ST G23 - Mariners 6, Reds 3 (Matt McLain and Brandon Williamson Continue MONSTER Springs)

0:00Well, hey, what's going on? Happy Monday, Nick Kirby here. Welcome to Chatterbox Reds. We're daily home for Cincinnati Reds content all spring training long. Well, the Reds lost 63 to the Mariners on Sunday. Reds now 12 in 10 this spring. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this game because coming up in just a minute Greg Kufner and Trace Fowler had a conversation talking all things reds on Sunday night that I think that you will really enjoy. But a couple quick notes from this game. Matt McLean just keeps on keeping on Matt McLean two for three with a homer. That's now six home runs for Matt McLean, which is tied

1:01for the most by any Cincinnati Reds player and spring training since Adam Duval in 2017. Brandon Williamson was fantastic four shutout innings, giving up just two hits, one walk and striking out four. Williamson is now thrown 11 innings the spring. He's allowed just two runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out 13 batters, very impressive stuff from Brandon Williamson. He was a big point of conversation coming up with Trace and Greg Pierce Johnson. He finally had a rough outing. He gave up five earn runs on three hits and two walks. Johnson had been incredible before that he hadn't allowed a run in any of his five previous outings. Brock Burke. He also struggled. He gave up a run in his inning of work on two hits and a walk on a positive. Connor Phillips threw a perfect inning and struck out the side. Reds will be back at it on Monday. They

2:02will take on the Arizona Diamondbacks on the road for 10 p.m. start time. No TV for this one will be on 1360 WSAI on the radio. Red schedule pictures are Andrew Abbott, Emilio Pagan, Tony Santheon, Lion Richardson, Hagen Danner, Zach Maxwell and Luis May. Before we get to Trace and Greg, we have several new sponsors that you'll hear during the episode here with Trace and Greg. Really happy about that. We got some really great sponsors that are coming on and joining us. We're not some big national company. We're just a local small businesses in Addy and all these advertisers believe what we're doing here. And so if you listen to these ads and you think, hey, I could use that good or service or want to check out what those ads are, we'd really appreciate it. You would not just be helping out obviously them, but you'd be helping out us as well. So we really would appreciate that. All right, while shut up without

3:04further ado, here's Trace and Greg. Welcome in everybody to Chatterbox Bearcats. I am joined by Trace Fowler. I'm Greg. I'm joined by Trace today. The Reds just lost right before we recorded this. PJ Higgins crowded into a double play in the ninth inning. And they lost six to three. And we just wanted to come on here and talk on some talk about some Reds, you know, storylines. Trace hasn't been on a whole lot this spring. I'm pumped to do my first show with Trace. So Trace, before we get into any Reds topic specifically, how are you doing this spring? Are you ready for the, are you ready for opening day? And what are your thoughts? I'll tell you what, I don't know, I don't know if it's, if it's nerves, I don't know if it's just the fact that you're, you're completely disappointed. Perhaps yet again on selection Sunday, but this is Chatterbox Reds. Tonight, not Chatterbox Bearcats. Great. Yeah, if we're going to keep it, we're going to keep it. You know, you can go back, you can go back and you can cut all this and you can say, oh, no, not here, not in Chatterbox, baby. This is

4:07authenticity. I don't know who was more nervous, more nervous. You were loved to go over today. I'm not totally sure. But nonetheless, it's been an unbelievable sports day for me personally. One of the best times of the year as a sports fan, just the fact that you have all of these sports kind of colliding together. You have March madness right around the corner. You have the players championship. The masters is going to be right around the corner once March madness ends. And as you mentioned, you have opening day right here towards the end of the month as well. It can't get a whole lot better. In fact, it was so good today. At one point, I'll sit on my couch and I thought, man, you remember COVID when we had no sports at all. Like there was nothing to watch. No one knew what to do. But just to show, I guess, nearly five to six years later, one of the best sporting days of my life, to be honest with you so far. And not only that, but we still have USA versus the Dominican Republic, which is going to be more than likely epic in one way or another. I don't care how it goes. Even if it's a blowout, I think it'll be entertaining just based

