Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag is a podcast/radio show aiming at bringing you Wisconsin sports news and opinions! Find the show Wednesdays from 7-9 on Sports radio 92.3 WOSQ or here next day!
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
The Brewers: America's Scrappy Underdogs, Packers Training Camp, Badger Hoops Talk
this is wisconsin sports on the go with trade, your place for all things. Wisconsin sports, now your host trade, how we doing everybody and welcome in to wisconsin sports on the go with trade. I'm your host trade as we're coming back for this july 23rd, 23rd edition of the show here. I hope you guys enjoyed your day today. I hope you guys enjoyed your wednesday. I hope you guys are enjoying your week. So far, you enjoyed your last weekend there. It was nice. It was kind of hot. You know, it seems like I come back here every week. I'm like it's been hot. It's been hot. Well, it has been darn hot. It's's been hot this week too, and this last weekend. Here the boys, we wrapped up the 12U baseball season so got the second place finish in the Greenwood tournament here. So that was I mean. It was congrats, congratulations to the Marshfield Sandlot team that came over. They got the win there and it was a hard-fought game. It was. I mean, the boys battled. It was an awesome game to be a part of as a coach and everything like that. What a great weekend it was with that. Spent some time with family, my wife, the little boy, everything like that. It was a great weekend all the way around there Coming off the weekend, coming off this last weekend here, there was a lot that happened, a lot that happened in this last week and this next weekend.
Speaker 1:We had Zach Tom sign up there with the Packersers. We got the extension talk so we were talking about it ummer and I had been talking about with the packers there and finally the finally the packers signed that extension with zach tom. So we're going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about what that means for elton jenkins. We're going to get into all of that here with the packers later on. We got a newcomer on the show, a new guest coming out. We're going to talk badgers here coming up, a little badger basketball as they had a little open practice there. We're going to talk badger basketball here. Uh, probably next I'm gonna say next year he's gonna be stopping by we're gonna talk badger basketball. And then later on I want to talk a little bit of bucks. Kyle's gonna jump on. We're talking a little bucks because we heard from john horse there. He was talking and I just want to go over with k Kyle some of the comments that we saw from John Horst and it was some of his comments are interesting. Some are like okay, okay, I like that, I like to see that. So I want to talk about what John Horst had to say. We're going to get into that with Kyle later on the show here.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, the Brewers. I want to get to the Brewers today because I got to be honest with you. I'm so sick of this. I always start the show every single week with what was grinding my gears. I always start the week that's how we start the show every single week is what's grinding my gears and you know what was grinding my gears coming off this weekend? The Brewers.
Speaker 1:They swept the Dodgers twice, twice, six straight against the Dodgers, three before the all-star break, three after and even before. They were on a 10 game win streak on the weekend there after sunday, and all I heard and all I saw across twitter, from all these accounts and every you know all these baseball fans and fans, analysts, like so-called analysts, whatever you want to call them, all that I saw how are the Brewers getting so lucky? They're just lucky, they're just lucky, they're just lucky, they're lucky. That's all I kept seeing was luck, luck, luck, luck, luck. You know what? After a while, you can be lucky for a couple games. After a while you just got to admit that they find a way to win and they are winning games pretty good right now. I mean you look through the stats. We're going to look through the stats later on in the uh show here about what we've seen on this brewers team. But I mean they're first and infield hits they don't. They're not a hard hitting, we're gonna slow out, slug you kind of team. But that's why they're starting pitching, why they rely on starting pitching so much. That's why they rely on the bullpen so much that they rely on speed athleticism.
Speaker 1:Doing the little things right. We keep harping on them. The little things right. This team does so good doing the little things and we talk about that all the time. I, I am so sick After 10 games.
Speaker 1:It's not luck anymore. It's not luck. You can't luck into 10 straight. Not against the Dodgers, not against the Dodgers. I don't care who you are the Dodgers. Yes, I will admit the Dodgers. They screwed up themselves. Clayton Kershaw, I even said it after the game. He was so upset he wouldn't even talk to the media, everything like that. He's like I'm gonna get trouble saying something. They had a lot of airs. They let the brewers back into games. But some of those airs at times and there are airs that the brewers cause with their base running, just just their simple how they run the bases, the little things that they do you know, jack centurio, he, he, uh, he hustled around third and scored before Andrew Vaughn was thrown out at third base. It was, I mean, bang, bang. It all happened at the same time. But Jackson Turio hustling around the bases, getting home before that throw got to third and tagging Vaughn out, that was the run, that was the potential. I believe that I can't remember off the top of my head quite right, but that was a very important run in that game, I think, because they ended up 6-5. So that was a very important run. It's those little things that the Brewers do right.
Speaker 1:This team early on in the season, this Brewers team, they were a team that you were up 3-0, they laid down and they were done. The way the Brewers started this year, a 3-0 deficit was everything. They couldn't go down 3-0 and find a way to score a run nothing. Deficit was everything they couldn't find. They couldn't go down three, nothing and find a way to score a run. It was like they were defeated right then and there to win right out of the sales. This team. Now it's like the answer is there, they. They don't feel like they're out of any game and we saw that against the Dodgers. The payrolls I don't even have to name the number of the payroll, right, the Dodgers payroll is huge compared with the Brewers have. Now you got one guy who's making a decent amount of money there for the uh Dodgers, but that payroll is huge, the Brewers not so much.
Speaker 1:Yet with this ragtag group, I love this quote and I wanted to read this quote off from Pat Murphy. I just saw it there. The other I'm going to lose it here what? What Pat Murphy basically said was walking into, walking into Dodger stadium and winning this game with this group, this group of guys that just they don't. There it is. I found it right there. It's a bunch of guys that nobody has ever heard of. Like I said, no disrespect to the great fans of Japan baseball, but they can't name five players in our lineup. That is absolutely hilarious and that's absolutely the truth.
Speaker 1:I've talked with Aaron before. Aaron, he used to be a part of the show here. He's still a good buddy, good friend of the show out there in Philly and he used to always tell me before I met you, I didn't know half of the people in the Brewers roster. I didn't know half the people, I didn't know any of them. He said I knew Yelich, I knew Contreras was there, I didn't know any of the rest. And then he said, slowly but surely, the more he watched and the more that he listened, you know, and we would talk about Brewers and he was watching the games to try to keep, you know, keep up with it and everything like that that you know. So we got them to talk about and he's like this team, you just fall in love with them. You just fall in love with them more and more as it goes, as you watch them.
Speaker 1:And that's why I really do think I saw that it was an article written. It was out there in LA, one of the LA I don't know who, some reporter out there in LA. They said that the Brewers may be America's team. They said the Brewers might be America's team. And I agree with that so much Because you don't. The Dodgers are not America's team.
Speaker 1:Why Dodger fans root for the Dodgers? Nobody else roots for the Dodgers. Nobody, really not. No, just Dodger fans. Right, if you get into a playoff series and it's the Dodgers versus the Diamondbacks, dodger fans cheering for the Dodgers, everybody else is cheering for the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1:You get to the NLCS and it's the Brewers versus the Dodgers versus the Diamondbacks, dodger fans cheering for the Dodgers, everybody else is cheering for the Diamondbacks. You get to the NLCS and it's the Brewers versus the Dodgers. Winner goes to the World Series the United States versus LA. There you go. That shows you what America is. It's like the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys are so-called America's team but when it comes down to it, dallas Cowboy fans will cheer for Dallas Cowboys. Nobody like bandwagons over to the Dallas Cowboys. They pray for the Cowboys to lose. People pray for the Dodgers to lose. People pray for the Cubs to lose. They don't really pray for the Brewers to lose. They don't care.
Speaker 1:The Brewers are the Brewers and I think the Brewers, the way that they do it, they annoy fan bases. They annoy fan bases. They annoy opposing teams. They annoy basically other small market fan bases because they're jealous that basically, their team can't do the same thing the Brewers do. Actually, I believe most, even big markets are jealous that they can't do what the Brewers do. Can you imagine the Dodgers if they could just find the talent, like the Brewers do, and make it work somehow? Could you imagine that? I mean, you look at what this Brewers team is able to do with a guy like Quinn Priester.
Speaker 1:Comes over from the Red Sox right, just an average Joe. When he came over he pitched for Pittsburgh. He was in the Red Sox uniform. There Just wasn't really anything. He comes to the Brewers and he wins a 2-0 shutout against the Dodgers and just pitches lights out. Just put a new respect on his name. After that outing in LA, after the All-Star break, that was, I believe, a tone setter. There was two tone setters in those series. I think the two nothing win took the wind out of the Dodgers sale and I think game one at home that the Brewers just lit up Yamamoto. I think that was a wind out of the sales moment too for this Dodgers team. Yamamoto I think that was a wind out of the sails moment too for this Dodgers team.
Speaker 1:This team, this Brewers team, is a relentless team. They just keep coming at you and they come at you in different ways. They find different ways to score. It's not always. Oh well, we got to hit the. This team was so prone in the past to just be all about the long ball. We needed the long ball to win games, to just be all about the long ball. We needed the long ball to win games, and that's where I think they ran into such a problem in past here with. Well, we got to rely on the long ball so much that we leave guys in scoring position. We do those things Now.
Speaker 1:I mean, you look at a guy like Sal right, sal Frelick and I know he's banged up right now but but Sal Frelick, what he's done for this team this year, the amount of catcher's interferences that he draws just because he swings so late and he lets the ball travel and he just puts the ball in play. The transformation that he's taken this season. And a guy like Isaac Collins coming along, and now you've got Blake Perkins coming back, so that's a huge boost in that outfield, especially defensively. Joey Ortiz has come alive, terang's been solid this year for you, and Javon, since Brewers got him, I mean he's been great for what we've seen. Jackson Churrios has come along, christian Yelich Contreras can come along and be awesome, but just the transformation of some of these guys, that jump that they've taken where we were all worried. Okay, what's going to happen now? Adamas is gone, who's going to step up? Who's going to be that guy? Who's going to be that constant force in this lineup? And it's been different guys along the way that have kept it's kept pacing this offense. It was Reese Hoskins for a while, then it was Yelich, and now it's been Yelich and now it was Ortiz and it's been Sal's been consistent along the way and so has Terang.
Speaker 1:It's the ability of this team to do it in different ways. That's what drives these other fan bases nuts. That's what drives them nuts is they don't have that same ability. They watch their team, they watch their owner, whatever their GM go out, grab players, bring them in, and it just doesn't work, it doesn't fit. And then they look over at the Brewers and they're like how did they get a guy like Quinn Priester? Bring him in, and now he could be basically a number two in most teams' staff. And then they brought in a guy like Andrew Vaughn and he couldn't hit with the White Sox. He was struggling all year. The White Sox didn't even want him and he just started lighting it up for the brewers. How do they find a way to constantly do this with guys? And it just drives them nuts.
Speaker 1:That's why I think the brewers, they just they annoy large fan bases. They don't want us to be there, they don't want the brewers to be there, they don't want the brewers to be along with them, because they think, oh, we have all the money, we have all the big name players. Right, we have the Dodgers Mookie Betts, freddie Freeman, you have Teoscar Hernandez, you have Shoya Otani. If you count Teoscar Hernandez as a big name, you got glass. Now you got, I mean, like, looking at the Dodgers, like I just watching these last two series and seeing the names that the Brewers were going through, it was like holy crap, in a million years would you have thought that some of these guys should have been in the same field as some of these guys?
Speaker 1:I mean, these guys are Hall of Famers. I mean this is just the Brewers don't even blink. They don't even blink. They don't see it as, oh, this team is stacked, they're a bunch of Hall of Famers. They don't see it as, oh, this team is stacked, they're a bunch of Hall of Famers. They don't see it as that. They see it as we belong in this field and we're going to do all those little things right to find a way to beat you. And it's awesome, it is absolutely awesome.
