Spencer Steer’s IMPRESSIVE Game Sheds Light on MISMANAGEMENT of Elly De La Cruz by Cincinnati Reds

Spencer Steer’s IMPRESSIVE Game Sheds Light on MISMANAGEMENT of Elly De La Cruz by Cincinnati Reds

Arrested Spencer Steer was good for five RBI’s and getting the Reds a series win against the Cardinals yesterday. We’re going to talk about the importance of rest on today’s Locked on Reds. [Music] You are Locked on Reds, your daily Cincinnati Reds podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Reds podcast. My name is Jeff, his name is Steve, and we are lifelong Cincinnati Reds fans. We’ve been podcasting about this team for combined 14 seasons, and we’re glad that you’re alongside us here today. Locked on Reds is part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, and we want to thank you for making us the number one sports podcast network out there. And on today’s show, we are going to talk about why it’s just time to beat them Cubbies like playoffs or no, let’s beat the Cubbies. Yeah, that’ll be later on in today’s show coming up here in just a few minutes. I want to just dissect exactly how much blame to assess this season on Terry Fran Conan because it’s not nothing but it ain’t as much as people are giving them. And that’ll be coming up later on in just a few minutes here on today’s podcast. But we will begin with rest. You know that wonderful thing that we all love to have and how important it is during the MLB season. That’s all on today’s episode that is brought to you by FiveHour Energy. Enough with boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5hour energy shots. Go to www.fourenery.com or Amazon today. All right, Steve Spencer Steer went off and the Reds got that series dub over the Cardinals. end up still falling in the season series, but winning two out of three, finishing up the road trip, a nine-game road trip with a four and five record. It was a very long slog, but at the end of the day, they didn’t fall back as much as we were fearing after the A’s series. However, they still lost ground in that playoff race. Now, they come home for the Cubbies, which we’ll talk about a little bit later, but Spencer Steer was the dude that led him to that win. Spencer Steer had a very, very big day. And just real quick, I want to talk about your big day. While I’ve got everybody here at the top of the show, if you missed it, folks, and you’re a Bearcats fan, this guy just launched his own Bearcats show, Locked on Bearcats. You can follow it on the the YouTubes, same like you follow us here. All the same stuff, only instead of locked on Reds, Locked on Bearcats. Go check Jeff out. Give him subscribe over on the Bearcats YouTube channel. All right, back to the Reds commentary, Jeff. Uh, but I’m proud of you, man. Uh it’s been a long time coming, you doing the show, so I’m excited for you. I’m also excited for Spencer Steer. Uh he hasn’t played a lot lately. Um some of it has been because of nagging injuries. I guess we learned that he has had bones out of place and was saved and and and and chiropractors to the rescue and all the things that we’ve been talking about in our group chat. Um that Spencer Steer has been nursing that we didn’t necessarily know about. But also, he’s had some extra time off to let Sal Stewart have some playing time. All of these things have added up to Spencer Steer looking really rested and comfortable in the field yesterday uh at the plate yesterday. Uh Cowboy even talked about it on the broadcast that Spencer Steer just looks rested. And what was the result of that? Well, let me tell you, he was three for four with a home run, five RBI’s, couple good defensive plays. Spencer Steer looked good. And it it feeds into the overarching criticisms we’ve been throwing the Red’s way of late because of how Ellie de la Cruz has been handled. And what’s good enough for one of the guys is good enough for all of the guys. And you can see the real dividends of giving Spencer Steer a little bit of rest. Now, I’m not saying set Ellie de la Cruz down for a week or sit him down for multiple games. That ship has sailed. Uh, but we see here the value of rest and the value of being sharp and the value of being fresh and it translated into a three for five RBI day for Spencer Steer. What could it have translated to for Ellie de Cruz? We’ll never know because they never gave him a day off. Uh, they’re going to they’re getting the LA de la Cruz 162 banner ready for Great American Ballpark. That unveiling is going to be lit next season. But I I love Spencer Ste bouncing back here. um he’s taken some criticism this year and I think some of it’s been unfair. I think that we didn’t allow for the fact that he was playing hurt with for the beginning of the year and that his shoulder wasn’t right and all of the impacts from a hurt shoulder. So, but he he’s bounced back nicely and and you look at where he’s at right now, Jeff. You look at on the season, including the three for five day uh that he just delivered over his last 30 games, 263, 349, 474 with five home runs. That’s not a bad month, Jeff. That is not a bad That’s a decent sample size of 30 games. That’s That’s a pretty decent performance for a guy that really struggled early on this season. That’s Spencer Steer. That’s the guy that we were expecting. That’s the guy, because I even said it yesterday while I was solo, like his whole season when you take it all at once, he’s