June 26, 2026 • 33 mins
Mo is back! He talks about the Reds, Terry Francona, the World Cup, takes your calls, and more on ESPN 1530!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The Cincinnati Reds are entering the final weekend of June
five games under five hundred thirty seven and forty two.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This is not just.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
A disappointing season. Hi, my name's Moegar. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening. It is awesome to
be back, even if somewhat temporarily. My thanks to Chad
Brendle for pinch hitting the last four days. I feel
like I missed a lot.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I feel like, in what.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Is ordinarily not a very newsy time of year, there
was a lot going on, much of it related to
the angst we all feel about the Cincinnati Reds. We
have a lot of ground to cover, and I think
that's the problem. By the way, show preview is available
on Twitter at Moegar. You can watch it now thanks
to share Facts Credit Union. Here's what I suggest you do.
(00:56):
Go to share facts dot org, learn about the benefits
of membership, and then swing by your nearest share Fax
branch and become a member just like me. So, the
Reds have had a terrible week. Terry Francona has had
a terrible week. The Reds have had a terrible last
two months, the good vibes and positive feelings of the
(01:19):
twenty and eleven start completely and totally out the window.
They just got swept by the Milwaukee Brewers. Not the
big market, high spending Milwaukee Brewers, but the small market,
relatively cheap Milwaukee Brewers that continued to run circles around
the Reds, that continued to make appearances in the postseason.
While we sit here and wonder when are the Reds
(01:41):
going to finish higher than third place for the first
time in nearly a decade and a half. This is
a disappointing season. And I think there's a lot of
different things that are frustrating about a disappointing season. Right now,
it feels like there's no way out of this. I mean,
it genuinely does. And maybe we're all wrong, but I
can't find anybody who who really believes the Reds are
(02:01):
going to be good enough, well constructed enough, or even
lucky enough to play themselves out of this hole. They're
not winning the National League Central, They're probably not making
the postseason. They're gonna have to be nine over five
hundred the rest of the way just to equal last
season's win total of eighty three, and my money is
on eighty three wins not being good enough to get
(02:23):
back to the playoffs. And by the way, despite the
fact that their series against the New York Yankees is
in the rearview mirror, and despite the fact that they've
played one series against the Milwaukee Brewers, they still have
the toughest remaining schedule in all of baseball.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
This is a bad season.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
This is a season that, quite frankly to me, has
taken on the same feel of the twenty twenty five
Bengals season.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Just abjectly miserable, not fun.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And I think more than anything else, what made last
season so frustrating is you thought, by then, you know
Joe Burrow in his prime, the Bengals will be consistent
league competing four championships, consistently appearing in the postseason. Not
that they'll make it every single year, but year six
of Joe Burrow was not supposed to be a third
consecutive non playoff year. Last season was just miserable. This
(03:14):
season is just miserable. And it's not just because so
far the losses outweigh the wins. It's not just because
the Reds have had some bad luck. It's not just
because the Reds have had a lot of guys have
disappointing seasons. I think what makes this season unique is
this was supposed to be the payoff.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
This is not just a year.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Really good organizations have disappointing seasons. Ordinarily well constructed teams
have disappointing seasons. There are injuries, they're guys who want
to perform. Maybe there's a whole bunch of teams that
are just better than expected and they have.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Their way with you. Whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
There are disappointing seasons. But then there are years like
this twenty twenty and I would throw twenty twenty five
in it. This was supposed to be the culmination of
years of building a team. And if you're a fan waiting, hell,
we can go back to any point in recent Reds history.
I'll go back to twenty thirteen. Why not like to
(04:18):
illustrate to an outsider why this franchise and why this
particular baseball team is so frustrating. Let's go back twenty thirteen,
the last time I think you could say the Reds
were objectively good. Won ninety games, made the postseason, lost
in the wildcard that came on the heels of winning
(04:39):
ninety seven games and blowing a two to oh series
lead against the San Francisco Giants that offseason from twenty
thirteen to twenty fourteen, and chances are you don't need
a history lesson. I'm not gonna waste a ton of
your time. But yeah, they fired Dusty Baker, Shinsu Chew Leaves,
and then I think the front office took like the
rest of the winter off didn't do anything to make
(05:01):
a good but flawed team any better. The results the
following season were predictable, as were the results of the
next four years, which were ninety four more loss ninety
four losses or more every single year from twenty fourteen
through twenty twenty one. The Reds never finished higher than
third place. They made the postseason once in the drive
(05:23):
through season of twenty twenty and then they were briefly
escorted out of the postseason by the Atlanta Braves, who
never gave up a run in the best of three series.
Then they hit the reset button in twenty twenty two.
They create they didn't necessarily tank, but it's not like
they really tried to win. They kind of intentionally lost.
(05:44):
They unloaded pretty much anybody, Jesse Winker, e Juhaniosuarez, Sonny Gray,
Tucker Barnhardt. Later on that season, Luis Castillo, Tyler Mallley
and put us through just a season of misery. They
were three and twenty two when the season was over
before Mother's Day. They lose one hundred games for just
(06:07):
the second time in franchise history. But there's like this
implied message, right, it's we've got a plan, right, there's
And some of it was more than implied. Remember we
don't want peaks or valleys, something that never made a
lot of sense to me because I think peaks are
pretty good. But still there was this implied message, Hey,
things are gonna suck right now, and things are gonna
(06:28):
be rough right now, and things are gonna be miserable
right now, and just hang with us. Remember where else
you're gonna go now? A lot of people went somewhere else.
Nobody went to Reds games that year, a lot of
folks tuned out the team before the season even started.
But there was this implied message of hey, yes what
we're doing is painful, and yes what we're doing is unpopular,
(06:50):
but what we're doing, if we do it right, it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Result in a payoff. And that payoff is gonna come
not in.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Like twenty thirty two, not in twenty two, twenty nine,
but sometime give us three or four years. Well, here
we are four years later. This is the payoff.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
This, This is the payoff watching Dane Meyers bat third.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
That's the payoff watching a manager who doesn't know what
kind of hitters can hit against Sam Mall.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
That's the payoff. Thirty seven and forty two, five games.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Under five hundred going into the final weekend of June.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
This, this is the payoff for that. For those who's stuck.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Through one hundred losses, for those who have stuck through
more than a decade of basically never really competing for anything,
for those who have stuck through three decades of not
advancing in the postseason. With over the last couple of years,
the implied message from the Cincinnati Reds being hey, hang
with us, and then.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Twenty twenty five, twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Six, then there we're gonna your patients will be paid off.
This this is the payoff for that. Really, So like,
from an outsider's perspective, I guess it looks like, all right,
they're having a crummy season.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
That happens.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
They're having a crummy season, and let's be honest, not
like that. Many people thought the Reds were gonna be
really really really really really really really good, which could
also be part of the problem.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But this is it.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
This isn't the first time I've talked about this, and
I'm not the only person to have talked about this.