5:10left. I know we'll keep it a kid show, but I have a strong suspicion there might be some extracurricular talking going on. Some would call it starts with an S ends with a T talking, but we won't do that on this show. But no, Greg, I'm happy to be here. I'm looking forward to opening day and glad to do a show with you. Glad that you joined join the crew here. And looking forward to what is hopefully, I would say pleasantly surprising year. I think expectations around the city and around the fan base for the most part is optimistic in the sense that they're going to be able to compete for a playoff spot. And hopefully, the division, we'll see how how well the top echelon teams do. I don't know. Every year, I say the brewers can't do it again. And they do. So I'm just going to shut up on that one. And then you have the cubs who are obviously the cubs, but looks like they have some pretty good players as well. So, yeah, I haven't been on a whole lot, Greg, but I feel like from a spring training perspective, there's highs, there's lows, there's some things that we'll get into. But for the most part,

6:11we'll keep it entertaining on the show. And I think that there's some things that are worth kind of maybe investing some some genuine stock into, you know, I just spring training. I've always said if you don't get hurt, it's great. But we're getting towards the end of spring training here. I guess not really quote towards the end, but we're nearing the end that I think you can start to maybe make some some rather decent observations. Yeah, for sure. Well, I think I'm going to be rattled the rest of the show. The fact that they call it Chatterbox Bearcats. I'd never been on Chatterbox Bearcats. And I somehow said Chatterbox Bearcats. So that's a great. That's on your mind, man. They were they were they were a point away from being their name called about, you know, an hour ago and and all Bearcats fans are now hoping for the future yet again. Yeah, poor one out for West Miller. I am actually going to spring training this coming week. It was just what to a couple of years ago, we were in a big van. That's where I first met you and we went across the country and went to some spring training games and had some good memories. But

7:15one storyline kind of I wanted to get into and want to get your thoughts on. Brandon Williamson pitched really good again today. He threw four innings, didn't give up any runs. I think he struck out four, walked a batter, gave up two hits. And it seemed like they've said Brandon Williamson has had a shot to start the whole time with right ladder and chase burns. And they even threw in some guys like Julian Aguilar, but we all knew they didn't really have shot. And I think when the hunter green news was announced, it just kind of felt like Brandon Williamson has a shot, but it's kind of louder and burns unless something goes seriously wrong. But it seems like he's really he's really pitching well and he's really throwing his name in the mix. I wanted to read a name or read a quote from Terry Frank Kona here because I thought it was interesting. It's little it's a little long, but then I just want to get your thoughts on if if you think he has a serious shot to make the opening day rotation, or if he's probably just going to be depth and trip way, but here's the quote from from Frank Kona. He said he's got like a five pitch mix or four depending on the cutter. His breaking balls very slow, but it spins tight.

8:19He's got mid 90s velocity at times. He's a six six lefty. I love that. There's a lot to like. I think our biggest challenge is probably his two. Hey, I'm getting on a five day rotation because you come back from surgery like that. In one day, you feel pretty good. Next day, it's like trying to navigate getting that routine and that it's going to take some time. It's not his fault. He's done a great job. So I read into that a little bit of maybe I read in that maybe he's still on the outside looking in, but that was before today's start. Anyway, just what are your thoughts on rotation, Brandon Williamson, Chase Burns, right? Louder the whole nine years. I would say that he's probably not going to make the rotation unless something obviously else goes wrong and it's not nothing against Williamson. It's just kind of one of those spots you find yourself in sport where we can all sit around and act like everybody gets their fair chance, but let's face it when you walk into spring camp as a non five star quarterback and there's a five star quarterback there. It's just no matter how good you look in practice, no matter how bad the

9:23five star looks in practice for the most part, that's what the spring training is. It's practice. Those guys aren't going to lose their spots unless there's some kind of what I would call injury situation or I guess maybe with burns, they're really worried about some kind of pitch count metric that I have just completely about to lose my mind about in a way. I get the idea that we can hopefully use data and get an idea of how many times guys should throw or not throw, but it just seems like you can't baby these guys forever and you got to hope that they're going to be able to be strong enough to be able to throw four innings instead of two innings and in spring training that I'm not going to go on a side tangent about burns the other day, but burn said he's healthy. He feels great. I'm going to go with that. I'm going to expect he's in the rotation. Ret louder. Might I remind everybody really the last time he threw the ball in a relatively meaningful situation. He was also very, very good and right and Williamson was as well. So I guess as a reds fan, you should be pleased with the situation. As far as stashing him

