Cincinnati Reds Season Ends In Los Angeles, Terry Francona Rides With Zack Littel, Bengals Rumors

Cincinnati Reds Season Ends In Los Angeles, Terry Francona Rides With Zack Littel, Bengals Rumors

Okay. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hello and welcome. It’s Thursday morning here in the great city of Hamilton, Ohio. Off the bench with Reed Mouse. No, Trace Fowler on the show today. Um giving him some much needed sleep after a long two nights. a long two nights watching the Cincinnati Red legs not get it done down there in SoCal. Chavez Ravine. Uh they got swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers. We’ll talk about all that. I’ve got a a good take on Terry Franka. As you guys know, I’ve been a supporter of him, but golly, man, there’s uh left a lot to be desired. Uh we’re going to do uh buy or sell Cincinnati Reds later and then we’re going to do uh the power rankings, the NFL power rankings towards the end of the show. Talk about some um some granular NFL topics now that the Reds season is done. Uh we’ll do a power rankings tomorrow on the show for the remaining uh baseball teams because there will be three teams eliminated today. So there will be eight remaining teams and we’ll do a power rankings for that. But Stone Shields in the producers chair. Stone, as always, you’re looking handsome and you got your you got your producers credit yesterday by having a having a guest on and you geared up for a for a Thursday morning show. Yeah, ready to rock. Hopefully uh I can execute again. No guests here today, but uh yeah, that that was good to get that rep yesterday. All right. So, the Cincinnati Red Legs went to Los Angeles and it was an uphill battle that everyone knew from the get-go. And it seems like the overwhelming topic after the twoame series is revolving around the Cincinnati Red’s manager, Terry Frankona. He’s been kind of uh at the spearhead of this Red’s team and really any discourse for a while because quite honestly he does make headscratching decisions. Um I know people the there’s a large portion of the Reds community that had taken on uh the analytics mantra that small teams have to take on to kind of compete in Major League Baseball from here on. and it seemed to be uh counterproductive to bring in an old head like Terry Fran Kona uh to be your manager. I know everyone was super excited when they got him last year, but it seemed pretty early on like, man, this doesn’t this isn’t David Bell, right? Where we’re not we’re not reading off the sheet every single matchup, every single decision, there’s going to be more of a gut feel from Terry and his team. And here’s my take on Terry Franken. If you’ve watched Off the Bench, if if you follow me on Twitter, you’re in the Discord or anything like that, you know I defend him more often than not because my opinion on leadership on manager and we’ve been told for years from the analytics community that managers don’t matter. And I’ve long pushed back and I’ve given my take on this many a times about how I think that leadership these are human beings playing and yeah analytics can put you in the best position to compete on the thing but sometimes you need to have feel sometimes you need to have a leader as we all know we’ve all been in organizations work teams whatever it is where we’ve had good leaders and we’ve had bad leaders and we know the difference and my life experience the difference has been the best leaders are authentic the best leadersh uh generate relationships with the people underneath them. That’s just been my my experience in life. And when it comes to this Reds season, I think that there’s two things I’ll say about the manager. The Reds did not deserve by all intents and purposes to be playing in October. Based off the way they played, based off of where they were at the first week of September, they were gifted it from the New York Mets. And the Reds played well at the end of the season. There’s two reasons why the Reds made the postseason and I truly believe this. One is an epic collapse on epic proportions from the New York Metropolitans. The second is I think that they adapted to the leadership of their manager. I think that they took on the personality of this gritty old grizzled Terry Franka that’s been around the block many a times has won two World Series has been successful everywhere. has been Sans the late 90s Phillies teams that he managed that I believe deep down in my core that if they had David Bell and there’s no way to prove this there’s also no way to disprove this that I believe that if they had David Bell or if they had another manager I don’t think they make the postseason this year because I think that things just have a tendency like unless you have someone spearheading the team and this is based off of what I’ve read about Terry. This is based off of what people talk about Terry. This is based off of uh just what I see. I have no way to prove this. I don’t know Terry. Never been in the Reds locker room or anything. just basing off the information that I’m given and based off the um what people say about the man is that he’s a pretty good leader and people kind of gravitate towards his personality and his and uh they they play that way and I truly believe that if other managers were the manager of the Cincinnati Reds they probably don’t make the postseason this year and I say that knowing this. Here’s the next thing. Though I believe that this team probably doesn’t make the postseason without Terry Francona, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Terry Frankona did not put the Reds in the best position to win. If the Reds play the Los Angeles Dodgers in this exact scenario 10 times and you pull all the right levers, you you hit all the right buttons, you still probably only beat the Dodgers as the visiting team two out of three times. I don’t know, three out of 10. You probably win that series three out of 10 times if all things kind of go your way. The way that Terry Frankona managed this series, even if things went well, you win that series one out of 10 times. As a guy that’s constantly trying to have to defend him, as a guy that’s constantly being like, “Hey, I think there is something to this leadership.” And and I get why analytics crowds hate the leadership, hate the manager um conversation because there’s no way to quantify it. There’s no way to prove it or disprove it. So people that tend to go to math, if you can’t prove or disprove something, they don’t like it, right? And it makes it for fun arguments or dumb arguments maybe because you just keep going in the same circle. This is what I believe. That’s what you believe. We’ll just keep going and we’re not changing anyone’s mind. But man, man, man, man man, headscratching decision after head scratching decision. Zack Latell starts on the bump and we had Trace Fowler on the show yesterday and he point blank said, “I believe he’s only going to throw to four or five batters. I believe he’s only get four or five outs and you bring in Nick Lollo and ask him to go long.” It wasn’t the case. There’s three and a third. You bring in Nick Leolo to throw one and a third. Throws 14 pitches, right, Stone? I think that was the number you said. 14. 14 pitches. And it begs the question like if the plan was only to go one inning from Nick Lollo, why not throw him against show Otani Freddy Freeman? Like if that’s the plan, like it just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense at all. And you’re putting me in a bad spot here, too. Because like, as much as I want to defend you, as much as I want to give you credit for this season, you get in the postseason and you just there’s no doubt in my mind that he put this team in in an incredibly disadvantaged situation when they were already at a disadvantage. They’re facing a billion dollar roster, the the the what is it? $350 million. And that’s not even including the deferred money of Show Otani. and you’re facing the reigning World Series champions at their home field and you just seem to not do anything right. South Stewart doesn’t start in game one. You play Austin Hayes out in right field for the first time in a couple of years. Sal Stewart plays first B. Like it’s just decision after decision that you just sit there and you go, man, I I don’t I don’t know what to take of the stone. Your opinion on the way that Terry Franono managed these two games. Yeah, I think you you hit the nail on the head there. To be completely honest with you, I I agree. I don’t think the Reds are in this spot where they make the postseason without Terry Francona. I know you can pick apart, you know, his his decision-m, some of the things he’s done throughout the season, the regular season, the small ball stuff. I completely get it. But lots of headscratching um moves last night, right? And you just have to be so buttoned up and you have to be borderline perfect if you want to go to Los Angeles and knock off the Dodgers. Clearly, they’re outmatched. Clearly, I mean, it’s not even close seeing the teams on the field and what Los Angeles has to offer and what Cincinnati has to offer. But the Reds had opportunities in this game. Obviously, two bases loaded situations. nobody out and you only score a total of one run. That obviously can’t happen. Um, you know, the Latell thing going with him as the starter. It looked like he was brilliant there for a little bit, right? It’s like, oh, Tito’s pressing all the right buttons tonight, baby. And then he just played with fire and he sent him back out there in the fourth and that was just a tough scene. Um, you know, if he lets him if he pulls him after two or even if he pulls him after three and you’re sitting there and you’re still in the ball game, feels like a win. But the biggest head scratcher to me, I don’t know if something has come out about Ledo not feeling well. Mike Giddy pitched in one game 162. So that’s why probably they weren’t able to go with him as the starter, but he looked good. He only threw 14 pitches. I mean, you got to roll with your best players in the biggest moments. And you could say you can say what you want about Lollo, his inability to stay healthy. You know, people attack him for that. You know, people say, “Oh, he’s got a a stuffy nose. He’ll probably miss his start.” Right? Like people bang on Nick Lola for not being available. But he’s one of the reasons why you’re in this spot. I mean, he’s one of your best arms. Him, the fact that he only threw 14 pitches and that the fact that Andrew Abbott didn’t touch the baseball in this series, it’s hard to swallow. It’s and I I I just caught up on the chat and you know, there’s some really good points in there. One saying the Reds gave up 18 runs in two games with this team. They’re never going to win that series, right? If you give up 18 runs with this lineup, you’re not you’re not going you’re not going to win. And it’s like I get it. The Reds were clearly stacked up against it. There’s there hasn’t been a Reds team since the since the big red machine that has a lineup anywhere compared to what the Dodgers put out there where they go Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer to begin their lineup. Show Otani, who I truly believe is the greatest baseball player, the greatest baseball talent of all time. I mean, he won’t have the the counting numbers of some of the greats, but he I there’s been no one ever like him in the history of this sport and the Reds clearly at a disadvantage. That being said, and I already made this point, they win that series what, three out of 10 times. They play that same series 10 times. They win it maybe three out of 10 times on the road. Hunter Green going game one against Blake Snell. Whoever you decide to go against Yamamoto game two and then they’d probably go what? Show Otani game three. I I don’t know. Like you win that three out of 10 times. But the way point blank that Terry Fran Kona managed this series, you might win that series one out of 10 times. Just did not absolutely did not put the team in the best position to win. And it’s a and it was a tough position to be in to be from the get-go, but I don’t think you anyone can walk away from that series pleased with the way that Terry Francona managed. You can walk away for the season pleased with the way he managed. And I’ve said this before, I I truly believe that he’s a major contributing factor of why the Reds got to play two postseason games for the first time in a full season since 2013. Truly believe that. It’s the most wins that the Reds have had in a single season since 2013. I believe some fact I 83. Like I think all those things to be true. And this is in a in a National League. And this is the one thing that people um won’t give credit. Like you you can compare his 83 wins to I think David Bell won 83 games one time. And this is a side tangent. He did it in a national league where I think this is the strongest the National League’s been in my entire life. Off the top of my head, it’s the strongest that it’s been. I mean, you got the Padres’s with a couple of Hall of Famers, uh, being the five seed. You’ve got the Dodgers, uh, being the three seed. The Phillies are unbelievable. The Brewers have their best season, and it’s like it’s the strongest the National League’s ever been, and you’re looking at almost every single team sitting anywhere between 78 wins to uh, tonight, but that’s a side tangent. Did it in a really tough year. I think he gets credit for that. But, man, left a lot to be desired. But, you got to play two postseason games. Hopefully, that uh, at least scratched the itch enough as a Reds fan. And maybe that sounds condescending. I I didn’t mean it to come off like that, but for years, people had clamored for a moment like this to play postseason baseball. Maybe it wasn’t everything you expected playing at 900 p.m. on the West Coast in back-to-back nights. You really never competed in the, you know, from the fifth inning on. I mean, you had a heartp pumping moment in game one with Tyler Stevenson at bat in the eighth inning. You take the lead there in game two, but it just dwindles away and it gets away from you and you never were really competing in this series. But man, it’s hard to it’s hard to be a Terry Francona defender on a day like today. Terry or Terry Stone, uh before we move on and we’ll talk about the Reds a little more. Um one thing you said before the show and this goes to, you know, being a Reds fan playing postseason baseball. You were getting kind of excited in that first inning. Did it at least scratch the itch a little bit of, you know, playing meaningful baseball and on the prime time? Absolutely. Yeah, those first um couple innings were awesome. South Stewart, 21-year-old kid. He shows up, he delivers. I mean, think back to that that inning when you’re sitting there, you get the gift from Tay Oscar and Gavin Lux can’t score and I’m sitting there going and they showed the replay like he he wasn’t going full sprint there. Like there was a he should have scored. Bottom line, he should have scored on that play. He didn’t. And they were sitting there like, man, we should have a lead in this game, but we don’t. Now we have this kid up here against Yamamoto. Two guys on, two out. What are we going to do? And then he comes up huge. South Stewart puts you out in front and you’re like, oh my goodness, we have a chance here in this game. And those first few innings, man, they were fun. They really were a lot of fun. It was postseason baseball. You felt like you were in the game, you know, David Goliath matchup. So, uh, the beginning obviously was really, really fun, but the b the bats obviously, um, just too much for the Los Angeles Dodgers, um, in this game. Had opportunities, had them in the sixth, had it again in the eighth, and unfortunately when you had the bases loaded, nobody out, um, in the sixth inning and the heart of your lineup up and you can’t come to the plate and score one run. Um, it kind of felt like that was about it. And unfortunately with this team, we’ve seen that several times. But just to have that feeling postseason baseball back there’s a lot of people are down. Lots of you know people criticizing Tito Francona and rightfully so. But um you know I don’t think you know some people would say it’s a losers mentality to be celebrating