Cincinnati Reds Keep Playoff Hopes Alive, Hunter Greene Dominates New York Mets MLB Recap Highlights
All right, Nick. It is a Sunday night edition of Chatterbox Reds. It’s a winning one, which is nice. Um, Reds find a way to win the series against the New York Mets. And to be frank, I don’t know if it feels great. I don’t know if it feels worse. Um, it is one of those mixed emotions that I find myself in, which is quite frankly normal with this baseball team and this season that has been 2025. Yes. on one hand very thankful that they found a way to win the series. They bounce back like they almost always do, Nick. Like they almost always do. The question at the end of the day is it going to be too little, too late, or a dollar short, it doesn’t matter by the end of the season. It feels that way, but I think but at the same time, I must admit, as soon as you could kind of get to a point where you can say, you know what, it’s dead dead. they do find a way to always bounce back and make it to make you feel like there’s a sliver of hope. Um, and that’s where we stand on this Sunday night, which is September 7th of 2025. Nick, yeah, it’s it’s exactly right. I mean, they’re they’ve done just enough to keep keep somehow hope alive here. Um, man, they’ve won some big series this year. like they’ve had some really impressive series wins throughout the year, which kind of I guess makes it the most frustrating that you’re, you know, in the spot that they’re in. Um, but yeah, I mean, man, they’ve just they’ve had some very impressive series wins. Like they played they played good baseball against a a good Mets team, a $300 million Mets team. They played good baseball all weekend and uh yeah, I mean, they still have a chance. you know, you you you keep fighting. You keep and you hope that that maybe um you know what, you could pull off a Dayton Dragons and go 18-1 in your last 19 games. Yeah. Well, I I think that they’re at the point now where I have to double check. I I think I had they had 18 games left. You can correct me if I’m wrong here. a little bit later in the show. But my point in saying all of that mostly is at this point you can sit here and try to guess or try to factor in how many wins it’s going to actually take to get over the finish line and it gets a lot more confusing. This is where the disheartening part of this all comes in because they had a legit chance if they played what I would consider decent baseball over the last three weeks. And they just failed to do that. They failed to do that and they’ve put themselves now in a position where they need to play almost near perfect when they’ve already they’ve already kind of uh they’ve already blown the opportunities that I think that that they needed to take advantage of. One of those, Nick, to be quite frank and this is where the beauty of baseball I think lies to a certain extent. You play 162 games. You do. And for all intents and purposes, I do understand the sentiment of of saying that, you know, it’s not that big of a deal. it’s just one game or it’s not that big of a deal deal because we’re not playing our best baseball. It’s only it’s only May. It’s only May. You know, the beauty of baseball is that you do that and you can say that all you want, but the more I’ve done this show and maybe it’s maybe it’s uh it’s warped my perspective of it all because I was one of the folks that used to say, “Hey, it’s just one 162, not a big deal when leaving the ballpark in a May baseball game back in the day.” I I used to think that 100%. And to a certain extent, I guess if you have a solid, really, really solid team that you know more or less is probably going to make the postseason, that’s fair and that’s true. But when you’re a fringe team, you’re a mid team, whatever term you’d like to use, a borderline playoff team, it all matters, man. And it does. And I feel like it rears its ugly head in the past three seasons that we’ve watched this team where you can you you can get crushed when you don’t play good baseball early on. when you’re playing weaker opponents, when you’re playing teams that you know are not better than you. And that’s really I mean uh uh when you break this whole thing down in my opinion from start to finish sometime in December or January when you kind of lay all this out, I really think you’re going to look back on a lot of those series earlier in the year where you just didn’t find ways to win series against bad teams. Um, I I I I the one that comes to mind pretty evidently is the Rockies. You had a home stand against the Rockies, a very bad baseball team where we were going into the series hoping they were going to sweep and we were a Will Benson triple away from getting swept by the Rockies. That’s the type of mentality or forgetfulness perhaps some people have when it comes to the season when it’s 162 games. The truth is is that we’re going to now have to go I don’t know. I’ve tried to sit here and rack my brain around this. Is it is it 15 and three? Um 14 and four. That’s where I’m at. And maybe it won’t take to get to that many. But you got a couple teams you got to jump ahead of now too that I don’t know if we really want to get into the weeds of that right right now at the beginning of this show. But the truth is is we went from one team we’re trying to chase now to having about three or four in the mix ultimately. May maybe it won’t matter if you play the the amount of winning baseball it’s going to take to get in the postseason to begin with, but uh I’m sure we’re going to talk about all that and more and the fact that Hunter Green just absolutely shoved and uh most people aren’t going to probably appreciate it because they didn’t even probably see the whole, you know, I guess what I would call p all the pitches in the game. So I watched every pitch today. my uh my my wife took the kids uh over to her uh parents. Uh I watched every pitch. I enjoyed it. It was great. You know, it was really nice. Like you log on Twitter and no one’s talking about the game. Like I I’m just watching a game in peace. The Reds are getting no hit and no one’s talking about it. Like this is nice. This is kind of enjoyable. Uh there’s 19 g there’s officially 19 games left. They have a four game series against the Cubs. That’s probably what the game you’re missing because you were counting the series up. There’s a four game series against the Cubs. 19 left. What do the Reds have to do? Who knows? I mean, they could go You could go 14 and five and still miss the playoffs if the Mets play great. You could play 500 and make the playoffs if the Mets crap the bed like they did a couple weeks ago. It just really depends on what do the Mets do and trying to figure out what that team’s going to do. Good luck with that. They’ve been a a volatile team all year. Um there is no one else ahead of the Reds anymore. Um they’re tied with the Giants currently. Um everyone else is back behind them. So there is no one. They’re half a game ahead of two teams. Nick, come on. I mean, with all due respect, there’s there’s there’s more than just one team left in the mix now. Like we can at least admit. Sure. The the Giants are the only team that I think you probably would really be I I think worried about. I mean, I don’t I don’t know. All these teams caught us, brother. Yeah, it’s possible. The Cardinals are tanking right now. The Diamondbacks sold off their whole team. Yeah. and they’re a half game back. But again, I think if you catch if you make up four games against the Mets, I just I don’t know. Maybe the Giants are maybe the only team that that there’s maybe some world where you go 13 and six and they go a game better than that. I just don’t see like if you go 13 and six, I don’t see that Diamondbacks are Cardinals. The Reds play the Cardinals, so they would have to win some of those games anyways. No. Yeah. Listen, there are teams that that have to face off against each other where it’s going to help one way or the other. But I also would openly admit that if you don’t win, somebody’s going to catch up with you and or pass you. Like, it goes both ways. You can sit here and be like, “Hooray, the Giants play the Mets, okay, well, if you don’t win those games, somebody is going to stay with you and or pass you.” So, it it’s uh that’s why it feels like to me they’re going to have to do something. Um, you know, again, you’re 19 games total. All right. I’m not going to obviously say they got to go um, you know, whatever it would be, 15 and four, but it feels like they’re going to have to go something along those lines. 14 and what would be the math? Five. Um, we’ll see. I mean, ultimately, we shall find out, but they won today. Um, but and again, we’ve already done two shows since Friday night, but it feels like all of those times, Nick, all the times we were sitting here saying this team needs to do something special. We We keep kicking the damn can down the road, dude. We just said against We just said against the uh um Why can’t I think I’m I’m having a brain fart. The series right before the Mets was the Cardinals. Cardinals. Thank you. And uh the Blue Jays. No, the Blue Jays. Uh if we picked if we picked up if we picked up a game on the Mets against the Blue Jays, then we could go into that series thinking if we swept them, we’d only be this. Well, we didn’t pick up a game. We I think we lost a game. And then all a sudden, we go into the Mets and we don’t sweep them. We take to a three and now we sign ourselves. I’m I’m just being funny here to a certain extent. Now we sit here on on Sunday night show and we say, “Well, you know, we could take advantage of it by doing this next best thing.” Well, I mean, we’ve kicked we we I tell you one thing we have done a good job of. We have survived on the ventilator for longer than the doctor has expected us to survive on it. I’ll give us credit for that, my friend. So, that’s where my that’s where my uh my analogy lies. We do have some super chats I want to get to before we start the show. Um so, let’s do that right now and then we can jump in to the traditional box school recap and the DSSE deep drive of the day. And I am looking forward to that. Uh, some big-time supers as always coming from our man Michael Roth. Uh, he’s coming in with a with a crazy hot take, too, I must say. I don’t hate it, but I think it is 100% a hot take, and he justified it by calling it that. Uh, it says, “Hot take Marte will have a better career than Ellie. Boom. Hash at OBtr.” The crazy thing is this, Rough. Um, like if you would have said that at the end of last year, you would have been absolutely crushed. And I think that’s just the part of fandom that lies uh that basically lies within all of us is that, you know, we are subjective to perhaps what’s right in front of us. And maybe that might be what you have or are having happen to you right now. But I’ll also say, you know, I don’t know. I mean, if you’re going to count in kind of um it’s it’s it’s just hard to say. I’m not going to sit here and act like that’s a horrific take because I do think Marte has a chance to be a great player and I’m not going to downplay the fact that uh that he can’t be. I’m not going to sit here and act like Marte might not exceed expectations significantly, but I also think we’re all catching Ellie right now at a time where he’s not playing his best baseball. And we’ll find out whether or not he’s c