Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag is a podcast/radio show aiming at bringing you Wisconsin sports news and opinions! Find the show Wednesdays from 7-9 on Sports radio 92.3 WOSQ or here next day!
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
The Brewer Blues: Finding Identity in Inconsistency
this is wisconsin sports on the go with trade your place for all things.
Speaker 1:Wisconsin sports, now your host trade how we doing everybody and welcome into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage. We're coming back on this wednesday. It's a fantastic wednesday. I mean goodness. The weather has been absolutely beautiful over the past couple days. I got a lot of yard work done. This. Last weekend we had one of our games canceled. It rained, you know all last week pretty much, and then we had one of our games canceled the weekend. So saturday got a lot of yard work done. It was beautiful. This week has been beautiful so far. Hopefully that carries into the weekend. It looks like it will. It looks like it's going to be absolutely gorgeous over these next couple of days. So that is awesome, awesome news there.
Speaker 1:Welcome in tonight. I hope you guys are having a fantastic night here. Wherever you're at, if you're hunkered down at home, if you're out in the car, whatever you're doing tonight, I hope you guys are doing well. I hope you're doing great and welcome back in to another episode of wisconsin sports on the go with trade. So tonight we got lots I want to get into. I want to talk a little bucks tonight here. I want to talk a little badger basketball.
Speaker 1:I want to talk brewer a lot of brewers, because there has been a lot of people talking about this brewers team, what they've been seeing as of late. This team has started off kind of sketchy. So I want to talk about the Brewers today. I want to talk about what we saw, because this last weekend here it was not pretty Lost three in a row, one of the White Sox, then they lost those two to the Cubs before salvaging a game on Sunday there against Chicago 4-0. So I want to talk about that Cubs series a little bit. What we saw got the win against Houston there on Monday. So I just I just want to kind of want to go over what we all saw here in this series, uh in these last couple series, and talk about what we've been seeing as of late here and what I feel is going on with the Brewers. And you know, is it panic time? Should we worry? Where are we at with that? So I want to talk Brewers today. We got Bucks, we got Kyle coming on later. Ummer should be on at some point here. We're gonna talk Packers tonight here just a little bit, but all in all lots to talk about, lots to talk about tonight here on the show, so right away, as we do every week.
Speaker 1:We come back from the weekend, right, and there's always stuff that pops in my head that's grinding my gears, right, sometimes it happens over the weekend, sometimes it's just, you know what. What am I thinking about? What? What's been grinding my gears as of late, right, so tonight, what is grinding trage's gears coming off the weekend?
Speaker 1:My number one thing and this is kind of what I had this last week after watching that pacer series, after watching the rocket series, uh, with the warriors there, what is with fan bases and wanting to be hated, I, I don't understand that. Maybe I'm just a guy who's out in the out in the wilderness on this one. I have no idea what. What people like I don't understand that. Maybe I'm just a guy who's out in the wilderness on this one. I have no idea what people like I don't get it.
Speaker 1:You know, I was talking with I was arguing with a Philadelphia Eagles fan about this, not Aaron, not Aaron, a different guy. I was arguing with him about it because he told me well, you know, we want to be hated, right, as Eagles fans, we want to be hated. We want the Eagles to be hated. I, we want to be hated, we want the Eagles to be hated. I don't get that. I really don't. Why do you want to be hated as a fan base? Like I look at the Cub fans, I'm like you're annoying, like Cub fans are annoying. They are. I mean, everybody can agree with that. Cub fans are annoying, yankee fans are annoying. Why do you want to be annoying, really, why it just don't get that. And then Pacer fans why do you want to be an annoying team? You know, why do you want to be just craptastic.
Speaker 1:Right, dylan Brooks, after that game against the Warriors there, talks all the trash in the series against the Warriors. There, dylan Brooks does, talks all the trash, goes in a press conference, tells him that he's looking to hurt Steph Curry. He's looking to target that hand. He's like like, oh, everybody would, right, if I had a hurt knee, you'd go after my knee. Well, steph curry's got a hurt finger, I'm gonna go after his hand. Right, that's what I want to go after. And then, after the series is done, game seven's, done they, the warriors win in houston. Dylan brooks doesn't shake a hand, walks off the court. Why do you want to be that guy? Right, draymond at least goes. He shakes hands. Right, all those guys. I mean that was a hostile series sen gun, that what I? The big guy from the Rockets there, I mean I him, he's a trash talker all series long, him and Draymond going back and forth, and after the game those two go up shake hands.
Speaker 1:I just don't get it. Why do you want to be hateable as a player? Why do you want to be hateable as a fan base? Why do you want to be a hateable team? I just don't get that one. I want to be hated to the fact of I'm that darn good that you just hate me. Like, like, that's, that's cool. I don't want to be hateable to the fact of well, I'm just a jack wagon, so that's why people hate me. You know, I just run my mouth, so that's why people hate me. No, right, yeah, you back it up on the floor. People didn't like Dennis Rodman because Dennis was, I mean, a menace, right, but end of the day, guy won, he helped Jordan win, he helped Pip win, right. That's what my difference is there.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that you don't want to be a hated team, as in you're good. You want to be a good team that they hate you because you're good like the New England Patriots. They hated Tom and the boys right, bill and everybody because they were good. They won Super Bowls. That's why they were hated, not because they were just trash talk, run your mouth. We're just going to show up, we're going to play dirty, we're going to do this, we're going to do that and at the end of the day, our fan base is going to get all up in your grill too and they're going to tell you how great they are and everything in tween, and then they're not going to win in jack squat. That's what I don't understand. Those fan bases, those teams, those are the ones I dislike. So I'm not saying I don't want to be hated as a team just because I'm when I'm good. I want to be hated because I'm good. I don't want to be hated just because I'm hateable, just because I trash talk when I'm winning and I play dirty and we do this and we do that, and that's different, that's different. So that's yeah, I just don't get that. I just don't get that. So that's one of my things. That's grinding my gears, uh, coming off the weekend.
Speaker 1:Another thing I I thought about this the other day because we've been taking, we've been working over in marshfield and close to uh in marshfield there and we've been spending a lot of time in menards right, going, going down to Menards and getting stuff. Why is the parking angled at Menards? Why is it angled? Why is it one way? And angled it actually makes it worse that it's angled in one way. When I have my you know, bigger work van that I take in there, or we even take the one truck that we have, the work truck that we have, and you drive in there, it's like I can't make these turns to get by these cars because it's angle parking crap. And then you drive through and then you got to crank it around the other way because you park in a spot right and then you drive through the parking spot to go out the other side and you just crank the tires around and try to make why is it angle parking? Why is it angle parking and why is it one way?
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's just me, if I'm the only one that dislikes that in this world, but I I dislike it, that's just me. So that's another thing that was grinding my gears. Also and this is just way off topic, beyonce and Shabuzy being on country music stations, that is. I know there's probably a lot of people out there who that grinds their gears to. That is absolutely grinding my gears, as of late Shaboozy and Beyonce on Wax 104.5. Can't handle it. I just can't handle it anymore. I stopped listening to country music stations because of that. I mean the bar song. It was catchy for like a week and then it was just done, just done with it there. So anyways, anyways, that's enough about that one. There. I did have a couple more People this is kind of a generic one, I guess, and it is you know, players.
Speaker 1:I've seen this a lot. I was watching you know a couple different games over the weekend there and I was watching just players not giving effort, running out ground balls. I, I, I hate that. I really do. I hate that. I even see it at like the younger levels too.
Speaker 1:You know, I hit a ball the second baseman or the first baseman or whatever you know back to the pitcher and you just kind of, ooh, I'm just going to get you out. Fine, eight out of ten times you get out, but in those two other times, the first baseman, if you jog or walk, they could drop the ball. The pitcher could drop the ball. They could throw it high and he could jump off the bag and still have time to go back and touch the bag because you're not hustling it out. I hate that. I hate that. I see big leaguers do it all the time and now it's you know, you watch, you have young kids watch these big leaguers do it. Then the young kids start doing it because they're like, oh, why would I run out of ground ball if you know this guy didn't run out of ground ball? Well, well, it translates wrong. And I just that drives me nuts. That drives me nuts. So that's another thing. Coming off the weekend, they're grinding my gears.
Speaker 1:And then I mean, last but not least, coaches being too conservative. I think there's a lot of coaches out there, whether it's I don't think you know, dan Campbell would be the opposite of too conservative in any way, shape or form. Maybe, like Matt LaFleur would be too conservative at times where it's a fourth and one, whatever it is, and he just doesn't go for it. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of different guys who are a little, a little too conservative. If you ask me so yeah, that's just one of the things I mean. It's so yeah, that's just one of the things. I mean it's more of a generic take, but I've watched a couple different series here. Like Doc, I thought Doc was really conservative for the Bucs. He'd only play five guys there. He wouldn't go off Until the last game of that series. He wouldn't go off of the normal right, the veterans. Then he finally said, oh, maybe, just maybe we play somebody else, we might win a basketball game here. I I would hesitate and lean, you know, towards I don't know it's. I don't like. I don't like being too conservative but I don't like being too, you know, wild with it. So it's like finding that happy medium right there. But coaches, being too conservative, that's another thing. That also was grinding my gears coming off the weekend there. So I mean, hey, that's about. That's about all I got for grinding my gears off the weekend. So it was a lot. It was a lot that was grinding my gears coming off this last weekend.
Speaker 1:Here. We got a lot to talk about tonight. Here we got brewers, packers, badgers, bucks, nba, mlb, everything in between. We're going to cover it all here tonight on the show. So we will be right back here on wisconsin sports on the go with trades to cover it all. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trades. I'm your host, trades. We're coming back on this Wednesday. And, hey, this next segment of the show is brought to you by a fantastic sponsor of the show, foreman's Hardware.
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Speaker 1:Some great news coming off this last weekend and it was reported. I think it was reported last, last week, I don't remember John Tonje got invited to the NBA draft the combine at least, should I say. So that's awesome. That is awesome news. Right now they haven't projected going into in that draft. So it's exciting. That is exciting news, especially for a guy, and this is going to say especially for Greg Gard and the Badgers. Why? Because it shows, okay, john Tonje, before he came to Wisconsin, was he really projected to go into the draft? Was he really projected to go anywhere in the top, you know, just two rounds? Was he projected to go in there? Probably not. But he came to wisconsin, he retooled, refined his skills and now look at him, now look at what he's able to do.
Speaker 1:I think that's that's great, that is great for the badgers, that's great for greg guard, because now we're in that time, that era right of college sports, college basketball too, where the transfer portal is the big dog right. We're looking at the Badgers right now and we're going to talk about it in a minute here. But they added another guy in the transfer portal and they're probably looking to add another one. So you see all these guys getting added in through the transfer portal and what rebuilds a roster so fast is that transfer portal. You have guys like John Tonje who took a chance on Wisconsin. Maybe he could have ended up somewhere else, I don't know, but he took that shot on Wisconsin. Wisconsin fixed him, whatever it was, greg Gard helped him. He flourished in this offense uh, more of a pro style offense through Kirk Penny, and now he is heading to the draft combine.
Speaker 1:So that translates to me is if I'm a transfer portal guy and I'm like, well, where do I want to go right? Where's a spot that's going to help me get, take the next step, get to the next level? Wisconsin they averaged 80 points a game this past season. That's our highest scoring offensive output since 1970, 1971, season. It's a lot of buckets and they're averaging way more threes. The offensive efficiency was up, everything was up, the pace of play, everything like that. It's going to make Wisconsin more of a hotspot for recruits for transfer portal guys and a guy like John Tonje going into the draft. That's awesome. That's awesome for the Badgers. So I love to see that. I love to see that there. So that's a big thing.
