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
May 28 Episode, Badger Football, Brewers Bullpen and more!
this is wisconsin sports on the go with. Trage your place for all things.
Speaker 2: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 may 28th, this wednesday here.
Speaker 2:It is almost june. Goodness, it is almost june. We are back here tonight. I hope everybody enjoyed their weekend, their memorial day weekend, here and we're back to work. We're back to work where you know. This short week, this it's. It's a weird I. I don't like short weeks. To be honest with you. I don't like short weeks. It's hard to it's hard to go back to work after a long weekend. Right, so we go back. I hope everybody's enjoying their night so far. I hope you are having a great week so far here.
Speaker 2:But tonight here on the show, we got lots coming up. We're going to talk Packers. Um, there's going to be stopped by. We're gonna talk packers. We got some news coming out about jay alexander. We want to talk about some opinions that we've been having as of later. So we're gonna talk packers. Then later on, kyle's gonna stop by. We're gonna talk nba playoffs and then, and then it's always an and then, right, brewers were past memorial day, so you know what that means. We can assess where the brewers are at, we can look at the standings and we can say this is what we see right now, that's what they tell me. That's what Kyle like. Kyle's going to come on later. He's going to tell me after Memorial Day you can assess where you're at. So we're going to assess where everybody's at right now. We're going to look at the Brewers. I want to look at the Brewers stats. I want to look across the league and say where do they stand compared to everybody else? What are we thinking? I mean, there's a lot of fans who are all over the place at the moment. So we're going to talk about it all today here on the show.
Speaker 2:So we always start out every single week, every single Wednesday, here, starting at 7. We always start with what was grinding my gears coming off the weekend. What was grinding my gears Number the weekend? What was grinding my gears Number one? I don't know why it goes in spurts. Okay, it goes in spurts for me, but it well, I shouldn't say that. It always irritates me when it happens, but these go in spurts. Spam phone calls. I don't know why, but it's like your, your phone number gets put on a call list for like a week, right, and I'm going to tell you. It's a quick story. It's a quick story.
Speaker 2:So went into a Sam's club and there was this guy and he was, you know, selling wind. I don't want to be selling windows or what he would. I don't even know some company selling windows or something, and I you know, I do this thing where, like I'm just intrigued, he had the scratch off. It's like see how much you can get off your windows. So I was like I'm bored, I'm going to scratch it off, right. So me and my wife are walking through there and I go to scratch this, this thing off, and I scratch it off, and so, oh, you get $500 off your windows, whatever. So the guy's like, oh, I just need your out to you and they'll give you an estimate. Or like they'll come look at your windows, whatever, estimate, whatever. I was like, okay, whatever. So I set it up right now, maybe I'll get an estimate.
Speaker 2:Well, then a push came to shove, we couldn't do it or whatever. We were busy and they kept wanting to come at night night, whatever. And I was like we're busy, whatever. So finally I was like, just screw it, I'm not, I don't want to get new windows right now, whatever, we're not going to do it right now. So anyways, now since then I have gotten a just boatload of phone calls from this company, from you know their representatives or whatever, and it's just day after day and call after call and it's just ridiculous. It is just absolutely ridiculous. So spam phone calls are driving there. They are just grinding my gears coming off the weekend there. So yeah, that that is. That is one of the things that was grinding my uh gears coming off the weekend.
Speaker 2:Another thing mlb umpires, and I want to get into this a little bit more here when we're talking about the mlb too. But I don't know what it is about this season here, but I have seen and it was just the other night a couple different times now with the Brewers, where you know who was it the other night I don't know if it was Logan Henderson or who it was the other night there, but they had, if you totaled it up, they had gotten like six outs in the inning because there should have been a strikeout and there should have been this and should have been that, but it wasn't called and I think there was a caught, a pickoff move or something like that. That should have been an out. There was a couple of different ones and I think Jackson trio, that nice, uh, shoestring tack or shoestring Catch there, almost a tackle catch there.
Speaker 2:So MLB umpires and I've seen it across social media, across different games that I've watched, you know, cause they have the Fox track and everything like that now. So they can, you know, see where pitches are and everything, and I'm just watching it's like, wow, it's getting bad and it's it's almost alarming because we're talking about robot umpires and that's a you know a topic of conversation. And it's like do these guys, realistically, do they want to keep their jobs? Is that? What are they aiming for here? Because watching them, it's like they're trying to lose their jobs. And I've said it before and I'll say it again I'm looking across and I'm like, okay, we judge MLB guys and we can, you know, promote or demote them down to the minor leagues.
Speaker 2:And we can promote or demote them down to the minor leagues. You're telling me that there isn't some AAA umpire or anything like that. Who's better than, I don't know, cb Buckner, or, when Angel was still around, or Joe West? Some of these guys like, is there really there isn't somebody better in AAA right now calling balls and strikes, than one of these guys? Serious, because that's bad if that's the case. So I kind of just look at it. I'm like, well, why can't you just play that kind of system where you're up and down, where you're sending guys If you stink at the big league level, if your consistency is below 90%, bye, if there's a guy down in the minors who's sitting there, sitting there and I know I can't say that I could do it, it'll be, it'd be, it'd be hard to be an mlb up.
Speaker 2:But when you get paid big bucks to do it, you gotta figure it out. And some of these, some of these strike. I mean, if you're around the zone, sure, I'm good around the zone, but when it's dead red and you miss that call or you don't call, that that's when I have a problem. Or when it's a strike one time but it's not the next, that's when I have a problem. It's not when it's oh, you know just that one time you missed one on the corner, okay, that's fine. I get like that's not the end of the world. If a guy ends the day and his ball to strike, if he missed like three calls, that's fine. Like as long as it wasn't the reason why my team lost, which shouldn't be one call, shouldn't be then I get over it.
Speaker 2:It's when it's consistent, it's when it's in big spots, it's when it's the reason why this inning lasted 45 minutes or this guy had to throw 20 more pitches. It's those times where it irritates so mlb umpires coming up the weekend there mlb umpires are just absolutely grinding my gears, just absolutely grinding my gears. I, I don't know, I I don't know what the answer is to it. I don't know what the answer is to the umpire problem. I've liked, uh, looking down into the minors right now, they have that. You know, ball strike, the. You can challenge a ball or a strike. You get one in the. You know one. I don't know what the rule. I'd have to look what the rule is completely, but I know down in the minors that they have the ability to challenge if it's a ball or strike. I like that. I like giving guys that ability.
Speaker 2:You watch guys and there's guys I mean tyler black. I know everybody is kind of stinking on him and he's been banged up this year so he hasn't really played, but he has got a very good eye and when he was down in the minors he used to challenge all the time because he was just I mean, he was darn good at it. These guys, they have that sense of the strike zone. It's just a matter of you know these umpires screwing them over at times. So I look at I'm like I, I would be okay with that.
Speaker 2:I think before you jump to, we got to have robot umps. Let's jump to that, let's get to that point where we're bringing that up to the big league level. Let's challenge balls and strikes and if that works, it works, because there are times where you know you can clearly tell that was not a strike and yet it's called a strike or that was, that was a ball and it was clearly not, it was clearly a ball. There's times that we see those and there's nothing you can do. Well, I think a quick challenge. I mean you, they have fox track, they Track, they know where the pitch. We watch it on our screens at home, right Watching on FanDuel Sports Network. There I can see if the ball was a ball or a strike because they put the box right there. You can see it on your screen. So it's not like it's going to take long for them to register and then call down and say, nope, you were wrong or yep, you were right. I really do think that they should implement that in the league, because this last I mean this last week I probably looked across social media and I could say there was probably at least 15 different posts of just terrible calls, just terrible. And, like I said, if it wasn't consistent it wouldn't be so bad, but it's consistent.
Speaker 2:Mlb umpires are struggling, reasoning there could be a lot of reasonings right Pitching, I mean, it's hard to track some of these balls that guys are throwing. Right, they have a lot of spin to them. There's lots of different reasons behind it, but if the reasons are they can't track the baseball anymore, there's too much this or whatever, then either we got to find somebody else to do it or robot umpires do need to be implemented because you can't keep track of it as of right now. Mlb umpires just need to find a way to make it work, and I think that the challenge ball and strike system maybe you give them, you know, one in any where they can use it. If you win, you get to keep your challenge. If you, you know you guess wrong, well, you get to lose your challenge. Do something like that. If that works, great. If it doesn't, well, that just happens works great. If it doesn't. Well, that just happens and you know, you guys know that I always shoot on.
Speaker 2:You know, day before right. I always shoot day before uh, the wednesday, a wednesday there. So it's always tuesday when I'm shooting the show and everything like that. But sal frelick, I just watched him gun out mayor at third base. He's got a gun. Sal frelick has got a gun. I don't know what's with the south for eight, and we talked about this last week but son of a gun, sal frel has got a gun. I don't know what's with the Sal Frelick hate and we talked about this last week but son of a gun, sal Frelick got a gun. I just watched him toss a mayor there at third base. That was just a dart, that was just an absolute dart. So that was awesome to see there.
Speaker 2:You know it's so hard it is. It's so hard when there's something going like whenever I shoot the show and everything like that, I'm always watching the Brewers or I'm watching you know there used to be when the Badgers were on or whatever I'd be watching them or I'd be watching back, whatever's on. Well, I'm shooting the show, right, and it's so hard when something good or bad happens to not say anything, right, because you're just sitting there and you're just like, oh, you just watched, it could be. You know, the Badgersgers. I remember uh, I can't remember who hit up what big shot it was, but I was shooting the show at that time and it takes so much to not just yell, right, because I'm I'm that guy when I watch sports I get into the game, right, I'm that kind of guy. I get into the game a little bit, I hoot, I, I holler, everything like that. So to not say anything like after Sal, for watching Sal just gun him out at third base and just the absolute dart that he threw, and not to say like, yeah, you know, get pumped up, and just to keep it going, the conversation with whatever I was talking about, that was it was hard to do. I'm going gonna be honest with you, it was hard to do Like that was a heck of a throw. That was a heck of a throw by Sal Froelich there.
Speaker 2:So, hey, we got armor coming up next year. We're going to talk Packers here, then later on Kyle's going to stop by. We're going to talk NBA playoffs, then I'm going to talk some. Make sure you're coming back. Two hours of Wisconsin sports talk is just getting underway here. Make sure you're coming back. Wisconsin sports on the go with Trage is just getting started here. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in to Wisconsin sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage coming back on this Wednesday.
Speaker 2:And hey, this next segment of the show here with Ummer is brought to you by Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. They're expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming. Call Flexible Scheduling and Evaluations Just call 715-267-4583. Call Chad down there at Sport and Spine Clinic. Don't trust anyone else to get you right than Chad down there at Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. So we went to the break. We talked about what was grinding my gears coming off the weekend and there's always a lot grinding my gears coming off the weekend. But I got Umber with me now, so we're going to try to dial it back, calm down a little bit, relax right, get a little more fluid with it here. So, umber, how we doing, how we doing. It's Wednesday, we're back, hopefully a nice week where you're at. I mean, so far here, how's it going so far?
Speaker 1:So far good. Man, holiday weekend was really nice and then you know, the rest of the week so far has been going too bad and just a lot of stuff coming out of the Packer 1265 and the beat and we're looking forward to talking about it.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't know. Is it the same for you? The short week is almost worse.
Speaker 1:Yes, Short week is almost worse.
Speaker 2:Yes, coming back on the Tuesday absolutely sucks. I'd rather come back on Monday. Honestly, I'd rather come back on Monday.
