cases. If you're not a high ceiling player,
and then you're a pretty low flora player. Jamber Candelario's
lifetime ops is seven to twenty six, more than twenty

(45:02):
home runs in the season once using the metric that
I brought up before, his lifetime batting averages two thirty seven.
Since joining the Cincinnati Reds, his ops is six sixty.
He has hit two oh seven. It's struck out one
hundred and forty three times in five hundred and fifty
four played appearances. This is not working. Maybe it's not

(45:25):
working because he's got a sore lower back. Perhaps and
perhaps he'll get the back fixed and suddenly jam Or
Candelario will remind everybody of like the infield playing version
of Nick Castianos.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
But my money is on that not happening, and.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
So maybe he has to go on the injury list
and it saves the Reds a tough decision, but based
on who they have, based on noelvee Marte's ascension. Ave
Marte is worth giving a chance to. And you know,
I give Terry Francona and the Red's a lot of credit.
They're using the hot guy. They're playing the guy who's hitting.
They're playing the guy who's product. That is not Jamer Candellario.

(46:04):
If you're clinging to the idea that because we paid
him a lot of money and brought in here as
a free agent, and you've got to get something for
that money you're paying him, And the more you run
him out there, eventually he's gonna stumble into something. Okay,
I see a player who wasn't great to begin with,
who didn't perform last year, performing even more poorly this year,

(46:28):
who's now on the other side of thirty, and who
plays a position where the Reds now have a better option.
You pay dude the kind of money's making, like sixteen
mil this year. You're gonna pay him that kind of
money to come off your bench. Maybe the answer is yes.
But if you're forced to make a decision, and Tyler
Stevenson and look, you don't want to overreact to the

(46:49):
way Austin Wins is hitting. But Austin Wins like the
redside the most productive catching duo in baseball right now.
He's also been really good behind the plate. Tyler Stevenson
is also needed offensively, which might mean you're inclined to
d h him a little bit more, especially because Jose
Travino has been really good. Also, Stevenson gets hurt a lot,

(47:12):
which isn't entirely fair because he didn't get hurt last year,
But he's coming off an oblique injury, so somebody who
plays Jamers' primary position is playing it better. He's also
not the best first base mean, he's batting a buck thirteen.
They're about to get an all star caliber catcher back.
They don't want to punt from the two catchers they
have right now, where's the compelling reason to keep Jamer

(47:35):
Candelario around if you have to make a roster move,
and again with Austin Hayes and his hamstring and now
jamers lower back, maybe they don't. But if they do
and Tyler's ready to join the team and be healthy,
Jamer's got to be the guy to go from a
pure baseball perspective, But I would tend to believe that

(47:57):
if Terry Francona has the freedom, if he's got the
ability to bench jam or Candelario and say he's basically
going to be a bench guy. That I would imagine
that it's probably not out of bounds to suggest that
they go ahead and eat the rest of his salary.
Of course, it's not my money. Sixteen minutes after four o'clock.

(48:20):
So I yesterday I said, I want to talk to
somebody who thinks the Bengals draft class was awesome.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
By the way, we had a couple of phone calls
from folks.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
Yesterday who think the Bengals draft class is really really good.
We've got an expert who's going to tell us I
think the same thing. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty, twenty
minutes after four o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty onlm Oeger,
Brendeman and Jones on Baseball is coming up in just
about thirty minutes. So yesterday we were reading all these

(48:48):
draft grades and a lot of middle of the pack grades,
and I said, I'm looking. I'm looking for people who
either think the Bengals had a really, really good class,
or maybe folks who think they had just a disastrous class.
And somebody with Sports Information Solutions reached out to me
yesterday and said, we actually think the Bengals draft class
was third best. You've heard us talk about SIS before.

(49:12):
I ranked the Bengals with the third best class, So
now I'm interested. That piques my interest. Anybody can give
him a CE. I wanted to talk to somebody who
thought that, well, the Bengals did at least slightly better
than a CE. So Jordan Edwards, senior scouting analyst from
Sports Information Solutions, has written and done a ton of
scouting work for that website, kind enough to join us

(49:33):
this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
It's good to have you, Jordan. How are you. I'm
doing good. I appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
I appreciate you doing this. You guys have the Bengals
with the third best draft class. We'll talk about some
of the individual players. You guys do not mesh with
the consensus. Why are you guys higher on this class
than everybody else?

Speaker 10 (49:51):
Yeah, so, our scouting operation is a little different. We
don't necessarily go off of round bas on value grading,
putting a specific round next to a player. We do
more role based grading, where we are trying to emphasize
what type of role some specific player is going to
be asked to do with the next level, and so

(50:14):
you know, we have it through a numerical system seven
to oher or better. Our high level players, players that
we think are blue chip type of prospects, players that
you would think across any draft cycle are going to
be those top five type of prospects. But then you know,
down to the six nine to about six four range

(50:34):
across all positions, we view as guys that are going
to be high level to low levels starting players. And
when you get into that, you see out of the
six players that the BANG was drafted, basically the all
but the last two players that they drafted we view
as players by the day one of their second year

(50:56):
are going to be starting level players. So both linebackers
Demetrius Knight and Bear Carter we viewed as players that
maybe have you know, maybe not necessarily true three down
value as off ball linebackers, but both their skills compliment
each other well. Whereas Night can be more of a
run defender, play inside the box, be a little bit

(51:18):
more physical, but also has downhill explosion with some range,
and then Bear Carter is going to be able to
play a little bit more coverage play out on the slot,
even asked to be able to run and chase from
the backside. Everyone is allowed to Dylan Fairchild in the
third round. We view with somebody that could eventually be
a solid starting level guard on the interior, maybe more
of one positional player, not somebody that's going to start

(51:40):
multiple positions. But then obviously at the top of the
draft with Shamar Stewart, one of the more polarizing kind
of prospects you throughout this cycle, with the limited production
that he had but high, high level traits to be
able to kind of try and see what he will
do at the next level. Can it be something that
he can he that are players with that type of

(52:02):
background that he has that are going to be that
have you know, similar types of paths, But it always
is different favorite player. It doesn't automatically mean just because
you're a top tier athlete that you're gonna have success
at the next level. So that's why we kind of
viewed it as one of the top class. We don't
necessarily grade it on the value of which they get
of where they go in the draft, but just where

(52:24):
the value of we think of that specific player rounding
it all together, that's why we view the Bengals having
a little bit better than some of the rest in
the league.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
All right, that's well said. Let's talk specifically about Shamar Stewart.
What jumps off the page for a lot of people
are one and a half sacks last year. I'm trying
to focus on the fact that he had thirty nine pressures,
and I combine that with his abundant and obvious physical gifts.
I think there's a disruptive player there. When you watched

(52:52):
him critically, what do you make of the criticism of
the pick that, well, yeah, he looks the part, but
he actually doesn't get to the quarterback, doesn't finish plays.

