Thank you, how we doing, everybody, and welcome to Wisconsin Sports. It's time to go with Trage. I'm your host, trage. It is Tuesday, a fantastic Tuesday here in the great state of Wisconsin. Weather I mean yesterday we were getting a little bit of snow, not so fantastic on that part.
Speaker 1:But hey, other than that great day yesterday, a lot of good games happening last night and, if you're a fan of the women's side of college basketball, a lot of fantastic games. We saw Iowa. They took on LSU last night a rematch of that national championship, and man, that was a great game. That was a great game and I mean it's like I was comparing that game because I had some discussion there with a couple of friends from out of state and we were talking about the game and they were like well, why don't you just guard Kaitlyn Clark? Why don't you just throw doubles at her? Throw doubles at her, and you know, the only thing I compare Kaitlyn Clark to in that essence is when you look at this Iowa team as a whole since last year they have gotten a crap ton better, right All the way around. This team has gotten better, from Kaitlyn Clark down they have gotten better and I think that really has complimented Kaitlyn Clark to the fact of yeah, you can throw doubles at Kaitlyn all day long, but you look at the way that she's able to create shots for other teammates, right, to create shots for her bigs down there, to create shots for the other shooters on that team. It's like the only thing I could think of comparison wise was thinking about Zach Eady and Purdue. Right, you can throw doubles at Zach Eady all day long, but you're going to leave someone open, you're going to leave shooters open. So what side of the poison do you want to take? Do you want to take the poison of, hey, we're going to let the Kaitlyn Clark show go on and hopefully she misses a couple shots here and there? Or are we looking more to the fact of, hey, we're going to shut down Kaitlyn Clark while allowing her teammates to just score and score and score?
Speaker 1:Because you look at this team now, I mean you look at last year, like I said, compared to this year, I mean those girls can score it now in Iowa. And that was the big difference, I thought, between the LSU-Iowa game last year and this year is Iowa. Yes, they are reliant on Kaitlyn Clark, right, the offense runs through her, but the other cast of characters out there are able to score at a high clip, and that really does compliment that team well, and I think that's what really spelled the downfall for LSU in that game. I mean, lsu played a fantastic season, right, they played great throughout the year. They just ran into a very hot Kaitlin Clark in Iowa and they took care of them there, and then the night camp there between USC and uh, uconn just watch that now I fantastic game. So far from what I've seen, it was all around a great night of women's college basketball.
Speaker 1:The only game that really mattered to Wisconsinites, though unless if you're a big fan of Kaitlyn Clark is the Wisconsin women's team did sadly fall now to St Louis last night. I didn't get to tune into the game right away, but it looked like from what I saw, Wisconsin's leading player, sierra Williams, must have gone out with an injury early. I could be mistaken there. I thought it was an injury that I saw come across there. She only played a minute in that game 0-1 from the floor, and that was it. So that did not help Wisconsin not having, I mean, their best player on the floor. She was averaging 18 points a game, heading into this game here against St Louis, and I mean without her. It's just spelled trouble for the Badgers. So Badgers lose this game 65-60.
Speaker 1:Outside of that, badgers got some good scoring efforts though. Porter had 17 for the Badgers there and Jimenez added 12, grady had seven, douglas had seven he'll get another started there and losing her. She had nine in that game and Copeland had five. Three for Shamrock or Shemek in this one. I mean badgers played well but you lose your time. I mean you lose your top score. It's going to be tough, it is really going to be tough, especially for a badger team that has struggled to find scoring all season long.
Speaker 1:Now your best shooter goes down early in this one and well, the badgers weren't able to recoup for that one. So badgers struggle in this one. Struggle from three. Five for 19 for 53 from the floor. Not many basketball games are going to win like that.
Speaker 1:Looking at the opposite side, I mean they held St Louis four for 15 from the three-point arc there and 24 of 59 from the floor. 13 of 17 from the free-throw line for St Louis. Badgers shot it well from the free throw line. 17 for 21 in this one, but not enough in this game here. Rebounds, I mean relatively close there 33 for St Louis, 32 for the Badgers. And then you look at the assist total 12 to 11. St Louis edged them out in that category. Turnovers there's your killer 18 turnovers for the badgers in this game compared to 11 for st louis. That spelled downfall for the badgers here. So badgers, louis, sadly, in the wnit tournament.
Speaker 1:A great run, a great run all the way around. Got to the elite eight of the nit tournament, just on the outside of that final four, look there. And the Badgers fell to St Louis there at the Kohl Center. But hey, I mean you take it as all. You take it your wins with your losses right.
