I Love Mondays with Mike Heller
Mike Heller is back talking all things sports and all things Packers, Brewers, Bucks, Badgers and beyond.
I Love Mondays with Mike Heller
I Love Mondays-Ep50, May 8, 2026
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Mike lays the groundwork for why the Packers will win the NFC North. Brewers Radio Network's Lane Grindle on why the Brewers are ready for the tough schedule in front of them-beginning with the Yankees tonight. Also...his LOVE ob Banana Cream Pie. Plus tasting www.HardTruth.com Double Oaked Bourbon.
Mondays.
SPEAKER_01This is I Love Mondays with Mike Heller, powered by determination and a little bit of duct tape. Here's your host, Mike Heller.
SPEAKER_00So we are live now. I am uh I get so excited for Fridays, A, because like look at this. You I don't know, you can't read that, but I got this uh from my buddy Barry um from The Hard Truth. The Hard Truth is a distillery, uh bourbon maker in southern Indiana, Nashville, Indiana. And uh it's a bourbon Friday on this show. So at the end of the show, I'm gonna taste this. I'm gonna pour it in a nice little tasting glass, and I'm gonna taste this double-oaked, hard truth, sweet mash bourbon that I'm really looking forward to. So I believe next Friday, Joe Jr. from uh J. Henry and Sons is gonna jump back in the fray with me, and I always look forward to that. Here's what I'm really excited about, uh, and I'm gonna tell this directly to Mike. Uh, good morning, Mike. Um, happy Friday, everyone. Happy bourbon Friday on this show. So here's here's what I'm really excited about today. Lane Grendel's gonna join us about 10, 15, 10, 20. I'm always excited about that. Um I get to tell you today why the Packers win the NFC North. So I'm kind of fired up about this because I'm gonna get after Bears fans and Cubs fans. So, hey, Killibrew, listen in. Uh he took after me for me explaining that up until the home run two nights ago, that Pete Crow Armstrong has sucked this year. Suck is a direct correlation to what the expectation is. Pete Crow Armstrong, if you ask a Cubs fan, oh, he's an MVP candidate. He's one of the best players in a league. He's gonna, you know, he's gonna be, he's our guy. So Pete Crow Armstrong, and I've talked about this week, the major league average for on base percentage is 320. PCA's at uh below that, what is he through? I I sent this to Killer Brew because he was calling me out before I began the show. Uh his on-based percentage is 316, average is 320. If you've got an MVP candidate that's below average on the league-wide level, he's sucking in comparison to what his expectation is. His OPS, the league average OPS is 715. That's the average. Not, hey, this is the good line. It's the average line of 715. PCA is at a lovely 706, and that's with a home run two days ago, which directly impacts, raises your OPS prior to that. It was below 700. He struck out 41 times. So don't get after me and and get after me telling you that PCA has sucked, because if you're a Cub fan, you believe the same thing. And I'm not talking about his defense. He is a very athletic center fielder and he plays good defense. So I'm not talking about defense. I'm talking about what you guys expected from him was greatness. And he hasn't delivered that. So there, sucked. He's sucking by comparison to what your expectation is of Pete Crow Armstrong. I don't have much to pick on with the Cubs, but if you come back at me because I said that PCA has sucked prior to me talking about him hitting the home run the other night to tie it in the bottom of the ninth, he had sucked. And his overall season numbers are below average in the league on a player that you think is an MVP candidate. So I don't have a whole lot to get after on the Cubs, but that's one of them. If you're going to jump back at me for being honest about PCA, I'm going to jump back at you and do it with numbers. And the Cubs don't suck at all. They're the best team in Major League Baseball. They have the same record as the Yankees, tied for the best overall record in Major League Baseball. Period. That means that they're a really good team playing great. That's who the Cubs are right now. A really good team playing at a great level. So, Killibrew, I can give the credit, but don't come back at me if I say the PCA has sucked and you want me to do a Mia Culpa on that. He has. Tell me where I'm wrong on that front. All right, part number two. I I was looking into, as we do it this time of year, you talk about lists and thinking of who's gonna win the NFC North this fall. So I oversimplified the concept of it. So I go to the backside. We double side print here in the Heller household. Carry switched the printer uh to double side print. So do you double side print on your home printer? It's your paper. Um the last 15 years, let me give you a little background. Last 15 years, NFC North. Packers have won it eight times, Vikings three times, Lions two times, Bears twice, including last season. 2025, Bears 11 and 6, Packers 9, 7 and 1, Vikings and Lions both at 9 and 8. Pottawatomi odds, you know, they're one of our sponsors where you can bet above the rest. Pottawatomi Sportsbook and Casino. The odds on winning the division, futures bet lines. Detroit is plus 160. So put 100, win 160. The Packers are plus 215. So they're the next shortest odds, best odds to win the division. The Bears are plus 320. That means the casino, the sports book, believes that the Bears are $100 more of a long shot to win the division than the Packers, and Minnesota's at plus 550. So then I took two other steps. Oh, that's just the casino and the odds. So I took two other steps. Let me let me get to the good mornings. I don't want to miss out on the good mornings. Um Mark says School of Rock All-Stars perform Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter group. Okay. What? Um Mark, you yeah. Sorry I'm uh late a bit of Edgar Winter. Don't understand it. Sorry. Uh yeah, that's better. Good morning, all go badger softball. They're in the uh Big Ten semifinal round after their first win over a ranked team since 2023 or 2024 when they beat Oregon, 11th ranked Oregon yesterday. Um Mike says uh currently baseball fingers crossed. I don't know what that means. So I got a couple that I'm not understanding, but that's okay. Uh sometimes a little a little slow on the uptake here. Uh the uh next point on who wins the division. Now I went quarterback and coach. Both subjective, but from a quarterback, quarterback rating a year ago. I would rate the quarterbacks in this order, and it also coincides with the rating of a year ago. In the division, I would rate the quarterbacks one through four as Jared Goff, Jordan Love, Caleb Williams, and then Kyler Murray. One through four. So it gives you a better indication. Who do you think is going to win the division? Uh go with the better quarterback, Jared Goff and Detroit. Now, Detroit's got other question marks, but I wouldn't be surprised if Detroit returned to a fight for the top of the division. I don't know if they can win it, but we'll we'll see. I also like their coach, although the riverboat side of him bugs me from time to time. It would bug me even more if I were a Lions fan than it does on the outside looking in. But let me add another layer to that. Bears fans are, you know, pulling over to the side of the road if they're listening, you know, on their device live and driving. They're pulling over to the side so they can um YouTube message into