Speaker 10 (53:02):
Yeah, so as you said, there, he he did. He
did create pressure. You know, it wasn't that it wasn't
that he wasn't getting to the quarterback. He just wasn't
necessarily finishing at the level that you would want, especially
somebody with those types of gifts, especially somebody that you're
gonna take in the first round. But like you said,
you know, those physical gifts get him somewhere. You know,
Texas a and m asked him to do a few

(53:23):
different things. Uh So that makes it a little bit
difficult where some edgressers are just strictly asked to pin
their ears back and go, you know, on a straight
lines of the quarterback. Sometimes he's playing more on the
inside eye of the tackle in a four I four
tech where he's having to defend the run and then
if he gets his his pastor and then he's kind
of flares out and he and he's rushing the passers.

(53:45):
So some of the things that he was asked to do,
he asked to play at a heavier weight. You saw
him come in a little bit smaller at the combine,
which is pretty good because that athleticism that he displayed
at the combine, he was still showing that leticism at
that higher weight. So you know that that athleticism is
in a fluke whether he's playing at two sixty or

(54:06):
two ninety and so I think he'll probably play somewhere
in the middle of there, just because he's going to
have to be able to defend the run at that
level that he did. But you just want to be
able to see that when he gets to the professional
level and he's really focusing on getting to the quarterback
and finishing, can he develop more as a pass rosier
to developed a little bit more moves, but he does
have a good baseline with the power and the link

(54:27):
that he has along with that first step explosion where
he gains ground fast and he closes ground fast, and
you can kind of see some of that against the run,
and if that can translate to the past, I think
the sky is really the limit for this type of player.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
Jordan Edwards is with his senior scouting analyst sports Info Solutions,
I sent out a link by the way to the
sis encapsulation, if you will, of the twenty twenty five
draft where they have the Bengals among the top three.
Demetrius Knight is interesting to me because a six year player,
it did kind of take him a while to get
on the field as a starting player. Once he did,

(55:02):
he took off in Charlotte, had a good year at
South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
I've seen people use his age against him.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
I kind of look at it like Bengals need guys
who could step in and play immediately. The dude is
twenty five. He's got all the maturity boxes you could
ever check, and so I'm interested in this from a
draft perspective, I can't help but think that maybe they
could have traded down to get him, but they still
did get him talk about him critically for me.

Speaker 10 (55:29):
Yeah, So, you know, the off ball linebacker position now
is one of the harder positions to kind of gauge
that jump from the college game to the NFL game
because as much as there are similarities across, you know,
it is the same sport, the way the defenses is
played in the college to the NFL game are very
different and linebackers are asked to do a lot of

(55:51):
different things. And so, yeah, like you said, you know,
maybe is the was the value there to take him
at that specific spot.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
I think that's open for debate.

Speaker 10 (56:01):
You know, maybe he wouldn't who he wasn't up there, uh,
you know, on across other boards across the.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Uh the NFL.

Speaker 10 (56:08):
But you know, with a new defensive coordinator, without Golden
coming in and maybe some uncercertainty with the guys that
are there in that in that room at the moment, uh,
you would have to think that maybe this type of
player was was somewhat hand picked. You don't necessarily want
to fit, you know, just just for need or anything
like that. But you know, when when you're prioritizing somebody
at that draft, you want to make sure that they
have the maturity that they like that you said, he

(56:30):
also has the athleticism and range and it has a
lot of those things. And so I think if he
fits what the defense that al Golan is looking for
and being able to play a little bit more inside
the box, uh and be able to defend the run
a little bit better, I think that's good. Obviously that
comes with a little bit more, you know, the age concerns.
You know, you don't you want to have those types

(56:52):
of players, uh, for as long as you can at.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
A specific at a position like that.

Speaker 10 (56:56):
But sometimes that maturity can kind of be help them
be a little bit more an impact player early on,
maybe so far down the road.

Speaker 4 (57:04):
I think if you were to have pulled most Bengals
fans on Friday evening, they would have wanted Tate Ratledge
there at forty nine. They wait one more round to
get a guard. They get Tate Ratledge's teammate. It's Dylan Fairchild.
You referenced him before. How would you compare those two?

Speaker 10 (57:21):
Yeah, both players really play with the type of intensity
that you would love to see for interior offensive linemen
to be meeting. They're both nasty, they play with that
physical demeanor. They want to finish people into the ground
as much as they can. Rat which was a little
bit more athletic. He's a little bit bigger too. I
played with a little bit more of a solid anchor

(57:42):
and pass protection.

Speaker 6 (57:43):
But still that.

Speaker 10 (57:47):
Kind of the run blocking skill that Fairchild had was
something that we valued a little bit more. Obviously he
didn't have that type of athleticism as compared to his teammate.
I think most people would have preferred Ratledge. I would
have as well. But still I think getting fair Child
where they did it has has still some pretty good
value because the inside that the interior of that offensive

(58:09):
line Cincinnati has has has had its ups and downs
over the past few years.

Speaker 6 (58:13):
But Fairchild was.

Speaker 10 (58:14):
Somebody that was reliable, uh, you know in pass protection,
and then he still has that run, that run blockability,
that mentality.

Speaker 6 (58:22):
He gets to the second level really well.

Speaker 10 (58:24):
He's lying on his feet as well, and so uh,
the value I think was there. I think maybe maybe
the Rattlets was somebody that they thought that they could
get early in the draft, but maybe has some value
on guys like Night uh and and uh in other
places like that. But I think Fairchild is more than
better than just a kind of a constellation prize. I

(58:44):
think he's somebody that can still be a solid anchor
in in in the interior for Joe Burrow.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
So there are the players the Bengals took.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
I think here there's a lot of focus on the
position that I think a lot of us thought they
would address at least at some point in this draft.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
So from your.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
Respective, what do you make of the the complaint, if
you will, that they didn't draft the defensive tackle.