Speaker 1:This was a great run for a Badger team that had struggled this year, struggling to find offense, struggling to find answers anywhere out in the basketball court. They put a run on in the WNIT tournament. That I mean. You only help listening to Wisconsin's coach there. She was in a press conference there I believe it was after their last win and she was talking, I mean just basically about the experience. And they're excited to play, she's excited to coach. That's what you love to see is when your players are excited, even for a WNIT tournament. They still get excited because it's more basketball, more time on the court with teammates and able to develop along the way. And I think that's good for this Badger team because they got a long way to go before they're going to be up in the same category.
Speaker 1:I mean we don't know about Iowa, right? Kaitlin Clark's going to be gone after this year, but Indiana's good now. Nebraska's pretty good there in this Big Ten. Ohio State's, I mean okay in there. So you got a lot of good teams in the Big Ten now and you're adding more right. Usc's coming, you're going to have UCLA coming in, oregon's coming in, you're going to have Washington all good teams coming into the Big Ten now and you got to be able to deal with them. So going to be interesting to see. It's going to be very interesting to see what this Badger team, what happens as they move on now. They add some recruits in here. Maybe they dip into the transfers, I don't know what happens, but it's great to see this Badger team end the season with a little bit of a run right. Fantastic stuff there out of the women's basketball team.
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Speaker 1:But moving on here, I want to get into the Brewers a little bit today, because the Brewers will be back in action today. I don't know what's going on with all these afternoon games. I don't know if I'm a fan. Right, you got work, you're going to be at work and now the Brewers are on to 3-10. Start there for the Brewers against the Twins, excuse me, there That'll be the home opener. The home opener at American Family Field. Nothing better than that. Sadly, I got to work, won't be able to get down there to tailgate. Won't be able to get down there to tailgate. Won't be able to get down there and enjoy the greatness that is opening day at American Family Field. But Brewers have Jacob Junis on the mound here for them. He's going to be going up against Varland for the Twins in this one.
Speaker 1:That's Louie Varland from the Twins. Last season Louie was 4-3 with a 4.63 era. Yeah, 68 innings pitched and 71 strikeouts for him. Not a bad year out of louis varland last season there. But looking at jacob junis for the brewers heading into this one, you want to look at his last year's stats there 40 games, four and three. He was at a 3.87 era, 86 innings pitched and 90 straight 96 strikeouts for jacob junis last season there for the giants. So good stuff there coming into this one brewers and twins.
Speaker 1:Looking at the brewers against Varlin this is the first time anybody for the Brewers is going to face up with Varlin. So that's going to be a a new thing, right? You know lots of times here, especially with some of the better pitchers in the league. Everybody's seen them. Right, we're gonna have no stats so far here going up against Varlin. Looking at this twins team, though, they've had some action there against Jacob Junis. Byron Buxton's hitting 444 against him, two home runs, two RBIs and nine at-bats. Carlos Correa, he's got two home runs, three RBIs and 11 at-bats.
Speaker 1:And then you look at Max Kepler there. I don't know if Kepler's going to be playing, though I did see he was injured there early. I'm not sure. I just wanted to double-check in on that. Here he is going to be out. He has a knee injury right now. He's still not running, according to the injury report on March 31st from the Twins there, from what I can see. So I don't expect to see Max Kepler in this game for the Twins there.
Speaker 1:I also did see I don't remember who the other one was. It was Max Kepler and somebody else went down there. It might have been Kirloff went down for the Twins there. That was, I believe, one of the first games for this Twins team. Just wanted to double check in on that. There. Royce Lewis, that was the other guy, not Kirloff. It was Royce Lewis that went down with an injury there. So Royce Lewis will be out too for this there. So Royce Lewis will be out too for this game.
Speaker 1:So twins will be down, a couple of their mainstay guys there, but other outside of that. I mean you're looking at Santana there for the twins. He's hitting 444 against Jacob Junis, so a little bit of action there for Carlos Santana. I liked Carlos Santana with the Brewers so I know it's going to be good to see him with the Twins. I think good opportunity for him. But I mean looking at him as a whole, he's hit well against Junis in the past there. So a lot of decent. I mean I'm looking through the guys who have hit against Jacob Junis in the past and a lot of success, a lot of good success against Jacob Junis. Hopefully that changes here. Now he's in a Brewers uniform. Should be some good stuff there coming out of that one for Jacob Junis. So looking at that, I mean the Brewers 310 start today. Should be some good stuff there with the twins coming into this one.