Speaker 1:I think Tuesday was completely thrown off so I kept thinking it was Monday. And then meetings I have on Tuesday snuck up on me and I'm like, oh crap, it actually is Tuesday. So it's like what the heck? So I completely agree with that. It was great to have the Monday off off, but it definitely throws off the rest of the week.
Speaker 2:No, they should. Just when you have a day off, you should have a week off. They should just give you just a whole week. Like I am. I'm gonna tell you this now I'm gonna be unproductive from tuesday to thursday and I'm not working friday. Done with it. Done with it, I'm working my tens. Be done with the week.
Speaker 2:So it's like why do you really want me here? If I'm not to be productive, just pay me for the week and I'll stay home. It's going to be the same thing. It's going to be the same thing, exactly. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying there.
Speaker 2:So we got lots we want to get into tonight. Here we're talking, we want to talk Packers here, of course, with Ummer on the show, and the big thing that we saw was Schne. But Schneidman came out and he told us the Packers have offered Jair Alexander a restructured contract. So basically, I said, hey, we're going to restructure this thing, try to help us, try to help you, try to help the team. And no resolution. There was really nothing that was like, yeah, let's do it. You know, nobody was jumping, nobody was chomping at the bit for that one there, nobody was chomping at the bed for that one there.
Speaker 2:But he still plans to attend mandatory minicamp, which is, like the opposite of every other person in a contract dispute in the world, absolutely different than all of them. Because if you were to ask, look at Trey Henderson right now, he ain't showing up to practice unless they give him a new contract. All these guys, it's like, oh well, you're not going to give me a new contract. I'm actually jamar chase just last year. You're not going to give me a new contract. I'm not going to show up and it's, it's all these guys. But jay here's like I'm still going to show up. I'm going to show up to make your mini camp. I gotta be honest with you. I kind of like that. Yeah, that tells me this guy just wants to play. He wants to play for the green bay packers. He doesn't care what his contract's telling him right now he wants. He's basically saying we're gonna figure this out.
Speaker 2:And I imagine this is what he's saying we're gonna figure this out, but for now I got practice to get to. I got stuff I gotta do because right now we have to get better as a team before this season starts, before we get into the summer, before we get in the fall, before it's go time. I have to be with with Xavier McKinney, the rest of these guys Get ready to go, get fluid with the cornerback room, feel good, get with Halfley, everything like that, and not be a nuisance, right. I think that takes a lot of what we saw from Jair, where it seemed like he was almost like I don't want to say a child, but almost like a child, right, you know all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:This kind of takes that and puts it on a back burner for me, because it's like this is a grown man's conversation now. He's like I want to do what's best for the team first, then I'll worry about me, then I'll worry about this thing. I like that. So, omar, how are we feeling about that? How are you feeling about the restructured contract that we're hearing about now and about the whole Jair Alexander? I know people have exhausted it, I get it, but it's, you know, breaking news. We got to talk about it.
Speaker 1:I think if that's the biggest story that we have coming out of 1265, then I'm not complaining. We've had other off seasons where so many other bigger stories have hit, and so for me it seems there's a lot of mutual agreement between the Packers and Jair that they both want each other to make this work and they're going to try to find a way to make it work. I think, truthfully, if it was truly done and Jair was going to get cut and it was going to be all she wrote, then I think they would have already done it. I think they would have just said we're going to bite the bullet, we're going to cut him, we're going to make it a post-war cut, call it a day day. But Packers know that they've invested a lot in him. They know that he, when he's available, when he's healthy, he is one of the top tier corners in the league and Jair knows that if he has to go somewhere else he's not going to get paid what he's getting paid right now. Right, and on top of that he's gonna have to learn a new scheme, a new system. Yeah, he could try to go to a team that he thinks he could fit in quickly, but fact the fact is, he likes Halfley, he likes Ansley. I mean, ansley is talking to him every day, either texting him motivational or spiritual biblical quotes, and I think, with that engagement to include LaFleur talking to him as well too, I think that this is going to come to a positive result when I know, two months ago or a month month ago, a lot of stuff was being pushed out about he's done, it's not going to happen. It's probably not going to happen.
Speaker 1:I think beat writers were just doing the best they could based on information that's available to them.
Speaker 1:And if you, if people want to go check it out, uh, aaron nagler interviewed matt steinman on cheese at tv today um, check it out.
Speaker 1:I know promoting them, but the truth is they he breaks it down he talks about when he does report things, when they all report things, there's things are on the record, there's things are off the record and there's stuff that's background information. And where that happens, I think, where people will take some stuff and the writers will take the background information, validate it and then push forward, but they want to put a name on it because they were told not to, and that's what we've been getting a lot of. And now, even right now, with the stuff that came out, steinman even was saying like yeah, like I'm not gonna put a name on it, but I had the source was pretty open with me giving this information out. So I think that, as I've been saying since day one that I want Jair back and I'm hoping that it happens, I've never been the one to see him go and I want to retire in Green Bay. I don't care what it takes, just make it happen.
Speaker 2:I think you said, the perfect thing there is that if it was going to happen, it already would have. I think. So why would you be wasting your time? Because now everybody Xavier McKinney, jeff Halfley, all these guys are you don't want them to have to. Oh, we're half planning for him, but we're also half planning not for him.
Speaker 2:You don't want to put your team through that. It's like when you have that, you know, is Jordan Love starting this week, or is it Malik Willis? Right, you had defensive coordinators that are like, well, if this guy's starting, we have to plan for this, but if this guy's starting, we got to plan for this, and we kind of had that last team trying to figure it out, because you want to have all that figured out. Now you have guys, cornerbacks, secondary guys in that room where you're there on the verge of maybe getting cut, and now you have to. You have to evaluate that talent. You have all those guys. I mean Kalen King, some of these other guys, the undrafted free agents. You don't want to be sitting there and like, well, if Jair's here, I don't need you, but if he's not here, I need you. Okay, well, you can't have that. You need to have a fluid room right now, because this is where you got to figure everything out. And then you get into summer, you get into fall and it's got to be figured out before you even get into the summer.
Speaker 2:That's my opinion. Like you got to have something at least figured out there if Jair is going to be here or if he's not going to be here. So again I mean him showing up to mandatory minicamps. I think that's huge. Yeah, that doesn't show me a disgruntled player. That doesn't show me an upset guy. That shows me a guy who's like we got to figure this out. We're going to I understand what you guys want. You guys have to understand what I want and let's just go get this thing going. And that's where he's at. So I like where the packers and jair are at. Let's just see if the two sides can get together and make this thing happen. Right, it takes. It takes two to tango. That's what we're going to see here, and we'll see if Jair gets signed up here pretty darn soon. We're hoping for it, but I had.
Speaker 2:Well, let's go with this one. Is there anybody outside? So my guy needs to prove it this year, right? You know, everybody has those guys that need to prove it. Lucas Van Ness is my guy, okay, and I keep seeing stuff all over social media about the Packers pass rush and everything like that. This is a guy who is a first-round pick. Yeah, we burned a first-round pick on him. Maybe we should have went and got somebody else. We did it. We got Lucas Van Ness. Now's the time we brought a new defensive line coach. We can't keep the excuses coming. There's no more excuses, unless if you want to fire Matt LaFleur. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you brought in Halfley.
Speaker 2:You brought in Halfley, you brought in Covington. It's like what now? Who are you going to blame? Now we can't blame anybody else except for Matt LaFleur, except for Gutekins. Who are we going to blame next? We got to stop playing the blame game and just say that this is the honest truth. So with me, lucas Van Ness has to step up. He has to give me I mean production-wise double of what he's been, because basically non-fact and I know he had an injury and he had this. Okay, even when he's not injured, I don't see him as a threat and nobody does. That's the problem. No, I guarantee, if we went out there and we interviewed offensive coordinators or offensive linemen, they would not say Lucas Van Ness. When I look at the Packers, lucas Van Ness scares me.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Maybe Rashawn Gary, but when Rashawn Gary's your only threat, I can stick two guys on him and Lucas Van Ness ain't getting through one-on-one. There we go, I'm good, and that's what we saw. So Lucas Van Ness needs to take that next step because, as of right now, the Green Bay Packers have not answered the question of what are we going to do in that pass rush rule. They haven't done anything with it. They brought in a couple of young guys who are not developed yet. They guys who are not developed yet. They might be, I think, sorrow might be. So I think those guys might be something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I don't know if they're that guy yet and we can't expect them to just all of a sudden step in there as a fourth, fifth, whatever round pick and just be the guy right off the bat. If we have I mean if warren brinson comes in there, the sixth round pick out of georgia and you're expecting him to fit in, maybe, like that'd be awesome, don't get me wrong, it'd be awesome to see him step in there, but if we're hoping for that, or I mean good against his, he's got to put down the crack pipe over there. He's got to put down that pipe and give it back. I don't know what just he's got it. I mean, is there anybody else? I I said, van, is there anybody else where you're looking at and you're like this guy needs to prove it here. Is there anybody else on your short list right now?
Speaker 1:To piggyback off what you said too. Like, trey Henderson is still out there so they can make a move right there. And yeah, colin, oliver and Soro are great, but they're rookies, so you don't know what you're going to get. I'm with you. I think Lucas Van Ness is a really big one. I think two guys that I had I'm going to were rookies last year and they both ended up on ir last year, and that is jordan morgan as well as, uh, marshall lloyd, I feel like, both of them being a first and third round picks. Uh, there's a lot of good stuff coming out of, like, just you know, the otas and things like that. Like lloyd looks great. He stayed in green bay all off season. He rehabbed, he's been staying in the playbook, he's been trying to take his game to the next level. And then, of course, Jordan Morgan, first-round pick.
Speaker 1:Again, we're really kind of focusing on the former two first-round picks here that were drafted in the first round and have not really lived up to the hype. I feel like Lucas Van Ness has had more time because he's been healthier to play, and then, of course, morgan being hurt, so he didn't really get a fair shot last year. But the truth is, for this team to get to the next step, we need to get some production. We need to figure out what we're going to do with Rasheed Walker. We've got to figure out if Elton Jenkins is going to either get a contract adjustment to where he'll get his money so that he doesn't feel like he's getting shorted as a center, and then, if not, do we move tom inside? And then now we got morgan on right tackle so many different things there. And then in the backfield, jacobs josh jacobs is.
Speaker 1:They're saying that he looks better now than he did this time last year, which is pretty incredible, but the man has had an untold number of carries. When he was in alabama he was in Raiders and now, when he's with us, not just carries but just touches in general. And I feel like you need to have running backs behind him that can take the load. As you know, as my man, samwise Games, he said, you know, carry the load right. We need someone else to help with that and I think we got a lot of players that are behind him who have potential. Chris Brooks is lot of players that are behind him who have potential, and chris brooks is great.
Speaker 1:I like emmanuel wilson senior. I think lloyd is right. Lloyd has that talent to be actually a pretty good running back in the league. He proved it when he was usc, he proved it when he was in south carolina. I feel like the problem is the injuries right the hamstring and then the knee and the ankle, and he also got sick as well too. Uh, I just think that those two guys, morgan and lloyd, are my two that I want to see really take it to the next step, and of course it's their second year. So it's not fair to, like you know, expect some monumental like jump, but something to where you can say all right, those picks now make sense as the year progresses yeah, because I mean, and even like a guy like marshall lloyd, you got to make a decision in the backfield.
