March 25: Hour 1 Brewers Season Preview, Fan Questions

We take your fan questions and lay out the real case for why the Brewers’ quiet offseason can still produce a contender in 2026. We zoom in on the young rotation, late-inning plans, and the lineup squeeze heading into Opening Day. 
• impressions of the Brewers offseason and the Freddie Peralta trade 
• what “getting better” means after 97 wins and an NLCS run 
• Brandon Woodruff’s return and realistic rotation expectations 
• why Jacob Misiorowski makes sense as Opening Day starter 
• confidence level in a young Brewers rotation and pitching lab development 
• closer options and how McGill, Uribe and Zerpa can fit 
• when top prospects might reach the big leagues and why patience matters 
• outfield roster decisions and how Yelich, Lockridge, Mitchell and Bowers affect lineup construction 
• Joey Ortiz expectations at the plate and in the batting order 
• Bryce Turang extension outlook and how a potential 2027 labor shift changes leverage 
• Andrew Vaughn’s second-half surge and whether it carries into 2026 
• what a healthy Garrett Mitchell changes for the offense and defense 
Hit me up 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. 

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_00 0:05

This is Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. Your place for all things Wisconsin Sports. Now, your host, Trage.

Grading The Brewers Offseason

Opening Day Energy And Format

Brandon Woodruff Expectations

Misiorowski Gets The Opening Day Nod

Bullpen Roles And The Closer

When Do Top Prospects Arrive

Outfield Crunch And Lineup Fits

Bryce Turang Extension Talk

Keeping Pace With The Cubs

Wrap-Up And How To Send Questions

SPEAKER_01 0:18

How are we doing, everybody? And welcome in to Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we're coming in here on this Wednesday. Hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday so far. Yeah, guys have enjoyed your week so far. Me, I'm recording the show on the Wednesday today. Usually it's on Tuesday night, as you guys know. The show is pre-recorded. So it's usually Tuesday night I record it. The radio guys work with the Wednesday. We get it out Wednesday afternoon there, Wednesday evening, 5-7, right? As you're hearing it right now. But last night, late night service call, wells were all screwed up on a farm. So I had to go out there. We figured out the well, got the well running. So that was great. But I got home about 10:30, did not get the show recorded. So here I am. Here I am sitting here this morning recording the show today. So I know you guys are like, why does that matter? Not doesn't really matter. I just figured I'd tell you what's going on. So there you go. Now you know. Now you know what's going on with me. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday and your week so far here since we talked last, this last Saturday here today, here on the show. We're gonna talk a lot of brewers. Basically, the whole show. Basically, the whole show is gonna be brewers. We're gonna talk a little baseball in general, right? We're gonna have AL talk going on with Kyle later on here on the show. We're gonna get Aaron on, good friend of the show. He's gonna talk about the NL a little bit there. So we're gonna get a little bit of the outside perspective of a lot of different teams around the league, but a lot of brewer talk to get to today here on the show. Not a whole lot of time for anything else, right? Today, I mean, we got opening day tomorrow against the White Sox here. The season technically starts today here. Tonight, after the show is done, you'll be able to watch the Giants and Yankees square off there. The season starts there, but the Brewers officially start tomorrow. I believe they gotta be one of their earliest pitches tomorrow there, too. 110. I mean, there might be some other games that are around the same time, but one of the earliest games starting tomorrow. So exciting stuff there. Brewer Baseball is back. I can't wait to talk about it all today here. We had a lot of fan questions. And if you guys want to be involved at all in the shows here during the weeks or on the weekend there on Saturdays, hit up the text in line. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. I had I got so many questions in. I'm just going to basically use today's show. We're just going to go through all of your questions, talk about them here on the show, and get into all of them. That's going to be a majority of it today here on the show. So I want to start with them right now. I want to start out with some of these questions here, right off the top. Then we'll come back. We'll continue the brewer questions here all through hour number one, into hour number two, and just keep rolling it. So, right away, the biggest question I think a lot of people are having right now is with the offseason that the brewers have. And what is your the question I had was what was your impression on the brewers off season? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Did they make it? And there was a couple questions of did they make enough moves for you know to feel comfortable? Did you like the moves that they made? A lot of those kinds of questions. I would say for me, the Brewers made so you think about the trades, right? You had the big ones, right? Freddie Peralta and Caleb Durbin. I thought you got really good depth pieces in there for the pitching staff. Hitting-wise, I like Jet, and I also like what they brought in with David uh David Hamilton there. I would say this offseason for me was under under the radar kind of offseason. Like, did not make any crazy moves, didn't do anything. I don't know if you count with the Freddie Peralta move as crazy. Some people would, some people wouldn't. But you traded Freddie Peralta, you traded Kale Durbin. I guess, okay, I forgot. You traded Isaac Collins and Nick Mears. So you had those three big, bigger name guys, I guess, get sent out the door. But I thought the guys that you brought in, you brought in Brandon Spro, you brought in Kyle Harrison, you brought in uh Duran, you got David Hamilton, you brought in Jet Williams, you had all those guys come back. And I think those are big pieces. I do. I think they're under the radar pieces. So the off-season that the Brewers have, though they did not make the moves that some people would have wanted them to make, did they make the champ? I think the question would be, did they make because last season you had 97 wins, you went to the NLCS. So when you have a season like that and you have a majority of your roster is going to come back, you say to yourself, okay, what's next? What did the Brewers have to do next to get over that hump, to get to the World Series, to see this team in the World Series? Because it felt like you were close, right? You met up with the super, the super team and the Dodgers, the spend all the money Dodgers. You met up with them, they swept you out of the playoffs. So now it's okay, what do you have to do and beat them? Well, yeah, spend a lot more money to beat them, right? But I think where a lot of people lost this offseason was is that the Brewers didn't see him. And this is where I got upset when the Brewers made the Freddie Peralta deal. Not so much that they traded Freddie Peralta, and I emphasized that 4,000 times, and yet people still argued with me. I emphasized it 4,000 times that I understood why they traded Freddie and made sense. He was in the last year of his contract. You wanted to get something for him. I get that. I understand that. Could you have traded him at the deadline? Sure. But do