he’s capable of rebounding. But I know Nick’s already gonna come and pull out a bunch of stats that are going to show you that he’s still a better player than Marte despite all of this. Um, and that very well may be true as well. Ultimately, the thing that sucks most about all of this, Nick, in my opinion, and this is where I was going to go tonight, and I’ll save some of it so I don’t go too far down the the well here before we even get in the first topic, is that I I think that uh and people are going to think that I’m I’m I’m I’m protecting all these young guys, but I’m going to put them all in the same boat. And that’s MLAN, that’s Ellie, that’s Marte. Um, you know, I don’t know if you want to put CES in there, but I’ll also put put Sal Stewart in there. Now, you know what this franchise ultimately has done is we’ve put a lot of these guys on pedestals and we’ve put them as the guys that are supposed to save the franchise and they’re going to get get us over the proverbial hump because really that’s the only hope that we’ve had. And the truth is, it’s not totally fair to those guys because they’re trying to figure out how to be big league baseball players on a major league roster before they’re probably totally ready. It seems like we’re doing the maybe the one thing that all these NFL franchises do when they’re not the best franchise, which is to do what? draft some prospects early uh in the first round, tout them as being the ones that are going to save the franchise, running them out at quarterback their very first year, and then all of a sudden they struggle a little bit. Maybe they fail from time to time, and all of a sudden, everybody throws their hands up and like, “This guy sucks. Why isn’t this guy any good? This guy’s not good.” And then all of a sudden, Sam Darnold, like four years later, is maybe better than people thought he was. Or Baker Mayfield perhaps is better than what Cleveland thought he was. and all a sudden you’re kind of scratching your head and being like,”Well, why are we always bad? I don’t get it.” Well, maybe it’s because we always rely on guys that aren’t totally ready to carry a franchise. And that might just be where we’re at right now. Not sitting here suggesting they don’t deserve to be in the big leagues, but I’m saying maybe we’re suggesting I’m suggesting they’re not ready to carry the torch for a team that’s supposed to make the playoffs this earlier in their in their career. Take that however you wish. If you think I’m defending Ellie or Marte or any of these guys or or putting a a you know I guess what we what we call it like kind of protecting them, helicopter parenting them, I’m not trying to do that. Just trying to call a spade a spade perhaps. Jacob Doyle said uh uh they always say the the crack of the bat just sounds different coming from a great hitter. Sal’s home run Saturday was exactly that, a thing of beauty. Uh so sounds like Jacob Doyle was at the game perhaps. We shall find out. Rough chimes in again, says, “Also, I have to go Wall-E. I have to go to W-ally World. No free ads for the worst place on planet Earth to buy my 5-year-old niece a birthday gift for tomorrow, accepting Annie and all suggestions for a 5-year-old girl.” So, chat, you can get after it in the in the comments um for uh for gifting for Michael Roth. And then Dean, Mike Dean says, “Two nice wins, but I feel like a high schooler whose girlfriend has told him she wants to see other people and now keeps sitting next to me uh sitting next to him at lunch.” Um, another wild analogy that we have for this baseball team from Mike Dean, which is somewhat appropriate. I get it. Yeah, it’s it’s we’re getting mixed vibes at all times. Nick, um, not that I was trying to buy a ton of time for you, but, um, I was buying a little bit of time for you to make sure that you got some of the the nuts and bolts squared away perhaps on the back end. Uh, any thoughts perhaps before we jump into the Bosco recap from yourself? I know I said a lot. I know there’s some things that you probably want to jump into and bite. Um, so have at it if you’d like. No, I’m good. Craig’s behind the scenes, so we’re we’re we’re in real good hands now. I guess my advice to Ellie Dea Cruz is the second you can, you know, just uh try to go to the Dodgers. Uh I mean, you know, you can put up the exact same actually significantly outperform Mookie Bets and get uh 150% more criticism. So that would be my advice to Ellie. The second you can get into free agency, go to a big market uh and don’t play hurt. You know what? Don’t don’t play hurt. You know what? Next time you have a quad injury, just take off the season. That would be my advice. So, you’re gonna you’re gonna So, we’re now we’re back we’re now basically placing the blame of Ellie’s uh lack of of production just for the last month and a half on the quad, but the quad was injured win. Just curious. I think the quad I think it’s the quad. I think it’s also I think he had a tough year mentally, you know, like losing his sister. Um I think it’s I think it’s mostly that kind of stuff, but Right. So, that’d be my advice. Get the hell out of Cincinnati as fast as you can. Right. There’s no point. But but last year, just to be on the same page, Jake Frillley obviously struggled pretty mightily and we were okay with saying Jake Frillley is just not not probably not the best player. Jake Cruz. Yeah. I mean, there that’s that’s two P’s in a pod right there. Well, I’m saying like one gets the blame for it, the other one maybe not as much. Just trying to I’m I’m just making sure we’re on the same page. Like I I listen I’m not here allar this year too also and does lose but if we flip the seasons around Nick significant if we flip the seasons around he wouldn’t even have been close to an all-star he’s still 3.7 wins above replacement I’m talking about since the all-star break we’re using all-star break we’re using the all-star break as saying he made the all-star team that was the first half of the season the second half of the season when you know when this team obviously needed a little bit of a boost to get themselves to a spot where they might make the postseason, he he’s not been an all-star. That’s true. You know, the the all the games up to July did not matter. The fact that the Reds were even remotely competitive through July to still being in where they’re at now had nothing to do with Ellie de la Cruz. No, I get it. I I’m not saying that those didn’t matter at all. But I guess where I’m at with this whole thing, and I I understand the sentiment that some people have, is this. You can’t have it both ways. Like, you can’t say that this guy is a superstar. He’s going to be one of the best players that this franchise has ever seen. And basically, the hype that comes with him is going to be at least viewed upon as he’s better than everyone else, so let’s hold him to a higher standard. Then when you hold him to a higher standard, the standard then becomes a bunch of mid baseball players are on this team. Well, he’s better than them, so he’s good enough in our eyes. That’s that’s the standard, I guess, that we’re we’re holding him to to a certain extent. like like and and again, I’m not trying to say this is all on Ellie. At some point, you got to ask the organization from a standpoint of whether or not they’re developing guys, whether or not this organization is doing a good job of giving these guys the best chance for them to succeed. And that is a fair question, too. So, and I would even say that that could also be posed towards the likes of making sure that Gavin Lux now has to play left field. You ask Spencer Steer to play a new position. You asked Spencer Steer, I guess, to play hurt. What was it? You were talking about playing hurt. Well, I I’ve been on Stuart uh Spencer Steer’s case all year long about the fact that he’s not been productive enough at first base, but I guess evidently he’s been hurt all year long, too. So, people are being asked to being asked to play hurt, I guess. And again, to be fair, we don’t even have very clear understanding or knowledge of how hurt these guys are. Um, I would presume in a 162 game season people are going to be banged up. Yeah, that’s obvious. But hurt, banged up, two different things. I’d like to know the extent of maybe Ellie and or Steer or or even Matt Mlan’s injury to a certain extent of of how bad these guys are. Because Nick, to be fair, if we want to go outside the players, at some point you got to ask the organization, do we have a real good grasp on who’s hurt and who’s not? And if we don’t, why don’t we? And why do we keep asking these guys that are hurt to play? We need to have somebody else that can play to be able to perhaps have better players in those spots when they’re not healthy. No, there’s a lot there. I know. But yeah, I I don’t know. I I just I’m going to continue to air on the side of defending the guy that’s been worth 12 wins above replacement since he came up midway through 2023. I know. I I’m crazy crazy for that. I’m going to continue to kind of, you know, maybe give him grace for having a bad month um with some other circumstances that could have contributed to that. But you know what? The case then what a year. What a year. What a year, man. That guy, we wanted him shipped out of this country a year ago this time and now he’s the the face of the franchise and Elliot is a bum. It is wild. I think that there’s a fair and honest likelihood that we can meet in the middle of where some people are acting like Ellie shouldn’t be on the team and where some people are acting like Ellie’s not has not been an issue. Obviously, neither one of those are true. Um, ultimately I I I I I’ve not put it this way. My frustration at this point is starting to shift away from the players and more towards the more towards the the I guess people that are in charge of putting people in places to have success and having no backup plan if those people don’t have success. If if Ellie is hurt or Ellie needs a day off or we don’t we we can’t see like I guess here’s my thing. If Tito gets all the credit in the world for being a Hall of Fame manager, for being a clubhouse guy and understanding the ex understanding kind of the behindthe-scenes stuff and all these things, you’re telling me that the best thing to do for for Ellie de la Cruz is to run him out there every single day in the threehole for a month and a half when he’s produced the way that he has and act like nothing’s wrong. I again I’m not here to say that you’re going to fix him overnight if you put him in the eight-hole or whatever or you take some simple and people are going to think I let me be clear I went just just three minutes ago before people start acting like I’m defending him again three minutes ago I said he’s not been good enough and I do think that there’s some issues there and I’m not going to give Ellie the total pass on all of this but then on the opposite side if if we’re going to sit here and act like they they they they know they know what’s best for all these players I have a hard time believing that Spencer Steer playing first base all year long when he was producing the way that he has is the right decision for Spencer Steer and this baseball team. And I’d also say if you think playing Ellie de la Cruz every single day when he’s had this stretch of baseball for this long and he doesn’t look