The Mo Egger Radio Show -- 3/28/25

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, Hi. Five minutes after three o'clock.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening, Thank
you for being here. My name is Mullegger. I hope
your weekend is off to a great start. I'm just
gonna I'm just gonna get this part out of the way. Okay,
this is the worst day in Cincinnati the day after
Opening Day. It's made better when they win the day

(00:23):
after Opening Day. Let's face it, the day after Christmas
sort of stinks too, right, It's the same here.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
It's even worse when they lose.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Show rundowns available on Twitter thanks to Emery Federal Credit Union,
your credit union with heart. I was at the Bridgetown
Road branch this morning. I made a deposit, which is nice,
and I grabbed the Dia coke They Goetna fridge free drinks.
That does your financial institution have a fridge with free drinks?
Chances are the answer is no. There's a reason right there,

(00:52):
right now, become a member at Emory FCU dot org.
Opening Day yesterday was awesome, and it all is. It's
cliche to talk about how like Cincinnati just does Opening
Day different than everybody else, but it's true, man. And
you know we had good weather yesterday. I know that
the sun kind of ducked beneath the clouds, as they say,

(01:13):
right around first pitch, and it got kind of chilly.
But as opening days go on March twenty seventh, that's
a good weather day. Yesterday, the parade looked awesome. It's
such a festive day. Everybody's in a good mood. We
had an awesome time yesterday at Smoke Justice. Those of
you who came out and joined us in person, we

(01:34):
cannot thank you enough. We cannot thank the staff at
Smoke Justice enough. It's my favorite show of the year
to do because I get a chance to do it
with Tony and Austin, which is awesome, and we had
so much fun. And if you were a part of
it in person, or if you just listen on ESPN
fifteen thirty, can thank you enough. The game itself, the
crowd was into it. There was a real sense. You know,

(01:55):
there's always excitement for opening day, right, there's always excitement
for that first pitch. I think yesterday at the ballpark,
I felt excitement for the team and for the season,
and for the possibility that the Reds are pretty good
this year. The crowd was hanging on every pitch. Everybody
was having a great time until that bullpen door flung
open and out charged Ian Jabbo. Now, let's be honest

(02:19):
about Ian Jebou. This is a guy who two years
ago is pretty effective and on a bullpen that had
to do a lot in twenty twenty three for an
eighty two win team. He pitched in and succeeded in
a lot of high leverage situations. Ian Jebbo, I thought
that year kind of got a bad rap. But I'm
not entirely sure why last year was a wasted year

(02:43):
because he was hurt. The Reds thought so highly of
Ian Jebou at the end of last season that they
non tendered him. They did invite him to camp, they
gave him a minor league contract, and he ended up
being the last guy to make the team, or at
least the last pitcher to make the team. And by
the way, to be fair, he did strike out the

(03:03):
first guy that he faced, and Willie Domas, who's a
Reds killer. But I can't even describe for you, and
if you were there, maybe you could describe it for
our audience. I can't describe the the audible gasp because
they you know, they showed on the video board, right,
and even if you're not watching on the video board,
you're you're kind of looking to see, Okay, what are

(03:25):
they gonna do here? The bullpen to that point had
been awesome. And the door flings open and outcomes Ian Jebbo.
This set the crowd made a sound. I can't do
the sound justice, so I'm not gonna try to replicate it.
But there was this real audible like noise that would
make you think that forty plus thousand people think something

(03:45):
bad's about to happen. And unfortunately, something bad did happen.
The Giants scored three times. They lose the reds Dew
six to four. Ian Jebbo the goat uh and so
opening day, which to that point and had been awesome,
ruined now to a degree. I understand what Terry Francona

(04:06):
was doing. Ian Jabbou is a right handed pitcher. The
Giants had a bunch of right handed batters coming up.
I understand that, except yes, Ian Jabbau was the last
guy to make the team. Should should the guy who's
the last guy to make the team be the first
option in the ninth inning. No, not in a one
run game. No, they chose not to use Taylor Rodgers.

(04:29):
What's interesting about that to me is you can go, well,
you know, Ian Jabbou is righty, and they had a
lot of right handed hitcher hitters coming up. Taylor Rodgers
is a lefty. But actually Taylor Rodgers with the Giants
coincidentally enough, was much better against righty's than he was lefties,

(04:51):
much better against right e's than he was lefties. Right
handed batters last year had an ops of six forty seven,
left handed batters one hundred and thirty nine points higher
seven eighty six. So yeah, I mean you could say, well,
Terry Francona played it by the book, right, you want right,

(05:12):
he's facing right, He's except Taylor Rodgers a pretty significant
offseason addition, right, Like this isn't one of those you know,
mid twenty ten Red relievers that either like this Kevin
Gregg kind of profile that we would always see the
Reds go get these dudes who used to be good
but aren't good anymore, hanging on for one final big
league paycheck.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Like Taylor Rodgers is not young.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
He's thirty four years old, which in baseball terms is
is up there. But Taylor Rodgers is a guy who
pitched in a ton of games last season for the
San Francisco Giants, sixty four of them. This is a
guy who's been around for a long time. This is
a guy who's closed games. This guy with eighty three
Big League saves, big acquisition this offseason, who's good against

(05:59):
right hi and the first option Terry Francona in the
ninth inning. Not Taylor Rodgers, not one of the key
editions this offseason, but a guy who spent most of
February in March doing everything he can to be the
twenty sixth the guy, or at least the last guy

(06:21):
in the bullpen. The Reds love Ian Jibo so much
they they went from non tendering him to having him
try to close out the game on opening Day. That's
only something you do if your other bullpen options aren't
very good. If they don't trust Taylor Rodgers in that situation,

(06:44):
what does that say about Taylor Rodgers? So I understand this,
And by the way, our phone numbers are five point three,
seven four nine, fifteen thirty and uh eight sixty six
seven oh two three seven seven six. I often defend managers,
and I acknowledge this with Terry Francona, Like, if a
dude is on the team, the manager's gonna use him.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Like Ian Jebau did.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Not make the team to only pitch in like nine
nothing games in the fourth inning. He's not only on
the team to pitch in mop up situations. If a
guy makes the club, the idea should be you use
him in any number of situations. And so like if
you give I used to say this about some of
the options David Bell have, right if you if you
give Terry Francona Ian Jebau, Terry Francona is gonna use

(07:27):
Ian Jebau, and he's gonna use him in high leverage situations.
There aren't just high leverage situations in the ninth inning.
There were high high leverage situations all afternoon yesterday, in
large part because the Red stopped hitting after the third inning.
So if you give Terry Francona Ian Jibbo, he's going
to use Ian Jebau. But just ask yourself this. In
the other dugout and the San Francisco dugout, Bob Melvin

(07:51):
is the manager who's managed like sixteen different teams.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Bob Melvin, if.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
If you were to say in that moment, if you
were to sneak in the San Francisco dugout number one,
they would ask how did you get here?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Number two?

Speaker 1 (08:02):
You would go and reach your hand into the big
bucket of bubblegum. They have Number three. You would ask
Bob Melvin, Hey, who do you want the other guy
to bring in? Who do you want Tito and the
other dugout to bring in? Would you like your team
to see h Taylor Rodgers or Ian Jabou? I would
bet you that Bob Melvin would go, h can we
take our chances against Ian Jabou?

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Can we cleet kleet? He knows everything about Taylor Rodgers.
They managed him last year.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
You would I would be willing to bet that the
manager of the Giants would say, yeah, I'll tell you
what we need one out to tie the game. I
know we got a lot of rities coming up. How
about we take our hacks against Ian Jebbou Well, Terry
Francona did exactly what Bob Melvin wanted. Now, our guys
on Sincy three sixty one of whom is producing the

(08:48):
show today, My guy Austin Elmore.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
They asked a pole question on Twitter, who do you blame?

Speaker 1 (08:52):
And I love blaming any one person, but you know,
Ian Jebou was the goat yesterday. So was the Reds offense.
Innings four through eight, they collected exactly two hits and
no runs. That's not gonna work now. I mean, they
built a lead. We've got some really good at bats
from Elie de la Cruz. But what do we wonder

(09:14):
most about this team? Are they gonna hit enough? Are
they gonna score enough with a chance to play add
on baseball, with a chance to pad the lead, with
a chance to build some cushion and maybe make it
make sense to have Ian Jebou pitch in the ninth inning.
The offense totally fell asleep. So you can't talk about
the game yesterday and not acknowledge that. You can't talk

(09:34):
about the game yesterday and not acknowledge Hunter Green by
Terry Francona's admission, Hunter Green taking twenty eight pitches to
get out of the fourth inning, including the epic battle
between him and Helliott Ramos Ramos that cost him the
sixth inning. So you know, the idea, even on opening

(09:55):
day should be for your ace to give you six.
And I know he's not gonna throw one hundred and
fifteen pitches, and he shouldn't, but he threw eighty four.
If he doesn't take twenty eight of those pitches to
get through the fourth inning, chances are he's pitching in
the sixth. And then what they did in the sixth
becomes what they do in the seventh, and what they
do what they did in the seventh becomes what they

(10:15):
do in the eighth, and maybe, just maybe what they
do in the eighth, which is used Tony Santien, who
Terry Francona loves, loves enough to pitch in the eighth
inning of a game that he leads by a run.
Maybe Tony Santien is the guy in the ninth inning.
And we are not spending any time last night or
today talking about Ian Jabo. So I love Hunter Green,

(10:37):
Hunter Green is my favorite red. I'll take all the
imaginary Hunter Green stock you want to sell. In the
first three innings yesterday, despite by his admission, not having
his total repertoilve pitches, he was awesome at fastball, was moving.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
He got through five. He didn't get through six.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
And if he gets through six, maybe the complexion of
the game is a little bit different. And look, you
blame Ian Jabou. Dude, you are the last guy in
the club, but you want to prove that you belong.
You want to strengthen your stranglehold on that last bullpen spot,
which is always tenuous at best, get outs. Unfortunately he

(11:18):
didn't get three. I think one of the big questions
is are the are the options in the bullpen good enough?
They don't have Alexis d As right now. Obviously, if
Alexis d As is healthy, he's probably pitching in the
ninth inning, and who knows what happens. Maybe he gets
three up, three down, there are fireworks, we all go
home happy. Maybe Alexis Das gets bombed. I have no

(11:38):
idea what to expect from Alexis d As once he
comes back, no clue whatsoever. Uh. But in the absence
of Alexis d As, are there are.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
The options in the bullpen good enough? Now?

Speaker 1 (11:51):
I want to say yes, because Scott Barlow was terrific
in the sixth inning yesterday, and Emilio Pagan was terrific
in the seventh inning yesterday, and Tony Santina was terrific
in the eighth inning yesterday.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
So there's a lot of good there.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
But if your your option in the uh in the
ninth inning is uh Ian Jabou and it's not Taylor Rogers,
and for what it's worth, it's not Graham Ashcraft and
it's not Sam Mall who would come on to pitch later,
are the options in the bullpen good enough? I think
it's a fair question. Five point three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. Then there's Terry Francona's role.

(12:27):
Terry francona Hall of fame manager who everybody loves, who
were all excited about being here, pushed the wrong button yesterday.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
It happens. I told you so. I'll explain next on
ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center for National Doctor's Day,
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(13:10):
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the one lane for construction on the Carrol Cropper Bridge.
Traffic slow from Graves Road on that ezeleik with traffic.

Speaker 5 (13:20):
This report is spawns free yesterday.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
It really our show and Smoke Justice really was a
lot of fun. If you missed it, you can go
find that on the iHeartRadio app. Obviously that is since
he three sixty we I did not do this show
yesterday because they wouldn't let me use the iHeartMedia helicopter
and do the show at three o'clock, so instead I
went to the ball game. But James Rapine did what

(13:44):
has become kind of an annual tradition. He did an
opening day football show from three to six yesterday. If
you missed it, you could also find it on the
iHeartRadio app, or I think that's also that is. It's
on my page at ESPN fifteen to thirty dot com.
Podcast of this show a service of Long Neck Sports Grill. Tonight,

(14:04):
Sweet sixteen Kentucky is playing Tennessee. If you're a part
of hashtag BBN, you're gonna want to be at Long Next.
There's three of them. You got wilder you got hebre
and you got Richwood. And by the way, when the
weather is nice, the patio at Long Necks is awesome,
and so are the wings. Grab a nice cold Budweiser
while you're at it, Long Neck Sports Grill. As they say,
stay long, come often. So if you are really excited

(14:28):
that Terry Francone is the manager of the Cincinnati Rights,
if you were excited about that yesterday morning, you should
be excited about that now. He is a terrific manager.
Time will obviously tell if he achieves the results that
he wants and that we all want. But Terry Francona
made the wrong decision yesterday, and I don't want to
go too far down this road. I'm not a big
I told you so guy, because I rarely tell you so.