Speaker 1:I saw coming off this last weekend there and you know they assigned another guy. We didn't really talk about him yet. This has been a hot minute since they brought him up. But Braden Carrington, the Tulsa guard, there, the 6'4 guard from Tulsa or went to Tulsa. He started at Minnesota actually for his first two seasons of college 2022, he was at Minnesota and then 2023, he was also in Minnesota there. Not crazy production by any means. I mean he's averaging through the three years of his college career. He's averaging 20 minutes, 20 minutes per game. So not bad. Right. He's a backup guard, but that's, in my opinion, that's where the badges need right. You need to have depth at the guard position. Last season I thought mcgee was great depth, but when you needed mcgee the most, he wasn't there, right in that um in the tournament game.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at this now and I say, okay, you got john blackwell also. John blackwell did not get a invite to the draft combine, so I'm assuming john blackwell he said his bachelor boss. Basically he Blackwell did not get a invite to the draft combine. So I'm assuming John Blackwell he said his bachelor boss, basically he's going to go, he's going to the draft, going to the NBA or he's come back to the badge Right Didn't get an invite to the draft combine. So I'm assuming a John Blackwell is coming back. Love to see that. So John Blackwell is back. So he's going to out in that guard room there.
Speaker 1:And then you're going to have some freshmen coming in. You have Zach Kings are there coming in more of a shooting guard? I would say you're going to have some pieces that might fit in. But having a guy like Brayden Carrington, a senior, right, you have, I believe there's four seniors on the roster now Nick Boyd, carrington, andrew road, the other guard coming in, uh, nick boyd. Uh, carrington, andrew road. The other guard coming in, the big guard, um, and then heisen guard, walk on it. Yeah, that's yeah. So you bring in another depth piece and I love that. Right, nick boyd's probably going to be your starter, along with john blackwell. I would say nolan winter is probably going to mix into there too. Uh, outside of that, probably austin rap. And then you have a question mark there with that fifth starter as of right now, I would say it's probably. You have nick boy, john blackwell, no one winter row, uh road, maybe a guy like jack shinnick he fits in there.
Speaker 1:I don't know what they're gonna do. Yeah, it's way too early to speculate, right, but I but I love having a guy like Carrington as a backup, love having the extra guard on the roster. And right now and this was after guards, it was after it was this last weekend here that he had his guarding against cancer event, I believe it was last Friday, and he said we'll see where it all lands, depending on what the judge approves. Guards said about the impending settlement that would keep roster limits at 15 players. We are planning it at 15, and if we can expand we will. We'll get that answer from the ruling, but we are at 14 right now. And he expects to use that last roster spot for a scholarship. So he says we're actually recruiting for another spot. So we will add one more.
Speaker 1:I don't know when, but we're in the process of adding as we move forward, don't know yet, but likely a scholarship player. The only other option they'd have is they move jack dunicki back to a walk-on, they said, and just because they could just up his nil resources, essentially so the scholarship he technically technically be off a scholarship but technically still be on scholarship. Because he's just you, you know, making it in a different way. I guess you could say so. I mean, jack, you, nikki, could get moved like that back to a walk on instead of being on scholarship, but right now he's on scholarship. The only actual walk on on the roster right now is Isaac garden. Last season they carry 13 scholarships and they they currently have 13 scholarships and one walk-on. Last year I believe they had 13 and two. So they lost six scholarships and three others to the transfer portal in this last offseason.
Speaker 1:So we'll see how it all works out there with Greg Gard and this team, but right now I'm liking the makeup of the Badger basketball team at this very moment. Big thing I just want to talk about there was John Tonje getting sent over and how I think that's going to John Tonje going to the draft and potentially being drafted high and if the production is good in the NBA and translates well, I think it's going to. It's going to be huge for this program because then Greg guard and this offense looks that much better because it translates that much better to the NBA. And if you have NBA guys telling you, hey, well, what, what? Whatever you did with John Tonje was awesome, you could have guys coming to Wisconsin saying, I think he can fix me too, I think he can fix me too. That's maybe where you want to be too. So I'm excited. I'm excited to see that there out of this Badger team.
Speaker 1:I want to talk Badger football for a second here, just a little Badger football. I saw a lot of people. So after the draft, after the NFL draft, the Badgers they had two guys drafted they'd come into late in the draft, right, hunter Wolder. And uh, was it Renfro there that got drafted late in this draft? Wasn't Renfro? I believe it was Renfro, but I could. I could be mistaken. I don't want to be mistaken on that one, but I I really could. Uh, let me see if I can pull it up here by in a minute here.
Speaker 1:But I saw a lot of people talking about this over the last weekend and it was. Should we be worried about the lack of Badger players being drafted, and especially because they didn't get drafted until so late in the draft? And I said to myself. Man, that is a great question. Should, should we be worried? Should we Jack Nelson? Sorry, not Renfro Jack Nelson, I thought Renfro was in the draft. I just he must not have been drafted at all in this one here. I thought he was Joe Huber. Renfro might be, I don't know that I could be losing my marbles. I could be losing my marbles anyways. But Den Nelson was drafted, so the Badgers had two guys drafted.
Speaker 1:But I saw a lot of people talking about it and they said, well, where are we at right now with this program? Because you only have two guys going. They didn't go until late in the draft. What does that say about where you're at? I think you really have to take it with a grain of salt because of the transfer portal, in my opinion, because nowadays I mean luke fickle. Just just stick with me for a second with this one, right, just stick with me. So let's just say crazy world, right, crazy world. We have a guy like I mean. Okay, let's just say Cam Ward, right, cam Ward didn't start at Miami. No, cam Ward started with Washington State, ended up at Miami.
Speaker 1:So who do you give props to? Cam Ward going to the nfl? Who do you give him the props? Who do you give the props to? Is it? Do you give it to miami or do you give it to washington? Or do you go all the way back in his years and do you give it to incarnate word cardinals? Because that's where he actually started, played his first two years at a card at word, and then he went to washington state and then he went to miami and now he's the number one pick the draft. So who do you give that? Who do you give that credit to? Right, because graham mertz was drafted. I, I understand graham mertz wasn't drafted very high, but graham mertz was drafted in this draft. Shimmery dk was drafted in this draft.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that the, you know we should just be like Ooh, look what they did, right? I don't. I don't think so. I'm not saying that. You know, grammar ended up going to the Texans there in the sixth round. It's not, you know, really high up on the list, but that's a guy who came from the bat, not at one point was with wisconsin.
Speaker 1:So the transfer portal really does affect where these guys are at the point of when they go to the draft. Chador sanders did not. I mean, we thought about chador sanders again. He didn't start at colorado. He ended up at colorado. He didn't start at Colorado. He ended up at Colorado. He didn't start at Colorado. We have to take all that into comparison when we go through this. Dylan Gabriel, another quarterback in the draft, started at UCF, went to Oklahoma, then he was at Oregon.
Speaker 1:I understand the frustration where it's like why don't the Badgers have those guys coming out? I think that's going to come with the transfer portal. It's going to. I think it will when you get that talent in the room. I think the Badgers do have a lot more talent coming in this room. I like what Billy Edwards is going to bring. I like what the running back room has in it right now. I like what the offensive line's been able to do there. I think they have some talented wide receivers. Vinny Anthony, if he sticks with Wisconsin, will be a good draft pick at one point. So I think there are guys who are going to come out of this and you're going to say well, you know it's a good draft pick. You know, coming out of Wisconsin, we're going to have those guys.
Speaker 1:The transfer portals makes it tough because guys are in and out, in and out, in and out and you're not really looking at the university they're at before. You're looking at the one they were at in that season, that one before that, okay, miami, I mean Cam Ward looked good, but he also looked good when he was at Washington State. Dylan Gabriel looked good in Oklahoma. He looked good in Oregon too. That's kind of where I'm looking at this right now. So I understand where fans are getting nervous or worried about production and getting guys into the league and everything like that. I, I, I'm with that. I can understand that. But at the same time you have to look at and say, okay, I understand where this is, I understand what's. I understand the transfer portal. I understand the problems that are going to arise with it, uh, with who's getting drafted out of where? Right, so that's kind of where I'm at with that. That's kind of where I'm at with that as of right now. I know the Badgers only had two guys drafted. I was glad to see Hunter Wohler get picked up and Jack Nelson, and we'll see. You know, I think there will be other guys along the way that will get grabbed Idaho, wisconsin, maybe, and then you know whoever transfers out, wherever they end up.
Speaker 1:It's. It's so hard nowadays. It's so hard nowadays to say, oh, I give all the props to this team or I give all the props to this team for building this guy to be who he is now. I don't, I really don't, because it's the battle scars along the way that make you who this, this quarterback is, or who this wide receiver is, or who this linebacker, whoever that's the battle scars along the way are what built him to be, what he is now, taught him to, what he knows, or didn't teach him enough, right? That's kind of where I'm looking. So that that's where I'm at right now with that question. I had that question come up over the weekend there and that's kind of where I'm looking.
Speaker 1:Um, sharon moore is expected to miss some time this year for Michigan, I saw, and he's going to have a self-imposed ban. Now I don't understand, and this I mean it's a little off of the Wisconsin topic there for a second. I just had written it down uh, coming off the weekend there, but he's expected to be suspended for two games. It's a part of a self-imposed ban. What's the point of it? I just don't get it. What's the point if you're because he's all telling me hey, you know he's going to suspend himself for two games as part of the connor stallion states uh investigation, the scandal. But he's telling me he's innocent. So if he's innocent, why is he imposing a ban on himself? That doesn't prove innocence? That makes it worse. I in in my belief. That makes it worse. So I just found that absolutely hilarious when I saw that. Are you serious? He's gonna self-impose a ban, are you okay? Okay, good job, good job. Good job, gerard moore. Good, good job, good job out there. So trying more. Michigan's gonna self-impose a ban on himself for two games. Probably he's going to pick the two easy games cupcake games on the schedule and say I don't need to be there anyways. So it's fine, right, that'll be okay, it'll be okay. So Gerard Moore is going to self-impose a ban.
Speaker 1:Badger fans might tell Luke Fickle to impose a ban on himself. I saw this question across social media. Across social media we had talked about it a little bit there and I want to talk about it here. We talked about it with Scary a little bit over the past couple shows.
Speaker 1:You know, in year three, is Luke Fickle on the hot seat? Is he on the hot seat? Is he on the hot seat all season long. And I said in a normal world, in a normal Sigh, in a normal year, I shouldn't say not normal, right, but with the look of this schedule for the Badgers coming up this season with the likes of a team like Alabama on the schedule and you have Alabama, you have a couple other big ones in there, you're going to have Ohio State mixed in there I mean it's just a daunting schedule. You have Ohio State, you have Oregon, you have Iowa, you have Michigan. Uh, maybe that, maybe that at Michigan will be when Shara Moore is self-imposing a ban on himself. Uh, you have Minnesota in there. Watch, I mean it's gonna be tough schedule for the Badgers. So is he on the hot seat all year? I mean you got it first. No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:Okay, game one and two Miami of Ohio and MTSU you got to win those two games. You got to mop it. Alabama, maryland I think you got to beat Maryland right. Alabama, I'm not going to lose my mind if they lose that game at Michigan. Not going to lose my mind if they lose that game At Michigan. Not going to lose my mind if they lose that game Versus Iowa at home in Camp Randall, after getting absolutely embarrassed.
Speaker 1:Last season down there in Kinnick, you got to win that game. Ohio State, oregon I play close. Washington. You got to beat them at home. Indiana, at Indiana, play a dogfight. Illinois, play a dogfight Minnesota, win it. You have to win the games you're supposed to win and in these other games you got to look good. You got to. This team has to look like they're improving and getting better and heading in the right direction.
Speaker 1:If I see that, then no, no, he's not the second that this team looks like last year where it looked like they gave up or it looked like he lost the locker room at times. That's where I start to draw a fine line in the sand and I say, if we get a little bit further this way, I'm, I'm out, I'm out of luke feckle we have. He has to establish that identity. He has to get that signature win and they have to get over that hump. If you beat iowa, if you beat a t, if you win one of those games between alabama, michigan, ohio, state, oregon, if you can win one of those games, play close.