Speaker 1:So, coming off that weekend there, all that luck, bull crap and all that I'm done with it. I'm done with that. This Brewers team found a way to battle all the way back from where they were at the start of this year, where they look like they were destined to fall apart, have to trade pieces away at the deadline, everything like that. And now look at them, they're tied. They were just over the weekend there. They got tied up for first place there with the Cubs. They had almost the best record in baseball. They're right there with the Tigers and the Cubs for the best record in baseball. The way that they've just put it all together and found a way awesome, absolutely awesome. So that was what was grinding my gears off the weekend. There was just seeing across social media this luck, bull crap. I'm so done with that.
Speaker 1:And then also this whole WNBA thing. The All-Star game happened over the weekend and I don't really want to talk about this that much, so I'm just going to just spit my mind out and then we're going to go to break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about it. The WNBA they wore these t-shirts that pay us what you owe us. They're set to make a profit this year, but they're I every article that I've read. They're set to make a profit this year, but they're still in a deficit. Do they deserve more? You could say so. Yes, I've heard arguments both ways. What irritates me the most is we have to still tear down people along the way. That's what irritates me the most.
Speaker 1:And if you guys haven't seen it, watch that interview with Kelsey Plum out there and she blatantly calls out Kaitlyn Clark's team as they didn't show up for the whole t-shirt meeting. Whatever t-shirts are fine, I don't care, wear the t-shirt like you can do whatever you want. That's how it is. You can do what you want, free country, right? It's just why the pettiness, everything like that of some of these players that you have to listen to, they're what's driving fans that want to be invested in it. They're driving them away. I want to be invested. I want to watch these games, I want to be interested in what I'm seeing, but when I have to hear those interviews and hear that kind of bs and just hating somebody because they are more popular than you. I'm not going to support that. I'm not going to support that. I'm not going to watch that. You want to make money.
Speaker 1:Before Kaitlyn Clark was in the league, let's just go, grand scheme of things, and that's where I want to be. Before that class, before she came in, there wasn't much going on. She came in. Now you guys have a platform, you guys have all this. Why can't you just accept that? Why can't we just accept that and just move on? Let it be. Accept her. You can, behind closed doors, be however you want to be In front of the camera. Accept her, be nice. Be nice, play nice, get stuff, get money. You keep playing this game. It might not end well. So that's all I want to say.
Speaker 1:I was asked a question about the WNBA stuff over the weekend. That's all I want to say. It's just a whole bunch of pettiness. That's what it is at this point. It's annoying, it is absolutely annoying and I just really wish that that would go away, because I mean, there are some good players in that league. It's just they can't get out of their own way of being. I have to be the best. Yeah, you can try to be the best on the court. Don't be the best of. Oh, I need to be the most popular out there. It, it's. It's what drives away eyeballs at that point. Just play basketball. Play basketball. Let the fans love you for what they see on the court, not trying to drive them away from another player because you just feel like, oh well, they, they think they're more popular. No, they are, they are, so just accept it. So it's just the pettiness of the WNBA is just driving me nuts at this point.
Speaker 1:So we're going to come back. Let's reset. We're going to reset when we come back here. We want to talk Badger Sports. We talked Brewers there a little bit, but we want to talk Badger Sports. When we come back here. We're going to talk Badgers. Newcomer coming on the show, make sure you're coming back. Our number one of wisconsin sports on the go trade is just getting going. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break. It's about jump around, but it gets me fired up for some badger talk. Here we are back. This is wisconsin sports on the go trade. I'm your host trades coming back on this wednesday.
Speaker 1:And hey, this next segment of the show here is brought to you by our friends down there at Casa M Spice, the Texas-based spice. Low sodium, no MSGs. This spice I tell you what. I had a ham steak earlier. My grandpa used to tell me there's nothing better than a good old ham steak. We had a ham steak earlier. I put that kickstart on there. Oh, my goodness, was it fantastic.
Speaker 1:This seasoning is the. It is I. You just got to try it. I can't even I keep telling you guys how great this stuff is. You just got to try it. It's good on everything Steak, fish, whatever you want to put it on, it's great Potatoes, vegetables, eggs, probably not ice cream. I always tell you, probably not ice cream. Maybe Try it. Let me know what it tastes like. Let me know there. Casa M Spice, the WNBA, everything like that, just didn't even want to talk about it anymore. We got some Badger talk coming up here. I got a good friend of the show here coming up, christian Borman, the man down there at Badger Backers on tonight. How are we doing tonight, christian?
Speaker 2:Good man, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1:It is my pleasure. My pleasure to have you on tonight here. So let the people know about you a little bit. You were telling me your backstory there a little bit when we were at commercial break. Let me know, let the people know about you a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, school teacher by trade, fifth grade down in Columbus, wisconsin, right outside of Madison here. But always had a passion for Wisconsin sports, specifically football and basketball right the two big ones. But kind of got into writing at Badger of Honor on Fan Sighted a few years ago. And then I linked up with Dylan Graff over at Badger Notes If you haven't ever read any of his stuff, make sure you check that out. He does a phenomenal job and then kind of led into Athlon and now kind of wanted to start my own thing. So I started up the Badger Backer, which is just a newsletter. It's on Substack, you know, free to subscribe, just kind of getting her off the ground a little bit.
Speaker 1:It is. I read his articles all the time there. I try to share them across the Facebook page whenever I can, and it is his article is awesome. They always make you think, they always give you information that you need to know. Some people just there's a lot of reporters out there who report.
Speaker 1:The yannis is gonna leave the box in 15 it's like I'm just some of these reporters just go all crazy on you. He's getting you the need to know, right then, and some of those things where you're in that odd period, right, we're in the dog days of summer, you don't know what to talk about. He's giving you those things to think about when you're in those dog days. So it's great stuff there. So we want to talk Badger basketball today here on the show because we had the summer open practice. I don't know if it's normal, I can't recall if it's normal, but it happened this year. So I want to talk about it here a little bit. But before we get there, mark, I'm going to butcher his name. I know I'm going to do it because I've done it 30 times now. Mark Vanden Wettering, do you know how to pronounce his name? Like spot on.
Speaker 2:Not spot on necessarily, mark Vandenwettering. There you go, that's what it is That'll work.
Speaker 1:He's promoted to the Badgers GM. So he's been with the Badgers basketball team for a little bit now and now he's promoted to the GM down there. Can you just touch on that a little bit? What is that going to do for the Badgers what? What do you think about that role with him inside the walls there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, honestly, I don't think it's going to change a whole lot. I think it's already stuff he's been doing. Now he just has the official title, you know, with like NIL transfer portal, just kind of all that stuff. That is just the new normal in college basketball, you know. I think it takes. The whole point of it is it takes a lot of stuff off the plate for greg guard maybe like more administrative stuff. I know he's going to be handling a lot of like the scheduling, uh like getting recruits in, especially through the transfer portal, getting all that scheduled. So guard isn't necessarily doing all that. I know guard's definitely still going to be hands-on with a lot of it, but this just kind of like takes a lot of like the stuff he doesn't necessarily need to do off his plate so he can focus more on the actual recruiting of guys, things like that.
Speaker 2:Um, I also know he was in charge of like their non-conference scheduling in the past and obviously I don't know, I wrote an article on this just a little bit ago. But, um, the non-conference schedule for the badgers basketball team this year is absolutely top notch. Um, obviously way different from college basketball and like what you see with, like or uh, college football, like what you see with Indiana just scheduling cupcake after cupcake, right, but like they got, they just have. They have obviously our normal WIAC exhibition game, right, but then they also have they scheduled an exhibition game against Oklahoma at Pfizer Forum this year. They have Villanova, they got BYU. It's stacked right. So he's doing a really, really good job with that. So I think it's a lot of stuff. From what I hear, it's all stuff he's been doing. He was the chief of staff for a while, but I think they kind of gave him more of an appropriate title as general manager.
Speaker 1:So I think a lot of it's going to be business as usual, but I think it fits him him really well and as long as the season can get right, because you get into march madness, you get late in march, madness, and the transfer portal is already open. I think it's the dumbest thing in the world.
Speaker 1:It shouldn't happen that way, but that's the way it does and you can't. It's so hard for a guy like guard or any coach out there to be dealing with recruits, dealing with all that, trying to retain guys in the middle of march, middle of the, and now you're trying to deal with that madness on top of it. You need a guy like this. So I completely agree Having a guy, especially a guy who's already been in the system, just move up, basically was doing it, like you said already Just now. He's got the role right, he's got the official title.
Speaker 1:I agree that non-conference schedule. It's definitely going to be the resume booster, right, it's going to be that resume booster. When it comes down to it, they got that tournament. Which tournament are they in there? They could face Florida in this round.
Speaker 2:Oh man, what tournament is that Boy? I can't even think of the name off the top of my head. I'll see if I can find it here quick, but I know it's Florida. But who do they play first?
Speaker 1:Is it not Providence? Is it Providence and?
Speaker 2:then it would be like the winner or loser. You know, whatever the counterpart of Florida and I think TCU, that's still- I mean, even TCU is a decent matchup there. I got to double check because if I get this wrong it's going to drive me nuts here. I got it right here Because it's honestly the Rady Children's Invitational.
Speaker 1:Okay. And then of course they don't have it on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's okay. That's okay, they just have like.
Speaker 1:TBA. We know that the matchup, I mean it's going to be a daunting tournament there. They have a daunting non-conference schedule. But let's talk about this team that they got building up right now, because with this squad, with this team that Greggard has built up, I mean, is it crazy to feel so? I've been, I've been looking at a lot of this team right now. I've been looking at some of the numbers over the past year. Is it crazy to feel like this might be the deepest badger team that we've seen, if not in recent memory, in a long time? I mean, they have the ability, I believe, to go maybe 9, 10 deep.
Speaker 1:I mean they have there's a ton of potential here on the bench for this Badger team. What are you seeing right now? I mean, is it crazy to feel like this might be the deepest team the Badgers have had in a while?
Speaker 2:See, I was thinking about that too. But I kept going back to that national championship team. I was thinking, okay, you got the five-stars, then you got Bronson Koenig, you got Zach Schroelzer, duye Duken on the bench, vito Brown on the bench. So I mean, at least until you know that team, I think this is probably the deepest that they've been. I know like last year they were relatively, you know, young. They had, you know, a bunch of freshmen, things like that. But you can only go seven, maybe eight, deep in conference play last year, even with as good as they were, you know. But now I definitely think like they're deep this year. I think like they'd be comfortable putting a lot of guys in that didn't necessarily have, you know, they couldn't play last year. Right, they brought in Elijah Gray from Temple he's a senior, he's got one year left. Braden Carrington, coming from Tulsa Was it Tulsa or Tulane?
Speaker 1:Tulsa. I believe Tulsa, yeah, Okay, yep.
Speaker 2:And then he was at Minnesota before that too. So I mean, and he's going to be a fifth-year senior, so they got a lot of guys that are, you know, they have one year of eligibility left. They're not going to bring them in unless they're planning on playing them, right? So I mean, I absolutely agree. I think there's a ton of depth on this team, so and it's really exciting to see so you're not always just like, well, crap, foul, trouble, things like that, like what are you gonna do? Right, you got to get a guy who never plays. So I definitely set them up for a really successful year this year.
Speaker 1:I think. I think the big part for me was always the drop off right. They always had guys who you could rotate in. They had this, they had some size, depth and stuff, but they just lack the. Okay, if I, if I go to my bench now, who's going to score, who's going to be that guy to step up in that role? And I think that's where they've been lacking.