the show. How is Caleb Williams the third best quarterback in the NFC North? He's been the best quarterback at crunch time when it matters. Game on the line, highlight type plays, he's number one. But his quarterback rating a year ago, which measures the whole game, which is kind of what what it's all about. But yeah, at the crunch moment, who do I want? If the game hangs in a balance, uh I do, you know, I'm be honest about this. I do and have seen what he can do in that moment. And he's the most dynamic quarterback. If you had a fourth and 11 and the game and the season hangs in a balance, I probably want him at that position because you you gotta make something happen and he can do it. But his quarterback rating, which measures the entire game, which I think is important, as I mentioned, he was 90.1 a year ago. Now there was a learning curve with he and Ben Johnson that got better as the season went on, but he's still, you can't deny what the overall numbers are. Sorry, I'm gonna move this microphone back, making noise on me. Um, you can't deny the overall numbers. They are 90.1. That's his quarterback rating, I think the best measure of the overall statistic of a quarterback. Number one in the division a year ago, Jared Goff, 105.5. I think he was the second best quarterback rating in the NFL on a team wasn't very good. So to me, he's the best quarterback in the NFC North. Jordan Love is number two, quarterback rating 101.2. Back half of the season, no tight end. Tucker Kraft, uh security blanket. The guy you go to when you don't know where else you can go, mismatch on the field. He was off the field. They didn't have an adequate tight end back half of last year. Receiving core did not have Christian Watson for the first half. So I look at Jordan Love at the 101.2, and I said off the top, my quarterback ratings in the NFC North would go Goff, Love, Williams, and whoever Minnesota puts a quarterback. And the numbers back that up. Quarterback rating, Goff 105-5, Love 101.2, Williams 11 points lower than Jordan Love. For those who want to really make the argument that Caleb Williams is better, he's not yet. He is not. And then I uh ellipse dot dot dot and say yet, because he might be. He's got the most talent of anybody playing the position in the division and maybe in the league. Athletic talent, arm talent, foot talent. Uh here, he got so much better as the season went on, and I don't know what the Ben Johnson quarterback whispering equation looks like in Chicago, but I like the combo. I don't like the Bears, but if I'm gonna if I'm going to deal it straight about that combination, it's got tremendous upside. But right now, it's third best. All right, so I make that argument. And number three, head coach. So just by their records and winning percentage, the winning percentage, Ben Johnson, it's one year, but he's 12 and 7 if you count the playoffs. That's a 632 winning percentage. Matt LaFleur, if you count the playoffs, 79, 46, and one, that's a 631 winning percentage. Over the course of time, by their ratings, best coach in the division is Matt LaFleur. Matt uh Campbell is 55-45 and one. Now keep in mind he had a terrible opening campaign, but he's got a 550 winning percentage, and Kevin O'Connell at Minnesota, 43 and 27, a 614 winning percentage. This is a damn well-coached division, the NFC North. There are really good coaches across the board. But if I'm going to oversimplify my argument as to who I think wins the division, and if I want to just take quarterback coach combo, I have a hard time not picking uh Dan Campbell. Did I say Matt? Uh he's at Penn State. If I have a hard time not picking Dan Campbell and Detroit, but I but I won't. I'll pick Green Bay. I'll take the combination of Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love. And Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams deserve attention. They deserve the conversation. I don't know how good they are overall. I know when it mattered, they were really good. At the end of games, in overtimes, Caleb Williams through the direction of their head coach, really good. Games, you can't change the outcome of games. Like I can't go back and say, you know, the Brewers would have advanced two years ago if it's not for one pitch from Devin Williams to Pete Alonzo. I can't go back and say to you, hey, the Packers take two out of three from the Bears last year and win the division if they field an onside kick by Romeo Dubbs. Now it's true, but I can't say it because it happened. They they play the entire game and then sometimes more in overtime. And all the plays count. You know, Bostick fumbling the onside kick, not handling it uh in Seattle in 2014, I think, is the most egregious play in Packers' history, but it happened. And Russell Wilson and Seattle took advantage and won, went to the Super Bowl and won. They win that year? No, I think that's the year they lost on the uh the interception of the goal line against New England. So they all count. It all matters. Um I I get I get fired up on Friday. I almost feel like I should do a Saturday show because I'm so fired up on Friday. But maybe it's because I finished the show by having some bourbon and then it's the weekend. I mean, maybe that's the entire reason for some of that. Let me thank our sponsors quick. One community bank. And I don't mean to do it quick. One community.bank is where you go to upgrade to feel good banking. OCB is proud to serve clients, support colleagues, and invest in our communities. Feel good banking member FDIC. And we're going to talk about supporting community. I'm part of the community and they're supporting this show. So I hope that when you're making your banking decisions, give a consideration with one community bank. Also presented by M3 Insurance, M3INS.com. It is leveraging digital product and program solutions to protect and serve clients across the country. And again, if you're in a position where you manage insurance for your business and employee benefits, visit m3ins.com, m3ins.com to figure out what it is they do and how they can benefit what you do in your business. We're also presented by the Neuroscience Group. We're talking about pain management here, brain, spine, and pain care. Please give a look at neurosciencegroup.com, neurosciencegroup.com, headquartered in the Fox River Valley, but well worth uh your time to see what they can do for you if you're suffering. Neurosciencegroup.com. And brought to you by Pottawatomi Sportsbook and Casino, bet above the rest. I already gave you their odds, their futures on the NFC North. And uh we'll get back to that a little bit later. And also brought to you by Habish Habish and Roads here, 13 locations to ensure you get a hometown attorney and the one who understands your life and the impacts of your injury and is personally committed to your recovery. All right. So we've got uh we got a lot, a lot of ground to cover, covering some out of the gate. And as we do that, let me bring in Lane Grindle, who is uh he's gonna be busy a little bit later on. Uh you got some work to be done. This is a series lane when the Yankees come to town and they own, they're tied for owning the best record in Major League Baseball with the Chicago Cubs. They only come in in interleague series once every other year. And for Brewers fans, the Yankees are still kind of the gold standard in Major League Baseball and in professional sports in this country. And when they come in, it's a little bit of a bigger deal.