I go back to three years ago, man, three years ago,
three years ago. At this time, the Reds had just
won twelve consecutive games. They had vaulted into contention. They
had this fun core with a brand of baseball that
was intoxicating at times, and it felt like they re
energized the fan base. And yeah, man, that team had flaws.
(08:42):
It's starting pitching stunk. But who among us in the
summer of twenty twenty three didn't think not so much
about the fall of twenty twenty three, but what the
summer of twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six could
look like. Fast forward three years later. This is what
it looks like. I'm sure you agree with me. I
(09:05):
would be willing to bet you agree with me. This
is so incredibly frustrating and disappointing, and it leaves you
feeling helpless and hopeless. Like it's one thing to talk
about all the stuff that has gone wrong this season,
(09:27):
it's one thing to talk about all the stuff that
hasn't gone right since that summer of twenty twenty three.
It's I guess, one thing to talk about how frustrating
it is that this is the payoff to that season
just four years ago when they lost one hundred games.
But it's something else entirely to have a complete and
total lack of faith in anybody with that organization that
(09:52):
a turnaround, either in the short term or long term
is possible. And I think that's that's part of the problem, right.
It's one thing to sift through the carnage of a
bad season. It's one thing to kind of lament all
the stuff that didn't go your team's way. But as
we watch this with half a season to go, and
(10:16):
we talk about the next what eighty three games, and
then when we start to flip the page to next
season and the rest of the second half of the decade,
it is, at least from my perspective, almost impossible to
imagine that the people who have taken what felt like
(10:41):
a pretty promising situation three years ago and driven it
into an iceberg. It's hard to put much faith in
those people overseeing, being in charge of and engineering a
meaningful turnaround. And yes that includes the manager. So there's
(11:01):
a lot there. I don't know, and I am all
ears today. Why should any of us think that this
is going to get dramatically better? And I could frame
that from the perspective of twenty twenty six the rest
of this season, because I'm I'm sure, I'm sure there's
someone within the sound of my voice right now who
(11:24):
is going to point to the calendar and point to
Hunter Green coming back and Emilio Pagan coming back, and hey,
there's time, mode, don't worry, They've got time. It's still
we're not even really to the halfway point yet, which
they will arrive at this weekend in Pittsburgh, or we
can make it about beyond twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Why should any of us believe.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
That things are going to get dramatically better with this franchise,
either this year, next year, the year after that, anytime
this decade, or really at any point in the future.
When you have been patient and when you have as
many have not all. But when you have nodded along
(12:07):
with all the pleas for patients and bear with us
and hang in there, and we got to do some
things that in the short term are gonna hurt, but
there's promise of a new day not that deep into
the future. And you continually not pay off your plans
or your pleas for patients, you get to a point
where nobody's gonna believe that things are going to get
(12:30):
better anytime soon. And you could tell me if I'm wrong,
but I think that's how most of us feel right now.
It's certainly how I feel. If you feel different, good God,
five point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. You can
pump some hope into me. You can pump some hope
into this fan base. I don't know where the hope
comes from, quite frankly. And if that sounds like an
(12:52):
overreaction to thirty seven and forty two, fine, but it's not.
It's an overreaction to thirty years years, thirteen years, four years.
You pick at mugger on Twitter. Thanks to Delta Dental,
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all
good at Delta Dental, oh dot com. Five point three, seven, four, nine,
(13:16):
fifteen thirty will get you in. We are very wide
open today. We've got some Bengal stuff a little bit
later on the latest twist in the Brendan Soorsby situation.
Now the CFL has told him, yeah, hard patch or
not coming north at a border. So I don't know
if the Arena Football League or the ia L or
any of the I don't know if there's a Mexican
(13:36):
Football League. Maybe there's a chance Brendan Soorsby could play
football somewhere, but it's not going to be in Canada
at twenty twenty six, ain't going to be in the
NFL either.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
I do have some thoughts on that. We'll get to
a little bit later.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
On nineteen after three o'clock, I want you to play
a game of pretend. I want you to play a
little bit of a game of make believe, the same
game we played with Joey Vada. Will play it with
Terry Francona next on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffics o Agar. Thank you
so much for listening today.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Hopefully your weekend is off to an awesome start, I
felt like in.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I was out of.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Town for the early part of this week, in town
for the last couple of days, listening to Austin on
since he three sixty and listening to Lance and following
along on social media. I felt like, since Terry Francona
became the manager of the Reds, that this was the
week where he has gotten the most amount of scrutiny, heat, criticism,
(14:41):
whatever word you want to use. And you could certainly
understand why. And I don't know that we need to
re litigate all of the decisions that Tito made in
the Brewers series, but I want you to do this. Man.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
We used to do this with Joey Vado.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Joey Vado toward the end when he was not putting
up Joey Vado numbers. In fact, he was not putting
up numbers that you would find passable for anybody. I
used to say, like, pretend look at the numbers. Just
look at him like a corporate being counter does a spreadsheet.
(15:16):
Just look at the numbers. Forget who the guy is,
Forget what you know about the guy, forget your history
with the guy, forget the fact that you own his jersey.
Look at the numbers. Is is that really somebody that
should be playing every day? Is that really somebody that
should have a roster spot? Is that somebody that you
really want to extend the relationship with. And it's hard
(15:37):
to do that, I admit it's it's hard to do that.
It's it's I think it's harder to do with players
that are beloved. It's certainly hard for me to do.
It was hard for me to do with a guy
like Joey Vado, who's one of my five favorite Reds
of all time. But let's do something similar. Let's do
this with with Tito. Still it with Terry Francona. Let's pretend.
Let's pretend that. Let's let's not even pretend that we
(15:59):
don't know about his Let's pretend his resume is entirely different.
Instead of a two world series with the Red Sox
and the the al Pennant where they came this close
to winning one with the Guardians, I think they were
still the Indians then, But regardless, Let's let's pretend like
it's not even Tito's first managerial job. Let's let's pretend
he had a managerial job somewhere. He was the manager
(16:20):
of like the Twins, and he was there for like
four and a half years and got bounced, and maybe
he made the postseason once. But he's not this beloved
figure in the game. He doesn't have a Hall of
Fame resume. Let's let's pretend that's who he is. Let's
pretend he's got David Bell's managerial resume, which before he
came to Cincinnati, his managerial resume was of the Louisville Bats,
(16:41):
and he had been a coach and it worked at
a front office. Let's let's pretend that we don't have
this resume to fall back on. And you watch or
listen to the Reds on a daily basis, would you
think the Reds are getting great managing?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Because I feel back.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I feel like for a lot of folks is well,
I'll defer to Tito because of his resume. And I
understand like when people who have track records, they get
the benefit of the doubt more than people who don't.