Speaker 1:I look at this bench and I'm like, okay, you have Jack Janicki coming off. If he takes that step this next year, you could even I mean looking at a guy like Rapp. Will he come off the bench for this team? Is he going to? I mean they have there's a lot of combos that they can go with and I'm really interested, like you're talking there, with that depth they brought in, especially with those transfers, what we're going to see. And then you have the young guys. I mean there's still some young guys who can step in and produce for you in the Kings or the garlic. I mean we're going to get into both these guys here, but I mean just those guys who can step into this role.
Speaker 1:So it just has me excited for the scoring options that this team is going to have here coming up this year. So the biggest one of them all. This has got to be my favorite player coming back from last year John Blackwell and Greg Gard he comes and he says he's come with more of a dominant mentality, as you can see in his play, he has the ability to take over and really dominate games. We're questioning who's going to be the next John Tonje, right? I don't think we need to look for the next John Tonje, I think he's been here.
Speaker 1:I just think he was waiting for that role and to step up in that role. And now with a guy like Nick Boyd right, because coming off of that he's withdrawing from the NBA draft we kind of all knew what was going to happen he was going to withdraw, he was going to put the waters and then he was most likely going to come back because he wasn't going to be a lottery pick. But how much do you think it's going to help having a guy like Rhodey in there and also a guy like Boyd Nick Boyd coming in the two fantastic transfers coming in there how much do you think that's going to benefit a guy like John Blackwell, where now it's going to take that load off him, right, he doesn't have to be the main ball handler. To be the main ball handler, he can just be the guy. How much do you think that helps him this next season? Also, I mean testing those NBA waters how much do you think both those things are going to help him just take over this next season for the Badgers?
Speaker 2:I think they're both huge. As far as testing the NBA waters, I mean, he tried out for a couple teams. You know that they, you know, kind of gave him some things he needs to work on right. This is what you need to do to get drafted or you know whatever. Like this is what scouts are looking for, what teams are looking for. I think that's huge for him.
Speaker 2:But as far as like Boyd and Rhodey coming in too, like you said, that's going to take a lot of pressure off of him. I think people looked at him, you know, like he had Tonjay with him to, like you know, do a bulk of the scoring right. But now, with Tonjay gone, blackwell's obviously going to be the focus of the offense. Teams are going to know that. But now that Boyd coming in, he's going to be.
Speaker 2:That's the thing with Blackwell too. He kind of had to be the de facto point guard last year between him and Klesnett last year, and I don't think Blackwell really is that true point guard. He's more of just a two. He's more of just like a two. He wants like he's more of a scorer than an actual like distributor. I know he's definitely still a playmaker. He gets downhill, he gets to the hoop.
Speaker 2:But I think that's where Boyd kind of comes in and like he can like and he was making plays in practice like getting to the hoop dishing it out to Rody for threes, and I think that's going to take a lot off of Blackwell's plate so like he can just focus more on like scoring rather than having to run the points or run the offense. So I think that's going to be huge. Rhodey's going to be like huge for like shooting. Like you know, perimeters, the perimeter shot he. We all saw like how much the Badgers shot threes and stuff last year. Like that's a huge part of their game. Now they needed a three shooter so they brought him in. He was a huge scorer at Virginia by any means, but when he was with St Thomas he was almost 20 points a game as a true freshman too. So obviously Virginia still was running like that swing offense, not super fast-paced, not putting up a ton of points.
Speaker 1:So I'm really, really interested to see what he can do in this Wisconsin offense, yeah, especially with the guy like Greg Gard who now I really really interested to see you know what he can do in this wisconsin offense. Yeah, especially with the guy like greg guard who now I mean, could we see it again? Could we see it again with another wing coming into the badgers, where greg guard just says, all right, you were averaging 12, let's get you up to 20? That'd be okay. What it'd be crazy. It'd be absolutely crazy if it happened there. But I, I love you mentioned there with nick boyd and he said.
Speaker 1:This is what greg Gard has said. He said the first few days we should have put helmets on players because of a few of them almost had concussions from the passes he was throwing. You just got to be ready for that pass. He is an experienced guy. He went into that final four with FAU. He's been on that run, he's been deep in March. He knows what it takes to get there and what it takes to win.
Speaker 1:Fau, I think is a good good, a good like grouping to put Wisconsin in with that kind of run, because Wisconsin isn't Duke, they're not North Carolina, they're not Kentucky, they're not this powerhouse team. They have a lot of I don't know if you call them the misfits, but they have a lot of guys in there where they're not your standard. We're going to expect these guys to make that deep run in March even. I mean you look back at a Frank Kaminsky who would have thought he was going to be national player of the year, but he was. You look at this Badger team. You're like that is an FAU kind of team. So a Nick Boyd running that offense where he comes in and now he just they give him the keys. Right, he's an experienced guy, they give him the keys. I think that's awesome. So the impact is going to be of a guy like Nick Boyd with that experience, that experience coming into this Badger offense with Greg Gard, just basically.
Speaker 1:I mean it's not like a freshman you're not giving the keys over to a freshman like Chucky Eppern right now. When he came first came in, you're giving the keys to a guy who's been there, done that, bounced around, he's experienced and can score it. I mean, just just touch in on what Nick Boyd is going to mean with that experience, to this team yeah, yeah, like you said, he's been there, right.
Speaker 2:I don't necessarily know if a moment's going to be too big for him, especially being here. It's his last year. He's been in Madison for a while already. He's obviously got a good handle on the offense, I'm sure. So again, he's going to have the bulk of running the show. He's going to be facilitating everything. He's going to have the bulk of like running the show, like everything is going to. He's going to be facilitating everything. He's going to do all that and it's going to take a lot more off of Blackwell, like we just talked about, right? So I think that's going to be.
Speaker 2:You know, I think things are going to go a lot more smoothly, because last year it felt like who's the point guard? Blackwell, is it Max? Klesmit Is actually Nicky running it a little bit at some point. So it's what you know. I mean. I think it's going to make things a lot easier, a lot more smooth, I would imagine. But at least you hope, right? Right, because Big Ten's probably a step up from FAU and even San Diego State, right. But I think what I mean the dude, he can play. You know he averaged what let's see four assists last year and almost not even two turnovers at 13.4 points a game, and that was for San Diego State. So I think and I'm sure he was kind of the guy there, right, so I mean he's probably not going to have to be the guy for the Badgers this year, at least scoring-wise. So I think that'll definitely make things a little easier all around for everyone, right.
Speaker 1:Yep, no, I would 100% agree. He's going to be able to settle into that facilitator role, which I think is where he's destined to be, and that's what we're hearing coming out of practice. There's just those passes that he's throwing right now. They're crisp, they're clean and they're getting the guys and Greg Gard is loving what he. Last but not least, though, well, I got one, two more things, two more things here. Nolan winter yeah, he's. We're hearing things coming out of there. He's putting on some weight. That's what I'm hearing right now. So I want to talk about that, like what is he doing to bulk up here in the offseason? And then, do we feel like he can be a number five? He was a four, he was a badger's four last year. Does he have that ability to be a five this season for the Wisconsin Badgers, because they're going to need that big guy center out there.
Speaker 2:So I think he's going to have to be. Right, he's crawl gone. I mean you mentioned before Rap coming in, but he's more of a power forward and he's not all that big Like you know, size-wise he's tall but he's not like he's not that thick. But yeah, I've heard kind of the same thing. He's looked noticeably bigger and they asked him about and he says he's eating like a full meal every two or three hours. Right, he's, he's putting, he's he's making a concerted effort to put on a lot of weight, to like bulk up and be that you know presence inside. Because I mean if he's not going to be able to do that, they're gonna. I mean they're gonna get eaten up in the, you know, especially down low. But I guess then you hope a guy like Garlack will come in, you know, as a true freshman with some minutes there. But you hope you don't have to put him in in too many big moments where he has to actually do something right away. But I think I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think Nolan Winter is I think everyone likes to talk about John Blackwell a lot I honestly think Nolan Winter is kind of like the guy who is the best chance to make, you know to make it in the NBA. You know that next level. So I think I mean you see it all the time as long as he can start shooting from deep too, like NBA obviously cares about that a lot, but he's I mean, if he can bulk up a little bit, he can be a defensive presence, he can, you know know, get a ton of the rebounds and stuff. I think that's gonna be huge for the badgers, and if he can't do that, I don't know, they might be kind of in limbo. You know they're gonna be looking for answers that, uh, maybe they don't have answers to, or yeah, no, and he's just a natural three level score.
Speaker 1:He's just natural when it comes to it there, and if he can bulk up along with what he's been, what he's been able to, I mean, watch out, he's going to be darn good there. I tell you what. Two to three hours he's eating a meal. I do that too, but him and I, we look different. We look different, that's for sure. Mine gets to midsection there and I got to get a bigger pair of pants. That's all I know. He does it and it's like oh yeah, whatever there.
Speaker 1:So I mean, was there any other observation before we get out of here or before I let you go here? Were there any other observations that you had from open practice, anything that you saw, anything that you liked?
Speaker 2:coming out of there. Yeah, will Garlick has another name I heard a lot about, like I just mentioned. He's big, like he is all of 7'7" from what I understand, and he was sticking his nose in there getting rebounds. He was holding his own from what I understand. That's definitely encouraging. Like I said, even if Nolan Winter gets in foul, trouble or whatever, at least you've got a guy that can hop in and jump in there and get some minutes at the 5-2. If he's not in there, if he can't do it, and if Winter's winter's out, then you kind of got to go with rap or you know the the I'm not going to try to pronounce his name the lithuanian, that guy I'm not.
Speaker 1:So you know that one I'll butcher I'll butcher that we're gonna wait for that one on the radio, and then maybe I'll take a stab at it absolutely right.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be like trying to learn yana sanatakumpo's name all over again oh yeah, there's some of these names.
Speaker 1:It just oh, I just look at him, I'm like that guy, that guy you know I do these previews and everything like that. I look at these guys and I'm like, nope, not even, not even going to try it, like not even going to try it. The point guard, the point guard over there from Tulane. He's pretty dark. So one last I mean, just let the people know where to find you out there, to find your stuff, everything like that across social media, everything like that. One last reminder of where they can find you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely you can follow me on Twitter. You know pretty much any of the social media platforms. At Christian Borman, you can follow the Badger Backer on Twitter too. I mean it's essentially just me anyway, but otherwise you can go to the Badger or just badgerbackercom. Feel free to subscribe. I mean it's not necessarily a daily newsletter, but you know, whenever notable news comes out and I can get to it, I'll shoot her out and get to you guys' inboxes, and or just you'll find it on Facebook, twitter, any of those spots. But get to your guys' inboxes, or just you'll find it on Facebook, twitter, any of those spots. But absolutely you can find me pretty much anywhere on there.
Speaker 1:Make sure you guys are doing it. He's got great stuff out there the need to know news right, that's what he just said there the need to know news, and that's all you need right there. So thank you for coming out tonight We'll definitely you're going to have badger basketball.
Speaker 1:We got tons of stuff as we get closer and closer to the fall here. So thank you for stopping by. We're going to come back here after the quick break. We're going to talk and we'll see. Maybe we'll get brewers. I who knows where the show is going to go? It always gets wild here as we get close to the top of the hour. So we'll be right back here on wisconsin sports on the go with trage. Welcome back into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage, coming coming back on this Wednesday.