(14:51):
But I will use this to make a point that
I have spent a lot of time on this show
trying to make. When there has been disaffection with a
Reds manager, and god knows, there's been a bunch, whether
it was David Bell or Brian Price or Dusty Baker
or any of the ones before him, I think, especially
in the social media age, which Dusty was the first
social media Reds manager, it gets kind of amplified, right,

(15:13):
But it's a pastime. Like one of the foundations of
sports talk radio is second guessing the manager or second
guessing the coach.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
It's fun.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
It's fun to do it in real time, which most
of us were doing yesterday. One of the reasons I
wanted to do this job from a very young ages,
I thought it'd be fun to second guest coaches and
managers for a living. And so now I get to
do that, which is cool. But there are times, and
you know, like David Bell was the Reds manager, and
I think for the most part he did okay because

(15:41):
I think most of the teams he had performed to
the level that you would have expected them to. Maybe
last year would be an exception, and maybe that's why
he's no longer here. But there would you would have
some who would use a decision like the one that
Terry Francona made yesterday and they lose their mind over
David Bell, and I would say, look forget that stuff.

(16:02):
Like forget that stuff. Every manager gets that wrong. Every manager,
over the course of an entire season is gonna is
gonna use the wrong pitcher. Now you might argue using
Ian Jebo is pretty agreed, just relative to some of
the other options. But every manager at some point is
gonna get that wrong. And in years past I have
said about that the previous two managers like I don't
care so much about that micro stuff, uh, because every

(16:26):
manager is gonna get the micro stuff wrong. They're gonna
pinch it and use the wrong guy and it's not
gonna work out. They're gonna make a decision in the
game and it's not gonna yield the right result. If
if Ian Jabbo gets the final three outs without San
Francisco tying the game or taking the lead yesterday, we
are talking about a really cool story this afternoon. Ian
Jabbo was non tendered, got a minor league contract, had

(16:48):
to scratch and claw to make the team does and
then he gets the save on opening day, which I
don't really count saves as a real stat but still
that's a cool story. And we're going, man, Terry Frankcota,
look at look at that, Look at that, Oh, look
at that bold move.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
We're not doing that today.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Every manager gets that stuff wrong, even the best, and
Terry Francona is one of the best. That said, this
is a year of heightened expectations. Like you might say,
well last year was too fine, but like this, if
this doesn't start really working, then what was the point

(17:23):
behind the entire rebuild? Like this whole process started in
twenty twenty one, and the idea was for there to
be a payoff kind around the middle of the decade.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Well, we're right smack dab in the middle of the decade.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
At the same time, they have a small margin for
AIRED team, So like on a larger scale, games like.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yesterday's you have to win.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
I'm not saying Opening Days a must win game, nobody
would say that, but like games like that, this team
has to win. It wasn't a one run game, right,
officially is a two run game, But like what were
they bad at last year? They're bad at one run games.
Yesterday was a one run game going into the ninth thing.
You gotta win that game. You're winning, you're at home,
you need three more outs. Got to win that game.

(18:05):
It's the kind of game they have to win more of.
And when you have a small margin for Air but
heightened expectations, then decisions like Terry Francona's Yesterday seem to
matter a little bit more and there's a little bit
more attention paid to them previous managers here that had
bad teams that were often managing teams that were merely

(18:28):
existed to get clubbed by other National League opponents. I
didn't care so much about the micro with Terry Francona.
We do not because he's Terry Francona, but because hey,
this team has to win games like yesterday's bee.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
This team's margin for.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Air is not extraordinarily big, and so there's an added
and added scrutiny to what Tito chose to do yesterday
and the results that that decision yielded. But every manager
is going to get that stuff wrong. I'm the first
to admit that. But on this year's team, that button,

(19:05):
when it's pushed, the move has to work because they're
probably not good enough to overcome it when that move
doesn't work, and they're probably not a good enough team
to know figure out a way to overcome losing ball
games like that. Yes, I gotta win games like that yesterday,

(19:27):
And it stings a little bit more because it's Opening Day,
Like if that's game number twenty nine. Let's be honest,
not as many people are paying attention. More people are
paying attention on an opening day, there's maybe not as
much scrutiny because opening day is always very scrutinized, and
there's an off day the day after. There's no time
to move on to talk about the next game. So
we're going to be talking about Terry Francota and I

(19:48):
and Jabbou probably until some point tomorrow afternoon.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
But they got to win that type of game.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
That type of game has to go their way, which
means that decision has to yield the right result, even
if we acknowledge that sometimes even the best managers of
all time are going to press the button and it's
not going to work.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
If that made sense.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Twenty nine away from four o'clock, which team shows up
tonight in Indie? That plus Tony Husband Apple TV MLS
season pass as FC Cincinnati against a good Nashville team.
Tony joins us coming up in just about fifteen minutes. Well,
have a poll question, and uh, I think next week's
going to be a really interesting week in Bengals history.

(20:30):
That's coming up in the four o'clock hour. Sports headlines
are next to ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 6 (20:36):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
UC Health Traffic Center. For National Doctors Day, we honor
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Tomorrow's learn more at UCHealth dot com. West found two
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(21:02):
the Carrol Cropper Bridge, traffic is running slow back from
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Speaker 1 (21:11):
Chris Kelsey Chevrolet home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed
credit approval from their family to yours for life. Kelseyshad
dot com the dreaded day after opening day off day
for the Reds today tomorrow four to ten, first pitch
Reds and Giants.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Justin Verlander on the hill.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
We have not yet, Austin, have you found out whether
cad Upton, his wife is going to be attending the game.

Speaker 7 (21:37):
Have not been able to confirm whether or not she'll
be here. I do have Justin Verlander's career stats, a
great American ballpark.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Oh what do you got for me? Has he been good?

Speaker 7 (21:46):
Here, not really four starts a four point three to
eight earned run average. He's given up twelve runs on
twenty two hits, including three homers in those four starts.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
All right, So, so has cad Upton been in attendance
for any of those?

Speaker 2 (22:03):
And I think she's been here before.

Speaker 8 (22:05):
She has.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
At the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, we did the show
from Radio Row because you know, obviously Indy's Quick Drive
up I seventy four and producing my show at the
time was a woman named Lindsay Patterson who did the
show for for a long time. So we go to
Indy and it was the second Giants Patriots Super Bowl
and they stuck us right between WFAN and New York

(22:32):
and w e e I in Boston. So you have
these two radio stations, sports talk radio stations from the cities,
major cities, obviously huge cities, major markets, but also the
two teams, the two cities that the Super Bowl teams
were from, and they literally stuck us right next. Now,
these two radio stations had huge, big, elaborate setups. We
had what looked like a card table for Lindsay and

(22:53):
I and we knew nothing about Radio Row or how
it worked. We were there and it was it was
a pretty good Like we had Andy Dalton and aj
g coming off their rookie seasons, Like they saw Cincinnati.
They're like, hey, do you want Andy Dalton? Do you
want aj Green? That was pretty cool. We had for
some reason, Walter Payton's son. I'm not sure why we
talked to him, but like the big famous people were
going on the New York and Boston radio stations, and

(23:16):
I said to Lindsay, like, you'll be my hero in
life if you can get them. Kate Upton was doing
an interview on one of the stations. I'm like, go
get Kate Upton. So she goes to Kate Upton's like guy,
and they're like, yeah, we can give you five minutes.
So she comes back. She's like, you're gonna interview Kate Upton.
We were running some sort of like taped interview, right,

(23:40):
and the dude back in Cincinnati who was supposed to
be running the board like stepped out for some reason
and we couldn't get his attention to go back into
the studio and record me interviewing Kate Upton. And so
the entire time you have Lindsay scrambling to find the
person who was supposed to be producing the show, a
guy named Randy, and I'm said at a table with

(24:00):
Kate Upton quite awkwardly saying nothing, and we never did
the interview, Like like she sat there for five minutes,
just kind of staring. I mean, what do you say
to Kate Upton? I'm like, hey, hang on, we're trying
to get this done. And eventually I'm like, I just
should have put on the damn headsets and like talk
to her and pretended I was interviewing, so I can
at least say I interviewed her even if the damn

(24:22):
thing never aired.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
But I did get to meet Kate Upton. Wow was
she intimidating? How good looking she was?

Speaker 9 (24:29):
Yep?

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (24:30):
I sat right behind AJ mccern's wife, Oh, Catherine Webb
once at a Bengals game, and I was like, we're
not the same species.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
And the photo might still be out there.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
I think Lindsay took it like it's literally Kate Upton
sitting there with this look on her face like what
am I doing here? I'll find it and who is
this guy? And me just sort of sitting there and
totally clamming up. So I'm a Kate Upton story. But
if she's at the ballpark tomorrow, you know she's taken.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
But say hider or something.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Kentucky basketball tonight, the Wildcats and the Sweet sixteen against
Tennessee UK has beaten the volunteers. It's interesting all three
experts at ESPN dot com have picked the balls to win.
I think this is an interesting game. Kentucky shot it
really well in both games against Tennessee, twelve for twenty
four from three to both. Does that continue the Wildcats

(25:28):
on Sunday last week in the game against Illinois. I
Am not saying this for hyperbolic effect, but the first
eight minutes of the second half in that game, that
is the best I've seen a college basketball team play
all season long. You're probably making a face at whatever
you're listening to this on. That is the best I've

(25:49):
seen a college basketball team play all season long. Fifteen
of their first nineteen offensively, field goal percentage, fifteen of
nineteen to start the second half, and they were awesome defensively.
What do we see tonight? Do we see something that
looks like that? Do we see the same shooting performance
that we saw from Kentucky against Tennessee in the two
games they played against the balls and at the answer

(26:10):
is no. Can they get stops enough stops? Tonight in
Indianapolis six o'clock pregame coverage right here on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Ryan Conwell has announced his attentions to hit the Transfer
Portal Hockey Tonight. The Cyclone skate at Wheeling, and the
Blue Jackets are home against Vancouver, two games out of
a wildcard spot. More on the Reds coming up in

(26:31):
the four o'clock hour. FC Cincinnati tomorrow will play a
team that's off to its best ever start. The guy
who calls the game for Apple TV joins his next
on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (26:42):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. For National Doctors Day,
we honor the UC Health physician, so we're leading breakthroughs
for better Tomorrow's learn more at ucehealth dot com. He's
found two seventy five after Tailor Mill Road. It's an
accident on the left shoulder that's got traffic slow from
Dixie Highway with a five minute delay. Weaver rode another

(27:07):
accident at Dixie Highway and south out seventy five stop
and go traffic between Hoppele and Fort Washington Way a
twelve minutes slow down. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
This report is Spaw Week soccer.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Right now, it's eleven away from four o'clock. FC Cincinnati's
schedule has slowed down. They did pick up a point
at home last week with a two two draw against Atlanta.
They're on the road tomorrow for a matchup against a
Nashville team that's off to a really, really good start.
They have their most amount of points, most goal scored,
and their best goal differential to the first five matches

(27:43):
of a season in that franchise's history, So a tough
test for the Orange and Blue. Tomorrow eight thirty is
when it starts. You could see it on MLS Season Pass,
on Apple TV, and on the call tomorrow is the
great Tony Husband who's kind of enough to give us
a few minutes this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Tony, It's good to have you.

Speaker 9 (27:58):
How are you.

Speaker 8 (28:00):
Aver a good thank you?

Speaker 9 (28:00):
Oh yeah, great to talk to you.

Speaker 10 (28:01):
And looking forward to to this game.