But at some point, like you have to be judged
on the job you're doing in the present, right, So
(17:18):
let's strike from the equation. Everything we know about Tito,
beloved figure in the game, fun guy to listen to
by all accounts, legitimately great dude and a guy whose
managerial resume has him fast tracked to Cooperstown. If you
knew nothing about that, if this was a guy in
his first managerial job or a guy in his second
(17:41):
managerial job but the first stop was forgettable, would you
look at the work the Reds are getting out of
the dugout and think, man, the manager's doing a great job.
I'm not gonna ignore what many have told me about
the role that Tito had in last year's quote success.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
And I use quotes because they won eighty three games.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But I've talked to enough folks who have said, like
the guiding hand through all of those stretches where it
felt like the season was teetering on the brink had
a positive impact. I will absolutely acknowledge that. I think
it's true. But this team this year, as you've watched,
this is not an overreaction to a couple of questionable
moves on Wednesday Night. As you've watched this season, do
(18:24):
you think the Reds are getting great managing. I don't
believe the Reds are gonna fire Terry Francona. If anything,
he's gonna fire them and I don't know if that's
gonna happen at the end of this season.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I have no idea. It's unfair to speculate, but like.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
If if what's gonna make him immune to criticism is
what he did with the Boston Red Sox nearly two
decades ago, or what he did in Cleveland. I think
that's a little bit unfair to the job that he's
doing right now. And I'm not sure that the job
that he's doing right now. Like I'm usually very quick to,
(19:01):
I don't know, deflect criticism of a manager, but there
have been many occasions this year. I can only speak
for myself where I've been left scratching my head. And
this is not just about bunting on Wednesday night. If
you're wondering about that, I didn't like it. Don't understand
why you bunt to either take the bat out of
(19:21):
your best hitters' hands or try to advance a slow
runner at second base. But whatever, I feel like there
have been a lot of heads scratching moves this season,
whether it's lineup construction which the manager is not entirely
responsible for, or just some in game decisions. But what
I don't think we could use as a disqualifier to
(19:44):
even have the conversation is what he did with the
Boston Red Sox twenty two years ago or what do
you did with the Cleveland Guardians. I judge him on
how he's performing now. I don't know that you could
argue that the Reds are getting great work out of
their manager this year.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
And by the way, the job, the job that he took,
is the job that he has.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And I will make that make sense coming up in
the four o'clock hour right now, though we have folks
waiting patiently, we'll open things up five point three seven
four nine, fifteen thirty after sports Headlines on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Traffic from the sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet,
Home of lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit approval
from their family to yours for life, kelseyshev, dot Com,
Reds and Pirates. First of three in Pittsburgh tonight Andrew
Abbott Paul Skens on the Hill six forty this evening
on seven hundred WLW. Your Red starting lineup tonight, duns
(20:47):
and center Dela Cruz plays short and bats second JJ
Bledean left. Sal Stewart plays first, low as Dhing Suarez
at third, bat six Steer and Wright Stevenson behind the plate.
Matt McLean second base and bats ninth. Tony Santion headed
to the injured list with an oblique strain. Zach mccambley,
who sounds like a children's book character, is up from Louisville,
(21:10):
Florence y'all is hosting Evansville tonight. The CFL has said
to its teams, none of you can sign former UC
quarterback Brendan Sorosby. And I am not exceptionally well versed
in international soccer, but I think I am watching the
single greatest individual performance I've ever seen. So France and
Norway are playing for the top spot in Group I,
(21:33):
and Uzman Dembele already has a hat trick and we're
less than thirty eight minutes into the game. He plays
for France, who leads Norway by a score of three
to one. It's the second fastest hat trick in World
Cup history. Elite uniform matchup very good, Yes, you're right, Austin,
(21:54):
very good uniform matchup. Norway and France. These are two
top notch unis. What do they call it. If a
guy gets four goals, it's two goals. Two goals as
a brace. Three is a hat trick? What's four? Is
it a grand slam?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I'm looking it up.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Get back to me on that, and uh and we'll
update the audience. A hall, it's a hall. If you
get four goals, it's a hall. It's called a hall. Okay,
what's five?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Has anybody ever scored five goals in the game that
wasn't like a game between eight year olds. Probably my
daughter played in a soccer game this year and some
kid on the other team I think had nine goals.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
It's unbelievable, this says a I don't even know if
I could just say this a glut. A glut six
is a double hat trick.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Okay, it makes sense.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Glut seven is a touchdown, so goal brace, hat trick,
hall glut, double hat trick.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
All right, Well, this dude scored a goal in the
seventh minute, the twentieth minute, and thirty second minute, and
that's been extraordinarily entertaining. And now there's a guy from
Norway on the ground crying. All right, let's talk to
some other folks. Been in northern Kentucky. You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Hi Ben, how are you?
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Hey? Moe?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Can you hear me?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I can hear you? Can you hear me?
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Fantastic weekend, man, the phones are working off to a
good start.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Weekend is off to an amazing start. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Hey, great. So I enjoyed, you know, the Reds piece there.
I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts, you know,
And I don't know if it's Tito. I just feel
like it's been a series of, you know, bad decisions
that have been probably more you know, regular than an outlier,
you know, over the last dozen and a half dozen years.
You know, what's the fix? Though? You know? I can
I can remember back, you know, I'm a long time listener,
(23:43):
first caller. I can I can remember you saying the
last couple of years, you know, do you trust these people?
Do you trust them to get it right? I think
a resounding amount of callers and fans, longtime Reds fans,
would feel like that trust has definitely been tested and
you know, perhaps on the side. But what's what's the fix? Like,
how do I know We're not going to be just
sitting here next summer having this conversation or three summers
(24:06):
from that. Like what I know, you speak with your dollars,
but people around here you know a lot of the Reds.
And no matter what you know, I'm one of those.
I take my kids, I go over there a handful
of times a year, and I watch and listen every night.
So how do we fix it? Mos? I don't, I
don't know, I don't. I have no answer. I just
want your thoughts on how does it get any better?
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I'll get off and they have to and this is
this is a cop out answer, Thank you, Ben. They
have to get good at something like what are the Reds?
Is an organization good at? What do you identify them with? Like,
drafting is not a short term fix, but it's never
been more of a short term fix because I feel
like the path to the big leagues has never been easier, right,
(24:46):
and not easier, it's never been quicker for for for
guys who are already I feel like guys get caught
up sooner than they used to. And that's a very
inarticulate way of putting it. But I mean we did
this two weeks ago. Look at their look at their
their track record of drafting in the second, third, fourth,
and fifth round, and frankly, even with some of their
first rounders, they've got to get really good at developing.