Speaker 2:Chris Brooks. Daniel you have to pick a guy. If we're going to keep Lloyd around, one of these other guys has got to go.
Speaker 1:Who's going yeah?
Speaker 2:Who's going to the practice squad? Who's going, maybe, to the practice squad? Who's potentially leaving? I mean, you have all those questions that you have to answer.
Speaker 1:So it's like like these guys have to prove it to you in this season here and you know I was thinking of another one while you were talking.
Speaker 2:They're guys in their first round picks. Right quay walker davante wyatt oh yeah you, you.
Speaker 1:On that k1 I mean, I was like I I get it, though, I get it, I get it yeah, quay is like one day this, the next day this one play this, the next play this
Speaker 2:He has to find a way to get off blocks consistently, because sometimes he's just basically there In the open field. He's great, he's a great pass coverage. But if I wanted a guy to get at the quarterback, sometimes he's not my guy because you can block him by stonewalling him and just standing there because he doesn't know how to get off it.
Speaker 2:It's a problem, he just plays often you get a place like he hits. He hits the wrong gap and again, like he blows past the play, he just blows back. I mean, you see him get through and it's like the play is going to the right and he's blowing through the hole on the other side and it's like, okay, you read it, but you read it wrong look, and I'm a quay guy too.
Speaker 1:I love quay, like I. I loved my georgia and I think there's a lot of untapped potential even now. Um, but there is something to be said about Edwin Cooper going from 228 pounds to 240 pounds in the last year. Does that mean his role is going to change? Are they going to put him more of a pass rusher? Are they going to put him more as the Mike linebacker?
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 1:But I do agree that another first-round pick I mean, if you do think about it and we've talked about this in the past there are so many first round picks by goody I think gyre is probably the only one that's actually lived up to the hype and in jordan, um, but there's a lot of first round picks for you. Just like, wait a minute, like are we? You know, I'm telling you, he has that john snyder bug going on right now where snyder was just striking out after striking after striking on on first-round picks until he started hitting them recently. And I'm just like yo, like Goody needs to really kind of figure out what he wants to.
Speaker 1:You know not figure it out, but it's like his track record is first-round pick, decent player to good player. But normally when we get a first-round pick, you want him to be a good to elite player. So that's the problem that I'm kind of seeing right now.
Speaker 2:So that's the problem that we're kind of seeing right now. And you know, devontae Wyatt, for me it's like you just brought in Stackhouse as that undrafted free agent. You also got Warren Brinson there in that defensive tackle room. You lost Slayton, but you got other guys up the middle. It's like, oh, it was a good trade right there. I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a good like switch off right. So Brinson and Stack in the back house. Right for Slayton, I liked it. But you're right though, wyatt, 24-year-old prospect coming in and again injuries have been a problem. Not really up to the height, size, speed freak, but hasn't like he had his moments. But I'm with you, like first-round pick you're expecting more and they picked up his option.
Speaker 2:I mean, they picked up his option but they didn't look for the extension. So he's kind of in the prove-it year right now. This is his prove-it year or it's not going to happen. So I mean we'll see. We'll see what happens there. But I'd love to hear your guises. Who needs to prove it here for the Green Bay Packers this season? Here, text us 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. You can text us. You can text us. Let us know who you think needs to step up and is in kind of a prove-it year for the Green Bay Packers coming up this next season. But I also have a question. If you want to answer that question, make sure you're doing it. Like I said, 715-990-4914. We're going to answer this question when we come back for the break. Do you think a pass rusher or wide receiver could, a bona fide one, could be the difference between the packers and a play, a good playoff spot? Could it be the difference between a three or four or five? Could it be that difference for the greenback packers coming up this next season? We'll answer that question.
Speaker 2:We come back here. We'll be right back here on wisconsin sports. On the go with trach. Welcome back to wisconsin sports on the go with trach. I'm your host. Trage, we're coming back on this Wednesday.
Speaker 2:And hey, this next segment of the show here 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, trage sent you Get 5% off. It's. Tell them, trade sent you Get 5% off. That's all you need. Landscaping, everything in between Grills, traggers they got traggers. They got, I mean, pellets. They got sauces. They got spices. Oh my goodness, they got it all down there at Foreman. So make sure you're checking them out in Loyal Colby or Medford, wisconsin, there. Tell them, trade sent you Get 5%.
Speaker 2:And we were talking about the Packers. We discussed guys that need to prove it, guys that need to prove it for us this next season. We talked about Lucas Van Ness. We talked about Devontae Wyatt. We talked about Marshawn Lloyd and Jordan Morgan. There we had all kinds of different opinions on different guys and that's okay and we hope you guys text in 715-990-4914. We'd love to see who you guys think need to prove it this next year.
Speaker 2:But we had a question going to the break and I said do you think the packers, lacking a bona fide wide receiver or edge rusher, will lose the packers a playoff spot? So going from a three to a four, going from a five to a six, whatever it is, could, lacking a bona fide guy, put them down? And my answer to that question is yes, but not the wide receiver. Because I've, truthfully, if you get rid of the drops right, if you get rid of the drops for jayden reid, don tavian wicks those guys you get rid of the drops, packers are fine. Yep, you can get by with a bunch of dudes. Yeah, like you need that dude. Sometimes, right In the red zone, you need to find a dude.
Speaker 2:You need that guy to step up. I think Romeo Dobbs could be that dude. We saw it a couple different times, like you had mentioned last week there, when Love was in trouble or they were in trouble or they needed a short yardage play, maybe a little slant row. Whatever, rome was the guy. It was like he's got the surest hands, he's going to haul this thing in. So maybe you need that red zone guy. But all in all, I think they have the weapons to do what they need to do. They have the weapons to get themselves there. It's just who steps up in the red zone. I think they underutilize the guy like Tucker Kraft, so I think they have guys who can contribute in that red zone.
Speaker 2:When I look at the edge rusher, though, I look at what do? What can opposing quarterbacks do against the greenback packers? Anything they want. They can stand back there for 20 minutes, bake a cake and then possibly even think about throwing the football at some point. Not really, but you get what I'm saying. They got a lot of time when they have enough time to go read one, read two, read three, read four, go all the way back through their progression one more time and then say who wants it boys and then chuck it out. There we took too long and it seemed like at times quarterbacks had enough time to get through their reads twice.
Speaker 2:Really did sam darnold, and this is where, like we were just talking about before during the break, we said you know, pff, sometimes it's got some skew to it. I don't agree with the pressures that pff gives, because for me a pressure is guy steps up, he runs around, he's got to evade. He's got to evade a sack, he's got to run around. He's got to step out of the pocket. He's got to go to the right. He's got to go left. He's got to step out of the pocket. He's got to go to the right. He's got to go left. He's got to go through Whatever. I don't count a pressure, as Sam Darnold had to step up an inch and make a throw, but BFF does, so I guess my grading of a pressure doesn't count, but I think an edge rusher like a Ray Hendrickson or somebody like that is 100% the difference between and I said it last week and I'll say it again one to two wins.
Speaker 2:One to two wins on the schedule, because when you can put a consistent pass rush together, it limits what an opposing team is able to do, whether it's the run game, whether it's the pass game. When you can just open up the playbook we know this as Packer fans when we were able to just open up the playbook it'd get crazy and defenses don't know what to do because they throw a package to try to stop the run you're passing. They throw a package in there to try and stop the pass you give it to josh jacobs, go straight ahead. You. You have to have that consistency where you can bring four and drop seven. That's what the eagles were able to do. The steelers are able to do it. I mean there's teams out there, different teams, that are able to do it. 49ers in the past, where they were banged up last year, that front side, they weren't as good, but they've had that ability. The Packers didn't. They had to bring six, they had to bring seven. You can't bring six all the time because then you're only dropping five. And when you have a subpar secondary, you're gonna get beat right, it's a problem.
Speaker 2:So I would say, if it's an if, for me the edge rush would be the reason why the Packers lose a playoff spot. One or two spots for me, because I think it's the difference between one or two wins. I really do. I think it's one or two wins that a guy like trey hendrickson can just bring in there because he's a difference maker, and a difference maker on the defense is a difference in all facets. So, omar, what do you think is? Would you say a wide receiver would be a reason why the packers could lose playoff spots? I mean, probably right, but would you say it's an edge rusher? Where do you think? Where are you sitting with that?
Speaker 1:I mean, I always like think back about previous teams, right, like you look at like the Eagles, they had, like, technically, two bona fide number one receivers, right. Then you go back farther and you look at when Randy Moss, with the Patriots, almost had a perfect season and they lose in the Super Bowl. I remember the Packers multiple seasons. We had Devante, we had hell, we had Greg Jennings, we had Jordy. We did get it done with Greg and Jordy in 2010, but after that we've had pretty much a WR1 and hasn't worked.
Speaker 1:I agree with you, I think, because the drops being a big issue, the offense didn't look as good as it could have been and with Matthew Golden coming there, I feel like the barbecue is not going to be the problem. I think we'll be able to get by with just what the way things are and maybe we'll get some jumps from the defensive line based on Covington as the coach. But I do agree that it could be the pass rush could be the issue, primarily because you know roshan gary, after the injury, hasn't been. He's been good, but not been as great as he was before he got hurt. We don't know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1:Lucas van ness uh. We don't know about the rookies, uh, and also the guys. You know, jj, ingmar and other guys that are there. You know we're still, you know we, we know we're getting with them and it's not always pretty. It it's OK, it's mediocre at best. And I feel like this is one of those things where your defensive coach and your scheme can really hide a lot of things. And if we don't make a trade for Hendrickson which I would love for them to do some way, somehow, some way, they're going to really need to try and manufacture blitzes and pressures. And, like you said, the word pressure is so volatile because the fact that to some people, like you said, a player steps up in the pocket, steps out of the pocket, that's a pressure. Or if another player decides to, but then other metrics will say you know, getting within so many feet of the quarterback is a pressure.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So, at the day from, and both halfley and I haven't seen what covington sounds, but halfley said that, uh, their job as a defense is to make the pat, the quarterback, as uncomfortable as possible. So my question is okay, well, how do you plan on doing that with bringing back the same guys you had last year? Um, and that's where we're gonna have to wait and see what the coaching staff has up their sleeves for this, because, you're right, those could be issues that could cause us to get knocked out again. I'm somewhat of a perennial optimistic person, so I kind of feel like they're just going to find a way to make it work.
Speaker 1:I don't know how, I don't know the way, but you know what? Maybe let's outscore everybody who knows right, everybody who knows right, and the defense will just have to do just enough, just keep people out, just keep the score just below enough for us to win. But I'm with you, like it's. It's definitely a lot of questions when I think more on the defensive side than on the offense, because in a floor, I trust and he has found a way. I mean, those guys that had bad seasons not bad, but had a regression last year in wicks and reed were pretty darn good, their rookie season right, and so maybe we can see that same type of production by Golden to include Reed and Wicks taking that third-year jump.
Speaker 2:You know, and the thing with it was you were just mentioning there was the defense. It's basically the same defense. Coming back, right and it was almost. I always said it last year. It was like a bend but don't break defense. They bent but they wouldn't break, and then, when they did, the floodgates opened it was disastrous all at once.
Speaker 2:you just you look at this year and, like you said, what's the difference? Right, how? How are you going to make quarterbacks uncomfortable this year when you couldn't do it last year? Now, is that maybe implementing, like you said? I mean comington coming in, he's talking more like4. He's talking some differences in there. Maybe that's what we see where they're going to implement. Even a guy you know we're talking about a rookie there but Colin Oliver, they're talking about him being more of just a pass rush specialist. Maybe they deploy him in that 3-4 set there and all his job is to get downhill.
