Speaker 1: The following takes place between eight pm and nine pm.
Speaker 2: All right, let's keep rolling, no reason to slow down
Speaker 2: at this point. Eight nine Welcome in on RNAL Carrier
Speaker 2: Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet. I'm Lance Pcalister. How
Speaker 2: about some Reds baseball? You know and you love Our
Speaker 2: next guest as a longtime Reds analyst on TV and
Speaker 2: in the radio booth for over the past thirty three seasons,
Speaker 2: he's going to be the featured speaker at the annual
Speaker 2: Franklin County Baseball Dinner coming up Thursday night in Brookville, Indiana.
Speaker 2: A night of food, fun and fundraising and talking baseball.
Speaker 2: It is a pleasure to welcome in. Chris Welsh, how
Speaker 2: are you.
Speaker 3: Lance LANs great to talk any time I can talk
Speaker 3: to you. And there's snow on the ground, I mean
Speaker 3: that's that's a good thing, right yeah.
Speaker 2: And there's even like some hot stove news to melt
Speaker 2: the snow. Tonight, our guy see Trend has reported that
Speaker 2: the Reds have reached an agreement on a two year,
Speaker 2: twenty million dollar deal with Emilio Pegan the second year
Speaker 2: of player option. Your instant reaction A great.
Speaker 3: Move, really good move. I was kind of distressed to
Speaker 3: think that he was going to be gone, To be
Speaker 3: honest with you, you know, he's an interesting guy. He
Speaker 3: had a tough twenty twenty four. He was injured, his
Speaker 3: velocity dropped down, he just didn't feel well. I think
Speaker 3: he had a lap problem that he really never did
Speaker 3: heal from. And then last year, you know, his velocity
Speaker 3: bumped up as high as it was in his entire career.
Speaker 3: So here he was thirty four years old, throwing as
Speaker 3: hard as he ever did before. His splitter was really
Speaker 3: good last year. I think hit or sit like a
Speaker 3: buck twenty off of it or something like that. And
Speaker 3: you know, for all the worry that the people had
Speaker 3: about signing him to a small ballpark like Great American
Speaker 3: know Flyball, it didn't work out like that. He was
Speaker 3: a solid guy and he's really solid in the clubhouse,
Speaker 3: super leader. I'm delighted that he's back now.
Speaker 2: The other news, Ken Rosen, everybody from Ken Rosenthal to
Speaker 2: John Hayman writing that the Reds are quote serious about
Speaker 2: Kyle Schwarber, that Kyle is at least willing to listen.
Speaker 2: What would you what would you say to us dropping
Speaker 2: Kyle Schwarber in the middle of that Red's line up,
Speaker 2: Chris Welsh, it would change.
Speaker 3: A little bit. I mean, you know, he was kind
Speaker 3: of the missing link. In fact, there are a lot
Speaker 3: of teams that could use him right in the middle
Speaker 3: of the order obviously, and the Reds hopefully, you know,
Speaker 3: are on the trail and you know they've got a
Speaker 3: lot of things going for them and trying to re
Speaker 3: sign him. But you know, it's one of those things
Speaker 3: where you need a guy who puts a little bit
Speaker 3: of fear in the opposing pictures, and the Reds didn't
Speaker 3: had that guy. I mean, they had good players, they
Speaker 3: had versattle players, guys who could play all over the place.
Speaker 3: Some of that could put the ball in play. Someone's
Speaker 3: struck out a little bit. But if you put Schwarburn there,
Speaker 3: when you're a pitcher, you know where he is in
Speaker 3: the batting order, I mean, is he on the deck circle?
Speaker 3: Is he in double deck? You know, do I have
Speaker 3: to face the next sitting Managers feel the same way
Speaker 3: when they're plotting out the lead part of the game.
Speaker 3: Where is Schwarzer And because he can change a game
Speaker 3: on a swing, So it would be great, certainly, I'm
Speaker 3: you know, optimistic, but I'm tempering that a little bit
Speaker 3: because you know, the free agent market is a crazy thing.
Speaker 3: It's very unpredictable, no doubt.
Speaker 2: No doubt they and they have some work to do.
Speaker 2: I want to go back to the bullpen. They still
Speaker 2: have some work to do to rebuild that bullpen, Chris.
Speaker 2: Why are the performances of relievers so seemingly volatile one
Speaker 2: year to the next. Why are they so hard to
Speaker 2: figure out and know what to count on and who
Speaker 2: to count on year to year?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it's not only with the Reds, but
Speaker 3: it's everybody. And I think that because everybody. I think nowadays,
Speaker 3: lance is being evaluated according to numbers. You know, how
Speaker 3: hard do you throw, how hard is your slider? How
Speaker 3: many times do you get thwings and missus? What is
Speaker 3: your soft contact? You know. The last thing that I
Speaker 3: think teams look at nowadays are earned run averages and
Speaker 3: wins and losses and even number of saves and holds
Speaker 3: and things like that. Those statistics are out the door now.
Speaker 3: Everything that they're looking at is being grabbed by a
Speaker 3: high speed camera or some kind of an analytical machine
Speaker 3: that is breaking down the pitch. You know, the stin
Speaker 3: the axis of the pitch, the release point. Here's something
Speaker 3: for you. Here's one thing that made Emilio Pegan so
Speaker 3: good and deceptive. He throws ninety six miles an hour.