Speaker 1:And hey, this next segment of the show here is brought to you by our friends down there at Foreman's Hardware. They offer you everything from home essentials to farm supplies, house to farm grills to drills. Foreman's Hardware has got you covered. Visit today in Loyal Colby or Medford, wisconsin. There. Tell them I sent you. Tell them Trade sent you. Get 5% off. Name a better deal, you get your and stuff. It's. It's the middle of summer right now. We're getting close to that fall time. Maybe you want to do some landscaping before the winter comes about. Make sure you're gonna own formants. They get you everything you need down there and then some at formants there. So formants hardware in loyal kobe or medford wisconsin.
Speaker 1:That was a great last segment. I hope you guys were able to check that one out there with christian. If not, I will have it. I I, I've been lazy, I've been. The world's been hectic with me lately. It's been hectic. I got the baby boy, I got the wife, baseball going on. So much stuff was happening that I have just been not able to get the show up on the podcast site. So I am telling you now I will get it up on the podcast site coming up here this coming week. I'll get it up here. So make sure you guys are checking back there. If you missed it, christian, they were talking a little bit of badgers in that last segment and everybody, everybody. That was his first time. That was his first time on radio and I thought he did a fantastic job. He told me at the commercial break when we were just getting out of it he's like that was, it was like it was so nerve-wracking for him. You could could tell a little bit there. But he is awesome. He is absolutely awesome at what he does there. So make sure you're checking him out out there, the Badger Backer. Make sure you're checking out the Badger Backer, his little articles that he does there, the site that he has Badger Backer. He's got them across all of social media so make sure you're checking him out there, the Badger Backer, christian Borman there.
Speaker 1:So we got lots I want to get into yet today here on the show Coming up after the top of the hour. We got Kyle with Bucks. We got Elmer coming out. We're going to talk Packers. We got Brewer talk to get to it later on in the show. We got all kinds of stuff. But I want to get to the Brewers right now here a little bit as we get close to the top of the hour and this Brewer segment here I want to talk about.
Speaker 1:So I saw a post and I was mentioning it off the top of the top of the show here I was mentioning, you know, talking about you know that LA reporter was talking about how the brewers are America's team. They really thought the brewers were America's team and I found that interesting and I mentioned you know small markets hate the brewers because they want to be the brewers and the big markets hate the brewers because they want to be the brewers and the big markets hate the brewers because they don't want them to belong with them. And I just, you know, talking about that kind of stuff there and the brewers, I just when I hear America's team, it just feels like a team like the brewers just fits that fold, just fits that fold. They do the little things right. It's hard to hate them and they just find ways and they beat up on the good teams. That's awesome. That's awesome, right.
Speaker 1:And I saw a this was from a Cubs, a Cubs fan or whatever across social media. He did the digging on the stats for me, so thank you for that. But I saw he posted out there and he said meet your 18 games, over 500. Milwaukee Brewers Last in team barrel rate, last in team exit velocity, second to last in team launch angle, 20th in team extra base hit. There's extra base average. First in soft hit percentage, first in infield hits percentage and first in infield hits, and the list. I mean you could go on and on with all these.
Speaker 1:What he's trying to say and this is back to the luck thing again what he's trying to say is this Brewers team is just getting lucky. They're just getting lucky. That's plain and simple. That's what he's telling me and that luck's going to run out right. See, I'm going to say exactly what I said off the top of the show right here. One more time you can get lucky for a few games, but six straight against the Dodgers, that's a lot of luck, that's a lot of luck. Pinch me, pinch me, that's a lot of luck right there.
Speaker 1:So all of this, all of those numbers that I just read off to you, it absolutely shows me how the Brewers win baseball games Outside of. Also, you talk about in that 8-0 run when they were 8-0, that eight-game span there they were the first team in MLB history to go 8-0, 85-plus pitching strikeouts, fewer than 45 hits allowed and fewer than 15 runs allowed in an 8-0 stretch where that had the Dodgers pasted on it, 15 runs allowed across those series. And then I mean you did have the series before that. There it was with the Nationals. You had them sandwiched kind of in there during that all-star break, but regardless during that little stretch run, and then it went to 9-0, and then the stats changed and everything like that. But I had the 8-0 stats, so just read off that one there. What I'm saying is that all those stats that I just read off to you before with the hitting absolutely tells me how the Brewers win games.
Speaker 1:Small ball move runners play fast, hard, do the little things right and better than anyone else does it Do those little things, like I mentioned earlier, with Jackson Turio hustling around third and scoring before Vaughn got thrown out at third base. Now, did he know Vaughn was going to get thrown out at third? No, he didn't know Vaughn was going to go. I don't know why Vaughn all of a sudden thinks he's like LA De La Cruz out there running around. But maybe he's been watching Bryce Terang a little too much. But you know, you get with this small ball club. You're like I can run fast too, right. No, no, no, no, settle down, settle down.
Speaker 1:But what I'm saying is this this Brewers team does a little things right and they do those little things that you don't really think about them. Because you watch a team like the Yankees or you watch a team like a Dodgers. They win those games by hitting the long. That's the way that they win ball games. That's how they stay in ball games. They have the ability to kind of screw up because they have that power numbers. They have those little intangibles. The Brewers their margin for error, I would say, is less. They have a lesser margin for error than opposing teams. Opposing teams they can. I mean you look at the Dodgers right, usually right now they kind of are stinking and hopefully it continues right, I'd love to see that. But usually the Dodgers, with Otani and Betts and Freeman and you know everybody else in that lineup, they have the ability where they can screw up a little bit, but they'll be fine. They'll be fine.
Speaker 1:The Brewers, they're a team where it's all or nothing. You got to have. This whole team has kind of got to be. It doesn't have to all be clicking at the same time, but they've got to all be doing their part. The defense has got to take care of their business. The pitching staff has got to take care of their business. You've got to have guys getting on, moving guys around, finding ways to move guys around, those little things that are kind of overlooked in the game.
Speaker 1:Today's game, the average game right, we're not in the average game anymore, we're in the long ball game, we're in the extra big hit games, we're not in the. I mean Aaron Judge is. Aaron Judge has actually been phenomenal for this year because he not only has power numbers, but he also has the average there. Same with a guy like Will Smith Jacob Wilson. Those guys have all hit well this season across the league there. Same with a guy like Will Smith Jacob Wilson. Those guys have all hit well this season across the league there. So the average is slowly starting to come back, which I love to see. The power number is also sitting there. Those are the guys that are sticking. Now. The Brewers are playing that lost art of. We don't really do it with the long ball. We do it with. We hit for average, we find ways to move guys, we get infield hits. We just put the ball in play and try to make things happen, and they do.
Speaker 1:And that is the question I was asked and I want to get into this a little bit later and I want to hear you guys' opinion 715-990-4914. 715-990-4914. What has been going right for the Brewers over this hot stretch? What has been going right that has just led this team to where they are now? I'd love to hear what you guys got to say and I want to tap into that later on here in the show.
Speaker 1:But all in all, I mean just to wrap up that last little part of what I was talking about is I love to see these stats across social media, the stats that we keep. You know the Brewers, they keep making history. It's like all these stats just keep coming out. We're like, look, the Brewers are the first team to do this, first team to do this. The way that they're doing it is remarkable, I don't know. I mean, you look at where this team was to start the year. We were all. I mean, if you were in the camp of I have faith in this team, they're gonna find a way. It was like pat murphy was telling us, right, they just said maybe they're gonna be slow out of the gate and they'll get going. If you were in that camp kudos, kudos I will admit I was not. I was sitting there telling myself this just feels like a transition year. It just feels like a team where maybe they were just I mean, this was built to be good enough, but not a playoff contender, nothing crazy.
Speaker 1:Little did I know, little did any of us know that all of a sudden, once again, once again, and it's like I don't know why. I just feel like we sit here and we wait for the train to fall off the tracks. It's going to happen eventually, right? We keep telling ourselves that every single year. It's like, okay, we don't spend money, the train is going to have to fall off the tracks eventually. This cannot sustain, right, and that's what I mean. That's what all these Cub fans, everything like that, because Cub fans are trying to find, right, the way the Brewers play the game isn't sustainable. That's why they won't catch the Cubs, that's why they won't overtake the Cubs, and it's just that same. You know that same narrative all the time, and I think that's where Brewer fans kind of get it too is. It's the same narrative every single year. It's like this isn't sustainable, right, we go out and we make these moves. Don't make sense at the time.
Speaker 1:Quinn Priester, if you're sitting there telling me that you thought at the time Quinn Priester was going to be what he is now, I would call you crazy, because I don't think anybody looked at that move and said, man, this guy is going to be a stud man, he's just going to be something. Maybe Contreras when they made that move, but no, not this move, not the Quinn Priester move. I could never say that Andrew Vaughn, never in a million years I don't care what you say Did anybody say, oh, Andrew Vaughn, I get the change of scenery right, what going from a terrible situation in the White Sox to the Brewers can do for a guy? I will never not admit to that because we've seen it firsthand with a lot of guys. But no way did you tell me that Andrew vaughn was going to be that guy. That's the thing. That's the thing is we we sit here and we're these opposing fans, everything like that. They sit there and they're like man, this just isn't sustainable. They can't do it. They can't continue this way. They can't keep. How do they keep fighting ways? That's what I was talking about in that first segment of the show is why I think the brewers are america's team is because fans, as much as they're annoyed and this is where I want to wrap it up, that first segment as much as fans are annoyed with the brewers because they wish their team could do that, and the big market teams are annoyed with the brewers because they. They just don't want to be even included with their name. I think they're also sitting there like, wow, wow, how is Pat Murphy doing that? How is this team finding a way to beat the Dodgers six straight, how? It just doesn't make sense. It rattles people's cages to hear that. So, yeah, I want to talk more Brewers later on in the show here.
Speaker 1:We're going to come back. We're going to wrap up the first hour of the show here and then we're going to get to hour number two. We're going to have Umber stop by. We're going to have Kyle stop by. We're going to talk more Brewers. We can't wait to get to it. So we'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. We're going to wrap up the hour and then we're going to get to Kyle and Umber and everything else on the backside at the start of hour number two. So we'll be right back here to wrap up hour number one in just a moment.
Speaker 1:Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, trage, as we wrap up hour number one here on this Wednesday. And hey, this last little portion of the first hour is brought to you by marshfield motor speedway, the half mile paved track just three miles west of marshfield, my county road age, find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom. That is marshfieldspeedwaycom there. So I was at the break and I mean we're getting close to that top of the hour. We're just talking brewers there a little bit as we're getting closer here to the top of the hour and I saw a lot of rumors I guess you could say. I think the fan was talking about it, I think 12, 50 the fan. I don't know what they're exactly called there, um, but they were talking about getting a guy like ryan hesley, um, into a brewer's uniform there. And I've saw, I've seen a lot of these. You know I saw nolan arenado. Somebody was talking about Nolan Arenado potentially becoming a brewer there. I don't think I don't like trading in division.
Speaker 1:I don't think guys, I don't think teams really want to trade in division. Is it still a thing where you don't want to trade to your rival? Do the Cardinals really want to help the brewers out? I don't know why. Nolan Arenado would you want him right now? 241 average. He's not having his best year. He's been down. He's still solid, but right now Caleb Durbin's actually playing himself to the point where. Where do you want to put the biggest? And this is what I'm going to say, and we're going to talk more trade deadline stuff and everything like that in the future, maybe today, I don't know, we'll see what we get.
Speaker 1:But the thing that kind of puts a monkey wrench into everything for the Brewers Bryce Terang why Not? Because and I don't want to hear, oh, he's such a great second baseman he is, he's a great second baseman. Why would you want to screw with it? Because he could also be a great shortstop, the problem being his arm, his stop. The problem being his arm, his shoulder gave out in the spring. You can't have that happen again mid-season. So you can't just all of a sudden slot Durbin over at second, move Terang to short and hope that it all works out for the best Joy of Teases come alive. So it's kind of helped that situation. But it's the Terang situation that kind of hurts it.
