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 Honest Truth: Wisconsin Sports Takes No Prisoners
this is wisconsin sports on the go with trage, your place for all things. Wisconsin sports. Now your host. How? We doing everybody and welcome into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage coming back on this wednesday.
Speaker 2:May, what is it? May? Already may 21st? You know it's you feel old when you feel like you feel like you got a lot going on. When you got to look at your phone to tell what month it is, even and yeah, it's may, it's may. It's the 21st of May. It's almost the end of May.
Speaker 2:I don't even know what comes after May, but all I know is the sports world is it's like dwindling down to speed back up, right, you get, you know we got the NBA playoffs. We're gonna be talking NBA playoffs today. We got Kyle coming on. He's gonna be in the second hour of the show. We're gonna talk NBA playoffs. We got Umber coming on. We're're gonna talk packers. We had the schedule release capping last week. We didn't get to talk about it, so we're gonna talk about it this week here. So we're gonna talk packers schedule release today. We got brewers. They're kind of playing better, but also at the same time, they're also we're gonna talk brewers. I want to talk brewers today. So we got lots of things to get into, but I hope I hope you are having a great wednesday, a great week so far.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to say, at the top of the area, prayers to everyone and anyone who is affected by the storms that went through this last week. Here I mean that some of the damage that we saw down, you know, down in juno there, uh, that was horrific. That cow with the two by four, and that was absolutely horrific. So I mean I prayers to the farms, everybody affected, the businesses, the homes, everybody out there. And I would love to, if you, if you get in contact with us, make sure you're doing it. Wisco sports on the go at gmailcom. Wisco sports on the go at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:We've been trying to find ways to help people out. So if there's anything we can do to help you guys out there, we'd love to try and do it. Whether it's from donations or anything like that, we'd love to be able to help in any way, shape or form there. So it's a great Wednesday today and, as we know, as you guys know, I always start the Wednesday, I always start the show off with what's grinding my gears, because every week there's something right, and you know what. It happens every other day, maybe it's every day, maybe it's every five minutes of the day, right. Something comes up and you're like, ah, that just grinds my gears, that just absolutely drives me nuts. Well, I have a couple today. I have a couple today, number one on my list over this last weekend.
Speaker 2:I am so sick of Livvy doing and Paul Skeens. It is unreal and I know maybe some people out there don't know who Livy doing and paul skeens. It is unreal and I know maybe some people out there don't know who livy doing and paul skeens are. So you can, you could be like, oh well, who the heck are they? Well, you know, if you, if you, if your social media like, it costs. So you know, if you're on social media all the time and everything like that with sports and everything, it's yeah, barstool, everything's. Let me doing this, paul skeens, this the power couple. Who cares? I don't care, let me do it, I don't care, I don't care. Paul skeens is phenomenal. There you go.
Speaker 2:Livvy doing is only relevant anymore because, well, I don't know, because of tiktok and that, and then you know it's, it's basically that her lsu days are over, so I have to. Who cares anymore? But apparently all do. So I'm so sick of the Paul Skeen's Libby Dune thing. It's just driving me absolutely up a wall. I'm just done with it. I'm just absolutely done with it. So that's my number one. My number two thing coming off the weekend that was grinding my gears.
Speaker 2:So we watched. I don't know if anybody actually watched it, but I was watching the WNBA game, the fever, and Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. I've had enough of listening and watching and you know I just had enough of this. So, caitlin Clark, there's a turnover. I don't know it was. Aaliyah Boston gets shoved by Angel Reese. Angel Reese grabs the basketball. She's going to go up for the shot. Kaitlin Clark kind of doesn't really even. It's so not egregious of a foul that I can't. I haven't fully been able to process why she got so upset. But she gets upset as she does, gets up, she looks like she's like I gonna throw down with caitlyn clark here in the middle of the floor. Doesn't end up throwing down, of course, but anywho.
Speaker 2:Anywho, now all over social media, I have to see once again if roles were reversed or this was different. Okay, you guys won't be saying this. I would there you go. You want to take everybody else at their word? Sure, I'm gonna tell you this right now. I don't care who it is if they act like she did after that play. It was a take foul.
Speaker 2:I can't tell you how many times I I am. Ever since I started doing, I've never been a huge nba fan. Let's go with that. But ever since I started doing, I've never been a huge NBA fan. Let's go with that. But ever since I started doing sports talk and everything like that, I've slowly got more into the NBA and I enjoy it. I do. I just it's not as good for me as college. Like I love college basketball. I just haven't been as big of an NBA fan. I've been getting a lot. I've been getting more into the NBA let's go with that. I've seen a lot of like aggressive take fouls in the NBA. Guys get up. They might get a little like what was that? Whatever, they move on. But Angel Reese is like I'm going to punch you, I'm getting up and she's about to throw hands and Kaitlyn Clark just kind of walks away.
Speaker 2:And this was the quote that I got and I saw it on social media and I loved it. I absolutely loved it when I saw this tweet. So it's from Robert Griffin III and he said Angel Reese hates Kaitlyn Clark. It's staring us right in the face but people are afraid to say it. Won't answer questions about Kaitlyn Clark, gets mad when people praise Kaitlyn Clark for the explosion of popularity around women's basketball. Celebrates her teammates flagrantly following Caitlin Clark, goes after and tries to punch Caitlin Clark after a routine. Make them earn it foul. After Angel Reese followed Aaliyah Boston with a push in the back that wasn't called. That's not just hate, that's jealousy and resentment. That is it. That is it. Caitlin Clark doesn't have a rivalry with Angel Reese. Angel Reese hates Kaitlyn Clark and that's the end of it, and that's as far as I want to go with this conversation.
Speaker 2:What's grinding my gears is having to read across social media all the people whining and bickering about it and that oh, if roles were reversed in this and that, stop it, stop it. That's enough of that. If roles were reversed and this and that, stop it, stop it. That's enough of that. If roles were reversed, if Kalen Clark goes around trying to punch people, everybody's going to be in that same boat. It's why Draymond has gotten hate for years is because of his attitude, the way that he plays the game, the way that he portrays himself. You want to portray yourself that way. You bring the hate onto yourself. You want to portray yourself that way. You bring the hate onto yourself. You want to cheer when there's flagrant fouls and crap like that. You're gonna bring that hate on yourself.
Speaker 2:Kayla clark, it was a take foul. You, everybody, she, she admitted to it. It was a take foul. She did it. Now, was it a flagrant fall? I don't think so. But was it a take fall? Yes, but you know what she did? She didn't stand there like I'm this big old tough guy, right, she walked away, walked away. She wasn't going to get it. What was it going to do, right? What was it going to do if she stood there? Maybe she should have, because then we could have seen if Angel Reese threw down, threw a punch, okay. Now, what do you got to say? Well, if it was roles reversed when it comes to that, it's not rolls reverse then it's that she threw a punch, it's not that she was threatening to throw a punch. I just think we just gotta stop with the if the rolls were reversed card. Enough of that, enough. This is what happened, plain and simple.
Speaker 2:There's gonna be people that hate on it. There's going to be people that not your opinions, your opinion, you can have an opinion, but I think we got to get out of the way of oh, it's just because of this, it's just because of that, stop, stop. It gets worse when that's the when we got to pull that out all the time. Well, it's just because of this, okay, whatever, whatever. So that was grinding my gears over the weekend, was watching that and then seeing on social media it wasn't as much watching, it was seeing on social media all the crap after that. So that was grinding my gears there.
Speaker 2:The World Buffet in Marshfield is great and I hate that people hate on it. And if you're out there, if you're the people that run the World Buffet I don't know the owners, so I'm not gonna name names here and I don't know the owners. But if you're the owners of the world buffet, just so you know I love the world buffet and if you want to sponsor the show, be my guest, be sponsor show, I'd love to have you on and sponsor the show. I love the world buffet. I just hear people hate on it so much. They're like, oh, this isn't, it's not good. It's not good. I'm like it's great, I would go there and eat all day. It's just I can't, because I, I, I don't think I can handle that much food. But I think the world buffet is great. So I just don't know. I mean it gets a lot of hate. I'm going to tell you that right now it gets a lot of hate. I don't know if it's just with the people that I talk to, but with people that I talk to, they're like I always say, well, we can go to the world buffet. Nah, I don't want to go there. I'm like what are you talking about? The World of Fae is great. So I'm all in with the World of Fae. The World of Fae is great. And some people just they don't even know. They don't even know. So that was right in my gears coming off the weekend.
Speaker 2:One last thing People who come to complete stops before they turn. You know those well. I guess it's two-parter here. It has to do with driving, because it absolutely drives me nuts when I'm going and people will come to a complete dead halt and but it's fine if there's a car coming, but when they come to almost a stop when there's nobody coming. It's like I know you don't want to take the corner hot, but take it a little hot. Don't come to a complete stop here and then turn your minivan over there Like, let's, let's do a little bit of a dance here. You know, sometimes they have a reason behind it, but I don't know. Sometimes it just gets to me, it just irks me.
Speaker 2:And then also those people. I don't know if it's against the law or not, I don't know, but when you're driving and there's nobody coming in the right lane, right, and you're turning left, let's just say there's nobody coming in the right way and you got cars trailing. Instead of getting over into that right lane and then turning right, giving yourself that room, letting cars go around you, getting into that other lane and then turning, you just sit in the lane the whole time and then you slowly turn. That absolutely it just gets to me. I see so many people still do it. I don't know why.
Speaker 2:It's like you have this free lane over here when you can get out of the way, you can allow the rest of us to keep on going when they don't have a little passing lane or something. I know some you go by like grassland and that they have those lanes where you can go around land and that they have those, you know lanes where you can go around. When they don't have that, and you're just like at this dirt road intersection or something and the car just doesn't get over and it's like I mean just oh, and then people who pass you, when, when there is cars coming and you're sitting there and there's no passing lane outside of you and people pass you on the shoulder and they're driving on the shoulder through the gravel and they're kicking gravel up at you, that gets to me and it's like where are you going that you're in such if it's like an ambulance or something, sure, like I get out of the way for you, I get on the shoulder myself, like that's what you're supposed to do, get on the shoulder yourself. But I mean, if it's just a random dude who's just got, oh, he's got, oh, he's got to get the quick trip before they run out of Bush Light Apple, like why are you driving on the shoulder? Why are you driving over there? Oh, that just gets to me. I don't know why.
Speaker 2:I'm one of those people and if you talk to anybody who's ever ridden with me or my family members outside of. I got one speeding ticket way back in the day. But anybody you talk to now I'm a 55 hour straight line beamer, like that's me. I'm like I'm a sunday stroll kind of guy, so I'm not a real cruiser and I don't like to complain about. But when I am complaining about traffic then we know it's a problem because I'm the sunday stroll guy. So, like people complain about me. When people complain, when I complain about people, then it's like, oh wow, something really is going on. So, like god, some of these people out there, some of these people and if you're one of those people, well, it's all fun. Right, I'm not, I'm not like. I'm not like calling you out, but I'm calling you out but I'm not calling you out. Just remember that I'm not really but I am. Just remember that end of the day.
Speaker 2:So we got lots more to get to. Armor's gonna be on next. We got Kyle coming up later. We got all kinds of stuff to get to today on the show. So make sure you're coming back here. Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trades two hours is just starting here. We'll be right back here after this quick commercial break.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trades. I'm your host, trades. We're back on this Wednesday and, hey, I told you Ummer's up next year. But before we get to him, I just wanted to mention, if you want to find us across social media, make sure you're doing it out there Facebook, twitter, tiktok, youtube and Twitch. You can find us on Twitter, twitch and TikTok. Just search Wisco Sports on the go. Facebook and YouTube, search Wisco Sports on the go with Trage. If you want to text us and we'd love to hear your opinions across the board on anything that we talk about tonight Make sure you're doing it. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914.
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Speaker 2:So I got Umber here tonight. Umber, how we doing it's Wednesday, packers. I mean there's not a whole lot happening, but there's still stuff to talk about. There's still stuff to dabble in.