Speaker 1:But I, you know I reached out on Facebook, had the question and I was going to answer it myself, but I kind of wanted to see what everyone, where everybody was leaning with this. So I reached out and I said, hey, brewer fans, after a solid opening weekend series sweeping the Mets, what are your first impressions of this team? Right, because I mean, a lot of people said it's early. It's early. It's early, bull hooky, because there's people giving me first impressions on this Brewers team before the season even started. So you cannot tell me it's early, right? Yeah, I get it, it's early in the year yet to say Brewers are going to the World Series, right, it is way too early to tell any of that kind of stuff. But what I'm saying is you can give me your first impressions of this team, because you could give it to me in the offseason. Why can't you give it to me now? So that's what I was saying there.
Speaker 1:First impressions of the team.
Speaker 1:Did they change your outlook that you had heading into the year?
Speaker 1:If it's all right, would it? And that just went on there a little bit. But I had some good answers here. First one coming from Aaron Levandusky. That's an interesting last name there, aaron. I did not. If I butchered it, I butchered it.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry for that one there, but he said promising start, but far too early. Love the fight. If they can stay healthy, they could do some damage. 100% agree. Talked about it yesterday on the show here. I agree with you there. This team stays healthy. They have, I mean, young and they're going to fight every single game. They're going to do the little things that they can do to try to win these games. And I love that comment there. I agree.
Speaker 1:I agree 100% with everybody saying it's early, but it's not too early to give your impression right. And I agree it's early in the year. It's just like this year. I mean stating it's early but it's promising this. Here I mean stating it's early but it's promising, right, what we saw coming into the year. We had a lot of question marks. Now it's like, okay, the lineup. We were worried if you had worries in the lineup. Now you see what pat murphy's gonna try and do. He's gonna try to play a little bit more small ball, little aggressiveness on the base paths, right, getting out there and trying to jump on guys, the little things throughout a, a game. You got to love it.
Speaker 1:There we had Nicholas Eggleston came in and said it's too early to make any kind of judgment right now, but it looks like our starters are solid, our bullpen without Williams needs help and outside of Yellich the bats are inconsistent. However, since my previous thoughts about this season were that we needed to sell the team, I'd say that they are off the ledge. I'd say we are off the ledge for the time being. I love the comment. I mean I completely there was. I mean a moment in this offseason where I said to myself too, this Brewers team is. I mean you got Hoskins coming in but then you traded away Burns, woodruff's on the shelf all year and it's like where's it going to come from? Now we're going to rely on a lot of second year guys who, I mean you look at Sal didn't even play a full first season in the majors, right, he got in there a little bit later.
Speaker 1:And then you had other pieces along the way that were kind of just mix and match, right. Andrew Monasterio. Now you have Jacksonson trill, first year. Oliver dunn first year. You have a lot of intermingled moving pieces out there and you don't know what's how it's all going to come together.
Speaker 1:So I agree, at one point it was like, uh, what, what are we doing? I mean, and the whole time we got hoskins I was like, yeah, I mean this is one last we're gonna go for. I mean this is one last we're going to go for it. All right, this is one big old. We're going to go for everything right here because we have Burns for one more year. Then they trade away Burns and it was like, oh, are we in a rebuild? Like, is this like a halfway to a rebuild kind of move here? When we got rid of Burns there and now it's like, okay, now the pieces are there. I'm not going to say the pieces aren't there. So it's definitely been one of those interesting things where it's been like playing with your emotions along the way.
Speaker 1:How do we feel now about this team versus how we felt with Burns? You know, that was the big change. You had that mainstay starter who you could always I mean seven out of ten times rely on to give you a good outing at the top of the rotation there, and then you didn't have to rely on Freddie and Ray and everybody else to be at the top of the rotation. Now you lose him. Now it's like, oh, okay, now we feel vulnerable. Right, we don't have that solid starting pitching anymore. Now we feel vulnerable because it's like't have that solid starting pitching anymore. Now we feel vulnerable because it's like what's the offense going to give us? And so far offense has been good. So I 100% agree. This team starting pitching looks solid so far. We're going to see a little bit more out of Jacob Junis and Joe Rossier against the Twins Outside of that bullpen.