SPEAKER_02I think absolutely. It's just it's one of those brands in sports. I mean, not just baseball, right? You think about some of the great brands in sports, and the Yankees are certainly that big fan base, big following, and big stars. I mean, Aaron Judge is uh one of the biggest stars in our game, would be the biggest star in our game in any other era, except for there's a guy named Shoyo Tani that's right there with him, so he has to share that spotlight with him a little bit. We've been blessed with some great players in this last decade or so, but um, this will be a fun series. I mean, the Brewers are gonna see some really frontline pitching in this series, too. They're gonna see Max Freed tonight. He's given up one home run all season. He's got a whip below one, which means walks and hits per innings pitch below one. That's really incredible. Uh, he's been pitching very, very well, and then Cam Schlittler is gonna go tomorrow, and uh, he's kind of taken the the world by storm since last postseason. So this will be a big challenge for the Brewers, but it was really good timing to get Jackson Churio and Andrew Khan back in advance of this series, especially because they're gonna see a couple of lefties because they're gonna see Rodan on Sunday, too.
SPEAKER_00I talk with Vinny Rettino as we do on Thursdays on the show uh about Churio, and there's just a headshake uh because there's a next level to his game, and those who have been around the game their whole life, and Vinny certainly has, you have. There is just kind of a headshake of how good he is, can be, and is uh coming off the I. L. It's it's a it's a bit incredible.
SPEAKER_02I was talking about this in our last broadcast down in St. Louis. He's one of those guys that you are constantly looking ahead in your scorebook to see when's he come up again because you just get so excited when he's coming to the plate because you don't know what he might do. He's that exciting of a player. He's a very entertaining player. He's a tremendous player numbers-wise, but I can think of great players that put up great numbers that don't like give me butterflies every time they come to the plate, like Jackson Churio does. Uh, we were trying to find like a comp, and he hasn't accomplished what this player has accomplished in his career yet, but it's kind of a Ronald Acunia-like type of excitement. Like it's that special when he is locked in like he was when he came back the other night. He is uh what he did, Mike, and you get this, it's really hard to explain how hard it is to be on time like that in a major league baseball game and have four contacts, uh, four contacts above 100 mile per hour exit below. That's getting a little analytically, maybe for some people. That's just so rare. And he made it look so easy. It it almost spoils this at times because you feel like there's nothing this kid can't do.
SPEAKER_00So, and he hadn't had anything um since uh the world baseball classic and uh a little bit before they identified that the that the hand injury was there was something that needed to be identified. And he just had a few games against AAA pitching in Nashville, and then he comes out of the gate. There's just something different about him. By the way, when you were talking about that the other night, he was due up fourth, and he didn't bat in that inning. But I can't, I can't not watch or listen in that moment as you and Josh were suggesting. You know who he reminds me of, and I'll give you a different comp. It's a little unfair to Jackson, but right now, even though it's just a couple of games back, or anytime that Jackson is playing, to me, it's like I had that feeling when Yelich was having the MVP season, and then the next year would have been an MVP if he doesn't uh blow up his knee. Like that's the comp for me. I can't not watch or listen when Churio might bat in the inning.
SPEAKER_02I get that. And I remember back to 18 and 19 when Yeli was in that just incredible groove, and it was one of those things where you were more surprised when he made an out than if he didn't have at least a double or something. Something special happened. That's how frequently he was hitting the ball hard. And even the outs he was making at that point in time. It was like lucky that the defense just had to happen to have somebody there in the shift or whatever it might have been. Like that's how incredible he was going during that stretch. And it is. It's very, very similar to that with Jackson. I mean, he had two games essentially in AAA, and he comes up and it's almost like he rolls out of bed, yawns, and just whack, whack, whack, whack, whack. Um, he's just that special. And hopefully he can he can continue to stay locked in and put up some great numbers this year. I think he's poised to take a big step forward for the Brewers this year, which is wild because he's been really good his first two years. But yeah, there's more in there for Jackson Churio. That's the exciting thing.