Speaker 9 (28:03):
I think it should be a good one.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Should be a good one. This is a Nashville organization
that you know well. This team is off to a
really good start down there. Let's start with them. Why
have they been so good?

Speaker 10 (28:14):
I think they've had the right injection of fresh talent
and almost fresh legs, to be honest, and I mean
that almost literally. With this team. They've got some younger
bodies in midfield in particular where you're seeing the biggest change.
They're still very much built on the foundation of the
team that came into MLS back in twenty twenty, and
that FC Cincinnati fans will know well with the likes

(28:36):
of Joe Willis, Walker Zimmerman, Dan Lovis, jack Meyer, defenders
like that, and of course they still have Hanni Muktar,
but they've had some quality in midfield, in particular Eddie
Tagseeth the Norwegian midfield and has come in started his
career at Liverpool and then was playing in the Norwegian league.

Speaker 8 (28:51):
He's done really well.

Speaker 10 (28:52):
And Armed Cassin as well has come in also from
the Scandinavian leagues and has made a really good impression
in two starts, scored two goals. Missed out last weekend
in the home win against Montreal because of a stomach bug,
but you would expect him to be fitting ready tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
It's been a weird start to the season for FC Cincinnati.
Weird preseason. Lucho Arcosta moves on, they bring in a
vander They've played a lot of games because of the
Conkercaff Champions Cup. Offensively, they've kind of been stuck in
the MUDs. I think six goals and five games in
MLS played. They've had players leave to go play for
the respective national teams. Although I think Kevin denk is

(29:30):
going to be available tomorrow. How can Pat Noonan's team
generate a little bit more offense?

Speaker 10 (29:36):
Yeah, I think everything you said there. It's so important
to factor that in. I was talking to some Cincinnati
fans earlier in the week, and you know, some of
them a little concerned even at this point, just about
the direction the way things are going in the early
in the campaign. I just don't think you can underestimate
the significance of having these Conkercaff Champions Cup games.

Speaker 9 (29:56):
And being on the road early.

Speaker 10 (29:57):
I mean, this Cincinnati team was playing in Mottaqua before
the MLS season even really began. It's a really tough
hit on your schedule if you're playing conquer Cap. I mean,
it's a reward for the progress of a team if
you're playing in continental competition, but it sure is disruptive.
And then you throw in the international break that comes
in quite early in the season and that MLS plays through,

(30:19):
and then if you're trying to get some rhythm together
and you've got some new parts that you want to
fit into the team, this really does make it challenging.
So I wouldn't have too many concerns right now. I
think once Pat Newton has a chance to settle with
this team and work with them and have some free
it's just Saturday to Saturday games, so they've got a
full week of training, that will make a difference, and

(30:41):
then they'll be able to get a more stable lineup
and you can get these new players combining together and
getting to understand them a little bit better. I mean,
if Vander is one of the best talents in this league,
maybe outside MESSI, he's perhaps the best individual player in
terms of talent in MLS right now, but he's got
to fit in and get to under stand the players
around him, like den K who's come with a huge

(31:02):
price tag, you know, and Arishano who's going to be
playing far more advanced. It looks like this year. You know,
it takes some time, and it takes time on the
training field, and to be honest, they haven't had much
of that.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yeah, you know, the game, the match last week against
Atlanta kind of reminded me of of what FC Cincinnati
was dealing with about a year ago. And I even wondered,
are they asking Lucho Acosta to do a little bit
too much?

Speaker 9 (31:23):
Right?

Speaker 2 (31:24):
And then you know, obviously he's not here anymore. Evander is.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
He provides all the offense in that match against Atlanta,
and the good news usually have a player of his
caliber that can help you get a point in a
game like that when you're still trying to figure out
some stuff and you're playing a little bit shorthanded. But
I do wonder if, if, maybe until they get things
figured out and get a little bit more consistency just
in terms of players they have available, if they're going
to be asking Evander to take on a little bit

(31:50):
too much.

Speaker 9 (31:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (31:52):
I mean the thing with Evander and I've watched him
a lot as all of us have. You know, in
MLS the last couple of years. He did it at
Portland as well. You know, he is a player who
he is so talented that when he is on song
and at his best, he has a huge influence on
the game and therefore so much creatively and offensively goes

(32:15):
through him. So I think if you want to see
Evander at his best, you're often going to see the
game run through him in much the same way in
fairness that we saw with a Costa as well.

Speaker 8 (32:25):
You know, when since he were.

Speaker 10 (32:26):
At their best, Luco was at his best. So you know,
you want to see these players on the ball, You
want to see them creating and scoring, and that will
bring the best out of them. But sometimes, yeah, it
appears like they maybe are carrying too much of the
load and you want the pieces around them to try
and help out a bit more. And in den K
I fully expect he will be racking up goals before

(32:48):
too long in MLS, So you know, I mean, it's
much the same with Nashville. You look at Hannie Muktar's
influence in all of their era in MLS. You know,
some people say, well, there was too much put on him,
too much offense was expected of him, But you know,
when the guy was absolutely on fire, what do you
want to do?

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Not give him the ball? You wanted to give him
the ball.

Speaker 10 (33:05):
You know, he was scoring the goals, so you know,
give the guy the ball.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, it's it's it's a nice it's a nice problem
to have that option, right, give a give a player
that caliber of the ball. Tony Husband MLS Season Pass
Apple TV. A year ago, it felt like the Eastern
Conference All year long, we talked about the Big Three
and FC Cincinnati was one of them, along with Columbus
and Enter Miami. We got to the playoffs and and
it turned out to be a different story. It feels
like the Eastern Conference is at least a little bit

(33:32):
more wide open this year.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Would you agree?

Speaker 10 (33:35):
Yes, I would, And I think also, you know, this
is something we're going to see an increase over the
next few years, because you know, teams are starting to
spend more money, there's a higher caliber of player coming
into this league. Then some teams are going to go
down that route and spend money. And you absolutely have
seen that in Cincinnati, where there is an ambition to

(33:56):
bring in the best possible players and not to be
afraid of going into the transfer market, whether it's this
new kind of internal market with the purchase of a
Vanda or going out into the market with Denke, who
you know, was a record at the time of purchase
for Cincinnati, And you know, that's only going to increase
the competition. They're only going to make, you know, the

(34:17):
conferences stronger and the team stronger. What you might also see, though,
is you might see some of the teams who aren't
spending as much maybe starting to struggle.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
You know, look at Montreal struggles.

Speaker 9 (34:26):
They don't have a designated player really.

Speaker 10 (34:28):
The only guy they've got they've carried over his contract
from his previous club and he's injured anyway, and they
haven't been traditionally big spenders, and look at where their
situation lies right now. They just fired a coach and
they haven't won again. You know, So the time that
you know that things are changing and things are evolving
in this league and the ambitious will be rewarded with

(34:48):
better results on the field, but it's going to involve
a bigger outlayer as well of money. That is the
way that the game is known all around the world,
and that is the way that EML is moving in
a positive direction as well. Because all us things, and
I can say from the five years I've been here
now and covering this.

Speaker 8 (35:07):
League, WEEKNW.

Speaker 10 (35:08):
You know the year on year, this league is getting
a lot stronger and he's moving very quickly.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Good stuff. Have a great call tomorrow. Hopefully we can
do it again. I appreciate the time, Tony.

Speaker 8 (35:20):
I'll look forward to it and I hope everyone enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Same here. Thank you so much. We lost Tony there
at the end, Tony Husband MLS season pass Apple TV
eight thirty tomorrow, and of course you could listen to
the match with Tommy g on ESPN fifteen thirty. Coming
up on four o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
I'm Doug Brown.

Speaker 11 (35:44):
After re energizing Colorado football, ESPN has learned head coach
Dion Sanders will get a five year, fifty four million
dollar contract extension. Meanwhile, Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins
gets fired today.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
With only nine.

Speaker 11 (36:00):
Games left in the regular season, the Grizzlies are tied
for fourth in the West with the Lakers, who they
host tomorrow night. Four of the eight teams playing in
the Men's Sweet sixteen tonight are from the SEC, including
a head to head match up between Kentucky and Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
The ESPN Seth Greenberg, the SEC see.

Speaker 10 (36:18):
Put the nation on blast because this SEC is not
going anywhere.

Speaker 9 (36:22):
We talk about fourteen teams in the Answera by tournament.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
That is going to be the norm, That's not gonna
be the exception.

Speaker 11 (36:27):
Seth Greenberg on Jet Up Cam Williams will leave Tulane
and transfer to Kentucky. Williams is one of the best
shooters in the transfer portal. He averaged nine points a
game in his freshman year for the green Wave. First
four games of the Women's Sweet sixteen all on ESPN today,
early fourth quarter. Now Duke leeds North Carolina thirty seven
to thirty two.

Speaker 9 (36:49):
Hi's resident Super Bowl Chow Christianna coming up Monday. We're
less than a month away from the NFL Draft.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
I'll tell you which draftees I'm paying the most attention to.
It's un sportsman like Weree.

Speaker 9 (36:58):
Day Mornings at six right here ESPN Radio, ESPN.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Two in espnun.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center for National Doctor's Day,
we honor the UC Health physician so our leading breakthroughs
for better Tomorrow's Learn more at UCHealth dot com. On
Weaver Road. It's an accident at Dixie Highway. Construction westbound
two seventy five leaves that down to one lane for repairs.
On the Carrol Cropper Bridge, traffic there is slow from

(37:33):
the Petersburg exit and on eastbound two seventy five between
Dixie Highway and Taylor Mill Road. Traffic slow on at
Eazelek with traffic one.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Of life's greatest mystery.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
All right, it's five minutes after four o'clock.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
My name is Maegar. This is our show, Austin. Are
you with me? This is the worst day in Cincinnati.
I'm here. Yeah, it sucks. It's better when they win. Admittedly,
it's better when they win.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Do you think the Red should have a game on
the Friday after Opening Day?

Speaker 2 (38:07):
No, I don't. I understand why.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
It's sure there, Yeah, but there's other teams playing today.

Speaker 7 (38:12):
Moe brought up or Tony brought up a good point earlier.
If we know the weather's gonna be terrible on Sunday,
why don't we play that game tonight?

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Good question? If it's all built in for weather, Yeah,
it's a fair question. I don't know. I don't. I
don't have an answer. I don't.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
It is the biggest letdown. You gear yourself up for
the start of the season. You're so fired up. It's
opening day. It feels like a weekend. And I know
there's a lot of people who take the Friday off
and understandably so, but you're so you're charging towards the season.
You can't wait for it. The beauty of baseball is
the big one sixty two. It gets here, you play
a game, and then the next day bupkis nothing. Now

(38:52):
you know, if you want to watch baseball today, there
are other games, and then you know if you want
to watch sports tonight. Obviously there's four Sweet sixteen games on,
including obviously can Tucky and Tennessee that we'll have on
ESPN fifteen thirty at six o'clock. But there's something about
and I understand why they do it. They've had rainforce
Opening Day to get moved today, and I like opening

(39:12):
Day is different here. It is different here than anywhere else.
And because it's different here, I understand the bill tint
off day. I understand logistically why they do what they do,
but from my purposes, like the season has started, can
we can we get to the cadence and grind and
whatever you want to call it of a one sixty
in play baseball today. That's all that I ask today

(39:33):
is a let I might that might be in the
absence of anything else, that might be my my.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Paul question on Twitter at mowager.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Thanks to United Heartland Insurance, go to UAGI and s
dot com. It is interesting and again, man like if
you if yesterday morning you were telling your friends the
Reds are going to be really good because of Terry Francona,
you should absolutely still feel that way now. I think
if they're Reds are good, it's going to be because

(40:02):
of the players. But yes, I will, I will absolutely
factor in elite leadership and somebody who could hold them
accountable and Terry Francona's experience as being a reason why
the Reds are really good and why some of their
good players maybe outperform most individual expectations. If that made sense.