just getting in. But for this Red’s team this year here in 2025 I think there’s a lot of reason to celebrate getting in considering what the past few years have been like considering the fight that you showed all the way to the very end. Now, you can’t just take it and be like, as an organization, as a front office, oh, we got in, so we’re just going to roll it back with these same guys. And we’ll talk about this later in the show. No, there’s absolutely adjustments that need to be made this off seasonason. You need to be aggressive. You need to add to this team and the players that you have, the core that you have need to get better. And if the organization proves that they are capable of doing that, then there’s reason to be excited. But if you’re just going to roll it back with the same crew and hope that you can win a world championship, that’s not going to happen. It was good enough this year to get in with 83 wins, but let’s be honest, even all of us diehard Reds fans, there was no chance this team could win the world title. All right. And there’s lots that need lots of changes that need to be made in order for them to actually be in contention to win it. But it was nice to get in. Yeah, I saw some u a guy that I’m decent friends with on on Twitter in the media and he was uh he was talking about how any Red’s fan or any Reds member that is just happy with being in the postseason should be ashamed of themselves. That isn’t the goal. Listen, man. As much as I love that mentality, as much as that’s a cool like, oh, our chances is to ah to go out there and win a championship, let’s let’s not have the goalpost too far back. And I’m I’m not saying that like as a as a tongue-in-cheek way of poking at the Reds. Like, this should be taken as an accomplishment. It’s something that hasn’t been done in 12 years. Making the postseason um in a full season. I We used to cover high school sports at a at a pretty late at a pretty large scale here at Chatterbox. And we’d interview kids and be like, “Hey, what’s your what’s your goal this season?” And it’ll be for a team that’s 0 and4. And they’ll be like, “Our goal is to win state. We’re going to we’re going to win state.” And they’ve lost the first four games by 40 points. And you’re like, “Hey, brother. I don’t mean to be mean here. I don’t I don’t mean to be kind of you’re not winning state. Let’s let’s let’s let’s get some more realistic goals here. Let’s let’s let’s let’s teal it down. Tone it down just a little bit. And there are some people that that’s their goals, but like let’s tone it down. And if you talk to any high school kid across the way, that’s that’s their same mentality. And like it’s at times it’s a little silly. So I just the point there was there were some people on Twitter that were like this isn’t the Red’s goal to make the postseason. Yeah, it was. It was. It was. Yeah. You’d like to compete while you’re there. Yeah, you’d like to win a postseason series. That’d be absolutely amazing, but let’s not act like the the goal is we’re going to we’re going to win the world championship. It’s like, all right, let’s bump. That’s obviously the end goal, but one step at a time here. One step at a time. Thoughts on Andrew Abbott not getting the you’re all star left-handed pitcher, Andrew Abbott not getting the ball in a twoame series. Stings um obviously um you know, we talked about Andrew Abbott all throughout the year. Andrew Abbott’s just a dog, right? He’s not going to blow you away with what he does with his fast ball. He’s just a dog. And there was some questions, you know, he got a little bit worse as the season progressed, got a little bit more tired, what have you. But for the majority of the regular season, if you ask me who you want out there, a do or die game, who you want taking the hill, my answer is Andrew Abbott, not Hunter Green for the majority of this year, man. Yeah, man. Obviously, Green had some injury um issues throughout the season, but the fact I mean there’s no, you know, it wasn’t his time to go like it just that it didn’t play out the right way. We talked about like do you force the issue and throw him in this game at some point. The opportunity never really presented itself. So I don’t think there’s anything as far as Tito goes that should be criticized in regards to Andrew Abbott. It’s just unfortunate when you sit there and go, “Dang, we got to the playoffs and we didn’t even get to see him pick up the baseball and go.” And that was kind of my thought process yesterday is if you give yourself a chance, you win last night. I really wanted to see Andrew Abbott in a game three situation because to me, he feels like a guy that can have success in the postseason as a pitcher. That’s just my belief and I really wanted to see it, but obviously that didn’t transpire and that that’s a tough pill to swallow. Looo 14 pitches, Abbott doesn’t pitch. That’s tough. I I get everyone getting upset that Andrew Abbott did not pitch, but like he was going to be on short and he was going to be given the ball in game three. So, he couldn’t have pitched in game two, right? That would have been three days of rest. Three days of rest. So, you wouldn’t have been asking a whole lot from Andrew. think I think the Edge Rabbit stuff like I I understand the frustration in not throwing an all-star pitcher in a twoame series postseason, but the plan was always that he was going to throw game three if he got there. And that’s that’s a that’s a pretty decent plan. Just my thoughts on the whole thing. And we’re going to get back to the Reds here, but I saw a bunch of my friends, bunch of people on Twitter talking about this, and I’m and this is a a bit of brevity um as a as a Cubs fan. And that is that you got the enjoyment stone of listening to Boo Shambi, John Shambi for the last two nights. And I’ve never put this out. I’ve never said this on air or anything like that. I hate Boo. Hi. Hi. He’s the Cubs uh TV broadcaster and he stinks. And I’m so happy that you guys, as as as sad as it is, your two postseason games that you got, you got to listen to this guy. And I hope that just let me know in the chat what you guys thought of Boo for two games cuz he is miserable to me. This is this is the only thing I wanted to say on this segment is I I I hate listening to Boo Xiaami. He’s so boring. He’s he he he doesn’t add anything to the game. game. I don’t think a broadcaster should add something to the game and I think Boog adds nothing to the game and nothing and and just to sum up how bad I dislike Boo Jeani and I I remember talking to you know uh I other people about this they’re like yeah I don’t get why he keeps keeps getting better and better jobs because I just don’t see it. Listen to this call from uh about a month ago, a Cubs game, and it’s just the epitome of listening to Biani in a game. Stone to the right side. Terra coming home. Safe. And it’s 41. All right. Absolutely miserable. 40,000 people losing their minds. Millions at home losing their mind. and he’s just like save golly golly stone as someone who’s trying to butt into the broadcasting sphere your thoughts on two days of of old book and you can give an honest reaction you don’t have to be too tough if you enjoyed it you enjoyed it but I hate I hate it um I’ve said this before on the show and I’ve heard he’s a great guy but our guy that we listen to on the TV set night in and night out I have a tough time doing it I have a tough time doing it so for me it was good to just get somebody else. But I’m with you, right? Obviously, um it kind of feels different, right, on ESPN, you know, obviously years ago when the Reds were in the playoffs, it was TBS, TNT, right? And that kind of had a good ambiance to it, a good vibe to it. This kind of just felt like like a Sunday night baseball game. Obviously, that wasn’t the same crew, but it was just kind of like uh it’s kind of just interesting. Didn’t exactly feel like postseason baseball as far as the broadcasters go, but yeah, I mean uh I was happy to just get a new voice in there to be honest with you. But I totally hear you. Um, as it relates to Buiani, I wouldn’t have him uh near the top of somebody that I wanted to listen to for sure. Uh, the real spirit catat just put in there, read once a straightup homer for an announcer. Yeah, I do for my for my home broadcast. Yes. Yes, absolutely. I want that. If I’m listening to a Red’s broadcast, I want the broadcaster to cheer for the Reds. I do. If I’m watching a home and they don’t have these in the NFL for TV, they don’t have home broadcast. You can listen to on radio and I we know how it goes on radio here in this town for the Bengals broadcast. There’s a lot of Homer, but that’s what you should want because you’re speaking to the fan. You’re speaking like people that watch Cubs broadcast or Red’s broadcast are Red’s fans. There’s not just a Marlins fan tuning in to FanDuel to watch it. So, yeah, I want a homer. I want a homer. And I know it’s a national broadcast for last night, but and maybe that’s where Boo should stay, just in the national broadcast land, but it’s just so boring. It’s it’s it’s tough when he does college basketball even. I think it’s tough. I I don’t get into the the broadcaster talk a whole lot because I think it’s sometimes tired and tr I’m just glad to see Red’s fans and getting the full Boog experience. um getting the full boo experience here on two nights because it’s just just not very enjoyable. We’re going to do a buy or sell here. And before we get to that, we got to hear a word from our sponsors. The Job Center is now hiring. Start working fast with weekly pay, flexible shifts, and great opportunities at top local employers. Apply in person at any location across 12 states or online at thejobcenter.com. Light up your events with Queen City screens. Our cutting edge LED video boards deliver vibrant visuals and crystal clear displays for any occasion. From concert to corporate events, we’ve got you covered. Visit queen cityscreens.com to rent your LED solution today. Queen City Screens, where brilliance meets impact. Um, before we started this show on Monday, we talked about how great of a week this could be. how great of a week this could be for Cincinnati sports for four consecutive nights. Potentially Cincinnati sports. We’re going to be at the focus of national television. Monday night football, Bengals versus Broncos. Tuesday night, Wednesday night at least, Reds versus Dodgers. And then maybe a game on Thursday night in the same spot. And man, did it not go well at Cincinnati. Three consecutive blowouts. And still the Reds looked better than the the what the Reds outscored the the Bengals in both their games against the Dodgers. So, congrats to the Reds on that for at least a small and they scored a run. I saw people taking it. I was talking to uh our good friend Elliot Rearing before this series started and he said, “I just want the Reds to score a run because they remember what happened in 2020 in that shortened season when the Reds did not score a run and uh got swept.” Buy or sell, Stone, let’s get into it. All right, here we go. Buy or sell. Nick Lollo should have started yesterday. Yeah, I’m buying. I There’s clearly some sense of he’s hurt. There’s something there that we don’t know and they’re they’re being tentative. But if the plan was for him to throw an inning, if the which is what he did yesterday and I and I get that, you know, the game evolves and you can kind of but if the plan was that Nicolola who threw really well against the Dodgers last month, if the plan was or I guess it was two months ago, uh plan for him was to throw 14 pitches, only throw four outs or something like that. Why not start the game with him where he’s going to face lefty show, lefty Freddy Freeman? Don’t understand that at all. Um, I am absolutely buying that Nicolola should have started game two. Yeah, I mean I I get it because, you know, he was used in game 162, so they didn’t probably that was I assume that’s the reasoning. They didn’t feel comfortable rolling him out there as the starter. But then again, if he was only going to throw like, you know, 14 pitches anyway, and he wasn’t going to throw a ton of pitches, why not use him against, you know, Otani to start? Um, it’s just disappointing that he only threw 14 pitches. be one thing if he got rocked in those 14 pitches, but he looked pretty dang good as well. So, um, tough to go down with Lola only throwing 14 and Abbott not going as we talked about earlier. Um, yeah, this is a buy for me. I mean, if he was good enough to go in some capacity, which he was, why not let him be that guy that goes out there and, you know, only uh, you know, is like an opener, right? Um, but yeah, just interesting. And you don’t want to bang on the tail too much cuz, you know, I think if Tito would have pulled the string on him a little bit earlier, we’re all sitting here like, “Wow, Zack Latell really owned the moment. He did everything we asked for him, but Tito let him go a little bit too long.” Now we’re sitting here having this conversation. Yeah, it’s it’s pretty clear that uh whatever their plan was, it didn’t didn’t I I just just don’t vibe with it at all. I just don’t jive with that with their plan in that game yesterday. So, uh I was buying buying. Niclola should have started yesterday. Buy or sell. All right, here we go. Buy or sell. Terry Francona is the reason the Reds lost the series. Selling. Selling is as long as my 15-minute monologue was to begin the show where I I said that he clearly didn’t put the Reds in the best position to win. He gave up 18 runs. Uh like I said, and I’ll say till I get red in the face, and that is the Reds, they play that series 10 times, they win it maybe three times. Now, now I once again I think that Terry didn’t put them in the best position to win, but he’s not the reason they lost this series. He certainly did not help. He certainly did not help. Uh so I’m going to I’m going to sell this just because I think that they were so against the eightball, so up against the grain. They just things had to go incredibly well for them to win this series and seemingly nothing went well. Um but Terry Francona wasn’t the sole reason for it. Yeah, I totally agree. Um, you don’t feel great about what Tito Franka did in these two games. You know, I was the guy sitting here saying, “Oh, if you can get in, Tito is gonna help you win a playoff game.” And he certainly didn’t do that. But to sit here and put all the blame on the manager. That’s ridiculous. We know what the Reds are up against. We know what kind of roster um, you know, and all the payroll in which that the Dodgers have, it was an uphill battle. It always was going to be. You needed to be pretty buttoned up. You needed to catch a few breaks. You needed to execute when your opportunities were there. Two bases loaded opportunities in the game yesterday. You came away with a total of one run. Can’t have it. Can’t have it. But definitely some things Tito did that got in the way of you trying to, you know, win the game, right? But to sit here and solely blame the manager, you can’t do that. I mean, one thing we haven’t even touched on is that um at bat in the eighth inning where Will Benson is in the one-two count and then he gets pulled or yeah, the the pitcher at the time gets pulled. Dave Roberts pulls the pitcher, goes to a new arm in the middle of the count, and then Tito says, “Well, I’ll counter that and put Miguel Andar in there.” Being in a playoff game off the bench in a two strike count, I mean, I get that he’s raked against lefties all year, but to me, it’s like I mean, how is this guy going to have success in this situation? A one strike count, okay, like he can see one and feel it out a little bit, but like it’s not like Andrew can get up there and take one if it’s a strike. Obviously, ended up swinging at a ball, but that to me is like, h I mean, it’s a one-two count. What are we doing? But um yeah, I can’t fully blame too. Yeah, someone put in there and they’re accurate. The reason that the Reds lost this series is the difference in payroll, the difference in the roster. Yeah, I was I was trying to find this uh stat. The the Reds the Red’s payroll this year was 19 million according to what I saw. I mean, obviously those numbers aren’t always exactly correct. Um, the