Will Benson and Noelvi Marte SPARK 9th Inning WALKOFF for Cincinnati Reds over Colorado Rockies

Will Benson and Noelvi Marte SPARK 9th Inning WALKOFF for Cincinnati Reds over Colorado Rockies

All right, here we are again, losing three to two to the Rockies. Hello everyone. Uh we’re clearly not the Phillips Brothers, but you know, the pinch hitters are in. Uh hopefully we’ll do better than Connor Joe and Santiago Espanol, but I’m Mike. This is Alex. How are you How are you doing so far today, Alex? Well, we’re hoping to do it better here in about three minutes. Uh you know, if the Reds can do a walk-off winner for us, but um if not, we’ll just enjoy the rest of the night in uh the fetal position crying that we lost two out of three to the Rockies. Yeah. I mean, not to get ahead of ourselves, not to get ahead of ourselves, Mike, but imagine if the Reds lose tonight and then they lose tomorrow. The first sweep of the year being against the the worst team actually. So, it’s not Oh. Oh, I swear. I was going to say the Rockies actually have swept somebody this year. I thought he was talking about, but yeah, the Reds. Yeah. Uh, so the chat’s way ahead of me. I’m already seeing that. Uh, all right. I just saw Spencer Steer lead off with a single. So, where are you at? I’m right there. I’m watching the replay right now. Okay. I Oh, man. The weather looks real bad. Oh, it’s it up north. It’s It’s It was raining like crazy. So, all right. I’m at four of the pitch clock to the first pitch to Will Benson. So, count it down for me. Eight, seven, six, four. I missed five there. Oh, no. off the wall. Oh, here comes Steer. He’s going to score. Come on, Steer. Come on. Let’s go. Let’s go. Come on. Benson in the third. Here we go. Not only that, but everyone just went home with pizza and a triple dip UDF ice cream. There you go. There you go. And I think it’s going to be Jake Frilley. Jake Freilley in the uh uh batting for Trovinho. They said Freley was in the uh on deck circle. Oh my gosh, I love Will Benson, Mike. There we go. There you go. Oh man. You know, I I put it on X the other day. I think Will or Will Benson could be Jay Bruce. I I know uh Trace and Nick talked about that the other day, but I think it’s I think it’s possible. I would like that. That that would be great. He had some really productive years. I was looking like 2010 to 2013, he was putting up, you know, three war seasons playing pretty good defense. And like when he would get hot, he would get smoking hot. And you know, I’m okay with that from a guy who’s going to play right field, play pretty good defense. I know he missed the ball today, but play pretty good defense and um you know, carry a team through a couple series. I’d love, you know, I’m I think that’s that’s just fine. Jay Bruce just holds a special place in our hearts because of that start that he got when he first came up and all the stuff that he did. Oh, yeah. I think he’s a f He was a fantastic player, but and more than likely a Red’s Hall of Famer. Yeah, I would say probably Red’s Hall of Famer. Yeah. All right. Jake Freley off Vodnik. Vonic thrown two pitches. He’s thrown two pitches. Two pitches, single and a triple off the wall. So, let’s see what we got. Let’s see what we got. Come on, Freley. All we need is a ball in the outfield. All we need is a Just make contact. Let’s shoot it somewhere. Oh, he was looking for that one. I gotta block the chat out here. I I don’t want to see it. All right. I’ve got one in one. Where are you at? I’m just going to be one in one. There it is. Okay. So, you’re like maybe a half second or a second ahead of me. Yeah. My thing my my thing refreshed. That’s what we were synced up at. Okay. All right. Here comes the one and one pitch outside. Two and one. Will Benson on third base. Nobody out. All we need is just put the ball somewhere in the outfield. Will Benson’s going to score on a on a uh sack fly if need be. Come on. Come on. Come on, Jim Day. We need a good call on this. I know. Or at 3-1 now. Is that where you’re at? Three and one. Okay. Yeah. We got to turn the chat off. I can’t I don’t want to get anything spoiled here. Come I’ve done this once before and it was not this exciting. So, ball four. All four. All right. So, we’ll see. Does Jake Brily steal here to get out of the double play? Uh uh Trace in the stands may uh may is calling for it. We know it. Oh, Noel Marte. All right. Be the hero, buddy. Be the hero. I really hope this isn’t a flash in the pan for him. Oh, me too, man. I I I really hope it’s not if he comes up and is like a legitimate bat because I mean, I’ll tell you what, after today, no matter what he does here, I doubt he’s batting ninth tomorrow, right? You know, he is uh they’re going to move him up in this line. Oh, there you go. Freley just took second. Wow. I think I think the Reds listen to Chatterbox Red’s postgame shows, I think, is what it is. They heard they heard Trace and they were like, “Wait a minute. What are we doing? Why why would we not take this free base? I I I’ve meant to go look uh at like in that specific situation how often a throw to second base actually happens because I mean they did it again in the first and Ellie was out if RCA holds on to that ball. So I don’t know. And then Mlan I don’t know. I didn’t ball contact. Go contact play, baby. The contact play. Oh man, Noel B Marte grounds the ball to second base. Second baseman cannot come up with it and Will Benson scores from third and the Reds have walked it off. You know what? This one belongs to the Reds. This one belongs to the Reds. That’s right. Against all odds, the Reds have come up to walk off the Rockies. And now we got to do a show. Now we got to figure out Yeah, we got to change the whole change all our notes because we had all this uh negative stuff going. Uh but let us let’s get this all started and we will uh see you on the other side of the intro. Ground ball second 12 in a row. The oldest team in professional baseball has its fifth ever winning streak of a dozen straight. Our job every day is to try to kick somebody’s ass. I mean, that’s why we’re here. That is great for win. And this ball is launched high and very deep to right. Long gone. His second of the night. Ellie de la Cruz. How about he’s back? He’s back. And a swing and a drive deep left field. This one belongs to the Ranched deep to left field. That ball is going to be gone. Home run for the Red. Goes the second one around the first. Got him. Double play and the Reds sweep the Cubs breaking ball. Hit high hit deep way back there and gone into the second deck and left. Christian Incasion Strand wants it off. Carter does it in his major league debut. He gets the final three outs and the Reds get an extra inning win a thriller 5 to four. Walk on. Fly ball hits to deep right field. That ball is going to be gone. A grand slam home run by Cameron. Two outs. Two on. Red’s down by one. Lining down the line. Winner. Win it. Here comes Tucker. Here comes Ste. Lens won the game. Barry Lin gets wild. Look at this scene in synergy. The stretch. The pause in the pit and a line drive beats him left center field. A single for Aaron Boon and this one belongs to the Reds. The Reds have won eight in a row. One hit in the deep. It’s over. And this one belongs to the Reds. The Reds have won their fifth game in a row. They’ve defeated the Cleveland Indians on an Adam three-run home run four to two. in on the corners at first and third. Two on, nobody out. Here’s Roy 15. No pun. Ground ball by the third base makes it into left field. J Bruce Brown third and this one belongs to the rift. That’s it. Pretty good. Guess what? He doesn’t need speed. That’s the king of the queen tonight. One out here in the 11th inning. You sure got to go now. One out pull down the left field line. That ball is going to get the winning run in. Here comes St. through grounding third heading toward the plate and this one belongs to the ramp. Huge situation for BTO. Why you pay the big bucks to deliver the goods with two outs in the ninth? Can he do it in the gap right center field and fin delivers the goods and deep center field going back at the track. It’s gone. Joey Milo is delivered. Welcome in Reds fans. Thank you. Thank you for joining. I know everything looked bleak. Everything looked like the season was over, but but our friends William Buchanan and Benson and Noel V Marte came through came through just enough time just in enough time to save the save the season basically. Uh if they don’t come through there, we’re losing a series to the Rockies. And boy, I don’t know if that’s even more I don’t know, you know, I don’t know if you know, Red’s fans would have been able to handle that going into the break. But instead, we walk them off and we have a chance tomorrow to win a series, go into the break, winning a series, and you know, season still alive being there. Alex, how are you doing? How did that walk off after that intro? How did that walk-off settle in for you? Well, it was I mean, better so much better than I was five minutes ago. Yeah. Uh what an ending to the game. Um I was trying to look up Noel V Marte’s middle name. Uh but baseball reference didn’t have a middle name for uh Noelvie Marte. Um, man, what a fantastic finish. I was looking at the replay on X before it got started. If the second baseman, and this is why you run that play number one, uh, not to, you know, really go crazy into it right away, but Benson was dead to rights if he fields it correctly. So, I mean, total dead to rights. I mean, he, if he would have had picked it and thrown it home, he was dead. But what was interesting, as we talked about it, Freley going to third, you get another shot at it. Um but man, what an ending. You know, you