Speaker 1:I want to surprise a team right, iowa or whatever, and just knock some doors in, you win. You win those games that you're supposed to win. I, I feel fine, I feel fine. But then it's about the advancement, right, and then schedule should get easier. I can't harder than this should get easier, I'm. I mean, I I'm not gonna say he's on the hot seat all year, but I think if it starts out ugly, it's going to finish ugly. That's where I'm at with this team. So we'll see what happens there with luke fickle. Um, so enough about the badgers, enough about luke fickle. We'll get to more of badger talk as we get more into camp and everything like that there.
Speaker 1:But hey, after the break here, we're going to jump over. We're going to have a little Packer Talk here. Umar's going to hop on, we're going to have some Packer Talk. We got Brewer Talk coming up later. We got Buck Talk coming up later. We got all kinds of stuff to get into tonight here on the show. So when we come back from the break, umar, after this quick break here on Wisconsin sports on the go with trades, we'll be right back. Welcome back to Wisconsin sports on the go with trades. I'm your host, trades. We're coming back on this Wednesday.
Speaker 1:And hey, this next segment of the show is brought to you by a fantastic sponsor of the show, and that one is sport and spine clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. Their expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming call flexible scheduling and evaluations. Just call chad down there at sport and spine clinic, 715-267-4583. That is 715-267-4583 if you've been. We were injured at work, whether it was golf maybe you're golfing whatever you were doing, right, chad? He loves golf, so make sure when you go down there you talk about golf with him there. But I mean, whatever you were doing, you got got injured, got banged up, whatever it was. You need a physical therapist. Go see Chad down there at Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood. I would not trust anyone else to get me right and going back at it than Chad down there at Sport and Spine. So give him a call there 715-267-4583.
Speaker 1:You want to find us across social media? Please do it. We'd love to hear your voice. I'm gonna get through. I'm gonna talk about a couple.
Speaker 1:I asked a question out there on facebook. I had a lot of answers. I want to talk about some of the answers that we had there. So if you want to follow us, you want to get your voice heard here on the air, you can do it. Find us on facebook, twitter, tiktok, youtube and twitch. Find us on twitter, twitch and tiktok.
Speaker 1:Just search wisco sports on the go. That is wisco sports on the go. You you can find us on Facebook and YouTube. Just search Wisco Sports on the go with Trage. You can also email the show at WiscoSportsOnTheGo at gmailcom. That is WiscoSportsOnTheGo at gmailcom. You can also shoot us a text. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this next segment, any segment we've talked about so far. Anything you want to hear us talk about. Definitely shoot us a text there. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914.
Speaker 1:So I told you guys going in the break that umber would be coming on. He's coming on eventually here I he's having technical difficulties maybe, I don't know what's going on. Either way, he'll be here, right. But right now I want to go through a couple of those answers that I got. So last week and this was one outside of the answer I got last week we had somebody text into the show here and, as you guys know, right now we're pre-recorded, so I'm gonna get to everybody's texts and everything like that might be a week later, it might be. If you text me something you want us to talk about, we'll talk about on the show and we'll give you credit for that. You were the guy. You were that or the woman who told me hey, talk about this next week on the show. So out out of the three oh five, uh, we're talking about draft.
Speaker 1:Last week and this person said only thing I would have liked to see would have been a corner in the first three rounds. Love the picks as they are. Just think corner depth with a top 100 prospect would have been a quality ad. I cannot, I don't. I didn't disagree with him. I, I or her or whoever, or whoever it was I don't have a name here. So 305 there. Thank you for texting into the show.
Speaker 1:I don't disagree at all with that. I said and I said the same thing. I said the Savion Williams and I'm going to talk about him in a little bit here. But the Savion Williams pick did you need it? I don't know, but I would have been okay with going to the corner there, maybe even over Belton in the second round. But we talked about Belton the other day. He's absolutely massive. He's like 6'6", 3 over 3. He's a massive dude. I think he's going to be a road grader up front. So I like that pick and I also like Savion Williams. After watching his tape and after watching everything this guy's about, I love watching him too. So, seeing those two, I love what I saw. I loved what I saw out of both of them. So I'm good with the picks. I just like you said, I'm good with the picks.
Speaker 1:I would have been okay though, like you said, with seeing a corner in those first couple of picks, just because of the lack of depth, just because we have no idea what is going on with Jair Alexander. We have no idea what's going to happen there If he's gone. I don't think they're going to release him. So if they're going to trade him, what's going to happen? I have no idea. So I think that's the hard part for me, because if Jair gets gone now, the cornerback room kind of looks a little suspect. But if Jair's there, then I'm not as worried. Right now I'm not worried because Jair's still in the fold. If he's not, it worries me a little bit. So that's I agree with you. I agree with you there. I would love to see some depth.
Speaker 1:Maybe you know they have that guy coming in out of uh, two lane. There there was, I mean, there was some good, some good pieces that the packers added in the draft. I mean, we're not going to sit here and say, oh well, you know, you know they didn't add what I thought was good depth or good pieces here and there and everything like that. I, I, like you said and like I'm saying here, I mean I, I love the draft. I love the draft that the Packers had.
Speaker 1:I thought they addressed needs. I thought they addressed holes that I had in this team. I just, maybe in the right spot I don't know michael robinson, the corner coming out of uh tolane, there that was a guy that we're talking about there. And then they added a couple guys um, out there in the undrafted portion. They had another cornerback there. And then we also have, I mean, kaylin king. I loved what I saw out of him in uh mini camps and everything last year and in summer or in the fall, but didn't really see him transpire, didn't get out there. So maybe a guy like Kalen King takes that next step. We'll see what happens with him.
Speaker 1:But you have some depth there. It's just a question is that depth going to turn out to be good or not? That's what we're waiting to see. I think a lot of it's going to hinge on. What does the defensive front look like? That's where my biggest question came into this draft.
Speaker 1:Why didn't the Packers address this? Why didn't the Packers address this was my biggest weakness. I thought the wide receiver core could they add. Definitely. I'm not opposed to the Matthew Golden pick. I think that's awesome. I love Matthew Golden. I think it's a great pick.
Speaker 1:But I thought they could have done better if they went with a pass rusher in that one of the top three. You know, in the first three rounds they did it. They waited to get Barron Sorrell until that fourth round. Now, does Barron Sorrell turn out to be fantastic? Possibly, maybe he turns out to be great. Right, there's been guys lower in the draft who've turned out to be absolutely great. So I'm not opposed to what the Packers did waiting to go for that pass rusher but at the same time, would I've gone with them? Maybe, maybe and I think that's that's something that's going to help, you know, hinge on the secondary too, is the secondary is going to look a lot better if that pass rush looks a lot better there. So we have umber is he's here? He's here. There he is. Umber is here. We were just talking a little packers here off the top how we doing tonight. Umber, welcome into the show. Welcome into the show. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm good man. I'm good man. It's been a day, man. It has been a day. How have you been?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad that you're here. That's all that matters. That's all that matters. We're doing great we. If you miss any portion of the show, make sure you listen back. All the podcast platforms Search Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trades. You can find it across them. All they're on any podcast platform.
Speaker 1:So we were talking about a little bit here and I wanted to get your take on this one, because there has, you know these grades. Right, sports Illustrated came out their grade of the draft and there's been a lot of them, and the Packers didn't really get a good grade. Of course we were talking about it. We said we liked the draft. Well, there's a lot of guys who don't like it and their reasoning and I can't hate on the reasoning for this one was the Packers, yeah, they got two wide receivers in the first three picks and then they got an offensive lineman. That wasn't one of their biggest question marks. One of their biggest question marks was who's in the pass rush room, who's going to be in the secondary? That was their biggest questions and they didn't answer those until the fourth round. Now we like Baron Sorrell, we like Colin Oliver, don't come here. But they're unproven guys. Right, they love the proven guys. That's what all these analysts love and stuff like that. So I mean, where are you at right now?
Speaker 1:We watched the draft, we, we watched the draft. We both have talked about this draft enough. It's not like we need to analyze these players anymore, but the grade that a lot of Packer fans are freaking out about the grade because they're like why are you grading this team? Why are we grading this draft like this? It's crazy, right, you can't give this team a B or a C on the draft. I saw the Sports Illustrated one. I saw they had the worst draft in the NFC North, which was like that's kind of crazy in my mind. But the way that he stated it, I it was. Well, you know, I thought they needed a pass rusher. They didn't go after a pass rusher. So the way he stated it after the fact, I was like, yeah, I mean, I can understand that you didn't think that they addressed the needs that you thought they needed. I can agree with that.
Speaker 2:So I mean where, like, you can't really put a grade on a draft until maybe two to three years out, because you really need to see these guys develop right. I feel like a lot of the grades are determined based off draft consensus, where they think people should go right. So like, uh, trey Amos is a great example, like he was a first round pick for the most part, maybe borderline high second, and so I guess they look at, like, well, the packers had two opportunities to draft him, they didn't, and so here he goes later to washington. Who then I'll say, oh, he got a steal right, will johnson? They had opportunity to draft him too. It was a consensus top five pick. You know what happened? They passed on him too.
Speaker 2:So it's one of those things where, if you do it based off draft consensus but I think a lot of people can get upset about that's where they have the situation where they will grade us lower. But I always say let's go back and look at some of the drafts we had in the past and see how they met kind of, how they line up now from a position of strength, right, and those people a lot of them, because they're mad because I agree. Like did I want them to go Dobbin as our aku out of uh, boston College 100, right, but they felt that there was a need at offensive line that was greater than that. And the way the Packers draft, they rarely draft for need. They draft for best player available, which sometimes does obviously play into need.
Speaker 2:But I feel like a lot of their drafts which I don't know a lot of people aren't going to be happy about this, is that they draft normally what two to three years out, meaning that, like they see things that are coming up when it comes from their players, some contracts that they may or may not be able to afford, so they look to kind of make replacements in certain positions because they know, hey, when it comes to next year, they have to pay watson, they have to pay dobbs. You may have to even consider looking into extension for possibly wicks or reed to get ahead of if they want to right and they're like you know what, we're probably not gonna be able to sign all these guys. So let's figure out how we can get this room better, knowing that there's gonna be a I'm not exodus, but close to an exodus come next year, because the way goody did draft some of these guys in previous drafts.
Speaker 1:I agree. I agree 100% there. The best part about it is there's a lot of fans who hate Goody every year because of the draft and they get upset at him and they're actually on with the analysts. Now fans are upset at the analysts for saying that Goody's draft wasn't good because they love this draft. Actually it speaks volumes to't good because they love this draft. So actually it speaks volumes to the fans that, hey, they love this draft. They just hate the analysts who are saying that draft sucked.
Speaker 1:That's like. I mean, that's kind of where I'm at with it. So I love hearing Packer fans upset with analysts for once and not just like we need to go burn down Brian Goodikens' house and that's what needs to happen right now. So I'm glad we're on the right side of the fence right now. Good, he's like thank you guys. Thank you guys. I think. I think it was because he drafted matthew golden that everything's okay now. I I really do. If he would have gone with something crazy like a corner in the first round, I think they would have lost their minds I don't maybe the right guy, maybe, but I think they still would have lost their minds, since he went with matthew golden.
Speaker 1:That was, yeah, there you go. Frosting on the cake, we're good to go. The rest of the draft, we don't care. Like that's where everybody was at. He's like whatever, I don't even care. They took a wide receiver in the first round. He even double dipped. He took two wide receivers in the top three. That's something that he really isn't all about there. So I saw another one. Um, would you target nick chubb? I saw some people talking about this one free agent. It's an interesting one. If you get a healthy nick chubb, he's an absolute monster. And if you put him in the backfield with josh jacobs, yeah, oh my, absolutely, oh my. Can you imagine you put them out both out there just because split back in the backfield? There you have Nick Chubb and Josh Jacobs. Who are you going to get the ball to? It don't matter, one of them is going to plow you over. It's like I mean, would you target Nick Chubb? I know the thing with it is you got Marshawn Lloyd.