Dodgers this off season to relief pitchers alone to relief pitchers alone committed $85 million uh at the Tanner Scott and Kirby Eights. I thought the Kirby Eight signing was bigger. I was hoping that it’ like the number that they committed was over, but in in relief pitchers alone, they committed $85 over multiple years to uh Kirby Hates and Tanner Scott. The Red’s payroll this year was 120 million. Just to show you just where these two teams are at. um differently. And I I’ve long said that um payroll doesn’t equal championships. Like spending money doesn’t equal championships. We had not seen that through the history of baseball. Maybe it’ll start if the Dodgers win this year. Maybe they do. Maybe the game has changed to where the the big money and they’re just going to spit outspend everyone by um you know, huge numbers. Um if that’s the case, then yeah, then something needs to change. But until uh paying money equals championships, then I’m okay against it. But here in this series, it was clearly that the rosters were just much different. Buy or sell. Buy or sell. This season, oh, this season was a success for the Cincinnati Reds. Yes. By by by preseason, they were uh betting odds to get 78 wins. They got 83. uh preseason according to fan graphs uh I think they were supposed to have 73 wins. They got 83 in a season that I’ I’ve mentioned this before and I truly mean this. This is the the strongest the National League’s been that I can remember. The National League has long time been kind of like the little brother of the American League. This year the National League is way stronger significantly stronger than the American League from top to bottom. It was there were some dang good teams. Sands the Rockies. Rockies weren’t very good. Nationals weren’t very good. Pirates weren’t very good. Pretty much everyone else is pretty gosh darn competitive. Cardinals, um the Giants, uh the Marlins, even the Marlins almost won 80 games. Maybe they did win exactly 80 games. Like those are those were talented teams. And I just think that winning 83 games in a season when the where the National League was so competitive and getting into the postseason, it is clearly clearly a success. Now, you hope that you can build on that. you hope that you can build on that, but anybody saying that this season was a success is is a fault. Yeah, it’s 100% a success. Um, where this team was coming in, and I said it all season long, the season’s a success if you get in, it’s a failure if you don’t. I thought they had the guys in place, you know, that have been here for a few years, ready to take that ne next step. You bring in a manager in Tito Franka, who obviously has had tremendous success, future Hall of Famer. You get in, it’s a success. And let’s be real here, this Dodgers team, the fact they’re the three seed, right? Obviously, they have a really bad bullpen that cost them a lot of games, but I mean, without that, if they just have a semidecent bullpen, they’re the best team in baseball in my opinion. I mean, that lineup is absolutely ridiculous. The starters in which they have, so they were up against it. They ran into a buzzsaw 100%. Do I acknowledge the fact that, you know, they got fortunate that the Mets absolutely collapsed that 83 wins was able to get them in this year. Are they going to be able to bank on 83 wins getting them in in future years? Absolutely not. But the fact that they fought till the end, they went, they got hot late. I mean, shoot, they took two out of three against the Brewers. The boogeyman for the Cincinnati Reds has been the Milwaukee Brewers. They go on the road to finish the season and take two out of three. They sweep the Chicago Cubs in four games at home. Those are big-time wins late in the year when you had to have them. Um, Tito was pushing the right buttons at the time. Guys were stepping up, making great plays, pitching well. So, this totally a success. All right. I mean, can you be frustrated that you didn’t win a game in the postseason? and you haven’t won a postseason game in who knows how long, right? Yeah, you can be frustrated with that. But to sit here and say it’s a failure, all right, just because you lost to, my opinion, the best team in baseball, that’s ridiculous. Do you need to improve this off seasonason? Yes. Do you need to add this off seasonason? Yes. Not just running back with the same crew? Yes. But for now, totally a success. It’s so weird how quickly your thought of a team can happen. Um, two years ago, 2023, this team had one of the best offenses in baseball. And we were looking going into that off seasonason where they just missed by a game. Talking about, man, if this offense with all these guys, they can just get a little bit of pitching help. Remember, we had Luke Weaver putting giving up eight runs every every time he started and they were still winning the games. We’re just talking about like if this team could just get a little bit of offense, this team’s going to win for a long time to go. And uh now we’re going into a postseason like or we were talking about if we can get this team get a little bit of pitching, this team will be great for years to come. Now we’re doing the opposite. We’re like, “All right, now we just we got great pitching. Can we get a little bit of hitting? Can we get some help on with the bats?” It’s just funny how things uh they seem to overcompensate um from one year to another and how quickly your opinion of a team can change, how quickly your opinion can change on a player really. Um it’s just just interesting. And at the end of the 2026 season, I’m sure there will be some new thing that the the Reds need and they’ll be in in competition again. But that’s just how it goes. That’s just how it goes. You’re trying it feels like you’re in a boat and you know when you plug plug one hole, another one pops up and there’s water getting in. Last buy or sell? Buy or sell? Should be in the market. The Cincinnati Reds should be in the market for two big bats this off seasonason. Well, that’s just what we were talking about. Yeah. I don’t I don’t know. I I I’d have to look at who is going to be available this off seasonason. Obviously, there’s there’s there’s huge names like Kyle Tucker is going to be available this off season. Um Brad’s clearly aren’t going to be in the market for that. Um but the one guy the one name that people keep floating around and we’ll see what his market is is Kyle Schwarber. He’s presumably what 33. Um he’d be a DH a DH exclusively. So, you’re limiting a role with you already got your better hitters aren’t very good at fielding. Like Sal Stewart, if he’s going to have to find a position on the field like I guess he can play first base, but uh the answer is clearly yes. Big bats maybe maybe the wrong moniker to use there, but clearly they’re going to need to be in the market to to to supplement this lineup in some capacity. Yeah, there’s some guys down um down below like South Stewart playing here for a full season. Who knows what that can turn into. Yeah, you hope that a guy like Mattie Mlan can can come back to form. Yeah, you hope that, you know, several other pieces can be good or improve from where they were. Who knows what Ellie de la Cruz looks like next year if he’s back to, you know, and he was a pretty good hitter this year. I mean, he was below what you guys expected, but still was an above average hitter and, you know, a still really good ball player. Like if you get him back to getting to superstar status like we thought he was continuing to project to last year. If you get him back to that, this lineup still still can be pretty formidable. But yeah, you’re you’re pretty clearly going to need to at least sign one bat, maybe two. And and this is without me looking this is without me looking at the potential free agents. I know Kyle Schwarber is the name that everyone keeps throwing out there. I don’t know what his market’s going to be. Point blank. I don’t know what it’s going to be. I don’t know what the market for a 33year-old left-handed uh doesn’t hit for for contact. It’s pretty much all power. gets on base a lot. Um, but pretty much just hit bombs and he’d hit a lot of bombs at Great American Ballpark. I don’t know what the market is for that guy, but he’s clearly from this area, clearly a Reds fan, so maybe he’d take a hometown discount. I don’t know. Yeah, you you got to add offensively kind of what I was talking about earlier, right? Um, you can’t just afford if you’re the Cincinnati Reds, Nick Crawl, Brad Meadow, sit back there and say, “Oh, we made the playoffs. We’re good. We’ll just roll it back with these guys.” No. Right. Because as we talked about, yeah, you got in the playoffs, but were you a threat to win it all? No, you were not. Um, need at least one bat, need somebody that can threaten putting the ball over the fence. You mentioned obviously Schwarber, everyone’s talking about that. I would be shocked, right? He just hit 50 plus nukes. He’s going to get a massive payday. Um, would be shocked if the Reds were able to pull that off. I love Cody Bellinger. He’s going to be available probably. Um, again, probably too big of a name for the Cincinnati Reds. You mentioned Kyle Tucker. Um certainly other guys available there as well, but you need somebody that can threaten hitting the ball over the fence. You need somebody because nobody really could do that for you this year for Cincinnati. And if you want your team to take that next step, you have to be able to lean on the long ball a little bit because you never even had that hope like, oh, we’ll just put one over the fence. Like so many teams have that. The Reds didn’t where it’s like, we got to string together hits and then, you know, we’re in bases loaded situations with nobody out or one out and then we can’t execute in those situations. So, if you have guys that can put the ball over the fence, that gives you a whole different dynamic offensively. And um you know, it gives you more outs. It gives you more answers and um you know, it doesn’t it has you opportunity to get back in a game quicker if you’re trailing. Like all kinds of things go into hitting home runs and Cincinnati just didn’t have that at all this year. So, there’s going to be some guys big- time guys that are available. We’ll see how aggressive they are. Obviously Cincinnati and the payroll that they’re working with doesn’t add up for, you know, what some of these top contenders obviously are dealing with, but got to at least get one big bat in here. At least one. Yeah. I’m just looking at some 2026. And I’m not saying these are names that the Reds should go after. I’m just going to be listing names of some guys that are going to be available. So, please don’t take it as a the Reds should go after this guy. Like Peter Lonzo just opted out. Like that’s a name that the Reds clearly aren’t going to be in contention for. But those are there are some big names. I mean, there’s JT Ramudo. Uh Salvador Perez has a club option. Pete Alonzo, uh Luis Arise, Glabber Torres, uh Gino Suarez, uh Bo Bashette, Kyle Tucker, Kyle Schwarber, Cody Bellinger if he opts out, Luis Rober, Tyler O’Neal, Cedric Mullins, Michael Conforto, Micah Shrimsky. Like there’s there’s some names there. There’s some names. There’s some there’s some opportunity. It’s a much bigger class than I think we maybe had last year. Um to get some Alex Verdugo is another name. Like these are just I’m just looking at purely a list. So, we’ll have an entire off seasonason about uh if there’s a price point that the Reds are are willing to go for, if there’s some guys that fit kind of the ideology that is the Cincinnati Reds going forward, uh those sorts of things um and see who can who can mend well. But it’s pretty clear that they’ve got to go out and uh sign someone. But um man, it hasn’t been good the the bats that they’ve have gone out and spent a little bit of money. Obviously, Jamie Canelario got DFA, Mike Mustakis was a disaster here. Shogo Akiyama coming from Japan like these are these are it’s not been a good run. It’s not been a good run for free agent sightings here in Cincinnati. Um but you still can’t be scared uh to shoot. So you can’t score if you don’t shoot. But I believe that does it for uh for buyer sell indeed. All right, final 15 minutes of the show. We thank you guys all for being here. Be sure to give us likes. Uh we’ll be diving into, you know, all sorts of red stuff as we uh as the season progresses, probably after um this postseason. Um just kind of seeing how things fall out. Um I don’t anticipate any really big news to happen with the Reds in the in the coming weeks, but obviously the postseason starts once the World Series is done. Reds won 83 games. Uh they got beat in two games by Los Angeles Dodgers, the reigning World Series champions at their home field. um and kind of were never really in that series, but they made the postseason had some exciting things to got your heart pumping a few times, had some some cool moments, and let’s hope that the Reds continue to build off this. I think anyone that says this isn’t a successful season is just uh is lying about where the Reds were as a franchise. And you got to you got to be able to understand where you’re at in life to understand if you uh what your goal should be. Uh so that’s my that’s my final point. Uh earlier someone in the chat said no list today. Please no list today. Unfortunately unfortunately here in the final 15 minutes we’re going to do a list. Unfortunately we’re going to do a little list here and this is uh with Thursday Night Football. Good Thursday Night Football matchup tonight. Uh this is my NFL power rankings um going into week five or through week five or going into week going into week five. Uh without further ado, uh reader’s power rankings. Number 10. Uh number 10, I have the Indianapolis Colts. Listen, the Colts that AFC South is really competitive, guys. Um I know there’s a lot of Texans fans because there’s a lot of Ohio State fans in here that want to see CJ Strad compete. Um it’s not looking good for the Texans. Um, I think both the Jags and the Colts are good teams and and Daniel Jones is making some big boy throws. He’s really he’s he’s he could fall back to the mean of what we thought of Daniel Jones here in a couple weeks, but this is a really good roster. I think Shane Stiken is a really good coach. I have the Colts at number 10 because I think they’re a pretty good team. Number nine, uh, the Seattle Seahawks. Another team that kind of crept up on having a sneaky good roster. And here they are, a three inone team, new coach, um, playing Sam Darnold’s playing all right. and he’s playing pretty much exactly where you want. And uh yeah, the Seattle Seahawks, that’s another formidable team in the AFC NFC West, which I think is going to have a really exciting finish to the year. 49ers, who are three and one, but they’re getting banged up left and right. The Los Angeles Rams, who I think are a really, really good team, um are in there as well. Three three-1 teams. But the Seahawks I have there right there, number nine. Eight, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They’re a weird team. They’re a weird team because they look really competitive. They’re really fun to watch. Baker Mayfield is one of the most fun guys to watch in the NFL. Seemingly uh one of the He’s really just one of the easier guys to root for in the entire league. But every single game they’ve played thus far and don’t I mean they’re three and one, but every single game they’ve played this far has been incredibly close. Uh their point differential is exactly zero. So I don’t know what I’m getting from Tampa Bay. If you told me that they’re in the NFC Championship, that wouldn’t surprise me at all. If you told me they get bounced in the wildard round by two touchdowns, that wouldn’t surprise me at all either. Uh, but Baker Mayfield is an easy guy to root for. It’s a really fun team to watch. I have them at eight. Seven Kansas City Chiefs. Don’t sell them yet. Don’t sell that Kansas City Chiefs stock quite yet. When in this league, if you got a good coach, if you got a good quarterback, I think they might have the both the best of both. um if if they’re not the best of both, uh Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, they’re certainly in