you want to implode the lot of the clubhouse halfway through the year? It didn't work out with Josh Hagener, so you didn't want to do it again. I get why people were like, well, it had to happen. I understand why they made the move. What I didn't like was that you made that move, but you didn't make, you have not made any moves to that point to make the team, in my eyes, better than what you were before. Because when you have a 97-win team, you think, okay, what do I have to do to get not 97 wins, but what do I have to do to get past the NLCS to get to the World Series? What more can I add, right? And instead of adding, you subtracted your ace of your staff. And at that point, you hadn't really done anything to add to this team. You just traded Freddie for Brandon Sprout and Jet Williams. Now, I think Sprout's gonna be fantastic. Don't get me wrong, I think he's gonna be fantastic. I think he's gonna be a very underrated piece in this rotation this season. I think Jet's gonna be fantastic. So I think I like the move in general. What upset me was is that at that point you had traded Freddie Peralta, a frontline uh top of your rotation starter for prospects. And it felt like you didn't get, you haven't done anything to get better going into the 2026 season. So I had said that. So I think that's where a lot of fans were at with some of these moves was is they have unproven guys who haven't really seen a lot of major league time. They're not household names yet, and they just they get worrisome then. And that's where I think a lot of the questions that I have here that I wrote down from fans out there were questions about the rotation and the youth about the rotations. And you look at all those, those are the big questions that are everybody's having right now. Is with the youth, with all these young guys, is it gonna work out? Are we going to see a Brewers team that can compete for the NL Central, compete for the division, you know, the division, and then compete for the National League Crown? Is this a team that can do that? And I think that's the worry that a lot of people have coming off this offseason. Now, do I think that they made some good moves? Yes. I think adding these pieces that they did, I think the pieces that they added are very underrated, like I've said. I think David Hamilton is going to be a very underrated ad to the Brewers depth piece. To a he's going to be a utility guy. And I think he's going to be a very good utility guy that can hit. I do. I do. And then Luis Renjifo bringing him in. It's not a it's not a huge move, but I think Renjifo's got a lot of good at bats in him yet. I think Ren Hifo's going to be a solid, solid pickup there. And then you have guys coming back from last year. You're Lockridge, seeing him advance a year. I think that's going to be big. Keeping Garrett Mitchell healthy. That's going to be big. Improving from within, right? But then I'm just talking rotation-wise. I think Kyle Harrison and Brandon Sprout are going to be a one-two punch that nobody's expecting, but are going to be really good. So that's where I think right now a lot of people are worried about this team. Did they make the moves in the offseason to make them bet themselves better? I think they did. I just think they're under the radar moves that you have to see play out. And I think they will play out. I just think a lot of people are, they need the eyeball test, right? And I'm that kind of way too. I need to see it. I can't just see it on paper. I can't just read the metrics and be like, oh, well, he's got this much drop on his, you know, his curveball has got this much spin on it. It's like, yeah, that's cool. But can he get guys out? Can one of these lefties get Shoei Otani out? That's the question that you're looking at. That's the question that you want answered. And that's the question I think is going to be answered when you start seeing these guys. Because once I started seeing the sprout and seeing Harrison and seeing some of these guys on the mound there for the Brewers, you started to like it. And you were like, okay, okay, I can see what they saw. And when you have a pitching coaching staff like the Brewers do, this pitching lab that they have, that they just somehow squeeze the best out of everybody. You have nothing but faith. And I have nothing but faith that the offseason moves that the Brewers made were the right ones and they're going to find a way to put it all together this season. So I'm excited. I'm excited. I think they made the wolves, and I'm going to tell you why today. We're going to talk about it. I'm going to go through all these questions. Like I said, bullet of questions to get into today from you guys out there. So thank you guys for sending in your questions. We're going to start it up here next segment. I'm going to start rolling through them here. We're going to start talking pitching. We're going to get into the bats. We're going to talk about it all. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we're coming back in here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment of the show here. We're going to talk a lot of brewers the rest of the way. This next segment is brought to you by Casa M Spice Company. Are you craving bold gourmet flavor without those MSGs fillers or excess salts? Meet Cossam Spice Company, the award-winning spice when born in Texas, you'll ignite your taste buds and create fresh flavors meal after meal. This stuff's fantastic. I put it on everything. My eggs in the morning, I'm throwing that Cossam Spice on there. If I've got if the Traeger is even leaving the garage, it has got Cossam Spice riding right on it, ready to be thrown on. Whatever I'm putting on there, whether it's ribs, steak, burgers, anything, I am throwing Casa M spice on there. This stuff is fantastic. Check them out there. NEA's hardware. Otherwise, search them up across social media, find them out there. You can search them up, Casa M. Spice Company. So, oh, opening day is here tomorrow. Technically, opening day of baseball is here today, after the show is done tonight. You'll be able to watch the Giants and Yankees square off there in the first game of the 2026 MLB season. But opening day for the Brewers is tomorrow. And I am through the roof ready to watch after watching the Badgers get dropped out of March. I am just ready to turn the page and watch Brewer Baseball because then I get 162 games of endless summer fun. Like Mark Ananasio said. His job is to give me uh summer nights of fun and entertainment. So that's he's doing a good job. He did a good job last year. Hopefully he does another good job this year. I don't know if I'm poking up air with a lot of people with those comments there. But Brewers tomorrow, 110, taking on the White Sox there. And I want to start today. We have a lot of questions to get to. A lot of questions from uh people who commented it on the show, a lot of questions that I got across text in line, everything like that. And if you want to be involved in the show or get a part of the questions, hit me up 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. But a lot of the questions, and I think the biggest one that I've seen from a lot of people is about this Brewer's rotation. And I think it is it is kind of surprising, right? And not surprising, should I say, that people are questioning the rotation this year. It's surprising that the Brewers have now reached the point where we are questioning the rotation. We have not questioned the rotation in a while. At least I haven't. Just because you've always had steady hands in there, right? Burns, Woodruff, Peralta were in