Speaker 1:Actually, the backfield is pretty darn still right now because you have Lloyd, because you have Chris Brooks, and I mean you have Chris Brooks and I mean you have Josh Jacobs. Well, I really don't have room for another guy so where are you at right now?
Speaker 1:Oh, and Wilson's in there, right yeah, wilson's been fantastic. So it's like you can't you would have to get rid of a guy and I hate to get rid of Chris Brooks because he was fantastic last year. Emmanuel Wilson's coming into his own. You're not giving up on Marshawn Lloyd because you think he's going to be the next coming right, and then Josh Jacobs, of course, is your dog, so he ain't going anywhere. I mean, where are you at right now? Would you even consider it's hard not to consider it, just because I would want to keep him away from the Bears, I want to keep him away from these other teams? So I would say maybe, just maybe, we sign him up. I don't know, maybe I worry yet right now with that one. It's a crazy fan thing, but where are?
Speaker 1:you at with that one. What are your thoughts there?
Speaker 2:I think like if you look at it from like a fantasy football perspective, yeah, you grab a guy, you keep him on your bench so nobody else can get him right.
Speaker 2:You pay a letter, oh yeah, right, um, I get that. And nick chubb's injury was pretty devastating. It almost was like the willis mcgahee, miami, right, yeah. And let's not forget, you know, nick Chubb is probably one healthy, which I know is a descriptor that I don't like always hearing. But the truth is, when it comes to Nick Chubb and his ability to be probably one of the top five best running backs in the league right now he's up there pre-injury Last year you could definitely tell, like I mean, he didn't come back until november and he was still trying to get his legs.
Speaker 2:I think he's gonna need another year probably to get his legs really back to where they weren't even saying that, let's not forget. He's blown out his acl and his other leg at georgia, so it's not like he hasn't had injuries on both his legs. And so it gets to a point to when it comes to running backs, unfortunately in the nfl do you bring in a guy who's probably going to warrant anywhere between four to six million a year for where you don't really have touches for him, because you have emmanuel wilson senior, you got chris brooks, you got the potential of marshawn lloyd and there are some guys they've brought in as untracked free agents. My uh namesake Ummer Johnson on North Dakota right, who ran a 4-3-8, who has some amazing numbers in North Dakota. Brandon Rupp is a guy that I follow a lot on Twitter who has amazing breakdowns a lot of these guys and he likes a lot of the North Dakota South Dakota guys, so he's really high bottom. He feels like that would be a guy that actually could make the team, which is similar to the path that Emmanuel Wilson Sr did when he was an undrafted free agent and also made the team For me.
Speaker 2:When it comes to the way we're going to be running the offense, which I think is going to be kind of bully ball, powerful ball, stuff like that. You can't have enough great running backs. The question is, where is Chubb right now? Is he what he was or is he now what he is and which is what he isn't anymore? Right and like. I heard the detroit's looking at him not detroit, yeah, I heard detroit was looking at him as a change of pace back and I heard chicago really wants to bring him in. But there's also talks to jk dobbins going there as well too. Um, again, all these guys that are available, there's a reason why they're still available. You know, jk Dobbins coming off like a torn Achilles and a torn ACL right, and then Chubb's case basically playing what? Six weeks kind of hit or miss after a complete knee reconstruction. There's a lot.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I feel like the way that we've designed our team with the youth and a little bit of veteran leadership in certain positions. I think we're good. I don't feel like you know, and if you know me on Twitter, I want to bring in every free agent, I want to bring in every player. I want to bring in every single guy that gets cut. I don't care what it is, but you're right. At the end of the day, it's like how the Eagles draft sometimes, where they always go for these guys that are high market names, right, and that's why they always get an A+, because they look like they draft with consensus and they get the guys that everybody loves, right. Chubb is one of those guys that everybody loves, but is he really the same Nick Chubb that we've fallen in love with for multiple years?
Speaker 1:That's the big question mark and that would be the question mark Trey, if you're talking.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry man, you locked up on my end.
Speaker 1:We got a technical difficulty here.
Speaker 2:All good, all good, All good.
Speaker 1:But we're going to hit a quick break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk a little bit more with Ummer here. We got a little bit more Packer talk. We got some NFL talk. We're going to talk a little bit more with Ummer here. We got a little bit more Packer talk. We got some NFL talk. We're going to talk a little bit more here. We'll be back here after this quick commercial break.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Wisconsin Sports. On the go with Trades. I'm your host, trades. We're back here. Sorry for the technical difficulties. My microphone cut out in the last segment and then it just went all haywire for a little bit on us and then it came back and then I was just like let's go to commercial. I don't even want to deal with this right now. Well, let's just go to commercial. So we are back here. It's all good. Auburn's back. We're all good.
Speaker 1:Now this next segment of the show, last segment here before, just three miles west of Marshfield on County Road H, find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom. That is marshfieldspeedwaycom. There, if you want to text into the show, let us know what you're thinking here Packers, badgers, brewers, whatever you're thinking tonight here, make sure you do it. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990 four. So we want to get to a little bit more Packers and NFL talk here at the top of the hour Right now.
Speaker 1:I told you guys I put out a little post on Facebook. So if you want to get involved in these posts or what you know these answers to the questions that I ask, whatever get over there on Facebook. Follow the show Wisconsin sports on the go with trade? I asked book. Follow the show wisconsin sports on the go with trage? I asked the question. I said how's everyone feeling after the draft? Right, because we went through this draft, we got all these new pieces. Now where do you feel like this team is fitting right now? And you know you get your comment people. They say we filled some needs but it's way too early to know what it is right. It's way too early to know about this draft class. I agree, it's way too early. You don't know. They're unven guys. That's why I told you guys it grinds my gears the other day when people will automatically come out of draft and say a guy's a bust. How do you know he's a bust? You haven't even seen him play at the NFL level. You have no idea what he is so just settle down. But I agree with that one. So, todd, there on Facebook he said filled some needs, but way too, what is going on with this draft class?
Speaker 1:I agree with that one. I agree with that one. Ricky said it's a B plus. Gave us a B plus on it, so not bad. I like a B plus, I can handle B plus.
Speaker 1:Chad told me here I give the draft in a minus, but we have to keep Alexander or get a free agent corner before the season starts, because that is a glaring weakness of this team at the moment. Yeah, I would agree with that. I, yeah, I would agree with that. I don't think Nate Hobbs or Keyshawn Nixon is going to automatically just be a CB1. I think you will have to bring in pieces If you're not going to have a CB1, I think you need to have a lot of twos and threes. You have to have a lot of them out there and not rely on a four or five to try to get anything done out there for you. So I would agree with that one. Also, we had Ruben who said the Packers had a good draft. Hope our draftees pan out. Time will tell. Right now, every player drafted is good, but talent isn't all of it. Can't measure what's in the heart. I agree with that one there because I think Baron Sorrell if I had to be honest with anybody, baron Sorrell is going to be the guy who gives the most out of any one of these dudes to try and make himself known and be ready to go right away this next season. I love, I love what I seen at him. I love that comment there, uh, from ruben.
Speaker 1:So we went into. We went into the last segment. We were talking about nick chubb. I got cut off a little bit. I agree with you with the nick chubb there. I it's a far stretch is a crazy, it's a pipe dream. Almost right to bring in a guy like Nick Chubb.
Speaker 1:I would just say bringing him into Green Bay. The only thing that I think he would benefit him personally would be he's behind Josh Jacobs, he's not running back one, he's not a workhorse, he's not overused, you're just using him when you need him, right, he's. He's like an AJ Dillon, he's like a third down back, whatever you want to use him as. So that would be the only thing that I could see a team like green bay or another team in the same. You know, already have a running back, already have one running back. You just need a two, maybe a three. Right, you need depth.
Speaker 1:That's where I see nick chubb fitting. I don't see him fitting in a spot where he's a workhorse anymore, because he's not. I don't think he's that guy anymore because of the injuries. I just don't think he's going to be that guy again. I think he's got to work back to that point. So that's where I'm kind of at this point, where I'm like he's not an RB1, but maybe he's a two. So if he's behind Josh Jacobs, if he's behind a guy like Jameer Gibbs because who knows what, david Montgomery is going to be coming back from injury, so you're behind a guy like Jameer Gibbs, you're going on Chicago. Chicago can ruin anything, so I don't even care. They'll probably ruin Nick Chubbs even more than he is.
Speaker 1:But I mean you have those teams where I feel like if you win he would fit well. So we'll see what kind of happens there in the next round. I think there's a market for him. It's just a question of where's the market and where does he fit into it. He's going to get picked up. He's going to get picked up. I think he's going to get picked up. This just screams Kansas City.
Speaker 3:I can see it.
Speaker 1:They signed Kareem Hunt yeah.
Speaker 2:Randomly, and he looked good, he looked good.
Speaker 1:I mean he did. It feels like a Nick Chubb, feels like a Kansas City Chiefs Old, reliable, we can get the job done. We can utilize his talents. That's what I feel like is a fit for Nick Chubb. I could see it. I could see it there.
Speaker 1:So we're going to hit a quick break. We're going to hit top of the hour. Top of the hour. We got two hours. Remember, guys, make sure. I just have to remind you guys. Every week there's two hours of the show here. This is just hour one. We got another hour coming up here. We got Ummer. He's going to come back. We're going to talk Packers A little more Packers. At the top of the hour we're going to talk NFL. Then Kyle's going to be coming on. We're going to talk Bucs, because there is a lot of people talking about Bucs yet. So we're going to talk Bucs. Then later we're going to talk Brewers. There is so much more we got to Welcome back to our two of Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, trage. We're coming back here on this Wednesday and hey, if you want to find the show across social media, make sure you're doing it. We love it. When you like, subscribe, follow wherever it is. Whatever you got to do, facebook, twitter, tiktok, youtube and Twitch. You want to find us on Twitter, twitch and TikTok? Search Wisco Sports on the go On the go. You want to find us on Facebook and YouTube search Wisco sports on the go with trade. You can also email the show at Wisco sports on the go at gmailcom. That is Wisco sports on the go at gmailcom. You can also shoot us a text. You want to text us in. Let us know what you're thinking Packers, bucks, badgers, brewers, whatever you're thinking tonight here you might be. Make sure you're texting us in 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. So Ummer is back here. We're going to talk a little bit more Packers here in our two of the show a little Packers, a little NFL talk. Before Kyle comes in, we talk Bucs later. Change a little pace, right? So there is one thing that keeps cycling through my news feeds, cycling through fans' minds and everything like that, and it's jordan love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because last season I think he left a lot to be desired. Yeah, after two seasons ago where he seemed to have taken this massive step. You know, down that stretch they went to dallas in the playoffs. They mopped dallas. They went to Dallas in the playoffs they mopped Dallas. They went to San Fran Outside of the last drive of the game where he decided I'm just going to whip one up there. He played good. I mean he played good enough. So I mean he played well. And then this last season I don't want to say he played terrible because he still had almost 3,500 yards. It's not like it was terrible and he had a 63 completion rating, but it's just. I felt like there was it, he wasn't. Would I have taken him over jared goff? No, would I have taken him over sam darnold? I don't like depends what sam darnold was showing up that day right?
Speaker 2:yeah exactly. He's inconsistent too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly exactly jayden daniels no way in heck. Right, cj stroud, I thought honestly you want to compare what jordan love did last year to somebody. Him and cj stroud both went backwards from what we saw the year before I thought more, but you're right though.