top three in both both categories. When you have those two things, regardless of how depleted things are around you, it’s really hard not to be competitive. And until Patrick Mahomes isn’t playing in the AFC Championship game, at least I’m not going to sell I’m not going to sell him off. I think this might be the first year for it, but the Kansas City Chiefs, no one wants to play them. No one wants to go to Arrowhead. No one wants to play Patrick Mahomes, who I think is having his best season in three years. To be honest with you, the stats might not show it, but if you watch him play, it looks like we’re getting 2021 Patrick Mahomes. Again, not what we’ve seen the past few years. Kansas City’s Chiefs. Don’t sell your stock. In fact, buy it. Number six. And I have their divisional foe, the Los Angeles Chargers, who I wanted to put up higher, but when you lose to a bad football team with a rookie quarterback, I can’t put you in the top five. Point blank. can’t put you in the top five. Jim Harbaugh, one of the best coaches in the league. Jim Harbaugh, one of the best football coaches we’ll ever see. Justin Herbert, one of the best talents in the league. And I think he’s slowly becoming that elite quarterback that we expected him to be four years ago. Um, but it’s been, you know, some injuries. There’s been you had to overcome just a terrible coaching situation with Brandon Staley. I think it’s finally kind of working. But that Rashawn Slater injury, I think, is going to continue to creep up from time to time. And I just I just don’t see the same firepower that I see with the teams in the top five offensively. So that’s why I have them at six. Number five, Green Bay Packers. I want to put them through the first two weeks. No one looked better. No one had better wins than the Green Bay Packers. Like if this was an AP poll, if this was a college football poll, the Green Bay Packers would have been number one without a doubt because they had had the best two wins. And then what have they done since then? They lost to a Browns team which was a bad I think like the Browns match up really well with the Green Bay Packers and then they tie and are really quite frankly lucky to tie uh Dallas Cowboys team. So I’m not sure what I got with him. Um I don’t I like Jordan Love. I don’t think he’s a guy who elevates everyone around him. I think at very best he’s there’s that tier of elite quarterbacks and then there’s that tier of about 12 quarterbacks that are really good. You know, this is the tier with, you know, Dak Prescotts and the Baker Mayfields and, uh, you know, you can list him. I think Jordan Love is near the top of that list of the good quarterbacks, but I think he’s right there. And it really all comes down to how well Jordan Love plays this year, and that’s their ceiling for the Green Bay Packers. Number four, Detroit Lions. Man, everyone wanted to write them all. If you lose two offensive coordinators in a perennial losing franchise, it’s pretty easy to understand why you wouldn’t think very highly of them. It’s very easy to understand why people would be like, I don’t know about this Lions. But that roster is still good. And perhaps more than anybody else in this league, they have the capacity to just blow you out, trample you, which isn’t good because I think they Yeah, they’re coming here this Sunday. Yeah, that’s not fun. Let’s stripe the jungle, baby. Whippy. Yippee. Uh the Detroit Lions coming in at number four. They’re still I mean, as highly potent of an offense as there is in this league, and they’ve got a pretty good D. Number three, Los Angeles Rams. good coach, maybe the best coach in the league, and a pretty pretty solid roster all the way around. The Los Angeles Rams will be competing for the NFC Championship this year. They were a few plays away from beating the Philadelphia Eagles in the postseason last year. Few things go their way. the Eagles don’t win the Super Bowl, but the Los Angeles Rams, I have them as the third best team in the league, and I can’t imagine a unless Matthew Stafford goes down. Unless they continue to get banged up, I can’t imagine ever taking them out of this top five because I think that highly of Shawn McVey, I think that highly of that roster. Two, Buffalo Bills. I have them at two. Josh Allen is Superman. Josh Allen is the best quarterback in the league right now. I don’t know if I’d take him to, you know, if one game you can pick any quarterback to be your quarterback. I’d still probably take Patrick Mahomes, but Josh Allen playing right now, no one’s playing better than him. Um, they, you know, they asked him to stop being so reckless a few years ago. He’s done that. He’s not turning the ball nearly as much as as he had in years past. Um, their point differential is plus 43, which is the second best in the league, only trailing the Detroit Lions. Um, Buffalo Bills are I mean, if they can’t win the AFC this year, it’s not looking good for uh for our Buffalo Brethren. Number one, yeah, it’s got to be the Philadelphia Eagles. I tried to uh I tried to put someone else outside of them at number one uh many of times. I really did. I tried to put somebody else other than the Philadelphia Eagles at number one uh for the first few times I did this, but you can’t deny them. Uh they just they’re just too solid all around. I mean, it’s it’s like uh it’s like they got the Avengers up there. I mean, there’s not a single weak spot in their game. Their weakest spot is probably their quarterback, and their quarterback’s really freaking good. So, ah, I have the Philadelphia Eagles at number one. Anything you any glaring omissions you see in that top 10 list? Stone Shields. Um, you know, I know you’re a busy guy, so you weren’t messing around watching my show on Tuesday, but our top four is exactly the same. Our nine and 10 is exactly the same. And our four through eight is the same five teams just in different order. So we’re just about exactly the same as it relates uh to our power rankings. I was a little bit higher on Tampa Bay than you were. I totally get what you’re saying. You know, the relying on the last minute drive to, you know, put it together two-minute go down, score the game-winning um field goal. You can’t rely on that. Obviously, uh we’re in the same boat on the Chiefs. Buy that Kansas City Chiefs stock as Cincinnati people. It hurts us to say, that’s just reality. And I docked Green Bay a little bit. Um, you know, I had them at one a couple of weeks ago, but the loss to Cleveland and then that Dallas team, I mean, Dak Prescott’s playing at incredibly high level. You could argue one of the top quarterbacks in the National Football League this year to this point. But, you know, getting yourself in a 40-40 game with them and no CD Lamb, all those backups offensively for Dallas and um you know, this Green Bay team with Jeff Hafley calling the shots defensively is supposed to be better than giving up 40 points to Dallas. So, I’ve got some concerns there, but I think Green Bay will be just fine, but overall, yeah, pretty much in direct alignment with you. Yeah. Uh, I think um not not having the Ravens in there would some people might disagree with that because I think if the Raven Sorry, I I’m I’m drinking Seltzer water over here, so I keep like burping things up over here. But, uh, if you if the Ravens, you know, rattle off five wins in a row, no one would be surprised and everyone would have them in their top six, top seven because that’s where they were supposed to be. And I thought they had a good roster. I think that there’s a lot of things to worry about. I think they could be two and four because they play the Rams next week and they play the Texans this week. I still I imagine Lamar’s fine. I haven’t heard anything about Lamar, so I imagine he’s fine. I imagine two to three weeks I think he’s gonna be out. They say two three weeks he’s gonna be out. That’s last I heard. Yeah. Oh, man. All right. Well, that’s why they’re not in their top 10. It’s because they’re they they might they might be done. I mean, if you if they lose their next two games and you’re one and five, you can’t come back from that. Just can’t come back from that. And that’s a lost season, which sucks even worse for us here in Cincinnati cuz man, the AFC North for the first time in a while seems to be really, really bad. and we’re just going to let the Steelers take it, aren’t we? Makes me sick. It really, really makes me sick. Uh, but good game here tonight on Thursday Night Football. Um, tomorrow on the show, uh, we are going to do, uh, another power rankings. I know you guys don’t like the list, but power rankings of, uh, the final remaining eight playoff teams. Hopefully, there’s a certain team uh, still playing after tonight. Uh, if not, what’s your take on that game? Yesterday’s game. No, the Cubs game tonight. Yeah, we care about the people care. So, you know, it’s funny. I You guys don’t care and no one cares. I told I told the story about my uh my friends always give me give me about it. Um, no one likes when I talk about the Cubs. I was telling my wife two days ago, she came home from work and I watched the Cubs game and they won and everything like that and I was like, “Hey, they won.” And she goes, “Why would I care? I don’t care. I don’t I don’t I don’t care.” And I was just like, so I started like showing her highlights. I was like, “Hey, look at this home run. Look at this.” And she’s just like, “Reed. I don’t care. Stop talking to me about it. And I was like, man, one day, one day I’ll find someone. Maybe maybe that’s why I’m uh uh I got to go to a doctor’s appointment later for uh my wife is pregnant and we’re gonna going to go see the doctor later on today. Maybe that’s why I’ll just make a small army of Cubs fans so that I can share this with somebody. My take is today uh Jameson Talion versus U Darvis. U Darvish had a terrible season. The Cubs uh pitching or the Cubs hitting has not been really good. Although that’s what happens in the postseason. um you play tough teams and you play good arms and it’s it’s hard to get some bats going. Um if you are losing to the Padres’s by the sixth inning, good freaking luck. Good luck. I don’t know if there’s anybody in the I I truly I think the Padres’s might have the best bullpen in the history of baseball because they go Adrien Morahan, left-hander, 100 miles an hour, nasty slider and he’s efficient, throws a lot of strikes. They go Mason Miller, who’s their setup man, throwing 103. His slider has 180 batting average against it and a 180 slugging percentage against it. So, no one’s had an extra base hit off a Mason Miller slider this year. D3 king, might I might I add you. The hardest pitcher in the history of the sport is a D3 king. We love it. Uh and then Jere Jeremiah Estrada, who he’s throwing 100 miles an hour. Uh Robert Suarez, who throws nothing but heat. He’s throwing 102 miles. It’s the it’s the craziest um bullpen. They showed a stat up there yesterday that said it is the hardest bullpen. Their average uh fast ball velocity is like 97 and a half miles an hour. It’s the hardest um bullpin average fast ball velocity since they’ve kept the stat since 2008, which makes me believe that it’s the the hardest ever because I don’t think guys in 1940 were throwing that hard. So basically, you got to be leading after six innings or you’re just in a terrible spot. You’re not going to come back. They they have the best RA in their bullpen and that’s that’s how you got to beat them. So hopefully uh JMO can get it done. Hopefully uh we can get to you Darfish uh early and often and hopefully we get some big hits. So, that’s my little Cubs tirade. Thanks for asking, Stone. That means a lot to me. Oh, yeah. Maybe that’s why people don’t let me talk about the Cubs is because I just rant for five or six minutes and um incoherent thoughts and talk about it left and right. What are we talking about today on the Stone Shield Show? Uh today on the show, I mean, obviously we got to talk Reds. We’re going to spend some time doing that. We’re going to pick apart the game last night and then we’re going to celebrate getting to this point of the season. So, we’re start with some negativity, then we’re going to transition it over to some positivity after that. Um, gonna talk about the Thursday night football game. Rams, Niners. Two of the best coaches in the National Football League on a short week. The Niners obviously incredibly banged up. Don’t have their quarterback. Don’t have their top two receivers. It’s M. Jones, a bunch of backups, and Christian McAffrey. Can they hang in there? Spread open at one and a half. Now it’s all the way at 8 and a half in favor of the Rams. You and I are both very, very high on the Rams. So, I think we still are going to have a really good game. I think Shanahan’s going to find ways to keep him in the game. We’ll look around the rest of the Major League Baseball playoffs. obviously got some great games tonight. Three game threes. Unfortunately, Cincinnati was not able to make it four. And uh we’re going to break down those games there as well. And uh should be a lot of fun. Looking forward to it. Yeah. So, that’ll be up here in just a moment. We call this show not off the bench, but the Stone Shields leadin show. An hour of just straight content from Stone Shields. But the final thing I’ll say here before I before I let you guys go, we’ll see you tomorrow. Today, October 2nd, in the year of our Lord, 2025 would be my mom passed away. My mother, Susan Mouse, she passed away when I was 6 years old. Today would be her 63rd birthday. So, happy birthday, Mom. Thanks for for giving me a chance to live. Um, love you, Mom. See you guys tomorrow. Happy birthday, Mama Mouse. [Music] All [Music] right, here we go. Welcome into the Stone Shield Show here on a Thursday. Hey, appreciate everybody hanging out with us live here on Chatterbox Sports. Certainly appreciate it. A couple of more shows left in this week and uh we’ve been in at this for a couple of weeks now here at the Stone Shield Show. Getting better, progressing and um pretty soon hopefully next week we’ll get some guests on the show. That is the plan. But plenty to discuss on today’s edition of the show. Obviously the Cincinnati Reds eliminated last night in Los Angeles. They dropped that game in game two and um you know I think mixed emotions today obviously right um disappointing that you don’t win a playoff game. You get swept against the Dodgers had opportunities in the game. Obviously you’re outmatched with what the Dodgers can do but you had your chances in this game. You very well could have won this game and ultimately you were not able to do so. Tito Franka, he deserves a lot of credit for getting the Reds to this point. he deserves a lot of criticism for how he handled this series in Los Angeles. So, we’ll start out today’s show kind of breaking down what obviously transpired in the game and um some of the decisions that Tito Franka made that I didn’t think were winning decisions for this team and then obviously we’ll spend some time kind of celebrating the fact they got here because nobody thought they would get here. Obviously, they caught a break with the Mets collapsing. 