Speaker 1:So how we doing tonight on this wednesday. I'm good man, I can't complain, bro. Uh, it's been a week, to say the least, and uh, but we're in the middle of the hump week. We got a long weekend ahead of us here coming up, so I am not complaining one bit, I'm just. I'm just ready for that. Honestly, I've been hearing a lot of this trash talking by all these fans and all these folks hating on the floor and jordan, they got coaches talking out the side of their neck. You know what? I'm just looking forward for this season to start. I know we're, like you know, three and a half months away, but I can't wait. Just sign me up, man. Let's get this party rocking and rolling.
Speaker 2:I agree, there's so much hate. There's always so much hate when it's not even started yet. They're all like, oh well, last year this is what I saw in lashes and I get it. I do, I get it, but it's also I just you know, that's what the greatest part is about wisconsin sports fans the optimism's never there.
Speaker 2:There's never optimism there's constant what's greg guard gonna do with the badgers this year, except for suck, because he didn't go get anybody? What are the brewers gonna do? Because they're gonna suck? Because they didn't go get anybody? Right now they're sucking, so I can't, I can't say much about that. But you know, right now but it's always uh, we're not very optimistic people which which is okay, which is okay, it's you don't have very good, but you're not very. You know you're not very like this is gonna go well and then it does. It feels better. So I, I guess that's one way to look at it. So I would agree with you there.
Speaker 2:But we got some maybe good, maybe bad to talk about today here with the packer schedule release, because we knew it was going to be a gauntlet. We just didn't know that it was going to be this. We didn't know that we were going to be looking at the green bay packers trying to balance a bi-week and week five while also playing two weeks of short rest, four-day weekends, basically Like it's got a four-day weekend from school and then you go right back. Basically, that's what the Green Bay Packers are balancing here. When you got week one, you're going to be taking on Detroit and it's going to be an afternoon game and then you got a night game against the commanders coming up that next thursday and then later on in the schedule you have the vikings on a sunday and then detroit coming up and then next thursday. So two games, two sets of four-day rest, weeks, weekends, their base.
Speaker 2:It's not ideal, no, especially when you got a week five by week, which seems very early. I know sometimes you want it and it's like, oh, I wish it was week five and it wasn't week 11. But in a schedule like this I don't know if I'm crazy, but in a schedule like this I'm like this kind of gauntlet. I'd rather have it, you know, middle of the pack there, separate some of these games up. But I mean instant reactions when you saw this schedule come out, because we knew the opponents, like we knew who the packers were going to play, but we didn't know it was going to look like this. So instant reaction, when you saw this, you're like what?
Speaker 1:I think you you said on the coast to coast show that week five by really screwed me up.
Speaker 1:I was kind of hoping for a later bye, but I feel like, all in all, looking at the teams we're playing this year, we knew who the opponents were, but just seeing all the teams and just seeing how, like the travel is going to be, as well as when we're playing certain teams at certain points in the season, this is definitely gonna be one of those seasons that's gonna like make the packers a battle-tested team and it's gonna be really up to them to decide if they want to come out of this stronger or weaker right, defeated or elevated right.
Speaker 1:And I think that this is one of those seasons where we don't have the feeling of being like, oh well, this is a game-y game or that one we should win easily. I feel like every single game, from the Cleveland Browns and the bottom of the barrel Bears to the teams that won their divisions, like the Ravens and the Lions and I mean, heck, even you got Denver in there A lot of playoff teams from last year are on our schedule and I think the only way you're going to get better to be able to make the playoffs and also make some noise in the playoffs is playing against caliber teams that were in the playoffs and showing how your resolve is against that kind of talent.
Speaker 2:I don't like the last four weeks, I agree, at Denver, at Chicago, baltimore back at home and then at Minnesota If you don't have somewhat of a playoff spot almost not really, but almost locked up by week 15. I'm scared, I'm looking at it and I'm saying, oh boy, like shut up. But like you got to go to Denver, who is an up-and-coming team, you have to go to Chicago, who we expect is going to be something. I don't think they can be a. They could be Like Chicago knows how to screw up a good thing, right.
Speaker 3:They just know how to screw up a good thing right.
Speaker 2:They just know how to screw up a good thing do I think that they will again. I, I don't know like I'm not banking on it. Don't bank on chicago to screw it up again. That's all I'm gonna say. Don't bank on this chicago bears team to suck. The packers have to. They have to win the games, like you mentioned.
Speaker 2:There there's no gimmies right no, this whole schedule, there's no gimmies. This is a very tough week by week. I think they're lucky they got the Browns week three, because I don't think Shador or anything's going to be settled by then. I think if you see the Browns later in the season, I think they could be a different team. So I think seeing them earlier on is going to actually be a benefit to this Packers team.
Speaker 2:I think you're looking at an Arizona team and you're like you got to win that game. You got to beat Carolina. You have to somehow beat Cincinnati. You have to win your home games, right. So that's looking at teams. New York, you got to go to New York, win that game. It's, it's the. You got to have these games.
Speaker 2:The NFC North. You can't afford to lose at home, right, you can go on the road and lose in Detroit and not, you know you're not, you're not losing at all right there. But if you lose week one to Detroit at home and then you have Washington four days later, that's not good. That's not a good start, because then you do have Cleveland coming up, which is supposed to be your little bit of a break, but then you go to Dallas and I know everybody's going to say, oh, jerry and the Cowboys, I tell you what. They're a regular season team. They've never been a playoff team, but they find ways to win in the regular season and I wouldn't count it out.
Speaker 2:And the Packers are pretty successful in AT&T. So, like it's not, like I'm not, I'm not saying the Packers can't go down there and win, but you don't want to set yourself up bad, so this schedule is going to be a lot of sandwich games, not setting yourself up bad, bad winning the games that you're supposed to win. Is there that game, when you looked at the schedule, the even a stretch of games where you're like this could be the make or break moment, because there's always that moment in a schedule right, I see it all the time in basketball schedules where it's like when you get in a conference play, this is the make or break stretch of games. Right here, the tough games, the tough stretches. Is there that tough stretch? When you look at it, you're like this is where the Packers it's going to be, that put up or shut up time for the Green Bay Packers, right here.
Speaker 1:Right then, this is where they got to be at their best you know what I feel like if, after basically the Monday night game with the Eagles onward, so midseason point, second week of November, really at that point you've kind of gone through the gauntlet of the first half of the season with some marquee teams. You know Dallas has a pretty good talent but they have a new coaching staff. You know former, you know NFC championship arrival game of the Commanders. Then you know, got the Lions and Bengals and Cardinals. But once you get past all them Philadelphia Eagles, super Bowl champs then you kind of work your way down. You got the Giants, their young and up-and-coming team. Minnesota and Detroit are still the Chicago Bears. You face them twice and this is the first time you're going to be seeing them Come December will be the first time you see the Bears.
Speaker 1:At that point both the Packers and the Bears are going to be very much established as who they really are at that point in the season.
Speaker 1:And I think we mentioned the Broncos who have probably one of the best defenses in the league and a young and up-and-coming offense with Bo Nix, and then close it out with the Ravens and the Vikings.
Speaker 1:I think you just said a second ago, last four weeks of the season sucks, that second half. We're going to really know, up until that point, what kind of team the Packers are, because they're going to have about two months to figure it out and then, literally before we go to Baltimore, we'll have an idea if we're a playoff caliber team or not. I mean, I know what I have is a record guess for the year but honestly, you know what we want and what really happens. Sometimes they line up and sometimes they don't, and I feel like that second half of the season is really going to show us what the Packers are really made of, which, I think, are the generic answers I'm not trying to be cliche by any means right, but definitely feel like they have a great way of rounding out the season with some teams, that basically every team is up and coming and has the talent to be good. Will they teams that?
Speaker 2:basically every team is up and coming and has the talent to be good. Will they, though? Is a question. I like the end it's go win the division. Yes, with all. You know, some people hate when you backload all these nfc north teams at the end. Right, they're like why aren't they spread out? Because you have chicago. Basically, you have chicago, then denver, then chicago again. It's like why are you playing chicago so much? Maybe, maybe that could have been separated a little bit, but I do like the. You have this week 12 to week 18, where you're seeing Minnesota twice, you're seeing Chicago twice, you're seeing Detroit in there, and then you have two random games with Denver and Baltimore. Those are the weird ones, but outside of that, you have go win the division right now. Right, I like that. I enjoy that kind of schedule, meg, because now it's okay.
Speaker 2:You went through the rest of your games. Where are we at now, and now we're playing these division games? How are we sitting? Are we going to win this thing? Do we have the ability to win this thing? Where are we at? You control your own destiny. That's where I think the Packers are in this schedule. Is they're going to control their own destiny by the time they get to that week 12 game. What did you do against what I guess you would say is the easier part of the schedule? What did you do against the easier part of the schedule? Now you're getting into this gauntlet time, so that's kind of where I'm looking in there. So I would say what's the? What's the? What game are you most excited for? I mean, is there a game in here where you're like I'm excited to watch the Packers play? I mean, you know you see most of these teams basically every year, but what's that game where you're like I'm excited for this matchup on this day?
Speaker 1:I mean, honestly, the three games that I'm really excited about Bengals because I am a Joe Burrow fan, because of my LSU fandom, the Eagles because they are the Super Bowl champs, and the Ravens because I love Lamar and just seeing how we can match up with those high-power offenses and then, of course, against the former champs, how we can hold them maybe hopefully to a loss at home in Lambeau. Those are my three that I'm very, very excited about. I'm not going to. I love Jay and Daniels, I'm an LSU guy and I kind of love them, but honestly, I'm terrified of that game because of where it's located. But when it comes to the other three, yeah, those games could go either way, but I feel like they're all going to be very exciting games.
Speaker 2:I tell you what those games for those two the opening two games at Lambeau between Detroit, and then when they put Washington. I'm on ESPN looking at all this stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got you and it says tickets as low as $303 for the opening game and then the week later tickets are already selling for as low as $277. That's nuts. That's expensive tickets to get into the game For, like a free day. Well, I mean, you look even far ahead. This is Philadelphia. Yeah, 7-15 game on a Monday, Tickets as low as $282. I mean I'm not saying like that's great, Like if tickets are high, that means fans are buying them. That's great, and you're going to have sold-out places.
Speaker 2:I love that and hopefully, I know a lot of people are mad about this. I know a lot of people are mad about this about season ticket holders having their tickets taken away.
Speaker 3:I saw that.
Speaker 2:Hopefully we can talk about that in a minute, hopefully.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's talk about that.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about that, because I know there's a lot of upset people. Here's my thing In today's day and age, the Packers, many other businesses right, this is a business. This is nothing more than a business. Yeah, they have the ability to track you and your ticket and your numbers and where they're going. Yeah, and when they find out that you've sold every single time for the past, how many years in a row and you've never been to Lambeau in that stretch of games? Yeah, why are you complaining? Yeah, that's the soft story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why are you complaining? Yeah, that's the soft story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I don't get it. You can. If you got it taken away and you've been to Lambeau or you're like, oh well, you know this happened, this life-changing thing happened and I didn't make it for six weeks. Okay, like those, I'm like dude, like you can't expect them to be there every single week. Sometimes life gets in the way I get there every single week.
Speaker 2:Sometimes life gets in the way I get those, but when it's been multiple years and you have the longest wait time in basically all sports to get enough, get a ticket, get a season ticket, and you have the longest wait time and you are at the head of that because you already have it and you have a line of people where if I signed my baby up right now, he wouldn't be until he's like 30 or 40. He maybe would get tickets, season tickets, to the packers. Outside of that, he's no way I at this point, if you're selling them off, and that's why detroit fans are able to infiltrate lambo yeah or philadelphia can come over, chicago can come up, or minnesota fans I'm okay with them being there.