(25:07):
Like Nick Krawl has talked about, we want to do
something that's sustainable.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Okay, fine.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
They've also acknowledged they're not going to be like the
biggest players in free agency, going after the absolute top guys,
and maybe there's a change in baseball's economic model that
makes it easier for them to do that. So they're
gonna have to be a team that is consistently good
at a couple of different things. Drafting, developing, consistently cranking
out players through the minor league system that get to
(25:33):
the big leagues ready to contribute. They're gonna have to
be really good at turning over rocks to find hidden gems.
They're gonna have to be really good at like the Brewers.
This week, Joe Koonel closed out two games against him. Now,
I don't know if you remember Joe Knell pitching in
Cincinnati and an era of six across multiple seasons at Dudes,
pitching in high leverage situations for a first place team
(25:57):
against his former club. I don't know if they have
permanent he fixed him, He's only pitched in seven games.
He was cut loose by the A's this year. But
is there a small example of like, Hey, here's this
guy who is no good elsewhere and he shows up
in Milwaukee and they fix him. Can the Reds get
good at that?
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Like?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
What are they good at?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Organizationally, the identity of the Reds is what are they
good at? They trade guys and they sell high and
they get a lot in return, and those players gives
them years of.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Quality.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Like I don't think you would say the Reds are
good at that. At flipping established players for really good prospects.
Are they great at free agency? Are they great at
making trades? Are they great at player development? Are they
great at drafting? I don't think the answer to any
one of those questions is yes. It doesn't get fixed
(26:56):
until they get good at something. You know, we did
this two weeks ago, and it's easy to do that.
It's easy to do now because the Brewers just played
here and played a relatively crisp brand of baseball that
you don't necessarily identify with the Reds. I did this
topic two weeks ago, and I said, if I if
(27:18):
I were Phil Castellini, or Bob Castellini. The question that
I would have for Nick Crawl would be why are
they always good? And I would ask it again, and
maybe with different terms after what happened this week at GABP.
Why can we never beat them? Why do we never
finish higher than them in the standings? Why are we
(27:38):
always losing head to head against them? Why are they
always in the playoffs? Now? I don't know that you
could wave a magic wand and suddenly get good at
what the Milwaukee Brewers are doing, but man, that'd be
the first.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Place I looked.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Team with quote limited resources, a team that is constantly
losing and often in trades some of their best performing players,
and they're still good.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Every year.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
You could throw at me, mo, they never advance in
the postseason, they never get to the World Series. Okay, cool,
They're gonna make the postseason this year for the eighth
time in nine years. If you told me right now
the Reds will be in the postseason and eight of
the next nine years, I'll take my chances with October
and I'll take that right now.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
What are they good at?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
And if you like research or read anything about the
Milwaukee Brewers, there's a few different things.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
They're good at.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Getting a lot out of players that maybe didn't give
their previous teams a lot. It feels like they have
a manager who has zero tolerance for mistakes. Read about
Pat Murphy, Like when you read about Pat Murphy, you'll
read you'll read something that you'll say to yourself, like
(28:51):
I want to read this about Terry Francona. Just an
unwillingness to accept mistakes. So it feels like they're good
at developing. Feels like they're good at getting some value
from the players they do trade away. They don't bat
a thousand, no team does. But they're good. They're good
at baseball. They're good at at having a an organizational identity.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
What's the reds? What are I good at? When you're
not good.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
At anything, I cannot trust you, man, Like the quick
fix is okay, we'll fire a bunch of people and
put new folks in. There may be a lot of
validity to that, whether it's Nick Crawl's job, Brad Meher's job,
Terry Francona's job, the job of director of pitching slast
pitching coach, any one of the coaches they have, Like fine,
(29:41):
swap some people out mass firings, but like, where are
you gonna be hiring from. I'd be hiring from Milwaukee,
I'd be hiring from Cleveland, I'd be hiring from the
Tampa Bay Rays. I'd at least be looking into those
organizations to see if I can get people to fill
different roles here that could perhaps give us a chance
to emulate to success they have in the cities that.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
I just mentioned.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Gotta get good at something, gotta have some sort of
organizational identity. You know, for years we used to complain that,
you know, Sports Illustrated ten twelve years ago had on
the cover of the magazine the Cardinal Way, and this
was kind of at the height of like everybody here
(30:26):
hating the Cardinals, and it was, yeah, we didn't like
it here, but like, okay, cool, what's the reds Way?
Speaker 3 (30:32):
What is the Reds Way?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Do they consistently crank out players by the time they
get to the big leagues they don't need to go back.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
I don't feel like the answer is yes.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I read for you two weeks ago the long, long,
long list of second, third, fourth, and fifth round draft
picks that ever either never got to the big leagues,
got to the big leagues and had a cup of coffee,
or when they got to the big league and had success,
they were elsewhere. What are they good at? So my answer,
(31:09):
and it sounds like a get good at something. Get
good at drafting, Get good at development, get good at
identifying the right free agents, get good at acquiring the
right players in trades. Get good at selling high on
guys who maybe you're not going to resign to get
prospects for them. Like, get good at something. I'm not
talking about the non baseball stuff. You know, Austin focused
on this this week. You know, the the idea. It's
(31:32):
not the idea, it's the reality. They're good at everything
but baseball. They're good at giveaways, good at the ballparking experience,
good at the Hall of Fame, good at the community
fund like awesome at all that stuff, community outreach, alumni events, concerts,
ballpark experience. Ten out of ten across the border. They're
good at all that stuff. The baseball stuff, the stuff
(31:53):
that's measured in wins and losses, the stuff that is
reflected by looking at the standings. What are they good at? Consistently?
What are they good at? There are minor successes here
and there. You know, you could you could point to
this year as roster and say, well, golly ge Nick
Crawl did a good job in getting JJ bledeh. Okay,
like if the biggest feather in your cap is JJ bleda,
(32:14):
that's a problem. Or hey, Nathaniel Lowe was a nice pick.
Oh okay, fine, But like the macro stuff, big picture stuff,
what are they good at organizationally? As long as the
answer is nothing, or as long as I keep having
to ask the question, there's no fix In the offing
nine from four, This is ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
You know, if you missed this show, or if you
missed the person who hosted it the previous four days
this week, you could always go back and listen on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
That's where we put stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
We put shows, we put interviews, we put segments not
just this show, but since e three sixty where Austin
el Moore has had on Ben Baby and Tom Gala
on the World Cup and Mike Florio on the Brendan
Sorosby situation. You can find all of that and more
on the iHeartRadio app. And of course you could Listen
to ESPN fifteen thirty twenty four to seven wherever you
(33:10):
go on the iHeartRadio app. Podcasts of this show are
a service of long neck sports grilling. Awesome place to
watch the Reds this weekend, the World Cup, or whatever
may suit your fancy. It's coming up on four o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati sports station.