Speaker 1:I mean I feel like there's room to add pieces in there, but I'm not overly concerned. I liked what I saw out of Uribe and I liked what I saw out of Pomp in there in that closer's role. So I feel like the Brewers can get by. But do you want to just get by and risk it or find some pieces to add out there in the bullpen? That's going to be the million dollar question there.
Speaker 1:A couple other comments here. Philip Urquhart said I think their pitching is too weak this season. Better offense though, yeah, I mean from what we've seen in the past to now I their pitching has gone down a little bit. I mean Colin Ray is a good. I believe Colin Ray is a good number four to five in the rotation. Now he's a three DL Hall.
Speaker 1:We haven't seen a lot out of him yet. His first outing wasn't bad, but not a lengthy outing, right, and that's what you kind of need here, especially with a bullpen, that you are missing your closer. So you got to move everything back. We haven't really added a lot of pieces out there. So the depth to go into games now, what can jacob junis give you? What is joe ross going to give you in that fifth game? That's going to be the big question marks. Because looking at the starters for the brewers, ray gave him a good one, freddie gave him a good one. Do hall game a little bit shorter of a start there. So the bullpen hasn't been overtaxed. But you can't go lengthy stretches there by going ah, we got to go to the bullpen here in the fourth because we're going to run into issues there.
Speaker 1:So I completely agree, pitching is a little bit down this year. I think there's still room for the Brewers to add. You also have Wade Miley still coming back at, I hope at some point. Right, we thought he was going to be there, he wasn't there, he had a spring start and then all of a sudden he was not. He was injured again. So it's like, okay, how much are we going to see a Wade Miley? You have Wade Miley coming back here and I have a big lover of Wade Miley, so hopefully he gets back into this rotation and is as good as he's been for the Brewers in the past because that would be fantastic if you are the Brewers.
Speaker 1:Davo W Payne came out and he told us I was only able to attend two spring training games and really had no clue what to expect, knowing only the players from the 2023 season what I witnessed opening day weekend was very impressive the speed, clutch hitting, pitching and grit from this group is something to look forward to. Go Brew Crew. I agree. I love that comment right there, because I think it's something that the Brewers have been missing for a while now. The speed, the clutch hitting, clutch hitting is something the Brewers have lacked for a long time, a long time. I don't think we've had it since 2018, maybe 2019 if you want to get up in the 2019 mark. But then it started to dip too.
Speaker 1:2018, you had Yelich, you had Braun, you had Moustakis, you had a decent Travis Shaw, you had Lorenzo Cain, you had pieces that were hitting the baseball, even Jesus Aguilar, that season there for the Brewers. You looked at 2019, not bad. You had Yelich, you had Braun, yet you had Yasmany Grandal on that team. You had a lot of pieces on that team too. But then you look after that. 2021, you look at that playoff little dinker that they had there not a lot going on. And then you look at last season there, their early exit from the Diamondbacks, where they had, I believe it was 16 runners on base in one of those games against Diamondbacks, where they had, I believe, 16 runners on base in one of those games against Diamondbacks and they didn't push across a run. That's a problem.
Speaker 1:So clutch hitting is a big thing, but the speed also benefits that, because now you have the speed and also the small ball game, the grit, the get after you kind of aggressiveness of this team. That's going to change those situations too. Right, you have first and second. You have the bottom of the order coming up with Terang. You can lay down a bunt to advance those runners Potentially get on there with an infield that we saw once there over opening weekend and just the speed threat that this team has and the grit, the defensive grit of this team. Terang had a fantastic play over the weekend there. We saw a great play out of Joey Ortiz, oliver Dunn.
Speaker 1:The outfield has been playing good for the Brewers. I mean all the way around some good plays here by the defense for the Brewers and I think that is a lot. That is going to be huge for the Brewers moving forward, especially with a lot of these guys that they have right, colin Ray isn't a big strikeout guy and you look at even a guy like Jacob Junis and Joe Ross not going to be major strikeout guys, even Wade Miley when he comes back. So you're going to have to be able to rely on your defense to be able to make plays in the hole and be able to make this field smaller for hitters there, and I think this Brewers defense definitely has the capability to do that moving forward. So I love that comment there.
Speaker 1:Also, looking at a couple of the other ones here, rick Waski said they will be fun to watch regardless of their record. I don't think the starting pitching will hold up but I think they can be around 500. Yesterday I said they were going to be a little higher than 500 but I mean I agree with this comment in the simple fact of regardless of what this team does, I truthfully believe they will be fun to watch. I really do. The speed, the ability to hit the gaps, the ability on defense, some of the young guys pitching, I mean I could 100, agree% agree that this team win or lose is going to add some excitement and bring some excitement back to Brewer baseball. It isn't going to be the old, like we've seen in the past couple years, where it's home run or bust. We have to hit home runs or we won't score runs. Now it's like we can score runs. I mean I would not be surprised if I saw Pat Murphy bring back a suicide punt. I would not be surprised whatsoever.