Speaker 2:Like I, I don't hate when opposing fans are there. I think it creates a great atmosphere. But I also don't like when more the majority of lambo is blue. I don't like when the majority of lambo is purple. I hate the color purple. I don't like when it's purple. I like blue, but I don't like blue. Detroit blue oh wait, crap. I do like baby blue. Detroit sucks, but anyways, anyways, I'm with you.
Speaker 1:Like the guy's story was like oh, my parents have had cancer and I've been dealing with that and that's why I'm able to go to games. Okay, I get that, but I was like, if it's for multiple years, I was like, I understand there's some cancer that can linger, I get all that. I was like, but clearly I don't feel like the packers are so heartless that they want to take some of that stuff into consideration, unless they were like okay, I think you're just saying that you're just selling the tickets for profit, right? Yeah, every time me, as a fan who lives in northern virginia has to watch my boys on tv and I see the opposing teams fans all over the stadium to the point where you can notice it, which is something you would never see at Lambeau Field for many, many years it's like all right, I get people. You know they want to make some money. They're hard on times they can't make it to the game.
Speaker 1:Contact Kyle Kuzno. Kyle Kuzno is the de facto mayor of Green Bay. He's not the real mayor, but he's basically kind of like it. That guy on Twitter, if you have tickets you want to sell, he will help you find other Packer fans to sell them to that way, then we all stay in-house. Now still, I can see Packer you know 1265, maybe pulling your tickets eventually.
Speaker 1:But as long as you're selling them to other Packer fans, like then you're doing like you're not doing it as a disservice by selling them to the enemy. I mean, I get it To some people. It's not that serious. It is to me, and I agree too that wait list is no joke. You talk about you putting your baby in now, like literally 30, 40 years there they may get a shot at tickets. And I'm just like, if you don't want your tickets and you just want to keep selling them, you don't want 10 games and, like you say, you want to make it a business well, I mean, then there might be some repercussions of that, because that's what the tickets are there for.
Speaker 2:The tickets are there for fans that want to go to the games. I agree, and that's I. I really do think if they were just more careful and they said not, I don't want to just go to the highest bidder because that's what they're looking. They're looking at the highest.
Speaker 3:That's all it is. Yeah, that's all I want to sell to a packer fan.
Speaker 2:Because I tell you what I'm a part of 45 different groups on Facebook of Packer fans I'm a part of. I mean Twitter everywhere.
Speaker 3:You can find.
Speaker 2:Packer fans. They don't hide very like Packer fans, don't hide it. They don't hide that they're a Packer fan. You can find Packer fans who are like I'm not doing nothing on Sunday, sure, I'll buy your ticket from you, that's great, and you know, you know I'll pay X amount of dollars. Maybe I'm not going to pay, like a Detroit Lions fan will pay just to get over here, but I'm going to pay you a good amount to get into that game if it's a good ticket, right? Yeah, I just think they've been too careless with it and not caring, and I think that's where the Packers finally stepped in and said well, there's something to be said about home field advantage.
Speaker 2:Yes, when we go to a team like Philadelphia and we see that we want that. We want that here. When we go to Detroit and we hear how loud it is, we want that here because we know how loud Lambeau can get. Look at Arrowhead when they get that place going.
Speaker 3:my goodness, I mean it's open and they record some of the loudest sounds out there.
Speaker 2:It's ridiculous. So I'm with the fans who maybe they just couldn't make it because they, like you said, ran into some health problems, everything like that. I feel for that. I do. I feel for that and there are ways that you can talk. I guarantee it. Talk with the Packers. Be like, hey, this is what's going on. Okay, we come to an understanding. But at the same time, if you're just selling them off to the top bidder, that's also a problem in the Packers' eyes and it's a business. At the end of the day, it's a business. You can be upset, but it's the business.
Speaker 2:I don't know what else to say besides. Every major league sport is a business and at the end of the day, we're at the mercy of said business. So that's it. That's plain and simple. Let's play it simple on that. So we got a little more packer talk here. We're gonna get to more packers today. We got more packer talk here. After the quick break we're gonna come back. We're a little late for the break. We're gonna come back here. We're gonna talk more packers here on the backside. We'll be right back on wisconsin sports on the go with trage. Welcome back to wisconsin sports on the go with trage.
Speaker 2:I'm your host trades coming back on this wednesday and hey, I just wanted to remind everybody out there that vikings fans sometimes can be a little, a little crazy. A little crazy, that's all I'm gonna say. They could be a little crazy. We're gonna talk about why. But I'm gonna tell you right now you'd be crazy not to get down to form it's hardware, that's all I know. You'd be crazy not to get down there.
Speaker 2:They have a boatload of deals right now. And if you get in there right now and you tell them I sent you, tell them trade sent you. You get 5% off Spices, traggers, pellets, I mean sauces. You got tools, you got hardware. You got gardening supplies. You have dirt, I mean they have everything, basically everything you need to do landscaping outside of. Well, a willing self, that's about it. They can't make you want to do it, but they can. They can send you a flyer that tells your wife get down there and get some stuff from the land to get landscape the yard here. So that's all I know. That's all I know. You'd be crazy not to get down performance hardware for those great deals right now in loyal kobe or medford, wisconsin. Tell them I sent you tell them trade sent, you tell them Trey sent, you get 5% off there. So, umber, I was watching. The other night I had this guy on TikTok that I watch.
Speaker 2:The Vikings guy they call him, and I'm watching him and I'm commenting in and he kind of ignores me sometimes because he doesn't want to talk to me about Packers or anything like that. But I can't remember what I said and he tells me that I am just a butthurt packer fan because I am, I, I am not, I'm not gonna like, and I have to come to the realization that jordan love is going to probably be the worst quarterback in the nfc north. That's what he told me. Okay and okay, jared golf had a great year last year. Yeah, I ain't gonna knock that. Jared goff was great. Okay, I I actually said at one point I was like jared goff could be an mvp.
Speaker 2:In a normal year where you don't have all these other guys popping off, jared goff could be an mvp candidate. I thought he was. I thought he was very consistent. I thought the game against houston didn't help him and I thought there was some of those games that didn't help out very much, but I thought he was a great and very instrumental in what detroit was able to do. So I I looked at mvp and I said he out takes his team over the top now is he ahead of saquon? No, was he ahead of lamar? No, I don't think so. But was he a great quarterback? Yes, cale williams, I felt like he was just in a terrible spot. He had a terrible coach, he had a terrible system, and when you put all those things together and receivers that just look like they didn't care, you put all those things together you have a disaster.
Speaker 2:So can Caleb Williams be great? Sure, he could be great. I'm not saying he can't be. I think he's got to get out of his own way. I think he's got. I it's, it's all up there for him, just like I said before, jordan Love Well, he could be something if Ben Johnson could put it all together. Jj McCarthy I liked him in college. I don't hate JJ McCarthy. I want to get this out of the way. I don't hate JJ McCarthy. I didn't hate him at Michigan. I thought he was a solid dude. Is he a great quarterback though? No, never has been. If he's going to be a great quarterback, he's going to take that Brock Purdy way around the board.
Speaker 1:Look to get to a great quarterback.
Speaker 2:And there will always be the question marks of was it the talent around him that got him that point? Because Brock Purdy's in that same boat. Everybody's like oh I don't know, anybody can win with this offense. Because they got you know CMC and they got Brandon Ayuk. Because they got you know cmc and they got brandon iuk and they got devo and they got george kittle. Anybody can win with that offense. And then we saw other guys try and they suck. So I'm gonna go with. It was brock purdy a little bit along the way, right. But I look at jj mccarthy and I say the same thing I, I really do. If I had to pick a cop for jj I I really like. I don't know if he's as good as Brock Purdy, but I would say he reminds me of a guy like Brock Purdy.
Speaker 2:So, I mean, I don't know, this was a little far out there. I think JJ McCarthy's got a lot to prove. I also think, honestly, caleb Williams has got a lot to prove. Yeah, 100%. I think Jordan Love has a lot to prove too. But what the thing with it is is I look at those guys and and I'm going to say this in the nice way possible, cause I like to be fair to all fan bases too I don't think any of those guys have fully reached their potential. No, williams, jj McCarthy Hasn't definitely because he hasn't been out there. And Jordan love I don't think Jordan love has reached his full potential.
Speaker 2:When they do, I think this might be one of the best divisions for quarterbacks. If he has me, I don't Detroit after golf, I don't know what they're going to do, but with the rest of these guys I love it. I want to see Hendon hooker. That's what I want to see from he can play. I liked him. I liked him at Tennessee. I thought he was great at Tennessee. It was always fun to watch and then he went. You know, I'd be interested to see him play. But I mean, you hear that. You hear this Vikings guy. He says basically, packer fans shouldn't be surprised when Jordan loves the worst quarterback in the North. Honestly, if all these quarterbacks pan out the way that, I mean people think that they will the experts right it could be a three-horse, four-horse, pretty darn good quarterback division in my opinion.
Speaker 1:So I mean, these are the same fans that said that Mitch Trubisky was going to dethrone Aaron Rodgers. These are the same guys that said that.
Speaker 2:He was beating them for one whole game until Rodge came back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with a broken knee my knee and in my orchestra, one of the best comebacks ever, don't forget. Mike Patton shut down that offense a second half. They scored three points after that. Uh, and so every year the packers have set the standard in the nfc north, regardless of we win the division or not, and every year every team in the division is always trying to play catch up. Detroit has literally won the division probably two years and two seasons in a row, and they still talk about us the bears they can't keep us out their mouth.
Speaker 1:The vikings I mean, they really have no idea what they have in the quarterback right now. Like, not like jj mccarthy could be pretty good or he could be nothing correct. And the truth is like, yeah, he was pretty, he's pretty decent in michigan, but in michigan he really didn't have to do a lot. In Michigan that team was completely stacked and won the championship and they had talent up and down that roster. So you know again, minnesota is built in a very similar way. Kevin O'Connell is a very good quarterback, whisperer, pretty good OC. I'm a hater, so I'm just going to hate a little bit, but the truth is he's a pretty good coach though, and Caleb Williamss to me is he is exactly who we saw. He was in college. There's not much of a drop off in the fact that he doesn't play on schedule. He doesn't play on time. He does play a little bit more backyard football, scramble king kind of guy, a little bit of what roger did the end of his career in green bay and even what he did in New York as well until his last year. I think quarterbacks like that can only survive for so long playing that way. And if Jordan Love somehow turns out to be the worst quarterback in this division which I don't think is going to happen, and that means everybody else has hit their stride and hit their pinnacle point of being very good quarterbacks, that may not be saying much because they all might be still pretty good. They all might be in the top 10 anyways.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, but personally jordan love, back-to-back years, has had a pretty good season statistically. Uh, I know that when you looked at his gameplay from week in and week out, we didn't feel that way. But numbers wise, you know, yardage wise, he was a little short, but his touchdowns and interceptions were pretty good. He didn didn't have as many touchdowns, but that's because he missed a lot of games, but he still had 25 touchdowns. He did have a number of picks, but his picks did stay pretty consistent.
Speaker 1:His completion percentage went up by a little bit and, all in all, if there's anybody that has the most chance to be even more successful, I think it's Jordan. Just because of the fact that the consistency and the continuity of the team right coaching staff, players around him and just just the way the team has been built, uh, it does eliminate a lot of his excuses, um. But again, I just think fans at nfc north in particular, uh, they're always biting, they're always hating, they're they're never their team could. Literally the way they celebrate Minnesota celebrated after being us in Minnesota was like they won the Super Bowl, right, I mean, they had Sam Darn on their shoulders, they were sparkling, they were throwing water all over him. It was like they thought they had a champagne party and the Lombardi Trophy was coming out, but guess what? Nothing came out and all that came out was after that they basically had dud games.
Speaker 1:After that they just didn't even show up. So again, I think out of all the teams in the NFC North, the Packers are the ones minus Detroit had, the ones that actually showed success in the playoffs and so yeah, no. I agree, I can't wait to see. I can't wait for Jordan to prove them all wrong, so I'm down for it.