10:28a triple A, I would it personally do that. I get the concept and the ideas to why you would because you want him to be kind of in the starter mentality. You throw every five days. You don't have this influx of something relatively new and maybe you can kind of keep the headspace relatively clean with Williamson. But I personally want him on the Major League roster, especially the fact that he's left handed. I know it's kind of amazing last year. We had nobody that could help really in leveraged situations that was a left handed pitcher. And I would like to think that he could offer that. I don't want to say he's Brent Souter on steroids because I think that that might be a little disrespectful perhaps to Brent Souter. But he kind of is like that's how I view him right now. He's kind of like a better version of Brent Souter. And the funny thing is, Brent Souter was very, very valuable for that team last year. Like yes, he ended up getting him up up roll towards the end. But there were times last year where Brent Souter felt like one of the

11:29best options out of the bullpen, especially against left handed hitters. And that's what we're going to find ourselves in again. Now I know we added some cavalry there to the mix. But I'm not just going to stash him in triple A if that's what we're getting after. And I would also perceive the comments of Frank Kohn of of he's just he likes what he's doing. But it's just not going to be good enough to make the rotation. Yeah. And Williams also had a quote the basics said like I'm getting on I'm getting on the team plane. Like I love the confidence coming of it. I'm with you. I think I would really enjoy him out of that. I'll give I think I'll give a more fair comparison to Brent Williams. And I'm going to say a left handed Nick Martinez as opposed to Brent Souter. And I'm just going to say I think I like I really liked the swing roll that Nick Martinez was in of like hey, he can give you two to three innings out of the bullpen. Like I think that's especially with how much we're trying to conserve conserve guys arms. I mean Tony Santheon and Pagan through like 80 games last year. I really like having a guy like that in the bullpen. I'm not

12:32sure I'm convinced the reds are going to do it, especially with the green injury. I thought I think they'd probably just want somebody ready in case another injury happens or something. But I don't know. I guess we'll see. I think it's like you said, it's a it's a good problem to have that you can never have too much pitching depth. I know people are tired of hearing that, but it's it's so true. You know, they lose another starter God forbid like all the sudden things things are on the rocks and you could throw Williams and then there and it's not the end of the world. But I'm with you for the most part. I think I think he would benefit the major league team and he's he's had an awesome spring, which is really impressive after not even throwing for a year. So next I kind of wanted to get into this is probably being the biggest storyline of the spring for the Reds. Obviously coming off of such a down year last year where all Reds fans are so high on Matt McClain. Matt McClain hit a sixth home run of the spring on Sunday. Here's a stat. It's the most homers by our Reds in spring training since Adam DeVal in 2017. So just a simple question

13:35here. Are you buying the Matt McClain stock? Are you into the the spring it's spring training? I don't it doesn't matter. Just what are your thoughts on Matt McClain so far this spring? Chatterbox Reds is brought to you by Sherefax Credit Union. Sherefax is rooted in Cincinnati with nine branches across the city. Sherefax is a non for profit financial institution owned by its members, the returns earnings to them through lower fees and better rates in addition to traditional banking options. They have an auto program going on right now offering 1.5% off your qualified rate when you refinance your vehicle with them. Your first payment isn't due for 90 days. Loan subject to membership and credit approval restrictions apply. Visit our website for terms of conditions go to sharefax.org to apply online or call 513-753-2440. If knee pain or shoulder pain is slowing you down or your performance on the golf course the pickleball court or even in the gym

14:37talk to the care team at QC kinetics Cincinnati about regenerative medicine options. You can learn more at QC kinetics.com or call 513-655-3356. Yeah this is where I kind of the start of the show. I said you can start to make some narratives and you can start to put maybe some stock into some things that you've seen. This is where it's a tough situation with Matt McClain because one could argue it is spring training and I think that I genuinely would typically agree with him. I'm not going to go on the record and do what I have done maybe in the past and say that the Matt McClain is the best second baseman since Joe Morgan for the Reds and obviously the Brandon Phillips of the world and the Brandon Phillips fans come after me in full force. Like I might have hypothetically, might have done that in the past. I've loved Matt McClain and what he kind of looks like from just a traditional baseball player standpoint and hopefully some can make sense of that. Just when you watch him play right when he came up I thought this dude's