there. And then you had Peralta and Woodruff, and I know Woodruff's had injury problems, but you've always had constant guys in there. And now you don't. But this Brewer's pitching staff, this Brewer's pitching coaching staff is fantastic. So if there's any confidence, if you if you have any like doubts, just remember that those guys are still employed by the Brewers, that they have a fantastic pitching lab and they know how to work with pitchers and they know how to get the best out of guys. So just remember that if you have doubts. Now, if that comes back to bite me by saying that and the pitching staff just implodes and everything just looks terrible, well, it's my fault. It's my fault. I'll take the blame on that. But but we I want to start there. I want to start talking about this brewer pitching because the one of the biggest questions that I've gotten, and it was from multiple different uh text in line people and across social media, was about Brandon Woodruff. And because there was a question mark going into the season, was if Brandon Woodruff was going to be healthy enough to even be in the starting five or six, whatever they were gonna go to start the year. And that was one of the biggest topics, one of the biggest questions. And now we find out that he is. He's ready to go. He's gonna be ready for the fifth game here of the season when they're taking on the Tampa Bay race. So now the question has become can he be a reliable starter for you this season? Can you rely on Brandon Woodruff? I think so. I think so. The velocity's dropped, right? He doesn't have the blow by stuff, he doesn't have the 97 that we've seen in the past. He's gonna be in that 92 range right there, a cruise speed. He's gonna be around that, he's gonna fluctuate in there. I know he's got another game. He's going to pitch in a sim game yet before his next start. So he's gonna have a sim game, he's gonna leave and then come back and then be able, he's gonna be ready for that Tampa Bay raise series there. But so he's gonna be ready. He's just got another ramp up game before he gets there. With Brandon Woodruff, the thing that's going to make him go is what does the command look like? If he has command on his pitches, he still has the movement, he still has the ability to dock corners, Brandon Woodruff's gonna be reliable and he's gonna be really good. I think he's gonna be really good. Is he gonna have the high strikeout numbers that you would want to see out of your starter, right? Is he gonna have that? No, I don't think so. Is he going to have the ability to induce some ground balls, induce some hot flies, get the Brewers to five, six innings in a game? Yeah, I think so. Is he gonna go complete? I don't, I don't think that's gonna be the case. Maybe, right? Hopefully, he can throw you on a pretty uh gem like that. But with Brandon Woodruff, I think the um I think the correct expectation, the realistic expectation is he's going to be a four or five starter in your rotation. And that's fine. If you have Brandon Woodruff as a four or five in your rotation, you're doing pretty darn good. You're doing pretty darn good. And that's where he slots in right now. And that was, I think, partially because they want to give him that ramp up period. But if he sits solid in that four or five in that rotation and those other guys can produce ahead of him there, I I like I like where they're sitting. I don't want to see the Brewers in left. I don't want to say I don't want to see them do it because it worked out with Quentin Priester. I don't want to see him make a rash, quick move for a rely, a veteran starter that they just feel like is gonna work, right? I don't want to see him go out and make some crazy move because they feel like they have to. They have a lot of depth right now. They're just working a lot of that depth back. You have a lot of pieces. And we talked about this in the offseason when the Brewers have made, when they made some trades and they had they got starters on top of starters, and everybody said, Why? Why are you trading this guy? Why are you trading that guy? Why do you need all these starters? It doesn't make sense. And it makes sense now because they know, yeah, we've dealt with injuries last season, a ton of injuries. That's why they got Quinn Priester to begin with. So this is why they have all that depth, is adjust in case. And maybe you see the Brewers flip to a six-man rotation at some point to give Brandon Woodruff more time in between starts. Maybe they work that way. I don't know how we you never know with Pat Murphy and company how they're going to operate a season. They do it in a an unorthodox, some people don't agree, different than the big, big clubs. Like they they operate in a different way, but they get the job done. And that's where I say if anybody's going to be able to get the best out of these guys, and especially out of Brandon Woodruff now, and be able to help him adjust to being a, you don't want to say a different pitcher, but a different style of pitcher, it's going to be Chris Hook. It's going to be this, this uh pitching lab is going to be able to get him going. So I am comfortable with Brandon Woodruff. I am. I'm comfortable with Brandon Woodruff. If you had to rely on him to be a one or two in the rotation, maybe I'm a little more nervous just because of the injury issue, just because of the injury pass, then I would be a little bit more nervous about him heading into this one. But right now, I, as a five, I'm not worried at all. I'm not worried at all. Because of the guys ahead of him. I have some bold predictions that I'm gonna be talking about later here in the show for one of these really young guys that I think he's gonna be nothing but fantastic for the Brewers this season. And just looking ahead of him, even then, you have guys like Mizarowski and Patrick, who are going to be at the top of their rotation. I loved what I saw at Chad Patrick last season there, especially coming out of the bullpen there late in the season. I thought he turned over a new leaf. I said Corbin Burns 2.0 right there, just watching him. Because he just had, he's he's got that. I don't know if it's what do you call it, Moxie or fire or what is I Moxie's a big word. That's too big for this early in the morning. It's he's got that kind of that motor that when I watched him pitch, especially in that Cubs game. I just felt Corbin Burns. I felt Corbin Burns out there. And Corbin Burns kind of took that backwards path, right? Where he started in the bullpen, worked his way back, became a good a good top-of-the-end rotation starter. So now maybe you see that with Chad Patrick. He's got the stuff, he's got good stuff. Now it's about control and command with that stuff with Chad Patrick. Because I know in his last, one of his last spring training starts there, he kind of got lit up, I believe. Was that against the Cubs? Maybe got it lit up there and leaving a lot of stuff, getting too much of the point. Now, spring training, you have to remember, spring training, pitchers are working through a lot of different things, whether it's a grip, whether it's an arm slot, lots of things are being worked through with these pitchers. So you have to remember that too when you take into account what happens in those games. They don't really, their spring training ERA, especially if they already made the roster, like Chad Patrick was relatively safe on the roster. If he's working through things, his performance out there or the numbers that he puts up or the numbers that get put up against him aren't as majorly of uh, they're not as of a concern, right? Now, you