Speaker 2:But it's all the guys we talked about need to prove it this year. That's the thing. It's the Lucas Van Ness, it's Devontae Wyatt, it's the Quay Walkers. It's all those guys that need to prove it. Because when Quay's playing well, when Devontae's playing well, when we have a guy like Lucas Van Ness playing well, it makes Halfley's job easier. It makes Rashawn Gary I know Rashawn Gary got a crap load of hate and maybe I was one of the people giving him the hates at times, but he was also being double teamed. He was also squashed because, guess what, when you don't have anything else coming, kenny Clark is a non-factor. You want to talk about another guy who's going to step it up. Kenny Clark, he's a waste of a contract right now, as nice as way I could possibly say it. He's a waste of a big contract right now. That was a contract where, when you signed it, you were like this guy is going to be a huge asset and it just went downhill fast now.
Speaker 2:Does that change, hopefully? Yeah hopefully it does so we'll wait and see on that one there. But yeah, I love it, I. I love it there. So yeah, like I said before, if you guys have any opinions to prove it, who needs to prove it for you? Who needs if it's going to be a pass rusher, wide receiver what you guys think make sure you're texting in 715-990-4914 text in the show. Let us know what you're thinking. But I had a question for you. This goes more wide spectrum yeah flag football.
Speaker 2:We're all excited for flag football in the olympics.
Speaker 2:Well, the national team is not as excited yeah because they played all year long and I can I get. I don't want to say I can see it, because I'm like I want the best guys out there, but at the same time I'm like I can see what they're saying. So the national team believes they should have a shot to play in the olympics. Yeah, and I think they're right. I, I think they should. I I said it and kyle and I were talking about last week. I want to see what you thought about this whole situation. But I said they should have a qualifying games. You pick your team, we'll pick our team.
Speaker 2:We'll go play out in los angeles yeah and well, maybe we do a best of three series. I don't know. Whatever the winner gets to go to the olympics, yeah, loser, sorry you, I don't know what to tell you, and that's it. That's what I want to see. I mean, give them a chance, give them a qualifying game, whatever it is, and let them have that opportunity. And maybe you're like, oh well, we don't have enough of this position, mix and match, I don't care, make something happen with it, because you should. You got to put the best players out there. You're an Olympic team, you have to put the best players out there. Now, if I'm a professional flag football player, which I don't know what I didn't really know that was a thing until I found out about it.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, yeah, I mean, I guess there's a thing.
Speaker 2:So I mean, if you're a professional flag football player, you're like well, I want to go, you know, support my country and you know, represent my country in the olympics and everything like that. Why can't I? Just because lamar jackson wants to play, why can't I go play what I've been doing? He plays tackle football, I play flag, I don't know. Anyways, they all play flag football. When it comes to the pro ball, so albert, what are you thinking should how?
Speaker 2:how would you do it? How would you do it? Do you think it's as big of a deal as what these national flag football people are making it, or what? What is your opinion on this whole thing?
Speaker 1:I mean I I agree with them to a degree where it's like you know, you guys been doing this all year. You've been this, which, this, what you guys are known for is flag football, right, and you should be given every opportunity. I think basically anybody should be given any opportunity, every opportunity to compete for the united states, for an olympic team to be in a flag football. I don't think it should just be nfl players, I don't think it should just be acclaimed national players either. I think just you know, open it up to tryouts, like you just said, like there's a lot of flag football teams that are around the nation to include there's a lot of like former high school college football players that probably would be awesome at flag football. I think, like you, just want the best of the best to get into there, represent us and to win right. And also, if you look at it from like a monetary perspective, I think nfo owners are going to have a problem with their players going out and these multi-million dollar players they've invested into going out and playing flag football and, heaven forbid, they get injured.
Speaker 1:I still remember back in the day they were at the Pro Bowl and there was an event where Robert Smith, running back for the Minnesota Vikings, was playing volleyball and this was like his second year, his rookie year, or his second year where he made the Pro Bowl. He just looked like he was going to be the next best thing Playing volleyball tears both his ACLs, the pro bowl. He just looked like he was going to be the next best thing playing volleyball tears both his acls and then never was the same again. This is back like early 2000s or mid 2000s where that player never he never you know acls injuries were. They were pretty bad back then, right, and he never got back to form and it was it.
Speaker 1:I think that you are putting these guys out and more likely they're playing on turf, they're not playing on grass and are you really gonna risk your number one receiver or number one quarterback or running back going out there playing flag football and getting hurt, like if they get hurt playing regular football I don't mean regular football, but they get hurt playing, you know, tackle football. Okay, fine, cool, like that's, that's the name of the game, but they're out there trying to, you know, play olympics and that something happens.
Speaker 2:I don't know how much these owners are going to really appreciate that you almost have you, you almost have to put something in their contract yeah, if you get hurt doing this, sorry it's on you yeah it's in the nicest way possible, sorry, like that's just how it is, and I I agree there. I mean there's, like you just mentioned that one instance there, but there's probably, I mean, a boatload more of instances where guys were just out doing something that they shouldn't have been doing and or not shouldn't have, but doing something that wasn't their normal. Yeah, and it just it happens and it sucks, it really does.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's a play at your own risk, I guess at that point there. So I mean we'll see. We'll see what kind of happens there with the nfl, with the owners. I mean, as so as of right now, the owners are like, let's do it, yeah, and they're good with it. So they voted on it, they're all good with it, so they're gonna allow it. So we'll see what happens with these players and who wants to participate, who doesn't, everything like that. Like that, I think a majority of players will be in. I really do. I think a majority of players will be excited for it, because it's like basketball has been represented for years. You've had the ability to have baseball represented. Now it's like okay, now the football players get a chance to be represented for their country and for America there. So that's awesome. I really like it. It's just like you said. The risk is there the turf fields, the questionable fields, everything. The thing with it is and I think it's going to help is it's in america, it's in los angeles.
Speaker 2:So I think that's going to help, because then a lot of these owners, or the guys who you know finance these players, are going to be like okay, this is what the field's got to be like, this is what this got to be like, you know and so they're going to have some, some control and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So I think that's going to be a a big thing there. But I did have a question for you. So we were talking, I was listening to the morning show and they were talking about jalen hurts and they said that he was the fourth best quarterback in football. Okay, and I I was like, uh, okay, okay, I want to hear who they got to say. And they were mentioning and they said you know, you're, you're common guys Lamar Jackson right, he's above them. Patrick Mahomes he's above them. Josh Allen three that they put above jalen hurts.
Speaker 2:I, I I'm gonna sound like such a hater right now and everybody, all the eagles fans out there, are gonna say well, this is because we didn't let you ban the tush push. That's why they're gonna say it's because I'm gonna do it I'm gonna.
Speaker 2:I hate to break this one to you kids. I hate to break this one to your kids. I agree with everybody who says that jalen hurts is the product of a great system. Okay, I agree with everybody who says that, yeah, because if you can realistically and the only one who can is can't eat, chris can't eat on the radio there because he loves, he hates joe burrow. I don't know why, but he hates joe burrow if you can realistically look at yourself and tell yourself that jalen Hurts is better than Joe Burrow, I can't do that.
Speaker 2:Not even no chance.
Speaker 1:That's why you're being a hater.
Speaker 2:Like I just or.
Speaker 1:I'm a fanboy for Joe Burrow because of my LSU fandom, but still even.
Speaker 2:Joe Burrow might be. Joe Burrow is there with Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and all them guys. It's just he had no defense. He was carrying the bangles with no defense, so Joe Burrow's above him there. I mean I would you look down the list of guys? It's like who would you take ahead of him? Who would you take ahead of Jalen Hurts?
Speaker 1:I mean honestly, like you're right, like the guys you mentioned were right on there, uh, mahomes, lamar, josh Allen are top three for sure. Right they're. They're probably 1A, 1b, 1c. And then you have, I would say, joe Burrow. Honestly, I think it might be a toss-up between Jaden Daniels and Jalen Hurts, and I know Jaden Daniels is second, he's a first-year guy, he just played one year. But for him to do what he did with the team that he had and to be a rookie to play that well, I have to admit that's pretty damn good because, like we were just saying previously, the eagles have a very, very stacked team. They have saquon barkley in the backfield, they have probably the best offensive line in the nfl to include two wr1s, and dallas goddard is probably a top 10 tight end. And you're telling me like that's not like the best situation that a quarterback can be in to be successful. Now, that's not taking anything away from Jalen Hurts, but just saying that he does have a very good setup around him.
Speaker 1:Now you look at these other guys like, but you're Jalen Daniels. I mean Jalen Daniels' offensive line was garbage. Running game was not that great. He had Terry McLaurin, but in that the wide receivers are okay and then you have a really aging. You know zach hurts and then to include that you know beth's not who's still coming up, I'm sorry, like, no way, like I just think that I would definitely. I would say jalen hurts is the top 10 quarterback. No doubt I, hands definitely would say that I just still feel like I'm taking this. A couple guys I'll still take ahead of him he fluctuates around in that top 10 for me, yeah, he does
Speaker 1:because it's like a week by week yeah, that's another thing too, because, like you know he'll, he can do a game where he throws for 100 yards, one touchdown he runs into and they win primarily because saquon runs for another 250 yards or something crazy right, and their defense is literally all. Almost everybody on that defense made the pro bowl, which is, you know, I don't not big on that, but there's a lot of all pros on that defense and rookie of the year, things like that. I'm just saying like there, there's no, there, that team is not like some. I feel like it's an unrealistic team to compare because of the fact that they do have town up and down that roster.
Speaker 2:No, I would agree, and it's just so hard. And no, I'm not putting Justin Herbert ahead of him. Justin Herbert has got to do something.
Speaker 1:Herbert hasn't done anything man, he hasn't proven anything to me. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:He was overrated.
Speaker 1:He's overrated. He gets so much hype and then every excuse in the book is made for him and all the things we saw at Oregon keep coming out. And my thing is you know you're in a team now where it's more run-based and you're still not gained and done. I don't know what else to tell you Exactly no, 100% agree, 100% agree.
Speaker 2:He's got to prove it to me before he's going to be anywhere on a list with top quarterbacks in football there. So, Auburn, thank always for stopping by here on the show. Let the people know where to find you. Let them know where to find you out there.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you, brother. Man, Thank you for having me again. As always, you guys find me at a on Twitter as a AMAR three, four, five, five. You can find me on a weekly show with Trey on coast to coast Packers, on game, on Wisconsin. We should probably going to do an episode tonight. If not, we're going to do one tomorrow. Find me on all the social media stuff. If you guys need anything at all, just give me a shout. We can talk Packers, talk whatever.
Speaker 2:He's always down to talk Packers. He's down to talk anything you want with you. You guys got to follow him for his landscaping tips. He's always got his landscaping tips on Twitter.
Speaker 2:Auburn. Thank you. As always, we'll be right back here. We're going to wrap up the hour and then we're going to come back here. We've got Kyle coming on later. We're going to talk NBA playoffs. We've got Brewers to talk about. We've got all kinds of stuff to get into tonight here. So make sure you are coming back here on Wisconsin Sports Time to Go with Trage. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break. Hey, if you missed any portion of that, first hour there with, ummer came out. We were talking Packers. I had my little ramble at the top of the hour talking about what was grinding my gears coming off the weekend there. If you missed any of it, make sure you're checking us out tomorrow, next day.