Speaker 10 (59:08):
Yeah, Uh, it is puzzling, just because you know, with
with our scouting operation here, we see every we see
all these people.

Speaker 6 (59:16):
We don't necessarily.

Speaker 10 (59:17):
See all the specific uh you know, conferences overall. But
when we get together and we go through all these
specific players and we're ranking our big boards, uh and
kind of and parsing all those things out, you know,
the biggest takeaway was, while, yeah, the defensive tackle class
was really deep, got lots of different body type, skill sets,
athletic profiles, and we kind of all you know, together

(59:40):
in some of our meetings that if you don't come
away with the defensive tackle in this draft, with how
loaded that it is, it seems like a mistake. Even
if you have the type of room that that thinks
that you don't necessarily have to improve that upon. I
don't know if it's necessarily know if the Bengals fall
into that category. I do like some of the pieces
that they have, but I think maybe of adding somebody
with a little bit more quick twitch athleticism, a little

(01:00:02):
bit more explosion, would have helped that room a little
bit more. You know, you got you have bj Hill,
who's still a really reliable three tech TD Slaton is
somebody that's going to be a good nose and run plugger,
but having guys behind them, somebody with a little bit
more twitch athleticism vertical explosion, I think would have been
a little bit better to have. You know, maybe that

(01:00:23):
came at the expense of doubling up on off ball
linebackers or something like that too. Maybe the guys just
that they wanted went away a little too quickly for them.
But yeah, it was a little bit puzzling to come
away and see that they didn't walk away with with
somebody with that type of athleticism on the interior. But
I think all teams across the league c we could use,
not just Cincinnati love themselves.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
Well said, I appreciate the time man, great stuff, Thanks.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
So much, appreciate it. Thanks. There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Jordan Edwards, Sports Info Solutions Senior Scouting Analysts, twenty eight
away from five o'clock Phone numbers five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifteen thirty and eight sixty six seven oh
two three seven seven six sports headlines.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
And and the story now.

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
Of the offseason becomes, well, we'll discuss and.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Let's let's imagine what you might.

Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
Think is the unimaginable. Next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Traffic from the UC Helped Traffic Center.

Speaker 5 (01:01:29):
UC helps Weight Loss Center offers comprehensive ob city care
and advanced surgical expertise. Call five one three nine three
nine two two six three. That's nine three, nine two
two six three. Delays are continuing to build up northbound
on I seventy five after Town Street. That due to
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(01:01:49):
traffic slow from Mitchell and Socialville Foster Road. It's an
accident at Mason Montgomery Road. I met Exelich with traffic.

Speaker 11 (01:02:00):
Fifteen thirty Miami University. Meet your New Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
The Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 11 (01:02:06):
Select where Today's students become Tomorrow's leaders, presented by Skyline, Chili,
Cincinnati Drywall, and eighty Door in Window now Here's Moegger.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
With their fourth round pick in the twenty twenty five
NFL Draft, the Bengals selected Clemson linebacker Barret Carter. Carter
was a third team All American last season for the Tigers,
and he comes to Cincinnati with three years worth of
college starting experience. Carter has been called one of the
best open field pursuit defenders in the entire draft, with
true's sideline to sideline playmaking range, and he dramatically improved

(01:02:41):
his tackling from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four.
Carter doesn't have ideal NFL linebacker size, but with his
speed and athletic ability, he projects to be immediately helpful
on special teams and he'll be given a chance to
make an instant impact on defense. Get to know Bengals
fourth round draft pick Barrett car.

Speaker 11 (01:03:00):
Boe has more on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home
of the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
This rebook.

Speaker 4 (01:03:09):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet home of
lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
to yours for life. Kelsey chev dot Com, Reds and
Cardinals again tonight at GABP. Whether I think I looked
at I looked at this weather forecast. Here we have
from the official meteorologist of our show, Jennifer Ketchmark at

(01:03:33):
Channel nine, and it says here tonight lull in precipitation,
partly cloudy skies down to fifty nine. So lull in
precipitation means we're playing baseball tonight. Brady Singer and Miles
michaelists starting lineup tonight for Cincinnati Freedom and Center. McLain
at second. By the way, McLain, I think sneaky Dinger.

(01:03:57):
Tuesday pick FanDuel dot Com, mo Eli de la Cruz
riding a twelve game hitting streak, Gavin Lux riding a
twelve game hitting streak, batting third and fourth, Marte a
third steer at first. Frailey back in the starting lineup tonight.
He is in right field, Espinalen left, and Austin Wins
behind the plate. Austin Hayes came out of the game

(01:04:20):
with that hamstring last night. They have done an MRI,
no results. I have not seen any roster move, but
he's not in the starting lineup tonight. Jam Or Candelario
says he is dealing with a lower back issue and
Ces is going to have another injection to help address
the inflammation in his lower back. By the way, Tyler

(01:04:42):
Stevenson in his rehab assignments, scheduled to catch nine innings
for the Louisville Bats tonight in their game against Memphis.
That would be the Postman law injury report. If you're injured,
Postman delivers call eight four to four Postman. That's eight
four to four Postman. It's pretty much all I got

(01:05:03):
for our local sports headlines. Pretty much all I got.

Speaker 12 (01:05:07):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
We announced this on Friday, and we do this every year,
the Mow You're Along contest. There's lots of radio station contests.
This is the best one because two awesome prizes in one.
So the way we do this is we're going to
announce the winner on May twenty third, So you have
a few weeks May twenty third, at four point thirty

(01:05:29):
on this show.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
So the Friday before.

Speaker 4 (01:05:31):
Memorial Day, right when everybody is starting a four day weekend,
because nobody works on the Friday before Memorial Day. I
will be here. Make sure you're joining us to find
out if you won. You can't win if you don't enter,
what are you entering for?