take that with a grain of salt because there are times where you have to look at, okay, well, what happened against him in that start? Oh, he gave up 10 hits. Well, why? Okay, yeah, he was leaving just a heater over the plate too much there. He's becoming predictable, whatever. It's those things can be worrisome there. But spring training, sometimes you're gonna work through an inning where you're only gonna throw two pitches, or you're only gonna throw three pitches, and you're gonna work through just those three pitches to try and get them in sequence. You're not gonna throw in whatever pitch, maybe it's a changeup or whatever it is. You're gonna stay away from that. That's feeling good. I'm gonna work through my curveball right now, work through this. So you have a lot of different areas where you're working through. So that's where you have to take what happens in spring training with a grain of salt there, especially on the pitching side of it. So, Chad Patrick, I'm not worried about that. I think Chad Patrick's a darn good pitcher. A lot of people question though, going into it, was Mizorowski the right guy for opening day? That was a question that I got. Did you did you like the Mizorowski opening day decision by the Brewers? Yeah, I I don't know who I said Chad Patrick would have been my uh my other option. You know, we talked about it a few weeks ago, and we said if you were to guess today, who would you have as the Brewers opening day starter? You had no Gwynn Priester and question marks with Brandon Woodruff, as we know he's gonna be a starter to start the year here, but he's not gonna be ready to go for opening day. So the question was, who would you have? And basically the only two options that you could really say were Chad Patrick or Mizorowski. And I said you could have Chad Patrick in there, but Mizorowski, I feel like is the best option. You have opening day, he's got the electric arm, and I think Mizorowski, as he gets he gets a lot of hate, he gets a lot of hate out there. A lot of opposing fans don't like the uh the antics, the weird stuff, right? The weird stuff. The Cub fans get all fired up about that. I don't know why. I mean, he's he's just he's a I don't want to say weird, but he's weird, right? He's weird, and that's okay. He's weird good, like good weird. I don't know. There's a good weird, he's a good weird, and it's okay that way. Ms. Rowski, though, he's got the fire in his arm, he's got good breaking stuff. I think he's the right decision for opening day. He's gonna bring the electricity to American Family Field there to open up the year. That's all you want. That's all you want. And honestly, like I said, who is going to be your next best next best option? Most likely Chad Patrick. I don't know if I'm throwing Sprout out there on opening day. I don't know if I'm throwing Harrison out there on opening day. I think Mizorowski was the right choice. I do. I I don't think I don't think there's much worry in there for me. So, yeah, Mizorowski opening day. Chat Patrick game two there. The question that I had next was. How concerned are you about this young rotation with no Freddy but tons of young arms across the board? That was a big question. I I kind of touched into it before there. I really like the young arms that the Brewers have. I really, really like the young arms that this Brewers team has. Going off of just what just what we're going to see in the opening day rotation, you look at them and you have Sprout, Harrison. But then outside of those guys, outside of those two that are going to be in there to side, and technically you could count Chad Patrick, Chad Patrick in there, and you could also throw in Mizorowski into that young arm race. The only real veteran arm that you have in your rotation is Brandon Woodrow. So now you do, without Freddie, you have a young, really young staff going into this season. And I really like it. I really like it. The Brewers have made a living off of young guys. They've made a living off of having young guys in there who just have a different kind of motor and a different kind of drive to them and a constant need to prove themselves, right? And I think that's what makes them so good. When you look at Sal Freelick and you look at like a Jackson Churio or a Bryce Terrang, those guys constantly needing to prove themselves, week after week, game after game. That I think is what makes the difference and why the Brewers are so successful is the young guys and the young guys' drive to just be scrappy, be the best, and try to get to that point there. I really do. And looking at this young rotation, I think that's exactly what you see. Brandon Sprout in there with rotation now, he's fantastic. This guy right here in Brandon Sprout, the strikeout, I don't want to give away my bold predictions right now. I don't want to give away them all. But I think Brandon Sprout is due for a fantastic year for the Brewers right now. He has a fantastic breaking ball that nearly, nearly unhittable, nearly unhittable for Brandon Sprout. Kyle Harrison, both of them, electric arms. Kyle Harrison has been fantastic there, the lefty. I think he's just gonna be nothing but great, especially as a forward in the rotation right now. I think he's gonna be nothing but great. Robert Grat, uh Robert Gasser brings a little bit of an element to that left-sided uh left-sided arm there. And then Logan Henderson. You still have him in the full. Logan Henderson has been fantastic for you in the past. He's dealt with some injuries. Now he's trying to ramp himself back up. I see him being a big part of the rotation. Then you add and Shane Duran on top of that there. I have confidence that this young rotation right now, under this pitching coaching staff that they have, they're gonna be able to figure them out. They'll be fine. And you have a steady arm in there in Brandon Woodruff. And I think that's the key. And we talked about Brandon Woodruff a little bit there earlier and what Brandon Woodruff could bring to this team. I think he brings that leadership aspect where he's gonna be able to work with some of these young guys, be able to help them, be able to coach them through those tough moments, those tough games. Right? It's gonna be a it's going to be a learn by learn by failure. And that's okay. That's this team. That's this team for the Brewers. This this rotation now is just a next step into what this, what makes the Brewers great. And that is being able to bring in young talents, being able to utilize young talents, and being able to put them on the front line and them being able to figure it out. That's what they do consistently, and it works. And it's been working. And I think it's gonna work again with this rotation. They have a lot of good arms in here, a lot of velocity in here. I think they're gonna be good. I have a lot, I'm not, I'm not concerned at all. I really liked, and I'll say it again. I really liked Freddie Peralta. But with Freddie Peralta, he was never an ace. And he was never meant to be an ace. Freddie Peralta's biggest problem is he he just couldn't go deep into games, which taxed your bullpen. These guys here, they have a strong strikeout rate and a strong control of the strike zone. They're gonna be able to work you a little bit later into games, which is gonna save that bullpen, which you need. You had some of your guys last year who were pitching some of the most innings that they've seen in a very long time. Between Jared Kaney, Abner Yerebe, Trevor McGill. You were seeing guys, Nick Mears. I mean, it was Nick Mears with warming up when the game started because they just knew they were gonna