Speaker 1:So we're going to get into more Brewers here later on the show. We're going to talk with umber here about the package we got lots to get into. Our number two of wisconsin sports on the go with trade is coming at you in just a moment. We'll be right back here with all of that and more. Here we go. Welcome back in as we start up our number two here on this wednesday and wisconsin sports on the go with trade and this next segment segment kyle's jumping out. We're gonna talk some bucks, we're gonna. We're gonna navigate around a little bit. There's a lot of stuff happening in the world of sports. We're gonna navigate around. This next segment here is brought to you by sport and spine clinic of greenwood, wisconsin. Expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming. Call for flexible scheduling and evaluation. Just call chad down there at sport and spine clinic of greenwood. He'll get you right doing whatever you are doing, feeling better than ever. Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. There.
Speaker 1:So, Kyle's jumping on Kyle. How are we doing on this Wednesday? I mean, it's been hot up here in the state of Wisconsin. How's it going with you?
Speaker 3:I mean it's been good for me as well. I mean down here in Atlanta going through the same heat wave that, like most of the country, is so cool. As much as I can.
Speaker 1:Right, it's a blast. It is an absolute blast. Right now. I can feel I can feel myself losing pant sizes right now, which is okay, which is okay. I can break out my summer pants, then I can break out the summer pants, put the winter pants away for a little while and so they got to pop back out here when I put the winter winter weight back on. Right, you know, you get that winter weight on, keeps you warm, keeps you warm. That's what I like to tell the wife. It keeps me warm.
Speaker 1:So we got lots we want to get into tonight here on the show. But before we get there, kyle is always here. We always do the mellow yellow minutes. And tonight the question Kyle, classic ballpark foods ranked according to MLBcom this list we were looking at the break. We're like we need to find a ranking. Right, we're looking at the break and we could not find a list that was like more relevant than I mean, except for really specific foods from like 2021 was where these lists this one came from 2019, so it's pretty generic food. So, kyle, if you had to guess, in the top five according to MLBcom back in 2019, what are those most classic ballpark foods if you had to guess?
Speaker 3:I mean, look, you hear so much about Dodger dogs, I'm going to have to go with a hot dog.
Speaker 1:Number three. Number three on the list is the hot dog. That's a good guess. That's a good guess.
Speaker 3:I feel like another one Would have to be let's go nachos.
Speaker 1:Nachos. I think they were on the list. They did not crack into the top five, though I think they might have been number nine. They were number nine in the top ten.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm going to go into the top five, though I think they might have been number nine. They were number nine in the top ten. Okay, okay, um, well, I mean, if I'm gonna go maybe sweet tooth here, let's go cotton candy oh, cotton candy.
Speaker 1:Did not make it on, did not make it up, but think dessert.
Speaker 3:I do like the dessert idea think dessert well, I mean, if it's not that, then I know most ballparks give you the little helmet with some ice cream that is, that is number one on the list.
Speaker 1:The soft serve in the commemorative plastic helmet that's what you gotta get.
Speaker 3:It's a staple you always gotta get that when you go to the ballpark, right, right, how about popcorn?
Speaker 1:there's always that vendor selling popcorn popcorn did not crack the top five, but there is one. It is similar to popcorn in this top five.
Speaker 3:Oh, I was going to say Cracker Jack, but I feel like Cracker Jacks would fall enough.
Speaker 1:Cracker Jacks made it number six. They're number six on there.
Speaker 3:I didn't know, I wouldn't thought it was that high Okay.
Speaker 2:It's in the song.
Speaker 1:Pizza is not on this top five, but I would say pizza would be somewhere on there this one. Think about the song Something and Cracker Jack.
Speaker 3:Oh duh Peanuts.
Speaker 1:There we go. Peanuts is on there. I don't think you'll get these other two, so I'm going to throw it out there. Chicken Fingers came in at number five. That's weird. I didn't see the Chicken Fingers coming on, and then the Pretzel came in at number two. That's probably going to be my next guess.
Speaker 1:There's some good pretzels out there. We have soft serve pretzel, hot dog, peanuts and chicken fingers. That's what showed up in the top five. Probably the chicken fingers one was weird. That's what I told Kyle. I'm like I don't know if you're going to get number five because chicken fingers that's a weird one. I don't know. Maybe if you would have said chicken tenders maybe, but chicken fingers was a weird one to guess there. So yeah, there's our top five. There's our top five ballpark foods, ranked there according to mlbcom.
Speaker 1:So, kyle, I want to talk about we got the bucks in the news. Not really well. The whole nba is in the news, right, they ranked the front offices in the nba anducs came in at number 24. That I don't know if that makes me feel. That makes me feel terrible, to be honest with you, because that makes me feel like nobody looks at the Bucs and says these guys, you know, I was reading the description. Why did they get this ranking?
Speaker 1:And the thing that they said was the Bucs certainly get points for creativity. Time and time again they managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat and briefly satisfy yannis 100. They got a little deal that nobody was expecting. Miles turner's now in town they do all this stuff, but yet on the back side of that, the draft capital none, none to speak up, trading that away.
Speaker 1:And then we look at the draft picks. I the last solid pick. I mean here's a couple guys who are still up in the air right now, but for superstardom, yes, that's it. I mean how many busts do we have to talk about? I mean there's a lot of busts to talk about there with the bucks there. Kyle, so 24th kyle, do you do you think that's a little low? Do you think like that's kind of where the bucks are? I mean, what does that tell you about the Bucs in the front office and the confidence that if you were a Bucs fan, you have in your team, because the outsiders looking at you are like man, these guys, they make some questionable decisions.
Speaker 3:I mean I think it tells you kind of the phenom and the luck with Giannis, because remember, when they took Giannis, giannis was the scrawny kid playing like third division basketball in Greece, like nobody knew he was going to be this.
Speaker 3:So the fact that they hit on that one pick they have been relevant since Giannis, you know, became the superstar that he is that says something about Giannis. Now I understand the ranking being low, because the way you mainly judge front offices is on the draft and their ability to kind of make deals. But if you don't have any draft picks going forward, it's hard for you to do that. So now your roster kind of gets hamstrung, which I feel like has been kind of an issue with the Bucs. Like you said, they'd have to get creative to really overhaul the roster if they wanted to. So I think the ranking makes sense but, like I said, it does definitely make Giannis look a lot better. That, with all this going around with the inability of the front office to hit on draft picks, like you said, the fact that he's kept them relevant says a lot about him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and it's. I agree with the ranking too, because you look at the bucks, they don't control their first round pick until 2030. They have this Lillard dead money. They went all-in on this team that we're going to talk about in a minute here, but they're going all-in on this team that I don't know if you'd call them the misfits. I like to call the Brewers the misfits. Who was I talking about earlier? The Badgers, Not the Brew doing all this stuff.
Speaker 1:You're going all in on this team, but it just doesn't seem like this team has enough to. With a wide, open Eastern Conference with everybody seemingly hurt, maybe they can compete, but in all reality, what are you doing against the teams in the West, an OKC and a Rockets team. Are you going to be able to beat them with this roster currently constructed? I don't know about that one, unless if we see a lot of these young guys take that next step. Maybe then, but that's a big question mark. You're expecting guys like Ryan Rollins Porter to take over there. Cole Anthony coming in. You got a lot of pieces around Giannis that you are excited about, but they're not superstars. They're not in that same category right now.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of where I think, like you're saying, like I'm saying, like CBS Sports is telling us here, the writers there, that the Bucs are ranked so low because they don't have a lot going for them from now until the near future, until at least 2030. And that has a lot to do with. Well, we're holding on to yannis and we're trying to make him happy now. So, yeah, it's, uh, it's an interesting list here. I saw the celtics came in kyle celtics. They came up near top. They were they number two on that list, I believe.
Speaker 3:Yeah two, because the thunder had to be number one thunder had to be number one.
Speaker 1:I mean the moves that they've made and what they've done here Just right now, getting Shea Gildress signed back up and everything like that. I mean they've made moves, the trades that they've made. How many first-round picks I don't even know what the list is anymore because I saw at one point it was a ridiculous amount of first-round picks that they were going to have. And they still have them, like they have all the talent they have right now and they still have a boatload of first round picks. To even talk like if I'm the bucks hypothetical world don't call me crazy if you want, but if the thunder were to offer me, I don't know five years of first round picks, maybe or something crazy for a guy like yann, is it? I mean, is here's my question? Giannis is a superstar. He means the world to Milwaukee. I love Giannis, but here's my but, here's my but moment.
Speaker 1:I thought the Celtics loved, you know, the Paul Pierce years and everything like that and they had to move on. Eventually they moved on and they went out and they got picks and they did all this and later on they grabbed guys like Jason Tatum, jalen Brown. They built this thing from the ground up. Look at the Warriors. They got Steph, they got Clay, they drafted these guys all together. They built them up. The Bucs don't do that, they don't have that ability and they keep strapping themselves year after year after year.
Speaker 1:I I'm speaking, I don't know if it's an outside perspective. I hate espn and I can't hate espn. I hate the analysts at espn. Right, because they do this silly thing where they tell us oh, yannis has got to leave, he's got to leave, he's got to leave. I don't think he has to and I don't think he wants to. But I mean, kyle, is it crazy to say that the bucks might be like the best option would be to move on from Giannis, because that is all they have to actually offer at this point outside of. Well, we can throw some young guys out there, but who the heck is going to give you a bunch of first round picks or whatever, an equal pay or an equal guy, if you don't give them a Giannis, if you don't give them a deal like that? Kyle, I mean, is it crazy to think that the number one option for the Bucs would be to move on from Giannis, like if it came to it where you're, I mean you're just down in the dumps anyways, you might as well cut ties right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I think. Unfortunately, if the Bucs find themselves in a position where they become stagnant, you know constantly, like a 5-6 seed early round exit in the playoffs, that's a conversation that the Bucs will have to have, because you can't really move anybody else and drastically change your fortunes unless you move Giannis. And the worry would be, if you moved Giannis, even to an Oklahoma City, sure you may get five years' worth of first-round picks, but where would those picks be? Because the Thunders seem like they're going to be good for the foreseeable future unless you get, you know, because they do have a lot of picks that they got from other teams. So if you get some of those picks you might look at it a little bit better. But yeah, that's going to be something that's going to be interesting to see over the next couple of years.
Speaker 3:What did the Bucks do with Giannis? Does Giannis become tired of dragging a team necessarily just to be a fifth seed and lose in the first, the second round and not really be close to a title? If that's what happens, then yeah, you have to do that, because in the NBA you either have to be top four seed title contender or bottom out to rebuild, whatever the next iteration of your team looks like you don't want to be in the middle. It's the worst place to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's where they are. I hate to be that unoptimistic, I hate to be that guy. But I'm looking at this roster. I like the roster. I think they have a lot of interesting pieces. I think they have a lot of guys who could do something. But you're also at the point where you're like, okay, I hope AJ Green develops into this almost dang near like a Clay Thompson kind of guy for this Bucs team. You're hoping that a Porter ends up being your.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know like the way that you're describing it. It's like a LeBron dragging the Cavs right, dragging the Cavs, or dragging whoever they would say right To the finals there. And it's like Giannis dragging a team. Okay, so who needs to come along? Right, you need your Kyrie, you need your Kevin Love, you need your Tristan Thompson. Well, you got a star in Miles Turner, so you got that star.