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:05:45):
Number one a brand new lawnmower from Baxlia Tractor. This
like steel push mower. I wish I had one of
these retails at six hundred and nineteen dollars. It's a
great mower. And you win tickets to every river show
this year. Like it's not an either or thing, you
win both. You win ticket every River Bend show. Pretty good,

(01:06:08):
and a brand new lawnmower pretty good. Add the two
together even better. So there's a couple of ways you
could do this. You could just go to ESPN fifteen
thirty dot com and click on contests and promotions and
there you go. You can enter there, or I've got
a link out if you go to my The best
way to do it is Twitter, but I know not

(01:06:29):
everybody is on Twitter, and so I've put this on
every social media channel that I can come up with.
I still cannot remember the password to my two thousand
and three MySpace page. Beyond that, every social media avenue
out there, I've put a link.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
There's a video.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
Go sign up now again thanks to a Baxla tractor
and Riverbend Music Center for this year's Mow Your Lawn contest.
I think this is the thirteenth year we've done Mow
Your Lawn. So enter now ESPN fifteen dot com. You're
gonna hear Nick Crawl on the Reds defense and Ellie
Dela Cruz here in uh just a little bit. I

(01:07:11):
was talking about this a little bit with Paul Tayner Junior.
So free agency is not over. There are still there
are still some defensive tackles, there are still some safeties,
There are still some guards out there. We'll see if
the Bengals go sign someone. But the bulk of the
the roster building part of the offseason is over now.
There's OTAs and voluntary workouts and mini camp will be

(01:07:36):
here and then obviously training camp will begin now. The
central storyline is about Trey Hendrickson. He did not get
traded this weekend. You may have noticed. He is not
gonna get traded now yet. And I agree with what
Paul said. Shamar Stewart being drafted by the Bengals with

(01:07:57):
the seventeenth overall pick would certainly suggest on top of
them keeping Miles Murphy, which they never were gonna let
him go, and not extending Trey Hendrickson, would tell you
the Bengals are preparing for life without Trey. Now, I
certainly do believe that if Trey Hendrickson's agent called up

(01:08:18):
Katie Blackburn today and said, hey, you know, we're willing
to sign for twenty five MILLI year moving forward, Bengals
will probably go ahead and get that done. Like there
is I'm sure on the Bengals part, there's a dollar
figure that they've gone to that if Trey decides, hey,
we'll come down to it, they'll go cool, go get
a pen, let's type up the contract and get this bad.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Boy done in the short term.

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
Now, how does this play out? They have avoided any
t Higgins noise, they have avoided any Jamar Chase noise.
We're all expecting them to cut Jermaine Pratt here any
day now, surprise that hasn't happened already. Training camp is
three months away. That's three months of wondering. Is Trey

(01:09:10):
gonna make this off season or this summer? Is he
gonna make training camp? Is he gonna turn into the
distraction of the year, kind of like Jamar Chase last year,
is this gonna be the story that we focus on?
And like when I say we focus on, not that
we're going to ignore all the other stuff, but like
remember in twenty twenty two, the Jesse Bates thing just

(01:09:30):
took on a life of its own, right, and the
Jamar Chase thing last year kind of took on a
life of its own. This is a player who has
already threatened to retire to a degree, he's already asked
for a trade basically twice. He's expressed his unhappiness publicly.
I'm gonna bet that there's another step to this, is

(01:09:53):
that a hold out? Is it a hold in? And
then the larger question that matters most is he going
to be willing to miss games? I would find it
really hard to believe at this point that the Bengals
are going to suddenly come to Trey Hendrickson and say,
you know what, We'll give you exactly what you want,
and then everybody shakes each other's hands and we're all good.
I think it will be fascinating to hear Joe Burrow

(01:10:16):
on the record for the first time really since just
before the super Bowl or I guess right after the
super Bowl, because he's going to be asked about Trey Hendrickson.
What does he say, Does he have the capability of
changing things for Trey the way he changed things for
t Higgins or does Joe have any real interest in
changing things for Trey Hendrickson the way he did t

(01:10:36):
Higgins in the absence of that, Like, this is the
storyline now, and you know it's going to get exhausting,
I'm sure, But do we see signs in the coming
months and weeks that would suggest that Trey Hendrickson is
willing to miss games that count? There's one other one,

(01:10:57):
and Dana and I talked about this briefly as well.
Jermaine Burton. Look, Jermaine Burton's a punchline. He's turned himself
into one. Jamaine Burton has done nothing to have a
firm grip on a roster spot in twenty twenty five.

(01:11:17):
It feels like his NFL career is hanging by a thread,
or at the very least, his Bengals career is hanging
by a thread. It is a good start, but it's
a tiny, tiny step that he has apparently been at
the facility that's a good thing showing up for voluntary workouts,
et cetera. It is a really good thing that t

(01:11:40):
Higgins has shown a willingness to kind of show Jermaine
Burton here's how it works. I mean, that's kind of
part of this, right, Like, it's one thing to be
a knucklehead, it's another thing to be a knucklehead and.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
Have a couple of dudes who are what you should
want to be and have what you have.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
And in Tea's case, according to Paul Danner Junior, and
I'll assume with Jamar as well, a willingness by those
guys to help the kid out. So we'll see how
this works. And man, I am skeptical because I need
to see it before I believe it. I need to
see him like establish a pattern of reliability before I

(01:12:19):
believe this guy can help the Cincinnati Bengals. That said,
and it's probably way too premature to entertain this. Can
you imagine if he does figure it out?

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
He might not.

Speaker 4 (01:12:38):
I probably unfairly maybe would bet against him figuring it out.
I'm certainly not going to assume that he will. But
just think for a second, like he's here, he's a
part of the team. If you're a Bengals fan, you
obviously want this to work out. He's a part of
the team. It doesn't do anybody any good for it
to not work out. What if the light bulb comes on, and,

(01:13:03):
as is the case for a lot of young people,
they have a bit of an epiphany, or the clue
phone goes off, or the light bulb comes on and
they realize, all right, here's how I need to behave
as an adult and as a pro.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
Again.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
Man, if you are skeptical that these things are going
to happen, I share your skepticism, But that doesn't mean
we shouldn't be rooting for this to work. Number One,
you know who roots against people. Number Two, if it works,
what we all agree on is the dude has undeniable
physical gifts, and he would be a part of a

(01:13:41):
team that didn't exactly need him to catch a hundred passes,
and he'd have an all world QB throw and darts
to him, and he'd be in an offense that would
be suddenly almost impossible to defend. If somehow someway this summer,
this offseason, the light bulb goes on. I hope it does.