use him that day. There were so many guys in that bullpen who were overused because of lack of depth in games that these starters could go. And I think that was a big problem that the Brewers had last season. And I think now with this young with this young staff here, I think they all have good command of the strike zone. And I think that's gonna be a huge plus for this team. So I am not concerned at all about the rotation heading into this season here. The biggest question, I guess, that I have, and this is an interesting question, is who's gonna be the closer? Who's gonna be the closer for this team? There's uh a couple different options, right? Between Amner Yribe and Trevor McGill. I know I've seen some people talking about Zerpa because what they saw in the World Baseball Classic. I think Zerpa's gonna be a fantastic reliever for the Brewers. I there was another question that was asked about Zerpa coming in, and that was um how long does it take for Zerpa to make for Zerpa to make the Isaac Collins trade worth it? I think he I think he has, and I think he will. I think he will. It's gonna be quick for Zerpa in this one. Zerpa was fantastic. I thought he was fantastic in spring. He showed a lot of great stuff there. I think Zerpa's got an electric arm. I think he's gonna be great for this team. I think the question mark you're gonna have, I think he's good, he's gonna be in that seventh inning role, I would say. I think that's going to allow him and Jared Canning to kind of work together in there. I know both lefties, but I think I could see him and Jared Canning kind of working together in that middle ground there. I think you keep Admiral Rebe as your setup man, and then Trevor McGill stays as a close. You have a reliable setup man that could be a closer then, which works good. I think that works good is having a two-headed monster. You remember back to 2018 when they had the three-headed monster, right? You had Corey Canable, you had Josh Hader, you had Jeremy Jeffers. You had the ability of three guys who could shut down games for you. Now you have the ability for two guys at least to be able to shut down games for you. And I think that's a huge thing to have, is that even if, say you're playing, you have a stretch of 11 games or something like that, and McGill's throwing in nine of them because you just keep winning, you have the ability now where you don't have to give, you don't have to have McGill close down every game. You have the ability that Abner could go out there, or you have the ability that maybe you could throw a Zerpa out there to try and shut down a game. I like having that versatility of having multiple guys that you feel comfortable with being able to close down games. But if you were to ask me right now, I would say it's gonna go Yuribe to McGill there at the back end of that bullpen there. So that's where I'm kind of at with that. The rotation, I feel good about the rotation. Young guys galore, I agree. It adds a little bit more nerve, right? It adds more question mark into it. But I think with the talent that they have in these young guys between Sprout and Harrison, I love it. I think they're gonna be okay in there. Brandon Woodruff at the back end there, I think he has a steady hand. He's gonna be the reliable guy at the back end, but he's gonna be able to help these young guys navigate a major league baseball season. And then top half there, Mizorowski and Chad Patrick, both those guys a couple years in, a year in. Those guys, those guys are solid arms. Year in. Yeah, year into their uh MLB careers there. And both of them, I think both of them are gonna be solid at the top half there. Mizorowski with the electric arm, Chad Patrick has got some good breaking stuff there to go along with it. So I think both those guys will be great there at the top. So when we wrap up our number, we're gonna come back, wrap up hour number one. I'm gonna make sure that I hit all the brewer questions, or well, at least I should say, the pitching questions that we had. And then when we come back for hour number two, Kyle's gonna be here. We're gonna talk some American League baseball, and then Aaron's gonna stop by. We have National League Baseball to talk with uh Aaron there. We have a boatload of baseball yet to get to today here on the show. We'll be right back here for wrapping up hour number one. We'll be right back here. I was got the end of Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we're coming back in here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment of the show here is brought to you by Casa M Spice Company. Are you craving bold gourmet flavor without those MSGs, fillers, or excess salts? Meet Casa M Spice Company, the award-winning spice blend. Born in Texas, this stuff is fantastic. You can put it on anything. I'm telling you, I put it on my breakfast, my eggs there, fantastic. Put it on the ribs, fork butt. Anytime the Trager comes out of the garage, I am taking the Cassam Spice out there with whatever I have: burgers, brats, steaks, anything. Cassam spice will flavor it up there. So we have a lot to get into with brewer talk here tonight on the show. And right where I want to start is just kind of talking about the bats for this team, talking about the offense, what we're gonna see this year for this Milwaukee Brewer team. And one question I got, and I just want to hit this right off top because I just want to just get it out of the way. Was and I got a there's a lot of fan questions that came in. A lot of fans of the show here, and then across social media, I got a lot of questions there. If you want to be involved in the show, make sure you do it. 715-990-4914. This is 715-990-4914. So I'm just gonna go through all these questions and I'm gonna see if I have any time left for what anything else to talk about here tonight on the show. But there was a question that came across, and that was when could we see some of the Brewers' top prospects up at the big league level? And I think that has a lot to do with like a Jesus Made, uh, Luis Pina, Lara's in that conversation, Andrew Fisher. I would also throw in that conversation with it right now. When do you expect to see them at the big league level? I don't expect to see like a Made. I don't know. Fisher, I think Fisher actually is going to make it the hardest decision for the Brewers not to bring him up because of how good he's been. I mean, we watched him in that spring training game take Miss Mason Miller and just shoot one against him into a gap. Like on a lot 102 mile per hour fastball and just took it and just sent it. And you don't see that a lot out of really young guys, out of out of prospects coming up. There is, I mean, I'm not saying it's you know, just whoa, it's never happened before. Like you do see it, but just the confidence, the the uh what he shows when he's in the in the box there, watching him play in the world baseball classic there, and just seeing him. He's he's dancing, he's singing, going up to the plate. Like this guy's he's got a different kind of fire to him. He's got a different kind of edge to him. And it's gonna be really hard for the Brewers to keep him down for a very long time, especially with how good that bat is. But I think it's going to be, I don't think you'll see him this season, unless if you have a lot of injury, then you could potentially see him. I think Made, I don't, I don't expect to see him anytime soon here. I think it's gonna be a little bit before you see some of the top bats there in the for the prospects going up, but never say never. I I'll never say never. We could potentially see some of these