83 wins typically not going to get you in. Reds reap the benefits of that, but um they kind of get that monkey off their back in the postseason. Got that experience for a lot of these younger guys and I think that is very very valuable. So to me, obviously you don’t want to sit here and accept losing and just oh we’re happy to be here, get in whatever and um that’s a successful season for us. But I think this year for the 2025 Reds, that’s okay. That’s okay to do that. They got into the playoffs. That is worth celebrating and um they obviously need to build upon it and um get better uh for next year in 2026. We’ll see if they have the capabilities and the abilities to do that. Should the Bengals trade for a quarterback? Lots of people locally and nationally throwing around throwing around the idea that Cincinnati should add a veteran. We’ll talk about a couple of names, two of which play for the New York Giants here currently. And there’s another guy that is retired that has been thrown around as a possible addition for the Cincinnati Bengals. Look, it’s been really bad for all facets of the team, right? offensive line, skill guys, defensive line, linebackers, cover guys, coaching, literally all bad. Let’s be very clear, the quarterback play has been very, very bad as well. And when you have a bad team and then the quarterback’s playing bad on top of it, you obviously have no chance. Is it time for Cincinnati to consider making a move? if they’re going to make one, they need to do it here soon because it very well could be too late if they let this thing go for another couple of weeks and continue to lose and continue to not be competitive either. So, we’ll spend some time talking about the Bengals. Didn’t talk Bengals yesterday, but um obviously now with the Reds season being done, we will continue to spend time talking about the Cincinnati Bengals even if uh they go out there and break our hearts and disappoint us and frustrate us on game days. Um speaking of games, there is a football game tonight. Amazon Prime, Thursday Night Football, Rams and 49ers. Uh, this matchup always delivers. Kyle Shanahan and Shawn McVey in my opinion, two top three coaches in the National Football League there with Andy Reid. Niners obviously incredibly banged up at this point. Going to be without Brock Party, very capable backup. And M. Jones, top two receivers. Persaw Jennings are out. Um, so the Niners certainly are up against it, but don’t be surprised if Kyle Shanahan and his brilliance kind of helps them hang around in this game. M. Jones has looked really, really good in his two starts. And I think this game is very compelling and still intriguing. Um, you know, the Niners, I mean, just constantly have injury issues. If they’re able to semi get healthy, I still view them as a playoff team. Certainly view the Rams as a playoff team and a Super Bowl contender. But we’ll pre that preview that game a little bit on today’s show as well. MLB playoffs obviously underway. Got three game threes today. Obviously, we were hoping for four. Cincinnati unable to force a fourth one, but um lots of great baseball going to be played today. Yankees, Red Sox, that has gone to a game three in the Bronx. Tigers Guardians that has gone to a game three as well in Cleveland. And also you have the Cubbies and the Padres’s at Wrigley game three. All three of those games today. And that obviously is very, very exciting. So, that’s kind of what is on tap here today for the show. Invite everybody to hit that thumbs up icon if you haven’t done so already. If you are watching live, we’re always going for that 5050 like uh ratio between the viewership and the likes and that is going to be a goal of ours moving forward. And obviously could use a couple of more thumbs up on uh today’s show at this point. We certainly appreciate it. Obviously, hit that subscribe button as well if you haven’t done so already. Obviously, this YouTube channel, this company, Chatterbox, certainly built around the Cincinnati Reds, but we’ve got plenty of coverage as it relates to the Bengals and all sports going forward here throughout October, November, December, and all the way through um until uh spring training there as well. So, if you haven’t already, hit that subscribe button. YouTube.com/ Chatterboxports. All right, Cincinnati eliminated last night 8 to4. And uh you know the big decision going into the game was oh Tito Francona is going with Zack Latell. And we speculated here at the show that it would kind of be a borderline opener situation. And I was like I don’t want it to just be a direct opener but I don’t know about Latell facing Otani for a second time. Obviously he worked more than three innings. So he was out there a lot longer than most of us thought. Thought he did a tremendous job early on right. Um, you know, I think part of the reason he was able to have success early on is because he’s such a different pitcher than that of Hunter Green, right? Hunter Green obviously he’s got that hard slider that he throws, but he’s throwing that fast ball and it’s coming at you hard. But, you know, if you can’t locate very well, you’re going to get beat, especially against that lineup that the Dodgers have, and you saw that in game one. But a totally change of uh speeds when you’re looking at Latell, right? He throws that split finger. He’s not going to blow you away with a fast ball. He’s going to try to live on the outside. And he missed, by the way, in that uh the first couple of innings he missed on several pitches and the Dodgers weren’t able to make him pay like they were able to make Hunter Green pay the previous night. His uh stuff has a lot of movement to it and I think that certainly helped him. But let’s be clear, Zack Latell missed with a lot of pitches early on and the Dodgers weren’t able uh to fully make him pay for that. And you know, it just felt like if you take him out after three, you’re in a spot game two on the road against the defending world champions, you are in the game. And that would have just felt like a massive win. You look at Zack Latell and you say, “Good work. Good work for keeping us in the game. You did your job.” I think we would all be fired up about it. And honestly, we’d all be fired up for Zack Latell. And we’d be sitting here saying, “Yeah, Tito Franka pushing all the right buttons. Great job, you know, going with him as that guy to set the tone, keep us in the game. Now, let’s go to the pen.” He kept him in too long, obviously. Um, you could argue that, you know, uh, Cincinnati should have taken him out after the second. Dodgers hadn’t scored a run yet, but even after the third where you still had the lead, that was just a perfect spot to take him out. Three innings of work, give up the one run, and um, you know, you’re in a spot where you’re in a great spot um, as a team at that point. But obviously, that is not what ended up transpiring. And they go with Looo late, right? I would have liked to see Nick Loolo earlier than when they saw him. And um look, I thought Lollo was solid in the game. He only threw 14 pitches. And if you’re in a spot where you’re Terry Franka, I understand, you know, you had to win game 162 or you went in with the mindset that you needed to win game 162. But to have Nick Ledo throw 14 pitches and for Andrew Abbott not to pitch in this postseason series, it’s really tough to swallow. It’s really, really tough to swallow. And the fact that they pulled Lollo when he was doing fine um and they pull him for Nick Martinez, that’s tough, right? I mean, you’re in a spot. I get it. You know, lefty, righty, whatever. But you want to go with your dogs in the biggest moments. And we talked about that on the show yesterday. Your best players have to show up in the biggest moments when you’re in the postseason. And I don’t care what sport you’re talking about, baseball, basketball, football, your stars have to show up in the biggest moments. Nicolo, you can say what you want about his injury history and his availability. He is one of your foundational pieces on this team. He is one of those guys. He’s one of those guys that we came into the year saying the Reds can pitch because they got Nicolo as one of their guys. Obviously, he had to pitch in one game six in game 162 out of the pin, but I think he could have given you more than 14 pitches in the game last night and you opted to move off him and you put Nick Martinez in the game and obviously that is a a serious issue because um Martinez I believe only able to get one out and it was just kind of a disaster um there at that point. So, it was a good start for Tito, right? you know, he went with Latell was aggressive, borderline aggressive. It worked, but then he stuck with him for far too long and then he put Martinez in the game too early. Um, you know, kind of going back to game one, like I get, you know, you were kind of behind the eightball there immediately and, you know, when Hunter had the bad start, it was like, yeah, you’re probably not going to win the game anyway. But pulling Scott Barlo, I get he typically is only going to go one inning and you ask more of that from him, but he was pitching great. He was pitching great in the game and you pulled him, right? Ledo, he was doing his job. he was just fine, right? And then you pull him and you put Martinez in and obviously it’s kind of wraps there at that point. But also that’s just kind of from a pitching perspective what happened with Tito Franka in the game, but there’s the the hitting perspective as well and the lineup and what he put out there. I get wanting South Stewart’s bat in the lineup. I get it. And the Reds aren’t even in this game without without South Stewart. I totally get it. But when you have him out there playing first base, clearly not comfortable at first base, right? And you have Austin Hayes getting the start in right field when he hasn’t played right field since 2023 with the Baltimore Orioles, right? Think about that. Do or die game. We’re going to put a guy out there in a position where he hasn’t played since 2023. Doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. Steer, he can play everywhere, but he’s not a left fielder, right? And we’re going to throw him out in left field. All of those pieces and all of those moves were made just to ensure that you could have the glove of Key Brian Hayes in the ball game. Now, I’m not going to sit and say that’s a bad decision, right? You trade it for the guy. He’s the best there is at fielding the baseball down at third base, but he’s also an automatic out at the dish. So, you got to kind of try to balance that. Now, I’m not going to sit here and say, “Oh, Tito’s a complete idiot for the lineup.” No. Like, he doesn’t he doesn’t have the guys that Dave Roberts has, right? Or a lot of these other teams have, right? you look at this roster from a position player perspective and neo that doesn’t really look like a playoff roster. So I I give Tito a little bit of grace in that regard, but putting Hayes out there when he hasn’t played there, putting S at first, right? And then putting Key Brian out there at third, but he can’t hit steering left. I mean, there’s just there’s question marks that come with that decision. Now S Stewart, he’s 21 years old, which is really hard to believe. a 21-year-old kid out there in the postseason Dodger Stadium, win or go home game. And I thought at the plate, particularly early on, that first at bat was awesome. It it really was incredible what he was able to do that first at bat. You know, going back to that inning, you’re sitting here, you know, you got Yamamoto and you’re like, “Oh boy, here we go.” And then you’re able to get some traffic on the base pass in that first inning, right? Remember Tito talking about that after game one. Let’s get some traffic out on the base pass. You do that in the first inning. You catch the break there from Tay Oscar Hernandez who drops the fly ball and you know you I thought it you know a big storyline in the game after that first inning was Gavin Lux doesn’t score on that fly ball and that that just can’t happen in the playoffs. You have to be hustling at all times. There is no reason why Gavin Lux should not score on uh you know that that play there in the first inning where Hernandez was not able to catch the baseball. He has to be able to score. But then the rookie, 21-y old Sal Stewart, bails him out, works the count, beautiful swing backside past the diving glove of Freddy Freeman into right field and you have a two-run lead and it’s like, “Oh boy, here we go. We got a chance right now.” South Stewart after that moment, did he struggle a little bit? Yeah. But you threw him down at first base as a 21-year-old that hasn’t played a ton of first base and he made the error. By the way, he made a couple of good plays down there as well, but the error obviously was incredibly costly. incredibly costly. First Al Stewart at first base, right in the at bat, obviously later in the game in the sixth inning, bases loaded, nobody out, a real opportunity to get back in the ball game, right? And at at that time, the Dodgers didn’t have their big big inning yet. So, you were in a spot where you were only down one run, one run. It was 3-2, top of the sixth, and you got the bases loaded and the core of your lineup. And I want to stop this conversation for a second just to acknowledge how stinking good Mookie Betts is. Stinks he was on the opposite side, but he might be my favorite player to watch in baseball because that guy is unstoppable. You cannot stop him. What he can do with the bat in his hands any count. All right. Power to all fields. Contact guy, extra base guy. Continuously comes up in the clutch. And this is a guy defensively as well that plays the outfield, has played the outfield his whole life and they’re like, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll throw him at shortstop and he’ll be one of the best defensive shorts stops in the game of baseball as well.” And the play that he made with the bases loaded, I mean, it doesn’t seem like much in the moment, but just the poise that he had to field the baseball, understand they weren’t going to turn two. All right. And then fire to the plate and get that out. It’s a huge out. Huge out for the Dodgers in that situation. He kind of knew when he made that play, uh-oh, this could be a serious issue for us. Now the bases are loaded with one out. And obviously we have a rookie um at the dish. And that obviously was a big problem. South Stewart in that at bat, he was overly anxious, right? He was overly jumpy and we understand that. And you know, he was great early on in the game. Um you know, but striking out, swinging in that spot, Yamamoto was just he was throwing him just garbage and he was chasing after it. I don’t even remember how many strikes that were actually thrown in that at bat, but Stewart was overly aggressive and kind of similar to what you saw from some of the abs from the rest of the guys in game one. And unfortunately, a 21-year-old in that spot. Yeah, he delivered in the first inning, but maybe the brights were a little bit too bright for South Stewart in that at bat. Now you have two outs and you’re like, oh boy, it’s still a run. Hasn’t come home to score, but you got Ellie up and Ellie’s a guy that I think we all have a ton of belief in. Ellie de la Cruz is a phenomenal baseball player and he will be and I believe that he will be a Hall of Famer when he hangs it up years from now. Obviously, he’s got a lot of work to do in order to get to that point, but he’s got all the traits and at some point he’s got to be able to break through in the big moments. The knock on Ellie, there’s several knocks on Ellie at this point defensively certainly one of them, but another one that he doesn’t have the clutch gene and he had an opportunity there. Bases loaded, two outs, your team down a run, you’re batting from the uh the left-handed side, by the way, the side you feel more comfortable with. and he strikes out and then you’re sitting there going against this team with the guys that we have in the situation that we’re in late in the ball game, not super late, but late in the ball game in a sixth inning and you’re not able to get a singular run on the board, bases loaded, no outs, it kind of felt deflating. And then obviously you roll back out there defensively and boom, four runs from Los Angeles and you’re like, “Oh no, we’re getting we’re getting our you know what, handed to us again.” That’s just kind of the spot that you’re in. Great play by Mookie Betts. Nobody’s gonna talk about that play, but you know, the play to go four there. Um, you know, with Austin Hayes, because think about it, if he doesn’t go for, I think he recognized they weren’t going to be able to turn the double play, but obviously he could have gotten it out at second or first base and he goes, “No, we’re going to save the run here and save this lead.” If he doesn’t go four with that baseball and the Reds tie it at three, even if they don’t score the rest of the inning, it’s a totally different feel because you’re like, “All right, we got back in the game. We tied it. Let’s go.” You know, they answered us and we just answered them. Does that, you know, the four-run bottom of the six still happen for LA? I don’t know. Maybe. All right. You know, if you’re going to make the decision to go with Martinez, probably, right? But still, it feels totally different