(01:14:01):
You're gonna hear Nick Crawl talk defense. The Reds are surging.
We'll get to that coming up at five oh five
on ESPN fifteen thirty. First Brendanman and Jones on Baseball.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:14:16):
Traffic from the UC Helped Traffic Center, U see helps
weight loss Center offers comprehensive obesity care and advanced surgical expertise.
Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three. Northbound seventy
one at Montgomery Road. It's an accident that one's off
onto the right shoulder. Still got that accident northbound seventy

(01:14:39):
five after town on the right shoulder. However, delay times
there have gone away. And on Gilmore Road, an accident
at Resource Road. I'm at Ezelich with traffic. This report
is sponsored by.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
Chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter this nationwide, Keward
on our website. Cran that's Cran.

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Enter it now you found Cincinnati's E fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
Thank you very much. Five six ESPN fifteen thirty Molagger.
It is the long awaited mikeelob Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour.
Thanks to our friends at michelob Ultra. I'm gonna have
an ice called michelob Ultra. I'll have one on my
hand probably about six twenty five. Hopefully the game tonight

(01:15:21):
starts on time, and uh, well you gotta have a
pregame miculture and then one at the game. So there
you go, MC Ultra, Superior taste, superior light beer, and
proud at least we hope they're proud sponsors of the
michelob Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour. Good stuff from Paul
Danner Junior on the Bengals later on this hour. And

(01:15:42):
somebody who I really enjoyed talking with when she first
got the job at you see Danielletomach, the new volleyball
coach by request back on this show coming up at
five forty five. We are looking forward to that. A
few Bengals things here. In a second, you're gonna hear
Nick Crawl as well. There is Red's news read Cardinals tonight,
Cincinnati looking for a sixth consecutive victory. We've talked a

(01:16:05):
lot in recent days about Jamer Candelario, who just feels
like he should be the odd man out. Well, he's
got a lower back issue. He's got soreness in his
lower back, and so they're going to do an MRI
on Jamer Candelario to find out.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
What's up with his back.

Speaker 4 (01:16:22):
Austin Hayes last night running from first to home, running
very fast from first to home, apparently did something to
his hamstring, and so they took a look last night,
did an MRI. No results yet. He is not in
the starting lineup, but that is going to be worth
paying attention to. Austin Hayes has a recent track record

(01:16:44):
of lower body injuries. The calf last year, the calf
this year, and look the dude when he has played
has been awesome. Nick Crawl's offseason acquisitions have been terrific.
Imagine this team without the Jose Travigno, by the way,
his white catcher's mask with the Bengal stripes terrific. Imagine

(01:17:04):
this team without Gavin Lux riding a twelve game hitting streak.
Imagine it without Austin Hayes. Hopefully Austin Hayes is okay
Ces by the way, is going to have another injection
as he deals with that lower back inflammation, So those
things worth keeping an eye on. I have not seen
any roster moves we'll see if the Reds make one
or if they play a man or two down tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Last night, nice tidy quick.

Speaker 4 (01:17:30):
If you love pitchclock baseball, that was in your wheelhouse.
The game was over before the sun went down last night.
By the way, I was thinking about this last night
because the game frankly felt like it took less than
two hours. It actually took a little bit more than
two hours. Sometimes we've done this topic. We've done this

(01:17:52):
topic before, Like things that our grandkids are going to ask, like,
why did you do it that way? Or was that
really a thing? Like when Joey Vado is like an
established Hall of Famer because he's gonna be in the
Hall of Fame one day, like twenty years from now,
he's gonna be a Hall of Famer. Well before then,
but twenty years from now. If you say to your grandkids, like,

(01:18:13):
you know, actually he was a pretty polarizing figure, they're
gonna go.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Really joy Vanawa's people. They didn't like that guy.

Speaker 4 (01:18:23):
Like there are certain things that like we used to
do that you asked, like, it amazes me that for
like sixty years people smoked on airplanes. Our grandkids are
gonna ask us, wait, a minute. You guys had major
League baseball games without a pitchclock, where like the pitcher
of the batter could just stand Remember that was like
a thing a few years ago where you had the
folks who just thought this was gonna be the death

(01:18:44):
of baseball. I don't even know if I've seen a
pitchclock violation this year. Legitimately, I'm gonna look that up.
How many pitchclock violations have we had this year? Remember
how those of us who have common sense said there's
gonna be a little bit of an acclamation process for some,
not many, but in a couple of years, this is

(01:19:05):
just gonna be how the game is played, and everybody's
gonna adjust. But you had those folks who like folded
their arms and they were big mad about the pitch clock.
In thirty years, they're gonna go, wait a minute, you
mean to tell me, for like one hundred and forty years,
they played major League baseball games without a pitchclock, where
the pitcher could literally just stand there as long as
he wanted and the batter could just keep stepping out.

(01:19:28):
Like if you go back and just watch watch a
game from three years ago, it's like a different sport.
I'm not a rob man for a guy. There are
a lot of things I can criticize that guy for.
The single best baseball innovation in my lifetime is the
pitch clock. It's and I you know, like I go

(01:19:51):
to the ballpark, I'm not looking to leave. Like it's
not so much about length of game, it's about pace. Legitimately,
it's thinking about that last because that game winning. It
was a low scoring game, not a ton of runs,
not a ton I mean, it was, you know, quick,
but like I got home last night, I cut my grass.
They were in the seventh inning, like, oh boy, we're

(01:20:14):
moving here, and especially with the six forty start, which
I'm I can kind of go back and forth on.
I'm I'm guessing Gavin Lux doesn't like it after losing
the ball in left field in the sun yesterday, I
kind of go back and forth on that pitchclock. Legitimately,
single best baseball innovation in my lifetime, in my lifetime,

(01:20:34):
and I think it's the one thing where there are
no more holdovers, Like you cannot find anybody who's like,
we know what I kind of miss. I kind of
miss watching a ball game, or like the hitter and
pitcher could just stand there and stare at each other forever.
I miss that standing around. I really do miss that.
It's really entertaining watching a pitcher just stand there and

(01:20:55):
stare in for the sign. He doesn't stare in for
the sign anymore because he hears it. I have no
idea why I got off on that anyway, Nice tidy
game last night, Nick Martinez. Don't look at Nick Martinez
through the lens of a guy making twenty one million
dollars this year. Look at him through the lens of
him trying to become a guy that you go, you
know what, can give him five or six as a

(01:21:17):
back of the rotation guy. And he did that last night.
The bullpen was terrific. Graham Ashcraft as a reliever just fits.
It just fits. Emilio Pagans closer just fits. But something
else about last night the team's defense. They get out
of the fifth inning because Travino makes a really nice

(01:21:39):
play on a bunt and gets the lead runner at third.
Remember kids never bunt. And then McClain and Ellie turn
a very slick four to six to three double play
to help Martinez get out of the inning, and inning
later Freedo makes a really nice diving catch, sliding catch
in center field.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
They're not perfect, but.