(40:24):
But he got it wrong yesterday. He got it wrong yesterday.
I think most of us this isn't second guessing either.
By the way, at the ballpark yesterday when we saw
Ian Jebou come out of the bullpen and go toward
the mound and start throwing warm up tosses. We were
all giving each other looks like, really, this is the

(40:46):
and by the way, had it worked, that would have
been awesome, right, that would have been the coolest had
it worked. But we were all I mean, I can't
say some of the things that I heard others say
about Ian Jebou being the guy that this isn't second guessing.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
This was in real time yesterday.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
If you were paying attention to the game yesterday, whether
you were there, whether you were watching on TV, listening
on the radio, whatever it was, and you heard Ian
Jabou is going to pitch the ninth inning, I think
you either were like, what's he doing?

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Like what's Terry Francona doing?

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Or maybe you were asking, like, God, did something happen
to Taylor Rodgers, Because as Tony Santion was getting the
outs in the eighth inning, I'm thinking, Okay, chances are
Tito Is maybe the Reds could score a run of
the eighth inning, which would be nice and insurance run,
so to speak. But my guess is it's going to
be a Taylor Rodgers even knowing who the Giants had
coming up. What is interesting to me is Taylor Rodgers

(41:40):
last year was awesome against righty's and you know, not
as awesome against lefties. In fact, very so so against lefties,
even though he's a lefties. So on one hand, you
might say Tito played it by the book, using the
righty to get righty's out. At the same time, he
didn't play the percentages because Taylor Rodgers, a more established
pitcher who has closed games before, been pitching against his

(42:00):
former team, for whatever that's worth, was really good last
year against righty's. But if you woke up this morning
thinking or yesterday morning, thinking Red's gonna be good because
of Tito Francona, you should absolutely still feel that way.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Today.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
The Reds have a legitimate Hall of Fame manager, and
it is only game one, and there are gonna be
times this year where the best managers in the sport,
including Terry Francona, pressed the wrong button.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
It happens.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
You and I both know, however, that had the Reds
not made a managerial change and brought back David Bell,
And I'm the first to admit like I like David Bell.
Terry Francona, if you have a chance to hire him,
you do it. Sorry, David, good guy, all that stuff.
But I mean, if if Terry Francona is available, that's

(42:49):
a no brainer, right, no problem, you do that. So
they hired Tito. Tito gets it wrong on Opening Day.
But if that's his predecessor, if if that's David Bell yesterday,
I mean, pitchforks. I mean, I listened to a decent
chunk of extra innings last night, and again good measured

(43:12):
analysis of the game. And by the way, there were
other things that happened during the game that led to
the result. But uh, the towns tone and tenor and
the the just bile that would have been worked up
about David Bell pressing that button versus Tito Francona entirely,

(43:33):
entirely different. So it's when we you know, Tony and
Austin and I were talking yesterday about opening days different
because you know, you remember certain things. Austin was talking
about Ramon Hernandez in twenty eleven walk off home run.
I think of John Axford and you you on opening
you remember Joe Randa. You know when you say Joe

(43:54):
Randa in this city, everybody remembers Opening Day two thousand
and five against the Mets off.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Braydon Lu like Joe Randa was a Red for four months.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
When you bring up Nick Martini, people are gonna go
what I mean, not that there was any other reason
to bring up Nick Martini, but Opening Day twenty twenty four,
Oh yeah, that was the the Nick Martini. Unfortunately, Opening
Day twenty twenty five, regardless of what happens this year,
and regardless of whether or not Ian Jabou proves to
be a good option out of the Reds bullpen, twenty

(44:24):
twenty five, the Ian Jabou game.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
And you hate it.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
You hate it for Ian because he was a good
part of that team two years ago. And you know
what may happen over the course of the season, is
Ian Jabo ends up pitching well enough that you go,
you know what, He wasn't such a bad option on
Opening Day. He just didn't get it done. I do
think it is fair. And unfortunately what happened yesterday with

(44:50):
the ninth inning obscured what was a stellar performance by
the guys who came in before Ian Jabou. Scott Barlow,
a good off season acquisition, a guy who has closed
games before, came in and was lights out, and so
was Amelia Pagan, and so was Tony Santine. Like the sixth, seventh,
and eighth inning, the Reds relievers were awesome. Each guy
pitching inning, each guy struck out two, neither guy gave

(45:12):
up a base runner. And so you know, you could
look at the overall body of work by the bullpen
yesterday and go, you know what, they're okay. But in
the absence of Alexis Diaz, if Ian Jabou is the
guy in the ninth inning yesterday, how much of that
is an indictment against the bullpen. And one of the
things we have talked about here for weeks is that

(45:33):
being the part of the team that I think that
is most difficult to quantify. They should have good starting pitching.
We can wonder how good. We can certainly wonder with
some of these guys, how healthy are they going to be?
But the starting pitching should be an asset. It certainly
was last year until everybody got hurt. And the offense

(45:55):
is probably going to be Let's just say at best
league average is a league average offense last year despite
playing in great American ballpark, Chances are the ceiling for
this team offensively is somewhere around league average. They've got
some high ceiling players. Ellie who, by the way, I thought,

(46:15):
looked for the most part, really good at the plate yesterday.
Matt McClain who had a tough opening day zero over
five with a couple of punchouts, Tyler Stevenson who was hurt,
and Christian and Carnassion's Train who had a couple of hits.
Those are like high ceiling players. But I still don't
think the Red's offensive ceilings is very high. So let's
just say at best league average offense, and if I'm

(46:35):
wrong about that, then awesome. The part of the team
that I think is most difficult to wrap your brain
around is the bullpen, and maybe a little bit more
so because of Alexis Diz and the fact that he's
not available right now. But something in the game yesterday
also happened that is going to be a big deal
this year. Like managers often, they create their reputations at

(47:01):
times by how they use the bullpen. Not to keep
bringing up David Bell, because nobody wants to hear that,
but two years ago, if you say, like David Bell's
entire time in Cincinnati, what did he do best, I
would say manage the bullpen in twenty twenty three, where
they won eighty two games, not every night, but in
a year where they got on average, the shortest starts

(47:25):
in Major League Baseball and I think second shortest actually
in twenty twenty three on average, where he was having
to go to the bullpen almost every night in the
fourth or fifth inning. To do that and have the
team in the race, I thought David Bell was masterful
not telling you he should still be the manager. The
halpe this year is that Terry Francona doesn't have to

(47:49):
do that, and that they get more length from the
starting pitchers and he's not having to go to the bullpen,
not having to even have a lot of bullpen games.
I'm sure they'll have some where they're getting above league
average per start length right where consistently the starting pitcher
is getting through six innings, getting eighteen outs with the

(48:11):
team still in the game. Yesterday, that did not happen.
Now it's one game, it's one start. Hunter Green in
the first three innings was awesome, even though he acknowledges
he didn't have his full repertoire of pitches, but he
was awesome yesterday, and the fourth inning he wasn't it

(48:31):
took him twenty eight pitches, and Terry Francona after the
game said those twenty eight pitches were the reason why
he wasn't brought back out for the sixth. Overall, only
eighty four pitches. It's not nineteen eighty seven. So on
opening Day, and look, managers have been conservative with their
starters in the first month of the season my entire life.
They're just a little bit more conservative because pitchers, as

(48:53):
a general rule, don't throw as many pitches per start.
But one of the things that has to happen this season,
if Hunter Green makes thirty two starts, the insanely overwhelming
majority of those starts, he's got to get through six
and that's gonna start happening.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
Happening.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
It's gonna start happening on a frequent basis with Lodolo,
and it's got to start happening on a frequent basis
when he's healthy, with Andrew Abbott, and it's got to
start happening on a frequent basis with all those guys.
So that the manager can sit down and we talked
about this on the Opening Day show yesterday. The manager
can sit down almost before the game and kind of
map out like, here's what I want to do, based

(49:31):
on situation, based on the score, based on who's coming up,
based on who the other team has on the bench
in the seventh, eighth, and ninth Innix. Now it's not
like he had to go to the bullpen in the
second inning yesterday, but the domino effect from Hunter not
being able to get through six was instead of Barlow
in the in the seventh, he's in the game in
the sixth. And instead of Pegan, who, Yeah, that's a

(49:54):
guy that I have our time wrapping my brain around.
Instead of him in the eighth, you got to bring
him into the seventh. And instead of sant On, who
a lot of us like, and Terry Francona has talked
a lot about during spring training, instead of him pitching
in the ninth, he's pitching in the eighth. And now
the ninth inning guy is unfortunately Ian Jabo. So this
is a big part of the team this year. Number One,

(50:16):
do they have enough good arms in the bullpen? Do
they have enough reliable arms in the bullpen? Number two?
Is the starting staff going to be as good as
we expect? If the answer is yes, the staff is
going to give this team a lot of length and
managing the bullpen is going to be easy. Yesterday even
though three of the five relievers who came in Sam

(50:37):
Mall is a little bit of a different story, but
the first three guys who came in were awesome. There
was a domino effect that resulted in the last guy
to make the team being the dude in the ninth inning,
and that domino effects started in the fourth inning when
Hunter Green needed twenty eight pitches to get out of it.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
That can't again.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
There are going to be starts where even the best
and Hunter is their best pitcher, doesn't get give you
much length. But this team has to be above league
average and start length. And if they are, I think
it's gonna be very easy for Tito to to manage
this pen. H If not, it's gonna be a little

(51:17):
bit of a challenge. And then I think you're being
fair if you wonder if if they have enough relievers
to to meet that challenge, and is the offense gonna
maybe have to overcome some deficiencies by the starting staff.
If what we saw yesterday from Hunter Green, and again
it's one game, and Hunter Green was for three innings
awesome yesterday and My money is Hunter Green is an

(51:39):
All Star this year.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
You know, you know how much I like Hunter Green.
But you know, little things add up.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
The fourth inning added up, and the fourth innings impact
was felt in the ninth for this team this year.
One of the things I wonder is, are they gonna
get enough length to make this manager, who is really good,
have an easy time managing the bullpen? Or is he
gonna need four guys every single night? Yesterday he needed

(52:06):
five because the more relievers you use, the higher the
likelihood of one failing. Is yesterday, first three guys were awesome,
the fourth one failed, it costs him the game.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
That fourth one is probably not in the game.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
If Hunter Green gets through six twenty minutes after four o'clock,
your phone calls are welcome. Five to one to three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. On the worst day of the year, eight six, six,
seven oh two three seven seven six. We have been
this week heavy on baseball and heavy on the Xavier
coaching search, which did not take very long.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
By the way.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Richard Patino will be on this show next Thursday at
I think five o'clock, so we are looking forward to
having him. Xavier will formally introduce him on Tuesday afternoon.
But anyway, we've been heavy on Sean Miller and Richard
Patino and Xavier's coaching situation, and heavy on baseball with
the Reds and Opening Day. We haven't done much on
Trey Hendrickson, but Trey Hendrickson nationally is being talked about

(53:01):
a lot.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
I have questions.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
We'll get to them coming up in just a few
minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
From the UC Health Traffic Center for National Doctor's Day,
we honor the UC Health physician so our leading breakthroughs
for better Tomorrow's 're more at UCHealth dot com. Northbound
seventy one approaching Redbank Road. Accident on the right shoulder
that causing delays back from Norwood Lateral with a thirty
minute delay. Also keep in mind you may find an

(53:35):
accident on Playfield Road at Reed Hartman Highway. That one
is in the roundabout and police are there on scene
on that ezelek with traffic.

Speaker 7 (53:44):
This report is sponsored by Taco bell E Lucks your
Way with the new.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
We've done a lot of good stuff this week.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
If you've missed any of it, go get it on
the iHeartRadio app. Paul Danner Junior was with us this
week on a few Bengals related items. Tommy thral Rick
Brooring on Richard Patino, the great Reds writer, Chad Dotson
Grant Freaking who wrote an awesome Red's book. I wrote
an awesome Reds book, and so much more. If you

(54:10):
missed it, go listen to it. Josh Ingles from covers
dot com. We did a baseball gambling segment. He is
not very bullish on the Reds, but there are there are.
There's a really good Reds prop that he likes, and
you can listen to that conversation and so much more.
Podcasts a service of a Long Neck Sports Grill with
three locations in northern Kentucky. There's no better place to

(54:31):
post up this baseball season then Long Next. You could
also if if you're on the iHeartRadio app, you could
listen to yesterday's Opening Day spectacular with Tony Pike and
Austin Elmore. Austin, I was at CVS this morning picking
up a prescription and I ran into a guy who

(54:52):
was at the show at Smoke Justice yesterday and I'm
in line, and he's in line next to me. Right,
we're both next in the You so to speak to
get our respective prescriptions, and this guy says to me, mo, yeah,
we talked about the game. Is like guys that smoke Justice.
I didn't want to come up and say hi. What
made this particular social interaction significant was as he was

(55:16):
waiting in line and I'm waiting in line, I was
holding a notebook because I wanted to buy a notebook.
I needed a notebook. I have like a notebook that
I always used for to do and preparing the show
and stuff like that. But I'm waiting in my line
in line for prescription. He's holding in his hand two
large box boxes of Trojans condoms.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Fine, right, but it's really hard to stand there talking
to somebody when they're holding two boxes of condoms and
not want to make some sort of snide comment.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
I didn't, but it was like the elephant in the
room during this two and a half minute conversation between
myself and this guy who came to smoke Justice yesterday.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Did he tell you his name?