not the mashed potatoes of the lineup, but those last 30 games are much more what we expect to see from Spencer Steer. I wonder about this, Stephen. This is a bit of a of a curveball that I’ll throw you this time, uh, when it comes to this subject. How much of that do you attribute him actually sticking to one spot? We talk about a lot of guys here when it comes to Major League Baseball nowadays where it’s like, would they like that routine? Would they prefer to know where they’re playing each and every ball game? Spencer Steer told you a couple of years ago whenever you talked to him on the show, he prefers to play everywhere and and move around a whole bunch. Is he the opposite? Is he a guy that maybe was hamstrung by the fact that he didn’t move around a bunch this year? I don’t think so. I I I think that more than anything else, Spencer Steer just wants to be on the field and he wants to play and he wants to do what’s best for the team. That’s how the left field thing happened. He just wanted to do what was best for the team and it was either going to be Spencer Ste or David Bell playing left field at the time. So, I I think they made the right call. But I I think this really if you’re really looking for what to attribute the fact that he’s just 0.3 in war before today’s game. If you’re looking to what to attribute the fact that his OPS plus before today or yesterday’s game is 88. If you’re looking for what to blame, blame the shoulder. Blame the fact that the Reds didn’t have the depth to put Spencer Steer on the injured list to start the season and he instead came out basically swinging one armed for the first month and a half of the season. uh that dug a hole in all of his counting stats that he’s only now starting to dig back out of. He has an opportunity. You know, he could get his OPS plus back up to 100 to league average by the time the year is over. I don’t know if he can get that that war to at least one. It might be too late. He needs another seven in war. It could happen if he goes on a heater for the the final three series, four series of the season. But I if you’re looking for a culprit, if you’re looking where to place the blame, I think that’s where you place the blame. It’s on him playing onearmed, trying to do the best he could for this team that was in desperate need of having somebody to put in the lineup. And to your point, in those first 35 games this season, he had a slash line of 188, 265, 293. That’s a 559 OPS. Santiago Espanol says, “Hey, bro. How you doing?” uh when it comes to those types of statistics, although Spencer Steer only had three more home runs than Santiago Esmanol still has all season long. Uh but yeah, that that was the struggle that he really went through early on this season. And it just never really felt like anybody else took over that, you know, if you need a consistent clutch bat in a moment during a during a game, that was Spencer Steer last couple of years. it wasn’t him this year and nobody else really took over that mantle and I think that’s been a big miss in the lineup so far this year really or or not so far during the entire year. Uh so I hope that that returns for him or they find somebody like that next season. I will say this though parlaying into the point that we were making though with Ellie, it’s clear and we can go over the stats. I mean what is it the last 80 ball games now he has one home run. I think that’s what it is. Or one more than me and you, Jeff. One more home run than me and you combined. It’s either 80 or it’s close to 80. It’s a very large sample size at this point. But yes, you and me combined have one less home run than he does. And at the same time, even the slash line, like the on base, the batting average, everything like that is much lower than we expected. And we attribute that to how they managed his year. I just keep hearkening back to the point that we made a while ago and that is that a few years back Joey Vado made the statement that one of the biggest lessons he learned in his career was it’s okay to take an off day. And who is anyone to question Joey Evado? They should really look at this next year and say, “Okay, every so often, let’s just give Ellie a complete day off so that he can completely unplug for a minute and and and and recharge because it’s clear that has been the biggest need for him all season.” It really makes you begin to question um how he’s been handled this year and if he’s been handled differently than everybody else. And I think just at a surface level, you can look at it and say, “Yes, he has been handled differently than everybody else on the team.” Is that good? Is that bad? How much blame falls on the shoulders of Tito Francona for how Ellie has been handled? Well, we’re going to talk about that coming up next. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. 