SPEAKER_00Lane, we don't get uh the Cubs until the 18th when we go down uh to Wrigley Field. Um I know that you're busy doing other things, so you're not watching, but you it's hard to not notice what they've been doing. It's very similar to what the Brewers did in their streaky stretches a year ago on their way to 97 wins. You start with that it's a really good team, and then when a really good team plays in a really hot run of games, they're great. And that's who the Cubs are right now. You can't help but notice what it is they've done. And looking forward in this myriad of a difficult schedule that the Brewers have in front of them, it will, you know, after the Yankees, then it's the Padres Twins, then in Chicago, then the Dodgers come and St. Louis after that. So it's uh you get a really good test of who you are right now over the next 18 to 21 days.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Brewers are gonna earn everything that they get basically in the next almost month. Uh, it'll be fun. I I think this group likes that challenge. You know, this group has been through it. Uh, they they've been through ups and downs. They've had a lot of high moments over the last couple of years. And so I don't think they really bat an eye at what is laid out in front of them over the next three weeks. And I think they're excited about that challenge to go down to Wrigley. The Cubs have won 15 in a row at Wrigley. Who knows how many in a row they may have won by the time the Brewers get there? We'll see if that that streak's still going. But you're right. I mean, the Cubs are playing great baseball. It's a very talented roster. Everybody can look at it on paper and say, hey, this is this is not the 2022 Cubs. This is this is a very complete roster, position player-wise, specifically. They play defense at an elite level, they can slug, they don't have a lot of weak spots. They've got Nico Horner hitting maybe like he's never hit in his career, and that makes a big difference for them, too. So uh they're really good. They've had some injuries in the pitching department, certainly in their bullpen. They've got Palencia back now. They've had some injuries with the starting pitching, but they've got enough there that they've been able to ride it to this great start to the year. I would just remind people they got off to a great start last year, too. And they finished fine. It wasn't like the Cubs played bad baseball last year. The Brewers just played better baseball and caught them, kind of like how it went in 2018. It's a long, long grind. The Brewers, in spite of all the injuries they've dealt with from a position player standpoint and within that lineup, they're right where they need to be right now. And hopefully now, with a little bit better health with that group, they can start to knock off a bunch of wins and make up a little bit of ground, but they got a lot of runway left to do it.
SPEAKER_00Lane, I would I would ask you if you're surprised by how good, how well the Brew have played, you know, even with all the injuries. But you've been around this and have seen it, whether it was with Craig or over the last now three into three seasons with Pat Murphy, they they haven't skipped a beat, even though they've been without significant players. I was looking at where the Brewers statistically stack up with their players with on base percentage and with OPS. And these are the guys that lead them in OPS right now. Churio, obviously, but he hasn't played but two games. Then it's Tarang, Black, who's not an everyday, was in Nashville, Sanchez, who's not an everyday, Yelich, who's on the IL, Vaughn, who hadn't been here. Then it's Bowers and Contreras. I talk about that. Those are all the guys that are above the league average in OPS. And only three of them have been essentially everyday players. They've been doing this with a little brewer smoke and mirrors of what they have done continuously, consistently over the last number of years.
SPEAKER_02Mike, if the Brewers go on and win a fourth consecutive division title, we're going to look at this stretch of baseball as one of the critical stretches because of those injuries, and because guys like Brandon Lockridge and guys like Jake Bowers stepped up in a big way and had some big swings and they were in the middle of some big rallies that helped them score. I think if you look at it on paper, they scored way more runs during the stretch than anybody would have anticipated. I know there wasn't a lot of power, but that's what the roster was at that point with these guys out. And remember, a guy like Bryce Tarrain, a guy like William Contrast, they're going to get less pitches to do damage with because of what they have around them in a lineup like this. We talk about this all the time. I used to cover college football. You covered college football for a long time, and you're still locked into the college scene, Mike. What do we talk about in college football so often, especially with an offense? Identity, right? Do you have an identity? Do you know what that formula is to win that football game on that particular Saturday? I think it's one of the most underrated. It's not an analytical thing. It's kind of this just objective thing that you that you stand, sit back, and you watch happen, but you know when a team has an identity and when they don't. It's just very obvious. The Brewers, I think more than any team in baseball, have an identity. They know how they want to play this game. And they can plug pieces in here and there, and they can be somewhat interchangeable. I'm making it sound overly simplistic. It is not as simple as it as it looks and as it sounds, but they have so many guys bought into a specific style of play that they can play that way for an extended amount of time, even if they don't have their big matchers in the middle of that lineup. And I think it's it's come to really pay off for them specifically this year because they can get production even without maybe doing it in a more traditional way.
SPEAKER_00You know, to me, it's it's really and and our two teams, uh, when you talk about college, uh Nebraska and Wisconsin have lost their identity. Oh yeah, they're trying to re-identify who they why why they were so good. And I'll bring in another college coach into the equation, Dick Bennett, the longtime Wisconsin coach, he had non-negotiables. And if I parlay that into the Brewers, to them, for me looking from the outside in, but I think you'll agree, their non-negotiables are you have to play really good defense. Yep, you have to be very smart, and we need speed on the bases because we're gonna pressure the opposition. And number three, with Chris Hook, we're gonna pitch our asses off. I mean, this team, whether it's from starters or the bullpen, they are incredibly well prepared. They find what they need to, but those three things are essentially the non-negotiables in the brewers' run of success. And power certainly helps, and they get it back with Vaughn and Churio. But the non-negotiables of defense and base running and pitching is why the Brewers have been so good for so long.
