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 25 show: Badgers News, NBA Season Wrap Up, Brewers get Hot!
This is Wisconsin sports on the go with trade, your place for all things. Wisconsin sports, now your host. How we doing everybody. And welcome into Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage, coming back for the June 25th edition of the show here. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday. I hope you guys enjoyed your weekend.
Speaker 1:It was a hot weekend. Holy crap, was it hot. Coaching baseball out there in Colby 12 year boys got the championship win, so that was awesome. 10 year boys got championship win over there too for Loyal greenwoods. That was awesome there over the weekend. But man, was it hot, holy crap. It was like out there in the sun, like the sun would go away and it wasn't, wasn't so bad, but then the sun would come back out and, oh my goodness, it was. The breeze was nice. Outside of that, it was just miserably hot, goodness. And now I mean you're talking about a complete change of pace. You had the heat over the weekend and now you got rain and cooled off this week here. So it was. If you didn't want the heat, you're good, and if you wanted the heat, well, welcome back to wisconsin. You get four seasons in one day. That's all you got to think about four season. One day is awesome.
Speaker 1:So a lot of things happened over the weekend. A lot of things happened. We saw the. A lot of things happened. We saw the Badgers. I was going to talk about the Badgers today. Anyways, I want to talk about that. Ncaa violations we were going to talk about that last week. We didn't get to it. I want to talk about this week, but now they're in the news. They're suing Miami. So that's awesome and I want to talk about it here. We'll probably talk about about in the next segment here after the commercial break, but I, I love it, so I want to talk about that today.
Speaker 1:Uh, we got to get to the brewers because, wow, they torched the twins over the weekend. That was an awesome series. It started with the cubs, took care of the cubs, and then they went and they torched the twins. You gotta love it. So I want to talk about that, because it was hot and the brewers were hotter, so I can't wait to talk about that. Because it was hot and the Brewers were hotter, so I can't wait to talk about that. Sal Frelick continues to be impressive against the Pirates there. I believe he leads the league in outfield sis, if I'm not mistaken, or at least leads the NL. So I mean he's been great in the outfield. I want to talk about Sal a little bit today here in that leadoff spot, what he's been able to brew.
Speaker 1:So all in all, I just want to talk about what we've been seeing as of late here with the Brewers OKC wins the finals. I want to talk about that because there's a lot to unpack there. We see a lot of the I don't want to say quote-unquote, but quote-unquote experts telling us that it's a skewed title, it's got asterisks around it. So I want to get to that because I sometimes I just uh, I am done with that talk there. So I want to talk about okay, see, we're gonna have kyle and we're gonna talk about, okay, see, the finals wrapping up the season. Because now we get to the offseason. What's gonna happen? We already said we already saw kevin durant get moved. What else could possibly happen? Could we see a guy like yannis or anybody else move? I don't know right, we've seen crazier things. I'm not into Giannis' moving camp, but you know, espn is still going to tell us they're going to do it. Shams is still reporting that it's going to happen. So we'll see what happens there, right? So lots of things to get into here on the show today, but, as always, as always, I love to start the show with what was grinding my gears, what caught my interest, I guess, over the weekend there, what's been grinding my gears, what's been driving me nuts, right? So the big one I had watching. Okay, so you watch the finals and everything happened there.
Speaker 1:And then after the finals, I was across social media and I was looking across social media to see what was happening and I come across some pacer fans leaving okc after the game's done. Right, okc just won championship. They're all excited. They're leaving. Any pacer fans trying to leave the stadium. They're being like escorted out through tunnels and the police are. They have police presence around. They're like don't go that way because it could get bad over there. Go this way, we don't have enough units to go that way. And it's like what? What am I? What am I watching right now? Like I would get, maybe. I don't even know if I'd get, but like if the Pacers or if they, if the okay, oklahoma city thunder lost to the Pacers, maybe there has to be some upset fans. They won. Why do you have to like assault other fans Like I don't get that. I really don't Like.
Speaker 1:What brings you this is what's grinding my gears is that we have like that going on after a sporting event. I get passionate about sports, I do. I get passionate about the Brewers. I get really passionate about badger men's basketball. But I'll tell you this win or lose, no matter if we lost, if I were sitting, I was sitting in the room with a duke fan during the 2015 national championship because my mother, sadly, she's a closet.
Speaker 1:She's a closet duke fan with. She likes wisconsin, but she's a closet duke fan, not really closet. She'll tell everybody about, she will do. She wears duke apparel with pride anyways. So I was in the room when what happened?
Speaker 1:But I'm, if I'm sitting in a room with a with, I mean, if I was sitting in the room with a seahawks fan during the packers game there and the nfc champ, I'm not. I'm not like jacking them up or punching them or like abusing them after the games. I'd like. That's wild to me that anybody is like I'm going to assault somebody after a game. That's what brings you joy.
Speaker 1:I don't get like sports or sports are intense. Sports are are meant to keep you on the edge of their seat and, you know, take your heart rate through the roof and drop it down and, like it's meant to drag you through the mud and everything in between, like sports are meant to do it all to you. But when it comes to that, when you have to have a police presence just to keep opposing fans safe, when they're leaving your stadium after you beat them to win a championship, you still are worried about opposing fans. Why I just don't. It's.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely disturbing and disgusting and I know it's not just their fan bases, there's all their fan bases and I know pacer fans did. I mean it was the same thing when thunder fans went up to the indiana after that game there was pictures across social media of of thunder fans who got, I mean, beat up and everything out in public. It's, it's ridiculous. I mean you talk about eagle fans. What we saw there when that one was just yelling profanity, or at that packer fan out there, I mean it's just, it's all this just stupidity.
Speaker 1:When you get out here, I I honestly like I love going to games where I can just kind of mess with the opposing team's fan. Love that, you know. Like Aaron, you know he was on the show here. He's a big Eagles fan. I love when I can just, you know, give Aaron crap, or he can give me crap, or Kyle with his Patriots, and he can give me crap about the Packers, and you know, just, you have those different kind of fans where they're just not intense. But I've had some people where I've even like commented in on their shows and stuff like that, where they're just like, well, you just hate us because we want to be hated, we want to be a hated fan base. Why I? I don't get why people, why, why fans want to be hated. I don't get that. I really don't like I cub fans. I don't get why people, why, why fans?
Speaker 2:want to be hated.
Speaker 1:I don't get that. I really don't like Cub fans. I don't understand why they want to be just the way that they are. Cardinal fans are just Cardinal fans. I mean they just drive you nuts, but I mean it's just, I don't know, I, I, I always, I always just baffle at, like Eagle fans and that why they want to be hated. And then you got situations like this where you have to protect fans just leaving a stadium and it's like it's isn't. It should not be life or death situations, or should it, or you know that kind of thing where police present has to be involved. It shouldn't get to that and yet it does. So I mean, fans just got to be better. I don't care who you are, you just got to be better. If you're one of this crowd and you get this rowdy oh man, oh man there. So yeah, that's where kind of coming off the weekend there. That was the big story.
Speaker 1:I saw in a lot of topic talk across social media, a couple things, I guess, going more in the direction of youth sports. So I want to talk a little bit about youth sports right now. I saw a lot of people have talked about this with me over the past couple weeks. They're at different tournaments and stuff like that and it's the changing of rules. So you go I know I'm just speaking from experience here and I know it's been with a lot of other coaches and stuff like that I've talked to but you go to a lot of these different tournaments, say, you know, we went over the Colby tournament, or you're down in the Neal's will tournament, you're, you're around these tournaments around this thing, seymour, wherever it is, and you get these rules where I, for example, we had one this weekend where you couldn't lead off until the ball hit the catcher's mitt. Otherwise, we've had in the past where it's when the pitcher releases the ball, you can lead off. That's a big change. So now your boys, your guys, are trying to adjust to that. They're still young trying to adjust to that. Well, we had it this weekend where we were told oh well, we'll be lenient. We understand that you guys play these rules and everything like this. Oh well, we'll be lenient. We understand that you guys play these rules and everything like this. So we're going to be lenient with you and if it happens, we're just going to warn you. We're going to tell you to go back. We're just going to remind you. Okay, that sounds good. Well, then we got to the championship game and then they let us know. Okay, now if you do it, you're out. Okay, you weren't enforcing it all day long, but now you want to enforce it when the championships are out. Okay, okay, that sounds good. That makes sense, right? I just don't like the differences in the rules across there.
Speaker 1:I think you know, with all youth levels, you're slowly preparing them to get to one point. Right, you're slowly preparing them to get to the point of now. I am a middle schooler who can lead off. When the pitcher still got the ball in his hand, right, when he's still in the in the, he's still set. Pitcher still got the ball in his hand right. When he's still in the. You know he's still set, I can lead off, I can do all my stuff. I can steal.
Speaker 1:So I think you've got to get to a slow progression point through the years where you know maybe when they're in that 12 view stage, they're playing this way. Or when they're in the 10u, they're playing this way. But you have to slowly progress kids through the years with the different rules. You can't just all of a sudden say, oh well, well, this tournament's like this, this tournament's like this, and then all of a sudden, the next season that they have to play, now it's oh, you can lead off all the time. Well, these kids, you have to slowly get to that point. Right, you're trying to teach them the fundamentals, but you're also trying to you have to deal with all the rest of this on top of that and they forget half the fundamentals. Then Then you have umpires going on those kind of like power trips around there where they're like oh well, we're going to call you out now, we're going to warn you for that. I get that, I understand that.
Speaker 1:But at the same time you've got to realize they're still young kids, they're still trying to understand the game. And when you're throwing all these rules on top of them, I can only you know. You stand there on third base, coach, and you're trying to remind them of things, but they're halfway across the diamond from you. They're so far out of it. They're trying to watch pitchers. They're trying to watch the ball if it's going to get past the catcher. They're trying to see all this kind of stuff. They're trying to see if a guy's going to get hit or anything like that they're trying to remember how many outs there are. It's a lot of things to grasp. So if you have constant changing rules or, like you know, per tournament, per whatever it's going to confuse them and it's going to make things complicated and make it harder for them to progress.
Speaker 1:So for me, I really do think that they have to, we have to I don't know how you do it but be better about pushing one standard rule for each age level across the state. I really think that would be beneficial. At a 10U level, you do it this way. At the 12U level, you do it this way. When you get up to 14U, you do it this way. I, you know 12 you level, you do it this way. When you get up to 14, you you do it this way. I think that would be beneficial to these kids, to the kids, because when you just try to bounce rules back and forth, you try to do different things. I think it gets too complicated and I just don't. I I don't enjoy it. So that's kind of where I was at with that. I had a lot of people talking to me about that.
Speaker 1:I also add this has been a hot topic for everybody, it seems like and I wanted to talk about it the one-sport kids, the parents that push their kids to just play one sport constantly, all year long. It's baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball. All year long. Don't stop playing spring league playing summer, playing fall league, winter. You're still throwing, you're still doing all this kind of stuff and I get it. You think that if you're told that if you take your kid to this camp, he is going to be, if he doesn't go, he's going to be behind everybody. If he doesn't do this, he's going to be behind everybody. If he doesn't do that, if he doesn't play in this league, if he doesn't play in this pay-to-play league and he plays his school ball, he plays school ball. He's going to fall behind in all those things. It eats me alive. It does Because number one when they're at a young age, experiencing all these sports is great for them.
Speaker 1:The team aspect, the growing aspect with other kids Finding something else to do in their free time is huge. So that's number one for me is that team aspect, that it grows. Number two the big thing for me is not wearing away bodies, not wearing away bodies. Wearing away a body is big when it comes to just constantly throwing and throwing and throwing, and throwing, swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging. You're going to it's repetition, but you're slowly I mean you're slowly going to wear that arm down, wear everything down, and I think, along with that number three wearing it down is also equal to the fun of the game goes away when you're constantly doing it. You lose that drive, that fun, because you're young yet you want to go out and hang out with your friends. Your friends are out there playing football, but you've got to continue to do this baseball travel thing with all these random kids that you barely used to know on the weekends.