Speaker 8 (56:01):
No?

Speaker 1 (56:03):
You know, I mean might have. I was distracted because
the guy's again, you have to grow up.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
Eventually.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Somebody is talking to you with a straight face, having
this conversation, and this is a true story. This happened,
And and he's got these two boxes in his hands. Clearly,
this man is ready for an awesome weekend. Right, I'm
holding a notebook. This guy is holding something much more fun.
This guy is clearly getting sent for an What prescription
he was waiting for?

Speaker 2 (56:30):
I don't know. I respect his privacy.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
No, we may answered the question if I showed up,
if you saw me standing in line somewhere holding two
boxes of Trojans, you would say something.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
You would see you would have some smart ass remark. Right.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
I wanted to say something, but I didn't know him
well enough to be able to say something, so I didn't.
But I just want this man to know I noticed
what you were holding, and I had things to say,
but because I don't know you well enough, I didn't
say anything. But if I came off as awkward, was
you were four feet from me holding two large, large

(57:04):
I think it's been years since I've needed these largest
boxes of Trojans I have ever seen.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
I'm not trying to be discussing or immature.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
It was an awkward social interaction because this man was
holding two huge boxes of these things.

Speaker 7 (57:18):
If you had been more comfortable around him, what is
an example of one of the comments or questions you
would have asked.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
I'm not creative enough, but I would have had something
to say. Had that been a friend of mine, I
would have had something to say. This man, I had
nothing to say, but I was weird about it because
I wanted to say something but I couldn't. And again,
it's a guy who said he was at our show yesterday,
probably listening to this conversation right now, although maybe not

(57:45):
because he had two big boxes, so perhaps the weekend
started early for him.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
But if you're at the CBS on Harrison Road today
having that conversation, I wanted badly to say something to
you as I was waiting in line a little bit
after eleven o'clock today and did not. I was gonna
talk about Trey hendrickson now and I have to get
back on time. That was an awesome sports talk radio segment.

(58:13):
It's four thirty sports Headlines or next, and then we'll
do some other stuff on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 6 (58:18):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 4 (58:24):
From the UC Health Traffic Center for National Doctor's Day.
We honor the UC Health physician so our leading breakthroughs
for better Tomorrow's learn more at UCHealth dot com. Eastbound
two seventy five. It's a disabled vehicle on the ramp
to southbound seventy one seventy five northbound seventy one approaching
Redbank Road. Accident. They are onto the right shoulder. Traffic

(58:47):
is slow from Dana Avenue and northbound on Madison Pike.
It's an accident at Dudley Road. I'm at Ezelek with traffic.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
This reports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevalai, home
of lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit approval from
their family to yours for life. Kelseyschev dot Com Reds
don't play today. They will continue their series tomorrow with
the San Francisco Giants. Nicolodolo versus Justin Verlander four to ten. Tomorrow,

(59:18):
Kids Opening Day, Kids Opening Day, you get a Kids
Hacked Tomorrow. The game live on seven hundred wlw UK
hoops Tonight the Wildcats in the Sweet sixteen in Indianapolis
Atmosphere that for that game tonight should be awesome. Pregame
coverage at six o'clock tip off shortly after seven pm
on ESPN fifteen thirty. Xavier's Ryan Conwell probably no longer

(59:41):
going to be Xavier's Ryan Conwell because he is hitting
the transfer portal. The Cincinnati Cyclone skate on the road
tonight against Wheeling, and the Blue Jackets have a home
game against Vancouver.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
It's time for today's Postman Law.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Injury report delivered by Postman Law Injured Postman delivers uh yesterday.
The good news is no, no major injury news. But
beyond you know kind of what we knew going in.
Tyler Stevenson, the oblique is going to be out for
I think the expectation right now is for most of April.
Alexis Diaz his the the impact of his injury was

(01:00:15):
felt yesterday, the hamstring which made him have to start
the season on the injury list, major reason why he
and Jabou was pitching yesterday. Spencer Steer. Spencer Steer played yesterday.
Tony was talking about this. He did not look good
at the plate. Now you might say it was a

(01:00:37):
bad day, oh for four or three strikeouts.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
I know he was swinging the bat.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
I know he DHD at that game and dating the
other night, but three days ago he wasn't going to
start the season on the active roster. The reason is
he's dealing with shoulder discomfort. I cannot help but wonder
how healthy he is. And if I'm wondering that, then

(01:01:04):
the next thing you ask yourself, and I hope the
answer is never like hopefully Spencer Steer is good and
tomorrow he hits two home runs and we stopped talking
about his shoulder. But with the shoulder thing there and
what we watched yesterday there, you can't help, but wonder
is a stint on the il and inevitability for Spencer.

(01:01:25):
That is today's Postman Law Injury Report delivered by Postman
Law Injured Call eight four four Postman Postman. By the way,
also at yesterday's show, not only did we have somebody
in the audience who is getting really lucky this weekend,
we had a guy and Austin. I don't know if
you were there for this. A guy came up to

(01:01:46):
us and told us he does not like when we
take a phone call from Mike and sort of admonished
us for talking with Mike. So Mike has a going.

Speaker 8 (01:02:01):
Somebody admark.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
It sounds like you're at a festival. What are you doing?

Speaker 8 (01:02:07):
Some clowns that his big band music playing, which is
kind of cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Sorry about that, turn it down when I hang on
a second. So some clown has big band music playing
and you just yelled at them to turn it down
to it sounds like they listened.

Speaker 8 (01:02:25):
No, I walked in the other road. Okay, Yeah, these
guys are sick and they're dying for pious.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
But then you can't yell at people who are dealing
with that, can't.

Speaker 8 (01:02:36):
Yeah, this guy's my buddy, kind of like you were
saying earlier, if you'd known the guy better with the Trojans,
you might have kid is working a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
You know, it made the entire interaction uncomfortable. And if
that guy's listening, I apologize.

Speaker 8 (01:02:51):
I wouldn't you apologize for well?

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
I mean, you know, I think he knew that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
I knew he had two boxes of Trojans in his hand,
and I wanted to make a joke, but I didn't,
And so I think I think he was weirded out
by the fact that I was too stupid or uncomfortable
to be able to handle myself.

Speaker 8 (01:03:10):
Basically, I got okay, that's you know, you're a pretty
good storyteller. I like the way you kind of led
up to that. It was free. I was going, well,
was you born with this? And it was like good punchline. Nice. So, well,
what are we gonna do with the newest Red Babe

(01:03:30):
Lucks or show hey Lucks? I think, yeah, I'm just
trying to be a little silly.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
Call him cleanup batterer. Man, it was our cleanup hitter yesterday.

Speaker 8 (01:03:44):
What is up with that?

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
Yeah, our cleanup he's our cleanup hitter and uh. And
they scored two runs on the play, so so no
one cared. But you also got thrown out at third
base by about eight yards, which sort of put the
kaibash on the Reds being able to break in It.
Not not that a four run deficit would have been
insurmountable for San Francisco, but if Gavin Luck stays at

(01:04:08):
second base, there's only one out and they've got a
guy in scoring position.

Speaker 8 (01:04:13):
I feel sorry for Ian Jabbau because you know, you're right.
The year before the last that guy pitched a ton
and he was very representative. He did a darn good
job overall. Yeah, even though he took out a heat,
but I don't know why he was taking heat. Did
you pitch that much? Yeah, you're gonna blow up some dances, obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Ian Jabou.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
I think people would be surprised to know this led
the team in appearances two years ago now because the
starting pitching was so bad. They had seven guys pitch
more than fifty four games. But ian Jabo pitching more
games than any of them. And did he have his
moments of ineffectiveness? Sure, for the most part, was he
pretty good?

Speaker 8 (01:04:52):
Yeah, he was all.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Right, But he's not the guy you want pitching in
the ninth inning of that game of a one run game,
whether it's on all but or whether it's someday in August,
that's that's not the guy. Look, he didn't pay pitching
two games last year. He was on a minor league
contract during spring. There are reasons why he fell out
of disfavor with the Reds enough for them to non
tender him and sign him to a minor league contract. Now,

(01:05:14):
give him credit for making the club, but he was
the last guy. The last guy on the team, for
my money, shouldn't be the first option in the ninth inning.
And again, I know they used other relievers leading up
to that, but they had Taylor Rodgers, who was good
against righty's last year Ian Jebbou.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
I certainly hope he has a good season. I really do.
I have no reason to root against him.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
But if you were to ask Bob Melvin and the
San Francisco dugout right now, who do you want to
face you gotta score a run to tie the game.
You want to face Ian Jebbou or your former guy
Taylor Rodgers. My guess is Bob Melvin, in a moment
of truthfulness, would have said Ian Jebou absolutely.

Speaker 8 (01:05:51):
And I still that the whole move perplexes me. No,
I wasn't. I was kind of watching and not watching.
But but what was the line that was the ninth
and he loaded with right handers for the Reds or what.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
For the for the Giants?

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Yeah, the first five batters up of the ninth inning
due up were right handed and so again, Yet you, well,
I think you could. You could come to Tito Francona's
defense and say he was going by the book.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
He brought in the righty to face a bunch of rightings.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
Fair except Taylor Rogers has actually as a lefty better
against righties.

Speaker 8 (01:06:25):
Yeah, and that's the other thing I was going to
bring up that guy. I thought that was their greatest
acquisition by far in the off seat. Well maybe a
tie with Travino. But anyway, I'm glad you kind of
helped me figure that out because I was scratching my head.
Tomorrow is interesting to me because you got a definite
Hall of Famer going against my favorite Red richer Lodolo.

(01:06:48):
But uh, Erlander was a nice pickup. I know he's old,
but whyal boy? And then Robbie Ray is two and
two career against the Reds. He was one and oh
last year, two and zero or two and two lifetime
lefty s. Theres a lot of junks. I mean he's
done to a hard ball, does.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
He, Robbie Ray? Yeah, a little bit of a junk baller, Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Justin Verlander is uh forty two years old and still
at it.

Speaker 8 (01:07:17):
It's incredible to me. But I think, I really think
Ladola is gonna really put on a performance tomorrow night.
I'm hard for my boy, Nick. Okay, sweet sixteen tonight. Obviously,
Ole Miss has no chance against Michigan State. Reading on

(01:07:38):
the strengths and weakness of the both teams, right, I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
Know that I would say they have they have no chance,
but sure Michigan State is the prohibitive and decided favorite
in that game.

Speaker 8 (01:07:52):
Yeah, they got the best three point shooting defense in
the Division one, and that's kind of the strength of
Old Miss. So right off the bat, you're going to oh, so.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
If you if you look, if you look at if
you look at the two games that Old missus played
thus far, pretty much half their points have come from
behind the art. And you mentioned that Michigan State's three
point three point defenses is awesome. Uh, Michigan, Michigan State
is really good on the offensive glass, and they haven't
Jase Richardson, I think easily the best player on the floor.
So Michigan State should win. But I don't know that

(01:08:24):
Ole Miss has no chance.

Speaker 8 (01:08:26):
Does Purdue have any chance against Houston?

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
I don't think so.