don’t have to worry about Freley scoring there obviously, but um man, this Noelie Marte kid’s doing okay. Yeah, I would say so. Uh I’m also glad that he got to play the whole game. Uh I think Nick and Trace kind of beat a dead horse on that one, but uh man, it was great to see him come through. I I can only imagine, we talked about this, I don’t know if we talked about it beforehand, but I would imagine Marte is probably not going to be batting ninth tomorrow. You know, I think that all of this going on, I I could see him, you know, we could really use some of that production a little higher up in the lineup, and we’ll get to that with the offensive struggles. But, uh, yeah, it’s just great to see just, you know, I think the first two pitches that, uh, Vodnik threw were a single and a triple. Uh, I thought it was over with be with with uh Will Benson, but you know, he’s just Will Benson is just one of the nicest guys to root for. I don’t know why you see a lot of hate out there for Will Benson. I He’s just a bundle of joy. Like, I love rooting for that guy. I even when he struggles, I’m like, man, I you know, and when he’s finally not a Red again, whether that’s after a long Red’s career or or not, man, he’s somebody that I’m going to look back on and be like, man, I really enjoyed watching Will Benson and the energy that he brought and, you know, won us this game. I think uh I think that that was that was, you know, without that and that that hit, I mean, we’re we’re sitting here discussing how uh you know, we should sell tomorrow, you know. So, I I I you know, I’m just very excited to see that happen for somebody like that. Yeah, absolutely. I think I think, you know, he’s great. I’ve had a couple interactions with him at Redsfest and different things. Um just a fantastic It seems like a fantastic human being. I know. Um seems like it brings a lot of energy to the clubhouse, which is fantastic. Love to see that. Um so, just it just just a fun a fun last few minutes for us. Yeah, I would say. So, so I we joked that we had to rip up our script and we’re going to have to talk about something completely different. Uh I don’t think that’s actually necessarily true. I think that I Trace talked about this too where if they would have come back and won, there’s still things that trouble us about what’s going on with the offense especially. But, you know, with certain people that I think we will talk talk about a little bit, uh we did just walk off the worst team in the league and uh I I think you’re absolutely everyone’s allowed to be excited about a win like that. That’s great. However, uh what’s gone on in this series so far is uh I think still some alarm bells should be going off. Uh so, I let’s bask in the wind. But, uh, I think that later on in this, uh, in this program, we will talk a little bit more about some of the struggles and and the things that we’re seeing from some of the Red’s batters. But before we get started, let’s I think there’s a box score recap that needs to happen, right? Everyone watched every pitch, so you But, uh, I will do my best to to, uh, run down this box score. Everyone, I don’t have a graphic like our fearless leader Nick Kirby does, but uh I will be reading from it as um you know, as what we what we have here and um hopefully uh I don’t spend too long. So, here’s the box score recap presented to you by Nick Kirby. So, we had uh Bailey Bllelock versus Brady Singer today and uh a showdown of the ages. And in the bottom of the first, the Reds seem to have Bllelock on the ropes. Mlan singled on a ground ball and Ellie singled right after him to have men on first and third and Ellie steals second base to put men on second and third and Austin Hayes actually gives himself a little bit of redemption here by getting a sacrifice fly and one-run score. The Reds take a one- nothing lead and Gavin Lux is not able to drag or to drive Ellie in and they take that lead into the second. That lead will go all the way to the top of the third inning where uh Singer was let gave a leadoff single to Fernandez and then gave up Ryan Ritter, their ninth batter, their shorts stops first major league home run uh to left field and went out there. It almost looked like a popup I think the bat, but boy, it went out and that gave the Rockies a two to one lead and it would stay that way. Uh, and it would stay that way even though the Reds continued to get a few people on and then ground into double plays. I think in the uh I think also uh Singer got out of a basis loaded jam as well or a man on third after a leadoff triple. But um then in the seventh inning u Michael Tolia struck out. Brentton Doyle walked and then Fernandez doubled on a ground ball to the right field and that made it three to one Reds. And so we’re talking top of the seventh, we still are having all kinds of trouble getting hits and it looked bleak at this point. But in the bottom of the seventh, uh, off of old friend Jimmy, oh no, this is off Tyler Kinley, Noel Vi Marte with one out, homerred on a ball to center field to make it three to two. And then uh after getting out of the eighth inning um with with nothing going on, another double play by Gavin Lux there. Uh Emilio Pagan got into some trouble but was able to get Brettton Doyle Fernandez strike out swinging and then Orlando RC Arcia to ground out to Ellie de la Cruz. And that brought us to the ninth inning. Bottom of the ninth inning, we’re sitting here ready to uh cry into the microphone when on the first pitch that he sees, Spencer Steer hits a line drive out to left field, gets on, and then Will Benson hits one off the wall in left field for a triple that drives in Spencer Steer, brings him all the way to third uh with nobody out. Uh Jake Freilley walked after he didn’t see a single pitch or very any very good pitches at all. And then Noel V Marte hits the ball to second base. Orlando Arcia and and was trying to come home, fumbled the ball. I think it’s been ruled a fielding error. I think that’s probably what it should be. I don’t I know he hit it hard, but it’s probably not a hit, but Reds don’t care because that drove in Will Benson who was off at contact to score the winning run and the Reds win four to three. So, that’s your box score recap. Lots of emotions flying up and down to be honest. Uh, you know, we we uh the Reds have not been swept in another series. We can say that all the way through the break. Didn’t get swept at all. Um, but yeah, what are your thoughts? What are your thoughts on this roller coaster that we just had to endure, Alex? Yeah, I mean, like I said, microcosm of the season, honestly, you know, um, giving going back to Monday of this week. Oh, we, you know, let’s the Reds need to go what was it? seven and0 people were saying uh with the Marlins and Rockies and two lose two to the Marlins, come back and win two in a row. Um even Thursday was offensive night where they scored like at least six runs and then last night dead in the water. Today basically dead in the water and I mean Marte was really it, you know, a home run late. Um and then the hit that was an error which I’m shocked I looked up it was an error. Um sometimes just baseball runs that way. I mean last night they not not you know it’s we’re reviewing today’s win but last night’s loss where they load the bases and all I know they went it wasn’t loaded the whole time with Fredel strikeout MLAN strikeout and Hay strikeout but they had guys on to score and that Vodnik he struck him out on the same pitch every time and he was wild. You know, one pitch goes a different way there. The Reds could have won last night. You say the same thing today. I mean, they stole a win and there’s been wins or losses earlier or wins earlier that, you know, vice versa, it’s gone. So, it’s just the way baseball goes. Yeah, I I think that’s a great point. Uh there was a lot of similarities to last night’s ninth inning and then we had Fredo strikeout and uh Mlan strikeout, right? They had a guy out there and they couldn’t move him up. They couldn’t they couldn’t get him to to get anything there. And uh Noel Vi Marte, I mean, he grounds, he he makes contact. He probably should have been an out, but because he puts the ball on the play, uh they make the air and we get the score. So, I think that’s that’s the big difference. It’s just like we couldn’t even make contact last night with Fredo and Mlan. And I think that was partially what was so frustrating was just like it was there. All we needed to do is, you know, put the ball to the right side or even just put the ball up in the air and they couldn’t do that. And you know, Marte was able to do that tonight and that is just that’s refreshing to see because uh the people at the top of the lineup hadn’t been doing that. We’ll we’ll get to some of the struggles that were that they saw. I know that I think Hayes got a couple hits, Lux got a couple hits and Benson obviously got a hit in that ninth inning, but um we had been seeing some some struggles and I think we were over in this series until the ninth inning with runners in scoring position. So, uh, it it was kind of a mixture of people slumping and us not being able to get the good the big hit. But I wanted to talk a little bit about this Blley or this Blley Bradley Bllock. Yeah, he uh, you know, this is a guy that in his last outing for the Albuquerque Isotopes went five innings, three earned runs, uh, four strikeouts, and six hits against the El Paso Chihuahua. You know, this is not some guy that’s he’s got an overall an 832 erra in the miners. And what was what was his line today? His line today is um let’s see, his line today is five and two/3, six hits, one run, one strikeout. Man, it’s just tough to see. I mean, he