Speaker 4 (01:22:00):
This team today, and there's lots of different defensive metrics
out there, has the highest deficiency. Though highest defensive efficiency
that's an entirely different thing. This team today has the
highest defensive efficiency rating in baseball, which is a percentage

(01:22:22):
of balls converted into outs. For the Reds, they're at
seven forty nine last year, seven oh two last year
fourteenth in the sport. This year so far, number one.
Call it the Francono effect. If you want the Francona
effect is also about, you know, accountability, right Like, I
give him credit. Man, he's not playing Jamer Candelario right now.

(01:22:43):
Noelle Marte is getting a shot, Francona said yesterday, basically,
like Jamer's not one of the best guys. Play the
best guys regardless of who's making what right now. You
might say, well, David Bell didn't have the cachet to
do that, although he did at one point bench Joey Vado.
But there were a lot of folks with Ja mccandalario
who just assumed he's going to keep getting opportunities because

(01:23:05):
of the money he's making it's not the case. That's
a good thing. Nick Krawl was on MLB Network earlier today.
By the way, Elie Dela Cruz and Gavin Lux both
have twelve game hitting streaks. I haven't gotten as many
mean emails about Ellie Dela Cruz because he's hitting twelve
straight games. He did make a throwing error the other day,
but has been pretty good at shortstop.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
Here's Ellie Dela Cruz.

Speaker 4 (01:23:28):
Talking about the the continued development of Ellie Dela Cruz.

Speaker 13 (01:23:33):
He continues to develop. He's still young guy. He's still
making progress. I think he's I think last night he
got on base again, which was I think thirty three
times in the last eighteen games or so.

Speaker 2 (01:23:44):
I saw the stat last night.

Speaker 13 (01:23:45):
But you know, it's a work in progress. He's going
to be a work in progress. He's still a young guy,
but he is. The talent is one of the best
I've ever seen. And you know, but he works hard.
He works, He works his butt off every day. He's
a good, good guy in the clubhouse. He's you know,
he's great to be around. And I think that's the

(01:24:07):
work aspect of this is what's really propelling him forward.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
Nick Crawl on MLB Network. He was talking with Brian Kenny.

Speaker 4 (01:24:14):
You're going to hear his voice first, as they talked
about how the Reds have improved on defense.

Speaker 14 (01:24:19):
Team defense. Let's let's take a look last year. Also
defensive efficiency. Normally I don't go to that anymore, but
you are fourteenth. Now you're number one, So we'll throw
it up there. Defensive run safe negative thirty, Now you're
plus four. Out's above average range, the stack cast a
negative sixteen, now your plus three.

Speaker 2 (01:24:35):
What's happening defensively to your club?

Speaker 13 (01:24:37):
Well, we looked at that the offseason. You know, we
wanted to improve our defense. We were one of the
worst defensive teams in baseball last year, and it was
it was a goal of ours. We traded for Jose Travino,
who's been really good with our pitching staff, along with
Austin Wins behind their plate, Matt McClean coming back. You know,
I see the highlights of Jake Freley making some plays

(01:24:58):
in San Francisco. Mat McClain's been really good at second base.
Austin Hayes has been very good out there. So you know,
even guys like Noah Marte, you know, guys like that.
He came in to spring training and he was on
a mission to be better, and he's really put the
work in to continue to get better at defensively as
well as offensively, and it's really starting to show.

Speaker 4 (01:25:19):
Nick Crawl on MLB Network the Reds, who ever would
have thought that, I would say at any point this season,
At any point this season, we'll see if we're saying
this in September, number one in defensive efficiency in all
of baseball. Also, who would have thought when the Reds
left Milwaukee with a three and seven record that we
would talk about the possibility And again, it's just a

(01:25:40):
possibility that they could end April five games over five hundred.
Now to do that, they've got to win tonight and tomorrow,
and we'll see if that happens. But they will at
least get out of April with a winning record, which
they did last year when they were three and seven.
I couldn't find anybody who thought that was going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
After five o'clock, you'rell he'll park.

Speaker 4 (01:26:01):
You'll hear Paul Daanner Junior on the Bengals and the
draft coming up in just about eighteen minutes and Danielletomich
as well. Seventeen after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:26:14):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
Traffic from the UC Help Traffic Center.

Speaker 5 (01:26:21):
U see Help's Weight Loss Center offers comprehensive ob city
care and advanced surgical expertise. Call five one three nine
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Another crash northbound seventy five before Paddock Road and westbound

(01:26:43):
Memorial Park waits an accident at four seventy one, causing
backups in the area. On that ezelik with traffic this.

Speaker 4 (01:26:50):
Feting twenty one after five o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you so much for listening. Tomorrow on the show,
we have a Georgia's offensive line coach, Staceys, who actually
coached at UC for a couple of years in the
early two thousands. He's gonna join us to talk about
Dylan Fairchild, and we couldn't for whatever reason, we could
not connect with him a year ago. So we never

(01:27:10):
had a chance to talk with him about a Marius Mimes.
He is gonna join us Stacey Serels in the three
o'clock hour tomorrow and so is Joe Goodberry. Bengals on
the Brain will get his thoughts on the draft in
so much more. Hopefully recap a Reds win tonight, and
that is if they play, which I kind of feel.

Speaker 2 (01:27:30):
Like they will. I sort of feel like they will.

Speaker 4 (01:27:33):
Twenty one minutes after five o'clock, We have a lot
to get to. Paul Danner Junior from the Athletic and
the Growlard podcast on the Bengals draft class.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
Next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:27:42):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:27:47):
Traffic from the UC helped traffic center you see helps
weight loss center offers comprehensive ob city care and advanced
surgical expertise. Call five one three nine nine two two
six three. That's nine three nine two two sixty three
northbound seventy one at Montgomery Road. It is an accident
that one's off on the right shoulder eastbound State Route

(01:28:08):
one twenty nine. Another crash after Princeton Glendale Road in
Southbout seventy five, stop and go traffic, the Western Hills Viaduct,
the Fort Washington Way on that eazelek with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:28:19):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Radios. Rapid Radios are
instant pushed to.

