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
June 11 show: Brewers Struggle, Packers Release Alexander, and NCAA's New Settlement
this is wisconsin sports. On the go with, trage your place for all things, wisconsin sports now your host how we doing everybody and welcome into wiscott sports on the go with Trage.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, trage, coming back for this June 11th edition of the show here and I hope you guys had a fantastic weekend. I hope you guys had a fantastic weekend. It was a good weekend for myself. I mean the weather was hit or miss. I mean it wasn't supposed to rain on Saturday. We had a tournament down in Nealsville over the weekend. They're got the wind, the boys got the win. The boys got the win down there. So that was awesome. My coach 12U baseball over here. So I mean got the win down in Nealsville, the tournament win, so that was awesome. Uh, congratulations to those boys out there, but got that win. It was a good weekend all the way around.
Speaker 1:I mean we a lot of grilling, a lot of smoke. Well, we don't do a lot of grilling, we do a lot more of the Traeger. Right, the Traeger was out this weekend so we had the Traeger out there. We were smoking up just about everything you can smoke up chicken. We had steak yesterday. Goodness, we had all right, it's been. Traeger's been running non-stop. It seems like every weekend that thing is running non-stop there. So it was a great weekend. I hope you guys enjoyed your weekend there, but we have lots to get into.
Speaker 1:It was a busy weekend for sports. Right, the Brewers well, it was a series you almost want to forget against the padres the offense. Sometimes I'm looking at this year for the brewers they're putting up a lot of stats that you don't want to put up, a lot of numbers that historical, like oh, the brewers have done this for the first time and when I look at them it's like, uh, this isn't a good first time they've ever done this. I want to get into the Brewers today because that was, I don't want to say, a terrible. I didn't come off that series saying to myself, wow, this team sucks. But I came off this series saying, oh boy, there's a lot of still unknown question marks, hot, cold. We got to get into it. I asked a question out there on Facebook. I want to get to a lot of people's answers that they had there a little bit of a mailbox open there. A lot of answers. We had to the question about this brewers team as of late, so I want to get into that. We have the ncaa. What a crazy weekend for the ncaa. I that the settlement was made. Now universities will be paying players directly, so that that's opening up a new Avenue, maybe kind of. Maybe it's going to affect the transfer portal, you know, maybe it's going to kind of settle that down. So I want to get into that.
Speaker 1:Today here on the show, I want to talk about the this new settlement that the NCAA had with the house there. So I want to get into that. We have NBA finals talk to get to Kyle's going to jump on later in the show. Here we're going to talk NBA finals and then we got Umber. We're going to talk Packers because another big news coming off the weekend Not really it's more on Monday there, but over this.
Speaker 1:Uh, on Monday we had Jair Alexander being released early in the morning, kind of a surprise. And over the weekend there was the contract. They they sent. There was the contract. They sent out another contract. They said this is what we're going to offer. You Take it or leave it. Basically, take it or leave it. And Jair's camp said no. So the Packers officially released Jair Alexander.
Speaker 1:And is it really the worst thing in the world? Is it really the worst thing in the world? I don't know, let me know. Let me know what you think. 715-990-4914. At any point in the show, if you want to chime in, let me know what you're thinking about. Anything that we're talking about, anything else happening in Wisconsin sports, make sure you're doing it. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. You can hit up the show.
Speaker 1:We got to get to it right off the bat Because when I come in on this Wednesday, there is always it's not even just on Wednesday, it's every single day of the week there is something grinding my gears and it just it's like it boils me. Right now I only have this one day a week where I get to talk about it. So where people just they they have to listen, right, so I think they have to listen Right. Where people just they have to listen, right, so I think they have to listen right. That's where I'm kind of at now. So what was grinding my gears coming off of a weekend? So the big thing. I guess that was grinding my gears.
Speaker 1:So I was watching and I don't know if anybody you know I don't really watch college softball up until the World Series, the Women's College World series in the in the regionals. When you get into there, then I start watching. Right, my wife will be watching it. She watches basically year-round whenever it's on, whenever you get to it, and there's nothing else on, uh, but we really start watching when they get in deeper into tournament play and watching the women's college world series for texas tech.
Speaker 1:A great pitcher there for Texas Tech I just I'm blanking on her name right now, but she pitched multiple, I mean multiple, games in a row, multiple games in a row there. I will see if I can find Nigeria Kennedy, that's what it is. Nigeria Kennedy is her name and she pitched multiple games in a row for Texas Tech. I think she before, since the Super Regional, I think, which is I mean we'd have to go back game by game, but nobody else had pitched for Texas Tech, essentially until they played Texas in the third game of the World Series there. And then she just got lit up. Lit up and this is where the part that grinded my gears.
Speaker 1:Okay, I get so sick of watching the same thing over and over again. I do right, it was Clemson and Alabama football. Every single year, I get sick of that, the same, and I understand, because I get explained to this by softball fans when I even make us think about it. Oh well, it's not the same motion on the arm so it doesn't strain their arm. It's like a baseball pitcher, right, I get that, that's fine.
Speaker 1:I still want to see some kind of I don't know if you do an innings limit, I don't know if you do a pitch limit. Whatever it is, I still think end of the day, you find out who the best teams are by seeing what they have after the ace. I remember high school baseball in Wisconsin here. I don't know Anybody who listens back on the podcast make sure you're doing it next day there but anybody who listens back and hears this. I don't know what you guys' regulations are in your states, but there's a pitch limit now and you have to sit out a certain amount of days. And I honestly thought when they did that, yes, it's to protect arms and it's to keep everything like that, but I thought honestly it affected teams to the point where now you had to have three to four guys who could pitch. Right, that's what I saw it as I just don't when watch texas just dismantled texas tech in that final game and I just don't feel like texas tech.
Speaker 1:Their other arms never threw after the super there, after the super regional. It was just her. She was the only one throwing. She threw multiple games in her health. They needed she'd throw a game there, a game there, right, they had elimination. Whatever she'll be the one to throw it. And it just they. They didn't know how to win without her. Without her on the mountain, they just don't know how to win. And without her at her best.
Speaker 1:And Texas and you know Texas, texas coach, he drove me nuts and he's like oh well, you know, she just ran out of gas, she wasn't throwing, she was throwing just as hard as she was before. Texas just figured her out. After three straight days of seeing her, they figured her out. Wow, can't believe it. Just call a spade a spade when it's there. Man, she shouldn't have been throwing. They figured out texas is too good of a team they were gonna figure out.
Speaker 1:So I just I don't know, I watching that, I just it grinds my gears that they don't have some kind of regulation on that, because I just feel like at the end of the day, you didn't, maybe you didn't get your best team because they didn't have to throw different pitchers, they just had one one, their ace. Just throw the million dollar arm, right. But you know, is Oklahoma a better team. They had a lot of arms get burned up. We'll never know, right, because, yes, texas tech won games to get there. I'm not saying that they didn't, but it just watching her pitch every single game. I just feel like maybe you didn't get your best team in there because you didn't get your team with the most depth.
Speaker 1:It'd be like imagine if Shoei Otani could pitch right now. He wasn't broken, he could pitch and he could pitch every single game. Or I mean you'd have to go through the aces of different teams right now. Or I mean you'd have to go through the aces of different teams right now, but imagine they could pitch every single game without problem. Nothing, it was just. It worked out that way that they could pitch every single game, 140 pitches and they were fine. Baseball would get pretty boring. You like the moves, you like the.
Speaker 1:You know you got to it's strategy, it's this and that there's no strategy to throwing the same picture out there every single, just every single game and just saying, screw it, I just don't see the strategy. So I don't see you know? Oh yeah, texas Tech. I don't think that Texas Tech, I can't. They're not going to try to look up his coach's name right now, but I don't. I think it a terrible manager or coach whatever you want to call him of that team, but I just I don't feel like he's strategically not the greatest. That's what strategy where you're showing you didn't have to pick and choose when you're going to throw arms and this, and that you didn't have to. You look at what Texas did in game two and they were throwing an arm and inning to throw him off. It's different. There's no. My white was using a little more strategy, this not so much.
Speaker 1:So I I maybe people have other opinions on that I just I just don't feel like if you have one arm throw an entire playoff, you're really getting the best team at the end of the day. Especially, I mean, she's darn good. Like don't get me wrong, she is darn a darn good pitcher. She is very good. That's how she shut out multiple teams. That's how she shut out Oklahoma. She's fantastic. It's just I don't know if you got the best team if she threw every single game. So yeah, that's kind of where I was at with that one.
Speaker 1:Outside of that, people trying to buy an entire store out of limited time items drives me absolutely bananas. So I know maybe some people don't like the Bush Apple, the new Bush Apple that they have out there. But I was like, oh, you know, I'm going to go see if I can find one. I always like to have just, you know, a couple of cases, because they're limited time. You're like you don't get them all year round. So I just like to have a couple of cases and you know I'll sip on them here and there. They're not the greatest thing in the world, but I'll have one every once in a while, right, if I'm feeling frisky, right, you gotta feel frisky every once in a while.
Speaker 1:And I searched all over the place. Can't find it. Finally found two cases. I was over over in chippewa, um, at the in-laws over the weekend, spent couple cases over there, but I couldn't find any for the life of me. And then I'm looking all over social media and there's people with 60 boxes of them there and I'm like, well, no wonder why I can't find any. This guy's got them all, this guy's. It's just, sometimes people like that just irk me. They just irk me a little bit. Um, so there was that. There was also the brewers playing on the roku channel over the weekend. That was terrible. That was absolutely terrible.
Speaker 1:I mean, how many times I got told I believe it was more than 10 times, it was probably closer to 15 that something's not right. That's what it said. Something's not right, that's what it said on the screen. Something's not right. And then, and then I exit out and go back in and then it would go in there and then it would start buffering. It would just buffer, it would just buffer and then all of a sudden go and then buffer and then go.
Speaker 1:Finally, I was like I'll just listen on the radio, right, and then I had Josh Maurer telling me that there is no arm in the outfield like Fernando Tatis. He throws it better than anybody else. And I'm like, dude, you are the Brewers radio announcer and you haven't met Sal Frelick yet. Welcome to the show. It's Sal man, welcome to it. I was like what are you talking about? Man, jeff goes to TV for a little while and the guys in the radio get confused on even who's good at all. It's crazy, it's just absolutely crazy. So, roku, all those, I mean all cross sports, it's an issue. I mean netflix had its issues.
Speaker 1:We saw that. I mean, what was that? Mike tyson fight that time that was. That was absolutely terrible. I watched it on x. I watched antonio brown stream of it. I didn't even watch it on where was that? I can't remember where that was off the top of my head, but I didn't watch it on there. I ended up. I can't remember where that was off the top of my head, but I didn't even watch it on there. I ended up watching. Antonio Brown was there. I just was scrolling through Twitter and I seen Antonio Brown live. So I was like, ah, I'll check out Antonio Brown, see what he's up to. You never know with that guy, right, he can be doing anything at that point. And all of a sudden he's live streaming the fight. He's got it up on the jumbotron, he's live stream. I'm like, all right, I'll watch it on here. So I watched that. It wasn't not like I missed anything if I wouldn't have watched it, but got to watch it on there.
Speaker 1:So I mean, it's just, all these different sports are trying, like netflix and amazon prime and uh, peacock is a big one, right and they get across these different platforms and sometimes it works out, sometimes it irritates the fan base and other times it's just it's a disaster. And right now we got Roku and I thought that was a disaster. I could have gone without it. Maybe people were like, oh, finally, I can watch the Brewers, I don't want to have FanDuel, but I can have Roku, so I can watch it. Now that was, that's cool for you, but for me I could watch it anyway. So it didn't matter. And it always sucks because there's no option elsewhere, there's no option of like, oh well, I don't have Roku, but I can go watch it still on FanDuel or anything like that. Because you know my grandma, she doesn't have Roku, but she has FanDuel, she has FanDuel Sports Wisconsin, she has Amazon Fire, right, but she does not have Roku. So she wasn't able to watch games. She usually watches every game. She wasn't able to watch it. I mean, that's just an example of time ahead. That I can. You know personal, but I don't know. It just kind of stinks to have it that way.