gave up six hits, but really mitigated the damage. And to be honest, except for what is it? first inning when Hayes had the sacrifice fly, it just it didn’t even seem like the Reds were really even uh threatening that much. Yeah, they were getting some singles here and there, but they were just being mitigated by grounded to double plays, uh strikeouts or things like that. So, you know, it’s just it’s just unfortunate this offense can make somebody who, you know, is not even not even this is their Chase Petty, right? This is their guy that has come up a few times and keeps going back down. has a couple good outings in the minors, but not very good, you know, other outings. And we made him look great tonight. And that that was just pretty unfortunate. That’s a Cincinnati Red special, Mike. Yeah. You know, the the Reds seem to make a living out of making these guys, these fringe major leaguers, look like allstars. Um I feel like there’s been a few. I know the Cardinals, I think the Palante, he stuck around. Holy he owns the Reds. Um, and I think there was a guy up in Milwaukee was very much like this Bllelock guy where he was terrible in the minors. They just needed to call him up for an arm. And I think it’s like six, you know, six scoreless innings against the Reds. It’s crazy. Early in early in the year, they had uh Nester Cortez, right, who had just given up 11 earned runs against the Yankees coming in and pitched six shutout innings. And then I think uh the uh the the Royals brought up that guy Noah Cameron who uh another example. Yeah, exactly. This dude, they bring him up and he goes and he goes and I think pitches six or seven shutty against the Reds. So I don’t know what it is. I don’t know whether the scouting reports are not getting properly transferred from Louisville to Cincinnati. Uh I you know it’s hard to say. You know it’s it’s interesting. Take it from the other view though. What made me think of Louisville was um the Chase Burns. You know, Chase Burns was down there facing the uh Yankees triple AAA and carve them up and and then you’d think, oh, maybe they would pass it up. No, he carved the Yankees up and then got shelled by the Red Sox. So, yeah, that’s what’s that’s what’s cool about baseball. And, you know, every sport has it, but some teams just have a competitive advantage. Yeah. You know, so it’s uh it’s interesting. Yeah. Yeah, Trace has joined the chat. Uh, I’m I hope Trace, please confirm that you didn’t leave the game. I know one of the last times the Reds left or the Reds walked off, you were out of there. So, Oh, no. Confirm that you didn’t ruin your son’s life again. Uh, we’d like to know. Yeah, Trace, uh, let’s hope that didn’t happen. I hope you at least, uh, secured an LA de la Cruz basketball jersey. Oh, there’s no way. There’s no way he did. You don’t think he got there early enough for that? Uh, there’s no way he got there early enough. Maybe maybe Serboy Wonder could hook him up. So, okay. What’s our next topic here? All right. Yeah, I think Marte, let’s talk a little bit about Marte, man. He uh I think he’s homered in three of his last four games. Uh I’m glad to see that he’s getting playing time. Um and you know, looked pretty good defensively, too, right? He had that double play where he stepped on third and um he also was able to throw home. I know that was kind of a bugaboo, right? When he overthrew um he overthrew Trevinho in that in the Marlins series, he he was able to make a throw home and get the guy Fernandez coming to the plate. So, that’s big, too. You know, I think I think this is this is we we we forget how young this guy is, right? This guy, I think, is younger than Ellie, right? And if he can come up and he can continue to hit, like they’re going to find they’re going to find room for him. If we get 2023 Noelvie Marte, boy, that is the type of thing it’s I know it’s cliche to say, oh, you know, when these people get back, that’s our ad at the deadline, but like if we can get, you know, even, you know, a little bit of what you we don’t even need, you know, three home runs in four days, right? We can if we can get just a, you know, 250 hitter with some power playing passable defense and driving in runs in the middle of this lineup, like that’s huge. Like that’s stuff that require to to get a pickup like that at the deadline requires giving away multiple prospects. And if we’re able to just have Marte get healthy and stuck in there and he starts producing along with Ellie who’s who’s been, you know, producing what seems like almost all year. Like that that is I think the true meaning of being able to add somebody at the deadline uh without having to actually trade for somebody. Yeah, that’s something I’ve been mentioning a lot posting on X from time to time. You know, I have a huge following. Not really. Um, you may be similar. You You surely have more followers than me. So, but I know I’m talking to in a void, but what I’ve been talking about is Ellie for sure needs a a B or a Robin to his Batman. You know, everyone I think thought or even Trey said it the other day with Matt Mlan, hey, sign him to an extension. Matt Mlan as of right now is not the Robin. He He hasn’t shown it. CES is not. He’s back in in Louisville. We’ll talk about that in a minute if we get to it. But if Noel Di Marte can be the Robin, that’s huge for this team, not just this year, but going forward. That’s that’s where I think the Reds need to focus going forward is getting a running mate for uh Ellie. I I really think they need it. Not I I I don’t think this year I I’m maybe past the fact that they’re going to make the playoffs. I think I’m done with that dream, but this team isn’t doing that next year. Yeah. either without another bat. Yeah, for sure. I completely agree. I think maybe an underrated thing about this whole thing. I know that Jim D talked about this is his just his relationship and with Mike Napoli, right? And I know we like to, you know, be frustrated at some of the stuff that Tito does situationally and um and things like that. And I’m not here to discuss that type of thing. I think enough has been said about that. But one thing that you got to give him credit for is bringing in this guy Mike Napoli that’s clearly starting to have an effect. I know Jim Day has talked about how he’s worked specifically with Marte on his swing on uh his followthrough and things like that and how that seems to be helping. So whether or not I know we’ve given uh Valleica a bunch of crap here about you know what this offense is doing but uh I think it is a positive thing to be bringing people like Mike Napoli who is a you know a seasoned veteran. He played a lot of years for a lot of different teams and to come in and be able to see something and then correct it and and see that positive growth out of Noel Marte is great. That’s just besides maybe Ellie, that’s the only like we don’t really have a lot of examples of positive growth once we’ve gotten to the to the majors, right? You know, uh Ellie has gotten better. Mlan, he’s uh regressed espec I mean this year I I I still I still give him a pass. I think that as he gets more back into it for the season, I think we’ll look back at this season and see a little bit better. I know he got two hits today, but then even Steer, he’s been up and down. Uh even Fredel, like Fredel has gotten a little bit better, but you know, overall I I saw people talking about him for the All-Star game. I just like if you put his numbers up against people other National League outfielders, it just like we we just it feels like we haven’t seen the growth from prospects once they get to the majors. I mean, not to mention people like CES or Reese Hines or, you know, even Will Benson initially that, uh, as they come up and then they just completely fall off a cliff. So, uh, no, it’s good to see if Marte is able to continue to improve while being in the majors. Uh, it would be awesome to be able to see, you know, the Batman and Robin going at it, uh, for years to come, especially if he can play third base. and and um not to jump to it um because we do have a a rundown here we’re trying to follow, but one of the guys who played today could play into that too is Sal Stewart with this Mart situation. Yeah. Yeah. Sal Stewart, I believe he he played in the futures game today. He didn’t start I think he came in in the fifth inning. It’s only seven inning game, so I think he only got a couple innings in the field. Him and Alfredo Duno went 0 for one. Um, but uh I would imagine I think uh our friend Nick Kirby is under the belief that once he gets back from the futures game that he’s probably going to Triple A. Uh which is great. You know, I think that’s good. Uh whether he stays at third base, I don’t I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know. What are your thoughts on that? I know he’s played some first, but Collier’s the one that they’ve been kind of moving over to first base. And if Mart’s hitting, you don’t want to take him off of that. So, I don’t know if we see him this year. Uh I I would imagine that if anything he maybe is a you know a May call up in 26 like uh like Ellie or Mlan were in 23, right? Yeah. So I don’t know, you know, I don’t know. Do we want to touch anything on the game today or are we ready to move past the game because I have some thoughts. Okay, we we could go back to the game. I let let’s talk about South Stern and then we’ll we’ll head back to the game. I just I figured if you’re if we’re on it, we can talk about Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So here is my here’s my thought. I am no I am not, you know, I’m not the Bryce Balding of the world. I’m not Nick. I, you know, I I haven’t followed him, Sal. Stewart