Speaker 4 (01:28:23):
Me, Hey, don't forget to sign up for the Moment
your Long contest on the contest and Promotions page at
ESPN fifteen to thirty dot com. Thanks to baxlat Tractor
and Riverbend Music Center. Tomorrow on the show, Joe Goodberry
on the Bengals Draft. Also, we're going to be joined
by Stacy Cereals. Stacey is the offensive line coach at
the University of Georgia, which means he has coached Amarus Memps.

(01:28:46):
He's also coached Dylan Fairchild. He's also a former UC assistant.
He's actually coached a bunch of guys at various schools
who have ended up playing for the Bengals. We'll talk
with him about the newest Georgia product to come to Cincinnati,
Dylan Fairchild. We are looking to that, of course, full
recap of Reds and Cardinals as well. I enjoyed my
first conversation with Daniellotomitch. She is the new volleyball coach

(01:29:10):
at the University of Cincinnati, and we had a chance
to talk with her back when she first got the
job in early January. She actually accepted the job right
before Christmas and then was formally introduced in early January.
The volleyball schedule in the Big twelve is out for
this coming season. They are ticketing volleyball for the first
time ever. You see, you can buy a season ticket

(01:29:30):
for seventy five dollars GA and a court side seat
for one to twenty five. That ain't bad. Daniello Toomitch
is with us now. I thought it'd be fun to
catch up with her. It's good to have you. It's
been a while. It's been a few months. What had
the last four months been like.

Speaker 12 (01:29:46):
A rolman as you can imagine. Besides you know, life
moving my stuff and living for a couple of months
in an empty apartment. Recruiting started right away, and then
of course training with a team, and it was important
that we have a great spring season. You know, I
don't I say there is no off season. They're just

(01:30:07):
investment season. So I wanted us to invest a lot
in training and establishing the foundation of our team culture
and developed skills and hiring the staff, So a lot
has happened, but I feel we're in a good spot now,
just waiting for the girls to finish strong in the classroom.
They have finals this week and we're expecting good grades.

Speaker 4 (01:30:29):
Give us an idea because you talked about on the
court training, how much of that are you allowed.

Speaker 12 (01:30:36):
Well, we started with having only four hours a week
that the NCAA rules for like a month or so,
so we saw the girls every day but just a
shorter period of time, and they had four hours of
strength and conditioning a week, and then we transitioned to
what we do in the fall, having twenty hours of
athletically related activities, so it was more like what we

(01:30:59):
will do in the fall. So I think we squeezed
a lot out of the time, just focusing on a
lot of fundamentals and kind of you know, putting the system,
explaining to our players what our system is going to
be like offensively, defensively. But that was that was our training,
and then we also in the spring, we have four

(01:31:20):
opportunities that we can play different opponents, but unfortunately we
didn't have two medals. We were short and middle blockers,
so we only used one opportunity and we had a
training session in Columbus with Pittsburgh, and people who follow volleyball,
they know that the last three final fours, pitt was

(01:31:42):
in the final four and year they played in semi finals.
So that was great learning opportunity for us, and it
felt good after spending a couple of hours two and
a half hours in the gym with a really really
great team and great coaching.

Speaker 4 (01:31:57):
Stat your team this coming fall will have four returning
starters from last year, eleven letter winners overall. What has
the process been like getting to know those players? I
guess first of all, convincing them to stay because you're
always recruiting.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
You got to recruit your own players.

Speaker 4 (01:32:14):
But then once they've made that commitment, getting to know them.

Speaker 12 (01:32:18):
Yeah, that's that's a reality right now, not only recruiting
new players, but we have to continue recruiting our current players.
That's been probably the most fun part getting to know
our team and UH and our young women here. They're
they're wonderful, They're they're very open to the changes that

(01:32:40):
we brought. We just finished last actually a week. We
had individual meetings at the end of the school year,
and then we had a team meeting on Friday. And
now the first question that we ask in those meetings
is you know, do you plan to come back? And
everybody said yes. So that was a good sign, and
we are excited from the feedback we got from them,

(01:33:02):
they felt they get better, that we take pride in
developing players. They like again the changes when it comes
to our team culture and what the standards and values
that we're establishing, and also our investment into developing them
as people not just as volleyball players. That's very important

(01:33:25):
to me, and we get a positive feedback about that too.
So I'm excited about all of them coming back. And
you know when you hear like this is the best
sprint for me, and you know, I got better. I'm
excited about volleyball. What else can we ask? I think

(01:33:45):
we are on a good, good path of developing something special,
and that's why I came to Cincinnati to develop a
championship program.

Speaker 4 (01:33:51):
What has recruiting been like from the outside, both via
you know, the portal transfers, but obviously also at the
high school level as well.

Speaker 12 (01:34:00):
Yeah, we get a mix. We have a two transfers
so currently signed, and I'm thinking now one is if
I can if I can announce it publicly, but she
she's been everything is okay. We have a liberal from
Middle Tennessee.

Speaker 4 (01:34:16):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:34:16):
This would be her fifth year, Mackenzie Johnson. We are
excited about her and we have any spies who is
a freshman of the Year and Conference USA. She's a setter.
She will be a sophomore that we have a nice
mix of freshman high school freshmen. We are looking at
transfer portal opens for US for volleyball on May first

(01:34:37):
through the fifteenth, and we are hoping to pick up
a couple more players, at least one we need. We're
still looking for a middle blocker, so that's a priority
for us. But it's going to be a nice mix
of returners and new players. Will have almost half of
the team is going to be new, so we will see.

(01:34:58):
It's going to be a test of the work that
we've done this spring and when it comes to our
culture and you know, our non negotiables and how the
team is gonna just merge. I guess the new new players,
it's it's a big influx of new teammates. But I
feel good about it. I think we have players who

(01:35:20):
have a good understanding what we are about and what
our team identity is going to be, and we're going
to just continue where we stopped at the end of April,
and once we get in the gym with our new
team in the in August, we're going to just continue
getting better.