if Mookie Bets does not make that play. Just an unbelievable baseball play from him. He is so good at the game. just absolutely insane at the game of baseball. Mookie bets. It’s unbelievable to watch and he’s been doing it for quite some time. And then you had another opportunity in the eighth, right? Very eerily similar, by the way, to what you had in game one. Uh the deficit was a little bit less obviously at that point. And you know, it’s just tough, right? Because you’re able to get one run with um Tyler Stevenson and then you’re making an eight to4 ball game, but it’s just like dang. like if that’s a, you know, if that’s hit a little bit, if he pulls it a little bit more, he hit it well. He really did. And it was crucial to, you know, get the sack fly, but you’re just like, dang, if he can find a way to get a hit and not a sacrifice fly there, you really feel like you’re back in the game at that point. But then, um, you know, obviously, um, you have the the situation that transpired with Will Benson after that. So you have the one out, the run comes home, and then you see these managers play a little chess. Dave Roberts and Tito Franka and Roberts goes out there and pulls this pitcher with a one-two count with Will Benson at the dish, right? And then he goes in and puts a lefty in. And Tito obviously then has the opportunity to put a different batter up. and he chose to do it with Miguel Anduhar and it was it’s just a tough spot to put a guy if it’s a 2-1 count or a one-1 count I get it but to put a guy in off the bench in a do or die game and sit there and say all right you got two strikes on you good luck that’s a tough spot to be in and you knew and was going to be hacking on the first pitch it was too high it was too hard high upstairs it was a ball but he was hacking he came come up to empty and he strikes out. Now, does Benson do the same thing? We’ll never know, right? It would have been weird for Benson, too, because he would have sat there and been, you know, in a spot where he just sat there in the middle of a count. He sees this guy getting warm and all that time goes by and he’s got to jump back into account. So, that would have been tough for him as well. But, you know, I guess credit to David Dave Roberts for doing it. To me, that’s saying it’s bush league, but I mean, come on. What are we doing? You know, to be honest with you, what are you doing? And then Tito tried to answer to his credit. Nobody in this league is better against lefties than Andar, but putting him in a spot where he’s got two strikes, it’s tough. It’s really, really tough. So, I’m not going to bang Tito too much for that. Again, who knows what Will Benson does in that situation against a lefty throughout his career. Obviously, has really struggled against left-handed pitching. All right, but you know, tough scene, tough scene for a guy to go in with a one-two count and really expect anything. Now, you’re sitting there again with two outs. So you had the bases loaded, nobody out in the sixth, not able to score. Then you had bases loaded, nobody out in the eighth. You get the one run, but then you look up and there’s two outs. You’re like, golly, if only we could get some more runs. Then Mlan walks and you’re like, “Okay, we had a chance here. Bases are loaded once again.” And then TJ Federel, the tying run up at the plate. And it felt like the game obviously at that point. And obviously only had one more um inning after that um in the ninth, but you know, Fredo was a solid at bat and it was a really good pitch that he took and um ultimately he gets rung up. Not going to bang on Fredel too much for that. The the Reds needed him to be super clutch in that moment. He was unable to deliver. If he gets a knock um you know, obviously everybody’s thinking like, “Oh, if he puts one over and we’re tied like holy cow, how crazy would that be?” But just a knock there gives you gives you some life. not able to come up with it. You leave the bases loaded in the ninth. You weren’t really able to do much and you dropped the game eight to four. So, biggest takeaway from the game, he left in too long. He didn’t give Lollo enough. I’m not going to bang on him for not getting Abbott in the game. That’s just the chips fell as they did. That’s unfortunate that Andrew Abbott was not able to throw in this series. Very, very unfortunate because I remain convicted that he is going to be a really good postseason pitcher. Andrew Abbott. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the opportunity here. some question marks about, you know, putting guys in weird spots. Hayes throwing him out there and you’re throw Steer out in the outfield, having to trust S um and his glove. Putting Key Brian still in the lineup. Matt Mlan, by the way, made outstanding play early, but there was two plays, hard baseball plays, very, very hard plays. But if you’re going to be a guy that sits in there and doesn’t really hit the baseball like Matt Mlan, they’re plays that he needed to make. Remember, he tried the glove flip there on the bunt, wasn’t able to execute that. had another diving play going to his left, wasn’t able to get. So, really hard plays, plays that elite second baseman in this league make. He was unable to do it. Had a nice run uh a play early in the game, no, as I mentioned. But when you have those opportunities and you don’t execute, bases loaded, nobody out twice, and you only score one run, that’s not good enough. you have the mistakes in the field and you have a a manager that stuck with his starter too long and wasn’t pushing the right buttons and um you know pulled his other guy too early. It’s too many mistakes to overcome against this Dodger team and you’re just not going to be able to win. Now that Dodger team is really really good. They are really stinking good. Um I think they’re the best team in the na in the National League right now. Their bullpen is obviously horrible and that’s what’s held them back to this point. And that’s the only reason that they don’t have a buy here and that they were even playing in this round because they’re bullpen. And if you go into the postseason with a bad bullpen, that’s usually a massive issue. So, I’m not going to sit here and say the Dodgers are going to win at all. But like with that lineup and that starting rotation, my goodness, that is a really, really good baseball team. And um you ran into a buzzsaw. You ran into a buzzsaw there. And unfortunately, um you get swept and you lose two games to nothing against Los Angeles. Now, that was the negativity um as it relates to the Cincinnati Reds and what transpired last night. But I think there are a lot of positives that you can take away. And there are some people that say, “Oh, if you’re just celebrating making the postseason and that’s good enough for you, that’s a losers mentality.” But let’s be very clear, this isn’t the Cincinnati Bengals with the healthy Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and T. Higgins. It’s not the case. If the Bengals make the postseason with all those guys healthy and lose right away, that’s a complete and utter failure. All right, they’re in a position with the guys that they have. Obviously, I understand what’s going on right now with the Bengals, but going into this year, the expectation is Super Bowl. And if you come short of that, it’s a disappointment. Guys get hurt, your franchise gets hurt, that kind of gets completely spoiled. But my point is that wasn’t the expectation here for the Cincinnati Reds. I said all throughout the year, I said going into the year, I said on this show as we went down the stretch over the course of the last few series, it was a success to get in. It was a failure to not. They got in. It’s a success. A total success for the Cincinnati Reds. Is 83 wins going to be enough in the future? No. Did they get a gift from the New York Mets who just absolutely crumbled? Yes, they did. But they deserve a lot of credit for fighting till the end. Their season could have been dead 15 times. They get swept against a bad A’s team on the road late in the season. Really late. They respond in a huge way. They sweep the Cubs at home. Cubs, by the way, are still playing. Have an opportunity to advance to the NLDS today. It’s a good baseball team. The Milwaukee Brewers have been the boogeyman for you for as long as you can remember. Best record in baseball. You go to their place, a team that has absolutely owned you, and take two out of three to get to the playoffs. It’s big time. That’s big time. guys came up in clutch moments at the end of the year. Were there plenty of clutch moments where guys did not rise to the occasion this year? Yes, absolutely. But overall, this was been a tremendous success of a season. Now, here’s where you have to be able to turn the page and understand you can’t just run it back with this group. It can’t be if you’re Nick Crawl, if you’re Brad Meter, if you’re the guys calling the shots here, oh, we made the playoffs. Yeah. So, all these guys are just going to develop and they’re all going to be better next year than they were this year and we’re going to run it back and we’ll be back in the playoffs. Doesn’t work like that. Number one, you have to be in an aggressive pursuit of trying to take that next step. Was this team good enough to get in the playoffs? Barely. Yes. But was this team a real threat to win a world championship? No. Did they have a chance cuz they were in? Yes. Is baseball totally different than football and the underdogs seemingly have a better chance? Yes. Absolutely. All right. But really, when you look at what they’re up against in the National League, did they really have a chance to get to the World Series and win it? Probably not. There are things that they can do this off seasonason to give them a better chance. Clearly, you have a solid core. Clearly, that rotation is going to be good and should be good for a long time. If they stay healthy, you can lean on them. They’re going to put you in a spot to win some games. But this should be a team that their goal is to win 90 plus games next year. And then you feel a little bit more comfortable. So then you’re not waiting till 162 to get in. Then maybe you can mess around and try to win a division. Shoot, if you win a ton of games, imagine this Reds team with a buy, not having to play in the wild card round. That opens up some more opportunities for you there as well. So there are things that need to be done this off season to show that they are in pursuit of trying to get better. Clearly, they need to add a bat. We talked about it on off the bench. Is it two bats? Maybe that’s too much to ask for, but you need a veteran bat that has the ability to put the ball over the fence. As the weeks and months progress, we’ll throw around some of those names. Kyle Tucker obviously is a name at the top of that list. People talking about Kyle Schwarber. All these guys are going to make a ton of money, so probably not super realistic, but there’s got to be somebody preferably that plays the outfield that can come in here and play on a consistent basis against both lefties and righties. He’s not be a platoon guy, by the way, and have the ability to put the ball over the fence and have the ability to potentially carry an offense when needed. All right. Teams that have the ability to hit home runs, they just have more answers than everybody else. They have more outs essentially. They have more opportunity to hang in games, to extend leads when they have them, and to come back when they’re trailing. The Reds don’t really have that. Yeah, they hit some home runs this year. Yeah, there were some teams that did even less than the Reds did, but they just don’t really have that threat when you’re in the postseason facing elite pitching. You need to have the threat of the long ball because it’s hard against these pitchers here in the postseason to string together a bunch of hits and come up in big spots. It’s tough. It’s really nice when you’re a team like the Dodgers who in game one, one swing at the bat, there’s two guys on, boom, there’s three runs. That was quick. Reds didn’t have that and they don’t have that and they need to be able to improve upon that. And it starts with the guys at the top. They got to figure out ways to acquire guys that can help this team. Obviously, you don’t blow it up. You got a lot of foundational pieces here. I’m going to continue to believe in Ellie Dea Cruz. Everybody should. You’re crazy if you don’t. Spencer Steer is a capable ball player. Is he going to be one of those guys that is the face of your offense on a championship team? No. But to me, he looked comfortable and he looked like a championship player. Again, not going to lead your offense, but he is a starter on a championship team. He is You’ve got a lot of youth. People are excited about South Stewart. He’s 21 years old. He’s got a lot to improve on. He’s got to find a position that he looks comfortable in obviously and he’s got to, you know, mature a little bit with his approach. He’s 21 years old. He’s a kid and just played in a huge baseball game. Clearly has a lot of talent. We’ll see what he can be able to do. Fredel, is he an all world center fielder? No, but solid player. Is there a point where maybe you hope that someone else can be your leadoff guy? Maybe. But you can win with TJ Fre. You can absolutely win with TJ Fredle. You have questions there with Mlan. Obviously, he’s shown he can hit in the past. Clearly could not hit well enough this year and was flat out a liability on offense for the most part. Hayes Kebran’s going to be here for a while. You’ve got that team control. You got to find out a way to make him hit the baseball a little bit better. All right. But he’s going to be around. You got some pieces. The rotation obviously is is the best part. Green, Looo, Abbott, those guys will be back and that’s tremendously exciting. But you have to find a way to add because if you do this again next year, back your way into the playoffs and get blown out immediately, then it’s not a success. Let’s be very clear. You have to show improvement in the right direction. But to sit here and think, oh, the Reds should win the World Championship this year. If they don’t compete for a World Series, it’s a failure. No, you got to be realistic with your expectations. They hadn’t been here since 20. Nobody really counts the 20 season. So, they hadn’t really been here since 2013. That’s over a decade. They got here, they ran into a buzzsaw. Was it the three seed, the Dodgers? Yeah. But I think a lot of people say, “Ah, probably the best team.” Probably the best team. Certainly the best lineup. So, lots to be positive about, but the organization has to aggressively pursue getting better and not just rely on, oh, all the guys that we have are going to be better next year because hopefully that’s true, but that’s not going to be good enough. They’re going to have to add more than that. But I think there’s reason to be optimistic about the Cincinnati Reds. And candidly, I can’t remember the last time we’ve had this much of a reason to be optimistic about the Reds. And I think that’s worth celebrating as it was a successful season for Cincinnati. 