Speaker 2:This is going to be a fun one. I think this is going to be a fun division for a while, you know, with the talent that they're going to have at the quarterback rooms and if Detroit, like we talked about, had a hooker there before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to be a fun division to watch. And I think you said something great there with Jordan Love. From what we saw last year I think a lot of it was the numbers were there, the winning wasn't.
Speaker 2:And when you're not winning football games, you try to find different areas you can point at and say what could be better, right, and we look at the offensive line, the pre-stab penalties, look at all that stuff. But we also look at OK, how did Jordan Love look? And that's where you're like, ah, it didn't look good all the time, so that's where you're kind of looking all over the place.
Speaker 2:So I would agree with you there, but I just thought that was crazy when I seen that there. So I have a question. Yes, Because a lot of Packer fans are asking this and I think we get the same question every single off season. Okay, Do we trust Matt LaFleur to call the offense Because we talk about it? It seems like every off season, we and even Matt LaFleur gets the question every off season where he's like do you think you should call the offense? And like you've told me and I, like we've heard him say it's like, until somebody else, you know, until they think that somebody else is better, I'm going to do it. Okay, that's fine. So do we trust him? Do we trust him? Do we think that this offense and Matt LaFleur has the ability to take this offense and say, okay, let's make this thing to be one of the best in the NFC? Do you think Matt LaFleur has got that ability?
Speaker 1:I think so. I think the way he came up, the way he has designed his resume, the way he has designed his resume, the way he's designed this team, the way he's been very innovative with the different things he's tried, I do think that sometimes, because he did something and it used to work and then it stopped working, that he stopped going to it, like his mesh concepts and stuff like that from 2019 and 2020. I do feel like he may want to try to go back to that again, because he has the pieces to make it work. With all the with, with, with golden, with Savion, to include Josh Jacobs and Emmanuel Wilson back there and also Marshawn Lloyd. I do believe he can do it.
Speaker 1:I definitely think that he needs to get out of his own way, and what I mean by that is he did have a tendency of getting a little too conservative at times, and then it's like he got conservative when he should be aggressive and then he got aggressive when he should be conservative. Right, it's like, no matter what he did, he was always picking the wrong thing and I think, hopefully with more input from the guys around him, even you got Rich Passaccia coming back and saying that he's doing another year. He was going to retire because he felt like he let LeFleur down. I think you know, as an assistant head coach, you have to be the next best guy when it comes to understanding situations and game to. You know play to play, what to do.
Speaker 1:I do feel like Matt LeFleur is an offensive genius. I mean looking at some tape that Dusty Everly has broken down and just watching the way he shows, from play to play, how he sets things up, I think he's a masterclass at that. He did learn from the best from Kyle and from Mike Shanahan. Because of that, I do believe he can do it. With that being said, this year might be that year where, if we start seeing this disjointedness again, from weekend to week, out from game in the game, out, from quarter quarter in the quarter out yep, questions might start coming up more often, more so than they did last year.
Speaker 2:Right, I think the big thing is and, like you said, is it disjointed? Do you have control of the locker room? Can you do both right? Because if you're so focused on the game plan we feel like you're so focused on the game plan that we don't believe that you have control of the locker room, or the locker room's lost, or you're losing this or that just seems like they're not coming out prepared, or you know this whole team as a unit isn't fired up, then that becomes my worry, then it becomes okay are you doing your job as the head coach first, because you're my head coach first, then you're my offensive play caller. So that's, that's because I mean, as a head coach, you can still. You can still call the offense. You just maybe aren't in that. You know, as in that room, as what we've seen, do you have that ability to control both? That's that's where we're kind of going to be at a crossroads, I guess, coming up this season to see, like you said, with Matt LaFleur, if he can do both and if that does transpire and grow, does he grow as a head coach and a play caller out there.
Speaker 2:So I had one question here. We're getting close to our break here. But I have one question for you, because I know you've got to get out of here. But the Packers, we know that they didn't address the defensive line. Yeah, the Bengals are know that they didn't address the defensive line. Yeah, the bangles are having some problems.
Speaker 2:Okay, trey henderson, because the bangles are cheap and they just went and they signed up t haggins and jamar chase because that was what made joe burrow happy. Joe burrow, if he wanted to, could probably tell the bangles, hey, go sign trey henderson, because don't let him go, because joe burrow is basically the gm of his team at this point. But the bangles have it. I mean, I, I, trey hendrickson, 17 and a half sacks, 65 pressures in 2024 that's pretty darn good numbers. You put him across from sean gary. That helps. Over sean gary. Maybe you can call the bangles and say, hey, we got this guy in lucas van ness. We, we don't believe in him. Well, we shouldn't say that, right, we believe in him and we know that he can get there and we can give you guys these picks too.
Speaker 2:And we can give you Lucas Van Ness, because what's the point on having him if you've got Trey Hendrickson and Rashawn Gary? You're not really going to utilize him anymore. Okay, we can give you this up-and know that. We think, pass rusher, we can give you some picks, we can deal these out. You send us trey anderson, we can make him happy over here. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:I, I'm all in, I'm all into my if you, I, I, if I'm goody, I don't care if they take the deal. I'm calling the bangles night in and night out until either they sign him long term or somebody else makes that trade. I am calling them day after day after day, just annoying the crap out of them, giving them different options and saying, okay, if you don't like it, give me your options and then have them throw them at you, because the closer and closer you get to the season, they're gonna want to get this done. They don't want to leave them just sit there. They're gonna want to get this done. Trey anderson's want to get this done. The packers gonna want, because the value becomes less and less the closer you get. So I mean I'm where we looking. They're like I'm all in on trey hendrickson, I'm all in on the packers going out and getting this bona fide pass rusher, because if you get him, I think the stock and the you know, or the packers super bowl contenders.
Speaker 1:I think that goes way up with a guy like trey hendrickson coming in I mean, honestly, like I look at guys like Trey Hendrickson, tj Watt, guys who are semi-upset with their teams I think Hendrickson is a hell of a lot more upset than Mr Watt is. I think that it reminds me of the Reggie White you know pickup, back in the day when he was a free agent and you know God told him to come to Green Bay and in reality, reality, which is a crap ton of money, right? Um, fact is, uh, getting a guy like him, you're gonna have to figure out a way to extend him. I do trust in russ ball. He'll figure out a way to make it work. Right. And does that mean you have to restructure certain contracts? When it comes to jair, when it comes to love, when it comes to kenny clark and other guys, that's fine. I don't give up on lucas van ness, but I understand the logic with it, because for me I liked the Van Ness pick at the time minimally only because I wanted JSN right. But I was like, okay, I can see the logic a little bit, but since then I just haven't seen him take the next step. I don't know how much of that was coaching and how much of that was his talent. So the Covington defensive line coach pickup. We'll see if that makes the difference. But let's say, okay, you have an opportunity to trade away lucas van ness, a second and a third, and the second could turn into a first if he does so many snaps.
Speaker 1:He makes all pro, all these different. You know these stipulations they put in right, and then you have to still extend him too. So you do all that. You're talking about greatly improving our opportunities to become Super Bowl appearances this year, because right now, rashawn Gary ever since his injury, he's a good player, but I feel like he just isn't there yet where he was before he got towards ACL in Detroit, right, yep? And you do need somebody on the other side literally defensive player of the year and Trey Hendrickson to take off the pressure on the whole defensive line.
Speaker 1:You're not just talking about Rashawn Gary, you're talking about Kay Clark, you're talking about Slate and you're talking about, possibly, stackhouse and Brimson and Wyatt. All those guys will have less pressure on them because they're going to have a guy like Hendrickson who demands at least two people on them at all times. Tj watt, same way too. So I make that trade. I figure out how to make it work because at the day. There's a reason why there's some teams that make these trades like I hate to use these eagles as an example, but they're willing to make trades and do tradeaway assets or players or things like that get marquee guys in there and get that last bump they need over the hump to be able to be again.
Speaker 1:There's a reason why they've been a super bowl last two, last three years yep and I feel like our one deficiency right now is pass rush and banking all that on just a coach to make the difference. I feel like it's a lot of a pressure on that coach and b it, just you know, I feel like it could be a recipe for disaster, because if that doesn't get the job done, if our pass rush is still crappy, then it's okay. Then what are you doing? Right, because henderson's bridges with cincinnati are almost all burnt. Yeah, like he got the coach even telling him that, hey, if you don't show up, you're gonna be fined. And I'm like, hey, like zach, like I'm a big zach taylor guy. I'm like, dude, what are you doing? You doing You're literally putting your best player on the spot because he's not happy with his contract and he was promised a contract extension if he played well, which he did.
Speaker 1:So it's like all right, well, someone's not coming through on their promises, and Cincinnati has already proven that they don't know what they're doing when it comes to their players. They're not even signing their contracts that they've set up, for their rookies aren't even that good, to the point where if they get hurt and it's not a career-ending injury they don't even get coverage. There's something crazy like that. Right when I'm just like I can see why people aren't happy to be there. Right, and Joe Burrow took a. He restructured his deal just to fit Jamar Chase and Higgins under his contract sorry, under the cap. So I'm like, well, I don't know if there's any more money left for Hendrickson, and if there isn't, yeah, you need to get the most you can for him and you're not going to cut him right. So if someone's offering you a third or fourth round pick that could turn into a second or a third or whatever you want to do, and then they get a player with that, you take that deal and run.
Speaker 2:I would agree. I would agree there, and you know the difference of Trey Hendrickson. That's all I got to say.
Speaker 1:I can see that I agree with that.
Speaker 2:I just mentioned, there is the pass rush and when you have him in there, it makes everything easier for everybody else. It makes Rashawn Gary that much better. It makes those guys up the middle that much better. Trey Henderson, is that kind of difference on a defense and is the difference between you're an 11 win team or a 13 win team and I? I'm taking that to the bank. I will anytime A guy like this is guaranteed a couple wins. That's where I'm at with a move like this. So I agree, you make a move like this because you want to go win a Super Bowl, and that's the difference between Super Bowl winning organizations and not is, when the opportunity presents itself to go and win it, you go and win it, and that's how you win right? Not in hypothetical terms. Right, you go and win it with a move like this.
Speaker 2:So albert's got to get out of here. We got to hit a break because, holy crap, we're woefully late again. We're gonna hit a break here. We're gonna come back, we're gonna wrap it up, we're gonna hit the top of the hour. We got more talk today. We got brewer talk, we got I mean, we got all kinds of stuff to get to bucks later. But nba, whatever we're gonna get to, we don't even know yet. Kyle's gonna be here. We got all kinds of stuff talking about, so we'll be back here.
Speaker 2:On the back side of this quick ad break, welcome back to wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage on this wednesday. And hey, this last part of the show here, last part of the hour, is brought to you by 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. So I asked a question if you want to get involved in these questions. I asked get involved on social media. Follow us facebook, twitter, tiktok, youtube and twitch. Find us across those wisconsin sports on the go trade.
Speaker 2:So I asked the question. I said, hey, everyone, you know we just. We just got done talking with umber there about the Packers schedule and I said, hey, everyone, give me your thoughts on the Packers schedule. Instant reactions what do you got for me? So I had a couple people across there. So I want to, you know, read off their answers here on the show real quick here before we hit the top of the hour. So, ruben, nice, I love that name, ruben, nice, ruben sandwich.
Speaker 2:He said it's a tough draw with the Lions right away. Bye week is way too soon. Tough road schedule last part of the season. Just hope we're healthy. I agree we talked about that earlier, umar and I did, with the bye week being early, the Lions right away, a couple quick turnaround games there and a lot of road games to end it. I agree 100% there. So I love that answer there from Ruben.
Speaker 2:Matt Cairns said opening the season at home is nice but sucks. They drew the Lions Early bye week. Four of the last six on the road to end the year. I agree with you, matt. I really do. I agree with you there. It sucks. We talked about that. The end of the year stretch for the Packers is going to be a struggle. The end of the year stretch for the Packers is the hardest part of that schedule there. So I would agree with you 100% on that.