15:39a gamer. He just is a gamer. He makes plays. He finds a way to help your team win and he absolutely was one of the best players and one of the only reasons really I would say that the Reds even got a sign of life in 2023. Now that's a long time ago at this point but it doesn't seem like that long ago as Reds fans when Ellie and Hillm ultimately came up and helped them kind of spur on what was a late season push to maybe make the playoffs. I just want a healthy version of Matt McClain and I think that that is a positive win player. I think it's a guy that you are looking forward to having on the lineup every single day versus what we'd had in the past. What I mean by that is you've seen Matt McClain's name in the lineup last year and at times you just kind of squinted you just weren't overly thrilled about it. You didn't think that it was ultimately going to help your team win and I'm starting to hope that this sign of spring training isn't whether or not Matt McClain can be a major league baseball player. He's already proved that. That's what I mean

16:42we can get past this idea of is he good enough to play in the big leagues or is he not? He's showcased for a long enough period of time in 2023 in my opinion that he has the skill set and the talent to do it. Then all of a sudden last year you have to ask yourself well what happened and you can easily point to an oblique injury like for those that don't know that's a serious serious injury. It obviously took him a long time to recover and when he came back he didn't look the same and I'm hoping that a year removed from that he's got some confidence back and he doesn't have any physical limitations and I'm going to buy that Matt McClain is going to be more of the version of 2023 than what we'd seen last year. I just have to. I mean if you're a Reds fan and you want to have any optimism you have to buy into that because it's one of the saving graces of the 2026 season in my opinion. You have to have some guys step up. This I'm going to say it now and I'll say it's on blue in the face. This pitching staff this year is nowhere no I can't even

17:45imagine them doing what they did last year. They were so good last year that I just can't fathom that being replicated. So I'm asking myself as a Reds fan where else do our wins come from? How do we get a little bit better if our pitching regresses which I'm sure we'll get to here in a bit and Matt McClain is the easiest answer of everybody because he was so bad last year and he was so good in 2023 that you have to say well even if it falls in the middle Greg that's a win for the Reds. Yeah 100% that's kind of what I've been saying all spring is like if he can just be average offensively it's so much better than what he was last season. I mean we I've said it before but like we were looking at lineups last year where it was like Cabrayan Hayes, Jose Trevino, Matt McClain 789 and the lineup you're like we might as well just we go back out on the field because this has no chance and but then like you said you look at him in 2023 he was arguably the right it's best offensive player that season. So like it goes to like

18:46if he can just be average this offense is a lot better let alone if he can be anything close to what he was in 2023 then the offense just has such a higher ceiling because I'm with you there's just I just I just don't think there's a way that he could possibly be as bad as last year and I truly do think the injury plays a big part. Anytime guys have big surgery I know we saw it a couple years ago with Tyler Stevenson it took him a while to kind of get back from that big surgery. So I think if nothing else and I've said it before people are probably tired of hearing me say this but it gives him confidence what he's doing in confidence is a big thing for athletes to go up there to the plate against guys that are throwing you know 95 mile per hour plus. Yeah I mean if it would have went the opposite way right like if it would have went the opposite way everybody would have cast the basically the doubt on Matt McLean they would have said oh yeah he's washed he can't play anymore if he was having a bad spring but it's been the quite the opposite and

19:47if nothing else I think it gives him it is goofiest it is spring training for the most part everybody agrees is really a hard to put a lot of stock into but the one thing that I think that this spring actually has done for Matt is it's given him a long leash like I I know that sounds crazy to say but I think Terry Francon has ability to watch him on a day in and day out basis and see just how great he has played firsthand and as much love as Terry Francona had for Matt McLean last year I mean comparing him to Dustin Pardroy of all things like that's high praise very high praise yeah and I expect now if he does get off to a little bit of a sluggish start you know it's just his opportunities aren't going to get ripped away from him he's going to get he's going to get plenty of opportunity and people forget how good of a defender Matt McLean is to like I think that unfortunately how bad he was at the plate overshadowed what he's capable of doing from a defensive standpoint and even if he made a great defensive play last year people just like didn't care right