Speaker 1:Now it's like, who can come along with this team? Who can develop into that star? Who can develop to be that guy? Aj Green's got a darn good shooting ability. Can he develop into being a main cog in this offense, into I don't know if he's going to be quite be what they thought chris middleton was to this team. But can he develop into that kind of shooter? Can porter develop into maybe even a shell of what drew holiday was right? I mean they that if you look at that finals run team, you look at this team. I'm not going to say that it's that close, but but it's. It's eerily similar.
Speaker 1:Drew holiday, coming in, wasn't expected to be this star. Chris middleton was pretty darn good player. But if you can get guys to just develop in this system, maybe we're looking at it from an outside perspective saying, well, we don't have the flashy names, but you could get the talent in there just because they come along with Giannis there. So I mean I, I'm interested to see it. I'm not saying to trade Giannis, I'm not trading Giannis today, I'm not trading Giannis before the season. But what I'm saying is and like you're saying at some point, potentially down the road here, because you are talking about a team who doesn't control a first round pick until 2030 and it seems like every time they want to make a trade, they're always offering this, that next pick that they can offer. It's like, okay, we're trading further back, we're not gonna have a first round pick for years. It just seems like we're getting further and further away from when it seems like the bucks could potentially maybe rebuild, get this thing settled down, build a core, because right now you're just a revolving door. That's all that they are. They're a're a revolving door. You're like a pit stop for guys at this point here and then they go get a different contract somewhere else. So where do the Bucs end up? I think that's what we're kind of interested to see here. So, kyle, I mean I had one question for you, so we just rolled 15 minutes. I'm like goodness gracious. We had a couple other things I want to touch, but we're not going to get to them today. We'll get to them next week here.
Speaker 1:But I want to ask you so there's a lot of talk Ajax, he's been up and down in Summer League. It hasn't been pretty at times it's rough to watch. But how much stock do you throw into Summer League? I mean we saw Chris Livingston. He earned himself a contract coming off of Summer League there for the Bucs. He got a $2.3 million deal. That was awesome to see. I mean they waved him and then they signed him back. So that was cool to see for Chris Livingston. He's been playing darn good for the Bucs in the Summer League. But how much stock do you put in? Because Ajax, he's also playing for that kind of contract right now and Ajax looked good last year defensively, but also when you play on a team full of a bunch of slow guys, it could also make you look better too, defensively. So how much stock are you putting into a summer league game team? Whatever you want to say there, should we?
Speaker 3:be worried about Ajax, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. I mean, look, the summer league. I feel like it's not the end-all be-all. Obviously it's kind of your rookies. It gets them the first chance to get on the court in your system, because most obviously summer league teams are coached by the G League coach, who runs similar to the pro team, so that I feel like it's good for rookies just to work off some of the rest of the college season. That's fine.
Speaker 3:Now some of these rosters have like second and third year guys. I don't know if it means the most to them, but in this case Anandre Jackson is a guy who at this point you want to see him factoring into that guard rotation, small forward rotation. So right now he'd probably be sitting behind, possibly like Cole Anthony who might be who can play the point and play the two. He'd probably come off the bench right now. So can Jackson kind of carve out a role as like a two and maybe Cole is just your backup point guard? You have Torian Prince as your backup to Kuzma.
Speaker 3:Can Andre Jackson take some minutes there? Now? If he had a strong summer league you might feel better about giving him a larger workload, but the fact that he struggled. I'm not going to write him off because of that, because he can get into training camp and look much better. He can get into the preseason and look better and I feel like that would mean more than a rough performance in the summer. In the summer, most of these guys are just kind of working on stuff, so they may not play the best but preseason. I would put more stock into that. If he's still struggling in the preseason, I would be more worried, I'm back.
Speaker 1:I'm back, we're good, we're good. Oh goodness gracious, I think I lost it there for a second. Kyle, can you hear me? Yes, oh wait, hold on, hold on. I think I lost myself there. I lost Kyle. It's been a hectic night here. The audio has been all kinds of goofy here on us. It has just been ridiculous. Let me see if I can get this figured out here. Kyle, you can hear me, but I can't hear you.
Speaker 3:Yes, Did your mic get muted? Kyle no.
Speaker 1:My mic is still working. Oh goodness gracious. This is silly here. So we're going to hit a quick break. We're going to come back on the backside here. I don't know what the heck just happened here, but we're going to come back here. We're going to get into some brewers. We're going to get into some packers. We're going to get some brewers later on in the show. We're going to come back here. We're going to get into all that there. Thank you, kyle. Know what the heck happened? What is going on with the software tonight? We we've had issues on top of issues and now more issues here. So we'll be right back here. I don't know what the heck just happened, but we'll get it squared and we'll come back here. We'll, uh, get into some packer talk on the backside here. What the heck happened in the last segment there? We lost. It was like I lost kyle and then he said he lost me and it was a whole thing with the software there. But thank you for sticking around here. Hopefully you stuck around, you persevered through with us there, because that was a real pain in the butt. We were having a good conversation there about the bucks and everything else and it just cut on us. It just cut out on us there. So I want to get to. We're going to get to the Packers now. We're going to talk Packers here after the break.
Speaker 1:And 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 H. Find upcoming events and races at marshfieldspeedwaycom there. That is marshfieldspeedwaycom there. And also Warm Kids Wisconsin make sure you're checking them out. That's our non-for-profit donation group that we work with there. They help kids get into snow pants and boots for the winter months. They're not coats, not coats, snow pants and boots. Make sure you're checking them out there.
Speaker 1:Across social media tiktok uh, he makes a bunch of tiktoks there and then also facebook, instagram. Wherever you have social media, you can find warm kids wisconsin. You can find the links. You can donate, you can order from their amazon wish list. They have all kinds of links for you out there and also get in touch with them about doing events and also helping with your school in the area or around. I mean they're trying to work everywhere right now across Wisconsin, so make sure you're checking them out there. Warm Kids Wisconsin. So talking box in the last segment there with Kyle. Now I want to get to the Packers here and if you have any comments you want to get into tonight here, make sure you're doing it 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. And make sure you're following, liking, subscribing across all social media platforms because that is a huge help to us here on this show. Just tapping into the last segment there, I had a couple people who commented in and they're like wow you're trading Giannis away from the Bucs.
Speaker 1:You're trading Giannisis away for the bucks. You're trading yannis away from the bucks. No, that's not what I'm talking about. We weren't saying to trade yannis away from the bucks in the last segment. What we were saying was, in a world where you are currently sitting with no draft capital nothing, not really you're constantly having this turnover. You're playing with like the, like cbs sports. There. Some of the analysts have even said it's like you're pulling a rabbit out of a hat every single year and just making it work. At some point a conversation has to be had and the one who's going to get you the most capital, the most return, would be a guy like Giannis. So that's why it's always in the back of people's heads talking about it Now, am I trading him? No, I'm not trading him tomorrow. I'm not trading him tomorrow. I'm not trading him going into next season. I'm probably not trading him on after next season. But I think it's a conversation like kyle said. You know, in that last segment there that might have to happen at some point. We'll just wait and see. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Maybe they keep you honest forever. Who knows? Maybe they have stars in the making currently in the fold. We'll kind of see what happens there.
Speaker 1:But I want to switch gears here. I want to get to the Packers, because training camp started up today. I didn't get to see any of the highlights from it. Like you guys know, I'm prerecorded so I didn't get to see any highlights from there. We'll talk about what we saw here in the opening day of training camp here coming up next week and then we'll talk about you know, they had going Thursday, friday, sunday and then Monday and the next Wednesday they'll have another practice there. So so in this Packers talk today, I want to get to first off Zach Tom signed that massive extension there with the Packers and this was a contract that we've been waiting for.
Speaker 1:We've been waiting to see what would happen here. He's going to get a huge signing bonus $30.2 million signing bonus on top of this $88 million four-year $88 million extension that he got there. That is going to 30 mil is going to be a signing bonus and then it could have the opportunity to get up to 92 million. So that is a massive deal. But looking at what it does, just looking at them as a tackle right, he settled in a right tackle there. But this is a grouping that they made of tackles across the league and you look at some of these guys so all tackles in terms of AAV, so basically the league, and you look at some of these guys so all tackles in terms of av. So they're basically their annual average.
Speaker 1:What they're going to make their tristan wirfs leads the grouping with from the tampa buccaneers at 28.12 mil, then you have seawall there, from the lions 28. Trant williams at 27. You work your way down the list. Right lane johnson from the eagles 25. Laramie tonsil from the texans makes 25 there. Andrew thomas makes Looks like right now Zach Tom.
Speaker 1:He's set to make 22. They were projecting him around that 25 ranking but now he's sitting there at 22. He's in that tie for ninth right now with Jordan Malata of the Eagles there. There's eight people ahead of him there on the list. Now, not all of those. A majority of those guys are actually left tackles, not exactly right tackles there. But the Packers are paying him $3 million less than the Eagles are paying Johnson and $6 million less than what the Lions are giving Seawol right now. Zach Tom's a pretty darn good tackle there. So to get a guy with his skillset, a younger guy, for it's a steal of a contract, if you ask me. That's darn good day at the office right there and I'm glad it got done.
Speaker 1:Now the question and this is the question that was asked across social media everywhere was how does this affect elton jenkins? Because elton jenkins has been waiting for a deal. Now we see Zach Tom gets signed up. So what does this do to Elton Jenkins? And Rob Domosky came on there and he said he's told that this doesn't impact the Elton Jenkins situation whatsoever one way or another. It sounds like the Packers want to talk, but possibly not till later in the season, after he settled in at center. It's really going to be interesting to see, like he said there, what Jenkins has got to say about that as he reports to camp.
Speaker 1:But now he sees Zach Tom get signed up and Jenkins is like well, you guys tell me how important I am. Brian Goodikens said how important Elton Jenkins was and's leadership and everything like that and getting them into the fold. And now they're like oh well, we're going to wait until possibly in the season, did they? I? I would have to imagine, and I don't know this, but I mean he's switching positions for him. He's doing all this for him. He just wants to have some insurance.
Speaker 1:I do you make a move like this without Jenkins really being okay with it, because you are expecting Jenkins to switch roles and do all this for you and you know beyond this contract that he's currently on. Do you do you did you make the Zach tomu without him knowing, because now it's going to irritate him a little bit, so he's going to want to get his deal made now. What does? The question is and this is the weird part is like, when you tell me that you want to wait until he settles in at center, you're basically telling me that you think elton jenkins still has to prove himself. What does he have to prove? He's been darn good, he's one of the one of your better offensive linemen in in total and he's got the multi-positional ability. What does he have to prove to you? Because if he doesn't cut it at center, then you can move him back out.
Speaker 1:This seems like a to me, and I could be wrong. This seems like a. Oh well, elton is good, we have like a Monk in there and we have Felton and we have Jordan Morgan. What if those guys turn out to be pretty good, then we could save some money, right, like they're hoping with Rashid Walker, because Rashid Walker is going to end up leaving, I guarantee that. But it's like, oh well, we can save some money now.
Speaker 1:Not sign Elton Jenkins to this big contract extension. Does it feel like the Packers are being kind of penny pitchers right now Because they like to do this Now? They've waited with guys to you know, in season to make a contract. It was a Buc-D-R. They didn't sign until like in December, there, I believe. But I mean they've waited before, not saying it'd be crazy if they did it that way. But it just feels like when you make a comment like that after telling us how important he was, and now the comment that Rob's hearing is oh well, they are going to wait until in season, I don't know, it wouldn't sit right with me if I was Jenkins, because I'm like, oh well they. It wouldn't sit right with me if I was Jenkins Because I'm like, well, they think I have to settle in at center, like I'm not going to be able to do it, like they don't have the utmost confidence in me, that what they've seen out of me so far there's tape on them already.