Speaker 1:So you don't lose that fun for the game as it goes to you, don't you're? You're still a young kid. Remember that at the end of the day, they're still young kids. They don't just all in the back of their head as a eight year old, nine year old, 10 year old, whatever. They're not sitting there thinking man, I can't wait to be in the bigs one day. Maybe they are, maybe they're like I can't wait to be in the bigs one day. Maybe they are, maybe they're like oh, I want to be in the bigs. They're also thinking about how can I have fun today? That's what they're thinking about.
Speaker 1:So, though I do think that it is okay to mix in some of your offseason sports with your sports, I'm still in the camp of if there are multiple sports offered and your kid wants to play football, they want to play baseball, they want to play basketball, and you just want to push them to one of them, allow them to experience them all when they get a little bit older. If they want to just do one or they want to focus on one, sure. But I've seen the benefits in a lot of different. You've heard a lot of professional athletes talk about it and you've also seen a lot of kids who have benefited from playing multiple sports. Playing football play you know football builds different things, different kinds of strengths. You look at baseball builds different kinds of strengths hand-eye coordination, all that kind of stuff. Basketball builds different things. You know stamina, everything like that. It all builds something and you can put it all together and put it into one sport. You have all the attributes. You can be that all-around athlete that just does it all. So I I'm in the camp of allow them, especially at a young age, to play those multiple sports and to be a multi-sport athlete. I love that. I also.
Speaker 1:One last thing, one last thing I just wanted to touch on because I was asked this question. I was asked this question over the weekend and I just wanted to get to it because it was a big conversation piece that I had with a parent. So they said that you know, a big thing was, or for them, they thought the best thing for their kid was they needed to get into the weight room and they needed to just start pushing weight, pushing these heavy weights. And I said what do you mean? And they said well, you know, I think a big thing that they need to do here is they need to get big and strong. They need to get bigger, bigger, right, bigger. And I said yeah, bigger, right, bigger. And I said yeah, I said that's a way to go with it.
Speaker 1:But I said are you getting better in the right way?
Speaker 1:I said what do you mean? And I said sometimes just pushing the heavy weights isn't going to do it for you. I said sometimes you can build all the heavy muscle you want to build in your life, you can build it all, but if you can't move, I mean look at I mean let's talk about athletes, look at some of the Packers offensive linemen. Look at their defensive linemen. Those are some big guys, right. They can still laterally move faster than the average person can laterally move. They aren't just going in there. They might be pushing some heavy weight, but they're going in there and they're working on different skills that get them to be able to move side to side quick, to be able to get that quick first.
Speaker 1:Uh, step there, those little things that we just take advantage, we just don't even think about or it's like, oh, that guy's huge, right, yeah, but he got there with doing it a certain way, working on his agility, working on those little things, stamina, all those things being able to be like a rubber band, extend, be able to get out there, get after it. They're working on the lateral movements instead of just a forward and backwards, because a lot of every sport football, basketball, even some baseball, right Pitchers being able to laterally move, laterally push off, being able to trust your body. So when I hear parents, kids, they're like, oh, I just want to go in there and I just want to be able to bench, you know 250 or whatever. I know it's not huge, but anyways, I just want to be able to do this and it's like, okay, that's a good feat, but can you do that while also being able to move quick this way or laterally move quick this way, or build that strength to be able to do those things? So that's kind of where if I, if I was giving that opinion to them which I did talk with him about it and we had a conversation about it and you know we came to understanding with each other but I would say, you know, you got it. You got to find a program that's right for you, but you got to find a program that balances both. You got it. You want to get bigger, but you also want to still strengthen those things that are going to make you a better lateral mover, side to side, whatever it is, you know, rotation, everything like that because your body's got to be able to move in all those directions to be productive in all sports. So yeah, that's kind of where I just a question that I had over the weekend and just something I wanted to touch into there a little bit. So we got lots to get into today here. I want to get to badgers when we come back here. So we're gonna talk badgers. I want to talk uh brewers today here. We got kyle coming on to talk pacers and okay, see, so I'm talking about that finals. We got armor coming on later talk packers. We got a lot of stuff to get to, so I can't wait to get to it all here. We'll be right back here after a quick commercial break. Two hours of wisconsin sports on the go with trage is just getting going here. We'll be right back here after this quick commercial break. Welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host. Rage coming back on this wednesday.
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Speaker 1:We were talking about what was grinding my gears coming off the weekend there in that first little segment of the show here, and if you missed any part of that segment, make sure you're checking out the show next day. It'll be available across all podcast platforms. Wherever you get podcasts, just search wisconsin sports on the go trade and if you have any thoughts concerns anything like that at any point in time in the show, you can let us know. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914 there. So, going into the break, I said I want to talk a little badgers today here, because we had there's a lot of a lot of it's not even like on the field stuff that I talk about. It's a lot of off the field stuff going on with the wisconsin badgers. So the badgers, they're whacked with a fine from 2023. We didn't really get to talk about that yet. So they have a 25 000 fine.
Speaker 1:Wisconsin has been placed on a one-year probation where the program will be required to regularly report to the ncaa. So basically, as individuals, head coach luke fickle and outside linebackers coach matt mitchell have been banned from contacting recruits. June 15th to june 21st. So apparently they basically that's already up. In september of 2023, wisconsin's own compliance monitoring system identified and reported illegal contact between the school's coaching staff and various football recruits from spring of that year. While the ncaa investigation was ongoing, the school self-imposed restrictions during the 2023-2024 season, including a temporary ban on all recruiting communications. So that's basically what had happened there. There was 139 illicit calls were made to 48 different recruits there. So nonetheless, the school's actions were ruled level two violations defined as providing or intending to provide more than a minimal but less than a substantial of extensive recruiting, a competitive or an advantage. So Luke Fickle's program would now be under reporting regulations and a close watch for the NCAA during the 2025-2026 season.
Speaker 1:Wisconsin football faces a pretty tough schedule here. A lot of tough recruits there and it's I mean, it's just another thing on Luke Fickle's plate to have to deal with at this point here. So we see all that happening. The fine come in and everything for the Badgers there. I'm not going to sit here and overreact to it. I mean, wisconsin self-imposed the ban Like they knew it was going to come eventually, so they self-imposed it. At the end of the day, I really, you know we sit here. We're going to harp on Wisconsin for this and a lot of opposing fan bases are going to come after Wisconsin for this. I wouldn't put it past a lot of other universities that we've seen, the Alabamas and the big dogs of the world to have been in this same boat not talking to recruits during the right periods right and kind of illegally doing things like that. So I I'm not saying teams are doing it, but what I'm saying is that I don't think Wisconsin's the only one. I just think wisconsin was the one who basically said yeah, we did it and self-imposed it, so it's happened. It's, I I believe it's happening elsewhere. We wisconsin just got hit with it. So that's kind of where that all leads there.
Speaker 1:Um, the big one, though, coming off this last weekend the Badgers. They're suing Miami. They're suing Miami right now. So they filed a lawsuit last Friday claiming Miami's football team broke the law by tampering with Wisconsin Badgers football player. Now we're not going to name names right now, but we all know that this comes back to one certain fella named Xavier Lucas. I mean, one certain fella not named in this lawsuit, but most definitely is the guy in question here and it's a first of its kind legal attempt to enforce the terms of the financial contract between a football player and a school. So this is basically what we've talked about this before. It's jose verluca's situation.
Speaker 1:We got into it. Scary alvarez was on here and we were talking about there. If you did, if you did not hear that part, get make sure you listen back on the podcast there. I believe it was a couple weeks ago that we were talking about that whole xavier lucas situation and we we got into it. They filed this complaint.
Speaker 1:Now, basically, what they said was Lucas signed a two-year contract in December, miami. A lot of interference was in there and all of a sudden he knowingly they know they knowingly compelled a player to break the terms of a deal with the Badgers. So so there was a deal in place. He signed the deal. This is what we saw. So, while we reluctantly bring this case, we stand by our position that respecting and enforcing contractual obligations is essential to maintaining a level playing field. That's what the school had to say to ESPN. So basically, with this whole thing, the pending case promises to be an interesting test to whether schools can use name, image and likeness deals to keep athletes from transferring, even though the players aren't technically employees. Starting July 1st, schools will be paying the players directly via NIL deals. This is what I got to say.
Speaker 1:What is the point of a contract if it doesn't bind you anywhere, if it doesn't bind you to anything? And if this is this, is it In these contracts? If it is not already stated. It needs to be stated that if we're not going to enforce this or let this be a binding factor to schools, then it needs to be stated that all the money that is given in this contractual agreements, if you go, if you disregard it, you go away from it, say maybe you only stay for a year, and then you all of a sudden just say I'm out, deuces, you have to pay some money back. Now you got to give the money back.
Speaker 1:Sir lucas was barely even here for his contract. So if this money was dueled out to him which which I'm guessing it was is why Wisconsin's so hot about it? If it was already given out, then why it should have to come back. He didn't play a snap during that contract period. Why should Wisconsin have given him money then? They did, because they gave to agreement.
Speaker 1:What's the point of the agreement if all they have to do is just say, oh well, yeah, I don't care. Right, there's nothing behind me here, I can leave, I can do what I want. Here's the plain, cold, hard truth of this. But the ncaa lets mi, miami win this. They admit that it's the wild wild west and there's no control. Plain and simple. They admit it with this, because if contracts don't mean anything, then there's no control, there's no regulations, there's no way to keep things in line, nothing. It's just a mess. A mess that the NCAA started and they don't care because it's money, it's money to them at the end of the day. So I'm in that camp right now where I'm saying to myself if the NCAA allows this to happen, if they allow Miami to basically win this case and go scotch-free again, because Miami's had a couple I mean, you know, a university like that has been in news story after news story up to have, uh, some problems in the past if you allow them to get away with this, oh boy, oh boy. So we know all this. We know Wisconsin and the Big Ten said in a statement Friday that they support Wisconsin's decision to file the lawsuit and that Miami's alleged actions are inrecognizable with a substantial college sports framework. So love that, love that Mic drop on them.
Speaker 1:The ACC is shaking in their boots because you know who? Barely is a power five conference. The ACC. Barely Basketball keeps them there. Maybe baseball, baseball is different, but football, the ACC ain't a power conference. The thing that keeps them there is basketball. So you have the Big Ten, one of the money makers in the ncaa, saying, oh yeah, we got wisconsin back. We think wisconsin's all in.
Speaker 1:You're looking at that and you're like let's shred all the paperwork we got in here. Let's shred all the evidence. Let's shred it all. Let's boys like pack it up for a while. It's like, imagine it when osha shows up for a day. Right, they show up to your job site and everybody just packs the tools up and they're just like, yep, going home, what we weren't working today, what are you talking about? We weren't working, we were just looking and we were just leaving. We weren't here at all. It's like that. Basically, they're just like, oh, pack it up, wipe the hands, we're done, we're. That's where Miami's at right now. So why is all of this good? Why is all of this good for Wisconsin, for the NCAA, for the sport in general? Why is this good Number one thing I had someone needed to step up and be the voice to get this under control.
Speaker 1:And when I say that, I look across the landscape and, like I just said before, the wild wild west that is college sports. Now Somebody needed to step up and say enough is enough of this crap, enough is enough. We've watched this. We saw Xavier Lucas, that whole crap with him leaving to begin with. We've seen it across college sports different players, different avenues, getting out of places, jumping ship after year after year after year. Look at AJ Storer across there. I mean, we look across the landscape, we just see this wild wild west formation. Somebody needed to step up and be the voice and get this crapshoot under control.