Speaker 1:The way that he's running this team is the small ball is the way to go. We don't. We're not going to try. We're not going to go for the home run ball. If it happens, it happens right. He's not going to complain if we had a home run. But he's not going to complain if we had a home run. But he's not going to go up there with bryce terrain who's struggling and say, bryce, please go up there and give me a hit. Right, if there's runners on, if there's the opportunity for a bunt, I really do believe bryce or pat murphy's going to be all over. That. He will do with anybody at any time. I don't think he holds one person more accountable than the next and he doesn't hold somebody else to a different standard than the next guy.
Speaker 1:I truthfully believe pat murphy runs this team like they're all equal and that's how it is. I thought, craig counsel, when you watched him he was like there were situations where he should have and he's like I'm not gonna do it. You know, there are situations where it's like why is willie adamas batting at the top of the order if he's batting 208, right, and he's still up there. Don't understand it. I really do think Pat Murphy's done a good job with his lineup so far, even getting guys into spots where I really truthfully believe. I talked about it yesterday looking at some of the lineups there from the first three games, putting guys in lineup where I believe they're truthfully going to succeed. And I think that's a big thing that Craig Council missed out on Sal Frelick in the cleanup spot for Craig. What was that? I mean, explain that one to me. I never understood that portion of it Going away from.
Speaker 1:I'm a traditional guy when it comes to lineups. Right, I love the one. The leadoff guy is my on base guy. He's going to watch pitches. He's going to get on base for me. My two a little more contact and power. Got the ability to get on base for me and move runners. My three has got power, he's got contact, he's got speed. He's got it all right, if you can have it. He's got it all. My four is my cleanup. He's my popper, he's my big bopper there I don't care if he bats 250, if he gives me 35 to 40 home runs. Solid, my five's kind of in that same boat there. My six power threat, but not so much, a little bit less, just my on-base guy who's going to give me some RBIs there in that sixth hole. Nine's my reverse back to the top of the order and then your seven or eight are your just average guys. But that's my light up there and I think that's what Pat Murphy really goes to right now. So I love what Pat Murphy's been going to and I think this team I agree with that comment there from Rick this team is going to be fun to watch and no matter how it shakes out, it will still be a fun season here for the Brewers.
Speaker 1:Looking at a couple more of the comments Mike Magler said I'm not sure it changed my outlook but it's looking like they will be more fun to watch play. Yep, 100% agree. Just like the last comment there. I would say opening weekend did change my outlook on the team. But I think I agree. I agree with everybody who said this team looks like they're just going to be more fun to watch. 100% agree with that there. Looking down the comments here, one more noah winkler came out and said was fun watching them. But it's the mets, after all, should be a fun team to watch with the new rules and all the speed and they don't even have mitchell. But it's so early in the season, is so long agreed? I? I agree with that. I mean it's early on yet but we're seeing a team with a lot of speed, a lot of promise and I mean just great all the way around.
Speaker 1:Offense for the Brewers I really do think, heading into this year, I think they have the ability to be a good offense here and an offense that we've been missing right, we haven't had a great offense over the years here for the Brewers. I think this team is going to be fun to watch because I think the offense is dynamic. Finally, for this Brewers team, with the speed, with Pat Murphy's willingness to play small ball, I think all the way around it will be great. And then Chad R Draper he said I like the aggressive, offensive approach on the bases Takes me to the 80s brand of baseball. Starting pitching is still a question mark and that has to take more time to answer. Great start 100%. Agree that comment. Right, there is 100%.
Speaker 1:What we've been trying to say this whole time with Brewers is that it's finally a fun brand of baseball to watch. Right, the speed, the athleticism, get after you. Aggressiveness on the bases, in the field, wherever it is. The only question we have is pitching. Will the pitching continue to get better as the season goes on here for the brewers? That's what we're going to wait and see. When they get healthy, if rookies come up, if the brewers add pieces, whatever it is, does this team continue to get better? So with that, I just wanted to get into a little bit of a question of the day there and talk about a little bit and I mean I was going to give my answer to the question, but I'm going to say end of the day, everything that you guys have come up with there. That's my answer right now. I mean the outlook on the season. I think it's going to be a fun year to watch brewer baseball. I love the aggressiveness, get after you kind of baseball. Starting pitching is still my question. I think the bullpen. You could add a piece, but I feel like they're fine in the bullpen right now. So all the way around, love what I'm seeing with the brewers right now. But before we move on here, I got a little more baseball talk ball.