SPEAKER_02100%. Uh, there's no debating that fact. And I think there's even a few other things that maybe not non-negotiable, but but certainly like really important things that they that they value to contact, being able to put the ball in play. I mean, the brewers have been really good situationally in those types of things as well. And then just being hungry. Um, that's part of this, is why they've gotten this buy-in to play this specific way, is that they have young, hungry players and the right veteran leaders that buy into it too. And everybody just kind of falls in line behind this, and they got a manager that preaches it and they all just take it all in and roll with it. So it just really all works together at a really, really high level. But I think the hungry part is important because not just from a position player standpoint, but you talk about Chris Hook and Jim Henderson and that pitching machine that the Brewers have. A guy like Quinn Priester comes in last year. He'd been through it a little bit. He'd been the prospect, he'd maybe been considered a somewhat of a failed prospect. He'd been in a couple of different organizations, he was ready and willing to just absorb whatever they put in front of them. He was gonna trust them and let them guide him to the success that he found. He was hungry. And I think that's been the case too with a Kyle Harrison. Kind of a similar situation. He's like, hey, you tell me what to do. I'm here, I'm gonna be a sponge, and they're able to take those guys and maximize their talents because of it.
SPEAKER_00Hey, uh, you you bring up Pat Murphy. Do you get uh do you deserve a little hockey assist on the banana cream pie conversation?
SPEAKER_02No, I so I saw all of this, and and the minute I saw that he said it on uh Thursday or Wednesday, on Wednesday, I was like, oh goodness, everybody's gonna think that we were in on this together. And I spend a lot of time with Murph. I do a show every day, we spend a lot of time just in conversation. Uh he's just been phenomenal to me. I can't say enough about Murph. I consider him a friend. But we've never had the conversation about banana pudding or banana cream pie. It's my favorite pie. I love it. Yeah, I'm gonna take banana cream pie every time it's put in front of me. I had no idea he liked it. Total coincidence, and it happens within 24 hours. It was really wild.
SPEAKER_00I fully expected him to take it one step further and have uh, you know, pocket pie there. Uh he didn't, but when he went there um, you know, within a day of you talking about banana pudding and banana cream pie, I had to believe that there was a connection, and you're saying no, it was independent.
SPEAKER_02I wish I wish that I could say we were we were up to that together, but I know, and I got a lot of texts from people going, come on, you guys. I'm like, honestly, that's totally organic. Uh we still haven't talked about it. I I don't I don't think he would have no idea that I like banana cream pie if you walked up to him on the street today and asked him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, I I want to bring up Matt Erickson for a moment. Uh, because we, you know, I was there early in the season and down on the field watching the extra work that Matt Erickson puts in with their infielders, and and I think a Caleb Durbin, who a year ago, when it started, was not up to snuff as a defensive third baseman. And by the time it was done last year, he was a well above average third baseman. Give us a sense of what you see at the ballpark daily that Matt Erickson, and not just him alone, but I'll single him out of what he does uh that allows the Brewers, one of those non-negotiables defensively to be so much better.
SPEAKER_02Well, they they they they care about it. I mean, that's the the most important thing is they value it. It matters. And so uh when you get guys that understand this is going to be a point of emphasis, this is something we're gonna daily put the work in on, um, it's going to inevitably get better. But I think he is one of the most underrated parts of this coaching staff. And I think if you talk to Pat Murphy and other members of the staff, they would say the same thing that Matt Erickson is a star. I really believe it. And if you pull him to the side and just ask him questions about infield defense, you'd just be amazed. You can learn so much from Matt Erickson. And so I find time during the season to just ask kind of generic, yeah, dumb baseball dad questions because I have a son that loves the game, and I always can glean something from him that I can take and maybe apply to my son or or just relay to my son. And I love how they lean into it on a daily basis because I can take a little video from the booth and send it to my son and say, look at all these simple drills these guys are doing every day just to get their hands ready, get their eyes going, and to get themselves ready for their game on a daily basis. It's really it's pretty special. I remember a conversation he had with me last year, and it was in, I think it was in early September, we were talking about Andrew Vaughn, because I think when the Brewers acquired Andrew Vaughn, they weren't sure what he was going to be defensively at first base. And while Andrew Vaughn may not be the a gold glover at first base, he's he's I think much better than people anticipated over there defensively. And I remember Matt Erickson telling me when we first got him, I just told him, Look, I don't need you to be great, but I need you to care. And if you do that, we're gonna be okay. We're gonna make progress, we're gonna get you to where we need to get you defensively to fit in with this group. And and he said, Well, that that's all it took. He did care and he took it seriously, and we were able to get him to a specific place. So I think that's a big key is that you have guys that are willing to continue to develop, even if they've been in the big leagues for a while. Uh, we we so often think that a player's journey ends in triple A once they get called up to the big leagues. That the development piece is over, and it's just not. Um, so many teams have so many young players, and there's so much left in their ceiling to hit once they get to the big league level.
SPEAKER_00Let me uh finish with this, Land, and thanks for being in here today. I appreciate it. I always love uh a chance to visit with you. The the Brewers get the Yankees uh starting tonight, and then the schedule that I talked about with the Padres, they have the seventh best record in baseball. Then at the Twins, they haven't been so good this year. Then you go to Chicago, they're tied with the Yankees for the best record in baseball. Then you get the Dodgers, and then you get the St. Louis in this run. How are the Brews ready for this? Are they ready for this run? It certainly helps to get Churio and Vaughn back, but they've got some pitching issues. How are they stacked up to begin this very difficult portion of the schedule?