Speaker 1:And Wisconsin, in this situation, in this situation with Miami, said we're going to do it, we're going to step up and we're going to take control of this situation. And that is exactly what they did. They stepped up and said let's go, we're going to file this lawsuit, we're going to court with them. And there are, I guarantee you, you a lot of schools out there who are sitting there staring at wisconsin right now and they're saying thank you and we're cheering for you from the sideline. We don't have the cojones to go in there and to do it ourselves, but but end of the day, we'll cheer for you, we'll have your back right. It's like the packers going against the tush push. Not a lot of other teams wanted to say that they were against the tush push. When the vote came around, though, they were against it. Same here. Not a lot of schools want to get on mi Miami's bad side or want to be the center of attention, but they are cheering for Wisconsin right now, saying I hope you guys win this one. So that's my number one thing of why it's a good thing.
Speaker 1:Somebody needed to be a voice in this whole thing. And the Badger said we are that voice. I love to see that. I don't understand. If Xavier Lucas wanted out, don't sign the deal. Pl. Xavier Lucas wanted out, don't sign the deal. Plain and simple. I don't get it. I don't. This tampering thing apparently goes. This illegal tampering and talking to him goes way back in the years before and everything. But end of the day, you don't want to play a Madison Like don't sign the contract, dude.
Speaker 1:It's plain and simple. I don't understand that. It's like oh, I don't want to work at a job, but I applied for the job and now I have the job and now I'm working the job, but I don't want to work this job anymore. So I'm just going to up and just not show up and just go work at this other job and then basically call my other job and say, yeah, I left, yeah, I'm done with you guys, yeah, bye.
Speaker 1:It just doesn't work that way. That's not life. Life's not like that. You sign a contract, you sign an agreement to do this or to get this done. That's what you signed up for and if there's a way out of it, you find that way out of it. You know, like an adult, I've heard Xavier Lucas talk.
Speaker 1:I listened, listened into the Lockdown Badgers show and he had a conversation with Xavier Lucas and he and he sounds like a down-to-earth guy, like a pretty nice guy, but this, this is just a child like move, like be an adult, you know. And the badgers, they're trying to be the adult in the room here and say, hey, you need to grow up. And that's the problem that tom iso talked about and what we've seen a lot with a lot of these, um, different, different athletes, I guess you could say, across college sports. I just don't feel like Tom Izzo talked about it too. Guys need to grow up, and I don't think guys are growing up because they're now playing in this. Oh well, you can just fail and leave league. That is now the current landscape of college sports. You're not learning to fail college sports. You're not learning to fail anymore. You're not learning to grow and grow up, you're just failing and bailing. Basically, that's all that it is. So I I just don't get it. And at the end of the day, xavier lucas is the one who screwed up in this situation and miami screwed up. So now repercussions, baby, that's all I know.
Speaker 1:Outside of that, I mean, I think it's good because nobody's going to try to poach players away from Wisconsin, because after they take Miami to court, they're going to be like anybody else want to play ball, because we'll take you all to court. We have our own violations now and we'd love to slap you guys with some violations. I think this is huge because I think it's going to keep teams from trying to poach players from a lot of teams right now, but I think it's going to keep a lot of people away from Wisconsin and I don't think recruits, I think it's going to be a big thing where a lot of these, you know, the University of Texas is not going to be calling up I know they're not probably calling up a lot of people from, uh, the badges right now, but they're not gonna be calling up this guy and saying, hey, you should, you should, you know, abandon that contract, come down here. They're gonna be able to avoid that stuff. So I, I love that, uh, out of this. Um, I mean, yeah, I'm gonna own it.
Speaker 1:Miami fans, they're all all over social media. They're like, oh, you guys are only doing this because you got your own violations. Sure, you're dang right, we are, you're dang right, we are, we got our own violation. It feels good for somebody else to be doing something wrong too, like that's for darn sure. So, yeah, I would completely agree with that one and I mean, like I said before, hopefully, out of this, this helps create and enforce rules across college sports because, like I said before, this is a wild, wild west league and if you don't get a grasp on it, you don't put it, you don't, you don't bridle it up and rain her in, you're gonna lose it.
Speaker 1:It's gonna get out of control as it's getting, and then you're going to lose it, it's going to get out of control as it's getting, and then you're going to have a lot of coaches, a lot of fans, a lot of players, a lot of ADs whatever it is. You're going to have a lot of them clocking at doors and clocking people across the head and getting upset. Because this is what we're watching right now. We're watching a Wild Wild West that nobody can predict or understand or control and it leads to issues. So, hopefully, this whole lawsuit, this whole thing, in the grand scheme of things, do I think Wisconsin's going to win it? I don't know, I really don't know. Do I think that they should? Yes, do I think that they're going to get money out of it or anything, financial compensation? I don't know. But end of the day, I do believe that this will turn heads and it will make the NCAA, acc, miami, other universities hesitant to do things like this in the future, because maybe this one time the ncaa or the courts are going to allow this one to walk by. But after it becomes multiple, well, now people start getting upset and once big universities start getting upset, money starts being involved, lawyers start being involved, bad things happen. The ncaa does a lot of bad things happen, so they're going to protect themselves here. We'll see what happens. But I'm just saying, hopefully, that this creates and enforces those roles around college sports where it kind of controls everything here moving forward. So love to see it. Badgers suing Miami We'll see what kind of comes out of that here. As the days go on, they got their own violations they're worrying about. We're getting closer and closer to fall here. We're talking Badgers here in the coming weeks when they get into camp, when they get back to school and get into camp and everything like that. So I can't wait to be talking Badgers here in the short future here.
Speaker 1:But next up on the show I want to talk to a little Brewers here. We got a little Bre to talk NBA finals and a little bit of NBA. We got Ummer coming on later to talk Packers. We got all kinds of stuff to get to today here. So make sure you are coming back here. We will be right back after this quick commercial break. We're going to talk Brewers on the backside of the break here. Welcome back.
Speaker 1:This is Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host. Trage back on this Wednesday. And hey, this next part of the show here is brought to you by Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. They're expert, traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming. Call flexible scheduling and evaluation. Just call 715-267-4583. Don't trust anyone else with your physical therapy. Then chat down there at Sport and Spine Clinic in Greenwood.
Speaker 1:There, and also brought to you by Warm Kids Wisconsin, they're the not-for-profit charity group that we have been working with there, and I mean down at Warm Kids Wisconsin. They want to get every kid in Wisconsin wearing warm clothes this winter. They don't do coats, they do snow pants and boots. Everybody does snow. Everybody does coats. It seems like there's a lot of coat drives and everything like that. Not a lot of people, not a lot of groups, do snow pants and boots and they get the high quality snow pants and boots. What do they need? They need people like us to talk about them, get their word out there and make sure you're following them across all social media platforms there. Find all their links on those platforms there. Find their Amazon wishlist. Find the the donation options. Find all their events across all social media. They got tons of events coming up here, so make sure you are checking them all out, all out there, warm kids, wisconsin.
Speaker 1:So I went to the break. I said I was going to talk brewers. We came back here. I was scrolling through social media when I went to the break and I don't know why I don't get it anymore. I really don't. This is actually getting exhausting. So we have Giannis and I know people they're getting sick of hearing this, but I'm getting sick of hearing this, so I just wanted to, you know, voice my rage here, I guess for a second. We have Giannis telling us I don't want to leave Milwaukee. We have Doc Rivers Telling us he doesn't want to leave Milwaukee. We have Thanasis Antetokounmpo Telling us he's not leaving. Everybody else, basically in his friend family, everything, group my kids are here he says they love it here, my family's here, everything's here, they all love it here. He isn't going anywhere. Everybody in his friend group, family group is telling us this. Every indication from him, from the guy himself, is saying I am staying pat, I'm staying here, the head coach, Everybody else, but here's Shams, and this is why I just don't. But here's Shams, and this is why I just don't. It's hard to trust ESPN, some of the analysts or whatever you want to say on ESPN, because you have a guy like Shams who says, anyways, giannis still wants out, he's still thinking about it, he's still pondering it. Shams, I don't know why, I really don't. Why, like, I saw him on Pat McAfee and that's where I saw that he said this again why Pat McAfee even allows that on his show anymore. I know he's ESPN paid and everything like that, but seriously, I think it drives down the credibility of a show. If you have a guy on, like, if you have a guy who consistently comes on and he keeps telling all this crap. And if Giannis could tell Shams, he did basically do his face when he says, man, I miss Woj, don't we just miss Woj? Set it point blank. And yet we still have a guy and Shams is just reporting this absolute nonsense. I mean just I don't, it's just terrible, like absolutely terrible reporting. It's basically, we don't have crap to talk about. Let's make it up. Let's just make stuff up. That's fun, that's fun, it's annoying. It's it's annoying. So yeah, that's fun, that's fun, it's annoying, it's annoying. So yeah, that's where I'm at with that. I just saw that across social media when I was coming back from the break and I just wanted to rant about it because it's getting absolutely exhausting to watch out there. So a little bit of brewer talk here before we get to the wrap of the hour and everything like that. The brewers over this last weekend, what a series it was against the minnesota twins. What a series it was friday. They got the 17 to 6 win and a lot of this was later in the games like it wasn't. This wasn't like an outburst right off the bat like these 17 runs that the brewers had against the twins there. A lot of it late in this one. Look, they had five runs in the seventh. They had four in the eighth. They had against the Twins there. A lot of it late in this one. Look, they had five runs in the seventh. They had four in the eighth. They had five in the ninth against the Twins there. I mean basically a knockout punch there at that point. But it was a late-game heroic effort.
Speaker 1:Yelich, fantastic in this series. He had 10 RBIs. He had eight in one game. So that really puts you over the top there. I puts you over the top there. I think he had a crazy stat where he he had eight rbis but he didn't score one time. He drove in eight runs but did not score at all in that game. Zero runs for him, that's that's crazy. That's crazy. But I mean he had one of the longest singles of the year. I believe it will our longest doubles, was it? I think that son of a gun went like 420 feet to center or something like that. It was crazy. I stay stat there from Yellich, but this team is starting to get hot right. So they got this 17-6 win on Friday there.
Speaker 1:Mizorowski was fantastic, got the record most no-hit innings by a rookie, before by a pitcher, before giving up their first hit in the big leagues. So that was awesome to see there. I think it's since like 1900 or something like that. It was a crazy stat like that. There went six innings, one hit, the one hit being that two run bomb that he gave up there to walner. Outside of that, nothing across the board against him. He was. I mean, he's phenomenal. And there was some years hall and bauer. Jake bowers pitched again kind of through through his era to the there 3.6 now after giving up two earned runs. So just not a very good outing from Jake Bowers at all there.
Speaker 1:But the Brewers get the 17-6 win on Friday night. There was a great game there. And then they got the win on Saturday 9-0. And then a gutsy win on Sunday 9-8. That was a gutsy win. That was a gut check game. Right, they had the big lead twins clawed their way back. They had a good chance to win that one and mcgill slammed it shut, took it out. That was awesome.
Speaker 1:So all in all, I mean that was a darn good series and a wrap that you had that cub series where you wrapped it up on thursday. You didn't get the game on wednesday as it was postponed, it was rain. I don't know why, instead of just playing it on, you know they didn't get the game on Wednesday as it was postponed, it was rain. I don't know why, instead of just playing it on, you know they didn't just postpone it and put it to Thursday. They ended up shifting that game all the way until, I mean, I think it's in the second half of the season. They're going to play like five games in four days. Something stupid, right, they were just scared of Mizorowski, that's all that it was. They didn't want to face the ms on wednesday there, so they pushed it all back and then he ended up getting pushed behind peralta. Anyways, but big series win for the brewers, big win against the cubs there to wrap that series up. So so they've been on a pretty good streak here. I mean you won three against the cards, three out of four, and then you win one or two against the cubs and then you win three straight against the twins. Now you, now you got this series against the Pirates here. So I mean pretty good stretch there.