20:50it's like oh whatever he's he's still horrible and I'd love for that kind of narrative the change just because of his ability to be an average hitter and if he's an average hitter people are going to love him and then same goes with Cabrion Hayes if he's an average hitter maybe even below average hitter people are going to love Cabrion Hayes but if you if you can't hit water if you fell out of a boat Greg that no one cares about how good you are defensively unfortunately yeah 100 percent I think that's exactly that's exactly spot on and that's actually what I am worried about it with a guy like Cabrion Hayes but we'll talk about that on another another day kind of the next thing I wanted to talk about obviously another big roster battle going on right now and guys that are just again we're talking a lot about so far on the show about guys that are performing well which is great um the reds have very few guys that are playing you know poorly in spring which is nice to see whether spring training results out or not he got a he got to hit today I think it was a second of the spring so shot he even hit it over a hundred mile for out you know that

21:52that guy played last year in a corner outfield spot for us and Connor Joe oh yeah while we were in a playoff race yep they sure did don't forget and and Espanol is hitting the two hole for the whole first half of the season so I can only go from here had it going um so the battle for I'd say there's probably two roster spots assuming guys like no we Marta are safe um I just kind of think Dane Myers is pretty much safe they trade it for him they're not going to just send him down so I'd say there's two roster spots for Nathaniel Lowe J.J. Blade Will Benson I threw a Reese Hines in here I don't think Reese Hines actually has a good chance to make the opening day roster but he's had an impressive spring so I just wanted to throw his name in here um do you have any two guys out of that four that you'd like to see because I think it's hard to look at spring training and view by that because they've all been really good this spring um and then really Lowe's been consistent and then Blade and Benson they've kind of been all over the place Hines has obviously been all over the place so it's really kind of hard to judge but just wanted to get your thoughts on kind of

22:52the battle for the last two roster spots well today and Benson feel like the same player in a little bit of a way and I don't mean that in the sense that they exactly kind of have the same you know back at the baseball card vibe to it I do think Benson has a little bit of a higher ceiling he definitely seems like kind of a high high risk very much low reward type player as well and Blade seems like maybe just the same but maybe a little more consistent and I don't low kind of low kind of strikes me as a guy that uh and I don't mean to like maybe compare the two in regards to the the types of positions they play are completely different but Scott Rowland asked in the sense that you know he like you feel like he certainly has more pedigree he's certainly a guy that the moment probably won't get too big for and you also feel like maybe you can feel like over the course of the next three or four months you can almost

23:55guarantee that you're going to get somewhat in this area of production but you can make the case that Blade and Benson could give you an infinitely higher amount of production the issue is I guess the question ultimately comes down to whether or not the management and uh the the staff and Francona what do they what do they feel like their possible inefficiencies are at certain positions and do they think that south steward is going to be able to play every single day at first basing do they want Spencer steer to play at first base or do they want to have a kind of a veteran there that maybe can kind of fill the void for a while and and I think that you could make the case too by keeping low you take one of either uh Benson or Blade and you fill that role as well it almost feels like if you take if you keep Blade and Benson you have two of the same player you don't have the luxury of maybe uh of what low could possibly bring to the table and do for you so my guess is this is my guess and you have options for Blade and Benson I believe um yeah quote me on that

25:00but I'm about 99% sure so if you have options for the both of them my guess again we kind of go back to the whole brand of Williamson thing really fast to tie a tie a row of bow on this it kind of feels like Benson and Blade or are one of them is going to go um no matter what they do and low is going to be given an opportunity to kind of find maybe a little bit of a spot to it's a help at first base um if you had to put me up against it I I keep Benson but everyone's gonna say I'm a Benson Stan and that's all I you know I I'm not I'll tell you that this year I am not going to sit here and die on a hill for any of these guys I'm not doing it I don't know if it's that big of a deal one way or the other I'm sure that there's other people on chatter box reds in Nick that would completely disagree with what I'm saying but I just don't see a reason to get overly upset one way or the other no matter what they do yeah I I think Nathaniel Lowe is pretty much going to have