Speaker 1:Um, last but not least, for what was grinding my gears coming out the weekend. So I I'm not here to call shots, right, I'm not here to take names or tell names. I don't have name of this person anyways, but I was down. Like I said, we played down in neilsville this last weekend there was a coach of an opposing team, and when I say that the stuff that I heard was it almost made me say something. It's not even my team. I don't know this kid. I have no idea who. It is not a clue. I have no idea who this coach is, don't care.
Speaker 1:But before the game even starts, right, they got their pitcher over there warming up on the side, throwing to this catcher. The catcher can't catch. I'm going to be point blank and this is the nicest way possible he is not a catcher. There are some kids that are just not catchers. Maybe he's going out on the outfield, I don't know, but he's not a catcher. He doesn't have that knack to be a catcher. You can tell that from a mile away, me not even knowing who he is. Seeing him for the first time, I knew he wasn't a catcher. And this coach is just hollering at him Like I mean straight at him, telling him like, hey, if you can't catch that, we'll get somebody else to do it. You got to be able to do it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, and just ripping this kid. It's 12-view baseball. Just ripping this kid and I'll say, oh, you know whatever. Maybe it'll stop after one, maybe these other coaches will talk to him.
Speaker 1:It kept going through the game, like just kept on going and going and going. I just I, I I get because I'll be honest with you Like I got jacked up with my kids, like we were on the tournament, I got jacked up, I was fired up. We just won the tournament. I like to win. I don't like to lose. I don't coach, whatever level I coach, I don't coach to lose, I coach to win. Tell my kids too, let's go win this thing. Right, you don't tell them, oh, let's go have fun. Well, you want them to have fun, sorry, you want them to have fun. But you're like, I want to go win this darn thing too. End of the day, that's the coach that I am. I want to go win this darn thing.
Speaker 1:I, just to take it that serious that you're basically I mean just putting this kid down the whole time just because it's not his thing. I, I hate that. I, I absolutely hate that if you're you're a coach of a young kid, you're in pretty like you're the way that you present yourself, your demeanor, the, the way that you go about things, the way that you coach the game, that's going to affect that kid, not just you're opening up a gate, right? I wasn't, I think it was.
Speaker 1:Uh, I think Dan Casper was talking about the great Dan Casper over there in Eau Claire, uh, triple area there. Um, I think I heard him talk about this the other day. You know he said you're opening up that gateway to a right to get into a sport, get into baseball, whatever it is, and when you are opening up that gate, if you're opening up gate and the only thing that they see it as is man, if I don't catch this, I am just going to get screamed at would you want to be a participant in that gate? Would you want to be a part of that? No, not a chance. You wouldn't want to do it. Because, guess what? Every kid's got a starting point. Some kids start out, they're great, and some kids start out and they're not.
Speaker 1:I think some of these parents, they see the rest of these kids and they're like, oh well, everybody should be at this level, everybody should be at this level, and sometimes you're just not. You have to coach kids where they're at and you have to accept them for who they are, grow with them, help them along the way. Don't just belligerently yell at them and make them feel like they don't know. They're just absolutely terrible. That's the last thing they need. That's the last thing they need. That's the last thing they need for confidence, because they go up to the plate and they struggle, because when you're screaming at them, they struggle to hit. They just need confidence. They want to know that it's okay. Whatever happens, it's fine, we're going to get over it, end of the day.
Speaker 1:I understand that you're getting a little bit older. I do, I do. You're getting a little bit older and you want some of these kids to just be better. You just want to be better. They should be able to figure it out. Right. They've caught a couple of times. They should be able to figure it out, sure, but end of the day, it's 12U.
Speaker 1:Whatever baseball, it's a game. They're kids. If it makes you feel better to scream at them, it makes you feel better. But you look like a dink, and if that's the way a dink, I said dink, and if that's the way you want to be, I guess so it's fine. If you see it that way, but the rest of us? I don't see it that way, but the rest of us, I don't see it that way. So, yeah, that was grinding my gears off the weekend and I just want to talk about that because I saw it this weekend and I I wish I would have said something, but you know why? Why stir a pot? You know, you would think that the parents of this team would say something to the other coaches, but they kind of just let it go. Now, if we see this team again and it's the same case, maybe Just maybe right, so we'll see. Anyways, anyways, that's enough of that, that's enough of what's grinding my gears.
Speaker 1:We have so much to get into today. When we come back, we're going to talk about that today. We got a little brewery talk. Then we're gonna come and we're gonna talk with kyle about the nba finals. We want to get to packers here today. So we got a lot to get into. We are just getting started. Two hours of wisconsin sports on the go with trade is just getting going here. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break.
Speaker 1:Welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trade. I'm your host. Trade coming Trage coming back on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment of the show is brought to you by a fantastic sponsor Foreman's Hardware and you don't want to miss this one.
Speaker 1:Visit Foreman's in Loyal Colby or Medford. Visit them this Friday and Saturday. They are having customer appreciation. So tons of deals, tons of deals. You tell them Trage sent, you Get 5 appreciation. So tons of deals, tons of deals. You tell them trade sent, you get 5% off. Already. They got tons of deals on top of that.
Speaker 1:Just crazy. I mean, you got landscaping to do. You need some grill, you need a grill. You need a tragger. Maybe you need some spices, maybe you need some pellets for that tragger. I don't know what you need. You might need dirt, I don't know right. Maybe some lawn care equipment, maybe a lawnmower. Go down to Foreman's this weekend, customer appreciation. And when you go down there we have a new sponsor to the show coming on here. We're going to get more into that later here Casa M Spice Company.
Speaker 1:They at Foreman's, they will be doing a featured spice here and that's going to be from Casa M Spice Company. There they're going to do a great Texas. It's a great Texas-based spice. They're going to do a great Texas, it's a great Texas based spice. They're going to do it. I believe, in a pickle relish, if I'm not mistaken, is what I was told. It's going to be a pickle relish. They're going to have some different kinds of things down there I think hamburgers and brats and then they're going to have some pickle relish there with this seasoning in it. So make sure you're stopping it, because I would be down there. I guarantee you I would be down there. Sample those great Texas-based spices. They are fantastic.
Speaker 1:I use them on everything. I use them on my steak, I use them on chicken it doesn't matter ribs. I use it on everything, everything. Make sure you're checking them out down there at the store. Try them. Tell them TradeSets, you Get 5% off. Buy the whole thing. They have multiple. I think you can buy the variety pack. If you want. You can buy a replacement pack. I have a whole. I get yelled at because I have a whole cupboard full of these spices right now. They are great. So make sure you're getting down to Foreman's Hardware here Coming up this weekend, friday and Saturday customer appreciation down there at the store in Loyal Kobe and Medford, wisconsin, there.
Speaker 1:So we went to the break. We were talking about what's grinding my gears off top of the hour and I hope maybe you guys understood where I was coming from, with coaches talking to young kids in a not-so-nice manner. So maybe you took offense to that. I don't know. If you took offense to it. Let me know what you guys think Any point in the show. If you want to let me know what you are thinking tonight, make sure you're doing it. 715-990-4914. 715-990-4914. 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. Anything Wisconsin sports talk. Anything sports talk. I'd love to get into it with you guys here at high school. Whatever I mean, I love to get into it all. I love to talk about it all and I love to talk about sports. So make sure you guys are hitting me up. 715-990-4914.
Speaker 1:So we went to the and I said I want to talk about this new, this new settlement, the ncaa settlement here, and it's the judges. I mean they basically locate a 2.8. The house versus ncaa settlement ends three separate federal antitrust lawsuits, all of which claim the ncaa was illegally limiting the earning power of college athletes. So basically this whole thing where college athletes believe they should be paid and everything else We've been in this kind of. We opened up the can of worms and now it's interesting. This one's interesting. So I looked it up. I got a site here that was understanding this new settlement right. So there's a cap now, 20.5 mil is the allowance or cap you know that teams have to use there. Schools will begin paying student athletes out of that 20.5 mil there. I mean, they can also get their name, image and likeness deals elsewhere, but this is now from the university, so we got that in there. I'm not an expert on this, so I'm just going to read off what I know and react to what I see. So the cap allowance will increase by 4% each year of the 10-year agreement. So it's going to continue to go up with that there, so teams will be able to pay more.
Speaker 1:The settlement terms take effect on July 1st and includes so this is what it's including here back pay to college athletes who competed between 2016 and 2024. That's that $2.8 billion that we're talking about, the $2.8 billion. I can think of a better way to spend the $2.8 billion, but that's just me. Anyways, the $2.8,. So they're going to back pay 2.8 billion dollars to collegiate athletes who competed between 2016 and 2024 for prior usage of their name, image, likeness. So basically, athletes between 2016 and 2024 who complained. Now they get paid right. So there's been enough complaining. But what about 2015? Right, what about the guys? It's just, you're okay, so you're gonna go back to 2016, but you're not gonna go further back, really, really. So, like frank kaminsky I saw, I think he was on, I think he was on twitter and he's like we can't go back one year further, like because he competed back in 2015, it's just, ah, they stopped it at 2016 there, but that's what we see so far.
Speaker 1:There's going to be the elimination of scholarship limits. That's an interesting one. No limits to scholarships, so that's. I mean you're spending out of a pool. Now You're spending out of a pool money. Usually you have a certain amount of scholarships per team. Now I mean you're spending out of a pool of money. So it's whatever. You got left right, the $20.5 million allowance or cap for schools to pay current student-athletes for the usage of that NIL Grandfathered roster limits. Love that NIL Grandfathered roster limits. Athletes currently on teams will be able to finish their careers through their scholarship terms before new roster limits 105 for football take effect. 105 for football Wow, okay.
Speaker 1:In addition to the 20.5 million athletic departments can disperse through their athletic program, student athletes can negotiate outside NIL deals. So this isn't taking away NIL Essentially program. Student athletes can negotiate outside nil deals, so this isn't taking away nil essentially. So, like your, your athletes can still go out and get you know gatorade, whatever. They can still go get their name, image and likeness deals. That's still on the table now. Universities are just paying up directly.
Speaker 1:So it's going to be a question of where does this money get? You know, because I heard somebody talking. They're like, oh well, how much? How much money is marquette gonna get? Right, because they don't have a football team. Because if you think about it, okay, you look at a team, you look at a program like alabama, georgia, right, where's most of the money gonna go football? And then you would say probably alabama. Now would you maybe say, like men's basketball, they've been pretty good. And then maybe I don't know softball, I don't know softball's been relevant over the years georgia will be football first, and then I don't know right, but wisconsin, probably you wouldn't say football's been the most relevant, but football would be your number one and the prime men's basketball would be in their.
Speaker 1:Marquette doesn't have a football team, so they'd be men's basketball, women's basketball. You know these, every one of the programs is going to get a percentage of that money. It's just a question of where is it going to fit right and it's not saying that every team is going to have that share of the money. It's basically saying this is your allowance, but I think it's going to be lesser for teams like that. The lesser amount is going to go. They won't have that full effect there. If you are a Marquette, because you only have that one program, you would have a lot of money to be able to push towards one spot. That 20.5 is basically. So the 20.5 million is athletic departments can disperse through their athletic program. So I think a team, a university like that, would get less, is my guess there. So that's kind of where the the settlement terms were.
Speaker 1:Um, let's see here some of the regulations. A newly appointed college sports commission, csc, will oversee the new system in place that allows schools to share its revenue via the 20.5 and ensure the outside nil deals are fair and comply with the rules. I like that. I think it's gonna bleed. I believe it's a um, a former major league baseball executive price vice president. Yeah, b yeah, brian Sealy was named the CEO of that. So that happened, I believe, last Friday. So I mean we already see. Brian Sealy is going to be the guy I like that. He will see to it that student-athlete NIL deals not associated with the money paid directly by the university be approved by third party Clearing house.