Speaker 1:Coming out of the weekend I had a lot of questions, a lot of questions that I was given, a lot of questions I was asked coming off the weekend there. So the biggest one I guess we could talk about here. To start, I was asked about Trevor McGill. He's getting the job done and he is. You're not right, he's getting the job done. He's pitched some gutsy, ballsy big innings for this Brewers team, but in those gutsy big innings for the Brewers games he's ran into some problems, ran into some trouble. We've seen this right Put multiple guys on giving up a run here, whatever Still ended up getting safe, took care of his business, made it interesting and it's got a lot of people questioning. They're like, oh well, you know, we have a guy in the name of Abner Yerbe who's been absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 1:Would you want to switch a guy like Abner Yerbe into a closer's role and take that away from McGill?
Speaker 1:Where are you at right now with this situation? Where I'm kind of at right now is that McGill has 17 saves. He's got a 2.70 ERA. He's got 32 Ks. He's been solid In all of his opportunity. I mean, he's been in this stretch run for the Brewers where they've been feeling it. They've been getting back, they've been playing good baseball. But Gil's been a big part of that. The energy that he brings into the ninth. He's a two-pitch pitcher. There ain't much complication to him. Bring a ball and a heater, that's all he's bringing you. He gets the job done. More than that, he gets the job done. So right now, what I say, I mean he's blown two saves. So he's got 17 saves, he's blown two of them. That's not bad. So would I say right now, is McGill the best closer in baseball? Probably not. But would I take McGill? Yeah, yeah, I think Abner Rebae. I love Abner Rebae, he's fantastic. I love Abner Rebae and what he brings to the Brewers.
Speaker 1:I think even Abner runs into his own issues. He could and why take him out of a role that he's been successful in A closer's role. Might it, might, you never know changing the, the path that he comes in, how long he's got to wait throughout a game, what his warmup routines like, all that kind of stuff. I mean it could be altered and moving into more of a closer role. I don't know what the warm-up would really be, but his mojo, everything like that. Pitchers are weird. They got weird kicks, they got weird ticks, they got weird everything they're different. So you don't know what if Abner Ribe would be fit for that role. So you don't know what if Abner Rebae would be fit for that role.
Speaker 1:I hate to find out the wrong way. Have him throw him out there and just switch the roles. And now he struggles, falls apart. I mean quick flip, I guess, flip back, you hope. But at the end of the day I look at it as what's working is working and McGill is working. So am I taking him out of the closer's role? No, but is there at some point, do I see?
Speaker 1:I think the plan is for Craig Yoho. We saw Craig Yoho a couple times now. I think the plan the whole time has been for Craig Yoho to take over at the closer's role at some point. He just hasn't. He struggled when he came up. I think it's still the plan. Sometimes you got to mess around with the plan, though, and I think right now they're messing around with the plan Until a guy like that's ready, or maybe somebody else you know fulfills that role. Maybe it is a guy like Omni or Ibe, whatever it is, but I think there is a plan aftergill for someone to be this closer. I think mcgill's just a stop. Yeah, he's just that guy who's filling the gap right now, who's done it pretty darn well. So, yeah, end of the day, I'm keeping mcgill in there as a closer role.
Speaker 1:Um, pat murphy off this weekend when he I think it was after that Cubs game there he was, I mean, just screaming a lot of F-bombs, a lot of F-bombs after that Cubs game there. But watching that series, watching how amped up he gets and how the players respond and how they react to him. Pat Murphy absolutely drives me nuts at times, and I've talked about it. You want to listen back on the podcast there with scott sports on the go trade find across all social media and all podcast platforms. But you want to listen back, listen to when I, when I lose it about him sometimes I do. I lose it about matt murphy I do. I think sometimes his pitching choice is his uhutions or his pitching changes. I think sometimes they drive me nuts. Sometimes we had the overuse period, we had all kinds of stuff that I had wrong with him.
Speaker 1:But if there's a guy who's going to get a team like this over the top, I think Pat Murphy's that guy. Again, we said it last year, I'll say it again this year With a roster constructed like this, with not a lot of stars and you have to find ways to win games in weird ways, weird comeback fashion, bunting this weekend, this last weekend, the amount of sack flies, bunts, weird stuff, not exactly weird, but not what you see in baseball these days. These days it's home run, not a lot of average. I mean, averages have been coming back a little bit but it's more of the power ball. But now with Pat Murphy it's like, okay, he's more the way that he manages, the way that he does, it is more designed for what this Brewers roster is. So for me, you know he drives me nuts, but man, he can fire this team up and he, I believe, and I believe he's the guy that's going to, if anybody's going to be able to make this thing work, it's Pat Murphy.
Speaker 1:I don't really think you could throw in. I think there's a lot of good managers in baseball. I don't know if you could throw them into a Milwaukee situation and make it work, because I feel like you've got a lot on your plate. You're sitting there thinking why don't we spend money? We have a decent roster. Why don't we put pieces in place? It seems like we have some money left to spend left to spend. Why don't we spend it on this and this? It just feels like you got to deal with a lot of outside noise and then also deal with the clubhouse and deal with everything else and deal with the day-by-day uh transactions, everything like that, and with the injuries and everything that he's had to deal with and yet somehow still overcoming.
Speaker 1:I mean, at one point you look at what they had in spring training, verse at what. At one point in spring training, verse what at they had. As you know, even to a couple weeks ago, with starting rotation, you started in spring training versus what they had, as you know, even to a couple weeks ago, with starting rotation, you started out spring training. You're like I got all these guys and then, all of a sudden, the only guy left was Freddie, and then Chad Patrick emerged and then you had Logan Henderson giving good starts. Now the Miz is up giving good starts there and Quintana's been good for you, and Quinn Priester coming over has been fantastic Just the little things that they've been able to do and to make it work. It needs to be studied honestly, what they've done with Quinn Priester and a lot of these young, talented pitchers coming into this Brewers organization.
Speaker 1:I don't think it stops at Pat Murphy. I think there's a lot of credit that needs to be given across the board. For what is this Brewers team right now? Because you look at what, what the this young pitching staff's been able to do right, a guy like um Logan Henderson coming up, or Jacob Mizorowski coming up, or even Quinn Priester coming over from the Red Sox. When he came over, how many of you out there were like, oh man, we gave up this really good prospect. And if you want to listen back to my show, I was, I was good with it. I said he's a good prospect. But I said quinn priester, he's got a lot of talent. The brewer sees something they like in him. Okay, this is a good talented prospect, but if you look at the stats right now, he isn't producing for the red sox and quinn priester has been nothing but fantastic for the brewer. So it is a lot of kudos on what Pat Murphy's been able to do, but also what his pitching coaches have been able to do, chris Hook and everybody down there in the minors all the way through.
Speaker 1:This is just a well-oiled machine that just finds pitchers and makes them work. It's constantly, I guarantee you, a lot of organizations get annoyed because of how often the brewers will just go out and grab a random arm, bring them to Milwaukee and somehow make them a good pitcher again. Quinn Priester, pitching like an absolute dog since coming to Milwaukee. Before that everybody was like this guy's, like he's fresh meat out there. He might as well just throw it on a tee at this point with this guy Comes to Milwaukee, he's pitching phenomenal. He got a rough outing against the Twins, but it was bound to happen eventually that he was going to have a rough outing. I mean, it happens to the best of them. But they just continue to develop and develop good players. After you know, here and there and everything.
Speaker 1:Now it's about just getting these guys signed up, locked in for a little while. That's a big thing for me. Getting some of these players, uh, locked in for a stretch run because you'll get the Braves are able to do in a lot of these other organizations. They don't spend a lot. They have a lot of these contracts, like the Jackson Truro contract, and that's where I think you got to be with a lot of guys, because the more and more you let a guy like Bryceryce terang hit he's already a platinum glove winner you let him hit that contract just gets bigger. Even if sal starts to hit, the contract gets bigger. You just you look at these guys and you're like, okay, at some point here we're gonna start paying guys. What are we gonna be able to afford them? Or is like everybody gonna leave us. So that's kind of where I'm looking at this and saying the Brewers do definitely need to look into kind of signing these guys up.
Speaker 1:But like all in all round way around the barn there, what Pat Murphy's been able to do with this roster, this lineup, everything in between, to right the ship and get them a back of both 500 playing some darn good baseball has been great to see. So Pat Murphy has definitely. I know a lot of people have been over the weeks there like is he the guy, you know, is he still the guy? Yes, he is definitely still the guy, in my opinion, to lead this team over the top. Now it's just about finding consistency and maybe, maybe, just maybe, getting him some talent in the room there. I don't know, maybe go and find a guy like Ryan McMahon out there. Maybe, you know, find something. I don't know what it is. So we gotta we gotta hit quick, quick, excuse me there. We gotta hit a quick commercial break. We're gonna come back, we're gonna wrap up the hour and then we'll get to the next hour here. We got lots to get to yet today here, so we'll be right back here on wisconsin sports on the go with trage.
Speaker 1:Welcome back in as we wrap up this first hour of wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage. This last little part here is brought to you by marshfield motor speedway, the half mile paved track just three miles outside of marshfield on county road age. Find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom. That is marshfieldspeedwaycom there. So we talked a little brewers there. I want to get into the brewers here later on in the show. So so we got a little Brewer Talk to get to. We got Kyle coming up here. In the next hour we're going to talk a little bit of NBA. I want to talk about that finals, the wrap-up of the finals, get into what's ahead in this NBA offseason. And then we also got to get to Ummer here today. We got to talk a little Packers here as the show goes on Like Lots to get to here in the second hour of the show here, make sure you're coming back.
Speaker 1:Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage is coming back for hour number two. After this quick commercial break, welcome back into the second hour of Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, trage. We're coming back here in hour number two and this first segment here we got Elmer on. I don't remember if I said Kyle was coming on next or Elmer Everybody. They just stop by when they want to stop by. It's just how it goes around here, right? I don't really know what's happening. They just kind of stop by when they want to.
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Speaker 1:So I told you guys in the first hour my voice was going to start to go at some point. And man, oh man, after this last break I don't know what it was, but my voice started to go. I had this weekend, I told you guys, I had that tournament, uh, coaching the boys over there and kobe and I was apparently too much yelling because my voice is just. And then, well, we had another game on Tuesday night, so my voice is just, it's trash now it is just absolutely trashed. I, I gotta stop yelling. It's not like I'm yelling at the boys badly, it's like a. You know. You know I'm like yelling like getting them hyped up and everything and like let's go. And yeah, well, oh goodness, I should really have laid off of that. But Um, ummer, how are we doing? It's Wednesday, we're back. It's a good Wednesday. I mean, it's hot here. How's it doing over there?
Speaker 3:It's hot, it's very, very hot. We're talking about like high 90s to 100s and like I haven't been able to take the dogs on a walk because it's just too much for a man Like you can't do Right now, just trying to get through this heat wave. I know the Mrs and I are going to be going to Cancun this weekend Adults-only trips so looking forward to that. In the meantime, it looks like everybody's taking vacations right now to include the Packers in their off-season program. From the standpoint of now, we're in the dead period.
Speaker 1:I guess we're going to have to try to find things to talk about. This is our speculation period of time where we can just start making up BS that's what we're going to make and stuff up. He is leaving the heat to go to Cancun and go probably back to the heat.