Speaker 1:Yes, he did he 100 did? I thought he did too, and it did not help. The offensive line was absolutely horrible with houston. But I thought both guys just they I thought both of them would take a step forward. They both went backwards. It's it's to the point where fans are like, okay, we paid you all this money, which it's not all this money up front. There's a lot of money in the backside. We got to remember that it's not all up front, like everybody wants to think. There's a lot of money in the backside. But we gave you this contract, contract. We expect you to be the guy. Yeah, I don't know if a lot of people are on board that he's the guy yet, so I'm not saying that he's not.
Speaker 1:I don't believe.
Speaker 1:I believe he's the guy right I believe, he's the guy right a lot of fans are like, oh well, he's got to still show me. You know what? What has he got to do in your eyes to make all the naysayers look at him and say this guy is the next guy, he's the future of Green Bay. We don't have to worry about it for another five, ten years. Whatever, we don't have to worry about it. He can do everything that we need him to do. He can get us to the promised land. He can take us back to a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:What in your eyes does he have to do to kind of put Packer fans minds at ease? Because I mean these, these people, they know what they're talking about. They look at him and they say, well, he's just, he's middle of the pack, he's not over the top. Rogers was over the top, far was over the top. They had the ability to lead a team to take them over the top. Jordan Love has not. He's shown us that for a year and then he kind of regressed. So what does he have to show you in this season to say let's go, this is my guy, this is qb1.
Speaker 2:he's got the ability to be one of the best in the league and take me to the promised land I think consistency is the key because if you look at the way like we got so spoiled with aaron rogers I mean his first year starting he was a 6 to 10 team. The team was not good but he had a pretty good year, like 28 touchdowns, 14 picks, I think, and his numbers as a quarterback were pretty good. But the team as a whole was not right and then as he progressed in his career, you could definitely see a light go off with Rodgers, right, and I think with Jordan we got spoiled with the last eight to ten weeks of the season where he really came on. Problem is is that it's not fair to not take into consideration the so many injuries that not only he was dealing with but our team was dealing with. You know, you had Watson in and out of lineup, or offensive line had multiple injuries during big games against Detroit game, against the Minnesota game and then, of course, in the playoff games and at the end of the game against Chicago we literally had half the team out. I mean, not only Watson went out, but then Jordan was dealing with an injury, malik was dealing with an injury and then offensive line was all banged up too. The one thing I felt that when it came to, the team was like the defense really kind of kept progressing in a positive way every week. For the most part they had some blips right for jordan to take this next step. I feel like that's why goody drafted the way he did. He saw like, hey, we kept having issues on our wide receiver core where our number one guy, he was in and out of the lineup, our offensive line. We kept having to shuffle guys around because people were getting banged up and then we didn't really have a proper replacement. You know. You know, having travis glover and kadeem telford, a six round pick and undrafted free agent trying to jump in and literally block against guys like jill and carter and jordan davis and nolan smith didn't really work right. So they've done the right things.
Speaker 2:When it comes to just a again wr1 gain, a guy like savion williams who could be literally anything we want to be. He could be a running back, he could be a tight end, he could be a wide receiver, he could be a half h back, he could play literally anywhere on the field, because I mean, he's six foot four, 228 pounds and his 448 was after an injury, so they think he probably runs in a four, threes more than a 448. I feel that with belt with belt how we say his name wrong belton coming in and taking over one of those guard positions, we're gonna really have a lot of the excuses that we have been giving jordan last year due to the injuries and inconsistency in offense. I feel like that's gonna go away. And not only does he have to play better football and I mean on week-to-week basis LeFleur has to really start trusting his team, if that makes sense. So I think LeFleur is a very good coach and you have yet to find a single football player that has played with him that has anything negative to say. And every coach has had players come out and be like yeah, I'm not a fan, whatever, blah, blah, blah. You know some kind of hater Haven't heard that on the floor.
Speaker 2:Everyone says he's a student of the game, he's very intelligent, he's a player's coach and he also has a way he wants things done. I'm listening to Josh Jacobs right now on his interview with Will Compton. And what's my man? What's the left tackle? Taylor LeJuan, and you know, know he's he's talking about that and I think with jordan's case is like all right, the money is making things harder, right, because if you think about it, like paying 55 million dollars a year, people always looking at it, but that's the going rate for quarterbacks.
Speaker 2:Jordan just needs to go from weekend week out just getting a little bit better every week.
Speaker 2:And I think people need to understand too that even with, like rogers, being the probably one of the best arms to ever in the game, probably one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, he did have a pretty veteran team around him when he was kind of coming up and becoming not only a 10 and 16 that went and lost to Arizona and then the following next year winning one Super Bowl.
Speaker 2:That team had veterans across the board when it comes to the tight end position, the wide receivers, the running backs that team had veterans across the board when it comes to the tight end position, the wide receivers or running backs. I mean it wasn't like they were the, they were, they were one of the youngest teams, but they weren't the youngest team. Yeah, right, and I think a plane giving that kind of grace to jordan knowing that, okay, he is doing a lot of guys that are either first, second or third year guys and fourth year guys to include now an offensive line that does have some veteran leadership but also has some young guys too. This is one of those opportunities where I do feel like a lot of the excuses have been eliminated and he needs to really just he and the team needs to take a step forward.
Speaker 1:Yep, limit the stupid mistakes too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's where I'm at.
Speaker 3:The penalty is told us last year His interceptions yes, his interceptions last year.
Speaker 1:I was fine, I'm fine with a pick if you're taking a chance down the field and it just gets whatever, I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is when you make a stupid decision against the Lions where you should just take a sack or throw it away and you try to throw it, yeah, and you try to dump it off and it gets made up Rams too Ram same thing, Multiple times the same thing happened in Board and Love.
Speaker 1:That's where I draw the line. That's where my problem is and that's where I think his regression is. He didn't progress. When you progress, you're smarter. With the football right. You don't make those silly mistakes, because in big games those silly mistakes are what lose you. Those games right Against a team like the Eagles. You can't afford silly mistakes. You can't afford that. When you go to San Francisco and you're on a late game drive, you have to know in the back of your head what the clock's telling you. And I understand that was his first season, so I'm not trying to knock him for what happened there. But if you get that same instance, you don't want Jordan Love forcing a ball when he's got three more downs and he could just throw it out of bounds and live to fight another down. That's the key word.
Speaker 3:Live to fight another down.
Speaker 2:Try not to do so much.
Speaker 1:That's where it's at with jordan love and I agree with matt lafleur. I thought he limited what jordan love was able to do, the under the center, everything like that he's. I don't know why the play action game just went away. Then he needs to be. He needs to stop being so conservative. I agree, that's what I got. I was talking about earlier in the show. Um, in the first segment, right right away at the start of the show, I always do what's grinding my gears. One of the things was coaches being conservative. Yes, matt LaFleur is very conservative. He tries to limit what, he tries to limit the deep ball. He tries to limit this limit that and for once, just let Jordan Love be Jordan Love, let the offense be the offense.
Speaker 3:Just let him fly.
Speaker 1:Just let that baby fly. Let that baby fly. That's what you got to do. But Favre, I mean, I love Favre, everybody loved Favre. He had an interception problem, but guess what, he threw you a lot of touchdowns too. He had a lot of yards to foul that. So you live and die with it.
Speaker 2:That's what you got to be if you're.
Speaker 1:Jordan Love, because I think everybody wants to compare to is a guy who takes risk more than Rodgers does, but not as much as Favre. Does he have the gun that Brett Favre does? No, does he have the finesse that Aaron Rodgers does to throw that one in the corner of the end zone? Maybe not because Rodgers was a tow hog when it came to that, but I think he's got his own building ground to be a combo of both guys. Take what they both had and be that guy. Jordan Love has to be Jordan Love. Jordan Love has stopped trying to be everybody else. That's kind of where I'm at and I agree with you on that.
Speaker 1:You talked about a guy who is interesting in there, christian Watson, and this is another one of the questions I had the wide receiver room. It's filling up right. You got Hardman, now you got Reed, you got Dobbs, you got W there. You're going to have just a plethora of wide receivers. Now you've got Golden, you've got Savion Williams in there. You've got undrafted guys in the room. You have a boatload of wide receivers. At least so many can make the roster. So, christian Watson, he's out until like week 12. I don't know if I am. I love Christian Watson. I love what he brings. I love his edge. He's a great. He's a great downfield blocker. He can do all these things for you and he's a team guy. He's a heart and soul guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But man, oh man, I can't trust him. And it's not the trust of being able to do this for me or being able to throw a block, cause I would, out of all the receivers, I trust Christian Watson or Wicks to throw a block for me over everybody else, because those two are great blockers downfield. It's not that it's the injuries, and at some point and I understand you can't, you can't knock a guy completely for injuries. I hate doing it, but at some point it just becomes a waiting game. We're constantly waiting is christian watson gonna be there, is he not? We use him for an end around on one play and he's broke again and it's's like, okay, well, now the whole, the whole game plan changes right, because you practice and I know, I know you're supposed to have guys to fill in and I know this, I get that.
Speaker 2:But when?
Speaker 1:you have a guy like Christian Watson with his explosiveness and everything like that last season and you go into a game and you have them and then you don't. The whole game plan flips. Yeah, you're like, what do I do? What where do I put? I'm not putting bo melton out there and saying, oh, he's gonna replace christian watson. Bo melton's good, but not great. He's not. He can't take you over the top. He can't blow the top off a defense now matthew golden can't yeah and if matthew golden stays healthy, I I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of. I'm at this crossroad now where it's like I don't want to give up on Christian Watson but at the same time I don't want to sit here and hold a roster spot for him and lose out, cause I have a lot of faith in Wicks, that Wicks can be a dog. I love Reed and I don't want to give up on Dobbs because I feel like Dobbs has got an ability to be a great third. I saw it a couple different times where they hit him on a slant route on a third down over the middle and he's got great hands. He's got great ability for short yardage plays. I don't want to lose a guy like Dobbs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a lot of things you said make sense. Something I always want to bring up too in that Philadelphia game we were down our top four receivers Watson, wicks, reed, and eventually, yeah, all of them went, and then Dobbs, they all went down, so you had your fifth, sixth and seventh receiver out there trying to catch balls, right? That's why they kind of drafted the way they did and I completely agree. I mean, if you heard Watson, I think, a couple days ago, actually yesterday at a charity event he's already running. He's way ahead of schedule on his ACL. Even LeFleur said that he looks like a a freak. He looks a hell of a lot healthier than he's expecting to look. So I know that watson and his dad, tazim, have said that he should be back, for week 12 is what they're looking at. I wouldn't be surprised if he's back sooner and if that's the case, I put him on the pup. You know he's out the first six weeks, right, and then we see where he's at right. Um, I don't give up on him because you're 100 right, he he is. He might have some issues with injuries which he has been trying to work on since day one, right.
Speaker 2:He went to University of Wisconsin in Madison to get his hamstrings checked out with Stokes, which they actually found the imbalance. And on top of that too, he's like you said, he's a team player. He's a heart and soul dude. He's in a very like you said, he's a team player, he's a heart and soul dude. He's a very intelligent player, like when you hear him break down defenses and understand what is expected of him when it comes to certain alignments and zones and different kinds of things that are happening from the defense, what they're trying to do to him. Those are things that quarterbacks appreciate. I know rogers did. I know jordan does too. So, yeah, I don't give up on watson, the very thing I try to bring him back.
Speaker 2:He was at the off-season activities. Uh, jair dobbs and somebody else was not. The fact that dobbs wasn't there is a little concerning. I don't know if it was injury or if he's holding out or whatever the case may be. Uh, justin mosqueda did put it out there that dobbs's team was one of the people that was trying to facilitate the trade for DK Metcalf and try to get him over to Seattle. So I don't know how, true or not, but Justice is a pretty good dude. He's a pretty smart dude, he has a lot of connections, so I don't doubt him for a second. But I just think that when it comes to the talent of Dobbs, he has everything that you need to be a WR1. I truly believe that he has the speed.