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Speaker 2:So, great stuff with Ummer there talking about the Packers 914. So great stuff with ummer there talking about the packers. I want to talk a little bit of badgers here. We got some nba talk coming up today. Here we got brewer talk coming up later. We got all kinds of stuff. Kyle's gonna be joining us in the second hour of the show. You're coming up, so make sure you are coming back. We are going to be right back here after this quick commercial break. We're going to talk. If kyle's here, we're going to talk, uh, nba playoffs. If he's not, we're going to talk NBA playoffs. If he's not, we're going to talk Brewers and Badgers we're going to talk about when we come back. We got something good coming up for you, so make sure you're coming back here on the backside of this quick commercial break.
Speaker 2:Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage coming back for the second hour on this Wednesday May 28th here. And hey, this next segment. Kyle is here tonight. This next segment of the show is brought to you by 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. That is marshfieldspeedwaycom. There ain't nothing better than a family day or night at the track, so get down there to Marshfield Motor Speedway. So we got kyle here tonight. I told you guys coming in we were talking with kyle. We're gonna talk nba playoffs kyle. How are we doing tonight? How are we doing on this wednesday?
Speaker 3:I'm good. I'm good. You know playoffs are. We're getting there almost to the finals. I'm so excited for the offseason of what could be so I cannot complain.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of crazy right. Giannis didn't say that he wants out. He's actually saying their Bucs are saying we're going to rebuild this thing. So I don't know what they're going to do or what they have up their sleeve, but they went into an offseason like this before and they went and got Drew Holiday and then it was NBA Finals. So who knows, who actually knows what could happen there.
Speaker 2:But, as you guys know, every single week we run the mellow yellow minute, the trivia show in honor of my grandpa who passed away. And hey, tonight here I'm asking the question. I'm gonna ask the question so, like I always tell you guys, if you got your favorite beverage that's the point of the mellow yellow minute is you always got to crack your favorite beverage? I got my, my Diet Mountain Dew, right here. Sometimes it smells yellow, sometimes it's Diet Mountain Dew. Tonight it's Diet Mountain Dew here. Crack it and we will get this underway. So you know every driver I was talking about what grinded my gears last week there and you know driving was grinding my gears, some people driving. There's always those misunderstood road signs, right, and I got a list in front of me here of nine of the most misunderstood road signs. I don't really think they're in order, but this is just nine misunderstood road signs. Kyle, can you name a couple of the nine misunderstood road signs on there?
Speaker 3:I feel like one has to be yield the amount of people I see approach yield signs and like act like they don't know what to do. So I'm gonna go yield we do have yield.
Speaker 2:We do have yield and we also have yield that on left turns, when green that is also probably my second one, yeah I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2:What do you do? Like if it's green? Like what do I like? Yield, are you serious? Like shouldn't you? Should that be common sense? Yeah, like, shouldn't that just become like if you have, if you have, a green arrow, I don't know what it's like. You look kyle's from down in georgia there, but I don't know if it's the same. But when you turn left, like when you know you have a clear path, it's a green arrow, and when it's not a green arrow and it's just a green light, you just make sure nobody's going to. You know, hit you. Like. That just seems like the most common logic thing. But a yield when green seems like it's, we still have to remind you guys not to get hit. Oh, I have that's. That's wild, that's wild to me. But Kyle, I mean out, I have that's. That's wild, that's wild to me. But kyle.
Speaker 3:I mean, what's what do you got? What do you got for me? I feel like another one that's kind of sneaky I don't know if this counts with like blind turn or blind, like what was it blind? Oh, this is sign, is like blind, something like kind of let you know, like it's like a driveway come up or corner Hidden driveway, hidden driveway yeah. Blind driveway, something like that, yeah.
Speaker 2:It is not on the list, but I could see that being a confusing one. I could see that People are like, well, where's the driveway, where is the driveway? And then you come up and you're like I didn't see a driveway. It I see Wisconsin all the time. They put a bump sign and then you don't hit a bump for another two miles. And then you hit a bump and you're like, oh, there's the bump, okay. Okay, good thing, I was prepared for that one. It is not there, but I could see it being on the list. All right, kyle, we got one more guess, one more guess. What do you got for me?
Speaker 3:Confusing misunderstood road signs Deer crossing, de deer crossing.
Speaker 2:Deer crossing is on there. Deer crossing is on there, it does. This guy also said he saw otters cross. Can you imagine otters?
Speaker 2:crossing like wow, you know, we get down into florida. You got, you know, gator crossings down there and that'd just be odd. And I saw, you know, go out to like out west and hit a buffalo, like got buffalo crossing up there. That'd be crazy, that'd be crazy. We got right turn on red. That always gets to me okay, because people always tell me, well, you can turn right on red, but then there's signs that say no turn on red and I'm like I don't know what to do when I get to those. So right turn speed limits. That's confusing, misunderstood sign speed limits there, no stopping um roundabouts, that's on there.
Speaker 2:Keeping left and shared bike and vehicle lanes oh yeah, I don't like sharing lanes. I don't like sharing lanes at all. I think they should have their own lane and otherwise get out of my lane, that's all I know. Get out of my lane. So, kyle, right now we're watching the nba playoffs and it seems like the knicks are kind of in the pacers lane and the pacers just like get out, just just out, just get out.
Speaker 2:At this point here, what is going on in that series? Because, as we're recording, as you guys know, we usually record day, we record day before. So right now. The Pacers and Knicks are currently playing. Right now the Pacers are up 85, 77. So we're watching. The Pacers could potentially go up three games to one over the I mean Kn. Go up three games to one over the I mean next team, who a lot of people were very high on and once they beat the celtics, were like this team's going to the finals. Now it's like, oh boy, this is, they have the op, they're gonna go down 3-1 here and it's looking like the pacers are in control here. What is going on with the knicks? What is going on with the pacers? What's making this series develop as we're seeing it in front of our eyes?
Speaker 3:so I think what we've learned is that the knicks beat a beat up southwark's team. Obviously tatum got hurt, brown's knee injury kind of popped up again, not to take anything away from like. They still took advantage and won the series. But now the competition has gone up against the pacers and I feel like a lot of the blemishes with this Knicks team we're seeing. Brunson is very much ball dominant, which I get slowing down the Pacers and the half court is supposed to work for you. But you also have to make the Pacers work defensively. If Brunson is just going to dribble the air out of the ball, that works in the Pacers' favor on defense and then on the other end of the floor, cat and Brunson aren't that good defensively and the Pacers are the type of team that will take advantage of that. And that's what we're seeing so far in this series, where the Pacers' depth is working in their favor, whereas the Knicks, if you're only going to play like six, seven guys, all six, seven guys need to be locked in playing really well against this Pacers team which who can score a lot of points.
Speaker 3:We just haven't seen that. We'll see OG and Inobi have a good game, but Bridges struggles. We'll see Cat have a good game, but Bridges struggles. We'll see Cat have a good game, maybe with Brunson, and then we'll see OG and Bridges struggle. We'll see Bridges have a good moment, but then we'll see Brunson struggle, or Hart, something like that. For the Knicks to be title contenders with this team, all five, six, six, seven guys have to play at their average or maybe even above average, and they just haven't done that consistently in this series you know, and when I watch this team, it's like they aren't even built to go past the top maybe six, like they're not built to go past it.
Speaker 2:they don't, they don't have the depth and we I mean we saw it in game, you know, like it was game three where the Knicks won that game there and they, finally we saw them go deeper on the bench. They went a little bit deeper on that bench we saw Deleon Wright, we saw some of these other guys get some minutes and it was like oh, wow, okay, you know Jay Wright. I think it was Jay Wright, it was, oh, I can't remember his name. On ESPN over there he's college basketball but he does NBA.
Speaker 3:Jay Williams, oh, jay Williams.
Speaker 2:Jay Williams. Jay Williams said he wouldn't even play nine on a baseball team, or something like that is what he had to say about him there, and it's the truth, right, he doesn't go very deep on that bench. We're seeing it now in game four. He's going a little bit deeper on that bench, but that just doesn't seem like do they have the depth to compete with a team like the Pacers? Because the Pacers have depth and that's something that. Is that something that you're seeing in this series that Knicks kind of lack? They don't have that depth to be able to go back at a team like the Pacers. Is that what you think the Knicks are kind of lacking here? Because to me I just feel like they lack some depth.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just feel like they lack some depth. Yeah, I think especially scoring depth, because you can bring in Mitchell Robinson he's not a great offensive player. You can bring in Precious Achua he's not a great offensive player. You know Mosley Bright is very streaky and that, yeah, the Pacers are just the wrong team for them. And you also give the Pacers a just the wrong team for them and you also have to give the Pacers a lot of credit. Like Rick Carlisle is a really good coach, even though I think in NBA circles he probably doesn't get that kind of respect around the league. But this is a guy who won when he was in Dallas and now is winning with an Indiana team that if they do make the finals here, which I think they will win this series, you'll kind of see some similarities between Indiana this year and Boston last year.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Where Boston kind of came at you with since Tatum kind of struggled, shooting like we saw Brown step his game up. Derek White, peyton Pritchard, guys like that, this Indiana team it's more than Halliburton, like Siakam's played well. You know Nembhard has his moments. Neesmith has been really good. You know Matherin has his moments. I think Miles Turner's actually struggled a bit but it hasn't really mattered in this series, struggled a bit but it hasn't really mattered in this series. So I think Indiana's showing kind of where this league might be going.
Speaker 3:Where roster construction. You have to be smart with your money and spread the wealth. The days of having three really high-priced guys and a bunch of minimum-type players, you're not going to win at a high level in this league anymore trying to play it that way. Look at Phoenix. Phoenix tried, it couldn't even make the playoffs. So teams are going to have to be built more like Indiana than necessarily New York. You know New York works a little in the playoffs because they play physically defensively but offensively they just need more. They gave up five picks for Bridges. Bridges has to be better offensively. They just need more. They gave up five picks for Bridges. Bridges has to be better offensively. That's been probably their biggest problem against Indiana Bridges hasn't been that guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, and you said it perfectly there with Pacers, and it's also you know. You talked about Carlisle there and getting your guys to buy in, getting your five and then your bench to buy in to what your five and then your bench to buy in to what your message is. And playing like they want, like this team plays, like they don't have a target on their back. Everybody hates them. They've been told all their lives that they suck. Look at Neesmith, look at these guys. That's what they've been told. And now they're out to prove it. They're like all right, now we're going to go prove it. And they got a bunch of guys now who are out there to prove that they're the team. They're the team to beat. Everybody's looking past them. They're like oh, look at the Celtics, look at the Knicks, look at, you know, the Cavs. Nobody said, look at the Pacers. They were talking about the Bucs town. They took the Cavs to town. They took the Bucs to town. Now are those two banged up teams? Yes, and do? I think if they are healthy, it might have been.
Speaker 2:Do I think the Pacers probably still win, but it's a different series. Yes, I think. If Dame's there, the series with the Bucs is different. I think. If you know, we have Garland and I think Mo also is a different series. Do the Pacers win? I still think so, and in a series like this, I mean you said it perfect. This is a relatively healthy Knicks team Like this, team's ready and they're just the Pacers are just on their own, so you love to see it. So I mean yeah, I mean this is a darn good series. I would love to see the Knicks tie it up two to two because I want to see this nba playoffs outside of probably the nug, even that nuggets. The last game of that series. That was still a blowout. I mean there, there hasn't been a series where it's like wire to wire. This is awesome so far, I as has there. Has there been? I? I'm trying to think is has there been a series where it was like wire to wire? This is an awesome series.