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The Cincinnati Reds are entering the final weekend of June
five games under five hundred thirty seven and forty two.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This is not just.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
A disappointing season. Hi, my name's Moegar. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening. It is awesome to
be back, even if somewhat temporarily. My thanks to Chad
Brendle for pinch hitting the last four days. I feel
like I missed a lot.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I feel like, in what.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Is ordinarily not a very newsy time of year, there
was a lot going on, much of it related to
the angst we all feel about the Cincinnati Reds. We
have a lot of ground to cover, and I think
that's the problem. By the way, show preview is available
on Twitter at Moegar. You can watch it now thanks
to share Facts Credit Union. Here's what I suggest you do.
(00:56):
Go to share facts dot org, learn about the benefits
of membership, and then swing by your nearest share Fax
branch and become a member just like me. So, the
Reds have had a terrible week. Terry Francona has had
a terrible week. The Reds have had a terrible last
two months, the good vibes and positive feelings of the
(01:19):
twenty and eleven start completely and totally out the window.
They just got swept by the Milwaukee Brewers. Not the
big market, high spending Milwaukee Brewers, but the small market,
relatively cheap Milwaukee Brewers that continued to run circles around
the Reds, that continued to make appearances in the postseason.
While we sit here and wonder when are the Reds
(01:41):
going to finish higher than third place for the first
time in nearly a decade and a half. This is
a disappointing season. And I think there's a lot of
different things that are frustrating about a disappointing season. Right now,
it feels like there's no way out of this. I mean,
it genuinely does. And maybe we're all wrong, but I
can't find anybody who who really believes the Reds are
(02:01):
going to be good enough, well constructed enough, or even
lucky enough to play themselves out of this hole. They're
not winning the National League Central, They're probably not making
the postseason. They're gonna have to be nine over five
hundred the rest of the way just to equal last
season's win total of eighty three, and my money is
on eighty three wins not being good enough to get
(02:23):
back to the playoffs. And by the way, despite the
fact that their series against the New York Yankees is
in the rearview mirror, and despite the fact that they've
played one series against the Milwaukee Brewers, they still have
the toughest remaining schedule in all of baseball.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
This is a bad season.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
This is a season that, quite frankly to me, has
taken on the same feel of the twenty twenty five
Bengals season.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Just abjectly miserable, not fun.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And I think more than anything else, what made last
season so frustrating is you thought, by then, you know
Joe Burrow in his prime, the Bengals will be consistent
league competing four championships, consistently appearing in the postseason. Not
that they'll make it every single year, but year six
of Joe Burrow was not supposed to be a third
consecutive non playoff year. Last season was just miserable. This
(03:14):
season is just miserable. And it's not just because so
far the losses outweigh the wins. It's not just because
the Reds have had some bad luck. It's not just
because the Reds have had a lot of guys have
disappointing seasons. I think what makes this season unique is
this was supposed to be the payoff.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
This is not just a year.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Really good organizations have disappointing seasons. Ordinarily well constructed teams
have disappointing seasons. There are injuries, they're guys who want
to perform. Maybe there's a whole bunch of teams that
are just better than expected and they have.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Their way with you. Whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
There are disappointing seasons. But then there are years like
this twenty twenty and I would throw twenty twenty five
in it. This was supposed to be the culmination of
years of building a team. And if you're a fan waiting, hell,
we can go back to any point in recent Reds history.
I'll go back to twenty thirteen. Why not like to
(04:18):
illustrate to an outsider why this franchise and why this
particular baseball team is so frustrating. Let's go back twenty thirteen,
the last time I think you could say the Reds
were objectively good. Won ninety games, made the postseason, lost
in the wildcard that came on the heels of winning
(04:39):
ninety seven games and blowing a two to oh series
lead against the San Francisco Giants that offseason from twenty
thirteen to twenty fourteen, and chances are you don't need
a history lesson. I'm not gonna waste a ton of
your time. But yeah, they fired Dusty Baker, Shinsu Chew Leaves,
and then I think the front office took like the
rest of the winter off didn't do anything to make
(05:01):
a good but flawed team any better. The results the
following season were predictable, as were the results of the
next four years, which were ninety four more loss ninety
four losses or more every single year from twenty fourteen
through twenty twenty one. The Reds never finished higher than
third place. They made the postseason once in the drive
(05:23):
through season of twenty twenty and then they were briefly
escorted out of the postseason by the Atlanta Braves, who
never gave up a run in the best of three series.
Then they hit the reset button in twenty twenty two.
They create they didn't necessarily tank, but it's not like
they really tried to win. They kind of intentionally lost.
(05:44):
They unloaded pretty much anybody, Jesse Winker, e Juhaniosuarez, Sonny Gray,
Tucker Barnhardt. Later on that season, Luis Castillo, Tyler Mallley
and put us through just a season of misery. They
were three and twenty two when the season was over
before Mother's Day. They lose one hundred games for just
(06:07):
the second time in franchise history. But there's like this
implied message, right, it's we've got a plan, right, there's
And some of it was more than implied. Remember we
don't want peaks or valleys, something that never made a
lot of sense to me because I think peaks are
pretty good. But still there was this implied message, Hey,
things are gonna suck right now, and things are gonna
(06:28):
be rough right now, and things are gonna be miserable
right now, and just hang with us. Remember where else
you're gonna go now? A lot of people went somewhere else.
Nobody went to Reds games that year, a lot of
folks tuned out the team before the season even started.
But there was this implied message of hey, yes what
we're doing is painful, and yes what we're doing is unpopular,
(06:50):
but what we're doing, if we do it right, it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Result in a payoff. And that payoff is gonna come
not in.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Like twenty thirty two, not in twenty two, twenty nine,
but sometime give us three or four years. Well, here
we are four years later. This is the payoff.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
This, This is the payoff watching Dane Meyers bat third.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
That's the payoff watching a manager who doesn't know what
kind of hitters can hit against Sam Mall.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
That's the payoff. Thirty seven and forty two, five games.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Under five hundred going into the final weekend of June.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
This, this is the payoff for that. For those who's stuck.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Through one hundred losses, for those who have stuck through
more than a decade of basically never really competing for anything,
for those who have stuck through three decades of not
advancing in the postseason. With over the last couple of years,
the implied message from the Cincinnati Reds being hey, hang
with us, and then.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Twenty twenty five, twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Six, then there we're gonna your patients will be paid off.
This this is the payoff for that. Really, So like,
from an outsider's perspective, I guess it looks like, all right,
they're having a crummy season.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
That happens.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
They're having a crummy season, and let's be honest, not
like that. Many people thought the Reds were gonna be
really really really really really really really good, which could
also be part of the problem.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But this is it.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
This isn't the first time I've talked about this, and
I'm not the only person to have talked about this.