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Speaker 1:But with that I want to get to our first fresh on the farm report. Fresh on the farm report there of everything Milwaukee Brewer Farm System reporting right Used to do the segment on. If anybody listened to the Trajan KJ show, I used to do a podcast with my sister and that's where we got it from. We're going to use it. We're going to use it because I don't know if I got to pay her for it or whatever is going to happen. She'll hear this. She'll make me pay her for the copyright information of Fresh on the Farm.
Speaker 1:But with this Fresh on the Farm report today I just wanted to get into a little bit of the Nashville Sounds right, because Biloxi, the Timber Rattlers and the Carolina Mudcats will not open up play yet. They will open up play on April 5th. So that'll be coming up this Friday here when they will have their first series of the year. But outside of that, the Sounds the Nashville Sounds did open up play. They started out one and two on this young season here. Not a fantastic start there, but I mean it's all good. It's all good. One and two start to start us out here and I just want to look at a couple of the good uh, I don't want to know if you want to call them good performers. Whatever you want to say. Some of the better performers there coming on that wanted to start there for the sounds.
Speaker 1:We saw left fielder Brewer Hicklin. He started out the year there hitting well for this team. He's hitting 333 down there right now. Patrick Dorian, third baseman, he's hitting 417 right now down there in AAA with one home run and two RBIs. Chris Roller, right fielder 333 average right now with an RBI. We did see Carlos F Rodriguez in action down there. One of the Brewers' better starting pitching prospects there. Saw him a little bit in spring. He's with the Nashville Sounds Seven strikeouts, three earned runs, four walks and four hits in his opening appearance there for Nashville. And then we saw a little bit of JB Buckus. This could be a guy that you could see. If you are a Milwaukee Brewer fan, you could see him a little bit this year, jb Buckus. One game pitch, one inning and one strikeout out of JB there. So some good stuff there coming out of the Nashville Sounds and we'll do the Fresh on the Farm report a little bit more here as the year gets going.
Speaker 1:Here for the minor league system Getting into next week right, I just want to jump into it Mentioned the Sounds there coming off last weekend, but now we'll wait a little bit. Get into it next week here as everything else opens up there. But I wanted to move on here because we have to get into the Bucs. Here Bucs will be facing the Wizards Coming up tonight here. Damian Lillard, he's out, he's out and this time he's got, I guess you could say a legitimate reason for being out Last time. I mean, I don't want to say legitimate, right, because we don't know what the personal issues that he's dealing with are. So I don't want to say legitimate. But he was out last game there versus the Hawks with a personal reason. Now against the Wizards here he will not play with a groin injury. So we will not see Damian Lillard once again here for the Bucs. But that's okay, right, because then we get more Chris Middleton time Middleton seems to do a little bit better when Dame is out.
Speaker 1:So hopefully we see some good stuff here out of the Bucs, because they are playing a team in the Wizards who, in the better words, is not good, I mean just a terrible team. This year 14-61 on the year. They're 6-31 at home. They're a better road team than they are home team. That's interesting. There's only one other team that's in that same realm and I'm pretty sure it's the Golden State Warriors, because I'm pretty sure the Warriors are actually better on the road than they are at home. Yeah, on the road they're 22 and 15. At home they're 18 and 19.
Speaker 1:This is a team that's. That's honestly getting off topic a little bit, but that's honestly surprising out of a team like the Warriors. Because you look a year ago I believe it was a year ago there that that Warriors team was terrible on the road. They were like how are we going to win a road playoff game? But they were good at home. Now it's the exact opposite. I saw Steph Curry came out and said they're going to have to start staying in hotels in San Francisco so that way they can feel like they're on the road for home games because they don't know what to do and what the big kicker is there at home. Bucks, they're 18 and 19 on the road right now, 47 and 27 heading into this one. I mean this is not a good wizard team. The bucks should be able to win this game, but I've seen some things with this Bucs team that that, you know, strikes the worry here a little bit. But you know the wizards, they're 10 and 38, and Eastern conference games they are three and 43 against opponent, opponents with a winning record. So not great against good teams. This is a good. I mean I want to say a good Bucs team, so should be good in this one. A good, I mean I want to say a good Bucs team, so should be good in this one.