Speaker 2:One. Chad told us that he sees 8-9 wins. All right, all right, I had 11-12. So I mean 8-9? We'll see, we'll see. I mean that's a low number prediction, because the prediction is a prediction. You can't. You can't really predict crap outside of that. I don't think that JJ McCarthy is going to all of a sudden be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFC North. That's what I got. That's the only prediction that I'll give out there. Todd did tell us that nothing to really analyze to be the best you Last part of the statement if you want to be the best, you've got to be the best. We can analyze anything, todd. That's what we can do. That's what we're here for as fans. Our job is to analyze everything that the Packers give us, whether it's a press conference, whether it's a schedule, whether it's stats. That's what we do. That's what we do for fun. We analyze. We analyze games. That's the fun of it. A lot to analyze with this one here is that it's a tough schedule and it's going to be a tough stretch for the Green Bay Packers there.
Speaker 2:So we're going to get to the top of the hour here. We got Kyle coming on. We're going to talk NBA. I want to talk about NBA conference finals, everything in between. We got some NFL talk to get to yet today. Here I want to talk about some of the rule talk that the NFL has been talking about. So we're going to get to in the second hour of the show. So make sure you are coming back here for the second hour of Wisconsin sports on the go with trades. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break. Welcome back to Wisconsin sports on the go with trades. I'm your host, trades. We're back here for the second hour of the show here and I told you guys we went to the break. Kyle's coming on now we're going to talk. We have NBA talk to get to, we want to talk a little NFL. So we got all kinds of stuff we want to tap into here.
Speaker 2:But hey, this next segment of the show is brought to you by Foreman's Hardware. They offer you everything from home essentials to farm supplies, house to farm grills to drills. Foreman's Hardware has got you covered. Visit today in Loyal Colby or Medford, wisconsin. Tell them, trade sent you. Tell them I sent you down there, get 5% off. What's better? 5% off. Get whatever you need for landscaping, whatever it is this time of year. That's what you need. 5% off there at Foreman's Hardware. Tell them Trade sent you, get 5% off. So, kyle, back here tonight. Kyle, how we doing? It's Wednesday. We're making it through the week.
Speaker 3:How we doing on. I'm good, despite my team no longer being in the playoffs, but I do think it's going to be good to see a new champion.
Speaker 2:So I can't complain. I I love that answer because my pro it was my problem with college football playoff, the only one I had with the final four teams for the longest time was it was Clemson and Alabama every single year and it got exhausting after a while. It's just like I understand they're the two best teams at this very moment, but it's exhausting watching them both here every single year and I would agree it's going to be nice to see one of these teams, one of these guys, one of these star players is going to get their first championship. Is it Brunson? Is it SGA? Is it Anthony Edwards? Is it SGA? Is it Anthony Edwards? Is it we hope not? Tyrese Halliburton right, just anyways, but we hope not. But it could be right. So I mean, kyle, let's start there, let's start right there, with these championship games coming up, so we have the Pacers and the Knicks.
Speaker 2:Not exactly, if we look back, would we probably have predicted this one? Probably not. Probably not, but I think this is an enticing matchup. This one probably not, probably not, but I think this is an enticing matchup. I think this is a very enticing matchup that can go one or two ways I think it can go. I mean, I I know you have pacer fans who are like this can be over in five and you got nick fans who tell me it's over in five. I could see this series going six or seven. I really could. So I mean, what? What about this series has got you excited to watch tyrese halbert and jay Brunson these two teams squaring off? What's got you excited here?
Speaker 3:So I think part of it is the Pacers actually making it back to the conference finals. So I think might have to start looking at them a little bit differently, especially if they can get through the Knicks and get to the finals. But it's going to be the Pacers want to play free, wide-open basketball. The Knicks want to muddy it up, slow it down and be selective with their opportunities in transition. So it's going to be which team can impose their pace on the other one first, like if the Pacers speed up the Knicks, I think the Knicks could play that way a little bit, but I don't think that's the way that they want to.
Speaker 3:And if the knicks can slow down the pacers which I can, I think we kind of said this with the pacers before, but it's like slow them down, force them to execute in the half court, I think that would play into the knicks hands because the knicks, we know, very physical defensively so and I think the deeper we get into the playoffs like, the more the rest will kind of allow. So this is going to be an interesting matchup, plus brunson on halliburton. At times, like, halliburton is a bigger point guard, so if he can maybe exploit that a little bit by forcing switches. I think that could work in their favor. Yeah, no. And for the Knicks it's like cat miles Turner very similar play, kind of similar. Like to be on the perimeter, like which one of them can probably knock down the three more efficiently, might have a good hand in who wins this series as well.
Speaker 2:I you know for me and I love that, but for me it's the role players. Right, I'm looking at the role players in this one and saying, like, what does Ananobi give me in this one? What is a guy like Josh Hart doing a series like this? Are those guys able to contribute? Like we saw him do against the Celtics, like we saw those guys do against the Cavs Because I don't know what goes out with Nemhard but when the playoffs start he just starts knocking down shots. And I thought I saw Matherin had a pretty good season against the Knicks. Was I right? Matherin was pretty darn good against the Knicks in the regular season. I thought I saw.
Speaker 3:I think so yeah, yeah, and Neesmith, you got to throw Neesmith too. I was just saying that you have to throw Neesmith in there, as well as a guy.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. Yes, a lot of energy off the wing.
Speaker 2:Wasn't Neesmith was a part of? Was he a part of one of these other teams at one point? Was he with the Celtics at one point? Yeah, that's what it was, and they kind of were like I don't know about you and that's what these Pacers are. I mean, as much as I dislike watching them because they are a lot of loud mouth a lot of you know, I don't agree with some of the stuff that they do and I it's just there's physical basketball and then there's what the pacers sometimes do and that they get into and I mean they do a heck of a job getting into your head.
Speaker 2:But I will say this is a team that's overlooked and they play like it and I think that is the mo of. You know a guy like neesmith or a guy like Nemhard or even a guy like Matherin who's trying to fight Giannis for some reason. I have no idea. Everybody's trying to fight Giannis for some reason. I have no idea what Giannis does to everybody, but they try to all fight him. But I think that's just. It's an MO of this team is that they are an overlooked team and that's their fuel and that's what they use there.
Speaker 2:So I think this is going to be a fun series because what the Knicks showed against the Celtics I know Jason Tatum went out, but that game that the Knicks won against the Celtics when Jason Tatum got hurt, that was trending towards being a classic finish, like one of those finishes where we look back on in 10 years and we're like, holy crap, do you remember that game when Jason Tatum took it down to the wire, jalen Brunson was hitting shots?
Speaker 2:This is a series where we're going to see two offenses that can go at it pretty hard and, like you said, the athleticism to kind of match each other right. That's where I think it's going to be different, in my opinion. I don't know, am I wrong there where I say I think the Knicks can match physicality with this Pacers team better than what we've seen so far out of the Bucs and out of the Cavs there, because both those teams kind of seem like, well, the Cavs were banged up. They've kind of faced two teams who've been banged up, haven't been able to match the physicality, the length and everything like that. The athleticism I think this Knicks team can. Am I right there? Or do you think the Knicks kind of lack that athleticism?
Speaker 3:I think this Knicks team can. Am I right there or do you think the Knicks kind of lack that athleticism? No, I think they can because when you look at guys like Ananobi Hart who will be out on the perimeter, they're athletic, physical wing defenders. So I think that they will be able to stay in front of some of these guys on Indiana, where I think that's where like the calves and them got in trouble, was like they allowed so much that they were scrambling a lot defensively. Yeah, I think the knicks if they get into scramble mode, can handle that a little bit better.
Speaker 3:Like the one weakness will be cat, because cat defensively has his moments where he's like a step late, he's slow in reacting and against the Pacers team if they have it going that can kill you. So if Cat can be locked in, they're going to put him in a lot of pick and roll action with, you know, toppin and Turner off of that, obviously to get them open. Looks at three cat reacts correctly with those. Then I think that's going to work really well for the knicks. If not, it could be a frustrating series for them.
Speaker 2:And the hard part is is, if you can't use cat, you don't have a guy you know. You put in mitchell robinson but he's not a good free throw shooter and they're going to target him like no other and that's the pick and roll. They love that. They tore apart the bucks that. They tore apart the Bucs with that, they tore apart the Cavs with that and, like you said, 100% correct, the scramble is what killed it. I can't tell you how many times I watched the Bucs just trying to run around and catch up the three-point shooters and then all of a sudden there was a shot. And you know what the hard part is. Nembhard doesn't get hot and he's a regular season Nembhard. You could throw cat on him and just say just keep him out of the paint and you're fine. Not in the playoffs, because in the playoffs he knocks down everything. So that's kind of where we're at. So this is going to be an interesting series. That one tips off here, I believe that one tips off tonight here, wednesday. We're recording on Tuesday, everybody knows. But that tips off on Wednesday there tonight here 7 o'clock. So it's on right now here across many of the stations.
Speaker 2:So flipping over Western Conference Timberwolves not exactly a team that I did not expect them to get here. I don't know if I am just of the minority in that one, but the Timberwolves were not a team this season when I watch them, even in the series against the Golden State Warriors, if they had Curry, I think that's a and people argue that, but I think it's a completely different series with Curry there. Without Curry, they look lost. The Golden State Warriors look lost. I just think this Timberwolves team, I don't know, they just don't have it for me. So I don't know, maybe I'm in the minority of that. I'll let you answer that one.
Speaker 2:But the Thunder, this is a that we've been waiting for. This it was last year, now it's this year. We've been waiting for them to rise to the occasion. Thunder fans got nervous because they've never really played from behind and I think their regular season they beat teams by 18 plus. I think their margin was 18 points. So in a close game everybody was worried about. Well, they blew out the Nuggets in game seven, so it didn't even matter. But I mean, kyle, what are we looking at? This series, this one, I got to say this one, I mean out of both series. They both have the potential to be exciting, high flying, great finishes. Both go game. Seven Like this is two, two matchups where I don't think there's an odd, and even I think these two teams match up pretty darn well. Am I you seeing that with this Western Conference game too?
Speaker 3:Well, are you seeing that with this Western Conference game too? Yeah, I mean, I think for the Timberwolves we'll kind of look back and say that they benefited from the side of the bracket that they were on. You know, they got to face a Lakers team that didn't have a lot of size, and we saw that in the clinching game where Rudy Gobert kind of went off. Then they went up against a Warriors team. Like you said, I think it was going to be a struggle for the Warriors, even with Curry, but obviously once Curry was out, butler didn't step up Draymond Green's limited, so it was easy for them. That way. This one's going to be the series that they will be tested, because Oklahoma City can kind of just come at you with waves of guys. You have SGA, who will kind of get his own, but you could have Jalen Williams go off one night, you could get Chet. One night you may get a game where Hartenstein's just bullying guys on the interior. Like Oklahoma City is very, very deep and a very balanced team. I think last year they learned a lot. I think this I think last year they learned a lot. I think this Nugget series they learned a lot, because, look, going into game seven. I thought that series was kind of a toss-up because of what they had done. But then they came out in game seven, put their foot down once they got it going. I mean Denver did have an early lead in that one, but that little stretch like at the end of the first half where they just overwhelmed the nuggets, I think that's the thunder team that scares a lot of other teams. Like when they get it going like they, they get the defensive pressure, they get the knockdown shooting from three and you get sga. That you also have to worry about in the mid-range. I mean he scores all three levels but it's just they're going to test Minnesota a lot in this series.
Speaker 3:I think Minnesota their biggest attribute is confidence. If they are a confident team. We see Ant aggressive, going to the rim and then he knocks down threes on you that are just back breakers, because it'll be something where you have a little run going. He'll knock one down to end the run and then to kind of start something for Minnesota, he'll knock down a three that might extend a run and really force you into a timeout and then he, being the emotional leader, gets those other guys going. So I think Ant's going to be locked in, but that's going to be what you're looking for. This is their biggest test. You're going to need Ant to be 100% locked in, looking to attack, and he's being labeled as some legend killer or something like this.