guys at some points here, but I just don't foresee it anytime soon. So that's just where I wanted to start with this one today. But a big question, this has got to be one of the bigger questions that I think people had was when the Brewers kind of announced what you know the what the roster was gonna look like there, what the active roster is, and who they have traveling, who made the team, who didn't make the team. I think one of the biggest questions that was asked was because I said it a little while back there. I said I did not see Blake Perkins not making the roster. I thought, I really did. I thought there was no doubt. I thought there was no doubt he'd make it because he's your defensive substitution. You weren't expecting him to be an everyday guy. He was just gonna be that defensive substitution. You were just gonna bring him in when he needed him, kind of thing, late in the game, whatever. Didn't end up that way. And I said weeks ago, I said Brandon Lockridge was going to make it a tough decision for the Brewers to make in that outfield. And he did. Brandon Lockridge in this spring has been nothing short of fantastic. And looking at what he did down there, he had 318 in 16 games, he had 14 hits, he had four home runs to go along with it, 11 RBIs. He was fantastic down there in spring. And he showed a lot of promise for what you could get out of him. And we know that he's got a lot defensively. So Brandon Lockeridge, I said weeks ago, was going to make it tough. I thought, honestly, he was going to make it tough for Garrett Mitchell because Garrett Mitchell has still struggled with the swing and miss. He is still having he still has an issue with his chase and his bat to ball, right? It's simple, right? It seems simple, right? It seems so simple, but it's not. It really isn't, right? Hitting a major league pitch is nothing but simple. But I said Garrett Mitchell, maybe starting him down in the minors wasn't a bad idea. He has options. I believe he still has options. So starting him down in the minors was not going to be a bad idea. Just because you can get him consistent work, he could work through some of the kinks, and then hopefully at some point you feel comfortable, you bring him up. I thought that was going to be a good solution to the problem. They just surprised me and said, no, that's okay. We're just going to send Blake Perkins. I did not expect that. So maybe I'm in the minority of that one there. I think Brandon Lockeridge is the right choice. I think he's the I think Brandon Lockridge deserved to make the opening day roster. I really do. I just was surprised that it was at the expense of Blake Perkins. I didn't think they'd do that. So you see that outfield now, you look at it, who's going to be your guys, right? Who's going to be the guys out there in the outfield? This is where I think it's going to get interesting. You're for sure Sal Freelick in right field, right? I don't know for a hundred, I don't know a hundred percent if Garrett Mitchell or Brandon Lockeridge are for sure the center fielders. Just because of Jake Bowers. And trying to keep Jake Bowers out of the lineup is going to be impossible. Because Jake Bowers has been, if you want to talk about guys who've been fantastic here to start this spring training, to start the year, if Jake Bowers continues on this touring stretch that he's on right now, I could see Jake Bowers forcing the hand to have to have him because you want to have Andrew Vaughn in the lineup. And then if Jake Bowers is in, you want to find a spot for him. Christian Yelich currently occupies the DH spot. So that's a tough call, right? You're not going to sit Yelich. So does Yelich go out to left field? I don't hate the idea of Yelich in left field. I think honestly, maybe having Yelich play the field a little bit is an okay thing. They said that he's feeling great, and that's why they we've seen a little bit more of him in these exhibition games and in spring playing in the outfield there. But I also see it as keeping a guy in tune to the game because sometimes being that DH, you have four at bats a game. You're only really involved in the game in quotations for four at bats. Outside of that, you're just sitting in the dugout hanging out, not really doing anything, getting cold. If you're out there in the field a little bit there, you're chasing fly balls, whatever it is, you're getting some of that. You're getting that rep, you're getting that gameplay, and you're in the game. You're staying in the game. Maybe that helps them at the plate. So I wouldn't hate if that's the case. I wouldn't hate seeing Yelich on the outfield a little bit there. But if you do keep Yelich at the DH spot, you could see Jake Bowers maybe play left field, and then he slide Jackson Churio over to center. I know defensively a lot of people would rather see Lockridge or Garrett Mitchell out there in center, but I think Jackson Churio can lock it down. I think he gives you your best offensive outfield there is if you have Yelich or Jake Bowers in left, and then you potentially see one of that. Now I'm not saying, I'm not saying opening day, that's the way that I'm rolling it, right? I'm not saying that you don't start Garrett Mitchell in center or start Brandon Lockridge in center. I'm not saying that you don't start one of them out there to begin with. But if they start to get a little cold at the plate or they're not feeling it offensively, they're just not there, and Jake Bowers is hitting for you, or Yelich is hitting, and you want to see Jake Bowers, that could be a potential way that they kind of shake it a little bit. Now, is Bowers an everyday guy out there? No. But I think it's a possibility that you could see them maybe put Yelich out there every day or flip-flop those two around to try to give you your best offensive grouping that you can have. I saw Brandon Lockridge taking reps over at first base the other day, too. So I don't know what's up with that. I why you need another first baseman? I don't know. Maybe just have that backup in case Jake Bowers is in the outfield. I have no idea. I have no idea why you would work that like that. But that's what just a video that I saw the other day was Brandon Lockeridge taking some reps at first base. So another, another versatile guy that the Brewers have in that lineup. But that's kind of it was a surprise, I guess, that Blake Perkins didn't make the roster. But at the same time, it's hard to keep a healthy Garrett Mitchell out of the big league roster. And it's also hard to keep Brandon Lockeridge out at this point here because he's been fantastic. So that's why I kind of think it worked out that way for the Brewers this season here. Outside of that, there was another question that came how much confidence do I have in Joy Ortiz going into this season? Joy Ortiz has looked looked better in spring. I mean, if you take stock in the spring training stats and what his bats look like down there, he's putting some good, some good swings on the baseball down there. He's still got a couple strikeouts to go along with it right now. I mean, that's gonna happen, right? You're gonna strike out here. But all in all, from what I've seen out of spring right now, I have some confidence. I have some confidence that Joy Ortiz is gonna be able to figure it out. I do. I think he's going to, I think he's gonna be a solid bat. I don't think you can ever expect Joy Ortiz to be a 270 hitter. I don't think he's gonna be a 270 hitter. I just don't see that at all. Realistically, I could see him probably he's a 250. He's a 250 guy. That's where I think you expect Joy Ortiz to be. And if