himself at all to me, he doesn’t look himself at all. There’s no power to a certain extent when you, you know, I guess yeah, he hit a double today. I’m not trying to say that it’s not in there, but he doesn’t look confident. He doesn’t look like the the free flowing, fun-loving kid that came up when he first got here that stole bases every single time he got on base. That’s not the player we got. And I guess my question ultimately is is where did that player go? And I’m not going to blame anyone and everyone for for for the whole, you know, the whole situation. It’s not all Tito’s fault. It’s not all Chris Fela’s fault. Maybe it’s not all Nick Crawl’s fault. Uh and it’s not all Ellie de la Cruz’s fault. But I like the last thing I’ll say something has to give at least at some point. You can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something to to to automatically fix itself. Maybe Nick, the last thing maybe if he was a 10-year big leager and LA de La Cruz has spent a vast majority of time in this league, I would say, yeah, you can maybe let him stick it out. He’s a grown man. He can figure it out. He’s he’s he’s strong enough to do this. I’ll openly say I don’t know if he is. I I don’t know if he is. He’s too me. He’s too young just to automatically assume that you can throw him in the three hole, put him at shortstop every single day and not worry about him being fatigued. But Alio Pagan can be fatigued and you’ve asked too much out of him and he gets a bunch of days off. How How does that work is my question. And again, to be clear, I know it sounds like I’m criticizing Ellie on one hand because I am. And I’m also defending him on another because I am. Because to Nick, to me, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of all this. That’s all. And what happened on Friday night is tough. It’s tough. And what happens, Nick, is you put a guy out there and you expose him to a certain extent when he’s not going well and you keep putting him in the heart of the lineup when he’s not going well and these things arise. That’s all like and and by the way, Noel Varte, to be clear, he swung at ball 42. He doesn’t get the criticism because Ellie came up after him. Obviously, Gavin Lux had an opportunity to get a base hit and nobody would have really talked about the Ellie situation as much because the outcome would have been the Reds won and and and who cares anymore because results only matter for most fans. But Nick, the narrative for Ellie skyrocketed on Friday night and nobody’s going to watch the big hit that he gets, you know, on Sunday perhaps, if you want to call it that. Uh, and that’s where this narrative that’s where this narrative lies. And it’s it’s understandable is where I’m at. Don’t don’t forget he moved over a run or two today with a ground ball to the right side. Let’s not forget about that. Let’s not forget about that. Uh, I do agree completely though. I don’t know why he’s played every day. I I I think that he has the I think that that Tito has been a little too player friendly in that regard because he knows that that is important to Ellie. Uh, I think they’re absolutely insane that they’ve run him out. And it’s not it’s not just like us or like Barry Lin, who I mean I have a lot of qualms with, but if Barry Lurin says a shortstop looks tired, I’m going to think that Barry Lin probably has a good idea of that. I think of all the things that I could ask Barry Larkin for real legitimate um advice and and his expertise on, I think like seeing if a shorts stop or player is tired, I think Larkin would be pretty good at that. And he said multiple times that he looks tired. So, why do you keep having him play every single day? Why do you not take him out of the field more than once occasionally? Like, why don’t you DH him like once a week until he gets back? Like, every four or five games, you know? Um, didn’t they DH him and then the ne the next day he had a great game or that was it that game he was a DH he had a great game? Um, I I don’t I don’t remember, but um yeah, I do agree completely. I I don’t think they should have run him out there every single day. I think part of it is also the fact that uh Matt Mlan was struggling so much%. Um I think that that was part of it, but I don’t think they did I don’t think they did Ellie any favors at all. I don’t think the front office did Ellie any favors. Like that’s that’s that this is where I get frustrated with Nick Crawl a little bit is because there was no backup option. I I God’s honest truth. There was no backup option. Our backup option was a guy that did that missed all of 2024 that had a a labor issue, a shoulder injury, which to be honest with you is a really big injury for a guy that that is going to come back and have to play a premium position. One, and two, be a guy that you’re going to rely on to hit the baseball at a relatively high level in order to compete. That was our that that was our backup plan in my opinion. And if you ask Nick Crawl before the season started, hey, what h I’m just hypothetically saying if if if Ellie were to get hurt, right? And knock on wood, that’s the last thing anybody wants. But I’m just saying if he did, you you have to have some plan for that. What is the backup plan there? Is it to play Santiago Espanol every day? I Is it to move Matt Mlan to shortstop when he hasn’t played all of 2024? It’s a horrible plan. It’s a horrible plan looking back on it. Now, having said that, I guess if you got to wager or bet or say whatever you want and say, “Well, if this if this happens, then the season’s over anyways because we’re cooked because we can’t play without Ellie de la Cruz.” Okay, I guess that’s the that’s the excuse we’re going to use. But what it has done, it has put a lot of pressure on Ellie to have to perform all year long because if he struggles at all, they don’t have a backup plan. There’s nobody that obviously can give him two, three, four days off in a row if he needs it. And what it what left of it is is is you got a manager hasn’t moved him out of the same position in the lineup all year long despite how bad it’s gotten. Which again sounds like I’m placing blame on everyone but Ellie. But to be clear, I’m saying Ellie needs to be better, but if he’s not better, then someone needs to step in here and say we need to help and do something different. Um, and obviously we listen, Sunday night game, we’ll talk about or Sunday night’s show should be about Sunday night’s or Sunday’s game, excuse me. Um, we’ll we’ll do that, but we have not been on these airwaves since Friday. And Friday obviously was the tipping point for many Reds fans, if I had to guess. And the the the lasting impression that they’re going to have about LA Cruz and moving forward in 2026 is going to be what happened more than likely on Friday night. And it’s the difference, Nick, between being what, four back and two back. Um, and sometimes more or less that might be the total difference. So, um, and to be clear, it’s not all on Ellie. U, we swung at ball four and we also didn’t get a hit after Ellie obviously struck out. So, they had other chances besides just the one at bat that obviously Ellie didn’t swing on, which made me think mentally he’s not right. There’s just there’s a mental block going on here and I I don’t know how you fix it per se, but somebody that’s making a lot of money down there at Great American Ballpark to be these guys’ hitting coach and or um you know, mental game coach or whatever kind of manager, whatever term you would like to use, someone needs to have some some answer. And it seems like the answer is let’s just kick it let’s just kick it to the side and act like it’s not that big of a deal and keep moving on. All right. Um, Nick, you did ask me to buy you some time. I’d like we we we went way over that. Uh, let’s do the basketball recap and uh, let’s get into the game itself. How about that? All right, Reds taking on the New York Mets. Rubber game of a three-game series at Great American Ballpark. Hunter Green on the mound against Brandon Sprout making his big league debut. Hunter Green came out absolutely on fire. He struck out the first five batters that he faced in six of the first seven. But batter number eight, Brett Batty hit a first pitch slider out of the park to right field. One nothing Mets. The Reds did scratch across a run in the bottom of the fourth. Nove walked. Marte then stole second base. Then he moved to third on a ground ball to the right side from Ellie de la Cruz. Austin Hayes hit a sack fly to tie the game. But going into the sixth inning, uh, Sprout had still not allowed a hit. The Reds finally got their first hit with one out in the sixth when Marte hit a weak blooper to right field. Ellie then crushed a double at 107 off the bat to put the Reds up two to one. Ellie had some smart base running also to get to third base on the throw home. And then the next batter, Austin Hayes, smoked the ball at 105 miles per hour right past the drawn in infield to make it 3 to one. Hunter Green came back out in the top of the seventh. He walked the leadoff batter Pete Alonzo, but then struck out the next three batters to finish off an incredible performance. Seven innings, one hit, one run, two walks, 12 strikeouts. Martinez went one, two, three in the eighth and then the Reds went with Tony Santon instead of Amelio Pagon in the ninth. Tony got the first batter, Francisco Lindor out, but then Juan Stoodto crushed a home run to right center field to make it three to2. The next batter, Pete Alonzo, reached on a throwing error from Ellie de la Cruz. And then Brandon Nemo singled to put runners on first and second, but then Santion got Starland Marte to break his bat on a ground ball and Ellie and Mlan turned a nice double play to end the game. Reds hang on to win 3-2. Reds take two of three from the Mets. now 72 and 71 on the season. Reds are four games out of a playoff spot with 19 games to play. And the Reds do now hold the tiebreaker over the Mets. All right. Uh deep drive of the day. Well, we got to go to TripleA. Why not? You know, we got to do that from time to time on this show. Uh Christian and Carnosio and Strand hit his 10th home run in AAA Louisville. 111 off the bat and uh it went 351 feet. DSC they are a leader in renewable commodities for bofuel production specializing in used cooking oil collection aggregation and sales. Visit www.deepsouthcommodities.com for more information. And uh thank you uh to John for sponsoring the uh the Louisville Bats deep drive of the day. Thank you to John. I know that’s exactly what he signed up for. Um, let’s talk about some positive news. Hunter Green. Um, oddly enough, as I said before, on a day where more or less most Red’s fans are probably preoccupied because they are watching something else, um, he was amazing. He was unbelievably good and he with the season on the line showed up, threw the ball unbelievably well, 12 strikeouts and um, was dominant. I mean 101 in the seventh inning and what more is there to say I guess about not only Hunter Green but the staff in general because obviously the bullpen came in uh between Martinez and obviously Santion and got the job done. So um seems like this show boy I tell you what there are times where it feels like it’s a little bit of a broken record because we get on here and we talk about the same old same old which is a starting pitching was excellent. Yeah. I mean, Hunter Green, if you didn’t see it today, I mean, it was one of one of his best performances that that he’s ever. And I mean, this is a Mets lineup that came into this series on fire. They they set a team record for their most home runs in the month of August. Um, their offense has been absolutely clicking. It’s not been the reason that that they’re kind of h having to fight off a team like the Reds. Um, but he was incredible. 