5-hour energy shots deliver tasty caffeine and 17 bold flavors. Each 2 shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 ounce cup of coffee, plus B vitamins and nutrients with zero sugar and zero crashes. What I love most is how portable they are. Big taste, tiny shot. You could take it anywhere and get that boost when you need it. I’ve been eyeing the different flavors that they have. I mean, the Transfusion 5H hour energy shot that we’ve been talking about here recently has been my favorite go-to, especially while the Reds were on the West Coast. Enough with boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5Hour Energy shots. Get the favorites that you love or be bold and try something new in store and online at www.5ourgy.com or on Amazon today. Make sure you click that like button, click that notification bell, click that subscribe button here on YouTube. That way you get us each and every day. The Lock on Rest podcast Monday through Friday, five days a week. Uh for the rest of this season, you also are going to get the postcast with Tim Daniel live after each and every Red’s game, plus anything special we drop in the feed along the way. Click those buttons today. All right, Jeeoff, let’s let’s get back into this because you look at guys like Spencer Steer, he got some rest, he got sat down some. Uh he’s been moved around the lineup all season long based on how he was performing. Um Tito was doing all those things. And then you look at Ellie de la Cruz, a guy that has been hurt and allowed to play through it. A guy that has underperformed but has not been moved in the lineup until recently. a guy that clearly was in need of a day off that was allowed to go out there and start every single game because it’s something he wanted. It’s not what was best for the team. It’s not what was best for the organization. It’s what was best for Ellie de la Cruz. It’s what he wanted. So, it seemingly, if you look at it just on the surface, is Tito Francona giving Ellie special treatment based on what Ellie’s saying and what Ellie wants? And I get it. He’s been kind of propped up and pedestalled as the face of the franchise, the face of the team, a face of Major League Baseball. But I think what we’re seeing from Ellie right now, that one home run more than Santiago Espanol in the last 80 games. Uh talks about Ellie being tired. It talks about Ellie being mentally fatigued, physically fatigued, banged up. His wheels haven’t been right all year. We’ve seen it in the steels. And you look at all of those things and you have to ask yourself, what is Tito doing here? Yeah, it seems strange because there’s a couple of different schools of thought. Like obviously Ellie de la Cruz is the most important player on this team. And so if you want to really talk about, you know, do you get preferential treatment when you’re that good? Maybe. But he hasn’t quite earned the whole superstar status yet. We continue to see that potential. We continue to see that ceiling when it comes to Ellie Dela Cruz, but he has not reached that ceiling. And then you also have this other thought process that follows along that same lines of Terry Francona has managed a lot of superstars in his time, most notably most recently Jose Ramirez. So he understands how to get those guys there. The problem that I have with this is that we all see what is alien Ellie Dela Cruz. you, me, those at home that are are are listening, watching, whatever they’re doing. Uh Jeff Brantley’s talked about it on the broadcast. I’ve heard Chris Welsh on the radio talk about it. There’s so many different people that are just like, he is tired. And for a moment, let’s consider Ellie’s side of this. Ellie has been dealing with a quad injury for some time now. It’s been well reported that it’s something that he he uh suffered back in July and he’s been playing through it. Ellie has also gone through the death of his sister this year, the death of a very close family member. And and that’s something that mentally will fatigue you. So why on earth did they maintain this plan that dude would not take a day off? In fact, to the point that time aided him and and and time more so, mother nature aided him in being able to play in all 162 because of the rain delay that pushed that one game back. He was going to miss that day. And so, it just seems as though he has continued to go go almost to to stay away from everything else that he’s dealt with. And I think it has all caught up to him. And I think that we will learn at some point this off season. He will say, “Man, you know what? Maybe that wasn’t the right way to go about it.” But it seems as though Terry Francona, bringing it back to him, should have seen this like a month ago and said, “You know what? We’re setting you down.” Even sooner than that. You know, I get the I get the the mindset of Ellie, we need him in the lineup. He’s one of our best. He’s got to be out there. But you could have been strategic with this and and decided Ellie’s not going to play all 162. Let’s just say we’re gonna give Ellie 158 games as long as he’s not injured to the point where he can’t play 158 games. So you that’s four games, Jeff. I’m only asking him to rest in him four games. But you do it once in June when there’s an off day the next day. You do it once in July when there’s an off day the next day. You do it once in August when there’s an off day the next day. And you do it once in September when there’s an off day the next day. That’s back-to-back days, a weekend off once a month in order for him to kind of recharge and unplug and clear his head and rest his body. That is not a big ask. That is an easy do for this Red’s team, for this coaching staff. Steve, are you crazy? That’s the most sane thing that I’ve ever heard anybody say. He would have made I think he’d be hitting home runs right now if they had done that because he wouldn’t be so out of it. He was off for two days in 2024. And by all accounts, he’s not going to miss a day this season. So, you’re