Speaker 1:Looking at the Wizards, I mean you got to watch out for Jordan Poole. He's shooting about 41% and averaging 17 points per game. Corey Kispert I forgot about him Yukon. I believe Corey Kispert's a Yukon guy, if I'm not. Oh, gonzaga, that's right. Gonzaga, that's right Gonzaga. Oh, my goodness, I almost messed that up there. Gonzaga guy, that's right. Corey Kispert, there, the that? I believe he was on the title run. I thought he was for Gonzaga there. So, corey Kispert, he's averaging about 2.7, made three pointers over the last 10 games there for this wizard team. So good stuff there.
Speaker 1:Out of some of the guys off the wizards. We're not going to see Damian Lillard in this game, but yannis. He's averaging about 21.8 points and 8.9 rebounds, while shooting 59 over the last 10 games. So yannis has been playing good for the bucks as of late bucks six and four in their last 10, averaging about 117 a game 44, 44 rebounds, 28 assists, 5 steals and 4 blocks over the last little stretch here. Looking at this Wizards team over the last 10, 3-7, averaging 107 points per game, 43 rebounds, 25 assists, 6 steals, 4 blocks, 45% from the field. Opponents are getting about 118 against them per game right now.
Speaker 1:Looking at this Wizards team on the injury report heading into this one no, kyle Kuzma for this game. Isaiah Livers is out for the season there for them, and then some of the other guys there. Tyus Jones is out for this game. Shamit's out. I mean this injury report is ridiculous. Richard Holmes is out. I mean it's just about everybody's on the injury report, right, ridiculous. Richard Holmes is out. I mean it's just about everybody's on the injury report right now. I don't know what's going on Like holy crap, but we will see with all those injuries. Exciting news.
Speaker 1:If you are a Bucs fan or a Wisconsin fan, right, we get to see Johnny Davis. He is back with the Wizards. So we will see Johnny Davis in action there for this Wizards team. So good stuff there. I hope to see him a lot in this game and hopefully the Bucs are blowing him out. We see a lot of Johnny Davis because I mean, there ain't nothing better, right? As a Wisconsin fan, as a fan of Wisconsin sports if you watched, I watched him a little bit in high school there and also when he got into college, big Badger fan. I watched him a little bit in high school there and also when he got into college, big badger fan to watch him there. And now in the nba went down to the g league. Didn't get a lot of time to see him in the g league there, but it's gonna be great to be able to see a guy, a wisconsin guy, uh, playing there for the wizards against the bucks. So good stuff there. Bucks in action coming up tonight here against the wizards. That'll be a 6 o'clock tip for that game Bucks, wizards good stuff there Out of that one. Hopefully Damian Lillard gets well here pretty soon and we'll see him back. I don't know if the groin was the injury, if that was the reason the whole time, or what's going on with Damian Lillard, but hopefully we see Damian Lillard back out on the court here for the Bucs pretty soon, because I mean, man, man, oh man, I just you pay this guy, you get rid of Drew.
Speaker 1:And now it's like one thing after another with this team and it's like one heck of a headache. Right, that's all you get out of sometimes. Watching the Bucs right now is one heck of a headache and it's like when, when are we gonna be able to? Just, it's all about chasing the championship year, right, and every year now it's like something new, something bad happens. Chris middleton gets hurt, we lose, drew holiday, we get damn. Now it seems like it's a mess with Dame. The Bucs are a mess. We trade away a lot of the good defenders on this team. The defense stinks. It's just one thing after another, it seems like so. Hopefully now this Bucs team gets going, heading towards the home stretch here, towards the playoffs.
Speaker 1:But, abe, I just wanted to mention here before I get into my last topic here. Forgot it with the Brewers, but good stuff coming out of the Brewers that just came across my social media line there just searching through. Eric Hayes did clear waivers for the Brewers and he will be sent to AAA Nashville. So good stuff there. I did not want to lose Eric Hayes. He was fantastic in spring for the Brewers. I really thought they could have carried three catchers into opening day. They did not. He was outrighted. Now he cleared waivers so he'll stay with the Brewers in Nashville. That's fantastic stuff. Fantastic stuff there, with Eric Hayes staying in Milwaukee there, with Eric Hayes staying in Milwaukee there.