21 swinging misses, got his fast ball up to 101.5. Uh, Hunter Grant has a 2.01 01 RA over his last 25 starts. That goes back to July of last year. Um, you know, you just with Hunter Green, it just, you know, you hope that in 2026 you can get a full season out of him because if you get a full season out of him, he’s legitimately, if you could tell me right now Hunter Green will make every start in 2026, I think he’s got about a good a chance of anyone of winning the NLSI Young. I think he’s that good. He’s that dominant. Um, and and yeah, I mean, man, you just you just want I know like we want to get Ellie in the playoffs, and I know that maybe doesn’t ring true as much for a lot of people right at this moment, but you really want to get Hunter Green in the playoffs because in a short series, I mean, he just can absolutely win you a series on his own. He’s kind of like Derek Scooball was with the Tigers. Listen, this team has the goods when it comes to matching up with anybody in the postseason for a definitely a shortened series. I would even argue their their chances of winning a series of the three-game variety, fivegame variety is significantly better than obviously the seven game because then you can start to get maybe deeper into the bullpens. You can start to have to maybe expose a little bit more of your roster than you would over a three-game set. But let’s face it, um Hunter Green can go up against anybody in the league and he has the capabilities of of of showcasing why you can win with him um against anyone in all of Major League Baseball. And the fact is like since the All-Star break, you seen the stat what was just like maybe two weeks ago, they were the best staff in all of Major League Baseball. I I I guess that kind of Nick in a way is where the frustration lies in in the deep rooted cause of all of it is because this is, you know, this is one of the better, if not the best performances from the starting pitching and bullpen. When you combine the two, I guess the starting pitching will mask a little bit of the bullpen, but from a staff perspective that we might see, and I I don’t want to over overexaggerate here, but you know, in the next two decades, this might be the best the best performance holistically from a staff that this that that this Reds franchise will ever see. And I don’t know if many people really truly grasp that. I think a lot of people watch this team on a night innight out basis and you take for granted what you get, but I just I don’t know if it’s replicatable. We’ll see obviously and if it is, Nick, then you can you can you can you can count me in to being on the bandwagon moving forward in the sense that I do think this team is not that far away. Um, I guess the alternative is is the concern that it’s not this good and we are just getting an all-time year from our staff and Hunter Green is a big part of that. If, as you said before, if he can stay healthy, it adds a whole another layer of dimension to it. But let’s let’s face it. I mean, if Rhett Lauder comes back and he’s as good as we hope him to be, if if Chase Burns progresses and he develops the same way that perhaps Hunter Green has been able to develop, then there are pieces that can kind of help fill the void of some of these guys if they do fall off a little bit. Um, but overall, there’s not much more to say about Hunter Green. He’s been as advertised. He’s as good as people uh at one time thought he could be could be. And the best thing about it all is is that we always talk about guys ceilings and the prospects and how good can they be and blah blah blah blah blah. The truth is it doesn’t really matter until they’re capable of showcasing they can actually do it, right? The whole prospect is a suspect thing, which I’m not saying that you should buy into that narrative to in totality. But the truth is that Hunter Green is is is is showcasing that he’s not just a guy that’s capable or possible or might have a ceiling of being one of the best pitchers in the league. He is one of the best pitchers in the league. So now the question ultimately lies in, and I’m going to be completely again a realist here, is how long can he sustain that and stay healthy? That I guess is the biggest question mark moving forward with Hunter Green because he’s good. He at this point, Nick, he has erased all doubt of how good he can be or is. He is that guy. Like, I hope people know that Hunter Green is that guy right now. And if he stays healthy, he’s going to continue to be that guy. The only thing that could derail it, in my opinion, is the obvious, which is starting pitchers that that are that are that are throwing this damn hard sometimes have an issue of staying healthy. And we’ll see if he’s capable of doing that. Yeah. I would also just to your whole starting pitching talk, I think what Brady Singer’s doing right now, I don’t think is getting enough enough talk. I mean, he’s been incredible of late. Um, and you still have him next year under control and that that’s looking like a bigger and bigger deal as this goes along. You kind of thought when you got Singer it was really for this year, but still having him next year feels like a huge deal right now. Um, couple thoughts on on Green. It’s funny. We had the I remember Green was probably I remember was was it a Mariners game last year when he only lasted four innings in like late April, early May. And boy, the the convers the the pitchforks were out for Hunter Green. It’s kind of wild how fast he’s kind of flipped that narrative. Um, the other thing with Green is it’s kind of wild how how dominant his fast ball has been because I don’t remember I think almost every home run he’s allowed since he’s come back has been off of his slider or most of them. And his slider has great numbers over the year. I mean batters only hitting coming in today a buck 67. Um they do actually have a little bit higher slugging off of his slider than his fast ball, which you wouldn’t normally expect when that’s your primary um um breaking pitch. Um but yeah, I mean if he’s able to kind of and I think most of the sliders have been location. He’s kind of left him and I think I think the teams have been hunting his slider which is is kind of interesting. I think they’ve been hunting it a little bit. So it’ll be interesting how he kind of navigates that. But, um, it’s just interesting that almost all the homers he’s given up since he’s come back have been off the slider. That’s a fair point by you. I I don’t I don’t know if the the pitch mix perhaps there’s a there’s there’s a reason over the other or if it’s just a coincidence that’s that’s happened. Um, to your point, it doesn’t seem like that’s the right thing, but time will tell. Um, I’d have to look. I think a lot of them been first pitch sliders, too. So, it’s I’m interested how they kind of try to remedy that, you know, over his last final couple starts. Listen, I I do know uh this I think when you get closer and closer towards the end of the season, right? Um, the Reds haven’t maybe been in the postseason hunt enough for us to really discuss this, but there’s advanced scouting that happens, right, Nick, that at at some point in the last call it 20, 25, 30 games. Um, a lot of these teams that are that are in the hunt um are going to have a little more kind of knowhow on your baseball team than they would have known before. Whether or not Hunter Green is he’s not tipping his pitches, I’m not saying that. whether or not maybe that that that word’s got around that somehow he’s a little heavy on a certain pitch and certain counts and they’re ready waiting for it maybe so but um I’m still waiting for the day that TJ Fredel gets that bunt that that left-handed uh the lefty on lefty match up and he tries to bunt for a hit. I mean he’s still getting away with it man. It’s it’s amazing to me that these guys are still letting TJ Fredel bunt lefty on lefty and pull bunts for base hits. I’d be cheating the second baseman in and I’d be taking that first baseman and move him moving him down the off the line a little bit so he can get to that ball and I’d be telling the pitchers they better be busting at their butt over the first base to make sure they can beat him to the bag. But I’m I’m happy. I’m thankful for it. I hope he continues to do it, but it’s it’s insane to me how many times he’s capable of getting away with it. Um but uh but yeah, Hunter Green, just to recap, amazing. if you didn’t get a chance to watch it because you were doing other things on Sunday. Um it was one of the better starts that he’s had in Red’s uniform and and uh really it reminds me of uh of another big start he had and people forget it, but he had another big start two years ago uh in 2023 against the Twins late in the season when you felt like you were your back was up against the rope and you needed a win and Hunter Green went out and absolutely shoved. Now, I’m not saying this is the same scenario as the other one, but there’s been there’s been a couple times now where you’ve asked you’ve asked the guy that you’re relying on to be your ace to go be the ace and go give your team a chance to win, and he has absolutely delivered. So, that is obviously a positive thing moving forward. Um, all right. As always, you can text andor call 988. You can also visit man theapy.org. It’s okay to not be okay. Okay, it’s anonymous hotline. Just as a reminder, 24/7 you can text and or call 988, excuse me, 988 to be clear. Um, super chats. We have a couple more here that I want to get to before we uh we round out the show. Um, look at this. Our man behind the scenes, executive producer Craig Sandlin has been on his tail in the back end. Uh, I’m just going to read it off the screen instead of YouTube. Why not? Uh, super chat from Vandy 81. He says, “Uh, Ellie’s batting average up, OBP near the same. Power way down and has a ton of speed, so why not move him up in the lineup? Makes me think our manager isn’t capable.” Um, I listen I I don’t I’m not I don’t really know if it’s worth the time and effort and energy to sit here and discuss Tito and the the the decisions he makes and whether or not they make sense and he’s a big problem or not a big problem. I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Nick, I think we could have had a chance. It wouldn’t have been good for the show. It wouldn’t have been good for probably many people in the offseason that were looking for content. But I do think that if we said how we truly felt at the very beginning of all this, we would have told people that just like we told them when everyone was asking for David Bell to get fired that this isn’t the saving grace, folks. This isn’t the answer. It’s not the answer if things are going great. It’s not the answer if things are going terribly bad. Now, maybe if there’s a huge culture problem, so be it. But I don’t think that’s really been the case in both areas. I think there’s been a lack