Speaker 8 (01:08:32):
I was I was hoping that we might be a
better game, but reading up on them all, I was like,
I just don't see how it's conceivable that they can
they can hang at all with Houston with that wicked
defense Houston has. That's what's scary, right.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Yeah, So, Houston's defense is awesome and as good as
Braden Smith is, and he is really good.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
He turns the ball over a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
Heck, if you watch their game against McNeice, he had
I think eight turnovers. Houston is number one in block percentage,
they're in the top five nationally and two point defense.
They're really good at the ram. Houston is just better.
I expect the Kougs to advance.

Speaker 8 (01:09:12):
And one more quickie if you allow me so, because
I'm always thinking of the Bearcats. But that's who I
grew up with. I grew up watching.

Speaker 9 (01:09:19):
Oscar and Jack Plinman and Paul Hog and all of that.
And I'm with you.

Speaker 8 (01:09:24):
I'm sick of the depletion of a great tradition. And
if Miller doesn't really turn things around next year, is
he pretty much gone? In your opinion, I.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Would be really surprised if a year from now UC
is not competed in the NCAA Tournament and Wes Miller's
given a sixth season. Now, there could be mitigating circumstances,
you know that are add up to why UC is
not in. But I think most of us are going
to go into next year, thinking that if if the
Bearcats don't make the tournament, that they'll be looking for

(01:09:57):
a new head coach.

Speaker 8 (01:09:59):
Yeah, And they interviewed Nick to get on that issue
a little bit. They interviewed Nick Cronin, uh several days
ago and his dad and they said, Nick, you know
you got to here a bunch of questions podcast and
they said, would you have any interest in going back
to UC? And he said, no, of course, I much
you know a legend of a college university? Or why

(01:10:22):
would I want to go? And his dad his dad
blinked and said, don't count.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Well, I don't know who asked that question.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
I think it's unfair to ask a head coach who's
got a job if he has interest in another and
expect him to say anything beyond no.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
I'm happy where I am. I think what's interesting about
mc cronan.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
And I watched bits and pieces of a segment he
did with Colin Cowherd I guess yesterday.

Speaker 10 (01:10:45):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
And by the way, Mick cronin is awesome in that setting,
Like you talk about somebody who I think would like
be good on TV. Mc cronan, you live out there, Mike.
I watched McK cronin all season long. I watched him
in the immediate aftermath of UCLA's loss last week in
the NCAA Tournament. He often came off with somebody who
isn't exactly enamored with his his current job. That doesn't

(01:11:08):
mean he's gonna leave, but you know, look, he's He's
talked about the the geographical disadvantages that he feels like
his school has being in the Big Ten and but
based in Southern California. Uh, he just he has he
has seemed he has always been a guy who's been
willing to tell you that he's unhappy about something. This year,
it kind of felt like with his demeanor, especially after

(01:11:30):
some games, that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
He seems unhappy. I don't know if he seems unhappy.

Speaker 8 (01:11:38):
I think his his dad, I think has a big
influence on on net, don't you.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
Oh yeah, No, I mean that doesn't mean that Nick's
gonna leave the job that he has. And by the way,
you know, we've talked a lot about Donovan Dent, maybe
Richard Patino bringing him here. I know the folks in
Southern California are talking about like U C l A
and and what they could offer Donovan Dent and if
if that's the case, mc cronin's gonna have arguably the
top player in the portal right now, and maybe.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
Things play out a little bit different.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
I thought they had a good season year, one of
the Big ten, making the NCAA tournament. But again, like
he just often came off as someone who has it
isn't completely happy with what he's doing, and so I'm
going to be paying attention to how things unfold for
his school next year. Mike, have a good weekend and
enjoy the big band music.

Speaker 8 (01:12:26):
Thanks for putting me on, though I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Right, even though that guy told us yesterday he doesn't
like when Mike's on. My response, you could call the show,
you could chime you're welcome to Mike does.

Speaker 8 (01:12:40):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
Not every day, by any stretchy And by the way,
I didn't even tell you this. Like the days we
don't put Mike on, he sends me nasty emails. Brandanvan
and Jones on baseball coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:12:52):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 4 (01:12:57):
The UC Health Traffic Center For National dis Day, we
honor the UC Health physician so our leading breakthroughs for
better tomorrow's learn more at UCHealth dot com. Northbound seventy
one approaching Redbank Road. An accident there is off on
the right shoulder. Traffic running slow from Dana Avenue with
a five minute delay. On Hamilton Cleaves Road, it's an

(01:13:19):
accident at Morgan Lane and Montgomery Rode a structure fire
between Robeson Road and Beachview Circle. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
This report is sponsored by Time. Right, that's us. We
are like a minute late. My apologies.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
Don't know how to read a clock on Oeger. This
is ESPN fifteenth thirty. Hope your weekend is off to
an unbelievable start. Hope you had an awesome opening day,
which you probably did until the top of the ninth
inning yesterday. Truly an unbelievable festive day for late March.

(01:13:57):
I guess you can have better weather, because the weather
today is awesome. I guess maybe we're getting rainlin or
on or something, but it's it's warmer today. But I mean,
we've we've done opening day before where it's like in
the thirties, We've done opening day before. If you go
way back, well, we've had snow we've had Opening Day
get rained out, we've had drizzle, Like yesterday, it was
pretty damn good, amazingly festive day.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
I mean, it's it's it's cliche, and we do it
every year.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
We talk about how like no city does Opening Day
like Cincinnati, and it really, it really is true. I
we beat that to death and it's so cliche, but
that doesn't make any less make it any less true.

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
And it was just it's fun.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
As hokey as this sounds in these in these highly
divided times, it's fun to just like watch everybody enjoy
a day and all agree on the same thing, which
was Opening Day is awesome. We had an awesome time
at Smoked Justice yesterday, thanks to everybody who came out
and thanks to the staff.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
At Smoke Justice, and so everything is going great.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
There was a pop to the game, yet a buzz
crowd Yesterday was you know, there's always a lot of
excitement for Opening Day and always lot of excitement for
first pitch.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
I think yesterday was a little bit different.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
There is a real sense of excitement for what the
Reds might be able to do this year, and what
they might be able to do this year is you'll
get to the postseason, and then folks, as the game
is unfolding, are going well beyond that, right, and then
Ian Jabo comes into the game, and obviously his appearance
in the ninth inning is what we have spent most

(01:15:24):
of the time talking about. But you were just listening
there to Marty and Tracy on Baseball. Marty sounded like
he was just waking up, which he probably was. They
do that in the morning. But Tracy said, you got
to win games like that, and it's true. Now, are
you going to lose them occasionally? Sure? If the Reds

(01:15:45):
win tomorrow and win Sunday, they take two out of three,
We're gonna be happy with how the season has started.
And we talked yesterday on our opening day show, Tony
Austin and I about the first month of the season.
I think this is a really really critical first month.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
Of the season.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Like I think, if you're i' gonna undo the normalization
of losing, then start winning almost instantly. And you know,
it's one thing to avoid the slow start, but how
about instead of avoiding the slow start, they actually just
go ahead and have a really good start. They've had
a winning record once in the last seven years, on
April thirtieth. This coming month, including the team they're playing

(01:16:21):
this weekend, they are playing a lot of teams that
are not projected by baseball prospectives and fangrafts to have
winning records. That doesn't mean they're all guaranteed to be bad.
Maybe the Giants are better than expected right now. Baseball
perspectives has them winning seventy eight games. Maybe the Miami
Marlins are better than anybody expects. But if you look
at the schedule and look for certain areas where there

(01:16:43):
are opportunities, April is one of them because they play
a bunch of teams that don't project to be all
that good. San Francisco is one of them. We talk
often about margin for error. This team's margin for error
is small. The roster, for my money, at least, feels incomplete.
Their offensive ceiling feels like it's league average. They're probably

(01:17:09):
not going to be a great offensive team, even though
they play in a ballpark conducive to offense. By the way,
the offense went to sleep innings four through eight yesterday,
that's one of the reasons why they lost. Like maybe
the ninth inning unfolds a little bit differently, and maybe
Terry Francona manages the game differently if the Reds tack
on some more runs, So who knows. But you can

(01:17:32):
make it all about Ian Jabou. You can make it
all about Terry Francona. You can make it all about
Hunter Green's fourth inning, which pretty much killed his chances
of giving them more than five. But the reality is
you got to win games like that. It's not a
one run game, right, it's not a one run game,
but it kind of was. They had a one run
lead going into the ninth inning. What were they bad
at last year? One run games fifteen to twenty eight.

(01:17:55):
That has to get better this year. So it's only one, right,
nobody's losing their mind after one game. Nobody should. It's
only one, but it is. I think it's It's an
example of a couple of different things. It's an example of,
you know, offensively, why we fear their limitations. After they
got to logan web early, they went to sleep until
the ninth inning when they scored a run and put

(01:18:17):
a threat together. Number two. Number two, they gotta be
better in one run games. They were not yesterday. Number three.

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
They need more length of their starting pitchers. They didn't
get it yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
And again it's opening day, so you're not gonna get
a complete nobody throws a complete game anymore. But you're
not gonna get seven or eight innings from Hunter Green.
But could you get six? And I would have been
okay with letting him start the sixth inning. Tony asked
me during the Quick Hits segment on Sincy three to
sixty about Francono's decision with Hunter Green, because he wanted

(01:18:47):
him if he started him in the sixth, he wanted
him to finish the sixth how about you start him
in the sixth and see what happens, and if he
gives up a hit, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
You know, we we make a change.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
Or if the first batter it takes nine or ten
pitches to either retire him or he reaches base, okay,
then you change. But what if he gets a quick out,
What if he gets a first or second pitch out
like Hunter Green, even at eighty four pitches, even on
opening day and the sixth inning, to me, is a
good option, even on a day where he acknowledges he
didn't have his best stuff. There were a lot of

(01:19:21):
dominoes that fell yesterday. Hunter not getting through six meant
they had to go to the bullpen early and as
as effective as the first three relievers were in Barlow,
Pegand and Santion. The more relievers you use, the higher
the likelihood is of one of them ultimately falling apart,
whether it would have been Taylor Rodgers, whether it would

(01:19:41):
have been Graham Ashcraft, whether it would have been a
healthy Alexis Diaz, which they obviously don't have, or whether
it was Ian Jebbo. The more relievers you use, the
higher the likelihood is of one of them, especially in
a close game, costing you the game.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
And Ian Jebou did last night. But that is the
sort of game that this season they have to win.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
It's the sort of game this season they made an
out on the basis yesterday. The margin for ARA shrinks
when you do that. We talked about that a lot
last year. The margin for aer shrinks when you're starting
pitcher can't give you more than five. The margin for
aers shrinks when you have health problems. Alexis Diaz was
not available yesterday. Perhaps their health problems contributed to their

(01:20:22):
offensive issues. No Tyler Stevenson, No, Austin Hayes, Spencer Steer
does not look right right now. So a lot of
different things a lot of different things that yesterday's game
can can can can provide fodder over if that makes sense.
Right the yesterday's game, I can highlight it a lot
of things that we wonder about this team. Do they

(01:20:44):
have enough good relief pitchers? Are they going to be
able to hit? Are they going to be able to
widen their margin for air? Are they going to be
able to win close games? Are they gonna be able
to win games like that yesterday that they should win?
And if the answer is no, like how's that going
to came job to him? We'll see, we will see
Francona pressed the wrong button yesterday and it's it's gonna happen.

(01:21:07):
And so it's not so much Francona screwing up and
putting Ian Jebou in the game, although I think he did.

Speaker 2 (01:21:14):
I've talked about this a little bit today.

Speaker 1 (01:21:15):
The sound the crowd made when we saw that Ian
Jebou was coming in was unlike anything we had seen
anything I had heard in that ballpark in quite a while.
So that wasn't second guessing. It was first guessing. But
there were a lot of things in that game that
led Terry Francona to the point where his choices were
Taylor Rogers, who he obviously didn't want to use, Sam

(01:21:37):
Mall who we obviously at least at the outset of
the ninth inning didn't want to use, Graham Asscraft, who
he didn't want to use, and Ian Jebbou, who he
did use. If Hunter goes deeper into the game, maybe
the decision making is different. If they score more runs
in the middle innings, Maybe the outcome is different. If
they don't give away an out on the base pass,
maybe they score more runs. Lots of different stuff, lots

(01:21:59):
of different stuff that gets magnified because it's opening Day.
Well see, but one of the things I wonder about
this team is the composition of the bullpen.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
Do they have enough guys like Ian Jabau makes the team?