I go back to three years ago, man, three years ago,
three years ago. At this time, the Reds had just
won twelve consecutive games. They had vaulted into contention. They
had this fun core with a brand of baseball that
was intoxicating at times, and it felt like they re
energized the fan base. And yeah, man, that team had flaws.
(08:42):
It's starting pitching stunk. But who among us in the
summer of twenty twenty three didn't think not so much
about the fall of twenty twenty three, but what the
summer of twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six could
look like. Fast forward three years later. This is what
it looks like. I'm sure you agree with me. I
(09:05):
would be willing to bet you agree with me. This
is so incredibly frustrating and disappointing, and it leaves you
feeling helpless and hopeless. Like it's one thing to talk
about all the stuff that has gone wrong this season,
(09:27):
it's one thing to talk about all the stuff that
hasn't gone right since that summer of twenty twenty three.
It's I guess, one thing to talk about how frustrating
it is that this is the payoff to that season
just four years ago when they lost one hundred games.
But it's something else entirely to have a complete and
total lack of faith in anybody with that organization that
(09:52):
a turnaround, either in the short term or long term
is possible. And I think that's that's part of the problem, right.
It's one thing to sift through the carnage of a
bad season. It's one thing to kind of lament all
the stuff that didn't go your team's way. But as
we watch this with half a season to go, and
(10:16):
we talk about the next what eighty three games, and
then when we start to flip the page to next
season and the rest of the second half of the decade,
it is, at least from my perspective, almost impossible to
imagine that the people who have taken what felt like
(10:41):
a pretty promising situation three years ago and driven it
into an iceberg. It's hard to put much faith in
those people overseeing, being in charge of and engineering a
meaningful turnaround. And yes that includes the manager. So there's
(11:01):
a lot there. I don't know, and I am all
ears today. Why should any of us think that this
is going to get dramatically better? And I could frame
that from the perspective of twenty twenty six the rest
of this season, because I'm I'm sure, I'm sure there's
someone within the sound of my voice right now who
(11:24):
is going to point to the calendar and point to
Hunter Green coming back and Emilio Pagan coming back, and hey,
there's time, mode, don't worry, They've got time. It's still
we're not even really to the halfway point yet, which
they will arrive at this weekend in Pittsburgh, or we
can make it about beyond twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Why should any of us believe.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
That things are going to get dramatically better with this franchise,
either this year, next year, the year after that, anytime
this decade, or really at any point in the future.
When you have been patient and when you have as
many have not all. But when you have nodded along
(12:07):
with all the pleas for patients and bear with us
and hang in there, and we got to do some
things that in the short term are gonna hurt, but
there's promise of a new day not that deep into
the future. And you continually not pay off your plans
or your pleas for patients, you get to a point
where nobody's gonna believe that things are going to get
(12:30):
better anytime soon. And you could tell me if I'm wrong,
but I think that's how most of us feel right now.
It's certainly how I feel. If you feel different, good God,
five point three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty. You can
pump some hope into me. You can pump some hope
into this fan base. I don't know where the hope
comes from, quite frankly. And if that sounds like an
(12:52):
overreaction to thirty seven and forty two, fine, but it's not.
It's an overreaction to thirty years years, thirteen years, four years.
You pick at mugger on Twitter. Thanks to Delta Dental,
Delta Dental is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all
good at Delta Dental, oh dot com. Five point three, seven, four, nine,
(13:16):
fifteen thirty will get you in. We are very wide
open today. We've got some Bengal stuff a little bit
later on the latest twist in the Brendan Soorsby situation.
Now the CFL has told him, yeah, hard patch or
not coming north at a border. So I don't know
if the Arena Football League or the ia L or
any of the I don't know if there's a Mexican
(13:36):
Football League. Maybe there's a chance Brendan Soorsby could play
football somewhere, but it's not going to be in Canada
at twenty twenty six, ain't going to be in the
NFL either.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
I do have some thoughts on that. We'll get to
a little bit later.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
On nineteen after three o'clock, I want you to play
a game of pretend. I want you to play a
little bit of a game of make believe, the same
game we played with Joey Vada. Will play it with
Terry Francona next on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffics o Agar. Thank you
so much for listening today.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Hopefully your weekend is off to an awesome start, I
felt like in.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I was out of.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Town for the early part of this week, in town
for the last couple of days, listening to Austin on
since he three sixty and listening to Lance and following
along on social media. I felt like, since Terry Francona
became the manager of the Reds, that this was the
week where he has gotten the most amount of scrutiny, heat, criticism,
(14:41):
whatever word you want to use. And you could certainly
understand why. And I don't know that we need to
re litigate all of the decisions that Tito made in
the Brewers series, but I want you to do this. Man.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
We used to do this with Joey Vado.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Joey Vado toward the end when he was not putting
up Joey Vado numbers. In fact, he was not putting
up numbers that you would find passable for anybody. I
used to say, like, pretend look at the numbers. Just
look at him like a corporate being counter does a spreadsheet.
(15:16):
Just look at the numbers. Forget who the guy is,
Forget what you know about the guy, forget your history
with the guy, forget the fact that you own his jersey.
Look at the numbers. Is is that really somebody that
should be playing every day? Is that really somebody that
should have a roster spot? Is that somebody that you
really want to extend the relationship with. And it's hard
(15:37):
to do that, I admit it's it's hard to do that.
It's it's I think it's harder to do with players
that are beloved. It's certainly hard for me to do.
It was hard for me to do with a guy
like Joey Vado, who's one of my five favorite Reds
of all time. But let's do something similar. Let's do
this with with Tito. Still it with Terry Francona. Let's pretend.
Let's pretend that. Let's let's not even pretend that we
(15:59):
don't know about his Let's pretend his resume is entirely different.
Instead of a two world series with the Red Sox
and the the al Pennant where they came this close
to winning one with the Guardians, I think they were
still the Indians then, But regardless, Let's let's pretend like
it's not even Tito's first managerial job. Let's let's pretend
he had a managerial job somewhere. He was the manager
(16:20):
of like the Twins, and he was there for like
four and a half years and got bounced, and maybe
he made the postseason once. But he's not this beloved
figure in the game. He doesn't have a Hall of
Fame resume. Let's let's pretend that's who he is. Let's
pretend he's got David Bell's managerial resume, which before he
came to Cincinnati, his managerial resume was of the Louisville Bats,
(16:41):
and he had been a coach and it worked at
a front office. Let's let's pretend that we don't have
this resume to fall back on. And you watch or
listen to the Reds on a daily basis, would you
think the Reds are getting great managing?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Because I feel back.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I feel like for a lot of folks is well,
I'll defer to Tito because of his resume. And I
understand like when people who have track records, they get
the benefit of the doubt more than people who don't.