that close. I did see Sal Stewart at Red’s caravan. He is not a tall guy. He is not a big guy at all. Um, I think he can play second. He can certainly play the outfield, too. What it comes down to me here is can you is he going to play at his potential in the next three years at the major league level? And to me that that’s the question. And if he’s not, then I trade him. I don’t I don’t care if he turns into the next Jeff Kent playing second base or he’s a third baseman all-timer somewhere else wherever. Right. Yeah. If you can go get a guy because I just don’t know, Mike, if there’s room for him. Yeah. Unless Unless Noelvie just falls off a cliff either at bat or in, you know, fielding and then you move him to the outfield. I think Noel Marteka play a great left field. Yeah. Then you slide Stewart into third. Yeah. That’s where That’s where I’m at. Yeah. Yeah. The thing with that is that basically assumes no injury, right? That assumes a positive trajectory for Marte at third base and no injury anywhere else, which is hard to do. Or are you done with Matt Mlan? That’s the question because I think Stuart could play second. Yeah, I I’m not done with Matt Mlan. I think he plays incredible defense. I I don’t I guess I don’t know Sal Stewart’s makeup, but I I would highly doubt he played better defense at at second base than Mlan would. And you know, I I think I’ve said this before, but the uh Corbin Carroll is my is my comp for what I think will happen with Matt Mlan, right? He ended he won rookie of the year or I don’t know if he won it, but he he he was finished very high rookie of the year and he ended his season with a little bit of an injury and basically started off 2024, which was last year, with just awful stats. Like he was so bad. Everyone was like, uhoh. Like how has this guy regressed? And then he like he was batting. I looked it up at one point he was doing worse than Mlan was at that time which is hard to believe because Mlan was was pretty bad. Uh but then you know as the season went on he he he salvaged the season to be something respectable and then I know he’s hurt right now but it’s something where he came out at the this year after a full off season uh fully healthy and just came out like gang busters. So that’s that’s what I’m hoping my comp is. Do I think he has a ceiling of Corbin Carol? No. But I think the more and more it’s just like Torren Labram it’s something that you just it it takes a it takes a bit to especially for power right to get back. So I would imagine as we get further on this season we would see a little bit better and then you know I’m expecting a big bounceback year for Matt Mlan. So I’m I’m still very much a Matt Mlan believer and I’m certain I’m certain the Reds are too. Don’t forget about uh shoulder injuries Corbin Carroll’s teammate. A lot of Red’s fans want him. You may have heard of Suarez. Suarez. I mean, it’s perfect comp. So, yeah. Let’s get back to the game and we’ll wrap that up and then we can, you know, review some extra topics we have toward the end here. Yeah, sure. So, do you want to talk a little bit about uh the offensive struggles? I know. So, it looks, you know, today is going to change some of these some of these uh statistics because, you know, they I think Mlan got two hits, Lux got two hits, and we we talked about that. But like coming into today’s game for this home stand, uh Will Benson was two for 19, Gavin Lux was two for 16, Matt Mlan was three for 19, TJ Fredo was three for 18, Austin Hayes was three for 18 with nine strikeouts. Uh Spencer Steer was two for 16, Stevenson was two for 10. So uh you know Ellie was 6 for 15 and Marte was six for 15. So it’s you know these guys they got a little bit on track today but it’s tough when especially if Ellie is cooking up there and you know the people behind them are really struggling. Hopefully today we can turn the corner. I know we’re kind of turning the corner to just one game because we’re then going to have a week off, but uh you know what have what have been your thoughts so far specifically on you know the people batting right behind Ellie, right? Hayes and Lux who have just really struggled. So o overall I’m I’m a I’m a fan of Gavin Lux. Um I was jacked when they got him when they traded him for the the Dodgers and and I don’t care about the guy they gave up, you know, have fun in LA. Um, but I thought he would have a lot more power. Mike, he has had very little uh power. Um, and even, you know, he’s had some doubles here and there, but it seems like he’s a guy who just plays better outside of Great American Ballpark. Um, Hayes just seems to be a hot and cold guy, but man, when these guys get cold, they all go cold. Yeah. You know, and I I just don’t know how you can explain that. And maybe it goes back to a um um scouting reports or who’s putting them together and and what everything’s about, but man, they they just all go cold at the same time. It it doesn’t there’s just no explanation for that. Yeah. I I don’t pretend to have the answer to why all this happens, but this Reds team just seems more I don’t know, maybe it’s I’m more than other teams because I focus on the Reds, but just like, you know, they, you know, go in slumps in in hot streaks together, you know what I’m saying? And it’s just it’s just frustrating because it’s just like when Ellie I think he so he got on base all five times last night and he also got on base the last his first two times up tonight and he didn’t score once in any of those times. It’s just like when a guy is getting on base I think seven at bats in a row and doesn’t score a run. there’s something that’s that’s you know an issue there and and that is that’s that’s what’s frustrating about this whole thing because it’s just like you need some production from Hayes and Lux and I know Hayes had an all-time bad day yesterday kind of redeemed himself a little bit with that sack fly but boy it it’s just been it’s been tough to watch. Well you know another another thing that’s crazy though is and you mentioned it like hey we just watched the Reds that’s it you know people are like oh you’re a big baseball guy. I’m like no I’m a Reds guy. Um, the Dodgers lost six in a row earlier in the week. Yeah. You know, the Yankees were dead in the water offense I think last week or right as you know the Reds left or when did the No, the Yankees were here a while ago. It was uh just last week the Yankees couldn’t hit a lick. So, I think it it just happens. It just, you know, it just seems so magnified when you’re facing the Marlins who personally I don’t think they’re a bad team. I I really don’t. Um I think they’ve overtaken the Braves who aren’t good either, but um the Marlins are better than what everybody thinks, but the Rockies are not. You know, when when you lose to the Rockies in the fashion they did last night, you know, especially that, you know, that wild pitch, but we won’t we’ll move past that. Yeah. Yeah. I I think if you could squint, you could maybe convince me that the the Marlins are still pretty bad. The Marlins, you know, I know that they’ve been better as of late, but yeah, no excuse for the Rockies at this point. Um I you talk about the Yankees and the Dodgers. I think the difference is that they had built up, you know, room for a slide like that. You know what I’m saying? Like they go on runs, they go on consistent runs. They have consistent levels of winning that lets them go on a six. I think the Dodgers are still in first place. They just lost six in a row and maybe still in first place, you know. So, you know, a team like that can have the ups and downs like that because they get such consistent winning. The Reds can’t do that, right? The Reds are just married to 500 and around 500. And you know, the only thing that’s kept us in this season is that for some reason, this team can’t get swept, you know, and we’re able to get get something from this team to to to mitigate the damage from long slides and and you know, that’s that’s where all of that goes in, I Well, a couple things like you said there. Uh I was going to bring up I couldn’t find the graphic, but uh no, uh no free ads, but a a large gambling site that is green. They posted something about Baseball teams and it was like only four teams can win the World Series. It was just, you know, using prior stats and it was just home runs were whoever has this amount of home runs is who has won the World Series. And and we’ve talked about this Sam and I on the pregame show is the rich just have no power. Yeah. You know, and um it’s why don’t they go out and get a big bopper bat like it? I mean, imagine Adam Dunn peak Adam Dunn in the middle of this lineup. Yeah. And look how it’s changed the game, right? We’re we’re buried and done if we don’t have Mart’s two home runs in in these two games, right? M uh and so that’s that’s you know I’m right there with you. I it’s tough too because Ellie has been incredible this home stand but it feels like he’s not like when you see these big superstars that basically carry a series right. Uh they’re able to do some of these things but they also are hitting home runs you know because it’s like he can’t do everything himself. Like I mentioned he was on I think seven straight times and then didn’t score. So, you know, if Ellie is going I know Ellie has just, you know, I think exceeded expectations, but if we’re able to go to another thing, another level with him, it would be great if he could just uh you know, add a little bit more power, be able to take over some of these series with his power as well. And um you know, that would be great to be able to see as his next evolution superstar. I agree. I know it’s only year two for Ellie. Do you think he ever hits 40 home runs in a year? Oh, I don’t I No, I don’t think so. I think he’s And I don’t think that’s bad. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s hard. It’s really hard to hit 40 home runs. I think if he wanted to, he could, but uh I think that he doesn’t want to. I I I agree. Yeah. Uh we have a super chat. Let’s talk. Hold on. Ned, good old friend Ned Flanders decided to chime in. I forgot. Uh I figured we’d talk about this. Uh Jake Freilley, walk of the season. Uh, you know, I’ll tell you what, that for sure that at bat, you know, it was in third guy on third, nobody out. Um, that after that first swing, he was trying to end that game right there. He was trying to be the hero. Swung a pitch basically in the dirt. And I I was like, “Oh boy.” Uh, are we going to have uh something that’s going on next year? But in But he didn’t. A guy that has been on the IIL. He’s been struggling. is his first at b at back and he sees an opportunity, swings a miss. But what does he do? He he’s patient. He lets those balls go and he passes the buck on to uh Noel Vi Marte. And I think that’s huge. Uh that’s something that Fredel couldn’t do and Mlan couldn’t do, right? They swung at ball four when they struck out in the bottom of the ninth last night. So uh you know, kudos to Jake Frillley, man. Uh he’s a bit bigger man than I would be if I was in that situation. and I’d be swinging out of my shoes trying to make contact, but that’s why he’s a major league pitcher and I’m a podcaster. So, that’s why uh that’s that’s the difference here. So, yeah, I agree. That was huge. Um you know, being able to show the restraint to, you know, pass the buck on and then steal second base to get out of the double play, you know. Hey, those are those are winning plays for sure. Well, what’s interesting too is with that it is it is a big move. Obviously, you you know, you don’t want to strike out there. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, Noelvi could still hit one out, you know, hit it hit it to the outfield, then, you know, still Benson would still score. But how many times, Mike, have we seen where it’s strikeout, strikeout, or strikeout, ground out, and it’s like crap, there went our sack fly. So, now we we needed we needed this run another way. So, um, big time big time super chat, big time play by Freley. Yeah, I appreciate it. But I guess one thing we have forgotten, I forgot to do this with the deep with the uh uh basketball recap, but there was a deep drive of the day, too. There was a DSC deep drive of the day, and it was our friend Noel Marte, who we already gave all kinds of uh flowers, but his home run went 103.6 off the bat. It went 399 feet. It was out in 28 of 30 parks. I’m curious what parks it was in. It was was not out in PNC and then Coors Field. So that’s interesting. The way they handle those are just launch angle and uh and uh bat speed, but what they don’t take into account is the thinner air. So I bet you that probably that ball goes out in course field for sure. But um but yeah, he is our uh that is our DSC deep drive of the day. Our um sponsored by Deep South Commodities. DSC is a leader in renewable commodities for bofuel production specializing in used cooking oil collection, aggregation, and sales. Visit www.deepsouthcommodmodities.com for information. Thank you as always to our friends at DSC. Thank you for sponsoring the show even when you got the couple pinch hitters in here. Uh we got to make sure we talk about our sponsors because that is that is important. Hopefully we were able to get a couple more deep d uh have to choose Nick and Trace have to choose their from a couple different home runs tomorrow for a deep drive of the day. So the um I guess do you want to talk a little bit about Brady Singer? I you know I think lost in this whole shuffle was was Brady Singer who you know I’ve had to me had a pretty Brady Singer day. You know it’s just kind of like what we would expect from Brady Singer. I know it’s the Rockies and you would like him not to give up three earned runs, but like six and two/3s innings gave you length. Uh we only had to use three pitchers or two bullpen arms because of that. Seven hits uh one walk and nine strikeouts. Basically had the mistake to the nine hitter where he hit that ball out and then um you know was able to work around that jam. There was a leadoff triple I think by Tyler Freeman where Benson missed the ball. Oh, Hunter Goodman. Right. Right. at Benson missed the ball and then was able to I think strike out the side to to get out of it. So, you know, I a lot of guts this game could have gotten out of hand and I think that he did a pretty good job of of mitigating the damage. Yeah. You know, Brady Singer the out of the gate if you remember, he was just nails. I mean, he was just like shut out after shut out after shutout. Um and I think, you know, that was a little fool’s gold, but the Reds have obviously won that trade. You know, India has not been good. Yeah, unfortunately he hasn’t. And I I I’m a big fan of his just from his time here, but he has not been good in Kansas City. Brady Singer to me is what the Reds really wanted. The Reds knew they needed length here. And you know, for those who listen to other shows on the Chatterbox Network, if you remember, I think it was last year or the year maybe sometime the last year or so when Tom Brenamman was on Off the Bench, he kept saying, “Guys, you don’t realize the Reds don’t have the pitching innings. They don’t have enough innings in their rotation. They just don’t.” And that’s what they wanted with Singer. And you see a guy like this. Yeah. gives up three, you know, three runs, seven hits, but he gets you through six plus. You know, he’s done that multiple times, you know, uh, start after start. And, you know, we have him for another year. And the Reds are going to need those innings next year because Rhett Lauder hasn’t pitched as much this year. Chase Burns is still coming up, you know, and Hunter Green, you know, I’d love to see him back as soon as possible. I want to get him right, but he’s been injured. And really, it’s going to be Singer, Abbott, and Lidolo that have the innings built up to last the whole year next year. Yeah. Singer is the kind of guy that I think around baseball front offices looks a lot more impressive, I think, to them than the casual fan, right? Because they see a guy that’s going to, like you said, eat innings, come in and hopefully pitch a whole season. Like to them, that is so valuable for a whole 162. So, uh, it’d be interesting. We can talk a little bit about the trade deadline, but whether I think that he might be a piece that somebody would be willing to go get if the Reds chose to sell. Uh, now I don’t I don’t He’s got another year of control, so I think that would keep the Reds I think the Reds would probably be more reticent to keep him. Um, but or they would want to keep him reticent to give him away. But I think it’s an interesting it’s an interesting thought if they end up do selling at the deadline here. you know, what what that would uh you know, what that would look like. And I would I would imagine, you know, front offices probably have a a even rosier outlook on somebody like Brady Singer than uh maybe like you and me who, you know, watch him go out and just, you know, get three in uh give up three earned runs in six and a third inning. Now, that’s you give up three runs in a game, like you should have an offense that should be able to to win you that game and which is I guess what happened tonight. So, you know, to me, I’ll take that. I’ll take that. If he goes out and that’s the identical stat line that we get from him the rest of the year, I am I’m completely fine with that. Oh, he and Nick Martinez. That’s how I mean that’s how I view those two. So, yeah, for sure. And and I’ve always said it from the get-go this year. If the Reds can score four runs, they should be able to win the game. Um, so do you want to talk trade deadline here while we wrap up the show? Sure. Yeah. Um, you know, I I know everyone was I was looking in the chat. We were just hearing sell sell. Uh, and as somebody that watches the Reds on a daily basis, it would really pain me to see them punt on the season. Um, but I I mean, I understand the the thought process behind it, especially if we fall out of it. Um, I think the Giants lost today, so I think we probably gained a game on them in the wildard standings. So, you know, that is or or I think the Padres’s maybe according to the Yeah, according to the live my phone, okay, the live app, it says that they’re the Reds are three back. Okay. All right. So, that means the Padres’s haven’t played today yet probably. Um or the game’s not over or something like that. Um yeah, they’re playing Oh, no. Yeah, they they are playing they starting right now against Philadelphia. Yeah. So, you know, we’ll see where we end up. The thing is, if they if they decide to sell, I would imagine that they’re not going to sell for double A and single A prospects. You know, they’re going to sell for major league ready people because, as much as we hate to admit it, Tito’s time in Cincinnati is not going to be uh is not going to be that long. And I don’t think they hired Tito to go into a full full rebuild. So, I would imagine that any trades they do to sell, whether it be Hayes or um Martinez or Pagan or even somebody like Lollo or Stevenson, right? Uh would be you would see them getting uh major league ready players back for basically going in for next year. Next year is where we’re lining up to try to make our big run for it. 100% agree with you. Now, I could see them doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Um maybe you trade an Austin Hayes