Speaker 1:That's the best it's like it's already hot here and I'm not going somewhere to cool down, I'm just going to heat it up again. Oh man, I've had enough of the heat. I couldn't go to Cancun. I'm just praying it's cooling off, as this week's going along here and it's actually feeling like we're getting the four seasons here in Wisconsin, where it's kind of getting the fall weather now after the blazing heat of the weekend. So I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay now, so we don't have things up about the packers to talk about. Than we are right. I mean, you get across there like I don't know how andy herman does it on the pack of day podcast. He does it every single day. So does peter bakowski. Those guys talk packers non-stop and it's like man, oh man, you guys dig down to the bare bones to grab stuff to talk about and that's what we're going to do today.
Speaker 1:We're going to go to the bare bones. Let's talk talking about stuff today here. So Goody talked. We heard a little bit from Goody. He was talking about the cornerback position, a cornerback position out there as a whole, and he said we have three guys that have combined to start over 90 games in the NFL and I feel really good about those three guys and the versatility that they bring. All three guys are able to play inside and outside. There's not many teams in the league that probably have three guys they feel really good about. Goody says we do.
Speaker 1:So you look at the parameters that that kind of established by pff. If you look at it, nixon is actually the worst cornerback of the top three. Nixon's the worst if you look at pff grades. So his 64.1 grade in 2024 that is still above the average mark. Valentine ranked in at 65 grade last year and hobbs you technically can't look at last year because he was injured. So you look a year before and a year before he had a 69 grade. So if you put the pff grades from what of recency bias of these players, nixon's your worst cornerback. So I mean, if that holds true, and I know you can only look at stats for so long. You got to look on the field and get the play.
Speaker 1:But, like I said, we're making things up at this point. Right, it's the offseason, it's the dead period. We got to find something to talk about. Four of the teams with a cornerback ranked below the Packers drafted a corner in the first two rounds this year of the draft. Four of the teams with a cornerback rig the lower than the packers, and there wasn't many in that cornerback three ranking. So you look at it and there's going to be a competition now and you're like, okay, is this competition going to be great? Kaylin king, kamal haddon and micah and micah robinson there, right, those guys are going to be vying for those snaps behind that top three, right? Oh, and I know jv and bullard's gonna be in there too. He's gonna be kind of working. Is he gonna be a slot? Is it gonna be a safety? Where is he gonna work in? We know evan williams mckinney will be back there. I think he's gonna be a little bit everywhere.
Speaker 1:You also gotta look at a guy like isaiah simmons. He's kind of gonna work in to weird spots too. So where does he fit in the fold? But I'm looking at this and I'm like, okay, I see what Goody's saying. If Nixon, according to statistics right, and we can only take them so far is your worst corner, you're actually not bad off, like you're not in a bad spot if Nixon's your worst. Now the question is, though, is Valentine? Because, honestly, valentine didn't really play that bad, it's just everybody's. The one that sticks out to him is that play against the eagles when, uh, with the big old tight end, I can't remember dallas goddard dallas goddard with big boy ball, and what corner in the nfl is going to take him out?
Speaker 1:not many anymore. There isn't many anymore. So it's, it's a question of okay. So, valentine, I think he's okay. Hobbs, if he stays healthy, he's good.
Speaker 1:I mean, you don't have a terrible quarterback room. What worries me the most, I would say, is the depth behind these guys, because it's a lot of question mark on top of question mark. Who's gonna be the guy? And that's where I'm kind of sitting. I'm like do you go out and grab a guy like maybe, maybe a rando like stefan gilmore? He's old, right, he's not, he's used, he's used like a used napkin at this point.
Speaker 1:But but I mean he's, he's experienced, right, you have a lot of inexperience in here. You just need a guy who you can maybe throw in there, have in every 15 snaps or whatever, make it work. There's tool douglas, another guy. So I mean almer, where you at right now. You hear this kind of quote from goody there saying he feels comfortable with what he's got in the room. But I'm looking at the depth and saying that's my worry. The big worry for me is that depth behind him. Where are you kind of at with this cornerback room? Are you in the same boat where you're like we got to go get something, at least something to kind of bolster the depth here of this rotation?
Speaker 3:I think Goody is a product of his own demise, because he's at a point now where he has to say that, right, because he can't come back and be like well, last two years I passed on corners in the first six rounds and I'm going to now decide to say that yeah, you know I'm not really too happy but I'm going to make some moves. So he's going to tell everyone everything's okay. He's kind of like the dog in the burning house saying this is fine and he basically is kind of playing that gift to its max. I think that they do expect to jump from carrington valentine. He has improved every year. He's gained weight, he's gotten better at this craft. His uh I think his pass reign, uh against is probably one of the lower ones and you know keishon nixon being uh in a part-time role as a special teams player and corner. That was something we did see a lot last year. I think that played into him having some really good games and really bad games not bad games but not, you know, subpar games. It's one of those ones where it'll be interesting to see, like as the season progresses, especially in training camp, how that competition is going to go, because I think the thing you said about jevon bullard is going to be interesting. Is he going to play full-time safety or is he going to play slot? And with Nate Hobbs now being there, like you said, we have our three and then everybody else behind us is going to be kind of jockeying for position. They have to kind of be able to perform on special teams as well too. I feel like Mike Robinson and Kaelin King do have good tape in previous years and can Derek Hley and can Halfley be able to kind of like pull something from that?
Speaker 3:You know, because I feel like rookie corners that come in they have the ignorance bliss. They don't really don't know what they don't know, if that makes any sense in the sense that they go out there and just play right and they're not really thinking they're kind of almost going off talent, more so than they are like off scheme and when they get older second years where you see them trying to combine the two. That's why you see a lot of second year players kind of have a little bit of a regression, and that third year was a lot of receivers as well as other players kind of take that jump right, and I feel like we're going to see that across the field, across a lot of positions. I think jordan's going to have that kind of jump in his third year as a starter. You're going to have those kind of jumps in the secondary with Carrington Valentine Of course. Now Keyshawn being truly cornerback one. I don't really expect him to see him very. He did say that he would do kick returns, but I feel like we have the guys back there at other positions that can take over. I think Meikle Hardman can just take care of both punt return and kick return. We're good. I Hardman can just take care of both punt return and kick return. We're good.
Speaker 3:I feel like the Bo Melton thing is interesting. I don't know if it's like the wide receiver room is very crowded so they're just trying to see if they can make a square peg fit into a round hole kind of thing. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. Goody doesn't really have much of a choice to say other than what he did, and knowing that now they could make a move, think going for russell douglas would be great. I know that a lot of people see it a bad year last year, which he did statistically, uh. But then again, though, when you look at the secondary in buffalo. It wasn't like the over that great anyways. I mean, they just traded away their first round pick from a couple years ago. They've kind of basically revamped their whole defense. So I think we shouldn't kind of hold that against russell as well as, like you know, the jalen ramsey stuff is out there where I know he's older, I know that he seems more hyped than he is actual talent, but, truth be told, he doesn't miss any games and he is a very big corner. He's the second overall pick, uh, from many, many years ago, and I know he's been a little bit of a mercenary. But I know we, as well as the pittsburgh steelers, are kind of in the name for jalen ramsey right now.
Speaker 3:For For me I think it'll be interesting to see who we do bring in. I do remember that year when we brought in Devontae Campbell and we're like, oh man, who's this dude? He's going to be a special teams guy, he's going to be just a camp body. And then what happened? He had an all-pro year as a linebacker for us, right. So I think that we could see a pickup like that some obscure player who we're not really thinking about, just like we did russell douglas. He was literally a practice squad candidate we put in a game and basically literally revitalized his whole career.
Speaker 3:So you never know, and with isaiah's sentence thing I do agree that he has like that ability to be in the chess piece. But based on his comments and what he was saying, he's being told now that he's going to be strictly playing linebacker and he likes that because he's been doing so much of everything for so long he's never been able to just learn one position. I think putting him out there linebacker at his size and speed, I mean he could be something, he could be a difference maker. I mean he's basically as big as quay walker yeah, it's a linebacker, right, and he's as athletic as him, if not more. So. It's so many questions on that secondary and even with, like Evan Williams coming up and Xavier McKinney being there, it's kind of like our focal point, our captain, basically back there. It will be interesting to see just kind of what they decide to do with the young talent they have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how they rotate it in. And how do you not? I think Javion Bullard was more or less. He was flipped around too much last year.
Speaker 1:You had to give him one to try to figure that out and they they were like oh, let's play the slot now today, and then tomorrow we'll play safety and we'll try to work that around. It's like I was trying to figure out 14 positions at one time and just never. It never stuck with them. So I'm interested to see how it works and I like the Isaiah Simmons being able to just get into that one role and you know that mindset there how that's all going to work out. I don't know Quay, and then Edger and Cooper, isaiah McDuffie You're going to have a lot of moving pieces there, so we'll see how it all works. I'm interested to see how this defense works. Halfley in year two, I miss a guy like Corey Ballantyne, valentine had a lot of upside and then he just got an injury prone season.
Speaker 1:I mean, look at his 2023 stats. He was pretty good. I mean 43 combined on justin jefferson. He was, he was solid, he was a good corner and then they kind of just like, oh, he was injured, so gave up on him, they just didn't have enough of that tape on him. I'm interested to see what do you do with rashid walker?
Speaker 1:yeah because he's gonna want a payday and you're gonna be trying to make a payday of elton jenkins. You're gonna want to pay a guy like zach tom. Do you want to pay a guy like rashid walker? And this is where I think gooney tried to outsmart the world once again. Anthony belton, jordan morgan he's not even signed.
Speaker 3:You know Belton's not even signed yet. Nope, that's a great thing.
Speaker 1:Nope, I think those two guys right there are the. We don't want to pay this guy, so we are going to. I would not be surprised if Rasheed Walker is playing in kind of this duo tandem role and he's playing less snaps, even though he is probably the better of the two at the time because he's a little more experienced probably. I mean, I just I can really see them saying Jordan Morgan, you are the 55 percent to 45 percent, like that's where we're rolling with this one right now. They're trying to you. You almost have to. If you're not going to sign Rashid Walker back, and if you're going to, you got to sign up to a pretty penny. If you're not going to sign him back, you have to play these other guys a majority of the snaps they have. You have to get them in there and get their feet wet and take it pretty much, take it over and it stinks. But rasheed walker, at the same time I mean yes, it's gonna suck for him because he's like I, I want to be out there, I want to play, but at the same time he's kind of sitting there like, uh, they already got the tape on me, they know I'm, they know I'm good, like they don't. They, if they don't really want me here, I'm just not gonna go get injured I. What are you doing right now? Because for me I'm. I'm taking my two young guys and I'm letting them run because it's a prove it. Now those two need to prove it and they need to step up in a big way because you're going to have a lot of linemen contract.
Speaker 1:The packers did a really good job building a really good offensive line. The problem is now all the contracts are going to come up at the same time and you're going to have to make those tough decisions of who stays and who goes. Zach tom is definitely staying. Elton jenkins you want him to stay. You're probably rashid walker's like, uh, he's good, but I mean at the same time, am I, am I going to pay top dollar to keep them? I don't think so. So where are you at right now with that offensive line room?
Speaker 3:it's funny, like I follow this guy who's like been a little bit of an antagonist towards, like the ian rappaport's and adam sheffler sheffler's of the world his name is a pretty ricky and he's always, I think he just has a connect with some agents who give him a lot of information about guys and he basically was like, oh, the packers are working on an extension from rashid walker, right, and people are like, well, maybe he meant quay walker, he just saw walker and extensions, put the two together and let's make that assumption now, end of the day, I think what you said about having these guys kind of come up on contracts right now is the unfortunate part about draft and develop, especially when you draft really well in the same year. Right, we had that problem with our receivers. You got Romeo Dobbs, you got Watson, then you got Reed and Wicks. All of them are going to be coming up at the same time. Now, in the same thing with Zach Tom, rasheed Walker, you got Elton Jenkins, who still wants to get at least some guaranteed money on the last two years of his deal because he has none now. Right, and you can say, hey, that was the fault of your agent, or you can say that was shrewd decision making by the packers. But if you are banking on him being the linchpin in the center of your offensive line, then for me you need to make that first happen, because that's your vet, that's your guy, that's gonna basically tell everybody where to go.