of production from the Major League Baseball players that are on the field more times than not. And that’s what’s causing some of these issues. As far as leaving him in the three hole just because is or moving him up in the lineup just because his power is down, his batting averages up, his OBP, all that. Yeah, it makes logical sense. But as far as a speed perspective, you know, in my opinion, again, just watching with my eyes, he’s not really been the same type of guy even when he gets on base that he was one that he once was. Um, and maybe that’s part of the quad situation, Nick. Um, I would actually prefer to move him down until you felt like he was back maybe back to himself again. And then you’ve always asked for him to be the lead off and or the two-hole, but that’s never happened either. Your thoughts on that, Super Chat? Yeah, I’d move him up. I’d bet him lead off tomorrow if it was up to me. I I mean I I just if you’re if any equation of the Reds getting hot over the next 19 games, doesn’t it feel like Ellie de la Cruz has to be a big part of it? That’s why he gets the most criticism. That’s exactly why he gets the most criticism. Like it or not, when you’re the guy at the top that everybody’s hoping for, it might not be fair. It might not be it might not be the the the the the the perfect slice of of of equality when it comes to who should get blame and who shouldn’t get blame on this team, but you just said it yourself. That’s why he is primary target A when things don’t go right and he’s not playing well is what you just said. I guess I just hate the way that people fan. I guess I guess that’s my problem. It’s just the guy’s making $700,000 this year. Has been the Red’s best player all year even with a atrocious month. I I just don’t really see the need to come out of pitchfork with that guy. But to each their own, I guess. I guess that they just have to accept people. I think you nailed it right on the head with what you just did. I I mean, I honestly, Nick, I think your problem lies at the end of the day with the value that Ellie provides, with how much he gets paid, and you aren’t really overly concerned about whether he’s the best player and or whether he’s been hyped up or the superstar. You’re looking at it from strictly not just a math. I’m not trying to make it sound like you’re just straight mathing it, but I do think that you’re trying to find value on this team and you’re saying, “Hey, you know what? I’m going to provide this guy some grace when he’s not playing well because of all the things that he does outside of blah blah blah blah in this in this month and how many wins he’s helped us get when there’s all these other players that need to help way more than Ellie. The truth is that the vast majority of the fan base isn’t going to do that, man. They’re going to show up on Friday night against the Mets. They’re going to get their hot dog. They’re going to watch their third game of the year. And they’re going to be extremely excited that the Reds have a chance to do something special. And they’re going to see that their favorite baseball team gets the bases loaded in the ninth inning. And they’re going to watch their supposed superstar as the as they’ve been told by everybody watch three strikes down the, you know, not down the middle, whatever. He watches three strikes, doesn’t swing once, and then all of a sudden now they leave the game, Nick, and they’re going to get on socials. They’re going to do whatever and say that Ellie stinks. That’s the reality. May maybe we need to uh like put a giant poster of Jamer Candelario’s face, right? He’s the real like like like this guy. He gets cut. He’s in Scranton. Everyone you know you know who you know who in 2024 you know who in 2024 also was Jam Candelario and now he’s the now he’s the hype of the town. No Mart. Yeah Marte. He was gone all year because he got busted for steroids that he took and nobody seemed to care because everybody else didn’t perform well. It is what it is man. I don’t. It’s not going to be a fair situation for Ellie ever. Michael Roth says, “Question. Is Ellie closer to Marte or Aaron Judge Otani?” Sorry, I raised Nick’s blood pressure. Well, right now, right now, I think it’s fair to say it’s Marte, right? I mean, I Let’s be honest. Right now, but yeah. Yeah. Where that question? I would say so. I think if I uh I mean, I’ll try to like answer it with like my best like real like math talk here. I would say Ellie’s probably projected to be a five- win player in 2026. Marte, you probably are thinking three, three and a half over a full season. Otani and Judge are probably in the the eight range. So, yeah, I think he is. Yeah, I would agree with that. I don’t I think it’s close though. I I don’t and I think I wouldn’t be shocked if if uh I wouldn’t be shocked if if Ellie next year had a higher wins above replacement as a batter than Judge playing shortstop helps a lot. Yeah, I think that and I think Ellie’s going to be back. I think Ellie’s going to have a drastic improvement defensively at shortstop. That’d be my biggest predict prediction this off seasonason. And I would openly say that if he doesn’t have a drastic improvement in shortstop and and Matt Mlan is back and healthy and plays the way that he did in 2023 when we were all excited about him, I do think that at that point there will be probably a very very difficult decision that this front office is going to have to make. But we’re not going to get there uh or that decision to be clear is not going to get made uh until I think that uh the whole Ellie experiment at shortstop has ran its course. And that course doesn’t get ran fully until in my opinion three or four or five or 6 weeks into the season next year. And the only week the only way it would be like three or four weeks, Nick, is if it goes terribly bad at the beginning and it’s almost becomes this toxic thing in my opinion. Um but we’ll we’ll find out together. We’ll see. Um you know, ultimately I don’t know what happens. Ned Flanders says, “Uh he’s not an Ellie apologist, but unless I’m missing something, he’s only really had one bad month. So, is everyone else in the lineup on every team with 19 games left? I want Ellie playing every day. Um, yeah, I think that’s putting it very, very vaguely if we’re being completely fair and honest. What’s a a bad month for one of the team’s best players on another club that’s trying to make the postseason I don’t think is totally fair. I think if if we’re going to say that Ellie’s their best player, um then if we’re going to compare them to the best player on another team, Ellie has severely lacked performance comparatively speaking to them. And if we’re going to compare him to just our players, well then I guess he’s playing on a team that has a lot of mid or below mid baseball players that are position players. So, I think that’s my that’s my take on that. Yeah, I I don’t I have to look through every player. I mean, I think there there’s a lot more stars across baseball that have had a month close to what Ellie had in August than than maybe I think a lot of people probably realize. Um I don’t think every star like I just I just looked up too like Aaron Judge and Otani, they haven’t had a month anywhere close to that bad. Um, but I think there are probably a lot of teams best players that if you looked at you if you if you’re as a Reds fan, you don’t watch them every day, I think you’d be like, “Oh, they they’ve been great all year.” Well, they probably had a terrible month, too. Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, my bigger concern is not his Here’s where I’m at with this. I’m tired of acting like everything’s okay with it. Like, that’s where I’m at. Clearly, there’s an issue in some regard, whether it’s injury, whether it’s development, whether it’s psychological, whether there’s a mental block there. If he’s as good as we think he is, and I do think he’s I think he’s the guy that we that we hope him to be, you don’t struggle this long, you don’t you don’t hit you don’t just not accidentally hit a home run, Nick. Like, I don’t know. There’s something there that’s bigger than just a little bit of a quote unquote struggle. Um, another super chat, uh, Rough says, uh, I’d like I’d like to ask Barry Larkin where he’s going on vacation after the season. He might get super excited and talk about that. Love you, Barry. He probably looks at some of these infielders and just uh I think that the rolling eyes emoji is where we’re going. Um, yeah. Listen, I u Barry had obviously some issues at the beginning of his career with with errors as well. Um, I don’t think it’s fair to sit here and compare and say, “Well, look at Barry in his prime.” I think the bigger bigger picture of all of it is is is trying to ask yourself, um, is Ellie’s footwork the same as Barry’s footwork when he was making all those errors? Is Ellie going to if if if that’s the case and and Barry had bad footwork when he was younger, how did he get better? Is is the development that that Barry was capable of doing, is it going to be the same for Ellie or not? Because the one thing I think that that maybe Nick, we don’t talk about on this show enough or we just assume it’s gonna happen really is just the development in general and just assuming that guys, you know, are going to get better because one thing that I do and I haven’t done a, you know, I’ve not followed this franchise nearly as long as you have on a day-to-day basis. I’d like to start to try to figure out if we have some some kind of organizational issue with development in general. comparatively speaking to some some of the better franchises. If we’re trying to be the Guardians or we’re trying to be the Rays or we’re trying to be one of these smaller market franchises that that seem to get the most out of their guys are we might sit here and play the prospect game and get prospects up here, but there’s something in the recipe maybe that we’re missing. Seems like we don’t have the actual perfect formula. And I’m not saying that we don’t. I’m just saying that it doesn’t seem like we do. And I’m trying to figure out what that is. And I’m rounding that back out to saying, Nick, some of that might be development. Like, why why aren’t some of these guys getting better, you know, is CES seems like he’s he’s he’s he’s progressing, progressing, progressing, and then all a sudden we don’t believe him at all, you know. Um, and I’m not I’m not trying to use Will Benson as another example, but it’s like these guys seem to like make strides and then all of a sudden it’s just like we either quit on them or they don’t get better. One of the two. Yeah. I mean, you also do have to remember like Thread’s pitching development has seemed to seem to have had a pretty good couple years. I mean, that that’s But that’s a different guy. Is that fair or not? Like that’s that’s a whole another No, it is. It is. It’s it’s it’s weird though. Like, if you would have gone back two years ago, I think everyone would have been like, “Ah, the Red’s pitching development doesn’t has been bad.” Right? Like that would have been probably our biggest concern at the midway point in 2023 was that they’re not developing enough pitchers. The pitching is a disaster and then it’s like really completely flipped on the offense. Um yeah, I don’t it’s hard like Mart’s had a great year. Um and I I think Mlan I I