SPEAKER_02Well, one thing that I think plays in their favor, and it's hard to quantify it, but they've had a lot of off days. You know, they had an off day yesterday, they had an off day because of the rainout on Tuesday, they got an off day coming up on Monday. So they can be pretty aggressive with their bullpen if they need to be. That's a group that's been worked a lot, but they've also had some natural breaks here because of these off days. So I think that helps. I also think that they have very good depth from a starting pitching standpoint. You know, Brandon Woodruff is on the IL. Quinn's not back yet, and probably not going to be for a while yet, but they have these guys that are in the on the major league roster now or in AAA. You know, they can lean on a Coleman Crow at some point during the stretch if they have to, whatever it might be. So I think that helps them a lot too. And I just think this is a group that's won so much, and they have an expectation of winning where they're not going to be intimidated by what they face. And it's cliche, I guess, but I think it's really important when you go into stretches like this, Mike. It's about going 1-0 today. It's about the win tonight mentality that Pat Murphy preaches. And if this team is going to get through this stretch and play good baseball and have a winning record through this stretch, I think that's going to be a big key, is that they have that mindset where they kind of bring the fight to the opponent, and all we care about is winning this game tonight. We'll worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow, I think that served them well under Pat Murphy, and I think it will serve them well moving forward too.
SPEAKER_00Uh, what does the broadcast booth look like this weekend? Where is the the rotation? Who's doing radio and TV?
SPEAKER_02Lev is over with me on radio for the next three days. So we we've got the Yankees series together. That'll be fun. You'll hear some pop culture references, I'm sure, to some movie that both of us love. We usually work something like that in over the course of the weekend. So we'll have a lot of fun. It'll be great.
SPEAKER_00Uh Lane, I appreciate it. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Always uh look forward to the times we get to share a conversation, and we'll look forward to the next time.
SPEAKER_02Mike, you're the best. Appreciate you, man.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Lane. That's Lane Grindle uh on the Brewers Radio Network. I say this every time that if I'm talking to Lane or uh Jeff Levering, uh whoever it might be, obviously Tim Dillard and and Vinny Rettino on the TV side, rock. Um they're so generous with their time, and I appreciate it. For me, even though I'm well seasoned, uh, I'm like a kid who gets a chance to talk with these guys. To me, that's I I've shared this story many times, but the first time I got to go out and cover spring training on a regular basis in radio, I got to go with Drew Olson. And Drew said, Hey, we're gonna go have lunch or dinner that night with Tom Hardricourt. And I was like, Are you kidding me? Really? Well, I get to sit down and have dinner and a couple of drinks with Drew and Hardricourt. I mean, for me as a baseball first guy, that was incredible. So when I get a chance to visit with Lane or Levering or BA or Rock or Vinny or Dillard, and when I reach out and they say yes, I get fired up because I love the conversation. It is easily my favorite sport to cover. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't love a college football game day because of the energy, or a Packers game day because of the energy and the singular focus of 60 minutes of football as opposed to 162 games of nine innings of baseball. I get it. But even in covering spring training, there is nothing better. I've been to Green Bay Packers training camps so many times, too many times to count. And although I enjoy being there, it's not like being at spring training. Because at spring training, you have access. At spring training, you really get conversations with players. And we get daily conversations, conversations. Not a presser, but conversations with Pat Murphy. Daily conversations with Matt LaFleur or with I mean, pick pick Mike McCarthy or Mike Holmgren or whoever the Packers coaches have been over the years. Those dailies are different. They treat they treat them differently. The dailies in with Murph or prior to that, Craig Council, they're different. You actually have a built-in conversation, not a press conference. I love that. I love the pace of it. And so having a chance to visit with with uh Lane Grendel is is always great. I appreciate that those guys say yes when I reach out to ask. I'm gonna jump back into the conversations here in a minute, but let me again um this is important to to thank the people who make what I do every day a possibility, and that includes one community bank. I just uh reached out to them on uh uh about this sponsorship to to get some updated stuff from them. Their involvement in the community and supporting those of us in the community that uh that need uh business banking or personal banking is uh special and I appreciate them. You can go to onecommunity.bank, onecommunity.bank to get more information. And the same goes for M3 Insurance. Now I know some of the folks with them certainly, and that helps, but what they do, and my business doesn't have employees that are full-time or get uh insurance benefits or investment benefits. So uh what I do is I understand what they do, but I don't work with them directly. But everybody that I've known that has done their work with M3 Insurance raves about how special the treatment is, and you can go to m3ins.com. So if you handle your company's insurance or benefit packages, visit with M3, go to m3INS.com. And I also haven't had Ben Siebert's a friend of mine that I met at Brewers Fantasy Camp. I haven't had the direct need for neuroscience. But if you are working through a pain management, brain, spine care issues, neuroscience group, they're out of the valley. But neuroscience group.com is where you should go to check out, to get yourself moving in the right direction and return your life to where it should be. And as always, brought to you by our friends at Pottawatomi Sportsbook and Casino, Bet Above the Rest, and by Habish, Habish, and Rotier with 13 locations to ensure you get a hometown attorney who understands your life and the impacts of your injury and is personally committed to your recovery. So those are, and again, I say this a lot, but it's because I mean it and and I hope that you do it, is please support the sponsors of this show, the ones who support us. Give them an opportunity to earn your business. Earn it out of the gate, and then earn it by how they do their business. So whether it's one community bank or M3 Insurance or Neuroscience