Speaker 3: But he's six feet two inches tall. When he releases
Speaker 3: the ball to home plate, he's almost six feet nine
Speaker 3: inches tall, So he gives you, you know, six inches
Speaker 3: of extension, and that's six inches sneaks up on the hitter.
Speaker 3: Those are the kind of things that teams are looking
Speaker 3: for nowadays. And I think the reason the teams are
Speaker 3: up and the players are up and down, pitchers especially,
Speaker 3: is because you know, they're chasing the unhittable pitch and
Speaker 3: they're trying to throw it so hard and snap it
Speaker 3: off so hard that they lose the consistency around the
Speaker 3: strike zone. And if you're wilder outside the drug zone,
Speaker 3: you're going to be wild inside the strike zone, and
Speaker 3: those guys get hit. So it's as simple as that.
Speaker 3: That's why it's very hard to predict pictures, especially relief pictures.
Speaker 2: I wonder Tony Santion was really good last year, but
Speaker 2: he was really worked last year eighty appearances. How much
Speaker 2: concern do you have about the carryover effect into the
Speaker 2: next season. After a workload like that.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of worry about that. I mean, well,
Speaker 3: once a guy gets to about seventy games a year
Speaker 3: and how he's worked and so on, you see fewer
Speaker 3: and fewer relievers wanting to take the ball down the
Speaker 3: road when they've been they've been used like that. I mean,
Speaker 3: their agents are now telling them that, hey, you know,
Speaker 3: you shut it down until you know the month of
Speaker 3: August because you know you're coming up on free agency
Speaker 3: and you can't afford to go seventy five games this year.
Speaker 3: They're going to use you. They know you're going to
Speaker 3: be a free agent. This is not Tony santi This
Speaker 3: is in general. So this is the one thing that's
Speaker 3: going on kind of behind the scenes in baseball that's
Speaker 3: very disturbing, where you're getting pitchers that are healthy who
Speaker 3: are not pitching because they're afraid they're going to miss
Speaker 3: the big pay day when they become a creation or
Speaker 3: and they get an arbitration. So you know, Santio is
Speaker 3: a team player. He's a guy that went out there
Speaker 3: time and time again. He went out there, you know,
Speaker 3: on fumes many times, and I think that he's going
Speaker 3: to be well rested he's a big dude, man. I mean,
Speaker 3: he's a big, burly bull out and I love him
Speaker 3: and I don't think other hitters like to sit in
Speaker 3: the sit in the batters box against him either.
Speaker 2: Chris, Are you bullish on a bounce back from Matt
Speaker 2: McLain this coming season?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am. I think that. You know, he had
Speaker 3: a really serious shoulder injury. I think the expectations for
Speaker 3: Matt McClain were way out of whack at the beginning
Speaker 3: of the year last year. I really do now really
Speaker 3: for me, Matt McClain, he has to be for simple.
Speaker 3: He just got to fix a couple of things at
Speaker 3: the play. Number one, he's got to stop chasing the
Speaker 3: high pitch. If he stopped doing that, you're going to
Speaker 3: bring the ball down in order for him. He's got
Speaker 3: a small strike zone. He's a little dude right highwives.
Speaker 3: He's a big, strong, early kid, but he's not real tall,
Speaker 3: so it's a nice compact strike zone. He's got to
Speaker 3: make the strike zone his friend rather than his foe.
Speaker 3: And he started chasing things all over outside the zone.
Speaker 3: And you know, you pitch him in with fastballs, you
Speaker 3: pitch him away with sliders. The age whole way of
Speaker 3: doing it, and that was the way they got him
Speaker 3: out last year. Once he figures that out, you know,
Speaker 3: he's a speedy kid. He's got a great arm. He
Speaker 3: wants to play. He's got this burning desire inside him,
Speaker 3: and that's probably the thing that I like the most.
Speaker 2: You are the featured speaker at the annual Franklin County
Speaker 2: Baseball Dinner coming up next Thursday night. Are you excited
Speaker 2: to be in Brookville, Indiana for a big night of
Speaker 2: talking baseball?
Speaker 3: I am, indeed and not doing that, but I'm going
Speaker 3: to see my old battery mate who ended up being
Speaker 3: a Reds manager, and Dave Miley. Yes it was Miles
Speaker 3: that called me and he got me over there. He's
Speaker 3: involved with that program over there, and it's going to
Speaker 3: be a lot of fun. It's not big fancy dinnering.
Speaker 3: I think they're doing pizza and salads and things like this.
Speaker 3: But I'm going to give a good talk about, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, about the Reds. Maybe have some broadcasting and
Speaker 3: some history and maybe some jokes mixed in. And I'll
Speaker 3: tell you, and I'll tell everybody that shows up. If
Speaker 3: you don't like my speech, I'll almost get your money
Speaker 3: back so you can't beat that.
Speaker 2: Love it if you want to ticket information, Chris has
Speaker 2: information on his X feed at think Pitch. I've also
Speaker 2: reposted it as well on X at lance Percallister. Hey,
Speaker 2: it is so great catching up with you. Love talking
Speaker 2: baseball with you. Thanks for making time tonight.
Speaker 3: All right, Lance, anytime talk baseball with you, it's always
Speaker 3: a fun thing to do.
Speaker 2: Thanks Chris. Take care,