Speaker 2:Fortunately, he also has injuries and then also his heart has been questioned. Now the players haven't questioned it, but if you talk to a lot of the beat writers, they've never seen a player who found out that he wasn't part of the game plan. He just didn't show up. And not only did he not just show up, but nobody even knew where the hell he was. So it was like one of those things where it's like the guys just run away like what happened, right, and that was the kind of things as a team and as a gm that you look at you like you know what.
Speaker 2:What did you just say?
Speaker 2:You said when it comes to watson his injuries you can't trust him, correct?
Speaker 2:Now my thing is like, when it comes to a player and now we don't know from week to week if he is or isn't a part of the game plan, how his reaction is going to be, how do you trust that player? Right, and I am a big dobbs fan, but I'm not gonna lie. That whole, that whole situation really kind of put me in the wrong direction, because I'm kind of damn man, like you know, like I get it, like you know you're not part of the game plan, but you look at the way the packers play. No, there's no true wr1. Everyone gets the rock. Everyone's a part of the game plan. It's all about matchups. It's all about scheming up the right guy to kind of win that Sunday or Thursday or whatever, right, and so I feel like Watson has all the potential to be our true WR1. It's one of those things where he does need to get the injuries behind him and that's the unfortunate part. We don't know if that's the case or not with him.
Speaker 1:I would agree, I would agree it hurts, it sucks, to wait around and possibly lose out on other talent if the injuries continue. So I can agree. I can agree with fans who are nervous or dislike the well, we're going to wait, we're going to wait, we're going to wait. I can agree with that. I can also see the side where you're saying where it's like this guy's got a little talent in the world. I want to see what he can do when he gets out and stays healthy for an entire year. So we'll wait and see on that one there.
Speaker 1:Uh, there was just one little tidbit I wanted to add to that. Uh, devante Wyatt, they picked up his fifth year option. They did pick saying Quay Walker looking probably at an extension. Devontae Wyatt is in a prove it year. So that's kind of where they're at with those two right now. Quay Walker will be probably looking, I would say around, for maybe I'd say probably around four years. I would say they're probably going to lean with him, maybe some options on the back end, like the Packers love to do. So we'll wait and see what happens with, you know, these options, everything like that, and what happens with a deal with Quay Walker, maybe before we come on next time here, we'll have that news there.
Speaker 1:But, we will be right back here. Kyle's going to be coming out. We're going to talk Bucs. We're going to talk a little bit more Bucs news. We're going to talk NBA. So we'll be back here after this quick commercial break here, good deal, welcome back to Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage, with trades I'm your host trades. We're coming back on this wednesday.
Speaker 1:And, hey, this next segment of the show is brought to you by a great sponsor and that is marshfield motor speedway, the half mile paved track just three miles west of marshfield, on county road age. Find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom, that is, marshfieldspeedwaycom. The weather's getting beautiful, the track's even better, so make sure you're getting down to marshfield motor speedway there in marshfield, wisconsin. So I got Kyle on me now, and you guys know it, when Kyle comes on, it is time for the Mellow Yellow Minute. I got to get a theme song for that. We'll work on it. We'll work on it.
Speaker 1:We'll get a theme song for the Mellow Yellow Minute at some point, but right now, well, it's not in the budget. We don't got a budget, but it's not in the budget right now. So, so, anyways, let's get to the mellow yellow minute. So kyle had a great one for the day. He said trage, what are your three top athletes in the state of wisconsin, your three favorite athletes in the state of wisconsin? So kyle, without further ado, what is trage's number one favorite athlete in the state of wisconsin?
Speaker 3:okay, I feel like this one's a gimme from the way I've heard you talk about him. I'm gonna say sal freelick oh it's, he got it.
Speaker 1:He got the number one, sal. I don't people hate on sal, and I'm gonna talk about that a little later in the brewer talk. People are hating on sal right now. I don't know why. It's because you know why people want the long ball, they want hard contact and Sal is just a gamer who runs into walls and does it all for you. Sal Frehlich, he's my number one. Yes, that was great. That was a good one. Number two on the list Kyle, I'm going to go Packer on this one. Oh, here we go, here we go. Can he go two for two right off the bat?
Speaker 3:I just have to think of which one it is. I'm going to go, romeo Dubs.
Speaker 1:Ooh, ooh, that was close. That was close.
Speaker 3:So the other last thing was James.
Speaker 2:Reed.
Speaker 1:Okay, we'll go one more. Go one more, christian Watson. No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:See, I figured it wasn't him because of the injuries and everything. So, okay, that means okay, come on, forget it. I can picture him right now.
Speaker 1:Dropping passes, dropping passes, but I still love this guy.
Speaker 3:I think he's got a boatload of potential. Oh my God, I'm blanking on his name. I know who you're talking about.
Speaker 1:A candle has a. That's it. Wicks, Dontavian Wicks. I just love that guy. He has got a boatload of potential. It's just stop dropping the ball and then he could hit it. So dantamian wicks is my number two. Number three kyle what do we got?
Speaker 3:let me think. I think this one has to be jack centurio, it's not jack centurio.
Speaker 1:Oh see, I'm one of them guys who. Everybody likes this guy, so I don't. He's not one of my favorites. Then I move on to a different guy. Okay, okay, he is on the injured list.
Speaker 3:I feel really confident in Jackson Turio.
Speaker 1:He would be up there. I love Jackson Turio. It's just these guys. I just love this other guy. He is on the injured list as of right now. This other guy Is he Yellich? He's not on the injured list, Kyle, he doesn't do anything. That's why you think he's on the injured list.
Speaker 3:I'm going to tease you when we're not on here about your love for Yellich.
Speaker 1:I got to think now, home run robbery. Just think about that Home run robbery. Oh, kyle's blanking over there. Blake Perkins, blake Perkins, oh, is it Blake Perkins? Blake Perkins. I don't know if my mic's going out or Kyle just can't hear me right now, but Blake Perkins, yes, yes, blake Perkins is the answer to that. It's just the home run robbery that gets me with Blake and he's been out for now. He's out right now, but hopefully comes back and gives us some more of that fun there.
Speaker 1:That's all that we're hoping for there. So we went to the break. We're with armor, we're talking. Uh, packers, we missed the nfl talk. There's two, and one's okay and the other one's what is going on. So, kyle, which one do you want? Do you want the what's going on or do you want the? Eh, we saw this coming. Let's see what's going on.
Speaker 1:Shador Sanders got drafted in the fifth round. Well, there is a fan who is so emotionally distressed by waiting for Shador Sanders' name to be called that he is now suing the NFL for $100 million over the much-hyped quarterback's disappointing fifth-round draft pick. It was immediate frustration. The fan who filed the federal lawsuit, as John Doe told the Independent, this guy was projected to be a first or second round pick, no later than the top five, and to watch mediocre players be chosen in front of him. It was frustrating. 55 year old person. This person is 55 years old. Who is filing this lawsuit? Is this mel kuyper? Is he 55? It would not surprise me if this was mel kaiper, that's 55, we don't know I would not surprise me.
Speaker 1:This was mel kaiper. I told kyle before we came on I'm gonna sue the brewers for the emotional distress they caused me every single year in the playoffs. And then I'm going to sue greg guard for the emotional distress he caused me every single year in march madness. And then I'm going to sue aaron rogers for the multiple years in the nfc championship. Even though I don't completely blame him, I'm just going to sue him because I can. And then after that maybe I'll hit the bucks because I'm just going to sue doc rivers because of what he caused me this year. Kyle, I mean, what is this? What? What is this?
Speaker 3:somebody looking for some attention because shadura sanders is wildly popular on social media, the whole Colorado being like the hip new school that celebrities are going to, a lot of people bought into it and now he's just trying to take advantage of whatever the weird situation is around Shador and his drop. You know where he ended up and all that. So if I'm the NFL, you know I'd probably I don't know countersue him or something with some crazy number. I mean, this will probably disappear in a couple of weeks and it'll be like yeah, nothing came from this. It's such a nothing story to me because it's wild, because if this was taken seriously, more fans would just do this. It'd just be a waste of time. Just want to look for attention.
Speaker 1:Give them tickets to go watch the Browns play Basically, a toilet bowl game. Here's the toilet bowl ticket. I don't know what you want. I just read that and I was like this is probably. It's as dumb as the kickoff rule. It's as dumb as the kickoff rule. It's as dumb as the onside kick having to announce that you're kicking an onside kick. There you go. That's how dumb this is. It's as dumb as that. The.
Speaker 1:We kind of saw this coming Justin Tucker gets cut by the Ravens. All those court cases still there. So it's looking not so great for Justin Tucker because I don't think another team's going to take a chance on him up until that's gone or if it goes, whatever. You know, if it's gone, if it comes true and he gets tried, whatever, I just don't think it's going away. So Justin Tucker out of a job. Now the Ravens cut him from the roster. So kind of just an expected thing there with that.
Speaker 1:But Kyle's here. We got to talk box, yep, kyle. Why box, yep kyle? Why does the media? Why? Why are they absolutely exhausting? That's what I want to know. Why are they exhausting?
Speaker 1:Yannis has told a million people that he wants to stay and yet the media is oh well, he's gonna end up in miami, he's gonna end up in, you know, philadelphia, and it's the constant chatter, day after day after day. We don't care, we're not here to speculate, but we're here to play GM. We're going to have a fun time here. We're going to play GM, which is kind of speculating, but not the same, right? Kyle, if you were the Bucs, just play with us here. Fans out there, don't immediately be like these guys are just speculating here. Just have some fun with it, right? Pret, speculating here, just have some fun with it, right? Pretend you're on 2K or whatever, playing your game and you're just like. I want to play GM for five seconds.
Speaker 1:Retool the Bucs. What do you do if you're the Bucs? Because Giannis is going to have the most trade value, right? And if you're the Bucs, you could get an absolute. If you want to retool, grab some draft picks, whatever it is. Your best chance is Giannis. It's not Kuzma, it's not. Brooke Lopez is gone anyways. It's not any of those guys, it is Giannis. You have no draft picks to even choose from.
Speaker 1:So if you're the Bucs, would you consider it like? Honestly, I know it's it's a question that it's hard to answer, because if you're a fan of the Bucs, you're like no, because I don't want to lose Giannis. He's the heart and soul guy, he's the city right, but at the same time it's like Giannis ain't going to be with the Bucs forever. We're going to need to have a future. We don't want to hit a toilet bowl at some point. So is there a good time to tear it down and rebuild that and rebuild? That's the question. If you're the bucks right now, kyle, where are you at? What are you doing? Where are you leaning? Are you moving on from yannis? Are you trying to retool around him the best you can? Are you trying to dump salaries? Maybe a dame, maybe a kuzma, trying to dump those salaries and try to bring in random pieces to build around yannis and see what you can do. That's kind of where I'm leaning. Where are you leaning with this Bucs team right now?
Speaker 3:I mean, I think it's good that Giannis has expressed that he wants to stay. I think that takes care of the first part, because I think if he wanted to go it'd be a tough decision. But I feel like, like you said, he is your best asset, he's your best player. You'd move him really start a rebuild over again with the picks and young players you could get for him. But I'm going to take it as he's going to stay, which means you now have to build this team around him and they will get some relief in some cases because, like you said, rick Lopez is a free agent. I wouldn't resign him. He's 37, going't re-sign him. He's 37, gonna be 38. Appreciate all he's done, but you got to kind of move on from him. I. I think uh, kevin porter showed that he is a piece worth keeping. He has a player option, but the player options are like 2 million. There's a good chance he may want to get more money on the open market. So I think the Bucs have to do whatever they can to keep him. Obviously, don't get into some crazy bidding war for him, but let him know you want him to stay. Maybe you get him for a little bit less than maybe another team, kuzma. I would love to say, yeah, just dump him on a team. He has two years left on his deal. He might be a little bit easier to move at the trade deadline. I think you have to go into next season with Kuzma, unless you package Kuzma with something and that's your way out. But I feel like he's going to be on the Bucs next year and the hope is offseason with Milwaukee. Maybe he plays better next year. Maybe the transition to Milwaukee was too much for him last year. He'll be more comfortable and play better. That's got to be your hope.