26:05her roster spot I think his position if he was an outfielder he'd be no doubter he'd be in he'd be in there I think the weird thing is he plays first base in really dhs and the the reds have south steward he's gonna do that they have Spencer steer complain first base they have geno swear as they're trying to play some first base but it's still he's just he's that veteran guy like you said he he's got a low he's got a high floor even last year when he really struggled against right handed pitching he had like a seven sixty OPS which probably would have ranked like top three on the reds last season so it just feels like he to me I just feel like I'd be so shocked if they didn't keep him because I'm guessing he has some kind of opt out clause that he's not just gonna go to triple that if he doesn't make the team he probably has an opt out clause and someone else is gonna pick him up I am with you on blue day and Benson I actually probably would have said I probably have a little opposite on I think blue day probably has a slightly higher ceiling in my mind I think being like a top five first round draft pick I think if he can somehow put it

27:09together the talent that he has which we've seen a little bit this spring I think he could just break out um we're Benson I think we kind of know what he is like he's going to hit the ball hard against right handed pitching for the most part he's gonna walk some um but I don't know that I have a pick again for those two right now like I guess I think if you made me pick I would probably pick blue day at the moment and low but I really don't have like I'm not gonna be upset one way or the other between any of those guys really and again we're just talking about a team that was starting Connor Joe and um Garrett Hampson and Santiago Espanol at times last year so like it just makes me happy like as long as we get through these next 11 days with minimal injuries that this team's in a better position from a depth standpoint to actually do some damage and better and better than all of that is all three guys we're talking about can hit the ball out of the ballpark none of these guys are you know singles hitters are gonna get go hit eight home runs for the year if they get

28:13consistent playing time each one of these guys could could hit 20 home runs um so I think that's what's excites me is that whoever they choose out of this they have upside they can hit the ball for power which we know we know we've been wanting and last year was a struggle with that and but it's gonna be interesting I really don't know who they're going to pick between blue day at medicine we also want to remind you that you can call or text 98 anytime day or night the 98 suicide and crisis lifeline is a place to get support for anything related to mental health whether it's an immediate crisis simply wanting to find out how to connect with care or anything in between it's a 100% confidential secured anonymous way to reach out for help when you don't know where else to turn to connect color text 98 or visit mantherapy.org to get help it's okay not to be okay our friends over ultra fiber are giving away two tickets to the college basketball national championship on april 6th in indianapolis you could check out either cheddar box sports or ultra fiber on

29:16social media for details how to enter good luck well the biggest question I'd have and listen spitzer steer um I it'd be interesting it's just gonna be interesting to see how they put people in certain roles and what what they feel comfortable with doing because I would say towards the back into some of these baseball games if you are down one two runs and you start to sacrifice some of the defense and you you know you pinch it for cabrian haze and maybe i'm wrong on that they might just stick with cabrian haze and say he's in there no matter what need if he comes up in a big spot in the eighth inning with the bases loaded maybe they're just going to leave him in there to hit I don't know but one thing it will be interesting to see is if south steward has the ability to move over to to other positions because it's always been floated out there that he could do it or he might do it but i've yet to really know if they're committed to doing that um that's the that's kind of the wild card and all of this in my opinion is is what do the reds decide to do when they're down a few runs late in baseball games and they feel like they need to push offense because if

30:19they're comfort with south steward to move positions or moving positions I'd make the case that lows a another great option because you could pinch it low shift him over to first base then you could move south steward over to another position whether that be third base um or even you know it sounds crazy right now because of the way that mat McLean's played spring training but you could make the case that if you feel more comfortable with him going to second base and then maybe McLean going to third then it kind of becomes a little bit crazy sent a little like you almost like you're playing literally where you're moving guys all over the place all the time but i guess that's that's the beautiful thing with some of the position flexibility that these guys currently present um i don't know it'll be interesting to see how it all goes down i know that at the moment Ellie is the shortstop and he's 100% the shortstop but if mat McLean continues to play really really well do they do they put McLean at shortstop in certain positions and then move Ellie over to third base just in tight situations i don't know i know that sounds crazy right now but i'm just i'm throwing out hypotheticals of of just the ability to mix and match