Speaker 3:Now, when it comes to the walker and, I'm sorry, when it comes to morgan and belton in particular, a part of me is like, yeah, you want to see what they can do, but I'm not just giving them anything. I think that's the problem that you kind of have sometimes with gms. They're like, oh, why draft this guy in the first round? Why draft this guy with a high second round pick? I want them out there regardless of what you think. No, they need to earn it. Like, I'm sorry, rashid walker has been above above average pass for a protector. He's been about an average run blocker, but he's still pretty good for a seventh round pick. Right. And if you're going to, if you're going to have him compete with Morgan or with Belton, then you do that, you compete. You don't just give either one of them the job, and I feel like we have an abundance of riches.
Speaker 3:When it comes to offense line, we still got Jacob Mon monk out there, who is, you know, prototypical center that came out of duke um, who's, you know, just been recently engaged, so looking forward to him getting married. All these, all these guys getting married, it's pretty cool. Uh, then you got jordan. Yeah, jordan love getting married this year too. I just think the offensive line, as great as it looks you can't forget about sean ryan out there but I feel like you're gonna get that, like um, what my man, john Runyon type of contract next year somewhere else.
Speaker 3:We have a lot of guys that there's a lot of question marks on the offensive line with a lot of talent. The question is, okay, a, who's going to get those jobs? And B, can they gel? Right, because it's great to have all this talent, but if they can't play together as an offensive line, it doesn't mean anything. Right? It's like you know that's where Butkus and Steadle need to come in. You know I haven't been the biggest Butkus fan, but again, for the most part, realizing what those guys are going through, last year you know they were doing the best they can. You know what Zach Tom? He's due for a contract this year, right, that's supposed to be worked out.
Speaker 3:People kind of forget that he came into the season last year with a torn pec and he played basically through that right and that last, unfortunately, that last game of the season against the eagles, everybody looked bad on the offensive line. I'm just gonna be real, the whole, basically whole offense looked bad, you know, and we just had just people dropping like flies. We were like literally like the the injury uh option in madden was on like you know, on like madden mode. Basically Everybody was getting banged. It was insane.
Speaker 3:But I just I'm with you where it's like all right, you made these picks and you made both picks that I felt like were beyond their like status. You know, if you do the draft industrial complex, right, belton was a fourth round pick, second round, you got Morgan who was a borderline first second round pick, but I just felt like you were adding it to a position where you really didn't need to add. But I guess you know when people say, hey, if you had to get better at the trenches. So it's a lot of questions. Uh, I I'm actually upset with myself that giving my evaluation, I'm not giving you guys a true answer. Um, I really don't know what they're gonna do there.
Speaker 3:To be honest with you and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out. I just hope to god that there's no like, hey, we draft this guy in the first round. He needs to play no matter what. No, yeah, he needs to earn it. I'm sorry like if, if at the end of the day he doesn't earn the job, you either trade him or you cut him. You keep, you cut your losses, you don't. You're always a backup and you just call it a day like let's not try to force things for the sake of draft status. We did that with Jason Spriggs. That was the worst thing that we ever did to ourselves.
Speaker 1:No, and that's kind of where I'm at with that 55, 45. It's the. You know, you're still trying to have him earn it, you're still making him earn that job, but you're also giving him the first team reps. You're like, ah, you're going to be a first teamers a little bit more than what Rashid is right off the bat.
Speaker 1:And then, if it comes down to it and you failed, you got to bite the bullet and say I failed and Rashid Walker, okay, now you get to go and we have to try and figure this out later. So that's, that's kind of where I'm at with that one, but I'm, I got to run here. I mean, hey, let everybody know where they can find you across social media out there.
Speaker 3:Sounds good, man. I appreciate you, bro. You can find me on Twitter at AMAR3455. I'm starting to slowly get my Instagram out there, so it's at AMAR345 on that.
Speaker 3:I try to keep it pretty consistent and you know we are on a little bit of a break right now on Coast to Coast Packers because there's just not much going on. I know that me and Tragg are trying to get back onto this. Hopefully next I come to this meeting, hopefully next week as a player. I'm not going to try and make any promises this week, but definitely next week. And as always, man, thank you for having me. It's always an honor.
Speaker 1:Of course it was a great time, as always. We will be right back here, elmer, thank you. As always, we'll be right back here. We're going to get Kyle on. We're going to talk NBA. We're going to talk a little nba.
Speaker 1:This next segment of the show here is brought to you by marshfield motor speedway, the half mile paved track just three miles west of marshfield on county road age. Find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom, that MarshfieldSpeedwaycom there, and also it is brought to you by our non-for-profit donation group there, warm Kids Wisconsin. Make sure you're checking them out across all social media platforms out there. They get kids in Wisconsin in warm clothes through the winter. Snow pants, boots is what they deal with and they want to get it to everybody across the state. So make sure you're checking them out there on social medias. Find their links to donate or to find their amazon wish list to help buy what a kid might need. At the moment. I know it's warm, but always thinking ahead to the cold wisconsin winter. So, kyle, how we doing. It's wednesday, it's a good wednesday. I hoping for you. How's it going on this wednesday? I?
Speaker 2:mean it's. It's a good Wednesday, I hope. And for you, how's it going on this Wednesday? I mean it's going well. You know the NBA season is over, but offseason already making some news, so I'm definitely invested.
Speaker 1:It has already been different. It's been a different offseason already, so I can't wait to talk about that?
Speaker 1:Kyle was sick last week, he wasn't able to stop by, so we got all kinds of stuff we have to get to tonight and Kyle was gone last week so we weren't able to do the Mellow Yellow Minute, the trivia hour here on the show. So, Kyle, here we go. If you got your favorite beverage sitting next to you, make sure you're cracking it right now, as I always do here on the show and the mellow yellow minute question of the day Trage's most disliked teams We'll go top five. We'll see if Kyle can get maybe three of the top five. Kyle, what do you got? Trage's most disliked teams.
Speaker 2:I feel like one has to be the Bears.
Speaker 1:Bears are on there. Number three has to be the bears. Bears are on there. Number three.
Speaker 2:Number three on that list is the Chicago bears. So then I'm going to go Got to be the cubs.
Speaker 1:Cubs are number two number two on the list. Kyle's, like the cubs and the bears, are two and three. Who is number one? So number one could go I can give you a hint, but I don't know if you remember this.
Speaker 2:I was going to say Pacers.
Speaker 1:Well, the Pacers are a new profound hatred. I can't say hate. Grandma says never say hate. I dislike. I dislike the Pacers. I would throw them in my probably top six. They'd be number six, I'd put them in there Number one. You would have to go to college basketball, that's what I was thinking they're football team's dog. You would have to also look back at a championship run the Badgers had which was ended due to terrible officiating. And I will die on that hill saying that it was terrible officiating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, these are teams I was going to get to, so Duke has to be that basketball team.
Speaker 1:Number one. Number one on the list is the Duke Blue Devils. Thank you for the 2015 National Championship. Duke is on that list.
Speaker 2:So college football one, I'm thinking let's go Ohio State.
Speaker 1:Ohio State. I dislike them because they're good. I dislike them because they're good. I'd throw them in there, probably my number five. They'd be my number five. It is one more college team that is in my top five.
Speaker 2:I would say let's go Penn State.
Speaker 1:Penn State is yes. Yes, I throw Penn State in there. My hatred of Minnesota is not as high as Penn State. Penn State just drives me up a wall. I'll give you that one so I'll get number four with Penn State there.
Speaker 1:That was a solid round, kyle. That was a solid round. Kyle's gone for a week. He prepared, he prepared for this moment here.
Speaker 1:So if you guys have any thoughts on the NBA, the wrap-up of the season, everything like that, bucks, make sure you're texting in to. That is 715-990-4914. Let us know your thoughts about all things NBA. We'd love to talk about it with you here. So, kyle, the NBA Finals it kind of it was how we wanted it to go. It went seven. It was an exciting series. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:But, kyle, I mean there was a lot of the so-called like great analysts of the world, right, the great, the great sports minds that we get to listen to every day across the mothership, as dan patrick would say, and everywhere else, that said that this finals was subpar, this thunder team was not that good and it was just uh, oh, they were lucky that Tyrese Halliburton got hurt. I mean, at the end of the day, I was intrigued by this finals it was different. Like people want stars, right, they just all they want is stars. They want LeBron, they want Steph, they want man. I don't even know if they want Giannis, sometimes they want Jokic. They want those guys. They don't even know if they want Giannis, sometimes they want Jokic. They want those guys. They don't want Shea Gildress, alexander and who is Jalen Williams? Who is Dort? Who is this Dort guy that's knocking down shots? Who is TJ McConnell? Who are these guys that we're watching right now in the finals? They don't want that. They don't want new, they don't want change. They don't want this revolutionary style of basketball that we're seeing.
Speaker 1:Kyle, I mean, what were your thoughts coming off of this finals? Because there's a lot of hate coming into this. What we saw and I actually enjoyed it. I actually, for once, I sat there and I enjoyed watching all seven games of the NBA finals. What were your thoughts of this finals as a whole?
Speaker 2:finals. As a whole, I feel like it was a kind of a good finish to somewhat of an unpredictable playoffs. In general, I mean, I said before the series I was on here, the last four teams that were remaining Pacers, thunder best case scenario. I think it played out that way and in terms of the star quality. So at times I think NBA media can be kind of lazy and they just like what they know just to go off of lazy narratives. For me, I enjoy watching new teams get to places they haven't been to see how they react. So the Thunder this was their first opportunity in the finals. I thought they played really well. Opportunity in the finals I thought they played really well.
Speaker 2:Sga, williams and those guys have created a name for themselves. And I also think the Thunder and Pacers represent what Adam Silver's NBA like, his vision for it Teams that build through draft picks, through depth and just spraying the ball around. Now I think the Pacers do that a little bit more than the Thunder do. But, like you said, the Thunder you have to deal with not only SGA, it's Williams, it's Holmgren, you know Dort defensively, kaysen Wallace, caruso. Pacers you're looking at Halliburton who unfortunately did get hurt and I love the fact that he came out and said that he would do it all over again, knowing what he knows now. He would still play injured because it's the finals. You never know when you're going to get back there.
Speaker 2:So I thought it was great and, like I said with the Pacers, you're talking about Siakam. I thought Siakam had a great playoff run. I'm not the biggest Siakam guy, but I can sit here and appreciate his game a little bit more, because my whole thing is, if he's your number one, you're not going anywhere. But in Indiana he was like your number two, played great Namhard. There were names there that I kind of hope, like casual fans, can now appreciate a little bit more because of this final series that was.
Speaker 1:It was an interesting comment by halliburton, because I was going to ask you about that. You know, because he mentioned it. You know, looking back on, oh, I do it all over again. I don't know if I was because we saw we've seen this now. Right, we've seen this multiple times. Tatum, he had the calf strain and then all of a sudden he tears it. And then you have Damian Lillard, he tears it. We've seen this story before. We've seen this all unfold.