or Habish, Habish and Rotier or Pottawatomy, please give them uh the opportunity to earn your business. Cubs lead the division 26 and 12. St. Louis is next. They won a late night game last night on the coast against San Diego. So they're 22 and 15. And one of the surprises of all of baseball, three and a half games back. Their run differential is zero. They're even, but they're obviously really good. Brewer split their two games. Gamer with them. Pittsburgh is 21 and 17. The Brewers are 19 and 16. So at three games over 500, Milwaukee is five and a half games back of the Cubs, who won again yesterday in relative easy fashion. They have won 15 straight at home, nine straight overall. They're 19-3 over their last 22 games. They were 7-9 since then. They have gone 19-3. They're at Texas this weekend. And Cincinnati, because of who they just played in Chicago, they got hammered. They are now 20 and 18, two games over 500 and six games out of first place. In Major League Baseball right now, the NL Central, all five teams are in the top nine records in Major League Baseball. So five of the top nine records in baseball come from the NL Central. All right. I have bourbon in front of me. This is I'd rather taste bourbon with somebody else. So Barry, but I don't have that option today. So uh Barry is uh one of my guys at Red and White Wine Bar. And oh, by the way, two months from today, we will be heading out on the road. So uh two months from today is our bourbon trip. I I should hesitate pouring this bourbon over my equipment, but I'm not gonna. So he brought me back a sample. I'm gonna keep that for later. He brought me back a sample from stopping at the Hard Truth, which is a distillery in southern Indiana. Believe the town it's closely associated with is Nashville, Indiana. So this is their double oaked uh from the hard truth. And they they have uh grown in their reputation, but also as a visit, right? So there's a lot of juice in the spirits industry uh at bourbon and whiskey that comes from Indiana. I know Kentucky gets all the accolades. Uh we're gonna go on the bourbon trail. Kentucky gets all the accolades, but we're gonna stop. Our first stop when we bust down on a motor coach bus. Let me sell it here. We have 24. That's our max. We have about six spots available. You can email me at one of two places for more information. Start with Hellerpods2, Hellerpods, the number two at gmail.com. Say, hey, I want more information about your bourbon trail trip. Or you can email red and white, red and a n d white three three one at gmail.com. All right, those are our and uh hey, all right, two two things on the the message line. Yo, von where's mine? Yo, uh A, I'm not gonna give you my address. You can come see me at Red and White. And uh I didn't get a bottle of it, I just got a small sample bottle. And then Barry, who gave it to me, says he's having one with me right now. So cheers. I appreciate that. Sometimes I wonder, are you really? Because it is 1047, so this is early, even even for me, a bourbon lover. Um, so we go with this. But when we leave on that bourbon trip, two months from today, 18 spots sold, six remain. We have to cap it at 24 because they won't do tastings with us on the tours and tastings for more than a group of 24. So we're gonna stop at Hard Truth in southern Indiana on that Wednesday afternoon, do a tasting, a tour, have a lunch, and then we'll go to Louisville. And we're staying at the Bourbon Hotel, B-O-U-R-R-E, B-O-N-N-E. You can look it up. It's great to Boutique Hotel, one block off of Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville, rooftop bar. It will be fantastic. That's where we're gonna stay, but we're stopping at Hard Truth on the way down. On Thursday morning, we're gonna get up and go to Frankfurt, Kentucky, and do Buffalo Trace in the morning, have a lunch and do Woodford in the afternoon. Then we'll go back to Louisville. And because we're a block away from Whiskey Row, great restaurants, lots of great spirits. You can walk to and from, maybe even stumble on the way, you know, coming back. But you're close enough to stumble and be good. Plus, I got we'll have an eye out for you. We'll we'll be taking care of you. And then on Friday, we're gonna go to Bardstown, Kentucky. We're gonna go to Preservation Distillery in the morning. We'll have a lunch, and then we're gonna go to Heaven Hill in the afternoon. Then we're gonna stay a little bit later in Bardstown and dinner on your own. But Bardstown is uh it's a it's a bourbon town and with great restaurants. So we're gonna be in downtown Bardstown on Friday into the early evening for dinner, then bus on back to Louisville, and then Saturday we're gonna do Mickters in Louisville. So you'll have the day to kind of meander around, and then we'll do a tasting with Mickters in the afternoon, and then on Sunday morning, uh, we'll load up and head home. And there's plenty of room on the bus for whatever bourbons you buy. So, you know, going to Buffalo Trace on Thursday morning, you get their releases. And sometimes the hard to get ones. They don't tell you in advance what they're releasing. So, but we have plenty of room. You don't have to ship anything, you don't have to worry about any of that. It will come back with us on the bus. So email me at Hellerpods2, the number, Hellerpods2 at gmail.com or red and and red and white 331 at gmail.com. Six spots left. I I hope that we're sold out, and I and I'm not talking about this a week from now when Joe Henry comes on the show and still trying to sell him. Let's uh finish the last six and don't miss out, because when we get to 24, we can't add more. The bus fits more. We're on a coach, so everybody's gonna be comfortable on a coach with only 24 of us. But we can't add more because we can't do more adding to the tastings. So let me tell you about this. Barry, that's good. So Barry gave this uh sample to me. It's a double oat from the Hard Truth distillery in southern Indiana. Sweeter than I thought. But still enough burn, still a good burn to make it bourbon in a whiskey that that you go, okay. That's uh that's got my attention. And then a sweeter finish on this, which is really good. I like all of that. I we we had a we had a wine tasting, um, what we call wind around the world at Red and White last night that was really good, very successful. Let me tell you about my last night before uh I finish on a little uh NFC North and then get out of here on a Friday. Yeah, we're 1050, so uh yeah, we got a couple of minutes. So last night we had that event that Kari and uh Britney and Shannon um handled at Red and White. It was really good, a very productive night. We added to our wine club. I think everybody was there, had a blast. Um, you got to taste 24 wines. We do this twice a year, so I'll push it again when we get to October. Um we do it twice a year. We bring in four of our