Speaker 1 (01:22:12):
And I kind of understand, like if a guy makes
the team, then you ought to be able to use him.

Speaker 9 (01:22:18):
Like.

Speaker 1 (01:22:18):
This isn't an NBA roster where the dudes at the
end of the bench never play. It's not a college
basketball roster where the dudes at the end of the
bench never play. In a major league baseball team, especially
in a bullpen, like everybody's going to be used, and
everybody's going to be used at some point in a
high leverage situation. Whether it's a guy who's going to
play a position and pinch hit, whether it's going to

(01:22:40):
be a guy who plays a position but doesn't start regularly,
he's going to start some games, whether it's a guy
who was the last pitcher to make the team at
some point he's going to pitch in a high leverage situation.
Do they have enough pitchers that Terry Francona and we
as fans can count on in high leverage situations? I
don't know. There are a handful of things about this

(01:23:02):
team that I think, I do know, I think I think,
and I could be dead wrong about this. I feel
I believe we'll do it that way. I believe the
Reds are gonna have good starting pitching. I believe the
Reds are gonna have kind of a league average at
best offense.

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
The bullpen itself, I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
And again, there was a lot to like about the
performance of the relief corpy yesterday because the first three
guys who came in were awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:35):
I might have felt a little bit better about that
unit had the ninth inning gone better than better than
it did. But yesterday on our Opening Day show was
one of the things we talked about, like does Terry
Francona have enough options in the bullpen? And frankly, I
think you could ask that question even if they had
a healthy Alexis DS. They don't, so it amplifies the concern.

(01:23:57):
It amplifies the question. Poll questions on this show come
your way thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Go to uh
i NS dot com. If you need insurance, whether it's
home insurance, car insurance, boat insurance, motorcycle insurance, business insurance,
if you have a commercial fleet, you got to insure it.

(01:24:19):
Whatever you life, insurance, you name it, they can insure it.
Uhi ns dot com. Is the day after Opening Day
the worst eighty percent say yes, I want to know
what day is worse than the day after, and it's
it's It's not a criticism of the Reds. It's certainly
not a criticism of opening day. Not having a game today.

(01:24:41):
I get it, but I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
I get it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
They build it a day in case there's bad weather.
And you don't want to have a second game on
that second day because that becomes opening Day, and I understand.
Plus it screws with the parade, all the festivities. We've
had rain ounce I think with twenty was it twenty
eighteen or twenty nineteen, got rained out, kicked it to
the next day. We are good, but there is something
that's such a letdown. I think in part because it's

(01:25:07):
still a work day, and you know a lot of
folks do take the day after Opening Day off more
than anything. All Right, season's about to start, except no
one more day before we can get to pretty much
day in a day out baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
That'll be tomorrow. Vote now at MO Edgar.

Speaker 1 (01:25:22):
H we have not talked, and I meant to do
this last hour, and then I got off on a
tangent about a guy at CVS who was buying a
bunch of condoms. And I don't know why I even
told that story. But Trey Hendrickson has been in the
news this week. He hasn't been traded, and apparently he's
not going to be traded, and there's a lot of
optimism that a deal is going to get done. I
want to know why. I'll ask why next? On ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 6 (01:25:45):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 4 (01:25:51):
The UC Health Traffic Center for National Doctor's Day, we
honor the UC Health physician so our leading breakthroughs for better.
Tomorrow's leorn more at UCHealth dot com. Southbound seventy five
near Town Street. The right lane is blocked from an accident.
That's got traffic stop and go from Cooper with a
twenty minute delay. Hamilton cleaves the road. Another accident at

(01:26:13):
Morgan Road, southbound seventy five at Ezer Charles Drive. It's
an accident. You got police there on scene. I'm at
exelic with traffic.

Speaker 2 (01:26:21):
This report is sponsored by five five. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:26:30):
We've we've been heavy on this week baseball, as you
might expect with Opening Day coming up. We've had some
good baseball conversations. Tommy Thrall was terrific among them. Go
listen on the iHeartRadio app. We also we talked obviously
early in the week about Sean Miller leaving Xavier and
Rick Boring was on our show a couple of different times,
both to talk about Sean leaving and then ultimately to

(01:26:53):
talk about Richard Patino taking the job. If you miss
those conversations, go listen to him. Richard Patino will be
on our show on Thursday. The Trey Hendrickson news this
week has been that, according to a Jordan Schultz NFL
insider Jordan Schultz, a Trey Hendrickson trade is quote off
the table, and that obviously doesn't mean that one won't happen,

(01:27:13):
of course, but I think now most of us would
be surprised if the Bengals traded Trey Hendrickson for two reasons.
One pretty credible reporter says one's off the table. Two
if they traded Trey Hendrickson, who's going to rush the
passer next year? Like Trey Hendrickson. I'll borrow Joe Burrow's
word need like t Higgins is a need. Trey Hendrickson

(01:27:36):
on the twenty twenty five Bengals is a need like
how do they make their pass rush better? You could
have sold me two weeks ago in the idea that
they would get somebody in free agency. I'm not there
because the Bengals didn't add anybody in free agency. And sure,
you could tell me what Joseph Osaia is back and
he's going to be better, and I'll buy that to
a degree. And Miles Murphy is back and he's going

(01:27:57):
to be better, and it can't be any worse. But
they need Trey Hendrickson. So if the idea is to win,
and by the way, Vegas says the over underd ten
and a half, so a lot of folks think this
team could be pretty good, you get into eleven wins
or more without Trey Hendrickson, I don't think the answer
is yes. But the reporting has also included the suggestion
at least that the Bengals have a desire to get

(01:28:19):
a deal done with Trey Hendrickson, a long term deal
and one that maybe could pay him thirty million dollars
or more. And if that's the case, fine, I mean,
Tray's a good player. That goes without saying I think
is the best free agent acquisition in franchise history.

Speaker 2 (01:28:37):
So you have a good player coming off.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
An awesome season who's had a great run in Cincinnati,
and you're essentially going to guarantee that you control his
rights for the remainder of his good years. At Fay's value,
that can't be a bad thing. But I would wonder
this I guess two things. First one, what changed, like
they were not going to bring back t Higgins? And
then something changedanged was Joe Burrow campaigning to keep t Higgins.

(01:29:04):
I believe that had that not happened, had Joe not
decided to campaign for keeping T Higgins, that the franchise
would not have pivoted and they would have continued in
the direction that we felt like they were going for
a while, which was let Te walk. What changed was
what Joe Burrow said, what changed with Trey Hendrickson? Now

(01:29:24):
you might be going, well, mo, Like, Joe has talked
about Trey Hendrickson, and he has to be honest, he
has not talked about Trey Hendrickson as effusively as he
has t Higgins, and maybe to a degree because t
Higgins was due to be a free agent and Trey
still has a year left on his contract. I would

(01:29:45):
wonder what changed, like what made them go from looking
at Trey as a guy that they were not going
to give huge money to down the road? Is it
merely the fact that the defensive end market has changed
a lot over the last couple of weeks. We've seen
some huge signings at that position. Has that recalibrated things
for the Bengals. Is there something happening behind the scenes

(01:30:06):
with Joe Burrow, maybe not putting public pressure on the Bengals,
but making it known I want Trey to be on
the team. Are they genuinely scared of Trey choosing the
miss games? Which we talked about this a little bit
last week. I'd be willing to call his bluff. Are
they truly concerned that Trey well not only miss games,

(01:30:28):
but they're so they have such a strong desire to
avoid any off field stuff, any distractions this summer that
don't go ahead and write a check that deep down
inside the folks who own the team don't want to write.
I think the other thing Number two would be what's
the motivation behind doing this? I've read Well, the Bengals

(01:30:49):
want to prove that they are a team that's willing
to pay players. To be honest with you, Number one,
I think they've done that. They just paid two wide receivers.
Joe Burrow for about five minutes, was the highest quarterback
in the sport. See Higgins is the highest paid non
QB in the sport. They paid another wide receiver a
lot of money and have changed how they've guaranteed done guarantees. Now, yes,

(01:31:11):
they have a decent track record of some players who
have left that they haven't been able to replace. I
think that's more about players who they planned on replacing
the players leaving not being very good. I also think
in recent years it's not like the Bengals have had
a ton of players you would want them to pay,
Like they paid a whole lot of guys in twenty
twenty from outside from free agency that ended up being

(01:31:33):
a part of those teams in twenty one and twenty two. Again,
none of this says they shouldn't sign Trey Hendrickson long term.
I would not get mad at the Bengals doing that,
because how could you get mad at the Bengals keeping
a really good player. And by the way, you still
look at this roster, there's not a lot of guys
to pay right now that could change. That illustrates how
poorly they have drafted. But are they really wanting Are

(01:31:55):
they really doing this out of motivation to prove to
everybody else that they will pay like is that the
real motivation here?

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:32:01):
I think the motivation should be we think Trey Hendrickson's
a really good investment. We think Trey can continue to
play at the level that he has even as he
gets older, and so we're willing to invest in him.
Like you only do that if you think it's a
good investment financially. There are arguments against it, but I
think there's arguments in favor of it as well. Or

(01:32:23):
what I wouldn't be totally on board with, and what
I don't think the motivation should be here is to
prove to outsiders, including other free agents, well we are
willing to pay. I don't know, like I want to
see the Bengals like a signed free agents. I don't
know they've as disappointing as this offseason has been, I
think in terms of who they have not brought in

(01:32:46):
and how relatively inactive they've they've been.

Speaker 2 (01:32:49):
I I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
I don't know that they totally have earned the reputation
of not being willing to pay. I just I'm sure
I'll get shouted down for saying that. I just would
be curious. Is this driven out of out of a
desire and a motivation to prove to everybody else?

Speaker 8 (01:33:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:33:10):
You know what, this reputation we have is not earned.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
I kind of feel like, like this whole thing about
them being cheap, you're not being cheap if you essentially
willingly pay two players more than you would have had
you chosen to pay them earlier, Like, that's not cheap.
One might argue that's non financially responsible. One might argue,
you know, it's not being very proactive. One might argue

(01:33:36):
it's not having a good understanding of the market.

Speaker 2 (01:33:41):
It's certainly not cheap.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
So I'm really curious and I don't know that we'll
ever get an answer to this.

Speaker 2 (01:33:49):
It will be interesting next week.

Speaker 1 (01:33:50):
I think next week's going to be really interesting because
the owners meetings happen next week and Katie Blackburn is
going to talk on behalf of the Bengals, and I
know a lot of folks who are going to go
down there to cover that. Our guy, Paul Danner Junior
is going down there. I'm sure others will be there
as well. And as you know, it's rare that anybody
in ownership with the Bengals is made available. You know,

(01:34:12):
there's always the Midsummer mock turtle soup thing, and that's
really it. Ownership is gonna be made available next week,
and there's a lot to discuss. Right, there's a lot
to discuss in relation to the way things unfolded with
Jamar and te And again, I don't know what kind
of answers you're gonna get, but I'm sure someone's gonna
ask like, don't you wish you would have done this

(01:34:32):
a while ago so you wouldn't be paying as much.
I'm sure there's gonna be questions about Trey Hendrickson. Maybe
they're gonna be questions about you. Hear it all the time.
The Bengals have cash problems. I'm sure that question is
gonna be asked. And then, as much as this is
not a point of a focus on this show or
really this radio station, there is a stadium issue looming

(01:34:53):
that is not gonna go away anytime soon. And I
wonder how much conjecture about the stadium moving forward is
going to be ratcheted up a few notches based on
what is said by Katie Bengals ownership. Next week we
will find out. But the Trey Hendrickson thing will come up.

(01:35:13):
And again, I fully believe, and I get yelled out
every time I say this. I have no issue with
just making the dude play out his contract that he
signed willingly and see what happens at the end of this.
I did an exercise a year ago when the T
Higgins thing was being brought up, because at that point
it was abundantly clear when they franchised tagged T Higgins,

(01:35:36):
it wasn't being done with the attention of negotiating a
long term deal with him.

Speaker 2 (01:35:40):
This is last year.