31:23around the lineup and try to give yourself the best chance in the last two innings to get a couple runs on the board and that's where i would argue low being on the roster in my opinion might be more beneficial than keeping blood day and Benson because those two guys kind of are the same player um yeah i still have Spencer steer there as well so it's like i don't know i mean i guess it's a good problem to have when you have a bunch of options you feel confident in but um but i just don't know yet how confident the reds are in some of the defensive flexibility that they currently act as if they do have yeah the last thing i'll say on this and then we can go the last topic but i think it does excite me to think about like an infield of on days where if they do are comfortable with sitting combine to haze um every once in a while like if they're in your low playing first base bat with playing playing second base Ellie shortstop either gino or sal at third or it doesn't matter which one and the other one dh right it feels like that's a pretty strong infield um when you're replacing either gino or sal with um instead of

32:25cabrayan haze um though again we just talked about power those are five guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark which is exciting so i do think it adds some flexibility for sure it's just going to rear like it's just kind of so unique i don't want to say crazy but it just says it does seem kind of crazy that the reds went in all in on cabrayan haze and paid him the amount of money that it was going to take and they brought him over when they had a guy literally on the cusp of mageley baseball that plays third base that is south steward right like i'm not trying i'm not trying to play revisionist airship i'm not trying to like go toxic trace on everybody but let's not let's like there will be multiple tweets this year i can guarantee you that the reds are spending 50 million dollars this year at third base and by the way none of them are playing third base like i i'm not an idiot to think that and i know i know that that exists right like the fact that you have candelario and you have cabrayan haze both getting paid the amount of money that they're that they're getting paid and there's a chance in the eighth and ninth inning that you could make

33:26the argument that that that all of that money is none of you don't want either one of those guys in the game again that's a little toxic i know i'll reel it back but i'm just saying that that seems like a very very valid question that might come up this year yeah i think i've already seen some people say oh you should just flip haze and i'm like i honestly don't know if there's another team in baseball that would take cabrayan haze's contract right now let's just goes out there and hits like 20 home runs on an accident or something like that and i mean correct and he does that will be pumped to have him exactly exactly i mean it's just uh i hope i don't say i hope i'm wrong on cabrayan haze i i think he's unbelievable um from a defensive value standpoint and defense definitely matters like we we've tried to echo that on the show like you have to have guys that can catch the ball there's so many times even last year where it felt like that's the thing that shot this team in the foot more times than not and yes they were they were only scoring one in two runs what felt like four or five times a week last year but there were times where it's just like man

34:30we have some really bad corner outfielders we have a guy that can't catch the ball at third base at times um so cabrayan haze has value it's just going to be interesting to see how they handle it if if guys play well and cabrayan haze might play unbelievably well and Nathaniel Lowe turns into Mike Ford like two months later and we don't even remember that he was a part of the conversations Mike Ford what what a i love you bring it up Mike Ford and on March 15th he hit a triple in San Francisco that i'll never i'll never forget Mike Ford hitting a triple and uh he raises average like 150 i think he was released next day um last topic yeah last topic i just wanted to hit on and we can be quick with this one but um Andrew Abbott struggled a little bit this spring guys like Connor Phillips Graham Ashcraft has struggled this spring we've talked a lot a little bit about what matters what doesn't what do you take on pictures struggling in the spring Abbott's had a couple quotes already that have kind of said like oh i need to stop working on stuff

35:30now and go get it which kind of tells you their pictures are always kind of working on stuff and you really don't know what they're working on or how much they're grinding like they're on the regular season so it's really hard to tell but i just want to get your thoughts on um pitching so far this the spring i think the same optimism that you could have uh with Matt McLean in the sense that he's playing unbelievably well and how i kind of guard against that i kind of do the opposite with maybe the struggles of the pictures um there's a little bit of cause for concern slightly and the only real reason i even have a slight concern with Andrew Abbott is just because of all the uh all the analytic community that has kind of pounded in my head over the last few years that he's just not as good as he's showcased himself to be yet he continues to go out there and throw the ball pretty damn good i don't know man you know the stats could know the stats are the stats but um at the end of the day i i would i would not put a lot of stock into it quite yet and