Speaker 1:And now we just saw with Halliburton in that finals game and it's like okay, now Halliburton is going to be out for most of next season, damian's going out, who knows, for the box. And then tatum, the celtics are preparing for life without him next season. So it's like would you, if you're the pacers, are you sitting there? Like, should I really? Maybe, maybe I should have just said okay, you can go out there and spotty moments. But how do you risk spotty moments? Right? So it's, it's so hard, it's so hard, and I know tyree said that. But at the end of the day, if you're a pacers fan, you're like okay, okay, I know that I wanted you out there, but now I look ahead and it's like okay, you're out for next season. I agree with you, though. You liked the comment. You liked that he was willing to go back out there and he said he would do it all over again. I think that shows a tough player and what he was trying to get at Coming off this series. So now we come off this series. It was a season where there wasn't really that. You know, it always felt like there was that one team every year, which you know, with young stars that played well, and then they just run into LeBron or something like that in the playoffs and get knocked out. We finally avoided that, which was great. Now we get to move into this offseason, do I? I had a question for you and I I wanted this one answer, because we saw the kd move right and it happened while the finals was technically still everything was still happening.
Speaker 1:Do you think that the nba should not allow trades to happen at that moment? Because, like, how? Okay, I don't know if okc actually wanted to go after kevin durant, if that was actually even a thought in their head, right, but what are you supposed to? If you're okc, how do you even make a trade? For, like, you're in the finals right now, how do you make a trade for kd and say hey, uh, by the way, wallace and dort like hey, after this series is done, like deuces man, you can't do that.
Speaker 1:And the pacers, they're kind of in the same boat because now they're without halliburton.
Speaker 1:Maybe bringing in a score like kd could have, you know, filled in that gap year for them that they're going to be missing a score. They, you know mcconnell can do a little bit, but I don't think he's going to be that true score. Do you think that they should have this period where you can't make moves like this? You have have to wait until the season wraps up, because otherwise I just feel like it's, you know, kind of like the transfer portal in college sports where it opens up so early. It kind of goes against these teams that are still playing. It hurts them with being able to make these moves, cause, I mean, drew holiday got moved today but he ended up with the blazers there. I mean it just. Do you think that they should wait with opening that up so that way these teams like OKC and the Pacers in this series have that ability to go after a guy, because they're going to have free agents and they maybe have wanted a shot at a guy like KD.
Speaker 2:But now they don't get that because the Rockets were given all that time to be able to go and grab him. I mean, I think if they could they would. Problem is the calendar. The series ends Sunday, you have the draft Wednesday, then you have summer league, I think in a week and a half. So a lot of these teams need to kind of get going with some of their construction for next season already. And look if the Thunder I feel like if they were interested in KD they could have had some preliminary conversation with the Sun and waited until after the series and then announced something the fact that he's going to Houston. I'm assuming the Thunder weren't interested because for them they'd have to mortgage some of their future for a guy like kevin durant and they probably decided why do it?
Speaker 2:yeah worst case we make to a game seven finals and we lose. Like we should be right there again next season yeah, yeah, yeah, I, you know, I can see.
Speaker 1:I just, I guess not just the kd situation, but looking at you know other guys where it's going to probably come up with the same kind of scenario in the future, just because we all know how much social media is there and how much stuff gets leaked. So the second, the thunder, pick up the phone and call the sons. Now KD finds out and he's like hey, just so you guys know, this is what's going on right now. And then all of a sudden, the thunder players are like, oh, my, like. All of a sudden, the Thunder players are like, oh my, like who's getting moved? And then it just, you know, locker rooms get destroyed. That way Problems arise. And I, I, just I, I would be okay.
Speaker 1:You know, I understand the calendar year. Maybe you kind of move things back. I don't know what you do Right, but there's gotta be a better way, some way to kind of negate this until after the finals, I guess. But what, whatever, what can you do? Right, the calendar year works out, how the calendar year works out. So we got a couple things here before we, we get, before you got to get out of here. But, um, you see. So you talk about the nba draft. It's realistically cooper flag right. It's got to be cooper flag going number one.
Speaker 1:If it's not, the mavs drop the ball right, okay okay I mean at least, at least everybody's all on the same pitch. I, I can't wait if they, if nico, does not draft cooper flag after training luca, that would be wild, that'd be absolutely wild. I mean, there's some good prospects in there and I I've always been at the camp of. I think cooper flag's a good player, I do, I think I think he's great, but I just don't. He's not polished, he's not done, he's not finished off Right. And I hate when they put these guys already in the league, already as a star, already as a superstar on this platform. Right, zion Williamson came from Duke too. They put him on his big old platform. Where's he now? He's like he's a subpar player. He are injured all the time. Now, that's got a whole bunch to do with off the court stuff and you know that kind of stuff. But I mean I think cooper flag could be great. I'm not. I think he will be good, I think he's gonna be great. But I just I hate when analysts and you know all these they just put them up on this platform before they're even there. Let them get into the league. Right, michael jordan who knew michael jordan was going to be michael jordan before Jordan, before Michael Jordan came in the league, and there's going to be guys like that who come through maybe this draft, who we don't expect.
Speaker 1:Look at Shea Gildress, alexander who is that? Who was Jalen Williams before he went to OKC? Who was this guy right? And all of a sudden he's a star and everybody wants him. And then you have these young guys coming out of the I think I said G League Ignite with Jalen Green, and Singun came from out of there too. I mean those guys are all coming from these different places. So I mean they all come from different areas. Weird colleges, right, most of the stars come from weird colleges. I've accepted that. Now there's not if you look across the league, like there's a few Kentucky guys, there's a few Duke guys, but at the end of it there's a lot of like randos, like Steph Curry and Kyle Corver came from random one. It's just a lot of randos that go throughout this league.
Speaker 1:So I mean that it's the NBA draft. Who knows what's going to happen there? The bucks All we know is the bucks will probably not draft in the first round, unless if shams gets what he wants and Giannis is traded, because Shams is he's the biggest advocate for Giannis to be traded and if it happens, shams is going to be the first one to say I told you guys, I told you guys it was happening. And Giannis is even going to be like I didn't know this was happening. The Bucks would be like I didn't know this was happening. Apparently, shams just knew.
Speaker 1:So, on Giannis, I got a question for you, kyle. Okay, before we get out of here, stephen A tells me that Giannis is an underachiever if he only gets that one finals with the Bucs and he's basically just didn't do good enough in the league. He had more potential and should have done a lot more. What do you think, kyle, if Giannis sticks with Milwaukee, which is good for basketball, I think good for the league and I think it's good for the people. I think it's good for yannis if he sticks with milwaukee and say they only win one more finals. Maybe they get to the conference finals a couple times, whatever, but they don't get to the finals, they don't win the finals. Maybe they get to the finals, but they don't win.
Speaker 1:Do you believe that yannis is an underachiever in his career? Because if he is, there is a laundry list of players, including AI, including some of these really good players throughout the years, that we would have to throw on the same list of being an underachiever, and I would love to hear their thoughts, to give Stephen A, about what they think. Oh, he's underachieved in his career too. So, kyle, what do you think Is Giannis an underachieved in his career too? So, kyle, what do you think is yannis an underachiever if he does not win another finals or if he does not get out of milwaukee? Basically, because that's what they want. They just want to push this narrative until he just leaves. What do you think, kyle?
Speaker 2:it's it's lazy narrative again and, like you said, steven a's been a big proponent of yannis getting out and going to Miami or something. I mean Stephen A is the same guy who said he roots for the finals to be in Miami or LA because that's where he wants to be. So I find it hard to believe that, milwaukee not being a necessarily desirable place for free agents to go, giannis goes there, develops into the player that he is now, because you got to remember what he looked like when he was drafted versus now. The fact that he transformed his body that way, that in itself is a big achievement. Then he manages to do so and win a title in Milwaukee, where they beat Chris Paul. So I guess Chris Paul is an underachiever as well. But they call Chris Paul the point.
Speaker 2:God. Hard to think you're going to call somebody a point guard and then call him an underachiever. But he doesn't have any rings why Giannis kept him from winning one. So it is. So it's such a stupid thing to say. I don't think Giannis is an underachiever. I agree with you. I would love to see Giannis finish his career in Milwaukee. I mean that means he's probably got to have some more battles against my Celtics, but I respect Giannis. Giannis is a guy who goes out there night in and night out and he gives you everything he has.
Speaker 1:I would say he should be in the MVP talks, simply because he scores 30-plus points a game and doesn't shoot threes to get there Like the rest of these guys that score 30-plus points a game.
Speaker 1:They shoot threes to get there. Giannis plays layups we're bully ball down the lane Like he plays old-style basketball and still scores and rebounds just as much as everybody else in basketball there. I mean, I was just looking it up. I had to look up the list of guys and this is just a small list. But Jerry West won championship, oscar Robinson won championship, moses Malone won championship, kevin Garnett, bob Pettit, rick Barry, dirk Nowinski, clyde Drexler, the list goes on. But I can just tell you this right now If all those guys are underachievers and you put Giannis on that same list, oh okay, shoot, darn it, crap, I'll get over it. It means that Giannis went down as one of the best players to ever play the game. One of those guys is the logo. I don't know what else to say. Giannis could be the next logo then. Sorry, stephen A, he'll be the next logo. So, kyle, thank you, as always for coming on tonight here. Let the people know where to find you out there, across social media.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can find me Chomping at the Bit. Youtube, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter X, whatever you want to call it. You can find me wherever, Also Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts as well.
Speaker 1:Make sure you're checking him out. He's always got great stuff and as this NBA offseason gets going here he's going to be talking about it all the time. You know it, over there in the Celtics they're making moves already so it's going to get crazy and there you want to keep up to date with the moves, latest transactions, everything like that Football season around the corner. You got to keep up with it with Kyle there, so make sure you're checking him out there across social media. So thank you, kyle. As always, we'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. Welcome back to Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage. As we come back for this next segment of the show here, the Brewer Talk. As we get closer to the end of the show here for the night and if you missed any of the show tonight, here we had Kyle. Kyle was just now. We're talking nba. We're talking about the nba finals. We had um around just a little bit ago talking packers. We had a little brewery talk in the first hour of the show. There had a little badger talk in that first hour of the show. If you missed any of it, make sure you're checking it out next day across all podcast platforms there on apple, spotify, youtube, wherever your podcast you can find the show out there Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Traj. Or search it on Google It'll give you a link somewhere in between. Or find us across all social media platforms. You can find links on there to all the show and everything like that. If you want to chime in, if you want to get your voice heard here on the show 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914 there. This next segment of the show here is brought to you by sport and spine clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. They're expert, traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming. Call for flexible scheduling and evaluations. Just call Chad down there. It's sports by clinic of Greenwood. He'll get you right, doing what and getting you back to doing whatever you're doing, feeling better than ever. Sport and spine clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. So went to the break. We were talking about the NBA. I want to talk a little bit of Brewers here as we get closer and closer to the end of the show here. We were talking about the Brewers in the first hour and I got to. You know a little bit of everything the pitching staff, everything in between and with this pitching staff, what's happening right now. So Woodruffruff, according to reports, looks like he's going to make one rehab start and then he's going to be. He's going to be ready to go. He's going to be ready to come back up to the big leagues, right? Nestor Cortez, also making rehab starts. He's looking like he's going to be before the all-star break. They're expecting Nestor back. So you have, the Calvary is slowly on its way.
Speaker 1:Not Garrett Mitchell, because we saw Garrett Mitchell. Now it's looking like he's gonna be all eight to ten weeks again with an injury with that shoulder. So I mean it sucks, it really does. Because Garrett Mitchell's that guy and I heard somebody compare I think it was Tim Allen, was talking about him and he said something you know, comparing him to what Paul Molitor was early in his career. Whereas if this guy could stay healthy right, that's where I'm at with Garrett Mitchell it's like if this guy could stay healthy, if Garrett Mitchell could stay healthy, just imagine what he could be able to do. He's got all. He's got the attributes right. He's got the speed, he's got the power, he's got the glove, he's got everything that you want in a solid on base power hitting lefty from the outfield spot. He just can't stay out there. It sucks, it really does. So. He looks like he's gonna be out for a while, for a while injured. That same shoulder, blake perkins slowly working his way back, but looking at that pitching staff, you have a guy like woody on his way back. You expect that you're going to make room for him in some way, shape or form. Nester cortez on his way back.