Speaker 3:Trying to look at C, portis has a player option. I mean it's not a ridiculous number and if he wanted to come back it'd be a one-year deal. He is your veteran presence. You know what he can do. I'm fine with that. But Torian Prince, gary Trent Jr, jericho Sins, are also free agents. Prince by Trent, I think, is another guy. It'll depend on what kind of offers he gets whether or not you should really extend yourself to bring him back.
Speaker 3:I think Sims would be a cheap option that you could put in a big man rotation with. I know we were talking about like free agents and stuff of a player that I think they should go target. So I would keep Sims low money deal. I think you're fine there. Connaughton, yeah, I mean he has a player option as well. Not a big number, but I think if you have the bucks you probably would rather he not pick it up. And even if you wanted to keep them lower the number, maybe give them a second year and you can go with that. I think that kind of takes care of, like the uh, current roster. I don't know if you want me to go into free agents.
Speaker 1:We'll get there, we'll get to the free agents.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, so that's why I would, if I'm GM day one looking at this roster. Those are the decisions I make before we get into free agents.
Speaker 1:Yeah open up some cap room. That's a big thing that you're doing there Opening up that cap room, and I agree that's where I'm at. You don't move on from center point. He is your building block. Giannis is still playing in his prime basketball right now, so you keep him around.
Speaker 1:The question I've seen a lot of people saying well, can you trade? Damn, well, you could, you can right. Is somebody going to take that on? Are they going to take on his full salary if they grab him? So that's where you're kind of at with damn, you could get younger with moving on from them, there's a lot of teams that probably would trade some assets for damn. It's just how much. What are you gonna get? Is it worth it?
Speaker 1:Do you think that damn could come back healthy and be finally put something together with yana's, which we've been waiting for for what? Three years now? It hasn't, you know, transpired yet, but we'll wait and see if it does here. Um, there was one last thing. Is there any chance that doc comes back? I mean, they haven't got rid of them yet. They haven't fired them yet. I I don't see a world where they bring them back, just because I don't think buck fans would even show up to the games anymore, but at the same time, I don't know, I wouldn't have brought him back for this year. So where I mean, is there? Is there a world where he comes back there? I don't think you bring back the cast of characters. I think you blow this, not blow it up, right, but you move on from some pieces, you try to switch things up. Where are you at right now? Is Doc Rivers?
Speaker 3:is there a chance that he comes back? Yeah, if Giannis really loves him, that's his best bet. If the star player on the team, giannis, is going to have a lot of pull, obviously If he tells the front office that Doc is the guy we just need better players then, yeah, doc can stay. As I'm sitting here, I feel like Doc probably will move on and the Bucs will enter a coaching search. There are some big names out there. Whether or not you feel like they vibe with Giannisis and and the division that you have for the team going forward, that's another story. But yeah, I I find it hard the way that the seat that that series ended for doc to come back.
Speaker 1:I agree I agree with that one there. I don't. I don't see it after that playoff series being dumped out of the playoffs again underneath the doc it all was in turmoil at some point. I just don't see a world where he could, after watching some of these other teams, like you know the nuggets fire him alone there and stuff like I just don't see a world where you bring back doc after you saw that happen. I don't. But I mean, crazier things have happened right, doc rivers got another job, so crazier things have happened. So we'll see what thes decide to do there.
Speaker 1:Just looking at a wide spectrum here of the rest of the NBA, we saw and I know as we're recording right now, we haven't seen game two between the Pacers and the Cavs, but Pacers took game one from the Cavs and surprisingly, cavs didn't play well Pacers they're one of the best shooting teams in the playoffs right now. What do you think? What is a series in the east sky? No, you got a rooting interest in your uh celtics there who dropped game one to the next after the celtics. Just, I don't understand and it's one thing that drives me nuts with the nba when we shoot 45 threes and we only hit. You know, I don't remember the number there, but they went out they were absolutely atrocious in that game from three and decided let's just keep jacking them up.
Speaker 1:I mean, what? What series in that eastern conference right now are you looking at? You're like this this is a pretty darn good series. I'm excited to watch this one. Is it your celtics and nicks? Is it the calves and the pacers? Where are you at right now? What series has your eye caught your eye right now?
Speaker 3:uh, pacers, casco. I do think that the calves are as the higher seed, as well as the celtics. I think the calves are in more trouble with the pacers than the celtics are with the knicks. Oh, I think what the pacers did, I think what the pacers did in game one, is something that they can replicate. I don't think what the celtics did in game one is something that will happen three more times for the knicks to win.
Speaker 1:So uh, that's, that's true. I mean the knicks and you don't want to discredit the knicks, what they did with the celtics there, because they played well enough to win a game right. But celtics just it's what drives me nuts with the nba. It's like after a while don't you just call time out and say, hey guys, maybe we just drive to the basket, try to score it on the inside, then let's go back outside. It just drives me nuts because in a game seven, if you would have walked away as a Celtics fan from game seven and that was the performance you got they shot how many? I don't have the number up here, otherwise I tell you it was a ridiculous amount of threes. 63 is on the night and you made 15. If you walked out of a game seven from that, I would, I would fire my coach, I would. I would say you did not do good enough to tell jason I know they're nba players and they're supposed to know right, but at the end of the day I don't even care I'd walk into whoever and say you couldn't tell jason tatum, jalen brown and those guys to stop shooting. I would just be like get out, see, see ya, get out of here, just be gone. Be gone, I mean, and it's no knock on the Celtics, right, because they are a very good shooting team. It's just on that night they were cold and after a while you lost a game by three and you shot 63s. Where's your problem? I found it. It's pretty blatantly, slightly obvious, right out front of you. It took overtime for you to lose that game. I don't know. That just drives me absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1:Western Conference we watched. Thank you, thank you to the Golden State Warriors. We watched them take care of the Rockets, because I was done with the Rockets, absolutely done with the Rockets, watching them play. Jalen Green's a quiet guy, he seems like a very nice guy. Amon Thompson there, he's a very nice guy, you know, and I'm on, uh. Thompson there, he's a very good player. Singoon, I drives me nuts. Dylan brooks drives me nuts, so I'm done with those guys. Fred van fleet was even getting chippy in that game.
Speaker 1:Seven. So I mean, yeah, you know the rock is being the rockets, but interesting, western conference the six and the seven seed made it through. We have the timberwolves taking on the golden state warriors. The timberwolves come out there like no way we're going to get a home game for the first game of the playoff or for the first game of the second round. Well, we got the Warriors, so we get a home game here, and then we see the Nuggets taking on Oklahoma City, the Nuggets taking game one against OKC In OKC. That's a story. That's a good story, because the Nuggets don't give them breathing room. This is a team that knows how to win, and they got one of the best players in the world, right. So, western Conference, where are you looking? What are you liking?
Speaker 3:I mean, I agree with you. The Nuggets, I think, have already defied odds because they beat the Clippers, who were kind of like the sexy pick to come out of the West. And I think what we will realize is, as the Nuggets get further into the playoffs, I think we're just going to see Jokic showing his dominance. I think Murray will get better. Mpj is still the X factor. He just needs to be consistent and they'll be a much better team. But it's almost like if they can get Aaron Gordon or MPJ playing well, they will do well. So I think the Thunder as the one seed, pressure is going to build on them if the Nuggets can take game two. But even just taking game one, I think the pressure is more on the Thunder to play better. So that series is going to be interesting to watch game two, how that plays out.
Speaker 3:I think Warriors-Wolves is fascinating, only because I don't really know what to expect, because you have Ant on one side, really good young player. You have Curry, who we all know Curry, but it's like the pieces around those guys are going to obviously decide the series. Is Rudy Gobert going to be game five? Rudy Gobert against the Lakers, where he was dominant in the middle, or is he going to be the big man that you just want him to do more? Will Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green score enough to offset what teams are seemingly doing with Steph Curry and just focusing so much defensive attention to him? I think it's an interesting series.
Speaker 3:I think my prediction because I did predict the Warriors to beat the Rockets and I think I had the Wolves beating the Lakers, but I had it in like six, not five. I think I did have the Warriors beating the Wolves. I think Curry and their experience will win out, but I would not be surprised if the if the wolves took it in like seven. I just think that they are a team between ant randall mcdaniel. They are a confident bunch right now and for a young, confident team that can take you very far this time of the year love it there, so k.
Speaker 1:So, kyle, I got to run here. I got to run. We are woefully late for a break here, but I got to run here. Kyle, you can find him across social media, chomping at the Bit. Find him out there, twitter. You can find his podcast across all podcast platforms, youtube, everywhere in between Chomping at the Bit podcast. Always great stuff there Coming on, as always. We'll be back here after this quick break. We're going to talk Brewers to wrap up the show here, so we'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, trage. We're coming back on this Wednesday. And hey, this last segment, this next segment, not last. We'll have a little wrap-up here at the end of the year. But this next segment of the show is by Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. They're expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming. Call for flexible scheduling and evaluations. Just call 715-267-4583. That is 715-267-4583. Call Chad down there. He'll get you right and he'll get you back doing whatever you're doing, feeling better than ever there. So great stuff there with Kyle in the last segment of the show there we had Omar on.
Speaker 1:Earlier talking Packers. We had Kyle on last talking about the Bucs there and the NBA and if you missed any of the show, make sure you go back. You listen to it next day on all podcast platforms. Just search Wisconsin Sports on the GoTrade. You can find it across all podcast platforms. Make sure you like, subscribe, follow us on podcast platforms Also. They're always getting our new content there. And if you have any questions, comments, anything like that, make sure you shoot them over to us. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914 there. So a little bit of Brewer Talk here. I know we're not going to have a lot of time for Brewer Talk tonight here, but we're going to get to a lot of Brewer Talk here over the next couple weeks.
Speaker 1:Looking at the Brewers right now, they have and we talked about it earlier. I mean they had that weekend series there with the Cubbies and the Cubbies kind of well they had their way with the Brewers. The first two games of that series. Alexander kind of got lit up. Well, priester got lit up. On Friday Alexander gave it the first couple and then Quintana. He got a little shelled on Saturday and then Freddy Peralta came in.
Speaker 1:I mean Freddy Peralta has been fantastic. I don't everybody. There's a lot of people out there who knock Freddy Peralta. Oh, he's not an ace. People got to accept he's not an ace. Okay, fine, you don't want to believe he's an ace, sure, whatever. But if you can't knock these numbers four and two with a 2.18 ERA, 48 strikeouts, a 1.04 whip, you can't knock any of them numbers. He's been fantastic and he's pitched like a dog for this Brewers team, an injury-prone team, because now he's day-to-day right. Everybody on this team seems to be getting banged up right now.
Speaker 1:Freddy Peralta has been very good for the Brewers, so Freddy Peralta stops that little schneid there. And then the Brewers got the win on Monday there, 5-1 over the Houston Astros and, as you guys know, I'm pre-recorded so I don't know what happened on Tuesday. I have no idea what happened on Tuesday. Hopefully another win, right, chad Patrick will mount. Hopefully another win.
Speaker 1:But we look at this Brewers team. We look at what's been going on right. When I look at this team right now, where am I at Right? Everybody wants to know where. Where are you at right now Looking at this team? Why?