Speaker 1:It's the controversy. We didn't want heading into training camp. We might have I don't know if it's going to be there, I don't know. I didn't see any other reports from elton or like well, is he upset? Is he not upset? What? What's it gonna look like? Do they get a deal done? I think it's hard to tell now. I I would think they would get a deal done, but man it just.
Speaker 1:It was a weird. I saw the announcement right away and I looked at I was like pack your sign and I was like Packers sign. I was like, oh, it's going to be the Elton Jenkins. Then I kept reading and it's Zach Tom. I was like before Elton Interesting, we thought the Zach Tom deal was going to happen.
Speaker 1:We knew that was going to happen at some point. The $22 million also saves money on the cap too Well, and the $30 million signing bonus there is going to help a lot in saving some of the cap here for the Packers and allowing them to have more to move around. Maybe that helps with the Elton Jenkins extension. We'll wait and see what happens there as we get into training camp here. Maybe he settles into center here in training camp and they make the move. I don't know. Just a weird, a weird comment and I'd love to hear what you guys got to think. 715-990-4914. That's 715-990-4914. 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear what you guys think about the Zach Tom deal and Elton Jenkins and what do you guys think. You know you think Elton Jenkins is good with it. What do we think is going to happen there? It's going to be interesting to see and we'll wait and see once we get into training camp here.
Speaker 1:But I have some of the battles. I know training camp started today, but I have some of the battles, the position battles, that I'm excited to see. I wanted to go through them here on the show today. So my number one that I listed on there and this is, I mean, last year was kind of in that same boat here. But the offensive line it's going to be Sean Ryan and Jordan Morgan, I believe, battling it out for that right guard spot.
Speaker 1:Morgan, high draft pick, draft pick. Ultimately, I believe the Packers want to go with him, most likely because there is another one. So Rasheed Walker and Jordan Morgan battling it out for the left tackle spot. I think that most, the most likely outcome is Walker's going to get the spot. He's going to get the spot here, and then we're going to see, and then he's going to go elsewhere for a big contract. So I think he's going to get the spot here and then we're going to see, and then he's going to go elsewhere for a big contract. So I think he's going to get the spot this year for his last season. I think he's going to go elsewhere. Packers with that are going to get a comp pick out of it. So I think they're going to be okay with it. I think Rasheed Walker is going to earn his spot at left tackle. I think, if anything, jordan Morgan's going to be. So I'm interested to see that battle between Sean Ryan and Jordan Morgan for that right guard spot and to see if Jordan Morgan can earn that spot. My running back two is also one of my opposition battles I can't wait to watch.
Speaker 1:Manuel Wilson had a pretty darn good year last year. Chris Brooks was solid and Marshawn Lloyd coming back off injury last season. I think Wilson will be my pick at the moment. He's got the big sample size. Uh, we've seen it and he was impressive. He impressed last year, so we'll see what he does this year. Marshawn has the most approved because we just didn't see it. We don't know what he's. I mean we, we know what he was about in college. We saw the tape. We know what he was about at the combine. We saw a little bit last season but we just haven't seen Marshawn prove it to us yet. So he's got the most approved. Chris Brooks was a great run blocker. He's got the most approval. Chris Brooks was a great run blocker. He's a great blocker in general there. So Chris Brooks would be a hard guy to watch.
Speaker 1:I think the Packers could realistically carry four running backs. I really do. I really do think they could. Will they? I don't know, but could they see it? Yes, I think they would hate to see any one of these guys go elsewhere. Really, I think they would. One of these guys go elsewhere, right, really I think they would. I mean Emmanuel Wilson's solid Chris Brooks I mean he's been a good blocker, he's solid in the run game and then a guy like Marshawn Lloyd with his ability that they think they see. What could that all look like? So I could see him possibly carrying four. We'll see what kind of happens there.
Speaker 1:Wide receiver room is going to be interesting. Who's going to be number six? They got to five. I think the five are figured out Dobbs, wicks, reed, golden, savion. Those are going to be your five. Who moves into that six spot until Watson returns, which could be at any point? I mean it could be week nine, it could be week eight, I don't know. He's had a crazy recovery time, it could be at any point really. But until he returns, who's at least going to be six? Could they carry seven, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But who's going to be in that number six spot? Heath, hardman, bo Milton? I know they signed up Will Shepard there and they're going to have some other young guys that they can kind of float around. I think most of them are practice squad guys. So I'm looking at those three. I like Bo Milton, I like Bo Melton, I like Heath for that fact, but I think it's really going to be Hardman. I really do Hardman to me he's got a lot of versatility and flexibility. He's got the ability to go out there and be a return man. He can be a gadget guy for you. We've seen that before. So I think Hardman is going to be the option for him there. But I can't wait to see how this one kind of battles it out there. There's a couple more. I don't really we don't really need to dive too deep into them there.
Speaker 1:But the defensive end position who's going to be the number three and number four? Who's going to be behind Lucas Van Ness and Rashawn Gary this next season? Agabar, sorrell, colin Oliver and Brenton Cox Jr you have the two young guys there in Sorel and Colin Oliver, and then you have Brenton Cox Jr and Agabari, oliver and Sorel the new guys. Sorel is more of the defensive end, oliver is more of that. He's got that versatility to be more of an off-ball linebacker. So it's going to be interesting to see what they kind of do with him. Brenton Cox and Agabari those guys are the I don't know. That's going to be an interesting battle. So that's one to keep an eye on as we go through training camp here. And I'm interested to see in the first couple days of training camp some of the talk coming out of there. Stackhouse and Brinson battling for that nose tackle spot there.
Speaker 1:Cornerback room who's going to be number four? The boundary corner? Hayden, it's going to be either. Hayden, it's going to be. We can see Hayden filling in there. Robinson King or Melton King is probably looking like more of a nickel corner. So this is going to be an interesting one.
Speaker 1:This position group makes me nervous. So this is going to be an interesting one. Who's going to be that number four? Because I think you know one through three. But who's going to be CB1? Nixon says he's going to be Hobbs, sounds like he could be and Valentine has to prove it. So who's going to be cornerback one? I don't even think we know that yet, but I think we know who's going to be in the top three. I just don't think we know who's going to be number one when it's all said and done there. So that's going to be a position group. I'm watching as we get training camp underway here.
Speaker 1:Safety spot between Bullard and Williams. We know McKinney's going to be one. Evan Williams kind of proved it last year. The weird part now is Bullard. He spent a lot of time in the slot but with Hobbs now in there and Valentine the other boundary corner with Nixon. That leaves Bullard kind of in the background. So where does Bullard kind of fit in? I think Bullard's going to be an odd one. Where does he fit in with his defense? I'm interested one. Where does he fit in with his defense? I interested to see what they do with him.
Speaker 1:And then the linebacker four spot. There's probably some more position groups everybody's watching, but these are the ones I'm watching. That linebacker four spot we know mcduffie is going to be. Probably he's going to be the three. We know cooper and quay are going to be one and two. Who's going to fill into that four spot? Christian welch, tyron hopper, isaiah Simmons, yvonne Johnson I'm interested to see Simmons the hybrid getting in there in a linebacker spot.
Speaker 1:I think he was in a bad situation over the years there. Now getting him into Green Bay, I think he's going to be in a good spot here. Christian Welch is another exciting guy. This is going to be a grouping I'm watching too. I like Isaiah Simmons in there. I really hope that he can find some footing in Green Bay here. Simmons in there, I really hope that he can find some footing in Green Bay here. He's got a bowl of talent. It's just about getting it out of him there. So I'm interested to see this grouping here as training camp gets started. But those are some of the position groups that I'm most interested in as we're starting up training camp here and next week when Umber's back Umber's on vacation he was hoping to get on tonight.
Speaker 1:Here he's on vacation. He was hoping to get on tonight. We tried it with his phone. It wasn't working. It was worse than the last segment there with Kyle when we completely lost each other at the end. It was worse than that. Umbers was static. He was all over the place. So he's like well, we tried, we tried. He's going to come back on next week. Here we're going to talk Packers. We're going to talk training camp. We're going to talk more Brewers on the backside. Here we're going to get you ready for the upcoming series, the upcoming weekend. Here we're going to get you all kinds of Brew Talk when we come back here. So we'll be right back here. Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage is coming back after this quick commercial break. It just gets me in that groovy feeling as we get closer to the end of the show.
Speaker 1:It's like ah, I hope you guys are enjoying your night here tonight. I hope you guys are loving the talk so far. Loving the talk so far. We just talked some Packers there. Earlier on we had Kyle, we were talking Bucs. We talked Badgers way at the start of the show. It feels like an hour ago. It feels like an hour ago we were talking Badgers. We had some Brewer talk earlier and if you missed any of it, make sure you're listening back on the podcast next day. I'm going to have that thing up. I know you guys. You guys, I told you I'd get it up on the podcast.
Speaker 1:The past couple weeks it has been hectic. I've had baseball, the wife, the baby, we've got all kinds of stuff going that. So make sure, if you missed any of the show tonight, make sure you're listening to back. Make sure you're following us across social media. Make sure you're like subscribe, follow everything like that. Tell your friends. I love to have you guys talk to me on the show here, talk to me across social media, get your comments in, everything like that. Make sure you're texting in 715-990-4914. Then 715 914. I'd love to hear what you guys think about anything. Wisconsin sports wise.
Speaker 1:But this next segment of the show here is brought to you by our friends down there at Casa M Spice the low sodium, clean label, no fillers, no MSG. Man, I'm telling you this stuff you hear low sodium. You're like that that's not good, right? So many people hear that and they're like I know, no, that's not good. I'm telling you this. I saw it and I was like I don't know how I feel about this and I tried it for the first time and I didn't have the combo, right. I was like I just don't get the hoopla about this. And then Manny came up and he's going to be up in the area here in the coming weeks. So make sure you're keeping up with us. I'm sure I announce those things when they're happening to here across the show. And then also make sure you're following us on Facebook because we'll announce it on there when Manny and you know his crew is going to be up here from Casa M, up at the Ace Hardware, the Foreman's Hardware especially, but just, I mean Casa M Spice.
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Speaker 1:So I want to talk to brewers here, as we're getting close to the top of the well, the end of the show here, as we're getting close to the end of the show, I want to talk about the brewers here. We talked about them in the first hour of the show. Just, I mean some of the craziness going around social media of oh, this team's just lucky, this and that and everything in between. And now I want to get to the discussion of. Okay, I mean I was just talking about Kyle with this earlier on. I said it's so hard to talk about sports right now. He's like yeah, I know, I agree there's nothing really happening. And I said it doesn't help that the Brewers are winning baseball games too, because what do you complain about? You know, like early on this year it was like okay, what do you do to replace Joey Ortiz? And now, at this point, I mean I know people are like, oh well, what we saw early on was not great, and now maybe this is just a fluke. You could say that you could say it's been a fluke, but over the last seven games, a .333 average. Over the last 15, .244, over the last
Speaker 1:30, sitting, .273. If you look at what he's been able to do over this last stretch and also how much his defense has come along, because when you looked earlier on, early on this season, you could have said, ah, you know, joey's a darn good defender, I think on the outside. But when you looked at him you're like he's a darn good defender, I think, on the outside. But when you looked at him you're like he's darn good, but he hasn't shown it yet. And he's good but he's not great. And then all of a sudden it was like okay, now I think he's pretty good. And then it was, oh, now he's great. And that's the transition that he's taken. And as his defenses come along, so is his offense. And now you look at this guy he's well-rounded, he's putting it all together and you just love
Speaker 1:to see it. So the way Joy Ortiz has progressed and you look at guys even like Caleb Durbin we're right away looking at him it was like I don't know about Caleb Durbin. Is he an everyday third baseman? Even I said it I was like I don't know if he's an everyday third baseman. I think he's a. He still is, but he's been fantastic for the Brewers. Everything that they've needed out of Caleb Durbin he's done the walk-offs. He's had a couple of different, I think. What has he had? Three
Speaker 1:walk-offs this season. So far he's been nothing but impressive for the Brewers. And you look at him over this last stretch of games he's hitting .409. Over the last seven Last 15, he's hitting .326. Over the last 30 he's hitting 351. He's been unreal for the brewers. And then doing all of this,
Speaker 1:this whole stretch of games. Sal frelick's been hurt. He's actually expected to be back in the brewers lineup on friday. He has some tests he has to pass first, but he's expected to be back on the field on friday. So that's unreal there. Uh, he's got. I mean he had bp on the field yesterday so he's been hitting the ball. Now he's said. He was, I think, jogging at 60% just the other day, so I mean he's progressing well. So you're going to get a guy like Sal Freilich back.