Speaker 1 (01:35:41):
And then he had some who said, well, then you
have to trade him. In My take was, let's imagine
the Bengals win the Super Bowl and then t Higgins
walks in free agency. They win the Super Bowl in
part because Te's on the team, and then he walks like,
We're going to be thrilled, right. I could sort of
do the same thing with Trey, but we will see
in the coming weeks what ultimately happens. Five one, three, seven,

(01:36:03):
four nine. Fifteen thirty is our phone number, Sports headlines,
UH and more Next ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (01:36:10):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:36:14):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center For National Doctors Day,
we honor the UC Health physician so are leading breakthroughs
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Tower Road northbound seventy one seventy five at two seventy five.
An accident there that's been moved to the left shoulder.
I'm at Ezelk with traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:36:46):
This report is apparently.

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
So noon to three special Saturday edition of since three sixty.

Speaker 2 (01:36:53):
Wow is tony No?

Speaker 7 (01:36:55):
Nope.

Speaker 1 (01:36:58):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet. Well, he
might know now if he's listening.

Speaker 7 (01:37:03):
He probably won't be awake by nude all sad. Home
of lifetime power train protection.

Speaker 2 (01:37:09):
I will be.

Speaker 1 (01:37:11):
I will be Saturday mornings man be and Gary Jeff
Home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from
their family to yours for life, Kelsey chev dot Com.
We also have second grade. We have second grade basketball,
and I think our game tips off at noon tomorrow.
Come watch the second grade second grade girls basketball Austin.
I think you would enjoy it. Okay, I'm in. My

(01:37:33):
daughter Crosley scored a bucket scored a hoop, as she
said last week, first ever.

Speaker 7 (01:37:37):
Yeah, did she let him know when she did it?
She have like any no cross, get anybody's face. Here's
the thing of it. She's sort of like, if you
cheer her, she's embarrassed.

Speaker 1 (01:37:47):
So she scored, and my wife and I were there,
and my wife's parents were there, and then you know,
we did the whole thing. It's his first bucket, for
the first bucket of her basketball career, first of many,
of course, and you could tell she was sort of like, oh.

Speaker 2 (01:38:00):
Goys, shut up, Like so yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:38:03):
Also, if you're a stickler for calling traveling, you're not
necessarily gonna love second grade girls basketball. They're very very
very very very like it doesn't even get called. You
could literally pick up the basketball and go from the
mid court line to the bucket and never dribble. And

(01:38:25):
they don't even have referees. But my daughter did score.
What am I doing?

Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:38:31):
There's no Reds game tonight because they can't play a
game after opening Day. They played the Giants tomorrow. Nick
Lidola will oppose Justin Verlander Kids Opening Day for ten
tomorrow on a seven hundred WLW Kentucky and Tennessee tonight
in the Sweet sixteen coverage on the UK Sports Network.
As soon as we're done at six o'clock, that game
is gonna tip off a little bit after seven thirty

(01:38:53):
tonight in Indy, which I think we expect to be
It's gonna be a pretty awesome atmosphere because you've got
UK in Indy right obviously taking on Tennessee. I'm sure
the VOZ will have some fans there, but obviously with
Purdue you may have heard Purdue is also in the
state of Indiana. Well, you know they're going to be

(01:39:14):
there too, and so that atmosphere tonight should be a
lot of fun. Seven thirty nine is the official tip
off here on ESPN fifteen thirty. Xavier's Ryan Conwell has
hit the transfer portal, a third team All Big East
player for the Musketeers this year. Cyclones play on the
road tonight against Wheeling. The Columbus Blue Jackets play at

(01:39:34):
home tonight against Vancouver. I don't know why I said
it that way. The Jackets two games out of a
playoff spot. The Cyclones I think, are in thirteenth place
in their conference. It's not looking good for the Clones
to qualify for the Kelly Cup.

Speaker 7 (01:39:47):
Playoffs, which I recently learned as the Midwestern Central Conference
or something.

Speaker 1 (01:39:51):
Which, Yeah, So it's funny you say that because the
other day I want to ehl's the EHL website EHL
dot com, and I follow the Cyclones and I like
going to Cyclones games. I still feel like they owe
you a had for when you you dropped the puck.
I didn't realize. I didn't realize there were so many

(01:40:13):
divisions in the EHL. So we are we are in
the Western Conference, Western Central, I think Western Central. Yeah,
we're in last place, like they have a playoff tracker.
We are. Our team is thirty one points behind the
Toledo Walleye, who lead the division, and we are uh
I don't know, we're a lot of points out of

(01:40:34):
a playoff spot. That makes sense because the only team
they ever play is the Walleye.

Speaker 2 (01:40:37):
No, tonight they're playing Wheeling.

Speaker 1 (01:40:39):
Yeah, they're on the road against Wheeling, that hockey hotbed
of Wheeling, West Virginia. When you think hockey, you know,
you think of Montreal, Toronto and Wheeling Wheel Wheeling, West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:40:51):
Uh so that that game is tonight, though, it's funny.
I'm looking at the I'm looking at it right now.

Speaker 1 (01:40:58):
The playoff tracker at other Wheeling Nailers are in the
North Division.

Speaker 2 (01:41:03):
Like we're more north than Wheeling, aren't we. I don't
think so.

Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
I don't you know. I don't really care. What are
we gonna do? Let's talk to some people.

Speaker 2 (01:41:12):
Gregory, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. How is it. How's
it going?

Speaker 9 (01:41:17):
It's going pretty good. I appreciate your packing my call.
I appreciate. Yeah. I'm also want to talk about the Bengals.
But I was at the Opening Day parade yesterday. It
was pretty awesome down there. The weather was fantastic as well.

Speaker 2 (01:41:30):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 9 (01:41:33):
Let me see what I was about to say. Twenty
five years ago, right, I was in high school and
I played in the marching band, and I marched in
that parade.

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
You did.

Speaker 9 (01:41:41):
It was pretty amazing. I did three times, actually really.
But what made it extra cool this particular time is
my kids are now in marching band and they marched
in that parade for the first time, and they see
them get to do the same thing. Was pretty special
for me.

Speaker 2 (01:41:57):
That is awesome. What school.

Speaker 9 (01:42:00):
They go to? Oak Hills? I went to West High.

Speaker 2 (01:42:02):
Very nice, very good. All right, well, congratulations, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 9 (01:42:07):
Thank I appreciate that. And the thing about the Bengals,
I think that's which was just talking about. With that
cheap label, I don't think it makes a whole lot
of sense today. But I think that's just what the
national guys keep running with because that's all they got
to say. They don't have much else to really say positive,
I guess, so they just love to keep that angel.

(01:42:29):
It's like, this is the NFL with a hard salary cap,
like you have to spend the money. So I don't
understand how they could say you're cheap as far as
you're spending the money you're supposed to spend it. You
can't shake that label from the nineties, when of course
they didn't really pay a whole lot on facilities and
things like that. I understand that, but that's not even
the case today. It got the indoor facility, they're making

(01:42:52):
vast improvements all over the place. And going back to
who is that Carson Palmer? Then we make him the
highest paid player? Do you get that time?

Speaker 2 (01:43:00):
Yes, yes, NFL history.

Speaker 9 (01:43:03):
But they overlook all of those facts. It's just like, oh, well,
I don't pay a lot of it. It's get irritating,
but I tried hot to pay a lot of attention
to it because they keep beating the dead drum as
if we don't pay our guys, and we got a
way of doing things just kind of out day. They
always prefer to pay the guys that we drafted, you know,
which is okay, but it's somebody you got to go

(01:43:25):
outside the house and get better players to be consistently competitive.
But we've got a long history of paying guys, especially
our guys. Even when you go back to Palmer and
Ted and and AJ Green, Geno Actingency, all these guys
got huge deals that they seem to not want to
talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
Yeah, I mean you're you're you're exactly right.

Speaker 1 (01:43:47):
I mean you could look at DJ Reader was signed,
and when he was signed, he was the highest paid
nose tackle as a free agent in NFL history. AJ Green,
for about five minutes, was the highest paid wide receiver
in the sport. Geno Atkins was the highest paid player
at his position. Again, you own these titles very quickly
because there's always someone who's going to make more. I
think what they're guilty of is number one. I think
they've made some bad player personnel decisions. They've allowed some

(01:44:09):
players to get away. I think not because they wanted
to pay him because they didn't value the player enough
like they or they.

Speaker 2 (01:44:14):
Didn't value the position enough.

Speaker 1 (01:44:16):
I don't think not paying Jesse Bates was about not
paying Jesse Bates. I think it was about their value,
how they value the position, and how they value Jesse
as a player. Unfortunately, they got it wrong. I don't
think it was a matter of being cheap. I think
if you want to go back to Andrew Whitworth nearly
a decade ago, I think they made an evaluation of
him as a player in his mid thirties that was
proven to be wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
I don't think it was being cheap. I think it
was about evaluating the player.

Speaker 1 (01:44:39):
I also think, like they've you mentioned them being a
little bit outdated. I think you can criticize them for
kind of not coming off their stance as it relates
to guarantees and how they do guarantees. But they changed
and with t Higgins guaranteed some money over the first
two years. That's not cheap. I think they have worn
that label unfairly. I do think you could criticize them

(01:45:02):
for other things they have done with some of the
same players that others use to point out how cheap
the Bengals are.

Speaker 9 (01:45:10):
Yeah, for sure, I definitely agree with that. I think
with the Jesse Base thing, they did kind of undervalue him,
but I think they overvalued the guys in the secondary
around him. We got lightning in the bottle of that
Super Bowl year. That secondary was was spectacularly awesome, and
it was healthy on top of that. But I think

(01:45:32):
they overlooked the fact that how much Jesse Bass communicated
with everybody and made sure that everybody else around him
was always in the right position. He was always in
the right position, and I think they didn't know about
didn't say they didn't anticipate the salary cap going up
as much as it did. I think Hill being in
the contract all these years, we could have still made

(01:45:55):
all the pretty much the same deals he just made
and then just find him on the teams though.

Speaker 1 (01:46:01):
Yeah, he'd be making he's making now I think fourteen
mil from the Atlanta Falcons. I think it's also it's
it's the plans they've had to replace players not working.
Like if Dax Hill worked out, if Dax Hill and
Jordan Battle had worked out, and obviously both are still
with the team and both still may prove to be
very very good. But had had the plan with younger

(01:46:22):
players at that position worked out, we wouldn't still be
talking about Jesse Bates, and nobody would accuse them of
being cheap. With Jesse Bates, I think they'd be given
credit for getting a similarly good play for players that
don't cost as much because they've successfully utilized the draft,
and obviously on the defensive side, they haven't done that. Gregory,
I appreciate the phone call man, Thank.

Speaker 2 (01:46:41):
You, Yes, sir, I'm it's a.

Speaker 1 (01:46:44):
Ten away from six o'clock. We'll try to squeeze one
more in after this on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:46:51):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

Speaker 4 (01:46:55):
The UC Health Traffic Center For National Doctors Day, we
honor the youth health physician, so we're leading breakthroughs for
better Tomorrow's learn more at UCHealth dot com. Southbound seventy
five at Ezer Charles Drive, right lane is blocked from
an accident. Another accident on Hamilton Cleaves Road at Morgan Road.
On Bridgetown Road, it's an accident at Tower Road. He's

(01:47:18):
found two seventy five accident on the ramp from Minnieola Pike.
The right shoulder is blocked on the ramp. I'm at
Ezelik with traffic this report.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
You know what I did before the breaks, I said,
we're gonna try to squeeze one more in before we go,
but we're not.

Speaker 2 (01:47:32):
Going to have time to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:47:33):
So if you're the gentleman waiting on hold, I encourage
you to sit there until Monday, and if you do that,
I'll take your call at three oh five.

Speaker 2 (01:47:40):
My apologies, but we have to get out of the way.

Speaker 1 (01:47:42):
UK basketball is coming up, next to Wildcats and volunteers
and a sweet sixteen Tilton Indie. Back at at Monday
at three oh five. Thanks to Austin for producing. Have
a great weekend. Thank you for listening. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station. Hey, it's Mall Wager.

Speaker 2 (01:47:56):
You know Spring

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