Speaker 1:I don't even that's a big word, I don't even want to try and say it there, but we don't use big words here on the show, trust me, we don't use big words. But I mean you have Okay, so we already have somebody appointed in charge of this. He's basically going to oversee the whole thing. The power four conferences will regulate and enforce player compensation. So you're going to have the SEC, the big 10, the big 12 and the ACC in there too, you're going to have somebody. We already have the guy overseeing it. So I mean that's basically all the quick hitters with the collegiate sports regulation. That's I mean, that's basically it. That's the big thing.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of questions, right, there's a lot of questions coming off that. So what does this do? Is there contracts? Is contracts next? And I think it is. I really do.
Speaker 1:I think honestly, this is going to open up that gate and it might actually kind of it's going to add some parity, I would say, to the league or to the sport. But I think it's going to kind of regulate transfer portal too, because guys won't be as I would say. They wouldn't be as like, oh I'm going to jump here because I can get better deals here the boosters Because boosters are basically not involved in it now. So it's not the boosters anymore, it's going to be the university itself and wisconsin. I mean wisconsin, they bring in money, I'm not they, we're not. Madison's not poor. I mean they're not poor at all. Their athletic programs aren't poor, so they're going to be able to compete with, you know, the big there's. There's no, let the big dogs eat anymore. With this it's going to be sort of similar to like football or there's a cap and you're going to have a lot of teams around that cap. So I I think it's going to be, I think it's a good thing, I think it's actually going to regulate things I do and I think this is going to open up the door for contracts, because now universities are going to want to have that you're, we're paying you now, so now you have to sign a contract to stay here for a year. Now they have that control. It's like savior lucas is like thank goodness, I'm out of madison. Right, I got out of here just in time. I I like it for that fact is that I think it's going to, it's going to open up that door to contracts.
Speaker 1:I feel like this was a thing that should have been involved earlier, in my opinion. We kind of were here, we saw the NCAA, they opened up this floodgate of Transfer Portal, wild, wild, west, everything else. I think this is going to simmer that down. I do. West, everything else. I think this is going to simmer that down. I do. And we're going to see. Just because, okay, say, ohio State is kind of maxed out already. They can't afford to give this five-star quarterback all this money.
Speaker 1:But say a team like I don't know, I was going to throw a random team out here. But say Rutgers has got some money in the bank and they're like, hey, we heard, you want, you know, five mil, I got five mil, want to come play here. I think it's going to even out the playing field a little bit Now. Is it going to just? Is Wisconsin just going to automatically like flip this switch and all of a sudden become this huge contender? Maybe not, but I think it's going to add some. It's going to bring in, I think those years where we saw TCU make it to the championship.
Speaker 1:They got completely demolished, but make it. And I mean we saw a couple of different teams there. We saw what was it. Cincinnati put a run into the playoff there and I mean there's been a couple, you know a couple. Boise State made a run into the playoff even though they didn't fare very well.
Speaker 1:We saw some teams make runs and I think it got the NCAA thinking, hey, what if we made it a little more even? Right, made it a little more even, because otherwise, honestly, end of the day, how is Wisconsin ever going to compete with Alabama, georgia, they weren't. Texas, not a clue. There was no chance, even in men's basketball. I mean Wisconsin, men's basketball has been putting together some consistent years, but, end of the day, did they have the power to go play Duke? Did they have? I mean, right now I don't like Hubie Davis out there with North Carolina, but usually I mean North Carolina has got some powerhouse guys right. Kentucky, were they able to compete with teams like that? Probably not. But now, depending how you divvy up the money, because you only have so much there. So what is it going to be? 75? Well, I don't know what the percentage is going to be that they're going to throw, but now, from the looks of it, you're going to have the ability to even the playing field. So I I'm not I'm not a hater to this.
Speaker 1:I I think honestly, end of the day, end of the day, there's multiple sides of the fence. Some people don't believe that college athletes should be paid, some people don't, some people do, some people are really for it, some are like in the middle. I'm like in the middle. I don't know where I'm at right. I see the benefit to it and I also see the downfall to it. I see the struggles with it and I see the uncertainty and I see the wild, wild west and I see the no regulations and I see the xavier lucas situation. And then I see nigeria four queen who's struggling to get an extra year because he played down in chuko, but xavier lucas can basically just do whatever he wants and just not even abide by the rules and just basically go and nothing comes out of it. The ncaa doesn't blink an eye. Why, I don't know why, do they care so much about nigeria four queen going back to uh, wisconsin there, but xavier Xavier Lucas going down to Miami. There is like nothing, we don't even care. It's like free Xavier Lucas oh boy, shut up, done with that. But either way, there's multiple sides of the fence there and I think, honestly, this brings me close.
Speaker 1:I'm good with guys getting paid. I feel like they should be. Why should the NCAA just profit off of these guys? I don't think that they should be. Why should the NCAA just profit off of these guys? I don't think that they should. I think these guys should be able to be compensated for what they give because, honestly, I think, like you, look at the end of the day, men's college basketball, probably March Madness I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I would say that competes with the NBA and the NBA compensates their guys.
Speaker 1:College football I would say that competes with the nba and the nba compensates their guys. College football I would say that competes with the nfl. At times the nfl gets numbers. I'm not saying they don't, but you see what I'm saying here. College football's got a big following. So does college men's college basketball, especially when it gets march madness.
Speaker 1:You have a lot of people that tune in to watch enemy. College football is so spread out that you, technically, if you put all the numbers together, you probably have a lot of people tuning to watch. So I mean, you, you have the revenue being driven, but why? Why couldn't the players be compensated for that, as you compensate everybody else? And so I'm I'm good and actually this, this makes it better in that way. So, yeah, I that's kind of where I'm at with this one. I I'm good with it. I I'm honestly good with this. I think this is just the start. This is the door opening and I'm gonna look more into this.
Speaker 1:Like I said, maybe maybe I I could have misread something. I just I mean, I went and I did some research on it and that's basically all I saw was some of the settlement terms and everything like that. And you know, I maybe I misread something. So if guys saw it differently 715-990-4914,. I'd love to hear what you guys got to think about this NCAA settlement. What do you guys think about it? 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear what you guys got to say. But I mean, that's kind of where I'm at on it. I think it's opening up new avenues, because I think it's going to help, it's going to possibly lead to different, I would say, contracts and everything like that being introduced into different you know, whatever sport. So I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 1:I really do so when we come back, I want to talk a little bit of Brewers here. We're going to talk Brewers. We're going to talk. We're going to get into the NBA. Later we're going to get into the Packers a little bit today here. I don't know. We're probably going to get Brewers next, maybe Packers. We're going to get into a little bit of everything here. So we are just getting going here. We got a lot more to get to here tonight, so make sure you're coming back. We'll be right back here after this quick commercial break. Welcome back to Wisconsin Sports Time to go with Trage. I'm your host, trage coming back on this Wednesday.
Speaker 1:This next segment of the show here is brought to you by our friends down there at Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, with Scott's in there. If you were injured recently, whether you were, maybe you're out golfing, maybe you were playing men's league softball. I don't know what you're doing. Maybe you were just weeding the garden right and you pull the weed wrong. Maybe you pulled something, I don't know. You got up, you pulled something in your back. Maybe you're starting to push the lawnmower and you just that ripcord just got you and you you need to see a physical therapist. You went to the doctor. They said go see a physical therapist. Go down there and see chad at sport and spine clinic of greenwood, wisconsin. He will get you right. He'll get you back doing whatever you were doing. He'll teach you how to start your lawn more correctly, whatever it is. He'll get you down there. He'll get you feeling better than ever. Sport and spine clinic of greenwood, wisconsin there, don't trust anyone else with your physical therapy needs. Then chad at sport and spine clinic there so went to the break.
Speaker 1:We were talking about that ncaa settlements. I'd love to hear what you guys got to think about that. 715-990-4914 let me know what you're thinking about. The new settlement deal about players being paid directly by universities. The nil deal is, of course, still involved in there. I mean just kind of what your thoughts are about this whole thing and it's I think it's just the beginning. I really do. I think this just just the beginning. Just, we're basically just turning the page right now and there's a lot of book yet to be written there. So we got lots more that is going to happen, I believe, with the ncaa settlement.
Speaker 1:But I want to get into one of the biggest I guess biggest things coming off of this last week weekend whatever since we've last talked right, and that is Jair Alexander is currently I know it's we we're going to bounce around here today on the show that is, jair Alexander being released by the green Bay Packers. So I essentially what we figured out was Jair was on the trading block. Right, he was on the trading block. Nobody wanted to pay that 17 mil, just over 17 mil. That was on his contract. Nobody wanted to take on that for the Green Bay Packers. The Packers didn't want it. Nobody else wanted it. Okay, well then, jair also doesn't want to take a pay cut to stay in Green Bay.
Speaker 1:As we saw, this release was going to happen at that point Because the Packers definitely didn't want to pay him. They didn't want to pay that right. So they tried to get this incentive-based you know, that kind of deal in on him. He didn't want it and you know. You look all over and you look across Twitter and you see, and you look all over and you look across Twitter and you see, was it ESPN Madison that I saw? Or ESPN Milwaukee talking about it and they're like this move just proves that Brian Gutekinds doesn't want to win. No, not at all. Not even in the slightest does this tell me yup, yup Gutekind is he doesn't want to win a championship. That's what this move showed here in this last offseason.
Speaker 1:No, they actually get. They add some cap space. They're going to be on the hook for about 9.5 mil of that contract. They're now more than 45 million under the cap for this next season, $145 million under the cap for this next season. Remove $16.8 million of cap space with that release. That's a lot of money.
Speaker 1:And you know everybody looks at it like, oh, who are they going to go get? Who are they going to go get? This helps them with future deals too, don't just? I mean they can still go. I'm not saying that they won't and I'm not saying that they shouldn't and I'm not saying that they shouldn't. I mean this should open up the avenue for a guy like maybe trey hendrickson, wink, wink right to come over and play for the packers here. But this opens up that avenue to say, okay, now, when quay walker's contract comes up, or, if you want to give that big deal to edgar and cooper when his contract comes up. You're gonna have guys whose contracts are gonna come, come up here pretty soon. You have a lot of young guys and they're going to be off their rookie deals eventually. So this money now helps you in the future too.
Speaker 1:And for the first time in I don't even know how many years the Packers are actually in a good spot with the cap For a while there. I mean remember when Bakhtiari and Rodgers were on the books and those contracts were basically the entire book and you just were kind of trying to fill pieces in around them. Yeah, those days we're not in those days right now. There's actually a decent amount of wiggle room right now for the Packers, and I like it, because when you have a roster with some good talent on it, what can you do with it? Now, with a little bit of room to wiggle? So we'll see. We'll kind of see what it is.
Speaker 1:I just don't like that old Goody's improving with this move. What did you want him to do? Right, if you look back, okay, and I don't want to say you know, oh well, he's injured all the time, because that's going to be the thing, right, he's injured all the time. He is. I mean honestly he is. I saw somebody said he missed 20 of the possible 34 games over the last two seasons. So the Packers have basically become.
Speaker 1:You're going to tell me that last year, like, oh well, the defense got worse because Jair Alexander wasn't there from last year to this year he didn't play. Last year he barely was there. So you're telling me that. Oh, so what? You're speculating now. Yes, is any defense better with an all-pro cornerback in it? 100%, you could bet your butt. But at the same time, you're going to sit here and tell me, oh, the Packers defense got that much worse and we didn't even get to really see it with J Alexander.
Speaker 1:No, this doesn't prove that Goody doesn't want to win a championship. This proves that Goody's not. He's not lost. He's basically cutting ties right, which, okay, your anchor's stuck right. Your anchor's stuck at the bottom of the sea right now and Jaws is coming. Jaws is just coming right. He's coming down the, he's coming through that water and you got to get that anchor off your boat.