still I’m I’m bullish on Matt Mlan. I think it’s a good take. I I really I mean the more I watch him I I feel good. I I really do. I feel good about him going into next year. Maybe I shouldn’t. Um but like he’s been worth the win and a half and he’s been atrocious at times this year. I don’t think we’ve given him enough credit for his injury, too, to be fair to him. Yeah. Yeah. And well, I mean, and the fact that he’s played 128 games, like I mean, remember the first month of the season, we didn’t think he was going to stay on the field. Like it was it felt like he he played six games, he get hurt. Play six games, he get hurt. He he’s been out there every single day. So I think for him getting through a full season, knock on wood, he’s still got three weeks left. I think it’s a big deal for him kind of going into next year. All right. Um so yeah, I don’t I mean, you know, you have a good MLAN, a good Ellie, a good Mart, your offense and your development looks quite a bit better. I I think right now you’re kind of at a low point just because there’s been a lot of guys that have just it hasn’t gone their way and it’s a lot of them have been for for multiple reasons. But I think at some point I would also like this this organization to either move the fences back or maybe try to give some of these guys that are power hitters a better opportunity. Yeah. It’s almost like the positions that profile for certain types of players. We need to fill those positions with those types of players. Yeah. They just the Reds have not got enough production out of first base, left field. They didn’t get enough production until Marte established himself in right field and they didn’t get enough production at DH. Those are offensive positions. Those are positions that you you lose value in your wins of replacement equation because you’re supposed to put good hitters in those spots. And overall, they’ve been below average, every single one of them, until Noel Marte filled that role in right field. And that that’s made Mlan look worse. That’s made Ellie look worse. That’s made Fredel look worse. I think there’d be a lot less comp like like what I said at the beginning like Mookie Bets like he has a 96 OPS plus and I doubt there’s a whole lot of people, man. Mookie Bets, man, he’s let us down this year. Oh man, you know, he’s been terrible. He’s been great at shortstop to be fair to him. Yeah, but he I mean he’s been a below average hitter making $300 million. Well, money doesn’t matter out there. That’s the difference. But yes, but they also that their their premium positions or their their premium hitting positions have pretty well all had success. Yeah, I I get your point. I’m saying that no one in LA gives a gives a damn about how much any of those guys are making because it has no impact on their their ability to do anything from a franchise perspective. It’s a it’s it’s a it’s like asking a rich kid how much lunch costs for them. You know, do you think they give a damn that when they look at the the menu whether or not they’re going to get the uh the extra set of fries or the extra set of ice cream that they even factor in the cost of how much that is and whether or not they can afford it. No, that’s what the Dodgers currently are. They don’t have to worry about that. We we we we certainly do. We’re we’re sitting here counting down the days that King Griffy Jr. comes off the books. We’re we’re we’re we’re we’re sitting here fretting about the the fact that uh Jamir Candelario is hogging down how much money we’re making. We got fans that are sitting here saying that we spent too much money on Nick Martinez, relatively speaking, of what he means to this team. That’s where we’re at. Um, which again that’s a Major League Baseball issue that I will take up in the appropriate time when those discussions are being had, which are probably coming uh in the not too distant future. All right. Uh, the last super chat is from Roth. Oh, no, my bad. Grant Harmon says, “Uh, Ellie is on an accelerated timeline. He will be a perennial MVP candidate at some point, but the Reds fans need it to be within the next three seasons. not fair, but reality. Um, well, I I that’s that’s all that’s all expectations. Again, none of that’s guaranteed. Obviously, you’re you’re we’re projecting him to be in that spot. And that’s where I say I say that. Once again, I’m not trying to say that this is your fault, Grant. Not trying to say it’s your fault, Nick. I’m But when we say those things and we say them out loud and we let other people in the fan base hear those things, guess what happens when that player goes out and doesn’t play as well? They get utter utterly frustrated because they feel like a guy’s overrated. They think a guy isn’t isn’t nowhere near what everyone else says he is. And that quite frankly just pisses every you know pisses all those types. Not to say that you need to bow down to those fans, but I’m just saying don’t act surprised when there’s a firestorm on on the on the in the fan base and on the socials when we sit here and project this guy to be an MVP candidate and he’s been one of the least productive players on the team down the race. So, in regards to Ellie, um I I don’t know. We we’ve kind of we’ve kind of seems like we did a whole chapter on Ellie tonight or a whole book. Um I don’t know. Do you have anything to say? Do you want to me do you want to mention it? Do you want to mention the the scooping at first base? Well, I I don’t even want to go down that path because I know it’s I I I I feel I feel like I feel like it’s justified to talk about because I do think that Ellie’s errors and a lot of maybe some of the situations that that he’s found himself in could have been uh could have been helped. Like you could have had a teammate that covered you up. Like you could have had someone else that picked you up. No doubt about it. Like like I said the other night, if Gavin Lux gets a base hit, Nick, guess what? It takes a lot of pressure off of Ellie. No one’s talking about it that much. it quite literally. I don’t even know if we’re I don’t even know if Ellie being unclutched or whatever term you want to use is being said on Friday night if Gavin Lux gets the base hit. And I also would say that brother doesn’t make a great play maybe even not even I would also say that yeah if you can scoop a baseball at first base I don’t know how many errors it cuts down on but you know maybe four or five errors and then all a sudden his whole whole outlook on his season is different. is defensive runs saved and all the other metrics is outs above average look a lot different because they’re not factoring in I I think I don’t actually don’t think that I think that outs above average doesn’t I think the reason LA isn’t as bad in those as is with the airs is because they actually do factor in the scoops do they really that seems crazy if they I’m pretty sure I’m pretty sure I just assume they would give you they give they’re basically giving you an air which caused a runner to get on base based off of the way the ball was hit and how how what are the odds are that you make that play. Now, I could be wrong. I don’t know nothing about defensive run saved. I know defensive run saves I I know would factor in a first baseman’s ability because that is a um that that’s a human that that’s deciding that and they’re going to they’re going to take into effect into account some of the ones that that could have been scooped. Um and they give them like so much of a percentage I think of of of a run for each play. It’s a whole calculation that they get to. I outs by average yardage. I’m not 100% sure on to be honest, but I do know defensive front saved would put that in. Was Hal Morris a good scooper? Yeah, I’m sure. That’s the question I need to know. Right. And and listen, anyone back in the 90s that watched baseball close, was Hal Morris a good scooper? I don’t know, man. I I know that the the digs aren’t nearly as hard as they is as as I think they are, but at the same time, I I also don’t want to give him every excuse. There’s there’s, you know, you can hit the guy in the chest. In fact, can I tell you a little bit of the truth? You know, I I gotta be honest, that one day that Kart was on the uh was on was on the X app talking about how it was totally on Ellie and it’s not Sears fault that he that he didn’t dig that out and the ball hit literally a half an inch from Sears glove on the bounce. I’d be lying if I didn’t go to the MLB film room and was digging up some old clips of uh of perhaps some games that happened back in the day. And the fact that Joy Vado, you know, I don’t he’s pretty good. Like you go back, Joad’s digging balls everywhere and it’s like now to be fair, I couldn’t find any. I couldn’t find any for the exact situation that I was looking for personally. Um I found I found one and uh the same thing and he was hitting him in the chest. He hit I would say this, I seen like 10 straight plays and I got to be frank, nine of them he hit the guy right almost immediately in the chest. So, I kind of like just I don’t want to say I gave up, but I was like, “All right, I I’m going to live and I’m going to die on this hill or I guess I’ll what would be what would be the right word? I will concede um this this argument.” So, anyway, um uh Mike Hart Mike Hart brought up a really good point. Mikeart did some research. Let’s mention this. Um it was kind of like I got to defensive run save does take into account scooping. Outs above average doesn’t which is why Spencer Steer has two very different numbers. Outs above average steer ranks really high. Defensive run safety does not which seems like a pretty big flaw on above average which also might have been part of why Ellie last year was significantly higher in ounce above average than defensive run saved. Yeah, this is where I would also say having legitimately good scouts and having people that know baseball that watch all of these games, it matters. It also matters a lot to factor in those and compare them a little bit to the league. Um or the analytic part of the game because I I’m just going to say it openly, Spencer Steer has done an admirable job over there. Um Spencer Steer has is is a guy that I perhaps beat on a little too much. I’ve been I’ve been a little critical a little too much of Spencer Steer because he’s really just another guy on this baseball team that has been asked to do something that he’s got really little to no business doing and for some dumb reason we decided that we were just going to make him a permanent fixture over there and I openly am saying that’s not totally his fault. Um, but if I think if you’re a reasonable fan or someone that watches this game that knows it well, you can openly admit that Spencer Steer is not really as good or nearly as good as a defensive first baseman as everyone wants to make out. And again, I’m not trying to be disrespectful to Steer. He’s he’s been he’s been he’s been I’ll even say good player. He’s been a he’s been a good player for this team um holistically since he’s gotten called up. And he has certain he’s certainly made a positive impact and he has been available. Whether he’s been hurt or not hurt, he has at least been available. And you can give him that credit and you can also give Ellie that credit. There’s a lot of players on this team that you can’t say that about. So I’m