Speaker 1:I tell you, when I watch this Brewers pitching staff, the amount of dead red fastballs they leave over the heart of the plate, maybe a little high, maybe you know, down a little bit over the heart of the plate are under. It seems unreal. A lot of these, I watch a lot of these bombs. The brewers give up. Even look at uh nestor cortez in that first series against the uh yankees. He's throwing that cutter dead red over the plate. It's like what do you think they're gonna do with it? And I'm watching even quintana and I'm watching these other guys. It's like challenge fastball over the plate. I don't know anymore about that one, especially because quintana doesn't throw that hard. So I that's kind of what I saw with the pitching staff there was. There's a lot of struggle there with leaving balls over the heart of the plate. Also, I don't know if it's a growing trend. I don't think it's because of the new bat that the Brewers have now taken.
Speaker 1:But I look at the amount of pop-ups they've had. I mean looking at Saturday against I believe it's Saturday against the Cubs there they had. I mean looking at saturday against I believe a saturday against the cubs there they had six times through four and two-thirds innings they popped up. That's a lot of pop-ups. Not driving the ball, that's getting under the ball, that's missing. So that's a nervousness too, I guess is I've seen a lot of pop-ups from this team, a lot of getting under the ball too much, putting a drive into it but getting under it, not squaring it up. So that's a problem. So I'm kind of looking at that with a hitting wise.
Speaker 1:Which is more concerning though that was the question I had is which is more concerning, and I want to hear what you guys got to say 715-990-4914. That is, 715-990-49 9, 1, 4, then a 7, 1, 5, 9, 9, 0, 4, 9, 1, 4. What is more concerning to you right now? The pitching or the hitting for the Brewers? For me I would say it's the hitting.
Speaker 1:And simply because I look at this roster and I look down the roster and I say to myself, okay, terang's been fantastic 315 average. Sal Frelick's been hit well too. He's still sitting there around that 300 average. But I look at the rest of this and I look at the inconsistency. Right, yellich looks like he's finally starting to come into his own a little bit. He's been hitting better.
Speaker 1:But I look across this team and the consistency of the bats. Reese Hoskins he got hot there for a minute and then he cooled back down. Looks like William Kacharis is getting hot and then he steadies up. Joey Ortiz has not been hot at all, has not been hot at all. He gets one hit, and if he gets one hit a night it'd be a miracle, but he doesn't, so he hasn't given you anything. They actually are dead last in OPS, I believe from first or between shortstop and third base in all baseball. That's between Vinny Capra you have Vinny Capra in that mix Caleb Durbin you have him in that mix there and I don't want to talk about him in a minute. We were teased then too.
Speaker 1:It's just been a struggle on the left side of the infield. You have a lot of inconsistent bats in your lineup. So I would say the hitting is the most nervous I've been because the pitching. You got guys coming back right. Brandon Woodruff's coming back. Tobias Myers just got back and he pitched absolutely fantastic against the Astros there. I know he gave up that run, but actually before that he was pitching lights out. So Tobias Myers was fantastic. Freddie's been fantastic. They're going to get Savalli back at some point here. You're going to get healthy here. Chad Patrick's been good. Quinn Priester you hope that maybe he can figure it out, but I don't know if he will right. You have depth Mizorowski. I don't know why. He's been absolutely fantastic in AAA, but he's still sitting down there. And then Logan Henderson was great in the starting pitching.
Speaker 1:I'm not as concerned about the bullpen. I think they'll figure out the bullpen. They need to get healthy, pitching-wise Hitting. Well, they also need to get healthy. Garrett Mitchell got out now too.
Speaker 1:But I look at this hitting and I'm like there's just too many inconsistent bats. Even when Mitchell's there, it's inconsistent. Hitting is more concerning to me because of the inconsistency of the bats and the lack of production. Because they aren't a home run hitting team. I think they need more production in the home run department from guys like Reese, from guys like I don't want to say Yelich, because Yelich has had six on the year here, but William Petraris has got to get a couple more long balls in him here soon. I mean, I'm just looking at the lack of production, looking at the big bats, but also lack of production and consistency. Right, you get a guy on, can you hit him? Can you get him over? Can you hit him in is? Do the brewers have the ability for that? That's where I'm at. Is the inconsistent hitting is making that a struggle right now, with runners in scoring position too. So, and that was the problem last year and now I think it's still continuing to be a problem this year. So I would say hitting is more of a concern to me, but I'd love to hear what you think.
Speaker 1:What is your most? What are you more concerned about, the pitching or the hitting right now with this first team? Um, looking down the list here, I mean I. I had a lot, of, a lot of notes coming off the weekend there. One of my notes was about caleb durbin, his arm over at third base. He's got I.
Speaker 1:I talked about it. You guys want to go listen back. I said it when the Brewers got him from the Yankees. I gave the scouting report. I said the one knock on this guy is the lack of an arm. It's the one knock. He's got a lot of tools, a lot of tools in the bag. One thing he doesn't have is a solid arm.
Speaker 1:So it made me nervous, especially putting him at third. Now can you put him at second? Can you put to rang at short right, because I've seen a lot of people say that. Well, slide, joy or tease back over, move to rang to short, put durbin at second to rang had that problem with his shoulder when he was throwing longer distances in spring. Does that problem arise again? I don't know. So that'd be your question if you were going to go along and do that, because we did see Durbin play a little bit at second base when Terang had day off. Do we see that again? Do we see him slide Ortiz over? Put Terang at short, put Durbin at second base and then that's the way that you line up the infield. I wouldn't hate to see it. I think that infield would be fine. I think Terang would be fantastic at short. I love at short. I love him at second. I think he'd be fantastic at shortstop.
Speaker 1:It's just a question of will his arm hold up throwing a little further? Because that was the worry, the little bit further. I know it's not consistently throwing across the diamond, right, but I don't know that's that's the story we got. So that's where I'm kind of at with caleb durbin right now. I've seen a lot of people talking about that one there. I did talk about wood Woodruff there he pitched on Tuesday. He's going to, he's going to pitch. He pitches tonight, right Tuesday night, against in Nashville there. According to Kurt Hogg on Twitter. I saw it's going to be a little bit of a shorter start there and then he's going to make a shorter start on May 11th and then the next step is the big. So he's got this start last night there. He's going to have the start on May 11th and then straight to the big. So I can't wait to get Brandon Woodruff back there.
Speaker 1:I think it's huge, not just for his arm, because I can't wait to see what he can do at the big league level again, but I think it's the leadership standpoint, because I think this team lacks a leader. I really do. I don't know if it's you lost to Thomas, I get that. He's got to step up and be that guy. This team looks lifeless at times. They look broken and watching Murphy have the sick guys every game, because he's like this is how I'm going to do it. I'm going to teach you guys not to make mistakes by sitting you. It can only work for so long. You've got to be able to keep your guys on the field. So having a guy like Brandon Woodruff back in the clubhouse, in that clubhouse, in the dugout, out there on the field, I think that's huge because I think he's a leader in that locker room. I think that you need to have guys step up and be that guy Reese Hoskins, who has been there, done that. Christian Yelich has been there, done that. William Contreras, who's getting a little bit older. Those guys have to step up and be a leader in that clubhouse and get this team rallied up, rallied the troops Because this, and broken at times. So that is where I'm seeing this team.
Speaker 1:As of late here, I did have one more thing that we will well, I will get to it right after the break here. So we got another quick break. We're going to come back. We're going to wrap up the show for the day. I got one last thing about the Brewers here and then we're going to wrap it up. We're going to get out of here for the day here. So make sure, you're coming back here. We're going to wrap it up here on the backside of the break here We'll be right back on Wisconsin sports on the go with Trach.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Wisconsin sports on the go with Trach. I'm your host, trach, coming back on this Wednesday and hey, we're wrapping up here for the day. Make sure, if you love the show, we'd love to have you. We loved having you. Right, make sure you're coming back every Wednesday to check out the show. But if you love the show, make sure you're checking us out across social media Facebook, twitter, tiktok, youtube and Twitch. You can find us on Twitter, twitch and TikTok Just search Wisco Sports on the go. You can find us on Facebook and YouTube. Search Wisco Sports on the go with Trach.
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Speaker 1:So winter break. We're wrapping up here for the day. We just got a few short minutes here to wrap us up, but we were talking about the brewers. How did the brewers bounce back after this tough stretch? They had a tough stretch there with the cubs over the weekend there.
Speaker 1:How does this team bounce back from what seems like fans would chalk it up to be? This team is not that good and they're just a disaster and the season's basically they're 18 and 18, but the season's lost. We, we should just pack it up, we should pack it in. How does this team bounce back? Well, the big thing for me, this is the big thing for me right now, like I just was talking about before we went into the break, these leaders of this team. I don't know if you've got to put that in quotation marks or not, but the guys who are supposed to be the leaders of this team. They need to step up and they need to put this team on their back and say let's go, let's rally the troops, let's figure it out. We're a good ball club, let's figure it out.
Speaker 1:Otherwise will the Cubs run away with the division? I hope not, but I wouldn't put it past them. That's a pretty darn good lineup right now. They're playing good baseball. I hate to give props to the Cubs, but they're playing darn good baseball. The Brewers aren't.
Speaker 1:So if you are, pat Murphy, if you're in that clubhouse right now Yelich, contreras, hoskins, like I was stating before there, those guys have to walk in there and say, all right, what do I have to do better? Whether it's Contreras with pitch calling or at the plate, whether it's Hoskins at the plate or scooping balls over at first, yelich, getting on guys, getting on these young guys to tell them what to do and how to fix this and that and everything in between, and being more consistent at the plate. It's all those things. You got to rally the troops at some point here. And it's the pitching staff right, it's Freddie Palta, it's brandon woodruff those guys getting healthy right, it's a big thing is getting healthy with the team. How many more injuries can this team sustain before it just becomes too much? I don't know the answer to that question, but about everybody, right?
Speaker 1:Sal frelick got great news he had an mri. It looks like inflammation. He was back jogging around. He looks like he's going to be day to day, but hopefully returned by friday, so he'll have him back for Tampa Bay. That's awesome, because you cannot afford to lose Sal right now. Sal is one of your most consistent hitters, I know.
Speaker 1:I said before, right earlier, when Kyle was guessing the Melio Minute there earlier in the show and we were talking about Sal Frelick and I said what the heck's, with all the hate on Sal Frelick, he's batting .297. He's one of this year for the Brewers. It's just because he's not flashy. He's not flashy but he's great. He's a gold glove outfielder. He's fantastic Right now. This Brewers team just needs that shot of adrenaline, that shot of. We are a darn good ball club. We can figure it out right, a gutsy team. They're not a gutsy team right now. They're not a ballsy team. They're running, they're running. But it just seems like this is a
Speaker 1:team. Jake Bowers bunts the other night there in a win. He bunted up that third baseline. That's the Brewers, that's how they win, that's how they're going to win ballgames, not by home runs, not by playing flashy. Do they have to? I think they need to add them. They need to find a third baseman. I, I am so sick. They might need to add a shortstop because, joey Ortiz, how long do you wait with Joey Ortiz? I have no idea Right now. Vinny Capra I don't know. I understand that if you send him down he's probably going to be gone, but Monasterio is not that bad. Monasterio is hitting better in AAA right now. He should be at the big league level at this
Speaker 1:point. You got to find I, that's how you get over this rough stretch. So you got the Houston Astros, you're going to wrap up that series with the Astros, and then you got Tampa Bay Rays and then you're going to take on Cleveland next week there before we come back and we're going to be talking about the brewers again. I mean, I, there's some wins wrapped up in there. Just a question of how did the brewers look when they're in those series? So we'll see what happens there. We had a lot to talk about today. Make sure, if you missed any of the show, check us out across all podcast platforms wisconsin sports on the go, trade on apple, spotify, youtube, wherever you get podcasts, you can find us there if you missed any of the show today. But with that that, this has been Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trach. Thank you all for tuning in tonight here. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your night. But until we talk to you guys again next Wednesday, see ya.