Speaker 1:You're gonna cut it or you're gonna leave it. Sit there and just wait and see what happens. You're gonna cut the anchor. You're gonna get rid of that tie. Why keep it on there if it's not doing anything, why are you gonna keep a busted wheel? You just keep it around, right?
Speaker 1:I my grandpa would right, he loved keeping that the random stuff right would be cleaning around the farm or whatever, and he I'd be like oh you know, what do you? What do you want to do with this, two by four, with 9 000 screws in it? Well, we could probably use that someplace else. Just throw it in that pile over there. It's like we're not gonna use it someplace else. But anyways, it's like that. Why are we? Why are we just, oh, we're gonna keep him in the shed just in case he doesn't play. When he's 90 he doesn't play.
Speaker 1:How many times last year did we see jay alexander practice for multiple days and then it seemed like, oh, he's a full go, he's a full go, he's a full practice, full practice. Then all of a sudden he's limited and then doesn't play. He wouldn't go at less than 100. He was. I mean, at one point we thought he was a problem in the locker room and then you have some guys who say he's great and some guys who you know. You look at it and you're like this guy's a problem. We saw him after the season last year. He kind of said, deuces, I'm out, and we thought it was over. Then Most fans thought it was over and then there was the glimmer of hope that he might stay. So now they're all on. Well, we're getting worse because he's gone. Now he was barely here.
Speaker 1:I mean you just I just read off that stat there and that I saw over on Twitter that I mean 20 of the possible 34 games over the last two seasons and you look over the past month. I mean it's just been injuries and been a problem. Nobody's knocking J Alexander the player, because J Alexander when he's out there is fantastic. That interception he had against Dallas in the playoffs not many corners do that. He's great, he's a great corner.
Speaker 1:But could you realistically spend all that money on a guy who's sitting the pine because he's 79% and just can't go? Can you realistically tell me that? As a Packer fan, you're good with that, because how many of you are flipping script now from complaining last year the opposite way? Oh well, you know. Well, he's not out there, so we're going to complain now, but now that we had the potential to bring him back, it's like the guys I'm talking about down there, whatever esp and madison and milwaukee, whatever they are complaining now that goody's not trying to, oh, this just proves he's not trying to win this offseason. What do people just? Is that just? Sometimes I think some guys just want to open up a can of worms just because they can like, let let's throw a hot take out there. Right, he's not trying to win because he doesn't bring Jair back, but he goes out and makes a huge deal for an offensive lineman After they get completely obliterated up front in the playoffs against the Eagles Obliterated.
Speaker 1:If anybody looks back at the Eagles game and says they lost because of their secondary, I'd call you crazy. Yeah, their secondary I call you crazy. Yeah, their secondary could have been better. Sure, your secondary technically got better. Honestly, you replaced Eric Stokes with Nate Hobbs. You got better. You did Like you got better. Just by that move. Would you have been a lot better with Jair? Sure, yes, 100% you would have been, but you got better already. You got better. The pass rush didn't get better. You want to blame something going to the pass rush, but honestly, you look at what the Packers struggled with in the playoff game last year. It was the offensive line.
Speaker 1:What did Goody address. He went and got one of the best guards out there, slid out when Jenkins over, let Josh Myers walk no-transcript because Rasheed Walker's going to need money here pretty soon. So you're hoping that one of these young guys like a Jordan Morgan or a guy like Belton there can fit into a role along that offensive line. Maybe he can dump some of these's out. But Goody's made some moves that everybody's like oh, we're just completely forgetting about them just because, oh, we got Matthew Golden too right. Everybody was complaining that Goody never drafts offense, he never gets a receiver. Then they go and get Matthew Golden and he's not trying to win this offseason. He's not trying to win, he's freeing up cap space by getting rid of an anchor.
Speaker 1:And if Jair plays an entire, honestly I don't hate Jair Alexander. I hope he has a great career wherever he goes. Maybe he comes back to the Packers, maybe they find a way to bring him back. I don't know. Maybe he ends up with the Ravens. I hope that he gets healthy and I hope that he has a great career. I do, I have no problem with Jair. I do, I have no problem with Jair.
Speaker 1:I just think he was injured and you can't just sit here and consistently bring back a guy on that big of a deal who was consistently injured. It's like my complaints with Christian Jelic for the Brewers. Right, christian Jelic, when he bats 200, why can't you complain that he makes more than anybody else on the roster, why can't I? He makes more than everybody else. He should be one of my most consistent, best hitters, but why isn't he producing? Well, maybe he's injured right, he had the back problems. He had all the rest of those problems.
Speaker 1:Jay Alexander, he's one of the best, one of the best corners, I believe, but he's injured. He's injured a lot, that's. I don't want to blame him, but it's a problem. It's exactly the problem, people's problem with christian watson. He's injured all the time. I I just don't get where all these. I mean there's a lot of overreactions to this. Honestly, there's a lot of overreactions. And I mean now they have the third most gap space among NFL teams. We're good Like, let's just take a breath and relax. Let's take a breath and relax.
Speaker 1:So the Jair news that's kind of what I had to say on it. We're going to talk about it more later on in the show. Jair news that's kind of what I had to say on it. We're going to talk about it more later on the show because Ummer is going to be coming on later here. We're going to talk more Packers. So I want to get into it with Ummer. I want to see his thoughts on that Jair situation and then kind of talk about what we see coming out of that, because there's a lot of moves that the Green Bay Packers can make now. I mean there's got like Rasul Douglas got a potential maybe reunion with him if he's not too upset at the Green Bay Packers. So maybe they try to make a move like that. Maybe we see the Packers kind of target a guy like Trey Hendrickson who's looking for more money out there in Cincinnati. Maybe they try to make a deal for him.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of moves that could be made yet in this offseason and we're already kind of. You know why are we pointing fingers already? It's not even the season yet. According to Halfley and the boys, the defensive line will be better If they can fix it in-house with that defensive line, because we saw Kenny Clark he was banged up last year and then Rashawn Gary. He had his own problems and then we had, you know, lucas Van Ness had his problems the mental block, with his hand being hurt. That's what he said. So I mean, if that's I talked about that last week. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but maybe the defensive line fixes itself, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But you have cap space now you have. You have gonna have to pay. Guys, we're gonna see all that. You, you gotta have the cap room because, darn, you need it. So I this move, I'm good. I'm good. I think we need to take a breath and relax.
Speaker 1:But we're going to talk to Umber about it later.
Speaker 1:We'll get more into it. We'll see what Umber's got to say. We'll talk about that whole thing. So we got lots more to get to today. We got some Packer talk to get to yet with Umber there. Later on we got some NBA finals talk. I want to get Kyle with because the NBA finals just seen up, we're seeing Oklahoma City. It's weird that it's so spread out. I'll talk about that with Kyle. So we're going to get into that a little bit here. Later on in the show we got tons of Brewer talk to get to, because Brewers, they had a rough weekend there with Padres. I want to get into that. They got the Braves.
Speaker 1:Right now we're going to get into tonight here. We got a whole bunch of stuff to get to, so we'll be right back here. We're going to wrap up the hour and then we're going to get next hour. We got a whole boatload. We got two hours. We're just in hour one. We got two hours yet, so we got more to get to here tonight on the show. So make sure you're coming back here. We'll be right back here after this quick commercial break here.
Speaker 1:Welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage, coming back on this wednesday. And hey, this next segment of the show here is brought to you by a fantastic sponsor and that is marshfield motor speedway, the half mile paved track just three miles west of marshfield on county road h. Find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom, that is, marshfield speedwaycom. There.
Speaker 1:If you want to find us across social media, make sure you're doing it Facebook, twitter, tiktok, youtube and Twitch. You want to find us on Twitter, twitch and TikTok. Search Wisco Sports on the go. You want to find us on Facebook and YouTube. Search Wisco Sports on the go with Trage. You can also email us.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're a business out there, a local business, and you want to sponsor the show here. You want to get your name across the radio and grow with us here on 92.3 WOSQ. Make sure you're emailing us WiscoSportsOnTheGo at gmailcom. That is WiscoSportsOnTheGo at gmailcom. Or you can shoot us a text. Or if you're just, I mean a fan of the show and you want to talk sports, we can talk sports there. 715-990-4914. That is four nine one four. That is seven one five, nine nine zero four nine one four. So I've talked about a little bit.
Speaker 1:Um, we are partnering with a it's a non-profit donation group or not, well, a not not-for-profit charity group. Essentially, warm kids wisconsin. You can find across social media instagram, facebook, twitter, wherever tiktok they got mean, he makes a ton of TikToks and they're. Some are funny, like I, I get a chuckle out of it, right, I get. I say LOL, tits, right, laughed out loud. Then I stopped. That's what I get a lot of LOLs out of, but anyways, anyways, that's. You know me, dad jokes, whatever, but you can find them across there at Warm Kids Wisconsin. They're. They're at Warm Kids Wisconsin. They're currently in the process of having a website built.
Speaker 1:So what essentially Warm Kids Wisconsin is is they are a non-for-profit group that they work with elementary schools around. They're in central Wisconsin right now but they're trying to expand right and the thing that they need to expand is help. They need donations, they need help and they need elementary schools to let them in. So if you're an elementary school or you know of an elementary school or you know of kids who need some warm clothes in the winter because this time of year I know it's getting technically warm it's not really that warm out yet, but anyways it's warmer weather, so we're not really worried about the cold. But at some point we know that the cold's coming back and you know that kids. We know that we can't handle the cold. Those kids definitely can't and they need some warm clothes. And that's what the mission is at Warm Kids Wisconsin. They help elementary schools, they help different programs, provide new boots, snow pants, whatever these kids need. They help get it there.
Speaker 1:You go onto their Facebook page. You get to the link tree on there. You can click that. You can go to wherever their donation site there and you can donate money. You could go to the Amazon. You can get to their wishlist. If you know how that works, you can get on Amazon. Go to the wishlist. You can order the stuff directly to them, whatever they're looking for right then sizes, different things. They have them on that wishlist and you can get it for them and you can help those kids. They have different kinds of events that they host. So make sure you're checking them out on TikTok, on Facebook, anywhere any one of those sites. And when you get there I know they have a disc tournament that they're going to be in. I'm not much of a disc thrower, but they have a disc tournament that they're going to be hosting out there and all those profits are going to go towards that.
Speaker 1:So they do a ton of stuff and we're going to be doing something here with Foreman's, with Casa M, with Warm Kids Wisconsin. We're going to have something brewing for you guys later on here this summer, a little bit of a grill out kind of thing. So make sure you're staying tuned for that one there. We'll do a little donation at that too. So make sure you guys are checking them out, warm Kids Wisconsin across all your social media platforms out there. Help a kid, stay warm this winter, that's what matters. End of the day, that's what matters. Helping somebody, help a kid, that's all that matters when it comes down to it.
Speaker 1:So we are just getting started. This one hour down, one hour down, one hour to go here. We got tons to get into yet tonight. Here we're going to have Kyle stopping by. We're going to talk NBA finals. We got tons of talk to get to with the NBA finals. We got some more brewer talk. We're going to get brewers cooking here after the top of the hour and then later on tonight we're going to have ummer stop by. We're going to talk back. So we got a boatload of things to get to yet tonight. Here we are just getting rolling. We got one hour of wisconsin sports on the go to get to yet tonight here. So make sure you are coming back here after the top of the hour. We'll be right back here on wisconsin sports on the go trade.
Speaker 1:Welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trade. I'm your host, trade. We're coming back for hour two of the show here. And hey, I told you guys we're going to talk Brewers after the top of the hour. And then Kyle's like no way, man, I'm coming on, I'm ready to go, we're going to talk NBA Finals. So I was like okay, okay, we'll put the Brewers on pause. Kyle's coming on, so we got Kyle coming on here. We're middle of the week, we're feeling frisky. How's it going tonight?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm good. You know it's like the unofficial start of summer. We're past Memorial Day. The finals are. You know, we're in the midst of the finals. It could be a great series, I don't know. But yeah, I can't complain.