again trying to give Spencer Shear as much as many flowers as I can here to make it very clear that I’m not trying to dog on him. I’m just openly saying that um that I think this off season uh which leads me into the next point with Roth. This offseason we can get into all that, Nick. Um, we can talk about what we actually think this team needs to do and more. Uh, in regards to Rough’s super chat, he said, “Let’s talk Seox Red’s offseason. What’s the schedule look like for all the loyal followers?” Well, Nick’s getting ready to have a baby. Uh, the reality is is that, uh, Nick doesn’t know this yet, but uh, I am going to put a forceful ban on him to do content for at least a serviceable amount of time. I don’t do many things. I usually give a lot of autonomy to Nick. I’d let him do his own thing. he pretty much does whatever he likes to do, which is typically work overly hard and do a lot of things for this company and um and not complain about it. But I do think that at some point we got to have a little balance here. And uh I’m going to try to figure out what that ban or what that time frame looks like that he’s not allowed to do anything and he has to just relax and try to recharge the batteries because I do think when the batteries get relatively low, you’re ready just to kind of kick it all in and be done with it. And I’ll be honest with you, at some point during this whole debacle that I’ll call the Reds going two and eight in their last 10 or three and seven in their last 10, I’ve been there. I’ve been there. I’ve been pretty damn close. And I don’t put nearly the time, effort, energy in that Nick does with this franchise. And this franchise can beat you down a little bit. So, having said that, we’ll see how long that is, but I’m sure that when we get to a what we’ll call a free market for uh for the uh the offseason and content, we’ll be back and we’ll we’ll be we’ll be all engine steam ahead or whatever term you’re supposed to use there. Um but we’re going to have at least we’re going to have a dead period. We’re going to go NCAA dead period style and we’ll see how long that lasts. Um that’s that’s it for the supers. Um, let’s jump into MLB whenever you’re ready, Nick. And then we will do the who, what, when, where, and why. But, uh, but, uh, thank you as always to everybody. Hit the like button if you haven’t already while we jump into Red’s MLB. Yeah, another good uh, day, good, uh, couple weeks here for Red’s MILB. We’ll start off with Triple A Louisville. They won 6-1 over St. Paul. The Bats have won nine straight games and they are 13 and one in their last 14 games. Christian and Kosio Strand two for four homer and a double. CES now four home runs and 12 extra base hits over his last 16 games. Ree Hines just continues to perform. Three for four, hit his 23rd home run of the season. Uh Hines is on fire in September, hitting 500 three home runs so far in seven games. He’s had a great year, 303 average, 942 OPS, now at 99 games this season. Blake Ton walked twice, also stole his 20th bag of the year. Hector Rodriguez was 0 for five. Uh good start today from Chase Petty. Love to see him finish the year strong. It’s been a obviously tough year for him. Goes six and a third. Seven hits, one run, two walk, four strikeouts. The only run that Petty allowed was on a solo home run in the sixth inning. Sam Mole has pitched pretty well since he got demoted. Uh went inning in two/3, just gave up one hit, no runs, no walks. uh mole in three games since being optioned. Uh just one hit, no runs in three and two/3s innings and more importantly zero walks. Buck Farmer also continues to pitch well. He threw a scoreless inning, struck out three batters. Down to DA Chattanooga. They fell 2-1 to Birmingham. Um Lookouts of course they play their first playoff game next week uh September 16th. Cam Ker one for four. Ker has been playing very well though of late. Love to see him ending the year uh strong, sitting 357 over his last 19 games. Edwin Roya 1 for4 with a triple. Trevor Kunel threw another scoreless inning for the lookouts. Down to high. The Dayton Dragons, one of the coolest stories in minor league baseball that you’ll ever see. They win 3-1 over Lancing. The Dragons finished the season 18 and one in their last 19 games. an incredible end to the year. Uh the Dragons were 34 and 75 on August 16th. They had lost six games in a row and they roll off an 18-1 stretch over the last 19 games. Credit to them and their their coaching staff and everyone who kept that thing going around going. Um good to see them finish the year strong. Uh Carlos Sanchez 0 for three did walk twice. Payton Stoval 1 for4. Alexander Vargas had a nice end of the year. He was two for four, stole two bases. Carlos Jorge is probably the player down at Dayton that I have the most hope on for the future. Um he did not play in the finale. He got the day off. He had played in 23 consecutive games um prior to that. Um but Jorge did at least finish the year strong. Uh hit 324 134 WRC plus over his final 27 games. Jorge another player just there was a lot of players had disappointing years there. Hopefully they can bounce back next year. Jorge or maybe a guy we see in the Arizona Fall League. That would be uh something to watch. And last but not least, Daytona. They fall 4-2 to Palm Beach in their regular season finale. Uh the Tortugas actually finished one game under 500. Um they lost three games in a row after they had clinched, but they will host St. Lucy. That’s the Mets affiliate game one best of three series starting Tuesday at 6:35. Tyson Lewis was 0 for three with a walk. Uh Mason Neville walked twice. Kyle Henley on base twice stole his 57th base now 57 for 66 in stolen base attempts. Alfredo Duno and Aronado Lantigua both got the day off. That’s your Reds MLB. Trace will be uh tracking the Tortugas on uh Tuesday night. Little playoff action. Uh Reds don’t play till 9:30. So yeah, that’ll be exciting. There you go. There’s some playoff baseball. That’s the type of playoff baseball that we’re definitely talking about. Um, yeah, towards you know what’s funny about that? It’d be nice at some point maybe they they they upgrade the uh the broadcast equipment down there in Daytona, but that’s here nor there. Game two, the Mets is elite. The Mets broadcast is elite. Yeah. Well, for low. Yeah, that is true. Um, that is true. maybe um I don’t know how many people are keeping tabs on the quality of uh of of broadcasts for for low AA baseball, but Nick Kirby’s definitely going to be one of those. So, if you’re if you’re you’re somebody that’s looking for perhaps the um the uh the review um Nick’s the place to go as always for most things that are baseball and or Red’s baseball. Uh we have who, what, when, where, and why. Before we do that, Nick, I just want to say one thing. I was just thinking, is it insane to think that really you play all these damn games, you’re getting all worked up about all this stuff, and the reality is is we were we were basically in an inning and a half from being tied for the last wild card spot in the playoffs. And uh everybody wants to forget about this, but we were in a tie baseball game in the eighth inning against the Mets uh with an opportunity to take the lead. Um, and I think it was Tyler Stevenson ended up I don’t know if he struck out or bounced out perhaps in the eighth inning there with the bases loaded if I remember right. I could be completely wrong. That’s been a little while back by the way, but that was the series that was directly after the All-Star break. And then you had the bases loaded with nobody out with a chance obviously to win on Friday night. And I get it. You could always say, “What if? What if? What if?” Because they did win two of the three in both of those series. And you could say, “Well, they could have lost one of the other games obviously.” But it’s just it is just kind of wild to think back and be like, you know, they find a way to win that game uh to sweep them on the uh on the way out of the All-Star break and they find a way to win on Friday night. And as crazy as they’ve been or not as I guess for as bad as they’ve been over the past last week and a half, they’d be tied currently with the Mets for the last wild card spot and they’d have the tiebreaker. If we want to go down the the sad train, uh we don’t have to do it, but you taking two out of three from the Mets both times, like I’m not going to it. It is what it is there. Um I mean I think the Reds going two and five against a Braves team that’s terrible this year. Yeah. Three and four against the Marlins. Uh how about two and four against the Nationals. Four and six against the Cardinals. Uh only six and four. I’ll say only six and four against the Pirates. They only face skins what one time all year. That’s where the season was lost if this team doesn’t pull off a miracle. Not the I know that the two game I know. Yes. you make up more ground quickly, but you can’t expect to sweep the New York Mets. I think those that’s where this season was lost. And there was a lot of games in those that were very winnable games. And even the Brewers, yeah, the Brewers are great, but the Reds had I think what, four games against the Brewers that you feel like you should have at least won two of them. I mean, they had two one- nothing losses and then two other games where they completely blew massive leads. No, there’s there’s there’s uh listen, if you want to go down the uh the death wish that is basically trying to figure out what you could have done in 2025, it’s going to be a long and painful journey as you you as you go through all the situations that they’ve had and they weren’t capable of executing on. But here’s the truth. Um I’ve already said I I I I think it’s unrealistic to sit here and and act like they have a legitimate chance, but that said, they’re mathematically still alive. And when they’re mathematically still alive, I think that you, you know, a reasonable person could say, “Hey, well, what the hell? Why not, you know, why not just kind of ride this thing out? You’ve made it this far. Why not write it out until you know for a fact that it’s it’s over with and done?” If the Dayton Dragons, who won basically, like you said, 30 games and and then how many ever tries? 34 and 75. Exactly. If the Dayton Dragons can find a way to win uh 18 and 19 games or whatever the hell you just said, then I’d like to think maybe the Cincinnati Reds can. Will they? We will find out. But there’s uh 19 to be clear. 19 games left. That’s what we have. And uh let’s let’s make this the final parting thought before we jump into the who, what, when, where, and why. The number they need to win to to get it done. Nick, I I’ll throw out like a number. I mean just uh but it’s just pure speculation on the Mets. I would say 13 and that would be the Mets going nine and eight and then you would tie. So I I think that’s cool. I was just I was I didn’t want to say my number. I was just saying how close it was to year. No, I had four one 14. 