Speaker 1:Hoskins will come back eventually. Jake Bowers I saw that he had a whatchamacallit there, a cortisone injection in the shoulder over the all-star break, so he's expected like a mid-August return. I did not know that was happening with Jake Bowers there. Nestor Cortez is scheduled to throw 90 pitches and then he's going to be back. That's supposed to be his final rehab start. So we'll see what kind of happens with Nestor there. Maybe they move him, I don't know. And then Connor Thomas had surgery on Wednesday, so he's going to be Connor Thomas basically. But that's
Speaker 1:your injury report update there. But looking at what they've been able to do in these last stretch of games with all the names that I know, nester cortez isn't a big name. But when you really, when you realistically look back on it, nester cortez was supposed to be a big part of what this was at the start of the year. Now it's. Now you've got national media talking about this team and where they're at and saying this team has the potential to be a world series team, and there's some people that I saw. They're like this is a dark horse, this is. The brewers are a team that could win the world series. They are going to win the world. I've seen a lot of people predicting the brewers to win the world series now because and you look at it,
Speaker 1:name a better right now. Right now, if you had to look across the MLB at rotations, who in their right mind would want to face Freddy Peralta, brandon Woodruff and Jacob Mizorowski? Nobody, nobody wants to face those three, that three-headed monster, at this point. That's a lot of gas, that's a lot of nastiness. That's a lot of gas. That's a lot of nastiness, that's a lot. I mean brandon woodruff what he did the other night to the mariners, what he did to that mariners team the other night there
Speaker 1:watching that, that was masterful. The limited amount of pitch, I mean the limited amount of pitches, I mean the limited amount of pitches it took for Brandon Woodruff to work through that Mariners lineup and still, I mean just he dealt Like that's. All you can say is six innings, two hits, nothing across the board, five strikeouts, 62 pitches and 42 of them were strikes. And he went six innings and I know everybody's like. Well, why did he only go six. Pat Murphy's working this pitch count with him. Him and Mizorowski are both on this pitch limit kind of thing right now
Speaker 1:and that's fine. That's fine. The Brewers have enough long relief at this point that they can afford that. With Aaron Ashby being out in the bullpen and pitching well, and so is DL Hall, they have the ability to to wait. But I mean that three-headed monster, the bullpen, pitching well, you have your rebate back there. Canning's been iffy but Nick Mears has been solid, and then you got a guy like Trevor McGill at the back end. I think if you're going to add anywhere in the pitching right now, I'd be okay with the bullpen. I'd be okay with getting another high leverage arm in the bullpen.
Speaker 1:There wouldn't hurt at all. Maybe you see I've seen the talk of mizorowski going out to the bullpen. I'd hate to see that because I'd love to have him in a playoff series in a start. But maybe you see a guy like him with the bullpen and logan henderson come back up. That'd be interesting.
Speaker 1:A chad patrick, I mean. You realistically look at what the brewers have in the minors for a? Uh, starting rotation down in the minors right now with a nester cortez, with a tobias myers, with a uh logan henderson down there, with chad patrick down there, and then you have aaron ashby and uh deal hall, who are currently working as long relievers. At the moment you have Aaron Ashby and Adiel Hall, who are currently working as long relievers. At the moment you have a Carlos Rodriguez. You have Robert Gasser working his way back, the Brewers rotation. They have a lot of starting pitching. Let's go with that so they might have the ability to move guys around. I'm not saying they can't, but the three-headed monster that you could have to face in a playoff series with Mizorowski, with Woodruff, with Peralta, back-to-back-to-back that's wild. That is a crazy, crazy setup to have to deal with.
Speaker 1:And then you still have a veteran in Jose Quintana. If you don't see a guy like him move, maybe a guy like Nestor Cortez move. I am all in. If the Diamondbacks call for pitching and they say we'll give you Suarez for pitching, I'm still making that move. I'm still making that move.
Speaker 1:I know Caleb Dermott's been solid. I'm not saying he hasn't. Maybe you can move a dirt. It's so.
Speaker 1:Like I mentioned earlier on in the show, Bryce Terang is hindering deals. Why you ask? Because Bryce Terang's shoulder excuse me there, his shoulder and the inability of his shoulder to be able to sustain at shortstop, as we heard earlier on this season and you hate to have that pop back up is a big reason why the Brewers can't make a move for a third baseman. Because then what do you do with Caleb Dermott? Do you move him over to second base? Then, if you move him, terang's got to move. And then it's like, okay, where do you move pieces around? You can't sit there like that. You can't sit there. And oh, we can't move this guy because of this.
Speaker 1:If you get a right third baseman, you just got to make that move and then whoever else just got to fill into a DH role and then maybe you have to move. A guy like Mielic Just got to play more in the outfield because you need to have Durbin in the lineup or whoever it is because they need to hit Georgia. T's coming along, so it makes it all a little bit different to talk about. Everybody's got their own perspective on. Do you mess with it at this point? But right now I mean right now the Hoopa and everything it's awesome to see the national media.
Speaker 2:That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's awesome to see the national media putting the Brewers in that kind of light right now, saying that they are 100% a World Series contender right now and saying that they can compete with the best of the best and they're doing it. I mean, you look at this Brewers team and their record against teams with 500 record and above they're 32-22 right now, a record of equal to or above 500. They have the best record in baseball. They have the best record in baseball. They have the best record in baseball. But they have the best record in baseball. Through that stretch and you look at this stat blew my mind of this team the Brewers started with a negative 32 run differential. So that's your difference between run scores and runs allowed. If you didn't know. Negative 32 run differential. So that's your difference between run scores and runs allowed. If you didn't know. Negative 32 run differential. That set an MLB record for the worst start ever by an MLB team. Now they have the third best run differential at plus 91. So since that start of the season there, since that first four games over the last 95 games, they have a plus 123 run differential. Wow, that's that mind-blowing. When I read that I was like, wow, that is a change of pace right there. That is an absolute change of pace right there, right there. That is an absolute change of pace right there. So, all in all, the national media loves this Brewers team right now. I'm loving what I'm seeing on this Brewers team right now.
Speaker 1:There is not a whole lot not to like about what's going on with the Brewers right now, and they got this stretch right now. So they got the Mariners. They're going to wrap up the series with the Mariners. As you guys know, I'm prerecorded so I don't know the outcome of Wednesday's game here, but they're going to wrap up this series with the Mariners here and then they're going to head back home. So they're going to end this little West Coast road trip. It'd be sweet to end it with a sweep here. To end it with a sweep. I don't know what happened in the Tuesday night or the Wednesday night. It I don't know what happened in the Tuesday night or the Wednesday night. I think it's just a late game too, so I'm recording before anything. So just so you guys know there, but it'd be sweet if this ended up as a sweep over road trip. Then they come back home, they have the Marlins and then they have the Cubbies. You got a couple couple series here. So you have the Mariners and then you got the Marlins, you got the, have those games and you just look down this list of teams that they play for the remainder of the year. I don't think I have a series where I'm looking at it and I'm like the Brewers are, they're totally out of that series. What they did to the Dodgers has shown me that this team they're not what they were at one point.
Speaker 1:This feels like a special year. This feels like a special team and I know it's a cliche, right, a lot of times we've said this that this feels like a special year. It just I mean, you watch this team. Yelich, his 26th game on base streak, as of Saturday there was the longest he's had since his 30 that he had in his MVP season. It's just you look at stats like that. You look at what they've been able to do. You look at this pitching staff. You look at Matt Arnold and he's like there's no reason for the Brewers to trade Freddie Peralta at this point here. So we know Peralta is most likely not on the move. He said you're never going to close that door, right, because he can't say that after what we've pastor a Josh Ader move right, some crazy stuff like that has happened in the past. So he's not going to close doors but he's telling us like it'd be crazy to do something like that. We're not going to completely shut that door but we're not thinking about that at this point because there's no reason for it right now.
Speaker 1:You're in a race right now. Right now you're one of the best teams in baseball and the power rankings You're number one where you deservedly should be. You just got done sweeping the Dodgers twice. You just beat the Nationals. In between that you're on this burner right now. Why would you do anything? This Brewer baseball has got me excited right now. I hope all you guys are excited too, because Brewer baseball just has me absolutely ecstatic right now. We got this series coming up this weekend with the Marlins and then we're going to be taking out the Cubs coming up next week here. Can't wait to watch a couple of great series there and come back, hopefully next week.
Speaker 1:We're talking about a boatload of wins and what the heck the Brewers are going to do here as we get closer to the trade deadline, because there's some moves to be made. I think there's moves to be made. If I'm the Brewers I am definitely. I don't think you can sit pat. I don't think you can. You have to go out and make moves. If you're the Brewers, you have this plethora of starting pitching. There's teams out there who need starting pitching. The Blue Jays need starting pitching. The Blue Jays could be a trade partner. Diamondbacks have been a trade partner in the past. You can look at the Diamondbacks and say, hey, what are you guys willing to offer back for maybe a guy like Jose Quintana? For maybe a guy like a Chad Patrick? For a young pitcher, tobias Myers? What are you guys willing to offer back? There's a lot of moves that can be made and I think the Brewers have to jump on them. I really do. I think the Brewers have to jump on them here coming up, because is it sustainable? Like we talked about earlier, is the way the Brewers play sustainable? I think so, but I don't think it's going to hurt to add pieces to it.
Speaker 1:So we're going to come back here. We're going to wrap up the show for the day here. We got a lot in today. We're going to wrap it up here, on the backside of the ad break. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Goat Trades.
Speaker 1:Make sure you guys are getting down to Fore Foreman's Hardware this week, every week, on Friday there for the Friday Frenzy. You never know. There's crazy deals happening on Fridays. And while you're down there, while you're down at Foreman's in Loyal Colby or Medford, wisconsin, there, tell them I sent you, get 5% off, grab yourself some Kassim Spice. What more could you want on the trip? You get your landscape and stuff, your power tools, whatever you need some Kassim spice, a smoker, some pellets, whatever you're needing this time of year. Make sure you're doing it. Get it down at Foreman's there this weekend. Make sure you're going on on Fridays for that Friday frenzy there. So I hope you guys enjoyed the show tonight.
Speaker 1:We got into a lot. Christian came on. We were talking Badger hoops at the start of the show there we talked Brewers a lot tonight. Here we got to the Packers talking about training camp. Their armor is going to be back next week. Here we're going to recap some of what we saw in the early training camp days. Kyle came out. We were talking bucks. A little bit of technical difficulties mixed in there, but hey, it's okay. A whole lot of things that we got in tonight here. So thank you as always for tuning in tonight here on the show. I hope you guys enjoyed the rest of your Wednesday. I hope you guys enjoyed the rest of your week.