Speaker 1:The fun dog days of summer for sports, where the baseball is about the only thing that's happening and everything else is just speculations, rumors and everything else in between, and it is awesome. That is our favorite time of year to talk sports. So this next segment of the show is brought to you by a fantastic sponsor and that is sport and spine clinic of greenwood, wisconsin. Their expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming call for flexible scheduling, scheduling and evaluations. Just call chad down there at sport and spine clinic of greenwood, 715-267-4583. That is 715-267-4583, don't trust anyone else with your physical therapy needs. Then chad at sport and spine clinic of greenwood there.
Speaker 1:So kyle comes on. You guys know what we always do the mellow yellow minute. So make sure you are getting your favorite beverage right now. You're cracking it. I already cracked mine. I'm sorry I right, cracked it, cracked it again. I already cracked my soda, as I always do. So I got my favorite soda. Make sure you got your favorite beverage over there for the Mellow Yellow Minute. The question tonight Trage's favorite barbecue beverages. Last week we did my favorite foods. This week we have favorite beverages. So, kyle, this is tough, this is going to be tough. Last week we had Bratz burgers, potato salad, taco salad, crab salad and pickles. I threw pickles on there last week and you know, kyle, he was all over the place with the ribs and everything. My grandma, she said my list was bogus. So, okay, fine, we'll try to fix it with the drink list this time. So, kyle, what do we got?
Speaker 3:Trage's favorite barbecue drinks. Okay, so I'm going to guess beer of some sort is going to be on there.
Speaker 1:Beer of some sort is on there, kyle. Now, what is Trage's favorite beer that he's got on this list? It is not natterdays.
Speaker 3:Nobody, nobody likes natterdays okay, um, let's go miller oh, okay, I did.
Speaker 1:We went. I went through a phase where I had to drink one. Every time the brewer started a game I had to crack and drink one. I did it for the playoffs last year. My wife's like why do you need Miller? You don't drink Miller. And I'm like, because I'm trying to bring that good voodoo right, I'm just trying to bring that good juju on there, bushlight, bushlight is on there and you know, some people are like that is pee water over there. So kyle, that was number one. Okay, what is?
Speaker 2:let's go top three. What do we got? What do?
Speaker 1:we got for another guest here, trade just top barbecue drinks I'll go with.
Speaker 3:Uh, I'll put like an iced tea, sweet tea type I do like a nice brisk tea.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say lemonade. I was gonna say lemonade, so I will put. We'll put brisk tea in there. I like a nice brisk tea, a nice iced tea. Not, I was gonna say lemonade, so I will put. We'll put brisk tea in there. I like a nice brisk tea, a nice iced tea, not sweet tea. Oh man, I'm not a sweet tea kind of guy the last one.
Speaker 3:I just I got.
Speaker 1:I got a feeling you're not gonna get this one. It's not diet mountain dude no, everybody out there who knows me is like it's diet mountain dude. No, that's not. That's an average day at the ballpark. That's like like my water. We're not talking about diet mode right now. This is another beverage that I would have. I don't have it a lot because I never have the fixings for it. But, kyle, take a random shot in the dark.
Speaker 3:Okay, so it sounds like something you've got to make.
Speaker 1:Oh it's cop. I honestly, if you guessed this, I would be absolutely baffled. I would be baffled.
Speaker 3:I honestly have no idea. So I'm just going to say I know it's not it, but I'll just say a root beer.
Speaker 1:Sadly, it is not a root beer. Sadly, I would take a nice root beer float, though it is a Summer Hummer. A Summer Hummer, it's basically like a lime vodka with a lemonade and a splash of sprite in there. Maybe some orange juice. Oh, it is fantastic. It is. It's dangerous and fantastic. So, yeah, that's my summer drink right there. That's my summer backyard barbecue drink there. So I'd love to hear what your guys's favorite beverages are for your backyard barbecue. Make sure you're texting us 715-990-4914.
Speaker 1:So, kyle, this NBA playoffs. I mean we had some lackluster series leading up into this one. I would say honestly, this wasn't very exciting up until this point. There were a couple games here and there, but it just didn't strike my interest right this final so far. I mean the Pacers. They came back game one, stormed back in game one and took that one over the Thunder, and then the Thunder completely demolished them in game two. They said basically like we've had enough, we're going to put you away in game two. I mean, what has stuck out to you in this series? Split into a game apiece, heading back to the Pacers now here on Wednesday, what has stuck out to you about this series so far?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean game one, we saw the Pacers play kind of undisciplined early on, but the Thunder weren't able to take advantage of it. They shot poorly, they weren't good in transition, they didn't have a lot of points off turnovers, even though they forced the paces into like 25. And they only lost by one. So I felt like for Thunder fans, you didn't want to necessarily panic, because I thought the biggest thing for them was going to be shot selection and just making shots. And that's what we saw in game two. Game two, they improved their field goal percentage from around 39% to 49% and I feel like when the Thunder play efficiently like that, it makes it tougher on the Pacers to keep up with them. Because, look, when I look at these two teams, they are very similar, except for everything you say about the Pacers. The Thunder probably have a slightly better version of it, and I feel like that's what we're going to see in this series is whether or not the Pacers can take care of the ball and keep the Thunder out of transition and force them to be less efficient. Because, also, game one, they didn't get a lot of points in the paint, but then, game two, the Thunder lived in the paint. So we're going to have to see what Rick Carlisle does in game three to kind of offset what happened in game two. Because if they get a repeat performance of game two, the Thunder can win in Indiana. There's a reason why they were the best team in the NBA.
Speaker 3:Going on the road is not that big of a deal for them. So the Pacers will have to play really fast at home, utilize that crowd, keep the crowd invested and then they have a shot. The Thunder are very dangerous when they take that first lead. If you don't match their intensity they'll turn six oh to 10. Oh and then momentum's, you know, fully on their side. So you know Indiana is going to have to get better game out of Halliburton. Halliburton had a decent game One, game two, three wasn't really uh, existent in that game until late. He's gonna have to be locked in from jump in game three I was just looking at the box score after this.
Speaker 1:Um, I didn't realize that the thunder had two guys named jaylen williams, just spelled different. That's wild, that is absolutely wild to me. Like jaylen williams, just one's got a y and then, and the other one's J-A-L-E-N. I mean stupid, but I just thought that was wild. I thought that was crazy. I was going to mention that. You know, watching that game I don't know what it is about this playoffs, but sometimes the stars just all of a sudden just disappear. Albert is supposed to be a star, right, he's supposed to be this guy who's building himself to be a star, and yet in this game he went away. We saw, uh, early on in the playoffs Jokic went away. Jimmy Butler went away. For the Warriors it was just Anthony Edwards went away. He wasn't taking shots. It's like why? Right? And in this game, where the Thunder needed it, shea Gildress, alexander was like he's pulling shots from everywhere. I mean normally he's. You know, for me, watching him, he's more of a, he's scorer, but he's a facilitator too. He's not always hunting that shot. This game here he was hunting a shot. Every time down the floor he was hunting a shot and I thought that was a big difference, I would say, for me. I don't know if you saw the same thing like you were mentioning. There is Tyrus Halliburton kind of went away.
Speaker 1:I thought it was the flip side for the Thunder in this one it was Shade Gildress, Alexander. He was hunting shots and you saw other guys get involved in there too. Chet Holmgren was fantastic on the defensive end. He was huge for him on the defensive end. But even a guy like Jalen Williams, he was getting after it down there on the offensive end and he was taking big-time shots. They were getting to the free-throw line. I thought that was huge too, getting that free-throw line.
Speaker 1:You see that percentage for him in that game. I mean they were what? 29 for 33. I mean it's hard to beat a team when they shoot that many free throws and they shoot it that consistent. So I, you know, is it, is it the pacers? Just they, they got this. They sucker punched the thunder, but the thunder just I mean they didn't waver, they just came back. The next time they're like okay, now maybe we took the gas pedal off in game one and we allowed the pacers, because pacers are a team that if you give them breathing room, 20 ain't enough. It wasn't you know kind of that there, where they put that gas pedal down in game two, game one.
Speaker 3:They kind of took it off I mean no, because I think, not to discredit what the pacers did at all.
Speaker 1:I don't want to discredit it, but it just seemed like this intensity that they played with the thunder in game two just seemed like it was start to finish, Whereas in game one it was start halfway through to win away and then came back at the end when it was too late. The Pacers were already back in it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the problem in game one was I thought the Thunder had a really good game plan where they got the ball out of Tyrese Halliburton's hands early on in the possession and then made it difficult for the Pacers to get the ball back in his hand. The problem with game one you can't force 24, 25 turnovers and only score 10 points off of them. That's where the Thunder fell short in game one, like if they had cleaned that up and did better on the turnovers, they'd win game one probably easily. So with that, even with the paces and all those turnovers, the paces were never like too far out of it. They always kind of hung around like a 10-point deficit and then in the fourth their three-point shooting really took off and that's how they got the lead.
Speaker 3:Game two was probably more like how most people saw this series going, where the Thunder are just really good at getting to their spots, they're really good at forcing fouls and getting to the free throw line, where they're a really good shooting team.
Speaker 3:But the key is that the Thunder can throw more people at Halliburton than necessarily the Pacers can throw at SGA. So that's why Carlisle has to kind of decide how he's going to pick his poison and stop everybody else, or you lock in on SGA and you live with other guys possibly beating you, like Dort or Caruso or Chet, one of these guys. So that's the tough part On Indy's part, whereas if you're the Thunder, you're just like we just play our game and we don't lose focus. We should win the series and that's like the dynamic in this, because you've got to remember the Pacers as well. This is their first time on this stage, but the Thunder have the pressure of being the favorite and it's just them kind of taking that pressure and utilizing it to play better and not let it consume them and get out from what their game plan is and their identity.
Speaker 1:Did the Thunder switch? Because they switched up that starting lineup. Right, Hartenstein was in there and then they pulled him back right and they switched up that starting lineup. Was that the case in game two? I was trying to look back and see what they had in game one. There I wasn't I wasn't 100 positive on that. I thought they switched the starting lineup to. Going into that. Let me just double. I was going to double check that quick there. I don't want to do this on air. But no, no, they did not, did they? Yeah?
Speaker 3:let's say they, they kept it. The only thing was game one. What did they change? There was a switch from like what they had been doing. They started Case and Wallace game one and he started a lot during the regular season, but the postseason, that's what it was.
Speaker 1:The game one. They switched it with Case and Wallace.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:I had seen something where they were switching things up there going into this series, so I kind of it's worked out so far. The office has been flown right now for the thunder there. So I had a question for you. I know we're getting, uh, a little tight on time here, but I had a question for you. We've seen a lot of people talk about this, I know they. I was listening to dan patrick talk about it there a little bit and I've heard a couple different shows talk about it.
Speaker 1:But the way that they spread out this finals and I get, I get it right, you're trying to get the most bang for your buck. You, in case it's a sweep, you want to have it extend as long as possible because you want to profit as long as you can. But this just seems excessive. I mean, what? What do we? What was last? They just played on what sunday? Was it sunday there that they just played this last game? It was sunday and then it was before that it was Thursday, wasn't? It was Thursday or Friday to Sunday, and now it's Wednesday to Friday and then they won't play again until that next Monday and if they need it, they'll play the next Thursday and if they need it again, game seven's gonna be on the Sunday. I I get. You know, you want to have healthy bodies and you're getting late in the season and you want to have rest and everything else.
Speaker 1:But I think almost sometimes to me, the NBA, they want to profit, they want to extend things out because they think it's going to be better. But I think sometimes also the drag also makes it worse for fans. Right, because you're so excited, you're so hyped. Right, the Pacers say they take, they take game three. And then like how do you ride momentum into game four when it's two days later? Or how do you ride momentum back to okc if you win? Say the pacers win both games. Right, they're up three to one.