Speaker 4 (01:35:35):
Danielle Atomach as well as the new volleyball coach at
the University of Cincinnati. You mentioned playing against Pittsburgh and
pitt being a final four program, and it's it's got
to be so exciting to be in this sport right now.
And I think I might have mentioned this to you
when I when I chatted with you when you were
formally introduced. I never thought I would be at a

(01:35:56):
restaurant and see the Final four in women's volleyball on
national television on every TV in the place. It feels
like the sport is growing. It feels like it is
catching on. It feels like some of the most high
profile players in the sport are becoming really, really well known.
It has to be as a volleyball lifer, knowing how

(01:36:17):
much you love this sport, you've made a living in,
and it's got to be such an exciting time to
be involved in this sport.

Speaker 12 (01:36:23):
It is. I think you're absolutely right, the excitement around
our sport, and like you said, seeing the viewership, you're
just breaking records. Every year when it comes to Final four,
colleges are breaking records. I think the past of that
like we are catching up. But the momentum of our

(01:36:44):
sport is unbelievable and I think the best is yet
to come. You know, we have a two professional leagues
right now. Our players don't have to go overseas to
play volleyball after they're done with college. They can stay
here and play and professionally in the United States. It's
just very exciting to be a part of this sport

(01:37:08):
and I think it's just going to continue growing. Volleyball.
For those who maybe don't know, volleyball is the number
one women's sports girls sport at a high school level.
When it comes to participation numbers, it's ahead of basketball,
and it's just and this is also it's even more
remarkable because we don't have a male counterpart that drives

(01:37:32):
our sports. We are kind of like, you know what
men's basketball is for women's basketball. That's that women's volleyball
is much ahead of men's volleyball, and men's volleyball is
actually the fastest growing sport in the country right now.
So it's exciting. That's why I was. I'm so thrilled
and grateful for our administration to support the initiative of

(01:37:54):
ticketing volleyball. And this is also to catch up actually
with the rest of the Big Twelve. Every program in
the Big Twelve tickets volleyball, and I was, I was
excited to hear that the first day we sold ten
court side tickets and and I actually I'm going to

(01:38:16):
check today after we're done to see where we are
with numbers. And I want to encourage people who love
volleyball and maybe those who just want to check just come,
come and and and check us out. Like I always say,
my job as a coach and my staff is to
put to put a great program on the floor, make
it entertaining. And I know, you know everybody, people love

(01:38:36):
to see winners, and that's what we're going to do.
And I believe in that, you know, saying, if you
build it, they will come. And and this is what
I'm also going to say. If you come and you
don't love it, my email is on the website. Just
email me and I'm going to refund you. If you
don't love what you see, you don't have a great experience,
just email me. But I I saw. I believe so

(01:39:01):
much in what we're building and what our team is
going to be about that you will come and you're
going to be hooked. And we want to build a
community around the Cincinnati Volleyball and once you meet our
amazing players, you're gonna love volleyball even more. And if
you've only still seen you know high school or middle school,
college volleyball is nothing like that. It's powerful, it's athletic,

(01:39:22):
it's fast paced, it's a true team sport. You cannot
win with just one player. So I just hope that
our Cincinnati volleyball and a Bearcat in a nation is
going to support us and create a great environment for
our team to play and make Cincinnati one of the

(01:39:45):
highest places for the visiting teams to come and play.
You mentioned I'm going to just tell you this, Pittsburgh
I was when I was doing research about the tickets,
just kind of to see what other teams are doing.
Louisville and Pittsburgh. Pitt was both of those teams were
several years ago on the bottom of the ACC and
now they're powerhouses. They're in the final four. Right, both

(01:40:09):
programs have a waiting list for season tickets. Oh wow,
it's the outest ticket in town. Yeah, there's a wait list,
waiting list for Louisville and for Pittsburgh. And we all
know Nebraska sells out their facility every year. They're break
you know, they're breaking all kinds of records. So that's
kind of if you want to, that's that's that's my

(01:40:29):
you know, dream big vision that we create that type
of a program here at Cincinnati and the teammate everybody,
our city and are great university, proud.

Speaker 2 (01:40:41):
One moment we need everybody had no doubt about it. Yes,
and you can't beat that deal.

Speaker 4 (01:40:46):
By the way, seventy five dollars general emission court side
seating season tickets available for one to twenty five. I
was at Bearcats at the ballpark night and you delivered
the game ball and Elie Dela Cruz had a grand
slam in the red one.

Speaker 2 (01:41:00):
I don't think that's a coincidence.

Speaker 10 (01:41:02):
I don't you know.

Speaker 2 (01:41:03):
I don't think so.

Speaker 12 (01:41:04):
By the way, Ell, you lived in my building, and
I cannot wait to meet him and to tell him
why he hit. I just put a good mojo in
that ball, and you know, I didn't even know that
I did a good job. I got a few comments,
they said, hey, coach, nice job delivering the game ball.
It didn't roll down from the mound, and I didn't know.
I was like, well, I think that's what I'm supposed

(01:41:24):
to do. So yeah, it was such a great experience
and I'm hooked. I'm the Red fan and I will
be going to more games.

Speaker 6 (01:41:33):
It was.

Speaker 12 (01:41:34):
It was a wonderful experience for me. And what tells
him into to see him in Grand Slam on a
bubblehead night. It was awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:41:43):
It was awesome. We gotta tell Eli to come to
a game. That's what you got to do. You came
to come to a game.

Speaker 12 (01:41:49):
You know you might break attendance record. If that happens,
that's a great idea.

Speaker 4 (01:41:54):
Okay, well make sure you give me credit for it.
We'll do this as the season gets closer. It's been
fun having you on. Enjoy your offseason. I know you
have a lot of recruiting to do and we'll talk soon.

Speaker 2 (01:42:05):
Thanks so much, coach, Thank you so much.

Speaker 12 (01:42:07):
Go Bearcats.

Speaker 2 (01:42:09):
All right, there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:42:10):
Daniellatomach, the volleyball coach at the University of Cincinnati, show
us over, Gotta go. Stacey Sirels, the Georgia offensive line coach,
on Dylan Fairchild, Joe Goodberry on the Bengals draft class. Hopefully,
we're recapping Red's Cardinals tonight, and so much more. The
fun starts at three zero five tomorrow afternoon. Thanks to
Drew Wester Heidi for producing, filling in for Terroran Plan,

(01:42:31):
and my thanks to you for listening. Have an awesome night.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. This is
Jeff for Tri State Men's Health.

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