distributors. They each bring in six wines uh that are representative of the types of wines we have in our monthly wine club, and including uh what we call a seller selection or a Heller Seller selection, which is an upscale, typically almost always a red. Um and that we had great, a great turnout last night on a beautiful night, and it was, I think it was fantastic. So that went really well and added to our wine club, which is uh part and parcel to what we're doing, and we think that's a win-win for everybody involved in it. And then uh part two, I wasn't there for most of the evening because I was at Calcher Farms uh doing a coach's appreciation event that I got to introduce Greg Guard at last night with his coaching staff with uh Lance Randall and Greg Steemsma and Joe Krabenhoff and Sharif Chambliss and um you know the the entire Mark Vanderwettering, their GM, and Coach Guard. So I got to be around about 140 uh badger basketball fans, those who are part of the program in some way, shape, or form uh in their long-term devotion to it or uh donations to it. But we're on the Calcher farm uh last night, which was a beautiful night, and and in a barn, and I got to introduce the head coach. And that's always kind of a uh a special treat for me to be able to be part of it. Now, for some of you, you go, well, how can you be objective uh about a program that you're you know that you're friends with? I I do believe I'm a friend of Greg Gard's, but but mainly because I I like he and his family and we get along well. I have been critical of Greg Gard in the past when I think it's been worthy of being critical. But I'm gonna be honest about it, and mostly it's about the factual stuff. You know, that this program, since Greg took over, they have the fourth best record in the Big Ten. That's not to be scoffed at. You don't just slide it aside and say that doesn't matter. It only matters what happens in March. That's bullshit. Of course it matters. It matters what you do in November, December, January, February, and into March because that's what gives you the opportunity after selection Sunday to do something. Now they know it, that that success after selection Sunday has been more than a little soft. They that needs to be better. But I, you know, it's a conversation for another day. Um let's see. Mike uh wants to weigh in. Mike says, I spy the horse soldier uh barrel strength and high west uh behind me. Yeah. I I'd like uh that high west is sitting up there, and that's the bouillet, um, which is that that's a different level. That'll uh that'll heat you up a little bit. Um so uh and Barry, who provided this, uh he's retired, so he can drink bourbon at this time of day. Yeah, I'm not retired, but I can also drink bourbon at this time of day. There's no restriction on me doing that. So NFC North, let me finish here before we wrap and send uh and send this into the weekend. The NFC North, I spent a little time on that. The odds in the division right now on futures, and this is from Pottawatomie Sportsbook and Casino Bet Above the Rest. The odds in the division, Detroit is plus 160. That means they're the shortest odds, the favorite to win the division from a sports book. The Packers are the next favorite at plus 215. The Bears are plus 320. That means $100 bet wins you 320 coming back. And Minnesota's plus 550. Minnesota's a, I don't know what they get out of the quarterback position, but Kevin O'Connell, people forget. I mean, last year they were 9-8. That was a team that had no right being that good. They were nine and eight, so don't sleep on them, although I do think they're fourth. So I would pick Green Bay to win the division and the Bears in Detroit to be right there in Minnesota looking back. And I did this simple comparison out of the gate today. It's a real big oversimplification. How do you stack up the head coaches and how do you stack up the quarterback in the division? From a head coach standpoint, Dan Campbell has, you know, the has had the most success, but not last year and not early in his run. In the division, statistically, more than one year, Matt LaFleur is the best coach in the division based on winning percentage. Although Ben Johnson in his single year, including the playoffs, 12-7, a 632 winning percentage. Matt LaFleur 79, 46, and one, including the playoffs, 631 winning percentage. But I would give the best coach in the division, take some numbers off the board, Dan Campbell, Matt LaFleur, Kevin O'Connell, Ben Johnson. That's now Ben Johnson can change all of that by what he does this year, because he had a really good first year. Number two, quarterback in the division. I would rank them Goff, Love, Williams, and whoever Minnesota's quarterback is. And I back it up with this. Jared Goff's quarterback rating a year ago, 105.5. Jordan Love's quarterback rating a year ago, 101.2. Caleb Williams, 90.1. Now I said this earlier in the show, and I'll wrap with this. If you had a fourth and 11 play and the game and the season hung in the balance, who do I want a quarterback? Caleb Williams. Because there is an upside to him that can make things happen that Goff and Love aren't athletically there. But they play the whole game. And for the whole game, Caleb Williams is the third best quarterback in the division today. Doesn't mean he won't be better than that soon because there is an upside to his game. All right, that's a wrap. Um, I'm gonna go take care of the rest of this. I'll do a little bit of it now. Hard truth double oaked. Barry, thanks for the uh sample and the gift of that. That's it. We wrap for the weekend. Come by and see us tomorrow with the village of Wana Key, Mad Dog and Merrill, Midwest Grilling, Midwest Grillin, doing a taping of their show at 11. You can show up at 10:30. They're gonna go 11 to about 12:30. They tape their Midwest Grillin TV show tomorrow, right by the old train depot, the right downtown in Wana Key off of Main Street, right next to Lone Girl. Uh, we're gonna tape that. I'm gonna be part of their taping um at 11 o'clock. So come down and see Mad Dog and Merrill with the village of Wana Key, experience Wanaki tomorrow at 11. And then I'm not working, but we're gonna head on over to Red and White after. So if you're around in the afternoon, uh come on by. I don't think we're gonna stay there all day, but you never know. Uh, so we got a lot of fun going on this weekend. Let's go, Brewers against the Yankees, three-game weekend set at American Family Field. That'll be a blast. Uh, appreciate y'all being here. Thank you. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you Monday on I Love Mondays with Mike Heller.
SPEAKER_03I love Mondays with Mike Heller.
SPEAKER_01Broadcasting live from an undisclosed bunker in the Badger State. This is I Love Mondays with Mike Heller. Powered by determination and a little bit of duct tape. Here's your host, Mike Heller.