Speaker 1:I I don't know if that's gonna happen, but they're up three, one going back for game five and okc, that's. I mean you're talking friday to monday. You have three days off if you're the thunder to relax, to calm yourself down, to get back at it, to practice and get everything. It's like I don't know if you can really ride momentum in a series that spread out, because even between games, I mean you're playing at the Pacers Wednesday, you have a day off, then you play Friday. There's no back-to-backs, there's no nothing. I get you want to have healthy bodies, but, kyle, I mean, what do you think about this? Do you think there's a happy medium?
Speaker 1:I feel like there's a happy medium, not a two-week span happy medium like it looks like right now but, like, maybe spread it out over a week and a half, maybe over a week, bring it a little bit closer.
Speaker 3:What do you think? I mean, I think you know obviously best case would probably work that way, but the way that they do it now is, if you're in the same city, obviously games one and two and then three and four they give you that automatic day in between because they don't want teams playing back-to-back after such a long season in the finals. So that part is not going to change the Friday to Monday thing. That's because they have a travel day in there. So you already get the built-in day off after the game, then you get the travel day, then you get possibly the next game.
Speaker 3:So, unfortunately, I think this is kind of what it's going to be, because the NBA is like the last thing we'll need is some guy, you know, with some soft tissue injury or something because they got overworked in a tightly compacted final series, and then fans will be like, oh, we would have won if so-and-so didn't, whatever. So there's probably no perfect schedule for it. Also, you know you have the Stanley Cup finals kind of working in the same time. I'm sure the NBA doesn't want to necessarily step on that, you know, too many nights, because you're kind of splitting the sports fan base possibly, even though I don't know if there's a lot of you know NHL fans trying to watch the NBA or NBA watching the NHL, but you never know. Yeah, sports fans, because at this point some sports fans probably tune into nhl just to see who's gonna win it all. Something's happening.
Speaker 1:They just want to watch some kind of live sport, because right now it's just baseball really is all that's happening. No, I, I could. I could definitely see what you. I could see where you're coming from. I just it's like you almost for me, because I'm not a huge nba fan everybody knows that I'm more college basketball. You lose interest If you spread it out too far.
Speaker 1:I forget, I forget. Because it's Friday to Monday. I'm like when do they play next? Then I got to look again. It's like, oh my gosh, not until Monday. Okay, what am I supposed to do? Weekends are those times where it's like, if you're a Bucs fan on a Sunday, because Sunday Packers fans go to the bars like it's no other, but if you get weekends going, especially in Milwaukee, it's pandemonium right, because you're going to have a lot of people on the boat. If you get those Mondays, it's like when the national championship for college basketball is on a Monday at 8 o'clock at night and it's like who's watching that If your team's not in it? Who's staying up that late to watch the entire thing of Gonzaga taking on North Carolina? It's like nobody cares, like it's just it's hard to keep some fans, I guess, in tune when you stretch it out so far, and I guess that's where my worry would be if I was, you know, an NBA official. But they think they got her eighth rep, so we'll see what happens there.
Speaker 3:So, Kyle.
Speaker 1:I mean just wrapping it up here for the segment, but Giannis looks like he's staying in milwaukee as far as we saw. He basically said you know, I hope to be back in the finals and it's going to be with the bucks. So yannis is coming back. Look like brooke. Looks like brooke lopez is probably not coming back and it looks like bobby is going to opt in. So bobby's going to be back, probably going to get porter back is what the talks are, what the looks are from what I'm seeing. And then Giannis is going to be back. So I'm liking what I'm seeing out of the Milwaukee Bucks right now. But, kyle, I got to run here. I'm late for a break. Goodness gracious, I'm late for a break once again. We always get talking about the finals and everything else and I have a list of things I want to talk about and it's like, all right, we're going to wait until next time.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, you can just, I guess, look for me chomping at the bit uh, easiest place would probably be youtube and then go to go out to my about section, see links to all my other social media. I'm on, you know, twitter, or x, I guess, whatever you call it. Uh, you know, follow the tumblr, facebook, like it's. It's all there, so I did read on his tumblr.
Speaker 1:The other day, guys, I told you I was gonna figure out what tumblr was. I did? I looked it up. I read his stuff great stuff. You can learn a boatload and he's got links on his tumblr that takes you to youtube to watch his videos, to learn something out there learn about what's going on with stefan diggs and everybody else out there. It is. He's got great content, so make sure you're checking out there, kyle. Thank you.
Speaker 1:As always, we'll be back here after the break. Umber might be jumping on or we're gonna talk brewers one of the two. Either way, we're gonna be back here in a quick minute. We're gonna go to the break. We're gonna come back. We got more to get to tonight here, so make sure you're coming back on wisconsin sports on the go with trage. Welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I host Trage coming back on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment, ummer is on. I told you, guys Kyle was just on. I said we might get some brewers. I don't know, maybe Ummer's going to be here. You know my guests. They just kind of show up at random. They're just like hey, I'm here, let's go. So Ummer's here now after takes on.
Speaker 1:Some of this Packer news is brought to you by Foreman's Hardware and, as I mentioned earlier on in the show, and if you missed any part of the show early on, make sure you're listening back next day on every podcast platform you can find on Apple Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. You can find the show out there Wisconsin Sports on the go trade. But this coming weekend, the 14th and I think it's the 13th and 14th is this weekend yes, yes, that sounds right. Visit foreman's friday and saturday when casa m spice company will be our featured spice. They stop in and sample these great texas-based spices. So casa m is coming on as one of our sponsors of the show. So we're gonna have foreman's in casa m coming on. Well, foreman's already out, but we're gonna have casa m coming on as a sponsor. So I they're going to have a pickle relish is what they're going to do with the spices there, and then they're going to make up some burgers and some brats down there. I'm going to be down there, no doubt in my mind. I'm going to be down there getting some free samples. So make sure you're down there.
Speaker 1:I use Kassam on everything for everything. They're out of Texas down there. They are fantastic. They're no sodium, no sodium, so it's different. It's really different. No salt in there. You know a lot of seasonings. They use a lot of salt. No salt in there, so it's a different kind of spice.
Speaker 1:So make sure you're checking it out. They're interesting, they're great. You really I didn't know about them at first. I didn't know as tinkering with the amounts, but once I got the amounts down and everything, they are fantastic. So make sure you are getting down to Foreman's in Loyal Colby or Metford, wisconsin, coming up this weekend, friday and Saturday. There will be many great specials both days as a customer appreciation. So there's going to be a lot of great specials on lawnmower, everything in between. Don't miss gracious, everything down at the store. Make sure you're checking them out and then make sure you're telling them I sent you 5% off, bam, just like that. Get a great deal, get 5% off, can't beat it. Get free samples, great spices. Make sure you're getting them down there at Foreman's Hardware coming up this weekend here.
Speaker 1:So Umber how we doing. It is Wednesday. We're at the middle of the week. It's been a weird week because of all this weird stuff happening. The Packers over the last 20-some 48 hours have just been baffling. So how have we been personally, how have you been? And then we'll get to what the Packers are doing right now.
Speaker 2:It's been a crazy week. It's been a crazy literally. The week just started and it's been a crazy week. So I had some stuff going on, some personal stuff, but all in all not too bad, I can't complain. Yeah, the Packers are on little bit less in cap space.
Speaker 2:We cut Jair when I was the biggest proponent, for a week in and week out, hoping that they were going to make this work out and they were going to find a way to be amicable and bring him back. And we'll have to now wait to see where Jair ends up, because that's going to be a tough pill to solve if he stays within division. And then, on top of that too, I feel like we have, uh, sam shields 2.0 in the making, with bow melton turning from wide receiver to corner. Uh, people are talking about travis hunter and jacksonville and I'm saying, hey, guess what, we have bow melton at home and so we're gonna see if he's gonna play both ways.
Speaker 2:But, um, the biggest argument I will say is that if you take his workout, uh, when he came out of ruggers, and you put it into map bombs, brass, you know relative athletic score, uh little calculation thing for a corner, he actually matches up to be a very good athletic corner, similar to actually a little bit better than his brother who went in the second round, uh, but for the Cardinals it was a starting corner for them. So honestly, uh, my head's on a swivel right now, considering the fact that just everything that's going on and I really don't know if not to hate on goody by any means, but sometimes I do kind of wonder if he flies by to see if his pants. So yeah, I'm, I'm with you, man. Um, I can keep going, but how are you doing, is the question, because that that last commercial you just gave made me hungry, so now I'm not figuring out how much I can eat.
Speaker 1:I'm doing good. I'm doing good, as always. I mean, he's jumping the gun out here. He's like we're going to talk about everything.
Speaker 2:So I want to talk about let's start with that Jair news.
Speaker 1:So Jair Alexander's release we talked about it. If you missed my rant about it, it's not really a rant, just what I had to think about it early on in the show. Make sure you're listening back on podcast next day tomorrow. You can listen across all podcast platforms. Find the show there. You can find what I had to say. But I mean umber gyres, let go. Now you open up that. You know some funding, right, you got. You got some cap space freed up. I love to see it. Um, a lot of packer fans. They're kind of in the same boat as you. They were and you know you get those ones where they were. Well, we don't need him. After last season they're like, oh, I hope he goes away, right, and then all of a sudden, there was a glimmer of hope that he was going to come back.
Speaker 1:So they're like oh, I want him back right. And then all of a sudden he's gone and they're like well, how did you let him go?
Speaker 1:oh my god it's like you gotta stop flipping all over the place like did you want him, do you, you not? What was the deal? What was it not? It was incentive-based, but what were the incentives? What were you going to give this guy? Was it a real like a huge pay cut?
Speaker 1:Because Jair is still a pretty darn good corner and he could probably go get his money elsewhere in a proven contract. So I mean, where were you at with this deal? Because you listen to it and I mentioned, like ESPN Milwaukee I believe that's the one down there they were losing their marbles about this because they said that, you know, goody was this just proved he wasn't trying to win a championship and it was. I mean just baffling me because I don't think this was a move that was. You know, I'm not going to win a championship because honestly, like I said earlier on the show, I think you you got better already in the secondary nate hobbs over top of eric stokes. You already got better and you got keishon nixon back, you got karen to valentine. You added a lot of young guys. Now kaylin king apparently is walking around in a cast, so I have no idea what happened there, but bo mellon's moving over to corner. So that's fine, right. And I mean we've seen him on special teams and he does a darn good job on special teams, so maybe it is one of those.
Speaker 1:Bo Mellon can switch out. He wasn't going to make it as a wide receiver on the roster, so this was his only shot to make the 53. And if it works out for him, it works out for him At the end of the day. Honestly it sounds crazy and I know it's weird timing, because it's like Jair walks and then all of a sudden next day Paul Melton's playing cornerback and you're like was this the fix? And it's like no, is this the plan? The whole time and it's like I hope not. But it's just it's bad timing, I think. Honestly, end of the day, but I really do think. I mean it's good to have depth and I think Paul Melton could be a guy to flip over, so it's not bad.
Speaker 1:It's not bad there, but what were your thoughts coming off? I mean, you gave a little bit there but remember, we've got to keep it PG on the radio here. We've got to keep it PG on the radio, but what were some of your thoughts there coming off? That Jair release, I mean good, bad. Is it like the end of the world, like apparently ESPN, some of the different radio stations are making it scene is at the end of the world? Health, terror or what?
Speaker 2:Oh man, Well, first my bad. If I dropped a bad word there, that's my fault.
Speaker 1:I don't think you did. I don't think you dropped a bad word.
Speaker 2:I don't think I did but I can see where you're going. Because you're right, though, because when it comes to Kyle Ben and Brust Ben Br, they are very much click-baity. They troll a lot. I do feel why some people resonate with what they're saying, and it's because not that I agree with him. Making this move means that Goody's not trying to win a Super Bowl. I don't think that's true. We're just so used to seeing these other teams like the Philadelphia Eagles, the Chiefs and even, for that matter, the Bills and other teams that make certain moves that show they're trying to move the needle in the positive direction, right, and we're not seeing that with green bay. They kind of do this very much like, hey, the tried and true method, you know, slow and steady, it's worked for us before. It worked for us again. You know we have all this cap money.