83 and 79 record. They get into the playoffs. They get swept by the Dodgers, but I think a lot of teams probably get swept by the Dodgers in that situation there as well. All right, let’s turn the page a little bit to the Cincinnati Bengals. um they’ve got all types of issues and um as a Reds fan there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic. As a Bengals fan and Joe Burrow’s not coming back anytime soon, it’s hard to find that same level of optimism when you’re talking about the Cincinnati Bengals. They’ve got issues all over the place defensively, coaching, line play. You have belief in their weapons, but they’re not getting the ball. They’re not doing anything. They got issues all over the place. They also have issues at quarterback. Let’s be very clear. I think there’s some people that are trying to give Jake Browning a little of a pass, a little bit of a pass just because how bad everything is around Jake Browning. But I’m here to say Jake Browning’s been bad, too. He’s not the sole person to blame, but he’s the quarterback and he’s been bad. And when you have a bad quarterback that’s surrounded by a bunch of other bad, a lot more bad, you’re going to get bad results. And that’s what Cincinnati has at this point here, certainly over the past two weeks. So, people have been throwing out the idea of, hey, Cincinnati needs to trade for a quarterback or add somebody. And at first, I was like, well, let’s pump the brakes on this. At the time, you were 2 and 0. You’ve won with Jake Browning in the past. Let’s see what he can do. Was I confident in him? No. but he deserved the chance to be the guy for this team. He’s gone on the road in back-to-back weeks against two fringe playoff teams who people are solid football teams. Not great football teams, but solid football teams. And he’s been bad. If he goes out there again against Detroit, and a lot of us, even the most optimistic Bengals fans, it’s hard for us to wrap our heads around the possibility of even winning this football game on Sunday. Obviously, it’s at home, but you’re 10 plus point underdogs in this game. Is there any way this Bengals team can win? I don’t know. But you’re getting to the point where it could potentially become too late for this situation where you entertain bringing in a quarterback, right? You lose here, uhoh, now you’re under 500. That means three straight losses. Then you lose again, you’re two and four, and it’s like, oh, we’re starting to be at a point where we don’t have a ton of room for error. And then it’s probably too late to even consider making a trade to bring somebody in. But if you’re gonna do it, obviously you’re probably not going to do it here on a Thursday, but if you’re going to do it, it has to come after the Detroit game early next week, assuming you lose the game. If you win the game, fine. But you have to make this move immediately after Sunday. If you lose the game and you’re two and three, because if you wait any longer than that, it’s going to be too late and you’re not even going to be able to do anything. So, the names, there’s two guys obviously that play football for the New York Giants that are not the starter that have been starters in the National Football League for a really long time. Russell Wilson and Jameus Winston. Um, you can make the argument, I look, I think Jameus is easier to root for. He’s more fun, right? His sound bites are hilarious. Seems like a great teammate. Everybody loves him, right? He of course has experience playing in the AFC North with Cleveland. I think a lot of us would be like, “Ah, we’d rather have Jamus.” But I think more of the football people would say Russ would probably be the better quarterback to take. I mean, obviously Russ was the starter this year for the Giants. And there’s been some murmurings about Cincinnati being interested in Russell Wilson. Uh Mike Florio a couple of days ago pointed that out that hey, you know, maybe a fifth round pick to the Giants for Russell Wilson. Um, look, that price is just going to go up as time goes on because the Giants are going to realize that they have more leverage than Cincinnati. Especially Cincinnati loses this week. They can ask for a little bit more for Russell Wilson and see how desperate the Cincinnati Bengals are. If they would have made a move like this when they were 2 and 0, right, as some people in this city said, and I got to give them credit because they were right. If you make a move for Russ when you’re 2 and 0, you don’t have to get much for him or give up much for him, right? Because you’re two and0. You got some leverage there. It’s like we don’t need him. We want him, but we don’t need them. You’re running out of leverage here at this point and these teams could ask for more. Can Russell Wilson help this team win more so than Jake Browning? I don’t know. But Jake Browning has been really, really bad. And we talked about you can’t really afford to punt on the season considering how much you’re paying Jamar and T and you got Trey Hendendrickson back and you’re paying him for this year to just give up on the season because you lost nine. You can’t really do that. Do you feel good about winning without Joe Burrow? Absolutely not. But you can’t afford a punt on the season considering what you are doing for all your star players as far as compensating them. Do I think the Bengals should do this? We’ll talk on Monday is kind of my answer at this point because Jake Browning proves he is competent and he really hasn’t proven competence yet. And I get it, man. I get that he has no help around him, but neither did Joe Burrow and he was able to figure it out. And by help, I mean protection offensive line. Clearly, he’s got skill, guys. All right. But if you’ve got an offensive line that is horrible and you have a a head coach and play caller and Zack Taylor who looks unprepared and is continuously getting outclassed by the other coaching staff, your chips are stacked against you in that regard. But you have to have that pursuit of trying to get better and not punning the season. I think Russell Wilson, Jameus Winston do that. There’s been some rumors that Cincinnati’s interested. If you lose Sunday, it’s got to be it’s got to be then. It can’t be you lose Sunday and then you lose to Green Bay. Oh, now let’s go get Russ. It’s too late at that point if you’re two and four. If you’re going to do it, it’s got to be I mean, you can make the argument it should have already been done this week, but it’s got to be done immediately following the Detroit game. If you lose again, Jamus, he’s more fun, right? He’s funnier, better teammate. But as far as winning football games, I think you probably lean Russ, which I don’t love saying that, but you probably do. Another name that’s been floated around that would not be a trade situation is Derek Carr. Derek Carr, of course, retired and is not playing professional football right now. Obviously wouldn’t have to give up anything in order to get Derek Carr. Um, ESPN Jeremy Fowler, he threw this name out. Um, you know, anytime a guy at ESPN, Jeremy Fowler is great reporter, outstanding. anytime he brings something up, I think it’s worth talking about. Does it mean it’s going to happen? No. But I think it’s worth talking about. Um, that obviously is a completely different ballgame because you wouldn’t have to trade anything to get him. Derek Carr for a long time is a real solid quarterback in this league, but similar to some of the issues of Joe Burrow, he was getting hit at all times, both with the Raiders and the Saints. Does he have any interest in coming back? I have no idea. If I’m a retired quarterback that still has that competitive fire, I’d be interested in throwing a TA against a Jamar Chase. Could he be be better than Jake Browning? Well, if he comes back and plays like he did before he retired, yeah, he’s better than Jake Browning. He was a starter in this league. So, it’s interesting. At first, I wasn’t in a spot where I thought it’d be a good idea to bring in a quarterback. It’s like, you know what? Don’t panic. See what Browning can do. You’ve won with him before. But these past two games for Jake Browning have been ugly. And I think that’s not being talked about enough just because how ugly the whole uh process has been, how the whole product has been on the football field offensively and defensively. But Jake Browning has been really really bad, too. Jake Browning has not been a winning quarterback whatsoever. So, we’ll see. I think Cincinnati should entertain the idea of bringing in another guy. And one of those two guys in New York obviously would be a solid guy to bring in. They’ve clearly turned the page with Jackson Dart. he’s their guy. Had a nice game um in week one and they can afford to get rid of one of those guys. They don’t need to keep both Winston and Wilson. If they have an opportunity to pick up a draft pick and move one of them, I think it would be the right move for the Giants to do that. Ultimately, we’ll see if Cincinnati decides to do it. But again, they’re kind of running out of time as it relates to that. All right, football game tonight. San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams. interesting game. This series um always delivers. It It really does. Um you know, for a long period of time here, Shanahan really had McVeyy’s number and he seemingly was beating them every time and then McVey got him in the championship game, right? Obviously, then they went on to play the Bengals in the Super Bowl and win that as well. But Shanahan had dominated that matchup, but then McVey got, you know, he had the one and it was a big one, right? Because it was a championship uh game. And now you’re starting to see it kind of swing back a little bit towards the McVey side and they’re starting to pick up some wins in this game and it’s becoming a lot more of a even uh battle. And tonight, you know, the spread opened at one and a half and now it is all the way up to eight and a half. I think it was even hovering around nine and a half at some point um earlier in the week. It’s a big number because the Giant or the the 49ers are hurt everywhere. They literally are hurt everywhere. Brock Perie, he tried to come back last week. He did in a losing effort against the Jaguars and now he’s unable to go in a short week here against the Rams. Um he’s got the turf toe, right? Same issue Joe Burrow is dealing with, but not obviously as severe, but he’s in a spot where he’s banged up. He’s not going to be able to go. And then Jennings and Piersaw, their top two receivers are also out for this game. And then you got no um KD, he’s still out with an injury. And then Bosa just tore his ACL. So if you’re the Niners, I mean, you got backups all over the place. And M. Jones, by the way, is going to be your quarterback tonight. He’s not even fully healthy. He’s got a knee issue there as well. And it’s already a guy that isn’t mobile at all. He’s really not going to be mobile. And that’s a young, feisty, fierce pass rush for Shawn McVey. So on paper, kind of seems like, you know, it’s a big game for the Rams and it’s a big opportunity for them to have a big win um on Thursday Night Football. We’ll see if that ultimately transpires. I think my gut tells me that Shanahan’s going to be able to figure this out. I’m not going to sit here and say they’re going to win. I’m not even going to sit here and say they’re going to cover the spread. But Shanahan, in my opinion, is the top three coach in this league. And you know, I think a lot of people thought that for a while and then, you know, last year um you know, you had the Super Bowl losses obviously and then last year you missed the playoffs and people kind of have forgotten about Kyle Shanahan a little bit. Kyle Shanahan’s unbelievable and he’s going to have this team ready to go, ready to fight on a short week. Now, he might be outmatched because all the, you know, issues with the personnel at the guys that he lost um for this game, but Kyle Shanahan can coach and M. Jones, if he’s healthy, can operate his offense. Now, he’s going to be throwing to guys like Kendrick Bourne and Sky Moore and Marquez Valdez Scantling. That’s an issue. Absolutely. Make no mistake about it. That’s an issue. It feels like a game where Christian McAffrey gets a million touches and you know he I mean you never want to say this before a game but like don’t be surprised if he gets banged up because he is um going to be getting the football so much both um getting the ball handed off to him and out of the back field as well. They’re really going to have to lean on McCaffrey in this game and it’s going to be interesting to see if they can hang in there and at least um hang around, right, and give themselves an opportunity late in the football game to make some things happen. On the Rams side, been incredibly impressed with what the Rams have been able to do. They had the one I mean, you want to call it a choke in Philly, fine, you can, but you know, Philly is the best team in the National Football League. They were able to come roaring back in that game with a passing attack and a couple of mistakes, couple of blocked um field goals propels Philadelphia over the top and they beat the Rams. But the Rams were really good. You know, that win last week against Indianapolis, that’s a big win, right? I mean, the Colts are a heck of a lot better than anybody anticipated coming into this season and they were able to pick up a big win at home with Matthew Stafford. And when Matthew Stafford is out there and he’s upright and he’s healthy and he obviously had the back issues coming into this year and people had their question marks about, you know, whether or not Matthew Stafford would be able to look like himself and now people have the question marks of whether or not Matthew Stafford can get through the entirety of a season. And I understand that. But when he’s out there, man, he’s unbelievable. He’s right up there with some of the young guns that we always talk about. When you’re talking about elite quarterback play, it’s always Momes and Burrow and Allen and Jackson, right? But I mean, Matthew Stafford is in that group when he’s healthy and when he’s upright, he’s unbelievable. Some of the throws that he makes, some of the windows that he fits the football into, absolutely unbelievable. And I’m expecting him to have a big game um in this game as well. Short week, you know, usually if you have a really good coach and a really good quarterback, that’s enough to propel your team to victory. And obviously that is what the Rams have. Um that that tandem of Devonte Adams and um Puka and Akua is absolutely unbelievable. Um you know the the Rams they moved off Cooper Cup that appears to be a great decision right Cooper Cup obviously a triple crown guy for him a Super Bowl MVP had tremendous success there but they understood that you know it was time to move off him. They were correct. It was the Puka show and then you bring in a guy that for many years people considered the best wide receiver in the National Football League. Um, and Devonte Adams, you bring him in as your second wide receiver and you’ve got all types of issues um, if you’re opposing teams and what they can do defensively as well. They draft and develop so well in LA. Um, Lesne, their GM, what he’s able to do, that defense is ferocious. You know, Verse, um, you know, Turner, those guys are are really really good. And, um, Braden Fisk, I mean, they’re just the the list goes on and on as far as what they’re able to do defensively. And um they got Schula, their coordinator, calling the shots. I mean, this is a real real football team um here in the Los Angeles Rams. I’m really excited to see them playing this kind of rivalry game. Again, it’s, you know, the Niners are beat up. People are thinking, ah, they don’t have much of a chance. They still got Kyle Shanahan. They still got Christian McCaffrey and a very competent guy in M Jones if he looks healthy out there. So, should be a really, really good game as it relates to that. And by the way, I didn’t even mention the running attack uh for the Rams as well. They can flat out run the football. Kairen Williams continues to be one of the most, if not the most underrated players in professional football and I’m expecting him to have a big game on the ground tonight. The Niners have struggled stopping the run. So, I mean, all signs in this game point towards the Rams, but Kyle Shannon and Christian McCaffrey still have those two guys there on the other side. And ultimately, we’ll see if they’re able to do enough to hang around and compete in this game. But, should be a lot of fun. Thursday Night Football. We’ll spend some time talking about it tomorrow on the show and um hopefully we get a solid game here tonight. Um three game threes uh for Major League Baseball today. Uh the Cubs and the Padres’s um is a big one and then the the Guardians and the Tigers will be the first one here today. Um you know, the Guardians tremendous job bouncing back in a big way yesterday. Um we kind of talked about on the show that if the Tigers were going to win the series, they had to take game one with Scooble. They were able to do it. Um it was close. It was tight, but they were able to get it done. That game is fascinating to me today. It’s a coin flip game. Go either way game. Think offensively, you feel better about the Guardians bats to come up in big moments. By the way, the Guardians had a guy um in center field last night who made his MLB debut and I I was talking with a buddy about that and I was like, “Wait, are you serious? Like this is his first MLB start?” And they called him up there and they started him and he had an error right away. It wasn’t like one of those things where it’s like, “Yeah, we’ll call you up and then you’ll be on the bench and maybe we’ll go to you late in the game if we need an AB.” No, we’ll call you up and we’ll roll you out there in center field in a do or die game. I literally could not wrap my head around it. And obviously for them it works out and they win the game. But um just I just imagine that making your MLB debut, right? It’s 162 game season. you have all these opportunities to potentially get caught up and you’re going to get caught up in a playoff game at home. Do or die game when your team is down 1 and0 and you’re going to play center field by the way. Good luck. I I can’t imagine being that kid um in the game yesterday. Unbelievable. Um but the Guardians win that game. I picked the Tigers going into that series, but just the confidence and swagger that the guards were playing with yesterday, not going to sit here and switch my pick, but um feels like they’re going to have an opportunity to perhaps win that game and move on. Should be a great game. All the games, by the way, pushed back a little bit today with the the Reds losing. So, um that gets off underway at a little bit of a later uh start time. And then Cubs Padres’s, it’s so funny with that that Padre team, they have a very specific way that they need to win baseball games, right? You know, manufacture some runs and lean on their bullpen is really um you know, what it comes down to. Reed mentioned on off the bench, they might have the best bullpen in the history of Major League Baseball. Um, you know, I don’t know if that exactly is true, but I I know that they definitely have the best one right now, um, in the game. Mason Miller, not even the closer. He’s the setup guy. He’ll come in and throw 104 on the black and then hit you with a 90 plus mph slider. Best of luck there on that front. So, I mean, it certainly feels like, you know, if Chicago is going to win today, they’re going to need to have the lead going into the seventh inning, right? Because I mean, just 789 in a lot of situations. 