going to go two straight seasons with two off days total. I I I really think they need to consider this next year because he has gotten worse. I I I think there’s a chance he surpasses his hit total from last year. There’s a small chance he surpasses his run total from last year. He’s not passing his homer total from last year. He’s certainly not even touching his stolen base total from last year. So, there’s a it’s it’s it’s crazy. Yeah. Let’s look at his look at his last 30 games, Jeff. His last 30 games, he’s got a slash line of 210, 269, 323. Um during that time, he’s stolen four bases. So, basically one a week. Um so, he’s not running, he’s not hitting for power, he’s not hitting for average. His on base percentage is below 300. I What? What’s Santiago Espanol’s last 30 games? Do you have it in front of you? I’m just curious. I can pull it up. It’s not good. I can tell you that. Pull up Santiago Espanol’s last 30 games. Yep. Because I I’m curious as to what the slash line looks like. I’m thinking that is right here. I know I put you on the spot, but I I think illustrate a point. I’m counting wrong. Okay, so Santiago Espanol’s last 30 games, 224, 273, 245. So Ellie only gets him a little bit in slugging. Uh, Santiago has a better batting average and a better on base percentage than Ellie de la Cruz in the last 30 games. But to your point though about just barely getting Santiago Espanol in slugging, Santiago Espanol has one double in the last 30 games. That is the only extra base hit that he has. So, for Ellie to barely be surpassing one double, that’s pretty damning. And I think this all just goes back to where you place the blame because I have noted a lot of different people that are just like, I’m done with Tito. We got to move on from Tito. I think that’s very premature. I think there is. No, there’s no hot seat here. There’s no hot seat here, folks. No hot seat whatsoever. First of all, just the logic behind that is, well, the Reds already fired their manager last year. There’s a there’s a process that you go through that if the team is not performing, you fire the manager, then you make roster changes if firing the manager did not solve the problem. That’s where the Reds are this offseason. But also, the blame here is more on Nick Crawl. And while we see it, while the fans see it, the front the the owner’s office is not going to see it that way because the owner’s office sees the bottom line and he is meeting the bottom line. Period. But Nick Crawl’s roster that he put together was insufficient. Nick Crawl’s roster I watched your solo yesterday where where you you made this case. I’ll tell you this, you’re absolutely right. Terry Francona was handed an imperfect team. Yeah. But there are things that Tito has done with this imperfect team that could have made it perform better had he done things differently and he didn’t do those things. Example, resting Ellie. Example, not playing Santiago Epanol so much. Um those type of things. So, do I put some blame on Tito? I absolutely do. Um you’re not wrong about what you’re saying, but I put some blame on Tito. Now, there’s going to be people in the comment section because they were there last time we took a little indirect run at Terry Francona that were like, Terry’s won everywhere. he’s been. And who do you two basement dwelling podcasting people that live with your parents come off talking bad about Terry Francona? Well, first of neither one of us live with our parents or are in a basement. Well, Jeff’s in a basement. That’s save us a lot of a lot of money on rent. That’d be nice. Like, you can question Terry Francona’s decision-making here without saying that you’re completely out on Terry, without saying that you want him to be fired, without saying that you know more about baseball than Terry Francona. What I’m saying is his decisions over the last four months of this baseball season have had an impact on the standings. And when you just look at the data, when you look at the numbers, there are things that could have been done differently that would have resulted in wins for this team. I I think if you look at it between the front office and between the manager’s office, the front office gets 67% of the blame and the manager’s office gets 33% of the blame. I think that’s how it’s go 6040 but for easy sake but yes one third two/3s that sort of thing but I know this the Reds need to win in these next four games because they got the Cubbies coming to town which means Mason’s going to be down in Cincinnati in droves and it’s time for the Reds to go and just go beat them Cubbies. Most people can’t name all of their financial accounts or even what they’re worth. whether we’re talking about 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch’s built for people with busy lives. I love Monarch Money. It lets me see exactly what I’m spending and where I’m spending. It’s so easy these days to just tap that card and not have a clear picture of what you’re spending. Jeff tried this thing and you would not believe the amount of money he is spending at Jungle Gyms, just as an example. So, if you want to get control of your finances, don’t let this financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with the code locked on MLB. If you can’t watch us on YouTube, you can always listen to us on your favorite podcast app because we are free and available on all platforms. Plus, make sure you check