Speaker 2:I think what you've mentioned previously and when it comes to us losing jair, to me is, yeah, you do lose a guy who hasn't played much in the last couple years, but we both said when he's out there, he's one of the best, right, and I was definitely in that yo-yo phase of like I always wanted him back, and the fact that it was hope really upsets me and for them not to be able to come to some kind of decision to where a contract would be structured. Because that's what the problem was was like it was an incentive-based contract but it wasn't structured the way he wanted. I'm assuming he didn't get enough guaranteed money and his defense he's like well, I earned the contract that you're trying to restructure me out of, so then why am I going to take less money? Okay, that's fine. It'll be really interesting to see what he gets in the open market. Uh, but I think you may have discussed this in the past where, if you had an idea, you're about 60 40 leaning that gyre wasn't going to be back.
Speaker 2:I felt like you should do a lot more than continually draft two corners in the seventh round, and I understand that you fortify your line and you do certain moves like that. But these last two drafts are very, very corner driven with a lot of good talent that could have stepped in and probably start. I mean you could have. We're literally got bill melton playing right now. We could have easily had Max Melton playing corner for us last year. I mean there was opportunities to get a lot of great corners in the last two drafts that we decided to wait.
Speaker 2:Kaelin King, a great talent, began in the seventh round because he had a poor final year when he was at Penn State and, yeah, he's walking around right now with a broken wrist. That with a broken wrist that's why he has a cast on his right arm. And then you got Micah Robinson, you know, seventh round pick out of Tulane and, who knows, maybe the draft board didn't fall the way they wanted to. I have to admit like it is a little concerning just to see us make a move with a player who I know a lot of people are very like divisive on. But I just feel, like you know, he was Go, he's first, first pick ever as a gm. Uh, we all fell in love with him. We know that he's a top three corner when he's out there playing um and I felt like I'm just that guy who just is like you know what, like the definition of insanity. Like you know, I'm gonna keep trying the same thing and hope for a different result.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna keep trying jire out there and hope he's gonna play 17 games yeah, and unfortunately that hasn't happened and that's the hard part, and that's where I talked about earlier cutting the boat anchor off. I just said, sometimes you just got to, as much as it might suck, as much as it might seem logical, maybe to keep them there, right, because it was always that glimmer of hope and that's the big thing that you were talking about. It's that glimmer of hope. It's like, okay, if he does play, if he does play, wow, look at this defense. But if he doesn't, then we're paying him 17 mil to sit there.
Speaker 1:And that's the hard part. That's the hard part to stomach, because you are trying to. Now you're going to start paying the young guys, and that's where I think a lot of this money is going to go, and a big one for me. Elton jenkins is back at practice now, but he's not practicing, yeah, so he's waiting for that contract extension. He's waiting for that money, right, he's waiting for that money in there because he's holding things to hold out.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, exactly and I think because goody said well, now we got some money, expect some things to be happening here. I think that's one of them. I think they're going to use this money that they got from jair. They're going to get him paid up. We know quay walker's probably going to be looking at an extension here pretty soon. Dav Devontae Wyatt's probably going to be in that same boat. You have some receivers who are going to be in that same kind of area here pretty soon. So you have a lot of young guys who are going to be up and your hope is that Zach Tom, you're hoping that, anthony Belton and Jordan Morgan, you're hoping those two guys come to being something right, because then Rashe walker doesn't get an extension. Rashid walker, you go I'm sorry, buddy, you played great.
Speaker 1:We love you. You've done fantastic, but it's a business. See you later. That's kind of where I'm at with it right now is that you're gonna do a lot of these things. A lot of people saw the cat money. They're like oh, who do we go get? Who do we go get?
Speaker 3:now and it's like okay, hold on pump the brakes, pump brakes.
Speaker 1:We now have money. For the first time since we got David Bagtiare and Aaron Rodgers off the books, we finally look good. I think we have the third most cap space in the NFL as of right now. So it's like you have that money to spend, but also you don't want to get. You don't want to be all of a sudden, you don't want to start losing guys like that. So goody's got to be smart with it and I think he will be. You make some of those interesting moves right. Maybe you're with sewell douglas, maybe you see if he he doesn't hate us right now and maybe he comes back right. You try to make one of those moves where it's an under the radar, not a huge flashy guy, but, uh, a solid ad. You know, trey henderson I don't know, can you afford a trey henderson contract, what he really wants at an extension I don't know I I have no idea what his extension or what what he's asking.
Speaker 1:I haven't looked into that much but I would imagine, as good as he's been, it's gonna be a pretty hefty asking price. Can you afford to load up that portion and maybe take away from what you're able to do with your wide receiver core, because you have a lot of guys in there who are going to have contracts coming up. You're going to have a lot of offensive linemen. You're going to have a lot of linebackers. You're secondary. Right now you're cheap with your secondary. What are they going to be asking for at some point here? Xavier McKinney, uh, whenever his contract I don't even know what his contract is, but whenever that comes up, eventually there you're gonna have guys contracts coming up.
Speaker 1:I I don't think you get willy-nilly with, but I mean, where are you at right now? You got that extra cap space, all right, if I. I think it's a pipe dream. I know a lot of people were like, oh, now that they have this trey hendrickson hello, tj watt hello and it's like oh boy, like I'm gonna be the bearer of bad news to you guys, I hope so. Right, wait, wait, I hope go get them right. But at the same time, I'm like I don't foresee that. I mean, we, we essentially drafted two corners in the seventh round. Do you think goody's going out to grab one of the premier pass rushers in the league? I, I hope so, but I don't think so. So where, where are you at right now with this extra cap space? What are you thinking? What are they going to do?
Speaker 2:I think you nailed them all. I mean, I feel like you know, the one thing that they always say that packers always do is when they, when they sign their own players. The argument is that, oh, they're just signing their own players, and reality is they're just. They are signed free agents or potential free agents that just signed their guys that before they hit the market right, and, um you know, zach thomas has to buy his contract here, uh, actually, uh, during otas, and he's just like, hey, I'm just waiting for that to play out. So I'm pretty sure this money's gonna open up you. You nailed them all, wyatt quay.
Speaker 1:I think with wyatt, they may wait out to see yeah, it's gonna be a play it out because they got those two stackhouse and uh, who's the other guy? Brinson, brinson yeah, two guys from georgia. So it's gonna be if those guys produce yeah, colby wouldn't look like he gained like huge man 300 now, like he came in at 278 he looks like you move a house and then something like he looks he looks, yeah, I'm like all right.
Speaker 2:Well, if you get him to like 293 hundred, yeah, like for him to play nose tackle, he's gonna get had to get kenny clarkway, which is like roughly around, like, say, clark, I think plays around 330, 320. So you got to get a little bit bigger. But I'm telling you like it's one of those things where if they make a move like trey hendrickson, you're like all right, um, you make that move. You do make people kind of forget about the gyre thing. But again, I don't see the packers operating that way. If anything, I could see the eagles, because they just do crazy stuff anyways. I can see them trade for tj watt. I can see them trade for freaking hendrickson hell. I can see them pick up gyre too, because christian parker christian parker, the, I think, assistant that we had in our defense group he's a DB coach there and I could see him trying to go play with him. But I'm with you, I think they're going to probably spend that money in-house. They're going to carry some of that money over for next year.
Speaker 2:I don't know if Elton's going to get a new contract, but I think they're going to restructure in a way to where he gets the majority of the money in his current contract the majority of the money in his current contract, I feel like Elton is the dude that deserves a third contract. That's a scary thing, right, because the guys that do get third contracts are the ones that normally get banged up, like D-Bock Rodgers and then now Kenny Clark. Every single one of them got a third contract. Every single one of them got hurt. So I don't want to wish ill will, because I love my man, elton Jenkins. I love him to death.
Speaker 2:But if anyone's going to be playing center and he just wants to get his money, I would give it to him. I'd make it work. I think they're going to try to do that and try to see if Jacob Monk can take over that job in a couple years, right, but he's a natural center out of Duke, right? So that makes sense. I'm with you, though. They're going to find a way to make that money work in. If they did something crazy and went for someone like I know Jalen Ramsey's out there. I don't want anything to do with Ramsey. I understand Ramsey's a hot name, he's a hot corner, but I just he's a hot man.
Speaker 1:He's worse than Jair.
Speaker 2:Honestly, and I just don't think he performs that well on the field. I don't feel like he's a lockdown corner like Jair was, or like when you see guys like AJ Terrell, you see the Trent McDuffie's out of Kansas City. These are the kind of dudes that will lock you up. Like you know, that's it. Like you know. Even and I hate to admit it Jalen Johnson. Jalen Johnson pisses me off. He's on the Bears, right, but the guy can play Like I'm not saying he's he's probably a top-ten corner, but those are guys that actually have the. When they put lock down and they take over half a field. How, like Richard Sherman needs to do that back in the day. You know, those are the kind of guys doing Joe Ramsey. I feel like it's just not that guy.
Speaker 2:You know, I agree and I feel like last thing I feel like if we do invest in the in the pass rush, I 100% feel then that'll make the secondary look a little bit better. I'm holding out hope that Carrington Valentine just keeps going in the right direction.
Speaker 3:I'm not following the hops.
Speaker 2:Nate hops to me I feel like is, uh, he's like a dog kind of player he has. He has a dog in him. I feel like he's very, very like um c ball get ball kind of guy. Uh, his injuries do concern me. He's always had injuries and when he was over there and I don't feel like I feel like we got a lesser version of jayu with the same injury history to a certain degree with him no, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 1:I just say, I just say it's an improvement over Eric Stokes. That's all I got to say. Oh, 100% that I agree, that I 100% agree.
Speaker 2:He unfortunately set a low bar after he got hurt. Before he got hurt he had so much potential, so much potential.
Speaker 1:He just lost foot speed when he got hurt and that was the biggest problem. So, umber, I got to run. I mean we got holy crap, we ran long again, but that's okay, I got to run here, but I'm going to let everybody know where to find you out there, of course, man, just find me on Twitter at AMER3455.
Speaker 2:Find us on Coast to Coast Packers on Game On Wisconsin, normally weekly. We missed last week, just had some stuff going on, but we're trying to get back this week. We're going to try to touch on things that are going on. When it comes to the drilling, you know the seven on seven, 11 on 11 drills. We're seeing some real good command by Jordan Love and I know it's, you know it's mini camp, but people are saying that he looks like it's his offense and people weren't really saying that the last two years, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
Speaker 1:Love to hear it. Love to hear it. Make sure you guys check out. I'm in there, make sure you guys are checking out coast to coast Packers. We'll talk more Packers here coming up this week Probably probably, as he said there's. Make sure you're keeping an eye out for that there. So, like I said before, we we're going to talk about them when we come back here. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Goat Ridge this Wednesday.
Speaker 1:And hey, this next part of the show, we're going to talk a little Brewers here. We just had Omar on, we had Kyle on earlier. We talked a little Jair earlier on in the show. We talked about a lot tonight here on. The missed any of it. Make sure you're checking us out next day across all podcast platforms. But this next segment of the show, the brewer talk, 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. Or check out the facebook page my facebook page wisconsin sports on the go with trade. We always make sure that we are sharing. If we see it, we share the schedule out on our page too, so you can find the links there and then get over to their page, make sure you like and marshal motorsweetway across all social media platforms. So I want to talk a little bit of brewers.
Speaker 1:I had a lot of questions coming about the brewers here and I asked a question on social media there the other day after this last weekend. So there it was. It was a subpar weekend, as I talked about earlier for the brewers. They had a lot. It was a lot of winnable games. That's all you can really say is it was a lot of winnable games and I set out on social media. I said I truly believe that this team can compete with just one anybody. I said a point blank I think they can. I think they can truly compete with just about anybody out there. But but this offense is very hot and cold, very hot and cold. I said that the other day. I said it's just like Jackson Turio's bat. I mean Jackson Turio has been the definition of hot and cold and that's where I'm kind of at with this Brewer team right now.