36:32and the good news is is that if he struggles i mean he goes out and has two or three or four bad starts then i mean we can sit there and make the case that there's somebody waiting in the balance that can maybe pick it up until he figures it out um but let's be honest if if Andrew Abbott isn't going to throw the ball to the level in which we kind of have become accustomed to it's going to be hard without hunter green it's going to be it's going to be really difficult to find a way to to to survive in advance with uh march madness around the corner if you will so i i expect uh and and i have high hopes that he's just working on things and things will pan out in regards to the other guys uh uh it's a dime or dozen with those guys i not not trying to be a jerk but it's just those guys aren't near the level of expectations that i have as i do with Andrew Abbott and it kind of feels was a pleasant surprise don't get me wrong great great great addition to the bullpen last year and and certainly was a key force towards the back into last year

37:33of being able to to help this kind of leaking oil pen um i do have some concerns with pagan if if i'm being honest because i i just feel like we have we've kind of just ignored the fact that this guy is you know getting up there a little bit in age and if anything two years ago before last year like he was bad two years ago we kind of forget about that too oh i i don't forget i remember vividly about how it's like these these guys are not we it just i i i i just think it's crazy that that the reds kind of just did that and and and and i don't mean to say that that that i know everything or anything like that but i'm i'm slightly concerned about the idea of what our back end of the bullpen looks like right now um maybe i'll be wrong but we were leaking some major oil at the back end of last year some major oil by the way if noel v marty doesn't rob that home run i got news for you a lot of people a lot of people would have different

38:36perceptions of certain players on this team yeah very true very true one thing about the starting pitching that you hit on it and i've heard people say like i think the hunter green injury puts a lot of pressure on chase burns and right louder i would almost argue and say i think it puts more pressure on andrew abbot and nicoladolo because that just mean the reds need those two guys to be who they are and pitched to their potential with if if louder and burns are the two guys in the back of the rotation you're going to have some awesome starts from them and you're going to have some starts where like burns did against Boston last year when he got one out and they poked him around for six runs like their young pitchers they have tons of potential they have tons of upside but they're still super young so they're they're just you can't just rely on them to go have an era of the high twos or low threes whatever it is whereas ladolo and abbot you're like okay we think we know what we got here when healthy we we need you to go perform up to that level and kind of hold down the four until hunter green

39:37gets back yeah you know i that maybe this is also another crazy thought here as we round out the show but uh i i wouldn't even be against the concept and i know this is maybe really fun the entire power to my whole entire house just went out why i don't know i think it's probably the 60-month hour winds which uh by the way the 60-month hour winds is probably great on a cell phone while i sit outside and do the rest of the show um so to round it out i guess i don't even know what i was talking about but i think it had something to do um oh you're talking about abbot and ladolo um kind of the pressure being on those guys and i was going to say i'm not totally against the idea that williamson could possibly make a start for some of the younger guys every so often too if they have to like maybe load manage a little bit with with those two um i don't know how we feel about having three lefties uh that's what i was going to say is last last last thing here real quick if we go into a series where the the opposing team has a huge disadvantage with

40:38left handers pitching i would love to use that to our advantage and have have williamson as a swing man and i know it sounds even crazier but like burns has come out of the bullpen before and i know people are gonna be like this is crazy you can't make them go back and forth back and forth i'd like to see how long how long we feel comfortable with maybe trying to do that um but it's just it's food for thought um and i know people can say well i almost like do we baby these guys too much sometimes that's what i'm asking myself like do we baby them too much i see i see nick martina as by the way it's blowing like 80 miles an hour i said i see nick martina's do this for multiple years in a row where he could just start and then he goes back to relieving and he does it just perfectly fine what what makes us think that some of these other guys can't do that i don't know but uh nonetheless nicks probably have an absolute inhibition fit with the amount of wind that's going through my phone and the way it looks and all that um so for those that are wondering one last time my power went out in my whole house i got no options this is only i got no light inside Greg perfect time perfect time between me starting off the show calling it chatarox bear cats

41:42and your power going out i think this might be our one and only show we can we do together sure you might cut us off nick could have cut us off nicks gonna cut us off we're done never again yeah we're gonna get the we're gonna get the Benson treatment from last year yeah but anyway trace this has been amazing we'll go watch we'll go watch the USA and Dominican Republic um play some baseball that's going to be electric for sure but um this will be fun hopefully you get some power back hopefully i remember what show i'm hosting next time but this has been awesome and as always thank you guys all for watching see you next time on chatarbox reds and go reds

42:46you