and say for a for a single A guy, but as part of next year they’re able to make that roll in type deal, but really I think it’s more the Trevor Bower type deal. Hey, we’re really not in it, but we know the Guardians or the Indians at the time are trading Bower. Let’s just go all in on this guy. We’ll use him next year. There’s to me there’s nothing wrong with that. And I would actually be quite upset if they can’t pull something like that off. I I’m past three games or two and a half. Three and a half isn’t, you know, isn’t a ton. Now, there’s a lot of teams there. We all know that. The Cardinals, the Giants, the Padres’s, Brewers, Mets, and I don’t think the Reds have it in them unless they go out and make a huge splash. But I think that there there is a path or where they should be able to go get a guy. You know, I see in the chat, I don’t think it’s possible. And uh Jeff Passen put it out there. Stephen Quan, sign me up right now. I love Stephen Quan in on this on this Red’s team, dude. I love Yeah, I he is. And you know, with this time with Tito and if you look actually at the standings, it’s it’s shocking how far the um how far have fallen. Yeah, they I think they had a nine-game losing streak. I think let’s see. The Guardians are they are five out of a wild card with one, two, three, four, five teams ahead of them. So, um I don’t know. I it he I I love he he doesn’t that’s not your big bopper that you want, right? This dude is high average at the top of the lineup, play gold glove defense out in left field. But maybe that’s a guy you you know you sell Austin Hayes and you bring back a Stephen Quanact that has years of years of control that you know can be the table setter and maybe maybe you sell Fredel and bring it you know it just like they seem kind of interchangeable because of you know it’s just like Quan for the most part does everything offensively Fredel does but just better you know so it’s like I you know I would I that’s for sure an upgrade to me. I would I would love something like that, but I also am not I’m not trying to give up uh big prospects for that type of thing. And I would imagine that’s probably what they’re looking for in Cleveland. So, I don’t know. You never know, too. And we don’t know we don’t know the the math here and the salaries, but you know, Mart Martinez is 21 million’s coming off the books. Yeah. Now, we know we’re stuck with Candelario, but you have So, Martinez is coming off the books. Hayes is coming off the books. I think he’s 10 million. So, if the deals can be worked to where you’re bringing in a guy and you’re paying part of it just because, hey, I’m willing to sign Quan to a deal. I I would be willing to sign Quan to that deal via free agency. Sure, I’ll give up a couple prospects. To your point, I don’t think a South Stewart level trade is worth him. I think that’s worth a higher end who maybe a team and call me crazy, I could see where the Braves would be interested in really shaking their roster up. Yeah. And and and I know this is going like total MLB the show, but if you could if you could convince the Braves to shake their roster up a little bit because they are stuck. Matt Olsen, Riley, Harris, Akunia, Murphy, they’re stuck. all of them have long-term deals. Um, it’d be interesting, but I’d really like to see the Reds do a little bit of replenish maybe from their uh expiring deals, the Hayes, maybe Pagan. Um, but he’s been solid. I I I look to bring him back, but I’d like to see them trade that make a trade that will help us next year because they need it. They really do. Yeah. My thought on the Braves is, and I think I’ve seen some reporting on this, is I think they just are kind of chalking this up as the season from hell for them. You know, Akunia was injured at the beginning of the year. Uh Chris Sale just got hurt. Austin Riley just went on the IIL. Uh so I would imagine, yeah, I think they’re probably out of it. They’re 10 games under 500, worse than the Marlins, right? Uh so they’re nine games out of a play spot. So, they’re they I think as as you get closer, they’re they’re going to admit defeat, but I would imagine they’re probably only selling their their one-year rentals. You’re Luna comes to mind. Glacius, I think, is also who Yep. has been up and down. I don’t know. It’s just somebody that, you know, if we brought him in, we would basically I don’t know. I don’t know if I trust him as the closer. I don’t know. No, I’m not sure. I’m not sure there’s there’s going to be that type of thing. I think another thing you got to think about too is that there are some other big teams out there with holes, especially in like the bullpen. You know, Yankees bullpen struggled. Philly’s bullpen has struggled. Cubs pitching in general has struggled. Like there’s going to be some big buyers on the market as well uh that you’re going to have to kind of compete against. Like, sure, I think in a in in a you know, Ozuna sounds like somebody that we could bring in, but I just I just don’t imagine that’s somebody that they’re willing to pony up that somebody that the Yankees were. Also, I don’t love an all-time DH. I’ve talked about this before as well. You know, just having the flexibility to put Stevenson in the lineup together, to give Ellie a day and let him still hit, to give Mlan a day and let him still hit. You know, I I uh I don’t love a DH only. And to be honest, Ozuna, it’d have to be an like a better bat for me to be like, “Yep, you get DH the rest of the time.” You know what I’m saying? Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. Especially, you know, to me, the only DH that should be all time is uh you know, David Ortiz. But um I mean, Show is pretty good. Yeah. Show’s fine, too. Um I I for some reason I always forget that he’s just a DH. Um $70 million DH the one thing Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I just I I don’t I I’m not a fan. Um the I I don’t want to pay the for a rental. If I if I’m the Reds, I would pay the premium to have a guy next year because that that next level, you know, you’re talking your your single A players unless you’re looking at your roster and you’re say, “Okay, you’ll know who you have tomorrow.” If we want to touch on MLB draft tomorrow, uh MLB Network and MLB app, that’s where I’ll be watching it. So, you can restock your farm this week and you see the guys that you’re willing to move on from. Okay, fine. It’s a rental. But I would rather pair a couple of those guys together and go get a guy for the next two, three years. But you know what? Again, we said it earlier. Um that’s why Nick Crawl is getting paid the big bucks and we’re podcasters. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Uh I I’ll tell you what, this Met series out of the break is going to uh be huge. Uh obviously they they need to get the win tomorrow, but like that’s a good team. I know they’ve been struggling recently, but like is that at home? It is in New York. We got a stretch in New York and then in Washington. Uh like that’s going to be huge going into going into the break or coming out of the break. I think I I don’t know, maybe I’m making this up, but I feel like we haven’t done well coming out of the break. You’re not making it up. There’s a couple seasons like, “All right, let’s pick it up after the break and then we’ll buy at the trade deadline.” and then we just uh completely stumble out of the out of the box here and and and don’t get that. So, I don’t know. It’s just going to be series. I wish the trade deadline was pushed back a week. Really? Yeah. I wish it was earlier. I wish Yeah. So that people would do more stuff, you know, because I think the reason why it’s at where it’s at is because they want more teams because basically there becomes more stratification. More teams realize that they give up. But if they were to move it up, there’d more teams that are delusional that thinks they can still get in and more moves would happen. So I guess selfishly for me, I would like more moves. But I guess for the Reds, it’s good that it’s where it’s at because we’ll have a little bit better idea as we approach it whether or not we should buy or sell to be honest. Yeah. The only thing about moving it up, like you said, there’d be more teams who think they’re still in it. So that means that there’s less sellers. So the sellers would get a higher, you know, that’s a good point. pay, but there’ll be less action. I want, now that we’re talking about action and trades and signings, I would love to see, which I don’t think it I don’t think it would happen. I would love to see like a um a signing period in the winter where everything happens within like two weeks. Um kind of like you see like with NFL free agency or agency. Yeah. Which which is the trade deadline is that version for baseball. Um, but yeah, with a about a week difference between the uh draft and the deadline or you know, week plus, I’ve heard that the MLB front office is just low the next two weeks. Like it just it’s the worst for them. Yeah. Hopefully uh hopefully we um you know, we just have clarity. I’ve heard you know I just I want to know, hey, we should do this or we should do that. We go on a go on a eight and one run. Great. Let’s go do something, you know, lose the series in New York and in Washington. Great. Okay. It seems we’re down below 500 again. Let’s let’s sell, you know. So, I just hope that we are uh you know, we are it’s just clear for us. Uh, yep. And not to mention, uh, you know, we’re actually I don’t know if you’re going to be heading to that g to the Chatterbox game on July 29th, but, uh, Chatterbox is hosting a, uh, event at Smoke Justice across the river, uh, before the July 29th game, uh, against the Dodgers at 7:10. So, I