Speaker 3:So now you've got the number one team. I'm just saying a lot of people are just looking at some of the teams that he's beaten. It's like like now you have the number one team, not necessarily any legends on this team, but this is now your test, where you're like if you take out Oklahoma City you might just be the favorite to win it all. At that point we can't say like you haven't beaten anybody Because, like I said, you beat a Lakers team that a lot of people were on that lakers team making a surprise run. Then you take down the warriors, who I think a lot of people were like the warriors as a lower seed could surprise some people. Now if you take out the one seed, the east is going to look kind of easy for you yeah, no, I would agree.
Speaker 2:I. I just hate the labels they try to label guys like. I remember anthony edwards was labeled as the next michael jordan he's the next coming of michael jordan, and then that went fast. That went way, way worse than what it should have and I think it got to his head and everything like that. But I I'm looking at this series and I'm like who's gonna be the robin to the batman? Right, you have sga, you have anthony edwards. Who's gonna come along, right?
Speaker 2:you have to have somebody come along for the ride. Who's going to be that guy in this series? You know, you look at a guy like Jalen Williams when he kind of goes away and he struggles, the thunder struggle, when he's feeling it, and he's right there with SGA. Those two are night and day. It's like boom, boom, boom. Here we go. You can put one guy, one guy can score it, the other guy can facilitate, the other guy can score and he can facilitate. Those two play great together. And then the same on the flip side. But I think it's julius randall. I think julius randall has to be the x factor, along with anthony edwards in that uh series there with the timberwolves. So I I like this matchup. I really do. But I just think it's the same in both series. The star power is there. I just think it's going to be the role players that are going to decide it, because you always have the star power. It's just who's going to come along and help it out, right, who's going to be that guy? And you know what? About the legend killer too. I just thought about that.
Speaker 2:Steph curry didn't even play. You can't count that. We can't count that. Steph wasn't even there. Like he's there, but you beat draymond, like you beat draymond and still draymond had a pretty good series there. He was knocking, knocking down shots. I was impressed, like Draymond. He stepped up Jimmy's like I'm only going to shoot nine times. Even though nobody's here to shoot the basketball, I'm going to shoot nine times. Same with somebody else had that in a clinching one there. Oh, jokic. Jokic went away for the Nuggets there. I mean I get they lost by a lot, but he only took a few shots there. It's like he was already racing horses at that point. So I mean just it's that kind of yeah. So I mean I don't. Let's do a serious prediction. What do you got for me? Who is going to be in your NBA finals? Timberwolves, thunder, and then we got the Knicks and the Pacers. Who is going to be your NBA finals? It's going to be exciting either way.
Speaker 3:I think it's going to be great matchups, either way you put it that's a good question, because because in my mind it's like two matchups work. If the thunder make it through, I'd want the pacers. I think that would be the better matchup. That'd be fun. That'd be a fun. I think if the wolves get through, it has to be the knicks, because that I think those two styles match up better. Plus, you have the randall cat, oh yeah. So it's almost like which one of the two do I want to see? And the more I think about, I think we're gonna get thunder. I think the thunder beat the wolves in six and then I think the pacers beat the nicks in seven. Okay, we get thunder pacers I like that.
Speaker 2:Something entices me about the nicks whatever it is with the nicks getting there. Something enticed me that jalen brunson's been fantastic. He has just been nothing but fantastic and I know, you know, the celtics had their issues right, injury issues in that series. But son of a gun, I mean, even if he was playing well like he, he, he was carrying that team on his back and I know you know other guys came along to the party. But that was a fun series regardless. I, I do. I like the knicks, I'm gonna take the knicks, I like that series.
Speaker 2:Next, t wolves I I'm not like people say, because you're from wisconsin, you're supposed to hate the timber. Like why would like they don't? They're nothing to me. Like, honestly, they're nothing to me over there. They're not a rival. It's not like the bucks play the pay, uh, the timberwolves all the time. It's like, no, it's not really a rivalry. So I don't know, I'd be okay seeing it. I just hope then the Knicks win it because I don't know, anthony Edwards rubs me. There's a lot of guys that rub me the wrong way.
Speaker 2:So I have a question when we come back from the break, we're going to hit a quick break, we're going to come back. Kyle's going to join us again. Out there, hit up the show here. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. John Horst is meeting with Giannis. What are you saying? If you're John Horst, what is your? I'm going to say this to Giannis when he walks in that door. What am I going to say? I want to hear what you got to say. I want to hear what Kyle's got to say. We're going to talk about it. We come back here after this quick break on Wisconsin sports on the go with Trach. Welcome in to Wisconsin sports on the go with Trach. I'm your host, trach, coming back on this Wednesday.
Speaker 2:And hey, this next segment of the show here is brought to you by a fantastic sponsor of the show, and that is Marshfield motor speedway, the half mile paved track just three miles West of Marshfield on County road H. Find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom. Maybe you'll see me down, maybe I'll be down there. You can see me. We can talk sports, we can watch racing. You don't know, maybe my wife will be down there with me. Maybe my kid will be down there with me. I don't know, he's not old enough to be at those loud races yet. He does have these cute little earmuffs down there. I don't know If you want to find us across social media, though, because we share the schedule and everything out on social media, make sure you're doing it.
Speaker 2:Facebook, twitter, tiktok, youtube, twitch. You want to find us on any of those? Search Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. It'll show up in some facet. Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. Wisco Sports on the Go with Trage. You can find media. So kyle and I every week. Kyle is always a part of the mellow yellow minute and if nobody, if you haven't listened to the show before. The mellow yellow minute is a trivia show that we dedicate to my grandpa, who passed away. It's a great segment of the show that we've done here for since the beginning of the show. So, anyways, anyways. So kyle came up with the question of the day, and that is Trage's favorite MLB ballparks outside of American family. I cannot have American family. Feel lucky for him. It wasn't even in my top three. So, kyle, go one crazy one out there and then I'll give hints. Go one crazy one. What do you got for me?
Speaker 3:I was going to say Camden yards, baltimore. I think it's still camden yards, but yeah I do like camden yards.
Speaker 2:I take camden yards. Yeah, I'll put that in my top three. Camden yards will be in the top three. I'll put it number three, that'd be enough warehouse everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's got to be up there. I think two I would go. I probably know the old name, pnc Park, the Pirate Park, with the skyline, everything I do enjoy PNC Park.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is on there, definitely on there, number one. This one is going to be interesting.
Speaker 3:Because there are a couple that do come to mind. I know Petco with the Padres is a nice one. You have Bush with the Cardinals, kind of a classic one.
Speaker 2:Is it classic? Okay, it's a stadium, but they redid it. But I love this. When they had this in the outfield, it was awesome. It was something weird in the outfield.
Speaker 3:So first thing that came to mind was the little mound area in.
Speaker 2:Houston yes, yes, I love that hill, I love that hill, I absolutely love that hill Watching guys get hit up there and they're climbing up that hill to try to go get it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. So if I had to pick one that was my favorite at one point, it would be that just because of that hill, outside of that, stadiums suck. Otherwise, that's it. Yeah, so there you go, trage's favorite ballparks the old Astro stadium with the hill out there, pnc park and Camden yards. It was pretty good guesses there, kyle, pretty darn good guesses. I mean, who would have said Wrigley? Like honestly, who would have said Wrigley? Nobody, absolutely. It's like, why do you have vines out in the outfield and a brick wall behind him and the vines don't grow until it's July.
Speaker 2:So it's just ugly until then, and then your lights suck and it's just it's yeah, chicago, it's Chicago. So we went to the break and I asked the question. I said, if you're John Horst and you're going into this meeting with the honest, I don't want to talk about Giannis this and Giannis that it's been exhausted. I talk about Giannis this and Giannis that it's been exhausting. I want to talk about John Horst when you're going into this meeting with Giannis. If I'm going into it and I want to hear what Kyle's got to say after I say what I got to say here but if I'm going into it, I'm saying, giannis, you only really have two options. This is the way we see it. We're not ready to compete now. We can go get you some guys. We're going to be in contention for a decent playoff spot, but not in contention for the NBA finals, unless if something miraculous happens. Right now we're under this little bit of a cap. Right now we have some contracts not very good contracts. We're paying guys we probably shouldn't. That's where we're at. We're going to build these guys up, the young guys. We're going to get them going A couple of years here. We're going to be ready. That's your honest. If you want to be honest with Giannis. Now, if you want to be really honest with Giannis, you say okay, giannis, you tell me, because we're going to support you and we want you to go where you want. If you want to trade, tell us where you want to go, and I think Giannis he loves Milwaukee enough he's going to say I want to go here, but I want to make sure you guys get max value for me on my way out.
Speaker 2:I think those are the only really realistic two options. I know a lot, I've seen a lot, I've heard a lot of people, a lot of different shows, talking about what John Horse could say. I think there's only, realistically, two things. He can say Either A we're a couple years out, don't lie to me, right, he knows we're a couple years out or B where do you want to go? If you want to leave, where do you want to go and will we be able to work with you and make it possible to send you to a destination that works for you but also works for us? That's where I kind of think it's going to be right now. Where do you see it? If you're john horse, you're walking into the interview with yannis, or that you know? End of the season presser. What are you saying to yannis?
Speaker 3:I mean, I, I think I'm right there with you, and especially if it's the second option. It's like where do you want to go? If you're horse, you're hoping he's like oklahoma, san antonio, one of these teams, young assets and picks that's what your hope would be. I think you're going to sell him on staying. I agree, don't lie to him and be like, well, we're going to turn this around next year and be contenders about no, don't, don't, don't tell him that you look, we'll be a playoff team. It'll look a little different, but contending might take a couple of years because, like you said, some of these young guys will be thrust into roles because we have some older players that we will move out or, if they do come back, it's going to be diminished roles. So it's going to be.
Speaker 3:You know how committed are you, giannis, to going through not necessarily a teardown rebuild, but more of a reshaping of our roster. If you're fine with a couple of years of being like a 5-6 seed first, second round exit type of team while we get some of these guys up to speed, then yeah, we'd love for you to stay. Then, yeah, we'd love for you to stay. But if you're expecting us to turn this roster into a 60 win, one seed that's going to win the title next year. I gotta tell you that's not happening. The moves aren't out there to make that happen. The money on our side isn't out there to make that happen. So, like looking dead in his eye, you go with all that being known, what do you want to do?
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:Because the minute you walk out this door, we're going to go to work on whatever it is you want. I think you just keep it real with him like that.
Speaker 2:I like that. Keep it as real as possible and then, at the end of the day, you know exactly what's happening. Don't play this. Oh, the long game. Right, I don't want to play the long game. I want to know right now because, like you said, you can get started on reshaping this team right now, because after Giannis is gone, it's basically oh boy, like we got to retool, we got to do all this. I would rather, if you're going to get something for Giannis, get it now, get max value that you can now.
Speaker 2:If you go and you call I know I saw I'm just talking mock trades and nobody knows if this is actually gonna happen but you know you're talking with the houston rockets, they're talking sangoon, they're talking jaylen green you get two guys like that and plus picks back for a guy like yannis. You already are setting yourself up for next year. Maybe we're not uh, you know we're not winning. You're not getting a one seed, we're not getting a two, but we could still be a five or a six with Jalen Green and Sangoon in there. I know you're not going to have Damian, but you're talking about you're going to bring pieces back like Bobby, etc. In there. Maybe get a guy you know, trent back, and I think this is still a team who can win some games. Is it going to be pretty at times? No, but you can still win some games. But you want to get that head start on that. You don't want to be behind the eight ball once again. So I, I completely agree and I I think we're both on the same page of what you have to say if you're john horse to yannis walking in there.