he can get you 250, I think you live with that. I really do. I think you live with that. So that's kind of where I'm sitting with Joey Ortiz at this very moment. Not a not a huge bat in your lineup. He's a nine-hole hitter, and that's okay. That's okay. You gotta have nine-hole hitter. That's gonna be your Joey Ortiz on this season. Do the Brewers, and this was a question I got with about Bryce Tarang. Do the Brewers get a Bryce Tarang uh contract done anytime soon? I don't think so. I I don't. I I'm losing confidence day by day. Do I hope they do? Yes, but I think they have to pretty darn soon. I do, because I think Bryce Tarang, I had a question that I was gonna ask if I got to it. Is Bryce Tarang or should he be considered an all our superstar? And I think he should be considered a superstar because he is the second best, if not the best, uh second baseman in the National League, behind or ahead of Catel Marte. So if you ask me, yes, he's a superstar already, and I think he's on pace for a fantastic year. If he has another fantastic year and has the glove to go along with it, the price tag is only getting higher. And I don't know, does he take a does he take a discount for the Brewers? I don't know. There's a lot of money out there to be had. Here's the thing. We're heading into 2027, which a lot of people expect to see the shutdown. They expect to see a salary cap implemented in some way, shape, or form. So do I potentially see Bryce to the Brewers waiting and seeing what happens with that? Yes, I do. Because I think that's going to settle a lot of things, and I think that would help in their contract negotiations with Bryce Turangue. So I think they're gonna wait. I don't think I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon. Do I want it to happen pretty darn soon? Yes. I think it need I think it needs to happen because if they can lock up Bryce Turang long-term deal, right now you look at who the Brewers have on their roster and you say, who are your who are your guys who are superstars? Who are your guys who have potential to be superstars and superstar for a long time? Bryce Turang's up there, Jackson Churio's up there. Like those are your two guys where you're like, those guys are cornerstone pieces that you can build around in this lineup. And that's where I think you have to keep a guy like Bryce Tarang around as long as you can. Right now he's you got him for a couple years, yeah. 2030, I think he'd be out the door. 2029, 2030 in there somewhere, I believe if I'm not mistaken. So you have some years left on Bryce Tarang, but don't quote me on that. I have I don't have it up in front of me right now. I thought it was like 2029, 2023, 2029, 2030 was somewhere in there with Bryce Tarang's contract being up. But I think the Brewers will get something worked out. I think they're working, I think they're gonna wait until after everything goes through at this shutdown. If a cap gets put in, if a floor gets put in, what all what happens? I think they're gonna wait for that and then kind of go from there with Bryce Tarang to see what kind of happens there. I think that's a big thing they're waiting for. Um, another question I had, and I like I said, I'm just going through all the questions that were sent in from people out there, just listeners to the show and stuff like that. Was it was Andrew Vaughn's second half of 2025 a fluke? Can he be a productive piece all of 2026? Yeah, I do. I think when he came to Milwaukee, I think it was you hear it all the time, guys getting fresh starts and how that benefits them and getting into a different environment and being able to work through some of their kinks and stuff like that in their swing and just being able to reset. And I think he needed that hard reset when he came over from the White Sox. I think with the White Sox, there was when he played for the White Sox, it's kind of a drag every single day. You're on a losing team, you just don't know you don't know how to get take that next step and how to what you need to do to get over that hump and to find yourself again. And coming to a winning situation in Milwaukee with a winning clubhouse and guys around him to kind of help him, to motivate him, to make him want to come to the ballpark every single day, work on his craft, find his swing again, find his confidence because hitting is a there's a lot of mental side to hitting. And when you get into that slump, having the right guys around you and the right, I mean manager in Pat Murphy to be able to help you get out of that slump is a huge thing. So I think him coming to Milwaukee, coming to that kind of organization right there, being able to just breathe for a second there. He's on a winning club now. He can relax, he's got a lot. Good guys around him, a lot of good players around him. I think that's a big thing. You don't have that huge pressure to produce. And he just did. And he just started hitting. And I think that's kind of where he's going to stay right now as he's found the confidence in his bat again. He's always had a good bat. That's just he lost that edge. He lost that confidence in it. I think he got that back in Milwaukee. So I think Vaughn will be a productive piece. I don't know if he goes on a torrent stretch like he did last season there to end the year. I don't know if that's quite the case, but I think he's going to have a big solid year for the Brewers. I do. I think he's going to have a solid year. I think the power numbers are going to be there for him. I think he's going to be in that 20 range. I do. I think he'll be in that 20 range for home runs. Average-wise, 260. 260 would be solid for me, if you ask me with Andrew Vaughn. If he's above that, fantastic. Like he'll take that AD in the week. I think he's going to be a great piece for the Brewers this year. I think, and this is a question that I had what does a healthy Mitchell mean for the Brewers? I think it's key for the Brewers. I think it's a key for the Brewers this season. If you can keep Garrett Mitchell healthy, if he stays healthy for an entire season for the Milwaukee Brewers and he finds that back, Garrett Mitchell has all the tools in the world. All the tools. Speed, power. Speed, power. He's got the ability to leg him out. He's got uh everything that you could want in that. And then you look at the glove. He's got a great glove out there. So when I look at Garrett Mitchell, I think he's got all the tools. All the tools to be really good. The thing that gets him is the discipline at the plate and the swing and miss. That's what's gonna get him. So now it's about how do the Brewers figure out Garrett Mitchell and how do they find a way to work with that bat, work with him a little bit, and find that consistency at the play. I think that's the big thing to watch for with Garrett Mitchell. But if he can find it at the play, if he can find it, if he can if he can stay out of trouble in there, right? Avoid, avoid swinging at bad pitches, try to find that plate discipline that we know he has in there. I think Garrett Mitchell could be a key piece to the Brewers, something that's missing right now. Another, another big bat. Because he does have the ability to hit you 15-20 home runs. He's got that ability, he's got some pop in that bat. If you can keep him healthy and you can find that discipline at the plate, I like the odds of Garrett Mitchell. I do. So I think Garrett Mitchell could be a key piece to the Brewers this season, something that they've been missing for a little while now. Let's see here. Going through the questions that I was sent in. Um, did the Brewers make enough moves to keep pace