But at some point, like you have to be judged
on the job you're doing in the present, right, So
(17:18):
let's strike from the equation. Everything we know about Tito,
beloved figure in the game, fun guy to listen to
by all accounts, legitimately great dude and a guy whose
managerial resume has him fast tracked to Cooperstown. If you
knew nothing about that, if this was a guy in
his first managerial job or a guy in his second
(17:41):
managerial job but the first stop was forgettable, would you
look at the work the Reds are getting out of
the dugout and think, man, the manager's doing a great job.
I'm not gonna ignore what many have told me about
the role that Tito had in last year's quote success.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
And I use quotes because they won eighty three games.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But I've talked to enough folks who have said, like
the guiding hand through all of those stretches where it
felt like the season was teetering on the brink had
a positive impact. I will absolutely acknowledge that. I think
it's true. But this team this year, as you've watched,
this is not an overreaction to a couple of questionable
moves on Wednesday Night. As you've watched this season, do
(18:24):
you think the Reds are getting great managing. I don't
believe the Reds are gonna fire Terry Francona. If anything,
he's gonna fire them and I don't know if that's
gonna happen at the end of this season.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I have no idea. It's unfair to speculate, but like.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
If if what's gonna make him immune to criticism is
what he did with the Boston Red Sox nearly two
decades ago, or what he did in Cleveland. I think
that's a little bit unfair to the job that he's
doing right now. And I'm not sure that the job
that he's doing right now. Like I'm usually very quick to,
(19:01):
I don't know, deflect criticism of a manager, but there
have been many occasions this year. I can only speak
for myself where I've been left scratching my head. And
this is not just about bunting on Wednesday night. If
you're wondering about that, I didn't like it. Don't understand
why you bunt to either take the bat out of
(19:21):
your best hitters' hands or try to advance a slow
runner at second base. But whatever, I feel like there
have been a lot of heads scratching moves this season,
whether it's lineup construction which the manager is not entirely
responsible for, or just some in game decisions. But what
I don't think we could use as a disqualifier to
(19:44):
even have the conversation is what he did with the
Boston Red Sox twenty two years ago or what do
you did with the Cleveland Guardians. I judge him on
how he's performing now. I don't know that you could
argue that the Reds are getting great work out of
their manager this year.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
And by the way, the job, the job that he took,
is the job that he has.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And I will make that make sense coming up in
the four o'clock hour right now, though we have folks
waiting patiently, we'll open things up five point three seven
four nine, fifteen thirty after sports Headlines on ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Traffic from the sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet,
Home of lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit approval
from their family to yours for life, kelseyshev, dot Com,
Reds and Pirates. First of three in Pittsburgh tonight Andrew
Abbott Paul Skens on the Hill six forty this evening
on seven hundred WLW. Your Red starting lineup tonight, duns
(20:47):
and center Dela Cruz plays short and bats second JJ
Bledean left. Sal Stewart plays first, low as Dhing Suarez
at third, bat six Steer and Wright Stevenson behind the plate.
Matt McLean second base and bats ninth. Tony Santion headed
to the injured list with an oblique strain. Zach mccambley,
who sounds like a children's book character, is up from Louisville,
(21:10):
Florence y'all is hosting Evansville tonight. The CFL has said
to its teams, none of you can sign former UC
quarterback Brendan Sorosby. And I am not exceptionally well versed
in international soccer, but I think I am watching the
single greatest individual performance I've ever seen. So France and
Norway are playing for the top spot in Group I,
(21:33):
and Uzman Dembele already has a hat trick and we're
less than thirty eight minutes into the game. He plays
for France, who leads Norway by a score of three
to one. It's the second fastest hat trick in World
Cup history. Elite uniform matchup very good, Yes, you're right, Austin,
(21:54):
very good uniform matchup. Norway and France. These are two
top notch unis. What do they call it. If a
guy gets four goals, it's two goals. Two goals as
a brace. Three is a hat trick? What's four? Is
it a grand slam?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I'm looking it up.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Get back to me on that, and uh and we'll
update the audience. A hall, it's a hall. If you
get four goals, it's a hall. It's called a hall. Okay,
what's five?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Has anybody ever scored five goals in the game that
wasn't like a game between eight year olds. Probably my
daughter played in a soccer game this year and some
kid on the other team I think had nine goals.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
It's unbelievable, this says a I don't even know if
I could just say this a glut. A glut six
is a double hat trick.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Okay, it makes sense.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Glut seven is a touchdown, so goal brace, hat trick,
hall glut, double hat trick.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
All right, Well, this dude scored a goal in the
seventh minute, the twentieth minute, and thirty second minute, and
that's been extraordinarily entertaining. And now there's a guy from
Norway on the ground crying. All right, let's talk to
some other folks. Been in northern Kentucky. You're on ESPN
fifteen thirty. Hi Ben, how are you?
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Hey? Moe?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Can you hear me?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I can hear you? Can you hear me?
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Fantastic weekend, man, the phones are working off to a
good start.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Weekend is off to an amazing start. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Hey, great. So I enjoyed, you know, the Reds piece there.
I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts, you know,
And I don't know if it's Tito. I just feel
like it's been a series of, you know, bad decisions
that have been probably more you know, regular than an outlier,
you know, over the last dozen and a half dozen years.
You know, what's the fix? Though? You know? I can
I can remember back, you know, I'm a long time listener,
(23:43):
first caller. I can I can remember you saying the
last couple of years, you know, do you trust these people?
Do you trust them to get it right? I think
a resounding amount of callers and fans, longtime Reds fans,
would feel like that trust has definitely been tested and
you know, perhaps on the side. But what's what's the fix? Like,
how do I know We're not going to be just
sitting here next summer having this conversation or three summers
(24:06):
from that. Like what I know, you speak with your dollars,
but people around here you know a lot of the Reds.
And no matter what you know, I'm one of those.
I take my kids, I go over there a handful
of times a year, and I watch and listen every night.
So how do we fix it? Mos? I don't, I
don't know, I don't. I have no answer. I just
want your thoughts on how does it get any better?
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I'll get off and they have to and this is
this is a cop out answer, Thank you, Ben. They
have to get good at something like what are the Reds?
Is an organization good at? What do you identify them with? Like,
drafting is not a short term fix, but it's never
been more of a short term fix because I feel
like the path to the big leagues has never been easier, right,
(24:46):
and not easier, it's never been quicker for for for
guys who are already I feel like guys get caught
up sooner than they used to. And that's a very
inarticulate way of putting it. But I mean we did
this two weeks ago. Look at their look at their
their track record of drafting in the second, third, fourth,
and fifth round, and frankly, even with some of their
first rounders, they've got to get really good at developing.