Speaker 3:No because, yeah, because the best series so far have been Denver Clippers, and that might be it.
Speaker 2:OKC beats the Nuggets 4-3. That last game of the series sucked. Minnesota beat the Warriors 4-1. That doesn't count, sucked. Minnesota beat the warriors four to one. That doesn't count. The next beat the celtics four to two. That doesn't count. Indiana's basically mop both series that they yeah, I, it's really. I mean golden state and the rockets. You could have said that was a good that was a good series outside of that I mean the rest of these.
Speaker 2:I mean denver has played a couple close series, but both their game sevens were blowouts. So I mean there's hasn't been a wire to wire series so far. That's actually been like wow, right. So I mean we can flip, let's flip script. Let's go to the West. Yeah, thunder, timberwolves this is another series where I'm looking at it. It sucks right now. Three to one.
Speaker 2:Right now OK is up in this series. They have played extremely well, extremely well. I mean they took game 1 114, 88. They just completely shut down the timberwolves. Game 2, they shut them down again 103. They held them to in that game there and then it kind of flipped script in game 3, 143 to 101. The timberwolves just laid it on them in game 3. But then game 4, 128 to 12, they win a nail-biter there, late Great game by the Oklahoma City Thunder there, and to also win that game on the road, which was another huge win for them. So, coming back home, now it's games back in Oklahoma City. What do you think? What are you liking in this series right now? Do you think OKC can close it out in game five here? What are you thinking here, do you think?
Speaker 3:the Timberwolves force game six back in Minnesota they can, but I think it's very slim. So where the East we're looking at depth, I think in the West it's about consistency. Minnesota has not gotten consistent performances from their great players. Ant has been underwhelming for the most part these playoffs. They have been kind of riding Julius Randle but the past couple of games Julius Randle's kind of regressed a little bit. You know Rudy Gobert's had his issues against most teams that they've faced.
Speaker 3:Their bench has been really up and down, except for like what game three? The bench was well. Except for like what game three the bench was well. I mean, last game the bench was good, but ant wasn't good, randa wasn't good, yeah, so the way that they're built, their formula is ant needs to be locked in with the mentality that I'm going to be the best guy on the floor. He just hasn't been that.
Speaker 3:And when you're going up against a team like oklahoma city which can come at you with not sga necessarily, because if he struggles, they still have chet holmgren, they have jalen williams, who's um, he had a lot of pressure on him to perform this playoffs, uh, playoff run.
Speaker 3:Because he struggled last year they got eliminated and I think, with the KD sweepstakes lingering in the summer, oklahoma City could have been a destination if Jalen Williams came out small in these playoffs.
Speaker 3:He's kind of turned back the tide on that, beating a Minnesota team that's built around Ant's ability to be their emotional leader as well as their best player, because they have some guys who just officially aren't there, like Rudy is never going to be Hakeem Olajuwon. Like you have Rudy out there, you're just hoping he can play. He can protect the rim, get some offensive rebounds, but he deals with a physical center in Hartenstein and then he gets to deal with a skilled center in Chet Holmgren. So it's kind of a bad series for him. So if the Timberwolves are going to extend this series, they need like a 30-point game from Ant, game five, and they need Randall to go back to what he was before, which was a 25-point, 10-rebound kind of guy. That's what they're going to need in game five if they're going to extend the series. If not, it ends in five and I think it ends in five.
Speaker 2:Do you have an issue with Ant basically saying he didn't struggle game four? Because when I look, when you're telling me I mean this guy, he's supposed to be that dude, right, and we were told he was that dude and he acts like he's that dude. But you come out in a game that you just have to have. It's at home. You have to have this game. You've got to knock this series up 2-2. Going back to Oklahoma City, you can't allow it to get 3-1 and have a chance to be knocked out of the playoffs right then and there, and you go 5 for 13, 1 for 7 from 3, and you have 16 points, 5 of 7 from the free throw line. You are supposed to be the centerpiece. Everything's just supposed to flow around you and you, like you said, are supposed to be that guy. You have a performance like that in 41 minutes. That's the, that's what you give me and your answer to reporters and everything is.
Speaker 2:I don't think I struggled. I got a problem with that, because when I look at it, I say to myself if you're my star, I need you. I this is like. I'm not asking for an excuse. I want you to tell me I sucked like. I want you to look me in the face and say I suck, I struggled tonight, but I know why and we're gonna look back on it, we're gonna see what we can do different and then in game five I'm gonna come back, I'm gonna be fine, we're gonna make adjustments, we're gonna make it work right. That's what I wanted to hear, but instead you tell me I don't think I struggle, I was fine, right, I I.
Speaker 2:If you're going to be my star and I don't know if there's me, but if you're going to be my star I want you to take ownership, because janice, for his goofy and everything that he is like, that he always takes that ownership right where he's like I could have been better. I just feel like I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. Like, are you seeing it from that? So how do you see it with ant there? Do you think he has to be a little bit more? I don't know if you would like ownership, like growing up, like you know, grow up and take on some of that ownership to why the team is struggling or why this happened in this way, because you lose by two and you have a struggling night, one for seven from three. I mean you play a little bit better yourself and I know you're gonna have struggling nights, but at the same time I just didn't feel like ant was ant and in a big game like that, you gotta be, you gotta be something, and I don't think he was that.
Speaker 2:So I mean, what do you think about that, that whole thing?
Speaker 3:no, I agree. Uh, he he like. Because he said the first part where he didn't struggle and then he kind of got on the right track where he said I didn't struggle because I didn't take enough shots. So if that was his mentality, then his answer should have been like I need to be more aggressive because I can't just take 13 shots.
Speaker 3:And no, nobody would have batted an eye at that answer yeah I think another problem you're seeing with Ant and this is something I think Tatum didn't get enough credit for last playoff run, where he would struggle games shooting wise, but because he's a better playmaker than Ant, he can impact the game in different ways. I think you see that with SGA in this series as well. Sga can go out there and shoot a poor percentage, but he's a better playmaker than Ant. He can contribute. Ant, if Ant isn't scoring, he's kind of a frustration on the court and I think that's the next level for Ant where he's going to be the guy in Minnesota but he now has to make other where.
Speaker 3:A lot of times when Minnesota's playing they're watching Ant, wanting Ant to break down the defense, get to the rim, you know, post their dunks or knocking down the three. Ant has to get to the point where he can get into the lane. Three guys collapse on him. He can find the right guy for an open shot, because last game Devin Chenzel shot like five for seven from three, but a lot of that didn't come from Ant's action, it came from other guys. So that's where I think Ant in this off season has to work on his ability to play, make and make other guys better if Minnesota wants to be a title team here in the near future.
Speaker 2:I love that answer, love that answer. I love that answer because, tatum, you knew he was a star, but it was. Why did jalen brown win the nvp? Well, why, because tatum wasn't himself for every game, but he still was that threat, he still had that ability to pass, he still had that ability to get guys open and that was a huge part to why the celtics won the final.
Speaker 2:So I completely agree with you there so kyle, thank you, as always, for stopping by the show here and let the people know where they can find you out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, just search Chopping of the Bit YouTube, facebook. You can find me on Twitch X, like all of them. Yeah, just easiest way would be YouTube and then go through my bio and you'll find all the links there. You got to find them.
Speaker 2:You got to find them out there. He's got all the great NBA content, anything you need to know NBA, anything you need to know MLB. He can answer all that stuff for you and you get in his comment sections everything like that He'll answer. He'll talk your year off all darn day long. So, kyle, thank you, as always, we'll be right back here. We got Badgers to talk about tonight. We got Brewers to talk about tonight. We got all kinds of stuff. So we'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage after this quick commercial break. Welcome back to Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage coming back on this Wednesday.
Speaker 2:And hey, this next segment of the show, this Badger talk, we're going to talk some brewers today. This next segment of the show here 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, there. Tell them, trade sent you, get five percent off. Tell them, I sent you down there. Get 5% off on all of your purchases down there in Colby, Loyal or Medford, wisconsin, there.
Speaker 2:So we had Kyle on. We were talking about the NBA, talking about the playoffs there, knicks, pacers and the Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder series. There we're going to switch gears. Here we're going to talk a little Badgers and then I want to talk some Brewers, because the Brewers they are all over the place, to talk a little badgers, and then I want to talk some brewers, because the brewers they are all over the place. It's like you want to believe but at the same time you're annoyed and there's a whole bunch of, there's just a lot of stuff that we got to talk about here with the badgers and the brewer. So right away I'm gonna start with this badger team.
Speaker 2:So over the last weekend I saw an article came out by dylan graff and he was talking about in his article he was, um, a lot of Big Ten coaches were talking right, and they were talking about this Badger team and the direction and you know about, about Luke Fickle, about the program and everything was pretty blunt, it was pretty straightforward, it was exactly what we kind of were thinking. So one big tank coach said nothing about the offense made sense here, talking about this badger offense and everything we saw long ago moving on, benefits everyone involved. And if they bounce back and become a more modern version of that classic wisconsin power run offense, you'll wonder why they ever made that move in the first place. Right there, boom, you wanted to drive that, you wanted to take your. Please don't tell me you use DeWalt Like we'll use Milwaukee. You want to drive that Milwaukee, you want to drive that. Screw home with that Milwaukee impact or whatever you got there from down at Foreman's. I'm telling you this when you got to knock that nail on the head, that was it. Right there.
Speaker 2:Longo coming to Madison did not make sense. Not at all. Wisconsin isn't. When you looked at the talent and what was in the room for Wisconsin, longo was not. He was not built for that.
Speaker 2:This team, this program was not built for what Longo was bringing in, this air raid, this you know you need athletic go-getter guy. You don't have that in Madison. What did you have? You had Braylon Allen. You had guys who were the big power offense that was still here. Now, did you have the talent that you want to say, because everybody's going to say, well, paul, chris recruits weren't that good in his last year and whatever, I don't care, shut up, I don't care about that anymore. I'm so sick of this. Paul Chris, talk now. It's just ridiculous. I'm just done with it.
Speaker 2:When I look at this team, I'm like they tried to jump the gun and try to make something out of what wasn't there and that wasn't there. They didn't have this. So when I when I hear this, when I hear a big 10 coach tell me that long ago, moving out benefits everyone involved, I couldn't agree more. I could not agree more with what he had to say there. So I completely agree. The badgers finished 106 in epa per play. They also finished 104th in epa per drop back. So I mean, you're looking at all these numbers for the badgers 22.6 points per game, good for 109th nationally. That's well below the center. So I mean, you're, you look through this whole thing and it just it never was there. This never was a fit. Phil longo was never fit. It's not saying I hate when we get to the point where we're like this coach is just terrible, because I don't think that Phil, I don't think Phil Longo was terrible. I think he was terrible for Wisconsin. He was a terrible fit. Right, some guys are good coaches. There's not good fits where they're at and that's what I think we had here. We had a bad fit for the spot that we had. We had a bad fit for here. So yeah, that's kind of what I saw.