out Lockdown MLB Game Night on the Lockdown MLB feed. They are covering every game, every night all the way through the World Series until a champion is crowned. So, check them out. You can see everything going on around the league uh every day. All right, Steve. We got four against the Cubbies. No off day here. The Reds get right back to work tonight and it’s going to be a four gamer. It’s going to decide the season series. Believe it or not, this is up in the air. The Reds could win the season series against the Chicago Cubs. Now, they’re getting them at a time that the lineup is starting to get right for the Cubs. The Cubs have gone a long period of time where their lineup has been very will they or won’t they. And a lot of it has stemmed from the fact that their two MVP candidates that the first half of the year were going crazy have really cooled off. PCA, Picro Armstrong, and Kyle Tucker have not been the guys that they were early on. Now, Pico Armstrong started to turn things around here this last week or so, but Kyle Tucker remains a very onbase, low power guy, whereas early on in the season, dude was like a surefire MVP candidate. Both these guys were. And so now the Reds are going to get them coming to Cincinnati at a time where the Cubs really got to pick it up cuz they are shoeins for the playoffs. I don’t think there’s a chance that they could fall out of the race at all. So the club so the Cubs clinched yesterday. Okay. So they they clinched the playoff spot which so so to your point you know the lineup is going but here’s the deal. The Cubs are four and a half back of the Brewers right now. The Brewers are still doing Brewers things. I don’t know that it’s realistic or that the Cubs are actually expecting to catch the Brewers at this point. I wonder if the fact that they clinched yesterday, maybe they take their foot off the gas just a little bit and this is a good time for the Reds to be catching them. Uh where the Reds could kind of sneak in there, take 304, win the season series and remain ever so slightly remain in the conversation for the final wild card spot. We can only hope, but the good news is the Reds are throwing the A squad. the absolute a squad of starting pitchers against the Cubs. You got Green, you got Ledo, and then in the final game of the series on Sunday, you got Ash or or sorry, not Ashcraft, you got Abbott. Um, and then I wonder if you have Latell with a piggyback of Chase Burns. I think that would be a lot of fun on Saturday. But the point is, we’ve got a lot of fun pitching matchups coming here for the Red Legs against this Cubs lineup. So, if you’re right and they do take their foot off the gas a little bit, the Reds got a real shot here to take three out of four. And obviously, if there’s if there’s anybody out there that is still thinking that there’s a chance of a hope of a a possibility for the Reds to catch the Mets, you got to win three out of four at minimum. Yeah. Ideally, you sweep. Um, but a four game sweep is super hard in Major League Baseball, but three out of four is the expectation. Yeah, I agree with that. Um, they win three out of four, then we may have to revisit our uh, you know, idea of what’s possible for the Reds to do. I mean, right now they’re tied with the Giants. They’re a game back. Let’s see. Let’s let’s go to the live standings. Right now, they are We are trying our best, by the way, to get back to to have them reel us back in. It’s just we keep seeing the reality of what’s going on, right? They’re tied They’re tied with the Giants at two and a half games back of the Mets. Um they are a half game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks who are two games back of the Mets. Um it is possible there is a chance but as we report on Wednesday evening the Mets are losing so there’s that too. So there there is an opportunity but three or four I think is the key. I don’t know that you can split this series and then head into what’s remaining a series with the Pirates then a series with the Milwaukee and be in a position to strike and and take that spot. Uh you really do need three or four. No, the Reds missed their opportunity to play 500 ball and get a playoff spot because the Mets were trying to they were trying to hand this to the Reds because they were playing some real bad ball. But there was a 22game stretch where the Reds went five and 17. Had they just gone 11 and 11, they would have been in that wild card spot. So it’s it’s really tough right now to see them going 500 in the final 10 games of the season and making the playoffs. They are going to have to I I say so out of these four for sure they got to go three and one but out of the final 10 games of the year they are going to have to I don’t know I’d say eight and two at the minimum very likely nine and one. So what’s left? There’s four games with the Cubs. There’s three games with the Pirates. Three games with the Brewers. Is that correct? Is that what we’re down to? So you have to go you have to win three or four against the Cubs. You have to win two of three against the Pirates. and you have to win two of three against Milwaukee. And somewhere in there, you have to hope to have pulled off a sweep. Either you sweep the Pirates or the Brewers take a weekend off as they’re getting ready to head into the playoffs and you sweep them on the road. U you’ve got you got to steal an extra win in there somewhere. But the