(25:07):
Like Nick Krawl has talked about, we want to do
something that's sustainable.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Okay, fine.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
They've also acknowledged they're not going to be like the
biggest players in free agency, going after the absolute top guys,
and maybe there's a change in baseball's economic model that
makes it easier for them to do that. So they're
gonna have to be a team that is consistently good
at a couple of different things. Drafting, developing, consistently cranking
out players through the minor league system that get to
(25:33):
the big leagues ready to contribute. They're gonna have to
be really good at turning over rocks to find hidden gems.
They're gonna have to be really good at like the Brewers.
This week, Joe Koonel closed out two games against him. Now,
I don't know if you remember Joe Knell pitching in
Cincinnati and an era of six across multiple seasons at Dudes,
pitching in high leverage situations for a first place team
(25:57):
against his former club. I don't know if they have
permanent he fixed him, He's only pitched in seven games.
He was cut loose by the A's this year. But
is there a small example of like, Hey, here's this
guy who is no good elsewhere and he shows up
in Milwaukee and they fix him. Can the Reds get
good at that?
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Like?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
What are they good at?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Organizationally, the identity of the Reds is what are they
good at? They trade guys and they sell high and
they get a lot in return, and those players gives
them years of.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Quality.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Like I don't think you would say the Reds are
good at that. At flipping established players for really good prospects.
Are they great at free agency? Are they great at
making trades? Are they great at player development? Are they
great at drafting? I don't think the answer to any
one of those questions is yes. It doesn't get fixed
(26:56):
until they get good at something. You know, we did
this two weeks ago, and it's easy to do that.
It's easy to do now because the Brewers just played
here and played a relatively crisp brand of baseball that
you don't necessarily identify with the Reds. I did this
topic two weeks ago, and I said, if I if
(27:18):
I were Phil Castellini, or Bob Castellini. The question that
I would have for Nick Crawl would be why are
they always good? And I would ask it again, and
maybe with different terms after what happened this week at GABP.
Why can we never beat them? Why do we never
finish higher than them in the standings? Why are we
(27:38):
always losing head to head against them? Why are they
always in the playoffs? Now? I don't know that you
could wave a magic wand and suddenly get good at
what the Milwaukee Brewers are doing, but man, that'd be
the first.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Place I looked.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Team with quote limited resources, a team that is constantly
losing and often in trades some of their best performing players,
and they're still good.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Every year.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
You could throw at me, mo, they never advance in
the postseason, they never get to the World Series. Okay, cool,
They're gonna make the postseason this year for the eighth
time in nine years. If you told me right now
the Reds will be in the postseason and eight of
the next nine years, I'll take my chances with October
and I'll take that right now.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
What are they good at?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
And if you like research or read anything about the
Milwaukee Brewers, there's a few different things.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
They're good at.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Getting a lot out of players that maybe didn't give
their previous teams a lot. It feels like they have
a manager who has zero tolerance for mistakes. Read about
Pat Murphy, Like when you read about Pat Murphy, you'll
read you'll read something that you'll say to yourself, like
(28:51):
I want to read this about Terry Francona. Just an
unwillingness to accept mistakes. So it feels like they're good
at developing. Feels like they're good at getting some value
from the players they do trade away. They don't bat
a thousand, no team does. But they're good. They're good
at baseball. They're good at at having a an organizational identity.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
What's the reds? What are I good at? When you're
not good.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
At anything, I cannot trust you, man, Like the quick
fix is okay, we'll fire a bunch of people and
put new folks in. There may be a lot of
validity to that, whether it's Nick Crawl's job, Brad Meher's job,
Terry Francona's job, the job of director of pitching slast
pitching coach, any one of the coaches they have, Like fine,
(29:41):
swap some people out mass firings, but like, where are
you gonna be hiring from. I'd be hiring from Milwaukee,
I'd be hiring from Cleveland, I'd be hiring from the
Tampa Bay Rays. I'd at least be looking into those
organizations to see if I can get people to fill
different roles here that could perhaps give us a chance
to emulate to success they have in the cities that.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
I just mentioned.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Gotta get good at something, gotta have some sort of
organizational identity. You know, for years we used to complain that,
you know, Sports Illustrated ten twelve years ago had on
the cover of the magazine the Cardinal Way, and this
was kind of at the height of like everybody here
(30:26):
hating the Cardinals, and it was, yeah, we didn't like
it here, but like, okay, cool, what's the reds Way?
Speaker 3 (30:32):
What is the Reds Way?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Do they consistently crank out players by the time they
get to the big leagues they don't need to go back.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
I don't feel like the answer is yes.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I read for you two weeks ago the long, long,
long list of second, third, fourth, and fifth round draft
picks that ever either never got to the big leagues,
got to the big leagues and had a cup of coffee,
or when they got to the big league and had success,
they were elsewhere. What are they good at? So my answer,
(31:09):
and it sounds like a get good at something. Get
good at drafting, Get good at development, get good at
identifying the right free agents, get good at acquiring the
right players in trades. Get good at selling high on
guys who maybe you're not going to resign to get
prospects for them. Like, get good at something. I'm not
talking about the non baseball stuff. You know, Austin focused
on this this week. You know, the the idea. It's
(31:32):
not the idea, it's the reality. They're good at everything
but baseball. They're good at giveaways, good at the ballparking experience,
good at the Hall of Fame, good at the community
fund like awesome at all that stuff, community outreach, alumni events, concerts,
ballpark experience. Ten out of ten across the border. They're
good at all that stuff. The baseball stuff, the stuff
(31:53):
that's measured in wins and losses, the stuff that is
reflected by looking at the standings. What are they good at? Consistently?
What are they good at? There are minor successes here
and there. You know, you could you could point to
this year as roster and say, well, golly ge Nick
Crawl did a good job in getting JJ bledeh. Okay,
like if the biggest feather in your cap is JJ bleda,
(32:14):
that's a problem. Or hey, Nathaniel Lowe was a nice pick.
Oh okay, fine, But like the macro stuff, big picture stuff,
what are they good at organizationally? As long as the
answer is nothing, or as long as I keep having
to ask the question, there's no fix In the offing
nine from four, This is ESPN fifteen.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
You know, if you missed this show, or if you
missed the person who hosted it the previous four days
this week, you could always go back and listen on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
That's where we put stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
We put shows, we put interviews, we put segments not
just this show, but since e three sixty where Austin
el Moore has had on Ben Baby and Tom Gala
on the World Cup and Mike Florio on the Brendan
Sorosby situation. You can find all of that and more
on the iHeartRadio app. And of course you could Listen
to ESPN fifteen thirty twenty four to seven wherever you
(33:10):
go on the iHeartRadio app. Podcasts of this show are
a service of long neck sports grilling. Awesome place to
watch the Reds this weekend, the World Cup, or whatever
may suit your fancy. It's coming up on four o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati sports station.
Mo Egger News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
iHeartRadio 24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com