Speaker 2:So Jeff Grimes coming in. Jeff Grimes is going to bring that more traditional yet advanced version of the power run football that we saw in Madison. He's going to utilize the run more. He's going to utilize more of the power run football that we saw in Madison. He's going to utilize the run more. He's going to utilize more of that power. But he's also still going to. He's going to dabble at the past. He's going to dabble at the trickery. He's going to dabble with that kind of stuff. He's going to switch it up a little bit. So, jeff Grimes coming in, that I think that's huge for this bad team. So this is what another guy had to say. He said Grimes is a great hire. Then they flipped the entire offense except for the backs. They need to go back to Wisconsin football this year. They've got a young backfield that can do it. So that's.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're looking at all these different, all these different coaches and, like I said, they don't they don't name names or anything like that, with these guys's just coaches talking right and coaches weighing in on their opinions and you don't want like no coaches really. I mean they're going to say, oh yeah, I like this guy and everything like that, but you're not going to. In this at least they didn't give out the names but you have a lot of big time coaches who are saying jeff grimes is the guy they like, what, the direction, what what wisconsin is doing now, where they're trying to get back to what they were and not trying to force anything. They forced Phil Longo, they forced this dairy raid, air raid, bull crap on Wisconsin. Now they're trying to backtrack and I think backtracking isn't going. It's like how do you, how do you gauge it? Because you're not.
Speaker 2:I know everybody's like fire Luke Fickle. They're not going to. Why? Because the buyout for Luke Fickle's contract is huge. He's not going anywhere because they would. Who are you going to bring in? That's going to take less? Because you have to afford to still pay that buyout to look fickle? Nobody. So fickle, stay. It's just a matter of what are you going to bring around him? Because, fickle, you look at the offense. You look at Phil Longo. He wasn't the right guy. Trestle's the next guy right. Trestle's got to be on that hot seat too. Is he the right guy for the defense? That's what we're going to find out with him.
Speaker 2:But I look at this team. It's like what do you got to do? Wisconsin hasn't had an identity over the past couple years. They haven't had an identity. What are they? Are they a passing team? Are they a running team? What is this team? They need to establish an identity and I think, with jeff grimes now in the room, I think they can establish that identity and finish games, win games in the room. I think they can establish that identity and finish games, win games in the moment, get in these big games and find a way to win them, move the football consistently. That's what I think a guy like Jeff Grimes brings into it. I mean, you look at this.
Speaker 2:There's a couple different stats that he went through in this one. But Wisconsin, they were outscored 72 to 15 in the fourth quarter in its seven losses last season. 72 to 15, that tells you that when you look at the oregon game, they're winning. You look at that penn state game, they're winning. They had multiple big big games where they had good teams on the ropes. They just couldn't find a way late to make things happen. And that's where you hope a guy like jeff grimes coming in. He can slow down the game, he can work the tempo, he can do little things in there and also bringing in a quarterback like billy edwards jr, the transfer coming in, I think a huge transfer ad. So I mean all these things that we're talking about here are going to be huge for this team.
Speaker 2:Another big, big 10 coach he had to say was fickle, is the guy. But the offensive issues have overshadowed the overall plan so much that it's easy to see why some folks might lose faith. I think they just overreached and are trying to modernize and their program schematically oh, that's exactly what I was just kind of trying to say there. Maybe he said it better, I don't know. But that's what we're looking at right now is basically they tried to jump the gun with Phil Longo. They tried to overreach and become something that Wisconsin football just wasn't. They were a power run team, not so much as air raid, not so much as fancy stuff. They tried to get to that point.
Speaker 2:Instead of what a Jeff Grimes I think is going to do, is he's going to try and implement a little bit of both. What a Jeff Grimes I think is going to do is he's going to try and implement a little bit of both. You try to overreach and go with a Phil Longo who completely went away from one, and then you had guys in the room who were like, what am I supposed to do with this game plan here? Right, what a guy like you know Braylon Allen's in there, like what, what am I doing? You know, this is, this is not, it's not an offense for me, right? And you get Braylon Allen he had some discrepancies. When he's left, do I think Luke Fickle gets a hall pass? No, I don't think Luke Fickle is just going to get this. Ultimately, get this big old hall pass by any means.
Speaker 2:But I'm also looking at this and I'm saying to myself, okay, I look at this team and I say to myself it's a tough schedule, but if this team looks like they have an identity, they look like they have a path and they look like they look like they're building towards something and they look like a place where recruits, transfers and everything else wouldn't have a problem with maybe going, I like it, I like this team. If they look like last year, we look disgruntled and we have questions about. Does Luke Fickle have the locker room and everything in between? Okay, now I have problems. Now I definitely have problems with this team and you know there's a little piece in here.
Speaker 2:Luke Fickle is talking and he said from within the building it's all about the mountain to climb. We didn't accept every potential transfer guy that we had a chance to get Every transfer that was possibly coming in here. The first thing we did was set the schedule down in front of him and say look, just want to make sure that you understand what this mountain looks like. So, not only emphasizing what this thing will look like, but understanding that the humble and hungry mindset and attitude has got to be that you're willing to do what we need you to do, because it's not going to be easy. I love that and if that's the truth, I love that. Setting the schedule down and saying, all right, this is who we play, this is who we play. We play Alabama, we play Michigan, we play Iowa. We have Ohio State, we have Oregon. We have an Indiana team who's on the up and rise. We have Ohio State, we have Oregon. We have an Indiana team who was on the up and rise. We have Illinois, we have Minnesota, we have a good this is a darn good schedule.
Speaker 2:Do you want to be a part of it? Do you accept that this schedule is going to be a gauntlet? Do you accept that and do you want to be a part of that? Do you have the right mindset to say this might be a struggle bus at times. Darn, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna push, we're gonna keep trying, we're gonna keep giving her and we're gonna find ourselves some, some wins in there. Oh, it's gonna be a dog fight. We're gonna be in some dog fights. Are you a part of it?
Speaker 2:I, I like that. I I like that what luke fickle had to say there. This isn't and you know, some coaches are good with words and I think luke fickle is good at talking to the media. I really do. I think he's good at smooth talking to media. But I, I look, I seriously I look at what he has to say and I do think, honestly, he's a good motivator. I do, I think he's a darn good motivator. I just think it's about getting the guys to buy in.
Speaker 2:And I think when you had an offense underneath the Phil Longo and that's kind of where this whole thing is is when you had an offense underneath the Phil Longo where it looked like it had no direction and this team looked like they had no identity and on a defense where you're you're playing well. I mean, we talked about it Defense had moments where they were playing well but the offense couldn't move the football or they just stunk. Well, it's hard to go out there, watch three plays and then you're like, oh, they got the ball back, then you get a stop or you get a turnover right in plus territory and then they don't do anything with the football. So then you got to punt it back and then you got to go back out there for defense and it's like, oh my, we're just gonna lose anyways, who cares? Right, and then you just fall apart. That's kind of what we saw.
Speaker 2:So I'm looking at this team right now and I'm like all right, what can you show me this year? So I mean, that's just. I saw this article by doing graph and I thought it was quite interesting seeing what some of the uh, big 10 coaches had to say. You know, talking to me, some of the guys said some of the other big 10 coaches said they're, this is a very talented team. In some spots they're very young, so well it's. It's going to be one of those years for wisconsin where it's like give and take right. What do you want to see? I want to see this program start to develop into something, to show an identity, and then I'm going to feel comfortable with this team again. That's kind of where you're at, if you, if you're really looking at the grand scheme of things here. I don't know what the ceiling is.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about this more as we get closer to the season here. But we got more to get to tonight here. We're going to talk brewers tonight when we come back from the break. We're gonna hit a quick break here. We're gonna come back. We got some brewer talk to get to. I got lots of things I want to talk about the brewers. I had a random question that I had. Somebody asked this question to me, so I want to get to, uh, that question that somebody had, and then I mean we'll see. We'll see what we get to later on here in the show, so we'll be right back here. We're going to talk brewers on the back side of the break here. We're gonna get into the brewers real fast here, so we'll be right back here on wisconsin sports on the go with trage. Welcome back to wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage.
Speaker 2:We're coming back on this wednesday and hey, this next segment of the show is brought to you by sport and spying clinic of greenwood, wisconsin. Expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming. Call for flexible scheduling and evaluations. Just call 715-267-4583. That is 715-267-4583. Call Chad down there at Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood. He'll get you right and he'll get you back doing whatever you were doing, feeling better than ever.
Speaker 2:So I went to the break. We talked about badges a little bit there and if you miss any segment of the show, any segment of the show, make sure you're listening back. Next day, the next day, tomorrow. The podcast will be available out there. Check us out on Spotify, apple Podcasts, wherever you get podcasts, you can find us out there. So make sure you're doing it.
Speaker 2:But went to the break and we were talking about the Badgers and I said we're going to talk some Brewers here. I had a question and this question came across social media to me which Wisconsin sport has the most passionate fans? So I mean we're talking Brewers, badgers, packers, bucs. Okay, if it was my opinion. I want to hear your opinion. What Wisconsin sports have the most passionate fans? Text me 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Which Wisconsin sports has the most passionate fans?
Speaker 2:I would say I would have to say Packer fans. It's a toss up for me Packers and Brewers because I mean, it says something to be a fan of a team 162 days out of the year. You wake up in the morning and you're just like my team's playing today. They might lose and I might actually say baseball fans are crazy Because, like I said, you wake up 162 times and you tell yourself I'm going to watch my team today and their outcome of their game affects your entire mood for that entire game. Like the packers, I get over at about midweek. The brewers is, day by day, absolute. Like if they lose at noon, the rest of my day is like I just want to take a nap. I just want to take a nap. I don't even. I don't even want to. I just want to take a nap, like a nap it's got to be. I would honestly say it's a toss-up. It is. It's a toss-up between the Packers and Brewers and I can see either one of them. I don't think it's. The Bucs.
Speaker 2:Badgers have passion. I'm a very passionate Badger basketball fan. If you had to ask me what am I passionate about, but when I look at it I would have to say Brewers, because baseball is just weird. Like 162 times I wake up in the morning. The outcome of the Brewers affects my day every single day. So it's like I don't know, maybe baseball fans in general are probably the most passionate ones. If you ask me, they're probably the most passionate ones out there. So that's where I'm kind of at right now. Most passionate fans, I would say Brewer fans in my opinion. But it could be any way, shape or form, whatever you think there. So that's kind of where I'm at with that. So I want to talk a little bit of Brewers here, because we went to the break we were talking Badgers. I want to talk a little bit of Brewers now.
Speaker 2:This Brewers team. They've been, let's say, better as of late here. They've been, let's say, better as of late here. They went through that Okay. So they had that series there with the Orioles and then they faced off with the Pirates and they have not.
Speaker 2:I mean, they just haven't won a game on Sunday. They haven't won a game on Saturday. It's just how do you not win a game on Saturday? I don't even know Some of the stats that I'm seeing coming out of this Brewers team is just absolutely unreal. But I look at this team right now. So over their last 10 games we're looking at them 6-4 in the last 10. Not terrible, they're hovering around 500. I'm watching the end of this game right now, so they might be 500 here. I don't know what's going to happen in the wednesday game, right, because I tell you guys, I'm pre-recorded, so you guys, I mean just kind of accept that. But looking at this bro team right now, looking at I don't even have to look at the stats to tell this tell you this one pat murphy is driving me up a wall and I'm to tell you why.
Speaker 2:When I watch Nick Mears pitch night after night after night after night, it gets irritating. And then McGill, and then Uribe, and then the Uribe one. After the game we are told that well, aaron Ashby warmed up, but since we sat him down we couldn't warm him up again. Well, why did you warm him up to begin with? I don't get that. Why did you warm him up? You're just going to sit him down and then you can't get him back up. It seems like a waste. It seems like an absolute waste.