minimum the bare minimum that the Reds have to do, that’s it. Three of four, two of three, two of three, or else there’s really not much hope of them pulling this out. It really kind of feels like they’re standing at the plate and there’s a full count right now. They’ve got to at least keep fouling the ball off and they definitely got to put the ball in play at some point if they’re going to get there. And and then kind of when you look on the Cubs side of things right now, like their pitching really has been pretty decent. I mean, they just beat the the Pirates and they still allowed four runs to a Pirates team that’s kind of been bad as far as the lineup goes. But I I still wonder about that bullpen because the Cubs have a pretty decent bullpen. It’s just what can you do against their starting pitching and the Reds just seemingly haven’t been able to solve the young guys that the Cubs have been throwing out there. So, what version of the Red’s lineup shows up? Are we going to see Ellie back in the three spot? I’m kind of okay leaving down leaving him down in the bottom third of the order if they’re not going to set him. And so, who is that top third of the order now? Like that that might be our topic for tomorrow’s episode. like what is the ideal lineup for the Reds moving forward if we don’t expect Ellie to get a day off. So maybe check us out tomorrow where we give you that uh give you that one, right? Because interesting things, you know, yesterday they had Will Vincent batting third. So who knows what they’re doing at the top of the lineup right now. Miguel Andrew Harsman batting third. I mean, you’ve had South Stewart in the cleanup spot. Like there’s a little bit of this that I almost wonder if Tito, it’s not a heat check. It’s a Tito is telling the front office, “We don’t have our best version of the lineup as we go into the off season. Give me some help.” I think that’s Well, I hope that I hope that Nick Craw is paying attention because I’m going to be so frustrated, Jeff, if we get to the end of the season and they miss by like one game because how how much focus are we going to putting on that list of those games that we made of the games that they should have won, the games that they had in hand in blue, th that list? Um, it it’s looming over there. I have I have it on a sticky note right over here on my desk and it’s just it’s just flashing at me. Like when we do that episode, we’re going to have a nice tasty beverage in our glasses. I think we just might want to Yeah. Yeah. And that and on that note, that is where we’re going to go ahead and wrap up this edition of Locked on Red. Thanks as always for making Locked on Reds your first listen each and every day. We appreciate you being here every day. Uh, we can’t tell you enough how grateful we are for all of the time you spend listening to Jeff and I talk a little bit of Cincinnati Red’s baseball. Make sure you check out Tim Daniel on the Reds postcast after each and every one of the remaining Reds games this year. Tim has done a great job with the postcast. I’ve really been enjoying his instant reaction. I hope you guys have been checking it out as well. Also, go check out the luck on MLB feed. You get Sully with a national perspective, a great sense of humor. Uh, he talks about the Reds a lot. I think he’s a closet Reds fan. um he says red socks to cover, but I think he’s a closet reds fan. And uh then you’ve also get the locked on MLB game night where they’re watching each game each night so that you don’t have to and they’re keeping you up to date using the experts from the entirety of the Locked On Reds network. Uh we’ll be back in your feeds tomorrow breaking down hopefully a win against those cubbies. Uh until next time, we’ll gather up the news, the notes, the information, the rumors, and the reports to keep you locked on Reds each and every day. You know, scuttlebutt around the old locked on water cooler is that Tim’s got the best post cast. I heard that there was a rating system that he was winning. I don’t know if that has anything to do with The Bachelor. I’ll have to I’ll have to double check.

The Cincinnati Reds got a BIG series win over the St Louis Cardinals. Spencer Steer’s stellar performance, going 3-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs, showcases the value of rest and recovery. Hosts Jeff and Steve analyze Elly De La Cruz’s struggles, questioning Terry Francona’s decision to play him without breaks. They debate Francona’s management choices and their impact on the team’s performance. The upcoming four-game series against the Chicago Cubs looms large, with the Reds needing at least three wins to stay competitive in the playoff hunt. Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, and Andrew Abbott are set to take the mound. Can the Reds capitalize on this crucial opportunity? Tune in now for in-depth analysis and predictions on the Cincinnati Reds’ push for success!

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0:00 Intro: Cincinnati Reds win series against Cardinals
5:08 Spencer Steer’s performance and rest benefits
10:59 Elly De La Cruz’s playing time and fatigue
15:56 Suggestions for managing Elly De La Cruz’s schedule
21:57 Preview of Cincinnati Reds vs Chicago Cubs series
25:49 Cincinnati Reds’ playoff chances and needed wins
30:20 Outro: Upcoming content and postcast information

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