Speaker 1:But with that, I just wanted to mention I had one more topic, one more topic I wanted to get into and that was one thing about the Badgers. I know I don't want to talk about the Badgers anymore, any more than anybody else does. Aj Storr now in the transfer portal and I saw a lot of people talking about it and they're like you know, aj, he's leaving and it's like it's not going to affect the Badgers that much. Blah, blah, blah. We don't really. I mean it's going to be, you know, whatever, nobody, it's not that bad. And I thought about it for a while and I thought about it for a while and I was like this was your leading score off this team. Now you lose them. I mean you're going to tell me it's not a big loss. Okay, then you must have some insider information there to tell me.
Speaker 1:We're bringing in another piece, because I saw a stat coming out from the NCAA tournament, that of the Elite Eight starters heading into that Elite Eight for the Mets there was 24 seniors, 4 juniors, 10 sophomores, 2 freshmen, 18 transfers and 16 fifth-year players. 12 of the top 13 scorers in the Elite Eight are seniors. You can't rely on the young guy anymore. I mean, college basketball is proving that to us right now. You can't rely on the young guy anymore. So yes, losing AJ Storm might not be a big thing for Wisconsin If you look at it from the concept of was he truthfully ever a Badger?
Speaker 1:That's what I want to learn, because this guy four different high schools throughout his career, ended up at St John's and then he ended up at the Badgers. Now he's transferring one more time. So you put that into perspective Was he truthfully every Badger? And then you say to yourself okay, now put all that aside, this guy was still your leading score. So now you have to replace that heading into next season. If you can't replace it with one guy, you've got to replace it with two. But you can't do it with freshmen anymore, because if you get into games, I mean Tom is always even looking in the transfer portal. That's breaking news. John Calipari is looking in the transfer portal. That's breaking news, because those guys, truthfully, don't ever look. They're more of the. We're going to get young guys, we're going to try to develop freshmen. That's not the name of the game anymore.
Speaker 1:So now you lose guys like AJ Stork. You have to be able to replace them throughout with developing players or guys coming from the transfer portal. So can the Badgers do that? That's my question to everybody out there who says the AJ Storr loss is not huge. Tell me if they will replace him with somebody else here in the transfer portal who can equal or do better than his production. Because yes, I've said in the past, dude took a lot of bad shots because he did but 18 points a game or whatever it ended up, as I don't even remember what it ended up.
Speaker 1:As for the Badgers, there for AJ Storrs, 16, 18, somewhere in the high teens there for AJ Storrs. So I mean you got to be able to replace the scoring. That's my biggest thing. So that's where I look at with that whole topic. I saw it come across social media. I had some questions about it, so I just want to talk about it a little bit there, because that's I mean scoring in college. Right now you have to be able to replace it. But you got to be able to replace it with, I mean, developed guys, basically right away. I mean you're looking at, like I said before, aj Storrs, 16 points a game, and you look at Tyler Wall there, 10 points a game for the Badgers. You had two guys there who are now gone, who averaged double figures for you, game in and game out.
Speaker 1:Now you've got to replace that scoring. Where does that come from? Because it doesn't come from bringing in recruits anymore. Like you wish, you might get the diamond in the dozen right, but you can't rely on that anymore. Like you wish, you might get the diamond in the dozen right, but you can't rely on that.
Speaker 1:So that's the big thing I look at right now when I look at that aj store into the transfer portal is how do they replace that scoring? And do they? Because if they don't, I think it's a problem. They will have problems with that if they go out and they add one piece. Okay, but does that replace? Do you have to add two? Do you have the ability to add two guys? Because I believe you're going to have to.
Speaker 1:With Tyler Wall and AJ Storrs vacancies now and also Conor off the bench. There you're going to have to fill in pieces. Where do those come from Now? You just lost Gus Yeldon too Not a huge loss because he didn't play, but still a loss. So now you have another position to replace there.
Speaker 1:So how does this Badger team go in the offseason? I think that's going to be a big thing and that's going to ease the mind about how does this AJ Storer loss affect this team moving forward? I think that's a big thing, but I'm not with everybody who's saying that it isn't a loss. It's a loss Because when you lose scoring off your roster, your leading scorer, it's definitely a loss. So how does this Badger team move forward off of that? I think that's going to be something to check out there if you are Badger fans. But with that, that's about all we got for today. Tomorrow we have a special interview coming at you from a national champion, so you better be checking out that one there. But with that, this has been Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. Thank you guys for listening. We'll catch you guys back here tomorrow, but until then, deuces, thank you.