Speaker 2:So let's get away from the nba just a little bit, because I want to talk kyle's on, and we love talking about the random stuff, and the random stuff with the nfl is always the best, right? So the players are okay to play in the olympics now. Good, I think a good thing, right, I think that's a good thing. What do you think, kyle? Is it a good thing? Because for me it's like you know, we heard the actual like flag football players were upset by it and I get that. But at the same time, if you're a country, don't you want your best guys playing anyways? That's kind of where I would be. So what do you think, kyle? Where are you at? At with this one? You're good with the NFL players playing the Olympics.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm perfectly fine with that, same with any other sport. If these guys want to take their summer where they could just sit back and do nothing and actually want to play for their country, who am I to say otherwise? I think it would be cool if we get a mix Some NFL players with, like, pro flag football players.
Speaker 2:I think that'd be interesting, maybe hilarious, but yeah, it'll probably just be an all nfl team give me a tournament, just give me a tournament to get you know they have like it's like qualifying for like the olympics, qualify to be the Olympic flag football team. Make a tournament out there in LA. Take your football players whoever you want, like make a team up, tell them hey, you make a team of your guys, we'll make a team of these guys, and then slowly just build rosters and just be like all right, now, you guys compete, winner gets to play in the Olympics. I think that could be fun. I'd watch it. It'd probably be on ESPN, the Ocho, but I'd watch it. That'd be okay. In between the kickball game and Slippery Stairs they'll have flag football, presented by whatever.
Speaker 2:So, I mean, I'm good with it, I'm good with it there, so I want to do something fun. Let's do a flag football team, okay, who would be okay? You okay. So let's you have a quarterback. I think they have running backs on there. So you have a quarterback, a running back, a wide receiver, you have three wide receivers, I believe, and then you have a center, or you have two wide receivers and a center. I believe is how it goes, something like that, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty darn sure there.
Speaker 2:So we'll do quarterback, running back two wide receivers and a center. So let's start quarterback. If you had to pick your quarterback for your flag football team, who are you rolling with?
Speaker 3:I mean, there's a couple ways you could go with it. I would probably take a. I feel like the obvious answer would be like Mahomes for his passing ability. Yeah, I'll take Mahomes.
Speaker 2:I think I'm going Lamar Jackson. See, that's the other thing, I just think running around with him would just be. That'd be a lot. I think he's built for flag football, to be honest with you, so running back, running back's interesting.
Speaker 3:I think running back I would go saquon saquon.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, saquon's gone. Give me, give me, jameer gibbs, that was fun, gives me fun he's got the speed, he's got the versatile. I like gibbs in. There am I running back wide receiver one I think you have to go, justin. Yep, yep, Justin Jefferson. So next up, Jamar Chase. I think you'd take Jamar Chase if you had another wide receiver one. Who's your wide receiver two? You can take Jamar Chase. You can double down with Jamar Chase.
Speaker 3:I know, but I feel like for the exercise I'll take somebody else. I mean, look, flag football usually want a lot of speed. Why not go with a Xavier?
Speaker 2:Worthy. Ooh, I like that. I like that. You know, if Tyree Kill is not broken, I think you'd take Tyree Kill right. I mean that wouldn't be a bad move there. Another guy I'm going to go Brian Thomas. I'm going to go Brian Thomas Jr from Jacksonville. I think that would be an interesting one. I like that. So I'm going with him. Okay, center, now center. You don't have to pick a center. It could be a tackle that you move in Playing football. I mean, you want kind of a speed guy. You want more versatility in there to move around.
Speaker 3:That's true, and I was thinking of a tackle, probably First one that came to mind, not even sure why I'd probably go Panay.
Speaker 2:Sewell. Okay, that's a good move there. That's a good move. I'm going to go. Elton Jenkins, I'll move him in. I'll move Elton Jenkins in. He's moving in to play center anyways, I'll move him in from guard to center. That's fine, he can move in. It was either him or Rasheed Block. I was all over the place with Packer guys just trying to get a looks like.
Speaker 2:I don't hate the pro bowl, I just I don't find it. It's not like wow, but it's like it's okay, like I'll watch it. It's entertaining. It's just not like wow factor. So before you got to get out of your cow because I know you got other things you got to get going to tonight here, but before you get out of here, the onside kick rule, the dynamic. You know we're sending guys down the field there, that's all staying.
Speaker 2:But now they're talking league owners are going to consider a proposal to change the onside kicks. That would allow the trailing team to declare an onside kick at any point during the game, any point in the game. I'm fine with that. But here's my only thing, and and this is why I'm still upset why do we have to tell people we're doing it? Why? Why does it have to be that way. I don't want to. It's like I've said it before and I'll say it's like telling people you're going to throw a curve ball. It's like telling people you're going to throw a fastball here. Only the Astros get to know that. We don't get to know that. The Astros get to know that. We don't get to know that the Astros do Shots at the Astros.
Speaker 2:I just I don't know, I just it drives me absolutely nuts with this. You have to declare it. We're not declaring war here, we're kicking a ball off.
Speaker 3:Like I don't know, kyle, where are you at with this one? I mean, I probably would have been more upset with that if we weren't at the point where, even with regular kickoffs, before the dynamic kickoff, there were still rules on how many guys could be on one side versus the other so it's kind of the same anyway.
Speaker 3:So now you can just do the dynamic way and be like, hey, we're doing an onside kick. I feel like it's going to be the same no matter what, so I'm okay with that. I think that was probably the worst part of the dynamic kickoff to a lot of people is that you had to declare it had to be like fourth quarter, the very end, like give get teams opportunities to do it a little earlier if they want to, I would. I'd be like the dynamic kickoff. By the way, I think it. We saw an increase in kickoffs being returned.
Speaker 2:That was the whole point of it no, I'm good with the diamond, I'm good with that, I'm over that. Like I think that's fine. I think it's the declaring of the onside kick. That is like why? Why do we have to? Because then dan campbell I think dan campbell just kicked the onside kick all game long. Otherwise he'd just be like all right, let's roll it out boys, let's just do it here. So we don't know the answer to this. They're gonna have an answer probably by the time the show comes out here, so everybody's gonna know this answer already. But I just want to get our opinions on the tush push. What are your thoughts? Tush push do you like it? Do you want it out? What are your thoughts on this one?
Speaker 3:I'm fine with the tush push, but you have to balance it out. Where a lot of these teams have the problem is you could push like use jalen hurst, because they're the the poster child for this. You could get linemen well, not linemen like running backs, tight ends lined up behind him and pushing him. That's illegal defensively yep so if you allow like linebackers to push on your nose tackle, then I think now you have something.
Speaker 2:So I I think they'll modify it, but I feel like it stays in the game because it's it's a football play yeah, no, that's that's where I'm at on it right now is if you're going to allow the offense to have an advantage, you have to allow the defense to have that same advantage, and I think that's the big thing. If you're going to have five guys barreling down on one nose tackle, well then you better allow the linebackers to have some pushback at that one. Otherwise you're going to have more plays. And I think where it becomes exhausting is like we saw with the commanders, where they just kept jumping off sides, jumping off sides, jumping off sides, and then we have the NFL making up rules that they can just award a touchdown. And it's like you're going to award a touchdown because of this play and at this time, and I get it's a yard and everything. But honestly, if it's going to be an issue like that, where we're going to get stupid football and everything like that, I'm good with it also being gone.
Speaker 2:Because you know I I love when they said they they keep bringing up injuries, right, and the injury factor of what could happen. And you know the owners are like, oh well, show us an instant, right, show us an instant. They said there hasn't been one. But you asked the chief medical person in the NFL and they said well, if it does happen, it's going to be catastrophic. So all right, now you're working with that and it's like I don't want to be the first one to get hurt, because when somebody it's not. If it's when, when somebody gets hurt, then we got to bring this all back to the front and that it's going to be a big problem. It's going to be a huge problem. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. Like I said, we're late to the party here because they already voted on this. We already know the answer, probably by the time our show is out here. So we have you know, everybody's like. You know, we already know what happened, dude. Well, we just want to get our opinion voiced on that one there.
Speaker 2:So, Kyle, before I let you out of here, let everybody know where to find you out there across social media so that they can find you. Give you follows, likes, everything like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, just chomping at the bit, whether it's YouTube, facebook, I mean, you name it, I'm out there. Twitter X, tiktok, all that. So yeah, just look me up.
Speaker 2:That's how you keep up to date on everything. Kyle gives me all my stuff for NBA talk, everything like that. He keeps me up to date just as well as anybody else out there, even better than Stephen A Smith, that is for darn sure. So we'll be back here. We got Brewers to talk about yet today, here we're going to talk Brewers when we come back from the break here. So yet today, here we're gonna talk brewers. We come back from the break here. So don't go anywhere. We'll be right back here in a quick minute after the quick commercial break. Welcome back to wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage coming back on this wednesday. And hey, this next segment of the show, the brewer talk here. We got a little brewer talk here to end us for the day. Uh, this next part is brought to you by a fantastic sponsor and that is sport and spine clinic of greenwood, wisconsin. Their expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming call for flexible scheduling and evaluations within 24 to 48 hours. Just call 715-267-4583. That is 715-267-3. So I want to get to the Brewer Talk here.
Speaker 2:The Brewers, over this last little stretch it's been I want to say it's been rough. Yeah, it's been rough. Let's just go with that. We're not going to sugarcoat this one. We're not going to sugarcoat this one at all. You look at the month of May here. They started out.
Speaker 2:It wasn't great, right, he lost that game with the white socks. He had a couple losses. The chagas cubs got a win, had three game win streak, beat the astros, won the astros series. Last game against the astros was terrible. And then you went through this stretch where you were winning just the third game of the series and I don't I, you were pretty good at that and now you got this series against baltimore.
Speaker 2:As I'm recording here, you're in game two of the series here. Nothing, nothing, bottom second. But you won game one. So change up the little narrative. Right, you won two games. It's crazy. You won two games there it's. It's absolutely baffling that you figured out how to win two games again. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Of course don't want to knock completely on the Brewers.
Speaker 2:Last week when we talked Brewers, I don't know if we had an overreaction. Maybe some people thought it was an overreaction. From what I heard, others were like you were gone with it. So it depends on who you are A lot of people. It depends who you ask at this point. Some people are in the boat of the seasons of wash. We should basically trade away the big guns and try to build up. There's other people who are in the boat of well, we still got a shot, because the rest of the division's a struggle.
Speaker 2:I agree with both, because the division's not out of reach Not at all. The Cubs are not running away with this. Everybody's sitting here like, oh, the cubs are going to run with. They have the, they have star power, but they're not deep in in any, any facet and the bullpen struggles at times and the rotation is not great. So I don't think they're running away with it. I don't think the cardinals are going to run with it. I don't think anybody in the nl central is going to run with it. The reds are. I mean, they won five in a row. I don't know what they're going to do here as we're talking, but they had won five in a row so they've been playing well. So I'm looking at the rest of the division. I'm like they got, they got time, they, they're, they're doing fine, they're, they're hanging around.
Speaker 2:Now it's a question of either one or the other. Do you go all in and try to make this thing work, or do you maybe just try to make this thing work? And I? I said it. I don't know if I said it last week, I said the week before. I said I feel like the brewers are in this transition period and they've been in the transition period for the last two years. It's just last year they won baseball games. This year they're not. And now we're like what's going? This is a team that won games with a similar roster last year. What's going on now? I think we're kind of getting back to that realization.
Speaker 2:You have a guy like Joey Ortiz in your lineup right now who's struggling mightily. Sal Frelick's been playing well, so has Terang, but you look at Jelich. I don't want to sugarcoat Jelich anymore, guys. I don't want to hear anybody defend this guy anymore. I am so far past that at this point. What are you defending? I mean, honestly, we sit here and we're like, oh well, he's got seven home runs. He's got 26 RBIs Fantastic. He's batting to 194. Rbis fantastic. He's batting to 194 194. His on-base percentage 289. His ops is just above 600. He's got a negative war right now. So, yeah, when the end of the day, when I look at it, he's not doing nothing. Not doing nothing special for me at the moment and I don't I don't want to hate.