14. Okay. So we’re we’re close. Yeah. Yeah. I I think if you if you went 13 if you if you went 13-6 then then the Mets would have to go the Mets go 9 and eight you would beat them. So you would literally you’d be hoping for the Mets to be one game above 500. So I think that’s realistic but the Mets could be way better. The Mets could be way worse. That’s what makes this maddening for me. I think Trace it’s just keep staying alive. I mean, you get it to like two games in the final week of the season, you just really you put more pressure on the Mets and and the Mets have been a they’ve actually been a part of a few uh brutal late season collapses. So, you kind of get into that you could feed into that whole New York, oh, poor us energy that they they for some reason have. Oh, they well they they live in a it’s a big city mentality, man. It is what it is. Um, yeah. As far as what’s left here, we we got to we got to survive in advance of of a couple other teams as well. I know that you’re suggesting that we’re we’re, you know, we’re tied with the Giants and we shouldn’t worry about them. Um, they’re seven and three in their last 10. Uh, the Diamondbacks are are seven and three in their last 10. And the Cardinals are also seven and three uh in their last 10. Now, do I think that you need to worry about all three of them if you’re going to go win and win 14 games? No, obviously not. Um, if you’re if you’re also sitting here asking yourself, what do the uh what do the Giants have left? I’ll tell you here real quick before we jump into it. Uh, they they pretty much have to play the Diamondbacks. So, as I said before, you’re either going to gain a game on on somebody no matter what there or lose a game no matter what. They then play the Dodgers, they play the Diamondbacks again, play the Dodgers, then they play the Cardinals, and then but they do have three games against the Rockies to end the So, it all depends on how well they can get through this next two weeks to see what they have left at the end of the year. But, as I said, and I think you’re saying the same thing, really, we need to worry about ourselves. They got to win 14 games. Um, 13 or 14 games, which is asking maybe uh too much, but we’ll find out. And speaking of winning games, we got more to play. Uh, who, what, when, where, and why, Nick. And, uh, hopefully they can find a way to to win. Red’s going to take on the San Diego Padres’s, a team that has uh uh they’ve not played well against. The Reds are 8-20 against the Padres since the start of 2021. Uh that’s the worst record against any team. And more ugly news, Reds are 2 and2 in their last 14 games in San Diego dating back to 2019. Reds did take two of three from the Padres’s um back in July. Um the only game the Reds lost, they actually blew a three nothing and 4 to1 lead. There’s another one of those uh those games that we were talking about. Um the series pitching matchups. Uh Nick Liddolo against U Darvish on Monday night. Um U Darvish has had a really brutal year. Has struggled of late. Has only gone four innings in three of his last four starts. Um, Nicholo of course is only his second start since coming back off the IIL and then having the whole sickness thing. Tuesday is 9:40. Zack Latell against TBD might be Michael King who’s a really good pitcher for the Padres’s coming off the IIL. And then Wednesday, Andrew Abbott against Nick Paveta. Paveeta is also having an incredible year. 13 and5 2.85 year. That’s an 840 start time. So, the Reds are certainly not going to see um not going to have any easy matchups outside of maybe Ud Darish tomorrow, but Ud Darish is obviously still a talented pitcher. A lot of Reds have not seen him a lot. The only one that’s seen him much is Gavin Lux. Um but yeah, uh the Reds are six games behind the Padres’s. So, you sweep the Padres’s, you would really make it you make it interesting at least. And then the while while you’re doing that, the Mets are playing the Phillies for four games. I think if you win two of three in San Diego, that would be pretty impressive, but unfort that’s kind of just the unfortunate place of where we’re at because winning two out of three would be a pretty incredible effort in my opinion. Yeah, listen, I I don’t it’s unrealistic to expect them to sweep anybody. We’ve said that a thousand times on this show, but uh but but yeah, it’s almost like in order to do something special, you got to do something special, you know. Um, I think there’s a lot of people that are going to be very pessimistic when it comes to this road trip and uh, you know, I don’t I don’t want to sit here and act as if you should feel one way or the other, but they do play the A’s. Um, and they do play the Cardinals. I mean, I the Mets and Padres’s do also still play a three-game series against each other, which would be the That’s what makes it interesting if you sweep the Padres’s because then you would Yeah. be very you’d be three games behind the Padres’s and you’re probably right at least three games behind the Mets. So if you’re three games behind both teams when those two teams play each other, well there’s a real chance to to to to put a dent in it. So again, I I threat swept the Padres’s. I mean that would be one of the most incredible efforts. I’m not saying that’s even remotely uh logical to think they could do it, but you could. The Poders haven’t been playing great. They’re three and seven in the last 10, and two of those wins were against the Rockies. All right. Well, we’ll find out. Uh they got some night baseball headed your way. 9:40 Eastern again as a reminder. But, uh we will be back better than ever, hopefully your way. Uh myself and Nick will be there, um every step of the way here over the next week or so. And then obviously Nick has another uh kid on the way. Hey, and as a reminder, I just want to let you know, Nick, there wasn’t a super chat, but I did see an excellent comment that I do want to at least give a shout out. I don’t have the name, but I do want to say that uh every time that Nick Kirby gets some uh some downtime or maybe some uh some reprieve, another kid’s on the way. So, you know, maybe there’s some truth to that as well. Nick, can assure you there won’t be another one. That’s all right. Well, you never say never. All right. Well, uh that’ll do it for this show. appreciate everybody. I know that uh right now there’s some mixed emotions on how you should feel as a Reds fan, but uh as I’ve always, I’m not going to apologize for either of us to sit here and say how we truly feel or our our true emotions on this show. Um if you’re um I I don’t know what the right word is to say. I’m not trying to be overly ridiculous here, but if you’re somebody that like gets overly passionate and thinks, “Oh, I can’t stand this. Nick’s Nick’s always doing this for Ali blah blah blah or there goes Trace. He’s toxic all the time.” like I we’re just talking Red’s baseball and we’re trying to talk through maybe the way that we view it and how we feel about it. And hopefully you can appreciate that if nothing else. And I’d also say, you know, it is tough when you watch something that you’ve been hoping for for about five months on a daily basis kind of get maybe ripped right from you and not feel at least somewhat sour about it. We’ll find out if that’s the truth or not because they got more games to be played. And we’ll see you right here on Chatterbox Reds. Take care everybody, myself and Nick. We’ll see you tomorrow. Take care. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Music]
Trace Fowler and Nick Kirby will be LIVE at 9:00 PM on Sunday.
On September 7, 2025, the Cincinnati Reds host the New York Mets at Great American Ball Park for the finale of a crucial three-game series, with first pitch set for 1:40 p.m. ET. This matchup carries significant playoff implications for both teams. The Mets, holding a 76-66 record and second place in the NL East, are clinging to the third NL wild-card spot. The Reds, at 71-71 and third in the NL Central, are five games back of New York for that final postseason berth, making this game pivotal for their fading playoff hopes. The series is tied 1-1 after the Mets won 5-4 on Friday and the Reds responded with a 6-3 victory on Saturday.The Reds will send Hunter Greene to the mound. The right-hander, with a 5-4 record and a 2.70 ERA, is making his fifth start since returning from the injured list. Greene has been sharp, posting a 2.66 ERA with 28 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings over his last four outings, though his record in that span is 1-1. Against the Mets, he’s 0-2 with a 4.84 ERA in four career starts, with a rough outing in 2022 inflating that number. Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo has had success against Greene, going 5-for-9 with a homer and four RBIs, while Pete Alonso has two homers in nine at-bats.
The Mets counter with Brandon Sproat, a right-hander making his major league debut. The Mets’ No. 5 prospect has impressed in the minors, and his call-up reflects New York’s reliance on young arms down the stretch. Sproat will face a Reds lineup led by Elly De La Cruz, who boasts 19 home runs and 78 RBIs, ranking among MLB’s top hitters. TJ Friedl, batting .266 with 11 homers and a 16-game on-base streak, and Spencer Steer, with 17 homers, provide additional firepower. Cincinnati’s offense ranks 10th in the NL with 138 home runs but has struggled recently, going 3-7 in their last 10 games with a 5.63 ERA.
The Mets’ lineup features Juan Soto, with 37 homers and a .259 average, and Pete Alonso, who’s 18-for-45 with four homers in his last 10 games. Francisco Lindor, coming off a three-hit game, adds consistency at the top. New York’s .431 slugging percentage ranks sixth in the majors, and they’ve gone 6-4 in their last 10, outscoring opponents by 22 runs. However, their 31-39 road record could be a factor.
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Andrew Abbott, Scott Barlow, Hunter Greene, Zack Littell, Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Zach Maxwell, Emilio Pagán, Connor Phillips, Lyon Richardson, Tony Santillan, Brady Singer, Brent Suter, Yosver Zulueta, Will Banfield, Jose Trevino, Elly De La Cruz, Santiago Espinal, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Noelvi Marte, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, Sal Stewart, Miguel Andujar, Will Benson, TJ Friedl, Austin Hays, Gavin Lux, Rhett Lowder, Alfredo Duno, Tyson Lewis, Steele Hall, Cam Collier, Chase Petty, Edwin Arroyo, Héctor Rodríguez, Aaron Watson, Adolfo Sanchez, Arnaldo Lantigua, Mason Neville, Sheng-En Lin, Mason Morris, Julian Aguiar, Luke Holman, Ethan O’Donnell, Liberts Aponte, Tyler Callihan, Ricky Cabrera, Carlos Jorge, Leo Balcazar, Jose Franco, Tristan Smith, Cole Schoenwetter, JeanPierre Ortiz, Ty Floyd, Graham Ashcraft, Fernando Cruz, Alexis Díaz, Carson Spiers, Brandon Williamson, Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Edwin Ríos, Jake Fraley, Stuart Fairchild, Jacob Hurtubise, Blake Dunn, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Frank Robinson, Barry Larkin, Tony Perez, Joey Votto
Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, Louisville Bats, Chattanooga Lookouts, Dayton Dragons, Daytona Tortugas
6 comments
GO SEAHAWKS GO REDS SORRYS ASS FANS CAN STILL HOP ON THE BANDWAGON AFTER HOPING OFF TWO DAYS AGO AND WEEKS AGO BEFORE THAT . WE CAN MAKE PLAYOFFS
If a manager feels like he has to ask a player (Steer) to play hurt, the powers that be are failing
Great show boys
The Bengals won so that's cool, the reds need to win like 15 of 18 to make the playoffs
Elly is Overrated
We’re cooked boyz, seasons over. Love the show, watch every night. Season unfortunately was lost with all those loses early