Speaker 2:Pat Murphy's usage of the bullpen is alarming, but I think it also boils down to his usage of the starting rotation. We all sit here and even you know, even the announcers and even Pat Murphy's like well, my bullpen's being, you know their usage is high. And even McGill. You heard Trevor McGill say, oh, the usage is really high. And you have all these guys telling you that the usage is really high.
Speaker 2:And then I watched Chad Patrick pitch. And Chad Patrick goes out there and he throws what? 79 pitches, 50 for strikes, and got pulled after four and two-thirds. Why do we complain that the bullpen is overused? How do you sit there as a manager and say, well, you know my bullpen's overused and everything like that, and I'm going to make excuses for it. But then we look back on it and we say, well, chad Patrick only threw 79 pitches, 54 strikes.
Speaker 2:At some point you just have to look at your guy and say, well, chad Patrick only threw 79 pitches, 54 strikes. At some point. You just have to look at your guy and say, because, honestly, at this point you guys like I need to know, not now, but you need to look at these guys and say how much do I trust? Can Chad Patrick go deep into a game when I get to the postseason? Is it worth my time?
Speaker 2:Because if Chad Patrick can't throw over 79 pitches without me getting worried, then why is Logan Henderson the guy who keeps getting sent down I'll talk about that in a second here Him getting sent down for DL Hall? I know that's a big topic, but why is Logan Henderson the guy that keeps getting sent down if Chad Patrick can't get me over 79 pitches, if we're so worried about him that he can't go over four and two-thirds innings, if we're so worried about him that he can't go over four and two-thirds innings, why, if we don't trust him, then why do we keep sending down Logan Henderson, who has been fantastic? Why do we waste the time? That's what I don't get. So I'm so sick of the BS.
Speaker 2:Oh well, you know all these people all over the place. Well, you know, the bullpen just stinks, or this guy just stinks, or this guy just stinks, and everything like that. And well, what's Pat Murphy supposed to do? What's he supposed to do? Pitch your guys. I get it. If Freddie Peralta goes over 100 pitches, you got to pull them.
Speaker 2:Guys aren't built to go over 100 anymore and everybody's like, well, you know he should be able to do this and he should be able to do that. It's not how they're wired anymore. I get it Back in the day, nolan Ryan did this and Greg Maddox did this and this guy did that. I get that. That was back in the day. Nowadays it's not that. Nowadays, guys, bullpen guys are wired to pitch one inning, that's it. If they pitch more than 30 pitches, they're done for a couple of days. That's how it is. I don't know why. Do I wish it was different? Yes, yeah, I do. I wish that McGill could go more. I wish that Uribe could go more. But guess what? They get fatigued when they get fatigued.
Speaker 2:Look at Nick Mears when he first came up to now and his over usage of Nick Mears and how it has just been completely disastrous. So you want to? That's my honest opinion on it. Everybody's like, oh, the over usage of the bullpen and everything like that. There has been an over usage of the bullpen and everything like that. There has been an overusage of the bullpen. There has. But that overusage is the lack of usage, the lack of usage at times Of the starters, of those arms.
Speaker 2:And if you can't trust those arms, I don't know what to tell you. And if you can't trust those arms, I don't know what to tell you. Chad Patrick's been good. Honestly, there's been talks of him in the Rookie of the Year conversations. Is he going to win it? Probably not, but is he in the talks? Yeah, he should be. He's been darn good. But you don't trust him. And it shows 79 pitches and 50 for strikes and you get pulled after four and two-thirds. You had a guy on when you got pulled. Sure you don't trust him to get out of that inning. Oh, we had the arms that day. No, you didn't.
Speaker 2:Because in that stretch of games your bullpen is one of the most. Your bullpen is 100 pitches over everybody else. Right now your bullpen usage is absolutely ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, and everybody's going to say well, you know, I don't even know, to be honest. I've tried. I really have. I've tried to understand all this. And the Brewers' bullpen is second in innings. Second in innings. Over the last nine days they've thrown over 100 pitches more than the next highest team's bullpen. Let that one sink in. Let that sink in. Let that sink in A hundred pitches more than the next overused bullpen you either have. You have a couple of things you got. You got to either address the starter situation then, which hopefully you can, with Woody and Katana coming back, but Woody's not going to come back and start throwing six, seven innings for you, right, he's got to work into it.
Speaker 2:I just look across this roster right now and look across this team and the glaring problem is there. Is it an offensive problem too? Yes, don't get me wrong, there's an offensive problem. This offense has been. Don't get me wrong, there's an offensive problem. This offense has been stinking at times. I completely agree. One run ain't enough to win any games in the MLB anymore. But do I think that the overusage of the bullpen is completely on Murphy? Yes, yeah, I do, I really do. I think there's times where he could use his starters more. So I think there is an overusage problem because starters can't go enough. And then I think there's an overusage problem because he pulls starters too soon. So I think there is a problem all the way around with this bullpen and rotation.
Speaker 2:At this very moment, christian Jelic and I know everybody's, know, everybody's gonna tell me well, he's, you know he just had a home run here. He walked off the red socks. So I gotta know about that. He walked off the red socks there and everything in between. Yay, whoopie, do. Anyways, in between he's bad 205 he had. He's been hitting better, they're gonna tell me. Right, he had two home runs against the pirates and he had a decent series there and now he's got this. Well, okay, whatever, I don't care.
Speaker 2:I'm going to look at this and say, would playing the field help him? I think so, because when I watch him at times it's like he's moping. He's like his bottom his lip is like dragging. It's like he's moping. He's like his bottom lip is like dragging on the ground. When he's walking around, he strikes out and he goes back oh, poor me. And he's walking around the clubhouse and everything in between, and then he's got to go back up there and bat again and then it's a strikeout and then he goes back and he's moping. Put him out in the field every once in a while. Keep him engaged in the game. When you're a dh, a d, people just think, oh, you can just slap a guy a dh because it's just that easy. It's not you're. You're not engaged anymore when you're playing the field.
Speaker 2:Right, because I was just talking, we had kyle on earlier. We're talking about the nba, but during the break we were talking about because he's big red sox guy and we were talking about the transition of guys to the dh role and rafael devers had his transition to the dh role. He was third baseman. Alex bregman came in, so then they moved on and I look at like he with a guy like Devers. It took him a little bit to adjust. It took him a little bit to adjust to now being the DH of this roster. Luckily we don't have to face Alex Bregman in this series, alex Bregman's having a pretty good year 299 already to start the year but it took him a little bit to adjust to that. And I look at a guy like Christian Yelich and the year, but it took him a little bit to adjust to that. And I look at a guy like christian yelich and I'm like cycle him a little bit.
Speaker 2:Everybody's like, oh, he's gonna get hurt playing the field. He's gonna get hurt playing the field. He get hurt batting. Broke his kneecap. We remember that broke his kneecap. Batting. It can hurt batting the back. The way you torque your back when you swing, it could easily just be as bad in there as it is in the field Right now.
Speaker 2:We don't exactly like before, when it was, you know, garrett Mitchell, and you had Jackson Turio and you had Sal, and you're trying to figure out how to fit everybody in there. Okay, that was fine. Then he could DH. You have Jake Bowers playing the outfield right now. Jake Bowers, I think, dh. You have jake bowers playing the outfield right now. Jake bowers, I think christian yelich can play the outfield. Put him out there just to get the field, just to get in there, get that feel a little bit. I don't think that'd be a bad thing. I really don't. I don't think that'd be a bad thing at all. So I I would be fine with seeing him kind of get pushed out of dh and see him a little bit more in the outfield, not every day, but every once in a while at least. So I look okay.
Speaker 2:So off a yellow trough for that logan henderson sent out. There's a couple different reasons, right, bullpen needs starting depth. It doesn't really it. It doesn't make sense. But it makes sense, right, and at the same time you're also looking. Quintana, he's going to be back soon. Woody potentially behind him at some point. So you're going to have guys back. Logan Henderson's been great for the Brewers. He's been great.
Speaker 2:I think there's going to come a time where you stop with the sending up and down of Logan Henderson. Right now, the DO Hall was for bullpen depth. It had to have been Because the bullpen was depleted so you had to find some depth. Do Hall coming back was that depth? Now is Logan Henderson going to be back, 100% he's going to be back and at some point I would hope that they stop with this whole cycle of him and they just leave him up. So that's where I'm kind of at with that situation. I'm not going to dig too far deep into it.
Speaker 2:So the Memorial Day check-in Goodness, we're running out of time here in the show for the night. The Memorial Day check-in I think we're going to have to wait with the Memorial Day check-in. We're going to do the Memorial Day check-in next week on the show. We'll check in with these standings. We'll see where everybody's at, what we're thinking, and then we'll kind of gauge it off of where you're at with this team right now. Are you selling off players? Are you holding tight? Are you going for help. Now, where are you at with this team? I think we'll pick that up next week because there's a lot of discuss there and I don't want to just cut it off. I don't want to cut it off too soon.
Speaker 2:So this Brewer team, right now I mean they're going to be finishing up this series with the Red Sox. Like I said, you guys have known I mention to you all the time. So just every time I mention it I'm not trying to say the same thing over again. But the Brewers will be wrapping up this series with the Red Sox. Hopefully to say the same thing over again, but the Brewers will be wrapping up the series with Red Sox. Hopefully a series sweep, I'm not sure, but hopefully a series sweep. After we see them walk off the Red Sox there on that Christian Yelich Grand Slam there in that ninth inning. So they got the Red Sox and then we're going to see this team oh, I just lost my page so they get back to 500. We're going to see this team square off with the Philadelphia Phillies. So we've got a tough series coming up here. After the Red Sox, then the Reds, you've got a little division cook in there, then San Diego, then you're going to have Atlanta, then St Louis, then Chicago.
Speaker 2:It does not get easier for the Milwaukee Brewers, hopefully finding a little bit of stride here. So we're gonna come back. We're gonna hit a quick break, we're gonna come back. We're gonna wrap up the show for the day. Like I said, did not get to our memorial day wrap, our memorial day wrap to see where the team's at, but we're gonna do that next week here on the show. We'll get to our little quarter third of the way I think they call it is like a third of the way through the season. So we're gonna get to that when we come back here. We'll be right back here on wisconsin sports on the go with trage. Welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage, as we're wrapping it up here on this wednesday, may 28th.
Speaker 2:The brewers hopefully got that series sweep over the red sox, like we're talking about before. They're got the phillies coming up this weekend here. So hopefully we're talking about a couple good. We got phillies, then the reds, so a couple of tough series coming up for the brew crew. So hopefully we're talking about some good series and possibly a good road trip. They haven't had a winning road trip so far. So hopefully a good road trip here, uh, for the milwaukee brewers coming up, but it's gonna be tough, but we'll see what happens there.
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Speaker 2:And if you missed any portion of the show tonight, make sure you are checking back into it. On the Apple Podcast, spotify Podcast, youtube, wherever you get podcasts, you can find the show next day. I'll have it uploaded out there and you guys can check it out there. So with that, I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your night, the rest of your week and weekend. It's supposed to be beautiful weather, so hopefully you get out there, get your landscaping, whatever you got going on. You know, make sure you're getting outside and enjoying this beautiful weather because, well, the rain will return. Right, it always does. The rain will return. But until I talk to you guys again next Wednesday, let's get out of here, See ya.