Speaker 2:I have never been a true-on Yelich lover since he's come to Milwaukee, I'll admit that. But I'm here to say that at this very moment they're not winning games because he's in the lineup and that's a problem. What I saw from William Contreras in that first game of the series against the Orioles, when Contreras got on and he stole second base and he started screaming back to the dugout he's clapping, he's hooting, he's hollering, he's yelling and we saw him get that base knock they're a huge base knock that drive in the and ending up being the winning run. That moment when I saw that yelling, that screaming you know we've said before who's going to step up, be the leader. They don't have a leader right now that moment, right there, that was it. That was saying let's go, let's go, we need a vocal guy. Contrarian said I can be that guy, I could be that vocal leader, and that is what they've been lacking.
Speaker 2:That's what I thought Christian Yelich has been lacking being as a vocal leader, a guy stepping up there as a veteran, your big money guy, and being the guy and he hasn't been there. I honestly have looked at Brandon Woodruff. He's been gone. He's been on minor league stints and stuff like that, brandon Woodruff being a leader for the pitching staff and being there along with that, I think he is a huge voice inside of that locker room or inside that clubhouse. So not having him, I think that hurts at times.
Speaker 2:So I look at this team right now and some of the things that I'm seeing right now. So I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like this team's too patient at times. And when I say that, I see a lot of middle, middle fastballs where the brewers are just oh, we're just gonna, okay, we're gonna let that one go at one point when, when this offense was struggling, it seemed like they didn't adjust the approach. And that's where, when you're struggling, sometimes, sometimes it might be better to get after the first pitch fastball. Why? Because it might be the best pitch you see in the entire at bat right, they get you get down on one. Now the pitcher's got the upper hand, they can work with something. So when this team was struggling and they still kind of are offensively attacking that first pitch, ambushing pitchers.
Speaker 2:When I see a lot of these teams and they game plan for the brewers and they game plan for a guy like freddie who wants to get you with the high cheese and you game plan for that. You attack early or you attack that high cheese, knowing that he wants to go up with the fastball and you could get to it. That's where I just feel like, at times, the pitching coach, that pitching coach, but the hitting coaches for the brewers, I feel like they're a little bit behind and that's a problem. That's a problem, if you ask me, and I just I I feel like I really do when I'm watching this and when I'm seeing this. It just seems like the brewers are just they're not attacking, they're not ambushing pitchers, they're not getting after them, they're leaving a lot of middle, middle and it just it's not, it's not breaking yourself out of a slump, it's not changing it up, and that that kind of gets me, because we see the Brewers hitting a lot of and this is goes along with it hitting a lot of pop-ups, shallow fly balls getting under the baseball. I can't. How many more times am I going to watch Cale Durbin fly out 90,? He's going to hit a ball 1,000 feet up in the air and it's going to drop into short center field and they're going to catch it. I swear it's every time. Every time he swings, he gets under it. I don't know if it's the approach that the Brewers are taking. They think they have to hit the long ball. I don't know what it is, but the approach is not there and there's a lot of guys who are trying to do too much.
Speaker 2:Everybody hates on Sal Frelick. I don't understand it and I was going to bring that up anyways. But there's a lot of Sal Frelick hate out there and I don't get it anymore. I really don't Sal Frelick hate out there and I don't get it anymore. I really don't. Sal Frelick is one of the only consistent batsman. Do you not like Sal Frelick? Because he's not flashing. He's not a big home run hitter. Is that why you don't like him? He's a he's a contact guy who just puts them all in play. Is that why you don't like them? But you know what I love about Sal? Just makes things happen. You're gonna live and die with it. He doesn't have hard contact rate, sorry, but you know what? He's batting 279. When I'm talking about this right now, he's batting 279. He's got 60 total bases out of everybody on the brewers and he's got 19 strikeouts 19 out of everybody in the Brewers Outside of, probably, terang he's been one of the only bright spots and Haskins Haskins has been hitting the ball well.
Speaker 2:So I will say Haskins too Contreras has been coming on, but consistently. Those are your bright spots. So I don't understand the hate for him right now, but he's a guy who he's just looking to drive the ball, same with Terang, who he just looking to drive the ball. Same with Terang. They're just looking to drive the ball wherever it is. Sal's looking more inside right now. He's been great at ripping that inside pitch. Guys are still trying to attack him in there and he's been great ripping it there. Terang's been taking it to all fields like he just he's just. He's been, I mean, nothing but fantastic.
Speaker 2:Jackson Churio doesn't know what he's doing up there right now and we talked about this a while back. We said is it alarming that he's only taking four walks and he swings at everything? Yep, yep, it's alarming. Now guys are starting to pitch him low and away and getting him to chase and he's doing it, and he's doing it consistently. So is it alarming? Yes, I, we had that question a couple weeks back. We said is it alarming that the low walk rate and the low you know, the low take rate from uh jack centurion? We asked is that a problem? Yes, it is, I am, I am fully all in on. It is a problem. Yellich, I don't know what else to say at this point here. That is, I don't know what's going on. It's broke.
Speaker 2:Joey Ortiz, I really do think Joey Ortiz, at this point, right now, this very moment, right now, I love Joey Ortiz. I do. I would love to see him. I'd love to see him find a way at some point here. But at the same time, I am at this point now where, if it don't happen soon, you got to do something, I don't know what. It is right. Do you have a lot of options? I don't think so. There's nobody really down in the minors right now. Where you're, there's guys in the minors, but there's nobody.
Speaker 2:You're looking at right now at AAA Nashville and you're saying that guy's ready to go, he's ready to come up right, this very second and impact this team. They don't have that guy down in the minors right now. The guy that you thought you had was Andrew Monasterio, because he was hitting the ball really well down there and they already brought him up and well, we've seen what happened so far since bringing him up there. Outside of that, you really don't have a lot of. You have freddie zamora down there, who's been. Freddie zamora has been hitting the ball well. In triple a, I mean 299 batting average and 67 at bats. He's got 20 hits. He's been hitting the ball well. So maybe a guy, guy like Freddy Zamora, we might see him sooner. Or rather, at this point, what's it going to hurt?
Speaker 2:And I was having a good conversation the other day with my father-in-law. We were talking about the Brewers and everything like that. And I said to him I said I was talking about the transition and, you know, being ahead of it. And I said at this very moment, where I'm at with this team and where I'd be okay with is seeing some of these young guys get playing time. See some of these young guys come up, get them into the, get them on the field. And because right now, what is Joey Ortiz doing? That I don't think Freddie Zimora could do right bringing some of these guys up and just seeing what they can do. Maybe find lightning in a bottle, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But bringing them up and just trying it, because I mean, even a guy like Ernesto Martinez, the first baseman down there, the big guy, six, six, I mean he's huge for first baseman, he's got some speed on him too. Even bringing up a guy like that to play first base, wes Clark's been, uh, he's had some power. Uh, he's had some power uh in the past there in spring training and he's been hitting the ball decent down in AAA. But bringing some guys up and just seeing what they got, because at this very moment outside of a few you have holes in your lineup. And if you have guys with options, joey Ortiz, if you have an option to send him down triple A, send him down triple A, see if he can work it out and then bring him back, get some. Sometimes. Send him down to AAA, see if he can work it out and then bring him back, get some confidence. Sometimes it's confidence right now.
Speaker 2:I told you guys the other day I look at his spray charts and I'm like Joey Ortiz has no idea what he's looking for, no idea. Last season he was swinging inner half, he was looking for the inner half pitch. Now he's all over the place. His hot zones are everywhere. He doesn't know where he wants it. That's a problem and I think that's a confidence issue and Pat Murphy's been talking about it and he kind of talked about it here. He said Murphy on the Brewers slump.
Speaker 2:He said I trust the players, I like the players, I think they're good. Now, did we go and spend a lot of money in the offseason? Guys, let's call a spade a spade. No, we didn't. Are we real deep in the position player business? No, we're not. But we have good ones and we have ones that aren't getting results right now and aren't getting the best state of mind. That's exactly what he's saying. Right there you have guys who he believes in, who he thinks have potential.
Speaker 2:Problem is that he doesn't feel like they're mentally there right now, that they're not in the right state of mind and the confidence level to get it done. That's where I feel like a guy like Contreras. Like I said the other night, they're getting the team fired up by stealing that base late in the game, driving at a run, jacking up the dugout. I think that's huge. You need guys like that Sal Froelich when he hit that home run the other day, just jacking up your team and being a spark plug. That's what they need as a spark plug right now.
Speaker 2:And I mean we could go on for hours and hours on the uh not spending money in the offseason, taking a shot but not taking a shot. Right, he kind of took a shot at the front office but didn't really take a shot but at the same time did so. I kind of like pat murphy's walking if you uh, if you love your job kind of walking a tight rope, if you feel like Mark and Anasio is that kind of guy to get rid of you, if you kind of talk bad about him. But he's walking that tight rope. But he's kind of saying what everybody's thinking basically, or what everybody knows, is that they didn't go spend money in the off season. Now they're. We're seeing what the problems, we're seeing the repercussions of not spending money on bats or anybody else, and I mean you're getting guys but like 17 to 17 years too late, like eddie rosario a couple years ago. Sure, eddie rosario been great. Now it's like he's a little bit older and has struggled in the past, but he's been hitting well in his first couple games there down in nashville. So maybe, just maybe, eddie Rosario becomes a spark plug. I don't know. I don't know at this point, but there's only one way to find out.
Speaker 2:So the Brewers will continue the series with the Orioles and then we're going to see a stretch of games here. We've got the Orioles coming up, then they've got the Pirates over the weekend there. So you're playing two basement dwellers, I guess you could say, and then you're going to take on boston. You do, do you get to see? You get to see skeans on friday. So skeans versus peralta should be a good match up there. That's going to be a fun one. You're going to have boston coming up, then philly. So you got some good matchups coming up here for the brewers that they could be able to salvage some series here and get themselves back into the race.
Speaker 2:So we're going to wrap up the show here on the backside. Here We've got a little bit more. We're going to wrap up the show when we come back here. So we'll be back here after this quick commercial break on Wisconsin Sports, on the Goat Trades. Welcome back as we wrap up the show here on this Wednesday, this May 21st.
Speaker 2:I can't believe it's already the end of May. It's ridiculous. But hey, if you missed any portion of the show today. If you want to listen back, definitely do it. Definitely subscribe to us out there. Follow us, like us on Facebook, everywhere. But if you want to listen to the show, if you missed any portion of the show, you can find it tomorrow across all podcast platforms iTunes or not iTunes, apple, spotify, youtube wherever you get podcasts, you can find the show. Just search Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trades.
Speaker 2:Even if you listen to us every Wednesday, still go to the podcast platforms. Give us a follow, subscribe, like us there. The support means the world to us, so we'd love if you'd do that. You can also find us Facebook, twitter, tiktok, youtube and Twitch. Find us across all those Wisco Sports on the Go, wiscosportsonthegotrades. You can find us any fast of those things. You can find us on those. You want to email the show? Definitely do us. Let us know your questions, comments, anything like that WiscoSportsOnTheGo at gmailcom. That is WiscoS990-4914. So a great show. Thank you all for tuning in tonight here. Omar was on earlier.
Speaker 2:We talked Packers, a whole bunch of stuff going on with Packers, the Brewers. We hope to see them continue the winning ways. We're hoping to find some kind of confidence in there. That would be great. Maybe some of the vets step up and find a leadership role in that locker room and they just brewers. Just find a way, right, that's the way the model has been for the past couple years just finding a way and we hope that they can maybe break out of this and find a way at some point here to kind of blossom, right, blossom, that's what we're looking for, the spring term of blossom here at this time of year.
Speaker 2:I hope everybody yeah, if, yeah, if you have anybody out there, make sure you're getting your gardens planted. I just got my corn planted here. I got more to plant, yet I'm just behind right now. It's been a crappy week, right, crappy week, cold, but next week looks like it's going to be warm. So hopefully everybody is enjoying the weekend when it warms up a little bit and then next week there. With that, that's about all we got for today. Thank you all for tuning in. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Wednesday and the rest of your week, but until I talk to you guys again next Wednesday, see you.