Speaker 1:What do you do? Because, as of right now, I still don't understand why logan henderson isn't up. I I like chad patrick, I think he's a gamer, but chad patrick, I think, has been the worst of what we've seen in this rotation. With Miz. Now you have Katana, you have, right now you have Freddie Peralta up at the top. There he's been pitching well.
Speaker 1:You have solid rotation across the board, but where's your? You got to find like, where is your weak link? Right, where, where? And Quinn Priester has been fantastic. So where is your weak link? Right where it where? And quinn priester has been fantastic. So where is your weak link coming right now? And I would say it's chad patrick at this very moment. Now I'm not trying to knock on chad patrick because he's been solid. He had a good, solid start. He's just kind of ran into a buzzsaw, as of late here he had a struggle in that game against the pirates there in game one. It means some people are already calling for him to be gone.
Speaker 1:I don don't understand why right now Logan Henderson is still down in the minors because what he's shown when he's come up, there's no reason why Chad Patrick still got the job out there. The question is now do you shift guys to the minors? Because there's guys with options, right? Grant Anderson's got an option out there in the bullpen. We know that. You have Aaron Ashby, but Aaron Ashby is a guy that the Brewers. You have Aaron Ashby, but Aaron Ashby is the guy that the Brewers they just will never give up on. They think the world of him so he ain't going anywhere. Dl Hall they still think he'll be a starter. So maybe you see a guy like DL Hall, maybe shift back down to the minors where they get him more extended innings, right, and then maybe you move a guy out to the bullpen like a Chad Patrick.
Speaker 1:Right now I still think where I'm at with this rotation is you use guys as trade bait. I don't know if you want to trade a guy like Quintana, because he's been great. I mean, if it's that double-edged sword, right, you got to find, you give. You have guys who have been great for you that you'd hate to see go, because you'd hate to see him go somewhere, that's going to beat you, right. But at the same time will they bring good prospect? All Freddie Peralta, you right. But at the same time will they bring good prospect? All Freddy Peralta? I think right now would bring a pretty good hall back for me. It's been fantastic. He's got another year of contract with an option there. He's been great. I would say Freddy would be an option.
Speaker 1:Quintana, he's going to be a rental, but you could still get guys back for him. You're going to have guys across the board. I mean, nestor Cortez would be another guy where you could see maybe somebody making a deal for him. It's going to be, you know, bring him back for a couple spotty starts. So the question is what do you do? Do you go to six-man rotation? Do you move a guy to the bullpen? How do you work? Who do you send down? Like, how do you work this thing? It's a good problem to have with all the depth.
Speaker 1:Now the problem is is, with all that depth, getting those guys innings, meaningful innings, where they should be within, whether it's the rotation, because I mean logan henderson, is he getting meaningful? I mean, yes, he's getting meaningful innings down in triple a, but at the same time, are they? Could he do those at the big league level and do it better than what chad patrick's doing? I, I think so. So it is bringing a guy like woodruff back. Do you bring him back to the bullpen? And then, who do you move down? Is it a guy like Grant Anderson? Probably is that. Strinsky would be a guy where I could see him getting moved around. Outside of that, maybe a guy like Dia Hall does get sent down at one point, but he's been good since coming back. So it's going to be interesting to see what the Brewers do to side there with that rotation.
Speaker 1:Once Woody comes back and once Cortez comes back, I am very intrigued to see what the move's going to be, because I can't imagine they keep Woody down any longer because they can't Knock on wood. Knock on wood, he comes back and he comes back healthy. But man, oh man, they can't risk two starts down there. They got to get him back on a big league mound as fast as they can. And then Nestor Cortez. I mean I don't foresee him staying down very long after he starts to make his way back here. So we'll see what the Brewers do.
Speaker 1:It's going to be interesting here in the coming weeks because this is all expected before the All-Star break. I mean Nestor Cortez is back and for sure Woodruff, so we'll see kind of where the Brewers sit with those guys. Perkins on his way back. You would expect Gary Mitchell back at some point, right Knock on wood that he avoids all his injuries and he ends up back. But if those guys do come back, there's a little bit of a shorter list, I guess for those guys. I mean you'd expect Daz Cameron's probably the first guy to get sent down, but I mean Isaac Collins has played himself into a large role. And then Sal Frelick's a no-go, right. Jackson Turia's definitely no. So who's your next option? It's got to be like a guy like Monasterio, right. It's got to be a guy like Monasterio, I would think would be your next option. So we'll see what the Brewers kind of do here. They're going to have a lot of guys returning and we'll see where they kind of make their moves and who is that guy that gets optioned or moved down there. So we'll wait and see with this Brewers team.
Speaker 1:Right now I mean this Brew this Brewers offense is heating up and they've been scoring runs at a torrid pace. You talk about that eight-run outburst against the Cubs, 17 against the Twins, the next night nine and nine against the Twins in back-to-back nights there. So you're talking 18 runs combined over Saturday and Sunday. You're talking 35 runs across that whole board there. And then you look at this Pirates series. They scored four in Game 1 in the loss but then scored nine in Game 2. There they scored but then scored nine in game two. There they scored 13 runs already in this series, as where I I know, you guys know I'm pre-recorded so I don't know what happened that wednesday but I'm assuming with mizorowski going against skeeans knock on wood, that was a pitcher's duels, end, all pitchers duels and it was like maybe three hits on both sides and maybe one run was scored in the entire game and hopefully it was the brewers. So I don't expect many runs in game three of that series there. But all in all, this Brewers offense has been heating up and it has a lot to do with guys like Christian Yelich coming into it.
Speaker 1:Christian Yelich has been hitting way better as of late and you guys know me, I'm not a big Christian Yelich lover, but he's up 264 on the average, so he's been hitting a lot better as of late. We want to look at the last few games. For the last seven games he's hitting .483. Over the last 15, he's hitting .375. And over the last 30 games he's hitting .356. That's over the last month. There, in 118 at-bats he's got 42 hits and 30 RBIs, eight home runs along with it. Christian Yelch has definitely come into his own here over this last little stretch. And then Isaac Collins he continues to put bat on ball, continues to produce for this offense. Last seven games 400 average. You look at the last 15, 348. And then you look over the last 30 games. Over the last month 282.
Speaker 1:He's been great. The guy that is the catalyst that is somehow some way found it. He's in his own. Pat Murphy said hold on, he'll find it eventually. Joey Ortiz 433 over the last seven. Over the last 15, he's 352. Over the last month, over the last three games 292 average Over the last 30 games. And everybody's going to say, oh, look at his average right now it sucks right. He's at a 217 average. Got to look back to where that started right, where that was even a couple weeks ago. Now he's up to
Speaker 1:his 217 average. Joey Ortiz been hitting a snot out of the ball. He had two home runs there against the Pirates in game two of that series. He's been. I mean, it's like waiting for guys to come along. We talked about it, waiting for these guys to come along, and I'm at the point right now where I'm like man, oh man. If Joey Ortiz continues to find a way to hit the ball, so does Isaac Isaac Collins. You got
Speaker 1:guys like Yelich. If a guy like Contreras, who I don't understand why we keep, maybe move him down to the five spot. I don't understand why Reese is batting behind him all the time there. Contreras hasn't been hitting consistently. But I'm looking at a guy like Contreras and I'm like if Contreras could find it, if he could, if he could come along, he could get that average up a little bit. Maybe sitting around that 250 mark, I, this brewer's offense looks darn good right now. They've been hitting the ball. They've been hitting the ball. Well, I'd be, I'd love, maybe, maybe, move a guy around like that right now. I think where where this
Speaker 1:lineup is that? I love sal in the leadoff spot. Sal is a guy where he battles, he puts the ball out there and he just does the little things right. And I'm looking at Sal. He's got that 295 average. He's still hitting way above average right now for what you expect out of him 303 over the last seven, 306 over the last 15, and over the last 30 games he's hitting 322. So I mean Sal Frorelick continues to just be on this torrid stretch this season, not a big power guy, not a big power guy at all. Just putting the ball in play and driving it in gaps and just getting it down right over top of the infield. That's all you need out of a
Speaker 1:solid leadoff hitter. So I was asked the question, you know, should Sal stay in the leadoff spot, spot 100? Sal should stay in the leadoff spot. No doubt in my mind, should he stay there? I, I'm the way the lineup's shaped up right now. Outside of maybe I would maybe move a guy like contrarious around, outside of that I am. I am dead set where this lineup is at. I I love what they got going on. You know, terang, with that speed down in the middle of the lineup there. Joy ortiz rounded out he's been hitting the ball better isaac collins down there seven spot. This has been a lineup that has been torrid over this last little stretch and hopefully they can keep it going as they get going through
Speaker 1:the line here. I mean right now the Brewers, they're in the stretch, they got the Pirates right now and then they're going to take on the Rockies coming up this weekend here and this is a stretch of games with the Brewers. It's a got to have it. It's a gotta have it stretch of games. You got the Pirates, you gotta have this series. Then you got the Colorado Rockies. After that you take on the Mets, you go to New York but then you play the Miami Marlins. So a little bit of a stretch. You have some stretch games here where you have the Dodgers and the Mets kind of sandwiched in there. But on the outside of that in that sandwich and the bread of the sandwich, right, you got the colorado rockies and the nationals surrounded out there in july and then you have the marlins in between new york mets and the dodgers. So you have a little bit of stretch here where you can make up some ground on the cubs as you get closer and closer to the all-star break and if you close this with the brewers in going into the all-star break, you're down maybe a one game or maybe a half game. Maybe got you know division tie. Whatever it is, I I like the idea of then becoming a not a true buyer, but not a a true mover at the deadline. There it's just sitting pat and seeing what you do, so we'll see what the brewers do there. I can't wait. You got the rockies coming up this weekend here. That should be a fun series as the brewers will look to keep getting hot and keep rolling along here as we go. So we're going to come back here. We're going to wrap up the show for the day here. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the go with Traj. Welcome back as we wrap up the show here
Speaker 1:on this Wednesday. What is it June 25th today? Yeah, it's June 25th. Almost good, it's gracious. Almost July. Right, we're getting to. It's the dog days of summer. The baseball is about the only thing happening. All the championships are done. Baseball and golf are about the only things happen. Just mask are out there, but in all reality, baseball is the only thing happening right now. We got football around the corner. We got college football around the corner. It is we're getting closer. We're getting closer to the sports season, the sports calendar taking back off there. But we got the Brewers coming up this weekend. They're gonna be to be taking on the Rockies. Should be a good series there Before we come back. We got the start of the series with the Mets there. So hopefully Brewers get a good series win there against the Rockies and start a good series against the Mets there. So when we come back we're talking about some good wins there for
Speaker 1:this Brewers team. But, as always, if you want to find the show, find it across all social media platforms there Facebook, youtube, anywhere you get. I mean any social media platform. Search Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trades. You can find us there. If you want to find the show. If you missed any portion of the show today, you want to find us next day. Across all podcast platforms iTunes, apple, spotify wherever you get podcasts, you can find the show. Search us, wisconsin SportsportsOnTheGoWithTrage. If you want to text us, let us know what you thought of the show. Everything like that, comments, everything is always welcomed and enjoyed. 715-990-4914. 715-990-4914. So with that, this has been Wisconsin Sports On the Go With Trage. Thank you all for tuning in. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Wednesday. But until I talk to you guys again next Wednesday, see ya.