don’t know when I don’t think they’ve announced a specific start time, but I I my wife and I, I think, are driving down from Columbus to be a part of that game uh, or be a part of that that uh, you know, event. It’ll be cool to meet everyone. It would be great to see people come in. I don’t know, Alex, if you’re gonna be able to make it or not. Yeah, unfortunately. Um I won’t be in town. I’ll be on Yeah, I won’t be in town. So, I live in town. I went down to the last, you know, uh Chatterbox Reds night in 2023. Um but just happens to be the uh the Wallace family vacation. So, okay. Kind of a bummer, but I’m going to try to make it down to a couple other ones to see if uh Trace needs a a Robin. Um Yeah. Yeah. So, we all make it down to the next couple since I’m in town. Vacation during the uh during the trade deadline. Man, that’s a rookie mistake. What are we doing? Unless you’re sitting on the couch and only watching trade deadline stuff. No, total rookie mistake. Uh but there was, you know, it’s one of those things. It just had to be had to had to be. Yeah. No, I understand. I understand. I’m excited about it. Um the phone will be on. The alerts will be the the alerts will be rolling. Um, I just I’m sad I couldn’t revive my Apple Watch from the dead. So, yeah, I’ll just have to keep pulling the phone out. That works. That works. Yeah. Uh, I believe there are is a block of tickets for the Champions Club that you can get on the website. Um, if you go to the store, it’s the first thing up there. So, you can go to the website and and take a look at that and you can go sit and uh you know, everyone can go tell Nick and Trace how they really feel rather than just yelling at him in the uh in the uh in the chat. And um yeah, Nick is coming down from his uh near Cleveland area, too. So, it should be a fun time. I’m excited about it. Um one more thing we have to do before we get out of here is we have to remind you all about 988. Uh, I saw, you know, if this game hadn’t turned, if our our uh sweet prince William Buchanan and Benson hadn’t come through for us and, uh, Noelie Marte, I know this line would have been um, heating up, but 988, we we just would also like to remind you that you can call and text 988 anytime, day or night. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a place to get support for anything related to mental health. Whether it’s an immediate crisis or simply wanting to find out how to connect for care uh or anything in between, it’s 100% confidential, secure, and anonymous way to reach out for help uh when you don’t know where else to turn. So, to connect, call or text 988 or mantherapy.org to get help. It’s okay to not be okay. Uh, anything else about uh, you know, about this? You want to talk a little bit about the the draft coming up? Yeah. Yeah. The, you know, I I I just enjoy watching the draft. Um, I know with it’s just different than the NBA or NFL especially, which to me is just I would love to go to the NFL draft. Um, I’m interested to see who the Reds can can pull out of this. Um, I’m just a best player available type guy. I know last year the Reds said they’re an up the middle team catcher, short stop, starting pitching center field. Um, so once you heard that, you kind of realized that Condan was out the door for them from the get-go. Um, which he hasn’t been great, which is Yeah. Turns out they made the right choice. Did you watch last night? Yeah. Yeah. Shocker. Yeah. Our guys in the majors, their guys struggling in double A. Um, though I think that not side tangent, I think that has to do with the system, too. Um, on the other hand, our third round pick is flourishing in, uh, double A for the Dodgers. So, um, just every every team, every organization’s different. Um, it just it’s a it’s a fun draft, too, for those who haven’t watched it because of how the balance or the the pools work for the um the the money pools. Every team is a allotted a certain salary. Um, and you can somewhat kind of, you know, float a guy down if you promise him a certain slot value. So, it’s pretty interesting. It’s it’s a fun time as always. I think um Harold Reynolds is great on that. You know, I I just like watching him. Not sure if he’s a great guy overall when it comes to analysts, but I enjoy him on the MLB Network, but yeah, it just, you know, it kicks off to me All-Star Week. Um are you a big home run derby guy, Mike? Oh, yeah. I love the home run derby. I uh I have a story actually about this. Um, so my brother used to work for Adidas, uh, shoe wear, like cleatwear, and he, uh, he lives out in Portland, but he had tickets to the 2014 or Yeah. the Cincinnati Home Run Derby. 2015. Yeah. 2015 Home Run Derby, and I uh, chickened out on the prices. I saw how much it was and I was like, I don’t know if I want to spend all that. And so, I didn’t go. And my brother was there told it was like told me about it was the best craziest he’s ever seen a ballpark and I’m sitting on my couch just you know slamming my fists onto the couch being like I can’t believe I chickenened out and didn’t go to that game. So unfortunately I didn’t get to experience it but yeah I take it in every year. Um you know I don’t I saw Kuna’s Kuna’s out now and it’s gonna be Matt Olsen’s in but uh but yeah it should be it’s it’s a lot of fun. I I like kind of the new aspect of it where it’s not it doesn’t take forever. Um but yeah, so I I’m a big fan. I I’ll watch more of that than I will watch the the actual All-Star game to be honest. Uh so hopefully, you know, hopefully we uh you know, I’m trying to think of who I want to win. Um of the people I think I want Cal Raleigh to win. You know, big dumper. I wanted I know a couple years ago Adley Rushman turned around and started hitting some from the other side as well. Yeah, that’d be sweet if you know switch hitting catcher, you know, is hitting some right-handed and then switches turns around and starts hitting them left-handed. It’d be cool to see. He’s a great story this year at, you know, awesome to see. I think I’d like to see Matt Olsen just because he’s the hometown guy. I thought that was cool for the Reds with Frasier doing it. Um, but to your point, you know, I actually cut cable and I’m just doing the streaming package. So, I don’t even know if ESPN if I can even get the home run derby. Um, some of ESPN stuff they thrown it on ESPN Plus. So, I’ve gotten that. But, um, we’ll see if I can bar. It’ll be on a bar. Yeah, it’ll go somewhere if I really need to watch it. Wait, that’s is that Tuesday night or is that Monday? Uh, Tuesday, I think. Well, let me double check. No, it’s Monday. Home run. The home run derby is Yeah. So, I don’t know um if I’ll if I’ll watch it or or not. Let’s see. I have it up. Nope. That is Monday, July 14th. Yeah. So, we’ll see. But to your point, the All-Star game’s kind of been boring lately. Um just I don’t it didn’t like and it’s the best game like of all the All-Star games. Um but man, let’s throw a little Savannah banana fun into it. You know what I’m saying? Yeah. And then I know we don’t have time to talk about this, but I don’t know if you saw that they’ve added Jacob Miserowski to the to the to the um Okay. No, let’s talk about it. I got you. Okay. You want to talk about this? This this dude has thrown 20 23 innings in the major leagues. I know he’s been good, but uh boy, the fact that this guy’s got an all-star bid is is wild to me. Totally wild. It Pig did it uh in 2014. Yasel Pig was an all-star and that was borderline even then and he was in like last year skins was the is what people were referring to right yeah yeah he was a starter now skins skins I think wasn’t he up like late April he was up he was up before I think maybe the beginning of May so he had had a much longer leash so here’s my deal though so let’s take a step back for those who don’t know how the all-star rosters work every team gets a guy and then it’s you You know, the pitching is always voted on by the players. There is no way, no way that this guy got enough votes comparison to everyone else when he’s only been pitched like five games. There’s no way. I mean, he’s nasty, but still, like, you don’t deserve an all-star bid after, you know, less than 25 innings. That you just don’t. So then if you look at if you look at the pitching if you really want to nerd out like I did the pitching votes and maybe Chatterbox’s uh ex account posted it where it was like skins got this many votes from the players the next pitcher got this many votes and then it went down. There was like three guys three guys at the end. Huge gap. Yeah. Huge gap. Can we fill you in? Andrew Abbott was in those. He was in between because the Reds had Ellie as their loan representative and then Abbott got bumped because someone else needed a spot. Yeah, there was Mesarowski did not have more votes than Sanchez. But here here is the one Suarez, right? Yeah. Here here’s the one caveat though, and I think they talked about it on the broadcast today. If they know those guys can’t pitch because of the rules of today’s players and tomorrow’s pitchers can’t pitch, then they weren’t going to put them on the roster. That’s total BS. Both of them should have been on it. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know. Uh yeah, I saw that and just, you know, it just kind of it just illustrated to me what this is is the MLB doesn’t really care about that aspect of it. take care that of a good showcase and they know that this guy is, you know, that’s why they’re totally fine with Francisco Lindor and Mookie Betts moving on over Ellie de Cruz. Did I see Lindor’s not even starting? Who is he? Who is is he? I don’t know. I thought I saw somewhere that Betts was actually going to start because Lindor bowed out which is even crazier. Yeah, because he’s had an even worse year. So yeah, it’s a spectacle and MLB doesn’t to them they want their main goal is the most eyes and so it’s unfortunate that we we the thing is we judge players based on all like you know when you talk about a guy’s career you’re like xime allstar right and uh and all that kind of stuff and and that is that’s just it’s being cheapened by something like this in my opinion and that’s just unfortunate you know so um yeah do I think he deserves it no do I think MLB cares No. Uh but uh yeah, that’s all I have to say about about that one. We do have a super chat. Uh Mike, if you want to read that off and then we will wrap up the show. Yeah, Michael Ralph with a 1999 bomb. I appreciate that. Great work tonight, Jens. Huge fan or huge win for the Reds tonight. What time does the draft start tomorrow? And what would you do with the draft pick at 9 for the Reds tomorrow? A btr. So I believe the draft starts at 6. Uh, I’m confirming. Yes. Six. And at nine, it’s kind of hard to predict because that’s enough people where, you know, it’s not like the NFL draft where it’s like the best players just for the most part, it’s it’s with some exceptions, it’s just like the best players on down, especially early in the draft because people are cutting deals. I know the year like H Kirststad went second overall. Uh, there’s a lot that goes into it. Um, I’ve seen a lot of mocks that have Seth Hernandez, the basically the top right-handed uh uh high school pitcher going to the Reds and and the idea behind is some teams are just like absolutely no on high school pitchers early in the in the um draft because there’s just so much variance and we’ve even seen with Hunter Green who is about as can’t miss as a high school arm coming out has, you know, had his struggles and his ups and downs. So, and I, you know, I would be okay with that. Um, I don’t what I don’t think is going to happen is they’re not going to be like, “Hey, we have a hole in left field coming up next year. We need to draft somebody to get them up here, right?” I think the Reds are very firmly in. We’re just going to get the best player. If somebody falls to us, uh, great, we’ll take them. Um, whether that’s a pitch, a starting pitcher from college, high school, or, uh, you know, you know, whatever it is, I think they’re going to do that. Um, I I’d be fine with Hernandez, but I’d also be fine with some of these top, you know, high school or college arms that, you know, would be able to, you know, pull the RT louder Burns track maybe even where they’re able to go dominate in the minor leagues and and come on up. But, you know, the way that that’s gone is not very common. So, I, you know, I don’t know if that if they necessarily even have any um effect on next year’s team. Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of that Seth Hernandez to the Reds and it’d be interesting if the Reds were to pull that off and be able to float him down. Um, which is what I’m looking forward to. The Reds really did that with Cam Collier. Yeah, but also the Reds traded one of their balance picks for Luck, so that took away some of their pool. Um, the other guys I’ve been looking at, like you said, the pitchers Witherspoon’s one who’s at like almost second tier. Um, I’ve seen a lot of mocks for the shortstop out of Oregon State, Arquette. Again, I think we’re going to see the Reds take a starting pitcher, college arm, or a shorts stop. I don’t think they’re going to stick with those high-end short high school shorts stops. I think it’s going to be Arette or a pitcher. Um, and it looks like the Reds are just trying to gather as many of these high value items, shortstop, starting pitching, and then that’s where they’ll make their deals, which is why I think wrapping back up to the trade deadline, I think they could be active. If the right deal falls in their lap, uh they have the resources to pull it off. So, we’ll see. It’s going to be an exciting two weeks. Um we’ll see everybody tomorrow. Um yeah, after the win, after the Reds win, um and win another series, which is just big. Trace and Nick on the mic. And I’ve also heard special guest Bryce Spalding talking MLB draft after the Reds pick probably around 7 o’clock, I would imagine. Yeah. Just one more note about the draft, the second round or this the comp or sometimes the comp round is where they go after their their upside high schoolers. Uh just like in the past, so round two last year, Tyson Lewis, the guy who’s tearing up the you know the Mike Trout of the Arizona Fall or Arizona Complex League. Year before that, second round, Sammy Safura, high school shorts stop that they’re able to bring in. Year after that, this is in the comp round B, they got Sal Stewart, high school infielder. Uh the year be this is 2021 they got Jay Allen high school outfielder in the comp uh comp round and then in not in 2020 but in 2019 they even took they took Reese Hines that’s the Nicladoo draft right they took Niclolo high school outfielder second round so I would imagine that they’re going to go best available but one thing it seems that they have a trend of doing is high upside high school guy that they’ll probably pay above slot to try to bring in and you know have some upside in there. Lion Richardson in 2018 was the same way. So, and you saw I think you mentioned him earlier, but the guy that did that last year, Tyson Lewis off to a fantastic start and I believe is on his way to Daytona. So, yeah, that’s a name to for everyone to listen out to. So, we’ve been going a while, Mike. Let’s go ahead. Let’s talk about Let’s talk about tomorrow’s uh tomorrow’s matchup. Hopefully, the Redskins can uh win this series against the Rockies at 140 at Great American Ballpark. Austin Gomeber is who’s pitching for the Colorado Rockies, an 0 and2 record with a 592 erra. Uh, so you know, I know he’s no Brady Bllelock, but or Bradley Bllelock, but hopefully the Reds will be able to get some offense against him and he will be going against Nick Martinez, hoping to bounce back from that Marlins start, who’s 6 and N with a 485 ERA and 73 strikeouts. So hopefully we’ll be able to get a win and um get a have a good taste in our mouth going into the All-Star break. Uh, and um, we’ll be able to uh, you know, get some clarity on where they’re going to go. you know, the rest of the season at the beginning of uh coming out of that coming out of that uh All-Star break with the Mets in the Nationals. Anything else about tomorrow’s game before we sign off here? Nope. Just need a win. We just need a win, Mike. Just need a win. I appreciate everyone if if you’re still watching with us, thank you very much. Uh please like the stream on the way out. We really appreciate it. Uh you know, we’re we are the pinch hitters, but we try to do our best. And hey, we got to see a fun Reds win. You know, Mick and Trace wish that they were on the on Well, Trace is at the game. He probably got it a little bit better than us. Yeah. But, uh, you know, thank you guys for for joining us and for and being with us. We really appreciate it. Like and subscribe. Make sure to join the the crew tomorrow at 9 uh with special guest Bryce Balding to talk about the draft. And if there’s any if there’s not anything else, Alex, why don’t you just hit me with a go Reds? Go Reds, Mike. Heat.

00:00 Live in the 9th Inning!
06:21 Marte WALK_OFF WINNER!!!!
10:37 Full Game Recap
15:21 Box Score Recap

The Cincinnati Reds (48-47, fourth in NL Central) face the Colorado Rockies (22-72, fifth in NL West) on July 12, 2025, at Great American Ball Park, with the Reds aiming to even their series after a 3-2 loss on Friday. First pitch is set for 4:10 p.m. EDT, and the game is MLB.tv’s free game of the day. The Reds, coming off back-to-back wins against Miami, look to capitalize on their home advantage (26-22 record) against a Rockies team struggling on the road (11-36). Cincinnati’s Brady Singer (7-7, 4.32 ERA) takes the mound, showing consistency since May with a 3.81 ERA over his last 10 starts and only four homers allowed in 52 innings. His splits show righties make more contact but lefties hit for more power, which could challenge Colorado’s lineup. The Reds’ offense, led by Elly De La Cruz (.279 AVG, 18 HR, 63 RBI) and Noelvi Marte (3-for-4 with a HR Friday), will look to exploit Rockies’ starter Bradley Blalock (0-2, 12.94 ERA), who allowed six runs in 4 innings against Cincinnati in April. The Rockies, fresh off a rare win to avoid tying the MLB record for fewest victories before the All-Star break, rely on Hunter Goodman (.278 AVG, 17 HR) and Ryan McMahon (two-run HR Friday). However, their pitching staff has struggled, conceding 31 runs in their last four games. Reds’ manager Francona’s clear communication, praised recently, could guide Cincinnati to capitalize on Colorado’s weaknesses. With Jake Fraley back from the injured list and Christian Encarnacion-Strand optioned to Triple-A, the Reds’ lineup is poised for a rebound. Expect Cincinnati to leverage their offensive depth and Singer’s reliability to secure a win and even the series.

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Andrew Abbott, Julian Aguiar, Graham Ashcraft, Scott Barlow, Emilio Pagán, Fernando Cruz, Alexis Díaz, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Tony Santillan, Carson Spiers, Brent Suter, Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, Tyler Stephenson, José Trevino, Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Santiago Espinal, Jonathan India, Noelvi Marte, Edwin Ríos, Will Benson, TJ Friedl, Jake Fraley, Stuart Fairchild, Austin Hays, Spencer Steer, Jacob Hurtubise, Blake Dunn

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