6789. um for the Padres’s they are just absolutely lights out. Pick the Cubs obviously um in that series. Have them picking have them beating the Brewers as well. Also set kind of just feels like whoever wins that series um is going to have an opportunity to beat Milwaukee. We’ll see. Um but yeah, I just think that you know the Padres’s do have a very specific way that they need to win these games and I still would favor the Cubs at home in this spot, but that should be a tremendous game there as well. And then Yankees Red Sox tonight. Um those first two games have absolutely delivered. Yankees Red Sox seemingly always does. You know, Aaron Boon finally realized, yeah, I probably should put Jazz Chisum in the lineup. Throw Rice out there as well, but good things probably going to happen for you. So, I know some Yankee people were certainly frustrated with how things transpired before that. And then he pulled Freed. Yeah, he was at triple digit pitches, but he seemingly was doing just fine. You know, Crochet obviously in game one he was allowed a longer leash for the Red Sox than Freed was, but I think maybe looking back I certainly would have kept rolling with Freed if I was Boon. But um you know that’s going to be incredible 1-1. Um you know you got guys big-time guys in that lineup obviously for New York and for them it’s a total failure if they lose tonight and they lose to their rival the Boston Red Sox and don’t even get back to the division series after losing in the World Series last year. um that would be a complete and utter failure. And I think you’re going to see them, I mean, they spend a ton of money, right? But compared to the the Dodgers, like they’re not at that level at this point. And I think you can see um some crazy moves made by the the New York Yankees if they lose tonight in our eliminate. You’re probably going to see crazy moves from them this off seasonason regardless, but um if they lose tonight, you’re going to see a lot of changes. And Aaron Boon um you know, seems like a quality guy. obviously former Cincinnati Red, but u I believe year eight or nine with the Yankees as their skipper and it kind of just uh hasn’t exactly panned out. I think the way Brian Kman and company were hoping for as they’ve remained patient with them. Um but uh yeah, I think you know with the talent that they have and the amount of money that they spent, they clearly have underperformed haven’t won a world title obviously since 2013. So um lots of pressure on the New York Yankees tonight and not much on the Red Sox. And that’s a group with Alex Kora. I mean, he’s got him playing really loose out there. Um, you know, obviously if you have Roman Anthony, I think you feel a lot better. Unfortunately, he’s out. He’s one of the best young I he’s 21 years old, I think. 20 21 years old, Roman Anthony. And, um, he’s going to be a superstar in this league. He is an absolute stud and unfortunate that Boston doesn’t have him in the spot and unfortunate we don’t get to see him um here in this series against the Yankees. Could he potentially return if they win? I’m not quite sure. Maybe. Um, but that certainly is a possibility I think for Roman Anthony. But three incredible games tonight and then obviously uh things will get underway after that when we see the divisional series um start to transpire. Um after that we’ll see the Phillies and of course the Brewers will get back into action and the the Blue Jays and the Mariners on the American League side of things. But a great day of baseball ahead of us here at this point. Um tomorrow’s show certainly going to be a lot going on tomorrow. Um, we’ll have plenty of stuff to talk about on tomorrow’s show. Probably not much Red’s conversation. Kind of put a bow on that. Um, today we’ll have the Bengals, of course. We’ll have our keys to victory tomorrow before that Sunday late afternoon slot. By the way, I believe it’s uh the game of the week for Fox, which, you know, it certainly would be the game of the week if Joe Burrow was there. But with Jake Browning and what’s transpired these past two weeks, 10 and a half point dogs, not quite sure it’s going to be the game of the week, but uh hopefully Cincinnati can hang in there, get some things done. We’ll have injury report for you tomorrow. Um we’ll talk keys to victory preview that game a little bit on tomorrow’s show. We’ll have our college football weekend preview as well. Um if you missed yesterday’s show, our top 10 will go out on YouTube uh tomorrow. um our top 10 college football teams. We’ll do that every single week. Um that’s going to be a shoein segment. Um our top 10 college football teams and our NFL power rankings. We’ll do those on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I believe, is going to be the plan going forward. Again, that’ll go out on YouTube. If you missed it, um on yesterday’s show, we’ll have our bets bets uh best bets of the weekend. Um I think we’re going to switch up the approach a little bit. So, we had six bets these first three weeks, three and three the first, two and four the second, three and three the third. So, obviously a losing record, but hey, we’re being very open and transparent with where we’re at. We’re not running from anything. We still got a full season of football ahead of us and we’re going to uh we’re going to improve that and get back to 500 and improve off 500. really should be 500 right now. But of course, um heartbreaking loss there a couple of weeks ago with the the Rams blowing plus three and a half when Philadelphia was able to block that field goal and return it for a touchdown despite the fact they were already going to win the game. Very unfortunate um how that transpired um in that football game, but uh yeah, we got a lot to improve on. Don’t think we’ll do six games this week. I think we’ll narrow down the slate a little bit. We’ll see exactly how we feel. College, NFL, obviously less NFL games. um here this week. Got some good college football games that we’ll preview. Certainly we’ll preview Miami and Florida State and certainly we’ll preview um Alabama Vanderbilt as those are the kind of the two best games of the weekend um coming up this week and we’ll preview those two games and probably two other games on the show there tomorrow um as well. But I think overall, you know, some people are disappointed with, you know, how the Reds series transpired. And my message would be it’s okay to be disappointed. It’s okay to be frustrated, but also understand that you need to be thankful here as a Reds fan. As I talked about at the beginning of today’s show, this wasn’t a situation where, you know, you were you had Joe Burrow and you were, you know, a healthy um Bengals team and you’re going to the playoffs and lose immediately. No, that’s not what you had here, right? The expectation level was totally different. You got into the playoffs. You showed fight in those games. I mean, you kind of got you kind of got it handed to you in these games, but you showed fight. You didn’t quit in the games. Um had bases loaded opportunities in the eighth inning of both games, right? You kept fighting till the end. And uh importantly, you found out what it was like with this core of guys to be in this kind of moment. And um I think that’s going to really help them going forward. I mean, you remember those at bats early in that first game? Like it was kind of a deer in the headlights look. guys were swinging at stuff that weren’t close, you know, chasing pitches, you know, helping out Blakes. I get it’s Blake St. I get he’s won a couple of S Youngs. I get he’s thrown a no hitter against you. I understand all those things. Um but just kind of wideeyed moments. Hopefully the goal is you don’t have those moments if you get back here next year and um the expectation level for Cincinnati obviously changes and um you know next year it’s not oh let’s get in again. No, that’s let’s get in and let’s try to do a little bit of damage. And you’re going to have to make some changes as a front office team um to be able to go in there and do that because on paper it’s okay to be completely honest about it. Yeah, you can celebrate that you got in. Yeah, you can give credit to the guys that they were able to pull it together and get in, but most years what you did this year is not going to be enough to get in. You kind of had the ball bounce your way a little bit. You had some good fortune go your way. So, you can’t afford to just run it back with the same collection of guys. You need to make some adjustments um there if you’re Brad Mador and Nick Crawl. for this offseason. Try to find a way to bring in a bat, right? We talked about guys a little bit on off the bench. Schwarber, yeah, it’s fun. It’s a great story. It’d be awesome. But are you going to be able to get the money to get to pay him? No. Would he take a hometown discount? Maybe. But if I’m him, I I don’t do that yet. Right. I mean, that’s kind of a move that if I’m Schwarber, I would make a little bit later in my career. He’s still at the spot where he can play elite baseball and be an elite hitter in this game. Um maybe after this contract you think about taking a hometown discount, maybe retire as a red perhaps, but it just feels a little bit um too premature here at this point. I mean keep in mind this is a team that needed to trade, you know, Rogers just to make room for um Key Brian Hayes and his $7 million. Like I mean a lot of you know work needs to be done with this organization trying to find ways to get some uh you know more highc caliber guys. But I mean just the state of the Cincinnati Reds, they need to draft and develop, right? And if they don’t do that, they’re never going to have a chance. So it’s always going to be an organization and team that is based off of and built upon draft and development. But you also have to be able to pick your spots and add those veteran bats when you can. You made the Austin Hayes signing, you know, last year kind of coming into this season. I was a fan of it. I was happy about it. But it’s got to be, you got to take it a step up. It’s got to be a little bit more than an Austin Hayes signing. you know, the beginning of the year with Austin Hayes when he was hitting home run after home run. Yeah, that was incredibly exciting. But as he kind of got down the stretch here, I get he was banged up. It’s, you know, baseball late in the year. Everybody’s banged up at this point, but um, you know, he did wasn’t able to continue obviously what he was doing early in the year. You got to find ways to get guys that can put the ball over the fence. And, uh, you know, hopefully some of these guys in the farm system can come up and have the ability to do that. Um, I think certainly you were hoping that CES could be that guy for you and unfortunately he just wasn’t able to be consistent enough as a hitter. Was too much of a liability defensively to do that there as well. But plenty of reason to be optimistic and positive about where this organization is going. Fingers crossed by the way that Tito is back. Um, based on what he has said, it seems like he’s going to be back, but this is an older guy that has already retired as well. So, um, I think they need at least one more year of Tito to continue building this and hopefully is back. We picked apart what he did in uh the playoff series. Certainly have my issues with it, but the reality of the situation is you’re not in the playoffs without Tito Frank and he deserves a lot of credit for it. Uh but that’ll do it for this edition of the Stone Shield Show. Appreciate you all as always. As we mentioned, loaded show coming your way tomorrow on a Friday. Certainly looking forward to that. But until then, take care everybody.

Off The Bench is back weekdays from 10a to 11a followed by The Stone Shields Show from 11a to noon!

In a heart-wrenching conclusion to their improbable 2025 season, the Cincinnati Reds fell 8-4 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on October 1 at Dodger Stadium, swept out of the MLB playoffs in the National League Wild Card Series. The loss capped a valiant but ultimately futile effort from a young Reds squad that defied 83-79 odds to snag a postseason berth, only to collide with the juggernaut defending champions.

The game mirrored the series’ narrative: Cincinnati’s flashes of brilliance smothered by L.A.’s relentless firepower. Reds starter Zack Littell kept it close early, allowing just two runs through five innings. But the Dodgers’ offense—fueled by 13 hits and opportunistic small ball—erupted in the sixth, plating four runs to seize a 6-2 lead. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Japanese ace, was masterful for L.A., fanning nine in 6.2 innings while navigating a bases-loaded jam in the sixth that could have swung momentum.

Cincinnati’s fightback was fierce. They grabbed a 2-0 first-inning lead on Sal Stewart’s two-run RBI single that eluded Freddie Freeman’s glove— their first postseason advantage since 2012. Elly De La Cruz dazzled with his trademark speed, legging out infield hits and swiping bags, while Matt McLain’s diving stops kept hope alive. Late rallies narrowed the gap, loading the bases in the eighth, but the bullpen faltered, and Jack Dreyer’s escapes sealed the deal.

For the Reds, it’s a bitter pill. This roster, blending raw talent like De La Cruz and Greene with veterans like Stephenson, showed October mettle. Yet, against the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup—Ohtani’s clutch RBI, Betts’ timely double—the gap was exposed. As L.A. advances to face the Phillies, Cincinnati heads to the drawing board, rebuilding around its dynamic core. The future burns bright, but tonight, the sting of elimination lingers. Onward to 2026.

Music from #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/
Track Name Holy (Trap).

Music from #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/
Track Name Exercise (Rock).

#Reds #Bengals #RedsPostseason