Speaker 1:They are very hot and cold on the offensive side and I said this pitching staff's been good. I mean they have been. They've been really good guys have laid here, especially over this last month. This pitch has been great. I mean quinn priester's been fantastic deal. Hall's been good as an opener. Uh, we've had.
Speaker 1:Savalli came back. He's been pitching well. Freddie peralta's put some good outings out there. They've had a lot of guys throw some good outings and I mean, look at that padre series. They lost a couple of games where I mean you put across two runs, they win. I mean that's that's what this pitching staff's been able to produce for you and you have just struggled that mightily and that's a problem. That's, that's the problem. I mean you, you look at it, you lost one to nothing against san diego, you lost two to nothing against san diego and you won four to three. I mean your pitching staff is doing what they have to do. Your offense is just not there, not existing at times.
Speaker 1:So I asked a question. I said this point give me your thoughts on this team. I want to hear your guys' thoughts on this team and I had a lot of people answer, so I want to get some of the answers. I had Caden over on Facebook. He said we need guys like William Contreras to heat up. I know he's been playing with a fractured finger, but he's definitely not carrying his weight offensively Additionally. Additionally, I personally think Murphy needs to try and wiggle Jake Bowers in the lineup more often, as he's been a strong hitter despite not getting consistent playing time.
Speaker 1:100% agree on the Jake Bowers thing. You've got to find a way to put him in the outfield or in a DH role. Give Yelich nights off. We saw it last night there when they played the Braves there in one. They gave Yelich a night off. Jake Bowers and Reese Hoskins are both in the lineup. That's something that I think you have to do more often there, because Yelich, put him in the outfield, put him in there for Isaac Collins.
Speaker 1:Whatever you got to do, maybe put Jake Bowers in the outfield for Isaac Collins at times. Any way you got to do it. But find a way. I agree with him, get him in there. William Kacharis, you have to find a way. You have to find a way to be consistent at the plate, because if you are just a non-factor and you're simple, the excuse or whatever we want to pull here is well, he's got a fractured finger. I love the I'm playing through it mentality but at the same time you have to be able to produce that, because if you're not, then you might as well not be playing through it, if that makes sense. So that's where I'm kind of at right now.
Speaker 1:Uh, ryan larson, he said one word offense. The offense just flat out costing us winnable games. I think. On the radio today they said that the two losses this series they left on 11 runners on each game. That's 22 left on. And then I saw I I actually saw a stat that said I saw another stat where the Brewers have been shut out while leaving 10-plus on base six times in the last 10 years. Three of those were in the last 30 days. So that tells you where this team's at right now.
Speaker 1:Leaving guys on base has been a problem for this Brewers team. So I mean, just in all the answers that I had really, I mean across were essentially the same thing Very streaky at the plate. A lot of people come with very streaky at the plate. This team has hot and cold. Guys need to step up. You need to have between Contreras and Hoskins and Yellich, those guys need to step up. And then other people were telling me Ortiz and that needs to go down. So just a lot of the same A very hot and cold offense right now, and that is what people are seeing. And that is what people are seeing and that's what the problem with a lot of people is this offense so hot and cold. They don't have a lot of power in this lineup. That's leading to their problem. So I had a lot of questions.
Speaker 1:I had one come across should the brewers keep running out ortiz and durbin? If not, who should they replace him with? That? That's a toughie, because you know it's like ortiz. Whenever I talk crap about ortiz, he finds a way to get a hit right. He had a big hit. That's what got the Brewers on the board a couple nights ago. And then he got the Brewers on the board there early in this last night's game there. He got on and then Churrio hit a home run to bring him in.
Speaker 1:So I mean, ortiz has been swinging a better bat. Now am I going to sit here and tell you that he's been swinging a great bat? No, not at all. He has not been swinging a great bat. Has he been swinging a better bat, a better one? It's not very hard to be better than what he was right. And I think honestly and this is my opinion on it right Over the last seven games he's hit 227, so it's not great, but in my opinion, on it right Over the last seven games, he's hit 227, so it's not great.
Speaker 1:But in my opinion you really look at it you could hide a guy like Joey Ortiz in a lineup. If and if William Contreras is hitting, churrio's hitting, hoskins is hitting, sal's hitting like he is right now, terang's hitting, jake Bowers is hitting you have guys hitting around him. You can hide them. You amplify a guy when everybody else is struggling Yelich is struggling, these guys are struggling, and then Joey Ortiz is struggling on top of that. It really puts that oh yeah, now we really notice Joey Ortiz right, that's where I think it's. You have a lot of guys in this Brewers lineup where they're also struggling. So it really shows Joey.
Speaker 1:Joey Ortiz was never. I mean, if anybody looked at Joey Ortiz and they're like man, I was expecting him to be a 270 hitter. All of a sudden it wasn't it. I mean back in 2023, he hit 212 in 33 at-bats. Last season he hit 238. I mean he had a better stretch to start the year but then ended up getting hurt and then it went downhill. And this season I mean, this year he's been 190, so it's not great, not at all great. It's terrible if you really look at the metrics. But I just I mean you can find a better like would I send him down right now? Probably I would have sent him down already. If I was going to do it, I would have sent him down. I would have sent them down already If I was going to do it. I sent down. I'd add my stereo step in for now I was sent them down and just try to hard reset, see if he can figure it out.
Speaker 1:But would you almost be looking at a move right now to try and bring somebody in to replace either Durbin or Joey Ortiz and then slide the other one around which tried to find a third baseman? What? What are you looking for right now, could you? Could you foresee that in as a temporary solution? That's where I would kind of be with that right now is.
Speaker 1:You know durbin's had some hits, so is ortiz as of late here. It's the whole package. That's the struggle. So can you get rid of them both? No, I don't think so. So which one are you better off without? I don't think durbin. I don't think so. So which one are you better off without?
Speaker 1:I don't think Durbin. I don't think it's an everyday starter. I've been that way since the beginning when they got him. I just don't see him as an everyday starter. I'm seeing him as a super utility. I don't see him as an everyday starter. Joey Ortiz I, he's a starter, but he's not a consistent bat, not a threat consistently. So I think people were just kind of trying to make him to be something that he was, wasn't really. He just never was a great hitter. He hasn't been. Maybe it changes. Maybe it changes. I hope so, but I just don't think he's been it.
Speaker 1:So right now, what should I keep doing at this point? If you're the brewers, do you keep running them out? If you think you have a better option for now, yeah, you send them down to the Miners. He's got options. Send them down there, see if you can have a hard reset. Come back up If you feel like maybe at some point he's going to find it, then you're leaving him up. But in my opinion, I'm sending them down for a little bit here for a hard reset. I would have already done it with Joey Ortiz. I would have sent him down, had a hard reset, see if he can figure it out. Bring him back up quick. I mean, send him down for 10 days, whatever, and then bring him back. I think that would be okay. Durbin, I think you're getting what you're going to get no-transcript that start on Thursday there.
Speaker 1:So the question I had, or that I got, was how well do you think Jacob Mizorowski will do in this level? Also, how will he be an impact on the rotation? I think he's going to be a huge impact on the rotation coming in. He's been fantastic. Jacob Mizorowski has been fantastic down in the minors for the Brewers this season so far and I mean he's been putting together.
Speaker 1:My biggest question with Jacob Mizorowski when he was first coming up was he had the hard stuff right. But sometimes guys with the hard stuff comes the struggle with with location, with accuracy, and it was like, okay, is he going to be able to translate that to the next level? So far this year in the minors 2.13 era, 12 starts, 13 games in total. He's pitched so far four and two records, 63 innings pitch. He's got 15 earned runs and the strikeout numbers through the roof. They're already at 80 strikeouts. 80 strikeouts are ready this season. You look at last season there, in total, across two minor league teams, he had 127 strikeouts. Year before that, in across three teams, he had 110. So already the strikeout numbers are way up and that's huge. So I think he's going to have a huge impact. I mean, you see what he can do.
Speaker 1:It's just going to be a question of does he stay in the rotation? Because you have a lot of guys in the rotation. So Valley's in there, freddie's in there, quinn Priester's been fantastic, so is Chad Patrick I'm missing a guy Quintana is also in there. So you already have your five-man rotation. Where does Jacob Miserelski fit in that? Is he going to be a floater? Because you still have Logan Henderson down there.
Speaker 1:So my question would be do you consider a trade right now? Right, because I'm going to double down on the questions. I have the question of what do you do with the Ortiz and Durbin. I have the question of what's Jacob Mizorowski going to do? I have two really good starters that are coming in between the minors and the big leagues. Right now I have Freddy Peralta.
Speaker 1:Do you make a move? Do you call out and say, hey, I got Freddie. Does anybody have a third baseman? Does anybody have a shortstop that they're willing to look at moving Potential moves. This would be a decent thought, I would say, because, freddie, you've got an option for next year. You're probably not going to sign him long-term because you do have a lot of pitchers in your arsenal right now. Quintana is a guy who he's on a one-year deal. He could possibly move on. Savalli maybe he's on a smaller contract, some of those small ones. I don't know if I'd move on from no-transcript. Do you consider possibly moving on from a guy like Freddie? That's an interesting thought. So I kind of liked that one there.
Speaker 1:Outside of that, I did have one more question that I had, and this one was grade the Brewers' first part of the season. Grade the Brewers all we've seen so far, wow, that's tough. I should have looked at that one a little bit earlier. I didn't get to look at that one over, but grade the Brewers' first part of the season. I'd give them a solid year 36 and 32 right now if I was grading them. Up until this point, c+ Pitching's been good.
Speaker 1:Offense has not been good. It was always. The offense could do just enough. They could get you a run. Then the pitching staff had to hold it back. Remember that back in the day, when it used to be, the pitching staff had to find a way just to hold it. Now it's like the pitching staff has got it, basically throw a shutout and the offense maybe you'll get you a run, maybe we'll get you a run, and it's gonna be a struggle if that.
Speaker 1:So I would say probably around a cc plus is where I would grade the brewers right now. That's kind of where I'm at. I'd love to hear you guys are at 715-990-4914. That's 715-990-4914. That's 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear what you guys think where you're at with this Brewers team. Where would you grade them right now through that first half? That was a good question that I had out there.
Speaker 1:So outside of that, the Brewers, they're going to finish this series, as you guys know, prerecorded here. So as the Brewers are finishing up this series, they so far won one in the series against the Braves. They're going to play game three here, 1-10 start there, and then they're going to have the Cardinals coming up this weekend for a four-game set coming up this weekend. That will be starting Thursday. Mizorowski is going to make the start, then Gattana, then we're going to see Peralta and then Savalli against St Louis there. That's going to be in American Family Field and then they're going to take on Chicago, the Twins, pittsburgh. So they got a couple of good series coming up there with Chicago and the Twins.
Speaker 1:So it's going to be I mean some tough, good series coming up here against some winning ball clubs that the Brewers I mean. Right now they're trailing a team like the Cubs, they're trailing a team like St Louis. Some ability right now for the Brewers to make up some ground. They have that ability to make up ground right now and this is a good time to do it. We'll see what the Brewers do there. A lot of good series coming up here. We're going to get more into the Brewers when we come back here next Wednesday. Lots to get into.
Speaker 1:I didn't get into a lot tonight because of everything else that's been going on around the sporting world. So we'll make sure to get out of here for the night. So we'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. Welcome back as we wrap up this Wednesday here on the show Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. And, like I always tell you guys, if you missed any portion of the show tonight, make sure you are listening back next day. Well, it's going to be on there tonight, but tomorrow, across all podcast platforms, from Spotify to Apple to YouTube, you can find the show out there.
Speaker 1:Wisconsin Sports On the Go with Trage. Make sure you find us across social media. Any kind of version of Wisconsin Sports On the Go with Trage you will find us on there. So with that, I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your night. I hope you guys have a great night. I hope you guys have a great rest of your week and weekend. But until we talk to you guys again next Wednesday, we're going to get out of here, see ya.