with the uh Cubs this season? Did they make enough moves? I think they made some underrated moves. I do. I think they made some underrated moves that not enough people are talking about. Talking about like a guy like David Hamilton, what we've seen out of him from spring. I know he's not a household name. I know when you hear David Hamilton, everybody doesn't just their ears don't perk up and they're like, whoa, David Hamilton, the brewer's got him. But David Hamilton, you know, Pat Murphy talked about him a little bit, said, you know, could he be, could he be a guy that or Pat Murphy came out and said that he's going to be one of them candidates to have a breakout year. And I could see it just watching him down there in spring, the exit velocity that he's had, and just his ability to put the ball in play, do the little things. I think David Hamilton could be a big piece, a a very under-the-radar move that the Brewers had. Luis Ranhefo, if all goes right, yeah. That's if all goes right. I think Luis Ranhefo is going to be a solid ad, but I really do think David Hamilton's a very underrated guy. And then just looking in the bullpen and the starting rotation, what they did this offseason, getting Brandon Sprout, getting Harrison in there, and then also adding a guy just a couple days ago in Jake Woodford there uh from the, I believe he came over for the raise there in a trade. So getting Jake Woodford in there, I think that's gonna be a solid add to that bullpen depth, getting another righty down there. They had a lot of lefties, getting another righty down there in the bullpen. You have a lot of weapons on this team. A lot of weapons in this uh rotation and bullpen right now, a lot of electric arms. And I think those are very underrated moves. They aren't the big flashy moves like the Alex Bregman coming over, right? They didn't make those or the Edward Cabrera coming over from the Marlins. They didn't make any flashy moves, but they made solid moves, solid depth piece moves. And I think adding them to the already stars that they have in this lineup, I think it's I think I think they made enough moves. I do. I think they made enough moves to keep pace with the Cubs. I just think they're very underrated moves that nobody's gonna talk about until they work out. So that's kind of where I'm at with that one there. Um, let's see here. Will this team need to rely more heavily on offense over pitching? No, I think the pitching staff's gonna be better than what people think. I do. I think the pitching staff's gonna be better than what people think. I think they see the young guys in there, they see the rookies, and they say, uh, it's not gonna work out, right? It's not gonna work out. It's not gonna work out. I see, I really do. I see this pitching staff being way better than what people are saying. Way better than what people are saying. So I'm gonna stick there. I'm gonna stick there. I think it's gonna be an even, like like they've been in the past. I think it's gonna be a little bit of an even amount there. They're gonna rely on that pitching to keep them in games, and then they're gonna they're gonna rely on the offense, of course, to put up a couple runs here to, you know, score, like got score, right? That's the way you win games. But I think the Brewers, I think honestly, it's gonna be even. I do. I think the pitching staff's gonna be solid at the end of the day. Um, let's see here. Man, a lot of questions. A lot of questions get to. I don't even know if I have enough time to get to all of them here. Could Jake Bowers, who is swinging a hot bat, see time in the outfield to get him and Vaughn both in? Yes. Yeah. I already technically answered that question before there, you know, talking about the outfield and where we could see everybody kind of fixing in. I could see Jake Bowers definitely getting some outfield time there, just the way he's been swinging the bat, to try and keep his bat in the lineup along with Andrew. The Brewers, I think, are gonna do a lot of those weird things this season to try and get the hot bats in there and try to keep offense on the field. I think Jake Bowers plays a fine outfield. Is he a natural outfielder? No, but I think he plays a fine outfield that you can stick him out there every once in a while to try and keep that bat in there. So I can definitely see it. I know last season they were working with Andrew Vaughn trying to put him in different places around the infield, too. So maybe we can see them. We've seen crazy things. That's all I'm gonna say. We've seen crazy things. So definitely keep an eye on all those right there. Let's see here. Any last ones I want to hit here before we hit a break? Um, let's see here. I'll hit these when I come back. So we're gonna hit a break. We're gonna come back and I'm gonna wrap up our number one, finish up these couple questions I got here, wrap up our number one, and then we'll look ahead hour number two here. We got a lot more coming at you. We'll be right back here. I was skipping. I'm your host, Trage, as we're coming back in here on this Wednesday. And hey, I know, I know back-to-back segments there. I had the same ad read, and I am sorry. There was a mix-up. I I got confused. I was rolling along. I have written down and I read the same one twice there. So you got to learn about Cossam Spice twice there. So there you go. But this next segment, we're gonna wrap up our number one. Look at our number two. This next segment is uh brought to you by Chili Implement. Tackle your toughest jobs on the farm or in your yard with equipment from Chili Implement. Visit Chili Implement and find what you need today. And also Jeff Holtouse with State Farm Insurance there. For your home, for your home, farm, auto, and renters, and life insurance. Contact Jeff Altouse with State Farm Insurance. There we go. I fixed it. I fixed it right there. I got both of them in there. Again, sorry. I get I get scatterbrained. You guys know I get scatterbrained. I get all over the place, and I just I didn't say Mad Reed twice, and I was just confused. So, anyways, wrapping up the brewer conversation for our number one here. Great, great, I great questions from everybody out there. I just wanted to thank everybody who sent questions in. If I didn't get to all of your questions, I'm sorry. I I got a time limit. The radio they yell at me when I get over two hours. Hopefully they're not listening to this because they they always are very, very lenient on when I get over the two-hour mark here with my quota. And uh they put me on a limit. So I don't know. I hopefully, hopefully, we can get more time here. And I I can I'll vouch for it. I'll vouch for getting more time so I can get to all your questions next time. But if I missed any of them, hit me up again. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. Shoot me your questions. I'll get to them. If I don't get it to them today, we'll get to them Saturday here on the show. We'll continue this brewer talk over. We got a long season ahead, so we got lots of time to talk about all these brewer questions there. But when we come back from the break, we're gonna hit a break. We're gonna come back here. Kyle's gonna stop by. We're gonna do our American League. We're gonna go through the coda standings for the American League, National League. Kyle's gonna stop by. We're gonna do the American League, talk about teams over there a little bit, Dark Horse teams, and then look over at the NL with Aaron. We got a lot of brewer talk yet to get to today here on the show. Tons of stuff to get to. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the Gold Tranch.